Party Time!

I decided that this year it would be more fun to have several small dinner parties instead of one big Christmas party.  A couple of nights ago we had a group of the neighborhood kids over for dinner. They are such a great group of kids and I am amazed at how big they are all getting.  We live on a crazy street-the kids go to 11 (that is not a typo) private schools so during the school year we are all going in different directions and don't seen each other often enough.  I long to live in a neighborhood where everyone goes to the same school-goal for 2011!

Channeling Yong Pak

Last night I turned K loose on a gingerbread house.  The icing was flying, sprinkles were every where and K was eating half of the necessary pieces.  Winston stopped by and decided to channel his inner Yong Pak and help create the perfect gingerbread house.  I don't think he has ever done a project like this before.  Watching him trying to control the chaos was hilarious.  I laughed until my face hurt.

K and Olivia Skate

Paradise

A on a very difficult math test=Manicure + Pedicure

Paradise, according to K!

Where's Waldo

Standing in line at the Louis Vuitton store

A room with a beautiful view of a clock tower and river

Watching a demonstration-really pretty tame, there were bands and snack bars had been set up

Hotel with a lovely courtyard

Incredible sycamore tree

Buying antiques

On a train with way too much luggage and boxes of purchases

Adorable hotel room

Buying more antiques

Did you guess France?  Just back from a week in Paris, a couple days in Lyon and several days in Avignon.  The strikes were not nearly as bad as depicted by the media.  We did some antique shopping and hauled home lots of paintings.  Sorry about the blury iPhone photos!

Golden Lions 2, Other Team 0!!!!

K played her best game ever!  I was so proud of her!

Blessing of the Animals

Dogs, cats, stuffed animals included.  In past years we have seen snakes, rabbits and birds.  Things were pretty tame this year.  Yes, the big kid in the black is K!

The Long Road Home

I planned the trip home so we did not have to spend any really long days in the car.  We drove from Aspen to Vail and stopped at the farmers market, then on to Golden (outside of Denver) and had lunch with friends and then on to Colby, Kansas where we spent the first night.  The next night we drove to Kansas City for the night and then on to St. Louis for the next night.  And finally home.  Nothing to see along I-70.  Not true!  K thought that the Prairie Museum and Prairie Dog Town were so much fun.  I loved the wide open spaces, blue skies and fields of sunflowers.

The largest barn in Kansas at the Prairie Museum-we got to climb around in the haylofts

Five legged cow at Prairie Dog Town

Identifying hides at the Children's Museum in Kansas City

Tight rope biking in Kansas City

The Meadows

Kimmie called one morning to see what we wanted to do for the day.  Hiking and biking were out because I was not feeling well (note to self-do not eat Sushi in Aspen) so I suggested going to the Meadows for lunch.  Kimmie and I grew up in what is now considered the chic West End of Aspen.  Many of the old Victorian homes have been torn down and replaced with billionaires homes.  When we were growing up it wasn't so chic-just the part of town where everyone with kids lived because it was close to the elementary school.  Our Victorian house is still standing.  The best part of living in the west end was the proximity to a resort (I don't think it was called a resort back then!) called the Aspen Meadows.  We all took tennis lessons there and then would use the pool afterwards. There are some lovely sculpture gardens where we loved to play-it started to rain right after lunch so K did not get to play in the sculpture gardens, maybe next summer.

The other great feature of living in the west end was the series of irrigation ditches that ran throughout the neighborhood.  We used to spend hours and hours building bridges and floating things in the ditches.  A favorite activity was to build something (could have been a stack of leaves tied together with grass or a bunch of twigs), drop our "boats" in the water and hop on  our bikes and ride to a designated spot to see whose boat arrived first.  K spent over an hour playing in one of the ditches, in spite of the cold and rain.  

Today the Aspen Meadows is a conference center and the pool is gone.  Who would have thought that the mid-century style of the Meadows would be so popular again?  Aspen Ideas Fest was going on while were there and it lunch we sat next to Condalisa Rice and Walter Issaccson.  K loved her Arnold Palmer that Kimmie introduced her to.

K building a boat.  I think that is Lance Armstrong's house in the background.

Doggie Valet

We loved the Residences at Little Nell where we stayed in Aspen.  The service was great-the valets even provided dog sitting services.  Every day K stopped and played with this dog who the valets were dog sitting. I love how the dog had his bed and ball with him.

Mutton Busting and a Kindle

A trip to Aspen isn't complete without a night at the rodeo.  We love the  barbeque and games for the kids before the rodeo.  We had friends from Atlanta who were in Aspen so getting to spend the evening with Cate and Madison made it even more special for K.  The girls decided that they were too old to participate in mutton busting this year (Madison has a trophy from mutton busting a few years ago!).  Truth be told, Tracy and I were thrilled because it was a muddy, cold night.  

Kimmie (my BFF from high school) joined us at the rodeo and since I hadn't seen Kimmie since last summer we had a lot of catching up to do.  We were sitting in front of the rest of group and it occurred to me that Tracy was being very quiet and that we were being kind of rude by not including her in our conversation.  I turned around to talk to her only to realize she was so quiet because she was reading a book on her Kindle.  She cracks me up!  

Madison and K

Cate riding the bull

K getting nuzzled by a sheep

Let the games begin!

A mutton buster holding on for dear life!

Glad I am not her mom!

Does this sheep look maniacal or what???

Looking pretty chaotic!

Another muddy kid!