Old Picture

When the kids were little, we were downtown and decided to get their picture done in an old style photo shop. The boys were not impressed as you can see by the looks on their faces, even though they were carrying guns. Laura thought it was great because she got to dress up in a pretty dress.

The picture has been on the wall in our hallway since it was taken. I recently took it down and noticed that it was quite dirty and a little damaged so I cleaned it up and scanned it for safe keeping. Then I thought that it would be a good idea to share it with everyone. I just love the picture so much, it holds memories of a fun family time when all the kids didn't mind being with us in public (teenagers; you understand). I'm glad we got it done, even with the boys' protests. I'm sure they will be one day as well.

Enjoy.

Christmas Is Just Around The Corner

A couple of years ago I come upon a website which has a very nice advent calendar. I forgot about it last year but this year I remembered in time and went on a search. It was quite difficult to find because it comes from a Finnish site.

You cannot open before the date, but when you do, you get a nice picture, a positive statement, saying or story, and a song. You can look at previous years on the site to see what I mean.

I enjoyed it so much the year that I found it, I thought I would share it here.

I have included a couple of other sites which are also from Finland. Santa Television and Santa Claus Office where they have a real Santa Claus village on the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland. The nearest town, Rovaniemi, is 8 km away. There are a couple of webcams which run for all of December so that you can see what Santa is doing. Pretty neat stuff, especially if your kids are little and still believe in the big guy.

Football Wrap Up

On Sunday we went over to Cloverdale to attend Kyle's last football game of the season. We had to be at the terminal at 8:00am so that we could be on the 9:00 sailing. When we got out into the open water, the sea was very rough and the ferry rocked back and fourth, making many of the football Mom's seasick. Once we were on dry land again, everyone was feeling better.

The game was not scheduled to start until 2:15 so we had quite a wait. A ten o'clock sailing would have been much better for us if there had've been one. In Cloverdale there is nothing as far as malls or places to shop, at least around the facility the boys were playing at. We asked around and someone told us that there was a Starbucks about a twenty minute walk down the road. We considered for a while whether it would be worth the walk -- we certainly had the time. The weather was kind of cloudy and it was a little cold so we finally decided that the walk would warm us up.

It took exactly twenty minutes to walk there. When we went in to order our drinks, we discovered that they had started making Eggnog Lattes, which is our very favourite drink and we ordered three. Mmm, they were good. By the time we got back to the field, we only had about half an hour to wait for our boys to play.

They did very well to begin with and were up on them 7 to 6 but then Cloverdale scored a last minute touchdown going into half time to make it 14 to 7 after getting a two point conversion. The Warriors played so well though and really held them off. Three times Cloverdale had them pinned at the goal line and three times they denied them and got the ball back. The Warriors also picked off three interceptions. The Warrior Defence played awesome through the whole game. It was just too bad that the Offensive line couldn't gain any ground. They walked away knowing that they had played a good game none the less.

I walked away from the game with a very raw throat from cheering them on. It's funny, I always used to watch the games quietly cheering in my head and taking pictures. Now I am one of the loudest parents out there and Laura is the photographer. It makes the game much more exciting and it helps the team too I think. The Warrior parents were much louder than the Cloverdale parents. I believe that the more I understand the game, the easier it is to cheer as well, at least I know what I'm cheering for.

They didn't win but they were winners and had come a long way from all of the losses at the beginning of the season. They ended the season with two wins, one tie and seven losses and ended up thirteenth in the standings. They have a lot to be proud of.

Next year a lot of them will move up to Midgets, Kyle among them. That's when things get really serious. The boys that are moving up really gelled together and if they stay in contact as they plan to, they will help make up an awesome team next season. I'm looking forward to it.


Tonight Kyle has his last practice. It is a helmet only, just for fun practice because they have no more games. After that, we have to return all the gear and then in a couple of weeks there is a banquet to wrap things up.

I am so glad that Kyle decided that he wanted to play football. It is a great sport and it has taught him a lot as far as teamwork and self discipline. It is also good for keeping him out of trouble. His association is with a great bunch of kids and for that I am thankful. Here's to a great season and looking forward to next year. I love being a football Dad!

Halloween

On Saturday night, Laura hosted her first dance. She and her friends reserved the common room in our coop for the event. They bought pop and chips and made little invitations to give out.

She took our home stereo and Kyle's strobe light for music and effects. There were eight of them at our house early to help set up. When the guests started showing up, they were all boys; about fifteen in all. Finally about half way through the dance, a few more girls showed up and it really started going.

The music was loud and it was very hot in the small hall with all the bodies in there. I stood outside and checked in on them from time to time, just to make sure that things didn't get out of hand. They were all so cute dancing the night away. There were a couple of times that the boys got out of hand and I had to send them back in, but all in all it was a good little crowd. About twenty-five kids in all.
It was supposed to be a halloween dress up party but no one really dressed up, they were all more interested in the dancing part of it. Laura tried to organize a few games too, but there didn't seem to be enough interest to get them all playing.
Finally at about 9:45 the crowd dispersed and we were left with the clean up, which didn't take too long with all the girls helping out.

All in all I think that it was a great success. Laura got to see first hand how much work something like that is to organize and run. It was a good experience for her though and I'm glad that we had a facility like that so that she could host it, because there is no way we would be able to have even close to that many kids in our house at once.


After this party was over though, I was told that she wanted to go trick-or-treating with her friends and not with me. :(

It was so strange staying in this year. I'm just glad that I was right there for all of my kids Halloween years. They are special memories for me. They get older and move into different stages in their life and I am happy for the time that I've had.