My Birthday

Posted on August 12, 2018 by jlcleve

My guys spoiled me on my birthday this year. I woke up to kombucha and a heart from Micah, plus lots of snuggles, and then an uber eats breakfast brought to our door. Fun!! The boys both spoiled me with cards and gifts (now I have two “epic kid” girl Legos!), including chocolate they asked Daddio to pick up for them at the store. Mikey also dropped a hint in his card that he’s taking me to see Josh Groban at the Pepsi Center in October! The last time we saw him was when we were dating and it was my birthday gift when I turned 20 or something. =) And I used some of my birthday money to buy tickets to see Hanson perform with the Colorado Symphony in September. One of Micah’s gifts to me is to go with me. =)

The boys and I spent the morning hiking – my favorite activity!

And Mikey and I went out for sushi and a lovely walk in Hudson Gardens that evening. Thanks, again, for watching the boys, Ace!

It was such a delightful celebration! Thanks for all of the texts, cards, videos, emails, gifts, and phone calls to make it so special. I’ve been given a lot of sweet blessings in the people God put around me. Such a gift to do life with all of you thoughtful, kind people!

6th Annual Trip

Posted on August 11, 2018 by jlcleve

For our 6th annual trip with the Maurer family, we spent the weekend in Kansas City. We are nearing (if we haven’t already reached it) the point when we will need to do some repeat locations, but this year was a new spot for us again. We all enjoy spending time together and it’s been such a special treat to watch our children grow up together.

We usually spend a fair amount of time at the hotel just talking and playing. We also all like parks and legos, so we fit in both of those activities this year. A hike is often on all of our lists to do, but it was way too hot to spend much time outside that weekend. We spent Friday night grabbing dinner out and playing at the hotel, Saturday out and about and Sunday back at the hotel before going our separate ways.

Here are some shots from around the hotel, including a few selfies the kids took (as requested) from their explorations around the hotel on their own. Favorite memories include watching various plays of Piggie and Gerald books, watching all the kids try to catch the football with their elbows, sending messages/emojis/pictures with Ellie (mostly Mike and Ellie/Adam), and how sweet those girls are to my boys who want to show them their paint-by-sticker books and Legos. Lots and lots of laughter!

Mute the video if you don’t want to hear my crazy loud laugh:

Pics from our dinners out:

Pics from the park, Legoland and the Sea Life Aquarium:

All too soon it was time to say goodbye. The kids hugged too quickly, so we missed any cute pics of that…but I snapped a couple of Mikey saying goodbye to some of his favorite girls! We parents left exhausted, having stayed up until midnight or WAY later both evenings we had together. We sure enjoyed spending time with this crew again!

Quick throwback of our group from just last summer and a link to all the previous years:

Time with the “Grands”

Posted on August 10, 2018 by jlcleve

We had the fun opportunity to see two of the boys’ grandparents recently. Grandma Cleve came out for a long weekend (she split her time, as usual, between us and Ashley/Zach/Caleb’s home) and then we stayed at Grandpa Russ’ home for a few days before our annual trip with Cass and Adam’s family. What a treat!

We made a few attempts at a picture of Grandma Cleve with all of her grandsons (one more grandson to be added around Christmas!!) after having a yummy breakfast all together. And then we just spent time together at our home enjoying each other’s company! Mike and Grandma Cleve stopped in to have dinner with Great Aunt Terry on their way to the airport. We’re already looking forward to her next trip in October!

A couple days after saying goodbye to her, we got to say hello to Grandpa Russ and stay at his home for a bit. We especially enjoy visiting him in the summer –> pool, ping pong, dogs = so much fun! And I always take home a new idea for a crockpot meal!! It was wonderful to see Grandpa Russ (and Duke and Calvin) again!

We sure enjoy our time with our parents/grandparents!

Summer Updates

Posted on August 9, 2018 by jlcleve

I’m going to lump a bunch of summer pictures/stories into this post in an effort to catch up to present day updates quickly.

The boys each ended up getting much-needed (in my opinion, as Micah likes to remind me often) hair cuts. Ethan went first and then after a day of seeing how great he looked, Micah was ready to cut his, too. =)

The day Micah got his haircut was a pretty big day for him. He also had his front tooth pulled out and sealants put on two other teeth (that part was the least comfortable for him). I had it in my head that he was going to be unconscious for all of this, which scared him plenty, but then it turned out that he just had the laughing gas and was perfectly wide awake and aware the whole time. He was incredibly brave and held my hand the whole time (except apparently when I gave my phone to Ethan to take a picture), with little tears running down his cheeks for part of it.

We love spending time at our park. The sprinklers are loads of fun to run through, the hills are fun to scooter, and it’s fascinating to see how much the big storms transform the whole park.

We’ve had some fun playdates – most don’t have pictures.

We’ve been reading lots of books and finishing lots of paint-by-stickers.

We attended the annual CC Practicum. Micah went to one day of his Geo Draw class, but then opted to pay me back for the other day of classes, rather than attending any more. Sigh. Last year, you may recall, he didn’t attend any days…so I guess that’s progress. 😉 Thankfully, he sits quietly for hours and hours while I attend the trainings so I really can’t complain. Ethan participated in his first Latin camp with the older class and seemed to have lots of fun! We saw him for lunch, but he sat with friends and played sports with them the whole break! It was fun to watch him running around with the guys.

We built a Lego display bookshelf for the boys’ room:

Ethan had a summer piano lesson and Micah and I enjoyed exploring in a creek nearby:

And the boys “built” a table outside for snacks and “poison-making”.

The Rockstar Band

Posted on August 8, 2018 by jlcleve

Because Mike was out of town for his big 35th birthday, we sent him a birthday song video (see below) and that began a beautiful, although short-lived, thing in our home: The Rockstar Band.

The boys decided to form a band and play concerts for people over the next week. We did an online concert, we invited some friends over for a couple, and we had two neighbor families over for an afternoon concert, too. Their concert for our neighbors was the best, in my opinion, as they had to invite them over on their own and then they did an excellent job thanking them for coming, giving out treats and introducing each song. They both had a lot of fun and showed great poise. Fun to see!

Hopefully now that Micah will be starting drum lessons in the fall, this was just the first few of many concerts to come!!

While Mom is away…

Posted on July 19, 2018 by jlcleve

…the boys get to play! But before I get to my bi-annual trip to Atlanta to help my sister with her trade show, I wanted to show a couple pictures from our pseudo one-on-one we squeezed in between our arrival back home and my trip to ATL. Mike and Ethan went to the dentist and then joined up with some of Mike’s friends for golf league. E kept score and hit a few balls here and there, too. He had a great time and we were reminded, again, how sweet our friends are and what a blessing they are to our whole family.

While they were out, Micah and I enjoyed playing Legos and played a bunch of games.

The following day, I headed to Atlanta. It’s always such a pleasure to go there and help Jennie. I’m super proud of her and her company and the work she does in Kenya, so it’s a “cause” I like to support. But it’s also fun just to spend time with her and interact with her friends. AND, I get the added bonus of seeing some of my friends, too, although this time I only was able to get together with my former neighbor and didn’t even take a picture. =/ Check out that de-licious veggie plate I ordered…it was incredible and I’m pretty sure corn is the main ingredient in fritos. Also, there was chili on top of my fritos because AWESOME!!!

I compiled this from all of the previous trade shows I’ve attended with Jen:

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Meanwhile, the boys had a lot of fun at home with Daddio. Milestone alert: they had their first sleepover at cousins’ house! They had a great time over there and were definitely tired when they were back home again. It was excellent timing – super helpful for Mike to get good days of work in without disruption! They also went to a Rockies game with Reggie and his grandson and then to the Rapids game (discounted tickets due to the reading program at the library) the following evening. AND, they managed to get Micah a new hat (recall that his former hat is at the bottom of Lake Tahoe), a new/used bike for him (recall the bike accident that ruined his previous bike), and new/used clubs for Ethan. Whew! What a week!

This guy…we sure love him!!

Home, Sweet Home

Posted on July 18, 2018 by jlcleve

We had a fantastic road trip, but we were all definitely glad to be home again. I especially loved updating our various charts and changing our calendars. Simple pleasures. It doesn’t take much over here. =)

We listened to 8 audiobooks on the trip. I’ve included a list here with some thoughts since I know some of you like that. =)

Penderwicks (LOVE this book! It’s sweet and probably more geared towards girls, but it’s lots of fun)
Stuart Little
Alvin Ho Book 1 (the audiobooks are extra funny)
Alvin Ho Book 2
The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place (Book 2: The Hidden Gallery) (LOVE this series, but it’s best to do the audiobook…I think the boys would like it even more in a few years, but they are really laughing hard throughout it and the mystery is lots of fun)
The Horse and His Boy (CS Lewis – can’t go wrong! It’s a good stand alone book)
The Secret School
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

We also added our miles from the bike ride through Yosemite:

We really got into doing paint-by-stickers, something I had heard about at CC and also in the Read-Aloud Revival podcast, on our trip. The boys LOVE doing them, especially when I read to them or they are listening to a book. I am buying as many of these books as possible. I would say that Micah started these with SO much frustration that he almost gave up, but now he can’t get enough of them. So maybe start them at age 6 or 7…

We’ve caught up with some of our buddies – I don’t always get pictures, but I did snap a couple during some of the more recent ones.

Aunt Ashley and I started date night swaps, finally! I had the pleasure of watching Caleb at their place and she watched the boys here another night. This is such a gift to all of us!!

And we were able to go to another concert for cousin, Matthew. It rained at this one, so I didn’t end up taking any pics while we were there…but I did get this one of us walking to it. It was lots of fun to hear his band playing at a beautiful park.

The Cleve Crew

We do FAITH, FAMILY and FUN!