Happy Birthday Oscar and Ava!!

Marg, as always, outdid herself tonight, making a dinner for 19 people look easy!!  The food was amazing....as is she.  Unfortunatly, we don't have any shots of her tonight...which is often how she likes it, so Marg, this blog is for you....all your loved ones, plus a few extras, for dinner celebrating Ava and Oscar!

Purple Monster....

Isaac has his little buddy Evan over this afternoon.

Boys are loud.

Boys like to play.

They like to explore.

 These 2, love to laugh, and they thought it would be hilarious to go through my bra drawer {they are obviously too little to know you don't go into your friends mom room, nevermind through her bras!}

 But nonetheless, they love to laugh....so for a laugh, Isaac dug out a purple bra, put it on and came running down the hall to give me {and my mortified face!} a fashion show!!!  In hindsite, I wish I had reacted differently because its not a huge deal, right?  And it was pretty funny....but inappropriate with a buddy over!  But sheesh, he looked so small under that bra....thats not really saying anything other than my kid is small....really.   I sternly said "You took your friend into MY room and went through my underwear drawer??" 'No mom, it wasn't your underwear, it was your bra drawer.....'  sigh.

My beautiful, crazy boy had a busy day.  He had a piano lesson at 8am, swimming with his school at noon, Evan to play til 6, out on the town with his dad til 9....here he is with all his prized stuffies, including the racoon from Chris's childhood, the white blanket and orange teddy bear from birth, his favorite white bear with the snow hat from Mme. Monique, and my bulldog {under the orange stuffy}.   i love him, alot.

'i am a good mom.....'

i repeat that to myself as i close the door behind me, leaving my beautiful boys to sleep the rest of the night.

You see, i am a good mom....i check on them before i head to bed.  Tonight, they had both kicked off their blankets.

i am a good mom, i pull the blankets up around isaacs chin and tuck him all back in.

i am a good mom, as i head over to do the same with Elliot.

i am was a good mom until as i pulled the blankets up around elliot, his flashlight, that was tangled up in the blankets, flew up in the air and landed square on his forehead with a loud THUNK!!

i sat motionless, waiting for the scream to start.

no scream, just a look of absolute sleepy pain....and then he rolled over and i kissed his forehead where he will probably have a red lump in the morning and wonder how it got there.

sorry elliot, my bad.

beautiful walk with a beautiful boy and his trusty stick.

All boys love sticks, don't they?  Elliot picked one up at the start of my favorite walk, and didn't put it down the whole time.  We started our walk by taking pictures of a few things that he wanted shots of; so here, so start this post is the picture of the 'spicy stick'!!  Enjoy!!

Next Time.....

My reasons for writing this blog, ever trying to do it faithfully, often sporatically...is done 100% so that I can look back on the pages when I am old and grey and remember.

To remember that I was loved and that I loved.....and the people who walked next to me in this little life of mine.

This poem jumped out at me this morning, so I want to document it here, so that i can remember it too.  I take it out of context a little, for myself, more from a social aspect than an environmental one.  But i believe that I could have saved a few of the relationships that I have lost over the years, had i just looked at them while they spoke to me to really hear what they were saying enstead getting defensive and angry.  I am so quick to jump into an emotion before I even have a chance to stand back and examine.  So, this was a good poem for me.

Next time what I'd do is look at
the earth before saying anything. I'd stop
just before going into a house
and be an emperor for a minute
and listen better to the wind
      or to the air being still.

When anyone talked to me, whether
blame or praise or just passing time,
I'd watch the face, how the mouth
has to work, and see any strain, any
sign of what lifted the voice.

And for all, I'd know more -- the earth
bracing itself and soaring, the air
finding every leaf and feather over
forest and water, and for every person
the body glowing inside the clothes
    like a light.

by: Mary Oliver 

 Shot taken in Tucson on one of our best days.

Busy Wednesday with Elliot

Wednesdays are good.

Both boys go to school.

I get to play on my own for a few hours.

Wednesdays, lately, its coffee with cristin which has progressed to;

Meghan and Elliot taking in gymnastics after preschool.

 Needed to document this:  Elliot takes his time in life, very evident in gymnastics! 

Note: the bottle neck he creates!

After gymnastics was a little down time at our friends house while waiting for our eldest kids to finish school!

Thrift store finds this afternoon sent Elliot and I home with the 2 classics!!!

Battle Ship {for isaac} and Lite Bright {for elliot}

We obviously don't wear them out enough during the day, because its 8:30 already, Mel and i are blogging on her side of the house while our husbands watch the hockey game in our livingroom, and the kids? 

Well, they are having a 'sleepover' under the blankets on Isaacs bed....giggling away with the Lite Brite shining in the corner. 

We love to cuddle up.....

....and watch movies together!

Tonight after supper (slowly baked bbq ribs..yum), the kids were given the option: shall we all go to Tim Hortons for ice cream?  Or do you want to stay home and watch a movie?  Funny enough, to me anyways, they chose a movie!!

Jon and Chris left a few minutes ago, each with a cooler in hand to bring back ice cream for their respective wives......mel is unfortunatly coping with a very sore back, i hope she will come over later, but the boys and I are cuddled up together, happily eating popcorn and watching this:

Afternoon with Kim….

  Beautiful Kim and I spent the afternoon together talking blogs and cameras……you can see my nice, new background, but we still need to perfect my header!  I love this girl….and feel as though i have known her forever.  Here she is with Elliot on an afternoon where she took us for a nice stroller-unfriendly walk…..it was before she had a baby and had to factor in things like mud and trail width!! ;-)  But it was a memorable day!

She is gorgeous but hates to have her picture taken!

From the Archives.....

It is Sunday....

The day started off with a bit of a sleep in.....

Up and out the door by 9, heading to Tim Hortons and then to Warmland....

Old friends from qwanoes came to visit this afternoon; here are a few shots of our time together. 

 Mud Pit play......a highlight for most kids!

 Big Brother with little bear.....

 Nice for a walk in the forest......

 My beautiful little bear....just going to say again how much i LOVE this stage with him!

 2 of my favorites....

 Our guests worked up a sweat playing x-box while i got dinner ready:

Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie!!

The boys are being read to and our day is coming to an end.....it was a nice day spent with some pretty nice people.

New Challenge - The BBC Book List

{UPDATE}: It is currently the 3rd week of febuary and i haven't gotten through Jane Eyre....i am SO bored!!!  Yet, nic lent me "water for elephants" a few days ago and I finished it today....i want to read things that interest me.....I struggled with Jane Eyre, so i am going to put it down and move on....I don't think I will continue this list as hard core as i initially thought.  I love to read, i just hate to do anything under duress.

The BBC thinks that the average person has read 6 out of these 100 books.  As i looked through the list, i remembered reading many of them, most of them i had to read for school.  But just because I could read at a higher level as a kid, doesn't mean that I could have a conversation about them with you!!  Nor does it mean that I had the experience to understand the stories in full...which leads me here, to this challenge.
There are a few of us who have agreed to work through this list. 

Here is the deal, Mel chooses my book and I choose hers.  She chose 'Jane Eyre' as my first read, I chose 'Life of Pi' for hers...my sister thinks I got a bum deal.....we shall see!

Documenting Saturday....

Tanya came over this morning with Spencer.  Its always interesting when she comes to play.  Today, she learned how to change her tire on the way to the lake.....when she arrived, we played x-box, DS, ate french toast, and played in the mud at the BMX track with the boys.  The woman makes me laugh....

Around 2, the boys and i needed to head to town for playdate #2 with Cristin and her girls.  This wonderful woman gave my kids a certificate at Christmas that was good for 1 afternoon of bowling!  So, i dropped the boys off with her and went to the chiropractors....i hope they had a good time, you never know when you aren't there to observe!  But i thought it was great.....

After bowling, we came home and i was exhausted.

We fed the kids eggs and toast, turned the lights down and watched X-Men together....

Put the kids to bed.....went next door to hang with our friends.

Spent the rest of the night on the couch with Mel...each with our laptops on our laps.  I finished the last blog, then i skyped Mel, then we made lists of what our OWN group would do if we made a group {since i wasn't accepted to a cool new group that my friend Kim gets to be part of!}...but its ok Kim, i will make my own fun!

It was nice having Ryan, Court, Maelle and Arleigh up here too.....everyone is so low key...i love a full house.

Documenting friday.....

Not many pictures to 'document' the happenings around here; but just so i remember that my life isn't as boring as i often think it is, here is a summary of the last few days 'round here!

Friday:
Isaac has a piano lesson with Malea at 8am! Gave her a yellow pashmena for her birthday and a chai latte while she taught my son.  Here is his first 'duet':

After piano, it was school drop off, preschool drop off, farmers market, conference call with 2 chalet owners to discuss ending my contract with them as they are going a direction where each chalet will be taking care of their own place {insert sigh of relief}, after conference call, it was time for Jazzercise with Sabrina.

I love jazzercise, it makes me happy, makes me sweat and sometimes, i am a total rockstar!  {other times, i am a total dork, but i don't care..yay for the 30's!!}

After jazzercise, i pick up Elliot, we drive to dairy queen and pick up a Skor treatza pizza and bring it to elizabeths for dessert.  Nice lunch with the 'in crowd'....{she and i both wish we were in the in-crowd and decided that if the crowd is her and i, we are officially 'in'...its comforting in a way...a round-about way.}

After lunch and a latte and 1/2 the ice cream pizza each {ok, i had a little more..i am an animal}, elliot and I go pick up Isaac and Mirium...back up to grandma's to drop the boys off for the evening.

Drive home, drop off Mirium, home, nap, dress, head back out to town with hubby for dinner with friends at Nha Trang.

Dinner was wonderful...with people i love...we laughed alot, ate great food {yo dynamite rolls!} and 3 hours flew by....sigh...had to get the boys.

It was a good, busy day....everyone is happy, healthy...what more is there??