For Today....

FOR TODAY - July 10, 2014
 
Outside my window...it is a beautiful spring / summer day with a few clouds lazily making their way across the sky.
 
I am thinking...about the massive exterior reno currently going on with our house.  There will be no pictures until the whole job is done so it could be a while.  Let me just tease you with this: so far it looks fan-freakin'-tastic!!
 
I am thankful...that we have absolutely nothing on tonight so we can just chill with the kids, maybe have a family swim at the pool, or just do whatever the heck they want to do.
 
In the kitchen...is not much at all, probably some remnant of breakfast?
 
I am wearing...white capri pants, a burnt orange cowl neck shirt and wedge sandals. It's a work day so I spruced it up a bit. 
 
I am going...to to the bank to deposit the over $300 + in rolled change that Chris has collected. 
 
I am wondering...how the rest of the summer is shaping up, and how is it possible that the summer just seems to slip by in record time.
 
I am reading...nothing.  Currently in between books until something catches my eye.
 
I am hoping...ffor more non-event nights - that's what summer is about!
   
I am looking forward to...bed. 
 
I am learning...to be more patient with the children. I'm having lots of practice so I must be learning, right?
 
Around the house...is dust and chaos.  But it's all coming together... (picture me rubbing rubbing my hands together and chortling with glee!)
 
I am pondering...how I'm going to survive a week without the biggest boy when he heads off to Tennessee with a friend and his family.
 
A favourite quote for today..."a goal is a dream with a deadline"
 
One of my favorite things...watching Quinn and Shannon swim.  This past week and a half has been a blur of swim team and swimming lessons, and I'm just loving watch how much stronger they are getting in the pool, and how much their strokes are improving.
 
A few plans for the rest of the week: we have a remarkably un-busy rest of the week.  We'll find something to keep us occupied!


A peek inside my day: (this was from last week, but I still love it!)

Racing Away Father's Day

Not even going to talk about how long it's been since I blogged.  Nope.  Not gonna go there....

So Father's Day came and went, and what a great day it was.  We have a tradition where we take part in the Boys Home run - either by running, walking or biking.  This year Chris really wanted to do the 10km Father / Son race with Aidan.  So off they ran:

THAT guy is ready to run!

Getting ready...

Aidan finished so quickly I didn't get a shot of him crossing the finish line - bad mom!

Managed to get Chris though!  (good wife!)

Aidan getting his prize for fastest U13 male

After the race, pancakes and sausages, we came home and relaxed.  Brigitte and Mac came over with Adam and Emma for a BBQ, and it was a great evening.

Mac with 6 of the 7 grand-kids.

I have to say, even though I LOVED Chris' "This guy is the world's greatest Dad" t-shirt, I think my favourite gift was  the "Me and My Dad" forms the kids filled out.  Their answers to the questions were priceless!

Aidan's

Marin

Shannon

Quinn.

Now Quinn's was quite comical, because if you notice on his last answer, he says: "because he is the BEAST!!!" Now the story behind this is funny.  For Mother's Day, Quinn made me this big card where he repeated "Mom is the best" over and over again.  However, at the very end he misspelled "best" and wrote it as "BEAST" in big, capital letters.  Ever since then it's been a running joke in the family to say to someone: "You're the BEAST!!"

And you know what?  Chris is the BEAST!

15 years.....

Last Thursday Chris and I celebrated our 15 year wedding anniversary.  That's right.  FIFTEEN years!!
I highlight fifteen not because I'm surprised we lasted this long, but because I can't believe 15 years have gone by since we said our "I do's"

This was us, all young and innocent, ready to take on the world 15 years ago:

And here we are 15 years later.  A little wiser, 4 kids later, and a whole lot older:


I couldn't imagine spending the last 15 years without Chris, and I can't wait to see what the next 15 bring.

Magnificent Mother's Day

Mother's Day was on Sunday and it was really quite awesome.  It started off with me having to eat my words.

Let me explain.

All week I had been saying to people: "the weather on Mother's Day is always cold and miserable.  I always have these grand visions of spending the day outside with the kids, only to be stuck inside all day because it's cold and miserable."

Well, here is me, eating my words.

The weather on Mother's day was pretty much spectacular.  Sunny and warm and perfect.

We spent the morning cleaning up the back yard, and pulling out the patio furniture.

Then, per the kids request, we headed down to the beach.  Now here's where we had to put our feet down.  They wanted to put their bathing suits on.  We refused.  They whined and complained, and we explained that the temperature of the lake was somewhere slightly above frigid.  They pouted for a bit but then agreed. 

Aidan however, was not quite as accommodating.  "But I want to paddle in the kayak!" he protested.  Again, we explained the nature of things when one is coming out of an extremely cold, frozen winter and the effect of ice on lake temperature. 

"But I'll be IN the kayak!"  he continued to argue.

"What happens if you fall OUT of the kayak?" We responded.

This went on for a little bit before he finally agreed NOT to bring the kayak with us.

And as per usual, when we go to the beach, the kids have a blast:


It was awesome just to sit there and soak up the sun, and the warmth, and the awesomeness of the day.  The kids could have stayed there all day.

But we brought them home so we could have some lunch and hang out before we headed out for dinner. 

For dinner we took the ferry across to the US - which the kids (minus Marin who passed out in her car seat) thought was pretty awesome.  We met up with some friends, and all 17 of us sat down for a fairly loud and raucous meal.  The kids (for the most part) entertained themselves, while the grown ups chatted.

But of course everything can't be perfect.  I had just pulled my phone out to take a picture of the kids playing on the patio (the big kids were entertaining the little girls) when Marin wiped out.  Talk about perfect timing!!

Marin down!!

After dinner we went next door to the Candy Shoppe, where the kids went nuts over the huge assortment of candy.  They each got to pick one thing, and their choices were rather, ahem, interesting.

a 27 inch gummy 'snake'

some type of monstrous Laffy taffy

But we did manage to take a fairly good picture of me with the kids (something that never happens)

 

And that pretty much wrapped up our Mother's Day.

Sometimes, It's Just Right

As I dropped the kids off at school today, I was struck by a feeling of 'right'.  It's hard to describe.  The morning routine was just that, routine.  No chaos.  No shouting.  No frantic last minute dashes to get things done, or throw things together.

Aidan was working on a project that's due May 22.  Yep.  That would be something that is due in two weeks, yet he's been diligently working on it every morning before school because he knows that he has zero time on the weekends to work on it.

Quinn went downstairs and practiced his piano.  Without. Complaint.  This is momentous because A) he didn't complain, and B) piano lessons ended last week.  We told the kids we'd still like them to practice at least twice a week over the summer, and apparently Quinn's on board with that.

The girls got themselves ready, and then played in the bathroom while I got dressed and did my make up.  (they like to keep me company in the mornings - privacy is at a minimum).

And then we got in the car and left for school - with zero fuss.

It was just..... right.

Now life in our house is rarely all sunshine and lolipops (did I mention the discussion I had with Shannon and Quinn yesterday about how one simply does NOT rip the heads off of Barbie dolls?), but when it is....

      ..... it's just RIGHT.

What Have We Gotten Ourselves Into?

Thus far, both boys have played travel hockey.  Last year was the first year for Quinn, so it was our first year with two boys in travel hockey.  We managed pretty well, and kept our sanity throughout the entire season. 

Aidan decided that this year he wanted to try out for AAA hockey - which is the highest level of hockey you can play.  After a very stressful and grueling tryout period he made the team.  There's One.

Quinn starts his tryouts next week.  There's Two.

Now it's the girls' turn.  Unfortunately, where we live there is no Girls House League for hockey.  This means that they either play travel hockey, or they play boys house league.  Shannon has made it very clear that she has zero interest in playing hockey with boys.  So, we decided to have her try out for the girls travel team.  Because being pulled in 4 different directions would be crazy, we also decided to throw Marin out there, even though she is under-age.

This is Marin before their final tryout, which was an exhibition game with refs and everything.  Look how big her eyes are!!


Well holy Hell.  They both made the team.  Stunned is probably the best way to describe it.  That's Three and Four.

So yes, we will most likely have all FOUR kids playing travel hockey this year.  Now some would say we are crazy (frankly, I'm not entirely sure I disagree with them), but we feel that all of our kids deserve the same opportunities.  That's what put us in this boat.  Yes we could say 'no' and keep them in house league.  But at the same time, this is what they want.  So we're giving it a year.  If by this time next year we have lost our minds, we absolutely will drop the hammer and ki-bash the whole situation.

Until then, we're saving our nickles, dimes and whatever pennies we can find.  But for now we're just getting ready to buckle up and enjoy the ride!

Hopping Along

We had a fabulous Easter weekend, end of story.

In a nutshell:  I didn't cook.  At All.  All. Weekend. Long.

We had friends over Friday and ordered Pizza.  Saturday we had our second annual Ind-Easter celebration where we had friends over, and ordered in gluttonous amounts of fabulous Indian food.  Sunday we just hung out, but there was so much food leftover we had pizza for lunch and Indian for dinner.  Monday we went to Karen's for Turkey dinner.  How perfectly did that work out?!?!

The weather was even kind enough to cooperate! Friday was cool and drizzly to start out, but by 4:00 it was cool and sunny.  Saturday got even better, and by Sunday we were in full sun and +20 degree weather.  The kids were running around in shorts, blowing bubbles, playing tennis - it was Fab.U. LOUS!!

All in all it was a great, relaxing weekend, and we even managed to get a family picture in: