Paiges Ninth Birthday Party

Even though Paiges birthday was in January, we had to wait until this weekend to have her birthday party with her friends (snow days, Marks work schedule, more snow days etc). She invited five friends over and they had a sleepover, so lots of giggles and gabbing and more giggles and more gabbing...by 1am I told them that I had six beds and wasn't afraid to separate them! :)

Here are a few pictures from her party!

Hugs to all,
Jaye


Paige chose an "Owl" them for her party so I had a picture made into an edible cake top for her cake this year! It was YUMMY!




Every girl could use more earings! Shown are Paiges friends Nicole and Alycia..



A $15.00 Toys R Us gift card...



The perfect gift for an 'Owl' themed party!



Another addition to Paiges Webkinz collection...



Another Owl!!



Another Webkinz and assorted Webkinz products (bookmark,figurine and trading cards)



Make a wish Birthday Girl!!

A Lazy Saturday morning...

This is how Ben spent his Saturday morning...in his underwear, playing pogo, talking to Gramma Barbie...what more could a little boy ask for?

Hugs to all
Jaye

Happy Valentines Day!

I hope you all had a Happy Valentines Day! We are on a four day weekend here (school NID, weekend, then Presidents Day) so Sam went to a friends house last night. We gave out our 'valentines' the day before so that he could get his card and m & m's! The kids each got a card and some sort of candy..I got flowers and chocolates and Mark got...well...an 'adult' gift bag! :)

I spent yesterday morning in Paiges class being "Party Mom". I had baked heart shaped sugar cookies and the kids rotated through different centers during their party, cookie decorating being one of them! We had a blast! Nothing like loading up a bunch of third graders on icing and sprinkles (or hundreds and thousands as my girlfriend in New Zealand calls them! How CUTE is that?). Paiges teacher gave ME a valentine- a box of chocolate covered fortune cookies! YUMMO!

Last night, Mark put steaks (for him and kids) and lamb chops (for me) on the grill and we watched a movie...

Like I said, we are on day one of a four day weekend..Mark has to work today, but has the next three days off. Tomorrow we are going to finish painting and wallpapering the laundry room (will post pictures of it!) and Sunday is Church and lunch out with friends. Monday will bring what it brings..hopefully nothing! :)

Hugs to all,
Jaye

ps...notice the spot on Bens forehead? It is a spider web tattoo that he insisted go on his head! Nice! :)

Tiki Tiki Tembo Movie

As promised, here is a longer movie of Bens play "Tiki Tiki Tembo"....Enjoy!

Hugs
Jaye

Ben the Thespian

Last night Ben had his first performance! The first graders always do 'Tiki Tiki Tembo' (Paige also did this in first grade!) and they always do such a great job! Ben had been so excited about this for weeks, and last night was very excited right up until it was time to leave the house, where upon he announced he wasn't going! We told him that his class was depending on him to be there and needed his voice and that we were going to go and he would have fun. He had gotten a sudden case of stage fright! Too cute! Once we were at the school, he had a ball, and as you can see in the movies I posted, he became quite the ham, looking for us in the audience and smiling etc! What a kid! And what a night!

Enjoy the photos and movie. I am going to post another movie separately as it is a bit long!

Hugs to all,
Jaye

Here is a picture of Ben at the beginning of the performance!




Out To The Sea song!

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Holidays, Movies and New Adventures

We are in between 'holidays' right now. We just celebrated Groundhog Day. We watched Groundhog day of course...it's become an annual tradition...the kids love it and not matter how many times I see it, it cracks me up! :)

The next holiday is Thursday, when we 'celebrate' Chinese New Year! Hey..when you run a daycare, you celebrate ALL the holidays ok!! :) The kids made paper lanterns today, and learned how to say Happy New Year in Chinese - Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Yesterday, I had the day free and clear as the couple of 'to do' items I had planned were canceled for one reason or another. Mark got home fairly early, and so with no kids around, we decided to go to the movies! Always a treat as we can then see something NOT animated! Our movie of choice was the new "Rambo" movie. VERY gory and bloody and violent..but then, it wouldn't be Rambo if it wasn't right? It also highlighted the tragedy and reality of Burma. While the movie is hard to watch at times, it makes you stop and think "This is REALLY happening every day over there". The next question should be "What can I do to help stop this genocide?". I am not sure I have an answer to that quite yet. I am still mulling it over in my mind.

On a different note, Mark and I have embarked on a new adventure! Our Church, Newlife, is training us to be DivorceCare leaders! We are starting out by attending the 13 week class to observe how the other leaders 'lead', and then we will lead a 13 week session ourselves. The program itself is Christian based, and has alot of resources and tools to help us pass on this great 'Divorce Recovery' healing info. We are quite excited about the whole thing. As you all know, both Mark and I have been divorced, and while my divorce was fairly amicable and my ex and I are now great co-parenters, Marks divorce and ensuing custody/visitation battle has been an ongoing almost 14 year nightmare. Marks ex is quite possibly the most destructive parent I have ever seen. We have watched as she has systematically and with full intent, done all she can to try to ensure that Mark and Shelby do NOT have a relationship. To his credit and with Gods grace, Mark has ALWAYS taken the high road and never undermined nor undercut his ex to their daughter. While the high road is not an easy one to take..and it can be a very lonely road, at the end of the day...it is the right road. Mark now has a very good relationship with his daughter despite his ex's intentions and it is this experience that we feel is good to pass on to others going through this same thing. We know what TO do and what NOT to do in order to ensure the mental and emotional health of the kids. We aren't experts that's for sure...but there is something to be said for the 'been there done that' experience that we have! :)

Ben has his first play on Thursday and so I will be sure to post pictures about that.

I am off to bed now. SOMEONE in this house (not mentioning any names!) messed with the alarm clock yesterday and so when it was set for 530 am for Mark to get up, it was actually 430!!! Needless to say, we are two very tired people! So off to bed we go!

Hugs to all,
Jaye

Speak Oh Toothless One

Guess who lost their first tooth???? YES!!! Ben is soooo excited! We were at H & R block getting our taxes done (Mark tried for DAYS to do them, but with me starting a business there are just too many things to know!) when Ben started eating his snack. I noticed that one of his wiggly teeth was laying flat down every time he took a bite, so I got him to finish his last bite and then I took a tissue and grabbed his tooth and gave it the barest of yanks..and VIOLA! Out it popped! Ben has told every person since then that he 'lost his first tooth'. So we shall see what the tooth fairy leaves for him tonight!


Ben with an 'evil toothless grin'




Ben giving me a better smile! (Not so evil!)