The Boy's Birthday

So, I realized in April that my standard 12 of 12 would catch Trina's birthday, but sadly would never land on Alex's special day.  I determined that I couldn't let Alex's day go by without a good set of pictures.

The first thing that we did this morning is let Alex open his presents.  He wanted breakfast in bed, but when we told him that we had a gift downstairs for him.  He ran down to find a new bicycle.  (Then he went back upstairs for breakfast - a Dutch Baby.)

When we got dressed, Alex wanted to wear his v2.0 shirt, so I wore my v1.0.

For lunch, we went to Chuck E Cheese's.  We got new pictures off the sketch machine.

After Chuck's, we went to Discount Fireworks (Quebec and E-470 by the King Soopers) and got our fireworks for this year.  They have a BOGO deal on all of their fireworks except for the grand finales.  Alex also got a free one special for it being his birthday.

When we got home, we put together a Lego set that he got for his birthday.  We mostly bought this set as a topper for his birthday cake at his upcoming parties.

Trina gave him a game called Lego Pirates Code.  It's a game made of Legos that is similar to Master Mind, but also has a sense of chance.

The dessert that Alex wanted as a birthday cake was a pan of brownies with cookie dough drops in the top.

He also wanted to spend the night in the back yard.  We've been trying to do this for several nights now, but tonight the weather cooperated.

Trina whipped up a batch of trail mix as a camping treat.

I also made a batch of cocoa crispy treats.  Unfortunately, they weren't set before we had to head to the tent.

12 of 12 - June 2011

A 180 mile day, the 12th of June was the end of a weekend trip.  We woke up in Glenwood Springs and ended the day in Castle Rock.

Waking up in Glenwood, it was easiest to get the kids out of bed by turning on the Disney Channel.

After breakfast we headed for a quick dip in the pool.  (Part of the expectation for the kids for the weekend is that they would get to visit both pools.)

Then we got packed up for the long trek home.

We really enjoyed the views as we drove through the canyon.  Well, the kids watched movies in the back seat - Melissa and I enjoyed the views.  (Sort of a strange reflection of the dashboard, but the views were nice.)

At lunch (at Dillon's Dam Brewery), Alex grabbed the camera for a quick picture of Mom.

And when the food arrived, I got a snapshot of my Buffalo Burger.

Then on down the hill to Denver.  Don't be fooled!

Then home, sweet home.

Getting settled in back at home.

After Elevation a group of us headed over to CJs for some dessert!

The flowers made it through the weekend.

Once we got the kids off to bed, Melissa and I settled in to watch some Chuck.  I find it to be a fun relaxing little show.

May 12 of 12 - er 6....

For May, the 12 of 12 was severely lacking.  Not a very noteworthy day of activity, I was only able to get 6 pictures....  At the end of the day I started to manufacture 6 random pictures and decided:  The day was what it was, if I only got 6 pictures, that's what I got....


The day started with a great moment of 6 to 8 inches of snow on the ground.  Over the weekend, I was reading Alex some "Brain Quest" questions and this one came up.  I laughed at the time because in Colorado, the weather shows nothing of seasons.  Today was a perfect example.

When I looked out the window at the snow, I found that my geranium had bloomed.  That was a fun way to start the day.
 
Yesterday I gave my seniors their final exams in the Microsoft Office class.  So, I good chunk of my day at school was grading.

On my way home from school, I picked up our family copy of Office 2010.  Some changes into cloud computing over the past year or so have created problems with Melissa and I sharing our calendars.  Finally upgrading to the current version has fixed our problems.

Today I also picked up my robe for graduation.  This is the first year that they tried to make more of an effort for the staff to actually robe for graduation.

I ended my day with pizza rolls.  Since it was a Thursday, my family went to grammas after school, so I had to fend for myself.
So, grading and installing Office made today not very picture worthy.

The Birthday - April 12 or 12

The 12 of 12 for April fell (of course) on Trina's Birthday.  An odd day overall, so a little weird of a photo montage.

The day started out with the Internet connection being down at home.  So I got to spend an hour or so on the phone with Qwest before leaving for work.

Since I got stuck at home for a while longer than normal, I got to be there when Alex gave Trina her present:  Tangled DVD.

Fairly uneventful morning, so not much to take pictures of.  However when it came to lunchtime, we asked Trina where she wanted to have lunch on her special day:  She wanted us to go have a school lunch with her.  Interesting option.

In the afternoon, I got to spend a little budget money.  This is the resulting stack of POs.

After school, I had a construction meeting.  I sort of miss going to these.  This was my first meeting for Phase III.  (It might be my last - it sounds like there's not a lot of work being done that will affect technology.

After my meeting, I went to meet up with my family at Claire's.  Trina wanted to get her ears pierced for her birthday.

And she followed through.  Fun little present for her!

For dinner, Trina had a little more vision.  We got to go to Chuck E. Cheese's for some dinner and entertainment.

Trina probably spent the most time getting her picture taken for these little ID cards.  I think she walked away with 8 cards!

We also played some of the carnival games.  We didn't really blow away any of the games today, but we got a good amount of tickets in the end.

On the way home, we got caught behind a fatal car accident.  We sat on the highway for over an hour.  It was interesting to see all of the different emergency vehicles that came to the scene, but it was very sad to find out what the result was.  Not a very happy ending to a great birthday.

I ended up with only 11 pictures and didn't have much more to take a picture of.  So, as I ended my day checking my email it gave me something to take a picture of.  (It is  a Blizzard Fan Club newsletter, so it makes it sort of interesting - maybe?)

12 of 12 - February 2011

The 12th of February was a Saturday.  I started my morning by cleaning off the kitchen counter.  It desperately needed it.

Melissa and I went to the Rockyard for lunch.  We didn't get great service today, but the food always makes up for it.

Melissa and I then went to see the King's Speech.  A very good movie - interesting to see this sort of story from the British point of view.

Because of all of the bad weather recently, the windshield wiper fluid needed to be refilled.

While Melissa and I were at lunch and the movie, the kids stayed with Kathryn A.  Among other things, they played Mousetrap.  Since Kathryn needed to get home, I finished up the game for her.  This was the results, Kathryn and I were red.  Trina was yellow.

Before bed, the kids had their bath.

While Alex took his bath, Trina played on the computer.

I had a small snack.

I got my pajamas on.

We read some of our evening book.

We recently added saying this verse to Alex's bedtime routine so that he would be able to fall asleep more quickly.

And Melissa finished the day by reading some on her new Kindle.