Cake For Breakfast

And since I didn’t want to offend any friends, I haven’t used it as anything, but it cracked me up to no end.

All of which explain the lack of posts In the last two weeks both boys have had their birthdays (now 7 and 10), we’ve had to clean out and move into the rest of the house (now that we rent the entire house…FINALLY no housemates) had a 3″ snowfall and decorated for Christmas. Whew! And, though I have pictures…I have none where I can get to them easily!!

Both boys’ birthdays went well. It’s hard to believe that half my kids are now out of single-digit ages *sigh*. At least I have years until they’re all out of the single digits. Brandon got snow for his birthday, so he was thrilled. Me, eh, I could leave it But he’s thrilled.

We started moving the toys into the new “toy” room and setting up for the “tv/family” room. Though this house always had enough bedrooms for all of us, there was never enough “living” room, if that makes sense. We always felt on top of each other. Now we have more than enough room and it’s SO nice. AND for the first time ever, we have a room that if we have guests, they can sleep here So we’re thrilled. And we decorated the downstairs family room with the Christmas decorations, so it’s so super cosy The perfect room to put a new tv and snuggle up when it storms.

And yes, I have pictures of ALL that too…but not where I can get them. LOL Seems to be the normal lately!

This is the first post on the new site and blog (ok the first NON-imported one) and I wanted to say HI to everyone that came over to visit from various sites and locations and places! I wanted more control over my blog and I wanted to also stick everything I did in one spot, so this is it. I’ve set it up myself so if anyone notices anything odd, let me know please. Though my dear sweet husband is a computer whiz, I’ve done everything, from domain name to website myself, without help….just to see if I could do it

Cake for Breakfast as a name had stuck with me and when I found it available and open, I had to snap it up. Anyone who’s read my post on Adventures in Living called “Let Them Eat Cake” probably isn’t too surprised by the site name!

So, please excuse any weirdness and mess while I figure this all out And grab a slice of your favourite cake-y goodness and pull up a chair and a cuppa and read away. All the posts on here right now are posts I’ve imported from the old blog, which you can still access through this site as well so you only have to bookmark one site!  But I’ll be posting on here from now on!

Thanks for visiting!!!

I figured I’d get a jump on the entry for Unschooling Voices #6 (found here: #6) and add to it as I remember what we did…

Click all the links to see pictures and videos and more of what we did!!!

Max learned to read this year fluently; though he started last year, this year really saw a huge jump in ease and difficulty level. And, I haven’t the slightest clue how he did it, I just know last year he wasn’t, this year he is Large blocks of text slow him down and he asks for help reading, but he has a very very good reading level. Big huge words with large vocabulary and he’s all over them And, that, I totally believe came from video games. Not the reading ability itself but the comprehension and the large words and the vocabulary was definitely added to because of video games. Words like “autonomy” or “amalgamate” or “proposition” and so on…. he can read and read easily. I can honestly say we didn’t teach him to read at all. I don’t even know how to teach anyone to read Can you even teach someone to read?? Anyways, this year saw him move into fluent and easy reading. He did a lot of photography this year and showed a real eye for it.

We made soda geysers this April and got an immense kick out of the fact the Mythbusters did this as a myth for episode #57. And half the fun was dumping the pop on heads Sugar free or not, that stuff is STICKY!!!

Brandon took part in a sports night once a week all spring, and as well this fall. He also learned to swim this year independently; so much so in fact that he’s able to swim in the deep end of the pool and go down the water slides etc alone Which thrills him to no end!! He spent large parts of his lake days building and creating driftwood sculptures. And there was all the art and painting they all did at the lake with Grandma (who’s a professional artist).

The older kids spent most of their extended summer at the lake this year, like every summer. I am so thankful that they get the opportunity to experience that every year. Andrew’s family has been going for the last 32-33 years, and now our children get to do the same thing, at the same camp. Talk about a lot of family memories being made there. There hasn’t been a summer yet that the kids have missed! For 12 years now, since Azura first went when she was 4 months old. This summer, like all the past summers since she was 3, we did the wall. Every year we measure them and their cousins on the wall and add foot/handprints.

We spent the day at the ocean as well this summer. We only live about 45 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean, and it was the first time Max had been to the ocean; Sophia had gone in 2004. Both Azura and Brandon have been to, and played IN both the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, so this was neat for all of us. Sophia was none too thrilled about the wavy shifty water, but it was so warm and so nice and we brought home oodles of rocks to build neat things with.

Azura is participating in a reading and writing club and a leadership club this fall/winter. She just loves it. She also went to her first dance this fall as well. *sigh* She made an ant farm this summer, collected oodles of bugs and critters all summer and generally got down and dirty We also raised some gerbils but they got sick and died. She’s researching what the next pet should be; we’re thinking a hamster. She was a wonderful caregiver to them.

We did a lot of cooking and baking (well my style of baking….mix baking ) this year. Using a lot of our own herbs from our herb garden and going to the farmers market when we could. We tried guavas and dragon fruit and passion fruit and sugar cane and persimmons and more, and all different kinds of cheeses. A sheep cheese with sun-dried tomatoes was a favourite with fresh basil and tomatoes and bug hunks of sourdough.

We read more books than I can count, sang more songs than I can remember, and told way too many knock-knock jokes. We went swimming and boating and to tae-kwon-do. Rode the roller coasters and merry-go-round and other rides while other kids were in school. Soccer and sledding and sliding. Park days and rainy days we spent at home drinking hot chocolate. Snowman days. Days spent together.

And about a million other things I can’t remember now. All those little things that day to day add up to make neat memories and that you learn so much from. I’m learning alongside the kids as they’re learning and that’s really really wild!! I’ve learned so much FROM them and with them that I didn’t know before. And, though the volume in my house is never lower than a dull roar and our days look like nothing typical, I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.