Enjoying the Quiet Today

This week Scott has been travelling to Calgary, Regina, & Saskatoon.  He gets home tonight.

Today the older kids all have school, which means Nathan & Clara will be home tomorrow.

Tonight my niece, Sara, is flying in to spend the next 6 days with us.  Samantha has been counting down for weeks!  :)

Next week is March Break.

In a moment of weakness, we offered our home to billet some young people for a Youth Conference hosted in town this weekend.  Which means we will have up to 15 teenagers sleeping in our basement tomorrow night.

So today...

While Clayton & I have the house to ourselves...

We are enjoying every peaceful minute of it.

Even though we have an abundance of work to do.

Even though I'm still getting over being sick for the better part of a week.

Even though Clayton has a threshold of 2.7 minutes of playing happily on his own before needing to go back to his permanent perch on my left hip.

Even though I am very much looking forward to the activities we have planned for the next 10 days...

We are really enjoying the quiet today.

Family Day

Our Family Day Weekend consisted of:

• Two hockey games (Nathan scored 2 goals!)
• Friends sleeping over
• Samantha going babysitting on Friday night
• Movie night
• A big Spaghetti dinner at the church
• Samantha went shopping with some friends
• Nathan went to a friend's birthday party
• Brett & Jesse cleaned out the Suburban
• Samantha gave a talk in Sacrament meeting at church
• We hosted a fireside for the youth at our house on Sunday night

After the fireside we decided to head out of town to go spend Family Day with Nana & Papa in Kingsville.

A few photos of the trip:

The boys enjoying the video of Nathan's hockey game

Clara drawing pictures, as usual

Samantha relaxing with here books and music

Colasanti's: Animals, rides, arcade games, and a buffet lunch. Pretty much the perfect place to spend Family Day together.

Brett feeding the goats

Nana making sure Clayton got a good look at one of the baby goats

We ended the weekend in Point Edward where the boys had a nail-biter of a hockey playoff game, in which they ended up in a 2-2 tie.

 

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Not Your Typical Saturday Date Night

Last night Clara had an adventure at the hospital.  Here's what happened...

Clara's story:  I was walking from the couches to the kitchen.  I was looking at the chair by the computer, and I tried to walk through it, but it touched my head and I started bleeding.  

Our story:  Clara walked into a chair. 

Her gash was small, but fairly deep.  Of course it was Saturday night at bedtime, so we couldn't take her into our family doctor.  We decided to head to Emergency.  

In the waiting room:

Ready to see the doctor:

A popsicle for being such a brave girl while they glued her head back together and sealed it up with some paper stitches:

Clara was quite cheerful throughout the night.  We think she was enjoying staying up later, having some time with Mom, Dad and Clayton all to herself, getting lots of attention from nurses, staff, and strangers, and getting to play on the iPad while waiting for the doctor.  There were also some pictures, videos, stickers and a popsicle.  Pretty much a super fun night for any four year old. 

Oh, and some Red Lobster afterwards.  That was fun too.  We didn't get home until almost midnight.  Thank goodness for daylight savings this weekend.  

Recipe: Chicken Quinoa Tex-Mex Soup

Chicken Quinoa Tex Mex Soup

Sauté 1 chopped onion in the bottom of a pot with a little olive oil.  

Add 4-6 cups chicken stock (or use water and a couple of bullion cubes)

Add tex-mex seasoning (I used tex mex from Costco - clubhouse brand.  You could also use a packet of taco seasoning mix, or a combination of chilli powder, cumin, coriander, and garlic powder)  

Add 1 can of tomatoes. 

Add quinoa - about 1/2 cup - dry (rinse before adding).

Bring to boil, then reduce to low so it can simmer and quinoa can cook.

While it's simmering, add some cooked shredded or chopped chicken. I used chicken we had leftover from chicken tacos, so it was already taco flavoured.  But you cook cook your own, or add chicken from a rotisserie chicken- just take it off the bone in smaller pieces and add it to the soup.

Add 1 can of black beans (rinsed).

Add 1 can of corn (rinsed) or frozen corn.

Simmer for at least 20 minutes. 

Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, crushed up taco chips, black olives, salsa, etc. 

Enjoy!

Back to School 2012 (Part 2)

Today we woke up to a ton of fog, so the kids had a 2 hour bus delay.

That left us lots of time for longer baths, and a big hot breakfast before heading off to the bus.  

I took about 10 shots, but still couldn't get one with everyone's eyes open at the same time. 

Individual shots again on day two... why not?

  

One of Clayton in the stroller... just to prove that he was there. 

Throwing around the football while waiting for the bus.

Memorable moments of the morning:

On the walk to the bus when Clara realized - with great disappointment - that Samantha, Brett, Jesse & Nathan weren't actually going to be in her class. 

Jesse saying to me: Mom, I think Clara is going to spend a lot of time in the principal's office this year... for yelling. 

The house seemed terribly quiet all day.  But was wonderful to have lots of one-on-one time with Clayton.  Scott commented that it was so nice to let Clayton play on the floor on a blanket without worrying about him getting smothered or trampled to death. 

Back to School 2012 (Part 1)

Hard to believe it's that time of year already.  This summer went by surprisingly fast.  

I was so sad to see my three oldest kids leave for school today.  I'm going to miss them!  

Samantha is going into Grade 7.  Grade SEVEN!  I remember my first day of Grade 7... it wasn't that long ago.  

Brett is going into Grade 5.  Scary.  

And Jesse, Grade 4.  I have no words.  Just one question.  How can this be possible?  

At least it was only three of them that left today and not all five at once.  That would have been too much.  

Last night it hit me as the kids were packing lunches.  Clara, never one to be left out, grabbed her new lunch bag and starting filling it with food.  I had to walk away until I could blink back the tears.  

She will start Junior Kindergarten tomorrow.  

Nathan will be starting Senior Kindergarten, and his first year of French Immersion.   

At least they are only gone every other day.  Two days a week, sometimes three.  But tomorrow morning I will be dying inside as my little Clara gets onto that big yellow bus.  

And I will head home with my box of Kleenex, hugging Clayton, and wondering why motherhood has to be so heart-wrenching.  

Family Fun Run

Samantha, Brett, Jesse & Nathan ran their first race yesterday at the London Children's Museum Family Fun run.

Nathan participated in the Dino Dash - 500 m, while the older kids did the Raptor Run - 1 km. There was also a 5 km run, and a total of about 100 runners participating in all three races.

It really was a fun run, so their races weren't timed or anything.  Nathan finished 7th in his race, and Jesse, Samantha, and Brett finished 2nd, 6th, and 8th respectively in their race.

Jesse was quite upset when he crossed the finish line because he accidentally followed the 5 km runners a bit too far, instead of turning around at the tunnel like he was supposed to.  He was a good sport about it afterwards, but it was a good learning experience.

We had a lot of fun and they even made the front page in the London Community News:

http://www.londoncommunitynews.com/2012/08/night-at-the-museum-fundraising-run/

Fresh Picked: Teacher Gifts

My sister sent me a super cute idea for Teacher Gifts.  They were easy and inexpensive, which was perfect because I needed four altogether and had little time to prepare them.

First, I made some fruit themed card sets: 

Next, I picked up some "Fresh Picked" Soap from Bath & Body Works.  I got them on sale for $3.00 each:

Saved some strawberry baskets from berries we bought recently:

Then I printed these tags and made them into cards:

Nathan's message to his teacher:

Added some cellophane wrap and ribbon and they're all done:

Total Cost: $3.00 each (plus wrapping / card supplies which I already had on hand)  

Who needs Pinterest when I have my sisters!?  Thanks, Jordana :)

Summer Is Here

It's the last week of school, the last weekend of our 8-week event season, the last week of 3 on 3 hockey for the boys, last week of cubs and youth activities, and tonight is the last piano lesson until September.

It feels like things should be winding down a little bit, but really it's just on to the next set of activities... 

Soccer, the cottage, girls camp, weddings, family activities / visits / trips and... one more little thing, what was it again?  

Oh, right.  Six kids home all day with no school for 9 weeks.  

No big deal.  

I just moved bedtime up to 1:30 PM so I think we are all set.

I'm really going to miss my Mom when she disappears to Alberta for a month.  

Here are a few photos with some things we've been up to lately.

Clayton's first hockey game (Brett & JD's 3 on 3).  Clara was yelling so loud, cheering for her brothers, that the people in front of us decided to move seats.  Thank goodness they don't sell out at Novice Boys Rec. League hockey games.

JD had a school performance - he was one of three circus clowns.  Here he is afterwards showing off his brother to all his friends.  Poor little Clayton was so hot.  Their school doesn't have AC (crazy!) and this day it was nearly 40 degrees out!  

The play was super cute... only I couldn't understand 99.9% of it because it was in French.  

Samantha's class performed Macbeth.  In English.  

I understood most of it.  Just not the lines that were in iambic pentameter.  

Samantha played the part of the doctor that pronounced Lady Macbeth dead.  

We planned to do outdoor cooking for our last day of Cubs.  We had prepped five different foods to cook - so the boys could earn their cooking badges.  

Approximately 1 hour before the activity, we started getting torrential downpours, thunder, and lighting.  So we moved the whole thing into the Church kitchen at the last minute.  It was a little chaotic, but the boys still had fun.  

Baked apples...  stuffed and ready for the oven. 

Saturday our kids had a total of 4 soccer games and one hockey game between them.  

Clara got sick last week with a terrible cough, stuffy nose, and slight fever.  

I wanted to feel bad for her, but I was too busy enjoying the peace and quiet while she was sleeping 18 hours a day.  

This little snowman attached to a square of soft and silky blanket fabric was Nathan's favourite when he was a baby.  About 4 months ago he decided he would give it to the new baby when he was born.  So whenever he sees Clayton sleeping he insists on making sure he has his snuggle toy.  

And don't forget the neck support cushion stuck on his head like a hat.  

Clayton had to get used to his carseat really quickly and has already spent a lot of time in it going from one activity to the next.  

Don't worry, we have Clara to make sure he does't get bored... 

My sweet boys.  

Looking forward to a fun and busy summer!