A couple of pictures...

Patience and Nathan play hockey together. Patience got this little hockey stick for Christmas. Jordyn got a Diego one, but she's not as much of a hockey aficionado as Patience is. When Nathan was in California a couple of weeks ago, he found a smiliar stick, but a Shark stick, of course. So he and Patience play in the hallway pretty much on a daily basis. Here she is "in net." Notice how difficult it will be for Nathan to score?

Nathan really really really wants to get Patience into hockey. He says she'll make a great defender based on her ballet class.

Here's Jordyn very focused on feeding Danica's dolly. Danica got this baby doll for her birthday and brought it to our house yesterday. All three girls took turns looking after this very realistic baby (it must weigh at least 5 pounds, and feels pretty real when you're holding it).

It's been very cold here. Like minus 10, or 20 F, however you think of temperature. We woke up this a.m. to about 4 inches of snow, and it was still falling. But because this is a Provincial Exam day, schools were open regardless. Except for the preschool. The girls can't understand why I won't let them play outside... It reminds me of the time when Val and I begged and begged and pleaded to go swimming in my grandparents' outdoor swimming pool...in March or some silly month like that. My mom finally broke down and let us get in while my grandmother ran a hot tub for us. Yep, it wasn't much fun and we decided maybe we didn't want to go swimming anymore after about 60 seconds or so!

Saturday, January 26, 2008

I couldn't think of a catchy title : )

Last night Sean had four friends from school over for a small birthday party. These are the same four who came over last year. They are all a year older, but not any quieter! But at least I am a year smarter and demanded that it would not be a "slumber" party like he had last year. Don drove the guests home at 10:00 although they were all so wired and hyper I'm sure sleep was a loooooong way off. Oh well, at least they were at their own homes : )

You can go back to my January 2007 entries to see this same shot last year.

This morning I took Patience to "ballet school." She did great! As she told her dad when he asked how school was, "It was good! I didn't knock anyone over!"

After ballet we went grocery shopping. Both girls are napping right now, and Patience is going to Danica's 3rd birthday party this afternoon. Let's hope she doesn't knock anyone over there, either. As far as I can remember, this is her first birthday party!

While Patience and I were gone this a.m., Don showed Dylan how to change electrical outlets. We wanted to replace all the outlets in their new rooms from offwhite to white, to match the white trim. Dylan was able to do them all! I told him it was a good skill to have, because someday his wife was going to want to change all their outlets to suit her fancy and he could either do it himself for $20 or he could hire an electrician to do it for around $500. He said that since he would be busy working, he would just teach his wife to do it herself! That's my boy. Chivalry is not dead...

Nathan has three provincial exams this week and Dylan has two. They both have Thursday and Friday off, but Don has work scheduled for both of them, so it'll be a "working holiday." Oh well, they can both use the money so it's nice they have a source for work.

That's all for now!

Cathi

iPod update...

There is only one person on this planet who could have taken that iPod back to Best Buy because it was within the 30-day purchase period: Don.

Technically, it wasn't even in the 30-day period because we purchased it on the 19th, but Don reasoned with the manager that it was a Christmas present so it wasn't opened until the 25th, etc.

I told Dylan he had used up all his good luck and to not even bother playing the lottery any time soon!

iPods no longer work...

...when you put them through the washer and dryer.

Two in a row!

Amazing, I know : )

Today was pajama day at Patience and Danica's preschool so here they are all ready to go with jammies and their Max and Ruby stuffed animals:

I have a picture of the two of them awhile back on this blog holding the same toys...they sure have grown up!

Tonight is Cadets and Sean would like Don and I to go watch the Colors Parade (where they march and raise the flags, etc) because he is now officially a member of the guard and will be marching (hopefully in unison) with them.

Recently I made homemade syrup! We were running low, and I remembered how my mom always made her own. Sure enough, Google will bring up hundreds of recipes and it's easy as all get out! I did have to buy maple flavoring, but I can make for 80 cents syrup that would cost more than $3 to buy. Oh, and the kids think it's better than the store-bought stuff...bonus!

First entry of the year...

Pretty embarassing considering it's the 21st today!

My mother gently reminded me that it was Sean's 13th birthday yesterday, so surely I could at least post a picture? Of course...here is Sean guarding his birthday cake from Jordyn:





Notice how he's holding her hand in an attempt to guard his oreos?

So, other news about Sean's birthday: he got pancakes for breakfast, lovely gifts including an MP3 player, more software for his FLY pen, office supplies and cash from Grandma and Grandpa Lee, candy from Nathan and Dylan, and cash from Grandma and Grandpa Murphy. He's going to bank most of the cash, and buy a Nintendo memory card with the rest.

We went to church yesterday, and then came home to homemade pizza and a play date with Sean's good friend Daniel. Dinner was crepes, and then we had this lovely cake with ice cream for dessert.

On other subjects, Don and I spent a lot of time this weekend painting Dylan's and Sean's new bedrooms in the east wing of the house. They turned out really well and we're hoping to have them moved in next weekend. We're just priming and painting the trim and doors right now. I'll post pictures as soon as we're done.

Here is a picture of Jordyn with her clown nose that Don brought home from his trip to California last weekend:




And here's a picture of Patience and Jordyn all ready for bed recently:




Patience started ballet classes on Saturday. It's a Parks and Rec class for 3-6 year olds. It's very cute and very funny to watch the girls "dance." I had to explain to Patience after the class that ballet is not a contact sport. The teacher had all the girls "dance" to the music and all the other girls danced in a clockwise direction around the room. Patience danced counter-clockwise. With her eyes closed, because she thinks that is how ballerinas dance. That's probably how Angelina Ballerina does it on t.v. Anyway, it looked like a game of pinball, with little tiny girls in tutus getting flattened by Patience the Huge. The other parents thankfully didn't seem to hold it against her because a) their tiny daughters didn't seem to get hurt, and b) it was so darn funny. I told Don he's taking her next week.


So, yeah, the renovations are taking most of our spare time and money.


Nathan is working hard to get back on track with school. He promised (again) that he was all caught up in his classes and was passing them all. But this time I told him I needed written proof from his teachers before he sets foot on the basketball court. On a bright note, Nathan is really getting set up to join the Coast Guard. He ordered a set of books that will help him get through bootcamp and he's been doing a lot of online research. I think he'll do well regardless because he's in such awesome physical shape, he's got his Sea Cadet background so much of what he'll learn there (seamanship wise) he'll already know, and he's used to living with strict rules and people who will yell if the rules arent' followed. In fact, he'll probably feel right at home.

Dyland and Nathan are in their last week of school fo this semester. Dylan is working hard to improve his science grade by 2 percent to bump him from a B to an A.


I'll post more later. I promise!