janice's mash-up

hiphop 2012

Colin's school had a special dance instructor come to teach all the classes some hiphop moves. The school has been doing this for the past few years and being in grade 7, this will be Colin's last year participating. At the end of the classes, they do a presentation for the school and the many parents that show up to take photos and video!

Colin did all the special moves...some headstand-body contortion mash-ups, the worm and his hiphop version of a cartwheel. 

 

I am so glad I was able to go. It's so good to see Colin in his element and being able to express this side of himself at school.

take 12: april

Twelve photos on the twelfth day of the month following Ella's Take 12 photo challenge. This month's prompt was to focus signs of spring.

At our house, signs of spring are the garden re-awakening, getting outside, allergies and NHL playoffs! Signs of Easter are still lingering around the house. Seeds are being started. Colin had a hiphop presentation at school today. Dinners are switching over from roasts and slowcooker meals to lighter, quicker meals such as this evening's cashew chicken. Our schedule is much more open in the spring as the boys are in fewer structured activities which is refreshing.

I love the freshness of spring and this photo challenge helped me to capture the beginning of spring around here!

 

instagram love

One of the first apps I loaded on my new iPhone was Instagram. I have loved the lovely little square photos that a few friends post on Facebook and was excited to play with the effects available. I played a little while we were in Hawaii and have taken a few photos with my phone around home.

      

I'm envisioning a little instagram photobook...love the little square photos that capture a slice of life! 

     
I had no idea there was a whole social media aspect to instagram-ing and am not really delving into that yet...got enough going with all the blogs, facebook and pinterest!

Love the little square photos though...I'm already an Instagram addict!

weekend wrap-up: easter weekend 2012

This weekend wasn't a typical Easter weekend for us. We usually go away for a couple of days, have a special Easter meal with family and have some eggs-capades. This year was a bit more low key. I worked for most of the weekend, Neil did some projects around the house and the boys had lots of down time to play, go skateboarding and take part in Peeps shenanigans.

Some images from our weekend...

Lemon muffins recipe found HERE.

    
Instagram photos from a walk with Sarah on Saturday.

Cookie Sticks recipe pinned from HERE.

Peeps & jellybean sushi inspired by a pin from HERE.

We had great weather, I had a productive work weekend and we squeezed in some fun together too!

colin's easter eggs

When I dropped Colin off at school this morning, he ran in and then ran back out carrying his egg carton. His class started working on some Ukrainian Easter eggs last week and he's been talking a lot about them. I was looking forward to seeing them! When he opened the carton for me to see in the car, he had a little smile on his face. These eggs were by no means traditionally Ukrainian or Easter, for that matter. But, they were all Colin and that made me smile!

        
I particularly like the Canadian flag one, the ninja face, the smiley faces and of course, the egg that says "egg". That's my Colin!

wordless wednesday: backyard in its first spring bloom

weekend wrap-up

Saturday morning started off with Colin's soccer wrap-up party at Minoru. The coaches put the boys through a series of fun relays and events and then we had the big boys vs. parents game. A young man from the German cricket team wandered over and asked if he could join us. He had never played on a turf field before and wanted to give it a try...turns out he was a bit of a superstar for us! Neil and I both played and didn't embarass Colin too much. It was really fun. Parents and kids should play together like that way more often!

After the game the head coach and his wife had prepared bbq-ed hot dogs and there were little speeches about each player. Colin got the award for mastery of the most difficult shot in soccer...the volley. The coach talked about how the boys had practiced in it practice and Colin applied it in games, even scoring a goal with a volley shot. He did also quip that Colin could have also won the award for biggest character on the team ;) It was a great soccer season and a great way to say good-bye until next year.
Neil took the boys skiing up at Seymour and I had some friends over Saturday night. My sister sent me some fun mug cookie cutters for my birthday so I made some shortbread cookies to share.

We realized part way through our evening that it was Earth Hour so we ended up just doing Earth Half-Hour and crafted by candlelight.

It was snowing pretty heavily up at Seymour and the boys cut their skiing a bit short as Colin was cold and said it was "like shards of glass piercing your cheeks". One of Colin's life goals is to surf and ski on the same day. Didn't happen this year but it was still pretty cool to surf and ski in the same month!

Sunday brought homework and things to do around the house. I visited Garry Point to gather some wood for a project and there were so many people out enjoying the spring weather.

In the late afternoon, Adam Schwartz came over to take some photos of the boys for a photo challenge he needed to do this week. The boys entertained Jack and Sarah in the backyard while Adam set up his flashes and umbrellas and then did some climbing and posing on our play structure before heading out front to do some skateboard shots. Jack and Sarah showed off their new rollerblading skills in our cul-de-sac with Sarah wearing lovely plum blossoms in her braids from our backyard.

So a lovely weekend of soccer, skiing and spring!