thinking

it is that time of year for the annual family photo.

i should share the funny photos i took of our next door neighbours. for now i am taking it as a compliment that they asked me to take a "bad photo" of them for their Christmas card. they wanted to do it old style 80's. considering only one of them was alive to see the 80's....they didn't do too badly! i added a laser background to one of the photos. then i could not resist. i had to add the garden gnomes peaking over their shoulders.

remember this post about some traveling gnomes?

it is always good to have comedy relief now and then.

on to our photo....




what do you think? i decided to add a texture i found.

i would have loved to have either a more plain or more interesting background (Christmas tree). outside was not an option. not with a timer.

now just to get busy on the cards.


i have to take a snack to our bible study group tomorrow. i decided to make banana chocolate chip muffins. i make them all the time. they are not difficult. tonight i forget to add the eggs until i reached the dry ingredient stage. even with Kris running out to get some eggs, i still forgot. i tried one and it didn't taste too badly, but they look very golden. my guess is that the eggs help the sugar dissolve. i think it is the sugar that changed the appearance. the good thing is that there will not be a huge sign by the container saying i was the baker! a little anonymity will be appreciated tomorrow!

i wish i could say it was the first time. a few months ago i made the most amazing steak recipe. Beef Tenderloin with Mustard-Cognac sauce. i forgot to add the mustard. thankfully the Cognac saved it!


it is one thing to be scatterbrained. but a whole new level when i behave that way in front of others. well. better to be beautiful than smart. ha! yeah, humility is not a strong feature as well. aren't you glad you know me?!!

what silly mistakes have you done? do share!

celebrating

i picked up some glittery embossing powder on Friday. Ancient Gold and Enchanted Gold. can't go wrong with names like that!

i was anxious to give them a try...




my little princess loves to get dirty. she  loves to stamp. i also discovered {after my yellow stamp pad now appears blue} that she loves to blend and mix colours. despite staining my light coloured pads...she did get some neat effects from this blended stamping.

note to self: buy a rubber roller for her to blend colours on.

there is something about heat embossing. the kids are drawn to it. watching the powders melt and become shiny and glittery. mesmerizing.



our annual Kids Helping Kids art and card sale was scheduled for Sunday. so was the Christmas party hosted by Kristian's company. this year i sent a flyer with Kris to work. the owner of the company suggested that the kids set up a table at the party.

great idea! i would never thought of asking that myself.

in discussion with my friend and collaborator {ha! at times} Gloria, we decided the kids should not split up our time or cards between the two sites. instead put out their display and cards at just the kids' party.

i was hoping the kids would raise at least $100 towards the whole fundraiser. it wasn't part of the advertising for the party. most of the people were parents with young kids. i did wonder about the interest it may generate among the kids and create some inspiration for what they can do for others. seriously i am always impressed with my kids' desire to help others, and have a good attitude about it. i think it will always be meaningful for them to look back and see that they used their talents to help people they did not know when they were only toddlers and preschoolers. if they can make a difference at that age...think of what is possible for them as a teenager...adult.

i am thankful for the Stollery. i am thankful for healthy children and pray that we don't have to know the greatness of the hospital firsthand. my kids don't have a great understanding that some kids just spend too many days fighting illness and disease and have to spend Christmas in the hospital.

the owner {of the company Kris works for}, his wife, and their boys know differently. they are thankful for the care and medical expertise. their son had to have a heart transplant at 6 months old. he is now a teenager and doing well. 

one of the kids joined the art sale after having lost his sister suddenly a few months ago. he was happy to help.

many thanks to one of my bosses', Pat for donating the biggest box of paper and scrapbooking goodies my kids had ever seen. we split it up among all the kids {much to Aidans' dismay....he did get first picks despite wanting the entire box to himself!}. much thanks as well to Urban Scrapbook for lending me some display stands too.

here is more info about Kelley and the fundraiser she began:

ctv news, Edmonton, 2009

Special Event Rentals (past sponsor)

this is our little display. it is our third year being part of the fundraiser. it definitely felt weird to not be with the others!

however it turned out great. you see, Santa also attended the party. never hurts to get a word in with the man in red!

well. my expectations were far surpassed. my kids raised $785 for the Stollery Children's Hospital. donated by parents of young children. and a few grandparents. my kids don't know the difference yet between $10 and $100. they were just happy that people liked their cards well enough to buy them. it was important for them to leave the party with fewer cards than they brought. they knew that one card would make a difference.

combined with the sale at Gloria's house, it looks like the kids raised nearly $2500 for the Stollery Children's Hospital.

well done kids!!


and our two darlings were able to have a chat with the man in the red suit....


Aidan wants a good Beyblade and for Santa to surprise him.
Kiara wants a pink nutcracker. (after seeing one at HomeSense last week.)

they crack me up!

i don't have a photo of Kiara with Santa. missed the chance when she ran up to hug him when he entered the room. missed it again when she budded in front of 40 children, sneaking between the elves to an empty lap. not even when she sat on his lap after Aidan to try and get another gift. she is quite the girl!

catching up

it has just been one of those seasons!

i remember laying in bed one morning a few years ago and thinking that soon enough my mornings would not be off to a slow start.

i'm not a morning person. it was a treat to not HAVE to get out of my pj's every day. sometimes it was nice to cuddle with my babies and read books in bed. or talk about teddy bears and dreams. or just lay in bed quietly while i could hear the kids rustle around. {i knew i was okay as long as i could hear them....it was when it was quiet i knew i was in trouble!}

after the kids had their breakfast and diapers changed i'd take care of myself. they would be fed, rested and happy. i had coffee and some breakfast, my laptop or magazine or television. and i could slowly come to life.

there were many days these past few months when i wished myself back to those days....

then i realized that those "quiet" mornings were really only an hour in length.

i had forgotten the toy clean-up duty. diaper duty. missed the toilet duties. not napping grumpies. or just plain ol' grumpies.

but if i could just turn back the clock to enjoy that one hour again....

i enjoyed having babies and toddlers more than i ever thought i would. here my kids are today with plans and thoughts all their own. no more short stubby legs. no more big diaper bums.

as much as i have fond memories of those days, i am thankful for where we are today. they are older. more independent. make me laugh. cry. scream. but i don't have to worry as much about leaving stuff laying around. {note i said 'as much'. yes.}

one activity i heard about last year was Rainbow Pancakes. as it happened it was shared on another mom's blog. a blog who happened to have a lot of readers. some with some very vocal opinions! she got a major backlash from some who could not believe she fed her kids food with food colouring. it was quite the event!

the day after Halloween, Aidan did not have school. once Kiara was home from preschool i suggested rainbow pancakes as a lunch idea. it came up after Aidan asked me if i would eat green eggs and ham. see? life gets interesting as they get older!




i can't remember how the blogger did it. {can't recall which one she was...sorry! but i did find her link on a post on NittyGritty Jody's blog}

for my method, i mixed the batter up first. then separated it into bowls.

added a few drops of food colouring to each one. you really only need a few drops. then stir.



you can see they got golden brown on the sides. but the colour is still apparent. we each got one pancake of each colour.



some syrup and chocolate milk kept us happy and flying high the rest of the day. not really. but we enjoyed them and made some great memories. Kiara was determined to eat ALL of hers. not sure where she found the space!


we also had a pleasant surprise that week.



yup.
first tooth is outa' there!
i do believe that it was the first tooth that grew in too. it took nearly as long to grow into place as it did to loosen enough to pop out. it popped out at the end of the school day. as he was walking to meet me. after i cried, i shook my head at the thought. we had just checked the tooth the night before and figured it still had a few days or weeks of life left!

today was another school holiday. a good day to remember the freedom that was fought for us.

the community school had a great presentation yesterday. the kids made wreaths as a class and hung them in the gymnasium. i have video but no photos. each child traced and cut out their handprint from green construction paper. then they made poppies and glued them on top. there were different variations of the wreaths. Aidan was thrilled to be able to read a poem with his classmates.

we had a somewhat quiet day. the kids spent several hours making cards for their upcoming fundraiser. can you believe it is their third year an a row doing this? Kiara surprised me that first year when she joined in. she needed a lot of assistance, but did very well. she loved glitter glue. ha!

after each card Aidan will come to me and ask, "do you think i need to stop here?" it's really funny. he has been saying a lot of funny things lately. last night he prayed that God would keep ALL his teddy bears on his bed, beside him, all night long. too too too cute! he said something else today, but it has slipped my mind already.

i am not sure if life is slowing down, or if i am getting used to the busy-ness. there is still a long list of 'to-do's. i've reached that point where i am ready to paint some walls and make some decisions on picture placement. considering it took us several years - without children - to take action on that in our last home....i guess we aren't doing too bad. painting that house would have been delayed too, i'm sure. but those cotton candy pink walls had us crazy the day we moved in!

for now i remind myself {when i can} that the walls and laundry and cleaning will ALWAYS be here. but this special age of my kids will not. some days are free enough to sweep up the dust bunnies. other days, we'll just have to ignore the hand streaks on the bathroom mirror. {among the list of many things you find in a lived-in home.} such is life.

BOO to you!

the changes that happen to Halloween as the kids grow older....


we were invited to a party with some of the kids' friends. all of us had some tired kids the next morning. {and we were tired too!}




they put out some very cool decorations.

i had a lot of fun taking photos of them!



this is a plastic skeleton hanging from one of the lamps above their kitchen island. i did some photoshop changes to make it even spookier. however i was still impressed with the original. bonus!



costumes are always fun. Kiara chose early that she wanted to be a ladybug. how lucky for her that we found one at Old Navy back in September. Aidan didn't know what to be. he still fit into his Optimus Prime costume from last year. so the decision was made.

until the night before his school Halloween party.

then he told me he wanted to be a Storm Trooper from Star Wars.

for real?! not sure what was behind his reasoning on that one. hopefully he will have learned to make his decision earlier next year to avoid his disappointment!

the next day Kiara and i went to school to watch the costume parade. 2 of the boys in his class are his friends and they all sit in the same desk grouping. as it turns out they were both Storm Troopers. ah ha! when he came home he was pleased that he was the ONLY one in his class dressed as Optimus Prime. he even kept a tally of all the transformer costumes he saw at school that day. it all worked out in the end.



i found this costume for Kristian. a Nordic Viking. rather appropriate don't you think?!

when Kiara saw it waiting for him, she suddenly changed her mind about her costume.

fortunately this was much less traumatic of a change!

one of her favourite movies is How To Train Your Dragon.



she knew we had a 'dragon' costume in the basement with their dress-up clothes. {it is actually a dinosaur, but close enough}

she decided that she would now be Daddy's pet dragon.

i was impressed. unfortunately, i did not get a good picture of the 2 of them together.



the night of the party i painted Kiara's face to be 'dragon-like'. as i was finishing with her i realized that there was a page devoted to pirate make-up. my neighbours were also attending the party, so i quickly called to see if they wanted some 'tattoos' as well. after Aidan watched his buddies get face painted, he decided he wanted in on it. one idea was to paint the insides of a robot....so that is the idea i went with. not the best photo of it. but Aidan loved it!!



so, no picture of just me. i cropped this out of the group photo we took!

i found the scrubs for $8 at Value Village and became a Plastic Surgeon. Kiara donated her Doctor's Kit playset.

Kristian helped carve their pumpkins this year. i quite enjoyed that!

the kids came home with so many treats that their arms were sore from carrying the bags. very cute.

last year was the H1N1 scare and it really changed halloween. we definitely had more kids to our door this year. some of the cutest costumes i've ever seen. we also had an interesting virus in our home last year. for Aidan it hit him at the end of the trick-or-treating. poor boy could care less about the candy he collected. this year was great because we were also more healthy. today was a day off school for Aidan and that is simply a bonus for this mother!

i mentioned the "switch witch" to the kids today. they are presently uncertain about giving up their candy for a toy. the plan is to visit the toy store and use their birthday money. perhaps seeing the toy choices may change their minds a bit. i'm hopeful.

and now on to winter and Christmas.....