One week later...

A week after buying some beautiful tulips they are still gracing my desk, where I can look at them and enjoy them while working. I love tulips and they make me smile. The florist told me when I bought them that they now carry tulips into June. She made my day!

Today will be spent in the soccer dome, watching the boys play. We are getting to the end of the season and the improvement has been remarkable. I don't know what Sterling will do through the summer, though we would like to get him into some BMX racing or something like that. Will have to get some more info and see if there is anything in our area that would appeal to him.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your weekend, whatever you are doing.

I should have seen this coming

Kaedo is my huggy child. He always kisses me goodbye when he gets out of the van in the morning and is always available for a hug and smooch. Yesterday morning when we arrived at school his buddies were working the 'kiss and ride' program. Once he saw them in front of us he jumped out of the car with barely a wave and no smooch. Man, I thought he would still be kissing me goodbye in University. boo hoo

Darlington Strikers U12

So thrilled to announce that Kaedo made the Rep Soccer Team. He was beyond thrilled and so relieved that the tryouts were over. Last night the coach and team manager sat him down and talked to him about joining the team, expectations and practice - both with the team and on his own. He then got measured for all his gear - two jerseys, shorts, socks, track suit, and bag. He got to choose his own number - 2 - and was floating about 2 feet off the ground when he got home. Craig and I are so proud of him. Thank you to all the special people he called. He was so happy for your congratulations. Now we have 3 hours of practice and one game a week but that will increase the closer to the Spring we get. Now I just have to get a second job to pay for it!

Biking Begins

When I picked Sterling up from school yesterday his first question was if he could go biking with his buddies. The weather was good and I knew how anxious he was to get out there, so I told him to go for it. He got out his bike and his gear, pumped up his tires and headed out to join some friends on the first ride of the year. He had a great time and now that I have learned I will be working in the centre one day next month, I am sure he will be asking if he can take his bike to school. Hopefully the weather stays good and that's a possibility.

Here's a picture of Sterling and the new bike he got from Amma and Baba for his 8th birthday. I can't believe that was five years ago! Yikes!

Week 22

Week 22 and the weather is gorgeous. We topped out just around freezing but the snow is melting, the sun is shining and we are hoping this is the end of winter. I did hear today that they are forecasting snow for the weekend but I am hoping it just passes us by.

Yesterday we went out to the movies and saw "Just Go With It". It was cute and the boys loved it. After the movies we headed to Montana's for dinner. We hadn't been there in years and we had a great time. Our server was phenomenal, always being available, and really looking out for Sterling with his food choices. She even had a makeshift dessert made for him so he could enjoy dessert after his hot wings. We generally never have desert but we splurged last night. After we rolled out of Montana's (we were so stuffed) we headed to Super Store to pick up some prescriptions and get some milk as everything is closed today. Got home about 9pm and just hung out watching a movie on our bed. Today Craig has already been to the gym, the kids have been playing video games and shortly we are heading out to see a movie with the lat of our free passes. We have been collecting them off of cereal boxes and let me just say that we need to eat cereal for every meal for the next year to get rid of it. Happy Family Day everyone.

Kaedo eating "all you can eat" ribs

Sterling with his hot wings

My guys

Kaedo munching on some onion strings

Sterling and I

Craig's beer - 34 oz! Yikes!

Deep fried cheesecake

Report Card Report

Well, report cards have come and I am a happy mama.
Some of the highlights -

* Sterling got all E (excellent) in the 6 skills area of the report - really the only thing I care about. 2 years ago we were dealing with N's (needs improvement)

* For someone who doesn't like school, Kaedo pulled very respectable marks - As, B and Cs

* Sterling made the honor roll and had 11 As (yes, 11)

* Kaedo had great comments by his teacher about how terrific he is

* Sterling got great comments about what a remarkable student he is

* Kaedo got D's in Math - but we're going to get that pulled up

* Sterling needs to learn to come out of his comfort zone a bit

***AND most Importantly - They ROCK!!!

This weekend is filled with soccer practice, a botched football game for Craig, the purchase of new Tulips, an hour spent in the mall and Chapters searching for a good read for my KOBO and the boys spending the evening with Craig watching all the shows I don't like.

Tomorrow we plan to see a movie and go out for dinner for a report card celebration. Craig received a $50 GC for some hard work he had done, and I wont a $25 one for the same place, so we are going to take the boys for dinner tomorrow night. Monday we will get to sleep in again and may catch another movie. We have 10 free movie passes, so we will definitely be checking out some flicks.

Hope you have a great family Day weekend

week 21

Week 21 from year one!

Week 21 - where does the time go? I love doing this with them and the changes from last year to this year are remarkable. They have grown up so much in the last year, I can hardly believe it. While the pictures don't show a lot of aging, just them and their attitudes and the people they are and are becoming is remarkable. They are amazing!

Tis the Season

Tulip Season, that is! On Saturday we went to Costco - a rare occurrence for us, as we usually go on Thursdays. It was packed with people but it was fun and Costco is always a great way to spend the afternoon. There were tons of roses of all different colors but I am not really a rose person, so I was hoping there were some tulips. I didn't immediately see any but after searching through the bins I found three little bunches hidden away. I grabbed this one and added it to our cart. At 11:50pm I remembered that I hadn't brought them in when we came home so I rushed out to get them. The stems were frozen and some of the leaves were wilted but I was able to save them. Now I'll get to enjoy them all this week.

More Lego

Kaedo decided this weekend that he would like to get some more Lego. As you can tell from the pictures, we don't need any more. However, he could not be swayed and he was spending his own money. I took him up to Wal-Mart on Sunday and he bought a new Atlantis set. He and Sterling spent about an hour last night digging through their piles looking for the perfect pieces for their creations. Sterling made the great airplane. I love Lego - can't say it often enough. The best toy EVER!

Happy Valentine's Day

As Craig says - a holiday made up by the greeting card companies. While Craig and I don't exchange gifts, nor does he rush out at the last minute and buy flowers, we celebrate in our own way. We had a wonderful day together. He took the boys to school and then we went out for breakfast. We headed up to Wal-Mart to pick up some candy for the boys and then he offered to buy me a Starbucks. We went and sat at a small table and talked and just enjoyed being together. We picked the boys up early from school as Sterling had an appointment, and after finishing that we had heart shaped pizzas (as per a 30 year old tradition - thanks mom for starting that!) at Boston Pizza and then took the boys to Wal-Mart so Kaedo could buy some more Lego. We tried to go to the movies but everyone else in town had the same idea so we decided to come home instead. It has been a wonderful day and I am so thrilled that Craig decided to be at home today and spend the time with me.

Hope you had a wonderful day.

Confessions

I saw this on a few other blogs and thought I would play along. Feel free to join in, if you wish.

Here are my five confessions:

1. I love to drink tea out of a paper cup so I reuse my Starbucks cups and make my tea at home.
2. I make school lunches at night so I can stay in bed longer in the morning.
3. I let Ketchup sleep on the bed after Craig leaves for work in the morning.
4. I drink diet coke for breakfast.
5. I love McDonald's.

We spent the morning at the soccer arena and will spend the afternoon there too. Kaedo's team lost this morning and we are hoping Sterling gets a win this afternoon. Kaedo has rep tryouts as well, so we will be doing a lot of shuttling in the next few hours. Craig is clipping Ketchup, Sterling is shovelling snow and Kaedo went back to bed. I'm doing this and then hope to curl up with a good book for an hour.

Happy Sunday everyone!

week 20

Week 20 - What a week! We learned yesterday that Sterling made the honour roll!!Ya Sterling. We are so proud of him. He has worked so hard and has done amazingly well. He was so proud he called all the important people in his life last night to let them know of his accomplishment.

Kaedo is still trying out for rep and as of tonight he hasn't been cut from the team, so we are still rooting for him. This is something he really wants and so we hope it happens for him. And, last but not least, Jessica and the girlies are coming to visit. I am so excited. I have already booked some time off and Sterling has already agreed to babysit so Jessica and I can spend a morning getting pedicures. Hurray!

The blog is currently under construction as you can tell by the terrible shape it is in. We hope to have something done with it over the weekend. Stay tuned.

Do you YoYo?

Recently Sterling has gotten back into yoyo-ing. He's been watching videos on a DVD he has and online through YouTube and he has learned some great tricks. Here are some of the ones that he has mastered. He was nervous doing the video and I suck at keeping everything in focus, but you get the idea. Now all you can go out and buy a yoyo and learn from the master!

Leggo my Lego

As you all know, Lego has been a huge part of my boys lives. Sterling got his first Duplo set when he was one and they have been playing with it all their lives. We have a big recycling box full of Lego, that is usually tipped over onto its side with all the pieces spilling out. For Sterling, Lego fascination comes and goes, but for Kaedo, rarely a day goes by that he isn't creating something. These are some of his most recent creations.

Date Day

Funny how I just wrote about last weeks date yesterday and here I am doing it again. Yesterday morning I asked Craig what we should do before I started work. He was quick to answer "go to the movies". The thing was, there were no good movies for the 4 of us to go see. Soooo, there was one movie we wanted to see that was 18A. We talked to the kids and they said go. So we did. It was fun to be able to get to the movies just the two of us and this movie was definitely not for the kiddos. We spent a couple of hours hanging out in a darkened theater, enjoying being together and seeing lots of people get shot. It was great.
Thanks again to Jessica, for the GC. We finally used it up along with my Scene points. The afternoon only cost us $6.53. Can't beat that.

Today Craig is playing in the SnowBowl, a winter football tournament. He's bought the beer and is good to go. He's been looking forward to it for weeks. Hell, probably months. The boys are busy with soccer so I will totally be a soccer mom today. Sterling plays at 2, Kaedo at 3 and then right to rep practice for Kaedo at 4:15-6:15. I'm going to be real sick of arenas and high school gyms by the end of the day. Thank god for iPods and my Kobo.

Tonight we will sit down and watch the Super Bowl and tomorrow is my day off. I look forward to my Monday morning 3-way chat with mom and Jessica.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Date Night

Last Saturday night I wasn't working as I had no voice and so Craig and I took advantage of the situation and decided we would like to go out for dinner. We had never done this before. We have on occasion gone out in the middle of the afternoon but never at night. The boys thought this was totally cool and spent the evening eating pizza and playing video games. We headed out to a neighborhood Thai Food restaurant and had a terrific time just being together. We ended up at Starbucks and got a fancy drink for dessert and were home early enough that the boys wondered why were home already.
It's great having a husband who is your best friend. Love it.

Winter Fun

Kaedo and his buddy from next door spent much of the weekend playing outside. They built a little hill in the front yard and spent the afternoons sledding with their crazy carpets. They had a great time and were soaking wet and worn out when they finally came in. I love to see the kids outside loving the season and enjoying the snow. Getting exercise is just an added bonus. Now if we could only get Sterling off his computer and into his snow pants.

Week 19

Late posting this for this week. The week has flown by topping off with an 11 hour work day yesterday due to the storm and so many people not getting into the office. It was a long day but I have to remember that Craig is gone to work for 13 hours a day, so I shouldn't complain.

The 'Storm of the Century' came and went and left a lot of snow and not great roads for the day. This was just a regular winter day in Alberta. These Ontarians are not made of as strong a stock as us Westerners. I would definitely prefer no snow but what can you do?