Something else that I discovered...

This discovery made me giggle. I call it, "Fun with fridge magnets!" We have a magnetic hangman game... and a 911 reminder. Never thought to pair them up!

Connor assembled the magnets initially. Alex, upon finding it when he got home from school, added the caption.

Quiz time!!!

Well, no free giveaways or prizes or anything... but you get Supreme Bragging Rights if you can tell me what these block creations are that I discovered on the piano the other day. A true follower of my blog should be able to figure it out! I'll give you a hint... Alex made them! :)

The changing seasons...

I used to write a lot of poetry when I was a kid. And I was pretty good at it. I won money for a poem I wrote about Remembrance Day when I was in Grade 6. That was cool!

But, then I grew up. And suddenly life got excessively busy and I turned to far more practical hobbies --- like scrapbooking, facebooking, laundry and spending time with my children --- in no particular order!

So the only real writing I do now is emails and blog posts, save the odd creative spurt in November (10 days to go and counting) when I indulge in the whirlwind world of Nanowrimo.

Still... inspiration struck me this morning when I awoke to the first signs of winter.

The trees stretch out their naked arms,
The leaves give up their valiant fight.
Autumn lays to rest its weary guard,
Brother Winter now in sight.
Outside my frosted window,
The white flakes slowly whisper down,
The quiet morning glitters,
On the dusted white, wet ground.
The cool dawn air is crisp and clean,
The snow blanketing the grass,
A telling chill kisses the morning,
Mother Nature, can kiss my ass!

Sweetest thing ever...

Alright all you Mamas out there... try and top this one!

Kirstin comes out of her room at 9:40pm. I say, "Why are you out of bed?"

Kirstin: "I need to look out the window."

Me: "Why do you need to look out the window?"

Kirstin: "I need to see a wishing star."

Me: "Why do you need to see a wishing star?"

Kirstin: "I need to make a wish."

Alright. I'll play along. We go to her window and look out the window. I say the poem (starlight, star bright...). She repeats it verse for verse. I say, "Okay, make your wish now."

She says...

"I wish I had my teddy bear!"

New fur babies!

I dropped a lot of hints this year as to what I wanted for my birthday. First I said that I wanted a bike. But then I fixed up Cory's old one and it works good enough for the speed at which our family bike rides go. So then I said I wanted a composter. Cory vetoed that one. He said, "There's no way I'm giving you a container to hold garbage for your birthday!" So then I threw out the idea of getting a pet. And he liked it. So I sweetened the deal. I said, "If we get a cat (or two), I will not expect anything else at all!"

Faced with the prospect of not having to take the children gift shopping, my husband heartily agreed! Yay! How could he not. He's a cat man at heart. He's just been wary of having any type of pets since our last one passed away. He even turned down a free aquarium because "fish die too often." But if you see him around animals, you know that he really loves to have them around.

Free kittens are a dime a dozen (well, actually they're "nothing a dozen", but that doesn't have the same ring to it). Our last three cats were freebies. This time, though, we thought we'd explore our options first before jumping at one of the many freecyle posts offering up kittens to good homes. We also decided that we wanted two cats. Back in 2000 when we brought our beloved Percy home, we lasted 2 weeks as a one-cat family. As much as we snuggled and played with him, it wasn't quite enough. He was crazy. And needy. And lonely (especially in the middle of the night). When we went back and picked up his sister, Shelley, he suddenly had a 24/7 playmate and he became the sweetest, gentlest little fellow. Three months later stumbled across Dinah and the three kittens became fast friends.

So, for us, two cats is the way to go.

So, on August 2nd (our adoption day) we loaded the kids in the car and drove to the city "just to look" - ha! Our first stop took us to Petland. What an amazing store that was! Animals everywhere (including a rat at the till... ugh). We really enjoyed that place. They had two white kittens and three orange kittens. I was quite taken with all of them. Until I learned that at this pet store chain the cost to adopt is $248 each.

Umm... seriously?

Yes, but that includes the coupon for the spay or neuter.

Okay, thanks, we'll keep looking.

Freecycle was looking pretty good at this point...

Our second stop was Total Pet. They had three little black fuzzball kittens. So cute! And the cost to adopt there was $70 each. Much more reasonable. It included first shots but NOT the spay/neuter voucher, so that would be an expense to save for for the next three months.

Our third stop, the one we saved for last on purpose, was to the local SPCA. Before they let us see any cats we had to fill out an application.

But we're just looking.

Sorry, that's the rule.

Okay, here's all our personal info.

I guess that's to weed out the window shoppers from the serious potential adoptive parents. After I'd filled the application out, we were allowed to go into the room and mingle with the pets. So we did. We petted them all. We let the children play with them all. We watched how they interacted together. We noted which ones came up to us and which ones completely ignored us. We watched to see which one shyed away from the kids (none!) We voted on favourites. It was truly a fun family decision. And we walked out of there with two older kittens, a 6-month-old black one that had been abandoned by her previous owner, and a 5-month-old orange tabby that had been picked up as a stray.

The cost to adopt a cat from the SPCA - $95 each. This includes a vet check-up and shots --- and the spay/neuter operation, which is done before new parents are allowed to take the pets home. So, cost-wise, adopting from SPCA is the best way to go all around. Not that I want to put a monetary value on a family member. The better bonus, the SPCA is a wonderful organization with altruistic goals, so we feel good about our decision to put our support there and teach our children that there are better places to obtain pets than pet stores. And how wonderful it feels to have given these two sweethearts a permanent home and family that will adore them.

***

This is Lily. She loves to sleep during the day and run around the house at night sounding like a stampede. I think she jumped on my forehead last night around 4am. She's fully litterboxed trained and she loves being purred. She's very happy to play with the children.

And this is Sophie. She's a big snuggler. She's also very quick to explore the house. She spends far too much time on the kitchen table that I care to admit. She's hard to see in the dark and on the couch so we have to be careful not to step or sit on her. She's also fully litter-box trained. She has already decided that my bed is a good place for her to sleep. She, too, loves to engage in a good game of tag in the middle of the night. For someone so tiny, she sure makes a lot of noise tearing around the house.

And this is the two of them, sisters from different parentage, but friends by fate. It's hard to get a photo that shows both of them well. So far, when they're together their backs are to me --- or they're moving at light speed. Happy Birthday to me!!! The gift that keeps on giving. So much fun having kittens again!

(Maybe next year I can sell Cory on a puppy...)

The Freeman Family 3rd Annual Camping Trip

Well, this year's trip was WET, WET, WET! It started raining at 9:30pm Friday night and it stopped raining at 4:00pm Saturday. Seriously. I timed it! Thankfully, we had canopies for the picnic tables, rain capes for the kids, and board games to while away the hours. Sunday was marginally better, raining with scattered patches of blue sky.

Still... no campfire ban this year and no sunburns, so there were definite pluses to the weather.
Our campsite...

Kirstin and Taylor deep in conversation...

Connor, undeterred by the damp...

Qwirkle! Definitely a popular game. Kind of like scrabble... kind of not.

Yatzee Jr., Mickey Mouse style!

What happens when you leave your baby alone with Grandpa...

Aunty Lindsay, Dmitri, and their new baby, "Blue" (Kirstin - "That's a silly name, she's not blue!")

Uncle Mark and their newest recruit. Mark's been raising RCMP pups for the last two years. This is their third, "Dave". We're rooting for him!

See, no campfire ban!

When the adults use up all the table space with their board games, the kids have to improvise!

Hmm... that one didn't post very large, did it?

And now, just a few cute shots of some cousins.

Too cold to swim, but wading is an option!

And Sunday night... a double rainbow. A promise that maybe August will be sunnier! :)

And now... back to the laundry! :)

Weekend Birthdays

Aah, birthday weekend... the start of the sugar buzz that rolls right on through to the first week of August. Yup, it's birthday season again! Not sure what fate smiled on us when our first born showed up smack in the middle of hubby's already too close birthday and mine, but he did. So, it's Cory, then Alex, then me. Which inevitably means three cakes in less than two weeks. Yum. Ugh.

Anyway, having almost recovered from the rich food weekend, I thought I'd post some photos of Cory's birthday and Alex's birthday party. Alex isn't quite yet 7, as that's still 3 days away, but we always throw his party on a weekend, being more convenient to our work schedules.

Saturday morning... Cory walks in the door from his 8 hour shift. The kids accost him with well wishes and gifts they've each carefully chosen. I loiter in bed wishing, yet again, that they'd learn how to sleep in on weekends. That's my qualifier... Cory looks like crap cause he's worked all night, I look like crap because I just woke up - it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that he's just crossed over the halfway point of his thirties and I'm soon to.

Kirstin giving her Dad a birthday snuggle after he opened the lamp she picked out for him.

Alex being thanked for the "Spiderham" comic he picked out for his father. They've already read 60+ pages!

Alex's terrible photography skills... yeah, that's why I look so puffy! And yes, that it my super-awesome birthday gift for him (no help from http://deathofmonopoly.blogspot.com/ whatsoever) :)

And Cory trying to steal a birthday snuggle from Connor, giver of the Dr. Doofenschmirtz doll.

I love taking the kids shopping for gifts. They each have their own personalities and perceptions of what makes a good gift. For Father's Day, for example, my dad-in-law recieved a lovely red plunger from Connor! :)

After Cory crashed for the day, the kids and I set out to make him cupcakes for supper...

... proving yet again, exactly why I ask Grandma to make cakes for my children's parties! :)

And since I didn't have 35 candles kicking around... we chose to go with 1 rather large, rather tacky one. Connor was determined to blow it out before Cory. I don't think he succeeded, but the effort was cute!

Which brings us to Sunday and to celebration #2 - Alex's birthday party. My "baby" is just about to turn 7. It's pretty crazy and cliche how fast the years go when you have children. But they do. When I asked him how he wanted to celebrate his birthday, he said "Exactly the same as last year!"

Here's last year's post, if you missed it...

http://laurasfamily.blogspot.com/2010_07_01_archive.html

So... we did. Almost. We changed a few things and kept a few things. And I do believe that the children had a blast, went home high on sugar, and made a few memories along the way.

We were lucky enough to have decent weather for our party. I really didn't want to have to do it indoors, but since it's pretty much been raining since the first day of summer, the odds weren't in our favour. At 12:15, 45 minutes to show time, the rain began. So instead of setting up in the backyard, we backed the cars onto the road, moved the bikes and recycling bins, and swept out the car port. But the rain stopped and we managed to pull off a pretty successful event.

A recycled poster from last year saved me a good evening's work!

The bouncy house that serves as entertainment AND a good place to sit and eat watermelon.

The party-goers lined up with their water balloons...

...to toss at Bowser of course! (Lots of little balloon bits lodged in my tree now)

The updated Yoshi Egg on spoon race... this time forget about running in a straight line, run the obstacle course with your egg, instead. (Connor's the one in the background retrieving his fallen egg)

Kirstin is wearing her red Donkey Kong tie... we made those instead of party hats this year to differentiate between the two teams for the mini games. Half of them red, half blue.

And yet, the kids all played in one big chaotic muddle after all. Another recycled mini-game... Bean Bag Boo... too cute not to re-use!

This year instead of Pin the Moustache on Mario, we went with the classic, "Pin the Tie on Donkey Kong" instead.

And this. I'm actually pretty pleased with this one in particular. This is the pinata I built. It's not very square and it's not very pretty, but a true Mario fan would recognize it for what it is, so that's all the counts.

And then Alex got to open his gifts. Some pretty cool stuff (Eric, how about reviewing "Candyland" with Alex next time you're up?) Including a Light Sabre! Umm... thanks, Mom and Dad, Cory loves it...

And the cake my Mom made. See, compare it to my cupcakes and give me one good reason why I should attempt baking again!

Winding down after an over-tiring, over-stimulating, sugar coma kind of a day... Blowing bubbles with Grandma, a perfect tantrum taming activity.

Happy Birthday to two of the men in my world! Blow out your candles and make a wish...

... cause mine came true 7 years ago.