Ten Years

Ten Years is a long time.

A very long time.

In ten years I've graduated University, bought a car, got married, went though teacher's college, moved seven times, got some cats, got a dog, went through three secondary cars, got a big girl job, had a baby, bought a house, had another baby.... and another one... add another dog to the mix...

Ten years is a long time and I've accomplished a lot, I've seen a lot, learned a lot, and the whole time I had one person by my side.

Happy Tenth Anniversary.

Slainte for another ten.

Pinterest: Other

This is the last in this series of Pinterest posts. When I complete some more activities, I'll post them here. I have a bunch that I bought supplies for, for Halloween. I get everything for these crafts at the dollar store, so I don't feel too guilty about them, if they fail.

Here are some other pins I've tried, but didn't photograph:

Bailey's with coffee ice

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Birthday party game: Save Batman and Robin from Mr. Freeze

About half of the kids were utterly obsessed with saving the heroes - while the other half went and played in the pirate ship.

***SPOILER ALERT***

Sharpie Plates

I did a few of these as Christmas presents, as did the kids... so beware... you may get one of these for Christmas. I found that some worked better than others... others faded quite a bit, so the colours are muted. Oh well, that's how it goes with DIY.

The Thankful Tree

I tried this at work and it was a huge success, except it didn't have the impact with the kids that I really wanted it to. Oh well.

I also made this neat chore chart with clothes pegs for the boys, but I can't find that pin.

I have a whole list of other Pinterest crafts that I want to try - some as Halloween or Christmas decorations - and some as presents. I never thought of myself as a "crafty" person, but I'm having a lot of fun with this!

Pinterest: Crayon Wreath

This was, by far, my biggest fail, so far.

Here is the original pin:

Here is mine:

I was super excited to do this one, but in the end it looks like crap.

I had planed on giving this to someone for a birthday present, but I'm not so sure now.

I have some ideas that could make it look a little better - which I am going to try - so that I can salvage it and still give it to her as a birthday gift. So, if you read this and get it for your birthday this year, act surprised (and don't tell me how bad you think it looks, please).

Epic Homemade Halloween Costume

We always ask the kids really early what they want to be for Halloween, so that if the assistance of P's awesome seamstress Mom is necessary, we can give her lots of time, so she doesn't need to stress last minute. She is unbelievably generous in offering her talent to create some of the most difficult and creative Halloween costumes that I have ever seen, including; Astro Boy, The Green Goblin, and Perry the Platypus. Because she is so generous to offer this, I feel horrible waiting until October (or even late September) to ask her to make the kids a costume. These things take time and money and creativity - so I have started the habit of asking in the summer, when people, theoretically, have more time.

This year L has a few to choose from: The costumes the boys each wore at her age (dragon or lion) and a few that she got for dress-up for Christmas (Red riding hood, bumble bee, lady bug). The boys' old costumes are for cold weather and the girly costumes are for indoor/warmer weather. Either way, she is beyond set.

D asked to be Spiderman. So, finding a Spiderman costume at Walmart (or wherever) shouldn't be too hard. I do, however, refuse to spend $60 on the authentic Disney costume. Gah.

G got an Iron Man costume for Christmas that he has worn quite a bit. I assumed this is what he would want to wear - but no - he decided to be obscure once again. Last year he wanted to be ASTROBOY... yes, that Japanese super robot with rocket boots... this year he wants to be a robot AGAIN. This time though... it is WALL-E.

I panicked. How on EARTH was I going to pull off a Wall-E costume. This wasn't something that my M-I-L could magically sew together... I was going to have to figure this one out. I looked online and the homemade Wall-E costumes that I found were beautiful; I could never recreate that. I gently tried to urge G into his Iron Man costume - but nope - he had his adorable, stubborn little heart set on Wall-E.

This was a task that I KNEW that I would not complete once school started, so I started in the summer - pushing myself to at least get it started before work stresses began... and this is proving to be a stressful year already.

So...

*sigh*

I figured I'd try.

I brought home two good sized boxes from Food Basics:

The sturdier of the two boxes became the body. I measured where the head hole should go and the arm holes. From the top of the second box I made Wall-E's tread tires and hands. The second box was entirely dismantled to construct the arms, head, and eyes. I am going to be honest here, when I brought out the box (unpainted above) with just the tire treads taped on, G was a go - he saw Wall-E and he was good. He actually cried and screamed when I took the unpainted, vinegar box back into the basement to finish it.

The next step terrified me - painting it to look like Wall-E. I had to make several sketches, print off pictures of Wall-E, and eventually print off the Wall-E logo and BnL logo to paste on the box. When I finished painting the front of the box I brought it upstairs to see if it reached the three year old's standards and to measure for the head.

He liked it, so far. D and L also had to try it on... just to be sure. His arms can go through the holes on the side there, so he can hold his candy pumpkin.

I had a few layers of paint to add to the body, so I took it back downstairs. All that I have (that I'm willing to sacrifice for this project) is acrylic paint, so it took many layers to cover all of the writing on the boxes. I also put some duct tape along the edges of the head and arm holes, so that they wouldn't rub against him.

Next, I made the arms. They could have been black and white, but I have no acrylic white, so I went with a black and red. Originally I was going to try and make G's arms into Wall-E's arms, but decided that was beyond my ability and I attached them right to the box.

Okay... brief pause... Here is where I thought I'd lose my mind. I had no idea how I was going to make the head. I had no ideas and wanted to go into the basement (my workspace) and cry. I didn't. There were no tears... but I did have to walk away for a day or two before I could even think about it. This was very, VERY hard for me to do because when I start a project I have to do it until it is done - EVEN IF IT KILLS ME - or else I can't sleep because I am thinking about it so much.

Eventually I just sat down and started. I figured I'd try and if it didn't work, I'd try something else.

Here is what I came up with:

Cool, eh? Yeah... great... but how the heck was I going to attach it to the costume. I tried attaching the eyes to a hat, but they were too heavy to sit straight on G. I tried the hat several times, in different ways, but nothing was working. So, I found an old tin cylinder from last Christmas that (for some unknown reason) had not been thrown away. I made an extra long neck and hot glued it to the body.

Here he is drying after the last coat of paint:

Here he is trying it on:

When I decided to become a Mom, I had no idea that I would be so crazy about this kind of crap. It was like a riddle that needed to be solved - it was a challenge I had to ... (wait for it)... accept. I don't always see myself as a driven individual - but when I want to accomplish something I go a little insane; When I wanted to go to University... the crazy peeked out a bit there. When I wanted to get into teacher's college... the crazy poked through there, as well. When I wanted a teaching job - the crazy erupted into hour long commutes for half day jobs and moving five times in four years - so in my own ridiculous way I can be driven... but who knew that in my thirties I'd be driven to complete a freaking Wall-E Halloween costume???!?!?

Pinterest: Halloween Wreath

 I had originally come across (and pinned) this pin:

But, it called for fun fur, which is difficult to find and can be very expensive. Since the whole point of the craft is to save money on things like this, I was excited to find this pin:

You use a pool noodle, several feather boas, styrofoam balls and googly eyes.

Here is mine:

I specifically picked several shades of blue boa because I thought it would be more fun.

In the end, I really like how it turned out and D says it looks like a "Muffet" (Muppet). I spent less than seven dollars on materials and I have lots of googly eyes and styrofoam balls left over for future projects.

I'll have to hang it on the door for Halloween.

Pinterest: Chinese New Year Lanterns

I was looking for something to do for Chinese New Year this past January and found this pin on Pinterest. I remember making these as a kid, but the pin had reminded me of them.

Here is the original pin:

Here are the boys with their lanterns:

They made them all by themselves and it was good practice for cutting skills.

Gangnam Style

L's new favorite song. This dance party happened at 9:30 this morning. You can see all of L's dance moves, including her booty shake, her fist pumping, and her arm waving.

One Week Left...

With one week left of my vacation, the work drama has already begun - ugh.

But, I am determined to make the best of my last week. Things became suddenly extra busy around here last week, since P landed himself a job (hooray!) This past week has been a lot of puppy loving; the boys have spent a lot of time outside playing with the dogs. D is learning how to walk the dog, which he finds difficult, but it is a learning curve for both dog and boy. G even tried his hand at walking Wade today, but had a lot of trouble controlling him. In a fit of enthusiasm, D wanted to walk Spicy - so I let him - and in two seconds Spicy was dragging him by his arse across the driveway. We didn't make it to the end of the street before I convinced him to switch with me and walk Wade instead.

We've tried a new technique (that I, of course, saw on Pinterest) to help with the daily toy/clutter clean up: Toy Jail. When clean-up time is announced, the kids have 10 minutes to clean up all of their toys, books, movies, etc. or else anything left over ends up in toy jail (a box with a lid). They can liberate their toys by using their manners, sharing, eating without complaint, having a fit-free nap, etc. Day two of toy jail and each day the kids have earned all of their toys back - although the threat of toy jail is still new enough that they work really hard to get everything put away before the ten minutes are up. I don't know how long it'll last, but so far, so good.

Potty Training Update: G has completely regressed. He went SIX WEEKS in underpants during the day (not at night or on outings) and is suddenly completely incapable of going more than ten minutes without wetting himself. He refuses to wear underpants and begs for Pull Ups. This is a heavy regression and it is very angering and frustrating from my perspective. He was *so close* but now completely back to square one.

Next week I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing. P is going to be busy with his new job, so that leaves little in the way of obligation. Actually, most of what I had planned this week has been cancelled because of job conflicts, meeting cancellations, over bookings, etc.

Two big things coming up this week: My Mom's 50th and our 10th Wedding anniversary.

BRING IT SUMMER!

Pinterest: French Toast Sandwich

I rarely try the food pins - because I am a terrible cook, but I have a specific fondness of breakfasts. 

I saw this and HAD to try it. It is French Toast, with cream cheese and blueberries (made like grilled cheese).

Here is the original pin:

Here is mine:

My may look like barf - BUT IT WAS DELICIOUS.

I freaking loved it.

L and G also loved it, D and P were apathetic toward it, but ate it anyway.

I loved it.

(hmmm, did I say that already?)

Pinterest: Terrarium

I know that I said already that the crayon art was my first Pinterest craft, but D, G and I did this terrarium before I started my Pinterest obsession. I found a pin, just in case we decided to try it again.

Here is the pin:

Here was our finished product:

It lasted a good while, but once the frost set in it died. We tried moving it inside, but some bugs had made a home of it and I'd rather them not live IN my house.

Pinterest: Cityscape Backdrop

This one I had a lot of fun making and the kids are still using the buildings that I made as props for superhero imagination play. 

Here is the original pin:

Here is mine:

The biggest problem that I had was that the kids were too rough on it and tore it down earlier than I wanted, because a few of the younger children hadn't had a turn to have their pictures taken.

Pinterest: DIY Pinata

The DIY pinata was NOT as much as success as the first one.

Here is the original pin:

Here is the sad picture of mine:

Mine may look crappy, but it worked. The kids loved it and Uncle R knocked it down with his "bear" hands.

Pinterest: Melted Crayon Art

In a previous post I discussed some of my successes and failures with Pinterest crafts.

I thought I'd post some of the results in pictures:

Here is the original pin;

The tutorial was simple and clear, but I do not own a hair dryer diffuser, and chose to use a BBQ lighter instead. I paid $3 for a BBQ lighter and it made it through one canvas and the majority of a second.

This was my second attempt. The first attempt I used a hair dryer (sans diffuser) and it looked like the crayon barfed on the canvas. But, I also used a canvas board the first time and I've found much more success with stretched canvas. The one pictured is hanging up at work (if it didn't get ruined in the fire this summer). I also made one for D's teacher with her name on it for her classroom as an end-of-the-year teacher gift. She gushed over it while I was there, so I hope she liked it.

This was my first attempt at a Pinterest craft. 

I also made my keys glittery the same day I tried this one, but I didn't take any pictures of that.

D Reading

This one is for a certain Aunt (who happens to read this blog) who helped instill a love of reading in me - and has continued that for my children. This is also for my Mom who read to me every night, giving me the experience to do what I do for a living.

It is a long video, so if this kind of thing doesn't tickle your fancy - don't watch it.

This is not a story that we read often. I believe it belonged at my Grandmother's house when I was a kid and it was passed on to my sister, and then on to my kids. I suggested it tonight because it had been awhile since we had read it. I planned on reading it to him, but he just opened it up and started reading. I ran and grabbed the video camera, because these are the moments why we have a video camera.

Technical jargon: His pauses in reading are usually to decipher context clues - i.e. to look at the pictures to see if he can figure out what the word that he doesn't recognize is. This is a concept that not all kids can figure out on their own - but for some it is natural. Apparently D can do it naturally, because I don't think I taught him how. Regardless, I do work on his sight vocabulary with him (as per a request of his JK teacher), and it has improved over the summer, as well.

Am I bragging? Maybe. Am I a proud Mommy? Yup! I'll take it when I can. ;)

Sixth and Seventh Week of Summer

I know that I already posted today, but I had a little deal with myself to summarize my summer every week, so that I could look back, fondly, before work starts (ugh) soon and realize that I hadn't wasted my summer.

Sixth Week:

Doctor's appointments, yard work, cleaning the house, food prep for D's party, and everything else I've already blogged about.

Seventh Week:

Monday we decided on a whim to go to Sarnia for a visit. We haven't spent much time there this summer and my parents have just moved into a new house, so we decided to head down there before the summer was over. D spent his actual birthday there and did everything that he had on his wish list. We came home on Wednesday and I had planned on repacking and heading to Toronto for a work conference that I had been looking forward to all summer - but I had called the hotel to confirm my reservation and they indicated that they had no knowledge of my reservation. They transferred me to the woman running the conference and she had no knowledge of my attending the conference. I have been trying to contact the people on my end who organized everything and no one has responded to my inquiries. I'm just happy that I didn't go all of the way down there to find this out. I was (and frankly, still am) very disappointed about the whole thing. For the first time all summer I've been in a serious funk.

I spent the days that I had planned on being out of town; moping, eating junk food, and spending money... all things I know I shouldn't be doing, but was too bummed out to care. Instead, we bought a puppy, and I spent the nights I was supposed to be alone in a hotel room ordering room service, on the couch consoling an adorable, but whining, puppy.

So, the seventh week was the first week of crapiness in a summer of awesome - but I got a puppy, so it evens out.

Next week is going to be a tough week with vet appointments and getting the roof redone, but I think I want to spend most of it at home - playing with the puppy - and trying to get everything back on track. Since being depressed about the conference, I've let the housework go, let my workout routine go, and haven't done anything overly proactive (like decluttering, organizing, etc). I did buy The Hunger Games and upload six months of photos... so I guess that's something.

Go Go Go, On an Adventure

L has been developing some hissy fitting during car rides, especially when coming in or out of the car. She arches her back and screams, forcing us to have to struggle to get her buckled up. The boys were such easy riders that this is frustrating.

I've discovered that by singing her this song she'll go in and out of the car without a fuss. She'll even sing along.

On an unrelated note she had Fruit Loops for the first time today and afterwards brought me her bowl and said, "Loops, Please." I thought I'd share, because it was freakin' cute.

Wade

P and I have been talking about getting a second dog for a few years. We wanted Spicy to have a  friend, but we weren't actively looking for a dog, because of having a busy life with three small children.

Friends of ours offered to give us one of their farm kittens and we seriously considered it, but we decided that we don't really want another cat. I love Beowulf, but unless I could guarantee that the new cat would be exactly like Beowulf, I don't really want another cat.

We had stopped by a few animal shelters to look at the dogs and had come close once to adopting a dog, but we changed our minds, because we decided that that particular dog wasn't the right fit for our family.

This weekend our niece convinced us to check out the Sarnia Humane Society because they had some abandoned puppies there. We went and I instantly fell in love with one puppy. We looked at a couple there to be sure, but this particular puppy loved all of us, even L.

We went with our gut reaction and adopted him. I am not an impulsive person by nature, so this was very out of character for me, but I absolutely love him.

Pinterest

So, I've been spending some time on the social network, Pinterest, lately. I'm finding that it is cheaper than online shopping and helps me wind down after the kids are in bed. Someone commented that it is fantasy football for girls. I can see the comparison.

I've taken some ideas from the website and used them for crafting, DIY gifts, and birthday party prep.

Since I made the decision that I am doing a DIY Christmas this year, Pinterest has been my go-to place for ideas. I haven't started a lot of Christmas shopping yet (although this is usually when I start), but I have picked up some supplies for crafting Christmas presents.

I thought it might be interesting (for me, anyway) to record some of the Pinterest crap that I've actually followed through with - things I've actually tried:

1) The melted crayon art: tried it and found it successful. It took two tries, but the second looked great and I hung it up at work. The third attempt I put D's teacher's name on it before melting the crayon and it turned out fabulously as a teacher gift. She loved it. I have two more canvases and I bought cheap back-to-school crayons at Staples and I am making two more as Christmas gifts this year.

2) DIY pinata: tried it and found it a lot harder than the tutorial made it out to be. It took a long time to put it together, and the end result was decent. I know some tricks now that I've done it that would make a second attempt look better (if I bothered to do it again). The kids loved it and it was megacheap. I think I paid a whole three dollars to construct it (including the glue for the glue gun) plus candy. It was SO labour intensive though, that I would be hard pressed to make another one.

3) Photo booth city scape backdrop: It was super easy to make, but I need to think of a more inventive way to put it all together, because the kids ripped it down too easily. My idea to use a cloth backdrop sucked, and if I ever do something like this again, I'd just use paper.

4) DIY Gift bags: I went through a lot of frustration getting the decoration just right, but in the end they were cheap and useful.

5) DIY Cape craft: The tutorial on Pinterest made it look super easy, but I went even easier by buying cheap cloth serviettes ($1 a piece) and stick on velcro (also from the Dollar store). Each craft (including markers, etc, which we can continue to use afterwards) cost about $2 each.

6) Crayon wreath: I haven't made this one, yet, but I bought all of the supplies. If it works out the way I want it to, I am giving it as a Christmas gift.

7) Bailey's with coffee ice cubes: Made them, loved them, still enjoying the leftover Baileys.

8) Sparkle keys: I sparkled up my keys and really liked the effect, but everyday wear and tear have taken most of the sparkles off. I have more sparkles to top them up, but haven't gotten around to it.

9) Crochet hats: Now, I don't actually crochet, but I commissioned a friend of mine to make a Boba Fett hat for P and an Iron Man mask for G.

10) THE THANKFUL TREE: This was one of the first that I made and one of my favorite. It was a project at work and I had a lot of compliments on it. I don't think that I'll do it again this year, but perhaps I'll try it every other year.

11) Batman Ice Game: I tried this at D's birthday party. I froze a few super hero toys in ice and the kids had to save them by using warm water squirt guns... but it took so long that some of them got bored and ran into the pirate ship, while others obsessed over it until all of the super heros were free. The amount of warm water needed to free the superheroes was ridiculous. D told me it was one of his favorite parts of the party, though, so it wasn't a waste.

12) Fort-in-a-bag: I thought this was such a cute idea, and made one for my niece. They used it once or twice, but I'm not sure if it is worth all of the effort that it took to piece it together. Maybe if I could get my sewing machine working again (and had a place to actually put it!

I have a few more pins that I want to try, as long as the crafting material is easy to find.

Be prepared, though, if you are on my Christmas list, you will most likely get a craft from us for Christmas!

Birthday Bash

The forecast was thundershowers and non-stop rain.

Well... it stopped raining for two hours - the exact two hours of the party.

Thanks to overwhelming support of friends and family the party was a success.

There were a couple of moments where I was a *little* overstimulated, 

so I can only imagine what it was like for the kids!

It seriously would not have been possible without each and every adult lending a hand and making sure everyone had what they needed.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who did juice box runs, helped herd and organize kids for games and activities, who ran and got more warm water for the ice game, who helped make food and bring it where it needed to go, who played target practice with the kids and the supersoaker, who did dishes, who cleaned up garbage, who helped with the million and one issues that the kids came up with - THANK YOU EVERYONE!

D went to bed a very happy little boy tonight.

Birthday Party Prep

D asked for a Superhero birthday party this year. Originally he wanted a pool party at Grandma's, but since they moved before his birthday and no longer have a pool, I'm thrilled that he changed his mind.

Last year he specifically wanted a Chuck E Cheese party, so I'm also thrilled that he wanted an at home party.

He also specifically asked to invite his school friends, which is very difficult for an August birthday, so I figured we'd hand out the invites in June (on the last day of school). I was concerned that no one he wanted to invite would be able to go and he'd be disappointed - so we made the decision to invite the whole class.

No one called from his class until two days before the RSVP date - so I spent most of the summer thinking that no one was coming. Four kids from his class RSVP'd by the due date and I figured that was a pretty good number (out of twenty). Well, AFTER the RSVP date  FIVE more parents called... making a total of nine kids, plus D (half of his class). I'm also preparing if a couple of kids show up without RSVPing.

The weather is calling for rain - but my house is too small to hold all of those people - so let's pray for no rain!

Here are the buildings I made for the photo booth: a place for the kids to get their pictures taken with their superhero capes (the craft).

These are the goody bags. 

They'll also be taking home their capes and pinata candy on top of these loot bags.

Here is the homemade pinata. 

It isn't as nice as the one in the Pinterest tutorial, but it isn't as bad as I thought it was going to look.

Now, I just have to figure out how to string it up.

So, bar praying for no rain (for the first time all summer), I just have to make some food and we're all set. I've been spoiled lately, since the last two kid parties I've had have been at my Mom's house and I haven't had to worry about cleaning and such.

Fifth Week of Summer

This week disappeared on me. I honestly can't even remember what I did with most of the week.

On Monday I took the boys to the library and we "rented" a couple of kids movies and I took out Black Swan for myself. D picked up another encyclopedia to look through.

Wednesday I got my hair cut. After my initial blog post earlier this week, the final result is that I don't really like my haircut. I cannot recreate the style that the hairdresser created and the humidity makes it impossible for my hair to stay straight. Every time I look in the mirror I see a really bad early 90s haircut and my bangs look curled and everything is chaos. It took me 45 minutes to straighten my hair the other day and by noon the humidity had curled it all up again. Oh well, I'll live.

Friday I took D to his occupational therapist. We also spent the day shopping for his birthday party. I'm attempting to make a pinata, which is taking forever and isn't looking as nice as I'd like it to - but it is full of candy. We went to the dollar store and picked up goodie bags and decorations. I've spent a large part of my week making some of the decorations. I am trying really hard to keep the costs of this party down by doing a lot of the crafting myself, but I am afraid that it is going to look like crap.

Saturday we had back to back soccer games and I was on call for G's team snack. Luckily my in-laws came down to watch the boys play soccer and that made the organizing a little easier since the games overlap each other a little bit. After soccer we headed downtown for the Friendship Festival parade. D and I walked around the festival a little bit later, but we both got bored pretty quickly and headed home.

Today we had the in-laws over again for dinner, which meant a lot of cleaning and organizing and food prep. P, my B-I-L and F-I-L pruned our dying pear tree in the hope to extend its life a little.

Tomorrow I hope to get the boys out to the pancake breakfast in the park before heading toward Toronto to visit family.