The Party

For Jason's birthday we asked him if he would like to invite anyone to play & he told us that Adam was his "best friend", so we asked him. This worked well since Sydney & Jason had not been to daycare for 2 weeks so this gave them the opportunity to see Ben (who is Sydney's age) & Adam again. They came for a play date earlier in the morning before the rest of the family showed up for lunch & cake.

For the third year it was very hot celebrating Jason's birthday, but I think a good time was had by all. The only decoration I got was balloons. I gave the balloons to mom to tie to the back of Jason's chair for the cake presentation & pictures. Brad did not think they were tied well so he tried to untie them to fix, but could not get them undone. Apparently he was holding onto them too, but got distracted & let go. The pictures below tell the rest of the story. Thankfully we did not have any tears.

See the spots in the air? Those are the balloons gone bye, bye.

All is forgiven later when Daddy rides with him on his new plasma car.

Three Years Old

Well Buddy, you are now three. You have made some dramatic changes over the last year. The biggest one being that you finally talk! You talk non-stop now & sing songs & comment on so many things. Understanding you is still a gift possessed mainly by those closest to you, but others are catching on. Part of that is that when you meet someone new, you are still quite shy and do not speak up because you are hiding behind Mommy (& now Daddy too!). The other big change is you are really coming out of your shell. You take less time to warm up to a new situation & once you are comfortable, you often become quite a ham. Like your sister, you like to entertain. There are a few occasions where you do things that are completely unexpected- for example, hugging Pastor George. I am not sure who was more surprised- him or me.

You are such an affectionate little guy. You are constantly telling me "I love you so much Mommy" and giving me a big hug. It is plainly obvious that you love your family because you shower everyone with affection. I think you are practicing to be a ladies man because Sydney, Grace & Maddie definitely receive the most of your affection. There was once when we were shopping that I had to actually tell you to stop kissing your sister. People in the store thought your were cute, but when you had been doing it for 15 minutes, enough was enough.

You stopped going to daycare because I am now staying home with you guys, but Jo always said that you were the gentlest boy that she ever cared for. You are definitely a boy's boy, but you are also quite focused on how other people feel. You will get quite worried about a baby that is crying if we are out and will always ask what is wrong. You are also very good at sharing when you know what you have is something that someone else likes (although this does not always extend to your sister when it comes to toys). If you get candy or a treat of any kind you are very concerned that others don't have any & you are quick to share. This is a great quality and one that I hope that you keep for your lifetime.

You have little sayings that depending on the moment can be very sweet or tiring...

• "Don't copy me!" (meanwhile you copy your sister constantly!)
• "I love you so much" (most times is sweet, but sometimes I think you say it for the show)
• "Big Truck" (this has not gone away with age, you are still focused on finding the big trucks when we are driving.)
• "Orange Juice" (pronounced orang-ie juice)
• "I was talking to..." (if you ask a question, you have it in your mind who is supposed to answer & no one else)
• "Mama" at the beginning or end of each sentence (the last month there has been more "Mama" than "Mommy", but you often have a cheeky tone to your voice)

You still love music & some of your favourite songs right now are:

• Teddy Bears Picnic
• Old King Cole
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• B-I-N-G-O
• Barenaked Ladies Snacktime- any song

Overall, you are a lot of fun & we love you dearly.

I have found you in this position on more than one occasion when I check on you before I go to bed. You may rise early in the morning (much to my chagrin), but when you are asleep- you sleep hard.

You love to throw rocks & will search any nook and cranny to find a good one.

Art Camp

Last week Sydney attended art camp at the Dundas Valley School of Art. She really seemed to enjoy it which was no surprise to us since she is always wanting to do crafts. She may not be Picasso, but as she learned at camp- she is the artist & she can choose what to create. Here is the work that you would see if you visited the Sydney Taylor gallery of art currently exhibited in her room.

Landscape

A perspective (?)

Self Portrait :)

Her sketch pad.
The front apparently says
I like to look at eggplants

City of Waterfalls

This year Hamilton has targeted waterfalls as our tourist attraction & has created a website as part of its promotion. It is a smart move since the best hiking trails (& we have many of them) lead to a waterfall. Also, people don't often think of beautiful when they hear Hamilton, so putting this image forward attached to a waterfall is good thinking. However, although the ads that they play on the radio have an OK jingle, the singer is terrible- sounds pretty cheesy.

All that aside I like to hike & the kids are becoming more willing to participate so I thought we would enjoy the publication of the location of the waterfalls & start visiting as many as we could. Today's venture took us to Tiffany Falls. When Sydney was at art camp this week & I was filling time, I went by here many times. I also remembered going here once with Logan (& locking my keys in my car) and knew it was a short trail so I figured this was also a good test for the kids.

It was lots of fun. The kids got to do some of their favourite things (i.e. climb, throw rocks in the water & splash around in the river) & I got to step back into some of my favourite childhood memories. There was a river that ran through the bush beside our house growing up & I loved playing back there. Although, when I would go back to the river I was typically the only person back there unless my friends were with me & not interrupted by others on the trail. But I must remember that I grew up in a town of 500 not 500 000.

I checked out the website & think we should target Albion Falls next. It looks beautiful. Brad starts vacation next week, maybe we will need to wait for him.

A few obstacles make for a good climb.

When the first soaker occurred, she got upset.
But then it became the challenge to see how much water she could get in.

Jason forever the copycat, wanted to do the same but I would not let him go to the same place in the river. So there was no water pouring out of his boot.

Not-so-stay-at-home-Mom

When still at work & in a meeting a man scoffed at someone stating that I was going to be a stay-at-home-mom. He said there is no "stay-at-home" when choosing to be with your kids & not go to work. He said his wife tried that line on him, but she was never home.

Today was like that. The kids & I left this morning at 9:30am & did not get home until 4:45pm. Sydney had swimming lessons this morning, then we went to play at the park, stayed for a picnic lunch then took Sydney to her art camp for the afternoon. Jason & I did errands while waiting for her & I was happy for my forethought to bring my book with me. As I figured, Jason fell asleep on our drive to our first destination so I read & enjoyed the quiet until he woke up. He had fun picking out the loot stuff for his birthday party & did a very good job not asking for a tonne of stuff for himself. There was one car that did catch his eye that he stated...We not get that for me today. Me get that for my birthday?

Sydney seemed to really enjoy art camp. She says she made a pizza out of clay & tomorrow she gets to paint it. She said the highlight of her day was finding out that she gets to paint tomorrow. I will be sure to send her in the t-shirt they gave us when we registered her. I somehow expect they don't use washable paints at an art school.

I loved my day. I could have done without Jason whining about every 20 minutes & Sydney tattling on him for anything & everything. I also would have been happier if they listened to one another when talking or apologized when they did something to upset or hurt the other, but I truly would not have been anywhere else.

See, don't they look happy to be playing together? Not.
I told them that they better learn to get along, because they are
going to be seeing a lot of one another.

Another moment of Jason being happy, but at Sydney's expense,
which results in her complaining about her brother.
Ah, but tomorrow is another day. :)

Looking out for Mommy

What does Sydney have to say about me not working anymore? Daddy will have to share his money with you now Mommy. Brad tells her that she is mistaken, Mommy gets all the money now anyway.

It is official...

Today is my first day of what some are calling retirement, what I call a sabbatical, but at the heart of it I am now a stay-at-home mom. However, since I have not worked Fridays for 3.5 years, today really feels no different than our regular routine anyway. It may set in on Monday or the next month may just feel like vacation, but once Brad goes back to work & I don't need to- I am certain reality will set in.

I spent time preparing myself for my last day at work, in an attempt to make it through the day without getting emotional. However, what I did not really think about was how I would feel about the kids' last day at day care. I had no sooner crossed the threshold into Jo's house when the tears started to roll down my cheeks. We had bought some Gerberas (which I was informed by the florist are not daisies) to take to Jo & when she saw the flowers, she gave a big "ahhh" which triggered my waterworks. I had not considered I would have that reaction, but really she has spent a good part of the last 3 years helping raise our kids. She told me that we will need to come over some days to play with the kids so that Sydney & Jason don't miss their friends or that we could meet up at the park- so that was nice to hear. The kids really enjoyed being there & they really loved Jo. She gave us a little scrapbook of their time there which was really nice.

Yesterday went OK with the goodbyes too, because really it is more like a see you later. Since Brad works at TU too, I will still see people for the social events- like the company picnic next week & beach volleyball in two weeks. It was also good that most of my closest work friends were on vacation, so they weren't there to make me weepy. Except for dear Johanna who asked me if she could work from home because she was getting weepy just looking at me. We thought it best for both of us that she head out (you are too sweet Johanna). Her last day before heading for law school is in two weeks so God bless to help her get through that day :).

There were a lot of factors that played into my decision to leave work, the primary & most important one of course was the kids. I will work again at some point, but now I have the opportunity to think about what I may want to do next while I enjoy this time with the kids while they are still little. When we decide for me to go back to work, who knows what I will want to do. It might be something similar to what I was doing or it might be something completely different, but I at least have a couple years to figure that out.

What I know I will miss is the day-to-day interactions with my friends. But my payback will be that I will be part of lots of things in Sydney & Jason's lives that I otherwise would have missed.

So now my Monday to Thursday will no longer be spent with these guys,

Retirement/Farewell party for Jo & I
Thanks guys, you have been great to work with!
Good luck to all of you.

I have traded them in for these two...

Fair trade, don't you think?

First Camping Trip with the Kids

Last weekend we took the plunge & went camping with the kids. We used to go camping regularly & went camping with Sydney when she was 10 months old, but with that experience I said I would not go with kids again unless they could walk. I spent the first few hours telling Sydney to stop putting dirt & sticks in her mouth- then I gave up. As long as she wasn't going to choke on something, I gave up the quest to keep her semi-clean.

So last weekend was our first venture back into camping. I was quite certain the kids would love it- Brad not so much. I am happy to say that I was right, they LOVED it. We enjoyed it too, but I was not quite as prepared as I should have been. The nights last weekend were COLD! & our site was completely shaded so it was cooler than I would have liked when we were just hanging out. Our other problem was that we have bought a new air mattress since our last camping adventure & discovered that our air compressor did not have the right attachment to use to blow it up. Brad blew it up with is own lungs- I was quite impressed. That's a lot of hot air! Add to that, Jason's air mattress had a leak in it so by the morning he was almost lying on the ground. Sydney would have been the only one to have a good night sleep on a good mattress if her brother didn't keep falling off his mattress & landing on her.

The kids played well together, they slept OK (although can't say I did), and they had a blast. I am definitely going to plan on us going camping for our vacation next year. I'd like to go somewhere farther with bigger sites & a better beach. We went to Rockwood & it was great for a weekend because it took us less than an hour to get there, they had good hiking trails to do with the kids, there are canoes to rent which will be great to do next time & the beach was good for playing- but the water was FREEZING!

Even though her teeth were chattering, she would not get out.

One quote...

I will go into more details of our first family camping trip later- because I really want to go to my bed now- but I had to give this one detail. Brad asked the kids if they liked camping & Jason immediately said yes, but Sydney didn't say anything. When Brad asked her again, she said...can't you tell by the smile on my face?

Sometimes they say just the right thing. The next day it was followed by an unsolicited "Thank you for bringing us camping". So we are pretty confident that camping was a hit.

For future reference...Sydney's wedding

Established 1867

If Sydney (or Jason) ever decides to have an outdoor wedding, I will be looking up the Mill Ruins at Rockwood Conservation Area to see if they are still renting it out for special occasions. We were camping here this weekend (details to follow) & stumbled across some planners setting up for a wedding. In my opinion, it was beautiful. I don't have the photography skills of some of my dear cousins, but I hope I do it some justice.

Happy Belated Birthday Canada

Wednesday seems to be a very long time ago since the last few days have been crazy busy, but we did have a very good mini-holiday in the middle of the week. We again hosted our annual Canada Day barbeque & due to the weather needed to plan for an indoor party & outdoor party. We were happy to spend a couple hours outside with our guests, but then needed to file everyone into the house when the rain started. Having 35 people file into your house at the same time that you are trying to get dinner items organized so that the kids that are starting to get unruly can get fed, is a little bit of a stressful experience. But all worth it in the end.

I owe many thanks to our good friends who kept the kids at peace with one another & looked out for ours when we were busy hosting. It is great to entertain people in your home, but when you have kids you are even more thankful for the efforts of your friends!

Unfortunately the nice weather did not last long
enough for all play to be outside.

When the weather turned bad, indoors is where the children played.

Thanks Noreen for 'supervising'.

Amongst the chaos, there was some quiet play going on.

Thanks Alison for the awesome Canada Day cake!