Tinsel

So I think the last time I wrote Tinsel was trying to go out the front door in an RV. Well because she couldn't take a trip outside of the house she decided to take a fishing trip INSIDE the house...

Joyeux Noel!

Gangnam Style a la Sam & Juliet

And who can forget about Sof...

'twas the week before Christmas

What a CRAZY week it's been. Last Friday night was my staff Christmas party and believe it or not, I was home pretty early. I was in bed by 10 and sometime overnight got hit REALLY hard with the flu. I slept for 34 hours straight. Didn't even see the kids until Sunday morning when I was forced to parent because Sam had a hockey tournament. It was awful. Clinging on to life I did my very best to mother the girls while Sam & his hockey team cleaned up that tourney & took home the gold! Way to go Novice C1. Sam even got MVP for one of the games....

deck the halls

In comes the holiday season out pour the crafts & festivities. Well, sort of.

In the past I've been known to go a little cookie crazy...

It's like a crazy 5-day extravaganza. You can see more about it here. Unfortunately last year I forwent the cookie baking process because A.) I was pregnant and who wants to do anything when they're pregnant and B.) We were in the midst of kitchen renos. This year I have no excuse. Ok let's go with lack of time and laziness. But come to think of it... I should really bake this weekend.

Herself the Elf...

Got some more photos to share of Tinsel. So on day 3 she decided to have a party on the kitchen counter and got together with Ariel for some cake & sprinkles... a little too much of the latter.

Juliet was a bit freaked out to have her just sitting on the counter. "Mommy if I just reach out my arm I could touch her." Well don't reach out your arm then.

Elf on the Shelf

I just wanted to keep you up to date with the goings-on of our elf, Tinsel. I think she is going to be a trouble maker... talk about setting an example! Yesterday the kids found her swinging in the chandelier! Worse still... this morning she was hiding in the milk jug and had dyed the milk green! Sam was not interested in drinking the milk but once we showed him it was okay he had honey nut cheerios & green milk. I wonder what she'll be up to next....

Happy December

Last year I talked about the little family traditions we've started... the Prescott Parade, the Nutcracker (which is this Friday night!!). Well, I'm happy to say I've got a couple more up my sleeve.

While browsing the web for craft ideas I came across some really cool ideas for advent calendars. Forget cheap chocolate hiding behind doors... this year, and every year thereafter, we're counting down the days to Santa's arrival with books! The idea was to get 24 Christmas themed books and wrap them up. I've numbered each one and every night beginning today the kids will find the number for the day & unwrap the book. That way every night they will get a Christmas story before bed! Once Christmas arrives the books will go away until next year when I will wrap them again in random order. The initial investment has been a little pricy because I've had to buy most of the 24 books, but then they'll just get re-used year after year. The kids will be so excited every December to get to read all their Christmas books again, all the while counting down the days until Christmas!

Unfortunately my book shopping backfired and I haven't received all 24 of my books. I really wanted to have ALL 24 books wrapped by today but I had to order quite a few of my books online. So I'll wrap them as they arrive & add them to the box.

Then I used a little heart-shaped punch & sticker paper to create tiny little hearts to hide the numbers on...

So today the kids opened # 1. Enter new tradition number 2...

Oh yes. I'm sure you've all seen it before by now. And I caved. I pretended that I just bought a book about this elf but that Santa must have come last night and somehow brought it to life. Oh that sneaky Santa... never ceases to amaze! So we sat on the couch and read the book. The kids were in awe. They hung on every word and by the end were fully engulfed in the story of our elf on the shelf. They just couldn't believe it! She comes to life every night and visits the north pole to report to Santa on their behaviour (good & bad)! First they needed to give her a name so the magic would work, but they can't ever touch her or her magic will vanish. Sam freaked out when Juliet "pretended" to try and touch her. Lol. Sam immediately wanted to call her Dairy Queen. Really? I don't know where he gets his ideas, but Juliet didn't like that. We couldn't even sell her on DQ. Then I suggested a name and both kids thought it was great.

So her name was chosen and then we decided on a place for her to sit & watch us for the rest of the afternoon. Sam panicked.... I told him it was okay for adults to touch her. "How do you know?" he asked. "I looked it up online." I said. "Oh. Ok." Phew...

So... here she is perched on the TV where she spent the day observing.

They are SOOOOOOO excited to wake up tomorrow and find her hiding in the house somewhere, and equally excited to open book #2.

Rock My Wednesdays.

Well it's probably a good thing that my last post fell on Tuesday, because if I had written something about my husband going back to work AFTER 2 Wednesdays ago there probably would have been a lot of swearing. Last week's & today's Wednesdays were A LOT better. In fact, I straight up rocked them. But let's go back a couple of weeks...

I work until 5:30 at the daycare and swimming lessons are at 6:30. In that hour I have to gather my oldest 2 (who are at daycare with me)... pick up Sofie from her daycare... feed the older kids & get them organized for swimming... calculate Juliet's carbohydrates & insulin requirements for supper... entertain Sofie... drive to the Y... get the kids changed & poolside STAT. Oh yes. Now if you don't think that any of that is a big deal then you can go read someone elses' blog. If you'd like to read about how I turned my worst nightmare into an organized evening with time on my side... do read on.

So my first attempt at this Wednesday evening thing was pretty scary. I managed to get the kids out of the daycare at 5:30 and was able to pick up Sofie and get home by like 5:45. I hauled everyone inside (my first mistake) and sat the kids at the table & Sof on the kitchen floor. She eats at daycare (phew). She was happy (lucky for me) to sit there with a cookie while I made the other 2 a gourmet meal of peanut butter sandwiches. Then it was time to grab the swimming gear... re-dress & get out the door. In the family changing room with babe in arms I probably sounded like a dictator the way I had to verbally maintain Sam & J's focus on getting into swim stuff. Time was not on our side and they aren't the best at staying focused. We actually made it in time, believe it or not.

Just when you think you can sit & relax for half an hour while the kids swim, the baby on your lap squeals & squirms because who wants to sit on mama's lap when there's a whole (wet) pool area to explore? Pool decks gross me out and there was NO WAY Sofie was going anywhere but on my lap. She didn't think that was much fun... nor did I after 15 minutes. Grrrrr. Then comes the end of the lessons. Getting the kids out of the wading pool after a lesson is always fun and it's even more fun when you have a 25lb baby to carry around who is trying desperately to escape. What is also loads of fun is the chaos in the awesome family change room after a lesson. Who's idea was it to make the FAMILY change room at the Y the size of a walk-in-closet anyway? Sofie wasn't going down in there either and so again with the dictatorship to attempt a quick & smooth transition from swimsuits to PJs... which was way too much to hope for.... but I totally kept my cool. Shocking, I know.

By the time we got home it was an hour past Sofie's bedtime so I hurried to get her down. It was an hour past everyone's bedtime for that matter, but I had to tackle homework & snacks before the other 2 were actually ready for bed. Trying to take bedtime snack away from my kids is like telling them Santa doesn't exist. END OF THE WORLD. Nine o'clock rolled around before they were getting tucked in. Awesome. Breathe.

Needless to say some serious planning needed to go into the next Wednesday if I was going to A) tackle it again alone and B) do it without valium. Lol. So.....

Swimming bag was packed & ready to go when I left for work... towels, suits, goggles & jammies. There was no way we were going home after the daycare round-up. What a waste of time getting the kids out of the car to eat & then back into the car to head to the Y. This time I planned to hit up a drive-thru for supper and bring it to the Y but my husband actually cooked up some KD before he went to work so after getting Sofie I swung by the house and ran in to grab it. Sorta drive-thru-ish. The kids ate at the Y and I put Sofie in the play care because she was bound to have more fun crawling around in there then sitting on my lap poolside. GENIUS I tell ya! I was able to help the kids get ready for lessons and poolside with like 10 minutes to spare!! Tonight we did the same thing but hit the McDonalds drive-thru (ya ya I know... brutal) AND I squeezed in some nursing time for Sofie as well. Booyah! It was fabulous. So fabulous that I think in January I'm going to turn 2 of my weekday evenings into trips to the Y and add in some swimming for Sofie, floor hockey for Sam & some MUCH needed yoga for me. Ambitious? Maybe. Worth a try? Hell yeah.

Here we go!!

As my Halloween decorations still light up my front porch and my pumpkins decay on the steps people are frantically putting up Christmas decor as if Santa arrives next week. We saw the first sign of Christmas lights the day after Halloween and since then a good 7-8 more houses in our neighbourhood alone have plastered their houses with Christmas cheer. It's still November right?

So it's happened. That curveball I mentioned a few weeks ago? It's been thrown. And what better way to take the hit than with a sick baby. Oh yeah. Up all night with a runny nose, that with a sneeze becomes projectile, and a very painful cough. I decided it would be best to hold off Sofie's daycare debut to a day where she felt a little better.... today. She's napping right now, but we are off on a new journey in T-55 minutes. I think she'll do fine. My husband, on the other hand, is not so thrilled about being back at work. He sadly went off to work yesterday morning for the first time since February. CRAZY!! It's going to take some getting used to for all of us. Some getting used to and a whole whack of time managing & organizing. But we're the Charlebois'... we'll keep up.

TRICK or TREAT!

We had another amazing Halloween in the country all thanks to the Purvis family and their wonderful hayride. It was even better this year because A) Sam & J knew more kids on the wagon this year as Sam plays hockey with a few of them, and B) I was not pregnant. That's always a bonus.

THIS is HALLOWEEN.. this IS halloween.. halloween HALLOWEEN hallowEEN HALLOWEEN

I LOOOOOOOOOVE Halloween. It's fun, it's exciting, it's creepy, it's scary, it's full of CANDY!! It's a chance to go out on a school night! My kids love it too. They are soooooo excited to wake up tomorrow.

I like to think that I put a lot of effort into Halloween. I really hate the way it's become so 'commercial' with blow up everythings and aisles and aisles of costumes in every store. When I was a kid people were creative with their decorating and there were TONS of haunted houses. Decorations were creepy. My mom made our costumes and I try my very very best to make our costumes too.

Here's what I came up with this year.

Drummond's Haunted Hay Ride (of Terror)

Let me start this post by saying that if you'd like a shot at getting your name on the list of nominations for 'parent of the year' I would strongly suggest that you pile your young children in the car and take them to Drummond's Haunted Hay Ride in Spencerville. There's nothing that screams parent of the year more than subjecting your kids to a forest full of psychos, evil and death, leaving them breathless, shaking & scarred for life. Take it from me, because I did just that this past Saturday night.

why hello strangers..

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted on here. Actually I can. Life is crazy. With Juliet on the pump & me starting work it's been a crazy whirlwind of ups & downs and it only really feels like we're getting the hang of it now, which is fabulous because who loves nothing more than finally settling into a routine and managing to get Juliet's sugars somewhat under control just in time for a change that will throw a wicked curveball at life as we know it? Me that's who. And what is that curveball you ask? My husband goes back to work in 3 weeks. And not back to a 9 to 5 job that would cater swimmingly to a smoothe transition into a new routine. No no no. Back into shift work that bumps us here and there and up the creek. That means I've got as much time to find daycare for Sofie and (hopefully) settle into a whole new routine. Oh how do I love change, let me count the ways. Zero. Totally not looking forward to this. So lets look back instead.

It's been a crazy past few weeks. October is Halloween month and so what little spare time I have has been devoted to costume prep etc. Since I started working at the daycare I've developed crafting fever and so along with costume prep I've been trying to do crafts with the kids. Here's what we've accomplished thus far...

New Beginnings!

If you recall, Sam lost his first (top) front tooth back in July. Well it only took 7 weeks for him to finally lose the other!

He pulled it out the day before school started, which was 3 weeks ago!! Unfortunately the tooth fairy completely forgot to pay him a visit and he was surprised to find his tooth the next morning right where he left it, under his pillow. "It must be because you crawled into bed with me in the middle of the night Sam... the tooth fairy didn't know where you were." Sam took care of that the next night. Before climbing into bed with me he pulled the tooth out from under his pillow and left it out in plain view so that the tooth fairy was sure not to miss it. Thankfully she didn't.

"three tomatoes are walking down the street- a poppa tomato, a momma tomato, and a little baby tomato. baby tomato starts lagging behind. poppa tomato gets angry, goes over to the baby tomato, and smooshes him... and says, catch up!"

September already. Who knew summer would go so fast.... which is pretty much what everybody says, every year, at about this time. It was a busy one... and before we get into all things school & routine I wanted to do some "catching-up" from the summer. There are a couple of things I never got around to sharing.

peaches & green beans

Old Forge, NY

Charlebois family adventure day one. Up at 7am. The aim was to leave home by 10 and I think we actually managed to get out of the house by 10:30, which is an AMAZING feat for my family of slo-mo's. Not a bad start... But by the time we hit the 401 a whole 2kms away it was just after noon. That's more like our schedule. Taking too much time to do the simplest of errands. We managed to merge and accelerate to almost 80kms/hr before we hit traffic at a standstill. Construction. Fabulous. There's another 25 minutes tacked on to our already 90 minute, 3km voyage.

un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, SEPT!!!

Happy birthday to Sam... Happy birthday to Sam... Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to Sam!!

My baby boy turned 7 today. Wow. 7!!!!! He was very excited. Yesterday we went to the grocery store & he picked out a cake. A mint chocolate mousse cake... which Juliet understood to be a MOOSE cake.. and wanted NOTHING to do with it. Sam tried to explain to her that it's not made of moose but just called that because the chocolate on the top is in the shape of a moose. I almost didn't want to intervene in their conversation to explain what mousse was... but I did. "Ohhhhhhh".

We didn't have any plans for the day really. Sam wants to have his birthday party at the movie theatre so we have to wait until there's an appropriate movie playing. Sam has decided that "Hotel Transylvania" will be the one but it doesn't open until the end of September. So all he wanted to do today was..... go to McDonalds. We hit McD's for lunch & East Side Mario's for supper where Sam was serenaded by the waitstaff in a loud ESM version of happy birthday. Sam had the cutest look on his face... a mixture of happiness, shock & embarrassment. It was good. We got video but I'll have to post it tomorrow... for now here are some pics.

finally some faces!!

I guess the apples were a little sour... hehehehe.

PARC SAFARI

In an attempt to make this summer fun & eventful without traveling across the country we've been trying to choose activities that don't break the bank & that we will all enjoy. I had intended to take the kids to LaRonde because we haven't been there in a few years but at the very last minute decided that waiting in lines with Sofie would REALLY suck... so I decided that Parc Safari would be a better alternative. Animals, water park & rides all in one.

We set out from my mother's... kids, Grama & I... and after Google Maps took us right through downtown Valleyfield & getting lost in farmland we eventually made it to the Parc. We decided to have lunch and wait for my sister to arrive before piling into the van to drive through the safari.

Butternut Squash

Beach Bums

Yesterday we hit another beach for the first time... Iroquois. It was quite nice. Packed, but nice. Geez it was 40+ degrees with the humidity... as you can see by this sweaty little nose. Nonsense.

The kids ran wild and I got to visit with a friend I hadn't seen in ages. It was good times. And we got to see a few freighters enter the locks. We'll definitely have to go back sometime and get a closer look at that.

Lyn Pit

So I'd been wanting to go to Lyn Pit for a while... like since last summer. So we went today. It was cool... water was kinda grimy but the kids had fun & want to go back. We also had the place to ourselves which was great. Anyway I basically just wanted to share some photos...

I'm On A Boat.

Good times. Good times indeed. We had a long overdue visit with some good friends of ours a couple of days ago. I don't think we'd seen them in 2 years or something. Crazy how that works. You don't realize how much you enjoy a couple's company until you hang out with them after so long... then it's like geez, where did the time go?

I hadn't been to their new house since they moved in 4 years ago. We planned to get together on Monday for some fun & games but I had a brilliant idea and invited us over for a sleep over Sunday night, so we could get in an afternoon of some good 'ol fashioned drinking without worrying about who had to drive home. Lucky for us the hosts agreed that it was a good idea so we didn't have to force our way in. They welcomed us.

" we are all a little MAD here... And a lot disappointed."

A few weeks ago I came across an event for the kids that was being held at the Fulford Mansion.

"How neat" I thought. Even more so because it was a Mad Hatter's tea party. Fabulous. And at $40 for the kids to attend the 2 morning event (9am-noon each day) I thought why not. Let's be social.

I don't know what led me to believe that it was going to be some extravagant tea party in the Fulford garden with frilly table cloths, yummy eats and elegant tea ware... but I was WAY off. Way, way off. I guess with kids ranging in age from 5-12 plastic cups & paper plates are way more suitable... and granola bars cut into little pieces with not enough juice to go around way more cost effective. Way more disappointing, but way more age appropriate... ugh. Speaking of age appropriate... let's talk about the activities. One of the activities they did was a scavenger hunt. The kids broke off into groups and were each given a clue as to where their next clue was hidden and so on. Oh what fun! Well someone forgot to remind whoever made up the clues that the age range was 5 to 12 years. Even I couldn't understand half the clues. "We hang from the arms of the friendly giant". Oh yes that must be something hanging from the branches of the dead tree way over there on the other side of the HUGE lawn. Any 8 year old (+/- a few years) could have guessed that. Please. What ever happened to find a pine cone, a feather & a dead bug or something?? Oh and for pin the grin on the Cheshire Cat...  which Sam won btw, have you ever heard of sticking the cat to the wall so the kids could go for it instead of holding the cat in your hands and going for the kids? IS IT SO COMPLICATED??!

Boo. I had such high, albeit unreasonable, expectations... so I was a titch disappointed with the whole thing. The kids, however, had a blast. I never thought Sam could possible be THAT excited for a tea party. Here are some pictures, that undoubtedly make it look WAY MORE FUN than it actually was. Better luck next time, although next time I should probably just stay home.

On the plus side I got a free mini-tour of the mansion and took the opportunity to take a few photos of the garden statues! Yay me.

Peas, Bananas & Pears Oh My!

Zucchini

Either this child doesn't have taste buds, or she just really likes her vegetables. There was no change in facial expression in going from a bite of sweet potato to zucchini. There was, however, some doubtful responses to avocado...

I think it was mostly because of the texture... I mashed it by hand instead of in the blender so it took her by surprise. She's been doing such a great job with vegetables I think it's time to reward her with some fruit!

Sometimes after supper we like to go for a walk down on Block House Island. It's especially nice in the heat because of the breeze off the river. Anyway... there are always tons of HUGE boats docked for the night. Nice boats. Never in a million years affordable to us boats. I couldn't help but snap a shot of this one... not because of the size but because of the name. Lol.

Is there such a thing as TOO MUCH tutu?

Why yes I believe there is! And in a size 6-9 months too! Who would put this on their child? If the skirt was alone, MAYBE on a 2yr. old. But this is a ONE PIECE suit you're seeing here. I pity the 6mo. old who has to wear this outfit. 

Ummmmmmm... bug orgy anyone??

Anyone born in the eighties knows the significance of these feet.

Jelly shoes & neon nail polish! Oh yes. Juliet is livin' the dream!!

This is what happens when you shop with my husband...

You might remember this pic from an earlier post... Fishing Sofie

 Well... we now bring you... Goalie Sofie

 And... Biker Sofie

 And... the Bobble Heads