Let the Parties Begin (and the snow!)

October begins 2 months of one celebration after another- from birthday to Halloween to birthday to Thanksgiving to birthday to Christmas. Elizabeth is officially 5 and we had a fun party with friends, family and school friends too. She is definitely come out of her shell and it's so fun to watch her socialize!

All three kids fully understand the concept of trick-or-treating and had a great time on Halloween. Happily after about 5 houses in our neighborhood, they were ready to head home and enjoy their treats.

We have already had 2 school days cancelled due to almost 2 feet of snow that arrived at the end of October. This was then followed by 70 degrees and sunshine- typical Colorado! We'll wait and see what November brings..

Elizabeth wanted a "princess cake" so here's what I came up with:

Elizabeth in action on the soccer field:

Annual trip to the pumpkin patch:

Oh yeah- it's also Bronco season and the girls are hooked!

Let it snow!

Zoe bundles up and heads out to make snow angels:

Elizabeth lost her first tooth the same day as the big snow- she pulled it our herself and then lost a second one on Halloween:

Alex in front of Super-Hero Snowman!

Pumpkin carving (after our pumpkins froze and we had to get new ones from the grocery store:))

Princess Elizabeth (note the missing teeth on the bottom!):

Ladybug Alex (yes she wore the same costume last year, but she loved it!) and Butterfly Zoe (who only wanted to wear wings, but we convinced her to go for a dress and antennae-she's our minimalist!):

Heading out to trick-or-treat:

Craziness!

For those of you who have become convinced we've disappeared- fear not! But it has been a hectic couple of months due to the latest twist of my quest to become a veterinary practice owner. I originally thought I would do a start up practice in an adjacent town in a new development. The only problem being that the building is still not built! Meanwhile another opportunity came along to partner with the woman I currently work for and buy an exisiting practice. So that's what we've done. We've thrown in the added excitement of moving the practice to a new location and have now been open for 1 week. The dust is still settling, but so far so good!



Of course all this was happening just as the school year started along with soccer for Elizabeth, gymnastics for the twins and lots of fun late summer activities. If I said we were busy before, just ignore that because we have reached a new level!

September hike in Breckenridge with the aspens changing;

Three happy sisters (an unusual phenomenon these days!)

Enjoying some popsicles at the end of summer:

Elizabeth and Henry at the Boulder County Fair:

Reading with Dad:

A short video if Elizabeth riding without training wheels (something she quickly mastered after insisting upon it!)

Summer is in full swing!

After a fun weekend at the end of June, we came home for 2 days and then set off for the 4th in Kansas- 4 cars, 8 adults, 9 kids and 11 hours later we arrived! We had a great long weekend full of numerous activities.....scavenger hunt for the kids, fishing, ping pong, petanque, lots of eating and of course, fireworks. We capped off the weekend with a trip to "Gran's farm" near Burlington, Kansas where we got to see the more Kugler relatives and...more fishing! (The girls were pretty into the fish!)

We finished the month off with our first family camping trip. As we drove up to the camp site I watched the temperature gage in our car drop to 49 F- brrrrrr.....luckily many layers and a cup of hot chocolate go along way to keeping everyone happy. The girls had a blast with everything except the hiking part- they wouldn't walk up the trail that had a mountain lion warning sign! It didn't help that a huge rumble of thunder boomed just as we were trying to convince them there were no mountain lions...they thought the thunder WAS a mountain lion roaring!!!! Oh well, there's always next time!

Posing with Mom in their 4th of July dresses:

Hanging out in the shade with cousins Anna and baby Faith (there were a total of 17 kids for the weekend- crazy but fun!):

Alex spits her seed in the watermelon seed spitting contest (great in-action-photo by Mike- you can see the seed coming off her tongue!):

Elizabeth and Annabelle lead the way in the wheelbarrel race (they got a little head start for being the youngest!):

Alex shows off her fish at "Gran's farm"

Some fun sprinkler action back at home:

First s'mores ever:


Snuggling in the tent before bed:

June Adventures

We've been having so much fun this summer, I've neglected the blog! Here are some fun pics for June which involved a couple quick trips to Breckenridge and a longer trip to Red Dog Ranch. The girls are great travellers- even better since we've rigged up a portable DVD player for them to watch on long trips (of course it involves plywood and bungie cords!).

In between all the travelling we've kept busy with t-ball, gymnastics, and fun kid concerts and of course lots of bike riding and sprinkler activities around the house. Stay tuned for the 4th of July and trip to Kansas update next!

We figure this will be Elizabeth's favorite picture when she's about 18! (By the way- it was her choice to put on the blog!!):

Setting out for a hike in Breck with new backpacks from Gran and Grandpa:

A smile from Zoe sitting in the snow-in-summer:

Alex and Zoe:

The three giggle goose girls:

Zoe and Alex riding at Red Dog Ranch:

Gramps takes a turn leading Elizabeth and Zoe:

Uncle "B" and Elizabeth ride in the tractor while Alex and Gramps drive:

Gramps and the girls leaving the riding ring aka croquet court (oh, yeah, Mike won!):

Balloons and Summer Arrive

May is always a fun month as the weather gets more and more beautiful and there are lots of fun activities to keep us busy. The highlight is always the Erie Balloon Festival where we get up at the crack of dawn (wake our children if you can believe it!) and watch 50+ balloons launch over the Rocky mountains- quite spectacular.

Mike and Elizabeth finished the school year the last week of May. It was truly amazing to see the change in Elizabeth over the course of the year- from not wanting me to leave her alone on the playground to barely kissing me good-bye the last day so she could run off and swing on the monkey bars.

Now, as Elizabeth says..."it's summer, let's go to the beach!" Well, we're a bit far from the ocean, but luckily there's a good reservoir nearby!

Elizabeth enjoys a ride on the carousel at the zoo:

Brooke gets a giggle out of Zoe during story reading:

Happy girls in the backyard:

Zoe smells the tulips in our backyard:

Cousins Sam and Anna go to check out the balloon preparations:

Early morning smiles:

Beds and Bunnies

This month marked the end of cribs in the Kugler house and the big move into “big girl” beds. As always it was exciting:
Brooke: “Why don’t we just pay the delivery charge?”
Mike: “Are you kidding, we’ll just pop them right on top.” (see picture below)
Elizabeth: “Daddy, are we going to get blown over?”

Actually, the only problem with the big girl beds is getting them to actually sleep in them.
Alex: “Mommy, I want [insert name of random stuffed animal or object here]”
Zoe: “I want my fan, and my pooh bear, and my pink bunny, and…[insert anything that will let her stay up later]” Happily they are so wrapped up in all these things that they both gave up pacifiers with scarcely a glance back (yay- one less thing to search for before bed!)

In other news we had our first Easter egg hunt without snow (barely). As in the past, this is the girls’ favorite holiday. The idea of a bunny coming into their house is completely acceptable especially when he brings eggs filled with special treats. I think Alex had jelly beans in her mouth the whole morning! Luckily she thinks only the Easter bunny brings them, so no more till next year!

The mattresses arrive (no children were harmed in the delivery):

Alex snuggles with her snuggle friends:

Zoe with Pooh Bear:

Alex coloring Easter eggs:

Zoe, the pirate bunny:

Waiting for the town Easter egg hunt:




Elizabeth finds an egg in our backyard:




Zoe is pretty satisfied with her find:



Finally, some sunshine and tulips:

March Adventures

March came in like a lamb and went out like a lion- 16 inches of snow in the last week followed by a couple more here and there. Elizabeth said to me the other day "Mommy, I want a warm, sunny day!" She was enjoying the warm days of early March a little too much.

We had a fun long weekend in Breckenridge for spring break and Elizabeth got to go skiing and ice skating- she's getting better with each outing. We're just happy that she seems to love them both (as until last year she was terrified of snow in general!). Mike and I actually got a day on the slopes by ourselves too- a real treat with great weather and snow!

Alex got her first haircut ever and it wasn't from her parents or an actual hair stylist. It was from herself! She tried to saw off her pony tails! It doesn't look too bad now, but stay tuned for lots of barrettes in the pictures as it grows out!

Zoe is enjoying a lovely phase of the terrible 2's. She vacilates between playing happily and throwing herself on the floor and screaming at the drop of a hat. Sometimes we know why and sometimes we don't. It's just a phase.....

Alex enjoying the spring weather

Zoe having fun in the tree

Playing princess with Daddy

Alex's hair!

Riding the chairlift with Mom (might even be more fun than skiing!) Yes, that's a bike helmet, we've graduated to a real one now that we're certain skiing is a good thing!

A short video of skiing with Dad