Wednesday, May 23, 2012

not alone

When you are having those parenting moments and your last straw is slowly breaking.....you wonder, am I the only one that this is happening to?  Am I the only one that feels this way?

Most times when you talk to your friends about it later, they all agree.  We have all been there.

It's so nice to hear other people talk about it, a friend for posted a link to this on facebook.

Momastery.com/blog posted about Whack-A-Mole (her version of putting the kids to bed)

It makes me happy that I am not the only one who has days were she is counting down the moments until bedtime.  Looking forward to sitting down for some alone time, down time, whatever time you want to call it.

Yesterday was one of those days at my house.  I am not sure if it's just a 4 year old stage or what (I am praying it is just a stage) but the whining that happens is intense and grating on the nerves.  It seems that we do nothing that is fun, I ruin everything he is doing and I never give him anything that is yummy.  We don't get to go anywhere, we don't have anything to play with and he NEVER gets to watch movies!!!

All of which are obviously untrue!!! 

Yesterday was my breaking point because when the whining started as soon as I walked up to him at daycare, I lost it!  I explained on several occasions, very sternly, that he did not appreciate anything and I was done listening to the whining.  I threatened with the "one more word in the whining voice and you are staying in your room all night"!

Thankfully the voice stopped but the talking did not.  The tension was high in the car!  Both boys were trying to be on their best behaviour at this point.  Once the after daycare snack was denied, compliments and getting along were all over the place.  It was better but didn't last all night!

For me it was too late!  I was lost for the day....my patience was tested and it failed!  Joel was in charge for the rest of the night.  Even though we all know that never works as long as mom is in the house but Joel could sense the tension as we walked through the door and did what he could!

I even tried to get away for a few moments by myself.  The Kraft Cookbook arrived yesterday and I was trying to enjoy going through it for the first of many run throughs ALONE on the front step.  Not 3 minutes later and ALL 3 of my boys were sitting next to me outside!

I love them and I am glad that they love me but I really wanted those 10 mins I had planned!

Needless to say, I thoroughly enjoyed getting out of the house for pilates.  Even though Natasha worked my legs until they were burning alot!  I was happy to be out of the house!

Thank you momastery.com/blog and Sarah for helping me know I am not alone and for the giggle!

Friday, May 18, 2012

Take your kids to the park day!

Hi everyone

This Saturday is take your children (7 and up) to the park and leave them there to play Day!

This article details the event!

Even TIME magazine endorsed the event.

Just adding a little independence to our youth!

I hope everyone has a great and wonderful holiday weekend!!



Thursday, May 17, 2012

Dress Up

Nothing makes a day better than when you get to dress up. 

Liam had a face painting day last Friday and we were supposed to create coordinating costumes to go with it.   Being the boy who's dream is to be a superhero when he grows up,  Liam choose a superhero mask.

Will we had several superhero costumes to choose from, I had hoped to create a new costume to go with the face painting but a little sickness put me on the sidelines.   So we resorted to our multiple superhero costumes.   After much deliberation, Liam chose spiderman but added a cape because who doesn't love a cape???? 


Liam was amung great company as 6 other boys in his class were also spiderman.  Since coordinating is key,  he changed his face painting choice and came home as spiderman!!!!


Of course if you get awesome face painting done you must then document it extensively before removing it!  Liam has a beautiful smile but usually in pictures he looks pained. 

Put face paint on and his wonderful smile shines!!



Rhys was extremely sad to find out that he did not also have a costume day, so we found his tiny spiderman costume in his closet added pants and away we went!!





Rhys was not prepared to pose!!  Liam all over it!

However in anticipation of creating a costume, we dug out my tickle truck and ended up in a little dress up session!  The boys loved the cape, wanted gloves, sunglasses and of course thought a tiara was a fantastic idea!



I am pretty sure that Rhys thinks this is how you do the over the shoulder look!!


Which then started a trend!

Everyone needs a tickle truck!!  I have been collecting for years and now I think I need to start collecting more boy/children sized articles!

These little boys make me giggle everyday and these pictures will make me happy for years to come!!!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Happy Mother's Day

I wanted to wish all mother's out there a Happy Mother's Day! I hope that you all have an amazing day celebrating with the ones you love and the ones who love you!!!!


Here is a note to remind you all (and myself) that as long as you are being the best mother YOU can be then you are doing an amazing job.

With the recent TIME article asking "Are you MOM enough?", once self confidence could be shaken. While many will say they aren't judging your mothering choices but continue to tell you you shouldn't be offended and you should not judge that women for her decisions. Yet some of those same people will judge your decision to not breast feed or your decision to use disposable diapers or whatever they feel is wrong. Mothers are mothers in their own way and we should celebrate that! Do what you feel is best and be happy with that decision!

I believe that your children need YOU, they need you to be you and believe what you believe, they need you to be there for them, when they have a boo boo, when they are so excited because they found a bug, when they need a snuggle. Your children just want you, they don't need the fanciest stuff, they don't need the next fad object, they don't need decorated snacks. They are happy with mom!!!!

So on this day of celebrating remember to enjoy the love you will receive and relish in the fact that they know you are GREAT!



I want to send a special note to my own amazing mother, Helen. I want to wish you a wonderful mothers day, I could not be the mother I am without you. You have always been there for me, you provide me with never ending support, and answer all my questions (even the crazy ones)!!!! I appreciate everything you have done and I can not thank you enough for being you!!!! I have a fantastic mom and my boys have a wonderful Nanny!!! Happy Mother's Day Mom!!!!

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

over 1000

This may not be exciting to anyone else but I am glee with excitement that I have had over 1000 blog viewings.  There is a huge chance that about 100 of them are from myself but that's still great!

It makes me very happy that people are reading my blog and I hope enjoying it.  I hope by sharing my random sometimes crazy thoughts, comments, views and stories that I can bring a little happiness or understanding to your world.

I was looking through my pinterest "Things that are great folder" and thought I would share these little quotes with you.


Everybody deserves the right to shine!


Keep a positive look on things.  If we all think back, even on our worst days there is probably something that happened that was wonderful!

I have to keep these words close at hand each day!

I believe Dr. Seuss knew a few things and chose to tell us using clever word placement and rhyming because it's a really fun way to learn!!
Enjoy your day and thanks for visiting!!!

Come back often!

Walls

After weeks or maybe even months of dreaming of putting some pictures and frames back on my wall, we finally got it done.  Honestly it didn't take more than an hour to get everything done and Joel had most of the grunt work to do but boy did it take us a long time to get organized.

Does this happen to you?  I have had the shadow boxes, frames, boards and pictures ready for months (I was just being generous to myself with the weeks comment!!) and it took one random night to get them done.

But the result makes me happy every time I walk by!  You would think that I would have done it sooner, do you take a long time to get something done and then wonder why it took you so long?

The real catalyst was scoring my favourite hooks from IKEA last weekend.  I had purchased them on a whim last year and only bought 4!  Those worked great for keeping my boys lunch bags and book bags hung up neat and out of the way (I will post a picture of that next time).  I searched around town to find the same kind but couldn't find any.  So I picked up many this past weekend and put Joel to work!!

These are the hooks, not fancy but more my style.  I don't like the round more decorative ones.


I needed a place to hang my new measuring cups.  Right above the stove is perfect.  I wonder what else I should hang on the two lonely hooks??

Next we moved on to our (soon-to-be) rotating art display centre.



We have a sort of half wall by our back stairs and it was just bare for so long because I couldn't decide what exactly to put there.  Then I found these shadow boxes on sale and art work will be on display from now on.

Picture frames from kijiji.



We have a lot of brown/beige colours in our living room and rely on accents of colour to spruce up the place.  So I decided to paint my kijiji purchased picture frames, put in some art work and the middle frame is waiting for an adorable picture of my boys.  Hopefully this week!!
This wall also remained bare for the past two years because I just wasn't sure what to do.  This makes me smile as I enter my back door! 

These wood/metal strips from more artwork and pictures have been sitting in my dresser drawer for over a year.  They initially had another purpose when I purchased them but during our whirlwind decorating evening, they seemed perfect.


We had some left over art work and some new zoo and dinosaur pictures and a bare space in our hallway.  So I decided these could be more useful for rotating artwork and pictures and brighten up the bare hallway.

All of these new additions, as simple as they were add happiness to my walk through my house.  Joel might not agree since he did all the grunt work but I love them!

I hope that these perhaps inspire you to do that project you have been putting off.  I also hope it inspires me to keep going through my list of projects.  I will post as I get going!!



Thursday, May 3, 2012

Whirlwind trip

We made it back from our whirlwind trip to Toronto.  We had so many things packed in and only didn't make it to one of them!  I am blaming that on the subway!!

When getting ready to travel, I (being a planner) plan my outfits for each activity and day while I am away.  This makes getting ready easy, packing simple and usually leaves room for shopping purchases!!!  My husband however is only starting to learn this wonderful habit!  He usually throws A LOT of clothes into a suitcase and away he goes!  However when we are travelling with the boys and we have to share a suitcase, I had to say that could not be the case!

Here is my list:



I plan the outfits and then make the list.  I did the same with the boys clothes and we had lots of room (well perhaps not lots but enough) for everyone's clothes to be in two suitcases!!!  Good thing because we had a bag for car seats and a stroller!!!!

It makes me feel slightly like a dork when packing but it works well and hasn't let me down yet!!!


Our trip was action packed and hopefully memory making!
The zoo did not dissappoint.  There was so much excitment, yelling, giggling and playing!!! We could have spent so much more time there (even though it was freezing!!!).   Will will definitely be going back next visit, many more continents to explore!  We took pictures of every animal and some of my tiny animals!!



The rest of the trip was taken up with visiting with family, swimming, dinner our with my brother and his wife (without kids!!!), breakfast with a friend and a first communion!

Monday before we headed home our last stop (adventure)was a visit the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), my love of educational adventures has not wavered and I enjoy starting young!! 
We only visited the 2nd floor and they had a great time!



After our dinosaur adventure, it was time to head back on the plane!!!  The boys did a great job on the plane.  Rhys told his daycare teachers that his favourite part about the plane was getting off!!!! 

We had a great trip and I was happy to be home!

Visiting Toronto (and other large cities) always makes me appreciate home and the way we live!!!

As I had promised Liam and Rhys, when we arrived home on Monday I put our pictures on the computer and let the boys pick out 20 pictures to go in album that I had ready and waiting.  Liam was too excited and picked 40, so I had to go pick up another photo album.  After the boys went to bed; I went out, printed the pictures and put them in photo albums to deliver with them at daycare the next day!!!




They had just as much fun showing their pictures at daycare and telling all about their adventures.

That makes me happy!!!

I believe we had a successful adventure!!!!