Hudson the Guitar

Hudson

Tonight at dinner, Hudson didn't want to finish his supper and Jess told him to finish it anyway.

Hudson said that Jess wasn't the boss of him, "Mom is the boss of everything, not you."

I said, "Hudson, Dad and I are both the bosses of this family."

Hudson replied, "No, Mommy, you're the boss of everything and Dad is the boss of only one thing: working, and that's all."

Maira's 6th Birthday

My sweet baby girl Maira is 6 years old now.  She decided she would like a rainbow party to celebrate her big day.  We invited over a few friends and added splashes of colour everywhere, which were very welcome on this cold and dreary January day.

I put rainbow tattooes on her friends' hands and we did colourful crafts like making our own rainbow coloured crayons.

The food was all very colourful, and delicious too!

After all her friends left, our extended family came over for a birthday dinner (cheeseburgers as per her request).

Happy birthday to my darling Maira Rose.  You are a sensitive, smart, funny, creative and energetic little/big girl.  I'm always impressed by your generosity, your perseverance, and your kind heart.  You've learned and experienced so many things in your 6 years on earth and I'm really glad I get to be your Mom while you're doing it.  Love you one hundred times infinity!

Skating Lessons

We spent an hour at the rink on Saturday so Hudson could have his very first skating lesson while Maira continued to advance in hers - this is her third time taking lessons and she's doing really well.

Hudson must have fallen down at least a couple dozen times during his 30 minute lesson (along with all the other kids in his class) so by the time it was time to skate off the rink, he was done and decided to crawl instead!

Meanwhile, Maira was learning things like spinning and stopping and skating backwards.  In this clip, there's a path drawn on the ice with marker that they are following around, using different techniques, including backwards skating.  Maira's in the black helmet with a navy snowsuit with dark pink sides:

Christmas holidays

This is just a miscellaneous collection of other things that happened over the holidays.

First of all, I forgot to include Connor's Christmas concert in my December roundup of happenings.

He sang a jazzed up version of Frosty the Snowman with all the other grade 3's and did a great job.  He's such a good singer, I love hearing him sing.

Jess and Connor took one afternoon over Christmas holidays to go snowshoeing at the John Janzen nature centre in the river valley.

They went with a guide and found all kinds of animal tracks and Connor even got to bring home a porcupine quill they found!

We went sledding a couple times, including once with Grandpa Ron, Grammy Rose, and Uncle John.  The weather was gorgeous, which was a real treat after such a very cold December.  Here's a funny video I took from the top of the hill:

Hudson Turns 4

My little baby boy just keeps getting older and older, darn it!  We invited family over for a dinner celebration on the day he turned 4.  We really need a bigger dining room one of these days, our family gatherings keep getting bigger and bigger!

He requested an ice cream cake for his birthday dinner, and cheesy noodles as the main course.

Here he is waiting and waiting and waiting while I cut up the cake in the kitchen.

Shae finally brings him his piece, along with a sisterly kiss.

The following week, I invited 7 of Hudson's friends over for a birthday party.  A long time ago, Hudson asked that his birthday party be all about giraffes.  I thought we could take the giraffe idea and expand it to an animal themed party.  So, he got a giraffe cake and then I also hired a local reptile party company to come in and show a variety of reptiles and arachnids to the kids.  Also, we decorated the dining room to look like a jungle.  It was a lot of fun!

Here is a gecko climbing on my dining room door.  The gecko was actually kind of cute.

They demonstrated how scorpions will glow blue if you shine a UV light on them.

Most of the kids took the chance to hold the fat and sedate ball python on their laps.

This is an Australian bearded dragon.  Very spiky feeling.  They put this guy down on the floor and then shone a laser pointer on the floor in front of him and he would follow the laser pointer around, it was pretty funny.  Then he got rewarded with a fat juicy worm each time he did his trick.

The biggest snake was the albino boa constrictor, Sugar.  She was big and very active.

Happy birthday little guy, I sure love you very much.  You are a strong-minded, intelligent, sensitive, expressive and funny little boy, I'm so glad you're ours.