Baker Boys

Last week was Don's birthday.  It was also my birthday.  Yeppers, we share the same birthday, though not the same birth year.  I will always be the younger gal in this relationship.  I thought it would be cool for the boys to have total control (yeah, this was hard for me because I like to help...too much) over making their dad a cake.  But bake they did and an awesome job too. 

Benny read the instructions and measured the ingrediants while Jack mixed it all up.  They were super thrilled with themselves.  The most exciting part I am sure was mixing up the frosting!

Once their creation was baked they set to work to carefully decorate it.  I had bought two containers of frosting so you can imagine just how much there was to get onto the cake.  But very carefully and with love they got it all on.  Most of it piled into the center of the cake (believe it or not there was a hole in the middle of that cake)!

The result was a fantastic gift for their dad.  Of course we all enjoyed eating it.  Well, except for Jack who is far too picky about his cake. 

Tears of GLEE!

Sadly this mother has been ignoring this little space where memories have begun to collect but I have promised myself that has to stop.  I am back!  Things have gotten a little nutty here because I just got a two month contract working at Queen's University.  Great because it will give us some summer fun moolah but it has made things a bit crazy around here!

Last week Benny told me that his class was doing a dance routine and that he wanted me to come and watch.  I was at his school working with the reading program so off to the gym I went to see what this dance was all about.  Turns out they were preforming a song from the television show Glee.  As soon as the music began so did my tears.  It was as if a tonne of bricks fell onto my heart because in that moment watching his class assume the roles usually played by high school students I knew, I mean really knew that one day very soon they would actually be high school students.

So I cried.  just a bit at first.  Easily hidden by pretending to wipe something from my eye but as each chorus sounded the tears came harder almost reaching the point where shoulders start shaking in the unmistakable way of all out sobbing.  Control was difficult and I was tempted to run out but I couldn't not watch.  So I did my best to mop up my tears lest I embarrass my child for years to come by being the Mom who cried.  I was rewarded by a truly spectacular performance.

Ben was in his element.  He had moves like I have never seen before.  You are a born performer Ben and you made my heart fly into outer space!

What the Hecka is Going on Here? Part 3

Oh yeah baby, at the end of this winter craft we had somewhere around 12 kids running around the fort painting it with the spray bottles full of paint and water (FYI use food colouring not paint). 

Everyone had a chance to express themselves in the snow and the result is nothing less than fabulous.  My front yard has been transformed into a massive fridge front covered with drawings from all the the neighborhood kids.  So far this morning we have all taken our tuns running to the dining room window to check it out.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the day.  The two moms admiring their work knowing it was thoroughly enjoyed by many.

What the Hecka is Going on Here? Part 2

Part 2 of this neighborhood craft project involved some major snow moving.  Ben and Jack were total troopers and definitely moved a lot of snow in preparation for this craft project.  The lump of snow that we slowly accumulted was many things in the half hour the three of us worked away at it.  A mountain, a cone, a cylinder, and of course Jack prayed it would magically turn into a train.  I think the boys were pretty thankful when Katie our neighbor and Mom of Peyton and Ethan arrived to help with the snow! 

Between the two moms we moved some major snow!  I am talking a good hour and a half of shoveling.  Coats and hats were shed.  We were sweating it out, neighbors drove by and slowed as they passed us wondering what the hecka we were up to.  Slowly what started out as a big lump of snow began to take shape and turned into a super awesome snow fort complete with two rooms.  The energy between us changed and we became SUPER MOMS. 

This isn't something that happens everyday of course but once in a while you do something so cool for your kids that you are elevated to the peak of SUPER MOMNESS and we achieved it on this day.  We were great, plans have been made to expand the fort of course.  We are just waiting for more snow so we can add furniture and of course more rooms.

You can see the excitement (relief) on our faces as part 2 of this super winter craft day is completed.  Bet you can guess what is next!

What the Hecka is Going on Here? Part 1

I love to craft.  I think the boys do too.  I know sometimes my boys get sick of it...clearly I planned a few too many at Christmas time but now that we have had a chance to recuperate from Christmas it was time to get back at it.  Can you guess what we are making?  A few clues:

1) Empty contents of all the spray bottles in the house into mason jars.

2) Fill up spray bottles with water and paint.  Two very excited boys are wonderful helpers for this step!

3) Text all neighbourhood moms and arrange to meet outside.

4) Win the Mom of the Week award!

Super Awesome Racetrack...And It Actually Worked!

Santa brought us a really awesome book called Boredom Blasters and well it is really good.  Trust me we have more than a few duds because this Mom is a sucker for activity and craft ideas but this book has delivered on it's promises.

This was a cool one.  Draw a race track on sheets of paper and cover it with another sheet of wax paper.  Then plop, plop a couple drops of different colors of food coloring on the paper.  The drops are the race cars and the engine power comes from the straws.  Blow your drop through the twists and turns on the race track with your straw and see who gets to the finish first!

It went on for a whole hour!  Not bad Boredom Blaster peeps, not bad.

What The Hecka is This?

Our big plan is to finish the basement in the New Year so that the boys have a hangout spot for them and their friends.  So I have been preparing the basement.

Step 1:  Remove six years of artwork from the walls.  I was so sad when I did this.  I look at it all the time when I am on my treadmill and had no idea I was so attached to it.  Some of it will have to be framed and brought back into the basement when it is done.

Step 2: Say goodbye to the race track on the floor.  Don and I painted this on the floor about four years ago and many a child has whizzed around our basement on a tricycle or plasma car or whatever vehicle was popular at the time.  You can see how worn the paint is on the sharpest corner.  It is proof of the traffic this race track has seen.  Don told Ben the paint fairy came and made it for Ben and Jack.  Ben has asked me if the paint fairy was real, haven't told him about that one yet either...  So hard to say good bye, more for me than the boys of course.

Lots of trouble letting go lately...hope I get better at it because at some point the boys are going to be irritated with me...like when I try to go on their first date with them...

A Bad Day For Gingerbread!

I spent a few years wishing both of you were older at Christmas time.  Looking back I see now that that was the single most silly thing I could have wished for because now that I have my wish I want to take it back!!!  I wished you both were old enough to be crazy excited for Santa to come, old enough to absorb some of our Christmas traditions, old enough to really participate in all that is Christmas at this house.

I got my wish but what I din't count on was all the side effects of my wish.  For example, a neighbor reported the following statement from her son the other day...

"Ben and Jack are getting rocks for Christmas because they don't believe in Santa"

"WHAT" I asked?  How could this be.  However it is true, my Benny boy at 7 years old (soon to be eight) heard the nasty rumors on the playground.  You know the ones that go around every year around this time and then again at Easter.  The only thing is that this year he has given them some consideration.

I spoke with him and asked him if he believed and he looked at me and asked in a most serious tone,  one that made me feel he really needed the truth and he trusted me to give it to him,

"Well Mom, is there a Santa"

It was an awful moment because generally I try to be quite honest with my boys and if the question had been about anything else in the world I would have told him the truth.  

I didn't though.  I lied.  I lied so he could have one more year of magic.  So I could have one more year of magic.  I had no idea this might very well be the last year both of my boys believe.  I know that Christmas will still be super fun even if they don't believe but I just wasn't ready for it to be over.

So I have vowed this year will be Christmas overload!!!!

And so this week-end we indulged in some gingerbread cookie ornament decorating.  Oddly enough it really didn't go to plan.  I blew up the mixer before the frosting really got mixed which resulted in thick lumpy glue that the boys had a hard time piping onto the cookies.  Then after we hung the cookies on the tree they kept breaking on falling off the tree.  Blamed this on our little dog for the longest time until I realized what was happening because it has never happened before.

Despite these little setbacks the boys had fun and I had fun doing it with them.  You know one day they will be teenagers and likely not so excited to decorate gingerbread so until that day comes I am going to absorb these moments, commit them to memory and take them with me into tomorrow and all the other days to come.

Found Treasure!

One package of water pencils equals lots of creativity.  Nice work guys!

Sucking It All In, The Christmas Edition

This year something hit me hard.  I really know now that you guys are getting older and I am acutely aware that the Christmas season we enjoy now is going to change as you both grow.  A couple years back Christmas was filled with crafting, wrapping, and baking.  Certainly these activities are still well enjoyed by you both but I detect a change in the excitement level.

Paper snowflake making just does not make you bounce off the walls the way it used to.  One year Ben, you made paper snowflakes for hours.  We covered the basement with them...this year you did it for a half hour before asking to stop.

Of course with this change in Benny brings change to Jack as well who this year mastered the art of snowflake making.  It was very exciting to see you open each snowflake with excitement to see what you had created.  You were also the one to roll about 50 shortbread cookies all by yourself...not bad for a five year old!

Perhaps this is where tradition takes over?  What we used to do because it was beyond exciting becomes the things we do each year to carry on our own little unique set of Christmas rules and regulations.  Yes, there is a movement towards the understanding of tradition and activities that occur each year as part of that.  This brings some comfort because even if the uncontrollable excitement is gone I can handle it as long as we still retain the group spirit in making Christmas happen.

So this year I am totally sucking the marrow from each step of Christmas preparation so my barrel of memories of the two of you will be full full full.  I have it all planned...paper snowflakes, foam houses (4 different varieties), baking, decorating, wrapping, Christmas bags for your school friends, gingerbread decorating party with your friends from the street, Play clay Christmas ornaments, foam ornaments...

Just promise you will let me do this for the years to come even if it does get a little lame.  In exchange I will stop planning parties to decorate gingerbread ornaments well before you are fifteen years old...because that isn't cool right?

Spoooooky!!!!!

One thing this family loves is some Halloween fun! Every year we decorate the house inside and out. We started a few years back because we really wanted to have one of those houses that all the trick or treaters remember from year to year and look forward to going to year after year.

When I was a little girl no one really decorated the way they do now but there was this one house that had spooky music and I could not wait to get to it. I think that we are one of those houses in our neighborhood now. I say ONE of those houses because the competition is pretty hot and heavy in this sub-division. Though we were one of the first to decorate in a grand way we have most certainly been surpassed at this point!

I have to say that my two boys have definitely taken to this season just as we have. The spirit that fills this house is incredible. Picture two little boys ripping through boxes of decorations and setting up their own little spooky places. This year both of you even worked with us to choose the spooky background music giving thumbs up and thumbs down to the final selections.

I can picture you both doing the same with your children when you becomes fathers. Ahh what fathers you will be. Wonderful.

Dear Diary...

One of my favorite purchases this summer had to be your journals.  Again my friend the dollar store came in quite handy because I told you both to pick any journal you wished to select.  Isn't it fun when you get to pick anything you like without restriction?  There is something about that freedom that excites the soul.

Anyhow, Jack selected a cute journal with a puppy on the front and Ben went for one with a skull on it.  Over the summer you both used them to record your thoughts.  Jack in the form of pictures and Ben using words and pictures.  On this particular day we had purchased some new pencils for school so you both decided to give your journals another whirl.  Nothing I like better then to see you both at the table working away.

The table is full of permanent marker and holes where crafting has gotten a wee bit over exuberant.  It is a spot where you can both be as creative as you wish which I hope you will continue to be.