Katie Sings Veggie Tales

Disclaimer: At no point in time have I ever or ever will I claim to be a good or even decent singer. I know I suck. Mark knows I suck. The kids know I suck. I think its general knowledge that I suck. So please, please, I'm begging you... please ignore my awful singing and focus on the cuteness that is Katie.

Happy Birthday Mom!

When I was little I used to write my mom birthday poems instead of forking over the cash to buy her real gifts. They were super mushy and had the corniest lines. And the ryhmes... oh the rhymes! I am embarrased just thinking about them.

I probably haven't written her a birthday poem since I was 12, but here we are today, March 10th... my mom's birthday. Today is my mom's 48th birthday.... and I didn't buy her a gift. So mom.... this birthday poem's for you!

My mom was born so long ago,

Way back when the guys had fros.

The girls wore clothes that would make you cry

They were so ugly, I think I would die.

Look at her hair, the way it swoops

Stacey London would say it's a big fashion oops.

When I see these photos it makes me laugh

how'd she get those shorts up past her calf?

Lucky for us times have changed,

those clothes and her have become estranged.

Her hair has straightened, her clothes are mellow

but she hasn't changed her taste in a certain fellow.

My mom is hip, my mom is with it

I sure hope this year she doesn't kick it.

Ok, so obviously my poems haven't improved over the years. Infact, I think they may be even worse! haha.

In all seriousness, Happy Birthday Mom. I love you and appreciate everything you do for our family. You're always there when I need you.

Hey, where we goin' today Rocket Girl?

Out of all the toys we have in our family room, this is what the kids have been playing with for the past week. A 2 cube box. It's been made into a fort, into a robot, and now - in this picture, a rocket ship.

No rocket ship would be complete without party noise makers! (Left over from Duke's birthday party in August). I often hear "3-2-1 BLAST OFF!" followed by 10 minutes of pure ear drum shattering shrills from their horns. I don't know quite why they do it... maybe thats how their rocket ship is powered? Or maybe its just fun to irritate mom?

Had I known they would have been this entertained by a cardboard box for this long, we wouldn't have half as many toy-toys in the basement. I can plop both of them down in the box infront of a Curious George movie and I have 60 minutes of uninterupted mommy time (minus the horn blasting of course).

You'd think I would learn...

Remember this??

That was Logan at about 21 months - eating yogurt unsupervised. Now, you'd think after that mess I would have learnt my lesson... but no. Here is Katie, at 21 months - eating yogurt... again, unsupervised.

The Gyro Bowl

While we were in Hawaii we discovered this magical thing called the Gyro Bowl. "The world's first ever snack bowl that spins and spins and stuff stays in!" It was on a commerical one evening (see?? something good did come out of all those many, many hours of football Uncle Ray made us watch!) and I couldn't believe my eyes. A spillproof bowl?? It's like the creators of gyro bowl made this personally for me with my children in mind! I mean, the gyro bowl is 100% totally, ABSOLUTLEY kid proof!

Just fill the gyro bowl, and you're ready to go! I'll share the secret with you... the magic is in the middle! The gyro bowl works just like a globe (apparently?!?). The inner bowl rotates 360 degrees and magically stays open no matter what!

But the Gyro bowl isn't just for kids... no, no, no! The gyro bowl is also perfect for holding nuts and bolts, paperclips, pushpins and more! I can bring it to my office, put them out at parties, or even by the pool! (Cause we all have pools in our backyards here in Calgary! More like icerinks!!) Adults like the gyro bowl because they're just so cool!

Oh, and don't you worry, I called right away and got the second gyro bowl for free! That's two amazing gyro bowls for the same low price!

I had never ordered something from an infomerical before... but thought I couldn't go wrong. Afterall, it was 100% guaranteed!! When the package arrived today we had a lot of fun playing with it, and it is virtually spillproof. We filled it with many marshmellows and the kids went to town and nothing fell out. So it's lived up to its promise, but would I order it again?? Meh...

But Mom!!! I'm NOT tired!!

Logan initally quit napping this past summer when he turned 3. We stopped the afternoon snoozes because Logan was having a hard time falling asleep at night and was often up until 10:30pm singing and playing in his bed. And for a long time it seemed like he was fine without that daily afternoon nap. Until recently...

Recently Logan has become a BEAR! Very tired, and VERY cranky. He has also been battling some sort of stomach bug. He has been complaining of a sore stomach and refuses to eat more than 2-3 bites a meal. Fortunately there has been little to no puke... UNfortunately there has been a lot of poop. (I think that is the first time in 5 years that I have said "poop" in my blog... not bad for having two small kids!!)

So, for the past 5 days we have reinsituted nap time. And for the past five days there haven't been any complaints. Everyone has been napping for 2 hours during the day and still going to bed without a stuggle at 8pm every night.

Until yesterday.... yesterday afternoon Logan put up a fight. "But Moooooooooom!! I'm NOT tired!!" I tried, he fought it. So, I gave in and let him stay up. Not even 10 minutes later I found this....

The Poor Man's Heritage Classic Game

Mark and I couldn't justify spending money on tickets to the Heritage Classic game on Sunday - I mean, we don't have baseboards or window casings, so spending $200+ on hockey tickets seems kind of frivolous. We did watch it on TV, but it would have been cool to have experienced it in person. So when Mark was offered tickets to today's Hitmen "heritage classic" (not really a heritage classic, but we'll call it that anyways) game for free he was super excited. Except, I had to work... so instead he took his dad and Logan.

Logan had never been on the C-train before, so he was super excited about that - yet alone going to the hitmen game. Mark says he was SUPER excited when they went through the tunnel.

Dressed in layers to keep warm.

Mark says they had EXCELLENT seats - thanks Uncle Bill!

Normally at Hitmen games Logan is PETRIFIED of Farley. He starts to freak out if Farley gets anywhere near him. But today he told Mark "Daddy! I'm not afraid of Farley anymore!" And even posed for a picture with him.

A man in the row behind them happened to catch a hitmen scarf from the "ice girls" and gave it to Logan.

At the end of the day Logan was pooped! He fell asleep on the way home - half way through his peanut butter sandwich.

Katie & Payton

At Payton's church baby shower she received the cutest little outift - a jean jumper with matching shirt and leggings. It was adorable! I liked it so much that I quickly ran out to Walmart (of all places!) the next day to buy the exact one for Katie. So now the two of them have matching outfits. Kelly and I couldn't resist dressing them the same this past Sunday for a photo opp. Mark and Tj's cooridinating outfits.. now that was pure fluke! But made the picture extra funny!!

Cooking up a storm..

We are really lucky to have such great neighbors living next door (on the one side at least... don't get me started about the guys on the other side!!) The Osmonds (as we like to call them) are super considerate and such nice, genuine people. Don & Marie have one daughter - Christina, who is now 16. The other day Don came over with some of Christina's old toys and asked if our kids would like to have them. Included in they toys was this Fisher Price kitchen.

Since Don dropped off the kitchen the kids haven't stopped playing with it! They absolutely LOVE it. The two of them can play down there TOGETHER, happily, but most importantly, QUIETLY for hours!

Logan's favorite part is the fruit and vegetables that stick together with velcro. He loves to "cut" them apart and prepare various dishes.

Katie's favorite part has got to be the built in highchair. She likes to feed her dolly. As you can see from the one picture, Dolly has been prepared a VERY nutrious breakfast consisting of donuts, corn on the cob etc etc.

Logan was a little perturbed that there was no dishwasher. "How are we going to clean the dishes?!" he asked me.. so I got him a wash cloth and told him he'd have to pretend to wash them by hand in the sink instead. "Ugh! Katie can do that! That's HER job cause she's a GIRL!" I think Mark will have to step up to the plate these next couple of days and set a good example for his son and do the dishes!

Another bad influence Mark has been on the kids is pictured below... Katie was drinking out of the balsamic vinegar bottle. I asked her, "Katie, what are you drinking? Juice?" And Logan says, "No mommy, it's BEER!!!" And Katie kept chugging away.

Logan loves to have "guests" over for dinner. When I'm upstairs I can hear him calling people and inviting them over for supper. Here he was having quite the conversation with Uncle Louis. He was a little worried cause Uncle Louis apparently told him he wanted to have 10 pizzas for supper, and Logan said he didn't have enough "greedients".

Rudolph the Red Nose Baby

Katie tripped over a mat at the grocery store the other day and face planted. She cried and cried and cried and I think half of the Coop staff came running to see what was going on and to make sure she was okay. No major damage was done - just a little rug burn on the tip of her nose. She tends to be a little dramatic in circumstaces like this.

I took some pictures of 'Rudolph' (as we've been calling her) while she tried to call Grandma on the iTouch.