Birthday Party!

Bryce & Drew await the guests at Hoots Party Zone.


Drew practices for the circus.


Drew & I having fun!


Bryce & Joseph tackle the slide.


Check out Drew's face! He's a daredevil!


Bryce & Lamar having a great time.


Bryce got to sit on this cool "Birthday Throne" for pizza & cake.


My dear friend Antonia made this AWESOME Wall-E cake! She's the best!


Bryce makes his wish & BLOWS!


Drew enjoying ice cream.


With the cousins from Phoenix...Mitch, Drew, Bryce, Jamie & Will

When I told Brittany we were having Bryce's 5th Birthday Party at Hoots, she replied, "You're having his party at Hooter's???" Not exactly, Britt. That will be his 25th, not his 5th, and hopefully I won't have to attend that one! No, this party was Friday night at Hoots Party Zone in ABQ. Bryce and his friend Mitchell had a combined 5th Birthday Party there, and we all had a great time! We ended up with about 25 kids & a bunch of parents enjoying all of the climbing, jumping, sliding, and yelling they could handle. After that, we all enjoyed some much-needed pizza & cake. All in all, Bryce had a wonderful party. He's still a little confused about why he isn't actually 5 yet, but only 21 days to go.

On Saturday, we hosted Stu's cousin James & his family from Phoenix. James, Molly, Mitch, Jamie, Will, Aunt Liz & Stu's folks joined us for lunch & fun at our house. We ate, played, and spent time catching up. The kids had a great time playing together, and especially enjoyed challenging each other on the Wii. I'm starting to sound like a walking endorsement for that thing, but it really is fun. We all had a great time & are looking forward to seeing them all again sometime soon.

We hope everyone is having a safe & fun Labor Day Weekend! The "end of summer" is pretty overcast & cool here today, and I'm loving it! This Montana girl has had all of the hot weather she can stand for a while. Thank goodness for fall in New Mexico, it is AWESOME! In a month, our skies will be full of beautiful hot air ballons for Balloon Fiesta, college football is back, and the smell of roasting green chile is everywhere these days. We love it!

Bryce's Olympic Moment!

Bryce with 2008 Olympian Joey Hagerty! Joey was so gracious to us!


This is Joey's Bronze medal, flanked by an award from the Rio Rancho Sports Commission & the first EVER key to the city.


Bryce also got to meet some Rio Rancho firefighters. Believe it or not, the one on the right is a former student of mine! Ugghh, I'm getting old!

This morning we got a rare treat...we attended a "Welcome Home" ceremony at Rio Rancho City Hall for Joey Hagerty, who was a member of the 2008 USA Men's Gymnastics team that just won Bronze in Beijing. Joey grew up here in Rio Rancho, although he now trains in Colorado. It was pretty cool to see Rio Rancho, NM, listed as his hometown during the coverage of the Olympics over the past couple of weeks!

Our house has been pretty Olympics-obsessed, to the point that Bryce sat through an entire USA Women's Water Polo match one afternoon. I was in our office working on the computer, and he appeared every few minutes to give me critical score updates. It was pretty cute. When we saw that there was going to be a ceremony for Joey today, we knew we had to take advantage of the unique opportunity. We were able to see Joey receive the first "Key to the City" that Rio Rancho has ever awarded, and he was gracious enough to stay and sign autographs & take pictures with everyone who came to see him. Bryce & I waited in line for a few minutes to get a picture & have some shirts signed for the boys. Stu got the unenviable job of entertaining Drew, who didn't think that waiting in line was so great. He did like the complimentary cake, however. We also ran into one of my former students, Brad, who is now a Rio Rancho firefighter. (Yes, I'm that old.) He and a friend posed with Bryce for another cool picture.

Stu snuck in at the back end of the line to get a peek at a real Olympic medal. It was pretty impressive in person. All in all, a great way to spend a Monday morning! Joey Hagerty, you rock!!!

Stu is 35????

The Birthday Boy!!! (Which is what Bryce called him all day.)


Do you think Drew liked the chocolate dessert???


When we asked Bryce what the hand signals were all about, he had no answer for us. Some sort of renegade preschool gang??? A cult??? Huge School of Rock fan??? We aren't sure.

Yes, it's true. Although Stu looks 25, he actually hit the 3-5 milestone on August 20th. He seems to be handling it pretty well. I guess the looking 25 thing probably helps. We celebrated with his parents and his Aunt Liz the following night, and Stu requested his all-time favorite for dessert, Molten Chocolate Cakes. Everyone gets their own individual cake straight from the oven, and inside you find hot, gooey, melted dark chocolate. Sinful. So much so that Karen, Stu's mom, won't even let me give her the recipe. She thinks it would be information too dangerous to keep in the house. So far, we've managed to hold back and only break them out for special occasions, but I see her point. If any of you want to experience the bliss for yourselves, either make a trip down here to visit us, or else drop me an e-mail, and I'll hook you up. You can see evidence on the picture of Drew that bibs might be a good idea for anyone who wants to give them a try!!!

Other than the big birthday celebration, we are basically trying to get geared up for Fall. Bryce's preschool starts right after Labor Day, and I've been busy helping with the Parent Board there. It's been fun...and makes me realize I'm probably ready to look at career options sometime soon. I love being home with the boys, but I think it would be good for me to have an opportunity for myself, too. We'll see what happens.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day weekend! We're going to be having Bryce's birthday party with his buddies this weekend...a little early, but we're having a joint party with his friend Mitchell, whose birthday was earlier in August. We'll be sure to post some pictures and a run-down of that later this week. Take care, and enjoy the last wonderful days of summer! :)

Visitors at Casa de Crane

Wildlife viewing at the crest.


Bryce shows his enthusiasm at the top of the mountain.


A view of ABQ from the crest.


Sarah, Pete, & Bryce admire the view.

Well, it's been a little while since I've updated the blog, but I'm happy to say that the time was well-spent. We've been entertaining visitors here at Casa de Crane, and it's been a blast!

My cousin Sarah called one Friday afternoon a few weeks ago, to say that she and her hubby Pete were headed to ABQ the following weekend. We were thrilled, but a little nervous, since we still had some unpacking to do at that point! Still, there's nothing like a deadline for a little motivation, so we spent the weekend unpacking and organizing, and by the time they arrived the house was in decent order. We had a great time with them...we took the boys up to the crest of the Sandia Mountains on a tram, ate at a few ABQ faves, and even played some blackjack at the casino. Before they left, we also got Pete & Sarah hooked on our Wii. If anyone is looking for a Christmas idea for them...

A few days later, my mom came to visit. We love it when Grammy comes! We got to spend a week shopping, eating, & playing with the kids. It was wonderful to have her here. On her last full day here, we went out to tea at St. James Tea Room with Stu's mom & his Aunt Liz. We had a fun afternoon sampling the great food, drinking tea, and chatting. We can't wait for Grammy & Papa to visit again!

Bryce recently completed a session of swim lessons, and he did really well! He's had some reservations about going underwater in the past, but he seems to have made a breakthrough this time. By the end of the session, he was perfectly comfortable going under and really had fun. We're planning to continue some lessons this fall at our nearby aquatic center to take advantage of this progress. He starts preschool the first week of September, so he's looking forward to that. His beloved teachers come for their home visit this week, so we're excited to see them. I'm a little worried that when he starts kindergarten next year he's going to be pretty disappointed that Mrs. Lindsey & Mrs. Aragon aren't there. They've become special members of our family.

Drew is also having a fun summer. His language skills have just exploded in the past couple of months! At his 18 month check-up at the end of May, I counted about 30 words in his vocabulary. Now, he seems to pick up 5 or 6 a day! Last week, we discovered that he can count to 10! We had no idea until we heard him counting along with Bryce one day. He's hilarious, too, he'll say something funny and then when we laugh he says, "I funny!" He can also throw a Class A fit when he wants to, but he's so darn cute we usually forget about it pretty quickly. We have, however, reached the point that I remember so well with Bryce, where restaurants aren't really very fun anymore. I know that this will pass, but it's still a bummer. I guess we'll have to have take-out for a while when I need a break from cooking!

August is HOT so far here, but we're supposed to get some more rain soon. I hope this last month of summer is great for all of you! Enjoy some ice cream while you can! :)