Oil Kings Clinic!

Blake was lucky enough to spend some of Sunday afternoon at an Edmonton Oil Kings clinic at West Edmonton Mall!!!  He was extremely excited and really hoping he would get to meet his favorite Oil Kings player, who also happens to be named Blake AND is #4 AND plays defence ... what are the chances?!

We headed to the mall early, to make sure we could find parking and get to the rink on time!  Blake's session was from 2 to 2:50 pm and he had to check in 45 min early.

He had such a great time!  He was on the ice with another team mate and school friend and we ran in to a lot of people we know from our hockey community!!  Grandma D got to come and watch too!

They did various drills and played a scrimmage against three Oil Kings.  As they were getting off the ice, Blake Orbin was getting ready to go on the ice for the next ice session.  So luckily Blake got his autograph and a picture taken with him!  Blake Orbin also thought it was kind of cool that they were both Blake's, both #4 and both defensemen ;)

This was  a fabulous event, and I think Blake is pretty darn lucky that he has all these opportunities!!

Blake and his friend Ryan, ready to hit the ice for the clinic!

Getting some tips from the Oil Kings!

Blake and Blake, #4 and #4 !!!

Our Blake with his signed Oil Kings cards. One happy boy!  What a great experience :)

Reese's Birthday Celebrations!

I volunteered in Reese's preschool classroom the day of her birthday.  The day before we baked cupcakes for her class and she was so excited to bring them to her friends at school!  That night the girls had dance and she was so happy when her class sang Happy Birthday to her :)  We came home to have lasagna for her birthday supper (one of her favorite's!) and birthday cake, of course!

Her birthday party was the next day.  She wanted a 'jumping' birthday at the Launch Pad ... but the Launch Pad is so far from our house and expensive in my opinion.  So I showed her the Princess bouncy house at Jumpy Things and she got super excited, so a Jumpy Things birthday party it was!  She wanted an Aurora party, she is slightly obsessed with Aurora these days which is interesting, considering Princess Aurora isn't a very popular princess right now!  I had a hard time finding Aurora plates, napkins, etc, but did find napkins that had a few different princesses on them, including Aurora!  And as always, birthday invitations and cupcake toppers from Etsy were ordered - with only Aurora on them :)  (huge thank you to Auntie Lindsay for assembling the cupcake toppers!!)  And thanks to my crafty friend, we had Aurora zipper pulls made for the gift bags!  Reese had a great time at her birthday party, this was her first out of home party!  She was spoiled by family and friends and is enjoying all her new presents!!  Thanks everyone for celebrating our little girls 4th birthday with us :)  On the drive home from the party she said, "My party was so fun!"

Opening gifts before school on the 19th!

Big brothers and big sisters are always so much help ;)

Quick pic before school on Reese's 4th birthday!

Team work, blowing out the candles on Reese's 4th birthday!

Bouncing in her princess bouncer, at her birthday party on the 20th!

Cupcake time at her birthday party!

Our beautiful birthday girl :)

You are 4, Reesey!!

We are glad you had a fabulous, fun 4th Birthday Reese!!  We love you to the moon and back :)  You have grown up a lot in the past year, beginning preschool, starting unparented swimming lessons, becoming more independent and learning so much!  You are a smart, beautiful, imaginative, stubborn, funny little girl who loves to 'read', sing, dance, play dress up, wear dresses every day, play Barbies and dolls, color and draw and cuddle with your Mom and Dad!  You love your big sister and brother and play very well (most of the time) with both of them.  You have made new friends this year at preschool and we have enjoyed watching you come out of your shell, just a little bit!  You are still quite cautious and shy around people you do not know well, which is just fine in our books.  You are loving your new dance class and doing so good at ringette!  We are so proud of you and can't wait to explore this next year with you :)

xoxo

Mom & Dad

November

November has come and gone!  Here's a quick review of this fabulous month :)

- Cal started coaching the 1st Shift program, a collaboration between Hockey Alberta and Bauer Hockey.  He shares his passion and expertise for hockey with a group of first time hockey players every Saturday for 8 weeks!  He is coaching with our friend Dale and is loving this experience. (for more info click here!)

- Reese had her very first special helper day at preschool!  I stayed to watch her, as the beginning of the morning is when they do their show and share and she gets to lead the class in the morning routines!  I was so proud of her and how she pointed out the schedule for the day, counted the letters in her name and told everyone the letters in her name.  She was also so cute during the show and share portion of the morning!  She brought an old doll from home.  They have to have their parent write out 3 clues and have the class guess what the show and share item might be.  She took the sheet out of the show and share bag and pretended to read what was on it.  It was adorable and of course I teared up ;)

- Cal traveled to the exciting town of Drumheller for work!  He will be visiting Drumheller often, as it is a test site for some new technology Telus is trialling.

- My wonderful Mom babysat the girls so I could volunteer in Blake's in class field trip!  It was a pirate themed, buoyancy field trip where they made their own sailboats.  Lots of fun!  I just love Blake's teacher and her perfect classroom.  If I was a teacher, she would be my inspiration!! 

- We enjoyed our first ever Fall break.  I really hope our school board continues this break!!  We had our regular activities but it was also very nice to spend down time together :)  The kids relaxed, played well together and enjoyed their break.  Cal took some vacation time too, which was nice!

- We celebrated my 34th birthday!  I had a nice brunch with my Mom, sister and nephews the morning of my birthday and we went out for supper with my Mom and Dad the following day! 

- We celebrated Reese's 4th birthday, which I will dedicate a separate blog post to!

- Emerson lost her first tooth and received a Bishop Savaryn's Best award at school :)
- Blake's 1st report card of the year came home on November 21st.  As expected, he is doing very, very well and we are extremely proud of him! 

- Cal and Blake had fun at an Oil Kings game with their friends Dale and Ryan!  They are 4 pea's in a pod ;)

- On the 27th we attended Emerson and Blake's demonstration of learning day.  It was nice to spend some time in both their classroom's, learning about their daily routines and what they are currently learning and working on in class.  Both teachers have nothing but praise for both Blake and Em!  We are very proud of them both.  After the demo, we visited the book fair and picked out some new books!

- Winter hit Edmonton on the 27th, making travel within the city difficult!!  Many vehicles were stuck in our neighborhood and so we kept the girls home from school on the 28th.  All 3 kids had cancelled field trips on the 28th, which really upset Reese.  Her field trip will be re-booked but she was quite upset!  Blake still wanted to attend school, as it was a pj day for him, so Cal came home and stayed with the girls while I used the truck (and 4x4!) to take Blake to school and then go to the preschool to cancel the field trip for that day.  Cal worked from home that day!

- On the 29th we had Reese's preschool pub night at Richard's Pub.  It was an extremely successful evening, raising almost $14,000.00!!  We had a fun evening out with my Mom, sister and friends.  Thank you to my Dad for babysitting our munchkins!!  Our fundraising committee this year worked so hard!  I have to say I am glad it is over!  Check that off the list ;)

- Blake's hockey team is doing great in their regular season games!  Blake's having a blast and we are enjoying watching the team grow and learn!  Cal is doing a fabulous job as head coach, putting many hours into practice planning.  It is obvious, as the entire team is working so well together and improving each and every week.  

- Ringette is going well.  The girls are still enjoying themselves and excited for Saturday's!  I was the head coach last weekend, which was a bit stressful but it went well!!  The girls tire out after 40 or so min so trying to keep them interested and on the ice can be challenging!  But they are all improving each week and having fun :)  

- And swimming and dance are great too!! It was parent watch week at dance last week.  I loved watching the girls classes and can't wait for the year end recital!!  Em will also be in a competition in the Spring!
- And last but not least, I can not forget to mention the 'stache ... Cal's November Project friends decided to support mens cancers by participating in the Movember Project!  Cal grew quite the unique mustache, resembling Lanny McDonald!!  I was not sad to say goodbye to the mustache but I really didn't mind it too much ;)  The November Project team raised $3700 - 3 cheers for the 'mo!!!

And that sums up the most exciting news from our November!  Christmas will be here before we know it and we are busy preparing and enjoying the Season :)

Talk to you soon!!

Tracy

Reese is star of the day at Preschool!

Enjoying the first snow fall!!

Crazy hair day at preschool!

Em looses her first tooth and receives an award at school :)

Oh What A Night!

Yes, it's Halloween Night :)

I've loved Halloween for many years but even more so since becoming a Mom!!  I really enjoy this fun time of year - from making fun school treats, to decorating the yard, to pumpkin carving and roasting pumpkin seeds, to helping the kids choose costumes, to volunteering in the kids classrooms and the Halloween parade at Blake's (and now Em's) school!!!  I love it all!

 

This year I made super cute Frankenstein pudding cups for Reese's preschool class and 1 for each Blake and Emerson to enjoy during their Halloween parties at school.  And then a Ghost lollipop treat for all the kids classmates!!  So much fun and quite simple (thank you Pinterest!!)

Our Halloween festivities began with Reese's Preschool Halloween party on the Wednesday.  I volunteered during the party and had a great time with my little Reesey!!  Our Preschool parties are always so fabulous, with creative, age-appropriate (aka the 3 and 4 year olds can actually do them with out too much adult help!), yummy and fun themed snacks.  Our teachers are the best!

 

Wednesday night the girls were allowed to wear their costumes to dance.  They had fun with that and enjoyed seeing all their dance friends in costume!  Blake normally comes with us to dance but Wednesday evening he had a hockey practice so I dropped him off at Cal's work.  Blake was disappointed because he wanted to wear his costume to dance - lol!

Friday morning was Emerson's classroom party.  Cal has vacation time that he can not carry over to next year, so he took Friday off and dropped Reese off at preschool so I could stay at school with Em.  Cal went to his November Project workout Friday morning and wore Reese's mermaid wig - looked pretty good on him ;)  Em and I had fun in her classroom with cute crafts, Halloween stories and songs and a Halloween parade through the school!  All the kids were so cute in their costumes and my little Dorothy was the sweetest!!

 

Emerson and I picked Reese up from Preschool and then at 1 pm we met Cal back at the school for Blake's Halloween parade.  I love seeing all the kids parading through the school gym!  Some of the costumes are so well done and original, it's awesome!  All the younger siblings dress up too and join their siblings when it is their classes turn to parade around!  After the parade Cal took Em and Reese home (with a lot of protest from Emerson ... sigh) and I got to join Blake's class for the remainder of the afternoon! 

 

And that brings us to Halloween night!!  My Mom came over to see the kids in their costumes and snap a few pics and see us off into the full night of trick-or-treating!  We always visit our neighbours across the street first.  They have an awesomely decorated house, even the inside and they are always dressed up!  Then it's down the block as we make our way towards the Parenteau's house.  We've been trick-or-treating with them for many years and always have a blast!!  This year the weather was fantastic and the kids were go-go-go!!  We were trick-or-treating for 2.5 hrs and we hauled home more candy then one family of 5 would ever need!  Our community league held a yard decorating contest this year and there were some people in the community who went alllll out!!!  Lots of 'The Walking Dead' themed yards (which I LOVE!!  Love the show!)!  The kids weren't even freaked out by all the zombie's and freaky music, so much fun!

 

(note: Blake wore 1 costume (Rocket Raccoon), Reese wore 2 costumes (Ariel and Dalmatian Puppy) and Emerson wore 3 different costumes (Anna for dance class, Dorothy and Curious George (a monkey costume but she said she was Curious George!)!)

 

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!  Our kids are already talking about what they will be next year!

 

~Tracy

Happy 10th Wedding Anniversary to us!

 

 

On October 9th Cal and I celebrated 10 years of wedded bliss!!  It really doesn't feel like it's been 10 years.  As I was looking back on our wedding photo's, it is amazing how fast 10 years have gone by.  October 9th, 2004 sure was a fun, love-filled day!  I'll never forget our wedding day.  There were some unplanned memorable moments that will always make us laugh and many love-filled, fun, beautiful moments that we will treasure forever. Over the past 10 years we've had our ups and downs and everything in between but at the end of the day, every day, I thank my lucky stars for my loving husband and the beautiful family and life we have built together.  Together the hard times are bearable and the good times are even better :)  We are a great team, Cal Cameron!

 

So much has changed in 10 years.  A move, career changes, a little bit of travelling, new friends, new experiences and of course, three amazing children!  We are very blessed and thankful!

 

I am not sure what the next 10 years will bring but I am sure they will pass just as quickly as the first 10.  So here's to making them just as memorable and amazing as the first 10!  Love you so much, Cal :)

 

xo Tracy

Reality Check

I've received some really sad news this weekend.  On Friday I learned a high school classmate has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  We weren't terribly close but acquaintances and although high school was 16 years ago, most days it feels like just yesterday.  So when I heard this sad news, of course I automatically thought of the person and all my memories relating to the fun and good times in high school.

Then this morning a friend called to let me know that her husband has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.  He was admitted to the UAH one month ago, due to frequent falls.  Now after one month, a tumor has been found and he has been diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma.  He started chemotherapy on Friday.  They believe they've caught it early and the hope is after 4-6 months of chemo and possibly radiation he will be transferred to the Glenrose to learn how to walk again.  This news is devastating and my heart goes out to my friend and her family.  They have a little girl, who is almost one.

Of course there are terrible things that happen in our world and in our own communities daily.  But when the news is close to home, it seems to 'hit home' harder.  My prayers and thoughts are with these two friends.  My heart breaks for them and I am at a loss for words.

This is a reminder to hug your loved ones tighter, don't sweat the small stuff and love like there is no tomorrow.  Because you just never know what tomorrow might bring.

xo