~Ethan's Family Birthday Party~

We celebrated Ethan's birthday party with my best friend Melissa who had come up for a visit at his favorite restaurant: Boston Pizza.  We had a great time and Ethan enjoyed the Happy Birthday song sang by the servers!  Pictures of course!

~Ethan's 5th Birthday Party!~

Wow. 5!?!  Already?!?!  I.have.a.5.year.old.  Okay mini-meltdown over..that's how I felt almost three months ago when I woke up on Ethan's big birthday.  We had his party on the Sunday after his actual birthday and had our usual cast of friends for it.  This year however he got to invite 2 friends to the party...he chose two of his buddies from daycare. 

I, as usual, was the freak-a-zoid running around trying to make sure it was perfect.  Such a ridiculous habit!  But I just want it to be memorable for him...anyhow I digress.  This year Ethan wanted a Thomas the Tank Engine party.  Since we were in the middle of crazy (will link to post in a few days) I decided to just spend a bit of money to buy everything for the party.  I bought it online (I LOVE online shopping, less crowds, better selection)  I went to Etsy again for the party invite...I loved it!  On a side note I really need to take a photoshop class...it all arrived in time and looked awesome!  I made the cake myself and had Randy make the railway sign for the front step.  The cake took a painstaking 3 hours to do...but it looked wicked awesome and Ethan still talks about it!

We had a blast at the party and all his little guests did as well!  The proof is in the pictures!  I did train stops to coordinate the day.  Stop#1 was Pin the Funnel on Thomas, Stop#2 was Pinata Fun Stop #3 was Fueling Station and Stop #4 was Train Playtime in the basement.  Here is the railroad crossing sign Randy
made...I forgot to get a picture of it on the front step!

My little conductor put on his hat and got ready to welcome his guests!

The first thing they had to do was bring their 'ticket' and get their picture with Thomas and Percy!  Ignore the ghetto grey on the card, it of course, was not there when it was given out.  It is there however to prevent you from stalking me...teehee.

Each little guest got their picture taken with Percy and Thomas...

 Time for Pin the Funnel on Thomas fun!  The

boys had a blast with this!

Next Stop:  Pinata Fun!  Check out the expressions on those little boys standing in the line...love it!!!

 Playtime stop!  The little boys had a blast playing with Ethan's trains!  They probably got more play that day than they have in months!

The Thomas Cake!  It was a labor of love I tell you...it actually wasn't as hard to do as it looks...thank goodness for the template!

 The little boys had a great time discussing which part of Thomas they were going to eat...I was shocked at how adept they all were in all the Thomas terminology!

Ethan got some great gifts from his friends.  All were very thoughtful and reflective of Ethan's interests...he even got a $35 Visa gift card and a $15 Itunes card...which sent him over the moon!  You CAN buy your way into my kids heart with an Itunes Gift Card!  It was all fantastic and I know Ethan loved the entire day...that made all the running worth it! 

~One Month Flew By!!!~

WOW!  One month ago little Carter Michael entered our lives…where did the time go?  We have been blessed with the easiest baby!  He pretty much eats and sleeps on a 2-3 hour cycle.  He’s had a few gassy episodes but a little bit of Ovol hasn’t quickly helped.  He has an amazingly strong neck and has been able to lift his head up since he was born, now he can lift his head up and turn it while holding it.  He loves tummy time with Mom and Dad, hates his car seat unless the car is moving and enjoys time in his bouncy seat.  He is mostly in love with Mommy but will sometimes settle for Dad.  He sleeps on his side, just like Mom and rolls from side to side on his own.  He has such a serious little man look to him, and is going to be a much bigger boy than his brother!  He had his check up appt with our family Doctor on Friday and has already gained 2 lbs and grown 2 inches!  He is already into some 3 month clothes too! 

He HATES cold wipes on his bum and will forever love Daddy’s boss Gary and his girlfriend Kelly for getting us a wipes warmer.  Mom is far to cheap for that!  He snorts like a little pig when he’s hungry and lets you know…when Carter is hungry, he is HUNGRY NOW!  He is being exclusively breastfed right now and has no problems with it and is not hard on Mom…unless he wants to nurse non-stop.  Then Mom gets a bit frustrated and needs to have some space!  He has a bit of reflux that I’m still trying to sort out…he can’t be sat up right away after eating, he’ll throw everything up.  The nurse at the hospital said that his stomach flap was probably just a bit immature and closes too fast.  It isn’t affecting him that I can tell but I suspect it may contribute to the gas since he doesn’t always burp after every feed. 

We had an ultrasound on his hip on Monday, he may have hip dysplasia and need to wear a brace.  I googled it and let me tell you, it doesn’t look like fun!  6 weeks of keeping his knee parallel to his hip in a brace that wraps over his shoulders.  It isn’t life threatening however so I’m just rolling with it! 

Big brother Ethan is treating him well, so far he pretty much ignores him.  He is acting out a bit however and I don’t think I’m dealing with it the best.  I have been very exasperated by some of the things he does to act out and haven’t responded well…I recognize it though and am trying to deal with it. We’ve been making sure to spend time separate with him doing fun things so he doesn’t feel abandoned.  Plus adding fun things to his day that we can do since Mom is not working. 

So one month of me being a Mom to two little boys and so far, so good.  I’m just starting to get some routine to my day so that I’m not wearing sweat pants, dirty shirts and have unwashed hair and unbrushed teeth in the car pool lane at school.  Plus I need to have a feeling of getting things done so I have a wonderful new app on my Ipad called Wunderlist and I have all kinds of to do lists in it so I can check things off my list!  I’m feeling a bit bottled up at home but as Carter starts to get a bit of a schedule I have lots of fun things planned for us!  Big brother Ethan has Piano class on Saturdays until May, Pre-school M-Thurs, swimming for March/April on Sundays, Soccer starting April-July on Sat, and a reading program at the library from April-end of June on Friday mornings.  Carter and I are going to go walking at the Multiplex M-Thurs after we drop Ethan off a school, a Mommy and baby Yoga class on Tuesdays and lunch with a friend on Thursdays.  On Fridays’ we’ll head to the library with Ethan for fresh books and Sat/Sun we hang out with Dad and probably go swimming.  I want to keep busy but also keep a slow enough pace that I can enjoy all my time with my guys before the craziness of working full time with them comes back.  For now we’re playing it by ear and having fun…I still can’t believe that I have two little boys…this life is going to be adventure!!! 

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~My Boys!~

Well there is no doubt that these two are brothers!  Check this out and see if you can tell who is who!

~Ethan’s First Piano Recital~

Wow, prouder parents couldn’t have been found yesterday…it was Ethan’s first piano recital and he did it perfectly!  We were admittedly a bit worried about the whole thing because he woke up with a nasty cough and a bit of mischief in everything he did.  He didn’t have a great time at Music Class in the morning…wasn’t listening, and was acting silly while they did a dress rehearsal.  He ended up losing the Ipad for the remainder of the day as a result.  Randy came home from class very frustrated with him. 

So we had a good couple of ‘talks’ and made him practice his piece a few more times and set some rewards for good behavior up. We got dressed up and off we went.  I won’t lie and say that he was the best behaved kid there but he wasn’t the worst.  He was a bit quiet and almost sulking for most of it.  I was disappointed…it wasn’t how I pictured it to go.  Once it got started though and he saw other kids he knew go up and perform he knew what he was doing.  When it was his turn to go up he went straight up to the microphone, said “My name is Ethan Grounds and I’m going to play Little Helper for you today”  just like we had practiced.  He went to the piano and carefully placed his hands, played his piece, got down off the chair bowed his head and came off the stage perfectly.  He wasn’t smiling or bubbly, more quiet and focused.  But he did it and we were so proud!  I won’t lie, I cried! (We’ll blame the pregnancy hormones).

So here are the pictures of his day…we got all dressed up in a new outfit complete with little dress shoes for the event!

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At the church where it was held they had a ‘real’ piano…I was a bit worried that it would throw him off since he plays on a small keyboard style piano at Music Class and a keyboard at home but he had no problems at all with it!  They did their group song first where all the kids in his class from the whole week got together and played a little song using instruments.

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Then when it was his turn he did his solo piece!  You can click on the pictures to open and see the complete album!

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Is that not the most freaking adorable thing ever?!?! 

They finished off the recital with the entire Music Class keyboarding students singing their good-bye song..he really likes this song!

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He got his reward…a trip to play at the Multiplex Jungle Gym area and Bugs & Cheese for supper from Boston Pizza.  It was a great day and we all had lots of fun!  His next one is in May sometime…I can’t wait!

~Sunny Winter Day Snow Art!~

Ethan and I couldn’t resist going outside today!  The sun was shining and it was unseasonably warm out, in the pluses!  He wasn’t too keen on the idea of going out, he didn’t know what to do…admittedly there isn’t much to do in our backyard, especially in the winter and when Mom isn’t up to jumping around in the snow with him because she’s a day away from the due date with baby #2! 

So I decided to put some of the knowledge of fun things for kids to do that I have collected in my travels and actually DO one of them!  So I went around the house and found a few things to use to fill with colored water.  I used an old spray bottle, empty ketchup and mustard squeeze bottles for the RV, and a Gatorade bottle with a hole punched through the lid.  I used just ordinary food coloring and water, filled the bottles and out we went. 

He started off slow…not really getting into the swing of what he could do with them.  Finally he started using them to color “tracks” around the backyard and ‘wash’ the fence and chairs.  It was a gorgeous day outside, sun shining and so warm!  I hauled a folding chair outside and my camera and soaked up some Vitamin D while he played.  It was the most fun I’ve had in weeks!  Our backyard looks like it’s been attacked and is a colorful blend of yellow, blue, red and green.  We went through 2 fills of the bottles and I had a hard time convincing him to stop after 2 hours.  He made me promise that we would do it again which I totally agreed to!  I don’t know if we’ll get that warm of weather again for awhile though, it was glorious!

Here are some pictures of the day…it was nice to take out my SLR and snap some pictures, it’s been awhile since I’ve pulled it out!

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~Catch up From Christmas Post!~

Wow, I totally missed doing a post from our Christmas!  I can’t believe it.  Anyhow, we had a great Christmas season, we went to the Festival of Trees Teddy Bears Breakfast with our friends The Smiths and The Dombroskies.  It was a fun time however a bit complicated as we arrived late and couldn’t get a table to sit altogether.  Here are some pictures from the day!

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We had a great time decorating the tree!  I bought lots and lots of new little things for it this year…I think it was my favorite so far! 

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Randy and Ethan had their Annual Gingerbread House decorating Day!  This year they went ‘untraditional’ and made an Angry Birds camp!  Ethan had seen an Angry Birds design at the Festival of Trees and had his heart set on buying it…we didn’t bid on it as it was already over $200 and it was a bit rich for my blood.  Instead I suggested to Randy that they make their own…I think they did a great job, what do you think?

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We had a fun time at Ethan’s Christmas concert this season!  We arrived a bit close to the time though and ended up in the VERY back of the gym.  I had only brought my one lens so we didn’t get very good pictures being so far back…it was a very cute performance though and when the newsletter came out in January our little man was featured prominently in many of the pictures singing his little heart out!  We were bursting with pride!

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Our Christmas Day was just the three of us…we had a great quiet day at home.  We started out with our stockings of course and then quickly dove into our presents!  We loved watching Ethan open his presents as usual, lots of “Wows” and “Awesome” coming from his camp!  We had alot of fun wrapping his trains up….we bought him 90 assorted Thomas trains and freight cars…they were (thankfully) the highlight of the day and he still plays with his trains more than he did before!

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It was a nice Christmas.  We were sad that we didn’t have any family here with us and that we couldn’t travel but it was nice to spend the time just the three of us before we add a new baby to the mix.  Randy had almost 2 weeks off and it was wonderful for all of us to have that uninterrupted time together.  It’s been awhile!  We are hoping to travel home next Christmas to spend it with family and share baby’s first Christmas surrounded with them. 

~Summer Vacation at the Lake, Week 2 and onwards~

Week 2 at the lake was very laid back.  It was just Ethan and I from Tuesday to Friday hanging out until Randy came up for the weekend.  We mostly just played at the park, read books and played trains and enjoyed some peace and quiet.  I read something like 7 books on this vacation, it was AWESOME!!!

When we were home in GP for the weekend I picked up a little hibachi BBQ for the RV since our main one was missing parts that I couldn’t buy.  Of course it came unassembled…well armed with a butter knife and determination to have BBQ I assembled it myself on one of our first days back to camp.  I was so proud of myself, LOL!

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We came up every weekend for the rest of July and for our last night at the lake we were invited to a HUGE beach BBQ party down at our beach.  We were thrilled to be included!  It was an early celebration of the camp owner, Harold’s birthday.  They had slow cooked a giant prime rib all day and also had lamb chops and pork chops and tonnes of salads and sides.  Of course I was suffering from the worst case of pregnancy related I HATE ALL RED MEAT ever so I didn’t join in on the food.  The best part of the whole night for me was that Ethan made a fast friend, Ben, and they played ALL night!  I literally mean ALL night!  We had to pry them apart at midnight to go to bed.  The next morning they both were up for 8am and itching to play again…it was so cute!  They posed for some pictures for me, check out how cute they are!

		Ethan & Ben VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Randy and Harold also posed for some pictures!  Harold was our host for the whole month and is the owner of the the Marina.

This was a great summer vacation for our family.  Admittedly it was a bit hectic to go there every single weekend and I sure missed just being home but it forced us to go out and enjoy the summer and our family and not just sit around the house.  Or worse yet, renovate all summer!  Will we do it again next summer?  We’re not sure yet, if we do it won’t be to go ever single weekend, that was a bit much and quite exhausting.  We really liked the lake and the people, no question to that!  So we will see, life will be busier next year with a new little one joining the family in January…

I do know that I could get used to watching my little man and his soon to be sibling grow up from this view: