Finally some pics of THE GREAT DAMES NIGHT!

Yeppers - that was the shindig way back in March that I went to. Although I think I referred to it as the Great Danes but it's apparently the Great Dames. It was hosted by the Calgary Danish Ladies Club so really either event title would have totally worked.

Anyways, here goes:

This is the lovely Marg - without her I wouldn't have gone to any Great Dames events.

Uh...this is me...I think after a few cocktails. Maybe this is my Juno version of the 'stink eye'.
Here are Marg and I in her pink feather boa :o) Girls really do just wanna have fun!
Err...Casey and I must have been going for some cleavage shots or something...
Lynn and I shimmying the night away - we're so hot!

We're still going strong!

And on an entirely different topic : Joey. Oh yes, it's all about JT . He is FREAKING OUT about his new school that he'll be going to in the fall. He has no fears about making new friends and having a new teacher BUT he is absolutely terrified about walking home by himself. I'm going to talk to the neighbour a couple houses up from us about hiring her kids to walk him home from school. It would give him some independance but he'd be with a 12 and 14 year old so he won't get lost or left behind and it would totally save me from making 2 trips to the school each day. I know, I know, kids come first but when you're walking with a gaggle of them it can be frustrating especially while potty training ... SO tonight I walked the boys to and from the school. It took 15 minutes each way which was reasonable considering we were landmarking everything as we went. i.e. Walk right past the twisty slide park and stop to cross the road. Look both ways. Put your arm out so cars know you're going to cross the road. Walk past Rianna's house. Stop at the alley. Look for cars...and on and on it went. The walk really isn't that bad EXCEPT for a slightly major intersection that he'll have to cross everyday. I've already written to our alderman about getting a marked crosswalk or at the very least some lines painted on this road. It really didn't seem like a big deal until it was my baby crossing the road. Sad, isn't it?

And moving right along: NKOTB. Yes they are coming to Calgary and yes I've gotten Aaron working his connections to get Cindy and I tickets. Yes I'm a geek but who cares? I think they'll put on a fantastic show!

Yippee, it's almost SUNNY outside!

It has been a really long boring rainy stretch around here.

My children have resorted to using the treadmill in replacement of running around the backyard for exercise:

and I have been confined to driving this:

instead of what I'd like to be driving:

I miss her, but she's not exactly a rainy day kinda ride.

If anyone has been keeping track there's less than two weeks until Team Crockett debuts at Calgary's 2nd Annual Uncover The Cure/Underwear Affair - and boy are we excited!

I've been on the treadmill everyday if not twice a day for what feels like forevah! The scale doesn't show any difference but my legs sure are a lot less jiggly.

Bring on the good weather so I can practise outside for a change!

Another spectacular couples Bunco night!

Seriously I have no idea why we don't take pics...ever. Christine has a fab camera and is a serious scrapbooker and I have a fab camera and am an avid blogger...so why aren't we documenting these events?

Must ask about that.

Anyhoo. All 4 kids were asleep when we arrived home which was expected, appreciated and fabulous all at the same time. It gave us time to unwind and massage our cheeks from the achiness of 4 hours of laughter. Seriously. It is THAT fun!

Today was a bit of a blah day, Aaron worked, the boys and I grocery shopped and cleaned and we ALL went for a run on the treadmill. Okay, the boys actually just walked but still we were all feeling a bit stifled from all this indoor time. Really, could we let up on the rain for even just a few hours?!?

This is what I came upon when I went to check on Thing One and Thing Two:

And here's Alex sporting some spiked hair. His hair will only spike while wet in the bath tub. Doesn't matter what kind of spray, gel or glue that I try it totally refuses to stand up at any time other than bath time.

What's with all this freaking rain?

Last week was gorg and I spent all my time outside with the kiddies and this week was the opposite. Totally uggers out there. The closest we got to outside time was the few hours here and there when the pavement would dry enough so we could do chalk drawings and hopscotch. I took some lovely lovely pics but in respect to my dayhome parents I can't showcase them b/c their kiddies are in the shots too. But I highly recommend that even the most novice photographer could take some b& w hopscotch pics and look like a pro. Enjoy the coloured pics of Thing Two playing hopscotch - it's pretty funny to watch them do it in rain boots...

Babies, Babies and more Babies!

Hopefully it's not contagious but my oh my there seems to be a lot of expectant momma's in my world!
Our cousin's fiancee is expecting, three of Aaron's cousins and a friend of a friend is having her baby as we speak...or should I say as I write.
So, keeping up to baby-mania I've been creating baby cards like mad:

Long weekends are never long enough!

Thing One Thing Two
Aaron had to work Saturday during the day SO the boys and I had to soak up some sunshine without him :o( BUT we had a great time nonetheless.

We spent a couple hours with some friends at their gated waterpark/play park. That's right - it was gated - and that was FABULOUS! I was actually able to relax somewhat, knowing that Thing One and Thing Two wouldn't be able to sneak off. That was a little piece of heaven right there let me tell you!

Saturday night the boys hung out with their fave sitter while Aaron and I had some grown up time with another couple. It was great! If you are a meat eater then you should give Bolero's a go! It's Brazilian style cooking so the servers bring skewers of different meats to your table and carve it off right then and there. And if you're into something chocolate definitely check out The Living Room. We went there for Chocolate Fondue for dessert and it was so good. A little ice wine and a lot of chocolate is a great combination...



Then all the fun stopped.....



And we spent the rest of the weekend painting the trim on our house. So boring, but it was time. We have everything but the door trim done so hopefully if the weather holds up we'll be completely done by next weekend.

The sun is shining and I've been lovin it

Please excuse the sporadic blogging BUT Mr. Sunshine has been calling my name :o)

Honestly, I've been outside with the kids from about 7:30-7:45 ish every morning this week until lunchtime. Then after getting the wee ones down for a nap BACK outside again until home time for the kiddies.

It's fabulous!

It's also amazing to see all the things these kids do to pass 8 hours of outside time.

• Games like What Time is it Mr. Wolf? And it doesn't stop until everyone has been the wolf at least 3 times.
• Water table play for hours - it's 3 feet long yet they manage to have boat races...
• Play fort - oh the possibilities are endless
• Swinging on the swings
• Basketball with water balloons. It's evolved into this only because I can't find the Little Tykes basketball and all the other ones are too big for the net
• Scooter races
• Worm hunt...ewwww....I'll never forgive the person that taught them to pull back the sod to find worms...
• Snack time is always a drawn out process when we're sitting at the picnic table
• Beach volleyball, that's a new thing but they're getting the hang of it
• Soccer - we've only broken one fence board so far but in all fairness it had a huge knot in the wood and it was bound to happen. Joey felt like he had super-sonic strength when he broke the board though
• Bubbles bubbles bubbles.

Hope everyone else is finally having some summer weather! Remember to wear sunblock, none of the kids had a single tan line yesterday YET I managed to neglect myself the second go around and I was a bit on the red side. Today I'm golden but I'll put more effort into protecting myself.

Like Mother, Like Son

I know, I know the saying is "Like Father, like son" BUT in this case Joe takes after his mom's clumsiness. This could/would/and has happened to me...

Trying to catch up

This week I was invited to Alex's preschool for a Mother's Day Tea and had the pleasure of par-taking in the Elephants Have Wrinkles song and dance. In a word - FABULOUS! I LOVE that song!
Aaron and Dad went to an ultimate fighting/MMA event in Edmonton. This was Aaron's fave fighter of the night.
And here's Alex playing at preschool.

It was a super busy week - Mom and Dad were here Wednesday so Mom could finally attend her stamping class and Dad had the chance to watch Joey play soccer. Joey scored 4 goals and was so happy! Thursday Mom and I laid low and watched some TV, and headed to Morinville on Friday after the kiddies had all gone home.

We watched P.S. I Love You Friday night and it was good. Not what I was expecting but good. I think I might buy this one. Then we watched Lions For Lambs Saturday night with the guys. It was also good - although the ending was not what I was hoping for. We also golfed on Saturday with Thing One and Thing Two and we all went to East Side Mario's for dinner. We sat in the seperate dining room and were by ourselves for almost our whole meal which was great!

The guys did a Sunday brunch for Mom and I , and then we were on the road again headed home.

Doesn't sound like a lot, but we seem to be sooooo busy lately.

This week isn't so hectic and we've got Joey's spring concert on Wednesday so I'll have Joey pics to share :o)

Paper or plastic?

Well, actually pretty soon I think plastic will be out of the question. I definitely re-use my plastic grocery bags with picking up after Lyla and those oh so fragrant dirty diapers...BUT the day is coming when these bags will be obsolete. SO, I'm trying to be pro-active and I'm going to switch sooner rather than later. BUT who knew who many freaking choices there are out there!?!?

There's the nylon Chico Bags, for $4.95 and they hold up to 25 lbs and fold into there own little pouch... The string bags which hold up to 40lbs and are $29.95 for a set of 5...
The good ole hemp tote for $7.95...
Or the plain string bag for $7.95...
That's what I've got it narrowed down to. Any recommendations or suggestions?

Rain or shine it's soccer time!

Tonight was Alex's 2nd soccer practise/game and it rained. Not a lot but enough. I was the designated Starbucks go-to girl for the evening :o) Alex seemed to 'get' the whole soccer thing much better than last week when he was just happy to be able to wear his new soccer shorts. Joey watched from the sidelines and played at the park. So far we've been lucky and our spots on the fields have been fairly close to the playground.

Our weekend involved a lot of driving. The boys and I drove to Alix to visit Tina, Steve and the girls. For some reason Joey keeps referring to Steve as 'you know Steve, the guy that used to have that mustache and now it's gone'...guess the mustache left a lasssssssssssting impression on Joey. So, the boys played with the girls at the park and had lots of run around time before we headed home. Sunday we loaded up the gigantic plastic climber and drove down to Turner Valley to visit Uncle Jeff and Jonathan (who was napping). We decided to downsize the backyard toys a wee bit. We now have the big wooden playground and just the smaller plastic climber - and a playhouse - and a trike - and 2 plasma cars - and an easel - and a basketball net - .....maybe we need to downsize a bit more.

Someone needs a career change!

Meet Joey's bus driver :

Honestly, I can't make this shit up.

The driver is grumpier than Oscar the Grouch and today I decided that I have had enough.

I'm the parent, someone has to say something because Joey's oblivious to just how much of an ass this guy is. So, I phoned, I cried, I complained, I cried, I vented and it's done.

It wasn't so much as what was said but more how it was said. Body language speaks louder than words. The throwing back of his head and rolling his eyes when he sees my son bringing some hand-drawn papers for his bus ride. Heaven forbid that Joey drops them and has to pick them up at school. Or maybe it's the fact that the driver refuses to wave to my son after he drops him turns around at the end of cul-de-sac and ignores Joey as he whizzes by on the bus. He told me once that he didn't see him waving. Well, as a bus driver you should be able to see a child standing on the side of the road in plain view waving his arms frantically. Don't you think?

I am grateful that my son is oblivious to this grouches actions but at the same time it breaks my heart to see him continue to stand there waving in hopes that one day his driver will see him and wave back.

Thank goodness school is almost over for another year!

Explains why Saskatchewan has no Daylight Saving Time.....

When told the reason for daylight saving time a wise old Indian Elder said, "Only a white man would believe that you could cut a foot off the top of a blanket and sew it to the bottom of a blanket and have a longer blanket."