Business and Pleasure . . .

Business:
The Icklers have had some major life adjustments to make, what with Mama working full time night shifts at Littleton Hospital, the start of a new school year and Daddy busy at work. Miss Addison has had some major adjustments going on just in her mouth. In the past couple of months she had an expander placed in her upper palate and two baby teeth pulled. Every night we turn a little key in her expander and it widens a bit more -- we can see it working b/c the gap between her two front teeth is wider than before!

Brian and I have loved to cook for years, and we all know that since Addi was 3 she has desired to become a future chef, but it seems that Maren now has a serious  interest in food prep too! Mae recently assisted Brian in making dinner, and I have to say, her focus and persistence were fairly astounding considering she is still a little person of 4!

Pleasure:
I have been working a lot of Sunday nights lately, which means that Brian has to get the girls out of the house for a few hours in the afternoon so I can take a little nap. Recently they went to Roxborough Park and did some hiking. The girls were total hams as usual.

This year the Ickler fam took part in the annual Tour de Fat -- a bike tour through city park sponsored by New Belgium Brewery. Everyone gets dressed up in crazy costumes and takes a leisurely bike ride before ending the event with food truck munchies and awesome brews. We decided to dress representing the "Americana" theme -- complete with suspenders and mustaches. The girls had so much fun picking out our outfits, and they laughed hysterically while trying out the various mustaches. We were joined by Matt and Nora, Chris and Noni. The day was hot, but fun nonetheless!

Summer Fun

We had some great visits to Winter Park this summer. The girls participated in some new activities this year, and some old favorites as well. We had a few family-friendly hikes, the girls jumped on the trampolines in the village, and the all-time favorite: we took the gondola at every opportunity -- I swear, the girls would be happy if we just went to WP and rode the gondola repeatedly! We all watched Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory for "Movie in the Park"
in the village and partook in some face painting and bowling too. It was Maren's first bowling experience, so we made use of the kiddy ball-ramp and the bumpers.

Happy 4th Birthday Maren

For Maren's 4th we had a pottery party with some close friends, family and preschool buddies. The kids got to mold clay treasure boxes and then paint them with pottery glaze. Needless to say, it was a bit messy and the  treasure chests looked more like treasure lumps of clay, but the kids has a blast! Maren insisted on wearing a feather-rimmed hot pink birthday hat -- which, I might add, she also insistently wore out to her family birthday dinner.

The older she gets, Maren gets more and more girly and fancy.  Every day she picks out her own clothes and hair accessories, complete with instructions regarding how we are to style her hair. We comply mostly because she is hilarious. Her favorite color is pink and she loves to adorn herself in her dress up jewelry. Mae loves to make up imaginative games to play with her sister, but she still enjoys playing with her baby dolls. She will dress her babies and meticulously pack diaper bags for them before buckling them in strollers and going for a walk around the house.

Maren is in her first year of preschool and couldn't love it more! She adores her teacher Ms. Barb, and all of her after school enrichment teachers. In fact, Mae rarely leaves school without giving her teachers and best buds hugs -- sometimes she give kisses, which we have to remind her to save for her family, but hey, what can I say, the kid is just full of love!

Graduation

When I first started my pre-requisite courses for nursing school I thought I would never finish, but after 5 years (remember, I took time off to have a baby), countless hours of studying and clinical rotations -- I was done! I graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor's Degree of Science in Nursing from the Denver School of Nursing. We had a fun party, with catering from Hacienda Colorado, at the Ickler casa that evening to celebrate. There was drinking, gaming and unsupervised children roamed just about everywhere.

Hooligans and Dancing Queens

Since getting a guitar and a ukulele for Christmas the girls enjoy having "jam sessions" together.

 Recently Addi and Brian attended a school sponsored Daddy Daughter Dance. They got dressed up, went on a carriage ride, enjoyed some snacks and danced the night away. Maren and I had our own date night -- she got dressed up, we went to Yogurtini and we watched Brave together.

 We recently noticed that we were missing quite a few train table characters and pieces. It didn't take long to find the stash -- in the heating duct in Addi's room. Maren's agile little hands removed the grate and dropped a mound of trinkets down the hole. Luckily Daddy is almost as agile as Maren and retrieved as many as he could reach.

 The girls had fun playing outside after our latest snow storm. The snow was nice and wet -- perfect for building snow people.

 

 After playing in the snow the Icklers like to settle down to a riveting game of Junior Settlers of Catan. Addi is so good at it and legitimately wins. Maren just likes to collect goat cards and make them play together. You can't win 'em all.