9 Year's and Counting!

New Year's Eve also marks the Eve of mine and John's wedding anniversary! It's been 9 years! We've made it this long so far! Cheers to us!

Cole turns 5 on New Year's Eve!

So every year when New Year's Eve rolls around it is never about a new year beginning, but rather about Cole's birthday, and what kind of party we should have! In the past we could get away with a New year's bash for the adults that was preempted by a kids party. Now that he is turning 5, there was no way we were getting away from a party that was all about him. A birthday during the holidays is a very difficult thing to be excited about! With all the planning and prepping for the X-mas season, the last thing on my list is what to do for a birthday party! New year's eve is also not the best day or night for parents to just drop off kids at a party when really they have plans of their own. At any rate, we always manage to muster up family and friends who are willing to hang out for the night and par take in our duty as parents to make a birthday party special for the youngest child in the family! No matter what, a good time is usually had by all..it is of course New Year's eve!

December 2008

Snow...Snow...and more SNOW!!! This was definitely the year we have always wanted but like the saying goes, too much of a good thing sometimes isn't a good thing at all! When the snow first fell it was amazing...a winter wonderland that we always ask for instead of the wet, wet rain! But then is stayed and stayed and stayed, and snowed and snowed and snowed! No one knew what to make of it...the kids loved it...but I was tired of shovelling it and certainly tired of driving in it! But then the magic of snow on Christmas was too great a dream to wish away, and so it was, a beautiful white Christmas!

December always goes by so quickly...the Holidays is something that I look forward to but also dread! Christmas has so many things attached to it...decorating the house, putting up a tree, baking the cookies, shopping for the perfect gifts, figuring out the holiday menu, not to mention planing a b-day party for Cole, which happens to fall on New Years Eve...so planning a New Year's Eve party is pretty much a must! Every year I tell myself to limit the gifts and not to go overboard, but then I end up feeling like a scrooge or something if the kids don't get what they really asked for. In general I am pretty good at steering them in the direction of gifts I want them to get, or at least think they should get, but then there is always the one gift that one of the boys insists on asking for, but is impossible to find, and this in turn, sends me on a frantic race to find it before Christmas is ruined by the gift that never arrived! It's a consumers dream I tell you, prey on the minds of the little kids and then make their parents insane trying to get it to them! Fortunately, I came out the winner of such battles, and in the end, Santa did come through, with flying colors!
December brought Cole's preschool X-mas concert, which hasn't changed since Jack and Hunter went to preschool and all the other kids 15 years before them! It's always the same songs and the same set up of kids all lined up on the stage being cued to sing, or at least sit still without picking their nose or having a fit. You never really hear a tune but rather screams of words that flow somewhat into a Christmas carol we are all pretty familiar with anyway. They serve jello squares, rice crispie treats and of course a mound of candy that has been glued with sugar to cardboard milk cartons which double as houses. Santa makes an appearance with Mrs. Claus and 500 decorations come off the walls so we can take them home and plaster them somewhere on ours...ohhh the joys! Cole did well, sung his little heart out, even if he didn't really know all the words!
For the past 2 years now, Jack and Hunter's school has put on these amazing musicals that involve the whole school...this year the teachers were too burnt out to do such a lavish production, so it was back to hearing the school band play carols, and listen to an enormous amount of singing acts from each class...All I'll say is that it was painfully good and funny all rolled into one!

November 2008

Seattle...3 nights without kids is like an eternity of free time that both John and I are never really get a chance to experience. It was very nice to have been able to get away and spend sometime enjoying the wonders of childless days and nights without having to make meals, give baths, or pick up toys! We shopped at the stores we like, uninterrupted, had meals out, and walked around the city without having to look for the nearest washroom because someone had to go pee! Ahhh...the break was a nice, now we just have to figure out how to do it more often!
The Tree...When we arrived back from our quick getaway, we were welcomed with the absence of the VERY LARGE tree that used to shade our front yard! Apparently while we were away a wind storm cracked a large portion of the tree off, which in turn compromised the safety of the tree. Thus, down it came! What a true shame it was! Bye, Bye Tree!

Cross Country 2008

We always want our boys to participate in school activities and Cross Country is always a good place to start! You don't have to have any special skills and like most boys they like to run...run...and run! The best part about the Cross Country track meet is that every feels like a winner! Way to go boys!

A year in Review!

So now that I am back on track (if you can call it that), I feel the need to make up for what it is that I failed to do in the first place. My year in review is basically my way of trying to make up for lost time...kind of like when you try to make it up to your kids for all those times you said you were going to take them here or do this with them...but then never do and then one day the guilt of the false promises creep up on you and you spent a whole day making it up to them! This is that attempt!

Halloween 2008: Now when you kids tell you that they want to be something different for Halloween, like a rapper, I'm sure most people don't think an appropriate role model for an 8 year old is Flavor Flav...but yes my brilliant idea made for a very funny costume and truth be told...he had no idea who the heck he was anyway.. as long as there was a costume out of it, then he was set! A punk rocker on the other hand is not exactly a costume but a teenager disguised in a style they think is original or an expression on what they stand for...whatever the case, Hunter looked the part and wished he could dress like that all the time...yikes!...Of course Cole just wanted to be a ninja like most 4 1/2 year old boys dream to be, only this ninja was was dead for the added effects of disgust! It was of course Halloween!

Ahhh...If at first you don't succeed...TRY..TRY...AGAIN!

Okay well here goes yet another attempt at trying to maintain some kind of "scrapbook" for the kids. The story of my life is that the intention always seems to be there but the follow through is always the more difficult challenge. I wanted to keep track of the kids and their ever so rapidly changing lives but as life goes and excuses become abundant things like blogging end up falling by the way side! Another summer is coming to an end and a another school year is fast approaching and this time not only for the kids but also for myself! What have I gotten myself into this year! Maybe all the craziness and busy schedules that are coming up will keep me focused and on track or maybe this time next year I will be writing yet another entry stating the errors of my ways...Oh well you can never stop trying!