My Creatively Random Life

When we went to Toronto ComiCon in March we pulled together this lovely Doctor Who family Cosplay which I did not get many pictures of.  I did get this great one taken with the Doctor Who Society Daleks though. 

We had some family pictures taken as a present to my mom a few weeks ago and I just got them back yesterday.  Ace is starting to go through that I don't want to go do anything stage so he refused to smile but I think they still turned out sort of all right. One of these days I am going to figure out how to rotate pictures on the blog, then we will really be working out well. And here is the first one of the whole family, where at least he attempted to smile.  Ugh! Preteens! There are some more great shots that I am looking forward to having of me and the kids and one of me and my mom and my sister that is fantastic.  This really sets the tone for the year though, I want to have more pictures of my kids with my parents and even with us so that one day when they are sitting down with their kids they can share the memories. Whether those memories are formal pictures like these or silly selfies taken on a cell phone. Do you make sure to be in the picture...

Sadly it feels like it's been forever since I've done a blog post about a day out with the kids.  It's not that we don't do the days out, it's mostly that I don't take pictures as I haven't been able to find my camera since we moved and my phone was sketchy at best.  I have replaced my phone and the new one has a fantastic camera so look out for lots more fun posts! On Saturday the kids and I went to the ROM to spend the day seeing if they could soak up any knowledge.  Cat was excited to go see the dinosaur bones and Ace wanted to check out the mummies. Me, I wanted to check out the Mexican textiles exhibit. Ace didn't want to join in our pre-museum selfie, he's too cool to take pictures with his family. He did pose with his sister behind this old door frame though. Dinosaur bones and the kids checking them out. Our Egyptian detour, how cool is that step pyramid?  I just read a bunch of books about ancient Egyp...

I’d like to start by thanking Melissa Ann for letting me stop by to promote my Christmas novella Self-Help 101 or: How I Learned to Take Over the World Through Tolerating My Family . Santa hats are a holiday staple for many. You can buy them at any store that sells Christmas decorations. My kids have a Santa hat that they’ve nearly worn out. They take turns pretending to be Santa, wrapping presents in whatever they can find and putting them under the tree. I saw a game using Santa hats floating around the interwebs that looked kind of fun. If you’re gathered with a group of friends watching TV, perch a Santa hat on the top corner of the TV. Every time a character in the show ends up wearing the hat, everyone has to do something. It can be used as a drinking game if everyone is at least 21, but even if there are younger people playing, non-alcoholic eggnog or hot cocoa can be used for this. Or maybe you want to use it as an excuse to eat too much. Every time someone w...

Celebrate the Small Things is hosted by  Lexa Cain  along with wonderful co- hosts  Writing Off The Edge  and  The Cyborg Mom . Wow, I haven't been here in ages!  Seems like with all the sick and life in general I haven't felt like there was much to celebrate but you know I have found it this week.  The kids and I made a lasagna for the first time on Wednesday afternoon and it was fantastic!  Ace ate half a pan of it.  The joys of having a pre-teen boy in the house. I started 5k training this week as well, it's my goal to be able to run a 5k by the end of the summer.  If you are laughing now then that means you know me.  But I am serious about this, once the A to Z Challenge is over I am going to start keeping you guys posted about how it is going.  I assure you so far it's been pretty hilarious.   Lot's of fun and exciting stuff coming up though so keep an eye on this spot.  I am back in full force.  This...

There's been something lately that has me stuck in a real nostalgic mood.  Not just in the mood to look back to the past but back to my much younger days.  Happy hours spent with family, which is always a wonderful thing. I can't remember the last time my sister and I had a picture taken with our mom and dad but I know I will be insisting on one at Christmas.  I think my sister is still short enough that we can even mimic this pose. 

Last year we went on a awesome walking tour of the battle ground of The War of 1812 with Richard of Muddy York Walking Tours .  It was a great experience and the kids had a blast. This is my favorite picture from that day, happy family.

The Wednesday after he got back from Calgary I skipped out of work for the afternoon and kept Ace back from camp and we headed out to  Canada's Wonderland  for the afternoon.  They are taking down the  SkyRider  this year and I wanted to make sure he got a chance to ride on it before they did. I think it was fitting that my last ride on SkyRider, which has been one of my favourite roller coasters in twenty odd years of going to Wonderland was Ace's first.  He approached it very bravely given that he is not a roller coaster kid.  I got the best video of his reaction after though. After his roller coaster experience Ace wanted to do something that was a little more his speed so he dragged me on  WindSeeker .  Then proceeded to laugh his butt off while I tried not to cry for my mommy as I may have an issue or two with heights.  Revenge received. Then we went on  Time Warp  for a little less scary roller coaster time...

The good thing about Ace being away is that Cat and I have gotten to spend a lot of good quality mother/daughter time together.  Her favourite thing to do when we do this of course is to go to  Canada's Wonderland  because she is a die hard thrill seeker already.  Plus you can experience so many things in one day, which is fun when you are a kid.  (or an adult) One of Cat's favorite things to do when her brother isn't there is watch ALL the shows as she is very into singing and dancing.  (what 5 year old girl isn't)  So off we went to check the schedules for what was playing when. We discovered that the British Invasion show was starting shortly so we got our souvenir cup filled up and grabbed a seat nice and close to the stage.  We went on a magical journey through five decades of British contributions to music.  It was a lot of fun, Cat's favorite part was the dancing whereas I was in love with all the costumes. Afterwards we...

Here's a picture from the mid-eighties at some point.  I am particularly fond of it as I am looking at my cousin Nicole instead of the camera and therefore you can't see how horrendous my glasses are.

I think this is going to become one of my favorite blog posts, a chance to look back over my week and remember all the little things that made it exciting and special.  All too often it's something we really don't do and that's a shame.  So without further ado here's my list for this week: 1) I got to spend some time with my cousin Stacy who I haven't seen in almost a decade. 2) Ace had his grade three graduation ceremony. Check out the other blogs participating in this blog hop at  Scribblings of an Aspiring Author .

Catherine Abigail Theresa, my daughter, named as such because her brother did not want a little sister and said we could only keep her if he could call her Cat.  We were having coming up with a girls name we could agree on at the time so it ended up sparking something we could work with and that suits her.   

Sometimes move through life so fast that we take the people close to us for granted.  They pass through our minds and we think that we should call them, maybe set up a time to see them and often as fast as we think it, it is gone again.  Lost in the hustle and bustle of everyday life.  It's often not until something tragic happens that we are reminded of what is truly important in life. I like to take a great deal of pride in being one of those people who takes pleasure in the small things in life.  A well made cup of coffee, the joy of jumping in a puddle, snuggling with my kids in the morning, a purring cat.  However, it was driven home very sharply for me over the last few weeks that I sometimes miss the most important thing of all, my family.  A week ago, my cousin passed away.  I was explaining it to Ace and he summed it up in a way that I thought really fit.  He said "Mom, sometimes life sucks."  It occurs to me that ...