All dressed up

Here's Mr. Sam on the weekend, all dressed up and ready for a birthday party.  And, I swear to you, this is as normal as I can make him look.  The "hint of maniac" you see is a permanent feature.

A very, very proud parenting moment

I won't lie to you... When Sam handed me these drawings tonight, I thought "I doing a great job!".

If you don't know what this is referencing, run (don't walk) to watch all the Studio Ghibli movies, such as My Neighbor Totoro.

5 years old and he already has great taste in film.  Sigh.  My heart swells.

A special nod to Martina, who knows exactly why this is just about the best thing ever.

Sam = 5, plus party shenanigans

Ooopsy!  I update on facebook so often, that sometimes I forget about the ol' blog for a while.  Sorry Sam!  It's not as though we forgot your birthday, just forgot about it on the blog.

The birthday week, from Charley's until this Sunday was a madhouse of cake and events and celebration.  They really can't complain that we don't do up boy birthdays around these parts.

Here are a few shots of my 5 year old baby and their super-fun LEGO party on the weekend.

 5 year olds are old enough to decorate their own cupcakes, I think!

 Don't ever try and get a cute, posed picture from this maniac.

 Lego cookies and Lego man pops for the party.

 Happy, happy birthday fun.

Can you feel the crazy in this room!?

Great times with the boys!  5 and 7 might be the perfect, portable kid age.  Lots of adventures planned for 2013.  Happy birthday Charley and Sam!

Playdough continues to rule

Not a week goes by without a new batch of playdough being whipped up.  It's a perennial favourite with my boys.  I like to do a cooked dough, because I think it's less prone to stickiness.  This is a good recipe. (Although, I always add the food colouring to the water, because it seems more work than necessary to mix it in afterwards.)

Here is some photographic evidence of the boys enjoying their dough.

 Because it just screams "make a hat out of me!"

 Or a witch nose...

 Or a pig nose...

 Of course, maniac eyebrows are always in style.

 Charley is an amazing sculptor.  This creation reminded me of the creatures from Where the Wild Things Are.  Love it.

 Still getting used to those teeth!  HUGE!

When Sam get's sick of playdough, he's mastering the art of dot-to-dots.  I had to find a more challenging book for him, because he likes them to be at least 100 dots.  Pretty proud of himself!

Between the playdough and the homemade bread I need a source for good quality,  yet cheap flour.  Does this exist in Canada?

Later.

January round-up

Or, at least, a round-up so far.  Strange January, just like last year.  No snow, weird temperatures... I figure, if it's going to be cold, we might as well have snow to play in!  Right?!

We've been busy, as always.  Chris has been away all week, so it's been the usual scurry here and there.  Life sure is easy with both of them at school though!  I get a lot more done these days, that's for sure.

Here's a few shots of the month so far.

Click "read more" to see all the other January photos.

November ho-hum

I think November must be a very boring month, because I don't have anything to update for you!  It's getting to be cold now, with frost appearing regularly in the mornings.  No snow seen yet, but it can't be far off now.

The boys, with the help of school/peers, seem to have caught Christmas fever already.  I had to make a countdown calendar to show them that there are still many, many days until then.  It seems like a million to them, but of course isn't nearly long enough for me to get everything done.

A few weeks ago, we went out for a hike in Millbrook and did our annual 'scattering of the milkweed' for the benefit of the monarchs.  In the absence of snow, it certainly made the surroundings look quite festive.

That's the (boring) update from here.  Happy November to you!

This makes me very, very happy

Superheroes have tea parties too.

Swim fun, wherein Dad = a real sport

The lovely, kind, wonderful neighbours gave us use of their pool for 3 different weeks this summer.  Considering the heat and the fact we don't have a/c, it was the best present ever.

The boys have become quite happy little swimmers because of it, and are now registered for lessons starting soon. 

Chris, aka SwimDad, was around for our last swim.  The boys were kind of excited to have him there and perhaps were a bit vigourous in their love.  He didn't actually drown but there were some moments where the enthusiasm was slightly scary.

 What I love about these jumping shots is that Sam watches his bro so intensely.  They've graduated to jumping in with just a life-jacket now.  So exciting!

Even though we tried to tire them out with the jumping, there was still a lot of energy left for Dad-abuse.  (This next series of photos may cause you to snort and/or chortle out loud.)

 Attempted nose removal

 The wee devil lurking

 So uncomfortable!

 Double attack!

 He goes for the eye!

The menace is flipped over!  (Much to his delight).

Way to go, Dad.  You get a medal for water bravery.

Sam-lympics

It's fair to say that Sam has been an Olympic enthusiast, despite having watch it sparingly.  He watched the men's 100m final and thought that was really super.  He also really enjoyed the shot-put, the boxing and some swimming.

He's been talking about medals and world records and different countries and so on.

He's also been practicing really hard, so that he too can be an olympian one day.  He's not set on a sport yet, so he's working on a variety of skills.

Trampolining.... 'cuz Canadians are good at that!

Gymnastics also suits him fine.

He's certainly got enough 'swagger' to handle the 100m crowd.  He was quite taken with Bolt's performance, both during the race and immediately afterwards.

 Ready...

 Set...

 GO!

Essential over-the-shoulder ham for the camera look.  (Bonus: a nice view of how he's developing the legendary Welsh calves!)

Some nice form bouncing off the trampoline.

A little shot-put readiness (he wanted to put chalk on his neck!)

Pose with the gigantic sunflowers.

Honestly people, this kid has the world by a string.  He is just so full of it, you wouldn't believe it.  Ego is not currently a deficit problem.  And yes, I know he's running around in his underwear, but be glad I insisted on those, because these pictures become a lot less cute when performed naked.

I mean, seriously, look at these eyeballs!  He's is pretty darn cute.  And sometimes he's such a pain that the cuteness is all that saves him.  

Adorable tyranny.  Go, Sam, GO!