Cornerstones of My Life

 I started this blog as a stay at home dad wanting to share my experiences with my kids and the day to day happenings that go on with our family.  I was flipping through some pictures looking for one for my Anniversary blog and kept coming across great shots of my kids and I realized that I have not shared anything about the ones I am writing about.  As much as I have done my best to add some humour in my blogs, these are my kids and you will excuse me if I get a little sappy.

 To start we have nicknames for the kids, in fact there are a number of nicknames, but these ones I can share.  Starting from with my daughter, Frick, first twin born is Frack.  Mutt and Jeff are my second twin and my oldest.  If you know my kids you can see why the names and that it could not be a more accurate pairing. 

 Frick is my daughter and she does her best to keep me wrapped around her finger.  She is 3 years old and thinks she is much older, seeing as she feels she can do whatever her brothers do.  When she can`t do what they are doing she demands they do what she wants, which rarely works, but does not stop her from trying.  When she is teamed up with Frack you never can tell what will happen.  They can tear apart a room by pulling every toy out or they can show true sibling love that would break your heart.

 Frack is our creative son that can break glass with his high pitched screams.  These screams can come from joy or frustration, either way they have us jumping out of our seat every time.  He can drive you to the brink one day and the next show genuine passion with a hug or a saying straight out Hallmark.  Aside from the love he shows his sister he, when he wants, can be very sharing with his brothers.  I picture him to be a foreman one day, directing traffic, but nothing physical.

 Mutt is the charmer through his looks and his quiet demeanor, but watch out as he has a fire inside waiting to bust out at any time.  When this fire explodes he loses himself temporarily, coming around eventually.  Emotionally I would say Mutt covers all bases with the greatest amount of passion.  When he is angry you are best to stand back and let him work through it, but when he is laughing get involved and enjoy the moment.  Mutt and Jeff are two years apart, although they play like best friends every chance they get.

 Jeff is our oldest, the one that taught us how to be parents during the early years.  I remember changing his diaper one day when he started to spit up.  I quickly picked him up and got baby puke and poop on my arm.  I wouldn`t have changed that moment for anything as I remember feeling like a dad, a real dad looking out for my new baby boy.  The years since have been great and he has grown to be a good kid that likes to laugh and have fun.  Given a choice he would play games with his siblings as long as he could dictate the rules.

 My kids are my life and I look forward to sharing what I can and what my wife will allow over the coming months and beyond.  As for my wife, she is incredible as well and supports me in every way.

Happy Anniversary

 So my wife and I had our 12th anniversary on the 20th of February and as you have already noticed I did not say celebrated.  Now don't get me wrong everyone's idea of a celebration is different and if you have read my previous blog, "Romance in the Air, Somewhere", you will see that my wife and I fall into that different category.
 Now if you would like to stop by and watch our four kids for the weekend we would love the opportunity to take off for a couple days of alone time.  This does not mean that there will be romance, just sleep, drink, food, and if I am lucky a back rub, for my wife.  You didn't think I was getting the backrub did you?  For that I need to visit the local masseuse, but even with the oils his hands are too rough for me.  I'm kidding, it was his sister, but I digress.   So if anyone wants to step up please contact me as we have lots of ideas of where and what we can do.  In the meantime we will continue to enjoy our romance vicariously through a good movie.
 Here is a list of our weekend getaway ideas, hopefully one sparks some interest for you.

1. Take off for the cottage and re-organize my sister in laws refridgerator and pantry.
2. Head to Toronto for dinner and whatever the going stage show is.  Need a loan for this one.
3. Staying at a hotel with a King size bed, no clock, and preferrably no bed bugs.
4. Fly down to Florida for the weekend if we only had a place to stay.
5. Hook up with some couples and take off for Vegas.  Since the movie Hangover I won`t be going with guys.



6. A summer weekend at a golf and spa resort.  Romance for two.

For friends and family you may understand 1 & 4.  For the rest of you, the truth is that we would be and will continue to be happy spending our weekends with the kids.  But seriously when can you be here.

Family Day

 So what did you do for Family Day?  Did you spend it with the Family or did you take advantage of a day off, for most, and get some work done around the house? If you are like us you strategize and plan well in advance, after all we did not want to waste this opportunity to spend time with the kids.
 Friday night our planning started.  My wife called her nephew to see if their cottage was available for us to take advantage of.  No go, cottage occupied for the weekend.  Plan B, let's wake up in the morning and see what the weather is like and decide what to do.  Saturday morning the snow was falling and it was windy and cold, let's stay home today and do something tomorrow.  Now we did get some things completed around the house and my wife got caught up with work, fun day.  Plan C, wake up Sunday and decide to farm out the kids to friends and relatives so we can continue with the work we started Saturday, after all it's not Family Day yet.  Plan D, Sunday night we decide that we must do something the next day, but not spend much money.  That`s as far as we got.  Monday morning I wake up early with the kids, that chose not to sleep in, and I fall asleep on the couch.  I wake up to everyone running around and my wife saying we are headed to the Science Centre and we are buying a family pass for the year.  So much for not spending much money.
 Now if you were paying attention to our plan you can see how we systematically eliminated all options allowing us to end up at the Science Centre.  If we had just selected the Science Centre we would have had something happen and ended up at home for the day doing laundry.  As it was we had a great day with the kids and learned that the Science Centre is a very busy place on Family Day.
 Now when was the last time you were at the Science Centre?  If you are like me it has been many many years and as much as it has changed over the years it is still the same.  The things you want to try the most are either closed or don`t work.  The static ball to make your hair stand up, closed.  The exhibit for making your own paper airplane and throw it through targets, no paper left.  The waterfall area where the kids can build dams and manipulate the water, oh it was open just had a big kid that would not let anyone play.  In fact this kid would remove what other kids did.  Parents, any parents around?  Of course not, so I dunked his head in the water and told him to back off and let my kids play.  Just kidding, we moved on to the anatomy section.  Do you know where all your inside parts go?  We don`t either.  We did visit other planets, in fact I think there were people at the Science Centre that are from some of those planets, Uranis comes to mind.

 Next challenge, remove the core from the nuclear reactor by building a device from scrap parts and stay out of the danger zone.  Sounded simple enough so my oldest and I built our special tool with a long piece of wood and an eye bolt.  We were then told remove slowly and straight up, any movement would set off the reactor.  Who are we kidding, I have trouble staying between the lines when I drive.  When all was said and done we caused a nuclear disaster but had fun trying to avoid it.  Everyone had fun at the Science Centre and we plan to visit again when there are fewer people.

 We finished the day at home with family eating pizza and playing some mini sticks hockey.  The kids are still the champs, but just barely.  All in all I would say that our planning made for a great Family Day and will lead to our own Family Days in the future.  Just goes to show that good planning can lead to wonderful moments with your kids.