Kite Festival

Why hello there!  SM here, typing from my new chair---BUMBO!

This past weekend the largest kite festival in northern New Mexico took place in our quaint, little town.  The day, however, began like any other --- with my needy brother JC making sleep uncomfortable for someone else...

Here my dad strings the kite.  He only thinks I'm in the stroller under the blanket!

JC got to fly the kite...

And M did, too.  No one asked me, though.  There were probably about fifty kites in the air and the real festival didn't start until the next day!

After the kite flying, we were treated to the musical leanings of Junior Brown...we were big fans.  He was heavy on the fiddle, harmonica, banjo, and bowed psaltery.

The day ended like every other...with a needy JC making sleep uncomfortable for someone else!

Sheesh, that blogging took a lot out of me.  Better take a break.  We'd love to see you next year at our Kite Festival!  

We've Graduated from the Cheetah Girls Dance Mat!

Yes, after two years of correspondence courses at CGU under the tutelage of Kiely, Adrienne, and Sabrina, M received her Passport to Stardom.  This allowed her entrance into the exclusive DALA or Dance Arts Los Alamos school of pre-ballet.   Here she is with her fellow snowflakes ready to represent the season of winter!

Here is a video of her recital taken by JC.  His hand is getting steadier...

M was fantastic!  She was placed in the front and center which is, as anybody who has ever seen a Steve Winwood music video knows, where the primo dancers are placed....

 

Good job M!  Jazz hands JC!

Happy Birthday JC!

Oh boy!  Yet another birthday (numero tres) for my little brother.  Unsatisfied with last year's multi-state, multi-time zone birthday that involved the outdoor fair McLean Day, JC's birthday lovin' momma decided to turn to the only thing that could top last year's birthday.  It was - ABQ Jump!

Yes, an indoor bounce house lodged in Albuquerque's warehouse district was the key to a great birthday.  It remains to be seen whether momma will celebrate her birthday there, too - as she had lots of fun, as well.  Day 1 ended with a birthday cake....a birthday pancake!!

The next day, JC woke up and found out that his party was continuing...Look at his confused face!

He got a lot of new toys and a multitude of clip-on ties.  How many kids are lucky enough to have the same clip-on tie that their dad wore in their 2nd grade photograph?

He also got a basketball hoop...

and a sandbox!

One day later, JC got his birthday cake.  Why the wait?  The bleepin' altitude had ruined the previous two days' cakes.  The coyotes ate well that weekend...But it was worth the wait!  Look at that!

And all his rowdy friends were there, too!

Happy 3rd birthday JC!  Congrats for potty-training yourself two days before the big day, too!  Thanks for everyone's gifts!

Oh yeah, we have a baby sister, too!

Here is an update on baby S.  JC and I both think we are more interesting, but somehow she gets all the fan mail.  I guess we'll have to drop the "guest starring" tag at this point.  Fans - consider this the bone you were thrown.  Her day might start out like this - fast asleep until late morning...

 Next, comes a diaper change...

Then she usually gets dressed in something a little too nice for a baby!

After a busy day of eating and cooing it's time for the bath...

Which usually puts her to sleep again for the night!

 

Asleep, until Big Brother wakes her up again! 

 

Easter, Easter!!!!

Hola amigos!  I, JC, have been tapped to write the Easter post this year?  Why?  Someone ate too many Peeps!  Here is a shot of me at our pre-easter egg hunt.  I wore the appropriate t-shirt considering how many eggs I found!

But I was not the big winner.  The big winner was M, who found the giant egg which contained this!  (Her friend is merely helping her hold up her prize)

Gram and Aunt J flew in after an unexpected, extended stay in Dallas, Texas.  They helped us color the eggs and Aunt J "borrowed" some of M's Peeps!

Sunday morning we looked and the Easter Bunny or Beagle had come.  He left us shoes and coloring books that coordinated with our baskets.  That's a huge hint that my dad had nothing to do with this.

Afterwards we got another Easter egg hunt.  BTW, brightly colored eggs stand out amid the "fauna" of NM making the finding quite easy!  This one lasted a staggering three minutes meaning we found about a dozen eggs per minute!

The boys sent us some beautiful balloon birds - here is M posing with hers...

Here I am with mine.  After a solid two days of taking notes to make this post, you can see I'm not as smiley as M.  I love my bird nonetheless.  Thanks to everyone!

Pizza Pizza!!!

The aforementioned (see earlier post) Time Out for Pizza presents the only pizza option in our small town.  The pizzas are out of our price range most of the time and an extravagance in the other times.  This past weekend we learned about a place only twelve miles away called  Papa Murphys.  What a knock-off of Papa John's?  A pizza place run by someone with an Irish surname?  Could place our trust in such a conundrum?  Like I said, it's a small town so we went ahead and took our shot.  Look at what came out of it!

Oh my!  Look at the cheese.

Oh my!  Look at the meat!

Our pizza pizza problem has been solved and without a Little Caesar's in sight!

It's a Small Town After All!

So a little known fact - we live in a small town.  How small?  Much smaller than the one John Cougar Mellancamp grew up in, that's for sure.  Do you want to know what made our front page?  This did...

The sight was so stupendous, that my dad came home from work and told everyone to get in the car.  He said he had a surprise.  I thought that perhaps our grocery store had bananas for the first time this month.  My brother was positive that a herd of elk had stopped along our main street.  My mom was just frustrated that she had to get dressed.  In the end, we were all pleasantly surprised at this amazing view...

Later that night, my dad called the local handy man because this happened to our fence.  Do you know what they talked about for ten minutes.  Yes, the smashed car at Time Out for Pizza.

The next day, we went on an Easter egg hunt (see future post) and one of the dads was the collision repair guy for the area.  He stated that, yes, indeed, the car was to be fixed and driven again.  And that is the definition of a small town Mr. Mellencamp.