May 24th

We spent the weekend with the Sullivan clan at the cabin at Maccles Lake, just outside of Glovertown. The weather was great, no snow, but it was a little windy. It was actually so windy, that the 5 gal bucket of water on the back deck had white caps in it!

It has been a tradition to have lobster at the cabin as often as possible and certainly on the May 24 weekend. But I think this feed is probably the first that both Molly and Gabe are at an age where they really took part.

I think I was a little worried that if they kids saw what they were about to eat still in the shell, they wouldn’t eat it. Obviouly I was absolutely wrong on that point and both kids devoured what ever we put in front of them.

I think the best part of the night was watching the kids try and figure out the best way to eat these strange new beasts. Of course we did clean the lobster for them, but they both seemed to have a blast just playing with the shells, legs, antenna and tails.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can find more pictures and details over at Sara’s Blog

An afternoon in the sun

Weekly update

It’s been a very busy past few weeks with a ton of big changes, some  bad news, and lots of good news.

Our Kids

Our kids a feeling a little under the weather this week. It started a few days ago when Molly ran a bit of a fever. Now they both have a bit of a cough and Gabe has a few sniffles. I took both kids to gymnastics class first thing this morning, but they both ran out of steam before the class was over and they were asking to go home. It looks like today may be one of those stay indoors with plenty of hot chocolate kind of days.

 

Sara’s Kids

Bad News

Two of the children that Sara takes care of during the day will be leaving us at the end of the month. Their father has taken a new position that is send the family back to New Brunswick. P & C have been with us for a long time and they are definitely among Molly and Gabe’s best friends. They will definitely be missed.

Trying to replace them was certainly not as easy as we thought. P was the same age as Molly and C was the same as Gabe, it worked out perfectly. So ideally we would like to replace them with a girl and boy of the same age giving our two more play mates.

Sara has done a lot of interviews with parents but all of the children are 12 and 13 months old—not much fun for Molly.

Good News

Sara has filled the two positions left vacant and both kids (not related) will start at the beginning of April just when P & C leave so the timing will work out but both new kids are younger than Gabe. However Sara still has L who is Gabe’s age and he will be staying with us so at least Gabe will still have someone to play with and Molly will play with L as well.

Sara’s being published!!

Good news

Sara is going to have one of her scrapbook pieces published in her favourite magazine Create! Obviously she is ecstatic and really hasn’t come down from the ceiling since she found out last week. If you don’t read her blog—and you should—you can find more details about it over there.

Bad News

Sara was going to use that scrapbook layout (LO) for one of her upcoming classes at the Paperie. But conditions of her being published require her not to teach the class or publish the work anywhere else until the article has been published in August. It has left her in a bit of a scramble to find something else for the class, but I think she has pulled it all together and has something else prepared.

New Job

Bad News

At the end of February, my design position at Metro Signs was made obsolete. It left us in a bit of a scramble  trying to find a new something new, especially since we also knew that Sara would be losing two of her kids by the end of March.

Good News

The day after I left Metro Signs, I started a new job with Bugden Signs! Bugdens is a much larger sign shop with a larger crew. I’m now the Graphic and Production Manager, so I’ll be doing less design but I’ll be learning a whole new skill set. This is the end of my second week and it’s going great! My brain has been stuffed full of new technical info, but I’m started to get my head wrapped around the new position and great staff.

More Good News

I will begin teaching with the College of the North Atlantic this coming May. I’ll be working with the Department of Continuing Education teaching Studio Photography Level 1. This is an evening class so it won’t affect my day position with Bugdens. This will be a brand new course for the college so I’m going to have to write it first. But I will own the course when I’m finished, meaning I can teach it elsewhere and the College can not. If you know anybody looking to learn about studio photography, this will be a small class to better register now!

Flu Bug update

This was the scene this morning after we returned from Gabe’s gymnastics class. Both kids were pretty wiped out and I promised them that they could just relax for a bit before dinner with some TV and hot chocolate.

This is what they were doing while I was blogging this morning. Before I had finished my blog and before they had finished watching their movie, they had migrated to the couch to get a little more comfortable. I find this pretty odd because they both have sweaters on and it’s pretty warm in the basement.

This is what they were doing when I went to fix them some lunch. Molly is up and down but Gabe is pretty much comatose. By the time lunch is was ready, Molly was at the table but not very hungry at all especially since they didn’t have much of a mid morning snack.

When I went looking for Gabe He was sound asleep on the couch. I woke him to come eat but he cried and cried and asked to go to bed. I tucked him in without dinner and thats where he stayed for another 3 hours. Molly was pretty much the same but at least I got some lunch into her.

This evening they are doing much better and both are eating again but poor Gabes sinuses are pretty blocked.

Silly Faces

Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Of course the kids had to get their green on this morning for St. Patrick’s Day. I asked the kids to pose for a shot or two and I was really surprised that they actually cooperated for a few pics. Gabe wanted to see the picture as soon as I took it but we did get a few.

Just some random pics

Happy Birthday Sara!

Today is Sara’s official birthday. I say official because she likes to celebrate her birth more as a birthweek than a birthday. But she absolutely deserves all of the pampering that she gets and then some.

Sunday, we celebrated at my parents house with the Strickland clan. This evening we were at her mothers for supper and next week we are at her fathers. Somewhere in the middle Sara and I will celebrate together, and no, we will not be blogging about that.  ;)

It seems that Gabe is becoming much more animated at an early age than Molly was. The faces he makes are absolutely hilarious and he knows it! Sara believes that he is evil, but how can you get mad at a face like that? It’s his ability to make these faces that’s probably keeping him alive these days. If he doesn’t stay in his room during nap time, he could be toast.

Gabe the lock smith

The past few mornings Sara and I have noticed that Gabe has been getting out of his room early in the morning. He still has a child lock on his door so that he can not get out and wander around the house while we are sleeping. But these past few mornings we’ve been getting upset with Molly for letting Gabe out of his room before its time to get up.

I realized tonight that it’s not Molly at all but Gabe has figured it out all for himself. So this evening while we were getting ready for bed, I closed the door and asked Gabe to open the lock, he tried but can’t open the child lock. So. I asked him ” Gabe, how do you open your door?” I watched him reach down and put his hand under the door and gently pull and the door pops open!

So now he’s pretty proud of himself and I guess thinking that I’m proud of him as well. Sara and I tuck him into bed but we can’t keep him in his room. He thinks it’s hilarious to open the door and stroll on down stairs. We both try tucking him back in, we both try yelling at him but no luck.

I wait out side of his door and wait for him to jump out of bed and come pull the door open, but I keep it closed. I can hear him talking to himself in the room and he is wondering why the door won’t open. I guess the bottom of the door starts hurting his fingers, but instead of conceding and going to bed, he gets a blanket to wrap around his hands so he can pull harder!

Eventually I guess he either got tired or bored of pulling on the door and he got into bed and tucked himself in. I’m not sure what we are going to do tomorrow night, maybe I’ll have to get another child lock, but for the outside of the door.

 

 

Just look at that face!

 

How can you not love those faces? Head over to sarathings.com for more of the story.