scrapbooking retreat...

had a great time at my scrapbook retreat. Ron arrived home from Calgary just in time for me to leave for 3 days. I slept, ate & scrapbooked with 6 other friends. Had a margarita or two.

not mentioning any names but....

somebody had a birthday this week. a big birthday.
the one that comes after 39.
we had to call him and sing happy birthday on the phone.
he got a boat for his birthday. and a trolling motor.
for fishing excursions with the family.
we might let him go alone once in awhile.

tuesday.

Here's what i did today:

• woke up late at 8am. got the kids a quick breakfast. made lunches. got to school on time.
• came home and went for a 28 minute walk. cleaned kitchen and organized fridge.
• packed and messed up scrapbooking stuff again.
• took a quick shower and went to school with wet hair to pick up Tyler. picked up the mail.
• made lunch for Tyler and I. Put sweet n sour chicken in the slow cooker for supper. Called my scrapbook friend to finalize plans.
• decided that not buying any new scrapbook stuff wasn't any fun. went to urban scrapbook to shop for some stuff for an hour. Tyler played in play room while i shopped.
• picked up Hunter from school. came home. called mom & dad. put tyler in the bathtub. looked at my scrapbook stuff. looked at hunter's homework.
• wished i cleaned the bathrooms and vacuumed today.
• talked to Theresa on phone. couldn't take little girl for her tomorrow because i am helping with tyler's field trip. boohoo.
• cooked rice to go with chicken for supper. made Tyler grilled cheese. ate supper. cleaned kitchen.
• read with tyler. watched gilmore girls with hunter. tucked in both children.
• talked to Nicole on the phone. typed hunter's french essay on computer for tomorrow.
• bed at 10:18 pm. read 'bitter chocolate' for new book club for awhile.

a beautiful mess....

.... it all started as a very simple task- to pack for a 3 day scrapbooking retreat. I don't know how I get myself into these things, but a mess is all I have accomplished so far. Why do I feel the need to sort & organize before I pack? I feel so out of touch with my photos.... I haven't made the time to scrapbook lately. I also gave myself a challenge-NOT to buy anything new for this trip. I have boxes of paper as it is....I don't need to add to it. The designated project for this retreat... birthday books for both children. Simply put....layouts for each birthday party...projects I have been meaning to get to for a long time.

my little reader.....

Amazing to me how two children from the same household can be completely different learners. For Hunter, reading came very easily. The year after she completed primary, she just literally opened up a book and started reading. The words just flowed for her and she could read with such expression, in both English & French. Even now, she continues to be a very strong reader. We have not reached the end of Grade 5, yet she has completed the "leveled" reading at school to the end of Grade 6. She is reading at level 30+ which is considered the reading level outcome for students by the end of Grade 6. There is only one other person in her class who has attained this level. Tyler, on the other hand, learns differently than she does. Reading takes more effort and concentration for him at age 6. He seemed to be stalled in his reading a little bit, so I got very active at home with purchasing magnetic words for the fridge, magnetic letters, word family books, puzzles featuring consonant blends, etc. Unknown to me, he had a reading conference today with the early literacy specialist at school, as she sees all the kindergarten kids once a month. She wrote in his reading log that he is making "excellent progress" and she moved him to level 9 & 10 books. I am so pleased for him. He is working so hard on his sight words and his reading every day. They are many things I can live without as talents in my children-i don't care if they don't have strong athletic abilities, or great creative visions, but I do want them to be strong readers and life long readers. Reading is such an important pathway for learning in school. Here is Tyler reading to his kindergarten class at school, and doing a great job at it!

il divo...

I have been a really bad blogger lately.
Last week I went to this spectacular performance. No words to describe how beautiful it was.

funny bunny.....

My mom made this cute cake quite often when I was growing up as an Easter treat, so the first thing I asked her when I learned that she & Dad were coming for Easter is if she could make the bunny cake with the kids. We use our traditional white butter birthday cake recipe for two 9" circles which we then cut into the parts to make the bunny. The kids call it the "funny bunny" cake and we have had more fun looking at it. We had a great Easter weekend with Mom & Dad. We had lots of fun eating, shopping, and playing games. We had a ham dinner on Easter sunday and watched some fun movies. This is the first time that Mom & Dad have visited where we didn't have hockey or skating to attend, so it was a nice change.