Party time!

So yesterday was Jessie's luau party and it was alot of fun. Unfortunately it was inside as the weather didn't cooperate with us. Therefore we had an inside luau, but no one seemed to mind. The birthday girl had lots of fun and what was only supposed to last a couple of hours, turned out to be many more. We missed our family and far away friends but here's a couple of pictures for those of you who weren't able to be here.

Crazy hair day!

Guess what happens to your hair when you beg Mommy to put curlers in it?

School days

Amazingly enough, another school year has gone by. I blink and then the kids are moving up another grade and I am always shocked by how quickly time is passing by. Jessie starts 5th grade today and Ben kindergarten. Wow! The excitement of a brand new school year is always useful for a few days. The kids actually get up on time and get ready without too much of a fight. Then reality kicks in and they realize that this is going to be the way things are for quite a while! As a little girl I was the odd one out who enjoyed school. I couldn't wait for summer vacation to be over so I could get back to school. I loved learning and being with my friends and even wearing uniform. Last night Jessie was so excited to go to her new school today that she was literally jumping all over the place. She reminds me of me at times like this. We visited her new school last night and when she saw the media center she was overjoyed and I thought that yes, she is definately mine! Here's to another exciting year of learning!

Happy birthday Jessie!

10 years ago today my life changed. It changed in the most amazing, challenging and wonderful way possible. I became a Mom. Up until that moment, I had lived a typical life of doing whatever I wanted to do. I was number 1 in my life and the only people I really had to look out for were myself and my husband. And then in an instant everything changed. I was holding a beautiful little baby girl in my arms and I was her everything. She needed me for food, comfort, love and to keep her safe and for the last 10 years I have endeavoured to do just that. Jessie made me become a better person. I truly understood that it was better to give than receive and yet by giving to her, I received unconditional love and she trusted me with her life. I feel so blessed by being her Mom. Jessie has an amazing capacity for love. Her heart is sweet and she wears her emotions on her sleeves always. Its never difficult to know what's going on with her. She is smart and beautiful and yet at times so ditzy that you shake your head in amazement! She is an avid reader, loves music and is currently learning to cook and loving that too. This little girl is rapidly becoming an amazing woman and I feel privileged to go on this journey with her. The future's so bright, she's gotta wear shades! First stop 5th grade, next the world! Anyway, Jessie had a nice birthday. She loves her nintendo ds and wanted to go to outback for dinner. Her birthday party is on Saturday and hopefully it won't rain as its a luau party! And that's my Jessie!

I survived Chuck-e-cheese!

So we successfully made it through another party at the dreaded Chuck-e-cheese! A wonderful place known for its great appeal to kids and great dread to adults and its sub par cheese pizza. It is not a cheap place and not neccessarily because of the kids. We give them their tokens to go play games and save a few tokens for ourselves. Then we go play and when we run out, instead of telling ourselves tough luck (like we do the kids), we suddenly decide that we must have more tokens because we're not done playing skiball. Go figure! Then of course Chuck himself shows up and kids start running in terror at the sight of a giant mouse, Sammy included! The birthday boy quaked in fear as Chuck tried to wish him a happy birthday. When we told Abby where the mouse would be coming out from, she promptly suggested that she would go hide up high on the inside playground, where he couldn't find her! All in all though, the party went well. My fire truck cake turned out really well, the kids had fun and Sammy loved his presents. One birthday down, 4 days to the next!

Happy 4th birthday Sammy!

Today is my little (not so little now) Sammy's birthday. Of all my children, Sam's birth was the most difficult and his arrival into the world frank breech was definately memorable! Sam has definately caused me lots of hair raising moments in the last 4 years. His bout with rsv and consequent stay in the hospital was scary. I felt great relief when the drs finally figured out that he had a milk protein allergy and that's why he had such slow weight gain. The worst day of my entire life was when he fell out of our 2nd story window onto concrete. I remember looking out of the window and thinking that my baby was going to be dead and my heart stopped. I nearly flew down the stairs to reach him. He came away with a tiny scrape on his back, whereas I had aged several years. He has continued to find himself in the thick of trouble as time has gone by and that's alot of what I love about him. He is the only one of the kids that has his Daddy's eyes, hazel. Of course he also gets his blonde hair from Mike too! He makes my heart swell in so many ways. Every morning when he comes downstairs, the first words out of his mouth are "good morning Mommy!" and it never fails to make me smile. Sam loves anything that drives and if it doesn't have wheels, he'll pretend that it does and drive it anyway! You'll constantly find him moving some book or toy around the floor making vroom vroom noises. He loves watching curious george (go figure!) and spongebob. He tries so hard to be like his big brothers and yet loves to cuddle with Mommy and Daddy. He especially likes fire trucks and so today for his birthday party, he has a fire truck cake (hopefully!). My Mum only got to see Sammy the one time when he was 4 months old and yet I know that she would be so proud of him and amazed by him just as we are. I'm so looking forward to Grandma and Grandpa getting to see him (and of course all the others) next month. Family is so important and knowing their grandparents is a big part of that. We're so excited to be seeing them. Well, I have a cake to go frost and a party to get ready for, so thanks for reading about my birthday boy Sammy. He's very special! Samuel David Henri..... happy 4th birthday!