Happy Birthday little buddy

Just a very quick post to document my littlest guy turning three. Taggart had a great day today with lots of his family around him to help him celebrate. Thanks to all those who came and made it a great day for him. It's been a very busy and full week here with Tony's Aunt and Uncle here from England. I've been too tired to post. Will fill in soon. Only three more days of summer vacation and we go back to school. Looking forward to the routine again. Walked up to school today to check out class lists and both boys are very happy with teachers and friends. Going to bed now.

Reunited

Picked up Hudson at camp on Friday evening and these two were so happy to see eachother. We left Tag and Reagan at home so the two of them in the backseat all the way home was so cute. They were so proud of their matching t-shirts. Never really seen them like that, a very heart-warming mother moment. Of course now reality has set in and we are back to the normal brother moments of fighting and tattling. I have theses photos to remind me that they really do like eachother.

BEFORE

AFTER

This is the 'big girl' kindergarten haircut. I think it is so cute and she loves it.

Crazy little life

I haven't talked to Tony for more than 10 mintes at a time for what seems like weeks. He has been working Saturdays, overtime, sidejobs and still soccer twice a week with Reagan. But his holidays start tomorrow and he is off till the 5th of Sept. His uncle and aunt arrive from England on Sunday so the week will be busy, I'm sure. But 'holiday busy' is so much better than 'work busy'. Can't believe the summer is almost over. I don't feel like I did nearly as much with the kids as I wanted to. The weather was a bit of a disappointment so trips to the lake or the pool didn't happen as often as I had hoped. Hoping for a nice September and maybe we'll take the kids out of school for a couple of days and get another camping trip in this year. Tomorrow we are heading to Allouette Lake for Tony's company picnic and then heading to camp later to pick up Hudson who's been gone since Tuesday (too cool at age 7 to give his Mom a hug goodbye). Cooper said today 'it's no fun without Hudson'. Why doesn't he realize this when Hudson is here? sigh

Reading a great book right now My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. One of those ones you can't wait to get back to. Almost done and then have two more written by her just waiting to be read. Haven't had some good books to read in a long time - love that I've found some.

Somtimes life just calls for a little silliness.

Lemonade for sale

Having a lemonade stand always sounds like such fun and such a good idea but as the grown-up you know that's not always the case. People will walk or drive by but they won't stop and ultimately your children will be disappointed and stuck with a lot of lemonade to drink themselves. Well that is not what happened today. I helped them make their sign and set up their stand trying not to discourage. The first ten minutes they were open for business brought the expected crowd of the few neighbor kids that live next door. Once they had drank their fill I figured another half an hour of the three boys complaining that they weren't getting any customers and they would lose interest and close shop. Well, I was wrong. People stopped their cars, walkers stopped and amazingly had spare change with them, even a garbage truck spotted them and not only stopped but gave them a generous tip (eventhough he did take one of our cups with him). Five jugs of lemonade (actually we switched to fruit punch half way through) and 3 hours later they ended up with around $18. Not bad considering I put up all the supplies, made all the juice, washed all the cups and helped with the cleanup. All in the name of motherhood and it was pretty fun to watch. Good day.

I said I wouldn't do it...

but I just couldn't help it. This morning this room was a disaster - could hardly walk without stepping on a piece of Lego or some other little boy toy. I've ranted, I've threatened, I've told them I would no longer set foot in there until it was cleaned. Today I finally gave in to the fact that the mess had gotten too big for my boys to tackle alone. Three hours later it was done - every action hero its bin - every book on its shelf - and every forgotten popcorn piece in the garbage. They say it will stay that way, they say they will never let it get that bad again. We'll see.

daily something

"There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day." (Alexander Woollcott)

Started a new project this week. My favorite thing about scrapbooking is how it celebrates the everyday. Seeing the little things in a whole new way. It has changed how I live my life, I think. And that is why I really consider it more than just a hobby. My favorite scrapbooker has coined the phrase 'life artist' and that is what we are - capturing moments in time and telling the stories. So, the project is to find a story in everyday (I have been inspired to use recycled envelopes to record them on). Some days I will have trouble deciding which story to use and other days I will be hard pressed to find the story. The point is that every day has a story and I want to remember them all.

14 years

Love you, love you Tony. Happy Anniversary

Short but good

Another weekend over way before I want it to be. Tony worked Saturday so that made it extra short. But we started it off on Friday on a high note. Tony's Mum offered her babysitting services so we could take a day and celebrate our anniversary. The plan was to meet Tony downtown after work and then we would stay the evening - have dinner, maybe a movie. But this meant driving back late at night in two seperate vehicles - yuck! So Tony left work early came home and picked me up and then we headed back into the city(like he doesn't drive that freeway often enough). But he did it willingly, for me (aaaawwwww). Anyways, it was such a nice day. We walked around a bit, had a Starbucks and then saw an early movie (Bourne Ultimatum - loved it) before walking down to English Bay to have dinner at the Boathouse. We watched the sunset from our table and had a great dinner.

Love, love date night.

Pretty toes

Reagan has been bugging me to paint her toenails for days so tonight was the night. I set her up in a comfy chair with her feet soaking in a tub of warm water. "Will you rub my legs too, Mom?" So I got out the lotion and we did it right. She chose the polish and we even added little jewels. So glad I have my little girl to do girly things with.

Went to the library today with the kids to take back books, check out new ones and get our stickers for the summer reading club. I reminded them all before we got in that the library is a quiet place and we need to remember to walk, not run, you know, all that stuff. Taggart has no concept of quiet, he shouts everything he says so the whole time I'm saying 'Tag, be quiet. Tag, stop shouting' in the calmest, quietest voice I can manage but still trying to get my point across. And of course, he is constantly disappearing behind a book shelf so I'm saying to the other three 'guys, where's Tag?' and he always here's me and shouts from wherever he is 'Here I am Mom!'

It felt a bit like a gong show. I am amazed that a kid with bionic hearing (he can hear an ambulance siren from 10 miles away) feels the need to shout everything. The mysteries of a two-year old.

The trip was a success though, if only for the fact that I found the whole season five of Little House on the Priarie on DVD. I have been looking for these for a long time - would like to buy them all but too much $. So tonight was 'Little House' night whether the kids liked it or not. Tony was working late, which I am sure he will be thankful for when he finds out what he missed. This was my favorite TV show as a kid and I still enjoy them as much as I did back then. And they are still just as much a tear jerker as they used to be. The kids were looking at me as if I'd lost it. "Why is everyone crying?" Reagan asks. "Those are happy tears" I say through my own. I don't think they got it. We watched two episodes and there are 19 more in this series. We have the DVD for 3 weeks so that's about an episode a night. Tony is going to be excited :)

Tag being carried in from the car after the library. So love my little guy in orange and that he is still little enough to do this with.

Some sad and some happy...

My plan tonight was to watch the Canadian Idol results show and then sit down to blog about the last couple of days. And that's still what I'm doing but the content of my post was going to be about our great shopping trip to the outlets and a family outing to the blueberry farm yesterday. But after the show I just watched I'm only thinking about one thing. Canada so, so, so got this one wrong. Christine did call me earlier this evening and I knew that a call from her on results night could only mean one thing. So I knew even before I watched that Greg was finished. I can't believe it and it almost seems silly to be posting about it - I mean I don't really know him. But like I said to Christine, we were all so excited for him, more so every week that he almost felt like my nephew too. He was the best one on that stage and I sure hope that he will still do great things. So sad to watch him sing his last song tonight.

So on a lighter note I will still fill in on the last couple of days. Thank you to the very fun four girls that I shopped with on Sunday. Mary, Olivia, Rochelle, and Nana - it was a great day and I think it could definitely become an annual tradition. In a few years, Reagan would, I'm sure, love to join us. For now I think she was quite happy to stay home with the boys. What a treat, though to wake up on Monday morning and have Olivia sleeping on her floor with Rochelle and Aunty Mary just downstairs. We got home late the night before so they all stayed over and did the drive back home in the morning. Tag crawled into bed with me in the morning and when I told him who had slept over and was still here his response was "Right now?" with big eyes and a huge smile. I responded with "ya" and he responded with "Right now?" a little louder and more animated this time. This went on for 8 or 9 times until he finally believed me. Very cute.

We ended the long weekend with a trip to Krause farms to pick blueberries. We only went to pick a few for fun and then buy what we actually wanted but who knew we had four (okay three) very good little berry pickers. I think Cooper picked close to 10lbs and Hudson and Reagan definitely did their share. Tag definitely ate his share. I think his little bucket had maybe four or less berries in it at any given time but his hands and mouth were always full.
Reagan got tired and found a shady spot to sit and rest.




We ended the trip with a stop at the little snack shop for some pie and other berry treats. Cooper was happy to get the last piece of custard pie and that they just gave it to him in the big pie tin. He deserved it after all those berries he picked.


Got some really great photos and also just got all my July photos printed so lots to inspire me to scrapbook. I need to clean off the massive mess on my table so I actually have some space to work. I haven't created for too long now - need to got back to it. Also, Christine gave us the ones she took of Tag on the tractor at their place a few weeks ago. Such a fun day for him. He is so into 'diggers' right now. We are in the midst of looking for a little ride on tractor for his birthday coming up. I would love to find something for him to make his little face just light up.

Off to bed - goodnight.

A clean house always makes me feel good- accomplished. Today I got it all done, bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting. Tony was at work - the boys all played together nicely all morning, and Reagan was at Aunty Mary's. She still is actually - coming home tomorrow morning. Yesterday we went to Mary's for the afternoon and evening to celebrate Olivia's 16th and Rochelle's 14th birthday. We have been able to see a lot of them lately, which the kids all just love. During the school year we are all so busy so months go by sometimes before we see eachother. Summer is good for catching up on our visits. Anyways, Reagan stayed thre last night and Mary will bring her home tomorrow. I know that she is having a great time - she told me that this little trip of two nights is "her summer vacation". Obviously a highlight.

Last post I promised an update on swimming lessons. Taggart is doing so, so good. The first day he was very unsure and didn't want to go in the water but I made him and he cried. He is standing in the water crying and calling for me but I just watched from the sides and gave him the thumbs up. That lasted for maybe 5 minutes and then he got right in to it. It helps that his group is only him and one other little girl. Lots of one on one time with the instructor who, by the way, he told me yesterday he loves. "Mom, I love Miss Michelle" . Anyways, he has just continued to improve everyday and now he is standing in the water giving me big smiles and a constant thumbs up. He is very proud to be a sea turtle.

Reagan is doing well also, but has a very big group - 6 kids. She seems a little cautious this time around and tries to slip under the radar a bit. Cooper and Hudson are both in the same level. Hudson's first time and Cooper's third. Hudson went off the diving board on Friday and he was very proud of himself. I think I will look into private lessons next time around. Try it and see the difference in their learning.

Starting off the long weekend tomorrow with a shopping trip to the Seattle Outlets with Mary, Olivia, Rochelle and Nana. Tony is on kid duty - he even gets an extra one because Mary is leaving Jake here. Looking forward to the day. Should go to bed so I am well rested for a day of bargain hunting.