Preparing for Halloween

As I was getting ready to write up this post Timehop informed me I had posted this photo One year ago of Justin. It's crazy how fast time flies - I miss doing these themed photos, now there's no way he would sit still for one!

Halloween is a busy,  often dark and usually a wet night around where we live. Cars are flying around driving kids from door to door (right? who does that!?) so you can NEVER be too safe and prepared for anything that may happen! I just wanted to share something we've done the past few Halloween's just to make sure if there are a group of Spiderman's going to a door and we are standing at the bottom of it - we are sure to lead our own kid away!

Neat right? These are cute little reflectable stick on's they are thick and don't fall off. They stick to the back of your child's costume and glow in the dark. I've been using these or different types of these for a few years now and we've never been disappointed. These? $1! At the dollar store. Amazing, Effective and Cheap! Who doesn't love that?

My kids are generally really good about sticking with us, but you can never be too safe on Halloween (or any outing for that matter!)

Tonight we will be carving our Three pumpkins. We usually buy two but this year Jayden went on a field trip to a farm and got one too! So, it will be interesting to see how he wants to carve his very own pumpkin! This is what we did last year.

The pumpkin on the left was my Husband's and he was attempting to create bats and a design. It didn't work out so well. The left? That would be my pumpkin Mickey! It's not perfect but I am darn proud of it!

Wish all of you that celebrate a safe and Happy Halloween!

Do you take any precautions to keep your little ones or even HOUSE safe on Halloween?

10 More Sleeps!

Jordan and I ran out last week to Walmart to grab some stuff. This guy was in front of us in the line. I saw him from down an isle and knew I had to get behind him in line so I could snap this photo! 

He  had 2 girls with him. Probably 13 and 15. It was awesome. The looks he kept getting, and the fact that he nor the girls he had with him cared was amazing. The lights on his coat were flashing, he moved and bells jingled. It was great, totally got me in the spirit and put a smile on my face which I'm sure was part of his reasoning for wearing it.

I instagramed this photo soon as I took it. It got some good laughs, It also made me want to get an ugly Christmas sweater to wear out in public... Maybe next year!

Speaking of Christmas I've got most of the gift wrapped I've bought. Most of them, but not all because I just can't seem to find the time. At night when the kids are in bed I'm so tired I can't even get the energy to look at my tree let alone wrap gifts.

I say this year after year, but I hate wrapping gifts, so that's probably why I keep putting it off too....

The gifts have been put under the tree because I cannot for the life of me find any hiding spots the 2 year old and 4 year old can't find. We've had 2 gifts unwrapped so far - which is fantastic considering. When I was a kid, I was one of those kids who took presents into the kitchen, turned on the kettle and used the steam to open tape, then fix it up. Yeah, I still to this day hate surprises and snoop when I can, so I don't blame them. Having them under the tree though they haven't touched, only if hiding I find they must see whats in them.

There is 10 sleeps now until Christmas, and I never thought I'd ever say this but I can't wait. I just want to get the holiday's over with. Put away my Christmas tree, decorations and everything - it feels so cluttered with it all out.  I am usually a Christmas freak and soak it all up, but I can honestly say this year has been so stressful and rushed I just can't wait for it to come, and go so I can relax a little bit..

Maybe then I can get back to regular blogging too, I see all the traffic I am getting... and I promise 2014 will bring more giveaways, and awesomeness.. It's just a busy time of year right now for everyone! I will be writing as much as I can going forward now.. Anyone else as rushed and anxious to get this over as I am?

Excitement!

Yesterday after we did some shopping I decided we needed to put our tree up. We usually have it up by now but we've been busy. 

I went to the basement into our cold room/storage room to dig out all the tree stuff. I couldn't find any of the decorations for the tree, not even the strings of lights! I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on then I remembered we threw it all out last year. Well, the lights anyway. They were all breaking and we didn't want to do multi-colored lights anymore. A lot of the balls and decorations got broken so while we did have some, the majority of them were garbage.

So I nursed the baby and ran to the store to grab some lights and decorations. I got the last 7 packs of clear lights which I am so thankful for because the clear looks so much better than the multi-colored, right?

Husband put the tree up while I grabbed the kids from school after finishing up at the store (I spent 5 minutes in the store, I grabbed everything and off I went!) when we got home there was some drama with kids not listening, and my oldest being put in his room for a bit. Once that was all settled it was time to do the tree. I let the kids decorate it however they wanted. We of  course were standing with them as I always make it a "family thing" but I let them put everything where they wanted. Every single year we all usually put the stuff on, but I get very obsessive over the tree. I would move balls around, fix garland and I ended up knocking the tree town SO MANY TIMES. Not good, so I promised them they could do it all and I wouldn't touch it what-so-ever. I haven't either, and I don't plan to. They did an amazing job and it looks fabulous!

The only thing left for us to do is the outside lights. Hubs needs to get his butt in gear and get on it. He's hoping to do it Thursday when he's off for some appointments. I'm just hoping the snow they predict doesn't end up coming because he will be mighty cold!

This morning I was woken up to loud, loud screams of "Elfie's here! Elfie's here Mom!" it was so adorable.... It came from #2, #3 and #4. Jordan is a bit too old, and Jackson/Justin are too young still. But it was so cute to wake up to. 

He of course found some of the extra garland we didn't use, hung it to the ceiling light in the living room and is just hanging out! 

All morning all we heard was "Can Elfie talk? Will he talk to us?" and "Oh, I can't wait to see where he is tomorrow morning!" the fun in this little stuffed Elf is completely heartwarming. Just an added bonus to make this time of year even more special than it already is! I am completely in the mode now, look out everyone!

Next up? Christmas shopping. Can you believe a Christmas freak like me has only bought 1 gift? My husband's. How awful right? I am hoping to go this Thursday when hubby has an extra day off for some appointments during the day. Justin and I can bundle up and head on out. I don't even know where to begin. I'm very disappointed in myself for not starting sooner. I hate crowds and I hate waiting until the last minute. This will be fun.......

When two worlds collide...

Yesterday we had Heidi, my guest blogger who post's on the blog every Wednesday over with her two adorable kiddos and her hubby. I was a bit excited, see Heidi and I met somehow online. I don't even remember how I believe on Instagram through the AppleCheeks hashtag or even through posts by AC on the official IG...

Anyway, she and I had known each other online for a while, then we started texting, and in the summer they came over for a quick visit when they were in the city... It was so awesome to finally meet her. But very out of the ordinary for me. I don't like meeting new people, and I'm not sure if it all stems from the self esteem issues I've posted about previously on here, or what. But it just never happened until I got involved with AppleCheeks.

We had a great first meeting and became even closer as friends since! I really wanted to get our kids together again as they seemed to really hit it off during our quick meet so we set it up for yesterday about a month ago! I got a little too excited and may have went a bit nuts in the snacks and food department but -- back home when I'd have people over I didn't get to really go all out and it bothered me, so now that I'm able to financially it was a lot of fun. We had veggies and dip, fruit and yogurt dip, smart food, party mix, a cheese/pickles/crescent platter, juice boxes, bottles of water, pop, breadsticks... it was super yummy and as you can see from the photo it was a bit holiday themed!

We sat around had lots of laughs, and our hubby's got chatting about some stuff... Which was nice. I'm glad they get along because we need more "couple" friends to hang out with and do this with..

For our main course we decided since I'd been so sick and didn't feel up to cooking, we'd order in. Swiss Chalet was the closest and we could order 3 of the family meals to feed everyone. We did, and it was pretty good. Heidi and her hubby stopped at a bakery on their way and got some cake.

OH MY GOSH -- BOSTON CREME CAKE. It was beyond delicious, I had never had it before. Let me tell you though - I'll be having it again. I will be now on the hunt for it closer to us. Everyone loved it and I remember at least two kids asking for seconds, but of course they didn't need it so there was some left over.

After we had dinner, and cake we sat around chit chatting some more.. Then it was picture time. Can you believe the whole time we didn't even think to get many pictures until the very end? Silly for us, I know. Considering we are obsessed with instagram you'd think we would have been taking photos of every little thing going on. But we were too busy gossiping and talking about everything from births, to food, to movies! It was really, really fun!

But yes - photo time came. I of course was nervous about photos, I'm not sure why I get like that but it's something I'm working on. Not very well, but I am. I thought this was an adorable photo! Heidi, my daughter Ava and I - of course, I had to be silly!

Cute right? I thought so! My kids absolutely adore Heidi, her hubby and their kids. Which means a lot to me because they don't have very many GOOD kids for friends. Around here they don't have many friends. School they've got a few. But it's nice for them to have friends away from school and be able to have these nights to look forward to. So it was a lot of fun!

The title of this post is "When two worlds collide" because - I never used to let my internet life which I've been online for 12+ years with blogs, livejournal, xanga, geocities.. ALL OF it. I never, ever let it collide with my real life offline. But let me tell you I am so glad I did. Not only is Heidi an amazing person, so is her hubby and kids. They are real, genuine and it's something I've always looked for in real friends - but since moving to Toronto have lacked finding because I'm a homebody, and lets be honest - this city can be scary. I'm glad I let my guard down, and I'm glad we met. I think we've become really great friends, and although she lives in a different city.. I look forward to having more of these nights. As does my hubby and super excited kids!

After they left of course my kids NEEDED to have a photo with me like the one above, of course I couldn't say no. So here we were able to squeeze 3 of them in with me! It's a silly one. It's adorable. We all had so much fun... My kids are still talking about it, telling me all the fun they had playing downstairs and eating all the food - which by the way, my kids basically ate all the snacks. They are gluttons and I have no idea where they put it. I'm in real danger come the teenage years....

I've met a few other people from the AC world as well, they are also amazing people but sadly don't live as close to me so we can't get together more often. I think it would be amazing when the weather turns nicer to invite everyone over for a huge BBQ... I think I may put it together. We shall see!

I am so thankful for everyone in my life, especially my AC mama's. They all know who they are. I've changed so much in the past few years since moving to this big city, and coming out of my shell - slowly but surely. It's amazing, and I'm so glad I am able to really enjoy all these things now with my kids and not have to worry about them being excluded or having to go out - they are my whole entire life, so having friends with kids is one of the most rewarding gifts. Especially such great friends like Heidi! We're lucky!

Guest Blog: The Great Pre Christmas De-clutter

Hey everyone, it's Heidi here for another blog on this wonderful Wednesday! In keeping with the theme Jeanine has going, I am going to discuss pre-Christmas de-cluttering. A few weeks back my 4.5 year old daughter and I went through all of the toys in the living room. We were deciding what we would keep, what we would throw out and what we would donate. We managed to accumulate 4 grocery sized bags full. To me this is crazy, our living room doesn't even have that much space. The toy storage area isn't very impressive and I really had no idea it held that much. Even though we just did it a few weeks back, I am sure we could come up with another bag of donations. It really is a never ending battle. 

Around this time of year I always feel a bit anxious at the thought of all of the presents that are going to come in just over a month. The million piece puzzle that we will manage to lose pieces to, the doctor set that ends up missing everything but the stethoscope and a band-aid , and the workbench that has everything stored on it other then a tool. This year I am trying to be more proactive then usual in my efforts to rid our house of things we really don't use. 

After organizing the toy area in the living room I feel the need to move on to bigger and better things. The kids closets, their dressers, the garage and the dreaded  basement (which is another drop off zone for toys not being used). I really hope that as a family we can get this all done. It makes me feel more relaxed knowing that my house isn't busting at the seams with "junk" more or less. Now to get the motivation to get this all done in time with all of the shopping and craziness this upcoming holiday season has to offer.

Do you de-clutter? Or are you a Pack-rat?
Let us know your tips and tricks for staying organized.  Heidi <3

It's almost that time again...

In a few short weeks it will be Christmas. Last year we started the tradition of Elf On The Shelf like a lot of other families all over the world. We didn't agree to use Elfie to scare our kids. We simply use Elfie as another way to bring Christmas joy into our home and created our own fun with him. Sure, Elfie came from the North Pole and does go every single night back to the North Pole to let Santa know what our family has done during the day BUT -- My kid's aren't terrified or scared of what might happen if they misbehave and Elfie goes back to visit Santa at night. Instead, Elfie is here so my kids can SHOW ELFIE how to be a good Elf and teach him things he doesn't know. My kids are his teachers basically.

We turned it around and instead of using it as a scare tactic, we use it as a tool to have them show what they know. My kids aren't awful during the year anyways, sure they have their moments and I can get really frustrated with how my girls behave at times but they are really great kids. They don't need to be scared into behaving. I don't believe that is what these Elves are for anyways.  

Have you ever seen the movie?

We watched the movie last year and my kids loved it. My kids love waking up every single day to see where Elfie landed after his long trip back to the North Pole. They love knowing anything they've taught Elfie that day will be reported back to Santa and maybe some other elves can learn too. It's fun for them.

Last year Jayden would color while Elfie hung on the picture behind the table - I'd catch him showing Elfie and saying "You have to stay in the lines"  he really enjoyed it, and he was only 3. 

We didn't say Elfie was a bad elf, or needed to be taught how to behave. I just told them he was here to learn and tell Santa what he learns! It's fun, a happy experience and they really enjoy it. I think if we used it as a scare tactic they would laugh and not take it seriously, at all.

My oldest who is 10 doesn't believe in Santa and hasn't for a few years - thanks to other kids ruining it for him a few years back, and us not able to save that for him. But he still plays along and it's even fun for him. And no, he's not mad at us or damaged for him believing for 7 years there was a Santa. I'm not either and I thought there was a Santa until I was 9 or 10.

Are we lying to them? I guess so, but I don't think it will damage them. It's no more of a lie than them thinking Santa is real. This is something fun and gives us something to do during the holiday's that is different than we're used to! I know people have an issue with these elves, and sometimes I've even heard people bashing those who let their kids believe in Santa. We all do what we do with our families, this is just something we do with ours to enjoy the holiday and I really think my kids learn a lot from teaching, even if it is a stuffed elf. It's fun for kids... let kids be kids for a little bit, they only get to be this age once!