tuesday newsday

Christmas is coming! It's Hendrik's fifth birthday first, and we won't be doing anything too Christmas-y until after this coming weekend, but I should definitely prioritize and find time to get started on Christmas baking. On the list (off the top of my head) are nanaimo bars, butter tarts, sugar cookies, and jam diagonals; I'm sure I'll have to add a few others into the mix (chocolate shortbread? gingerbread cookies?), but that's a good start. I'll add a few pounds of butter to the next Costco list.

whenever this one falls asleep in the afternoon, she's up late late!

So big news in the Brinkman household - we're getting a minivan! I never thought I'd say this (or hear my husband say it), but we're excited. They are SPACIOUS and PRACTICAL and offer so many options for seating that I think all four of us will be jostling for the best cabin seats. Le van of choice is the Honda Odyssey, but we took a good look at Kia and Toyota too; the new wheels are ours on Friday... yikes! I won't reveal any of the other swank features, but instead save it for a tour. Alana is excited about the push button sliding doors, and Hendrik hasn't yet laid eyes on it - but I can tell you what he'll be happy about: the built in TV.

We took a family trip to Hamilton last Friday and surprisingly, we didn't need either of the movies I downloaded from Hoopla - the kids were happy colouring pictures printed from Quiver (Hendrik spent almost an hour doing his). We met up with Steve's parents in Hamilton and Hendrik was disappointed I couldn't get the iPad to magically 3-dimensionalize (is this a word?) his drawing - as seen in the video... maybe that's something I'll get to figuring out tonight. It was a Mustangs vs Marauders kind of night, and we didn't even take a picture of the kids in their purple shirts! They cheered for mommy's team (we lost) and then for Daddy's team (they won) and then fell asleep on the way home. Thank goodness Sunday was free from early morning coaching and obligation... we stayed in our pyjamas all morning.

class picture!

After too many late late nights reading A God in Ruins, I finished it - and liked the story and the writing quite a bit. I'll look for some of her other books but not until the semester is over. I feel like I have to repeat this to myself every time I'm on the library website or nearing a branch as I really do not have time to stay up late and read. It's getting late now (well, sort of - 9:00), and I haven't started any of the piles of work that need tending to tonight. So on that note, off I go. Hope the weather is warmer where you are!

a few (tired) thoughts

It's Monday tomorrow - and it feels like Thursday or Friday night right now; sadly, there was no rest for me this weekend. I'm not saying the kids didn't sleep well (because they actually did), it was just a very full, very go go go weekend from the moment the kids awoke to the moment I finally fell into bed. We had two home games this weekend - our first double header - and went 1-1 (though we really should have been Queens today... darn). Steve was in Toronto (with the car) all weekend so there was some juggling involved - babysitters, friends, great neighbours... I am lucky to have what my neighbours (they're the best!) call "a village" to help us through this busy time in our lives.

playing octonauts at the park in early saturday afternoon sun

This week saw Hendrik fired up to get invitations out for his 5th birthday party, happening in two weeks. He's invited six boys from his class, one 8th grader (I think he's in 8th grade) and one fifth grade brother of one of his classmates. He requested Star Wars invitations, and addressed them all himself (and hopefully distributed them too - at school), and the theme has morphed from dinosaurs only to a dinosaur/Star Wars hybrid, though I'm fairly certain his Star Wars knowledge is as sparse as mine is. Decorations and activities are yet to be planned... 

we made apple pie - from SCRATCH, all of it. it was goooooood....

Alana had two friends over for her first play date on Friday morning and she had loads of fun - showing them around the house, showing off her toys, being a troupe leader upstairs for a game of alligator (what is? no idea.), and more. I'm so so glad we put her in preschool - she is loving it.

And as for France, I am so sad and so sorry that there is such evil and ignorance in the world and that regular, good people are killed and their families ripped apart because of hatred and fanaticism (and in the name of religion). I read a story yesterday while the kids were running around and couldn't help but get emotional, and for the rest of the day Hendrik tried to make me laugh by putting silly things in front of his face so he couldn't see (haha - right?). I don't have very many deep thoughts about this (or anything - right now), but I do hope that security and intelligence teams around the world can continue doing good / better work, and that families affected by this and other similar tragedies around the world can find peace and healing in their future. 

travel, tabs, and tagliatelle

This past weekend saw the Western Mustangs Women's VB team on the road to Ottawa, and I got to go along... for the win! We won in five after losing the first two sets, and the six hour ride home was that much more enjoyable because of it. Having spent several summers in Gatineau/Ottawa, it sort of felt like going home; I saw some friends (at the game, for dessert), family, ate some amazing food (I got to go to Art Is In!!! - and wanted to eat EVERYTHING), and got some work done on the bus ride there and back. I also came home exhausted and had to skip out on women's league last night - only to get woken up by Alana five or six times throughout the night/early morning... boo. Good thing I went to bed early! Actually. I actually did go to bed early last night - with Kate Atkinson's A God in Ruins, and so far so good. I'm hoping I can get a bit of work done tonight and then get to bed on the early side again for some more reads. 

My desktop is totally cluttered with screenshots that I've been meaning to file (and share), so here you go - some of my favourites from A Mighty Girl's Facebook feed:

I have what must be a record number of windows and tabs open and I don't want to close any of them! Here they are:

• The University of North Caroline Women's Soccer Team: Core Values
• Amazon: Practice Perfect: 42 Rules for Getting Better at Getting Better
• Coaching Perspectives: Getting better at getting better (article)
• 25 Ways to ask your kids "How was school today?" without asking how was school today?
• The Most Important Question of Your Life (article) - a good one! 
• Huff Post: The best thing you can do for yourself - and all the women around you (article)
• Nat'l Geographic: Grit trumps talent and IQ(article)

And the rest are school-related and probably boring to most readers, so I won't include them - but I definitely know which ones need attention! (SCHOOL TABS.) 

Steve and the kids had fun over the weekend without me - they made fresh pasta, from scratch! I was putting away some new books last week and came across The Silver Spoon for Kids, a cookbook I'd purchased at last year's LPL book sale. I showed it to Hendrik and he latched right onto it - reading it morning and night, talking about recipes, imploring me to make lists of all of the recipes we'd make etc. etc. So the kids put their aprons and chef hats on and got to work, producing edible Italian eats:

What else what else? The kids are enjoying school, I'm mostly enjoying school, and Steve has been hard at work around here getting a barn door made and up and shelving made and installed (it's dark downstairs, so I'll try to remember to get pics up next time). There are a zillion other projects (okay, maybe 10) that could be done around here and I think he's still trying to figure out what's next. He coaches (with McMaster) in Toronto this weekend and we're home - so the kids might be spending the weekend in the gym, we will see! We're trying to plan - wait, we're trying to think about planning Hendrik's birthday party; we have a list of people he wants to invite (all boys, all from his class save for one 8th grader - really) and a few ideas for games and activities (le par-tay will take place here). We're hosting Alana's first play date this Friday with a few girls from her preschool, so she's excited about that - should be good! And I think I'll end the random thoughts there. Until next time!

halloween run-down

Did we eat all of the kids' candy? No. Did Steve pretend to steal it all? Yes. Were we tempted to pull a Jimmy Fallon we-ate-all-your-Halloween-candy joke on them? No. Way. Actually I think the thrill of the hunt was more exciting for them than the piles of loot, but I'm probably wrong - even though they're not beelining it for their candy bags first thing in the morning, nor are they constantly asking or sorting or pawing the goods. We had a great 'round the block trick or treat - which included a trip to the local firehall (never done that on Halloween before) and a momentary consideration of a trip through a fully done-up haunted house (I mean FULLY. I should have taken pictures.). People were seriously impressed by Hendrik's costume - so impressed, in fact, that our neighbour across the street brought over an apple pie this afternoon in honour of Steve's best-constructed-costume work on the backpack. We ate big slices of it while it was still warm - which makes all of his hard work totally worth it (okay, Hendrik loved it too - THAT was what made it worth it). This Halloween may be extra memorable because of the events that followed the candy sort and stuff (we let them eat maybe 6 pieces of candy each? Hendrik asked every time with glee and happiness in his little candy-soaked eyeballs) - which involved extreeeemely hyper kids, poop evenly distributed throughout Alana's new pyjama pants (tracked up the stairs - she took them off before coming up to the bathroom) and Hendrik's vomit on the carpet at the top of the stairs, induced by the stink from his little sister. At least (at least) the kids were calm post-poop/puke, and were in bed and quiet within 20 minutes of cleanup and stories. 

More soon (really!) - I can't believe it's November!