CJ's surprise party

This is gonna be short cause I am really tired and we are going for naps soon.

Yesterday was CJ's surprise birthday party. I think it turned out great. I made the mistake of telling Mackenzie about it on Friday so all morning yesterday she kept calling me over and whispering stuff to me in front of CJ. At one point she actually let something slip about people coming over... when I gave her the "shhh" signal, she looked at CJ and said "Just kidding, no one is coming over and we're not having a surprise party". Luckily CJ was in one of his "in one ear out the other ear" modes and i don't think he even heard what she said.

I told CJ I was going to get my toenails painted to give me an excuse to get out of the house and pick up the party trays and balloons. I realized though that I couldn't really use that excuse cause my toenails look terrible. Luckily I had nothing to worry about. I came home and CJ said "hey, your toes look great". I was already ready with my second excuse so I said "I didn't get them done, I got my brows done" To which he responded "they look awesome". ha ha ha ha

Brian (my co-conspirator) took CJ to the music store so CJ could help him buy an amp. It was perfect. CJ came home all guilty-looking cause he ended up buying himself a new guitar... (a travel Taylor one) ha ha ha. He didn't even notice that anything was up until he walked in the kitchen and everyone was there.

It was a fun afternoon and evening... CJ's brother Craig and his girlfriend came, as did CJ's mum, my mum, Andrea and Chris and of course our default friends - the Woocks .

I love teh fact that CJ was completely surprised and had a great time :)

Happy early Birthday Honey! I love you very much.

xoxoxoxox











CJ teaching the kids how to play Guitar Hero II.

Urban photos

I am always intrigued by people with talent. I love the fact that some people are just gifted with the ability to do something that most people can’t. Like the child piano prodigy – it’s a gift that they are born with. While some people can spend their whole lives practicing to achieve a certain level of competency, others are just born with a natural ability to excel.

I think that my friend Nikki is a natural photographer. She has an eye for it. I love taking pictures but I am not a photographer. I capture moments in time so I can remember them. Nikki on the other hand is an artist. I know this sounds so cheesy. But it’s true.

This weekend she came to visit. We went to Queen St. in Toronto. It is a regular downtown street – maybe slightly on the seedy side. Nikki wanted to do an “urban photo shoot”. As we walked down the street Nikki would point to the most ugly, unattractive locations and say “over there. That’ll be a good shot”. I was like “what? Are you serious? There are cigarette butts all over, it smells bad and the wall is covered in graffiti”. This was the end product. I love the way she captured kenzie’s attitude and innocence at the same time. I love the way the pictures show kenzie’s eyes. I love everything about them. Nikki – you rock!

whirlwind weekend

Wow. What a weekend. It was so, so fun. But I am exhausted and sore now. I need about 24 hours of sleep and a couple percocet and I’ll be good as new. So lets start at the beginning. Friday morning. I was getting ready to go to the office – I was all excited about picking up Nikki and her baby, Ozzy, at the airport at 4:00. Nikki pops up on IM and she’s having a panic attack. She’s nervous about flying. So she joking says that Clint (her husband) should just drive them up (from just outside of Philadelphia – about a 8 hour drive). “Sure!” I say. “do it!!!”. The only thing is – they have 3 other kiddos (besides the baby) all under the age of 5. “I’m up for having you guys if you are up for the drive”, I say. “Hang on”, says Nikki. Ten minutes later she’s back on…. “okay we’re coming!!!!”… and that’s how it started. So a about 8:00 Friday evening the Nikki family arrived.

It was a whirlwind weekend, but oh so fun. And we did so much. On Saturday after breakfast we went to the playground.

Breakfast at our house.


The playground.


Then we headed down to Queen Street for an “urban” photo shoot, then came home and the kids had some down time.

Urban artsy shot - I'm sure Nikki's are much better :)






Nikki getting her picture taken with the Travelocity gnome.


Quiet playtime.


Spiderman popsicles for the boys.


In the afternoon Omi came by to visit. Then we all went to Lake Wilcox and met up with a couple of my “new friends” Bev and Vikki (I met them through Sue) and Nikki took pictures of their kids.

This is Erin – isn’t she darling?


Bev, Oz, and Sophia.


Then we all went out to our favorite wing restaurant for dinner.

Wild Wings


Kenzie trying to win a stuffed animal for Hads.


Bedtime!!!!


Yesterday we went to Toronto Island. I think the kiddos really enjoyed the ferry ride and they loved the rides at Centreville - the train, the ferris wheel, the merry-go-round, pony rides etc. I just need to say THANK GOD that they had wagons available to rent there.

Waiting to get on the ferry


On the ferry.


On the Island


The merry go round (Kenzie and Hads could have stayed on this thing for hours)


The train (Seb could have ridden this all day long)


Ice cream for all (I thought we did well…. 5 kids + 2 dropped ice creams = 7 ice creams)


I’m in heaven… I couldn’t stop smelling his head and kissing his cheeks. SO CUTE!


After we came home some kids napped (Lennon and Kenzie) and the others played quite nicely together. I was quite surprised at how Corb, Hadley and Seb got along and were so happy playing trains. Nikki, Clint, CJ and I actually got to sit down and relax for a bit.


At about 4:30 my friend Kat and her two little boys came over. We blackmailed the kids to sit together by throwing hershey’s kisses at them.


The two professionals


More popsicles


I think Sebastian needs to go on a diet.


After Kat left we got all the rest of the kids ready for bed, the kids jumped on the bed for a while, we had an “attack karen” game, then we read stories and then all passed out! And then it was Monday again  I am sad. I miss those guys already. I especially miss smushy Ozzy. I love him so much…. And Kenzie was quite smitten with him too. She wanted to hold him all the time.

I am now looking forward to us heading down to the Beck Farm for a weekend.

I need to give a big shout out to my fabulous husband CJ who took everything in stride this weekend. He was totally laid back about these people coming to our house, the kids running wild and getting no sleep. I love you honey - THANK YOU!

fun weekend

we had a really great weekend! The kids have been extremely well behaved lately. (I probably just jinxed myself by saying that). CJ took the kiddos to a birthday party on Saturday while I spent the day at a scrapbooking crop with Jacque and Vikki. Iwas able to do a bunch of pages. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to hang out with the ladies and chat without being interupted by kids.

Yesterday we had a pretty lazy day. We went grocery shopping, took naps, hung out and took it easy. At 6:00 I called Sue to see what they were up to. She was just making dinner. I asked if they wanted to join us for dinner instead so 15 minutes later Brian, Sue, Jenna, Rachel and Shannon came over. we had a really fun evening and went to bed way too late. I'm ready for next weekend now.

Here's a cute picture of kenzie on "Crazy hair Day"... well when I thought it was crazy hair day, but it really wasn't.

stressed and bitchy

Do you ever feel just really restless and antsy? That’s how I have been lately. I’ve been having a really hard time concentrating on work and when I am home I feel really “scattered”. It’s almost like I am waiting for something to happen. It’s killing me to sit in my chair at work and try to get stuff done. I feel like I am missing out of something. I think it’s socializing. I think I am going through “girlfriend happy hour withdrawal”. Seriously. What I need is a good 2 or 3 hours out with my girlfriends (you know who you are – Karen, Hadley, Dawn, Sam, Rachel, Bila, Deb) to shoot the shit, gossip, gab, bitch about work and taking care of kids etc. I think that would put everything in my life back into balance.

So, ladies – anyone want to come to Toronto and visit me?

Oh yeah –and our house is a pig sty. I’m sure that is adding to my anxiety. I just can’t bring myself to clean it. Our dining room table is covered in clean laundry that I don’t feel like putting away. The floor needs to be swept and swiftered. But what is the point when the kids will dirty it up again within seconds.

I am tired of my kids being so emotional. Seriously. I never know what is going to set them off. And if I hear any more whining I think I am going to explode. I swear – there is something about the tone or pitch of the whining sound that triggers some sort of brain chemical related to anxiety. My heart rate is increasing just as I think about it.

Okay so enough bitching. I am going to focus on some good things.

Tomorrow is Friday and I will have the afternoon off. I will go to curves or play squash with Andrea to work off some of this restlessness. On Saturday I am going to an all day crop with Vikki and Jacquie. That should be fun since I haven’t done any scrapbooking in about 3 months – since the NC ladies came to visit. I am going to put some pages together for spring, summer, camping and other various random events of teh last few months.

My mum is coming back next Tuesday. I actually missed her a lot. She’s been gone for almost a month and I will be glad when she’s back.

And next Friday my friend Nikki is coming for a visit – YAY! We are going to do an “urban photography” shoot with the kids on Queen St. West. I think that will be a lot of fun!

TTC and camping

And now, for a change, some various random thoughts. Let me start with the work-related ones…. It looks like I am changing jobs again. No I am not leaving my current company. But I am moving out of headquarters and to the TTC. My company has a multi-year program management contract with them and I am joining that group as a project manager. Basically I will act like a client and hire and manage consultants to do the work on various capital projects. It will be very interesting to sit at the other side of the table. I am excited about the move but also a bit trepidatious (is that a word?) about another change. I was just settling in to my current job and enjoying the new friends I had made and finally feeling relaxed and happy at my job. Oh well, we’ll see what happens.

Now onto camping. I would say that it was a success but not 100% perfect (see below - some crankiness and illnesses). It was fun enough that I can’t wait to go again though. And that $99 tent from Costco – it rocked!

There were 7 families and a total of 18 kids. Here are only SOME of them.




The pros
• The park and campsite were gorgeous.


• The people we were there with were so much fun and we had a great time and lots of laughs.


• The kids were fairly good on the way there in the car.
• They DID take naps (in the tent and on the beach)




• All the kids got along so well. I loved how the older ones took care of the younger ones.




• We were close to the “facilities” but they were clean and didn’t smell bad.
• Kenzie and her friend Sophie became the best of friends and were inseparable and so happy together.




• The weather was wonderful.
• We were 5 minutes from the most beautiful sand beach. The water was warm and the kids were in heaven.




• The mosquitoes seemed to stay away from the kids.
• CJ and Brian played guitar at the campfire while the kids roasted marshmallows. How perfect is that.


The cons
• Seb was a bit out of his element and was very cranky Thursday night
• Seb had problems falling asleep in the tent
• I got sick on Saturday and we had to leave a day early
• Our kids don’t like bugs


We didn’t sign up for the next trip scheduled for August although now I am wishing we had. Hey, maybe we can tag along anyhow. (or take someone’s spot if there is a cancellation) It was a good trip. I already miss it.