{ cj's chatter }

Till We Meet Again

2012-01-29T19:14:00.000-05:00

Yesterday we went to the funeral of Aunt Heather, who passed away Wednesday afternoon, surrounded by family and friends. She had been battling a rare lung disease for a few years, and her life ended much too soon, as she was only 59 when she left us.

Aunt Heather was simply one of the most amazing women I have ever known. She had the ability to tackle anything with gumption and creativity, and she made everyone in her presence feel loved and special. She and Uncle Peter, after raising 3 children, took in several other children who needed a place to call home.

Our children loved Aunt Heather. They have fond memories of her house because there was always so many fun things to do there. From her decorations and activities, to the playhouse, chickens, pets, and good food, any old visit always felt like a party.

Aunt Heather loved antiques and anything old, especially if it had special meaning. When she heard that we had named our youngest daughter after her (Heather's) Grandmother Clara, she brought over all of Grandma Clara's china. What a precious treasure to pass down to our daughter from her great-great Grandmother and namesake.

Scott and I visited Aunt Heather several times in the hospital during her final days, and Scott was able to share some particularly touching moments and conversations with her during those visits.

While we know that we will be together again one day, we will miss her so very much until we meet again.

Nathan Turns Five

2012-01-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

Nathan was so excited to turn 5 years old.

He had school on his birthday, and asked me to make him some cupcakes to share with his class. We had some "Big Foot" candies left over from our New Years Party, and he had asked if he could have them on his birthday cupcakes. I kept teasing him that he was giving his friends stinky feet cupcakes and he patiently explained to me several times why the candies weren't stinky or made of real feet.

All ready for school on his birthday:

This was Nathan's first year to have a "real" birthday party with friends and games and decorations. He chose a Star Wars theme and we had so much fun planning his party!

Nana, Papa, Grandma & Grandpa all came over to join in the fun and help out with setting up. Papa blew up a LOT of balloons and Nana spent the morning taping them up everywhere.

The invitations:

The decorations:

The party bags:

The games:

Star Wars Bingo
Yoda, Yoda, Kit Fisto (invented by Nathan after Duck, Duck, Goose - with his favourite Star Wars Characters, of course)
Musical Star Wars Characters
Glow in the Dark Dance (with glow light sabres and glow bracelets they won as prizes for Bingo)
Star Wars Blindfold Game (kind of like Pin the Tail on the Donkey with ships and planets)
A Pass the Present Unwrapping Game that we used to play when I was a kid! When the music stops, whoever is holding the present gets to unwrap one layer. Thanks to Grandma who wrapped the prize at least 20 times. It was very suspenseful.

Opening Presents:

Thanking all his friends:

(Samantha dressed up as Princess Leia for the party.)

Cupcakes!

Nathan loves being five. His main goal in life is to catch up to his big brothers in every way. So turning one year older is only bringing him closer to this goal.

He is growing up so fast. He loves Junior Kindergarten, is learning how to ice skate and how to read. He loves to ask questions, most of which I am not smart enough to answer.

Happy Birthday, Nathan. We love you!

Clara Turns Three

2011-09-30T22:22:00.000-04:00

Clara was so excited for her birthday!

We went to church in the morning, and then we drove out of town for Scott's Grandmother's visitation and funeral.

We did get to enjoy some cupcakes in Nursery and again in the van later that night.

Scott decided to bring home an ice cream cake a few days later so that she could blow out her magic wand princess candles and open her cards and gifts.

Clara is such a joy to have in our family.

She loves to play dress up and play princesses. She loves to sing and dance. She loves to paint, colour, draw, and make crafts.

She adores her big sister Samantha. One day during the first week of school, she saw Samantha come home after school. She ran over to her and said, "Samantha! You came back! I'm so proud of you!".

She loves going to Nursery.

She loves her family, siblings, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins.

She loves her special purple blanket. She loves sucking her two fingers and snuggling her blanket at bedtime.

She likes to pretend to be a puppy, and will crawl around the house barking. We try to avoid picking her up, as that will likely result in a slobbery "puppy kiss" on the cheek.

Clara will make friends with anyone who gives her attention, which is pretty much everyone she meets.

We love Clara so much and can't imagine life without her.

Back to School

2011-09-22T16:44:00.000-04:00

I'm always surprised at how quickly summer is over and school is here again.

Samantha is in Grade 6 this year. Grade 6!

Brett is in Grade 4 and is in a 4/5 split class.

JD is in Grade 3 and is in a 3/4 split class. This has been a HUGE change from his grade 1/2 split from last year.

(The French Immersion section of this school is quite small, so there are a lot of split classes. So different from their old school which had over 750 students in french immersion)

Nathan started JK this year. He was so excited and ready to tackle school.

We drove him on his first day, which was almost 2 weeks after the other kids started.

As soon as we parked the van, he jumped out, grabbed his backpack, said "Bye Mom!" and started walking off confidently in the general direction of the portables.

We had to chase him down and explain that his class was in the main school building - in the opposite direction - and that we'd go with him to meet his teacher and get him settled before leaving.

He came home after the first day and said that his teacher's short name was Jones. But that he usually called her by her long name. When asked what her long name was he replied: Mrs. Jones.

(Oh, Mrs. Jones. You have no idea what you are in for this year....)

Nathan goes to school all day, every other day. I think Clara and I are going to enjoy some good quality time together on our 2-3 days a week without Nathan.

I'm a Proud Aunt (AGAIN!)

2011-07-27T18:12:00.000-04:00

My sister had a baby yesterday. A sweet baby girl, named Keira, who weighed in at 7 lbs 1 oz.

She was born on their Wedding Anniversary.

I can't wait to go meet her in a couple of weeks!!

Sunglasses

2011-07-27T08:11:00.002-04:00

Clara loves her sunglasses.

Whenever we are driving on a sunny day, she tells me the sun is in her eyes, and that she needs her sunglasses.

If we don't have her sunglasses with us, she will insist on wearing mine, or any one else's.

She love to tell us that her sunglasses are pink. With butterflies.

Ordinary things in life are so much more exciting through the eyes of a two year old.

If they happen to be pink, that helps too.

Palmyra Pageant

2011-07-26T08:55:00.005-04:00

We love going to the outdoor Pageant in Palmyra.

The boys did a great job cleaning out the van before we left.

This year when we arrived, the first cast members we ran into were friends of Scott's sisters family that we had met 12 years ago when they lived in Ontario.

Waiting for the show to start... Eating the famous Pageant Potatoes. They were as good as we remembered.

The cast was huge this year - over 750 cast members.

Afterwards we drove to Rochester and stayed in a hotel with a pool. We arrived quite late, but went for a swim in the morning, then made another quick stop at the outlets in Niagara Falls before heading home.

It was wonderful to go on our first family trip of the summer!

Sisters

2011-07-25T11:33:00.000-04:00

August 2010:

(My sister made these adorable matching dresses.)

June 2011:

Samantha left yesterday to fly out West to spend a week with her cousins. I miss her already!

Clara does too.

Muffins

2011-07-23T09:18:00.006-04:00

My friend, Shannon, and I got together to make 13 dozen muffins for our Stake's Young Women Camp.

156 muffins plus extras for our children and husbands to "sample".

We were a good team and got them all done and cleaned up in about 3 hours.

We made Blueberry Muffins, Classic Banana Muffins, Apple Spice Muffins, and Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins.

Click each kind to see the recipe. I didn't include a link to the Pumpkin Muffins, as I decided to share it right here. Yes, it only has 3 ingredients.

And they are SO good!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 box Spice Cake Mix

1 can Pumpkin Pie Filling

1 cup Chocolate Chips

Combine in mixer, bake at 375 until done (about 15 minutes). Enjoy!

Brett's Birthday

2011-07-20T23:11:00.008-04:00

Brett turned 9 and he chose to spend the day at Storybook Gardens. He invited a friend from school, and Grandma, and it was a lot of fun.

Before we left, we had a breakfast of bacon & eggs, toast, fruit and chocolate milk.

It was really hot outside, and super sunny, so the kids are squinting in most of the photos.

The bubble station had some fun wands. Some of the bubbles were huge!

We came home for chocolate cake before the soccer games.

JD's present to Brett... 2 goals at their soccer game!

Happy Birthday Samantha

2011-05-24T08:38:00.000-04:00

Eleven! Hard to believe.

Thanks to all who sent cards and called to say Happy Birthday.

New roller blades.

Samantha is such a fun girl to be around. She is friendly and thoughtful and loves to be creative and inventive. She is an amazing big sister and she loves her family. She especially loves to spend time with her uncles, aunts, and cousins, and her grandparents. We are so blessed to have her in our family.

Happy Birthday, Samantha!

Our Play On! Anniversary Weekend

2011-05-17T22:05:00.001-04:00

This past weekend kicked off the first of 17 Play On! events we will have in 2011. Remarkably, all of these events will be held over the next 6 weeks.

We had a great event in Hamilton! Except for the lousy weather, it was really an outstanding weekend.

Scott and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary on Sunday, and it was definitely a memorable day.

Scott spent the weekend walking the site, talking to players, putting out fires, and training the Hamilton team on the ins and outs of running a Play On! event.

This is where I spent the weekend, in the Scoreboard Tent:

I prefer to stay as dry as possible.

I was really touched that during a busy event day, others would take the time to play a song for us from our first date (thanks, Jeff!), make a loud-speaker announcement, send text messages & emails, and join us for cake, which we ate off paper plates in the Registration tent.

We came home that night to a kitchen full of gifts from our children:

It might take us a while to get through all of those cookies... !

I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful husband. Scott is a devoted, thoughtful husband and a fun, caring, and loving father to our children, and I love being married to my best friend. Happy Anniversary!

3 on 3 - Spring Hockey

2011-05-16T22:22:00.000-04:00

This year we decided to let JD play Spring Hockey. He has been invited in the past, but never played before because it's every Saturday from mid-April until the end of June, right during our crazy busy / travel season for work.

This year when his friend invited him to play on the team, a couple of families offered to take him to the games we aren't able to, so we thought we'd sign him up and give it a try.

So, after a score-less winter hockey season, JD arrived at his first 3 on 3 game last Saturday, and scored 2 goals. Including the winning goal in a shoot-out that resulted in a final score of 6 - 5.

Second game they won 6-2. JD scored four goals!

Third game was against a team of girls, all of which were 2-3 years older than the boys. JD's team ended up losing by a whopping 25-0.

JD is really enjoying the season. My only complaint is that I wish I could go to watch all of his games!

Theory Exam

2011-05-16T22:10:00.003-04:00

Samantha & Brett took the Basic Rudiments Theory Exam (Royal Conservatory) on Saturday.

They were nervous going into it, but came out thinking that it wasn't as hard as they thought it would be. Their teacher did a great job of providing practice exams and fun games to learn the concepts.

Grandma took them to the exam, as Scott and I were out of town for a Play On! event. I wish I could have been there, but I was thinking about them all day.

The Library Field Trip

2011-05-11T10:18:00.000-04:00

We had scheduled a Field Trip for Preschool not too long ago. One of the Moms had planned a Scavenger Hunt at the Park and told us to come rain or shine.

When we woke up that morning to some drizzle and overcast skies, I sighed and pulled out the rainboots, raincoats, and umbrellas.

About 15 minutes before we had to leave the house, we heard a loud crack of thunder. We looked outside to see torrential downpours, lightning, and so much darkness that there was almost no light coming through the windows at all.

We decided to move the Field Trip across the street from the Park to the local Library.

Unfortunately, I only had my iphone handy, so these pictures aren't the greatest quality.

We checked out some books. Clara liked to pick them out herself and put them in her basket.

We played with the train set.

We played some educational games on the computers. It cracks me up seeing the kids wearing these headphones.

As soon as we left the library, the sun was out and it had turned into a beautiful day.

Spring Cleaning

2011-05-10T14:19:00.009-04:00

Samantha cleaned out her backpack last week.

It became so full of "stuff" that she had nowhere to put things.

When I say things, I don't mean an extra hoodie in case it gets cold, or a book she wants to read on the bus.

No, I mean nowhere to put things like her HOMEWORK. And her LUNCH.

This girl has saved every rock, gum wrapper, and piece of string she has found on the playground since preschool.

If you were wondering why our spoon drawer was dwindling down to nothing... mystery solved.

Two days later she woke me up at 2:00 AM to say that she couldn't sleep because she was worried about her art project that was due.

She accidentally threw it away when she cleaned out her backpack.

And the garbage had been picked up that morning (of course).

Still, I'll take the missing art project over the cluttered bag.

Easter Weekend

2011-05-05T09:02:00.000-04:00

Here are some more photos from our Easter weekend. Some highlights:

Samantha and I had a fun Mother-Daughter Activity Night at the church. Lots of crafts, decorating cupcakes, friends, and fun.
Aunt Heather & Uncle Pete planned an Easter Egg Hunt for the kids... in the hen house! Such a fun idea and the weather was perfect.
Clara loved the chickens.
We headed to Colasanti's after the Egg Hunt. Our kids had fun playing with their cousins. I love the photo of Landon chasing JD.
Brett and Scott enjoyed some time with Papa watching Hockey and Man Tracker.
Nana made a beautiful and tasty Easter Ham, and decorated two tables for such a big group.
Clara scavenged all of the chocolate eggs left behind by the older kids and had her own dessert party on the kitchen floor.
We came home for Easter Monday and spent most of the day cleaning out the garage.
For Family Night we made treat baskets to drop off for unsuspecting families. Our kids love to ring the doorbell and race to the getaway car (aka the van).

Happy Easter!

Easter Baking: Some Fun Treats

2011-04-27T22:08:00.001-04:00

We found some yummy treats to make this Easter from a great website called Our Best Bites.

First we made this Glass Block Jello.

The kids were really excited about the Jello blocks and they looked awesome!

But they were happier eating the coloured blocks in the pan before the white layer was added. So next time we might just stop there and have colourful jello salad.

We also made these Cadbury Egg Cookies.

They were wonderful! I highly recommend these.

I made two modifications to the recipe. I used all butter, instead of butter and shortening. And I also reduced the flour to 2 1/4 cups. I think that was due to altitude, so you might need the full 2 1/2 cups where you live.

Now that Easter is over, I'm thinking these would be good to make with M&M's. And you wouldn't have to crush them up.

Enjoy!

Good Friday on the Farm

2011-04-26T22:14:00.001-04:00

We spent Good Friday with two dear friends of mine. We figured, during the visit, that the three of us have been friends for about 23 years now.

We don't get together very often, as none of us have lived in the same city for several years. But when we do get to see each other, we just pick up where we left off.

I love visiting the farm. It makes me want to move out to the country and become a farmer.

So beautiful!

These calves were only a week old.

The kids were so excited to pet the cows.

Preschool - Z Day

2011-04-19T21:49:00.001-04:00

This week was Z day for Preschool. It was at our house again, as one of the Moms in our group recently had a baby, and we worked the schedule to give her a few weeks off.

Here are some of the activities we did:

We were Zookeepers, and built cages for all of our zoo animals using Connectors and Straws.

As the kids put the animals in their cages, we talked about what letter each animal name starts with and what sound that letter makes. It was a good letter review, now that we're at the end of the alphabet.

Then the kids fed the animals and took care of them.

We read some Z books: ZOOM! by Robert Munsch, and 1 2 3 to the Zoo, by Eric Carle.

We glued some Zebras to coloured papers and gave the Zebras black stripes.

Missing My Babies

2011-04-15T18:22:00.002-04:00

Nathan and Clara have spent most of this week at their Nana & Papa's house.

We sure have missed them!

The past few days around here have been peaceful, quiet, lonely, and... ridiculously productive.

And it truly is amazing how clean the house stays all day long. I could get used to that part.

But man, I've sure missed them...

To prepare for the upcoming Play On! season, I needed to update all of the Appendix files for the local Operators, set up the finance spreadsheets and accounts, and a few other organizational tasks.

And last night I hosted a triple baby shower (more about that later - it was so much fun).

Samantha had a talent show at her school, and well, it was a really busy week.

So Nana came to the rescue and agreed to watch Nathan & Clara. So much better than forcing them to watch Treehouse for 14 hours a day, while surviving on a diet of goldfish and rice cakes.

Thank you, Nana!

Being super busy with work helped when we were missing our little munchkins.

Did I mention how much we've missed these kids?

They get back later today and I can't wait to kiss those chubby cheeks!

Happy Weekend, everyone!!

Confessions from a Mean Mom

2011-04-07T21:29:00.003-04:00

My children often accuse me of being the meanest Mom ever.

I admit that I struggle daily as a Mom. I am not a very patient person. I have raised my voice, lost my cool, and have had parenting moments that I would change if I could go back.

But those aren't the things they complain about.

Here are some of the reasons why my kids think I am super mean:

I make them eat vegetables and other healthy food. And I don't fill their lunchbags with Fruit-roll-ups, chips, candy, or soda pop.

I make them brush their teeth and hair. And use soap to get clean in the bath. And wash their hands when they come in the house.

I make them go to bed "early" on school nights (early being 8:30 PM).

I make them tidy up their stuff, make their beds, empty the dishwasher, clean the bathrooms, etc.

I make them do their homework and practice the piano. And learn theory.

I make them apologize and hug each other when they have a fight.

I don't let them play DSi 24 hours a day. I don't even let them keep their DSi's in their own possessions.

Oh, and I put Clara in time-out when she's naughty. I get all kinds of evil eyes when this is going on.

As you can see, I'm definitely up there on the Mean Mom list.

My own Mother has even accused me of being a mean - or should I say a strict - Mom. Because I make my kids wait until the cookies have cooled before they get to eat them.

Ironically, my kids are fine with the waiting part. They have seen homemade cookies so often that they think I'm mean because I don't buy them Oreos, Arrowroots, and Chips Ahoy.

Aaaaah, I just can't win on that one.

But that's okay, because the truth is... I make the cookies for Scott.

Learning the Hard Way

2011-04-06T15:41:00.004-04:00

Scott got up at 5:30 AM this morning to drive to Toronto to catch a flight to the US for a business meeting he had tomorrow.

Unfortunately, his passport had just expired, so he didn't make it through US Border Patrol at the airport.

We didn't even think of checking it, as we were just in Florida a couple of weeks ago, and crossed the border twice without incident.

He came back to London, drove straight to the Passport Office, and had it renewed today. In fact, he's picking it up as I type this.

But, he's going to have to settle for a Conference Call tomorrow.

Live and learn!

Update: April Fool's and Other Random Thoughs

2011-04-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

Some thoughts on what we've been up to lately:

1. Meaghan's concert on Thursday was so much fun! We all loved it!

2. Samantha woke up early (or stayed up late?) to play some April Fools Jokes on her brothers:

Brett was livid and couldn't wait to get the marker washed off. This wasn't surprising given that the boy is 8 years old and has never had his face painted (his choice). He refused to even let me snap a quick photo of the prank.

Jesse was indifferent, but washed his face before leaving for school.

Nathan loved it and wanted to leave it on all day. He thought the moustache made him look like one of the Super Mario Brothers.

3. I loved watching General Conference this past weekend. Especially the Sunday afternoon session. Elder Scott, Elder Robbins, and Elder Holland's talks were some of my favourites.

4. We all loved having Nana in town for the weekend! She taught Brett some Math tricks, danced with Clara to imaginary princess music, and listened to our kids play piano duets.

She also learned what happens when you don't lock the bathroom door at our house.

One minute she was enjoying a peaceful soak in the bathtub... Until the door flew open, Nathan ran in, and decided he needed to take a bath too.

5. Scott and I were able to attend a baby blessing on Sunday night at the home of some friends.

All I can say is newborn babies are precious beyond words. Holding a newborn baby makes me so happy. And sad. Because my children were that tiny once too. And now they are growing up and they do things like wipe my kisses off of their cheeks and foreheads.

6. This week Scott and I made trips (separately) to Toronto to work at the Bishop's Storehouse. He went on Monday with a group of friends and I went yesterday with 3 lovely ladies.

It was neat to see people working together to help those in need, and I was grateful to be part of it, even if just for a few short hours.

7. I think the best (worst) April Fool's Trick of all is that it snowed on Sunday! Spring, where are you??

Preschool - W Day

2011-03-29T19:37:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Preschool was "W" day at our house. I was watching my friend's daughter for the day, so we ended up with 6 kids.

Here is what we did:

LEARNING: We learned about 4 different kinds of whales (blue whale, orca whale, beluga whale, humpback whale)

We went "Whale Watching". I had some hidden pictures of whales around the room and they took turns finding a whale and telling what kind of whale it was.

SONG: Baby Beluga by Raffi - We made wands using straws and had baby beluga whales taped to the ends of the wands. They made the belugas swim and dance to the music.

ACTIVITY: We did some W actions, kind of like charades.

walking

washing windows

whistling

waving or waves in the ocean

pulling a wagon

wiggles!

blowing in the wind

STORY BOOK: Where the Wild Things Are

SNACK: watermelon, walnuts, worms (gummy worms), water

CRAFT: gluing seeds onto watermelons

GAME: Whales & Fishies - One child starts off as the whale in the middle of the room. The rest are fish, and they have to cross the ocean without getting eaten (tagged) by the whale. If the whale eats you, you become a whale too. Once all the fish have been eaten, start again with a different whale.

(Optional activity - Window Writers. The Crayola markers that you can draw and erase on windows. Nathan and Samantha did this later in the day, but it wasn't part of our preschool.)

Preschool books - they are getting better at writing their letters!

Last we had a water station. I filled some plastic tubs with water and had measuring cups, spoons, and other tools to play with in the water.