Dots of Life

Bieber Fever

On the spur of the moment, Adi and I scored 2 coveted tickets to justin biebers "home for the holidays" christmas concert at massey hall.  it took me 30 minutes of calling in to massey hall directly but when i finally got through... i assumed that they were sold out.  i asked for 4 and was informed that there were only 2 seats left.  'really... am i seriously getting the last 2 seats to the show', i asked... 'seriously, you are getting the last 2 seats to the show', the operator advised.

so 2 days later, we were headed to toronto for a most memorable night.  there were only just over a 1000 tickets sold from the box office and they were referred to as "golden tickets"... some selling for $2000 a piece... ouch!

we arrived in toronto early enough to enjoy some dinner and shopping at the eaton centre.  adi was excited to surprise her brother and sister with some thank you gifts, as they were so happy and supportive of adi going to the concert.  she chose a pair of lulu lemon pants for sissy and an abercrombie and fitch long sleeved t for ben.  i think she was more excited to get home and give them their gifts, than she was to go to the concert!

on our way into massey hall we were stopped by a vjay from much music, who talked to us on camera and was nice enough to pose for a picture.  she made a point of asking adi who her stylist was, to which she replied... "my mom".  i was then told that i could easily get a job here in the city...:)  thanks!

the concert started over an hour late... which gave us time to make friends with some people in the audience.  we sat beside a little girl who got to go on stage and receive a cheque from justin for the sunnybrook hospital.  we also befriended 2, 14 year old girls, who had been gifted the tickets from one of the girls' moms...at a price of $2000 for each ticket... can you imagine... now that is a bff gift!

justin performed for over 2 hours, taking audience requests, bringing family and fans up on stage.  he was having a good time. relaxed, comfortable.  we were having a blast.. so close, it was surreal.  then, adi and one of her friends were moved up to the 8th row about half way through the show... compliments of a security guard who took a liking to my beauty.

we loved the concert.  justin bieber is truly a talented artist and the small venue was perfect.  it was an "unbeliebable" night!

 

 

 

back to october

october was a very busy month.  lots of birthdays, a return to hockey, thanksgiving... here are a few memories of one of my favourite months of the year!

thanksgiving weekend was so wonderful... the weather was amazing and we were able to spend lots of time outside. my mom hosted her side of the family... we spent the enitre afternoon outside... in the canoe, on the tractor, riding bikes and eating :)

we hosted the macdonalds at our house this year.  we started the day off with a family skate at the stirling arena, then headed back our house for a turkey feast!

we also celebrated a very special little ladies 4th birthday... georgia peach was 4 on october 19th and she celebrated with her besties and lots of family. 

the kids (and mam-ma) had lots of fun bobbing for apples...

but leave it to anna pearl to show them how to get r done...

the great october weather continued for halloween festivities... it was a great night!  we hosted a village haunt... the guys/dads hung out at our house to hand out candy and eat chili... while the moms and kids ventured out for some trick or treating.

my crew went out as little red riding hood, sandra dee (from grease) and some hockey dude from the movie slapshot?  nanny jen treated the kids to some supersized treat bags complete with homemade popcorn balls and candy apples!

the aubertins, lightfoots, broughs, bridges, trevertons, tapps and craigs helped to make the night a spooktacular one...

this year was the first year that ben was aloud to go around the village with his friends... no adult supervision.  but, he surprised us by coming home early to hang out with the rest of us :)

another couple of things to mention about october... anna pearl was invited to a soccer skills session with the belleville u13 girls team.  she is super excited to be spending friday nights with her good friend erika for the next 8 weeks!  she was also asked to play for a belleville/kingston team, but with all the travel that we already do for hockey throughout the winter, we thought that this would be a good compromise. 

and after a bumpy start to the school year, adi made a classroom switch and couldn't be happier.  this is a picture and a letter that adi created for her new teacher...

and as she says in her letter... she "loves the class so much". 

september summary

looking back to september, i have to say that we were very busy.  i wanted to make sure that i documented some fun and important events so i thought i would recap with a quick september summary...

we hosted anna pearls year end soccer party at our house.  we had a fantastic potluck and ended the evening with a bonfire.  the girls are really starting to mesh as a team and they had such a fun night!

sunday school started back up and cc and adi couldn't wait to don their sunday best...

it was spirit day at school... adi is on the blue team and anna pearl made sure that she rocked as much blue as possible.  I think she could pass for a doodlebop!

hockey started again for little miss adi... and after only a few days of assessments, she was the only tyke girl moved up with the novice team.. whoot whoot!

we also celebrated 2 very special birthdays.  riley turned 11!  yes 11!

and harper turned 2!

2 is such a fun age.  she was really in to opening her presents...

i love that her favourite gift seemed to be her big girl underwear... she couldn't wait to get them on...

some other pics from the day...

love this one of aunt sam and anna pearl...

 

happy birthday mom

we celebrated my moms 61st birthday with a low-key family barbq at her house.  although she did most of the work, i know she had a great day, surrounded by her favourite people, doing their favourite things... most notably eating and hanging out by the water on a gorgeous summer afternoon.

there was alot of fishing,

 

 

 

a bit of canoeing,

 

some playing in the kiddie pool,

 

and of course some birthday cake eating!

 

happy 61st birthday nanny jen... we love you so much and are so proud of you :)  here's to another happy and healthy year ahead!

 

game over

 

adi finished off her soccer season with a mini-tourney on one of the hottest days of the summer.  thankfully her games were early and we were off the fields by 11:30. 

 

adi didn't complain about the heat once... she just kept drenching herself in water.  thankfully nan showed up for her second game, with extra water bottles in hand!

 

she really enjoyed her soccer season.  she made lots of new friends.  one that especially stood out was a little boy named memphis.  his mom was the coach and he was full of beans.  he rides in a motocross circut and he has endless energy.  he is a hardcore boy who evidently had a soft spot for our little adi.  his mom told me that one night while saying his prayers before bed, he asked his mom if he could pray for adi, so that God would take her diabetes away.   now, tell me that you wouldn't have cried when you heard this too!

 

happy fathers day

 
to the bestest daddy in the whole wide world!

 

 

soccer girls

i have always loved being a hockey mom... love the game, the people, the early mornings, the arena.  so when anna really developed a love for soccer i wasn't sure if i would enjoy the whole soccer mom experience.  but loving it i am. 

anna adores soccer.  it is her passion.  rain or shine, she is ready to play and give it her all.

 

we were recently in ottawa for a weekend tournament and surprised everyone by claiming the silver medal in a second place finish... only after losing to the top team in a 1-0 game.  we were so proud of the girls... they played physical and really worked together as a team.  we are not the most skilled team but we are hard workers and it is really paying off.  for some reason this pic will only transfer in small format... 
 

in regular season the girls are 5-0 with 4 shoutouts... we are blowing the other teams out of the water and anna is tied for the sosa league scoring champ. 

adison started soccer this year as well.  she is playing in stirling, as it didn't conflict with anna's soccer schedule.  this means that we have soccer monday, tuesday, wednesday and thursday.  it's a good thing we all love soccer... even ben has chosen to skip his golf league in the evenings so that he can cheer on his sisters.

adi has come a long way from her first night on the field where she was excited, but a bit timid...

 

and she was more interested in blowing wish flowers than playing...

 

but she gave it a go...

 

and you should see her now... defintiely taking after her big sissy.  gaining her confidence and playing hard...

 

 

she scored her first goal on tuesdays game... which also turned out to be the winning goal for her team!

 

and even more important... she is making lots of new friends and having lots of fun! 

 

which makes me one happy soccer mom!

our little athlete

 
anna loves sports.  she is a natural competitor and she loves to win.  she is also an excellent teammate and will often sacrifice a scoring chance for herself, in order to make a great pass so that her teammate can score.  she definitely excels in a team environment.

this was anna's first year in track and field at school... and it was not only a new and fun challenge for her, but it was also one that she excelled at.  she is not naturally fast, but she is strong and determined.  her hard work showed in her competitions as she finished 1st in 200 meter, 2nd in the long-jump and 1st in shot put.

she went on to represent foxboro school at the asg (all schools group) for the 200 meter and shotput and she finished 2nd in shotput... which landed her an invite to the District competition. 

anna finished 7th out of 19 girls and we couldn't be more proud of her efforts.  leslie snapped this pic of anna at the county competition.  although she takes after her daddy in the athletics department, i must say that i did represent foxboro school at the county level from grade 4-8, in the shotput competition... who says she gets all of her athletic talent from her daddy...lol!

adi's 7th birthday party

 
due to our crazy busy schedule, we had to delay adi's "friends" birthday party until the beginning of june.  we planned it for a friday night after school... so that her friends could come off of the bus with her... i remember when i was little and it was so fun to ride my friends bus. 

5 of her best friends joined us for a back yard themed birthday party.  when they arrived off the bus we headed to the backyard for an after school snack of fruit kabobs and cheese and crackers.  we gave each of the girls a homemade loot bag, that adi and i had crafted out of hemp bags that we bought from walmart for .50 cents and some fabric scraps and buttons that i had in my craft closet.  the bags had a wooden bird house in them and we used these for our craft.

 

 

we headed out to the picnic table for some birdhouse painting goodness.  the girls really took their time creating their masterpieceses and they were all so pretty in the end... i wish i had taken a picture of them.

 

after the painting was done, anna was eager to move the gang along to the games (I don't know what i would do with out all of anna's help).  first up was the sponge/bucket race.  i had no idea that it would be so much work for them (note to self... next time buy bigger sponges), but work they did...so much so that they all worked up a sweat!  in the end, chloe and jessica were the winners but judging by all of the giggles throughout the race... i think they all had fun!

 

next up on the agenda was pillow sac races.  oh my, this one was filled with belly laughs.  the girls loved these and i think they had about 20 races in total.  but every single time... adi came across the finish line first.  even her brother and sister couldn't beat her.. .i was like she had springs on her feet... so funny to watch... i wish i had grabbed a video of it.

 

these pictures just make me laugh.

 

at this point the kids were tuckered out...

 

and hungry... so the boys fired up the fire pit and we set about roasting weiners for hotdogs...

 

and eating cupcakes!  i had found the idea for owl cupcakes on pinterest and knew that these would be perfect for adi's "birthday cake".  anna pearl and adi actually put the cupcakes together... so fun and easy!  and as quick as they were to put together... they were devoured even quicker!

 
 
 

when it finally came time for presents... i was so proud of adi for taking the time to read each and every card out loud and taking her time to open and appreciate all of her presents.  she was thrilled to receive games, gift cards, jewelry and a sweet little bikini.

 

matt was on cleanup duty and well... this picture pretty much says it all...

 

with only a little bit of time left, the girls decided to hang out on the swingset and just "be".

 

a couple of girls stayed over for a sleep out in the tent.  when nightfall came, we roasted marshmallows by the bonfire and ben told us some ghost stories, but it was obvious that after a long day of school and birthday celebrations... the girls were tired.

 

adi, jenneka, tori, matilda and i slept out in the tent.  connor and anna pearl decided to sleep in the house once it was time for lights out/itouch off in the tent.  but the younger girls slept through the night without a peep.

in the morning we kept with the fun and simple theme for breakfast and adi couldn't have been happier... fruit loops out of a mini box with one of your best friends... what more could a birthday girl ask for!

 

3 chicks, a lemonade stand and a cause

adi and her friend mya decided to organize a lemonade stand to raise money for the jdrf walk.  but they didn't want just a plain old lemonade stand... they wanted a lemonade and chocolate chip cookie stand.  so they asked me to pick them up some bristol board and made a date for some poster making.

 
 

once the signs were made, they even prepared a cookie baking itinerary for daddy...

• wednesday, make cookies
• thursday, make cookies
• friday, make cookies

and bake cookies he did, but the problem was that by saturday, they were all gone.  so sunday morning, daddy got up bright and early to bake 3 dozen cookies for his girl and her gals.  daddy also tried to surprise them with an official homemade lemonade stand, but his drill ran out of power half way through the project.  but no worries, maya, chloe and adi were ready to go at noon on sunday... just as planned...

• the signs were up
• balloons were tied
• chairs were organized
• the cash float was ready
• cups, lemonade and cookies were ready to go

and so they waited for their first customer of the day for a glass of cold lemonade and a warm, fresh out of the oven cookie for $1.

 

the girls were beyond excited and they made it very clear that it was their lemonade stand and that they did not need any help.  so, matt and i did our best to give them some independence... but we kept a watchful eye from the front porch.  it was funny listening to them talk as they waited for almost 10 minutes for their first customer... "oh my gosh, i can't believe people are not stopping... how rude"  or watching them as they frantically waved at passersby and ushered them into the stand.  and finally at 12:10 pm melissa, savannah and anna pearl stopped by for 3 lemonades and 3 cookies to go. 

 
 

within minutes there was a little line forming in front of their stand.  neighbourhood kids on bicycles, freinds and strangers driving by and even a special friend or 2 that heard about it on facebook and made their way over to the little lemonade stand in foxboro.

even nanny jen took a short break from her gardening to support the girls in their business/fundraising endeavor...

 
 

and as the money rolled in they couldn't wait to count it... and then count it again and shout with excitement how much they had made.  sometimes the customers were barely away from the stand as they exclaimed their earnings...

 

but by 2 o'clock the cookies were gone, the lemonade containers were dry and 3 very dedicated and hardworking young ladies had raised $115 in support of team macdonald for the juvenile diabetes research foundation. 

way to go girls!  you stuck with it and you worked hard.  and you even had some requests for another one next year.  i guess we have a little bit of time yet to plan!