Riley and Avery

Yesterday was a loooong day. I guess it began the previous night when I stayed up late to make cookies for Riley's birthday ceremony at school. The Vegan Spiced Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies turned out marvelously and was a big hit with the children. Riley was upset when they were gone, so I promised to make them again.

Rudi came to Riley's school and observed for about 30 minutes before Riley's ceremony began. We watched the music lesson. As the teacher handed out percussion instruments to each child and told them not to use them yet, Rudi remarked how well-behaved the kids were to resist the temptation and sit in circle nicely. Riley absolutely did not participate when the song said to stand up and shake her maraca. She was in her own little la-la land. I don't know what to do about that. Rudi thinks that she has ADD but I think it's over-diagnosed. She does have certain symptoms, but I'm sure we can deal with them without medication.

Then they lit a candle and put it in the middle of the circle and arranged calendar pages around it. The teacher gave Riley a globe and they walked around the circle three times while the teacher read milestones of her life so far as they passes the appropriate month. Then they all sang Happy Birthday and ate cookies. It was nice.

Then we went home for about an hour to feed the kids and get all of our stuff together, then we hit the road for Denver. I actually timed this, from the moment we got into the car and for 30 minutes after that, Riley DID NOT STOP TALKING not even for a moment. Finally she said that her tummy hurt and I told her that it was probably because she was talking so much, so she put her head down and took a short nap. We went to the Tattered Cover Bookstore and unleashed the kids on the children's section. Avery was a little tornado, pulling books off the shelves and yelling. She found a wolf nesting doll that she adored and yelled whenever Riley touched it. I'll see if I can find it online for cheaper. So we stayed there for quite a while and then headed to the Denver Botanic Gardens for their Blossoms of Light show.

Man, the Blossoms of Light show was absolutely fabulous. It was so beautiful. I can only guess what the Botanic Gardens look like in the spring. They gave the visitors 3D glasses that turned the lights into snowflake shapes. Oh, let me tell you, it was horribly cold. Earlier in the day it was in the mid 50s, but by the time we got to the gardens, it was 15 degrees, much lower with wind-chill!! I had brought the baby slings and Rudi's coat so I could wrap it around Avery and I, but it was so cold that we had to put the girls in their strollers and pile all of the covers we had on top of them. Riley loved looking at the statues. Avery wouldn't let us put her hands under the covers, so she had fun looking at the frozen appendages that she could see but not feel. She was pretty amazed. We warmed up in the visitors center, and then left for home. It was 8 o'clock. Avery and Riley both fell asleep on the way home and transferred right to bed when we got home.

It started snowing on our way home from Denver, and it's still snowing. But it's a normal snow so far, not a blizzard. They are calling this a bad storm simply because it's supposed to be bitterly cold on top of it. I think our highs are supposed to only be in the teens for several days now. Great.

Today we're pretty much going to stay in and clean, to make up for the lack of cleaning done yesterday. We need to go to the Whole Foods Market for more vitamins for Riley, and I'm sure Rudi will be glad to go. Rudi ran out of his Paxil on Wednesday because he was taking two a day instead of one-and-a-half, so he might not be very useful unless we can get our hands on some more. He won't get another refill for a while, so hopefully his doctor will take pity on us. And laundry, I don't even want to think about the laundry that needs to be done.

In the world of nursing, Riley has nursed twice in the past four days. Not too shabby. Although when we were at the Botanic Gardens I went to the rest room and while washing my hands and rearranging my sweater, I noticed that my right side was literally twice as big as my left. I will have to be more attentive to switching sides now that Riley is not really nursing.

I really can't fit any more pictures in this post, but I have a lot more of our trip to the Botanic Gardens, so I'll post them later, plus I drained my camera's batteries downloading these...