Catching up

Yep - I've fallen behind on the blog yet again. Some would say it's because I have four kids, but I know the real truth: I've just gotten lazy. So, here we go, a quick recap of what's been going on:

1) Happy 10th Anniversary to Chris & I
On May 15th, 1999 Chris and I tied the knot. Ten years and four kids later, we're still just as happy together as we were on that fateful day. I am so unbelievably lucky to have found a man like Chris, and am so thankful to be spending my life with him. As a joint mother's day / 10th anniversary gift, Chris gave me this:

WOW! That's pretty much all I could say! For my part, I too gave something shiny and somewhat sparkly:

It doesn't have the same 'bling' factor, but it's still pretty nice!!

2) Soccer season starts!!
Both Quinn and Aidan started soccer last week. I'm coaching Quinn's team (nothing like trying to corral twelve 4 and 5 year olds and teach them soccer!) and Chris is coaching Aidan's team. Both boys LOVE playing soccer so they were absolutely thrilled that soccer season finally started.

3) Long weekend goings on
This past weekend was the Victoria Day holiday for us. Although the weather was cool, we managed to get sun for all of Sunday and Monday which meant we were outside the entire time. The boys even went swimming in the pool (I took on the role of lifeguard, as there was no way in he!! I was going in!), and had a great time. Aidan did a perfect dive off the diving board, and followed the perfect dive up with a perfect belly flop. Poor guy - he took it like a big boy though and just swam to the side of the pool, got out, and played in the kiddie pool for the next hour!! ;-)

That's it for now - more updates to come!

Battle of the cuties - part two

Round two:

In this corner we have Ms. Marin. I managed to capture her smiling and cooing away - pretty darn adorable!!!


So..... who's the winner? I don't know that I can make a choice!!

Battle of the cuties - part one

OK folks, we have a battle on our hands! Which one of my girls is the cutest? (an impossible choice - I know!)

In this corner we have the eldest daughter:
Shannon LOVES to sing when she's in the car. As soon as the car is moving she starts singing along. Unfortunately, she clams up as soon as the video camera is on her. BUT, I managed to sneak some video of the little monkey on Sunday. Here she is in all her glory:


To come: a video of our other contender - Ms. Marin!!!

Mother's Day 2009

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

Our Mother's Day was really nice. I woke up to breakfast in bed, courtesy of Chris and the kids (apparently Aidan insisted they make breakfast in bed for me!), then we went to brunch with the James family, and we finished up the day with a trip to Costco (every Mother's dream!!!!).

Here are some pictures of the day:

Aidan smelling a flower the restaurant gave me:


Shannon smelling the flower:


I absolutely LOVE this picture of Aidan & Chris:


The three 'big' kids and me:


Brigitte (aka Omi) and the kids:

A bit of nostalgia

About a month ago my Mom gave me my old, old, old Strawberry Shortcake music / jewelry box. It was chock full of some of my old jewelry (it even had my very first Swatch watch!), concert tickets (who can remember that I went to a Foreigner concert in 1993?!?), and old barrettes and other things.

The boys and Shannon and I went through the box the other night. We spent close to 45 minutes pulling out the old coins, old bead necklaces, and putting the barrettes in every ones hair (both boys had at least two barrettes each!!). It was so much fun to see the kids discovering some of my 'treasures' from the past, and it was even nicer to see that these old treasures can still bring so much joy to everyone. In fact, when we told the kids it was time for bed they all moaned and groaned about having to part with "Mommy's stuff". The next morning one of the first things they did was pull out the "Treasure chest" (as we have now re-named it) and put all the jewelry and barrettes back on.

Ms. Shannon loved dressing up (she took great pains to show off her bracelets), but even better than that she discovered a love of the little ballerina who twirls around to the music. She points towards the box and begs to have it on when we put her to bed.

A bit of history goes a long way....

A recipe for fun

Two weekends ago Heidi, Robert and little Robert drove up for a visit. I hosted a make-your-own pizza night and had the whole James clan over. It was a beautiful evening, but it was HOT! The kids were playing outside and they came running over with rosy, rosy cheeks saying: "Auntie Tara, we're soooooooooo HOT!"

We hadn't turned our outside water on yet, and we hadn't even connected the hoses. Soooo.... I ran inside and filled up about 20 water balloons (which took about half an hour to do!). 20 seconds later the balloons were gone - what a surprise! The kids were still roasting hot, so I had to think quickly. I went inside, filled up a big bowl of water and grabbed a bunch of face-cloths. Soon the kids were busy running around having a 'face-cloth' fight, and they had an absolute blast! In fact, they were busy throwing the face-cloths at each other for over an hour! It just goes to show you that you don't need fancy toys, just a bowl and some face-cloths for some cooling-down fun.

Here are some pictures: