He had 2 cakes, one on his birthday,

and one at his birthday party with his friends(I made this one but he decorated it).

For his party, Matthew had 7 boys come over.  I was thinking what am I going to do with 9 children for 3 hours.  Now that they are older, I had to find something more challenging.  So I decided on a scavenger hunt, indoors and out.  I am glad the weather worked out well.  Last year, it rained.

We paired the kids off and they got their clues.  It is amazing what the kids behave and do when they are excited.  We had some ground rules, when they came in to the house, they had to remove their shoes, many of them would forget and had points deducted.  They had to stay in the perimeter of the yard and no tampering with clues.  Here is a copy of what they had to do.

1. What is the house number across the street?
2. There are some coupons on the counter by the window, how much savings do you get with the Huggies diapers?
3. In the Wagon, there are a couple of eggs, how much money is in the orange egg?
4. How many pieces of Lego were used to make the tower?
5. On the back deck, if you walk down 3 steps, how many steps are you from the bottom?
6. What is the license plate of the Honda Odyessy on the street.
7. If our house faces North east, what fruit is south west?
8. There is a sculpture of dolphins by the window, if you look carefully from the top, how many dolphins do you see?
9. There is a bird in the kitchen, what kind of bird is it?
10. In the hallway, there are fishes on the wall, how many red fishes are there?
11. Find the washing machine, next to it is a bottle of laundry soap, what brand is it?
12.What vegetable do you cook in the barbecue?
13. Somewhere in the yard, there is a blue pail, take a duck.
14. The house faces North East, what fruit is on the most northern part of the house.
15. Where is the piece of cake with pink icing?
16. Look for the longest stick in the yard.
17. Bring 5 dried intact leaves.
18. Outside the front door, there is something black, take a penny inside it.
19. In the Oxford dictionary, what is the 3rd word before biscuit?
20. where is the pink pony?
21. What country is south of Botswana?
22. There is a pink basket on the deck, bring a black something from it.
23.  Bring a dead bug.

We also played a game of Scattergories.  Some of them were so creative with their words.  They really had to think under pressure!!

All in all, I think the birthday party was a success.  There wasn’t too much to clean either, except under the dinning table!!

I made a short video of Kyle’s “Big Event”.
Enjoy….

I love long weekends.  This weekend, the kids and I cleaned out their bedrooms, it was long overdue.  We started on Saturday, took a break in the afternoon and finished on Sunday.  So now the deal is that they have to clean up every night before they go to bed.  I think we have said that many times before.  I need to put down my foot down more and not let the kids take advantage with excuses.  Tonight Natalie had a fit when we told her she had to put her toys away even though we helped her she didn’t have to do it herself.  The tears… So their room is now tidy.  The goal is to make sure they keep it that way!   I am thankful for clean and tidy rooms.

I did some tidying up myself.  The winter clothes are out and most of the summer stuff has been put away.  It is so odd as it is still so warm outside.  We went for a bike ride to Britannia Beach on Sunday afternoon and it was such a lovely ride.  The park was just packed, everyone was out enjoying the wonderful warm October weather.  I am thankful for the great weather we are having.

It was a social weekend for us too.  Saturday we went to a un-traditional baby shower with the family in Rockland.  We met up with friends from our Peak Potential courses and it was an awesome evening.  The kids just entertained themselves, and played on the vast property.  Saturday night we had our vegetarian thanksgiving dinner with a couple of friends.  I made a sweet potato gratin, amazing what you can find online when you do a google search.  I search for “vegetarian thanksgiving dinner”!  Today we went to visit our friends Terry and Jane.  It always amazes me when our kids meet up with our friends kids.  This is the second time our kids have gotten together since moving back to Ottawa, and they are so comfortable together.  When they met up the first time, they hadn’t seen each other for over 4 years, Matthew would have been 6.  No problem hanging out together to play. That is so great.  I am thankful for great kids.

This morning, I slept in, very rare for me.  I can’t remember when the last time I did that.  I was quite stuffed up last night and had a restless sleep so the extra couple of hours this morning was so very nice.  I am thankful for a husband who looked after the kids and let me sleep in.

What a awesome weekend.  I have so much to be thankful for.  What are you thankful for?

The classes are awesome.  The teacher is very patient and it helps that her English vocabulary is not the greatest.  So we are forced to speak and explain things to her in French.  My classmates are all eager to learn too so it makes the lessons fun, sometimes we get a little loud as we joke around, all in French of course.

My bike ride in the morning is great too.  When I first started biking, it took me about 35minutes, now I am down to about 27minutes.   At the end of the first week of classes, the week of rain started.  The first day I took the bus, the next day I got a ride and then I realized, if I kept on taking the bus, it would defeat the purpose of my exercise and saving bus fare.  So I bit the bullet and rode my bike to school.  Denise had bought me rain pants for my birthday so why not put it to good use.  I did get wet but I didn’t melt.   So the plan is keep on riding till the snow falls.  Since the temperature drop will be gradual, my body will adjust and it will all be good.

So these everyday french lessons are great for the body and for the mind!

I was talking to a friend and she was telling me about a craft she did with her daughter.  She was telling me how hard it was for her to find bangles.  I thought wow what a cute idea.  I had a tons of bangles, so I went on line to find a design.  I found a pattern online and am so proud to say that it only took me about half an hour to make this little purse.  I had fun and the results were better than I expected.

I havn’t had too much time to work on my crafts and it felt so nice to be able to do a craft and complete and be able to give it away right away.  I was so proud of myself.

Andrew has a party to go to tomorrow so I made one for him to give too.  Being such an easy craft, I thought it would be really nice for him to help me make it.  He help sew the sides on the sewing machine and help stitch the bangles on too.

The kids are loving the social aspect of school and are ahead of their peers in school work.  That is find, it is a different experience from being home schooled.  Andrew know more would also give him the confidence in the classroom.

Of course with anything, there are the ups and down like how they forgot Andrew’s pizza so he didn’t have any lunch.  That happened his first week there.  It was really upsetting for him and for me.  Someone said he should have spoke up and he did.  I guess, it doesn’t matter whether you speak up or not, if they are not listening, nothing would happen!!  So now I being the over protective mum, I volunteer on Pizza Days.  Perfect as they are short of volunteers and I get a free pizza lunch too!
We also had a good talk with Andrew about the situation, and have used it as a learning experience.

Matthew has also been picked on at school.  Being the new kid, a grade 6 kid decided that he would tackle Matthew.  The other kid was sent to the office.  I have a feeling that this kid is a bit of trouble as we met him at the office the day we registered the kids at school.  Another learning experience, we talked about the kid, perhaps he has trouble fitting in or didn’t know how to make friends.  So we encouraged Matthew to pray for him to help him.

Natalie has been enjoying school.  She doesn’t have any issue but was really upset one day when a girl said that her hair was messy.  It was pretty knotted up in the back, especially after using her hood on her sweater.  She doesn’t like her hair being combed.  So maybe this is a good thing.  Something to encourage her to be tidier.  We have been braiding her hair everyday, plus it is getting longer.

I am getting used to being on my own in the afternoon.  I basically only have 2 hours.  Sometime I do shopping. For a while I was meeting my friend Lynda, she was teaching me French and I taught her English.   She is now working as a student teacher during the day so we are working on figuring out a time to study together after hours.  I have been doing lots of baking too, I think the kids should have healthy snacks at school. I am getting a YMCA membership so I will get a chance to go swimming again.  Yeah!   It is nice to have time to myself but I always seem so busy.  There is always something to do.  It will be different next year, when Natalie is in school full time.

I love home schooling the kids and them being in school also has it’s benefits.  Time will tell.  They have many friends now but everyone seems to be too busy with their own lives for playdates  so school is where they will get their socialization for now….

The cottages are for rent and they are fully equipped, very elegantly decorated and very comfortable.  The kids had a great time too.  In the morning they just hung around playing board games and on Saturday afternoon, the weather was perfect and the kids had a blast tobogganing and exploring.  Simone and Dan have a dog and Matthew really had a great time playing with her.  He declared that Saturday was his best day ever, the highest toboggan hill that he had ever been on and a dog to play with all day.  Andrew had a blast too, he couldn’t wait to go outside to play Sunday and spend about 3 hours outside tobogganing and playing in the snow.

We are looking forward to going back there, what a great place to be and so close to the city too.  Summer will be awesome when we can swim in the lake and explore the bush!

Hey if anyone is looking for a place to get away, this place is only about an hour and a half from Ottawa.  I highly recommend, check out their website for pictures and more information.  http://www.themoonshadowretreat.com/

I was torn, I felt that I couldn’t give them enough French, home schooling them.  One hour of French tutoring wasn’t enough and it is more expensive here for french lessons.  I figured a few months, I would be able to find other French resources.  So I made the decision to put them into the regular school system.  Unfortunately they were not accepted into the French immersion program at the public school system so they are now in the Catholic School board with middle immersion, meaning their French immersion doesn’t start till Grade 4.  That means, Matthew and Natalie(kindergarten has French immersion) are in French immersion and Andrew has 75 minutes of French a day.

The school is right next to the church so it is all within walking distance.  For the first week, I was anxious everyday about them going to school.  They are all enjoying being back at school and meeting new friends.  That was another reason for having them attend school.  We are in an older neighbourhood and I have not seen too many kids around.  We still have lots of friends with kids here but without a vehicle, it is not as convenient plus kids are all busy with different activities.  So now they are making their own friends around the area.

So for the last 2 weeks I have been walking the kids to school 3 times a day, taking the boys in the morning, taking Natalie after lunch(half days) and then picking them up after school.  I guess I am walking about an hour a day, getting my exercise.  I have about 2 hours a day and timing has been great. They started school right after our possessions arrived so I have been able to organize the house and put things away.   I have also been checking out the classified for furniture and other household items while the kids are at school and doing lots of baking….

One of the things that I have always wanted for myself was to learn French.  So twice a week, I am going to be doing exchange of English lessons for French lessons with an Algerian student who is in Education.  They speak French in Algeria and she needs to do a verbal and written exam in English so I am helping her with that.  We had our first exchange yesterday and it worked out really well. We met at the library while Natalie is at school so I don’t have to worry about the kids.

So the kids going back to school has been great, even though I had my doubts.  It is working out well for them and for me.  Perhaps we might still re-evaluate schooling come fall as I find out about other resources available in the city.