Back-To-School Shopping Time

With school starting just 2 weeks from today, the kids are still loving summer, and I find myself just longing for the routine again... Both boys will be in full-time school this year, and when asked if they're excited about school they just kinda shrug their shoulders and say, "I guess." They have loved their time together these last 2 months, but they need to spend some time apart...

We've really had a great summer. Huge contributing factors to our fun as just the 3 of us have been the summer passes we have to the Tri-Leisure centre, and our membership to the Telus World of Science that we got last Christmas. We have gone swimming pretty much every second day, which has been really nice! It's great to get out of the house and do something FUN that we've already paid for. At the end of July, the boys stayed with Grandma & Grandpa Heinbuch in Rocky Mountain House for a week of VBS and fun! Pete's mom took the boys to Drumheller for the day as well, and it's something the boys talk about regularly. My parents hosted the boys in their new downtown highrise condo for a few nights last week and the boys had lots of fun living in "Grandma's Hotel" as they call it! We've spent lots of time playing outside in the sunshine riding bikes, playing with the kiddie pool, water guns, water balloons, and the sprinkler (I think the kids like water). I have to say it's sort of disheartening for me when I've spent half an hour filling up water balloons and they're gone in 5 minutes, but it's so much fun so it balances out. :)

Over the past few weeks, it seems that the boys have grown out of so many things. They have gotten so big over the summer that we've had to give away the little playground climber/slide and the Power Wheels. The Power Wheels just strains under their weight and can't even move forward, poor thing! So I put a sign on it in the driveway (and kept the batteries inside the house) and 20 minutes later the doorbell rang and a mom with a little boy named Maddock got a sweet new ride.

The only sad part about all of this is that Pete has worked through the entirety of our summer fun. With one of their mechanics on medical leave with cancer, Pete and the shop foreman Bert have been the only ones fixing the equipment - and with Bert's other responsibilites, Pete is often the only mechanic on the shop floor. Sometimes many days pass before the boys see Daddy - Pete leaves for work before they wake up and comes home after they go to bed. It's actually surprising for Pete to come home somewhere near supper time. The overtime money has been good - with the shop closing for almost a month over Christmas/New Years, we've been able to save some money to pay for life during that time - but we would rather have Pete with us! I have no doubts that he is just exhausted both mentally and physically. He passes out the second his head hits the pillow.

With the back-to-school shopping almost done, I'm looking forward to spending these next two weeks savoring every moment of summer fun with my boys.

My Dorky Side Rides Again!

Pete's boss Bert is crazy for cake. He loves cake SO much, but only when it's made from scratch. Last year for his birthday, Pete asked me to make him a chocolate cake and he loved it. Since then, he is a regular customer of mine and Bert buys cakes from me for every single birthday in his extended family. It was his birthday last week and he ordered a cake from me for his family party. He had a special request though - he REALLY wanted a cake with a habs (Montreal Canadiens) logo on it. Well, I tried super hard, and I think it turned out good enough to photograph!

My Grown-up Little Men

Here's a pic my dad took of the boys as ringbearers in my cousin's wedding. They're so adorable!

Involuntary Reference

For those of you that haven't seen the movie "Up" this will probably pass over your head, but it made us laugh.

The four of us were driving, and Nathan was telling us about something. As he is looking out the car windows, but emphatically telling us his story, mid-sentence, even mid-word, he all-of-a-sudden stopped and said, "Squirrel!" And then he went silent. I forget what he was telling us before that because Pete and I burst out laughing. Just like Dug (and all of the rest of the dogs) in the movie.

It's Like He Knows What I'm Thinking...

I read a very frank, honest, and rather scathing column today about discipline. It really expresses what I feel about discipline, as well as what I feel about my kids (and other kids) and the way that they act. Especially in public. Here's the first paragraph.

"If you're the kind of parent who allows your 5-year-old to run rampant in public placces like restaurants, I have what could be some rather disturbing news for you. I do not love your child. The rest of the country does not love your child either. And the reason why we're staring at you every other bite is not because we're acknowledging some sort of mutual understanding that kids will be kids but rather we want to kill you for letting your brat ruin our dinner."

I never wanted to have "those children." You know the ones. The ones that NOBODY wants to have over. Pete and I have worked hard and been extremely dilligent in our efforts to make sure our boys are respectful to people and their property. Having no boundaries for our children doesn't show them security. It will only make them try harder to get some type of reaction, other than the monotone repetition of empty threats I hear in the grocery store lineup. Like the article says; "I don't believe making a child's wishes top priority is a demonstration of love. Nor do I believe I, or the rest of the world, should act as a surrogate parent for somebody's bad-ass kids." If I tell my children, "If you do that again, we are leaving right now," they believe me. They know that we will drop everything and leave. I wouldn't tell them that if I didn't have the intent to follow through.

There. That's my rant for the day. If you would like to read the article, click HERE. **Please be aware that this is an OPINION. If you don't like what I or this article have to say, it's not my fault. **

Nathan is 6!

It was Lego Birthday Party time in our house again! Nathan turned 6 on June 21st, and on the 26th, we had not one but TWO parties! Nathan had 5 friends come over for a fun time on the jumpy slide and cupcakes in the afternoon, and then family and family friends came for supper and the evening. We had a great time with everyone celebrating Nathan.It took me just over three hours to make this sign. But it stood all on it's own, and I'm unnecessarily proud of my handiwork... It's harder than you think to make all those letters!

Lego colored cupcakes and Lego block sugar cookies!

Nathan's favorite part of the day (of course) - PRESENTS!

We borrowed the "jumpy slide" from my parents, and it was a big hit especially with his afternoon party guests!

And here's Nathan at the end of it all, just so excited to build all of the new Lego sets he got.

The Heinbuch Family Arsenal

We started off with a dry Nerf arsenal, but recently have expanded to wet as well. We decided that, with the amount of water fights we had last year, that we would get some really good water guns this summer. Now that the Nerf brand has purchased Super Soaker, they are turning out some super fun stuff. We got 4 (oh yes, one for each of us) Nerf Thunderstorm water guns. They are really cool because they are fully automatic (no pumping required) and have removable magazines full of water that you can change in and out of the gun, and you can also purchase extra magazines so that you've always got an extra clip of soaking power! :) We have already had a blast with them, and it's only the first week of summer. Here's some action shots I got of the end of a major family water fight we had today. We were all soaked. It was great!

When the boys were babies I wasn't sure about them having gun-like toys as kids, but after reading the book "Wild At Heart" by John Eldredge, I was completely fine with it. The book gave me a look into a boy's heart and the reasons behind why boys seem to always want to play with guns (whether they have them or not).

(By the way, I highly recommend this book to read as a woman - it really gave me good insight into my husband's heart, too!)

What Nathan Does All Day

This is a pretty good example of what Nathan does for a good portion of the day. Building new creations while singing under his breath, and then showing me what he's made.