valentine favourites

Here are some of my valentine favourites from flickr:



1. Birdie on a vintage clothes line, 2. Cupcake Couple, 3. Vintage Apron, 4. Soon it'll be St. Valentine's day, 5. ice cream?, 6. The Greatest Love, 7. Untitled, 8. Untitled

Happy Valentine's Day!

lollipops

Thanks to Susie for pointing me in the direction of Heather Ann Sugar Kisses!

I have these lollipops to give out to Matthew's class tomorrow and I was looking for a creative way to package them.

So I played around a bit and ended up with this tag (imagine it cut out in the shape of a tag, ok?):

But Matthew didn't like having his face on there. So I found this Valentine picture he made for me the other day and scanned it. And look what I made!

This tag:

and this:

and this one is kind of funny:

And then we wrapped up the lollipops and got these:

Happy Valentine's day (dude!)

beach days and balloon poppers

Beach Days:


What do you do when it's freezing cold outside? Have a beach day at preschool, of course!

Balloon popper:

The idea for the balloon popper came to Matthew during Ash Wednesday mass. We were sitting behind a little boy (who happens to be in my class) who was looking at this picture in an I Spy book:

Look closely, it's a balloon popper! Grandma elected Daddy to help make it, but Daddy has a sore back. So last night, Mommy and Matthew made a small version. Here it is:

Happy Birthday Cathy!

Today is a very special lady's birthday! Do you know Cathy?

I love Cathy because she has such a strong faith and amazing photography skills and great kids and she's so honest and friendly and has the most delicious sugar cookie recipe and she once sent my mom a whole bunch of handmade cards and she always says "smooches" and I just love that!

Happy Birthday Cathy! Smooches to you!

seven on Sunday

1. I think I'm going to buy this book. Has anybody read it?

2. I made this Tex-Mex Lasagna last week and it was very tasty. Especially for a dish without any meat. :)

3. Rick's company had their Christmas party last night (yes, we know it's January) and I won a gift card to Tim Hortons and Rick won a gift card to Best Buy. Woo hoo! They have the best prizes. (too bad we didn't win the cirque du soleil tickets)

4. I invented some new games today:

Game #1- Garbage Hunt-Go around your house and collect anything that belongs in the garbage. Count it and see who won.

Game #2 -Laundry Hunt- Very similar to Game #1, except you go hunting for laundry items left around the house. Don't forget to look under beds! Count your items to see who wins.

Game #3 - "I wanna go home!"(must be said in a very whiney voice)- Pretend that you are one of the toys on the floor in the living room. Then say "I wanna go home!" The toy wants to go home. You have to save the toy and take him back to his home (the toy box, the shelf, etc)

5. Caleb's been sick :( And so has Grandma. Get well soon.

6. Our passports arrived this week. I'll spare you all the details involved in getting an appropriate photo of Mr. Caleb.

7. Well, that's all the stuff for today. Have a great week!

He likes...

He likes eating popped popcorn with butter, peanut butter fingers and pizza.

He likes playing with Will, Bryden and Jayden at school. (and Caleb at home lots and lots)

He likes building (he built this k'nex helicopter today)

He likes asking us questions about Mexico.

He likes making silly faces (or winking) when I take his picture.

He likes playing scrabble (and phoning grandma long-distance to tell her that he just spelled zoo on a double word and scored 24 points)

He likes his swimming lessons and skating lessons too.

He likes playing with his brother and making him laugh.

big boy

Guess who registered for Kindergarten this week?

Matthew, registering for Kindergarten (January 2008)

Which is pretty strange, considering, I'm pretty sure, we just brought him home from the hospital!

Matthew, coming home from the hospital (June 2003)

I can't believe he'll be starting Kindergarten in the fall! We registered him on Wednesday for French Immersion Kindergarten. Hopefully, they will have enough students for two classes and then he can go in the afternoon while I'm at work. One of my teacher friends teaches at his school and she saw us registering and took Matthew for a tour of the Kindergarten class and to look at the fish pond. He's quite excited.

ten on tuesday

1. It's actually Monday night :) Is that cheating? Most of you won't read this until tomorrow morning anyway.

2. Thank you, Susie for posting this photo of yourself on flickr. I looked at it before putting the boys to bed and then as soon as Cale was asleep, I was off to the YMCA. "I bet I look just like Susie," I told myself as I treadmilled while watching Rules of Engagement. Thanks for the motivation, Susie!

3. Swimming lessons started on Sunday. We decided to have Caleb repeat the Bubblers class even though he passed it before Christmas (that's the class for 0-3 year old and their moms). We just didn't think he was ready to move on to the Bobbers where he needs to go without his mom (or dad). Matthew moved on to the Gliders. And his teacher was one of my former students!

4. Skating lessons started for Matthew too. He skates all around the whole rink! What an improvement from last year! (sorry, no photos or footage from this year yet)

5. We celebrated Rick's birthday this weekend too.

6. So, of course, we needed to decorate.

7. We also went toboganning!

8. I think my favourite Christmas gift (besides the box of love, obviously) has to be my dustbuster!

9. Is that weird? Well, maybe it's not my most favourite, but I sure do use it alot :)

10. Is anyone else super-excited for Jenny L. to have her baby? I am! Good luck, Jenny!

come spend a morning with Caleb

Caleb is in the middle of such a fun stage right now. He loves to pretend. He changes characters several times throughout the day (or even from minute to minute).

On Friday, I followed him around with the camera to try to capture how much fun we have. Come spend a morning with ... Caleb (Daddy, Woody, Magician, Santa!)

don't

Don't try to get your passport photos taken with a sick two year old (ear infection) the day after you were up all night with the sick two year old. Trust me.

PS. We're going to Mexico at Easter time!

the best gift

Time for an update :) (sorry-we've been sick)

Can you guess the best gift we got this year?

Was it Matthew's big Buzz Lightyear (just like the one Andy has in the movie)?

Was it Caleb's Superman delivered by Santa?Was it Matthew's donkey cookie?

Or maybe Caleb's Shrek cookie? Maybe it was Daddy's new ski pants (Caleb never could keep a secret)? Was it Caleb's new spiderman pj's (mask sold separately)?Maybe the best gift was the tuque, mitts and scarf that Grandma D. knit for the boys?Was it Matthew's magician's kit?Or Maya's first lego set? Was it Grandpa R.'s new Roughrider shirt?Could it be Caleb's playmobil pirate set?

Or his silly Shrek toy?

Well, actually, this is my best gift...

Confused? Well, this is the box that carried a nice warm Christmas dinner from my parent's house to mine. Matthew was too sick to go out. Caleb and Rick went to his parent's for their Christmas meal and I stayed home with Matthew. My dad dropped off this box full of turkey, stuffing, gravy, Faye's favourite salad, turnip puff, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and cheesecake. This wasn't even their leftovers (which would have been yummy enough). This was a piping hot meal. They hadn't even eaten yet.

I call it my box full of love :)

So thank you very much for the sweaters, the toys and the chocolates. I'll take a box full of love anyday.

have you?

Have you ever woken up with a broken blood vessel in your eye?

Have you ever felt super self-conscious about it (because it lasts for longer than a week)?

Have you ever seen this website (scrumdilly-do!)?

Have you ever washed cheese off of a cheeseburger because somebody wants a hamburger without cheese?

Have you ever told a two and a half year old a secret? (I don't recommend it)

Have you ever gone curling?

Have you ever stayed up too late for too many nights in a row?

I have :) Have you?

evidence that santa claus is coming to town

- It all started two Sundays ago, after Church. Father Ken sang "Santa Claus is coming to town" to the boys.

- Caleb has been dressing up in his santa hat, giving presents to anyone who will play with him. And if you see him stomping around and ask him what he's doing, he'll tell you that he's "coming to town".

- On Thursday, this letter arrived in the mail. We were all pretty excited about it!

- The boys took a trip to the mall and met the jolly old fellow. -Today after swimming lessons, we caught a glimpse of him, but didn't feel it was necessary to stop and talk, since they had just seen him a few days ago.

- But he must have followed us to Grandma and Grandpa D's because we heard a knocking and then some sleigh bells. But when we went to the door, nobody was there. We found two stockings full of books, trucks, gingerbread boys and candy canes. That Santa, left us some early Christmas gifts....

- Yep, he's definitely coming :)

why?

Why do I stay up so late? When will I learn?

Oh well, at least I made some cute Christmas-y coasters:

ten on tuesday

the "where have I been?" edition

1. I've been taking care of two sick kids.

2. I've been evaluating my students.

3. I've been having parent-teacher interviews with 20 sets of parents.

4. I've been watching the Riders win the Grey Cup!

5. I've been making construction paper hats for Caleb (like, probably 15 of them!)

6. I've been making large lists of things for Matthew to do.

7. I've been playing scrabulous blitz. It's highly addictive.

8. I've been shopping here and there for some clothes for myself.

9. I've been wrapping a few Christmas presents.

10. I've been busy, but I've been thinking about all of you. I hope you are well :)

He loves me

He tells everyone his is "two and a half" (even if they don't ask)


He is much less shy than he was a few months ago.


He loves to pretend and dress up (and not just on Halloween). He likes to be Captain Hook, Shrek, Puss in Boots, a knight, a firefighter... the list goes on.

He says the cutest things.

He goes to storytime at the library every Thursday morning.

He is cautious on the play structure at the ymca and prefers if Mommy goes down the big slide with him.

He has stopped taking an afternoon nap most days. And goes to bed much better at bedtime.

He is pretty much potty trained. He loves it when Grandpa sings "He's a big boy now!"

He likes to laugh and be silly (and chew with his mouth open, apparently)

He told me that he loves me last week (and not just after I told him, he was the one who said it first!)

He loves me :D And I love him!

monday night challenge

If anyone is up for a scrapbooking challenge...Faye and I were scrapbooking last night and we created a challenge.

Find a scrapbooking magazine (you know you have one!) and open it up randomly to any page. You must scraplift a layout (or an ad) from that page. And finish it by Thursday morning, if you can.

Ready, set, go!

We're already done :)

I scrapbooked!

A layout about Matthew's first day of preschool (last year). It's a scraplift of a Jamie Waters layout and I needed to stamp on it somewhere. I was so proud that I used two stamps!

Thanks Jenny for the fun challenge! I can't wait to see your layout(s)!

congratulations elizabeth *edited to add faye!*

Hooray! Elizabeth's book is coming out today! Hooray!

I decided to wave the sign over my head, just to show you how excited I am for you, Elizabeth!

See...

I'm so excited for you, congratulations!

And Faye is excited too!