must be Santa

the kids {including Kristian and i} went to the first work Christmas party for kids on the weekend. a first for all of us!

they had everything important. toys. crafts. cookie decorating. colouring books and crayons. food.

the highlight was SANTA!

(who also happens to be one of Kristians' bosses' at work...hmmmm)




Aidan was most serious about the meeting with the big guy. he HAD to write a letter and bring it to the party.



apparently there were other times that did not get written on his lengthy list, so he had to whisper these items into Santa's ear as well. we are doing our best to raise greedy and demanding children. i guess we can take a break, because we have apparently already succeeded!




Kiara has always liked Santa. i think Santa liked getting her cuddles!

{the funny thing is that both of the kids just saw Santa - aka Dennis - a few weeks ago. they were very shy. but not this day. very interesting what a red suit and white beard can do.}

 


Kiara was totally thrilled with the Santa visit. although both of the kids happily received their presents, Kiara was the most in awe. she had just spent over an hour doing activities that she loves....in the order that was her choice. then seeing Santa and getting a gift put her into a state of total happiness! she kept hugging Kristian and i and repeating 'thank you'.
we told her that Mrs. Claus would probably like a thank you as well. Mrs. Claus was the brains and muscle behind the party. they had stopped doing the kids' parties for awhile, and she wanted to revive the old tradition. she most certainly deserved our thanks!


December ONE is just around the corner. a short sleep away. Aidan has been asking "when" this day would come for the last month. Advent calendars have been our lifesaver. we have always done one with the kids. this year we will do three of them. for real. the kids will each have their own playmobile one this year. a trial. the third calendar will be filled with activities for us to do.


help yourself to a copy here. i changed it slightly from last year.

the kids and i really enjoyed focusing on one activity a day...and it kept me from getting overwhelmed by what we hadn't done! some of the activities we had to combine and some were done after the actual Christmas day. a bad flu bug was the main cause of the disruption. i am keeping an optimistic attitude that we will be much healthier this year!! the warmer weather this fall has already brought its' share of bugs and i don't think i can stay sane if we remain sick until March (like last year).

we will be healthy. we will be healthy. we will be healthy.....

this week must have had 14 days!

talk about busy! rather funny since it looked like a quiet week when i looked at my calendar. the days got filled up one by one.

Monday, as i mentioned was a totally fun and amazing day for me. sadly Kristian was sent out of town for a few days.

Tuesday, was also great. i rode on the high that i experienced the day before. but it did have a little personal bump with Kiara and her playschool. {which later had some terrific stuff happen, but i didn't see that positive until a few days later}

Wednesday, we had a visit to the Stollery to help Kelley drop of the money!!






a little tough to get a "good" photo of 4 kids in a busy lobby. haha. regardless, i love the charm in this photo.



it was a "BIG" cheque!

Kristian came back in town in time for me to head out to a long awaited massage. yay for the mom!!

Thursday had me wake up with a bad sore throat that i felt coming on the night before. i had several things planned for the day, and didn't need this. however it seemed to improve after i had some breakfast and coffee so i figured it was the start of another cold. blech!

first on my agenda was to work out the playschool issues. that went well. it is tough to bring up tough or sensitive subjects, but it often has a positive difference in the end. thankfully this followed that model. phew!

then, off to get more supplies with my friend Gloria for another card project. fun times! that first big snow fell last week and has apparently gotten a lot of people motivated to make Christmas cards....some of the papers i wanted were already sold out!

Kiara had a birthday party to attend, so off we went shopping. there are a few toy stores nearby that sell quality toys and also have displays set up that the kids enjoy. i also snuck around the store with each of the kids and they bought a Christmas present for each other. the plan was to wrap them that afternoon, but this momma needed to attempt a nap instead. we had gone next door and bought a few groceries for an easy lunch.


the kids picked out a package of sushi (one of their favourites....yay for these parents!!) like most kids they also spotted a little sample table. cheese on a toothpick is always a hit. and it was. so was this tasty little snack. so tasty that we bough the ingredients we needed so that we could make it at home!!

1. slice a baguette
2. top with a thin slice of apple (we had pears at home, and that tasted great too!)
3. add a slice of creamy havarti cheese
4. slip under the broiler for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted
5. drizzle honey over the melted cheese

YUM!!!

a new favourite snack. added bonus is that it is also healthy!! only a tiny bit of cheese and honey...so it's good, right?!
that pesky sore throat was still bugging me. i was also getting very tired. we had a movie in the afternoon and i tried to sleep. usually it works. this time Aidan kept poking me to wake up. obviously moms are not allowed to sleep during a movie. he had his student-led conference that day too, so off we went since i couldn't sleep anyway. i had hoped to wait until Kristian came home, but work went longer than they expected.



Aidan had been telling me little bit of information during the week of the preparation they were doing for this conference. having been there as a teacher, and knowing how excited the kids were to share....i also knew the amount of time spent prepping the kids for their leading.

my only regret was not having arranged care for Kiara. however, i hadn't known that it would just be me until that afternoon. Kiara fell asleep in the car on the drive to school and slept during the entire time. on the hard carpeted floor. with all the lights and loud noises. i knew she would be up later that evening, but it did give me time to spend one on one with Aidan.
he did an amazing job! he also has a great class to be a part of. i love the enthusiasm that comes with this age!! right now the theme is space, which is his most favourite topic of all.

Friday, Kiara attended her party. and i still had that crazy sore throat!! i get rather spaced out when i am quite sick, so realized that morning that it was definitely more than just a typical cold. off to the doctor i went. after the party and errands. at least it kept me busy and not pouting over being ill. now i'm on meds and feeling MUCH more like myself. thank goodness for modern medicine!!

funny to start the week out feeling so awesome, and ending the week feeling so yucky! now the kids have both parents at home, and a semi-relaxed weekend schedule. i realized that Advent starts this Sunday. i am still in shock that December starts this week. November flew by in a wink! wow!!

good stuff

a few weeks ago i took over the kitchen table. for an entire day we did not eat at it. instead we had picnics in front of the fireplace. fortuntately it is not an everyday occurence, so no one complained. not that they dared!! haha



because i was creating this.....



i was selected to feature a project on the Making Memories blog today!!!
it was the biggest scrapbooking honor i've had up until now. it was like bringing home the gold medal at the olympics for me. huge! exciting! one of my dreams come true!!!!



i wrote up some brief instructions that also were posted at MM. however i took a few photos along the way and also wrote out some detailed instructions on my scrapbooking blog. go here if you want that info.


anyways...this is a major hilight for me right now. thanks to those that have encouraged me to be brave and step outside of my comfy little world. i'm not Becky Higgins or Donna Downey....but this is exciting for little ol' me!

sweet

this girl keeps me laughing. all. the time. even when she is stubborn and frustrating. you can't help but laugh when you think about her perspective. we were home together a few mornings this week. that girl talks more and more each day. she used to be so quiet! {except when she was screaming her lungs out in preschooler frustration}

operation christmas child

the boxes have been packed and are ready to be shipped!




a moment of healthy pride...


we made sure we had everything and it all fit. they each included one of their cards. Kiara drew a picture...and added stickers.




Aidan added a note.


then we drove to a local church and dropped them off. they were so happy to be able to put their boxes into one of the larger shipping boxes. AND see the large stack of boxes ready to go!

we may go back on Saturday because they have a special showing of a new VeggieTale Christmas movie.

i try to take every opportunity to encourage our kids to help others. i am thankful that OCC makes it so simple to be involved. it was fun doing the shopping this year, with the kids old enough to pick their own gifts for the boxes!

had to share

i was going through photos tonight and came across these....



for a few of his cards, Aidan set up an assembly line. these cards turned out very cute!


Kiara became master of the stamping! until i caught her using black ink....then adding some of my light pink...oops! she also really liked using the paper punch too. i can't wait to see what she starts putting together next year. the difference between her first cards and the last ones she made this year were incredible.


for one week i had 3 different projects going on and basically took over the kitchen table. it would normally be large enough for all of us, but these weren't my personal projects. there was no way i wanted to take a chance of an accident happening!! however Aidan was in the mood to do his own projects, so he found space on the floor. i love how he spread out all of his supplies like this. once in awhile, Kiara joined him too.

really, i think they prefered the floor...but that had to end when my projects were done. and i also had to ban stamping while working on the floor. we had some close calls!


the happy part of the day was the afternoon. everyone was feeling healthy. {that's a happy moment right there!} the weather was super nice. {also a happy moment in itself!} put all that together, and we had two very happy children playing happily outside. add in one happy mother who also got to get some fresh air. yup. happiness all around today!



my goal has been to de-clutter. i started with some furniture we weren't really needing anymore. furniture Kristian had been begging me to destroy! so i started my relationship with Kijiji and sold it. nothing like trial by fire. i think i priced it just a tad too low....the interest in our junk was absolutely crazy. {and so were some of the people interested in the stuff....if you what i mean} however no Lego will be sacrificed in the de-clutter. all will be saved! much to the relief of everyone. the same goes for my scrapbooking supplies. we want to maintain the happy mood...heehee

help kids in need this Christmas

love this!





read more about OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD.

any box that would fit a pair of shoes will do. my kids enjoy doing this already. they get so blessed {aka spoiled} the rest of the year, it is great to return that blessing to others who are in need. they get to be little elves!!

Celebrating Kids Helping Kids

we are sooooo PROUD of our kids!!

Aidan and Kiara have a good friend, Kelley, who had a fabulous idea 3 years ago. she wanted to sell her art to help make money that she could donate to the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation. with some help organizing the event, she got busy and dirty making as much art as she could. they hosted the sale in their living room. she raised about $1500 that year. on her own. last year, she did it again. but bigger. she asked several friends to help create art too. then she added a special tea. together they raised just over $3000. this year, they did it again! more friends created art. this time the focus was on the art and even included an area where guests could create art of their own.





Dr. Patch Up, the official Stollery Bear was also in attendance. he took the time to pose with the amazing artisits.


and he even brought them a treat!


Kelley is a lively girl. one of her greatest strengths (aside from her art) is her heart. it is big and humble. she is grateful to have the support of her friends. she also spent some time before the sale started to look at each table and commented on cards or pictures she liked.


you can see here that Kelley was more interested in what her friends were doing, than in the tv camera behind her. love that!!!!!


CTV news captured some footage of a few artists hard at work.

she also added a table to celebrate a special life. Mathew was a frequent patient at the Stollery Children's Hospital, but sadly died two years ago. since then, butterflies have been a way that reminds his mom and dad about the good things he brought to everyone. we noticed that we actually have had a lot of butterflies, so we devoted a table just for them! Kelley named it "The Butterfly Kiss Gallery".



this is his mom who was just getting ready for her interview. none of us had met Mathew. but we are so grateful for his life and his example.


i did take photos of the tables. there were some amazing cards and art. amazing.
here is the art on my kids' table.


we were fortunate to have some scrapbook supplies donated by Treasured Memories. they made about 100 cards with the supplies i bought them. with the help from the store, they made almoste another 100. i should add that 100% of the proceeds go to the Stollery Children's Hospital Foundation. the supplies we purchase for the art, or the display is part of the donation from our families. we also are grateful for a few other small companies who helped donate supplies or display items. perhaps you know of a company who would like to get involved next year?


Aidan grows more creative each year. here are a few of my favourites he made. seriously sooo hard to not keep them all myself!


he took photos on our holiday this summer. on his own. we narrowed down the best to 52 photos in total. so we definitely have 3 photographers in our family.


Kiara worked so hard! she surprised me last year. this year, there was more thought put into each design. my favourite was one that had about 20 butterflies glued on individually.

each year, we have more kids involved. we want more kids to join us! do you know of some kids who would love the opportunity next year?

thanks for reading and sharing in our excitement. i think i will post some photos of a few cards remaining. if you would like to donate, send me an e-mail or leave a comment here. we'd be happy to mail out cards as well. the kids made Christmas cards and all occasion cards.

check back later this week for more details!

for fun

HAD to share this!

while i sipped my hot coffee (always nice when i can drink it while it is still hot!), i window shopped the interent world. looking at some desk potentials, bar stools, girls bedding, and any other fun stuff that grabbed my attention. i am now sad that there is no Pottery Barn stores nearby. {after looking at their website i was ready to make more coffee and drive three hours if i had to!!}

there is one website i recently learned about that shares tips on saving money for Canadians. these sites are rare! most money saving stuff is only for south of the border. i think i shared the link a few months ago.

so i stopped by this morning. check this out:

and a confession.....
one of our {as in the big handsome guy and me} FAVOURITE tv shows is the BIG BANG THEORY. it is a nerdy show, and i think that is why we love it so much. we can finally relate! last week they showed Sheldon making toast....and i had to pause the show while i pondered how he made the little cylon graphic appear on his toast. now i know!!!

finally the weekend

the kids had a late night on Friday. you would think the kids would have been tired. they had about 5 hours of solid play time beforehand. maybe we'll get lucky and they will fall asleep earlier tonight?
this morning we all had some relax time. only one of us was fully dressed by 10am. can you guess who that may be?



some silly time with daddy.


Aidan and daddy spent some time looking at the flyers while they enjoyed some "coffee".




Kiara posing in front of her new bed.



off to enjoy a semi-quiet Saturday...
-one afternoon birthday party for a friend of Aidans'
-one meeting with a landscape designer
-most likely a few hours of the kids making cards (they got a bucket load of new supplies donated to their cause!!)


i am really looking forward to this week too. the day off smack in the middle will be awesome!!! we also have a few appointments this week. one is with the pediatrician for the kids' annual check up. one is for me to drop off stuff at the consignment store. (sooo happy to diminish that pile of outgrown toys and clothes and baby stuff). one evening of teaching cards to a large group of ladies. a few scrapbook project deadlines (an awesome excuse to HAVE TO scrapbook!!).

card making blitz

last year the kids were involved in a fundraiser that involved lots of their creativity.
you may remember me sharing this story last year at this time.

again we are participating and the kids are sooooo excited!!

i love the free spirit the kids take to this project. it is totally theirs. i am learning to embrace their creativity and enjoy praising their creativity.

one afternoon it was just Kiara and i, so i thought she might enjoy some stamping. we did some experimenting and she loved embossing with my heat gun.



her favourite of all time is the glitter glue. i am amazed there is even any of it left!




the smile of pride in her work is wonderful, isn't it?

notice the dirty arms? yup, she gets really involved. at todays count, they have made 42 cards. Kiara has made the most, while Aidan is being super careful with his and taking his time to get them just right. i am impressed with this choice of his and totally amazed at how awesome they are looking.

i'll share more photos of their projects as the month goes on. thirteen days from now they will be using them to raise money for the Stollery Children's Hospital. yay!! there are some amazing things happening with this event too. can't wait to share them with you.

happy halloween

halloween day was a MEMORABLE day!

i didn't get a chance to sleep in. Kiara woke me up at 7am when she had a bad dream. those kinds of a start to the day are never good. we had decided the night before that we needed to make a good effort to getting our H1N1 flu shots. the clinics opend at 9am. after Kiara woke me up, i figured i may as well get dressed and get out the door. by the time i drove through the Starbucks drive through and bought my venti non-fat latte and oatmeal, it was 7:30. and the line up was longer than i could have guessed. fortunately there were several nice people nearby to wait with. honestly, it is amazing how much you learn about a stranger in those kinds of situations.

an hour later, the line-up had doubled. it completely disrupted service at the local gas station. almost everyone had picked up a coffee. Tim Hortons, Second Cup and Starbucks cups overflowed the garbage cans. i guess the pandemic and local immunization clinic has been profitable for some businesses. by the time we reached the doors at 9:30 the local bank set up some tables for donated coffee from Starbucks.

the scene inside the clinic is one i doubtfully will forget. it seriously seemed so outdated from the kind of environment we have grown accustomed to. a lineup that snaked around one corner of the room. a view of every single immunization station. adults who hate needles, laying down as they recover from their shot. children screaming in terror and crying after the poke.

by 11am i had called my husband to come with the kids and join me in the final line. altogether they had to wait for 45 minutes. the kids were stressed by the environment and also filled with some nervous anticipation. that last 45 minutes felt the longest!

but we managed to be healthy on the same day and get the shot over with. i was very proud of my kids and their bravery. after the shot was over, our nurse gave them some licorice and that brought their smiles back. as promised we stopped in at the bakery below for another well deserved treat.

by mid-afternoon all of our arms were tender and we felt tired. Kiara announced that she was not going to be getting another needle. she knows that there are plans to go back in three weeks for a booster shot. i may need to promise a pony for that one!

then we had to make it through the rituals of Halloween night! for the kids the last 2 hours before trick-or-treating felt like days!





Kristian made a special meal for the kids.

the three of them joined up with another neighbor and they treated around the neighborhood together for about an hour.

i stayed home, wore my witchs' hat and passed out candies. there are some really cute little kids in this community that had the best costumes. it was a pretty relaxed hour for me. i even managed to clean up the kitchen and sweep the floor in between trick-or-treaters! the irony of wearing a witch hat and using a broom on halloween night gave me a private laugh during that time. some things you just can't plan!





in all the rushing before they left to go treating, i forgot to take photos with some daylight. so here is the post-walking photo. Aidan told me later that they saw lots of Transformers and Princesses out that night. Star Wars was a popular costume plan.

they did have their lighter winter coats squished under their costumes. and mittens kept their hands from forming icicles. fortunately they are quite lean, so after all the stuffing they actually looked like average weight children!

by the time photos were done, they were anxious to take off their costumes. they both had glitter in their hair, so we hustled them off to warm baths. it probably felt good after been out in the chilly evening. then the evening drama really began. Kiara started coughing and Aidan was loudly complaining of his stomach hurting. i had mentioned earlier that both myself and Kiara had a strange flu with fever, chills and nausea. i guess it was now his turn. except we also now had the H1N1 vaccine to complicate things! for sanity, we treated Aidan's grumbles with gravol and ibuprofen. daddy hung out in his room while he listened to the tales of winnie the pooh, and eventually he fell asleep. he slept very well, probably the drugs and drama of the day contributing to that. Kiara kept coughing and also ran another fever. these days, those symptoms tend to spark fear in mothers. she got some decongestant and Tylenol. however, she woke me up nearly every 2 hours. once was for asking me to cover up her teddy bear.

this morning, both kids woke up rather happy and hungry. however we've had ups and downs with their health. Aidan definitely has the flu that took me down. Kiara, it is hard to know. she is pretty content and just keeping a low profile. the TV has been working as a great distraction. normally they average 30 minutes a day, so this is quite out of the ordinary. i know they are not feeling well because neither of them has any interest in looking through their treasures of candy from last night.

i'm dealing with it all rather well. i am glad the initial immunization is done. i know they won't be fully immunized until they get their booster in 21 days. however they will soon have 87% immunity and their bodies are already at work making antibodies. it's hard to know what Kiara has, but she seems to be doing well at fighting it. looks like we'll have another quiet day at home tomorrow. after this weekend, i think we all deserve a relaxing day!

last winter we seriously had 4 months of illness. we did have a few days' break in between.....but it went on forever! none of us are wanting to repeat that. so far, we are not off to a great start.

other things are keeping us smiling and encouraged. we'll keep our focus on that.