My Little Pumpkins!

Well, nobody actually dressed up as a pumpkin, and we only actually carved one pumpkin, but we had a fun Halloween! I wasn't sure how Cameron and Aiden would do, but they both had naps in the afternoon and it all worked out in the end!!

Our Halloween day started with someone coming at eight-twenty in the morning to look at our kitchen cabinets (I had posted them for sale online Friday night). The flooring guys came to put in more of the floor and Greg had to take Andrew to hockey at 11:15. I took Trevor, Cassie, Aiden and Cameron to the gym (Cassie's dance was cancelled, but I didn't know that so I tried to drop her off, but no one was there!!). The little boys went to Kiddie Kare, Cassie went to Junior Drama (a drop-in class) and Trevor rode the stationary bike while I taught step class.

All showered and cleaned up, we stopped at home for Trevor to get his bowling shirt and make some sandwiches and cut some fruit for the little ones to eat in the car. We dropped Trevor off at the bowling alley then went to Andrew's hockey meeting for the parents. The kids played in the gym (where I ended up helping to supervise although I would have preferred to go to the meeting). Then we drove around until Cameron fell asleep and I left him and Cassie at Tammy's (our house was quite noisy with the flooring installation). Aiden finally fell asleep on the way back to our house and even managed to sleep through the noise and commotion.

In the afternoon another couple came to look at the cupboards. We weren't really expecting people to come look so soon, so we had piled everything in the garage in a very haphazard fashion. That means everything was a huge mess! But the couple that came in the afternoon wanted a better look so Greg and I cleaned out the garage and arranged the cupboards nicely. That couple came back later for a second look and to leave a deposit cheque. Yeah!! I am quite relieved - both for the extra little money and the space to park in the garage again!

I went to get a few groceries for supper and to pick up Cassie and Cameron then back to make tacos and rice and eat before Trick-or-Treating. Adrian came by and helped the kids carve the pumpkin. I found the candles, but I couldn't find any matches in the disarray our house is in!! Luckily the neighbor girl came by and she brought a lighter.

Greg and Trevor handed out treats and Adrian and I took the kids around the neighborhood (five kids all together!). It really wasn't as cold as I had expected, and the kids had fun. Cameron was a little unsure at first, but he caught on really quickly!! He was saying, "Thank you" and "Bye" by the third house and was excited to keep going. Once we had done our street I thought we'd leave Cameron and Aiden at the home and continue with the big three, but they would have none of that! I did get the stroller for Cameron (and Aiden tried to use it, too), but they all held in until the end!! I think we'll have enough treats until Easter for sure!!

Ten Bugs in the Bed

Well, actually just six bugs in the bed, but eight with the cat and dog! Everyone came into our bed for a snuggle this morning, which is quite a common occurrence... I don't mind as long as I am ready to be awake; it's the days I am still sleepy that I don't want company!! Today I was awake before everyone else which is odd since I was extremely tired. Cameron got into a habit of "watching the news" when Gramma and Grampa were here while Greg and I were in Ottawa. Last night Cameron and I turned on the TV, but my eyes closed pretty quickly (as did Cameron's I assume since he was sleeping on my chest) and Greg turned the TV off when he finally came to bed!
Morning snuggles are fun, especially when the kids say the silliest things. Most days I am at work before anyone else wakes up, but on Tuesdays I go in later so I can take Cassie from piano lessons to school, along with Cameron to the sitter and Aiden to pre-school. A week or so ago, Aiden was the only one awake and in for a snuggle. Greg was in the shower, and Aiden had a yawn and a stretch and announced, "I love you Mommy!" A nice start to the day for sure! Then he asked, "Where is Daddy?" I told him he was in the shower. He was quiet for a bit and just then Greg did a major nose blow (the honking kind!) and Aiden, wide eyes and all, said, "I thought you said Daddy was in the shower - I think that is an elephant in there!" You just can't script lines like that!!
I have been taking Aiden to speech therapy and the older kids sometimes try to help him say words correctly, too. Today, everyone was awake (except Greg, maybe, he was up late working on the kitchen). Aiden was babbling away and Andrew announced that we have to work on teaching Aiden to properly say 'brother'. I have no idea how he pronounces it (or mispronounces for that matter) so I asked Aiden to say brother. Without missing a beat he replied, "Andrew!" He's pretty sharp!
Cameron is talking up a storm, too! Within context we can often understand him, but may times we just smile and say, "Oh really?" My computer screen has a picture of the four kids on their first day of school. Cameron loves to point to each one and say, "Cassie! Andrew! Aiden!" then when he gets to the picture of himself he says, "You!!" I guess that makes sense because we all point and say, "Oh, there's a picture of you!" Poor kid - he might need some kind of therapy when he's older!!

Tick Tock

I just wanted to share a few stories about Andrew before I forget them!! Sometimes I have the best laughs over things he says and does!! Travelling in a car is a great place for him to show off some of his most quirky characteristics. Today we went to piano lessons after school (as we do every week). We had to leave the lesson early to get to a meeting for Reconciliation (or First Confession as we used to call it!). As we were driving along talking about reconciliation and what it means and so on, I was quizzing Andrew to see what he knew. Turns out he knew quite a bit (as usual). He went on to tell me about sins and that lying is a sin. Then he told me he lied to me. Once. Apparently, he was four. I was in the laundry room and he told me the dog peed on the floor, but really Aiden had spilled juice. And that was it. Hmmmff...
The meeting itself went well; Cassie is also in the class. Actually, she is a year late and Andrew is a year early. But it's just as well to get them in the class at the same time. They had some interesting answers during the class and played an entertaining game of "Sin or No Sin". Andrew's ethics are a bit more black and white than Cassie's!
On the way home we had more interesting conversation. I was making clicking noises (to pass the time in slow traffic, mostly) then Cassie started to do it too. Andrew was in the back seat and I said, "Hey, I sound like a metronome!" Then we all practiced being metronomes (Andrew needs one for piano if anyone was interested in a Christmas gift for him). The novelty soon wore off and it was quiet in the car. Andrew perked up and said, "Wow, Mom, you are really doing a great impression of a metronome now!" I had to burst his bubble since it wasn't me at all, but the turn-signal light! Tick-tick tick-tick tick-tick!! (I'm not even that talented!!)
We have a super-insanely busy week with something going on every night. Last night Greg worked late so the four kiddos and I took Trevor to his Special Olympics meeting. He is part of a team selected to go to Nationals in London, Ontario next summer. It was an interesting meeting. All athletes sign a form promising to train at least three times a week, so I guess our house will be on the go even more so for the next year!
After piano and reconciliation class we picked up some groceries, and filled the car with gas (how can I get to way-below-empty so quickly?), did a little homework and off to bed for the munchkins. Tomorrow I have a pre-school parent committee meeting and Thursday I have to work. I will be facilitating a video conference on pH1N1 and I have a very interesting panel to discuss a variety of cases. I am rather excited to hear what they have to say - especially with all the media hype out there on the topic.
Friday the flooring guy will start putting in the hardwood. I am super-excited about that!! I will be so very glad when the kitchen is done and our house can be normal (as if we're ever normal around here!! Ha ha!). It's all good. I have Andrew for comic relief! (If not him, one of the others pitches in just in time!! I'd say Aiden is next with the comedy, with Trevor as a pretty good runner-up! Cameron is so cute with his talking lately - which is a lot for a two-year-old, and Cassie has completely mastered the art of sarcasm, she's even perfected the eye roll for the whole effect!).

Happy Thanksgiving 2009!

Happy Thanksgiving and long weekend everyone!!
We had a nice weekend. Mom and Mel stopped by on Thursday (the kids were off school so I took a day off work, too). They were taking Trevor and his new quad to their house and Cassie and Aiden wanted to go along. Andrew had to stay behind because he had one last hockey evaluation to attend. Cameron would be okay without us, but he's a little small to go for the weekend yet! So Cassie and Aiden loaded up on rather short notice (we didn't know they were even in the city!), climbed into Gramma's truck and off they went.
Andrew, Cameron and I packed ourselves up and went to an interview for a test Cassie had written in school last year. It's a nation-wide standardized test and all students in grade 4, 7 and 10 write it. It was interesting to see the results and hear the discussion. They had childcare there as well, so that made it easy to go!
The boys and I did a little shopping as well. Andrew had been saving "Christmas-Birthday-First Communion-Passing-School" money for quite some time. He's picked a number of items that interest him, but so far he and I have not been in agreement. This time, though, he picked an Ipod. I finally agreed to his choice! Late that night I spent several hours loading songs for him (and attempting to do movies, but that's a very long story that doesn't have a great ending!!). In the end, it's good because I've never really learned to use mine much and now I have a better understanding of how it all works! I still have a way to go before I become proficient, but at least I can add songs now!! I need a little more time to explore options!
Friday we all went to the Y at lunch where I taught step class. I hadn't been there for quite a while (we were away - more on that later!) and it felt so good to be back! It's funny how you miss the people and the activity and the conversation! Of course, any exercise I get these days is good, too!
Saturday we actually slept in really late! I woke up long enough to change Cameron and open his oatmeal bar, but I had a very long sleep for a change. This is almost unheard of in my life lately! It was great! We are getting ready for the new flooring so we started moving things around the house. Mainly, we worked on clearing out the office/spare bed on the main floor to make room for temporary kitchen storage. The bed went to the toy room in the basement which meant serious cleaning (read that as purging!). It looks much better.
Sunday we had a meet and greet and shinny game for Aiden's hockey team. I know one of the other mom's on the team so that was nice! I think we have a fun little team - and a great coach. Aiden will love it. He was so excited about his jersey. And Gramma Sharon had bought him some new long underwear for under his equipment - he had to sleep in it he was so excited! (The long underwear, not the jersey or equipment!! lol).
We had dinner at our house; Mom was back with Cassie, Aiden and Trevor, BJ and Char came over as did Adrian. We had turkey and ham and all the other fixin's. And two apple pies for desert!! Yummy! We played dominoes, and it seems while I can kick Andrew's butt one-on-one, I was not so lucky last night!!
Today we tore down the wall between the kitchen and dining room. The 2x4's are still there (because there is wiring), but it won't be long now!! I am very excited - we need better space and better storage. It's hard to be patient!! (I'll try to post some pictures in the next week.) Hope you all had a great weekend, too!

Back to School

The kids started school on August 27 this year. Cassie and Andrew were very excited to go back. Andrew knew who his teacher was going to be, but Cassie was a bit apprehensive as she thought her new teacher was someone who had subbed at their school last year and was not the nicest person in the world. It turns out her teacher is totally someone else!! Cassie was quite relieved.

So now I'm writing all the post-dated cheques for lessons throughout the year, signing the boys up for hockey and skating, Cassie for dance and getting back into the routine of making lunches. I don't know where summer disappeared to!

Cassie was the most excited to go back to school!

Andrew was excited to wear his new clothes (finally!)!

Aiden was just excited (he doesn't start playschool until next week).

Cameron was excited because everyone else was!!

Bungalo Bash

This year was the 19th Annual Bohemian Bungalow Bash. The weekend has been a tradition for a long time! I certainly enjoy spending time with these families. When I first met them all, everyone was single or dating. Now everyone is married (we've attended a number of the weddings!), most have at least a few kids, a few are divorced, and a few have re-married! I guess that's what happens to people after 20 years!!

Anyway, the group was fairly small this year, but enjoyable nonetheless. I even found some time on Sunday to read a book (although laughing out loud while reading seems to be a bit of an anomaly around this group - how sad!!).

There were more kids than adults so the kids sure had a lot of fun! Luckily Todd and Sarah's cabin has enough room to hold a lot of people very comfortably. This time, though, the bodies lying about the cabin on mattresses mostly belonged to sleeping children - thirteen years ago when I first started attending the bodies were bigger and "passed out" was a more accurate term than "sleeping"!! Funny how things change!

Apple Tree

We have two apple trees in our back yard. One doesn't produce much, but the bigger one grows the best apples!! This year it produced a lot of apples and they were quite large! It's such a shame I don't have a lot of spare time, because I could have made some great pies, apple crisps and apple juice.

As it was, Mom was here for a few days to take care of the kids (Greg was gone to Winnipeg for the week). She managed to make some pies. There are still so many apples left over - they fall to the ground daily. The kids do eat them, but there are more than we can consume! Next year I think I'll take a few days to do something with them before they go bad!

Darren came down to visit and Cassie and Kendra were quite pleased with finding "the biggest apples" they could reach!! They insisted on a photo! Darren and the three girls stayed in the city for a few days then went on to visit the farm and on to Mom and Mel's. More cousins for the kids to play with! Summer is good!

New Cousin

We went out to visit Greg's cousins Ryan and Sarah and their new baby Piper and their little boy Jack, too. Greg's brother and his wife and two boys were there as well and it was nice for all of the kids to play together. Andrew and Cassie were so cute holding the baby - and I can even still hold two at once!!

Cameron sure doesn't seem like a baby anymore! It's funny how he seemed so little until we held the new baby (she is so cute!!).

We took a few photos of all the kids together, but Miranda doesn't want her boys' photos on the Internet so I'll leave them off. They had fun posing, though - I believe "Dog Pile" was their favorite!! Wil was giving me directions on how to position them (He said, "It makes the photo more interesting if you vary the levels of each person..." or something like that!!). While he was right, it's sometimes challenging to arrange eight children under the age of 10 into the same space let alone an interesting position!! Especially at bed time!!

It's always good to visit, though, and we really don't see either family much these days. I think it's nice for the kids especially to get to know their cousins.

Day Camp

Cassie and Andrew went to Day Camp again this year at the YMCA. It was five days and all day each day. The little boys went to their regular sitter and Greg and I went to work. Cassie and Andrew have a great time - they swim, play outside and do a craft everyday among other activities and they interact with lots of other kids (including some special needs ones). One day they even go kayaking and dragon-boating. The also visited the sports hall of fame this year. I really like the program, and this summer I found it to be run more efficiently than in other years (although that's something the adults notice, I don't think the kids mind). POST HOC: I had an excellent comment about the kids long after day camp was over: The counsellors were discussing their participants to counsellors ratios and the two girls with Cassie and Andrew in their groups listed their numbers. The program coordinator announced that Cassie and Andrew didn't really count in the ratio because they were such good kids that they don't really increase the number!! I thought that was an excellent thing to hear! What a nice compliment! Now, if only they could behave so well for me at home!! After their last day at camp, the kids and I met Adrian at the tennis courts. It was fun, but we were a little rushed. Cameron's racket was a little big!! Andrew played the most - I think he'd be pretty good at it once he gets the hang of it. Maybe one day...

I'd love to learn to play better as well; I've taken a few informal lessons from Adrian, but that time factor always seems to get in the way. I'll leave it on my list of things to do before I die (I hope I live a really long time so I can get that list done!!).