And Connor's!

Kirstin's (she's the star)

Christmas concerts... better late than never! Alex's grade 5 class

Farewell babyhood...

What do you do with a crib that no longer passes child safety laws?  Ours broke last year, in our move to this new house. With a broken side, clumsily secured using zip straps, passing the crib on to a worthy newborn is no longer an option so basically, once Brooklynn was finished with it, it was bound for the dump.

Well, it was bittersweet, but we moved our little monkey into a big girl bed.  She wasn't sleeping in the crib anymore, anyway.  She's taken to calling our bed, "MINE!" so it was time.  This crib was a very good crib for us for 10 years and I'm not ready to let go of it completely, so I decided to try my hand at something I'd seen passed around on Facebook a while back.

So for $26 and change, I picked up a vinyl table cloth and double sided tape, some plastic bins from the dollar store, and some colourful clothes pins.  Then with a screw driver, pair of scissors, and my glue gun, I made our baby crib into a desk for the girls' room.  I basically took the drop side off the crib, moved the bottom back up to the highest level, zip strapped the bins onto the inside of the rails (I love those zip straps!), and hot glued clothespins around the inside of the "desk."  I used the table cloth to cover the bottom of the crib and re-cover the trashed kids' folding chairs.  It was a very fast, very fun project and all the kids have had their turn working on their artwork at the new desk.

I am very, very pleased with the results!  It's not as professional looking as the ones on Pinterest, but the girls seem to love it and they're impressed.

Now I have to decide what I want to do with the offending drop side that I removed from the crib.   There are plenty of ideas on Pinterest.  Here's what's in the running so far...

A drying rack for the laundry room

                                                   A book case for one of the kids' rooms

 Or a little something for ME... a craft storage rack for my scrapbook room.

They're all very tempting... might have to keep my eyes peeled for discarded baby furniture from here on out.  

"Kids Say the Darndest Things" is already taken...

I've had an idea for a book in mind for a few years now. It's going to be a compilation of short essays and funny things that my kids say.  Mostly anecdotes I've already blogged or used as my facebook status updates.  I've already got a plethora of really great material and it just keeps coming.   

I've also already started writing it in snippets here and there.  Here's an oldie but goodie sneak peek of one of the first page:

I was sitting on Alex's bed with him tucking him in.  He stuck his hand in something brown and slimy.  He said "Eww, what is that?"  

I determined, upon closer look and smell, that it was the remains of a very ripe, mushy banana (that quite conceivably went through the washer since I just pulled his quilt out of the dryer an hour ago.) I said "It's okay, it's just some banana."

and he said...

"No, I think maybe a fruit fly pooped on my bed." 

Anyway, I've had the title and the cover image in my head forever, but up until now I've never been able to properly capture it on film.  Until last week...

"Reflections on Motherhood."

by Laura Freeman

Alex's First Band Concert

Alex joined the band this year.  We had the pleasure of seeing his class in concert! He goes to the High School twice a week with grade five kids from the other two schools.  They've only been playing for about 7 weeks now, due to the late start in school.  I think they did a fantastic job.  It's so great to hear him practicing his clarinet (he's in the second row on the left, in glasses --- yup another first for him this year). I really hope he decides to go all the way through band to graduation as we also had the pleasure of listening to the grade six band, the 7 and 8 band, and the high school band.



I had a bored toddler to contend with while I was trying to film this so the first bit of the video is shaky and has some bored toddler background noise.  The nice thing about living in a small community is that there is always someone around that you know.  One of my foster parents kindly offered to film for me.  She did a great job.  So thank you to her!  



Anyway, enjoy our budding musician's first time in concert!  (And thanks again, Mom and Dad, for shopping for his concert ensemble).