A New Day In My World.....

Another day....

2010-12-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

another dollar, no actually another adventure.

Dropped Jai off @ 9am only to get called @ 9:30 to come pick him up. Apparently the poor kiddo got ran over, literally. No, not by a vehicle, but by a 6th grader. He alright he only had a few red marks and one heck of a bloody nose - Nice! I only brought him home to change and rest a bit. He didn't want to come home @ first, he wanted to stay. Anyhow, onto my point of the post. When I went to go drop him off I was watching the kids as they played. There were all in bunches playing. Not many were on the "wooden structure" (aka playground...not much play going on though!) and only a few hardcore beybladers were under it. Other kids were running aimlessly, using skip ropes in many many MANY creative ways. I'm glad to see them all using their minds but there really should be more than a few skip ropes to play with. A few kids "harnessed" another child, making him pull them all around the cemented area. Some were having a tug of war, that one kind of made me quiver. What if the one kid let go? It was 1 vs 3.... 3 would have toppled like dominos. Eeeek!!!!

Wooden Structue - aka Main Playground

After dropping him off I walked home thinking about just how important this contest through AVIVA really is. The community really has come together. This play area will serve the kids and families of the community, not just the school students. As of now, we have over 16500 Votes. Lets keep it going up, people!!! Sign up @ AVIVA and vote for LAURA SECORD. It really is a needed project. The kids do have a mini playground. Not a whole lot of room for the 600+ students. Jais last school of 100 kids had a bigger play area - I kid you not!!

Micro mini (but still very fun for a smaller crowd) Playground

I hope we can stay in the top 10 for this contest and get the chance to @ least be considered for this awesome project. I've posted,voted and tweeted like crazy, probably driven a few people nuts but you know what, its for the kids and community that surround me. Totally well worth it. :)

Wooden structure, swing frame shaped monkey bars? and swing set.

If you have a min, please VOTE.

Santa arrived!!

2010-12-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

Ok, so not here in our house but he arrived downtown. The parade was AWESOME! Alydo loved it, the characters dressed up, the music and most of all SANTA!! Jai liked it but he is @ an age where it is uncool to show he is liking stuff. LOL Fun, hey?!!

Nothing too thrilling on the agenda, birthday time again here. Tomorrow is my dh's bdy, the 13th is mine and the 16th is my moms. There are a few others but these are the main ones. :)

Have a good one, and please vote!!!!!!!

INFO ON VOTING

Later.

All dressed up....

2010-12-03T17:44:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago we, ok I, decided to do a last min little photo session. I needed a xmas pic of the munchkins, this was a fave of the bunch. :)

They clean up pretty good, eh?

:)

p.s No, she is not really that tall. Thank goodness for stepping tools. LOL

Yay me!

2010-12-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

Some pointless chatter to start the day.

Yay me, I won a $25 GC to a really cool company. :) With some savy shopping I managed to pick out $24.90 worth of goodies, including shipping!

Lazy day here. You guys?

Another reminder to vote for Jaiden's school. The competition is tough...VERY tough but there is always hope if we do our best. One of the local schools/neighbourhood houses is also in the contest. A few parents,residents might feel a a bit bad voting for only 1. Easy way to solve that...vote for both!! Yea you will only have 1/2 the votes but you will be voting equally. ;) That, or you can always resume a superhero alias and use their email addy. :)

Anyhow.... just vote, would ya?!! I'd love ya billions. (maybe)

(thank you google for the image above)

Show a little love, would ya??!!!

2010-12-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

Firstly, I'm ba-ack! on a mission too.

Remember a bit back when I asked for votes to help J's school?? I asked you all to go to THIS page, sign up (SUPER EASY!!-You do need an email address) and VOTE for J's school to get a new playground?! Sound familiar?? Well, I need you to do it again. With all the awesome people out there in cyberland voting we made it into the semi finals. Like all the other entrants, we want to WIN!!! To do that, we need VOTES!! So PLEASE go to AVIVA COMMUNITY FUND and help us out. Seriously, this is a needed thing for the school. The kids have a treehouse (no roof or really anything but a slide attached!) 1 basketball hoop and 2 swings. No, not 2 swing sets, 2 ACTUAL SWINGS!!! For well over 600 kids. If you follow the link to our voting page there is more info, some pics and even a few videos. This won't just benifit the students and parents of Laura Secord Elementary, it will help everyone in the community. The plans for the new playground/outdoor classroom are awesome, check them out on our page.

I may sound like a broken record for a bit but please, we need the votes!!!!!!

You can vote 1 time a day, for the 10 days the voting goes on. Votes go by EMAIL addresses not IP addresses,so get everyone in your house with an email address to help us out!! Even Spot the doggy or Goldie the goldfish!! (KIDDING, you get the point though, right?!!!) Email the link, post it,tweet it, write it and share. I don't care HOW you get the word out, just do it!!!!!!

I'll probably host a little contest to get things going. For now, pls vote & share!!!!!

Another site to check out is: http://supportourplayground.org/ It well worth the bookmark. :) Check it out.

Later ,

Amanda

Lest We Forget.....

2010-11-10T08:40:00.000-08:00

Hiatus is almost over....

2010-11-06T21:12:00.000-07:00

Its been a LONG month.....i'll update more as well as post like crazy soon enough.

Vote-place to play for our local kids!!! - Aviva Community Fund - Secord

2010-10-09T17:03:00.000-07:00

The PAC @ my sons school is amazing. Instead of pummeling us with $$ for this and $$ for that papers or other $$ requests (Come on, we all know usually your bombarded @ the beginning of the yr for $$) they have come up with something else. They're asking for one and all to help Ecole Laura Secord Elementary earn a new playground. The school itself is pretty cool. Right now majority of the kids are crammed into portables lined up along the old "field". The seismic upgrades in progress have jumbled a lot up at the school. That said, the faculty are doing great jobs working with it as well as helping the kids work with it. All you have to do is follow the instructions below:

-Go to HERE

-Sign up for a free acct

-Once signed up go back to HERE if it doesn't bring you back automatically.

-CLICK the big VOTE button and *poof* your done.

-Come back daily to vote, invite all friends and family. As long as they have an email address they can vote.

Our school has done awesome so far, but if we make it past this round, there is another and then the final decision after that. Please wish us luck!!! (VOTE TOO!!!)

The "Idea" INNER-CITY SCHOOL PLAYGROUND: Green in the City Laura Secord really is an awesome idea. It is one that serves so much more than just the school kids. We're always out and about so playgrounds frequent our daily activities. This is a project that I hope goes forward and blooms fully. Here is the informational blurb explaining the "idea" in full.

Laura Secord School is located in East Vancouver in an inner-city neighborhood with a diverse mix of cultures and families actively invested in their community. The school began a seismic upgrade of our 88-year-old building in December 2009. Almost all of the existing playground equipment had to be torn down to make way for portable classrooms to house a student body of 650 elementary school students. All that remains for intermediate students is 1 basketball hoop, 2 swings and an old wooden structure. The school has had to implement separate recesses for primary and intermediate grades because of a lack of space and safety issues. We would like to see our kids be able to play together as a unified group again.
The PAC has been actively raising money towards new playground equipment to meet our students’ needs for safe and accessible outdoor space. Laura Secord is located on a major traffic thoroughfare and the grounds must be checked for discarded glass, condoms and syringes on a regular basis. Our goal is to create an urban play environment made from safe and sustainable materials that will greatly contribute to the quality of life in our community; a play environment that will attract families outside of school hours and be safeguarded by our neighbours. Plans for new equipment include a wheelchair-accessible play area, a primary play structure, an intermediate play structure, an outdoor classroom and an interactive green space. Vancouver has very few wheelchair-accessible play areas, Laura Secord would like to offer this to our surrounding community for everyone to use.
The school is home to a number of outreach programs, including Strong Start, Neighbourhoods of Learning and afterschool care. These programs serve the needs of local residents of all ages, from preschoolers to seniors. The new outdoor space is specifically designed to promote interaction between generations, cultures and ability levels. New initiatives include plans for a primary “Adopt-a-Grandparent” reading program, preschool age programs and a kid-friendly interactive green space.
Laura Secord is a K-7 primary school that serves an inner city community. It offers English and French immersion programs. The school also serves many local eastside feeder schools in the area with the Late French Immersion program that starts in Grade 6. The latest Fraser Institute Report Card gave Laura Secord a score of 3.8/10, ranking it 771 out 876 schools in 2008-2009. Our school has an ESL rate of 25% and our neighbourhood’s median household income is $35,300, compared to a Vancouver average of $47,300. We also have a higher percentage of our population in low-income and single parent households compared to Vancouver averages. Our community has a great need for a safe outdoor space where people of all ages and abilities can gather and learn from one another.
Our mission at the school is to create a safe and nurturing environment for all of our students. Our motto is “I take care of myself. I take care of others. I take care of this place.” Please help us take care of our students by providing them with an outdoor space where they can not only play, but also learn!

My son is new to this school, that said seeing a PAC like this in charge is SO good to see. The hearts are huge and ideas are plentiful.

VOTE PLEASE VOTE DAILY

Thanks!
A :)

Three, Baby!!!!

2010-10-09T00:30:00.000-07:00

Our lil doodle is 3!!!

Its so crazy to think just 3 short yrs ago we were worried about how our new baby girl would fit into our lives. Would anything change? How would Jaiden react? ect ect.

Now, here we are, 3yrs later and totally loving every minute of being a family of 4.

Lil miss spent had an awesome birthday. She had a mini celebration @ school. She LOVED it when the kids sang to her. She sang too. On the Sat before her actual bday, we had a prty with friends and some family. She had a ball. This little girl really knows how to have fun. On her bday we went for lunch @ IKEA...she loves IKEA. While sitting there, there were 2 other girls, one 3 too who all shared the same birthday. (all diff families) That was kinda cool. After a wonderful and yummy family cake we stepped out to CUPCAKES to pick up Alyssa's special present from her auntie in NL. She picked out 6 yummy cupcakes and was excited to gobble them up. (No...she didn't eat all 6, sheeesh!) All in all I think she had a blast turning 3. :) Now ono the net birthday of many to come in the net little while. Our *baby* boy will be NINE!!! Aye!

Evening all. :)

p.s Vote for Nate, as well as Jaiden's school.(link is on my personal facebook feed) I'll post more on the school later. :)

Vote for NATHANIEL please!!!!!!

2010-09-30T20:29:00.000-07:00

A family friend entered her sweet little guy in a photo contest. If you have a few minutes, pls do the following:

Go to facebook - www.facebook.com
"LIKE" ---->    http://www.facebook.com/#!/tsaCreations
Go to   -------> VOTE FOR NATHANIEL

Come back, let me know via comments that you voted (remember I can see this!) and you will be entered to win a Prize, winner will be drawn on Oct. 28th. ****

You can add extra entries by resharing on facebook and tweeting on twitter. (pls include twitter link) Make separate comments for each eligible entry.

Tweet must send people here, to my blog then they will follow the link here to FB.

RT @sproutz help Nate win http://andimw.blogspot.com/ #funnybaby

Prize will be:

A Pair of random hair clips made by me, plus a mystery item.
OR
Toddler tee, again made by me.

****note: under 3 entries contest will be canceled.

(to find your twitter link, click your tweets, then click the time UNDER the tweet and a page with only that tweet should pop up.)

Come on, lets help his mom win that prize, and try to grab a freebie!

Fall is here

2010-09-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

Finally it is fall. Crazy, dreary,cold fall...lol, ok, well today was a really nice day. Let's hope the good weather is here for a bit. :)

Lil miss doddle is about to turn 3. Its pretty cool to see her so excited but very sad too. She's no longer my baby. She growing into a fun, life loving curious little girl. She loves a lot of girly things but recently has taken a liking to beyblads too. Seriously, this girl can spin. :) Her and her big bro battle frequently. It sounds hilarious hearing "3-2-1 let it rip" blasting out in a toddler voice. She is very excited for her birthday to come. I think she will be on cloud nine for a few dyas afterwards.

Jaiden is doing good still. He likes his new school and seems to have found some beyblade loving friends to hang with. It seems like a pretty serious game. LOL He recently joined the student council as well as the cross country running club. Yay Jaiden!!!!!! He is trying his best to find his groove in his new school. So far so good. :)

Thats it...nothign else too exciting.

take it easy. :)

p.s Sorry if I misspelled "beyblades" I can play but cannot remember how the heck to spell it.

Think about it thursday.

2010-09-16T16:20:00.000-07:00

Something to think about.....

Christmas is about 100 shopping days away. Have you started on your lists???

A new school year is here. :)

2010-09-10T11:06:00.000-07:00

My big lil guy is in grade 4.... GRADE FOUR! That sounds so crazy! Wasn't it just ysterday we were walkign him to preschool??? Where did all the yrs go? Here he is, on his 1st day....the whopping 1hr it was. LOL

He is so smart and has one heck of a sense of humour. :) (pic will be back after watermarked)

Alydo on the other hand is a spitfire. This monkey goes non stop. Can you believe she is almost 3??!

Nothing too crazy to report.... :)

Have a great morning!

2010-09-10T11:02:00.001-07:00

North Vancouver Boyz (California Gurls Parody)

2010-09-03T19:38:00.000-07:00

H-A-P-P-Y

2010-08-30T19:53:00.000-07:00

I like this:

Happy Birthday, A happy yet sad day.

2010-08-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

I hope wherever you are, you had a very happy birthday.

It was a pretty hard day, harder than last year. hy? No idea.

Miss ya tons, love ya 4-ever!

(For my brother in the heavens above, xox)

Fracture - ......looks pretty cool!

2010-08-24T17:47:00.000-07:00

NEVERMINDS the contest part... The company seems to be US only... BOOOO!! Anyhow, they are still a pretty cool company. So, if your an US citizen, check 'em out. Maybe there will be a similar company here for us Canucks???!!!

Hey,

While bouncing through emails today, I found one introducing me to FRACTURE . Knowing there are photo sites up the ying yang these days I was driven to see what was different about FRACURE. Its pretty cool...ok REALLY cool! Its the easiest way to show off your pics I've come across. FRACTURE is a all in one frame/pic/piece of art! Instead of fumbling trying to get the pic straight in the frame, finding matching frames ect, you can build your to your own liking. I think it would be an easy way to personalize your home. Giving even the easiest of shots a professional look. FRACTURE photos are so cool. The digital images and frame are all printe donto shatter resistant/sharp edge free glass. The photos last too....no fading or anything , even in super sunny conditions for 3-5yrs. I'm excited to see a product like this coming out. The images I've seen online look SO vibrant.....lets see how they are in person.

If I am 1 of 100 lucky bloggers, Iwill be writing a follow-up post about Fracture with feedback after testing it out. Pretty cool, he?? Wish me luck!!

“I wrote this blog post in response to a TwitterMoms RAMBO alert, making me eligible to get a Fracture picture frame for review. You can learn more about Fracture at http://www.fractureme.com.”

www.FRACTUREME.com <---- check it out. :)

Snoopy even thinks its cool. LOL (Image thanks goes to google search!)

Oh crapola!

2010-08-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

Of course, life got all bust and my poor little blog world was neglected.

The kids are great, camp is wrapping up so now wee on the prowl for things to do to survive the rest of the days of summer. Thank goodness for the PNE LOL (Biiiiiiiiiiig fair. :) )

As I said, it has been crazy - busy here. Our little getaway was awesome. It was nice to just hang out, no worries. :) The kids LOVED panning for gold. :) Our 1st night away my poor dh started getting an allergic reaction to something - we still don't know what. Unfortunately for him the town shuts down @ like 8pm and this was 10pm ish. NICE!! He went to a few gas stations, nothing..... Luckily I had some benadryl packed for the kids, just in case. He ttok some and was fine. Didn't like the taste...hahahaha!! We came home and Alydo was looking off. She didn't want to play and was pretty warm. I gave her some Tylenol and all seemed fine. Fine until the next afternoon that is. She went to use the "dora pot" and screamed like a banshee.(happened a few times after) Made an appt with the ped, he wanted a "sample". From a 2yr old...hmmmmmm...... Yeah that was fun! Whatever, it was worth the struggle to void a catheter placement. She really took us for a ride. We originally got sent from the peds office to Children's where she refused to "go". We brought the cups...YES CUPS(2) home and withing 2 mins of being home the kid was peeing like crazy and not complaining. DH hopped back into the car and rushed off to find a lab open to bring this to. Thankfully he just caught one. :) Nothing came back in the labs so we never did get an answer as to what was going on.....craziness I tell you.
If that wasn't bad enough dh managed to get bitten by lord knows what and it got all queasy looking. He goes in just to check it out , gets a dx for antibiotics and a tetanus shot. LOL Lucky guy eh??!!

These were *wonderful* situations to have happen shortly after returning home. There was one more even...one that took the cake. My SWEET 8yr old boy decided to play hockey @ camp. (Like a true Canadian!!! LOL) What happens? He gets smacked by a hockey stick (slap shot or something...who knows!) Black eye? nope... Bruise?? Nope Mt sweet kiddo with 2 loose teeth on the TOP of his mouth managed to knock out 1/2 of a PERMANENT tooth on the bottom. Good gracious when I saw (in the evening btw...no one, not even him noticed before me) it missing I almost fell over. Kids!!! Needless ot say no more hockey w/o a mouth guard and maybe even a full body suit of armour. :)

These have been some of the weeks biggest events......hopefully the rest of summer is a lot calmer. :)

Later. :)

Publish Post

Ponder this:

2010-07-20T21:47:00.000-07:00

Why is it that when you tell a person that there  are 400 billion stars in the sky and he'll believe you, tell him a bench  is wet and he has to touch it? 

We're baaa-ack!

2010-07-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Wow, is it ever good to be back in the city. :) I grew up in the areas we went to visit so it is kinda funny to think I now prefer the city. We had so much fun. The kids loved every part of our visit. Can you believe....NO tantrums!!!!! We saw some old friends and visited family. My lil guy even got to use an outhouse. ROFLMAO..... with his "omg, Mom, there's just a hole!!!" comment you could totally tell he is a city kid. I'll post some pics one day and you will see the fun we had. :)

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Yep...only my luck!

2010-07-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Only I could manage to have this happen:

When I was walking to Jaiden's camp the other day we were dealing with the tail end of a wind storm. Crap..ok, not litterally crap (thank goodness!) but trees, dirt ect was flying all over. I live in a very tree filled street. Within 10 mins of leaving the house Imanaged to have nothing peg my eye ball...fricken hurt like crazy. If that wasn't bad enough, I managed to walk down the street @ the just same exact time as a bee got pushed into a tree, fell down from it and landed right smack dab dow my shirt!!! The little turd stung me 2 times (ok, so maybe not a been wasp perhaps?)...maybe even 3!! It might not have been so bad if he aimed for my bobbs, lord knows they could used a "plumping". LOL Nope, he got my stomach!! Nice, eh?? He seemed to miss the emmo that I do not need any further plumping thee. *sigh* Just my luck!

We haven't left yet. We're leaving today sometime. I think Dinotown is 1st on our list. We'll see how traffic goes. Have a great day everyone!

p.s Stay away from them bees/wasps & trees.

Going away

2010-07-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again. The time where we get to spend a night or 2 away from the busy city. We were going to go away for a week + , however stuff beyond our control is cutting our time away short. The kids are excited and so am I. (Alan too, I think?! :p ) We won't go far but I'm sure we'll have a blast.

Do you have any exciting plans? With the economy still a bit shaky most people I know are trying to find deals to help them out. There is tons of things to help. Even the chip companies ar ehelping out. With one, you collect points and can redeem them for things like BOGO free admission to tons of places, car rentals ect ect.... I'm not a big chip fan but hey it's a good deal.

Have great summer!!

HOT!

2010-07-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Woweeee, it's 10am and already its crazily hot out. 23C to be exact. No, its not the hottest but considering we've gone from chilly to cooking in a matter of days, its crazy. I love the sun!! The warm rays can't help but put me in a good mood.

The kids have been loving the water fights and sprinkler runs. :)

Happy sunshine to one and all.
-Amanda

Am I the only one?

2010-07-03T15:54:00.000-07:00

Who doesn't know what this:

<------ is all about? The previews say it is a trilogy and then talk about:

<------- this.

It looks pretty cool. Has anyone seen/read these? they come in a bundle but I would rather get some info before going to see or buy. :)

I like psychological horror films....they keep you on your toes. :)