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?!

then and now

the day before school started, the kids and i took one last summer fling. we met some friends at a corn maze halfway between our homes. the kids are still pretty young for a corn maze...but the other activities kept them interested for the day.


the last time we went, Aidan was Kiara's age. some days i wonder if Kiara will ever get out of her 'trying three's' stage. then it helps when i recall the 'fantastic moments' Aidan gave us at the same age. he had loudly and tearfully protested leaving the car to come and play. neither of us can remember what exactly he had a problem with.

this time, there were no tears. just happy, happy, happy children!


this was then...


Kiara was not even two years old in this photo.


this is now....


she still loves to jump. but i cannot believe how much she has grown!!!


this was then...


it is true that the second child is eager to grow up quickly. at least in our family. we rented a wagon for her, but she was so desperate to walk with the big kids. we allowed her to do this in the kids maze.

this is now....


no problems keeping up at all. in fact, it was amazing to see exactly how independent she has become. a typical parent moment - happy and sad, all at the same time.


i wrote about our trip on this blog post....just over 2 years ago...read it HERE.





why is this ride not in every park? recycling. unique. entertaining. definitely not expensive. the only drawback is that it requires 'human power' to keep it moving. now that i get more than 5 hours of sleep at night, a little physical exertion is necessary! laugh!!



the barrel train!



driven by a man with a corn cob hat. it tours the outside perimeter of the maze. which suddenly seems very small.




i just love this photo! one day, i want a family photo of all of us doing exactly this. how fun!



i am sooooo blessed to have the most amazing friends. Stacey has been an awesome supporter and co-conspirator of mine for several years. it was no coincidence that we both had our first babies only 17 days apart. it was a sad day when she told me that they were moving away. even sadder when they locked their house for the last time. i still remember it raining the day they left. we had their daughter and Kris drove me around looking for the last garage sales of the season. i got some great deals that day, but not enough to cheer me up.

i mentioned to Stacey that the summer just went by so quickly and i was disappointed that we didn't get out and do more things. she quickly reminded me that we were kept busy and did some new holiday travels that we did not do usually. she's right. perhaps it is just that we were having so much fun, that i was disappointed to see it end.


reading the entry from 2 years ago...i shared a bit about scrapbooking. here i am today with a new class being designed and taught each month. more time to scrapbook. less time spent actually shopping, yet spending more time at the store! lots of new products arriving that still make me swoon. i like where i am at right now. the past two months were very slow with lots of the customers busy on holidays and not spending time with paper, photos and glue. but i had a full class last week with some new faces. all at different levels of scrapbooking. my favourite part! i learned that one of the girls has a blog...and came across this post from her. check her out. and leave a comment. bloggers blog for ourselves. but comments are always appreciated!

okay, got to go. my youngest and i have a day to ourselves. lets hope the weather is as nice today as Environment Canada says it will be!!

grade one

where have the years gone?




he was 3 years old in this photo. Kiara's present age. it was his second year of preschool. it was the year he made his first friend, his age. on his own. he made a great choice too. i had forgotten that he made lots of funny faces for this photo shoot and only gave me a few good shots.



then he moved on to kindergarten. it was shortly after this photo that he made his second close friend. which also coincided with the same day he gave me huge mommy-grief-guilt. i don't remember him being nervous for his first day, but i remember being nervous. i couldn't have been more thrilled if his teacher was Jesus himself. but he would be taking the big yellow school bus, and that made me nervous. his bus drivers turned out to be terrific and they never lost him once. ha! the ol' bus turned out to be a sanity saver for me in the end. who could have guessed.





and here we are today. grade one. he's gone for full days now. just a quick trip home for lunch each day, then back he goes. i can tell you how many classes of grade ones there are. but i cannot tell you how many kids are in his class. he ended up in the same class as his best buddy from kindergarten and one of his good friends from down the block. his teacher isn't exactly a stranger either.

we know the walk to the school very well.

finally to be able to enter the doors, not just stare and imagine what it looks like. as we did all last year when we waited for his morning school bus.

it is a fine, fine school. still shiny. smells new.

we have a lot of things to get used to. new routines. even the staff are still figuring things out. it is kind of like a new romance!

one of my girlfriends and i were chatting about how our kids love school...and then about how we loved school. there is nothing like a brand new school year. everything is new. even the erasers have not seen a mistake yet!

i'm sure you'll hear more. but for now, life will continue on. we'll enjoy as many of the nice days we can. there are birthdays to prepare for. other than that, sticking to a school schedule is a nice change of pace. for now.