Get out and PLAY!

I think I’ve become way too serious lately, and haven’t been much fun. Having Frost Byte with us this past month reminded me I can be a fun mom, but I haven’t been lately. Working from home definitely has some wonderful perks that I would hate to give up, but it also has some challenges. One of those things is separating work from home life. Lately, my nose has been in the computer or when its not, I just don’t feel very present as my mind is on other things ie. did I switch that load of laundry, does anyone have an appointment I’m missing, was the dishwasher turned on? I’m completely a distracted parent lately and need to do something about this now.

This past week in the east coast we got a nice dumping of snow. Not too much that closed things down, but just enough for getting out and testing out the new monster sled Santa brought:

With the help of trusty Facebook I got some suggestion of everyone’s favourite sliding spots and we headed out to the local Golf course for some sliding action! This first hill I will admit I was a little nervous about. I remember knocking the wind out of myself on it a few times as a teen. Daddio managed to capture the C-Man and I taking it on, which Mr. L later dubbed this hill “The Beast”. I also captured one of Liam and Andrew with Ciaran and uploaded them to You Tube last night. Poor Finnshine is not in any videos, but he was there and really enjoyed himself. He held his own climbing up the hills and really enjoyed himself, although he did not like getting sprayed in the face with flying snow, but who does?

We moved onto a smaller hill and had such a great time, the weather was perfect, no wind and nice and sunny! It reminded me of the amazing childhood I had and of the many hours spent cross country skiing with my brother and dad at this very same golf course. I need to make time for doing more of this fun stuff. We only have a few more days with Daddio home from work so I’m going to start making a list of stuff to do this week! I’m really looking forward to this Sunday’s activity. At Mr. L’s hockey practice the parent’s will be taking on the kids in a match and I’ll be participating! I haven’t had full hockey gear on in close to 20 years so it should be pretty humorous!

As I finish up this entry at 7:30 am, (I got up at 5am to do some work so I could be available later) I’m going to try my best to PLAY with my kids and have fun!

Hair- It's on you to grow and give

I’ve been blessed with fairly good health and have been wanting to do little things to give back. I’ve tried donating blood in the past but my iron has been on the low side and was turned away. I did though sign up for One Match two years ago though Canadian Blood Services. One Match is responsible for finding and matching volunteer donors for patients who require stem cell transplants. Fewer than 30 per cent of patients who need stem cell transplants find a compatible donor within their own families. The rest rely on those who have volunteered to donate stem cells to anyone in need.  It was super easy to sign up by filling out an online questionaire and then doing a quick cheek swap and sending it back in to One Match.

Then just over 20 months ago in the Spring of 2009, I decided to let my short inverted bob grow out so I could donate my red locks to be made into a wig for those struggling through hair loss from chemotherapy. There’s a few programs that you can donate to and in the end I decided on  Pantene’s Beautiful Length’s program. They have partnered with the Canadian Cancer Society and donate the wigs to the recipients at no cost to them. They also have a blog at their site as well- Official WordPress Blog

So if you’ve seen me over the past several months you may not have actually realized just how long my hair was as I’ve been wearing it in braids or up. Here’s a shot just before the cut and after the 11 inches were cut off!

The Final Days of Frost Byte and Friend

Elves sometimes lose their creative juices when they’ve been away from their other elf friends in the North Pole. One morning after a particularly stressful day I saw Frost Byte left ME a little gift. A lovely snowflake table cloth with matching tea towels!

The next night he left the kids a little something too!

A HUGE gingerbread house!

The next morning we found Frost Byte in a snowball fight with the Nintendo posse. It looks as though they really outnumbered him and he brought a new friend back with him from the North Pole.

A new unnamed friend!

The next night Mom and Dad were out for a friends retirement party and had a few drinks to celebrate. Hmmmn looks as though this new Elf may be a bad influence on Frost Byte.

The next morning we found this sign under the tree: ” Elf Reform School- Newest Recruits: Liam, age 8, Ciaran age 6, and Finn age 3 11/12″

And with the note were three sets of Elf ears hats, on the other side a little something “nice” for Mackenzie

Christmas Eve morning was Frost Byte’s last visit with us, he left the boys matching jammies and Kenz some flannel Hello Kitty ones. I’ve included a few pics from our evening. That night we left Frost Byte out with Santa’s Milk and Cookies for him to return back to the North Pole for another year. I wonder what mischief he’ll bring next year?

Christmas Eve Candlelight service at Saint John Vineyard

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

My Crafty Side

Occasionally i find a great idea online and try to recreate it. This year I found a really cute teacher’s gift idea on our sister site TodayParent.com’s Forums. I took some photos while creating this, I hope you like it!

First start off with a box like this, I picked them up at a large craft store, but I think they’re available even at dollar stores.

Next take a piece of computer paper and cut out a traceable template:

I then filled the box with chocolates, staples, push pins, paperclips, hand sanitizer and other trinkets, however I would suggest waiting until the end to do this to make the other steps easier.

Next attach ribbon, leaving enough extra to tie a bow.

Using the paper template I cut out 3 strips of coordinating paper to glue onto the box from a selection of school themed papers I had from Becky Higgins School Years sets.

I then added some school themed and letter stickers to spell out each teachers name to the box, and voila…a customized box for your child’s teacher!

Elf Mischief Dec 14-17

I really think Frost Byte is missing home as he’s been up to a lot of mischief the past few days:

December 14th- Scaling the fridge for Cookies

I had heard elves had a sweet tooth so I made sure to hide the cookies way up high on top of the fridge. That didn’t stop Frost Byte though!

Dec 15th- Back to his Potty Humour!

Frost Byte was definitely in a cheeky mood this night. Did you know elves pee is green?

Dec 16th- Missing the snow at Home

This past fall here in NB, we seemed to have the wettest weather that I can remember in my lifetime and this week was probably some of the wettest we’ve had with major flooding in areas. Frost Byte was really hoping for a little snow, so he decided to make a snow angel in my flour!

Dec 17th- Zipline Fun

I feel asleep really early last night. I think it was actually before 8:30pm! I woke up around 2:30 am and was super thirsty and went down stairs to grab a drink and found Frost Byte flying! Actually when I got a little closer he was actually zip-lining down the tree on fishing line!

Elf Fun Dec 9-13

It seems when Elves get around little boys the develop a sense of humour, specifically potty humour as you can see by Frost Byte’s last predicament with the toilet and the Christmas lights. This week he saved the potty humour for a few days in, and did we ever have some laughs!

Here’s what he’s been up to over the past few days:

Looks like he gathered up all of the Characters from Mario & Sonic at the Winter Olympic Games and went out for a joyride.

One other morning he left a few treats for us, and we learned Frost Byte also has some famous cousins, Snap Crackle and Pop!

Frost Byte is really computer savvy, and enjoys surfing the web, the boys found him early Sunday morning on Disney’s Prep & Landing page. They had a great time watching the special and playing the games on the site:

Earlier in the week Frost Byte discovered Mr. L’s Captain Underpants book collection and started reading through the books. One morning we found our underwear drawers all emptied and him sitting in the pile reading “Captain Underpants”. Silly Elf!

Our weekend was super busy with a birthday party to go to and 3 hockey events that we didn’t get a chance to get our Christmas tree up yet. Luckily, Daddy-O drug the tree out of storage while we were at hockey practice Sunday morning, but the boys wanted to play in the snow, so we ran out of time to get the tree up. Well, weren’t we surprised when we found that Frost Byte had set it up for us late Sunday night and was perched on top of the tree Monday morning when we got up!

Elf Adventures Dec 4-8

I’m not sure who’s having more fun with (Giga) Frost Byte, me or the kids? Getting the boys up for the past week as been a breeze and then seeing their giggles after discovering what this funny little elf has been up to is really priceless, which is why I’m trying to capture these memories here.

The morning of Dec 4 was a super early one as Mr. L had a hockey game at 6:30am, He got up without too much protest and was excited to see what the little guy was up to. He was sitting in the upstairs hall way with a note saying press play and my iPhone sitting next to him. Once Liam turned it on, he watched the trailer for the movie Elf and I told him that Dad had picked it up to watch that evening!

After the Hockey game picked I picked up some delicious snacks at the Saint John High Annual Christmas Bazaar to feast on while we watched the movie that night. We also had a slight altercation with Frost Byte that afternoon where he ended up losing a  limb when he became the rope in a  tug-o-war between a 14 yr old and a 6yr old (no names will be mentioned). The 14 year old mended him later that evening while we watched the movie. I found out from other parents though that they are actually not allowed to touch their elves or they could lose their magic, I guess I should have gotten the manual afterall!

Sunday mornings I like to try and sleep in a little bit, so the boys know they are allowed to get up and get their own cereal. Well the pesky little Elf must have known this as well as there he was in the pantry sticking out of their box of Cinnabon Cereal!

Sunday night the boys thought they’d be funny and play a trick on the Frost Byte themselves! They hung him from the window valance in their room and he could not escape (and mom could not find him!). Mr. L was a little upset to find him in the valance still on Monday morning, but I thought up a lie and thought it up quick and explained to him that he needs to be free to be able to report back t the North Pole each evening and since he was “hidden” here by the boys he was unable to escape. Liam was OK with this and I snapped a shot of him just as he was getting out of bed.

Tuesday morning Frost Byte was a little home sick, he left a hint for the boys, “Cold like the North Pole”. They looked outside all three doors, the fridge, the fridge’s freezer and couldn’t find him, then finally Finn said, ” Wot about dat feezer?” pointing to the deep freeze, sure enough there he was with a spoon in hand with the chocolate ice cream right in front of him!

This morning though, I think got the biggest laugh from the boys even Kenz cracked a slight smile.  It looked as though Frost Byte was trying to decorate our middle floor powder room, but ended up getting himself stuck in the string of lights strapping himself  dangling from the toilet! Little Finn-shine woke up a wee bit later and he had a bit of a different reaction, he was quite concerned  about our Elf. He said to his dad, “Someone needs to turn dose lights out and get him down, right now!”

So a question for those of you that have Elves visiting your homes where are some of the wacky places you have found them?

Day 3- (Giga) Frost Byte is his name

This morning Frost Byte thought he was pretty cool. Looks like he’s already got chummy with some of our household characters. They found him in the upstairs hallway Beyblading with Mario, Sonic & Pikachu! The boys completely cracked up over this one:

I may have to tap into the creativity of others soon, as the boys are just loving this new tradition. I found this site that has a plethora of great ideas: The Adventures of Bertie Elfkins

Day 2-The Digital Deliquent Elf

This morning started off with a jolt at 7:36am when for some strange reason my iPhone alarm did not go off! It was actually not even on my nightstand and my Macbook was missing too. I started to panic a little then remembered that I heard these little Elves like practical jokes.

Of course the boys wanted to find him right away, I honestly have never seen them get dressed so quickly before! We headed down stairs to find this scene sitting in front of the French door:

There was alos a note saying he was disappointed that no one had given him a name yet and he’s tired of being called Elf 459 when he’s up North. Along with the note he “Elfed” the kids to a disco tune! Click on the image and it will take you to their video

If you get the chance I highly suggest checking out http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/ it’s a lot of fun. This year they have many different genres of music too.

I think the Elf must have really been up to some mischief elsewhere last night as I couldn’t beleive the gas prices this morning! He must have been playing with the numbers and trying to play a trick on us motorists. So what are gas prices like in your neck of the woods?

The Elf has arrived!

Dinner time around the Miller household has been chaotic lately, so wasn’t it fitting to get a ring at the door tonight in the middle of supper? Hubby thought it was a kid pranking us until he looked down and saw this on the doorstep:

One little Elf, Hello Kitty, Lego, Playdoh, and Playmobile Advent Calendars and a beautiful Nativity book as well as a letter addressed to the kids. The letter stated that it’s been too noisy at meal times and this Elf was sent to watch them at every meal to make sure they were quieter. He also thought our house could use some cleaning ( I guess this dig was at me) and that everyone needs to start chipping in and helping. He also said he would be reporting back to the North Pole every night on our progress and that when he returned he would be hiding the next morning and we’d have to find him!

Here’s what was in the boys Day 1 of their respective calendars:

One other tradition we’ve been doing for a few years is reading Christmas stories every night before bed. We’ve got quite a collection now! Mr. L was out of reading material last night after blowing through his latest read “The Strange Case of Origami Yoda”. So I handed him a copy of ” A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. I’m sure it’s a little above his reading level, but he’s always up to a challenge.

This copy has special meaning to me, I’ve actually had it since grade 9. This memory was recently jogged when I spotted my 9th Grade English teacher across the lobby of a local theatre Tuesday night.

That year Mr. Lunney blackened all of his classroom windows, turned out the lights and had us read “A Christmas Carol” by candlelight. It’s been definitely one of my most positive and unique school experiences! So Mr. Lunney if you’re reading this thank you for engaging us! I know as the mother of a 9th grader right now, it’s not always such an easy task!