Over the week

It is becoming increasingly clear that the trees in Montreal have received the "autumn memo". Suddenly, there is orange, red and yellow everywhere. The days are still pretty darn beautiful but the mornings have a chill that causes me to argue with the boys so that they, at least, put a sweater in their school bags (today I argued with Oliver about the sweater... and then he wanted gloves... ugh!). The sunlight has this special golden colour and it is a total pleasure to be outside. As much as I love autumn, I am well aware of what is looming behind it. For now, I will pretend that winter does not exist and get as much joy out of autumn as I can. This weekend, I am sure, will be as chaotic as the week. Ahhh... family life ;)

Wishing you all a great Friday! Here is a little photo spam from around Montreal xox

What a sky!

Self portrait ;)

No... this is NOT my house ;)

This is so Montreal...

Holding on to summer....

The "autumn memo" has been circulated...

Another self portrait

Wish I could put this on a t-shirt ;)

Random Bart Simpson graffiti..

Orange...

Yellow....

Red....

Happy day to you!

Nicka and his book project

I have probably written about this before but Nicka shares many of my OCD tendencies ;) and while I get frustrated when he is especially particular about something, I know that I do exactly the same thing... see, Andreas, I DO recognize it ;) School projects are one situation where it brings out the "best" in both of us. Actually, school projects are no more frustrating with Nicka than any of the other boys (they are all frustrating) but we become picky about the same exact details... but in very different ways ;) A big "mother challenge" for me is to offer help but not take over. Boy, I am trying hard on this one! Nicka did a good job on his project (maybe I am bias?) and, if his teacher ever reads this, the very little plasticine under my fingernails is proof! ;)

xox to you all!

At the end of the day...

At the end of the day, a good cup of coffee is like crack... at least to me... boy, was it good!!!

Sometimes, it is just the little things that keep me sane ;)

Happy evening to all xox

Spanish homework

I am sitting at the kitchen table with Alexander, helping him with his Spanish homework (helping = keeping him at the table and actually looking at what he needs to study. Whether it enters his thought process is another issue ;) ). Today,  I have learned (re-learned) which countries are in Central and South America, which countries are considered to be Spanish speaking, what the oceans of the world are called in Spanish and the names of capital cities for Spanish speaking/Central and South American countries are (Tegucigalpa is the BEST name). Alexander's favourite part of his Spanish class is finding out that Dabbing is called El Dabbo. Ugh!

Heck, after today, I am pretty sure that I could get a good mark on this test! Hope Alexander does too :P

PS: I NEVER took Spanish... ever! How did I become qualified to answer questions? Guess it is a mother thing ;) I do MUCH better with grade 4 science and grade 1 reading ;)

How the homework started....

How the homework ended :P

In honour of El Dabbo

Happiness is... ;)

Happiness is staying up late to help your son to finish a project... which he thought was due the next day.... which was actually an assignment to finish in class.... and not due for another week.... Hmmm... I think that I need to clean some kid's ears out :P

Wishing you all a happy Wednesday xox

Good thing that I love this kid :P

First soccer game

I am not sure if I already mentioned it here (heck, I cannot remember anything these days... just trying to embrace it ;) ) but Alexander made his high school soccer team. We are excited for him because it is a good way to meet new friends, participate in sports and become an active part of his school community. Since he has both practices and games after school, it is also a good way to keep him from coming home and heading to the video game dungeon (ie: our basement). Another bonus is that, on game days, the boys have to dress up for school. Today, Alexander was so excited to put on his favourite pink shirt and his dress pants (... and his running shoes but we won't get into that) to celebrate his first soccer game with his high school team. The only thing that I am sorry about is that I can't get out of work early enough to see it :( Maybe next time...

Good luck, boys!

Wishing them a great game and the rest of you a good day!

Saturday morning

I honestly have no idea what happened! It was Sunday... and then, suddenly, it was Saturday morning. Actually, it was Friday night but I was so exhausted that any sort of resemblance to a blog post had to wait until this morning ;) It was not that the week was any more chaotic than usual but it was just busy.... always busy.... The high school homework situation definitely contributes to that, however, I am proud of Alexander for doing his best to keep a control of what needs to be done and for when. He also made his high school's soccer team so he is also juggling the practices and games. The younger boys are now in the groove of what they need to do on a weekly basis... whew! Finding the routine is one of the biggest challenges for me/us. September, as much as I love it, is always a challenge. Sometimes, even more than the Christmas season ;)
This weekend Andreas is away for work so, to make up for it, I promised the boys that we would go to a restaurant for dinner. In hindsight, this might have been a big crazy on my part ;) I blame it on the chaos of the week ;) I will be picking some super friendly family restaurant... that serves wine ;)
Today's goal is to start tacking homework projects before they become the-night-before-due-date-nightmares. Another goal is to enjoy a day where there are no running-to activities. Wish me luck!

Happy Saturday xox