"Camping" in the backyard with the Webbs

The kids get three slumber parties in a row with their bestest buddies, the Webbs, while the girls' parents are away for the weekend. The kids always have the best time with these older girls. They have played and played and come up with lots of fun games together. Besides outside games and activities (soccer, hiking, rollerblading, dog training...Bo Bo and BJ came for the weekend too!), the kids have grown Borax crystals, played Pet Shops and made forts inside. The most unusual game they have come up with is spring sliding...similar to sledding but with no snow! They slide on the grass of our steep, steep sledding hill with these slick, board-like pieces of lumber that we had in our garage from the repairing of the huge Student Ministries ramp that lives with us now that it is no longer needed for the New Year's Eve Lock-In. The big kids have been twice now and are getting the knack for what it takes to gain enough momentum to make it fun. Tommy joined them for the first time today and jumped right in the action, trying it on his tushie, his belly, and every which way to get his little board to slide. The Webb girls had taken him down a few times, but typical Tommy wanted to be a big boy and do it independently. He tried so hard he had us all rolling. His exasperation at not being able to get it moving was quite comical. Poor Tom-Tom. It's rough being the baby! Good thing Noah is on the way to save Tee Tom's day. I have NO IDEA how poor Noah will fare with Tom as the big brother! Tommy, surprisingly, is SO into the baby in Mommy's belly...kissing and tickling his little brother affectionately while he's still growing brings delighted smiles to our whole family's faces. Tommy is sooo interested in babies that he meets wanting to touch, hug and kiss them so we'll have to see what happens in September when one lives with him constantly! His interest level may drastically change!

Saturday night was camp out night for the Colgans and Webbs. We reset up the eight person tent my bro and sis-in-law gave us for Christmas, moving it from our unfinished basement where it served as play place and fort to the back yard for actual sleeping outdoors enjoyment! The kids were so excited to see the stars through the tent's mesh roof. They had plenty of blankets and sleeping bags as the temperature was chilly at 50 degrees. Luckily, everyone was super tired by 9 pm because of a fun day of final soccer games for the season and lots of outdoor activity. They also had a late night the evening before because of an adventure to the Drive-In movie theater that is almost an hour away from our home. They saw the final Shrek movie on opening night at the Drive-In and had a ball getting Chuckwagon all comfy for viewing the movie which didn't even start until 8:30 when it gets dark.

Paris' Baptism, January 2010

The beginning of this video is Charlie interviewing the kids informally about how Paris decided to trust in Jesus. Fletcher shared the Gospel with her over a meal last June when Paris was four. The clips were shared with the students the Wednesday night Paris was baptized January 2010. These clips aren't edited, but I wanted to remember the kids' responses, facial expressions, and sweet voices. Paris has already started dropping her habit of sounding like she's from Boston in the way she said, "Bah-bee (Barbie), bah-n (barn), fah-m (farm), cah (car)." Oh, I'm gonna miss the baby/little kid stages. Tommy is cracking us all up now with his attempts at words. As Paris grows out of the funny words stage, Tommy is definitely entering it. His first sentence was officially, "Oh Momma! Momma toot!" His facial expression as he says this (which he says most days!!) is sooo hilarious! He squinches up his nose, squeezes his eyes almost to a slit, and waves his little hand in front of his face with much gusto exaggerating the extent of the smell (or maybe not!) :)

Treasured Nights with Daddy

Some of the kids favorite nights with Daddy involve sitting with him while he smokes a cigar and tells them stories. They love all Daddy's stories. He is often telling them true stories of his childhood (with maybe a wee bit of embellishment!), but they also love two of his imaginary tales which involve pirates and World War II fighter pilots. Captain William Tilley is a favorite hero from the pirate tales, and Johnny Rocket is the hero of Charlie's World War II tales. The kids beg for these stories on our road trips, and I'm always amazed by Charlie's fantastic imagination!

Cousin Annabelle turned one!

We found out Aunt Shannon is pregnant and due the beginning of January! Big sisters, Angela and Annabelle, will have another sibling to love! Angela will be five next month and Annabelle just turned one yesterday. The kids were so excited as we talked about their new cousin on the way to their soccer games. Fletch played a total of four games on Saturday! He played the regularly scheduled game for his own team and for Sarah's team (which is short a player) as well as the make-up games for both his team and Sarah's. He loves playing "up" with the kids in 3rd through 6th grade. He went head to head with the best player in the Upward league who is a super fast 5th grader with great dribbling skills. Fletch held his own and played some great offense against the older kids. His coach had to pull him back to play D when he played in his team's games because he ended up scoring a few goals in the first few minutes of the game.

Getting excited to see these two in NC next month!

The Denver zoo is really fun, but especially, when Gammy and Popsy are with us!

Tom Tom is so silly!

Tom Tom loves to play "Die!" He will play with anyone in the mood to wrestle, tackle, or play any form of ball. He also loves "Hoke" which is the name he gave the game of piling all the couch cushions on the floor to jump into over and over again.

Bday party pictures from South Platte River

"Clifford," the student ministries' ice cream truck, makes an appearance at Sarah's 9th bday party!

Charlie had been praying for a year for a free ice cream truck for the student ministries to use for passing out free ice cream sandwiches to kids in neighborhoods, skate parks, school events, church activities, etc. God said, "Yes!" to that prayer recently. Clifford joined our church about a month ago but was just revealed to the students a week ago after he got a great sprucing up from Chris West and his buddies. Clifford looks awesome and is ready to hit the streets with the kids. He made an appearance at Sarah's bday party which was so fun for her friends. Our kids LOVE Clifford! This Sunday they get to pass out ice cream sandwiches with the high school students at the skate park, and they are SO thrilled!! Tommy goes nuts when he sees Clifford in the church parking lot, waving and screaming and pointing at this beloved vehicle which he knows is so important to his Daddy. He loved Clifford well before the ice cream association, but now, there is probably going to be a strong connection between seeing Clifford and getting to eat some yummy ice cream treats!!

Photos from Sarah's Bday River trip

Sarah turns 9!!

We had a great time celebrating Sarah's nine years of life on Friday, May 7th. She invited about 10 girls to our home for lunch, games, cake and ice cream before piling in the Chuckwagon to head the 45 minutes to the Pike National Forest to play in our favorite place, the South Platte River. We moved the party to the backyard after her three siblings spent the week prior to the party battling one of the worst stomach viruses our family has ever experienced. We'd decorated the whole main floor with the decorations she'd picked out. She wanted a soccer theme since "soccer is my favorite sport, Mom." Decorating was the highlight of the day before the party, a very exciting activity that all four kids really enjoyed. Sarah was bummed that I decided on Friday morning not to allow the slumber party part of the bday celebration happen due to the virus that had just hit Fletcher. She'd planned to have four friends spend the night after the river adventure portion of the party ended. Thank You, God, I did make that decision because the virus hit Sarah on Saturday. Urghhh. By Monday, everyone was well. Only 11 short days of our family dealing with the stomach virus!! Here are the highlights from her fun birthday party (which two friends couldn't come to at the last minute because they were dealing with the same stomach flu!)