I'm the happiest girl today

alrighty...so the online crop wasn't as productive as I had hoped bowever, the deadline for uploading layouts isn't until this Saturday coming so I am hoping to do more this week. Here are the 2 pages I did manage to accomplish...


(click image if you want to see a larger version)


The weekend was just too busy with hockey and 3 of the 4 boys ended up with plans Saturday evening so I was driving them here and there. This week is actually pretty busy too but Brian is on days off so he's here to help.

I was offered a job today at my youngest sons' elementary school...and I am ecstatic!! I was there volunteering in Gavin's grade 1 class when the VP asked if she could speak to me. She has requested more hours for support staff and so far they have given her 2 hours a day and she offered it to me. It could turn into more or not but either way, I am thrilled to have my foot a little further in the door. It's a great balance for me at this time in our life...work a little and still be here with the kids and keep up with the house and extra curricular things with the boys.

Here's to a fabulous week!!

Happy Friday!

I don't know what it is about Fridays that I love so much!
I mean, it's not like my work week is coming to an end or that Brian is guaranteed to be here to give me some help or a break...I just love Fridays!
This Friday in particular, I'll be participating in an online crop...sooo excited about that! Got some new pictures printed, picked up a few supplies and of course cropping snacks yesterday so I think I am good to go.
Reilly does have hockey tomorrow afternoon for an hour but I can work with that...other wise the boys are on their own till Brian gets home...I will feed them of course but only cause I have too...lol!!

Hope you enjoy your weekend!

more firsts at our house

Gavin lost his first tooth...





he was sooo excited. He called to tell my Mom and went across the street to tell the neighbors...it was kinda cute. Until they told him that they thought the toothfairy gives $10 for the first lost tooth....not at this house she doesn't...lol!! He was very excited she left him a toonie!!


for the very first time...all 4 of the boys had homework...talk about a busy time of the day!! We may have to break it up so that the younger 2 go first and then the older 2 cause it was really hard to help the three that needed it...Zack had a couple of questions too but seriously...algebra...go ask the teacher...lol!!!


Gavin loved having homework...he kept saying so and the boys kept looking at him like he head three heads and Brian was in the living room calling him a nerd. What a Daddy hey...lol! He was just teasing and for those of you that don't know Brian...he's like that...a lot!!



and...a few of my layouts are being shared on Scrap the Teenz


I am experiencing my first full day as a SAHM with kids who are in school all day and no hubby here to bug me either...have no idea what I'm going to do but I will try to enjoy it before they all come home and the chaos ensues...lol!

Have a great day everyone.

back 2 school

the boys headed back to class yesterday...well all but Reilly!
Things went pretty smoothly...I even got up early to make them French toast for breakfast. I decided if I was going to be home and kidless, I would be "that" Mom this year. They really enjoyed it and asked if we could have egg mcmuffins the next time. I'm thinking twice a week I'll make them a hot breakfast to start their day...unless things change int he next week and I am working...I'll keep ya posted on that situation!
Here they are, by the front door...something we've been doing on the first day of school since Zack started Kindergarten all those years ago!



and here are the youngest 2 in their desks...

he looks so cute and grown up sitting in that desk. I can't believe he is going to be gone all day every day!


So, I hung out at the school for a bit visiting with some Mom's and then came home to be with Reilly. He says he's happy to not being going to school yet but he was pretty bored with his brothers gone.
I was a little lost too...there are lots of things I could and should have done but I just didn't feel like doing them. I spent most of the day catching up with friends via the phone and hanging out with Reilly. Also had to have the radio on...couldn't handle the quiet! All that complaining in the last post about not being able to wait till they went back and then I'm lonely and miss the noise they make when they aren't here...just proves you should be careful what you wish for hey!!
I am going to try and be more productive today...it's kind of a yucky day here so I think I'll bake and scrapbook. Oh and help Reilly with the homework I picked up for him when I went to talk to his teacher yesterday about his return to school...which we'll get the wordon tomorrow after we see the opthamologist for a check up.
I'll leave you with a few more pages from our California Adventure album...

home from Miami...

Manitoba that is!!

(Now that the trip updates are complete, I can get back to regularly scheduled blogging.)

So, back to my update.
I wanted to post before I left but as you can see, that didn't happen. In fact , most of you probably didn't even know I was gone...lol!
This past long weekend, I hopped on a plane with an online friend and headed off to Winnipeg to meet more online friends. Call me crazy, but it was something I wanted to do soooo badly and it turned out to be amazing!! Some of us came from all over Canada, by plane, by bus and by car to meet live and in person at a crop.
I had such a fabulous weekend...it's almost indescribable actually!
I was nervous excited leading up to the flight but it ended up being for nothing.
A bunch of us met for dinner and drinks at "The Forks" on Friday, attended the crop on Saturday and a few of us had brunch together on Sunday before flying home.
Of course this is the coles notes version but most of you that read my blog were there so you have all the details...lol!!

In other family news, Zack is officially registered for high school!!! Yikes...how did that happen?! He decided he wanted to go for an academic diploma versus a general one so that means a lot of buckling down and hard work for the next 3 years.
Gavin is almost finished Kindergarden...he'll graduate on the 20th of June. Like that won't be a tear jerker of a day!
Carsyn and Reilly are doing well with school...both looking forward to summer though..lol!
Football is getting underway for Carsyn and he's sooo excited about that. Will be fun to watch no doubt.
Brian has been hard at work...long hours and many days in a row before getting a couple at home. He's starting a 7 on 3 off schedule...will be nice to have some sort of schedule and being able to plan ahead a bit.
I've been subbing quite a bit at our elementary school...lovin every minute of that. Hoping (I think) to get on there full time in the fall.

For some reason I thought this post might be longer since I haven't blogged about anything but our trip in quite some time....humph...guess we don't have that much going on even though we seem sooo busy...lol!
Anywoo, hope you're all well and that you enjoyed your May long weekend! Take care.

time sure flies...

when your having fun, hanging with your family and being creative! Oh and working...I had 4 days of subbing at an elementary school in a nearby town. Let me tell ya how exhausting that is! (but I loved every minute of it)
We've been hanging out a lot of that lately...well, as much as we can with all the hockey Reilly is playing and the newest developments in the seemingly never ending saga that has become my life as the director but that's a whole other issue and not one I want to share with any of you...you probably wouldn't even believe me if I told you!I had no intention of not blogging for 2 weeks but as I said, we've had a lot going on.
We ended up exchanging our 2 new large suitcases (29") and getting 4 slightly smaller (24") ones instead...people who have done big trips like this before suggested to us that the big ones might be too heavy upon our return with the shopping and souvenirs and how costly it is if your bags are overweight. We've actually been given some really good travel advice from those that have gone before us...lol such as packing bandaids for blisters...I would have never thought of that and would have had to run around trying to find some to buy I'm sure. If you have any neat little trip tips, please share them.
So, I thought since it has been awhile since I shared anything creative that I would do that today so here ya go...have a peek at some scrapbook layouts that I have recently created. Some of you may have seen some or all of them already but I do have some I haven't shared anywhere and will take some pics and post them soon. Oh and I've added almost all of January pics to the project 365 album to the left if you would like to have a peek at the things I have been snapping pictures of.






Oh and guess what....the travel agent we ordered our Park Hopper passes from just last Friday, called today and said they were here already...WOOHOO!! She had said it would take at least 2 weeks so we ordered with plenty of time to spare and they only took 2 days. I'll be picking them up on later this week...getting more excited as the days go by.
I guess that's it for now...the boys will be coming through the door any minute and then the real fun begins...lol!