Sunshine Sweets

Well, y'all... sad news.  The lemonade stand is closed.  Its 15 minutes of fame is done.  So is the slushie/smoothie/pospsicle stand.  It appears as though the copycat stands that have popped up around the neighborhood have sparked some competition.

And it has forced our young entrepreneurs to think outside the box.  

So as of yesterday, Sunshine Sweets was created in the basement and moved out to the garage.  Don't all great ideas start in the basement or garage of someone's house? 

The team has decided that they will start abandon the lemonade stand and start a baking business. They thought long and hard about all the rules and information and pricing before creating their business cards and information cards.  

Here are the cards that the crew created....

I love the rules... Not open on Sundays AND If we don't answer, we aren't available. Enough said.

They created cute little door holders for their business cards and distributed them to some of the neighbors they knew.  

Let's hope no copycat business follow suit - I am afraid of what kind of business might come next!

Sleeping...

The girls have found a new favorite place to sleep at night....

If you think that they are sleeping in a closet, you are right.  It started off as a place to sleep one evening when we had severe thunderstorms in the area.  The girls wanted a place away from windows where they wouldn't see the lightning or hear the thunder and that was close to us - you know, just in case.  That place just happened to be my closet.

Turns out that they enjoyed their little hideaway a little more than I thought they would.  Quinn and Sullivan have asked no short of 100 times to sleep in their again.  We have obliged a couple of times - but the girls have gotten spoiled.  Not only do they want to sleep in the closet, but now request a small fan and a noise machine to 'help them sleep better.'

I get such a kick out of what makes the girls excited and happy.  Will they look back on this as a happy memory and talk about how they used to love to sleep in my closet?  Or will they look back at this and somehow get things twisted and say, "Remember when Mom used to make us sleep in her closet?  What was that all about?"

Freedom Festival '15

This past week, our little community had their Freedom Festival in the city park.  We went last year when we first moved here and the girls were excited to return this year again.

The girls enjoyed the children's tent - where there were a slew of crafts and activities to do.  The balloon maker was also a hit...

They also loved the face painting station.  Y'all... face painting is not really my thing.  I seem to always try and avoid it if we can, simply because it makes a big mess and is often hard to clean.  But my children are drawn to it like a magnet.  As are most kids.  So they were surprised, and Ryan equally surprised, when I said 'yes'.

Quinn got a puppy dog's face and Sullivan got a purple star around her eye.

Sullivan may have gotten the novice face painter - it is hard to decipher what it is or even see it.  But she was thrilled all the same.

The girls also enjoyed the parade.  They were excited to see the different floats and cars and people in the parade.  They were also excited about the candy and goodies as well.  Quinn and Sullivan were picked the only ones picked out of the entire car to receive a metal pin from the Shriners.  Q and S thought they were something special - and I would have to agree!

And what festival would be complete with some good food?!  The girls scarfed up this tasty snow cone in no time at all...

A great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.  Beautiful weather, great entertainment, and even better company!

Chillin' Out, Maxin', Relaxing All Cool...

Breckenridge also brought about opportunities to sit around and chill... and relax all cool.

Like this cool chair made of snow skis we found in downtown Breckenridge...

Or these wonderful chairs outside The North Face that we managed to fill up, waiting for others to finish shopping...

Or these adorably HUGE chairs we found in Copper Mountain on our bike ride...

How cute do Quinn and Sullivan look?!

Or these reclining chairs that were in the theater that we rented at the lodge where we stayed...sorry about the poor quality of the picture.

Or this adorable ski bench that us ladies found when we played miniature golf....

Or this park bench we found to enjoy some yummy ice cream after a day of walking around and shopping...

Or this bench that entertained two little girls as Gigi taught them how to make knitted drink coasters.  Seriously, it kept these little ones occupied and quiet for hours on end.  A near impossible feat sometimes.

Or finally this luggage cart that got lots of use as a makeshift race car.  

We did lots of chillin' and relaxin' and actin' all cool while in Breckenridge.  

It was quite the blast if I do say so myself! 

Breckenridge 2015...

The week in Breckenridge with all of Ryan's family was fabulous.  We had a great mix of laying low and relaxing and going out and seeing the beautiful sights.  Hang in there for this post - it's a long one!

There was a lot of time spent here....

Ryan's aunt, Paula, and cousin, Morgan, were FABULOUS about taking the girls swimming and playing with them.  Can't thank them enough - them and Ryan too.  It takes a lot for me to brave my swim suit.  Couple that with pretty cold weather and there was no way I was getting in.  But I sure had fun watching them splash around and am thankful there are others willing to swim with Q & S!

Another highlight of the trip for the girls was the city's gondola system.  It went from downtown, up the mountain and dropped us off right at our resort's backyard.  I don''t know how many times we rode that thing, but a request to do so happened at least daily!

On Tuesday, a group of us celebrated my birthday by taking a 14 mile bike ride down the Vail Pass.  We had Paula, Gary, Morgan, Nana, Papa and us four.

Sullivan wasn't quite tall enough to ride a bike on her own from the rental shop, so she got to ride in style behind Ryan's bike and take in the beautiful scenery.  Oh, and about 208 snacks too!  But she was already a pro at that!

The bike ride was breath-taking, really.  Words can hardly describe the beauty of the mountains and the landscape we took in...!

We were sitting at lunch after the bike ride and I was describing that to Morgan.  I said, "I can hardly paint a picture in my mind of a scene more beautiful than what we saw today."  Then Sullivan chimed in, "I can know something more pretty."  When I inquired what she thought that was more beautiful than what we saw in the mountains, Sullivan simply said, "You, mommy!"  Aww... doesn't she just know how to butter up her mom on her birthday?!

The birthday girl getting photo-bombed by one of her sweeties...

Love this picture of the girls along one of our stops on the bike path...

Along the journey down Vail Pass, we passed through Copper Mountain.  At Copper Mountain, we came across this...

A group of snowboarders on a mound of snow...in June!!!  Where else will you see snow in a large mass in June?!

Biking was a blast... a great way to celebrate my birthday.  That and this adorable sticker Sullivan gave me to wear on my birthday. So sweet!

The following day we went horse back riding.  More pictures of that experience are yet to come - as I didn't take my camera with us on that adventure.  Others have agreed to share pictures though, so stay tuned.  But on the way over the mountain to the horse stables, we crossed the Hoosier Pass.  It had significance to us, in the sense that we are Hoosiers from Indiana.  It also happens to be the sight of the Continental Divide.

That created a mini-geography lesson for us as we left the sign.  A pretty cool experience to think about - where the rivers part ways and flow to their respective oceans.

The following day, a big group of people went White Water Rafting.  No pictures given that the rivers were extremely HIGH and FAST and no cameras were permitted on the trip.  But while the adults were away rafting, Gigi, Nana, the girls and I found ourselves with an afternoon to fill.

We started the day tie-dying t-shirts at the lodge. The girls thought this was a MUST do activity.  It's too bad that the execution of the activity wasn't as fun as the thought of it.

Quinn struggles with getting hers rubber-banded "just right" and Sullivan was obsessed over the rubber gloves that were too big and too sweaty!  But we tried to make it the best - given the circumstances.

After tie-dying, we headed to a fun park to play miniature golf!  It was a beautiful day and a great way to spend the afternoon.

While we were in Breckenridge, Quinn really wanted to tour the gold mine.  They advertised that at the end, you would get to pan for gold. And with that thought, Quinn was sold.  She was certain she would strike it rich and wanted SO bad to find gold!  So we headed out to the gold mine with Nana and Papa in tow.

Turns out that the gold mine was not quite what we had envisioned.  LOTS of information about the mechanics of the gold mine, with a little history thrown in there.  Not necessarily our cup of tea, but Quinn hung with it for the thought of panning for gold.

We did get to pan for gold at the end, but sadly none of us struck it rich.  No big gold pieces - a couple of flakes, but that's about it!  It was still fun anyway!

Other highlights of the trip were hanging out with Morgan, Ryan's cousin.  Both girls were enamored with her and wanted her to play with them constantly.  She was a GREAT sport and was so good to them.  Quinn said to me, "I wish that Morgan was my cousin.  Daddy is SO lucky!"

The lodge also had an arcade that was calling the girls' name.  We made it down there one evening when we didn't have a lot planned!  They had fun playing air hockey and skeet ball.

We also got to meet Eric's new girlfriend, Kristen.  She was extremely nice and fits in with the family very well.  The girls were pretty tickled with her too!  Here Eric and Quinn switched glasses...Pretty darn cute!

Finally... a family picture taken in the lobby of the lodge.

Phew... I think that is it for now.  A few more pictures to follow suit soon

!