The newest member of the family

Here he is, meet Caige ...

... my new grandchild. This is him in his natural state. Claire is currently painting him "daffodil". She is also insisting his nickname is "Waffle". Just a regular evening in my household. Are you afraid?

This is a new experiment as part of health class at school. I had to laugh when it was all explained to me as things have changed since my day. None of the kids are pairing with anyone else, this is clearly a single-parent idea. I love that she is in such a progressive learning environment :)

Chloe is exclaiming how "cute" he is and asking if she can "babysit". Oh, the insanity of it all!

No doubt I will be posting the occasional update. Fingers crossed Claire doesn't drop him.

Here is the first mother and son portrait:

 

Tuesday just flew by!

Do you ever have one of those days that just seems to fly by? You just go, go, go? That was our Tuesday! I hadn't anticipated the insanity which probably made it more frantic than it needed to be, but I think I can state, for everyone, that fun was had by all.

• Laundry and housework was interrupted by my chauffeur duties as I dropped Claire off at the mall with her girlfriends for lunch.
• On the way home I took photos in to be developed and picked up some groceries.
• Those were quickly put away and I headed over to the school for Cole's D.A.R.E. graduation ceremony. Louis met me there and we enjoyed the ceremony with quite a number (really, a surprisingly large number) of other parents.
• I took off to collect little Miss Mall and Louis brought the kids home.
• We all arrived at the front steps of the house to enjoy the year-end reading of the report cards!
• A bit of garage organizing (Louis' ongoing project) while Chloe and I made dinner.
• Louis left after dinner for his hockey board meeting and I took Claire up to her baseball game.
  
• Louis meeting went longer than planned so packed the kids back in the car and went to get her! We were all back home and ready to sleep by 11PM. What a full day!

Claire with her new glasses and her prized google phone.

Cole with his D.A.R.E. medal. He enjoyed the course. I'm afraid of when he might have to employ the coping strategies taught. No doubt far earlier than I'd like!

My little helper. Chloe and I took a bit of a break in the kitchen action to join everyone in the front of the house.

While cleaning out the garage my boxing gloves were found! Caden put them to use, not good use, but he was fascinated anyway.

It's all about flexibility

and the realization that you are not alone; aka, there are other, equally crazed, parents of multiple children running all around town and out of town, too. We have Gala Weekend for lacrosse and a baseball tournament. The start is always brutal.

This weekend looks like this:

EDITED in red

Friday:
03:15 Collect Cole, Chloe and Caden from school Done
03:16 Crazy begins Indeed
06:00 Drop off Cole for Lacrosse Playoff Game on West side of town The Mammoth team won 9-6. Cole didn't score, but he did play tough. So sorry I missed it!
06:00 Cancel Caden's 3on3 Hockey game Done, and they won anyway :)
06:30 Take Caden to Lacrosse Playoff Game on East side of town Holy smokes was that ever an exciting game. Our boys are in the basement of novice lacrosse and they gave the #1 Shamrox team a run for their money. The score ended up tied 3-3. Was it ever exciting. I think I lost my voice!
06:30 Louis and Claire leave for Brantford (1 hour SW)
08:30 Claire plays baseball game vs Kingston in Brantford tournament Last I heard (10PM): 5th inning and they were winning 9-3
08:30 Take Cole to 3on3 Hockey game on East side of town Which they won 17-14. Cole scored 5 goals. He played well, but really has to get used to his new stick!
And I must remember to thank Doug for bringing Cole from the West side of town to the East side of town! So happy that both sets of our boys play on the same lacrosse teams and Doug lives on the East side so, though it is an imposition, it's not a colossal imposition to ask him to bring Cole with him!

Saturday:
10:15 Louis and Claire leave for Brantford Rain delay, they left at 1PM
12:15 Claire plays baseball game vs Niagara Falls in Brantford tournament Cancelled
01:00 Caden plays Lacrosse Playoff game on West side of town The Wings beat the Titans which means we go back to the rink for 7PM for the tiebreaker.
03:00 Cole plays Lacrosse Playoff game on West side of town, same arena, thankfully! And the Mammoth won their game, moving on to the semis!
03:15 Claire plays baseball game vs. Ancaster in Brantford tournament Claire won MVP!
05:00 Cole plays potential playoff game Fortunately, they played the later game so I was able to take them all over to Boston Pizza - pasta for Cole, chicken for Caden and Chloe had a burger
06:00 or Cole plays potential playoff game an hour later which was INCREDIBLE. Our boys really wanted to win and you could tell. They're in the finals tomorrow afternoon.
07:00 and Caden plays potential playoff game Which the boys played well but lost, a tight game 3-1.
I really don't like, but completely understand "potential" games. They're just so difficult to plan around and everything is completely up-in-the-air all day. For someone who lives by the calendar, I have to admit, I get a bit jittery on days like this! The solution? A full bag of magazines, toys, and other distractions.

Sunday is all about potential games. If the stars align and everyone wins:
08:30 Claire leaves for Brantford With all of the cancellations, Louis and Claire left the house at 7:15AM to be at their first game for 9AM.
10:30 Claire plays in one of two potential playoff games Though she played well, Claire was home in plenty of time for Cole's Championship game.
02:00 Claire possibly plays the Championship game See above :)
02:00 Caden possibly plays in the Championship game No championship game for Caden.
02:30 Cole possibly plays in the Championship game What a game! So much fun. Cole and his team did not win, but they really gave it a good effort with a final score of 3-1.
05:00 Stopped by the liquor store and picked up some wine and Caesar mix!

Somehow I'll manage to get everyone fed and to their rinks on time. Chloé will be entertained and supportive. Louis will make sure Claire does her thing. The whirlwind of activity will be over and everyone will be in the kitchen by, at the latest, Sunday at 6PM wondering what to do next.

Later is always better because that means their teams have won and there won't be any sad faces or pep talks. But we've done it all before. As parents, Louis and I will just roll with it. And, really? The kids have done it all before too. They know that win or lose, as long as they have given 100% to their teams, that is all they can expect of themselves. Certainly that's what we expect of them.

I do wish for you and your family far less chaos this weekend. I will make every attempt to post my SOOC Saturday but please forgive me if I forget!

Command Performance: Mother's Day

Each Mother's Day we go for a lovely lunch at my Dad's home in Toronto. It is a "command performance" which means, it is not to be missed: and we never would. My kids get such a charge out of seeing their extended family. This year was so much fun as all of the grandchildren have grown up so much, even since we last saw the crew in December, and they enjoy seeing each other so much. They might enjoy it more than the adults, but I doubt it :)

Each year we take a family photo out in the back yard, but I figured when I read the frost warning (yes, frost warning) before we left, that there was chance we'd not get any outdoor photos taken. I did pack along my portrait lens (admittedly giving me trouble - or maybe it's the photographer!) and took as many photos as I could of the festivities so that I can put something together for my parents as a thank you.

There is a perfect North corner in the house and with the flat light of the day, portrait opportunities were perfect. Each of the grandchildren posed for me, I asked them to strike whatever pose they chose and then I took the photo. I wanted to capture them as they are, their true personality. I got some really good shots. Here are my kids (as I don't have permission to plaster everyone on the internet!):




They clean up nice, eh?

It was such a wonderful day. Cole and Louis left early to get our hockey guy to the rink for 4PM but the rest of us stayed to say a leisurely goodbye. Until next time ... in December!

I wish for all of you a very happy Mother's Day. I hope you all got breakfast in bed, colourful construction paper cards, lots of hugs and plants like I received from mine:

She cracks me up ...

Claire is the happiest of all the happy people I've ever met. An absolute joy to be around 98% of the time. Warning: that remaining 2% is brutal.

And she's funny. She's even more funny when she doesn't mean to be. The most recent example:

Claire: Mama, what're you doing?

Me: A layout honey, why?

Claire: How many are you doing, why is all of this stuff out?

Me: I'm participating in the LOAD challenge online.

Claire: A laundry challenge? How are you going to do it online?

I have mentioned that she is a natural blonde, haven't I?

In my most patient "we've entered remediation" voice, I explained to her that I have joined the LOAD challenge over at Scrap Happy. As eldest daughter of a scrapbooker - as well as, clearly, laundress - she was very quick to understand.

It's moments like this that make me far more patient when I'm hounding her to do (or, as in tonight, re-do) her science project experiment. Redo? Yup, one more lesson in 'you should listen to your mother the first time'.

Ah, parenting. It's a joy. Good thing she really makes it joyful. Every day.

Growing up is hard to do

I have found the one thing in this world that is worse than my first "official break-up" - it is that of my child. The romance is over, Tyler has spent the last two weeks in Florida and upon his arrival home has told Claire that "it's not working".

Claire has gone through her stages of grief:

• Sadness
• Anger
• Talking on the phone with girlfriends
• Ice Cream

In years to come, these stages will be joined by watching sappy movies; wearing pajamas for days on end; and, a red nose as a result of much kleenex use, but that will have to wait.

I am so sad for her, but in my own warped-mama way, thrilled that now we can focus on other things - like schoolwork and her new captaincy of the swim team.

Though, can I say, the resilience of youth is amazing. Claire was a puddle of tears when we left (at her insistence) for Cole's hockey game - I'm glad not to have missed it, he got his very first First Star - sometime around 6PM. By the time we returned at 10PM she was chatty, engaging and tear-free. It may be bluster, but she's talking like an mature, rational, grown up person.

Huh? Where'd she come from? I was unprepared for her grown-up transition. It's Louis' belief that she's proving to be my kid. No drama. No more tears. No anger. Just determination to move onward.

So, onward it is.

Meet G10

I had not intended to buy the new Canon G10, after all, with the G9 working fine, why replace it? Well, that was until last Friday. I unintentionally left my jacket at the blood donor clinic. In the pocket was my G9 and my favourite fuzzy green (grinch) gloves.

I took Claire to Henry's to pick up her birthday gift - she wanted a camera and finds mine too "clunky" so we picked up a cute little ELPH for her. While there, the G10s were in the same display case. One called to me and I listened.

I also had a great conversation with Don, the very knowledgeable Canon-fan behind the counter, about upgrading my current Rebel and spoke at length (much to Claire's delight - insert rolling eyes here) about lenses for low-light hockey rink situations. Looks like there might be some upgrades in the near future.

So, I've got this new baby out of the box. I'm half way through the manual. I'm determined to keep up with my plan to know how to use the equipment I have rather than simply accumulate more new stuff! Some of the dials have changed and the "feel" is a bit different.

Let's hope I remember to not leave this one anywhere!

He's a nice boy

So, at 11:30AM, the doorbell rang and it was a nice gentleman delivering flowers ... for Claire! She was so excited. Her first roses from a b.o.y. is something you never forget. Tyler arrived a little after noon and we got them both up to the theatre for the showing of "Bolt" at 12:40PM.

I think they had a nice day.

A movie, a bit to eat, back here to the house to be harassed by siblings, Claire then went to watch Tyler play hockey (he's a goalie) and then back here to watch the end of the Toronto game for some ... the Montreal game for others.

Claire is happy. She had a good day. I can breathe now.

Lookout: There's a TEENAGER in the house

With much enthusiasm, Claire opened her gift from my parents. It arrived by courier which made it even that much more special for her.

A new chapter is about to begin, whether she's ready for it or not. I can assure you that I, for one, am not. Claire is anxious to run head-long into teenager-hood and I'm doing my best to remember how that delicious anticipation felt and encourage her along the way, though I'd dearly love to lock her up and not let her out for another ten years!

Today is a Claire day. No party. No cake. No streamers or balloons. She's decided she wants to go to the movies with Tyler, have an early dinner then go to his hockey game. I am the chauffeur.

Sometime by the end of the weekend we'll head over to Henry's and pick up the one gifts she's requested: a digital Canon Elph, a cute little blue one, of course.

Happy birthday, Claire. A baby no more, but always my baby :)

Good Sports & Little Stinkers

(Good Sports)

(Little Stinkers)

Each Sunday there is Open Skating at the Appleby rink. For a variety of reasons, we have not participated until today. Claire deserved a break from studying for her upcoming Science exam, tomorrow morning; and, I thought it might be good to get Chloé and Caden out on the ice. After all, I did manage to sleep through Caden's hockey game this morning - at least he got an hour of fun on the ice this afternoon.

For fun, Claire invited "the boy" and his brother to join us.

I think they all had a good time. The older kids really were good sports about it. The little kids were, as is their job, little stinkers. I was just plain freezing reading a book on the metal bleachers. Note to self: bring a blanket and/or pillow next time! Brr. It's going to take me a while to thaw out.

Time: it's a love-hate thing

Anyone who knows me knows I have a love hate relationship with time. I love my clocks. I live knowing exactly what time it is. I'm very much a fan of order and control, that is when time is my friend.

I have four children which is when time is my enemy.

I cannot stand anyone who is habitually late. It is so incredibly disrespectful. It is a physical manifestation of the belief that the time of X time is more valuable than the time of Y. Truly arrogant people are late. That's not a dig, it's a fact. If I'm late there are two options: I'm dead or I've been made late by someone who considers their time more important than mine.

I go crazy when I feel like I don't have enough time. It means I have not managed the time given to me, well. Grr. One thing I am able to do well is manage time so the feeling of being rushed is somewhat foreign and uncomfortable. Makes me very irritable. That is not a good thing.

Time management is something I'm trying to teach my children.

When I collected Cole from school yesterday he was in a surly mood. He had handed in an assignment - a brochure outlining how Ireland would be a good trading partner for Canada. He was given two weeks to complete the assignment. He got the rubric back and received a 3- (translation: B-). Wow, was he ever upset with himself. We had a talk and I managed to calm him down.

Then he said it. The worst sentence ever. "I didn't have time".

When my brain regained function, I took Cole through an exercise. Mama's TIME MATH:

168 are the hours in a week (24 x 7)
70 are the hours of sleep in a week (10 x 7 days)
30 are the hours of school (6 x 5 days)

You cannot change these hours, they are what they are, what's left?

68 hours
8 hours are dedicated to hockey games and/or practice throughout the week

Cole has 60 hours. SIXTY HOURS to do with whatever he choses to do. Clearly homework is not one of his priorities or it would be done, better. He was shocked when he saw the numbers. Claire was equally shocked.

They have been given an exercise for the next week. Starting now they have to document what they are doing with those 60 hours. I'm curious to see how they actually manage their time. I think they'll be surprised.

Camera Gifts

Do your kids "borrow" your camera? Mine do, all the time. Usually I find self portraits, noses, belly buttons, funny faces, other children, rocks and all nature of things. Sometimes, I get gifts like this!

Claire took a photo of the sunrise yesterday. This was just around 7:30AM - as we were leaving LATE for school. I wondered what she was doing!

My little ghosts and goblins

Hallowe'en is such a huge undertaking, but boy do the kids ever love it! (It also holds very special memories for me as well.)

We purchased, gutted and carved the pumpkins; the costumes were chosen and organized. Candy which consisted of rockets (the Canadian kind) and lollipops were put into the witches kettle to hand out. Louis took the kids to their appointed rounds - Chloé with Cameron and friends, Caden and Cole with their friends (Louis stayed with the boys). Claire stayed home to hand out candy as she is still grounded and wasn't allowed to go out with her friends. With the tremendous spirit she has, she did dress up and did her best to enjoy the evening. The problem? The doorbell rang ... TWICE!

We are located on a very quiet cul du sac and the majority of the kid population and their playmates are located on the other side of the creek. Poor Claire was not in the least bit impressed. Our location is great for every day living, not so much for Hallowe'en visitors.

The evening ended with all of the goodies emptied and sorted onto the kitchen table. The kids are allowed to keep 20 pieces each. Normally the "Good Pumpkin" takes the excess candy and replaces it with books. This year s/he didn't get a chance to run to the bookstore! No doubt something will be figured out to maintain the ruse. I think this is the part that Louis enjoys the most - the sorting and organizing all of the goodies. No doubt keeping a couple for himself is kind of fun, too!

I do like this Friday night timing, though. The kids can stay up and then sleep in. And sleep in they did, after all, hockey practice isn't until noon. Now that I am finally starting my delayed "Have More Fun" class which includes me taking a sunrise on Day 1. Hmm. November 1 is Day 1! Sometimes my great plans start off a bit bumpy! Thank goodness no sunrise ... I'll have to fake it some other morning ;)

I am not ready

On Saturday night, Claire organized that we were to meet Tyler. Claire has spent plenty of time with Tyler on MSN and refers to him as her "boyfriend". I have been assured by those who know better (you know, the mums who have older kids and more experience than me) that this is not to be confused with my definition of boyfriend - which fills me with a certain amount of relief!

They have both been very respectful and kind to each other. Claire made it clear to us a couple of weeks ago that it is important that we not only like her friend, but like his parents. Good news: we already know and like his parents and Caden is buddies with his little brother who was on his baseball team this past summer.

We treated the Soares men to dinner and then back to the house for pie and hockey. Yes, a typical Saturday night in the Ouellette house! Chloe ran downstairs and snapped a photo of Claire and Tyler.

Even with all of the mature behaviour from the kids, the exchange of phone numbers and e-mails by the parents and the outline of the "rules", I'm not ready.

Really.

Not ready.

At all.

A Passion for Basketball

Going in to the game today the girls were a bit concerned because the Bishop Strachan School team is ranked 3rd and our team has not been fairing terribly well this season. How excited were they when the final score was 47-30 in their favour! And, Claire managed to earn 18 of those points.

Proud Mama Moment

Can I tell you how tickled I was when Claire declared herself "in charge" of Cole's political campaign - at least the marketing aspect of it all. Currently Cole is the Member of Parliament (Class Rep) for Mrs. Toding's grade 6 class; no doubt a true blue conservative. I have visions of Alex P. Keaton running through my head!

This week and next, each of the MPs are running for Prime Minister of the school. Cole has developed his campaign and Claire has developed his slogans and his flyers. There was a big photo shoot and lots of whispering and running around after school today.

This is what they came up with:

Hardworking Cole

Enthusiastic Cole

Fun Cole

Cole and his Campaign Manager

The Campaign Poster they developed ... together.

I'm positively giddy with pride. When they're good they're so very, very good. And when they're bad, they're Louis' kids!

Moving right along ... assignment #2

I modified the dimensions to accommodate the photos I had on hand. Way better to get a layout DONE rather than just PLANNED, eh?

This is the second assignment from the DYL class with Cathy Z. Notice my go-to pink cardstock? If in doubt, it really is the best choice!

There is yet a third assignment (jeepers, it's only Saturday, the class started but two days ago!), currently in progress, sitting on my work table. My hesitation is that it has to be hand-written. I have just about everything complete, with the exception of that element. Once I decide exactly what I'm going to write, without the aid of the delete key, I'll get it finished and uploaded. Yes, for those keeping score, it is a layout about Chloé.

And, can I tell you how excited I am that Cathy Z. herself commented on my Caden layout (below) in the class gallery? It's the only comment, but boy, did it make me feel all warm and fuzzy :)

Canvas Photos Have Arrived!

Love the Express Mail labels. Always promises fun things inside!
These babies were packed tight. No damage done. Perfect.

I am not the only photographer in the house.

Every once in a while I discover photos I didn't take when I clear off the card. Imagine my delight when last September (almost exactly one year ago), I discovered these photos!

Claire watched her siblings playing out in our back yard. At the far end there is a huge maple tree resting on the side of the lake. All of our children can often be found standing, sitting, reading, lying, running and playing under that tree. Claire patiently waited and took these photos. They aren't technically perfect but boy, am I ever proud of her!

What better way to show her just how proud than to make them a centerpiece in our home?

It took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. It had to be something spectacular and simple. Often that combination also means expensive which was not part of my criteria! Somehow I discovered Quality Canvas Photos. Patricia was very helpful when I placed my order last week. It was a quick process, in little over a week my order arrived.

This will be a great surprise for Claire when she comes home tonight after her basketball game. I think they look fabulous!

UPDATE: She was THRILLED with how they turned out. A whole wall dedicated to her work. She has insisted that I take them down so she can sign them. Funny girl!

Wacky Wednesday

I have no photo that would do this afternoon justice.

If Claire (and her friends) do not have a sport competition on Wednesday afternoons they get off of school at 1:30PM. Two and a half hours earlier than usual. While I was wandering around Michael's (yes, ANOTHER project - but it's actually completed already!) I received a text asking if I could pick up one of her friends. Okay. In the end, I picked up five girls.

What a delight!

They quickly forgot I was driving and launched into everything and anything with abandon. It was so much fun to hear them all giggling, shrieking, chatting. They piled out of the truck and into the house. Drinking pop and eating chips and salsa they were having an uproarious time in the basement. They eventually left for a field trip to Butterfly Ice Cream in Bronte. All too soon, mums arrived to collect them all!

I've already been asked, and agreed, to Wednesday afternoons with the girls here at the house. Though, I think I'll have to reconsider the vehicle and use Louis' big Yukon XL! Claire has a lovely group of friends. I really enjoyed hearing them all today. It was a long summer without all that shrieking and giggling, I missed it!

The ham gene

Each of my children have received a good dose of humour. Ever since Claire was a little kid she has enjoyed playing with the mesh protecting the Fuji apples. She puts her thumb through and wears them like a fingerless glove.

I love that she still has that little girl inside her. It is delightful (and fleeting) when she comes out to play. I'm still shocked she let me get it on camera! Must have been a great day at school, or her guard is just way down. Regardless. I'm thrilled.

Had to share!