Moving on up

May 25th was a big day for our Blakers...it was a day filled with achievement, excitement, and pride. This was the day that Blake Ryan Burke graduated from Kindergarten and officially moved into the first grade!
Blake had a very fulfilling first year of school, he learned so much and had such a wonderful teacher. It's amazing how much of an influence a great teacher can have on a child...he or she can really make it or break it for a child.
Blake left kindergarten with the ability to count from 1-100, as well as counting to 100 by 5's and 10's. He learned the whole alphabet and what sounds each letter makes, and even more exciting than that he learned how to begin reading and writing.
At his ceremony today, Mrs. Santos his teacher had all the kids perform songs show casing all the things they had learned through out the school year. The performance was amazing, and I was pleased with all the things these kids had remembered. Mrs. Santos played a video with pictures of the kiddos from the school year, it brought tears to my eyes. The ceremony was concluded by the kids going outside and releasing a balloon into the sky to represent moving up into 1st grade. It was very touching and emotional.
We were so proud of Blake and all his hard work, that after the ceremony we took him to Rosies Diner to celebrate such a gratifying year.

Congratulations Blake, I hope that this is one of many graduations you will be celebrating.


Mrs. Santos and Blake

Moving on up to 1st Grade

Celebrating at Rosies Diner

Your Royal Highness turns 3!!!

Saturday, May 21st we celebrated Brooklyn's 3rd birthday! I know hard to believe she could be 3 already...but she is and with each passing year she developes more and more personality! She's totally into princess's right now and thinks she is one, so when addressing your royal highness one must be sure to call her "Princess Brooklyn" I know I've created a Diva...but I expect nothing less!

Her special day began with a hair appointment at Sweet and Sassy...her most favorite place to go. That was followed by a mani and pedi and then she had a tinkerbell birthday party at the pirate ship park with all her friends and family...as if that wasn't enough she finished the day with dinner at Rosie's Diner!

Loose Tooth

After a little bit of wiggling and a lot of bribing with ice cream and one quick yank by daddy Blake lost his very first tooth yesterday 02/05/2011. He was so excited to have finally lost his tooth. I suspect he'll be losing another one in the next couple of weeks because the tooth next to the one he just lost is pretty wiggly.

Ironically one of Blake's best friends Isela lost her same exact tooth on the same exact day as Blake only hours earlier then him...it's like they made a loose tooth pact!

So here are some pictures of our toothless Blaker's and the money he got from the tooth fairy!

Fabulous, Flirty and turning Thirty

This year was my "Golden Birthday" which is when your age is the same number as the day of your birthday...so this year I celebrated 30 years on January 30th!!!
To celebrate the occasion I had planned a trip to Vegas with Ryan and 6 of our closest friends/family....but before we left they decided to surprise me first! The weekend before my birthday my sister Jenny, Kelli and Ryan threw a big surprise party for me at Jenny's club house. They had the place decorated so cute with pink, black and white (my favorite colors) they had pictures of me dated all the way back from when I was a little girl until current...and they had gotten me the most amazing cake...then to top it all off they invited all of my very close and dear friends to help me celebrate this milestone of a birthday. I must admit I was a little weary about turning 30 but being surrounded by all the wonderful people in my life made me realize that I had nothing to fear...I'm in a great place in my life, sure there are things I would have liked to have accomplished before reaching this ripe age, but I was reminded that I've experienced a lot of wonderful things thus far ...I have two beautiful children and the most amazing Husband, a good job and I've lived...I've failed and I've succeeded and I've met a lot of inspiring people along the way, so I came to the conclusion....bring on the next 30 years!!!

The weekend of my actual birthday we boarded a plane Vegas bound, along with Jenny, Kenny, Kelli, Jamie, Candee and Jessica. We went for 3 days and we stayed at the Luxor Hotel and Casino. We had a blast... The first day we hung out at the pool, and did some perusing along the strip at night we rode the roller coaster at NyNy and saw the Chris Angel Believe show which was pretty good if you ask me. The second night which was my actual birthday we went to the different hotels and checked out the shopping at Ceasars Palace and the Venetian, Ryan bought me a cute Guess purse for my birthday and Jenny got me the matching wallet we caught a bus over to Fremont Street (Old Las Vegas) where we enjoyed the canopy show, as well as all the crazy people. After a couple of hours we headed back to the main strip and Ryan treated me to dinner at Margarita Ville. We ended our evening throwing a few bets at the casino and watching the water show at the Bellagio. It was a Great way to celebrate my birthday and I'm so glad I had my friends there to celebrate it with me.

So I'll leave my post with this Quote: “Life is not a journey to the grave with intentions of arriving safely in a pretty well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out and loudly proclaiming ... WOW! What a ride!” ~Bill McKenna

New Years Eve

I can't think of a better way to bring in the new year than to celebrate it with these crazy people!!!!

Happy New Year!!!! 2011 is going to be GREAT...I just know it!!

Christmas 2010

Geesh I see I fell a little bit behind on my blog...so let me catch you up!

The Holidays were gracious to our family this year. We celebrated Christmas Eve with the Burke side of the family so we took the little ones to see Yogi Bear at the movie theater which was then followed by the traditional Christmas Dinner at Ryan's Nanny and Granddad's house and then the opening of presents at his parents house. The kids as well as Ryan and I were spoiled, we got so many great toys and gifts and the kids always enjoy the special visit from Santa (although, Blake caught onto Santa this year...he recognized all the similarities Santa had with Great Granddad) none the less he still appreciated the gesture behind it.

Christmas Day was spent with the Pelan side of the family and was celebrated at our house this year. The kids woke up pretty early and opened up their presents from Santa Claus while I made breakfast and Ryan assembled all their new toys. We prepared a delicious Ham dinner and opened presents with my side of the family...and again we were all very spoiled with wonderful gifts, I swear we could open our own toy store with all of the toys the kids got.

It was a wonderful Christmas Celebration filled with so many blessings, we are so greatful for our families.

All Aboard the Santa Express

This past weekend Ryan and I surprised our children with a trip to Canyon City to visit Santa Claus and ride the Santa Express Railroad Train. What an amazing experience this was...the kids were so thrilled and excited, it was truly a magical journey! Our adventure began when we arrived at the Santa Fe Depot where we picked up our tickets for the train ride. As we waited for our departure the kids got to play with Thomas trains and look around the gift shop. We boarded the train at 5:30pm, our seats were in the 2nd to the last train car and we enjoyed popcorn, hotdogs and soda while listening to Christmas songs as we anxiously awaited for our departure. At 6:00pm on the dot the train began to roll and the conductor punched our tickets...and thats when the magic began. We were served hot chocolate and sugar cookies as we all sang Christmas Carols...after about 20 minutes into the ride we approached the North Pole, all the kids ran to the side of the train to catch a glimpse of Santa Claus standing outside of his workshop waving and then the elves rounded up all of the children and we all cheered for Santa as he came aboard our train. Santa stopped and greeted every little boy and girl, when he finally reached us he leaned over and hugged both Blake and Brooklyn and then he listened as each of them whispered to him their one special wish... we could over hear Blake tell Santa "I want a Team GeoTrax North Pole Train Set" and then Brooklyn chimmed in "Baby Rupunzel Doll" Santa smiled and promised if they had been good all year that they would get their wish...and then he reached into his bag and handed each of them a bell from his sleigh. The kids were gleaming with joy...it was like a present in itself for Ryan and I to see how magical this was for them. As Santa made his way further down the car and into the one's before ours...the elves had all of the children on our train car standing in the isle so they could all play the Reindeer hokey pokey that was then followed by all the children lining up in their comfy warm pajamas at the front of the train car so they could parade down the isle to the back of our train to listen to the elves read a Christmas Story. Our magical journey was about to end with us heading back to the train station and the kids left feeling filled with hope and joy but as we exited the train the kids got one more chance to sit on Santa's lap tell them what they wanted right before Santa sent them off with a big hug and a candy cane.

If you didn't beleive in the spirit of Christmas this was all one needed to get back into the spirit...I left feeling more inspired than I have in a very long time.

I think it could go without saying but I'll say it anyways...We will definitely be making this a new family tradition for Christmas' to come!!!

Husker Game

November 13th is the day that one of Ryan's wishes came true because he and I got to go to our very first Husker Football Game...Thanks to Jamie and Kelli. Ryan as many of you know is a BIG Husker fan, and has been itching to go to a Husker football game for as long as we have been together. We've never had the opportunity to go for many reasons until this Year. Jamie got free tickets from his sister and he thought of no one other than Ryan to invite to the game!!! Kelli and I being the wives of the die hard fans got to reap the benefits. We had an amazing time at the game, it was more than we ever could have imagined. We had never seen so much pride and love for a college team until we attended a Husker Football game. I mean where else can you see fans standing shoulder to shoulder practically sitting in their neighbors laps...wearing Red clothing from head to toe? People we didn't even know giving us high fives and in some cases hugging us every time we got a touch down or field goal...and I have to say one of the most amazing things to see was after the very first touch down for the Huskers the stadium lets what looks like a million red ballons into the sky...you can't help but feel the goose bumps all over your body. The Huskers won that night which made the experience even more amazing...we were so thankful we wonder if Jamie and Kelli would ever know how much we appreciated being thier guests. Thanks guys!

It's not just for the kids!!!

Halloween for the past few years hasn't been just about the kids....us adults have had fun getting all dressed up and going to Halloween Parties. This year we attended a couple of parties and we had a blast! It was ironic that everyone in our group ended up wearing some shade of Red in our costumes...this was not planned, but we all looked great!!! We started our evening at Nicole and Wes's house and played some Flip Cup against the guys, which we won (of course) and then we headed over to Tom and McKenzie's...they had awesome Jello Shots and way cool decorations. Needless to say I had a blast and can't wait for next year....Ryan and I already have costumes in mind!

Trick or Treat.....

The kids had so much fun trick or treating this year and if the truth were to be told it was lots of fun watching them run from house to house! In years past Ryan and I have driven them all over the town making sure to stop by each of the grandparents houses as well as some of the Aunts/Uncles and close friends...this year we decided not to do that...the kids are getting older and quite honestly they just want to get their hands on all of that candy!!! So Ryan and I invited family/friends to come over for some trick or treating with us. We made some yummy dinner and baked some delicious Halloween cookies and then hit the streets of our kid friendly neighborhood around 6:00. Jenny came along with us as well as Suyzel and her two little ones which made it even more fun for Blake and Brooklyn. It was fun watching Brooklyn try and keep up with Blake and Isela as they raced from door to door, and TJ he was a hoot...he was trailing at his own little pace taking in the whole experience. We couldn't have asked for better weather it was really nice for a change...typically in Colorado on Halloween the kids are all bundled up in their coats you can't even see their costumes, but that was not the case this year!!! Needless to say the kids made out like bandits with all of their candy...Brooklyn needed instant gradification she tried sneaking some of her candy while we were trick or treating but don't worry she was busted. Here are some fun pictures of our cute little bumble bee Brooklyn and IronMan war machine Blake!
Happy Halloween!!!!