Monsters vs. Aliens

We took the crew to see this in Real 3D last night. It was a funny movie and everyone enjoyed it from the biggest kid to the smallest (6 to almost 14). It has been a long while since I've been to a 3D movie and they certainly have come a long way. I was sitting next to Turtle and loved listening to him giggle... you know those unexpected squeals of delight that you hear often as a toddler but not so much once they get school age. It made the movie for me listening to him and seeing the sheer joy on his face. Each of the kids had a favorite character. Ice and Turtle have been reenacting bits of the movie all morning and trying the crazy 3D glasses on (made of plastic not cardboard and resembling the glasses worn by the President in the movie). We kept the glasses in hopes that the DVD has some 3D capabilities. The crew said this is one they would definitely want to add to our collection.

The tricky Leprechaun paid us a visit last night. Iceman and Turtle woke to shamrocks scattered all down the stairs. They reported that he took their pictures off the wall (they painted me some canvas art several years ago that hang along our stairwell), hide one and hung another where it didn't belong, he through dish towels all over the kitchen but he made them green pancakes. Ice said they knew the pancakes were from him because he left a picture of his shoes on them. That tricky guy also took my near dead roses and tipped them stems up in the vase of water, scattering petals all over a table in the living room. The boys could not believe he would be so brazen and mess with mom's flowers. No gold today... the economy must be hitting the Leprechaun's budget ;) or maybe he could not find any gold coins that weren't imported from China.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

3 little monkeys....

.....putting up the lights.

Happy Birthday Turtle!

My baby is 6!!! 6!!!!!!!! I can't believe it. He has grown up so much this past year. It seems like not so long ago we were not so patiently waiting for him to arrive while he played "cry wolf" with us. I remember the days when he was so shy that he seemed to be a barnacle attached to my behind who hide from anyone he didn't know and often those he did. Now he has grown into Mr. Personality- my funny, charming, precocious little boy.

I was in really bad shape this year in the days leading up to his birthday and the prospect of throwing a party was not something I was feeling capable of at all. Thankfully the Hero saved the day with some well timed hockey tickets for a game the night before the Turtle's birthday. Not only did the Turtle get to go to a game with just his Daddy, he came home with a game puck and was apparently the good luck charm for the coaches of the opposing team (eeek!). The coaching staff all ruffled his curls as they came out to practice and it was them who gave him a puck. Nonetheless he enjoyed the pre-season game and it became his "party".

The next day he took mini muffins and juice to school and shared his birthday with both grade 1 classes. That night we had a family dinner with Turtle cake made by a worn out mom with the help of cake mix and canned frosting (sometimes a girl has to do what she can to get by). He thought it was great and was pleased with cake and presents. Mr. Music now has his own personal iPod shuffle, the boy is always dancing or singing so this was the perfect gift.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm a both hander!

Turtle and La Diva were signing Father's Day cards to be sent in the mail. Turtle prints his name so neatly these days. La Diva exclaims "I didn't know you were a left hander." Turtle replies "I'm a both hander" and proceeds to neatly finish the 4 cards using one hand or the other or a combo of the 2 to print his name ever so neatly.

I feel like a man!

Wednesday morning (yeah I know I'm world's suckiest blogger but get over it) Turtle was in the upstairs bathroom, the Hero was in his office and I was in our little computer nook right across from the bathroom. I hear Turtle in there doing his normal grunts and moans that are part of his bathroom routine ever since the marble incident of March 07. After the grunts cease he exclaims loudly "I feel like a man!". Flushes, washes and skips out the door on his tiptoes dancing to some tune in his head. The Hero steps out of his office seconds later to be overcome by the fragrance wafting from the bathroom. He says "Did he do that?" I reply, "Yes and apparently he feels like a man!" The Hero laughs and I relay what I overheard. He says "No wonder he feels like a man when he smells like that!"

Love according to Turtle

"I love you as high as space... no I love you all the way to the planet Mars."

A visit from the tricky Leprechaun

Happy St. Patrick's Day! We started the day with excitement from the visit of the trickster last night. This tradition was started last year due to Iceman's memories of the havoc the Leprechaun created in his classroom the year before. We were surprised that Ice was so enthralled with this creature as he's never bought into any of the other mythical traditions that so many families do for holidays - Santa, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, et al. have not been major players at the Hutch. So last year we decided to indulge his excitement and the Leprechaun made a visit to our home. Yesterday he was beside himself before bedtime with worries about what the Leprechaun may try to pull this year. His eyes sparkled as he shared his thoughts on the types of tricks that could be played. He was a bit disappointed when he discovered that it wasn't a statutory holiday and he'd still have to go to school.

The boys were not disappointed this morning. Iceman is a major detail guy and likes things to be in their place (except for his toys... how does one transfer the OCD to that part of his life??) which means he doesn't miss a trick. Upside down clocks, fish bowls in the wrong place, pictures moved or upside down, a box of rice instead of cereal on the table, gold coins, an Easter sign hanging on the front door where a shamrock had been all month, coats moved, packs on wrong hooks and yummy chocolate coins covered in gold. Iceman did not miss a thing. He shared the stories of the visit of the tricky one with his teacher and classmates. His eyes sparkled as he retold a few of the tricks during our parent teacher conference this afternoon. He was decked out in his green shirt and plastic green top hat too. Turtle gets to carry on the day tomorrow with a green shirt and a sparkly green top hot as he did not have school today. He was pleased to be able to share a shamrock shake with me today as consolation for him not having school on St. Paddy's Day. I think most of the tricks have been returned to normal, if not Iceman will be sure to draw my attention to something I missed.

The Hero and I snuck out for a pint and some wings as our nod to green day and tricks pulled.

Big Breakfast!

At least one day on the weekend the Hero makes big breakfast. He makes all sorts of yummy things, sometimes I help him, others he does it all. He will make everything from waffles, pancakes, eggs many different ways, sausage, bacon and his famous Firehouse Hash. It's a tradition that we all enjoy and appreciate.



The boys at the firehall have recently adopted this practice for their duty crew Saturdays. Yesterday was the Hero's weekend and he coordinated the food this round. Iceman and Turtle donned their turnout gear and went along to help check trucks and clean the hall. They were bragging their Daddy up as he was preparing belgian waffles for the crew. They said that he does this every weekend and that was met with much skepticism from one of the newer members. She even grilled them later to see if it was in fact true. ( She annoys me to no end but that's a whole other story. Iceman showed her who was boss when he could go through everything on the check list and not only know what it was but where it was supposed to be.)



On the menu yesterday were Sour Cream Waffles...

1 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. Baking powder
½ tsp. Baking soda
1 Tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. Salt
2 large eggs
¼ cup oil
1 cup sour cream
1 ¼ cups milk
Stir in first 5 ingredients together in bowl. Make a well. Beat eggs together in a small bowl until frothy. Add oil, sour cream and milk. Mix. Pour into well. Stir to moisten. Cook in hot waffle iron until browned, using about 1/3 cup batter for each. Makes 12 waffles.

Turtle's View of the World

Turtle finally let us download the pictures from his Little Tykes digital camera. These are a few of my favorites. I love to see how things look from his perspective. What does your view of the world look like?

Where are we runnin'?

Today was the annual Terry Fox Run for our schools. Kodiak placed 4th out of over 300 students. The High School students helped with marking the route and such so his "competition" ranged from Grade 1 to Grade 9. He was very proud of his accomplishment. La Diva and Iceman enjoyed their "run" as well. La Diva wore a sign saying who she was running for with pictures of her Great Papa and Zackary. She also had a list of people we know who have survived cancer, those still battling and those who are in our memories her poster. Iceman had made a copy of her sign but decided to leave it at home because he was afraid it would get rained on and ruined. He has it hanging in his room so he can remember to pray for Great Papa and Zackary every night.

Turtle did not have school today but was able to go in the fire truck and help Daddy with the traffic control for the big race. The Hero came home rather discouraged at the lack of community support. Everyone is in such a darn hurry that they were trying to sneak around the road blocks when children were crossing the street. The Hero almost had to take on one jerk who was throwing a fit. What an example to the children who are doing a great thing, raising money for a cause that affects nearly every person in our country in one way or another and these pinheads think they are more important than the safety of these children.

On the bright side, one of Kodiak's teachers stopped to talk to the Hero during the run and told him what a fantastic kid he is. That is always great to hear. Kodiak really looks up to Mr. D and thinks he is a fabulous teacher. Kodiak has been really stepping out of his comfort zone and taking Jr. High by storm. He is the class rep in the Student Union for his grade. In years past he would have just let someone else come forward. This year he threw his hat into the ring against 3 girls in his class. I'm really proud of him. One of his goals the beginning of this year was to become more confident in his leadership skills and he is definitely stepping up to achieve that one. I shouldn't be surprised as he achieves or exceeds any goals he sets for himself.

La Diva is involved in the "Pay it Forward Posse" and the Spirit Squad. She is also taking piano and finally has a fabulous teacher. Piano teachers are really hard to come by these days and the group lessons seem to be very popular. We tried that last year and it was a complete gong show. Her teacher recently graduated with her degree in music; she is young, talented and a great teacher. I'm so glad that we found her as La Diva has a natural gift and I was worried last years fiasco would discourage her from growing her talent.

We are crazy busy this coming week. We are moving La Diva to the basement with Kodiak. The Hero is talking over her room as his office. He's been working from home for almost a year and his little perch on the top of the stairs is just not working for any of us. It will be great to be able to shut the door on him. Kodiak has X-Country meet, La Diva has piano, we have hair cuts for Kodiak and Turtle. I need to get the invitations made for Turtle's birthday party which will be in mid-October because our life is just too crazy right now. The Hero is going to be on TV on Wednesday to promote the Heroes in the Sky event this weekend. We have tons of organizing to do for that weekend. Friday I need to take the crew up to Gramma and Poppa's for the weekend. We will pick them up on Thanksgiving. This way I can dedicate my time to all the things the Hero may need as he orchestrates this big fundraiser and media event.

I'll be so happy when next weekend is over and some of the craziness goes with it. It's no wonder that I chose my latest phone ring tone to be Lenny Kravitz's Where are We Runnin'?

They're Poppin'

The Hero snuck down and caught this clip of Kodiak and Turtle jammin'. Make sure you are not drinking anything and you've just gone potty. ;)

We did it!!!

We survived the first week of back to school.

The biggest challenge for us was my body's revolt against waking at a set early time. I'm the first to admit that I am a night owl and hate waking up in the morning.

Kodiak, La Diva and Iceman started on Tuesday. The Hero escorted Kodiak to the secondary school while I took La Diva and Iceman to elementary. As we walked by the secondary we passed several of Kodiak's classmates so he fell into step with them and didn't really need the Hero there afterall. He has embraced this new adventure with so much excitement. He comes home with exciting tales of his teachers and classes. They have options now and while he was disappointed that he did not get into his top pick of digital imagining he is happy with the rest of them so far. They do options with all the jr. highs in that class so he is with 8s and 9s. The prospect of that was a bit daunting, especially in the phys ed ones where everyone is bigger than our little bear. He proved his place though because he outran all of them in cross country (he lost count and did 2 extra laps). His coach was very impressed and asked him who taught him to run and why did he do 2 extra laps. He said his Dad is a great runner. Which made me giggle because he only started running again since his treadmill Father's Day gift. The Hero can run for 30 minutes on it so that impressed his son. In soccer/touch football option they played soccer, the older teens barely gave our little bear a second glance when the class started but by the end of the class he had their respect with his skill and perserverance. He has scientific experiments as his other option. He comes home for lunch but took a lunch the other day so he could attend the meeting for the trip to Greece. He was disappointed to discover it was only for the sr. highs. I told him he can start working towards the senior high trip now. If they still head to Greece I'll glady chaperone. There is a dance this weekend but he has no interest in attending. I assured him that he'd merely be holding up the walls and making his harem happy that he was there. He told me this morning he'd rather watch a movie tonight so I won't push it. His harem will be phoning and disappointed at his no show.

La Diva was very worked up the week prior to school and that we both survived that week was nothing short of a miracle. She was very stressed out about not having "friends" in her class. I told that was just an opportunity to make new ones and that she is awesome at that. I was shocked she was so full of drama over it as this is the first year in a long while she has not had to adjust to a new school and a new city. She has the same teacher as last year even!! Girls!!! I know the tweens are here, I have to find a way to cope. Nothing a good bottle of vino can't help. So it turns out her friends from last year that are not in her class still play with her and still ring our phone off the hook. She has met at least 1 new friend too. It hasn't been all that horrible afterall.

Iceman was so ready to get back to school. He is such a social being and was getting bored with all of us. As we walked to school we ran into his red headed buddy from last year and discovered they were in the same class. They both had huge grins and then found out their "lockers" (aka cubbies) were next to each other. After I hung all his things in his "locker" and got him organized I asked if he'd like me to stay to which he replied "What for?" which was a much different response than the sobs of the year before. Suck it up Mom and be assured that you made the right choice to keep him in Kindy another year as he is very ready to be in Grade 1. He is a bit disappointed that a "weird" kid is in his class. This kid threatened to kill him and his siblings while walking their dog this summer. He is a bizarre child but we assured Iceman that he would not in fact kill him and that he would probably spend much time out of the class with the resource teachers. When we walk to school in the morning it amazes me how much charisma this child has as he is bumping fists with popular kids in Kodiak's class that are barely friends with him but they all know the Iceman. The girls from Kodiak's harem are always tickling and chasing him in attempts to get a hug. Kodiak said to me the other day that he doesn't know why the girls are all over Ice. Then I enlightened him that it has nothing to do with Ice and everything to do with him. They need to get his attention somehow, his obliviousness to their goo goo eyes makes me laugh.

Turtle had staggered entry day yesterday. I was so worried at how he and I would make out. The Hero had his wisdom teeth removed that morning so he was unable to come with us. I expected tears, clinging on for dear life and physical removal from the classroom. I'm talking about me not the Turtle. He had been anxious the night before and we read The Kissing Hand, by Audrey Penn. I'll admit that I became rather weepy and nostalgic. I grabbed Kodiak's hand and showed Turtle the kiss I had put there so many years ago. Of course Kodiak hammed it right up rubbing his hand on his face saying "Mommy loves me, Mommy loves me." We saw the kiss on the hands of La Diva and Iceman too. Turtle embraced the tradition and was excited to come home and tell me they had that book at school too. He settled into class the next day with little hesitation. I was very happy that I had decided to go a fair bit early so that he could get some face time with the teacher from the start. He happily said goodbye and I was out the door without a tear. The artwork that he brought home proves that all is well, his traced hand with a heart in it and the words "Turtle came to school on the first day and he felt happy." He has sure come a long way from the barnacle that was stuck to my hind end last year.

The house was so quiet yesterday, the dog was depressed as all her kids were gone and the usual noise of the Hero talking or his crackberry ringing constantly and the typing of the computer was missing. I did a bit of laundry, organized Kodiak's closet and then had to get out as the quiet was too much. The next little while will be filled with long overdue appointments - dentist, chiropractor, hair, etc. After that I will have to figure out what to do to fill my days when all my bunnies are out of the Hutch. The irony..... when they are small you long for days of peace and quiet but once they've left the hutch the quiet is too much to bear and you long for those noisy days again.

Rare Turtle Sighting

Turtle is a happy boy who is always singing, smiling, smirking, dancing, etc but catching those moments on camera are next to impossible. This rare moment was captured by Kodiak who has taken a keen interest in photography lately. He aspires to be a wildlife photographer/next David Beckham at the moment.

It's been too long.

With all the excitement of our move I forgot my password and couldn't get in to work on my blog. Now that I finally took the time to sort that out I can post again. I know, I know, I'm far too young for senility to have such a hold on my brain.

We are all settled in PC and so happy to be a family under the same roof again. The Hero is doing amazing in his new position and we are so proud of him. The kids have adjusted to school and keep me hopping.

Iceman has been so crazy lately with his tales. He claims that there is a teacher at school that "hates" all the kids. I've met them all and can assure you they are lovely people who deserve a medal for all they do for the Kindergarten class. He came home Monday asking me to write letters to every parent, except Whyat's mom, to tell them to get their kids to stop following him and Whyat everywhere. I explained that they probably wanted to play because they play such fun games. Iceman said "We only play boring games and we are not cool. They just want to bug us all the time." Seems we need to talk about being friends with everyone some more. He also thinks he is 2nd in command at The Hero's office and called for an ambulance to be present at their skating outing yesterday. He informed his teachers that his Dad would be there in case anyone got hurt. They get a real kick out of him and say he is a little burst of sunshine in their day.

Turtle lives in the land of the terrible threes and everyone there is named Lucas, including the girls. He goes from loving them all to being upset because they are copying his painting of the potty. LOL. Isaac and him have a love/hate relationship which either warms my heart or has me pulling my hair out. Typcial brothers I suppose.

La Diva is gearing up for the annual birthday extravaganza. She is having her party on the 11th and has decided that she can go all out on the Valentine theme again because it hasn't been done in PC. So far 4 of the 11 girls she invited are coming. She has started piano again and is enjoying it. Curling wraps up for her and Kodiak the end of the month. They have loved it. La Diva plays lead and Kodiak is usually 2nd. They are looking forward to watching the Olympics curling and snowboarding.

Kodiak is getting to that preteen age and has some moments that make me long for that sweet baby boy. I'm sure we will get through them alright. He has really liked curling and has been thrilled to be near the mountains so he can snowboard again.

The Many Faces of Turtle

Cutie pie

Turtle is such a silly little guy. Mr. Personality who is sweet and adorable one minute and then grumpy and sour the next. He wants to be so very independent. I, of course, want to hold onto my last baby for as long as possible. He is always running after his sibs and trying to be as "cool" as they are. In these photos he is mimicking Iceman the cowboy.


Sourpuss

Iceman goes to Kindergarten

Orientation Day for Kindergarten

I can hardly believe it, another bunny is ready to leave the Hutch and go to school. Waaaaaaahhhhh!! They are growing up way too fast. Iceman was very excited to go to ECS Orientation on the 15th. He choose his wardrobe - jeans and a spiderman shirt, put in his request for his lunch menu- PBJ, carrots and dip, cookie, juice box and "nola bar", packed his backpack and was ready to go with his older sibs first thing in the morning. "Is it time to go?" was the mantra until 10:00 am finally rolled around. Turtle was devasted that Iceman was leaving him. Iceman of course was all talk about how he was going to go and see the Principal and let him know that there should be no girls in his class. After the room started to fill he was less sure of me leaving him. Miss U read the Kissing Hand and then had them say their goodbyes. He did very well and can't wait until September when he can go again. Helping Turtle cope with Iceman being away made it easier for me to let him go. Of course a new Batman shirt made it all better for Turtle.

Rainy Days and Mondays

The weekend always goes by so fast. Monday morning has me dragging and the rain makes me want to hide under the covers with a good book. The crew has decided otherwise.

Today is the last day of soccer and the first time it has rained during the season! La Diva was beside herself this morning because she could ride her bike to school. Not the most ideal day but they are having registration of bikes with the police at noon. Kodiak was less enthused because he has only recently mastered the balance of riding a bike. He had to drag along 2 packs for the day so he opted to walk it to school.

Iceman and Turtle are unusually silly today. They are probably still on a high after having Daddy home for 2 whole days. One nice thing about the rain is that it holds up work for Daddy. They began the day jamming on their guitars to the sounds of U2. After a few wars with hot wheels, complete with bumps on the head they are settling into some quiet time with books.

I'm hoping this will be a better way for us to keep up with all of our friends and family.

Bear with me while I figure it all out.