Sooo cute!

So I left this evening to run a quick errand. When I returned home, the girls were dressed in life jackets and they were collecting fishing poles and buckets. Before I knew it, they hopped in the car with Andrew and were off to Riley Lake fishing pier.


He took these with his cell phone. Cute huh? I have no idea where this fishing idea came from. But I LOVE that Ella put on her whale rain boots for it. :-)

From the Desk of Andrew:

When I visited Atlanta in late March, we started talking about the idea of the Hawks making the playoffs and the inevitably of them having to face the Celtics in round 1. This video is the culmination of those original ideas and plays just prior to the team taking the floor. Here are the reactions from ESPN as well as our Hawks client, Peter Sorckoff:

From ESPN's NBA Daily Dime on Sunday morning following the Hawks Game 3 win:

Horford wasn't the only one trying to give Atlanta the "Win one for the Gipper" motivation. The Hawks' game operations crew played an impressive and motivational video montage during pre-game introductions that included historical upsets in sports. One of the upset clips included the Patriots' Super Bowl loss to the Giants.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-080427

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Here is what Peter had to say following their win in Game 4:

“The underdog piece has gotten a lot of play all over the place and the media has fed on it… in 8 years this one little piece might be the most impactful video you’ve done for us! It’s given people permission to believe!”

Peter Sorckoff
Senior Director, Game Operations

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We also put together a “Pump” video for the crowd that plays just prior to tipoff. It feature’s “nicknames” for each of the players and feeds off of their individual contributions that they each bring to the team. My favorite is Josh Childress: “Afro Power” This video serves to keep the crowd going to the very moment the game starts...



Also, The Famous Group has a fantastic new website. You can view it at: http://be.thefamousgroup.com

Enjoy!

Bike & Hike 2008--Day 2--Second Half

After the Stanley Hotel and a GREAT lunch at a little Chicago style deli (best gyros ev-er!), we headed into Rocky Mountain National Park. On the way in, we saw a herd of big horn sheep (but they were young so only had little horns). We saw some interesting birds you don't see in the Midwest, and tons of shaggy elk just growing back their antlers. The views were great but a little clouded over until late in the afternoon. We had planned on doing a hike at Bear Lake and drove all the way up to the trail head. As we were pulling in and looking around, we saw one couple with snowshoes on. And thought, oh that'd be fun to do someday. Then we saw another couple, then a whole group with snow gear, and we looked at the trail entrance. There were snow piles waist deep. Yeah, we decided our tennis shoes probably weren't going to do it for Bear Lake. We headed back down into the valley and found the Fern Lake trail. This was a very easy but fun trail and the perfect length for us. We walked next to the Thompson River and saw ducks and a beaver along the way. The scenery was great too!




After our hike, we headed back to the car and into Denver for the night. We checked into the Curtis Hotel which turned out to be an awesome kitschy place. Very retro with orange and brown, 70's style. Each floor had a different theme. We were on the Big Hair floor and Marge Simpson's voice invited you to enter the floor while leaving the elevator. If you're ever needing a place to stay in downtown Denver, I highly recommend this hotel. It's in a great location with a Starbuck's just around the corner and a great street (Larimer) just a couple blocks away with shops and restaurants. There seemed to be quite a bit of nightlife in the area as well. We walked to Larimer Square to find a place to eat for a late dinner. We settled on Cru, a wine bar and restaurant. We sampled some wines and had a delicious dinner and dessert. Then headed over to a martini bar called The Corner Office which was attached to our hotel. The girls were up into the wee hours of the morning sampling Denver's nightlife.



On Sunday, after sleeping in a bit and packing our stuff up, we headed to Sam's No. 3 for breakfast, a diner-style restaurant. We had an excellent meal and then headed to the airport where we said our good-byes. It was a quick but great trip and we're all looking forward to our get together next year already. Looks like we might be going to Bend, Oregon in 2009.

Bike & Hike 2008--Day 2--First Half

We woke up early on Saturday and headed toward Estes Park, Colorado home of the Stanley Hotel. What's so special about the Stanley Hotel you ask? Well, it just so happens to be Stephen King's inspiration for his 3rd book, The Shining. The original owner, F. O. Stanley was quite the inventor. He created the Stanley Steamer automobile as well as the metal protractor that every kid uses in school, among other school supplies. There is an original Stanley Steamer in the lobby of the hotel. Fun Fact: Jay Leno owns two Stanley Steamers and we've actually seen him driving it around Los Angeles! Here's the photo from the hotel and one we took of Leno in LA:



The hotel is trying to get Leno to bring his Stanley Steamer for the 100th anniversary of the hotel next year.

We spent the morning on a tour through this haunted hotel listening to a very dorky tour guide for almost 2 hours. You could tell he was very into what he was talking about and enjoyed giving the tours, he was just a bit awkward. At any rate, we heard a couple good ghost stories.

Room 217 is considered the Stephen King room, one of the nicest rooms in the hotel. This is the room where King and his wife stayed the night he was inspired to write The Shining. This room is also haunted by one of Stanley's employees. She was involved in a horrific accident in Room 217 and Stanley paid her medical expenses to recuperate and she continued on as head of housekeeping for nearly 40 years. It's said that her ghost haunts room 217 today.



As we sat and listened to her story. All of sudden I got a cold shiver down my back. Hmmm.....was there a ghost sitting next to me in the empty space between me and Allison?




The other room to acknowledge is room 401, known today as the bridal suite, but in the past it was the nanny lounge. Lord Dunraven is thought to haunt this room. He was quite the ladies man and flirt. Apparently many ladies have been "goosed" by a ghost while in the room. Hmmm.... One good story about room 401: A newlywed couple was staying in there. The bride put her ring on the bathroom sink. The next morning it was gone when she went to retrieve it. They had staff and plumbers up there tearing the bathroom apart looking for it. It was no where to be seen. Two days later, the couple woke up to find a "man" standing at the foot of their bed holding her ring. CREEPY!

Ever heard of the show Ghosthunters? Well, apparently the Stanley Hotel is a favorite spot of theirs. They have filmed there several times and keep coming back. Here are some links to segments of the Ghosthunters show about the Stanley Hotel in case anyone is interested:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

We took TONS of pictures while on the tour and no ghostly orbs appear in any of them. However, there is a weird reflection in the picture where I thought a ghost was sitting next to me. But then again, that could have just been the fingerprint on Erin J's camera lens. :-)


So if you're ever in Estes Park and want to stay in a haunted hotel, try booking 6 months or more ahead of time and ask for room 217 or 401. If the door to 217 is rattling or making a tapping sound. Beware! It could be a little old couple who comes to the hotel every couple months to stay in Room 217. They get their kicks out of making "ghostly" noises and then quick opening the door and scaring the living daylights out of people.

Bike & Hike 2008--Arrival & Day 1

This past weekend was my third annual Girls Weekend with four of my high school friends: Allison, Claire, Erin F. and Erin J. The previous years we've visited Los Angeles and Philadelphia. This year we made our way to Colorado where Erin F. currently resides and had some fun biking and hiking.

We arrived Thursday evening and got settled in Erin's apartment in Fort Collins. Her husband D.J. and dog, Pinga were very tolerant of all us ladies invading their space. On Friday we woke up and had breakfast at a great little Cajun place called Lucile's and then headed to the Fort Collins Bike Library. This little establishment just opened the beginning of April and is a non-profit who checks out bikes to individuals for up to a week for FREE. This helps promote exercise and being more environmentally conscious. Fort Collins is quite flat and has many bike lanes and trails. It's an extremely bike-friendly city.



And wouldn't you know it that the minute we walked into the Bike Library, a Denver NBC9 news guy walked in right behind us. We checked out the last four bikes available and we made the news broadcast in the whole state!! Here is the video of the news spot (Erin F. will never live down her "Totally Fort Collins" comment!):



After the excitement of being filmed for the news and looking like total idiots to the entire state of Colorado, we headed out for a bike 'n brew tour of a couple of Fort Collins' breweries. I was a little nervous about this whole biking thing. I haven't been on a bike since I got my driver's license. I'll let you do the math, but that's a LOT of YEARS! I was a little wobbly for a minute or two and then it all came back to me...."just like riding a bike".

We made our way to the New Belgium Brewery. We sat and sampled four beers each for free (about a pint in total). We liked many and some were not so great. The inside of the "Liquid Room", as they call it, has chairs and stools all made from bicycle rims. Their whole theme is bicycles. The second beer they produced was called Fat Tire (ever hear of it?). The name comes from the owner Jeff's experience in Belgium when he was learning how to brew beer. He brought his mountain bike over (back then a novelty outside the United States) and all the locals kept asking him, "What's up with the funny bike with fat tires?". Besides this story, the brewery itself is all about sustainability and being earth-friendly. It uses wind power from Wyoming, energy-efficient methods for brewing the beer, they use the brew machines to rewarm excess water instead of having to heat it from scratch. Anyhoo, the tour was incredibly interesting to hear all the ways they incorporate earth-friendly behaviors into their process. If you're ever in Fort Collins, I highly recommend a trip to the New Belgium Brewery and if you can, try to get Burny for your tour guide. He was great! He's even written a book!




After a great time at New Belgium we got back on the bikes and headed to the O'Dell Brewery. We enjoyed another round of samples, but did not tour this one. Really, not much could live up to the New Belgium tour. As we were leaving O'Dell, we realized Erin's J's bike had a flat tire. After many discussions about the best way to solve the problem, two nice biking gentlemen noticed us and helped us patch the tire. After that we were on our way. We stopped at a coop for a quick snack and then headed back to the Bike Library to return our bikes.




That evening we had dinner at a restaurant called 3 Margaritas which had a Don Cuco's feel to it (for anyone familiar with the Glendale, CA establishment). The food was good and we enjoyed meeting one of Erin F's friends, Ellie. The dinner concluded what was a very fun, relaxing day!

Happy Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day! My friend Heather posted some great tips for living a little greener lifestyle so I thought I would steal them from her and post them here. Thanks Heather! The biggest change we've just made is that Propel has made on-the-go pouches for mixing with regular water. So now we don't have a whole case of Propel bottles in our recycling bin every week. And not sure that this would ever happen, but I would love to get solar panels on the back side of our roof. The back of our house is south facing and the sun just beats down. Man, the energy we could save--or at least put back into the house!

Tomorrow is Earth Day and time to rethink how you live. Here's a few easy changes we've made around our home that you can do too.

• Open a window and turn off your A/C. Close the shades during the day when you leave.
  
• Turn off the water when you brush your teeth. (A HUGE pet peeve of mine!!)
• Switch to reuseable water bottles like these bottles.
• Turn off the lights when not in use.
  
• Change to compact fluorescent lightbulbs.
• Shut off your computer. Putting it to sleep isn't better for it.
• No more plastic bags. No more zip lock bags. Try this lunchbox.
• Recycle!
• Buy Energy Star products. (The city will even give you cash back for it!)
  

Of course, there's a lot more we can do and we're trying.
But even small steps can make a big impact.

Check these links out:
Cradle To Cradle
EcoFabublous
Green Guide

Ok, now everyone hold hands and sing Kumbaya.

The Great Outdoors

Ah, remember not too long ago I was complaining (a lot!) about the snow and ice and cold? Well, we had NONE of that today! It was gorgeous! We spent the majority of the day outdoors taking down the Christmas lights (finally!), fertilizing the lawn, weeding & cleaning up the landscape garden out front, and other general outdoor upkeep. Ella & Lily were happy to be running around outside. They dug out the bubble stuff from the garage and entertained themselves with that for awhile. They squirted water with the hose. And they were quite the little helpers, first helping Andrew with the Christmas lights and then Lily helped me rake the landscape bed.





They also spent a good deal of time collecting worms, slugs and caterpillars while I gardened. They walked around with the various creatures sitting on their sleeves, at least until one squiggly worm maneuvered its way INTO Lily's sleeve. She wasn't so interested in creatures after that. She was pretty freaked out. Luckily, I was wearing garden gloves through all this or they would have been on their own with the slimey things. :-)



In the afternoon, they wanted to ride their bikes to the park. Well, this took forever as Ella kept getting tired and didn't want to ride. And Lily is quite the dawdler on her trike just peddling only as fast (or as slow) as she feels like. We did make it to the park after an eternity and I promptly walked back and got the car--while Andrew stayed and played with them--because there was no way the girls were going to make it ALL the way back home (yes, it is only 1/2 mile to the park).



When we got back from the park, the kids played out back for awhile. The little boy next door, Jeffery came out and he and Ella played for 45 minutes or so. Unfortunately, he and his very nice family moved and they are selling their house. Gee, hope no riff raff moves into the neighborhood. And let's hope the new neighbors will be just as nice and still let us use their swing set whenever we want. ;-)



We grilled out steaks for dinner and now everyone is calming down before bed, which will be early because 1) the kids are exhausted from all the fresh air and 2) neither of them had naps today. Whoo hoo! I love this weather! Weather forecast for tomorrow: rain and gloom. :-( At least we had one perfect day before the wet weather settles in again.

And of course the great weather provided a wonderful backdrop for me to take a bazillion new pictures. I've added some here to this post and to the April photo album.

Create your very own kid-friendly centerpiece

Hi again. It's Holly, with another installment of "Entertaining your wee ones with simple art projects".

Now that spring has sprung, your little ones will be toddling around outside. And if they are anything like my kids, they will be collecting things: leaves, rocks, worms, and PINE CONES! Have your kids happily collect these nature treasures (well, maybe not the worms or anything else that's living). Ella collected an entire basket of pine cones from our yard the other day. She affectionately refers to them as acorns. We have tried to convince her they really are pine cones. But she is having none of it. They are ACORNS to her and that's the story she's sticking with.

She brought them in and very diligently cleaned each one in the bathroom sink. A process that much to my dismay took two days. When I asked her what the heck she was going to do with all those "acorns", she looked at me like "Duh, Mom." and said, "An art project."

I asked her what her art project was going to be and she just said "Glitter". Oh-kay. Where does she get this stuff?! So we waited until Saturday (when Andrew was in charge! Ha!) and we had the bright idea to paint the pine cones and then sprinkle glitter on them while they were still wet.




We waited for them to dry, all the while, I'm thinking hmmm...what to do with some painted sparkly pine cones...er, um, I mean acorns. So I got the bright idea to display them! I put them in our centerpiece on the dining room table. And I think it turned out great! (This represents only about 1/10 of the pine cones she gathered. Not sure if we'll be painting/glitterizing all of them--or if a new art project is on the horizon.)



What you need:
Found nature objects
Paint (we used washable Crayola "Kids' Paint"--found in the Crayola aisle at Target)
Paintbrush
Glitter

You could do this at home with your kids! Since I know pine cones may be hard to come by for many of you faithful readers out there in California, you could find leaves or small rocks around your yard and do the same thing with them.

Happy Crafting!