Dr. Teeth

Today we all went for our twice a year dental check ups.... Every one's teeth were cavity free, which is the way I like it to be.

What I always laugh at though, is that my children love to come home and for weeks afterwards, play dentist. Not just play dentist.... they are Dr. Wood. See, Dr. Wood is cool on many levels around our house. Not only does he keep the kids teeth clean, he is the husband of Sister Wood. Sister Wood has a 'cool big house with the green table' (a pool table), and always has a treat for them when they visit. Dr. Wood is also cool because he is the dad to one, Ali Wood. Ali is FP's girl friend and he is more than convinced that one day he is going to grow up and marry this sweet, beautiful girl who is only a mere 13 years older than him. So you can see why, around my house, when I announce it's time to go to the dentist, everyone is happy.

When we got home today, the kids quickly donned their 'dentist' stuff and gave me a very thorough check up... and all I can say, after having been stabbed about 12 times in the Uvula, by a 4 year old is this: Thank you, to the good Dr. Wood, for actually going to dental school.... My teeth thank you too!

Some quick pictures from the beach

Mr. C's family reunion was held at the beach this year. It was a great little vacation from the everyday, and much fun was had. Hubby and the boys built the Taj Mahal out of sand ( I think we have some pictures somewhere) we travelled north to Tillamook to visit the cheese factory, and much time hanging out with extended family.

Here are a few of the shots from one of the trips down to the beach.

This boy loved the sand

Sheepie was on a quest for 'x' marks the spot.

Look I'm actually in some pictures!

I think there are few places more beautiful than the beach.

All the men folk at the cheese factory.

So much water, so much imagination...

Happy Birthday Sheepie!

We have been gone at Hubby's family reunion this week, so I am a bit late in posting this but.....


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY SHEEPIE!


Sheepie turned four on the 26th; I can't believe how quickly he has grown. One of the first things he said to me, when we woke up Friday morning was, "How close am I to being five now?" Slow down there, kiddo!

We had a great day... played at the beach a bit, played at a park, then we hung out and watched movies and played in the hot tub thingy in Nana and Papa's hotel room. For dinner we ate with everyone from the reunion at a great place called Moe's and then went back to the hotel where most people were staying to play some family trivia games. Between that and the trip to the cheese factory the day before, he had a great birthday.

He is now counting the days until his party, so that he can have a 'real Wall*E cake' and hang out with his friends.

Newborn Sheepie

First Birthday, pre-haircut

Second Birthday, Being turned into a Nemo Fish

Big Three Year old

Four years old, already

And then, just because it's such a cute picture ( came across it looking for the others!) here is Sheepie in his favourite dress up out fit the day we bought it. Don't you just love how adoreable he is!

Happy Birthday son. I have so loved getting to be your mother for the last four years... Can't wait to see what this year has in store for you!

Adventures at the Gilbert House

Today I decided it was a good day for an adventure. I scuttled the kids into the car and off to the A.C. Gilbert House we went. For those who are not local, the Gilbert House is an amazing children's museum, that is about a half an hours drive from our house. It has three historic houses that have been turned into a discovery village, and a giant out door play ground that the kids can just run wild on. Since there is only one way in and out of the play ground, I can just sit by the entrance and let them go to their hearts content, knowing that they are somewhere inside.

Just imagine when there is a Twinkle Toes in that bunch!

Sheeie is an Amazonian flower.

Frog Prince found.... a frog, of course.

Love that Sheepie face!

Since Boys kind of been out of the photo spot light lately, I made sure to get a bunch of pictures of him.

Remember the, Magic School Bus, books? This is Sheepie being eaten by Arnold, the nerdy kid. They have a whole inside the body display from those books.

Grocery shopping, anyone?

Stopping off in China for some afternoon tea.

After we finished with the museum, we walked down the water front (which also sports a HUGE play ground and as of the 4th of July Giant interactive fountains) to the carousel. FP did not want to go on a horse that moved up and down.

Sheepie, too, opted out of moving horses and found a chuck wagon.

Boy took it like a man and picked the biggest moving horse he could grab!

And if he couldn't get any cuter, here is the Boy, showing off his stylish new froggie boots. Now all he has to do is learn how to walk and he's set!

Happy Father's Day

I feel incredibly blessed to have such an amazing husband, who is father to my children. I honestly don't know if there is anyone out there in the world who could do a better job being 'Daddy' to my kids than he does. He is the favourite parent hands down, and I am glad that my boys have such an awesome example to look up to.

I love you everyday for the father that you are, Mr. C.... thank you!

Daddy and baby FP

Daddy with Sheepie

Daddy and Boy


I hope that our boys grow up to be just as amazing a father as you are each day.







Also, a Happy Father's day to my own Dad...Thank you for helping me become who I am today, and for always loving me and supporting my choices. You are a wonderful father and grandfather! Although you are further away than we'd like, I am grateful for the love you give to our family!

Lastly, I want to wish my father in law a Happy Father's Day, as well. He has played such a large part in my little families everyday lives. Thank you for raising a wonderful son, and teaching both him and your grandsons by example how to be a righteous priesthood bearer.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Father's Day!

Blogging help

Alright folks. As you can see I've changed my banner.... but I need help.

What I can't figure out is how to center it without clicking the 'shrink to fit' button.

That is what I've done in the past, but I don't want the banner that small this time around. I like it the size it is. I just need to have it centered on the page.

Can anyone out there enlighten me as to how this works.

Thanks!

What FP and Daddy did while we made Wall*E

Hubby and Frog Prince went on a date last night as well. When we got home from karate, they disappeared into the garage to set up a project that Hubby and I had talked about a few days ago.

Back story: Since putting the house up for sale, we've been clearing most everything in the garage (except food storage and some other basics) into a storage unit. It has really decluttered the place and given us the ability to get the hop on packing non essential things for whenever we do eventually move. This has left the garage virtually empty. I perfect play place! Since you can walk right from the dining room door out on to the patio and into the garage the kids can easily go in and out of the garage while playing in the back yard, and I don't have to worry about people on the street knowing they are in there without me being with them. It has given them a nice place to ride bikes when it rains, as well as set up their grocery store/puppet theatre, which until now has been in storage since it was too big to be in the house. Welllllllll.... Hubby and I also had our own model trains set up, in the garage on a roughly 10x3 table that raised to the roof when not in use. Since the model trains got packed off to the storage unit, it left the table empty.
Hubby and I decided that the kids could take all of their motorized Thomas the tank engine toys out of storage (I only wanted on set of trains in the house at a time and they chose the die cast ones) and we could let them use the table as a big train table.

FP and Hubby spent the evening cleaning off the table and setting up various track designs.

It's the perfect height for little bodies now.

And while we will just leave it down most of the time, Hubby even put in a nice hand lever for me to be able to easily raise it back up to the roof with, so that when we want it up or people are coming to look at the house, I don't have to heft this hundred pound thing by myself... the boys can even take turns cranking it up.


On a completely unrelated note... here are a few funny things that have fallen out of my children's mouths in the last few days.

Upon getting ready for bed last night, Hubby and I hear this being shrieked out of the bathroom.

FP: No, Sheepie, No!! NOT FAIR!!!!

Us: what's wrong?

FP: I wanted to pee pee in Sheepies Pee!!!! He flushed and wasted water.

Yeah, maybe we've been driving home the whole conservation thing a bit too much.

This morning on the way to bagel day with the cousins.

FP: Can I have a chocolate milk.

Me: Yes.

Sheepie: I am going to get a kid sized iced tea because I am the kid, who is a Mister, who likes iced tea.

Okay.... glad to hear it. Nice to see I'm teaching my kids such healthy drinking habits. (Although we do drink herbal teas, in case you are wondering.)

Now, off to clean out the inside of my car, because it smelt like something died in there when we opened it this morning.... Enjoy your day!

The Birth of Wall*E

As I mentioned before, I was going to make a mock up of Sheepies cake before his actual party. I wanted to figure out how exactly to piece it all together so that it would look like Wall*E. Yesterday I decided was as good a day as any to do so, and in the morning I baked a cake.

(Warning: From here on out it's a pretty picture intensive post... hold on to your hats!)

Both Boy and FP thought they needed to help me clean up the chocolate mess a bit.

I don't know about you guys, but I've learnt that the easiest way to frost a cake is when it's frozen, so after it came out of the oven and cooled, I cut out three rectangles stacked them with some butter cream, and then popped the whole thing in the freezer to get hard. (now since I was just doing a mock up, I only used one cake for the entire thing; it's pretty small in real life.. maybe about 7 inches by 5 inches completely finished. Just to give you a size reference).

Fast forward to around 7 pm last night. I was about to pull the little cake out to turn into Wall*E when Sheepie decides that he wants to help me. Heck, why not, it's for his birthday isn't it? Well, would you believe that he ended up doing almost the entire thing himself. Don't believe me, check out the pictures!

First he coloured the frosting, and I melted it down a bit for him, so he could just pour it over.

Then we cut the frozen cake into a nice rectangle.

He then poured the frosting on.

Next we cut out the shape of the wheels and he mixed what colour he wanted the frosting to be and covered them.

I cut him some arms and a head out of some thick foam we have, and he tooth picked them into the body.

And then he took gel tubes and more frosting and decorated him how he thought Wall*E should look.

I personally think this summer with a cake this good he should enter a fair. What kind of three year old can make that? Really, all I did was the cutting and hot gluing of the head to the neck.



While I didn't get to try my hand at how I want to decorate his actual cake, I did figure out the basic mechanics of how to put it together, and that is what I was most worried out. I also took some extra foam and tested out how it takes frosting. It works well, so I think on his real cake I will be able to frost the entire thing (giving the head and arms more continuity with the rest of the cake.)

It was the perfect way to spend the night with Sheepie.

I had to edit and add in that, I love how he even has a little boot with a plant. You can really see it in the last picture next to Wall*E's left hand. Too cute!