Halloween . . . finally!

Halloween is the 2nd favorite holiday around our house, second only to Christmas. My girls usually start planning their costumes in July. They change their minds a dozen or so times and then once they get their costumes, they hang in their room in plain sight awaiting the day that they can be worn. Thankfully, they got to wear them to school on Friday AND again on Saturday night. They decided a long time ago that they wanted to be something that went together and finally came up with Dorothy and Glinda. Kinley made a pretty cute Dorothy and Kaiya sat in hot rollers for an hour to get the right amount of poof for her big hair.

School party

Cute kindergartners . . check out Elvis

Cooper decided this would be his last year trick-or-treating in the hood with the girls and he finally came up with a rapper costume that worked out pretty nice. He was a referee on Friday at school, but he decided that was too boring. It was spirit week at school the whole week and I was pretty impressed that he busted out of his shell and had me do a pigtail hairdo for crazy hair day and wore a princess crown for hat day.

I got a night out with friends for the annual Witches Night Out. It's worth it just to see the looks on peoples' faces when we all walk into a restaurant! So fun.

So glad it was a warm day and semi-warm evening. The kids have more candy than they know what to do with (much will be donated to hungry nurses at work) and Cooper loved going to a party with his friends and his first school dance on Friday night. Did I mention that he is growing up too fast?

Ready to go!

Complete with Toto in her basket

Come and get it!!

A tale of two siblings

An October blizzard brought us over a foot of snow and a snow day and a variety of reactions at the Lindhardt household.

Cooper's reaction . . .

. . . and Kinley's

Kaiya's reaction fell somewhere in the middle. For me? Just made me dream harder of beaches in Hawaii . . . three weeks from today!!!

I still can't believe we just had a snow day in October! Snow days were the best when I was a kid, so I tried hard to keep a good spirit today as my kids enjoyed the snow. They played in it for almost 4 hours (except Kinley who lasted about twenty minutes and promptly came back inside and announced she was "frozen to death!") Our house backs up to a ditch and has just enough slope to sled and "snow surf". I think we went through about a gallon of hot cocoa between sled runs. :)

Catching up

It's funny because I haven't felt like I had much catching up to do on the 'ol blog until I pulled out my camera and looked back a few weeks. Guess it all went by so fast that I didn't have time to digest it until now.

In the last 2 weeks, we have

--Attended two NLDS games (still in denial about the outcome)

--Attended two more of Kaiya's gymnastics meets

--Took care of a sick Kinley girl

--Celebrated my dad's birthday with family

--Helped at and watched the 2nd annual Cardiac Kids talent show

--Attended parent/teacher conferences

--Spent more hours online getting ready for HAWAII in a few weeks

I really can't post much about the NLDS games. We froze our butts off, had a blast, and came home so sad. I'm not yet to the point that I can say "next year." Hope that comes soon.

Freezing, but happy to be there!

Kaiya had two meets in two weekends. Last weekend's meet was at Denver University and this weekend was at 5280 Gymnastics, which is where the men's olympian Sasha Artemev trains. Both were great experiences. Kaiya came so close to qualifying for state this weekend, but got robbed by the beam judge. Oh the joys of a sport with subjective judging! She had personal bests on bars and floor, though, so she was super happy.

Watching her do beam is the end of me!

Can't say enough about these coaches!

Holding the team trophy

I was super pleased with the kids' parent teacher conference reports. Always feels good to hear their teachers saying nice things. Kinley is starting to read so well. I love the age when they try to read everything in sight--road signs, cereal boxes, etc. She had to miss a couple days of school with a fever and the general crud that is going around, but she is on the mend. It was pretty cute because Willie wouldn't leave her side while she was sick. I think he liked her extra body heat from the fever. She scared us half to death when she woke up in the middle of the night and announced that her room was on fire. Turned out it was just her body on fire and the night light had lost its cover and was glowing extra bright.

Sick pumpkin

We had a great time going to the Cardiac Kids talent show last night. Amazing what some of these kids can do. Our favorite was the jump roping team. Check out the video--there were awesome!! Watching some of my former patients doing their talents was pretty neat to see, too.

Jumping Eagles in action!

Oh, and T-33 days til Hawaii, but who's counting? We've been busy planning our itinerary. Can't wait!!!!

These hands

Kaiya accomplished a huge goal in gymnastics this last week by mastering a skill called a kip on the bars. She has been working on it since summer and was so excited to finally get it (video forthcoming . . . camera is being dumb).

I was holding her hand while walking somewhere the other day and noticed that her hands felt pretty gross. Hours on the uneven bars will do that to a girl. I snapped a picture of them when we got home. Not exactly the kind of hands the boys will want to hold someday, but I think I'm OK with that. :)

She had her second meet last weekend and improved her all-around score by almost a full point. She had one little glitch on bars, but still finished fifth. She also finished sixth in the all-around. She is racking up the medals and loving every minute of it.

Guest of honor (twice!)

Sometimes, membership has its privileges. Such was the case on Friday night when Cooper got to be the guest of honor at the Chatfield High School football game in Denver. Their head coach is the husband of a wonderful gal with whom I serve on the board of Cardiac Kids (a volunteer

organization at Children's that hosts fun events for cardiac families and raises awareness about pediatric heart defects and disease). She approached me a few weeks ago and asked if Cooper would be interested in being a guest of honor at the game. That meant being on the field for the game, and going into the locker room with the players before the game and at halftime. Um, yeah . . I think we can arrange that! Chatfield was ranked #2 in the state in 5A going into the game and they beat up on Westminster in a big way winning 56-8.

Last year when Cooper had his pacemaker surgery, Tracy brought a signed football from all the players and a shirt. Coop has worn that shirt so much it almost has holes. So, he already loved this team. Not only does Chatfield have an outstanding team, they are the neatest group of kids you'll ever meet (in large part because of their head coach). These kids, along with the pom squad, have volunteered at many of our Cardiac Kids functions and fundraisers and they do it with a smile on their face.

Before the game, Doug and Cooper squeezed into the locker room with the players and coaches and the head coach, Bret, proceeded to talk about what it means to play with heart. He

introduced Cooper and told his story, including that it is hard for him that he can't play football. He talked about what really matters in life and what it means to be given a second chance at life. (OK, I get teary eyed just retelling this story). He presented Cooper with a jersey, hat and shirt. Then, at halftime, the team was so far ahead that he talked to the kids about what it means to win with class and let the JV squad finish out the game. The players were all awesome to Cooper and he certainly had a night to remember! Needless to say, we are Chatfield Charger official fans!!

Coop and I were also guests of honor of Brandon's last week when we got to attend a Rockies game and sit in the front row. This meant a nice buffet dinner in the Coors Clubhouse before the game, padded front row seats, and our own server during the game bringing us treats. Works for me! So fun to see the players up that close and be able to look into their dugout. Though we won't be sitting in these seats for the playoffs, we have tickets in hand and can't wait for some ROCKTOBER!

In the Coors Clubhouse before the game

Looking right into the Rockies dugout

Thanks, Uncle Brandon!

Ah . . the life

I can't believe the kids have been in school more than a month already. It is so good to be back into a routine, albeit a busy one. Between working 1-2 times per week and running the kids to gymnastics, dance and golf, it is nuts around here (like every other mom I talk to!).

Kaiya got to be in a Labor Day parade for her gym and she did cartwheels and back-walkovers all the way down the street. The funniest part of that day was my journey to watch her. I had worked the night before, so I was dead tired, but I wanted to see her perform. So, I went straight from work to the parade route in Louisville. I got there almost an hour early, so I found a nice shady tree, parked my car and fell asleep. I about peed myself an hour later when the Centaurus High School Marching band started warming up right next to my car. Woke up to a tuba six inches from my car window. Sheez!

Handing out frisbees at the parade

Kaiya's cheering section (and candy gatherers)

In our "spare" time, we have enjoyed following our beloved Rockies and now the Broncos. Nothing better than meaningful baseball in September! Not too many people noticed or knew why Cooper got his haircut the way he did, but it was a copycat hair do of Troy Tulowitzki's from the middle of the season. He didn't tell me he was going to have it cut that way when he left with his dad, but I certainly didn't mind!

Cooper comes by his love of sports naturally, and he has been the lucky recipient of many game opportunities. In this week alone, he will go to two Rockies games and one Bronco game thanks to my dad and brother. The poor kid gets up so early for middle school this year, but he is managing his time so well and has been such a huge help around the house.

So, the weekend rolls around and he is so pumped to have a friend over. There is only one problem--it hits 10:00 p.m. and . . . . .

The Tulo stripes

First meet jitters

Kaiya's competitive gymnastics season is back in full swing now. She worked really hard over the summer to learn new skills and now that the season is here, she is training 3 days a week. Between school, piano lessons and gym, she is a very busy girl. The fall season is much different than what she did in the spring--the judges and scoring are much harder and everyone is trying to qualify for the state meet in December.

Her coach had to inform her on Monday that her new team leotard and sweatsuit weren't going to make it on time for the first meet today and she was pretty bummed. She is the ony new kid on the team this year and she wasn't too happy about having to look different, but I'm proud of how she handled it. There was some initial pouting, but no tears. :) And, one of her teammates let her borrow their old similar team leo, so it all worked out OK.

The meet today was, of all places, it was at my old gym in Ft. Collins. Very, very strange to be there as a parent. Walked in and there was my old coach getting the gym ready. We had a good laugh together. I have so much sympathy for my parents after sitting through these long meets as a mom now. They are so long (and yet both my parents, stepdad, brother and sister-in-law all came)!! She absolutely loves having her own cheering section.

She swears she wasn't that nervous, but the look on her face said otherwise. She was happiest with her bars and vault and just had a couple goofs on beam and floor. She ended up sixth place in the all-around--not too shabby for her first one! She gets to be in a Labor Day parade on Monday for her gym, so she is looking forward to doing cartwheels down the street. She is trying to figure out if she can throw candy to the spectators in mid air. Stay tuned!