Our mini adventure

 
It all started with a call from Tony to say that he had forgotten his laptop and could I please bring it out to him at Cultus Lake where he was working today. Taggart and I had just arrived home from his early morning hockey practice and we were just about to start our Saturday chores. It was just Tag and I this morning. H and R were both at sleepovers and C was still sleeping.
So back in the car we went to deliver a laptop.
It's not a long drive - maybe 1/2 an hour. The sun was out and Tag and I didn't mind at all postponing our chores for a little road trip. "Especially if we get to see Dad even for a little bit", Tag said. We stopped for a Starbucks. Peppermint mocha for me and a gingerbread steamed milk for Tag. (He had really wanted to try one - turned out it wasn't his favorite).
We dropped off the laptop and headed back home. As we drove through Yarrow we spotted a little store all decked out for Christmas. I was curious so I asked Tag if he wanted to stop. "Sure". The store was cute and had lots of nice Christmas things. They were sampling hot apple cider so we had some of that, looked around a bit and were on our way. We were in the car for only a couple minutes before Tag spotted a park. Tag spots lots of parks and he always asks to stop. Most often the answer is no, as we are usually on our busy way. Today, I thought, we can stop. He poked around the little store with me so I can hang out at the park for him.
He happily played by himself and checked out all the equipment. Probably checking it all out to see if it was worth a return trip some day. Then he found a skate park. He was really wishing that he had his scooter for this one. But he didn't. It didn't really seem to damper his spirits at all.
Our stop at the park was probably only 20 minutes. Not long but long enough for him. "Thanks for stopping Mom", he said as we drove away.
Tag is the fourth child and because of that he gets left to his own devices a lot. I know that I don't spend as much time hanging out at the park with him as I did with Cooper and Hudson when they were his age. Today was a good reminder that a little goes a long way. And that Tag is never happier as when he is outside.
So glad we shared this mini adventure.
 

Here's looking at you

 Wanted to share these little eyeball cake pops I made for Halloween. Wanted to make them for Reagan and Taggart to take to school to share with their classes but so many didn't turn out that we didn't have enough. So we shared them with the neighbors instead. Cake pops are really such a pain to make...I'm not sure why I keep attempting them. But when they do turn out - they really are so darn cute. Don't you think?
 
 Pretty tasty too!
 

Ice cream, ice cream, ice cream, celery.

 My rule is no ice cream during the week. It's a weekend thing. I broke my rule tonight and let them have ice cream for a bedtime snack.




Reagan chose to have celery instead. Her brothers were very confused by her choice. I really don't have anything else to say but somehow I thought this little event was blog worthy.

Halloween...come and gone.

This year Halloween did seem to come in a hurry and then was over just as quickly. I've said before its really not my favorite holiday but because of the kids I try and do my part. They always complain that I don't decorate the house. They're right...I don't. I'm saving up my decorating energy for Christmas...which I love.
But let's not get ahead of ourselves. 
We  ALL carved pumpkins.


Three dressed up but I only have a photo of two.

Three trick-or-treated.



One gave out candy because he is too old to go out anymore and that pretty much sucked but at least I bought a lot of candy so he got the leftovers. No photo of that either.

This is the first year that I don't have a photo of all 4 of the kids in costume. Something definitely sad about that but things don't stay the same do they. And to prove it I went out yesterday and bought some Halloween decorations for the front of the house at 75% off. Nothing too scary though...kids know I wouldn't go that far. They will just have to wait until next October to see what goes up. 

Fall and nesting

Even though I don't usually welcome the arrival of Fall (summer is always much to short for my liking) there are things about Fall that I definitely enjoy. The one feeling that recurs for me every year during this season is that of nesting. Staying home more while the kids are at school (even though I always seem to have somewhere to go), baking warm treats to fill the house with the scent of cinnamon, decorating the house for the seasons and starting to prepare for the Christmas season. And with all of that comes a real desire to get back into my blog. I know that I have tried before with little success but here we go again.
My camera is still out and with the arrival of my iPhone early this year I have no excuse not to take photos of our everyday life. I am still taking the photos but I realize that I am not enjoying looking at them anymore. So today as I scrolled through some recent photos of some things we have enjoyed this Fall I saw how many great photos I have. Not technically great, but memory great.

Thanksgiving weekend in Whistler:






 

Raking leaves: 
 
 
 
 
 Pumpkin patch:
 
 
 
 
 

The fresh face of 10!

Happy Birthday sweet girl! You have entered the age of double digits and it looks great on you!

For a girl who loves nothing more than to be playing outside she received the perfect gifts. A new bike, a pogo stick and a badminton racket of her very own. Along with a few other things and some good old cash from grandparents.
 
 
 
She enjoyed her day to the fullest, which she is so very good at.
Breakfast out at the Dutch Pannekoek House, then off to school. Skipping school on your birthday has never been an option but even if it was she would choose to go. She's too much of a social girl to miss hanging out with her friends. Popsicles were her treat of choice to share with her class so I brought those up 10 min. before the end of the day and she enjoyed handing them out to her classmates.
After school she spent some time running around outside with her friends enjoying some rare warm weather. Tacos were her dinner of choice and Daniela, Nana, and Opa joined us. After dinner we all walked the the playground for some badminton games and more playing with friends. Then back home for birthday cake.
 
As I tucked her in at bedtime I again realized how Reagan is such a blessing to our family and how thankful I am that she is ours. She enjoyed every aspect of the day and takes life exactly how it is handed to her, usually with a smile.
Reagan, you are truly a gem and we love you!

A new meaning

The words 'football season has started' used to mean simply one thing in our house. It meant I had now lost Tony every Sunday, every Monday night, and the occasional Saturday or Thursday to NFL football on TV.
This week it meant something entirely different. It meant driving to football practices 3 nights a week, a trip to the doctor and x-ray clinic for a possible torn tendon in a thumb, fitting mouthgaurds, signing concussion forms (?!!?) and washing really horribly smelly football gear.
Cooper and Hudson both started tackle football this week.
Hudson for the Abbotsford Falcons and Cooper for the Bateman Wolves, where he will be going to high school next year.
Fortunately, Cooper's 5-day-a-week practices happen right in our backyard at the high school field. No driving and most importantly, I can spy on him.
Which of course I did. I took all of these with my zoom lens, hiding in our backyard. Trying my best not to embarrass him.
He's #24.




After only 5 practices Cooper was more exhausted than I have ever seen him.
Hudson was tired too, but more bummed out about his injured thumb. Makes it pretty hard to catch a ball. Another doctor appt this week with another x-ray will hopefully tell us a little more.
And some photos of Hudson will show up here soon, I'm sure.

Alone play

I'm not sure what it is about the sound of a child playing alone, lost in their own imagination, that is so lovely to me. It has always been something that has brought me joy.
 I used to hear it a lot when Cooper was little. He was the best at playing alone, and still is actually. The other three have always so been used to others around that I think that is the way they like it best. Taggart actually has a really hard time being alone. He wants a friend to come over every day after school, and with all the neighborhood friends he usually gets his wish. As soon as one friend goes, he immediately searches out another one.
Last night at 5:00 his friends went home. I told him that he couldn't play with another friend because it was almost dinner time. I wouldn't even let him go see Nana, even after he asked me a dozen more times. He was mad.....really mad. He told me I 'never let him play with his friends!'  ??? I didn't respond but instead watched him stomp (he has the stomp down pat, he's practiced it a lot) off to his room where I dare say, he played alone.
This morning I woke up to a little voice making all kinds of play alone noises. You know the ones...bombs exploding, people running, airplanes flying. I found him in his room carrying on from yesterday. It didn't last long but is made me stop at his door and spy on him for a while. Best of all, I know now his is capable of alone play and I have a photo to prove it. I can use this when he wants the fourth friend of the day to come over.

Tag

He is my baby.
Sometimes he seems so much older than he is because he's always trying to keep up with his older siblings.
Sometimes he is still such a baby because he is the youngest and gets too much done for him.
He wants to be outside more than he wants to be anywhere else.
He is really clever.
He has a hard time focusing on any task at hand.
Mornings are not his best.
Writing is also not his best.
He can read really well but he would rather be outside.
Tonight he combined reading (something he had to do) with being outside (something he wanted to do) and it was successful.

Run for Water

The kids and I ran our first Run for Water event. This has been in our community for a few years now and the kids always hear lots about it at school. But this year, Hudson got excited about it and decided he wanted to try and raise some money.  Thanks to his efforts and the generosity of neighbors, friends and family he raised $220 which made him the third highest fundraiser at his school.
Well, his enthusiasm caught on and we all decided to go run with him. We registered for the 5K fun run.
So we got up early this morning and headed down to the race site. It ended up being the best ever turn out for the event with over 4500 participants, over 2500 just in the 5K. I lost Cooper, Hudson and Reagan even before the start but they wanted to set their own pace. Hudson had a goal of finishing in under 30 minutes. He clocked in at 28:02, Cooper at 28:05, Reagan at 34:00 (who ran the whole race by herself) and Taggart and I brought it home at 48:08.
We all had fun and were happy to have been a part of it. We saw loads of friends there and even a few that we haven't seen in a long time. A great community event that we will definitely participate in next year.
Tony came to cheer us on at the finish line and be official photographer. It's hard to get focused photos of people moving so fast. :)