Our school year is in full swing and we’ll really kick things into gear as Haddie starts swim team and piano this week. We’re new to this whole after-school juggling scene and though I’ve made the goal to not overschedule the kids with more than one activity, I can see how easy it is to do.
Or rather, hard. I look at some of my friends who turn into after-school chauffeurs as they shuttle kids around and I’m really trying to carve out a significant amount of time for them to just play and do their homework.
In addition to life’s regular chaos, we’re also entering pumpkin weigh-off season and our annual pumpkin party. I also have some travels lined up that include a press trip to California, Haddie’s three-day camping trip to Mesa Verde and then I was asked to speak at the Governor’s Tourism Conference in Steamboat Springs.
Poor, poor Jamie who will be holding down the fort.
But we had a swell weekend! A wonderful family in our ward invited us over for authentic Bolivian food (delish) and we’ve promised to return the favor next month good old-fashioned American grub.
Still trying to figure out just what that will entail?
Then, there’s our annual pilgrimage to the Arvada Harvest Festival. This year, the kiddos opted to blow their entire allowance on the hamster balls.
And yes, they said it was totally worth it.
This time, he scored one and he was pretty happy about it.
And then we attended a S’mores Party. Many of our besties were there and we had a great time. The only problem was I discovered I have deep-rooted marshmallow-roasting issues. I freaked out as the kiddos raced around with their skewers of flaming marshmallows.
When I was a kid, we were camping when my cousin Fraser’s marshmallow caught on fire. He flipped it over to blow it out but the flaming marshmallow landed straight in his eye. Were it not for a doctor camping next to us, who knows what would have happened.
This is just a nice way of saying I have issues with kids + flaming marshmallows and was internally FREAKING out. So, I kind of got a kick out of Sam (the hostess) putting these with the spread of s’mores:
What I didn’t anticipate: it would be my kid who’d need them. A few minutes after snapping a picture of the Bandaids, Bode limped over to me.
“I’m hurt!” He exclaimed. I looked down and his knee was oozing in blood. I rushed him into the house and he was surprisingly calm. In fact, as we were passing his friend, he calmly explained,
“Alex, I am not able to play for a little bit because I am bleeding.”
Nice to know we have one level-headed person in our family.
I'm a Canadian-born mom of two, former Denver Post columnist, family travel writer, editor of MileHighMamas.com and 9News contributor. Expert on all things Utah, Denver, family and travel. Lover of laughter and life. Happily married to a man obsessed with growing The Great Pumpkin. 