Skating carnival

Well, we had the boys' skating carnival dress rehearsal last Thursday evening and the carnival took place on Saturday evening.

The theme was That's Reality and was based on different reality television shows. Austin and Jonah were in different groups, but both skated to the Survivor theme song and followed a course.

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the event:

This is Jonah before is dress rehearsal. Love this kid!

Here are the two of them before the carnival Saturday night. (Check out their buffs!)

Sage was so fun to watch as she danced along with the skaters' music!

Jonah had to skate under the pole as part of his survivor course.

My favourite part of Austin's course was at the end where his group skated around in a circle holding hands and then put up their hands in the air.

Lovin' this:

Usually, as per our routine, after lunch, Sage goes down for a nap, Jonah has t.v. time and I spend some time on the computer or scrapbooking. Well, I wasn't liking being so separated from Jonah, so we got a second t.v. and moved it downstairs, shortly after Xmas.

However, Jonah didn't want to watch t.v. downstairs with me.

Until this week.

I decided to move my chair from my bedroom to the basement, so Jonah would have a cozy spot to sit. Now he can still watch t.v. and interact with me and I can have some "guilt-free" me time.
It's a win-win situation.

Think Spring!!

I'm not sure if today is the last day of winter or the first day of spring, but either way, I'm totally ready for spring!

I went with a friend to Winnipeg today and we went to Costco (I love Costco!) where I picked up a few goodies for spring: a pair of denim capris, a green top and matching sandals for me and a green skirt for Sage.

I took Austin to register him for baseball this evening and it totally got me remembering last year’s baseball season. So I thought I’d go and look for a few of my favourite pictures from spring 2006:











Here's looking forward to a great spring of 2007!

What to say,

what to say...

Not too much going on today. I find I have a hard time looking forward to Mondays. It's such a same old, same old kind of day. It's the day that I recover the house from the weekend & do my laundry. I usually aim to get all of my laundry washed, dried, folded & put away in the same day, but that doesn't always happen.

I think my favourite day of the week is Sunday. Going to church, praising God and then serving him down in R.O.X. Yesterday's lesson was really good-- it was about communion and how Jesus wants us to remember Him and what He did for us by participating in communion. We told the story of the last supper that Jesus had with his friends. We asked 11 of the boys to help out as disciples and they did a great job!





(In case you're wondering, we're barefoot, because we also reinacted Jesus washing his disciples' feet.)

After church, we usually go home and have lunch. Then it's relaxing time. Sage and Cameron nap, the boys do computer or watch t.v. and I scrapbook. For the past few weeks Cameron & I have been taking The Marriage Course at our church, so we head back there at 3, where the kids get to play in the gym with other kids and babysitters. Sometimes after the course, we pick up supper and take it home, but last night we met some friends at Boston Pizza for supper, which was really fun.

After supper, we watch The Amazing Race and the kids go to bed. Then it's an evening of relaxing for Cam and me. Reading, playing cards or watching t.v.

Sundays are definitely a great day.

Gotta love

1. Saving $50. (I was working on some wedding invitations that require seven rows of zigzag stitching across them and my sewing machine started acting up. I figured out that my extra spool of thread on top of the machine was threading itself into the machine. I tried to pull out as much as I could, but it still wasn't working properly, so I actually took the side of my machine off and got all of the thread out. (There was a lot!) And now, it's working again! ) I say $50, because that's what I cost me last time I took it in to get serviced.

2. The screwdriver holder that Cameron made and put up behind our storage room door. Made it a lot easier to find a screwdriver to do #1.

3. Baking with my kids. I'm not good at playing with my kids. Interacting while they play, yes. Actually getting in there and playing, no. So when I bake with them, I feel like I'm accomplishing many things, including having yummy desserts for my family to enjoy.

4. Being on the design team for MSS. Getting new supplies and making layouts that I really like. Being on a team with such wonderful members.

5. Austin and Jonah start practicing for the skating carnival tonight. Last year's was so much fun-- can't wait for this year's.

6. Having a MIL who agreed to watch my kids for me next week so I can go into the city with a friend. (And next month so I can attend a children's ministries conference in Ontario.)

7. A&W Diet Root beer.

8. Leftovers from yesterday, so I don't need to think about what to make for supper tonight.

9. A daughter who was cranky this morning, but has now been sleeping for over an hour and a half this afternoon.

10. Warmer temperatures which equals melting snow.

Smiles

Lots of stuff going on this week...

Here are a few things that have made me smile:

Having coffee a couple of mornings with friends.
Going to MSS on Tuesday evening with Susan and Anita and following that up with a trip to Tim Horton's.

Volunteering in Austin's classroom and having his teacher tell me how much she enjoys having him in her class.

Watching Austin read a story to Sage before her nap.

Jonah. Just all the cute things he does (here he was closing Sage's door on me while I tried to take pictures of Austin reading to Sage.)

Getting an encouraging email from a friend.

Being asked if I would attend a children's conference in Mississauga, Ontario.

Dressing Sage in the outfit I got her on ebay.

Watching Jonah & Austin at their last skating lesson.

Taking the kids to movie night at Austin's school.

Going glowbowling last night with our church family.

Looking forward to more smiles on the weekend!

A little something about me...

I got this list of questions from Eva's blog and thought I'd answer them, too. (I know, I'm such a copycat!)

1. What is your occupation? Stay at home mom
2. What color are your socks right now? grey wool ones with holes in the bottom
3.What are you listening to right now? computer humming
4.What was the last thing you ate? a nanaimo bar
5. Can you drive a stick shift? Yes, I miss it.
6.If you were a crayon, what color would you be? midnight blue
7. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Anita
8. Do you like the person who sent this to you? The person whose blog I lifted this from, yes.
9. How old are you today? 34
10. Favorite drink? skim milk
11. What is you favorite sport to watch? baseball
12. Have you ever dyed your hair? not permanently
13. Pets? nope
14. Favorite food? french fries, hamburgers
15. What was the last movie you watched? Lucky Seven (with Patrick Dempsey-- love him!)
16. Favorite day of the year? My birthday
17. Favorite things to do at home? scrapbook, computer, reading, hang out with my family
18. What was your favorite toy as a child? my doll Mary
19. Which is your favorite: spring or fall? Spring
20. Cherries or Blueberries? neither-- strawberries
21. Living arrangements? in a house with Cameron, Austin, Jonah & Sage
22. When was the last time you cried? Last Thursday evening
23. What is on the floor of your closet? clothes hamper, bins of clothes, box of books
24. What did you do last night? Went to bed at 8:15!
25. Favorite smell? Newborn baby
26.What are you afraid of? Losing my kids.
27. How many siblings? 2 wonderful brothers!
28. How many vehicles have you owned? 5 plus 3 trucks while I've been married to Cameron
29. Number of keys on your key ring? um, four?
30. How many years at your current job? almost 8
31. Favorite day of the week? Sunday
32. How many provinces have you lived in? 1
33. Favorite holiday? Christmas
34. Ever driven a motorcycle or heavy machinery? yes, dirt bike
35. Do you like Rollercoasters? yes
36. How long have you been with your spouse? married 11 years next month
37. What is your pet peeve? bad grammar/spelling
38. Favorite comfort food? chocolate
39. Are you afraid of death? no
40. What was your favorite teacher's name? a tie: Mr. Tinman & Mrs. Leonard
41. Where was your favorite vacation? BC for my brother's wedding 2 1/2 years ago
42. Is your glass half full, or half empty? half full
43. What is your favorite body part? um.......
44. What do you do for fun? scrapbook, hang out with friends
45. What is your resolution for this year? to be more joyful

Thanks for reading!

Snow much fun!

LOL!

I was scrapbooking with some friends a couple of weeks ago and we were looking at some snow pictures and saying how years ago, we would have scrapbooked them:

"On such and such a date, we went to the park to play in the snow. You had such a good time..."

And the title would have been something like: "Snow much fun" or "I love you snow much."

And now, more of us scrapbook not so much the event, but the moment, or who our kids are, what they're like. And that's all good.

But, I still like the event scrapbooking, too. I'm good with it. I want to remember that day in February 2007 when we went to the park, who came with us, what we did, how much fun we had...

And hey, we live in Southern Manitoba, where snow is a huge reality for us. And therefore, I have to take pictures of it. And then scrapbook them.

But I don't do the punny titles. Ever.

Here are some shots I took this morning. The boys love playing on our neighbour's yard, where they dug a tunnel through a snowhill. Cameron was shoveling snow. Sage & I came out to help.







See, I think by scrapbooking these moments (or events, such as they are) that the kids will get a glimpse later at what life was like when they were seven and four and how even though Daddy was quite busy most of the time, he would take some time to play with them outside.

And that's what I hope they'll remember.