Kenzie's first soccer game

Our Boo is a friggin star. She was great today. When the game started she was the first person in goal. She was so brave and she looked so cute too. She didn't let in any goals when she was in net.... (she obviously takes after her granddad who was goalie for Imperial College - University of London... hope I got that right).



Here she is making a great stop...


Action shots







Oh yeah, and she's the only girl on her team. GO KENZ!!!


our Boo

Coach CJ - my hero!

Coach CJ was absolutely amazing tonight. He was patient and energetic, caring and kind, organized and enthusiastic. I am simply in awe. I am 100% certain that I would not have made it through the 90 minutes as coach tonight. Trying to wrangle 11 three year olds who all seemed to have selective hearing and ADD (including our own son), would have brought me to tears.

CJ... I am amazed by you. You are an incredible coach. Those kids are so lucky to have you. I hope the other parents appreciate you as much as I do... well that's probably not possible.. but you know what I mean.







and here is our little star. I have to be honest... I think he could be a really good player. He can kick the ball hard and straight and he's not afraid of it... but he has to stop being such a schmuck and throwing a fit anytime someone else has the ball... we have some work to do with him. Having said that he still made me proud and he was cute as anything.









and for your viewing pleasure... here's a little video of my hero in action...

First Book Club Meeting

Yesterday we had our first ever book club meeting. When CJ and I were in the Dominican I read a book called “Angry Housewives eating Bon Bons”. It gave me the idea to start a book club. So Helen, Bev, Sue and Vikki all agreed to give it a go. For our first book we chose “Angry Housewives eating Bon Bons”. I wanted everyone else to get excited about how fun and long-lasting this could be. The first meeting was hosted by me last night (CJ was our playing poker with the AGM guys and the kids were at my moms).

At 6:00 Bev, Sue and Vikki came over (Helen is in England). We started the evening with a bunch of chit chat and eating lots of yummy snacks. Here we are drinking our first cosmo’s.




Turns out that Bev and Sue only read half the book and Vikki hadn’t even started it. Lol. But we still had a blast. We drank, ate, and talked all night. To be honest it wasn’t a very structured book club meeting but we did talk about the book once in a while. But most of the time we talked about kids, relationships, careers, family etc. It was so much fun. 3 or 4 cosmos and 5 or 6 hours later the ladies said goodnight and headed home. Good thing Sue and Bev live close enough to walk  The next meeting will be at Bev’s house in June. She has decided that all her book choices will be “banned” books. So I am anxiously awaiting her book selection.

Earlier yesterday CJ ran a local race. He is has been doing amazing with his healthy eating, and running. He signed up for the waterfront half marathon in the fall so he is in serious training mode now. The kids and I went to watch. It was a beautiful day. The kids were so excited to see CJ come running around the corner and to the finish line. Way to Go CJ. I’m proud of you!

Before the race.


the final stretch.


crossing the finish line


On the way home we stopped by Angela’s house to say hello. I love her backyard… (and Noah ate and apple and lost his first top tooth).



Kenzie and Celeste.


Noah


Today we are headed over to Omi's house to have a birthday barbeque for Andrea. It should be a beautiful day.

soccer season

Both kid are playing soccer this summer. CJ is coaching Seb's team (the under 4's) ha ha ha. I can't wait to see those little ones. So CJ picked up the team's uniforms this week and Seb tried his on this morning. Then Mackenzie wanted her uniform but we don't have it yet so she tried on Seb's. I think they are both gonna be soccer stars!

Seb - poor kid needs smaller shin pads


Kenz (notice the pink laces)

last weekend

So… further to the school council topic… last weekend I volunteered to meet a contractor on the school property to tell him where we wanted some heavy boulders located for our peace garden. He called at 6:45 and I jumped out of bed and threw on some clothes. I dragged CJ and the kids with me. It was pretty neat to see this little machine do all this work. I think Seb was pretty excited.






When the contractor was done we headed back home. I looked at my phone and realized that my sister had called 3 times while were outside – between 7:00 and 8:00 am. If you knew my sister you’d know how disconcerting this is. I tried to call her at home – no answer. I called her cell – no answer. Just before I was about to get in my car and drive to her house I got a call from her. She was in the hospital and in labour. WOOT!

In any case, that baby was stubborn and didn’t want to come out, so at about 4:00 on Saturday May 10th, baby Jordana Rachel Freund Hersh was born weighing 6 lbs 13 oz. She is eth cutest baby and I love her so much already!

Isn’t she gorgeous! Look at her highlights!!!

school council

It’s amazing how I get myself into things. I think it’s probably due to my incredible need to be accepted and appreciated - I have a hard time saying no when people ask me to help with anything. School council is a prime example. I joined the council last September because I thought it would be a good way for me to get involved in Kenzie’s school and show her that I was interested, and also so that I’d get to know her teachers.

Well in the past 8 months I have:
1. Chaired the Health Safety and Environment Committee
2. Brought Kyle Dine (a musician who does shows for the kids that teach them about anaphylaxis) to the school
3. Started the Healthy School Program at our school and continue to sit on the Committee
4. Been involved in our school yard renaturalization program
- Wrote the funding proposal for the school board
- Wrote an article that will be published by the “Oak Ridges Friends of the environment”
- Responsible for managing finances
5. Managed the Eco-Product fundraiser (made a presentation to the school body at an assembly), took orders, received and distributed orders (raised $1300)
6. Solicited businesses and banks (raised $1000 – with 3 more who have committed funds but I’m still waiting to find out how much)
7. Organized and started the second fundraiser of the Klean Kanteens
8. Chaired the Principal Profile Committee
9. Sat on the Constitution Committee
10. Will be sitting on the Funding Proposal Committee
11. Shadowed the Treasurer so that I can take that over next year
12. Purchased and delivered materials for Environmental Club students to start seedlings
13. Committed to (wo)man table at Oak Ridges Fair in June to sell seedlings to raise money for the school yard renaturalization
14. Attended numerous counting sessions for the hot lunch program and deposited funds at bank.

And to be honest, I’m not the hardest working member of council – far from it. There are parents on the council who probably spend 30+ hours a week – VOLUNTEER! And this is consistent… week after week. Some parents come into the school every morning at 7:00 am to make sure that the kids in the breakfast program get a good meal to start their day. Many parents put in much of their personal time and money. It’s CRAZY! So it’s not like I could reduce my involvement. Some council members go to 2 or 3 meetings a week.

So, I am now on the fence. Do I want to continue this level of involvement next year or do I want to quit now before I get in way too over my head. Here’s the thing…. There are a lot of things that I LIKE:
- I actually really like doing the work.
- I like being involved.
- I like that the teachers and principal and VP know me.
- I like knowing what’s going on in the school and how the school deals with things like bullying, health issues etc.
- I like knowing where the school’s priorities are regarding education.
- I like being involved in deciding where the council money is spent etc.
- I like the friendships I have made with other parents
- I appreciate the insight I have gained from the fellow council members
- I like knowing that Kenzie is proud of me
- I like knowing that I am partially responsible for making good things happen at her school (like the butterfly garden and outdoor classroom)
-
These are the things that are hard:
- Politics: what’s more important to a parent than his or her child? Probably nothing. So you can imagine how heated some of the council discussions get. It’s practically impossible not to take things personally, or get emotional sometimes.
- Although many teachers and administration are wonderful and make an effort to work with the school council, there is also a large contingent that seems to resent the council – I’ve heard that some teachers and administrators have said some pretty disparaging remarks about the council members. It is very hard when you put in a ton of time and effort and that not only are your efforts not appreciated, but they are actually resented.
- Although I do a lot of my council work at the office, I spend at least one evening a week at some sort of a council meeting. That means one evening away from my family. I know that Kenzie loves when I am at the school and she sees me there, but I don’t know if that outweighs the time that I leave her in the evening and don’t dome back until she’s in bed.

In September Sebastian will be starting Junior Kindergarten at the school. I would like to make him proud of me too. As the kids get older they will become busier and have more extra curricular activities etc. Will this allow me to be involved in school things in the evening, or will this just make it harder to get away? I don’t know.

For now, I will focus on getting through the next few weeks and completing all my commitments. I have a feeling I’ll be back at the council next September. But I have the summer to think about it.

First Dance Recital

Kenzie was in her first dance recital yesterday. She was fantastic. At home, before the show, she was all excited. After her bath I did her hair in tight braids which I pinned up into a bun and fastened with a ton of elastics and bobby pins and then hair sprayed until her hair was hard as rock. She was ecstatic to try on her costume and show us a few of her dance moves. And she was over the moon he was so excited to get real make-up put on her.






When we got to the theatre (which was an actual theatre with designated seats, theatre seating style - for probably about 500) though she became pretty quiet - Poor thing. She looked really nervous. I took her into the “dressing room” to help her get dressed.






Then I asked her if she wanted me to stay or leave (there were other kids and teachers there) and she could barely get out “whatever you want, I don’t mind”. I decided to go. I didn’t want to make her even more nervous but hovering around.

So we sat down. CJ, Sebastian (who earlier in the day had had several meltdowns because HE wanted to be on stage, and HE wanted to have a costume to wear and HE wanted make-up… ha!), Omi and I. We had front row seats (they were lottery style so we totally lucked out). Kenzie’s class was the third act. I was glad they were towards the beginning since I knew they’d be nervous waiting. They did so great. Kenzie had the most serious expression on her face the whole time. She just watched her teacher and did everything she did. And then their performance was over! We all clapped so hard!

After the performance Omi and I went to get Kenzie from the dressing room. Omi gave her a bouquet of flowers and I gave her a little bear. She looked so happy and so proud of herself. She must have been on cloud nine. Here we are in the dressing room after the performance (I like being pictured beside the Boo cause she makes me look really tanned - ha!!!).




On the way out we passed Rachel Wood who had another rose to give to Kenzie. I thought that was so sweet.

So it was a very successful first recital. I hope she still wants to dance again next year.