First Love Letters :)

(handcrafted ninja turtle mask)

So it appears that Owen has a couple of admirers in his kindergarten class :) he came home the other day after school and quickly emptied out his backpack & headed upstairs with what I assumed was some artwork from school. He knows he's to show me everything in his backpack before he puts anything away, so I went to check on what he had. Turns out he had two "love letters" from a couple of girls in his class. He found the letters in his class "mailbox" at the end of the day :)

The back of the one picture was covered in XO's & when I questioned him about these "girl friends" he became embarrassed and said " I don't play with these girls. I only like to play with my group of friends" (his group happens to be all the SK boys, total of 5 of them) I told him I thought it was nice of the girls to draw him a picture and that they must think he's a nice boy :) he rolled his eyes (won't be the first time I'm sure) and said " they are jealous of each other and always try to see who can draw me the better picture. And B isn't that nice - she had to sit in time out because she covered herself in stamps & Mrs. C wasn't very happy with her" lol 

I just LOVE kindergarten and don't want the sweetness to end. What will grade 1 bring? 

First Learn To Skate Lesson

Owen started a learn to skate program at the community centre. He has had four, hour long lessons so far, & we notice improvement with each lesson. The program divides children into groups based on ability & he is in the very beginner class. There are kids that range in age from 5 years to 10 years & he looks so small on the ice compared to the older kids. I'm so happy with the program and already am looking forward to having Noah take lessons as well next year. There are ten lessons in total, & I'm sure he'll be skating by the end of them. 

first day of learn to skate lessons. 

Whoops!

The first lesson they mostly focused on "getting up" from the ice :) the kids were to toss a ring "skate" towards it, fall on the ice & get back up. 

Owen loves the hockey portion of the lessons. He's been asking to play hockey for a few months now & we agreed that if he was still interested next year, & after his learn to skate lessons that we'd sign him up for hockey next year. He actually calls his skating lessons "hockey lessons" lol. So fun to watch him  learn new things and to see him really enjoy something:)

Zoo To You Party

I have been wanting to have a Zoo to You party for one of my kids (probably Noah) since I first learned about them! A few weekends ago we got invited to a friend's son's party & I thought it would be a good way to see if the party is worth the costly price tag! It sooooo was! very educational, professional and hands on for the kids! It definitely will be a party that kids remember & it was fun for the adults too. Plus, there were some great photo opportunities!

My boys were so brave! there was no way I'd be touching a tarantula! (the pic above isn't of one of my boys) 

We had so much fun! Thanks for inviting us Cheryl!

19 Months Old

19 Months old! still super cute and causing trouble :) he keeps me busy & he is oh so fast! literally running these days (him and me) and getting into every thing. He's been a little parrot lately, repeating everything he hears from his brothers & they think it's hilarious to get him to repeat 'potty words'. The other day he grabbed the wipes container & said "poo poo" so those potty words are useful at times :)

Grayson LOVES his big brother! he follows his brothers all over and is always snuggling, hugging & kissing them. I c aught them cuddling on the couch the other day & it just melts my heart to see them like that. I hope they always remain so close!

Here Grayson is trying to fit in with his brothers and sit at the kitchen table for snack. I think I remove him from the chairs fifty times a day.

Grayson sure has been loving his food lately! He's started using a fork & spoon and does quite well, although, by these photos you would never know that!

We're on day 4 of Grayson napping and sleeping in his crib. We still feed him a bottle and hold him until he falls asleep (he's always been fairly easy to put to sleep) then we put him in his crib. When he wakes we just move him to our bed, but he lasted until 2am the other night and naps have been about an hour an a half before waking, so not bad. I miss cuddling him before I go to sleep though :( Up until 4 days ago, I think he slept all of an hour in his crib. 

Happy 19 Months baby! growing up way to quickly.

Class Volunteer

Finally! I was able to help volunteer with Owen's class on a recent school outing. He was excited to have mommy finally join his class, as according to him "all of the other mommies can". Talk about making this  mommy feel bad! Last year, there was just no way I could help out and volunteer, Grayson just wouldn't take a bottle and being away from him for any length of time wasn't an option. 

His class trip was to a nearby bowling place and my duty was to help out my little group of five students. I'm not sure how the teachers manage every day, but man it was difficult. When I was first assigned my group we took off in search for shoes! I knew that with 100+ kindergarten kids and everyone wearing close to the same size, finding enough shoes to fit wouldn't be easy. I grabbed all the size 12's I could find and a pair of 11's for a smaller little girl and we were off! 

I had a great time watching my boy play with his friends and interact with his teachers and classmates. It was fun to see him with the people he spends all day with. Plus, it was nice to talk with his teachers and get to know them a bit better. Hopefully next year I'll be able to go on more class outings and volunteer in the class more. I may need to take a few more vacation days during the year, but I think it's important to have that time with my kids. 

Thanks Owen for letting Mommy spend the morning bowling with you and your friends!

4 Years Old!

Always the class clown! at 4 years old Noah thinks he's the funny guy :) He's still so quiet around people he doesn't know well, barely saying a word. I'll have to ask his preschool teacher if he talks to her, because from what I see he's very quiet around her. He certainly isn't quiet at home and has been talking and interacting with the daycare kids more. I see my little boy growing up so quickly! 

Since Christmas Noah has been sick often. At first I thought he was just unlucky, catching more than one stomache flu in a month. Then, he's been sick to his stomache once every week or two since. He just recently had his 4 year wellness check-up so I brought up the vomiting to the Doctor. Apparently, since his two year check-up he's been dropping from his growth curve on the growth chart. He used to be up around the 20th percentile and now he's closer to the 5th. Based on that, and the frequent vomiting, Noah was sent today for blood work. He did great and didn't flinch or cry! I'm so proud of my boy :) hopefully the results from the blood work are fine, I'll call in a few days to find out. The Doctor is suspecting that the vomiting is just a virus taking it's time to work out of his system, but they are just making sure.

We celebrated my boy's birthday this past weekend with family and his friend Hannah. Noah had requested a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Birthday awhile ago, but then the week before tried to change his mind and have a batman birthday party instead. Luckily, he was talked back into his original plan, and I was relieved because I'd already bought some crocheted ninja turtle stuffies :)

We planned on meeting family and friends at the movie theatre. Noah loves watching movies so we thought this would be a great way to spend his birthday :) the theatre has family movies at a discounted rate and that week 'Elmo in Grouchland' was playing. It was a fun morning and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. 

After the movie we went back to our place for pizza lunch, cake and presents.

Enjoying their pizza!

Present time! we played this awesome game a few times over family day weekend. Thanks for the present Hannah & Catherine :) funny enough, I'd bought the same gift for Hannah's upcoming birthday. 

Our gift for Noah- a new hockey net!

More gifts!

Noah sure enjoyed his new scooter from Grandma and Grandpa! 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cake! I had to put out a facebook message searching for these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys from McDonalds and drive all over the city picking them up from people. They were perfect for his cake though, so I'm glad I did. Plus, it made for a super easy cake to make :)

Chocolate cake - Noah's favourite!

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuffies for the loot bag! made by Custom Beanies by Karly.

On Noah's actual birthday we took him out for dinner. Of course he chose his favourite restaurant - Boston Pizza! 

Happy 4th Birthday to my very sweet boy!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! 

We had a great Valentine's Day! the boys woke up in the morning to find some treats awaiting them at the kitchen table. They loved their kinder eggs and valentine stuffed animal. I put together a quick valentine's lunch to send with Owen to school, see the photo below :) the daycare kids, Noah and Grayson had the same lunch, along with some fruit punch. 

Owen liked his surprise lunch but I think he liked his heart shaped mini chocolate the best :) I don't send treats to school often, only on special days.

On wednesday, Noah had preschool and they handed out valentines to their friends. I was impressed with how well he has been writing his name.

After seeing many cute valentine ideas on pinterest, I decided on these 'love bug' ones for Owen's classmates. He was excited to hand them out & a few of the moms asked me where the idea came from they liked them so much lol. Owen wore his "Hello My name is Heartbreaker" shirt to school in celebration of Valentine's day and apparently received many 'thumbs up' from the teachers, some even checked the label on his shirt to see where it was from. I do have to admit to thinking he is going to be a heartbreaker when he's older. 

I saw a recipe for 'cake mix' cookies on-line. The recipe called for strawberry cake mix, but we don't sell that in Canada, or at least I couldn't find it anywhere. I settled on Cherry Chip cake mix and other than that and adding 1 drop of food colouring, followed the recipe. They looked good - but tasted awful! even the kids only ate one each :)

Gavin and I ended the evening with a nice dinner after the kids went to bed. It was a nice 'date night' at home. So much love for my family! 

Happy Valentine's Day honey!

To:

the super mom to my children,

the heart of our family,

the listener of my rants,

the organizer of my time,

the keeper of our memories,

the beautiful girl in my life,

my best friend.

Happy Valentine's Day honey!

Lots of love, Gavin

Tet Party #2

We just can't get enough of the Lunar New year and celebrated with some fellow adoptive families in our area. This party is similar but very low key & we always order in from our favourite local asian food restaurant. Originally, the party was planned for a friday evening but a massive snow fall changed that plan quickly. Unfortunately, it meant that one of the families couldn't make the party on the Sunday evening, but we hope to meet up with them soon :) 

Lion parade! around and around and around. I think all of the kids had to have their turn at being the head of the lion and the tail :)

lion puppets! 

Even Grayson loved the parade. The lantern kept falling off the stick and he'd bring it over to be fixed "broke" he'd tell me and wait patiently until I put it back on :) He looks so much older in this photo!

Thanks Julia for organizing the snake crafts! 

Dragon game - It was similar to hungry hippos, only you had to flip the rings onto the dragons back.

Grayson preferred to paint his highchair

Our attempt at a group photo - not too bad I'd say

Yummy food!

Thanks for bringing the cake Liz! It was beautiful & delicious too!

Another cute group photo!

Happy Lunar New Year!

Tet Party #1

Happy Year of the Snake! Both Gavin & I were born in the year of the snake (1977) so we hope this means a very lucky year for us! However, Gavin told me that in order to bring good luck we were to have our house cleaned top to bottom before midnight of the holiday, so I guess we may not be so lucky this year after all :)

Before the party we tried to get a photo of the boys wearing their Ao Dai's. This was the best we could get! Owen kept looking at his brothers, Grayson kept crying & trying to get off of the couch & Noah always had a silly smile on his face. Oh well, they sure are cute! They didn't last long wearing these outfits, apparently they are quite hot.

Isn't this a cute photo of Gavin and Grayson :) I love it!

Someone made this awesome cake for the party! There were many kids born in the year of the snake that were celebrated. Turning 12 years old already! how does that happen? I remember when we started going to the TET party they all looked so young!

The group of adoptees is quite divided with age, the older kids are all tweens/teens and the younger group is up to age 6. The 'older adoptees' were so great to help out the younger kids this year & the divide wasn't so obvious. Here is E helping Noah with his craft :)It is so nice for our younger adoptees to have these mentors - we really are blessed. 

Finished product- a cute snake craft!

Owen wanted me to take a photo of this golden pig- Owen was born in the year of the pig, more specifically the year of the golden pig. 

Parade time! Now it's mostly the younger group in the parade. The sure do love this part of the party!

Even Grayson joine in :)

Thanks again for hosting such a fabulous party Mary!