Kindergarten Kid

I cannot believe that the summer is behind us already! I'm not even going to try to post all of the things that we did because it would take forever and I know I would forget half of it. I'm just going to start fresh and dive into a new post and a new school year! I don't know when it happened but at some point in the last year I looked away for two seconds and Eli grew up. He's still my little guy but he's in Kindergarten now and will be away from me for a huge portion of the day. To be honest I think that I was more stressed about his first day than he was.  It will certainly be an adjustment for Simon and I, but I look forward to the times that I will get to spend one on one with him because before I know it he will be going into Kindergarten too. It's funny how Eli going into school brings out all the insecurities that you had when you were a kid. I worry about him getting bullied or put down by the other kids and even not being able to put his inside shoes on by himself. All members of the Larsen family know that this kind of worrying comes with the territory and no amount of reassurance from our spouse is going to stop it. He did so well on the first day of school though and I am so proud of him for being so brave. I know that he will have a terrific year and make tons of friends because that's just the type of boy that he is. I'm also sure that he will fall in love with more than one of the little girls in his class and I challenge them not to do the same based on these photos...

So Far in 2015

Whoa, this year is certainly starting to get away from me. The weeks are passing so quickly that I can't even keep track. It's almost March already and I don't even know what happened in February.  Lately, the weather here has been so beautiful. The sun has been shining and I am very hopeful that spring is just around the corner but only time will tell. This morning Bruce found a mouse running around in our recycling bin so I guess that's one really crummy thing about spring. He just tossed is over our fence into the green area next to our place, then it proceeded to run right back into our yard and into it's little burrow there. Fantastic! I can't wait for it to have a million babies!
I'm complaining a lot. Yikes. Spring is great. We have been playing outside and going for hikes. There are lovely new snowdrops and daffodils growing in the garden at the church. We even walked to school the other day without our coats on! We are pretty darn lucky considering the rest of Canada is up to their eyeballs in snow.
I feel like these last couple of months have also been consumed with a lot of reading. I got so many books and comics for Christmas that I still have about 3 or 4 books that I haven't read yet. I always need to wait until the kids are in bed to do any reading so that I can read without getting interrupted, and that way I don't get so focused on a book that I let them eat cereal at every meal. Another pretty good reason is so that Eli doesn't see Gorilla Grodd kill his own father and eat his brain to absorb his knowledge. Who knew comics were so delightfully disturbing? Sometimes I wake up and I'm surprised that I'm not in Gotham, Central City or Atlantis, depending on what I had been reading the night before. Too many graphic novels! This is a pretty new obsession for me and I think that anyone that knows me will know that I when I like something I don't go halfway. My mom makes my favourite brownies? Eat 80 in a single sitting. You like Harry Potter too? Come over and we can duel with my wands. I wonder what else there is to know about dinosaurs? Please hand me an entire encyclopedia. A sudden realization that superheroes are ridiculously amazing? Read all the comics! I felt like a really great mom the other day when Eli grabbed my phone and noticed the background picture. He comes up to me and says, "Mom, why is there a picture of Aquaman on your phone and not a picture of me?" Aquaman is obviously more important. My poor kids. I really do wish them luck.
My boys have been doing very well lately actually. Simon is getting so big and learning so many new words. The other night he woke up in the middle of the night and was having a very hard time getting back to sleep. Bruce and I were both sitting awake in bed and taking turns going into the boys room to lie Simon back down. At one point we both thought he had gone back to sleep because he had stopped fussing then suddenly we hear him shout, "Why?!" so dramatically we just burst out laughing. I thought if I had walked in there that moment he would have been cradling one of his stuffies as if it had just died a very tragic and untimely death. It seems he is starting to take after his brother in the theatrics department.
Generally, Eli is loving life and has been so happy with the warmer weather. He has always been a very active and energetic kid so when I can just let him run around outside and play Batman and Joker with Simon, everyone wins. He has started talking to himself a ton and I can't get enough of it. I can't understand what he is saying most of the time but I just love to hear him mumbling in the car when I'm driving or pretending to read himself a book.
I don't have a ton of good photos from the last couple of months but we did go on a hike the other day here in Langley and we got some pretty cool shots of the moss and stuff that grows on the trees here. This is a terribly long post so time to end my rambles and go eat some ice cream!

A very mossy tree

A fairy paradise

We are all looking very uncomfortable

His eyes will get stuck like that

Superman and Batman/Ironman fighting crime and
stopping to admire their own magnificence. 

Christmas in Kamloops

Christmas this year was fantastic! We got to have a ton of days off and spend it with Bruce's family in Kamloops. Eli and Simon loved having all the attention and were so spoiled. They are certainly lucky boys. Bruce and I were pretty lucky too... I got to read a ton of comics and got to nap pretty much every day! What more can a mom ask for? I can't really go over everything we did and all the gifts we received but I will simply say that it was a very memorable Christmas. Recharged and ready for the year!

We are so excited!

Ready to hand out the presents

Simon enjoying the chaos

Merry Christmas!

Spaghetti

We had spaghetti for dinner the other night. I feel like that's pretty much all I need to say to explain these photos...

Food is all it takes to keep my kids happy. I am one lucky mom.

And The Countdown Begins

I have never really felt that Christmas is a very busy time of year... until this year. As a kid you just get to sit back and enjoy it all. Even when Eli was younger it didn't feel too busy because we only had one extra person to buy for and if he just gets a single Hot Wheel he's happy. Now with Eli in school and me at work I feel like the days and weeks are passing at an alarming rate. Suddenly, it's December 9th and there are less than two weeks until we go to Kamloops! It's a good thing Bruce and I planned ahead and got almost all of our shopping done in November. Thank goodness for online shopping as well! We have also been to see Santa at the mall but I'll have to put those pictures up later. Naturally, we waited in line for forever and neither one of the boys would sit on his lap. Typical. In any case we are all very excited for Christmas this year and every morning Eli asks me if it's Christmas day yet. I can't wait to see his face when I get to say "yes'! I don't have a lot of Christmas pictures so far but here are a few of the boys just doing what they do.

What are you looking at?

Someone is skeptical

Was I not supposed to dump them all out?

Giving Simon a ride

And finally he has teeth!

I know it's under here somewhere

When You're The Best of Friends

Lately I have found myself really appreciating my two little boys. I have a part time job now and every time I come home I get these great big hugs and kisses. I definitely think that is one of the unexpected joys of having a job. Obviously the pay cheque is great but I was really reluctant to enter the work force again. So far it has not been bad at all though. The boys get to spend a couple of days with their Dad and I get to have some adult time too. Now that I am gone for a couple days a week I feel like everything they do is 10x cuter. Eli is getting so grown up and Simon is just adorable. Earlier today he said the word "cookie". What?! He's getting so big. I am such a lucky mom because most of the time they are best buddies and do pretty much everything together. I just wanted to share some of the pictures I've gotten of the two of them palling around together lately. 

Snack time

He insists on using an easel

Sit on my lap, Simon!

So in the picture above I had gone out for a girls night in Vancouver and basically 15 minutes after I had left I got a text from Bruce saying that Eli had woken up and peed the bed. That's why Eli looks so put out. Bruce had to give him a quick rinse in the tub and let the boys cuddle in front of the TV for a little while before putting them both back to bed. 

Little artists

Literally answered one email and this happens

Apple buddies

All Hallows' Eve

This little post about Halloween is going to be pretty quick. Eli was so excited this year to go out and get candy. He got to wear his costume tons because at his preschool they had a Halloween party on Monday and he also got to wear is again for his class on Friday. This year he decided to be Wolverine and I thought it was pretty awesome. We decided just to use Simon's Superman costume again this year to keep things simple so I had two superheroes again. I think that I might just be buying superhero costumes every year for Halloween and to be honest that is totally fine with me. 

I thought that Eli would go trick-or-treating forever when we first left the house because he was so excited. Not so. We made it about a block and a half before he wanted to turn around and go home. Turns out he was just too excited to start eating the candy to wait any longer. Simon enjoyed every second of it and was chattering away the entire time. We had a pretty wonderful Halloween and I am already looking forward to next year!

Preschool Halloween party

He followed this poor girl around the entire time.
I think he was pretty taken with her Elsa costume.

Ready to save the day

Party time!

 The next morning our house looked extra Halloween-ish. There was a pretty thick fog and the water droplets were clinging to all of the spider webs on our railing outside. It looked pretty spectacular so I had Bruce take a couple pictures. On a side note... look at all the spider webs around our house. Yuck.