i-phone photos

the camera on my iphone4 is not bad. in fact it really impresses me for a phone camera. check these out.



yes. i had a birthday over a week ago. this is the birthday cake from Kristian and the kids. i think Aidan was secretly disappointed that the correct number of candles were not inserted. his concern may also be with his dad's ability to count properly?




okay. not an iphone photo. but a memorable moment! why is my hand pushing away Kiara's face? did i lose control of my arm muscles?




aaahhh. check out the photo from earlier. she wanted to blow out my candles herself. claiming it was HER birthday. that is one way to get her to 18 more quickly!



in a dark restaurant. from a distance because we were a large group. these are some friends that i hang out with from our new church. one of the girls i knew 21 years ago, back when we were brand new high school graduates living in the big city of Edmonton. another i was friends with her sister over 17 years ago while we worked together one summer. it turns out another one of the girls and i have several mutual friends. isn't it a small world?! and at least three of them have admitted that they also scrapbook. i hope we stay good friends for a very long time. they are a lot of fun! this photo was the night we went out to celebrate my birthday. a few of the girls couldn't make it, so are missing from this photo.


it was a good birthday. the past few have been quite difficult for reasons i won't go into. but this year held now unseen ghastly surprises for me. Kris apparently felt that he was outdone at Christmas by my bosses at Urban. (they gave me and a few other interested girls an amazing scrapbook tool - the Vagabond. seriously beyond anything i expected to receive. from anybody.) too funny! he figured he'd go right to them to see if they had any advice for him. it was really interesting listening to his tale. poor man. i think his saga of getting the perfect gift was a gift in itself. he really got creative in planning! to think he involved my bosses and to hear how they tried to help. above and beyond. i am very appreciative of all the 3 of them tried to do!! keep that gratitude in mind when you read the next paragraph!!

i should mention that he did not fail at Christmas himself. he completely and utterly shocked me with a very nice diamond necklace. diamonds that make my engagement ring look bland. my first thought was fear that i would lose it, or break it because it was soooo delicate. just what any worried husband wants to hear on Christmas morming, "what? why? i think you should return it!!" i did wear it that day. and as much as i can since. it did not get returned. his response was that we are better off than we were when he bought my engagement ring....so why shouldn't he gift me with something nice.

the funny part? i was telling my fashionista babysitter about this. {she is a Tiffany's girl and loves anything with bling and carats!} she shook her head and asked me why i couldn't have at least faked ecstasy over the gift. apparently a similar scene took place that same morning between her parents. yes, that girl is wise beyond her years. which is why she is our first choice babysitter!


birthdays are even more fun with my kids. Kristian always buys a card for each of them to sign. that morning he stacked the gifts on the kitchen table with the cards on top. i opened the cards before school, but told them we would wait until after school to open the gifts. we were running later than usual that morning! that drove the kids nuts to make them wait. they were so excited to celebrate with me.

usually i like to dress up and look my best on my actual birthday. not this year. put my hair in a pony tail. dressed in comfy clothes. Aidan spent the day in school, but i had to drop off and pick up Kiara at playschool in the morning. the rest of the time? totally lazy. it. was. the. best.



remember my previous post? the snow comparisons from November to now, and from last year to this year?

check this out:



here is just one of the snow storage yards in the city. in my own best guess....i would say that the hill is at least three times higher than i've ever seen it. i think the snow hauling trucks going down the road past the entry gate outnumbers the regular traffic 3 to 1. unbelievable.





until last week, this was our mode of transportation to school. the temperatures climbed above zero Celsius almost all last week. we also had rain. we also had a great deal of ice. then this weekend it snowed. life is not boring in the far north! at least not this year.



they re-plowed the path behind our home. which made the snow pile even higher. this pic is before they plowed. it isn't packed well, so it makes for quite the adventure to get into our backyard in this route.



no need to travel far to toboggan.



they may never be this lucky again in their little lives.

can you believe that all but 2 of the photos were taken with the iphone? makes for a great point and shoot!

on a positive note....typically....January is the coldest month. the days are getting longer, we're seeing more of the sun. groundhog day is nearly here. could we be lucky to have just 6 more weeks of winter?

on Friday, it snowed again. Kiara danced with glee. she is in the minority. was it any coincidence that i registered her for kindergarten on the same day? hmmmm.....sigh. that is a story for another day.

it really is a marshmallow world!

will it ever stop snowing?!

apparently we have only broken the record made in 1974. we still have several centimetres to go before we break the 1971 record. personally, that record can remain unbroken.




i snapped this yesterday morning after our walk to school. notice Kiara's feet do not touch the ground. i think the mountain of snow sitting at the end of our driveway is about 3 1/2 Kiara's high.

for comparisons' sake, i found these photos from last year and earlier in the winter season.....






the above 2 photos were taken nearly a year apart. notice the difference in the piles of snow?

i purposely did not adjust the photos. we have not seen. the. sun. for. days. it comes out in brief intervals to remind us that it does exist. then it goes back behind thick clouds.






in March 2010, we had a warm spell which melted some of the snow. then we had another spring snowfall. we had even been out bike riding the week before the snowfall. BUT notice the change in the height of the snow? the slide is really a joke right now.



watch the tree disappear.....






crazy!



oh, is that what grass looks like?



pretty....



and we thought we had a big snowfall at Christmas.



you can still see the plastic trunk protector on our apple tree.



we have all watched the snowdrifts grow on our rooftops. hoping our vents remain free of snow....and the trusses stay strong!



Kristian braved our garage roof to free up space for more snowdrifts. i was a bit worried he had frozen his brain and would try to climb to the second level. fortunately he did not!




the driveway was covered again right after clearing. i think he spent about 3 hours shovelling snow in total on Saturday. only to return and spend another hour on Sunday.







just last week Kiara had the "bright" idea to climb over the fence. using the chair. it worked. until she wanted to get back into the yard. i think she thought she could stand on top of the pile of snow on the other side of the fence... you can imagine her surprise. so she trudged through the snow to the gate. which Aidan decided to help her by digging a path in front of the gate. she would have been rescued by nightfall. ha! i came out and lifted her up and over the fence. using the very chair she had climbed over!

check out the snowpile on that little birdhouse.

ugh. such grey skies.




this is what our backyard view looked like yesterday.

it is snowing again today. big. flakes.

last week the temperatures were brutally cold. Aidan had a bad cold and missed the entire week of school. i'm just thankful that he happened to be sick the same week. between the snowdrifts and horribly cold temperatures, the walk to and from school would not have been exciting or enjoyable. it is warmer (slightly!) and most of the sidewalks have been shovelled.

yesterday took us to the doctor because of Aidan complaining about his sore ear for several days. (no infection, good news!) on the way home a car right behind us spun out and landed in the centre snowbank. amazing it did not get hit. so glad it wasn't us! and it was a 4x4, so it drove out pretty easily. in all irony, the vehicle behind it was a tow truck.

the day before i took our car in for an oil change. they discovered i had a nail in my tire. fixed before i had to deal with a flat. wow.

all true stories.

today is my birthday. this will be the last year i am 30-something. how did that happen?!! Aidan is feeling better, and wished me a happy birthday at bedtime and this morning. Kiara is now sick and is as grumpy as one could ever be. she proclaimed that it was NOT my birthday today. fortunately she lived. she finished her breakfast and is now quietly enjoying TreeHouse all by herself. and the peace is back. that's all i really need. although a hot beach and sunshine would be pretty nice too......

more to celebrate

rough birthday week for this boy!

he missed most of the week of school. he did manage to pull himself together to be at school on the day of his birthday. (he missed celebrating his birthday at school due to being sick too.)



no cake. cupcakes seemed like the best option. this is better than what Kristian or Kiara had this year on their actual birthday suppers. the difference? we were at home on the day of their birthdays! well, that and their mother actually had some time to bake and frost a few cupcakes. very sad. now that they are both in school and active in other activities we are out of the house more often. now that they are less dependent, we have found that we've also added more to our schedules again. it might be a smart thing for me to pre-bake cupcakes next year. in August. then freeze them for the big night! must buy a new freezer with larger capacity.

there were some anxious days for the 6 year old to be...hoping and praying that he would be well enough for his birthday party with his buddies.



he still is not 100%. but much improved. it was very nice to see him smile, play and run with his friends. that is the Aidan we all know. complete with new glasses, bushy eyebrows and much larger nose.....

of course i took photos of the lego cake...and invites...and decorations....but i'll share those later this week.



here he is at his 4th birthday party. it still seems like yesterday. we did look at their baby books not long ago. i found i was very nostalgic this year on their birthdays. i think it is because they are actually growing up into little children. i truly cannot get away with calling them 'my babies' anymore.

even more shocking. i am in disbelief that i would have ever felt quite this way!!

despite the challenges this birthday gave us, i think we all pulled a nice party and memories together.


it does feel good to have the birthday behind us. but we still have this awful bug to kick out of our house.

in fact, Aidan had his last swimming class and he chose to stay home. a big deal, because he LOVES swimming.



these are its latest victims.

i left to go to the drug store and came back to a very quiet house. Aidan was awake and in his room building lego. these 2 were like this.

the lights were dim and the fireplace was on. they were quite warm and must have been there awhile.


well. if we can just make it through this week. being home-bound for most of last week was tough on me. being home-bound for another week may just do me in. i found i really missed the walks with my neighbours to and from school each day. even if i never left the house the rest of the day, it really perked me up. i also lost my voice for a few days. not seeing, talking or listening to another adult made it that much more difficult.

on the other hand...i was scheduled to work all day on Saturday. i really enjoy my job and look forward to going to work. i was very worried that i wouldn't have my voice in time! fortunately my prayers were answered and i nearly ran from the house that morning. must have been funny to see. it was a busy day at the store too. i definitely got to more than make up for my silent and lonely week!

pretty soon we will be starting some card crafting. the kids are making cards and art to raise money for the Stollery Children's Hospital again. we still have loads of cards and art leftover from last year. i plan to bring it to our sale and then make sure it gets donated to the hospital at the end.

well, must close off. lots more hope and prayers that my family get well very, very soon.

happy birthday daddy-o!

he's a little bit older today.





today is a typical September day and hectic. we knew it was coming and also couldn't wait to celebrate his birthday. in a unanimous decision by Aidan, Kiara and i, we surprised him yesterday with a decorated house and a present. why not celebrate over two days and make the birthday even more special was our reasoning. who can argue with that?!

blast off!

the answer is:


both!
  
{read yesterdays' post if you missed the question}


one: we celebrated Grandpa Olsen's 70th birthday at Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday. 


the kids loved that he had his party here. not that it was his pick. Grandma had a bit to do with that decision. not that he complained. 


Uncle John decided that it was a bit like a nightclub for kids. hmmm... except Grandpa had to produce ID to buy a beer and was only allowed to purchase two glasses. which he offered to his sons. 


only Kiara didn't completely take the ticket winning seriously. it did, however, matter when it came to retrieving the tickets from the machine. adding the tickets to the "ticket calculator". or choosing a prize. which i could really say a whole essay on that part of the visit. {i think even the kids dread that part. the prize is never worth the work.} 


needless to say, we arrived with excited kids and left with happy and exhausted kids. 



two: we took the kids to a nearby Japanese restaurant after church on Sunday. the kids loved it. 


when we walked in they saw the water wall at the front. they decided we should have one in our house. 


then they were really curious when we had to take off our shoes and go into a little room. they were super excited when they saw the table and the chairs on the floor. had Kristian and i known it would be enjoyed so well, we would have taken them long ago!


they both love sushi. we ordered a special dish of sashimi for the kids, thinking it was the type that was fully cooked. oops! although it was a good experience for Kristian and i to extend our palate further! 


Kiara is proving to be more adventurous with food as she is getting older. Aidan is more cautious, but tends to try new foods with some minor bribing. i do expect they will want to go back soon. 



another successful weekend. as much fun as it is at ChuckE.Cheese....it is not a place i like for the food.

Aidan was invited to a birthday part at Kidz Quarterz in Sherwood Park a few months ago. we didn't go the token route, so can't comment on that. however it has an amazing indoor playground. as well as pizza that is much healthier and tastier. 



i was teaching a scrapbook class on Saturday morning and ended up not leaving until mid afternoon. fun times with the class and then got chatting. typical me. i didn't realize i missed out on such a beautiful day!



the snow is mostly melted in our backyard. even rather dry compared to Saturday. this poor Stomp Rocket is a few years old now. apparently it needed to be adjusted slightly. usually you attach the rocket to the yellow stand that is visible in the background. i love the expressions on their faces!



cute kids we have. they look so innocent and fun in this photo.

yes, still having fun with CS4. actions. and our iMac.

it wasn't until yesterday that Aidan made a comment about his opinion over having AppleTV. we had all gotten accustomed to the kids turning on the television at various times and watching TreeHouse or YTV for 15 to 30 minutes during the day. for them it was mostly just a break. it has been an adjustment for all of us to learn new ways to take a break during the day. with AppleTV, you can connect to iTunes, YouTube or a million satellite radio stations. it is also beyond their computer skills for the moment. we are not rushing into teaching them how to use it either!


here is the big news of the day!
Monday is our gymnastics day. the kids are quite natural at this sport. it is almost disgusting how flexible and strong they both are. Aidan did a "pull-over" on his own today. his coach was really impressed {and so was Kiara's!} apparently it is very rare for a child Aidan's age to be coordinated and strong enough to do that maneuver individually. Aidan was thrilled. so was i. and shocked too. this boy is surprising me every day. so we called Daddy at work, then stopped by Tim Horton's for a 6-pack of donuts. on the way to the club, he counted to 100. on the way home, he spelled words he figured out on his own. 

overall, i'd say we had an awesome start to the Spring Break. let's hope we can finish as strong as we started!

more celebrating

we had another birthday in our house this week. Aidan, my oldest, turned FIVE years old. i don't think time is just flying by....it's picking up speed!

he's had an exciting week too. i really think it started on Sunday...he had a fabulous time playing with his cousin, Jacob that afternoon. the two of them keep planning sleepovers....but their mama's aren't quite buying it yet. can you picture what it will be like for us another five years down the road? speaking of roads, that leads me to Aidan's highlight. big enough that he has remembered the incident for several days and waited until today to share it with his 'best buddy'. we stayed about an hour past the kids' bedtimes, then headed home in some light snow. yes, it has been snowing! still!! we found an icy patch of highway and had the most incredible near miss of our lives. there were so many "what if's" that we had to stop thinking about them and just be thankful that we were okay. we were in a series of vehicles that were involved in a crash and we were the only one NOT hit. angels watching over us? plenty i do believe! watching one car get hit by a fast moving vehicle out my side window and then watching the same fast moving van slide right in front of our car...after we had driven into the ditch. between all the cars involved, there were 7 children. none hurt seriously. another miracle. i was surprised at the reactions of our kids. they took the entire event in stride. it was a long wait because we had called 9-1-1 and had to wait for the emergency vehicles. then we had to fill out accident forms. both kids were sound asleep by the time we approached the city.

i think that late night did not help the kids to fight the recent cold virus to hit our home. they both woke up the next morning with the sniffles. they were pretty tired that day too. i kept them both home from school the next day. and the next day! which also happened to be Aidan's birthday. rotten luck? or was that good fortune? the jury is still out deciding that one.

since he was home and had lots of time on his hands, i decided to let Aidan open his present that morning. thank you Scholar's Choice gift registry! he had picked it out himself a few weeks ago and it had been wrapped and hiding since that day. he was a happy kid. then he asked me where the other gifts were. hmmmm....kiddo, you don't always get everything you want....




i couldn't get a good photo of him unwrapping the gifts. my other arm was busy....




......consoling this sad sister. she has just now learned the excitement of unwrapping presents and didn't want to miss out on any of the fun stuff. tough lesson for her. it made it very tough to take photos! (isn't her hair crazy?! i am not sure what happened in her dreams the night before. it won the 'crazy hair award' by a landslide.)




this is the second cake for his 5th birthday. he took cupcakes to school today. the cake and icing and decorating were done to his choice. i decorated the cake using the same plan. yellow sugar in the centre and rainbow sugar on the edges. i also had some gold icing gel...reminded me of a galaxy....so i wrote his name using it. and added the silver balls.


now we can concentrate on halloween and christmas in the near future.

our front porch is all decorated in the fall colours. just because i found the stuff on a super cheap sale at Michaels yesterday. i also bought pumpkins. however they both must have frozen. with all due respect....i should have been thinking more clearly. they were being kept outdoors. in below zero temperatures. now, do i return them? or keep them, as a reminder of my own stupidity?

as soon as the kids' quiet times are finished tomorrow, i plan to take them outdoors. Aidan was given a scavenger hunt that he has been wanting to do. i REALLY want to get more photos. i am hoping to find some trees that have yellow leaves.

have i mentioned that most of our trees still have leaves and the leaves are STILL GREEN? bizarre. even more bizarre is to see the green with the snow covered landscape. it has to be a record of some sort.
wish us luck!

celebrating Aidan

as i mentioned in an earlier post, we had Aidan's birthday party early this year. little girl had a month long party....why not big brother?!


he turns FIVE years old this year. where or where has the time gone?

we had one of his biggest parties at a nearby science centre. it would have been nice to have had more of his friends, but i wasn't ready to go insane at my young age. the teacher in me came out as we wandered around the building. i don't think any of the kids would have been surprised if i asked them to raise their hand if they wanted something! okay it was not that bad, but i had them make "trains" to help avoid losing anyone in the crowd.


there were so many activities to choose from and the time flew by so fast. we started out in the Discoveryland. lots of water play and tower building. then we moved on to the SpacePlace. i think this was one of their favourites.



most of the kids wanted their photo taken in the space suit. except the birthday boy! he told me a few days later that he wanted to go back so that he could stand in the suit. oops! i guess he'll have to wait now. i didn't realize the kids could stand in the suit until we were doing a headcount and i came up one kid short. Kristian could see him, so pointed at the space suit. and there was one of his little buddies quietly standing there with the biggest grin!

the next exhibit is a special one called the Science of Sport. this was also one of their favourites. one of the options was to race against various animals, and the kids had fun "winning". i was glad that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law were at this exhibit too. they spent a lot of time at the climbing wall spotting.



it was a fun one for Aidan too! this is one of the rare pictures of him in it. which is weird....i really thought i was taking most of the pictures of him.

then we had time to visit the Green's House. not much time for this one because we had hot dogs and cake and presents waiting for us....




Aidan's first birthday cake for this year! it was also the first year that he learned the importance of blowing out all the candles. after he blew them out, one of the older boys shouted, "yay! NO girlfriends!!" Aidan was confused for a minute!

he loved all his presents. he has them lined up in his room and has been playing with a new one each day this week. i think the upcoming play dates will be exciting too!

after the cake, we went upstairs and watched a movie in the star theatre. the kids thought the chairs were cool and you could tell they had fun moving around trying to see all the parts to the movie. they watched "The Cardboard Rocket". i think it was a very educational party! one of his buddies sat beside me during the movie. love that boy! the basic story is that the main characters build a rocket from a cardboard box and fly to the sun and all the planets. they started at the sun and his one buddy was shocked to learn that our sun was a star. he was in total disbelief that this information had not been shared with him before! i'm so glad he is a good friend of Aidans....he is going to be fun in the coming years!

we only had 15 minutes left, and the kids wanted to look at all the games and exhibits lining the hallway. i had hoped to take photos of each of them on the police bike....but we ran out of time. we also ran out of time for the Mystery and Body exhibit rooms. i'm still impressed that we got as much done as we did. the kids were at a perfect age to enjoy the fun stuff and have patience to realize that if they followed the instructions they would enjoy the exhibits even more. {i mean the instructions for the games....not from the mother-teacher!}

i think we'll do quiet birthdays next year. when Kiara has her fifth birthday, we'll do something big for her that year. i am very thankful that our kids get along with other kids so well. but it makes it tough to work out a guest list! i am also looking forward to hearing the kids ideas for parties when they get older too. they are creative, so life could get pretty interesting!

off to enjoy a quiet evening.

Kiara's special celebration

since it was Kiara's birthday first, it is only fair i start with her!

she invited some little girls who became her friends this summer. i didn't wan't to do anything super fancy or organized for her party. she's really still too young to know any other way. it was kind of like an organized playdate. the activities were geared to those that i knew Kiara enjoyed and those that i knew would also interest her little friends. it's amazing how quickly you get to know kids when they are at your house, playing with your kids and their toys!
when they arrived they each had a crown they could decorate and wear. lots of stickers and gems to dress it up!

all the dress up clothes and princess-like accessories were brought out for them to wear. they are still too young for much imaginative or creative play. however, they wore the dresses and played with the regular toys!



all the girls are at the age where they are old enough to play with icing and decorate. one of her friends loves painting....and since i was not exactly willing to have 4 little girls painting up a storm inside my house....this was the next best thing! they loved it. those tubes were tough for them to squeeze though. i had thought that it might be easier for them to use these in comparison to home-made icing and decorating bags. there were sprinkles and little silver root-beer balls for them to add. yup, could have added all sorts of cute treats for the decorating, but i wanted to keep it simple.




they brought presents and spoiled her! i was so pleased to see that Kiara shared very easily and happily.




then came the cupcakes!

each girl had her own unique cupcake with a candle. one of her guests actually had her real birthday on the day of the party. and, would you believe this, another guest would be celebrating her birthday in a week. we lit the candles and sang happy birthday to Kiara....since it was her party. then we re-lit the candles and sang to the other birthday girl. then we re-lit the candles and sang happy birthday to the up and coming birthday girl. and of course we had to sing to the remaining guest! the girls were so thrilled to be sung to and have their own candles to blow out..FOUR times! i love that girls this age are sooo easy to please.

we started a girl movie at the very end. the party had lots of free play time, and other activities for the kids to enjoy. i knew they would be tired, and a quiet movie time would hopefully eliminate the need for any arguments that could erupt due to the tiredness. it was perfect timing.

Kiara had little treat bags for each of the girls with shiny princess rings....which every one of them had on their fingers when they left! and other fun girly and princessy treats.

Aidan was so fortunate to be invited over to a neighbors house for a playdate that afternoon. we basically traded her daughter for my son. too funny!


i think the afternoon was a success. my legs were tired by the end of the day! i did get plenty of time to sit and enjoy the afternoon too. but i still had to be the "mom"!

the best part of the planning was the babysitter! i had pre-arranged our sitter to come that night and give Kris and i a night out. both of the kids were tired and went to bed without any complaint to her. any parent knows that the situation would have been much different had she not been there!

so a re-cap of the party day. and some lessons i learned as a bonus!

birthday season

3 birthdays (out of 4) are celebrated in September and October in our house. b-u-s-y! it started with Kristian. we had a quiet celebration for him this year. there was so much going on! then came Kiara. it was an odd one because Kristian was out of town that week. so it ended up being the never-ending celebration for her!





we had the "big" party and now i hope she realizes that the birthday is over for a year. she really wanted a princess cake...oops! got the princess party but forgot a princess on the cake.


these were the invitations i made for her party. the crown was like a postcard, with the details on the reverse side. very simple. but the little girls' faces all lit up when they got them. cute!



i tried harder to plan in advance for Aidan. in reality i need to do the planning in August (two months before his special day). September flies by with school....getting crazier every year. then it gets lost in the Thanksgiving celebrations (i'm Canadian). this year i was very concerned about the H1N1 impending epidemic. i didn't want to cancel a party due to us being sick, nor did i want to do a big part in helping to spread it more quickly! like i have a choice.



he's getting older and has shown some amazing artistic talent recently. he also loves making cards and doing crafts. i plan to encourage that for as long as he's willing! he drew this rocketship, then we scanned it. my PSE7 was very helpful as i duplicated it and printed it out! he did the cutting and i did the cutting. he is not yet allowed to use my straight cutter. i also added some glitter to the rocket flame, which was Aidan's request.


i'll share more photos and details from their special days. we have had Aidan's party although he has not officially had his birthday. i'll definitely share photos from his real day. thankfully we should all be at home for this one. and i'm praying that we will all be healthy!

celebrating a birthday

this is a busy week! first days of school. for two kids! parent orientation and meeting for playschool.

but.

today.

we celebrate a birthday!





Daddy is another year older today.
and still knows how to have fun.





given the "love" poured on him by his little darlings....he is doing well.




we'll head out to party with him. as much as the three of them enjoy this delight...we'll do our best to have something just a bit more special than this favourite treat.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTIAN!!