Grace's 5th Birthday!

Grace (middle) with her friends celebrating her 5th Birthday!

On September 8th, our "baby" Grace celebrated her 5th birthday! It doesn't seem possible that she is already five years old and in kindergarten.

Our celebration, as usual, lasted a few days,

Grandma Hansen's package arrived on Saturday, September 6th and was filled with lots of goodies, and new clothes! If you know Grace, you know that she loves new clothes, especially pink clothes, glittery clothes and of course, anything that says "Princess." Grandma Hansen's picks were right on target! The new clothes were worn right away and I'm having trouble getting the new Princess T-shirt off of Grace and into the washing machine.

On Sunday, September 7th. Grace invited a few of her friends from her kindergarten class over for a "Hello Kitty" themed party, complete with games, a pinata, and of course, cake and ice cream!

On Monday, her actual birthday, Grace took cupcakes to school to share with her Kindergarten friends, followed by another celebration at Grandma and Grandpa Bowser's house, complete with Chinese take-out and an ice cream cake.

To our dear Gracie, we love you very much and we are very proud of you. Happy Birthday!

Quincy's Excellent Board Breaking Adventure

Last night, Quincy and Grace's karate school had a special board breaking class. Yes, that's right...board breaking. The instructors all but guaranteed that everyone who attended would break a board.

And break a board, he did! Mom was teaching a class, so Dad was the witness to this feat of concentration and strength. Prior to breaking the board, each student was given a marker with which they were to write their goal on the top half of the board and the obstacles to their goal on the bottom half. Quincy wrote for his goal "8th Degree Black Belete 20020" (meaning 8th Degree Black Belt by 2020). For his obstacles, he wrote "quiting and not triing" (quitting and not trying). Then, Master Galloway, the instructor, showed them techniques to channel their concentration and energy into breaking the board and symbolically separating their goal from the obstacles that would prevent success.

Quincy broke his first board on the third attempt. The second board broke apart on the first attempt. Quincy was very excited about his accomplishment and has told of his amazing feat to almost anyone who would listen.

He told me this morning that he was going to keep his board in his room so that he can always remember his goal. If he is to become an 8th degree black belt, it will take him until 2020, when he is 19 years old. Not many six-year-olds can make that kind of committment.

We'll be there cheering him on every step of the way to 8th Degree Black Belt or whatever goal he aspires.

Birthday Lillies

Monday, August 25 was my 35th birthday. Erik commented that "you're halfway to 40." Actually, it's more like halfway to 70! To me, 35 is a minor landmark; I'm not longer "young" but certainly not old. And, I'm old enough to be President of the United States.

It was a nice birthday. The big celebration was Sunday party that was also a fundraiser for my campaign for the Colorado State House of Representatives. We had a good time with good food and good friends. Thanks are due to my parents for allowing me to use their beautiful backyard and flagstone patio for the event.

I wanted to share this picture of the beautiful bouquet Erik brought home for me on Monday. It is the most exquisite bunch of Stargazer Lillies, which also happen to be my favorite flower. Grace also loved them. I think she will need to get a bouquet for her fifth birthday, which is coming up in less than two weeks!

First Week of School!

First Day of School 2008

The Hansen Family is now officially a family of school-aged children! On August 19th, Quincy started first grade and Grace started kindergarten at Silver Creek Elementary School. They are both excited to be back at school and the first week seemed to go smoothly, though the main topics of conversation about what they did centered around recess, lunch and P.E.

Quincy is in Mrs. Kiefer's class. She is a first-year teacher at Silver Creek, though she taught in the Adams 12 School District last year. Quincy thinks school is great and he's looking forward to "trying to be the smartest kid in class."

Grace is in Mrs. Frankenfeld's full-day kindergarten class. We were very pleased with this teacher assignment, as we had seen Mrs. Frankenfeld several times over the summer at the grocery story, and Grace was already telling everyone that she was going to be in Mrs. Frankenfeld's class. Her neighborhood friends Ella and Riley are in her same class, which also makes her very happy. Grace was very worried that she would forget and call her teacher "Mrs. Frankenstein" so she was also quite proud to have made it through the first week without making that mistake.

We are also very pleased to be hosting Silver Creek's Chinese teacher this year. Mrs. Lihong Wang will be staying in our home through November. The children have enjoyed having her here very much, and so have Erik and I. We enjoyed watching the Olympics together where we got the "inside" scoop on what it is like in Bejing. Lihong has also been teaching the children Chinese. Quincy is very excited to also have the opportunity to talk via web phone to Lihong's 5-year-old daughter who is back in China.

Quincy and Grace are also both taking karate classes at Thornton Mile High Karate. They are "Gold Belts" and soon will be promoted to "Orange Belt." They work very hard at karate, and it involves so much more than punching and kicking. They also must work on memorization of the Black Belt words of the month and must earn "stripes" for graduation by doing things like reading daily, practicing karate, and using good self discipline.

The summer came and went very fast. I spent a lot of time working on my campaign for the Colorado House of Representatives. Each Saturday, and many days during the week, I am walking door-to-door to meet as many voters as possible. I am in a little big of a "David vs. Goliath" situation, as my opponent is the incumbent representative for this district, but I have so far received very good feedback and it looks like it will be a very close race. This weekend, my campaign commercial debuted on cable TV, which was very exciting to see. It was produced and paid for by an outside organization, so I saw it for the first time at the same time as everyone else. There is a quick shot of the family, and the kids are very excited to be "TV stars!"

Finally....an update!

I don't really know if anyone reads this blog, but I really intended for it to be a way to keep track of everything that's going on with our family. Time flies by so quickly these days, and I regret that I don't have time to reflect on everything that is happening with our family. I've thought about going back and posting a comprehensive report on everything that's gone on, but I'm not sure that I could succinctly say it without droning on and on and on and on....so, I won't even attempt it. From here on out, I plan for updates to come regularly, so that if nothing else, when I'm 80 years old, I'll be able to look back on these years and hopefully smile at how far we've come!

Happy 2008!

Hello again! It is already February 16th, and I have not yet posted an update for 2008! My intent was to post as soon as all of the holiday cards were sent out, but, alas, that has not yet happened. I am currently trying to decide if I should even continue with trying to send them out or just wait until the end of the year for the Happy Holidays 2008 cards!

The Hansens are keeping busy in 2008 and we've had some fairly exciting adventures so far.

Holly's brother, Monty, and wife Alison and sons Luke (5) and Matthew (9 months) came to visit for nearly a week in mid January. It was great to see them. It's really hard to see them too often, as they live in Raleigh, NC and don't have many opportunities to head west, nor do we have many chances to go east. The best part of the trip was seeing Quincy and Luke playing together. As they grow older, it's really wonderful to see them getting along and setting the framework for a lifelong "cousin-ship." Baby Matthew is as cute as a button and is a big boy! We are looking forward to hearing news of his first steps.

We took a day trip to Colorado Springs on January 26th to see the live stage production of "Walking with Dinosaurs." This was a very exciting event for Quincy and Grace, as two of their favorite shows are the "Walking with Dinosaurs" and "Prehistoric Park" shows on Discovery Channel. It was a very good show with lots of realistic dinosaurs. Grandma and Grandpa Bowser accompanied us on the trip, which also celebrated Grandma (Virginia's) 71st birthday.

On January 28th, Quincy checked into Children's Hospital for a planned surgery to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. The surgery went quite smoothly. We checked in at 11:30 a.m. and were on our way home at 5:00 p.m. Recovery wasn't quite as easy after the first day when the IV pain medicine from surgery finally wore off. He was in quite a bit of pain and wouldn't swallow the Tyelnol prescribed to help him feel better. We tried to explain that a little bit of swallowing might hurt but that he would feel better, but we had no luck. He went through most of the recovery with no pain medication -- he's a tough little guy. Now about 3 week s post-surgery, he's doing great, is back at school and is sleeping and breathing so much better!

Grace is continuing to thrive at Eastlake Montessori School. She brought home her first reading book, called "Sam and Mat." She reads most of the words (using picture clues) and is quite proud. We have decided to enroll her in kindergarten next fall at Silver Creek Elementary. She is excited to be a kindergartener, and though she will be one of the youngest, I'm postive she can hold her own. Why do I think this? Well, the other day, we were at Chick-fil-A for Spirit Night, and Quincy was playing in the play area with a friend from his class. The play got a little rough and Quincy came out with a bloody nose and some minor bruises. After making sure that he was OK and ensuring that it was just a case of overly rough plan and not bullying, Grace said to Quincy, "Do you want me to go kick that boy in the head for you?" We couldn't help but stifle a giggle.

Kids are great! I don't know if anyone is even checking in with us on this blog, but I am having fun writing it. If nothing else, we'll be able to look back and keep up with what we were doing in 2008.

Until next time...

Skiing!

Quincy & Grace - First Day of Skiing - 12/29/2007 at Eldora Mountain Resort

Quincy in Action

Gracie doing the "French Fry" move

We have just returned home after a weekend trip to the Bowser Cabin in Nederland, Colorado (about 17 miles northwest of Boulder). While the roads up Boulder Canyon were dry and easy to drive, the evergreens and mountains were covered with a beautiful white snow. It was definitely a picture from a Rockwell painting, or definitely painted a picture of what John Denver fell in love with that inspired his song "Rocky Mountain High."

After a cold but restful night on Friday, we were up early to head up the road to Eldora Ski Resort where Quincy and Grace had their first taste of skiing. We decided to enroll them in a 3-hour ski school to learn the fundamentals, and at the end of the day, they both enjoyed it though tiredness, hunger and Gracie's argument with a "mean girl" at ski school briefly sapped their enthusaism! I think Quincy expected to be traversing the double-black diamond runs by the end of the day, but he did learn all the fundamentals so that we can get him up to the family slope area at Eldora sometime soon. They both got report cards showing they had mastered straight skiing (aka the "French Fry") and the wedge (aka the "Pizza") and getting on and off the in-ground ski lift (the Magic Carpet).

While the kids were at ski school, Mom and Dad got a couple of hours to do some skiing as well. Though Erik seemed to easily return to skiing form, I quickly found out that I'm not in the same shape I was six years ago, which was the last time I was on skis. I did have a great time and Erik and I both agreed that we are going to make skiing a priority again. B.K. (before kids), we had season passes and skiied almost every weekend. It will be great to renew this hobby and share it with the kids.

This morning (Sunday) we awoke to a soft snowfall but swirling winds, so we decided to sit out skiing today. Quincy was disappointed, but it anxiously awaiting our next trip up to the Canyon. On the way home, we stopped to see the latest kid movie "The Water Horse" which was actually enjoyed by all.

This evening, we are settled in at home getting ready to greet a new week and a new year. Quincy and Erik are playing Wii while I write this post. After closing, I think I'll actually get the Christmas cards finished. Again, to those of you finding this blog from our card, sorry for the lateness and please leave us a message and let us know what you're up to!

Until next time...