Soccer Star

Mack started soccer this past weekend. He's on the Candy Canes team. He has one friend in his daycare class on his team, which made him feel more at ease while being there. He even scored the first goal this season for his team! All this from a kid who came to me Saturday morning and said to me, "Mommy,  I think I want to stay in your bed and watch TV all morning. I'm too tired to play soccer today." He sure had a great time on the field. Glad we didn't stay in bed and watch TV. Here's to a lot more goals this summer!

07.17.10 :: 25 months old

Mack is 25 months old today.

This morning Sean had soccer. He’s having a lot of fun. I wasn’t sure how today would go as it’s his first time playing in underwear, instead of in a pull-up (or diaper). The entire hour went fine, even with him drinking plenty of water to keep himself hydrated. Glad it didn’t rain all morning. It actually has been a storm for the most part of the afternoon and early evening. (Hard pouring rain).

We did manage to pick a really huge tomato before it started to rain.

And get homemade kebab’s on the grill.

These kebab’s were a really great idea. I’ve been eyeing them in the grocery store for a while now. For the first part, we had NO barbecue. And then once we actually got the barbecue hooked up, I’d see them again in the grocery store and say to myself that it’s just too expensive to buy pre-made. We finally found the time today to make them from scratch. Much better to feed a family of 4 this way. Saves a lot of money. We made about 12 kebabs with the amount of meat that we got that would have bought us maybe 4 kebab’s in the store. A little yellow & red peppers, and some onion… and we’re set. Oh, and don’t forget the Montréal Steak Spice. That’s the best ingredient. (We used Montréal steak spice on most of our red meat – it’s just THAT good). Dinner was delicious. We had a Caesar salad (which is my current pregnancy craving and a darn good idea that we planted Romaine lettuce in the garden) and everything was just so tasty. Yum!

Tonight I took a self night, as Jamie had hockey. I’ve been trying to catch up and go through the episodes of Oprah that I have on my PVR. Some I’m watching in full, and some I’m skipping through and some I’m not even watching at all (if the subject doesn’t interest me). I had gone from 65 episodes to catch up on, to 43 episodes. Now I’m down to 33. I figure eventually I have to catch up – as her show is ending. I never used to watch Oprah before. I got into watching her show while I was on maternity leave with Sean. Then kept watching it on my maternity leave with Mackenzie. After I went back to work last June, the episodes just kept piling up on my PVR. I’d watch an episode here or there when I had the time, but there’s 5 every week! I’m working, I’m running my household, doing laundry, doing dishes, keeping the boys entertained, knitting, reading, baking, cooking, gardening… when is there time for Oprah? Oh well. I’m trying to catch up as best I can while it’s not tv season (September to May). I’m a TV junkie sometimes. But I can say the same thing about anything I do. I’m a knitting junkie. I’m a book junkie. I’m a gardening junkie… the list can go on forever. Just like the laundry never ends. LOL.

I like Oprah. I like the people she has on (for the most part). I like the topics she discusses. Very interesting stuff. I also always find that I learn new things off Oprah. Tips, advice, you name it. A couple of good books I’ve read were Oprah suggestions. I think I’m going to miss Oprah once her show is off the air after 25 years. But I don’t blame her for wanting to go out with a bang. A very classy way to have an ending.

I’ve been knitting tonight too. I started a 2nd Girl Cap Sleeved Spring Shirt, this time for Zoe. Also in Cascade 220 Superwash, but in another colorway (Strawberry Pink this time). I’ll photograph it’s progress tomorrow. I tried on Bekah’s shirt on Sean today (just for size for length). I have a bit more length to do – maybe an inch to two inches, and then I can bind off. Really, again, I’ll say it – what a great knit. I’m really enjoying this one.

Today’s de-clutter progress is here. Today’s de-clutter was mainly focused in the kitchen. I managed to clean off the counters, as less is best. It’s looking a lot cleaner in the kitchen – which I’m happy about. I still have a bit more work to do – but it’s coming along in there (on the counters). I’m sure I can find more stuff to chuck/donate.

Alright, off to go read more in the book I’m currently reading. I’m getting a lot of ideas on how to live below your means, as I want to start saving more money. It’s really making me think about the way I shop. It’s also really making me think about what I already have, and how I can use the tools I already have. And also – for the stuff I already have – how to utilize it, cost efficiently. Everything in the end is absolutely related. I’m learning a lot – for the better.

07.03.10

  
Today Sean had soccer again.
This is Sean (#5) and his best friend on the team (#8)
I love this shot I got of them.

The morning starts off as drills.

Sean worked on his skills.

    
Sean scored many goals today.


I lost count after 5 goals. The probably was more.
The kid is a super athlete.
 
I got a bit of knitting done this morning on the sidelines.

Today was Sean’s popsicle duty day, so we supplied the team with popsicles.
Here’s our weekly popsicle shot.

Since my friend M is already 37 weeks pregnant (and a few days) and is hoping her baby is born any day now, we decided to take a belly to belly shot, before her belly is no more.
37 and a half weeks vs. 14 and a half weeks.
(Before I know it – I’ll be halfway through my pregnancy)


  This afternoon after lunch we headed to a local fair.
Sean refused to go on any of the rides.  
One ride he saw scared him and he refused to go on even the train ride.
Maybe next year.

So we played some games instead, and he won a monkey in a banana. 
He was happy!

My fave game is ski ball.
I played it for almost an hour with Sean last night on the Wii!
Too bad I wasn’t as good in real life.

The rest of the afternoon (or rather almost all the afternoon) we spend in my parents pool.
(One of the many reasons why I moved 3 streets away!)
Mack tried out a new float device that worked out well for him.
He has a new obsession today with licking the water.
I don’t recall Sean ever doing this at that age.
Silly boy.


   And Sean’s new obsession is with the goggles and snorkel.
He’s too cute.
And a huge fish in the water.

Papa (my dad) even made some cotton candy. Yum!

The landscapers came today and finished the front garden.
We got in solar lights, a few more plants and some rocks. Looks wonderful!

Part of tonight’s dinner came straight from the garden. It was sooo good.

Here is the current progress on Zoe’s February Baby Sweater. I am loving it. I think I have enough leftover yarn in the Dream in Color Classy that I made my February Lady Sweater in, to make Zoe a matching one. I love this pattern so much, that I think I will make a 2nd one. Seems like most people who used this yarn made it in 1 skeins or just over one skein of DIC Classy, and I have one full skein plus maybe 40% of another skein, as I only used just over 3 and a half for my Feb Lady Sweater. Perfect. Matching sweaters. I like.

I forgot to write that I started Pre-natal Aqua yesterday at my local pool. I loved it. I feel so good in the water. I heard a rumour yesterday that they’re closing down the pool for the fall session to do renovations. This disappoints me majorly because I would have wanted to keep doing pre-natal aqua until the end of the year when I give birth and not just for the summer session. Maybe I can find a class elsewhere. Also – I wonder what will happen with Sean & Mack’s swim lessons. Will those get cancelled for the fall session as well or are they only renovating the large pool and not the baby pool? Maybe there is some free time they can do the pre-natal aqua in the baby pool in the back (by baby I mean smaller pool – not a tiny pool that a baby can stand in). I could have sworn that the “baby” pool in the back was built recently (last couple of years) so I don’t know why they’d need to renovate it.

For those of you whom collect Huggies & Pampers points, here are some free codes:

HUGGIES:
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BFRJWLQPSGZJPGB for 5 points

PAMPERS:
ENJOYYOURSUMMER
4THFACEBOOK2010
FACEBOOKJUL2010
15GTGSUMMERFUN
GTGLEARNMORE089
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Enjoy!

06.26.10

This morning Sean had soccer.

We all went to watch, including my sister today as well.

Sean’s coach wasn’t there today, and didn’t leave the soccer balls with anyone. We had to borrow a soccer ball from a few different teams in order to hold a practice and game today.

Today was also picture day. Sean will get some “player cards” with his photo on it, to trade (give to his family) and a plaque with his picture on it as well as the team shot. My sister happened to be there and snuck a few photos behind the photographer.

I honestly think the photographer did a lousy job. First of all, he could have centered the team in front of the net. Now it looks like there is a poll sticking out a one of the kid’s heads (that happens to be my ex-boyfriend’s son – yeah, my ex-boyfriend’s son is on my team – I have the absolute joy of seeing my ex every Saturday morning. 8 or 10 teams for 4 year olds and I get my ex’s son on Sean’s team). I also don’t think he did a great job at getting all the kids to look at him for the photo. The package I am getting only costs 20$, so it’s not the end of the world, and if need be, I have the photos my sister took (I left my camera by the stands).

Mack was having fun in the sidelines tossing around a beach ball.

Sean & Zach’s weekly popsicle shot.

After soccer we met up with Zachary & his sister (and his parents) at a local McDonalds. We let the kids run around for about an hour then gave them lunch. Sean & Zach are tied at the hips, they are so cute together.

After Mack’s nap this afternoon we did some painting.

The kids had fun. They ended up mixing all the colors together and making a brownish blob on their canvas. Sean asked me to pick up more canvases, that he had a good time and wanted to do more. Mack enjoys art too. I love it.

For dinner we wanted pasta, but there wasn’t any sauce in the house. I need to make another large batch of my meat sauce to freeze. We didn’t even have any emergency jarred sauce to use. I was going to make a cream sauce (with a cream of broccoli soup base) but then couldn’t find on the internet an easy recipe on how to do that (any one have any ideas?). So instead, I called my step-mother-in-law and luckily had all the ingredients to make a creamy tomato sauce from scratch. Whipped some up, and 30 minutes later, dinner was served – and was delicious – in my opinion.

Tonight I watched the movie Remember Me with Amy. Jamie had hockey tonight. I would never have thought in a million years that it would have ended the way it did. Amy had already seen this movie, and now I know why she wanted to watch it again, the main character plays Edward in the Twilight movies! I worked on Zoe’s February Baby Sweater while we watched the movie.

Here’s a free 5 points for Pampers Points Collecters (.com & .ca): GTGSUMMERFUN5PT

ps- Just a reminder that I'm throwing a contest for this entire month! Details are here.

06.19.10

This morning Sean had soccer, so Jamie took him while I spent about 2 hours weeding the patio in the backyard. My sister came to help for a bit, but I managed to get about 90% of it done before she arrived.

Sean scored 2 goals today and had a nasty head on collision with another kid on the other team half-way through the game playing time. Poor guys, keeps getting injured. He’s a tough cookie though.

Late morning we had Mackenzie’s 2nd Birthday Party!
I did the sun dance all week as they’d been calling for rain.
I think I did the dance a little too much, it was piping hot all day.

Before Mack’s 2nd birthday party started, we set up the backyard.
We rented an inflatable castle.

Mack was the first one to try out the inflatable castle.
And the last one to exit it when the guy came to take it down.

Mack had a field day in it!

As did Sean!

There was also some quieter moments in the inflatable as well.
I love this photo. So sweet.

We had to pry Mack out of the castle for the birthday cake.
Oh yes, the birthday cake. You all want to see photos.

Here is the beast!


Cutting into it was a really nice surprise.
I wasn’t sure what to expect.
It was beyond awesome.


The cake was probably the talk of the party, and after the party as well.
The details are this:

Saw the cake idea here, a long time ago (back in the beginning of April, when I originally linked a picture of a similar cake). Then, just used plain vanilla cake mixes (to save time) and used regular food coloring and Betty Crocker French Vanilla icing.
I baked each layer in a cookie sheet (instead of round) so it was just the height and width of that. (So it could feed a party full of people)..! Baked the cake layers in advance, froze them, it’s so much easier to ice a cake from frozen and voila. A very interesting cake that I’ll probably never bake again!

I even got to enjoy the inflatable castle once all the guests had left. I didn’t want to go in there with all the kids when the party was going on, just in case something were to happen, I wouldn’t want to risk anything in the pregnancy. But after everyone left I hung out in there with Mack, Sean and my sister-in-law’s boyfriend’s son and we tossed around some inflatable balls for a bit.

Today was a very exhausting day. There was a lot to do, the heat was blazing, but in the end the party was extremely successful. We had a great time, Mack had a lot of fun, got some great gifts from his friends and got to hang out with people we don’t get to hang out with that often. It was nice.

ps- Just a reminder that I'm throwing a contest for this entire month! Details are here.

06.12.10

Practice!

Game time!
Sean scored the first goal for his team today!

Soccer action!

Mackie watching with Daddy.

Sean taking a break during the game when his turn wasn’t up during the scrimmage.

Enjoying a popsicle after the game.

After Soccer I ran home to get my knitting and
then met up with my girls for Knit-in-Public Day.
Tradition has it that the last 3 years we ended up at a local mall due to rain threat.
Did it rain? Nope. But that’s okay.

We were a lovely gang, and I had a good time.

One of my friends that was with us today teaches 10 & 11 year olds to knit.
4 of them joined us today at KIP.

It was a lovely afternoon.
Did you celebrate KIP?
If so, how?

Some updates on the garden. Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes
& the lettuce/tomato/pepper patch.

Spinach, Snowpeas & Kohl Rabi growing!

This evening Jamie took me out for my birthday to dinner. We went to our fave joint Cucina. We go there for birthdays, anniversaries, Valentine’s Day, you know, date night without the kids. We eat the same thing every time we go there too. Mmm, delicious! Homemade pasta. Pink to boot. (Tomato based pasta – hence why it’s pink). Loaded with cheese. Yum! I can still taste it.

ps- Just a reminder that I'm throwing a contest for this entire month! Details are here.