Mr. Mackenzie

Mr. Mackenzie is too funny. “Look Mom, look how much hair I have, time for a haircut?” The next day I called to make an appointment.

Mackenzie had a project in his class called “Enfant Vedette”. I went in to his class to talk about my job or hobby. Coincidentally, mine is combined. So I did an activity with Mackenzie’s class as well, and we made pom pom monsters. Making pom pom monsters with 19 kids at the same time in a short time frame was a little challenging, but I made do. Luckily, Mackenzie’s teacher and an aide in the classroom where there to help with the kids. The kids had fun and Mack was super happy to have me come to his class, since I haven’t been able to volunteer at all this past year now that I’m working full time out of the house.

Mackenzie loves all sports (we play frisbee at Sean’s baseball practices), however he still has no interest in participating in organized sports.

And he loves climbing to the top of the structure at the local park and scream out “I’m the kind of the castle, you’re the dirty rascal!” The joys of being a child. I think I’d get dirty looks if I tried that.

Mr. Mackenzie is surprising us greatly with his maturity this year. While he hasn’t lost any teeth yet, maybe soon, who knows, he is eager for the tooth fairy to pay him a visit.

And with the blink of an eye, Mackenzie’s just about done Kindergarten. Just a few short weeks left – I can’t believe it! Where on earth does time go? My birthday buddy turns 6 in less then a month.

How We Spent Father’s Day

It's been super busy around here, not stopping for a second! I am trying to catch up on what's been going on around here, so this is how we spent father's day:

After a Bris in the morning, we picked up the kids who slept over at my parent house the night before, a nice birthday gift if I do say so myself. I brought the kids back home and they gave Jamie their gifts:

Quentin got daddy some new polo shirts, Mack got him new mugs to take coffee to work and Sean got him some Star Wars Figurines. Jamie was very pleased.

Then we headed to the convenience store around the corner for some slushies.

And we stopped at the park on the way home for a bit.

After the park & slushies Jamie wanted to relax on the couch & watch golf, so I took the kids (on the beautiful Sunday afternoon) to my parents house to go for a dip in the pool. Mackenzie received this awesome Cars Pool toy for his birthday and wouldn't get off of it in the pool the entire time he was in.

Sean showed us he has been working on his front float.

And Quentin vegged in the pool in his float. He likes the water & had an entire conversation with his new duck friends.

Sean is seriously my brave, fearless little fish. He was jumping off the diving board with no floats, and then swam across the deep end to whomever was waiting for him (my brother, father or myself). I couldn't believe it. Fearless! So proud of him. He even let my dad throw him up into the air a few times.

Before dinner, Jamie arrived and so did my in-laws. We all had dinner, and then I was surprised with my birthday gift from my family. It's from Jamie & the kids, as well as my parents and my siblings. Jamie had given me a card on my actual birthday telling me that my present was in 3. First was a gift card to the book store (one of these) and then he said the 2nd part was a surprise (see below) and the 3rd part, he wanted to get me a piece of jewelry, but didn't know what to get me, so he was leaving it up to me. I think I want to design a ring with all 3 of the kids birthstones (Sean December, Mack June and Quentin November) which would include Jamie and I too, as I am June and Jamie's birthday is in December like Sean). Just need to find somewhere to design it and hope that those 3 birthstones don't look hideous together.

So to throw me off, I was given about 10 wrapped gifts. Maybe there is one or two hiding here, I have no idea. There was a lot of useless unwrapping, let me tell you.

The looks on my face are priceless. Yes, my mother wrapped a halloween flashlight that she's probably had since the early 90's and bubbles that were bought for my wedding (for the guests to blow bubbles after we were married as we walked back down the aisle, but forgotten about).

And then there was the 2nd part of the gift, which was in box after box. They had me. I wasn't so amused. Though, when I got the end of the boxes, there was a picture of an eye on a pad. Get it? Eye-Pad? I wanted an iPad for my birthday. I've been longing over it for weeks, months even.

I was told that my iPad 2 was ordered and it's estimated ship date is June 30th, 2011 with an estimated arrival of July 5th/6th. I am so excited. I did get email confirmation that it's left apple, and will be here sooner than that. I've already started looking at ipad cozies (to knit) on Ravelry, but I fear that the iPad 2 is a lot smaller than the original iPad, so maybe the cozy will be too big? Does anyone have an iPad 2 and have you knit it a cozy? I keep eying this pattern, but again, fear it'll be too big? I won't start anything until I actually have my new (engraved!) iPad in my hands. BEST BIRTHDAY GIFT EVER! Thank you, thank you!

We ended the evening wit ice cream & cake.

Of course, Mack (hiding in his hands) did not want to be sung happy birthday to, again. I am really starting to think he is not a fan of birthdays. He has on a few occasions now said he doesn't like it and started to cry. Poor guy.

Yet, 2 minutes later, he's silly Mack again.

Hope you all had a great Father's Day. Hope it treated you well & you spoiled the daddies in your life (husbands, your own father, etc).

Stay tuned, still editing photos from our crazy busy week - more posts to come!

It’s a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

I started a test knit last week, but have ripped it out... oh, I don't know... 8 times? I am giving it one more shot before I give up. Something just doesn't want to work out for me, I'm not sure what it is. I've emailed with the designer, and I'm trying one last time. It's a new pattern she's designing, and I'm doing the 12 month test knit, hoping for it to fit Quentin in the late fall (hence why it's a brown color). I also wanted to do it in superwash, because you know, babies spit up. We'll see what happens with this test knit over the next few days.

The last few days have been beautiful (Hello 18-22°C!)
This week we had some fun in the park with some friends.
Definitely taking advantage of the beautiful weather.
The beautiful weather has been bringing out some nice colors & flowers too.

On Tuesday, Sean turned 227 weeks old & Quentin is now 23 weeks old.

I had to fire my cleaning lady. Every week she was doing stuff to annoy us even more and she also started to surface clean. I would go into a room and lift something to find that she cleaned around it, and not behind/under... when she used to when she first started with us. Anyhow, the last straw was this past week when she THREW OUT all the started vegetable plants that I planted with the kids. I am in the middle of searching for a new lady to come to our house, so we'll see what happens. With three kids and a lot of stuff going on, it's nice to have someone help around the house. We're not loaded with money (or I'd have a nanny!) but a cleaning lady for a few hours each week is something that has been worked into our monthly budget and I find it very helpful and nice. It allows me to spend more time with my kids, rather than scrubbing the toilets (which I hate!) I am still in shock that she threw out about 80 started vegetable plants (that I had recently just re-planted into bigger planter pots!) I was livid for a few days... Looks like I'll be buying already started plants once they are ready to go into the ground in just a few weeks.

Today’s Link Love:

- I want one of these 2 in 1 washer/dryer machines! Oh my! I didn’t even know they existed! No more forgetting about transferring over the laundry from the washer to dryer… if only I win the lottery! (I guess that means I should start playing? LOL)
- I love this teething necklace tutorial. I think it's exactly what Quentin needs right now.
- Love this colorful clock.
- This fruit boat is really cute. What a great idea for the kids.
- Love this tutorial to make glitter shoes.
- I want my hair to look like this (love the hairband too).
- Love this kid's tshirt.
- Love this picture.
- Love these crafted fruit.
- Damn you diet.
- Free Pampers Points: VMF776C7HMEXT4.

What's been going on by you? Enjoying the beautiful weather?

Happy Mother’s Day

Quentin’s come a long way since being born in this bathtub. This was his first home bath here. Look how much he’s filled out in about 5 months! He’s practically outgrown this tub too. In a few weeks once he can sit well on his own, I will transfer him into the next tub we have (that I’ve used for all the kids). I also have something else that I received as a gift, that I will try out. I have to pull it out of storage and see what it is even. I know it’s for sitting babies though.

This week we had some friends over and enjoyed some music. We had a lot of fun. We’ve been taking music with the same music guy since January, and it’s amazing how fast the time passes when you’re having fun.

This week we also spent time collecting bugs, and digging to China. I used to dig to China as a kid, it’s fun to do it as an adult too!

The boys made me some stuff in school for mother's day. Mack made me a magnet with his picture in it, which is now on my fridge, and Sean made me a tea cup that had a muffin in it. The tea pot card had a bag of tea in it. They're so cute my boys! Sean actually last night came to me and told me "I wrote my name in a Spongebob card for you, but I can't tell you until tomorrow". Oy. Can't tell him anything! And can't do things in advance with him. I told Jamie later last night what Sean told me and we had a good chuckle about it.

Quentin isn't feeling 100% today, but he's still all smiles. I think he might be cutting his first tooth. He's been leaving me a lot of lovely presents in his diaper today, on Mother's Day of all days. I think it is very likely he's cutting a tooth. (He's been cranky on top of it - but always with smiles). Sean showed me that he could still fit in the BébéPod chair. (I was actually shocked that he could still fit into it).

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there whom read my blog! Hope you had a nice day, spoiled by your loved ones.

Today’s Link Love:
- This image. And this one too.
- Love these tin can yarn holders.
- Love these faucets as hooks!
- Need to find time to make hanging book shelves for the boys. Very cute.
- Wow, this is a really organized fabric stash!
- Love this ruffled bookmark tutorial.
- I still love this diaper/wipes case tutorial.
- Love this twine/string storage organizer idea.
- Love love love love love love this purple dress.
- This made me laugh out loud! And this too!
- Why didn’t I ever think of this? Smart idea! (And I just chucked out 300 bread tabs!)
- Love this wish jar (and the photo).
- Love these camera soaps!
- ♥♥♥♥♥♥
- Wishes she could have this as her 30th birthday cake.
- Loving hearts today!
- Keep meaning to use up our crayon bits to do this.
- Now I feel better about my office being a mess!
- 2 more 5 point Pampers gifts to grow codes: LoveFromPattie5, YIYY9Y6DPDPD6DT
- I started a growth blog for each of my boys for their weekly self-portrait photos, instead of posting a million photos in my posts, since I'm not blogging daily anymore. You can view Sean's here, Mack's here and Quentin's here. It's just easier to keep track of it that way too. (Quentin's is fully up to date, Sean & Mack's will be fully there shortly, I am manually transferring everything over, so please be patient).
- I enjoyed a few movies this week. I saw Limitless (with Bradley Cooper), Going the Distance (with Drew Barrymore and Justin Long) and Due Date (with Robert Downey Jr). While they were entertaining, I wouldn't say any of the 3 were fantastic, nor would I watch any of them again. But it was entertaining while they were on.
- Jamie and I are back into the swing of things of watching Dexter. We've had Season 5 sitting on our PVR for months now, and did a marathon. Gosh that show is good. We have no idea where time goes, so catching up has been put on the back burner, but now that seasons are winding down for the summer, we're making time.

Weekend Round-Up.

Friday we played in the park with some out of town friends from Calgary.

Saturday was Easter Dinner at my step-sister-in-law's house.

Sunday we went to a friend's house for an Egg Hunt.

The boys had a great time searching for Eggs.

Some even took a nap. Lots of eggs were found bearing candies & toys.

Sunday afternoon we played in the park.
Sean got to ride his new bike (4th birthday present)

I even burned some energy playing soccer with Sean.

Monday I taught the boys how to Yo-yo.

Hope you all had a fantastic Easter weekend!