Tuesday was my son’s first day of kindergarten. He woke up bright and early, well before he needed to, because he was overcome with excitement. A few days earlier we had purchased his school supplies, carefully going though the list his teacher had provided. It was finally the day he would get to put all his supplies in his VERY OWN DESK!

He combed his hair and even put a little gel in just to make it look extra nice. He wore his favorite new pants with LOTS of pockets, because boys need lots of pockets, of course, to stash things. Moms just hope they’re not living!

We arrived to school 30 minutes early, which gave us plenty of time to find his special cubby, locate the desk and stuff it with supplies. Once everything was inside, I let my son know he could play with the other kids for a few minutes before school started. He wasn’t interested. He wanted to sit patiently at his very own chair, at his very own desk and wait. Whose kid is this I wondered?

3hours and 15 minutes later I eagerly arrived at school to pick up my beautiful little boy from kindergarten. His hair was dishevelled. His face, red as a cherry. And yes he was a tad bit sweaty. I think it is safe to say he played hard!

When I asked him how school went, he replied “I didn’t get to use my scissors!”

I think he had a great time ;).

1.       HELPING AROUND THE HOUSE

He’s really great about helping around the house and cleaning.  Most nights he is the one who cleans up from dinner.  He washes everything, except one thing... never the wooden spoon.  I don’t understand why that is.  Every morning in the sink, there it is... that darn wooden spoon!  I even tested this whole wooden spoon thing out once and secretly made a pact with myself that I wasn’t going to wash it.  It stayed in the sink for days, until one day...  I finally caved and washed it myself.

2.       COOKIES

He’s never met a chocolate chip cookie he couldn’t eat in one bite.  OK, maybe that is not entirely true.  Some are big; however, I’m certain he doesn’t breathe.

3.       CALM

He is really calm, cool, and collected.  He rarely stresses, even over big things.  It’s a great influence on me.  There is one exception, and it’s a BIG exception... SPORTS!!! 
Let’s just say it’s the one thing that can make him loose his pleasing personality real quick.  If only there was time to share with you all the great sports related stories his friends have told me over the years.

4.       GOLF

He tells everyone that he is a fair weather golfer. DO NOT BELIEVE HIM! It could be a full on hurricane outside, and if he had the opportunity to golf, he would.

5.       MORE GOLF!

Speaking of golf, every time he goes golfing he loves to tell me how quick of a round it is going to be for x, y, or z reasons... he saw a bluebird outside so that means golf is going to be quick today.  Nevertheless, he is consistently off the mark by a solid 2 hours.  Has anyone actually ever seen their hubby come home after just 4 hours?!?  Just sayin.  YOU’RE NOT FOOLING ANYONE!

6.       THE MALL

My husband is a gifted athlete and really strong, but the moment he steps into a mall his back starts to hurt, and he’s really tired, and he just can’t go on...

7.       SICK

If he’s sick he’ll tell you that he just wants to be alone.  That’s not true.  He wants attention.  A LOT of attention!  And if you have an 'I’m sick badge' you can give him, even better!

8.       TOES

He can cross his toes!  How many people do you know that can do that?

9.       SARCASIM

He is extremely sarcastic.  It is like a walking comedy show for me to watch when people don’t get his sarcasm.  When in doubt – Don’t believe him! Here’s a hint: If you’re not sure if he is kidding look at his mouth.  He always gives it away with a little corner smile.  If it weren’t for that he’d be a great actor!

10.   LIGHT

No matter what the weather, or how dark the clouds, he consistently lights up the world.  If I were the earth, he’d be the sun!

I love you more than words, and look forward to many, many more years with you and all the bizarre things you do! :)

And a BIG Happy Birthday to Traveling Pat as well, who has a special birthday coming up this weekend!! We love you ♥

Have a great day, friends ☼


What bizarre things do your loved ones do?

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See the bizarre things my kids do here.

The only reason he will eat an apple whole is for the seeds. He eats one side until he gets to the center, then runs to the kitchen to get a utensil in order to pry the seeds out of the apple core.  He’ll carry as many seeds as he can manage to remove securely around the house in a tightly clenched fist, until he finds what seems to be the perfect spot to grow an apple tree- indoors- then stashes the seeds.  Oh how I love finding piles of apple seeds!  It’s like treasure hunt for Mommies.

His eyes are extremely sensitive to light.  Think vampire or bat.  If his sunglasses aren’t on pre-walking out the door he’ll cover his eyes, circling around like a chicken with no head yelling “I CAN’T SEE!”  At the dentist he began to look upset.  The concerned hygienist asked “What’s wrong? Does it hurt?” Nope.  It was those darn florescent lights on the ceiling.  Apparently the sunglasses didn’t work.

When he wants his little sister’s attention, he gets down on all fours and pretends to be a cat.  He meows at her side until she gives him her affection – sweet kisses and the usual “Aw, you’re a cute kitty!”

She tells everyone she’s three, but she’s not.  She’s 2.  I’m pretty sure she doesn’t believe me.

She is showing early signs of a love for baking.  Her favorite books to ‘read’ are not kids’ books.  They're my cook books!  Last week she napped with her pretend cookie sheet.  The next day she followed it up by napping with my chocolate cookbook.  All her idea!

She loves to look at dogs.  From across the street she’ll go on and on and on about how cute they are.  Then when they get up close she runs frantically away and SCREAMS! I’m talking as high a pitch as you can possibly imagine- like she has seen a rat!

We’re trying to potty train her.  She’s showing all the signs of being ready, but she refuses to go on the potty chair even though she hates being wet.  Her favorite place ‘to go’ -- the garage!  Hey, at least it is easier to clean up!

Her favorite things to wear-- Mommy’s heals and Daddy’s toque (yes – she’s 50% Canadian).  Summer, winter, spring or fall. Often simultaneously.

Hi Friends!  We are home from our summer vacation.  We traveled to North Carolina to visit lots of family.  It was a great time.  The weather was amazing!

On the way to North Carolina we opted for an overnight flight in the hopes that our children would sleep on the plane.  Ummm... it sounded like a good idea until we realized that it is really hard for the kids to lie down and get comfy to sleep.  Fun stuff!  Let’s just say the travel part was my least favorite part of the trip.

Once we arrived we had lots of fun.  

The kids were basically water babies the whole time!

My sister snapped this great picture of my Hubby and son on the Jet Ski.  Big Brother has been talking about it ever since.

Here is a picture of my daughter and me watching a beautiful sunset together.

The sky was breathtakingly beautiful!

These next 2 pictures of Hubs fishing on the dock are completely unedited, except for the added signature.  The sky was really that vibrant and striking.

At the ocean we had a great time digging in the sand.  I wish I snapped a picture of the professional looking sand castle my husband and brother-in-law, Uncle Dan built together.  It even had seashell floors!

Even though it was zoiling hot I still managed to drink hot coffees on the beach and loved it☺!


My son was 100% convinced this was a REAL pirate ship in the background.

We paid the fee to go out on the pier.

It lasted approximately 1.2 minutes before my son announced he had to go to the bathroom, so back we went.  Money well spent.  Hey, even though we didn’t make it to the end of the pier at least I got a picture!  


On the last evening Uncle Dan wanted to go fishing, so my sister Rachel, my husband and I tagged along.

This is how the professionals cast!

I’m happy to report it was a successful ocean fishing adventure.

BIG fish ...

He caught a SHARK!


Fortunately, Uncle Dan is a fireman and really brave so he held the shark up for a picture...

Thank you to our family for a wonderful time!!!


I hope you have a beautiful day, friends ☼

One of my favorite things about living is learning from others.  The lessons surround us and are ours for the taking.  When I was a young teen my sister, Rachel, taught me a valuable lesson that is imprinted on my soul.

One Christmas Rachel told our parents that instead of receiving any gifts, she would like the money to be donated to an animal shelter.  A very remarkable deed for a young girl growing up in our materialistic society. Rachel has one of the biggest hearts around.  In that moment I received a gift- a truly pure glimpse into her heart. 

Rachel is especially in touch with the souls of animals.  Something that was very apparent early on.  In fact, I suspect she sees them as more than merely animals, she sees them as beings.  They are her and she is them.  It is a union many of us are not bravely open enough to fully understand.

Rachel is the courageous girl who asked the boy everyone is ignoring at the school function to dance.  She has taught me a great many lessons.  She accepts and loves me even though I subjected her to some pretty crazy things as children- such as making her wipe her feet off before climbing into my bed :0)

I feel truly blessed Rachel is in my life.  I thought it about time I finally write that down.

You are an amazing mother, sister, woman, soul ♥
Your beauty shines from the inside out☼

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Have a wonderful weekend, friends!  I’ve decided to join Twitter @Wendy_Irene if you would like to keep in touch with me there.  It is even more fun than I was expecting ☺

Today is a special day :-D  My birthday!  In honor of the occasion I thought I would share with you a few old pictures.

My 1st Birthday

Me & my Mom hanging out at Grandma’s house.

Me and my brother Kevin at my 4th birthday party.

Age 5 with my Dad and my brother Steven.  Looks like I had attitude even back then ;-)

Age 9 with my sis, Rachel.  Even though I was the bossy older sis, there were moments of sweetness sprinkled throughout :) 
Gotta love the cabbage patch kids bedspread.  I know I did!

For my birthday Traveling Pat and my husband made me a special cake I requested- Dr. Barnard’s vegan friendly Wacky Chocolate Cake.  Thank you!  It was delicious and I loved it!  If you would like the recipe follow the link.  I know my family will be making it again soon.

Two weeks ago we loaded the family in the car and went to the beach.  Even though the weather was very cold we were longing to get outside and play in the sun.  After hitting the playground it was time for some Frisbee.

Frisbee on the beach in the winter?  A sign of what’s to come next!

Yup, you guessed it.  The Frisbee went straight in the water!  Despite what you might think it wasn’t the kids that threw the Frisbee into the lake, it was my husband.  Fortunately, I had my camera on hand to capture the craziness.

February in Idaho, temperature of about 38▫F.

It wasn’t just any Frisbee.  It was a special kind of Frisbee.  So special I have no idea what the name of it is, but nevertheless, it was very special to my husband.  He has probably had this Frisbee longer than our 11 year relationship.  In the water he went.  He didn’t even hesitate.

Good thing Mom was there to say “Little Brother, DON’T you dare follow him in!!”

Little Sister wanted to be in on the action too, but smartly kept a safe distance from the water.

The Frisbee sank, and in my husband’s words “It was harder for me to dig up the Frisbee than I thought it would be.”

Oh yeah!  That’s COLD!!!

He almost looks like he is modeling effortlessly in the photos, but I assure you it is pure photojournalism at work :)

Little Sister expresses her disappointment in Daddy for going into the water.  I am not going to lie, I was really enjoying it!  I didn’t need to say a thing about how it wasn’t a good idea to do that for a Frisbee.

What can I say?  My man loves his sports and I love him!

The whole way home Little Sister scolded her Daddy “Never do that AGAIN!”

Needless to say, I drove on the way home with the heat blasting.  My husband was frozen from the waist down and it took a while for him to warm up again.

*Disclosure – Please do NOT enter the water in cold winter temperatures! It is potentially very dangerous.  That being said, no one was hurt in the documenting of this post and I could NOT resist storing this one in the bank ;-)

Hi Friends♥!  How was your weekend?  Did you have a good Super Bowl Sunday?

Last week we had a good time visiting with Papa (my Dad) and Nonna! 

They flew out to Idaho from NY so we could celebrate 2 very special birthdays.

Big Brother turned 5, and my Dad turned 60!!!

It was a Toy Story themed birthday.  Just what my Dad was hoping for ;-)

For my Dad’s special birthday I decided to make part of his present.

I found a special box made by a local artist.

And inside of it put a photo holder I made for his big day!

I love photography with words!  There is something incredibly special and inspiring about it.  In fact, after a weekend of working hard you can now find my new Inspiration photography collection in my shop.

For the Big Birthday we took everyone bowling, and to an indoor mini golf course.  I did much better at mini golf than bowling.  I am pretty sure I caught my husband holding his breath while I was beating him the whole time until he caught up with me on the last hole.  Somehow I got lucky and had 2 hole-in-ones!  With bowling I was just hoping that my score would be higher than my age ;-)

Little Sister wanted to kick the bowling ball.  Right now every ball she sees is a soccer ball.

A few days beforehand, we all took a trip to Schweitzer Mountain.  When we arrived at the mountain we realized that we had everything but my daughter’s boots :-O  There were no toddler boots for sale anywhere, so we ended up buying a second pair of mittens to put on her feet and pulling her in the sled.  Needless to say it was a short amount of time on the mountain. 

The views were stunning, but the wind was howling and it was COLD!!!

Big Brother got to try out his snowboard for the first time.

He had a BLAST, and definitely did not want to leave!

Last week Little Sister turned 2!  Big Brother was soooooo excited about it he could barely sleep the night before and woke up extra early that day.  Other than the fact that we were not quite ready for him to come bounding into our room at such an early hour, it really was very sweet.  He exclaimed several times that it was going to be the best day ever!

When the kids go to sleep the night before, Hubby and I decorate for their BIG day!  When they wake up we sing them Happy Birthday while they check out the decorations.  Little Sister’s response was “Wow!  That’s amazing!”

For the most part we re-use all our birthday decorations for each birthday, sometimes with the addition of a few new things like a couple of balloons.  Reusing birthday decorations is not only better for the environment; it is also easier on Mom.  It is all my kids know so they really look forward to seeing the same decorations again. 

In fact, if we happen to miss one of the signs or decorations, Big Brother notices immediately and insists we bring it out!

He was sure to point out that this one particular sign was missing for Little Sister’s celebration.  So what could we do but take it out right away and strap it the fastest and easiest spot we could think of, the fire place.

For Little Sister’s 2nd Birthday we decided to go with a Teddy Bear theme.  We took the kids to the Build-a-Bear workshop for her party. 

Big Brother was bursting with excitement and Little Sister was cutely tromping around in her big boots checking everything out.

As soon as Big Brother spotted Rudolph he knew that was the one.

Little Sister, on the other hand, was having much more fun watching all the kids than looking at the animals, so I helped her decide on a very cute bunny.

In fact, she was so delighted with eating the lolly pop she had received and watching the people that Mommy had to help (completely do it myself!)  pick out an adorable outfit for her bunny.  I must say that was a lot of fun for me!  And when the girls working at the store were talking amongst themselves about what a cute combination it was and why they hadn’t thought of it, I was secretly patting myself on the back ;-D

When we got home we continued the celebration with chocolate cupcakes and strawberry frosting, with a gummy bear on top to go with the Teddy Bear theme.

We all had a lot of fun!
 
Here is the birthday girl herself enjoying her presents in her new chair.

Just her size! 

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your week!  Can’t wait to see you next week :-D

What a wonderful Holiday season it has been!  Here is a reflection of some of our special moments.

We found our perfect Christmas tree.

And had ourselves a little adventure on the way!

We decorated.

And re-decorated.

We baked.

And baked.

And baked some more.

Here is an action shot of me in my normal everyday wear.

No makeup and sweats.  Us Moms really know how to rock those out!  I like to call this look simple and efficient.  Hey, at least I pulled my hair back! :0)

This year we even made a few crafts.

A coffee filter wreath.

A special ornament.

And many other kid paper creations.

I menu planned ahead of time.  Do I get any applause for that one? 

I even put together a book of recipes I plan to make for our special holiday meals because I am a (dork!) organized.  I think this one saved me about one ounce of Holiday stress ;-)

We even took a boat ride to the North Pole!

And the kids made the GOOD list!  Phew!  The look of amazement that Big Brother had on his face when Santa read his name off the good list was something we will never forget.  He was worried about that one with all the cookies he has been sneaking out of the freezer in the wee early hours of the morning.  Only to be found out by the big piles of crumbs that were somehow appearing in his bed. 

He even asked how it is that he managed to get on that list when he fessed up about the cookies.  Of course as parents we had to come up with an on the spot explanation about how Santa believes in him, and that he is still a good kid even though he sometimes makes less than stellar choices.

Of all the moments this Holiday season my absolute favorite Christmas activity has been without a doubt cuddling on the couch with my family by the fire, enjoying our beautiful tree, and watching a Christmas movie together.

Christmas date night with my Hubby was pretty awesome too!

In a flash Christmas is already upon us.  We have Grandparents and a Great Grandparent here to celebrate with us so it is time to bid you ado and go make Merry!

I hope you have a truly magical Christmas Eve, and a very Merry Christmas!  Words cannot fully express how grateful I am to have you here.  Thank you for making this journey an amazing one with your friendship and support!

Happy Holidays!  Be sure to keep in touch!

With Love ♥,
Wendy Irene