Smile it's an attitude!

That's what my uniform shirt said when I worked at Calaway Park when I was 16...the pants haven't changed any but the shirts aren't so ugly. Actually, they're worse, they're bright sunshine yellow.

Yesterday morning Michelle and I decided to take our boys to Calaway Park for the day. So, I packed extra changes of clothes and snacks - no lunch, I figured the boys could have something there. Big mistake. And Michelle was a Supermom and packed clothes, snacks, sunblock and lunch. Smart cookie, that one is! As her and the boys were lounging on their picnic blanket (did I mention she even brought a picnic blanket) I was standing in the hotdog line with Thing One and Thing Two and 20 minutes later we get to the front and they say 'uh yeah, we have no hot dogs, we ran out'. HELLO!?! COULD YOU NOT SAY THAT TO THE GENERAL CROWD OF PEOPLE WAITING IN YOUR LINEUPS FOR HOTDOGS???? It was a HOTDOG stand, so chances are, we're all waiting for HOTDOGS!!! Anyways, at that point we just shared their picnic lunch and go on more rides instead of wasting another 20 minutes for some greasy food. Here are the 4 amigos.

Here's me and Alex, this is taken by JT while waiting in the hotdog line.

This is after the log ride. I hope these boys realize they have the best mommies in the world for waiting in that lonnnnnng line up with them and not skipping this ride entirely. Their screams and shrieks of delight made it worthwhile. Although for the wait time they really should let you go around two times.

Halfway through the day the boys watched a clown at the stage, we just caught the tail end of it but then some fiddling girls from Chestermere came on and they even sat through a few of their songs. The girls were either that good or our boys were that tired.

Here's Alex looking down at me and my little buddy - do you think I was freaking out? Yeppers. I was actually more freaked out when both Joey and Alex were leaning on the gate looking down on me. The gates open inwards so they wouldn't have fallen open - but still. FYI - Michelle was sitting with the boys and holding onto them jusssssst in case...

Supermom Michelle also came up with a great solution to the 'I wants' at Calaway, she gave her kids $10 each and they could spend it on anything but once it was gone it was gone. Great idea! That way they can budget it or blow it and it's done. Seeing as lunch was a no-go it was a fairly cheap day. Tea at Starbucks to get our day started, sno-cones for the boys and 2 rounds at the shooting gallery each. Oh, and cotton candy for Aaron. Auntie Leanne gifted the family with season's passes at Calaway - she really is the best!The boys enjoying their sno-cones.

The boys and Supermom playing at the shooting gallery - it's a total moneymaker. You don't even win a prize, you just get to pull a trigger 25 times. And here's my little buddy at the end of the day. He was sad to leave - I must say how impressed I was, he walked for 5 hours and only jumped in the stroller as we were getting ready to leave. But without that stroller it would have been much harder to cart around all the other stuff, they definitely served a purpose yesterday!

Our next Supermom Adventure will be to Heritage Park when we're left single-parenting on the weekend. Supermom was shocked and I was embarrassed to admit my boys haven't been to Heritage Park. Shocking, isn't it?

I can't take credit for this - thanks Auntie Brenda :o)

Can't eat pork,

Swine flu...


Can't eat chicken,

Bird flu.
Can't eat Beef,

Mad cow....



Can't eat eggs,

Salmonella.

Can't eat fish,

heavy metal poisons in their waters.


Can't eat fruits and veggies,

insecticides and herbicides.





Hmmmmmmmmm!!!!!!!!!!!!!

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M

M





I believe that leaves Chocolate and ice cream!!!!!!!!

Remember - - - 'STRESSED'

spelled backwards! is

'DESSERTS'

Why are women so mean?

You know what was worse than going to birdhouse building night and only being successful at bending nails?

Having a mom who overheard me talking to another parent say to me loudly "yeah, my husband mentioned you had a lot of difficulty with it".

Thanks. Did you really need to make me aware of the fact that you and your husband probably had a great laugh at my expense? Seriously. Alex and I were both happy with the end result. And really, maybe your husband who was a 'volunteer' could have come over to help me instead of waiting, watching and laughing...

So there.

And totally unrelated is that Photograph by Nickelback has been voted to be the unofficial song for Alberta.

Rock on boys!

Photograph
By Nickelback
CodesAndLyrics.com

A beautiful evening for some baseball

Tonight was Thing Two's t-ball debut and it was fantastic! Alex was a great listener - only had one pep talk about laughing at children that couldn't catch the ball (he was one of them so he really shouldn't have been laughing) and he hit the ball and got to 3rd base on his last hit. The kids weren't that fast so it wasn't tough to do but that's besides the point.
Meanwhile, JT played at the park with some kids his age. I was probably 30 feet away from the park so I could still see him but wasn't right there like usual. It's the most freedom he's had and I'm still not sure if he's ready for that. Actually I think he's ready I'm just not sure I'm ready. I think as long as he's in yelling distance we'll be okay.

Here are my Mother's Day gifts from my boys:

And a pic of my homemade yorkshire pudding from our Mother's Day dinner Saturday night with Aaron's folks. It's like a competition between my Dad and I. I'm sure by the end of the week he'll have a picture of his yorkies too so everyone can compare, lol.

Happy Mother's Day!

Today was an all-around great day at the Beck homestead!

Alex let me sleep in until 7:10 this morning - yahoo! He has been soooooo anxious to show me his fancy schmany clay jewellery dish that he made me at school LAST WEEK! And he kept it a secret right up until this morning. I was so proud of him!

JT made me a clay picture of our family. You know, a circle of clay with some people made out of clay smooshed on top? I'll take a pic tomorrow I promise. That was also tres cool BUT I received it Friday after JT walked home in the pooring rain. He was concerned that his craft may have melted away in the rain. Thankfully it was a-okay.

Aaron bought me a new book Angels & Demons and a tree for our front yard. I had high hopes for a ginormous tree that would give the playroom some shade in the summer but after looking around we decided on a lilac tree which we planted on the other side of the front yard. We're easy go-with-the-flow kind of people so I was okay with it. It is definitely cute though - kind of looks not much bigger than a twig. The trick will be keeping Alex from trying to climb it, ha ha.

We also picked out our flowers for this season and planted them. I'm sure my mom is cringing when she reads that. I'm an optimist - winter is OVER. Spring is HERE TO STAY. Did you hear that Mother Nature????

We ended our day with some baseball and soccer practise at the school. They went to sleep with no complaints at 7:30 and now Aaron is at hockey.

I think a perfect way to end a perfect day would be a soak in the tub...sigh...perfection!

Who wears a hat better? Me, J-Lo or Loo Loo ?

Personally I think Loo Loo wins hands down!

How to avoid the dreaded camel toe

Tonight was my walking night with Margo and as I looked at myself in the mirror in my Lulu's I thought of this: Not to be mistaken with this:

So I put a little research into how to avoid this not-so-hot look. Here's what I discovered:

Step 1
Ride your lowriders even lower. Allowing pants to sag in the crotch gives the extra space needed to avoid camel toe.
Step 2
Oversize your clothes. Pants that are larger than necessary will smooth ridges on all parts of the body, including between the legs.
Step 3
Stand by your brands. Specific styles and brands are made for different body types. When you find one that eliminate camel toe, stick to it or others that are similar.
Step 4
Understand your body. Knowing your curves is important when picking clothes that fit right.
Step 5
When buying pants, bring someone whose opinion you respect and who you trust to tell you the truth. Friends don't let friends go out with camel toe.
Step 6
Stuff it. When all else fails, trimming poster board to the appropriate size can prevent your pants from digging into your crotch. However, this is dangerous territory. The wrong cut can push up on the edges, giving your camel toe a winged effect. No one likes camel toe, but flying camel toe is worse.

Have a good night everyone!

I'm so NOT a member of NaBloPoMo!

I'm not sure if I'm being too hard on myself but it bothers me that I've been neglecting the blog. And Facebook. And emails. And returning phone calls.

At this point in the game I'm content with getting my boys to and from wherever they need to be, work on getting this bod into pre-baby shape and spend some quality time with Aaron.

...sigh...

Sounds pretty basic, doesn't it? I guess I'm really a no-frills kind of girl.

Today I caught a commercial for Dr. Phil and the key word was calm. I like that. Calm. That's what I think a lot of kids crave and a lot of families need. Take a step back from the chaos and just be.