HAPPY HALLOWEEN

We seem to have gotten ourselves into a Halloween routine:
Chicken nuggets and fries for supper (quick and easy)
The boys get dressed in their Superhero costumes
Aaron takes them trick or treating
I stay home to drink Bailey's and socialize with the neighbour...er...I mean...I stay home to hand out the treats
The boys come home with an enormous amount of candy and on a big adrenaline rush and refuse to sleep.

Alex has been awake since 5:30 this morning and was just about asleep when the doorbell rang and now he's had a second wind. It's 9 o'clock and HE IS STILL AWAKE!!! So not fair!

The evening was fairly uneventful. We stocked up for a hundred kids b/c of the nice weather and still only had the usual 20-25.

Can't wait for pics of everyone else's Halloween! Hope yours were without incident too!

It's that time of year again...sigh...

actually I don't reallllllllllly mind the snow. Although I'm a total sun goddess at heart. It's just the gear the kids have to put on to be able to enjoy themselves outside without getting cold or wet or wet AND cold. All the kids were thrilled to see the snow this morning - no word of a lie we were outside by 8:30 this morning!
I am a HUGE advocate for outside time for all kids no matter how old they are or what season it is. As long as the temperature/wind chill/UV factor is reasonable, mind you. I can remember bundling Alex up when he was only a few months old for some fresh air and a ride in the toboggan.
I can't wait to get an update from Monica & JJ - if the babes had a sleepover at Nanny's house it can only mean one thing - you guys were at a Halloween party, weren't you?!?

Would you do it for your kids?

When you're asked to dress up for a kids Halloween party - would you do it? Hmm...I did and then as we were driving into the parking lot I seen that NO OTHER PARENTS DID so I chickened out and went home to put my jeans on. Yeah, I turned into a party pooper. I'll admit that I'm somewhat disappointed in myself.

The Hulk and the Terminator

He's so cute!

This is Joe's Pirate sweater that he picked out at H & M. Only $19.90. He's saying "Argh, Matey" in the pic that's why his face is goofy.

And here is my knockoff "Designer Inspired" purse from Mary Jane's purse party Friday night. It was only $48. I like the colour but probably wouldn't wear it for long so I couldn't see myself buying the real deal.

Apparently Alberta Governement is going to regulate private dayhomes in the near future so I've got some stuff to research ....ugg...I'm getting a headache just thinking about it. I think there's a lot of pros and cons to the matter but that's enough for a whole seperate blog!

Love love love H & M

I'd never been before and could easily have spent an hour or two there going through the clothes and trying stuff on. I had Thing One and Thing Two with me so I settled for an uneventful twenty minute shopping spree. And by uneventful that means that no one went missing, no displays were knocked over and all the mannequins were in the same condition when we left as when we arrived.
I gave the boys free reign on their winter hats and this is what they picked out. Can you believe they were only $5 ?!? And they even had co-ordinating mitts and gloves for $5. Isn't that crazy?! I think if I realized that at the time then I would have bought them a few more.

My new past time while uploading pics

thanks to Jenn is Freerice . If you haven't visited it yet - you should check it out. It's a fun way to donate rice and they even show a wee rice bowl and add some rice for every correct answer. I've visited it off and on and have only got to vocabulary level 28 - feel free to put me to shame and beat it!
Thanks also to Goofball for sharing it with her bloggers!

Super big day for Thing One!

This morning I got the dreaded phone call from the Handi-bus. Joey's bus got rear-ended. Joey was fine, all the passengers/drivers were fine - but I still couldn't wait to get my arms wrapped around him when he came home from school. It was bad, Joey actually had to push me away and say I was squishing him, oops.
There was a school bus accident recently in Calgary where a little girl died and I can remember thinking how lucky we are that it's never been us.
Calgary's so heavily populated, the traffic sucks, the road rage can be pretty scary at times and the roads are constantly under construction it seems.
It sucks...
So, then this afternoon Joey went for his pre-school shots at the public health clinic. Somehow we missed them which I find hard to believe. I was sure they were done at his school in Junior K but can't find record of it anywhere so he had to get his shots.
What a trooper he was, no tears at all!
And then came the weigh-in. My little guy is in the 85th percentile. I'm not sure how accurate these guesstimates are but he's pretty much been in the same range since birth. Well, actually at birth he was just over 10 pounds and I think he was in the 98th percentile.
Anyways, it looks like Joey will not take after his average height parents and may be the tall one of the bunch.

3 Posts in 1 Day seems a bit excessive but

I just got my new curtains delivered (thanks Mom!) and can't wait to un-veil the new playroom. The last pic is pretty dark but soon there will be a kid sized sofa in the corner.

More Xmas Cards

I had so much fun at Christine's Christmas Card Workshop that I've decided to host my own. You can preview these on my slideshow at the right
:o)

Blades of Glory was LIVE in Calgary last night

Okay, it was really just the Beck boys on ice. But, oh it was fab-u-lous!

I was truly ready to throw in the towel with the skating lessons with Alex but Aaron said give it another shot, so I did, under protest.

And my baby did it! He could stand on his own and make a couple little marching steps before wiping out. It was awesome. I wish I had my camera there to capture his huge happy face smile and to hear the pride when he was yelling I'M DOING IT!!!

Joseph obviously takes after Aaron and seems ...hmmm...more...coordinated? I think that's the right word - and if you've ever seen me dancing like ELAINE you'll understand why I say that.

Maybe I'll have hockey players after all.

Do you think this is a little too snooty to wear to a Beavers Halloween party? Parents are encouraged to dress up but I don't want to be all "Ooh look at me, I'm a princess" know what I mean? But I don't have any other costume and I don't wanna seem like the stick in the mud mom that's too cool to dress up either...Aaron's going as The Punisher.

Trying to think of an old movie title

It's from the late 80s I think. It may even be older than that. The story line is a teenage/young adult dies in a motorcycle accident and comes back as an angel to help out another teenage/young guy. And then through the movie he finds out from the kids mom that the guardian angel is actually this kids dad.
It was a good movie from what I remember and now I've been racking my brain trying to come up with a title. I can't even remember the actors in it. The guardian angel was like a biker type and the mom reminds me of Abby from ER but I don't think they're the same.
Any ideas?

How can the weekend be over all ready?

Saturday's birthday party was a hit although I had an altercation with another mom...I'm still po'd about the whole situation but I'm getting over it.
Here's the skinny:
Alex was in the climber area building a tower at Shakers and a boy pushed him, so Alex pushed him back and went on building his tower. I seen it happened and didn't think too much of it. I assumed it was over. It. Was. Definitely. Not. Over. The boy that did the original pushing went to his mom crying that Alex punched him and beat him up. Well, technically that did happen BUT this mom didn't see her GOLDEN CHILD do the first push.
So, as she's trying to grab Alex to find who the little animal belongs to, I'm already there ready to defend my child.
It was not pretty.
I tried to tell her exactly what I seen happen but that just wasn't happening. So, whatever. Instead she went up one side of me, down the other side and made Alex cry because she was yelling which made me get teary -NOT CRYING but a little overwhelmed and teary.
In the end she said if you can't control your child you shouldn't be here, so I told her maybe she should leave then. AND SHE DID.
Woot woot! If there was an upside to the situation it was that SUPERUPTIGHT BYATCH left so we could enjoy the rest of our party.
Did I mention this all went down FIVE MINUTES AFTER WE GOT THERE?!?

Anyways, I'll have deets on the Ladies Night Out tomorrow! Must go grocery shopping...uggers...I hate grocery shopping.

I can't believe it's Friday already!

Where the heck did the week go?

Hmm...Wednesday we had nothing going on..and Thursday we had nothing going on but somehow the days have gotten away from me. Must be all the after-hours cleaning I've been doing.

We decided a couple weeks ago that the playroom needed to be updated. It's been the same way for just about 2 years now and I'm bored of it, the kids are also probably bored of it too. So, when we went to Edmonton I had it set in my mind that I wanted curtains with clouds on them. Hmmm...that was obviously so LAST YEAR because we couldn't find anything that would come close to it, except maybe flannel but that's more for cloth diapers than curtains for my playroom. Anyways, Mom and I picked out something kind of feminine but in a masculine way - that totally contradicts itself but once you see it you'll go "Oh, I see what she meant now."

Aaron had picked out a 3 day weekend to do this project but after really breaking it down bit by bit into what needed to be done we figured it could be done on a short weekend off.

Hence the massive cleaning spree on my off-time. It took me about 3 hours total to take down the jungle border. I'M NEVER PUTTING UP A BORDER IN THAT ROOM AGAIN!!! A smaller room , sure, but not a ginormous room like the playroom.

So, it's Friday night, the walls have been de-bordered, washed with TSP, patched, sanded, patched and the baseboards, doorway and window frames have been sanded and painted.

I think once the room gets another sanding it'll be ready for paint.

Although we looked at the carpet and rug tonight and were thinking maybe we should just buy a room sized rug to cover the carpet. We're too cheap to have it installed and it's nice to be able to yank it out if it needs to be cleaned and still have a carpet underneath. So, my next project is to find a remnant tomorrow morning.

And then take the boys to Danny's birthday party and later that night I'll be taking Danny's mommy out with a couple of the girls for some karaoke'ing birthday fun. Woot Woot!

Did I mention I bought feather boas for this special event???

This is good for a few chuckles...

Alex has never seen Flashdance but once he started doing his little run and I fed him the line "I'm a Maniac" they totally go hand in hand...heeheehee...

My little Beaver is so tricky sometimes. Joey thought if he recited his Beaver Motto for me that I would change my mind and let him play his games. Didn't work - but it was a valiant effort!

Party Planner overload!

That ca-ra-zy time of year is approaching quickly! We realized this weekend that we still hadn't picked a venue for Joe's 6th birthday yet. (checked off) or dates for our Christmas party, cookie exchange (check and check), or our fundraiser night to raise our sponsorship money for the Uncover the Cure race (check, almost)

After LOTS of chatting on the drive home from Morinville yesterday we pretty much figured out everything. Aaron won't admit it but he's a bit of a party planner himself, and not just picking out the shooter flavours either, haha.

So, Joey's having Petland come for an in-home visit. They'll bring 6 to 10 critters and there can be up to 15 partygoers. Not too shabby. Originally we were thinking of a party outside of the home but I like hostessing, it's an easy going atmosphere, the house is kiddie proofed anyways so why not? The kids are enclosed so the parents can also just hang out and chat amongst themselves.

Cookie Night is going to be a breeze this year! Cindy and I are co-hosting a Cookie/Bunco night and we've already got the prizes, the house will already be decorated for the holidays so all we really need to do is make our guest list, bake our cookies and make some appetizers. Piece of cake! Although I'm not sure how I can pare down my usual 12 people to only 6?

Then it's time to "Beck the Halls" , yeah, it's dorky but whatev's. Aaron figures we'll just have a social gathering - I on the other hand have already found a website where you can order 10foot square vinyl twister boards which would fit in our living area quite well. Maybe it'll be an upstairs/downstairs party and the borrrrrrrrrring people can gather downstairs with Aaron and the party people will be upstairs playing twister. Twister & Porn Stars could be a delightful or deadly combination.

And then the gala of the year...our Team Crockett party. At the moment we're looking at renting the town hall for a Friday night (it's cheaper) and hiring a DJ for 4 hours and having a dance. We'll have a toonie bar, chinese auction and maybe 50/50 draw. This is still in the planning stages though. So far I've got a date picked and now we're trying to confirm with the hall and DJ.

Phew! I think I need a break...

On a totally different note - I seen two things that kind of made me go hmmm this weekend.
1. A now hiring sign at Timmy's advertising New Canadians Welcome. Is that politically correct? I wasn't offended by the sign, just thought it took some balls to post something like that on a main street in St. Albert.
2. An ENTIRE wedding party sitting in McDonald's chowing down. I'd be afraid my Big Mac would squirt out the bottom like always and wreck my dress but I suppose when you're having a Big Mac Attack you don' t care what you're wearing.

An eclectic post

Here are Thing One and Thing Two in Banff, this is the only picture I have of them sitting down, haha. Lookie what Joseph made at school today. It's supposed to be apple pie - he's very proud nonetheless. I'm thinking that this treat may be saved for Daddy or Nannie & Papa tonight. I had to eat the currant buns from the last baking extravaganza at school...very...yeasty...
It kind of looks like an apple pie, right?
These are the possibilties for the basement carpet/lino. The carpet is much darker than what we have upstairs and the lino isn't a lot darker, just warmer colours. We're thinking that next year we'll replace the mainfloor and upstairs carpet with the same or close to the same colour as the basement. What we have now is so light that it needs to be cleaned constantly - especially with a dayhome and pets.

Happy Day to you Mom and Dad !

Happy Anniversary! Wishing the next 32 are as eventful and fun as these last 32 years.

Skating was a hit AND a miss

Thing One was born to skate and Thing Two was born to watch his bro skate.

We were early for skating, talked about it ALL DAY long to get the boys pumped up about it and Alex decided after he got his skates on that he didn't want to learn to skate. And instead of just talking about it, the drama king made a very loud, snotty, teary appearance. So, off went the helmet, and off went the skates. Then once Joseph hit the ice with Aaron there was a change of heart and Alex decided to give it a shot. So, on goes the helmet, on goes the skates and we hit the ice.

And then he fell. A lot.

So, once again, off goes the helmet, off go the skates and we just hung out.

What makes an unbearable moment slightly bearable is experiencing it with someone. It turns out that the boys cousin is in the same skating group so I got to chat with Janine and see the new babe, oh such sweetness!

Now I'm off to unwind from the whole skating fiasco with a Pumpkin Spice Latte, some leftover pumpkin pie and my Stampin Up catalogue so I can figure out what I'm buying at class tomorrow night.

GOBBLE GOBBLE

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE !

I hope everyone had a fabulous-o weekend spent with their friends and fam. I've had the pleasure of both!

Friday night was kicked off by the Couple's Bunco night at Debbie & Rod's and it was a hootin and hollerin good time. Poor Christine had the pleasure of driving 6 of us back and forth to Chestermere :o) Although Team Beck didn't win any prizes we still had a great time and indulged in some Bazooka Joe's (equal parts of Bailey's, Blue Curaco and Creme de Banana)

Saturday morning the boys and I hightailed it around the city to do some last minute errands before ...drum roll please...picking up my BF from high school! I hadn't seen April since my wedding - eight years ago. It's carazy how time flies but when we seen each other it was like just yesterday, know what I mean?

Saturday we took the boys to the Calgary Zoo and April snapped about 40 pics of the animals. She was impressed by the natural habitats and even got to see the baby elephant. (Yeah Calgary!) Saturday evening, April, Aaron and I headed to Jubilations to check out Greedy Rotten Scoundrels and yours truly was ON STAGE!!!! Woot woot!!! April was too, we got the pleasure of dancing with one of the actors around the hot tub while he was singing Rock Me Gently - I had to stop myself from singing along incase his mic picked it up - it wouldn't be pretty...

Sunday April, the boys and I went to Banff to take in the mountains...sigh...it was breathtaking as always. We spent 3 hours, that's right, 3 hours at the gondola. We rode up and then did the trail/steps up to the lookout and walked back, had lunch, went to the observation deck and then rode down again. After we did about 1 block of touristy shops and then headed back to the van. Thing One and Thing Two are not exactly "shoppers" so why torture them or us? Next we did a driving tour around Johnson Lake and Lake Minnewanka and then I did a quickie recap of the Lower and Upper Bankhead Trails.

In a phrase "about 200 pics oughta cover it".

Today we're relaxing and waiting for the turkey to be ready.

Stay tuned for the deets on the boys first skating lesson of 2007 - tomorrow evening -

Thing Two's got such personality!

Yes that is ABBA playing in the background. All the dayhome kiddies seem to like ABBA and it's a nice break from Crazy Frog and the MiniPops.

Yesterday was picture day at preschool for Alex and he spent all morning trying out different faces and poses. Gawd, that kid cracks me up!

I am SO not a salesperson!

Here's my salespitch:

this is Joey, isn't he cute? Joey is a Beaver. Beavers sell popcorn, therefore Joey sells popcorn. Please please please buy some popcorn so he can meet his goal and not have to go door-to-door.

Not so pretty, is it?

I am just not the type of person who can do that. Sure I've hosted a few in-home parties but I'm not pushy, honestly I don't care if you do or do not buy anything, I'm just happy that you came. For real!

In my opinion the socializing totally outweighs any freebies/perks that I receive. As a matter of fact, I usually use the hostess credit to buy the prizes for the next party. My GF bought 2 boxes of candles at the last shindig and spent $24 and won the Totally 80s Trivial Pursuit game which I bought for $20. So, it all seems to work out.

Until now.

Welcome to the world of being a Beaver Mama...and is $1000 seem realistic for a 5, almost 6 year old? I didn't think so but I have nothing to compare to. I'm obviously not a door to door fan either.

How many people dread hearing from your friends and family that so and so is selling ______, Whatdayasay? Will you help a kid out?

My ears are still ringing

from the concert last night. I'm actually surprised because Styx and Def Leppard didnt' seem to be super loud.
It was a great Sunday, I did Christmas card making at my girlfriend Christine's house with my friend Christina. We were on a pretty strict timeline and managed to finish everything with almost an hour to spare. Yep, we're stamping queens!
Then I had some time to hang out with Thing One and Thing Two before getting all gussied up for my girls night.
Andrea and I met Leanne and Marg in the lounge for a few pre-concert cocktails and I FINALLY got to see the pics taken at the Great Danes event last March. Wowsers! I was quite the party-girl that night! I think Andrea's going to join us for the next one!
I think this must have been the beginning of the feather boa craze. Marg came wearing one and then for Kathryn's stagette we all wore them and I'm currently collecting enough for Andrea's birthday party.
How can you not feel sexy while wearing one?
Anyhoo...
Styx played first. I am 29. I. Have. No. Idea. Who. Styx. Is. Or. Was. Or. What. They. Sing....so I was bopping around trying to keep up to my GFs, and totally people watching especially the girl on the floor who was given'er all throughout the Styx performance. And then when they announced Gowan as the pianist it got really quite as I yelled "Christine loves you Gowan" I think he may heard me too. Hee hee, Christine doesn't really love Gowan but Andrea was teasing her at Bunco Friday so I thought it was an appropriate comment at the time.
So, then it was time for Def Leppard. They were pretty rocking for old guys! I was pretty impressed. The music wasn't too loud and you could understand their singing so I could even sing along to a few songs. Pour Some Sugar On Me was probably the best song of the night.
Good times, good times!