adi at the soccer field with her school buddy james. i love the look on her face here.. a bit shy, a little nervous, but totally loving the attention from her "not so secret" admirer (his mom filled me in!!!!
)
anna, adison and riley; playing in the back yard after a trip to the lake...
georgia.... can you say attituuuuuude!!!! and can't you see it written all over her cute, grumpy little face?!
anna's whirlwind soccer season has come to an end... wow, that was fast! she had a great season.. she loved every minute on the field and she was a fierce and competitive player. she managed to score at least 1 goal in EVERY game and thankfully her sportsmanship improved along the way too..lol! she recently announced that she has decided that she is going to play professional soccer when she grows up, rather than being a superstar (so does this mean that we don't have to pay for guitar lessons anymore?). and she also has olympic dreams too!
congrats of a great season anna. it was made all the better with her cousin riley as a teammate, her nan and dede as the sponsor of her team (go count dracula's) and a great cheer section throughout the season. now, she is counting down the days 'til soccer camp... soccer; every day, all day, for a whole week. she will be in soccer heaven!
like many
people around the world... michael jackson was a big part of my life growing up. his music is the soundtrack to the better part of my youth. anybody that has known me since childhood can attest that i become fanatical and obsessed with music and it's makers. michael jackson was my 2nd obsession... after olivia newton john.
i can remember the exact moment that i "fell" for michael. i was watching motown 25 with david up at norton's. i witnessed history in the making as michael jackson moonwalked across the stage.... it was life changing. after that i bought every michael jackson or jackson 5 song/album/tape/poster/magazine/video/button/sticker that i could get my hands on. and i remember my mom and dad giving me trouble on a regular basis for playing the "thriller" album over and over and over again on the jukebox in my room (yes, i had a juke box and it even had a mirror ball and flashing lights). i knew every word to every song. i watched the making of thriller everyday... sometimes 5 times a day! i was listening to the jackson 5, while other mj fans were only listening to his solo stuff... i was a die hard. i also stopped eating meat, because michael jackson didn't eat meat....like i said: die hard!
i admit that my affection for michael weened as he grew... "different", but my love for his music has not faded. when matt and i were married, my sister presented him with a sequined glove... as i had always said that "one day i would marry michael jackson". and when ben was a baby his favourite tape to listen to in the car was "the jackson 5's greatest hits"... with abc/123 being his favourite song of course! the girls shared his affection for the tape but also loved to listen to the song "ben"... which is one of my all time favourites.
with the recent passing of michael jackson, the kids have been exposed to his many talents... including the dancing and the videos...and they are mesmerized. they are addicted to youtube... anna pearl loves the "bad" video, ben loves "motown 25/moonwalk" and adi likes the "thriller" video.
the other evening, anna was drawing (as she often does) and i came out to find our fridge filled with her creations. it is just amazing how music can transcend time and generations! and how discovering the magic of michael jackson is almost as much fun, the second time around!
well our garden venture is turning out quite fruitful... our kale/lettuce, peppers, peas, tomatoes and pumpkins are coming along beautifully. however, we only have 3 cucumber plants that have sprouted and unfortunately no carrots. this weekend ben cut some lettuce from the garden and washed and prepared it for ceasar salad. the kids were so excited to eat something that they had planted, cared for and grown. you would have thought they were eating a candy bar!
this weekend anna pearl and i managed to finally make it to our local berry patch...and boy, was it busy. anna was excited to pick with her mama and proclaimed that she might like to get a job picking berries. but with the hot morning sun beating down on us as we picked... she admitted that she was ready for retirement by the end of her second box.
when we brought the berries home... adi and i got busy making some jam and ben was quick to steal a berry or two, fresh from the box. we made sure to save a few berries for strawberry shortcake too!
matt has been eager to take the family bowling. so, on wednesday morning when i woke up... he was ready and raring to go. he booked us in a the old bowling alley in the belleville plaza... what a blast from the past. this place has not changed in the last 30 years. at first it seemed a bit dingy and stinky, but after we settled in it seemed rather nostalgic and funky! we loved the old school bowling shoes and the kids especially liked the juke boxes on the walls.
we arrived at about10:30 am and the alley was quite busy. there were lots of seniors there who were part of a bowling league i think. they really enjoyed watching our kids and were quick to offer up suggestions and techniques to improve their game.
we ended up playing two games of 5 pin... with daddy winning both games. adison was such a good and patient sport. she giggled the whole time and used her waiting periods to practice "the moonwalk" in her slippery shoes. (on a sidenote: i have been avidly watching all of the michael jackson coverage on cnn and my kids have really fallen for mj and his music/dancing...ben proclaimed that he "just can't get the song billiejean out of his head" and the kids have become obsessed with the moonwalk)
anna's competitive spirit didn't take long to rear it's head and she was kind of intense and grumpy that she wasn't winning. and ben wouldn't take our advice to slow it down a bit, so he might have made a few new dents in the hardwood lanes....lol!
after bowling, daddy treated the kids to lunch at mc'donalds. then it was off to oak lake for a swim. it wasn't too busy but lucky for us, we ended up meeting up with many friends. so the kids played, swam and went for pedal boat rides with their friends, while matt and i visited with our friends. we stayed for over 4 and a half hours and only left because it was supper time and we ran out of money.
thus, we had a great sunny, laid back, family oriented canada day.
so i have been
not so patiently waiting for strawberry season to arrive. we had a few berries available in foxboro a couple of weeks ago, but due to a rainy and cold spring... it is a late strawberry season this year. hopefully the local fields will be ready to pick this weekend. i drove by a roadside produce stand in belleville yesterday and saw the sign...local berries... so i turned back to grab a pint. i couldn't believe that they cost $4.50 for 1 little box!!
later in the evening i trimmed, and washed the berries and decided to make fresh strawberry shakes. all i can say is YUMMY! those expensive little berries proved to be worth it! we even had strawberry shakes for breakfast this morning. and to go with those shakes.... chocolate chip cookies!
anna pearl and ben are both having a class potluck to celebrate the last day of school and they insisted that daddy make his infamous cookies for them to share. so last night, after we got home from the beach, daddy obliged. he was up til 11:30 making over 60 cookies...just enough for each class and for breakfast this morning. :)
...lucky for my kids... they have the best daddy ever! yes, i picked a good baby daddy..lol! for fathers day, they surprised him with local honey for his tea, chocolate chip cookies from belleville bakery, a foam holder for his pop (compliments of adison) and a few homemade fathers day cards and poems (which i will post once i get them scanned). and lucky for him... he also got a "new do", as in hair-do. the girls fashioned him up and took these pics... kenneth paves..eat your heart out!
later in the afternoon we gathered at my moms house to celebrate fathers day with my sister and her family and the entire macdonald family. we did some fishing.... griffins first time fishing and then we enjoyed a big ol' barbq (thanks again uncle scotty). aunt jess caught her first fish EVER, and anna pearl proved to be the most succesful fisherman of the day.
adi helped grandpa tom open his gifts... we treated him and dede to a promise of a game of golf in the near future... while griffin helped his mommy blow out the candles on her birthday cake (which she made!!!)
after all of that fishing and eating in the hot summer sun, we decided to treat the kids with a trip to oak lake to cool off. aunt jess, ry and (uncle) justin decided to join us too.
i hope all the daddy's, grandpa's, uncles, and dede's had a happy fathers day... they surely deserved it!
what a fun evening. a group of "guy" friends in stirling organize an annual barn party each year that falls in line with fathers day. they refer to themselves as the "barntenders". one of the barntenders owns the barn, which was handed down through his family... while the other guys are friends and neighbours. they meet each wednesday night to
drink beer, plan, strategize, improve and make plans for "the barn". their wives love the fact that the "barntenders" rely solely on themselves to run these events. and they even take care of the cleanup.
they have equipped the barn with all of the party essentials that you can think of ... and them some. there is a movie screen and projector, tv's, ball hockey table, popcorn machine, outhouse, soundsystem, ps3, pop machine, vintage pop cooler, fully stocked bar and fridge.... i could go on and on.
they kicked of the party with tractor/hayrides around the farm property. it was a beautiful evening and the kids loved this. then they showed the movie "up" on the big screen. the kids gathered on hay bails, blankets and even the bare barn floor and enjoyed the movie while sipping free pop and freshly popped pop corn. alot of the older kids were in and out of the barn during the movie... playing hide and go seek in the fields of long grass and hay.
after the movie, the barntenders gathered the kids together and brought out the treasure box.... which was full of novelties for the kids. keaton walked away with a couple of water guns, ben and anna pearl chose a candy necklace and adison scored a whoopie cushion. before we left, the barntenders also set up the ps3 for a game of rockband on the big screen. this was a very cool ending to a very cool night. thanks to dan, trevor, greg and all the rest of the barntenders for a great evening. we can't wait 'til we can do it all again next year!
... have been busy. last friday, ben invited some buddies over for a bonfire and to watch the stanley cup final game. it was alot of fun to watch the game with the boys... alot of cheering was going on for the pens... so there was quite a celebration after the game. and it was nice to have a fire in our new and improved firepit!
on saturday, we celebrated a great season with ben's hockey team. we had a swim party at the blowers (who are the most amazing people) and we had such a great time. the kids loved the pool, the hot tub, the back fields, the ice cream... and the company. i enjoyed every minute with these special people... gosh, i miss our hockey family.
then on sunday we packed up the kids and kenzie and headed to canada's wonderland. it was our first trip with the kids to wonderland and they were really excited... almost more excited than they were for disney!. and i think it is safe to say that they really had fun. matt and i liked the waterpark the best. it was a beautiful day... warm and sunny. my work sponsored the day and provided us with a great buffet lunch (thank you wendy). we spent about 8 hours in the park; the kids hit some roller coasters, the bumper cars, swings, waterslides and adi enjoyed playing ring toss with her daddy. anna pearl tried to talk someone, anyone into going on the behemoth with her... we were all to chicken. but she walked away with a caramel apple, ben chose a huge pinwheel sucker and adi scored a scooby-doo waist pouch. we topped off the evening with a quick stop at the dairy queen drive through in belleville... blizzards for all. a sweet ending to a sweet day.
Recent Comments