June is birthday month for the Cullen's!

Today is Bizzy's birthday! My grandma (known as Bizzy to the kids) celebrates her 85th birthday today. We celebrated last night with dinner at my parents place. Mike and Mirella are visiting which is great! We have not seen Mirella since Christmas! The boys happily sang her "Happy Birthday" and then eagerly ate her birthday cake. My cousin Angela and her bf Neal will be heading to see Bizzy tomorrow to celebrate her birthday.
It was my dad's birthday on the 9th and even though we celebrated 4 days after the fact, it was still a great meal! We just did a low key BBQ at our place.

This weekend is my "Mommy time" weekend. I'm so stoked. I will be staying home by myself for the weekend and attending a Jack & Jill for Bill and Fisher on Saturday. I have an exciting day of cleaning, laundry and gardening and then I'll head out to meet Baby Sadie - our friend's Kevin & Melissa had a baby a week ago and I am going to meet the babe before heading to Port Perry. I will go to my parents place and meet Neal for the first time too - see if he passes the "cousin" test! LOL!! Cam is taking the computer and camera with him to the cottage this weekend so we will have new pictures to post after this weekend.

The boys are doing well. I've started my part time job now and I'm working Wed-Fri - it's awesome. We have started the routine of going to the Toronto Zoo on Monday's and then Charlie has soccer on Monday nights. It's been a slow start for the soccer player, but he gets easilhy frustrated. he is like his mommy and daddy - he expects to excel at everything the first time he does it and it's frustrating him that there is a learning curve!

Sammy is talking up a storm - he is already starting to put 3-4 words together - my current favorite saying "see ya later dudes" - he is a lover of "Finding Nemo" and that is a direct quote from Squirt the turtle! He's starting to assert some attitude and now had temper tantrums if things don't go his way. We are quickly trying to nip that in the bud - I can't stand the whining!

Charlie attended his Junior Kindergarten orientation night on June 2nd with mommy and daddy in tow. He was pretty shy at first (shocking - not) but once we got settled and he got a feel for the school he was pretty excited to be there. He met his teacher and actually talked to her. He is super shy around people and will often ignore them when they ask what his name is - however, Mrs. Reid (his teacher) managed to get his name from him and he even spoke to her! He was sad the next day that he had to go to daycare, he was all ready to start school the next day. I think he will enjoy going and I look forward to him learning new things!

So...I hope to have some new pictures for everyone next week - until then....Cheers!

Wearing their "space helmets"

Playing on the beach at the cottage

Chasing Bubbles in the backyard

Goofy grin - I could just eat his cheeks!

End of May

It’s the end of May and we have been busy so it’s time to update everyone! We have been spending as much time at the cottage as possible despite Cam still working 60+ hours a week. In the next couple weeks or so he might actually be able to take two days off in row – honestly people, that’s big news! I’m not as worn out as I sound, just missing Cam being around as much as he usually is!
So – we have been cottaging! The boys resemble lepers on Sunday night when we drive home (or to Nonna’s) as the mosquitoes love the fresh meat! I’m trying to teach them to smack mosquitoes cause they don’t know and they are getting feasted on! The biggest surprise, Charlie reacts more negatively to the bites than my fair-skinned red head! Who knew! Charlie now knows when to ask for Benadryl making his “itchies” less annoying! The lake has been warming up and it was up to 80 degrees this past weekend! Needless to say it was hard to keep them out the lake! A bunch of fishes they are! Allison is currently cooking up baby #2 and if the weather stays as warm as it has – it’s going to be a hot one for her! Luckily she can float or swim around when needed – 80 is comfortable for swimming.
So tonight is Charlie’s first night of soccer and as I write this I realize that we forgot the camera at the cottage – or actually, I forgot it! YIKES! Better ask for back-up….OK – got back up….now I’ll be able to look at the pictures after I cry my eyes out! I’m a sober…it’s true…everything special and new the boys do I cry! It’s hereditary actually…my mom is bawler too!
I’ve started my part time job now! I’m doing a rotation with my company and until March I will be working three days a week. I’m hoping to enjoy more time with the kids and more time at the cottage. If all goes well I will try to job share once this rotation is up.
So I’ll post some new pictures soon – just wanted to update everyone…we are busy as usual, but really, who isn’t?
Cheers!

60 Hour work weeks and cottage time?

Cam has been so busy with the latest outage at work that he is working the 60 hours a week - the rest of us (boys and me) have been enjoying the cottage, and Cam when he can squeeze a day off. The weather is getting nice and the boys are pretty much able to spend all day outside at the cottage. We got our first taste of swarming black flies this past weekend and we have been warned that the next couple weeks they will start biting...so...we may hang around home for the next couple weeks! I can imagine how lucious and juicy my red-headed babe would be to the blood thirty savages! We have lots on the go right now. Starting in June I will be doing a part-time rotation with the Public Affairs manager at OPG. I will be working Wednesday to Friday until March of next year. I'm really excited to have some extra time off with the boys and get to spend some extra time at the cottage. Charlie starts JK in August so it will be a great time to be off with them. Cam's outage is on until the middle of July so he is hoping to take most of August off...it will be a well deserved break for him indeed!

This weekend we are celebrating my dad's retirement with a friend's part at his golf club Wyndance! It should be a great night and he is looking forward to seeing some friends he hasn't seen in a while. Since my brother and I are already married, they don't get to plan big parties anymore - I think mom might be more excited than my dad (well maybe not...but they are both excited).

Here are some pictures of the boys from the past weekend at the cottage and a couple from "mornings with dad" - that would be from 6-8am when mommy gets to sleep in!




The view from our porch window at the cottage - gorgeous!

They are besties - best friends and best enemies - but mostly they are just adorable!

My "baby" is getting so big! 19 months on April 28!

They loved playing "superman" on the neighbour's jungle gym!



It's nice to see Sammy still looking small - he has to be next to his dad to see it, but he is still my baby!

Just a quickie!

I don't have a lot of time for an update but wanted to share that the boys are good. I took the kiddies to Florida in February for a week to stay with my parents and although the weather wasn't nice - it was still great to have a holiday. Here are a couple pictures of us from our holiday!

Charlie has now completed swimming lessons, I'm still waiting on one more skating competition in April and then I'm done - spending lots of time at the cottage and generally keeping ourselves really busy!

Cheers!

Merry Christmas, etc,etc.

So I'm back at work now - that's my excuse for not updating the blog - and franky, I think Cam has forgotten that it exists...so it falls to me to update everyone on the going-ons of the Arnold clan. We are now so geared up for Christmas Charlie's head might just pop off. He's pretty stoked that Santa is coming in 2 sleeps now. Sam doesn't care, but he's so aloof that he will be 8 years old and not caring. Such a character. So....Charlie is now 3 (as of October 21) and we had a great party for him both at my mom's place and at Little Feet Fitness with his friends. It was so cute to watch all the kids flying around the place like tasmanian devils - full of such moxy! We have been cottaging a little less frequently than I thought....between skating competitions for me and Cam working OT -it's been hard to get up there. Hopefully the new year sees us getting there more. I would love to get the boys on the ice and teach them to skate. Sammy won't be interested, but I could teach Charlie and Cam....I mean, not Cam....he skates great.....(clears throat)...moving on!

The boys are loving that their cousins are visiting the Cullen household right now. Faye, Nina and Sophia are great babysitters...the boys don't even care if I'm there...they love playing with their cousins and I LOVE LOVE LOVE that I have been able to chillax a bit! Can't wait for Christmas when they are high on sugar and running around like fiends....I'll super love the cousins then!

So I as mentioned above, I'm back at skating this year. My team, Glide, is based out of Oshawa and there are 15 "adults" on the synchronized team. It's a great love of mine, depsite the protests when at 8pm on a snowy day I have to gear up for 2 hours on the ice....but I still love it. I have a couple competitions in the new year and hopefully we go to Canadian's in Ottawa in April - that would be great fun!

I'll get Cam on here to post a little message but I wanted to wish all our friends and family a great holiday season and a very merry new year!

Cheers,
Alicia

Message from Cam:

Great job on the update Suzy. You should really do this more often. Why are you so...(clears throat)...lazy?. You could get up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 and do it before you go to work. Or after work before dinner. Maybe after dinner before kids' bathtime? Then there is after they go to bed/just before you go to skating. What about after you get home from skating at 10:15pm? Just what do you do with all of your downtime...?

Merry Christmas all.

Some updates

October 1st

Okay okay – I know I always apologize for being so late and behind on my posts, but I genuinely have a good reason these days! At the beginning of September we (along with the Arnold’s and Theis’) bought a cottage! We have been very busy getting settled into our beautiful and near perfect new abode. I say near perfect, because even though we bought it “turn key” ready cottage, it seems that the boys are always busy doing something to improve the place. The first couple of weekends up there Scott and Cam spent all their time in the water clearing the shoreline and creating rock steps. The little men (Charlie, Andrew and Sam) have been having a great time exploring and playing on their new shoreline. They are communing in the basement bedroom and we hear them giggling and talking before bed – too precious! Cam has promised me he would update pictures so once they are here – check them out. We love the place – it’s large, open and airy. No drapes on the windows facing the water – how perfect?

I must admit that all the women of the cottage are going to end up fishing widows! The boys all love to go fishing. It’s so cute to see them all standing at the dock, casting in their lines. What’s especially cute is seeing Scott and Cam using the Buzz Lightyear and Diego rods! LOL! Scott is bound and determined to catch “General Sherman” – the biggest bugger of a fish living under the dock and generally making his life hell! Don’t worry Scott – you’ll bag him eventually – he will be full of your hooks and line, but you’ll get him!  Charlie loves to catch minnows and play with them and release them so that they can go have dinner with their mommies and daddies. Everyone is having a great time and we will be celebrating thanksgiving up there this year – it will be a good time.

Oh – so since we now have a family cottage- we sold the trailer. It was very bittersweet. We are mourning the loss of our camping lifestyle and our best camping buddies, but we hope that they will be able to park their rigs at the cottage and still hang out with us next summer! Hopefully we can acquire that boat that Cam keeps talking about and start the kids on the tubes next year – yaw hoo!

Charlie and I didn’t go the cottage last weekend – he had 2 birthday parties to attend – mister social butterfly! His friend Rebecca had her party at NEB’s fun world – he loved the bowling, pizza and go-carts – he was so tired afterwards I had to wake him up after a 2 hour nap to go out for dinner – sushi – his favourite and his request – twist my arm eh? Sunday was his best-friend Liam’s birthday party – they went to Tottenham to ride on an old diesel train engine. I dropped him off and his daycare lady Tracy took him in her van – she said he loved it so much he was practically vibrating with joy. I wish now that I had been there to witness it. He had a great time at his first party without me or Cam which is totally awesome.


So – my baby Sammy is one year old now. We celebrated his birthday on his actual birthday with 30 of our closest family and friends – and their kids! It was a packed house but it was great to have so many wonderful people there. We did the usual buffet fair and generally let the kids run wild. The timing wasn’t great though – a lot of people were kinda rushed after work but they got a good free meal on a Monday night – really, what more could you ask for. Sam had a great time! He loved crawling around and checking everything out. He got some great clothes, money for his college fund, books and his favourite – a ride on Caterpillar dump truck! All the boys were fighting over it – typical! I can’t believe how big my baby is now. He’s a toddler officially, but he will always be my little love. He is full of personality. He’s a comedian, he’s stubborn, he’s a daredevil and he’s a cuddle bug. I couldn’t ask for my children to be any better! Sam will be walking very soon and then it’s game over for me – I’ll be running to keep up with them both.


We have a lull for approximately a week, then its thanksgiving, Gigi’s birthday and then Charlie’s birthday. Just in the midst of planning that one now! Cam will update pictures later! I will post after our October festivities!

Cheers,
Alicia
(Cam, Charlie and Sam)

Buckslide Tent and Trailer Park - OMG!!!

Buckslide Tent and Trailer Park
July 31- Aug 3

Friday:
We arrived at Buckslide from The Arnold’s cottage rental around 1ish – the boys were tired and cranky and it was nice and hot. The place was a dump! Cam was so upset that they expected us and our party to fit on two tiny sites. After giving into the fact that the kids needed to sleep we set up much to Cam’s chagrin. He talked to the guy running the place and told him that our party would need more sites. To keep the peace, they agreed. Once everyone got there and got set up the disappointment went away (the beers helped too). The place was nice besides our sites. The beach was big, sandy and great for the kids. There was a playground for them also. We had a fire and just relaxed.

Saturday:
The weatherman was calling for rain off and on all day so we had no expectations for the day. We went to the kid’s BBQ and hay wagon rides at 1pm with the kids. They all enjoyed the ride (expect for Charlie who was too tired and cranky to even try to go on). Donna, Grant, Ally, Scott and Andrew all came for a visit. We walked to the waterfalls after dinner and the kids were pretty impressed…as were the adults. We went earlier in the day as well and Avery almost lost her shoe down the rapid! Ang’s mom Barb came with her niece Grace from North Bay for a visit as well…the girls loved having an older girl there….Charlie and Isabelle still did their own thing! After that the kids had a sleep and we….well….relaxed…that’s what we are there to do! The boys played some horseshoes while the kids were sleeping…down by the water with the “nice view” (right Alan)! Once the kiddies got up we went to the beach. The water was cool but it was still great to see them enjoying themselves and playing in the sand. We did get some rain but it was short lived so we were happy about that. They were supposed to do fireworks that night but the wind was considered inclement and they didn’t do it!

Sunday:
Beautiful day! Happy that we don’t have to pack up to go home we take full advantage. Beach, beer and babies….our typical weekend camping….I love this! It did up raining for about 15 minutes and that scared away Barb and Grace. When the kids went to sleep we decided to take on “The Beers of the World” tour which consists of sampling many beers from around the world. Needless to say…we got a little tipsy! It was a great time. We decided next camping trip will include Wines from around the world…better line up a babysitter! LOL!! The park said they were going to do fireworks that night so we kept the kids up as late as possible – but by 8:30 they were all in bed. Fireworks started at 9:15 and I very quietly went into Charlie’s room and he sat right up “Wha choo doin’ mommy?” I take him out and we go watch the fireworks. He was really impressed for about 5 minutes and then it was home to bed because he was so tired. He was happy to have seen him but I think he wasn’t awake when I went in! Oh well! Sunday after the fireworks…all hell broke loose! Ang, Jill and I had some more drinks and we got silly! It was hilarious! I think that is the most we have had to drink ever with each other….made for some very funny pictures and some funny stories that do not need to be captured in print…either words or pictures! Hopefully we remember our good times and the way we felt the next day and just leave it at that! LOL!!!

Monday:
Time to go home! L Sad day always. I was very slow to get moving so it was close to noon when we left that day. We (the women) were pretty sluggish and anti-social (or perhaps that was just me) but we said our goodbyes and headed out. Our next trip camping is Alexandria Bay but our next one all together will be the Labour day long weekend, also known as the weekend before I go back to work! YIKES!! Pictures to come soon….the camera is still in the camper parked at my parents place. The Evan’s clan were waiting for us when we arrived with the camper!