Would you let your kids skip school for this?

I let my kids skip school yesterday afternoon. No one was sick. No one had an appointment. And no one was more excited to get out of school at 1pm then my 3 kids!

It’s been a crappy Spring around here . . . sunshine only out for small windows of time and then clouds roll in and we have rain for days and days. Everything is soggy all the time. We've given up hoping for Spring and hike in the rain, bike in the clouds and just cross our fingers that Summer sunshine will be here one day.

That day came yesterday . . . it was HOT! Topping out near 40 degrees with the humidex! The sun brought along a clear blue sky and no wind. We were NOT letting this day go by uncelebrated! The days following were going to be sunny but not nearly as HOT! So I wrote notes to the teachers and picked up my kids at their lunch break and took them home . . . . to swim.

Yup. Swim.

We had our first in ground pool put in last Fall, the pool opened on Halloween weekend. We swam on Halloween in the cold and then closed it for winter. We were first in line to open our pool in May. And we have swam again in the cold, in the clouds, the wind and even in the rain. I hadn’t gone in yet . . despite us heating the pool, the air is always cold and shivering is not my idea of fun in a pool.

So when the weather promised sunshine and high humidity, the pool party planning began.

My kids have each missed maybe 1 day of school for illness all year, their grades are awesome, they had no special activity or test that afternoon and for all their hard work all school year long they expect nor do they usually receive, and treats. This day was a treat. This day is what we’ve been waiting for since last September and this day was going to be enjoyed.

Yesterday we slowed down and we lived that day to its fullest. My kids will always remember the fun they had swimming with Mom & Dad on a school afternoon and how wonderful that sun felt and how warm that water was and how good those popsicles tasted.

I’m hoping I have taught my kids to embrace the good opportunities in life, that it's OK to take time out for something special, to have fun and to live in the moment. Life is too short, and yesterday was just too perfect.

Would you let your kids skip school for this?

Fun Run to the Finish Line!

Since they were weeks old my kids have been running! It’s my form of exercise, my me time and my required ‘must do’ if I want to fit in to last years pair of jeans! So soon after birth, my babies were put into jogging strollers and off we went.

When each of my 3 girls were 8 months old, my husband and I completed a ½ marathon WITH our newest addition in the jogger. They each have their own finish line photos and medals proudly displayed in our hallway. Medal bearing babies!!

Now that they are 5,7 and 9 and way too heavy to push in jogging strollers, I usually get a babysitter so we can fit in our weekly runs . . .but last year decided to enter the family in the 1km Fun run at the Moon in June sponsored by our IronKids Gummy Vitamins. My parents took my brother and I on family runs when we were about my kids ages and we both run now as adults. I was hopeful if we started them young, they would enjoy it and it would help them stay healthy and active as adults.

Their first 1km fun run was a big success and the older two excitedly committed to running More next year and entering the 5km run. Well here we are at next year, and I asked them at Easter if they were serious about running 5km and indeed they were.

I recognize that 5km is a little far to ‘just run’ without a little practicing and a little education on running safe. So for the past 6 weeks I have been taking them out on 2 runs a week for 35 minutes. We run the first half with no stops and then negotiate all the way back how far we will run before we stop to walk and have some water! They have done awesome and some unexpected perks have come out this training!

First, they have never complained or once said they didn’t want to go. They are excited to get out there even after a full day of school or looming rain showers. Second, we talk. We have 35 minutes to just talk. I teach them a little bit about setting a pace, not taking off from the starting line, drinking enough water, the importance of tying your shoes properly (7 year old learned that one the hard way) and about school, friends, summer plans, homework, music. .everything. When its done I high five them and tell them how proud they should be of themselves for finishing, and we learn about stretching and talk some more about how great it feels to exercise.

Our first 5km race is next Saturday and I can’t wait to see how they do when we run with hundreds of other people and their Dad and little sister watching from the sidelines. I can’t wait to cross that finish line . . . this time with my kids running beside me.

Do you run or do other sports as an adult? Did this love come from your own parents? Will you encourage your kids to stay active?

Making Memories

At 6:30 this morning when the alarm clock went off I could see the fog out my bedroom window. I knew it had rained over night, I knew the trails we were about to hike would be full of mud and the rocks we were going to climb over would be slippery and wet. I knew I was going to have to drag the kids out of bed early on a Saturday, I knew my 5 year old would be too tired to hike the whole way, I knew my husband still really wasn’t feeling well, I knew we were about to get wet and muddy . . . and I knew my friends and their families were waiting for us.

So up we all got, put on our splash pants and rain boots, packed our muffins and extra water, ignored the fog and the rain and we met our friends at 8am for a 3 hour hike in the trails. Eight adults, 11 kids. We slide, we sloshed, we jumped mud puddles and waded through new mini lakes. Every small breeze sent a shower down on us as the weeks of rain fell off the leaves high above. Kids ran ahead, kids fell behind, kids fell over!

We saw mushrooms and mud, chipmunks and birds,

worms and water . . . everywhere! One thing we didn’t

see, was the view. Hiking the escarpment here you get

treated with breathtaking views . . . all we saw was fog.

But we walked, we talked, we laughed and a few little

ones whined, but overall we made a great morning out

of an otherwise soggy day.

When I looked outside at 6:30am, I didn’t feel like getting out there. I had lots of reasons to stay in bed. But I knew there were memories to be made out there. Things to experience out there. Fun to be had out there.

Many times my motivation for all the work I know its going to take to get somewhere, is the memories that are going to be made on the way there and once we get there. My kids are going to remember hiking in the mud and looking out over the cliffs at the fog and they are going to remember the friends we were with and the family time we had . . . even if they complained the ENTIRE hike back. . . I know they will remember this morning!

Despite the weather, the time, the fog and the excuses; getting outside and living your day is guaranteed to make some memories. Hope you enjoyed your day today!

Wordless Wednesday

A photo that captures everything. Words not required.

This cat is not ours.

They are meeting for the first time.

Healthy Easter Memories!

I will admit, I am a big fan of a certain chocolate that's only out at Easter, I love the pastel coloured candies, a solid waxy chocolate Easter bunny must be present (although I have no interest in eating it!) and there would be no Easter morning without jelly beans! Not sounding so healthy so far!

As much as I go candy crazy at Easter and it's true, I do focus more on healthy memories than the healthy breakfast, but I do try to balance it a little. I fill them up with a healthy Easter Brunch and 'add extra rainbows' as one friends says! They get scrambled eggs with cauliflower, fruit kebobs and muffins made with flax, whole wheat, and bran.

The fun side of Easter however, I go full out!

With 3 kids I quickly learned that the oldest was going to get all the goods unless I found a way to evenly divide the hunt. Those plastic coloured Easter eggs can be filled with stickers & pennies instead of jelly beans and as long as you assigned colours to each child, you control how many each kid finds! I spend a long night counting and sorting and then place a green & yellow egg in oldest child's 'collection' basket - she knows those are her colours - and place the basket at the foot of her bed. If she finds a pink egg on her way downstairs, she leaves it there and moves on . . pink and blue are her youngest sisters colours. Works every year and even allows me to hide the oldest daughters eggs in harder and higher locations!! And hide we do - eggs everywhere, trails of jelly beans from their room to their Easter baskets and even a hunt throughout the backyard . ..with the same eggs they found in the house, just secretly recycled and re hidden out back!

My favorite tradition has to be the paw print. I've had a kitty paw stamp forever and each Easter eve, as the kids sleep, I sneak in and place a paw print on their cheeks and on the back of their hand. The don't notice until someone tells them the next day . . . or now that they expect it, they run to the mirror to see when they wake up!!

Our last tradition is another fun one for the kids, aside from the usual colouring of eggs, we also grab fallen tree branches from outside, sometimes spray paint them white and hang the tiniest of decorative egg's on them with some we've coloured . . . our Easter egg tree is out earlier and earlier every year as the kids can't wait to decorate it!

Perhaps what surprises me most every year, is not how much the kids indulge in the candy palooza that goes on here at Easter, but how quickly they loose interest in the chocolate and the jelly beans after Easter! I leave the candy out for all to see and sure the first couple of days they ask for something every 10 minutes . . . but as the days go on, they forget and within weeks the gummies have hardened, the chocolate's disappeared to moms freezer stash and the jelly beans are a distant memory!

We like to have fun with food and it seems like around here it's the anticipation, the hunt and the memories that leave us with the sugar high! Enjoy your Easter everyone, stay healthy and be sure to sneak in a few sugar coated memories . . .we'd loved to hear about them!

Easter Bunnies Last Hop!

It happened in an instant, I had no more than a 2 second warning but I saw it coming . . .for those 2 seconds you could see me in super slow motion shouting “Nooooo” and reaching out to cover my kids' ears. Right there, hands in our popcorn bowl, giggling at a silly movie, right before my very eyes, the Easter Bunny vanished. I couldn’t prevent it, I couldn’t take it back, I couldn’t explain it away. I couldn’t lie to my 9 year old anymore. It’s been a big couple of months for her. The tooth fairy had recently had her last flight and there were tears and a pinky promise to not tell her sisters . . . I blogged about it. I was holding out hope for the Easter Bunny, at least until after Easter.

The evening started out like many other family nights. Our kids school does a monthly movie night and we all wear our pj’s, take pillows, blankets and loads of quarters for the .50 cent bowls of popcorn. We lay on the gym floor for an hour and a half and watch a movie with 150 of our closest school friends (yes I am an awesome mom!) while volunteer parents run the show. Tonight’s movie was Mega Minds . . . a futuristic cartoon battle of good vs. evil where good gets the girl in the end – who knew the Easer Bunny would bite the dust! Evil guy was taunting the girl who believed against all odds (you know the story) that good would prevail and Evil guy uttered the words . . .”Oh, and you probably still believe in the Tooth Fairy and the . . . . (noooooooo don’t say it!! where is the remote? mute the volume . . .noooooo) . . . EASTER BUNNY.”

My 9 year olds head swung around so fast to glare at me, I thought she might just shout out her obvious question for the whole gym to hear. I ignored the glare, secretly squeezed my husband’s hand and hoped she would forget what she had just heard . . . but I knew in my heart the Easter Bunny was done. The movie ended 30 minutes later, and the second those lights went on that head swung around again, “Mommy, is the Easter Bunny real AND DON’T LIE TO ME.”

I told her we could talk at home to avoid bursting the fairytale for the other 149 kids in the gym and get distance from her younger sisters listening ears. We had another talk similar to the tooth fairy talk (its mom, I do it to make fun happy memories for you, I promise I will hide chocolate for you when you are 76 and, the best part . .now that YOU are in the Easter Bunny club you can help mom hide eggs for your sisters!! insert over exaggerated happy mom face). She had another cry, and she slowly raised her pinky to once again bear the burden of a pinky promise to not tell her sisters.

Why would a movie geared to children sell out the Easter Bunny? My other two kids are 7 and 5 and neither of them noticed a thing cause they still firmly believe, but my daughter was wavering as kids do around the age of 8 & 9. She couldn’t have been the only one who’s dreams of big furry 6 foot tall Easter Bunny hoping through our house hiding jelly beans were dashed because of that movie? Maybe these movies could carry a warning . . .”PG – Some scenes may crush young girls belief in Easter Bunnies!” I would have at least waited until after Easter to let her watch it.

She's cool with it now and excited to "know" as we prepare for Easter this weekend, but still . .this wasn't how I envisioned the Easter Bunny going down! How did your kids figure it out?

Ketchup IS a food group!

This is a typical dinner plate for my youngest daughter. She will eat just about ANYTHING as long as she has ketchup for it. Of course things like home made macaroni & cheese, french fries and grilled cheese were invented for ketchup. It's the foods you wouldn't expect to get a coating of the red stuff; chicken, steak, fish, asparagus, noodles. Most would say its kinda gross, but as parents, we pick our battles. This one I am willing to concede!!

Its important to me that my kids eat what I call real food. We buy chicken breasts from a farm and bake or BBQ them, no coating, no frying, no camouflaging. We serve our kids halibut, sole and salmon in its natural state . . no sticks, no unknown parts of fish, no breading. They enjoy the nice cuts of steak we have, I share the quinoa, brown rice and barely with them. They are expected to eat at least 1 piece of the vegetable we are having that they don't really don't enjoy - usually asparagus - and also the vegetables they do enjoy.

In exchange for this, I happily put the ketchup on the table every night and buy the king size bottles on a regular basis. My 5 year old can eat anything with enough ketchup on it. My mom says the sugar is bad . . . but isn't a little sugar OK if she is eating halibut and asparagus?

I did a little research on ketchup - its main ingredients are tomatoes, vinegar, sugar and seasonings - sounds pretty good so far! Turns out it gets better. Ketchup is a great source of lycopene, an antioxidant which may help prevent some forms of cancer! This is particularly true of the organic brands of ketchup, which have three times as much lycopene. Also, ketchup, much like other cooked tomato foods, yields higher levels of lycopene per serving because cooking makes lycopene in tomatoes more bio-available! It's looking a lot like a win-win situation to me!!

I say look for brands that use sugar and do not contain high fructose corn syrup, watch your sodium content and then embrace ketchup as a new food group. I am hoping she will grow out of the ketchup covering eventually and enjoy the flavour of the food on its own. But in the meantime, look at all the healthy benefits that come in and under a dollop of ketchup!!

What do you think? Do you let your kids cover up healthy food with condiments?