10 on Tuesday!

1.. I have NEVER been this late finishing my Christmas shopping!  I feel like I'm so far behind....yet I remain unstressed about it.  That's weird.  Check with me on Christmas Eve and we'll see how I'm feeling then :) 

2.. The biggest reason for #1 is that you simply cannot shop with an almost 5 year old and expect him to keep your secrets! Or keep up with the amount of stops necessary!!

3.. Just to add to the behind-the-eight-ball feeling, we hadn't had our picture with Santa until last night.  (Due to the WORST 2 WEEKS. EVER.)  I did a little on-line research and decided the best bet for us was Deerfoot Mall.  The Santa looked super Santa-like, and the line ups were sure to be shorter that Market Mall!  I dressed the kids all cute, did nice ponytails for Olivia, and waxed up Hayden's 'do.  We talked about going all afternoon and the kids were really excited.  Well, let me re-phrase that, Hayden was really excited.......

Despite our best efforts, and the efforts (and laughter) of a VERY gracious Santa, Olivia was having NO PART of this holiday tradition!  Santa assured us it was "just her age" and she will have a totally different experience next year :)  One can only hope every year's photos don't look like this!!  The upside?  Hayden looked like a little angel and he had a good chat with the big man..... after we removed his screaming sister form Santa's lap?@#!  I would HIGHLY recommend this Santa.  He was really cool, and great with the kids.  We walked right in and there was ZERO waiting.  And, each of the kids got a bag of little presents to take home.
Aahhhhh, that was an experience for the books!  I think I need a double eggnog.

4.. I'm not sure what the eggnog LATTE count is up to.....or the spiced rum and eggnog for that matter.....but I know the scale will reveal the damage soon enough.

5..Speaking of Starbucks.....my husband received his GOLD CARD today!  I didn't even know Starbucks had such a thing.....and I know a few other coffee-addicts who would be eligible for this VIP status! 

6.. Speaking of eggnog......I discovered a guilt free version!  My eggnog scented candles just arrived!  Mmmmmmmm.  And I got gingerbread creme ones too.  Smells like holidays.  Without the calories :)

7.. Hayden learned the cutest little poem:



8.. Pop-Up Pirate is going to give me a heart attack!  Hayden got this cute new game and I jump 10 feet EVERY time the pirate pops!! Hayden, of course, thinks its hilarious.  I was proud of him for choosing a game (with his $10 from Great-Grandma Pearl) instead of another car or transformer or something for the sake of something.

  
9.. My son is a card shark.  We play a lot of Go Fish! and we have started playing Crazy Eights too.  I also bought him Snap! but he doesn't love that one as much as I do :)


10. Keri and I are finishing our shopping TONIGHT!  Our husbands are out shopping for us this afternoon while we're home with the kids.  We're doing a hello and here's the kids and then we're off to shop for them.  Fun!

Santa's Magic Sleigh!

 Hayden had his preschool Christmas performance on Friday.  

Only a mama can stand and sob while her 4 1/2 year old baby 

sings and dances his little heart out :)

Thoughts for Thursday

1.. Here's a little more Christmas cheer for ya'!

2..We must have a vortex for lost things in my house. I suspect it's Olivia and I have NO IDEA where her hiding place is!  First, it was her black bows for her hair.  She took them out before we left the house and I still haven't found them.  Next, it is the snowshoeing bird I had placed in our bookcase for Christmas.  Gone.  I've looked everywhere!  The latest victim is my scrub brush for dishes.  They were playing with it 'cause it has a suction cup on the end and it makes a funny noise when it comes un-stuck :) and now it's gone too!

3.. I am living with pete and re-peat.  Everything Hayden says, Olivia tries to repeat.  It's a fun little game we play.  Yesterday it was the word "gooey" which had us in giggles :)

4..Sunday at work was fabulous damaging for my ego.  They're NOT "natural highlights" and calling them that doesn't make me feel better about them.  It's wiry gray hairs, folks.  And they're multiplying.  Nor am I expecting another baby, but thanks for noticing I'm fat.  Thanks for shopping and Happy Holidays to you too :)

5..Ralph and I went shopping without kids (thanks Tessa!)  Wow.  You can get a lot done when there aren't little people around demanding your time and attention and patience.  We even managed a quiet dinner together.  A very successful trip to Cross-Iron Mills indeed.

6..I am very impressed by Ralph's ability to put ponytails in Olivia's hair.  He has done it twice and he does a pretty great job.  'Atta boy! 

7..I FINALLY sold my stroller!  I {heart} Kijiji once again.

8..Now that Hayden wants to spell and sound out EVERYTHING, we have had a challenge with "c."   How do you explain to a 4 year old that "cake" and "cat" don't start with "k," they start with "c!"  I found a word to illustrate my point....circle.  I think he understood (?) that "c's" can be tricky because they can sound different!

9..There should be some sort of cosmic understanding that when you run into someone you haven't seen in a long time.....you should look HOT!   You should NOT be at the end of your day, looking frazzled at your children with little trace of makeup, old jeans and 3 day old hair!  And claim you are a makeup artist?!  Aarrgghhhhh!

10. I don't like night showers. I'm a bath at night and wash your hair in the morning kind of girl.   (except for yesterday, aka #9!) I think it's because I am not blessed with wash-and-go hair.  I require blow-drying and flat-ironing and I NEVER feel like doing that before I go to bed. 

Sinterklaas 2010

We celebrated the annual Dutch tradition of Sinterklaas

at Tessa & Scott's this year!
 

We had a delicious Dutch dish for dinner, threw around some papernote for dessert 
(think teeny-tiny gingerbread cookies) 
put the kids to bed, and started our highly anticipated gift exchange!

As always the presents are a surprise....though that is getting harder to do

with kids around who like to unknowingly spoil secrets :)

Ralph, who is the king of the most intricate and "challenging" surprises,
drew Tessa's name......

....but she wasn't puzzled for long and solved the clue to find her yummy gift!

Quite coincidentally, Tessa drew Ralph's name.....

.....and Ralph's very own life-sized DVD, starring himself, held the clue to his presents!

Henk drew Scotties name and there was fear in his eyes 

'cause Henk is known for the messy surprises.....

....he didn't disappoint when Scott had to sift through a giant  industrial strength inhaler, containing 72 cupcakes, to find the thumbtack 

which had the clue to his present written on it!

I drew Eveline's name and thought she could use the zipline skills 

she learned in Mexico to make her job much easier.....

....but she had to dig through a 40 pound box of sand to find her presents!

Scott drew my name this year and I am usually the recipient of

a messy surprise too.....

I too had to pick through 72 delicious cupcakes to find letter clues for an anagram 

giving me the location of my gifts!  

(the reason I know they were delicious is because I ate 

half a dozen of the damn things just from licking my fingers!!)

Last but not least, Eveline had Henk.....

A giant hand-crafted tennis ball full of tennis balls 

held the letter clues for Henk's gifts!

We had a great time with LOTS of laughs,

and look forward to the next time 'Sint comes to town!

TGIF

1.. I'm going to be vague and brief by saying this has been THE WORST week EVER!  If you haven't heard about it already, when I see you in person, I'll share the brutal details.  If you know the story, thank you SO MUCH for being supportive.

2.. Indirectly related to #1.....I HATE Mondays!  They are a total blur.  Hayden goes to school at 12:15 and Olivia comes right home for a nap.  I wake Olivia up from her nap to pick Hayden up at 3:15, we're home for 20 minutes then we're back in the car and off to soccer.  Soccer is for an hour (which I don't get to watch much of because I'm keeping Olivia out of trouble) and we come home again for dinner.  All by 5:15p. Whew.

3.. I LOVE Tuesdays.  We have NOWHERE to be :)

4.. I need to choose a Kindergarten for Hayden.  Everyone with children please weigh in. I'm thinking Tuscany School is "out" because I don't hear great things about it.  I don't want to take him there just because it's close. I don't think it's "necessary" to go private, but that's only MY personal opinion.  I survived public school!  I'm thinking about the TLC program at Brentwood......

5.. Why is it that my cats are smart(??) enough to poop in the bathroom when they are too lazy to use the litter box?  Gross.  Sorry.....that came WAY out of left field.

6.. We did some shopping at Cross Iron Mills the other night.  They should really put a pen around this floor and charge babysitting fees.  They would make a fortune!  And the adults would actually get some shopping done :)

7..I FINALLY got Hayden's school photos back!  What a little dude he is:

8.. I heard on the radio that WalMart is open 24 hours from now until Christmas.  Is it weird that I want to go in at some un-godly hour just to see who's shopping?!  Is it also strange that it sounds appealing to go in and simply wander about and maybe get some shopping done.  Without my children.  When it's not busy?!

9.. On the other hand......sleep is SO valuable :)

 10. We are totally in the festive spirit at the Deters household.  Olivia is learning new words every day and is now picking up song lyrics.  She gets that from her Grandpa :)

Special Delivery.....

My Uncle Tim arrived last night after a trip to Saskatoon.

He played "Santa" and delivered presents from 
Grandma & Grandpa and Auntie Kelly & Uncle Jeret.

They, of course, loved the box!

Now I have to make sure my kids resist temptation

and stay away from all of the fabulous presents under the tree :)

10 on Tuesday!

1.. Wow! 2 weeks in a row!  This is my PRE-New Years resolution......I need to be a once a week blogger at the very least or I forget lose track of time and weeks go by without a blog update!  And how long will I use the excuse that I'm too busy?!  I was actually thinking that it was so much easier when I blogged more often!


2.. Christmas threw up on the Deters house this weekend!  I LOVE decorating for the holidays....and Hayden insisted on helping me hang ornaments.  I go a wee bit Type-A when it comes to the tree and like to take my time with the ornaments.  Hayden, on the other hand, was using a far different technique:
        Ralph: "do all the ornaments have to be on the same branch?" 
        Hayden: "daddy, they want to be by their friends!"
How do you argue with that logic?
However, when Hayden wasn't looking, the "friends" were separated to opposite quadrants of the tree :)

3.. We also tried to take a family photo.  By ourselves.  Our photographers were busy :)  You'll see the result of our valiant effort on the Christmas card. 


4.. My friend Megan always reminds me to have Santa photos taken early.  I swear, she's always the first to have them done!  I see the photo pop up on Facebook and I say to myself; "it's that time of year again!"  and off we go to have OUR Christmas photo with Santa!  And because we are so prepared and early, we avoid the lineups too :)

5.. I took some great footage of Hayden at soccer on Monday.  But the Flip software is not working and my "geek squad" is out of town.  Stay tuned.....it's hilarious.  They were trying to teach them to "head" the ball.  Priceless.

6.. Yes, that's right, Ralph is out of town again.  I've survived the first 2 days.  It's not that the days are tough....it's the 5pm till bedtime that kills me.  And dinner time with one parent?@#!  Forget about it.  Can you say GONG SHOW??!!

7.. Snow day!  It has finally been warm enough to go out and PLAY!

8.. Hayden got to watch The Grinch at school on Monday afternoon (they had movie day with popcorn and all!)  I guess he loved it because it's all he talks about!  It's hilarious listening to him tell the story of how the Grinch's heart grew bigger so he ended up saving Christmas! 

9.. Is there anything better than jersey sheets in the Winter?  I think not.  We needed to get new sheets for our bed....because Ralph put his foot through the fitted sheet on our regular set.  Nice.  We bought a good quality replacement but didn't like them.   You would think that 600 thread count Egyptian cotton sateen sheets would feel nice.  They sound nice.  But they actually felt cold.  So I went to Winners and got a great set of jersey sheets instead.  Sweet dreams tonight!  I would go and crawl in them right now but I have too much to do now that the kids are in bed!!

10.This post has literally taken me ALL DAY to complete.  Whew!

11. I feel horrible for complaining.  I just got an email from Hayden's preschool......one of my fellow preschool mommies fell in the parking lot on Monday afternoon when she was picking up her son.  She fell and broke her shoulder!  She has 3 kids, and has a long road to recovery ahead.  I feel SO awful.  The school is doing a little "meals on wheels" for her on Friday. Does anyone know any good casseroles or crock pot dishes that I could make for her family??  I could always fall back on boring old chili.....

Ten on Tuesday!

1.. I'm not going to dwell on it.....because I know that everyone else is in the same boat......but I HATE this weather!  I'm in a frozen little funk.  I hate the time that it takes to get the kids bundled up to take Hayden 6 minutes up the road to school.  And on that note, I also HATE driving in this weather.  I hate icy, slippery conditions despite the fact my husband has put Winter tires on my car.  I feel like I drive a wee bit "Miss Daisy".....and I don't care.  I have precious cargo.  So I'm going slow.  And careful.  And if you ever have the misfortune occasion to drive behind me, I'm sorry.

2.. There's not a whole lot new going on at our house.  Same 'ol, same 'ol.  (Weird that it takes me forever to get to Blogger then isn't it?!)   The flu bug/cold bug ripped through our house and we are all at the tail end of it.  I think.  Hayden is loving school so much so that when he was sick and I kept him home, he was very upset with me!   

3.. Ralph is working hard as usual.  His reward??  A double trip to Burlington!  I think his boss secretly hates me.  Though we have never met :)  He flies out tomorrow afternoon, is gone all day Thursday and Friday, is home Saturday and Sunday, flies out Monday afternoon again and is gone until Friday night, December the 3rd.  BOO!!

4.. Olivia is the cutest little thing lately.  She's She's putting 3 words together now!  At breakfast she said to me; "more toast please!"  Some of her other favorite phrases are: "Daddy work," "Me come too," "baby sleeping," "no diaper," and "Grandma & Grandpa."  And so many other new words every day!  She really isn't so much a baby anymore. She's a real little girl!

5..My kids love to dance.  Hayden thinks he is Usher and cranks "his" song whenever it comes on the radio.  Which is at least 3 times a day.  Olivia dances along.....but her real favorite is Break your Heart by Taio Cruz.  I need to cultivate this love of music.  I think it's awesome.

6.. I {heart} PBSKids.  I {heart} Sesame Street.  This is one of our new favorite videos:

And there are SO MANY other gooders that make us ALL laugh.....Elmo with Adam Sandler, Elmo with Ricky Gervais......good times.

7.. I didn't think I could do it but I'm wearing contacts!  After my last check up, my eyes had gotten considerably worse.  I need to wear glasses.  Not just to drive anymore.....but all the time.  I was totally freaked out about sticking my finger in my eyeball but it's actually not that bad.  And now I can see all the time.  And no more headaches.  I guess it's worth it :)

8.. Picasos in training.....look at the concentration!

 

9..I have always said that one year I was going to be done my Christmas shopping early.  The way I'm trending, it won't be this year!  Which is strange because I LOVE to shop.  I just don't love to shop with 2 impatient children :)

10. I have a love/hate relationship with Kijiji at the moment.  My stroller has been listed FOREVER and it's not selling.  And it is NOT overpriced.  I have pulled the ad and re-listed it a million times.  In the meantime, I have sold a LeapFrog musical table and my highchair when I totally expected the stroller to go first.  I want it GONE.   I'm in purge mode.  Time to discount and re-list. Again. 

Halloween 2010

This post is WAY late....

sorry Grandma & Grandpa!

This year marked the (first annual??)

DEVILISH & DEVINE DETERS HALLOWEEN PARTY!

The Nightmare Before Christmas was the inspiration for our

Halloween costumes this year!

Sally & Jack Skellington....the spooky hosts for the evening!

I had SO MUCH FUN making crazy food for the party!

The Brain Hemmorage shooters

 

The party people!!!

Ralph was in charge of making the yard look

spooky and he did a GREAT job!

(Too bad I forgot to take night shots.....boo!)

 We got dressed up again for trick-or-treating on Sunday night!

Ralph couldn't wear his "head" to the party or there

would have been no food or drinks!

  

Hayden was the Oogie Boogie man from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Ralph MADE his costume.

Yes, that's right, my husband is a WHIZ with the sewing machine.

I think he missed his creative calling....

he could make millions!!

  

Olivia was a trooper!

There was no such thing as "one, two, skip a few" for her!!

She wanted to go to EVERY house all by herself.

Hayden stayed out longer

and was SO sweaty when he got home!

From the running and the cozy costume :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!