My Dad!!!

Brighton (my hometown) will be naming the soccer fields "Aris Marcus Community Soccer Fields" for my Dad!! He was instrumental in bringing soccer to Brighton many years ago, and in creating the soccer fields that will be named.

:)

Dad deserves this for all the years he dedicated to soccer & his community.

Kids hard at work

A few photos taken this morning.

Halloween activities!

Finally, during the carving of the 3rd pumpkin, the kids put their hands in!

Eliana, the cat.

Calla, as a Princess, decorating her cake.

Rowan, as Peter Pan, decorating his cake.

Oh screaming child of mine.

I love Calla, I really do, but there are times I really hate the spoiled, 5 year old drama queen act that she insists upon sharing with us and everyone within a 3 house radius. Really! I have a one year old who acts better than she does. She refuses to tell me what's bothering her, screams & yells. I guess that's at least better than Rowan's temper tantrums...hitting, kicking, throwing things (all at ME!) or attacking Eliana. It is ridiculous. She's now angry with me for taking her computer & Nintendo DS away until at least 6pm. That was her punishment for not responding when I asked her 3 times to come to lunch. Oh, and she insists I need to feed her her freezie. wtf?? I don't think so. (Insert more screams here!) I'm ready to call 'Nanny 911' HELP!

Playing with the camera

So, since everyone is asking for new photos of the kids, I decided (what WAS I thinking??) that it would be fun to play photo shoot in the backyard. I need a double espresso before I ever do that again. But on the bright side, check out these shots. I now want to learn more about my camera.

And the prize goes to Calla, for taking this picture without the tripod on the ground.

Lucky Charms cereal

Gord bought Lucky Charms cereal for the kids. Rowan, the boy who eats sugar with a spoon, took all the marshmallows OUT of his bowl and ate only the cereal. I'm now eating a bowl of Lucky Charms marshmallows.
Go figure.

Here are some shots of the kids:

Skunk woes

We have a guest at our house. It's name is Stinky the Skunk. We didn't invite it and it has chosen to live under our porch. Now we are trying to convince it that our house isn't a good place to live. So I threw some mothballs into its burrow. A few hours later, to my surprise (and dismay!) the skunk had thrown all the mothballs back out!! Smart little stinker. I put them back. They've been removed again. Animal control just says to call a pest removal company. Yep. Sure. I have $300+ to spend on THAT. I think I'll try a few more cheap suggestions before I go that route. These suggestions were email'd to me from a local email list:

• Play loud music (hmmm. my neighbours might not like that)
• Pee in the hole (Ok Gord & Rowan.. Ready..Aim..)
• Get an emergency light, stick it in the hole and leave it on for a few days. Stinky doesn't like light.
• Mix exlax with some food, feed it to stinky, (stinky doesn't like the smell of his own poop)
• $12 gopher trap (whhaaaaa??? and Kill stinky? That's asking for a fine)
• Animal control says prov. law prohibits releasing an animal more than 1km from its catch site

Silly baby games

Rowan and I taught Ellie to roll over today!! (at 9 1/2 months, it's about time) She did do it once a few months ago, just to realize she hated her tummy and never did it again. She still doesn't like being on her tummy, but laughs and makes the silliest faces while she propels herself onto her back. It's rather funny to watch, I shall try to catch her on video tomorrow. She scrunches her face up, getting ready for the 'landing' once she rolls. She's a cutie.

Rowan and I have had some Mommy/Son bonding time this week. Grandma picked Calla up on Monday morning and will be bringing her back on Wed night. Yesterday we went for a walk at 9am, just because R asked to. We made a craft, played in the yard, read books to Eliana. Today we went to coffee hour, got lunch to go from McD's (Rowan's choice) and had a picnic at Rotary Park (Ajax), meeting some friends there after lunch. We explored, Rowan led. We even had dessert before dinner! Now he's enjoying a rare treat of staying up until Daddy comes home from soccer (with hopes that we'll ALL sleep in tomorrow!!!) or until he falls asleep watching Peter Pan. Tomorrow we're off to a few stores to finish our father's day shopping. Rowan also wants to get some goldfish for our pond. I think that's a great plan.

Life is easier when we focus on what's really important.

And the cat came back...

Returned by one of my neighbours... found in their garage. Very unlike Bonnie. Minx pulled this stunt last year.

A tribute to Bonnie, our elderly cat

Our dear Bonnie, the 18year old cat, has disappeared. She went missing on Sunday night. We miss her dearly. She never leaves our yard on the rare occasions that she does go outside. I fear that she had gone somewhere to die. I just hope that nothing bad happened to her and that she just knew it was her time. (I really hope not to find her body around the house hidden...)
We still have Minx, the furry beast. And no more pets.

Will post her photo when (oops, if?) I can find one.

Julia

Another Tooth and a mother's rambling.

Eliana's 2nd tooth has arrived. She's a bit fussy, too. And her newest trick: Separation Anxiety! I hope this passes soon. She raises her hand when we're waving now, and if you wait long enough, she'll clap when we do. Silly baby tricks are fun.

I'm feeling out of sorts lately. Maybe it's the unschooling...we could probably use more routines in our daily life, maybe it's the constant running around...mom's group, swimming, gym... and the knowledge that Rowan hates swimming lessons, so every Wed will be a battle. He awoke with "I'm not going to swimming" at 6:45am. Calla's last gym class is next week. Swimming ends the first week of June. Back to quiet normal before too long.

We're off on our first camping trip of the season this weekend. This will be Eliana's first camping trip. We'll be camping at Mara Provincial Park, near Orillia. The kids and I will start packing what we can today. Which reminds me that I'll have to do all our laundry before Friday. Hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine and I can use our enviro dryer. (ok. The laundry line)

Got to go. Eliana is napping, Mrs. Spider has just ended, and I promised we'd do some schoolwork today.

Golf

I hate it.
Enough said.

Julia

Eliana's first tooth!

It has arrived! Her first little tooth has cut through. And it's a sharp one!
Here's a cute photo of the toothy one (ok. So we can't actually SEE the tooth yet, just feel it)


Calla, Rowan, Eliana and I spent Monday at the Zoo. We love it there. Rowan was treated to a Zoomobile ride. That's his favourite part of the day.

His hair reflects the green from the zoomobile roof.
(Not another Halloween fiasco)

A turtle in her shell

A paleontologist at work

Swimming lessons and Gym Classes

The spring session has started: Rowan has a kindersport class through the rec centre. Calla has a homeschooler's gym class and both are enrolled in swimming. This is Rowan's first time taking swimming lessons. He pretty much cried the whole 1/2 hour. The instructor was very nice and firm, making him stay in. Rowan is like that for every new experience, so this comes as no surprise to me. He spent half of his gym class sitting on the mats, trying not to cry. My mantra: "This too shall pass"

I'm on the search for a 'new' piano. One that can be tuned, and hasn't been through a century of abuse. My current piano is not worth repairing, according to my piano tech/tuner.

We spent Easter in Brighton. This kids had a ball finding all the eggs hidden in Oma and Opa's living room. Too bad Calla had a terrible cold, she spent most of the day on the couch. Rowan is still coughing, as is Eliana.

An overwhelming experience

Eliana @ 7 Months

Went to my first home educators' conference today with a couple of friends. Wow. There is so much out there to teach with. One could easily get carried away and buy a ton of material. I picked up workbooks for Saxon 1 math. I am fortunate to have borrowed the Saxon Math teaching text from a friend. Took in a couple of seminars too. What an experience. Eliana came along too, she's such an angel when she's out!! Ok, she's pretty much always that way.

Here's Rowan sharing his books with Eliana. Hopefully she'll grow to love books just like her brother. He SLEEPS with them. Strange kid.


This is Calla showing us her Princess Jasmine doll that was in her birthday cake.

It's been a while...

Just had a reminder from a friend that my blog has been neglected... This is for you, Jen!!

Calla's 5th Birthday was this past Wednesday (the 14th) She is a very loved child. Yep. That's the nice way to say she has WAAAAY too many toys. I can't believe she still wants MORE Polly Pockets. Ah to be 5.

Homeschooling Update:
Calla's reading is improving every day. She's enjoying sounding out words and is excited when she can read a page by herself in her level 1 reader.
Rowan knows most of his alphabet letter names and sounds. He can count to 'twenty-ten' (ok, 29), only missing 16.
Eliana can sit. She enjoys holding toys too. She's a happy 6 month old.

That's all for now!
Julia

Our new classroom

It has taken a week and now it's done!! The kids are very excited to have a classroom with all their books, paper, games, crayons, etc in one place. We now have 2 tables to spread out on, a new shelf and a bright clean laminate floor! Even though it's in the basement, it's a very bright and inviting space.

Organizing a parade would be easier...

than getting Calla, Rowan & Eliana out the door to a 9:15am appointment. Or any appointment. I get "Mommy's coming, Hide!" or after one is dressed, I start helping the other, only to have the first one take their coat off. The 'Balance dance' while putting boots on, (for the nth time, Hold the wall!) My favourite one: we're in the van. It's warm. I unlatch the kids from their seats. R says "It's cold outside, I'll stay in here."

Rowan is still in bed. It's 10:10am!!!!!!!!!! Guess his body has finally realized that he needs sleep to function properly. He's been a challenging little boy lately.

Happy New Year!!

It's Tuesday. Jan 2nd. We're having a 'quiet recovery' day. The older 2 are still in their jammies, Calla's hacking up a hairball. Rowan's terrorizing Eliana whenever she's not on my lap. Eliana is watching me post this blog. Eeesh. Barney just came on.. must intervene...

Eliana is 4 months old now.
Snowmen on Boxing Day

Sleeping Beauties

Rowan is still seriously afraid of the dark. And he wants a big bed like Calla's. So... he's getting a new bed tonight. He's so excited that maybe he'll actually stay in his own room all night long and let us get some sleep.

That's all for now!!
Julia