I feel like that was just a suggestion??

Hahahahahahaha I know I'm not the only person that ordered cookie dough from the school with no intentions of cooking the whole tub! Right? Please tell me I'm not the only one?

I had to try out the product tonight to see what I thought about it and whether I felt that the serving sizes were pretty accurate. From what I can tell they were not bad at all. I made pretty much the whole tub of Monster cookies (save about 4 cookies worth that is still in the fridge for some snacking over the next few days!) and I can safely say that it would have made exactly 5 dozen good sized cookies :) And I think for $18 that's a hell of a good deal. In the span of just over an hour I have a big bag of cookies for the freezer for upcoming lunches for the kids! It's a win all around if you ask me!

And just because who doesn't love some reality sometimes....here's my MISERABLE very overtired toddler wanting one of those cookies that were still baking in the oven...and just moments before bed. This is real life my friends :)

I would do anything in the world for him....

...including getting into my swimsuit and going into the pool with him and his class. As soon as Jordie's class won the popcorn selling contest I went to his teacher and asked her if she wanted to do swimming or skating as the class party. We both knew the kids would have more fun in the pool and hoped that the Complex would allow us to do it with only a few parents in with the kids. In the end we only needed 2 and had 5 adults that came in with us and it was a ton of fun!

Truly the smile on his face when he heard I was coming on the bus with him just made my whole day. Would I have loved to sit on the side and watch and chat with the other moms, yeah sure of course I would have. But did I absolutely LOVE being there with him, engaged in play and just focusing on him, yes absolutely 100%.

I know so many moms that are super self conscious about being in a bathing suit and I am too, but to me in that moment, all that mattered was making my Jordie boy happy. I swore years ago that I was never going to be that mom that sat out of doing something with or for my kids because of my own stuff in my head. I just got in and did it and didn't think about what I looked like, and I'm so happy I did. He was so very excited and so proud that his mom came on the bus and was coming in the pool too. He swam with me, we did races, played catch with his friends, and I got lots of hugs and kisses in the process. Today, I was the best mom for him that I could be, and I'm so happy that I could be truly present there with him. So many times I will admit that even though I'm there with the kids, I'm usually the one taking the photos, so today felt wonderful to not have my phone and to just be with him. I hope these are the memories that my kids will remember about me. That I showed up when I said I would and always put them first.

I've said it before on this blog, and in my life, that I try so very hard to give everything that I possibly can to my kids, and today was no exception. I switched my schedule around at work, I made alternate drop off plans for Kennedy, and made after school arrangements for the kids so I could work later too. I am so very appreciative to my awesome coworkers who understand how much these kinds of things truly mean to me and are willing to go out of their way to switch shifts with me in order to make it happen. Without that flexibility I wouldn't get to do half the things that I have this year.

This smile is the whole reason I said yes and will continue to say yes whenever and however I can.

Fun Day 2018

Another year is just about done at Westview Elementary and another Fun Day is done too! I know I've said this before but I truly LOVE being a part of the Westview PAC family we've got there. I love helping out with organizing events, fundraising and making decisions about what we spend the money on. I also like having a bit of an inside scoop on what is going on at the school. It helps me when I tell James that I know everyone and that someone is always watching him so he better behave himself :) 

For now here are the highlights of the day! We were so lucky that the rain held off for us!

Next year I'll have two monsters in the school and even more fun times ahead!

Watch him grow from 3 to 7 in just 5 first day photos

Aaaaawwww....look at this big kid of ours! 

Age 3 - first year of Busy Bee's - Sept 2013

Age 4 - second year of Busy Bee's - Sept 2014

Age 5 - first day of Kindergarten - Sept 2015

Age 6 - first day of Grade 1 - Sept 2016

Age 7 - first day of Grade 2 - Sept 2017

Daily photo project - all of 2016!

It fascinates me to see our boys grow up right in front of my eyes after looking through 365 photos of our year. If you are up for a long post, scroll through and see how much they've changed in a year!

Note: I just realized that the first photo of this post would have been the exact same one from my Top 12 photos post from yesterday. So instead I've decided to put my very favorite daily photo first...and then go back to January 1 just so the display photo ends up being different than my last post! Hahahahaha...silly thing to worry about, but it is something I try to do. I even try to alternate between the boys in the first pictures of posts so it isn't always one boy showing up in my FB newsfeed or in my most liked posts of the months on here too. In fact at the end of the year I even make sure there are the same amount of photos of each boy in the whole 365 photos. I'm not sure how I'll pull this off when I'm home with the baby and Jordie and James is in school all day but I will always try to make this happen! BTW: I know I'm a little crazy and that's okay with me :) Now on to the memories!

This photo (and this weekend) was really a lot of fun for everyone and I really hope there are many many more group camping weekends in our future! So wonderful to have hours of uninterrupted visiting time and kids old enough to play great together. With the busy lives we live throughout the school year it is so wonderful to have these times with our friends to enjoy in the summer (or in this case it was very early in the fall). I can't wait to see how this summer goes with our new little lady joining us in the spring. Camping this summer will be interesting that's for sure! 

And now back to January 1st! 

Whew...there you have it! Congrats if you made it all the way through this post. I doubt many will make it as it's a long one and is really more for me than for anyone else :)