Thursday, February 16, 2017

New family member

The time has come. After years of wavering, we've made the plunge and added a feline friend to our family. We adopted an adorable 2 year old cat who Caleb has named Coral. She's the boy's first pet and she is fitting in very well to our family. Coral has a great personality. She cuddles, purrs and alternates which bed she wants to sleep in most nights, much to the delight of Caleb and Odin. She is incredibly tolerant of Odin, even when he puts his face right up against hers. She'll gently rub into him before quickly skirting away when she's had enough. I think we picked a great one!

The first day we had Coral home, she hid among Alan's record collection for a good hour before Caleb was the one to finally coax her out. This is when he was rewarded with his first Coral cuddles. The look on his face is pure bliss! After this picture we decided to give the cat a break and head to the grocery store. When we came home, we couldn't find her for 2 whole hours, which is one downside to our big old house- too many nooks and crannies! Turns out she was hiding inside one of Alan's amplifiers...the one place I definitely did not look. She no longer hides, and we can always find her curled up in bed or on a comfy chair somewhere. 

Coral seems to love Odin's crib and happily jumps in to cuddle with him at bedtime. He can hardly believe the 'kitty cat' is in his bed. We've had to remove Coral a couple of times when Odin just couldn't fall asleep due to all the excitement!
In other exciting news - the Patriots did it again! Superbowl LI champs after a stunning come from behind win. I, of course, did a quick photo shoot before the game and some of Odin's poses captured my range of feelings during the game!

Not even Tom Brady can pull this come back off....can he?!?
Holy moly, they are doing it!!
Trying to hold it together during overtime (and no, he was not still awake!)
Finally, we've been experiencing a week full of crazy snow storms and blizzard-like conditions.Thankfully we've been able to stay safe, warm and at home most of the time. Alan and I have become extremely fit due to the relentless shoveling, but we've also managed to build some pretty epic forts, caves and sliding hills. It's been fun, but next year we will be purchasing a snowblower.

Photo credit goes to my friend Marissa!
After snowstorm #1. We've since added another 50 +cm!

Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Seven!!



Caleb turned 7 on Jan 29, and because he is such an incredibly kind, thoughtful, inquisitive, generous, caring and amazing little fella we dedicated 4 full days in his honour. To kick things off, the family joined me on a work trip to Halifax which means a day full of big city fun! A stayed in a hotel room on the 15th floor, swam in the pool, made a mandatory visit to Caleb's favourite candy store, the Freak Lunchbox, ran through a network of skywalks and ended up at the waterfront playground, visited a giant indoor playground,  AND had an amazing birthday dinner party with Lydia and family. And that was all in the first 8 hours of arriving! 

Saturday was our official birthday party day. We rented out the local gym so the kids could raid the equipment room and fun free for an hour before heading back to our place for snacks and a double layered strawberry cake (Caleb's special request). Caleb had long ago asked for an 'Earth Rangers' themed party and wanted his friends to donate some money to the environmental conservation campaign of this choice instead of receiving gifts. He was ecstatic to raise $75 to protect Pine Marten habitat and I think we really impressed the kids with our version of Pin the Tail on the Pine Marten! Birthday party night was capped off with an hour long candlelit glow stick-filled bath which was a real hit for both kids. Thanks Pinterest!

By Sunday, we had to dig a bit deeper to make sure his *actual* birthday topped all the excitement of the previous few days. We started out with presents, a birthday breakfast where he could choose any items off of our special menu. Banana pancakes, bacon, fruit salads and orange juice all around! Caleb and I hit our local theatre for a showing of the movie Sing in the afternoon and ended things off with a make your own pizza party. Whew! It was a lot, but it was very worth it to make Caleb feel extra special, because he is truly an incredible person and it's been an honour being his mom for the past 7 years. 

Photos and Birthday video below!!

Party #1 with the Fudge/Billingsley clan!
A room on the 15th floor overlooking the police station - what more could two boys ask for!

Hop! Skip! Jump! received two thumbs up from Odin and Cale!
Party at our place!
Birthday breakfast!



7 year old laughter during birthday dinner

Some of the money Caleb received was specially allotted towards a birthday shopping spree where a new bball net was purchased. 
And now for Caleb's annual birthday video. He wasn't in the best mood to be recorded at the start, but once Odin jumped in, the genuine smiles came out!