A spoon full of sugar....

....helps the medicine go down! On Saint Patricks day we had a family date night. We all got dressed up, headed to downtown Denver for a night on the town. First stop - The Cheesecake Factory at the Tivoli. The food was really tasty and the atmosphere was fancy! We enjoyed a delcious meal, then shared 2 different deserts - cheesecake (of course) and fudge cake. Next, it was  on to Mary Poppins at the Buell Theatre. The Buell was huge, the stage was the biggest we've seen, complete with an orchestra pit. We were pretty close to the stage, when we turned around we saw an ocean of seats behind us.  The lights went down, the curtain came up and the MAGIC began! The sets were quite amazing, the actors were wonderful, we felt like we were in a movie.  All the songs were incredible and during 'Step in time' Burt tapped his way up the side of the stage, tap danced upside down on the top and made his way back down the other side - Unbelievable! At the end of the show Mary Poppins floated above the audience propelled by her red umbrella, utterly amazing! We all really enjoyed the show!

posted by Mama, Hayden and Harrison

Spring Break in Estes

Because we are planning a big trip to Mexico for Christmas, we decided to stay close to home for Spring Break. Rather than having a total staycation, we rented a cabin in Estes Park and had some winter fun! We spend a lot of time in Rocky Mountain National Park - during the warmer months, but we were excited to spend some time exploring the park in the winter. The first thing on the agenda... sledding! The boys are used to sledding on a small hill near the house - actually it's a retention ditch - super fun, but not super fast. Their eyes got so big when they saw the hill at Hidden Valley, but they had no fear! We all climbed to the top, jumped on the sleds and away we went. It was a fast hill with a little ice in the middle - thankfully they have sand bags on the sides to stop you from going off into no mans land - I think I hit those things everytime! Harrison went down with a loud YAHOO! and Hayden could not stop grinning. We spent a couple hours sledding (and crashing), the whole time it was snowing these huge beautiful flakes. The next day, we tried snowshoeing. Nels and I have been before, but the boys have never tried it. We really enjoy hiking together, so we knew we would have a good time snowshoeing. The weather could not have been more beautiful! It was warm and sunny - good thing we dressed in layers! The snow was soft and a little slushy, so it kept building up on the bottom of the boys shoes - which made them heavy - a little frustrating! But they were troopers and we just kept knocking the snow off the bottom. We took a trail to Alberta Falls, it's about 2.2 miles round trip - by the time we were done, we had stripped almost all our layers off. We shared some great family time in Estes! It's a nice place to visit... summer or winter!

Cupcakes

The boys and I made rainbow cupcakes - the formula was in the latest issue of Family Fun magazine. They turned out way better than I thought they would. The colors were amazingly vibrant and it was easy. I'm thinking we could make all kind of colorful cupcakes - like for sports teams and stuff! Too much fun. Check out the pictures.

Cheerleading

In January I took a cheerleading class at the High school. It was really fun. First, we all stood in a circle and played a game to introduce ourselves. When it was our turn, we had to go in to the middle of the circle and say our name and show something we liked to do. When it was my turn in the circle, I did karate! After we introduced ourselves, we played duck, duck, goose. Second, we began to learn the cheers. The high school cheerleaders showed us the moves and we imitated them. It was hard at first, but then we practiced and it got easier. Last, we performed our cheers for our parents. As you can see, cheerleading was very fun!

posted by Harrison (typed by Mama)

Birthday

My 10th birthday was at the end of January and I had a party at Rollerland. It was very fun. I am also better at rollerblading now because we skated a lot. There was a laser maze too. I had a lot of fun with my friends, cousin and brother. On my actual birthday (1/27) we went to the Eagles hockey game and Chris the Eagles trainer asked me how to spell my name and disappeared into the locker room. About 5 minutes later, he appeared and handed me a autographed picture of Greg Pankewicz a former Eagles & NHL player, turned assistant coach. It said "Happy B-day Hayden, your friend, Panks". I was SUPER excited! When the players approach the ice from the locker room, we always bump gloves with them, Panks came out after all the players and I told him thank you for the picture and he said "your welcome buddy, happy birthday." and we bumped knuckles - what a thrill!
Posted by Hayden

Building a room

Posted by Harrison (typed by Mama)

One day we decided to make a hang out room for Hayden's friends and my friends (and Mama & Daddy's friends). So we bought a new LCD TV and a couple book cases, and a loveseat and chair. The loveseat and chair were to be delivered. Hayden was super squished on the ride home, because we bought too much stuff to fit in the car. When we got home, we started cleaning the loft, to have space for our boy room. The next day, we built the TV stand, then we built the bookcases, it was hard and fun (and a little frustrating Mama says). We moved all of the gaming equipment (XBox 360 & WII) up from the family room. Daddy hooked up the TV and gaming systems before he left to see Avatar with his friend Brian. This morning (Tues.) the delivery truck and guys brought our loveseat and chair. All the furniture in the room is black - it's really cool! You all will have to come over and hang out with the Dachels in our cool new hang out room! Rock Band anyone?

Here are some pictures of me in the re-decorated room!

Posted by Mama

Christmas is over. The boys had a really great time and recieved everything that was on their list. The biggest hit, I think were the DSI's - they have been constantly playing them. The DSI's were also the biggest surprise for the boys. For the longest time, Hayden has been repeating the Snugie commercial, so we decided he must really want one. We told him that's what he was going to get for Christmas, because it was obvious that's what he wanted. He denied it up and down and said the commercial was just catchy and he couldn't get it out of his head. Well, as a joke, we decided to get the boys Snugies and wrap the DSI's inside.
When Hayden unwrapped that gift, his face was priceless, I could see the disappointment, because these were the biggest (in size) gifts under the tree.

Of course Nels and I said "open it and put it on, let's see how it looks.' When they took it out of the packaging and the DSI's fell out - there was shear joy and a bit of surprise on their faces. Hayden's grin was so big, I thought his face might split!

 Santa brought us rock band for our Xbox 360 - that Santa, he's a thinker... we already had a guitar hero guitar for our Xbox. So Santa thought it would be better to get it for the Xbox, because we can use our Guitar hero guitar too. That way all 4 of us have something to do when we play. The boys got to open one present early, which was a Flip video camera. We had them open it early, so that I could film Hayden's poetry recitation - since Nels could not attend. (Which I would post on here, but I filmed the whole thing side ways - story for another time!) They have had a lot of fun making videos, some scripted some random - like Hayden wrapping the calendar for Nana and Papa and giving a step by step how to for the camera - too cute!
Christmas Eve was spent with Nels' parents, they gave the boys a really nice drum set! We put it together and enjoyed some chili and bisquits for dinner. The boys tried out their drumset and other gifts, then we had Chocolate fondue for dessert (our Christmas eve tradition)

We spent Christmas day with Friends and family. We started off with Breakfast at some friends house, it was a great way to spend the morning - good friends and good food! From there we stopped at Nana & Papa's to open presents, then a quick stop at home before hitting the road for Denver, where we had a nice visit with my older Brother and his family. We had delicious soup and baked potatos for dinner! Then it was off the Broomfield to spend time with Nels' older brother and his family. It was a busy day - but definately an enjoyable one! Now let the clean-up begin!

Aren't they so cute in their Snugies?!