Sam's Birthday: The Pictures - and my first blog in a LONG time

First Mom baked the cake, using a mix. Usually she buys the organic ones, but I think this one is a Betty Crocker. I called it a Purcells Cove Road cake because Purcells Cove Road is famous for it's potholes.
Sam is getting ready to frost his cake.

Okay Boys! Smile! Smile like you're brothers and you love each other! Matt smiled but Sam cared more about his cake.

The finished product. These road cakes are always quite messy, usually due to the number of accessories present. Sam was particularly excited abou the birthday candles - we lit one and the paper connecter lit all the other ones for us.


Sam and his cake. Since the lights were off I couldn't take this one with flash, so I had to use a high ISO. This accounts for all the noise. Oh well.


Another byproduct of not using flash is that the shutter had to stay open longer to absorb enough light. So this is a very blurry picture of Sam blowing out his candles.

Sam was very happy with his present of Lego. He kept saying things like, "You're the best Mom," and, "I wuv you Mom."

Happy Happy Day

Here are some reasons we are happy today.

1. It is Sam's birthday. I kissed him many times today & said, "I'm glad you came to our family." Sam's pregnancy was on the difficult side - I had 24/7 morning sickness all the way through & then my pubic bones separated - which left me on bedrest for a month. Oh what a happy day it was when he was born. Sam brings happiness to each day. We are having a 3 day celebration. Ron is away & can't get back until late tonight. So today we went to Ivan's birthday party (another reason to be happy.) We love Ivan. He looks just like Casey from Mr. Dress-Up. How can you resist. But I digress. For supper we are having salmon at Sam's request. Then we are doing our annual "decorate your own birthday cake". We bought all the supplies yesterday & baked the cake this morning before swimming lessons. It will be a highway cake - I think we might have posted previous pics of highway cakes. Tomorrow we will open the presents & have Ron here to celebrate with us. On Sunday afternooon our beach community is holding a treasure hunt - a last hurrah of summer. How can I resist? I did the beach treasure hunt all by myself last year. It is great fun to have someone else organizing it.

2. Matt passed level 3 in Swimkids! Sam passed too but that wasn't a surprise. Matt has been a little scared to go into the deep water. One of the swim teachers figured he was too skinny to be buoyant! Today I bribed him. I promised a Cherry Blossom for every dive in deep water. Dan, Katelyn & I circled him but didn't touch him in case he felt IN HIS HEAD that he was in trouble. He did three dives. Then he kept trying to tread water but would get scared & grab the side of the rescue board. Dan came up with the idea of counting off the 20 seconds he had to do to pass the badge. We counted down & increased our excitement as he got closer & closer to 0. That was all he needed. He passed. We were thrilled.

3. Sarah passed Swimkids Level 10. So she got two badges this summer & has completed swimming lessons. THAT feels a little sad ... three kids have now graduated from swimming lessons. Eventually all of them are going to graduate ... then what will I do?

Our Quirky Life

Today after swimming lessons we went to Pier 21 - an immigration museum that was voted one of the 7 wonders of Canada! We have taken many visitors there. This time we were going because it was the last day of an exhibit. On the way down Dan said, "Hey! Let's see if we can find any people that look like crash test dummies. Not the band! I'm talking tall, thin men with no facial hair & bald." We all agreed that this sounded like fun.

Things didn't go quite as planned. First I asked Matt where his t-shirt was. He claimed he left it in the van. We searched the van but couldn't find it. Fine. Off we went to Salvation Army to buy a t-shirt. He got a really cool one that says: "Hay River, NWT". Later at the museum an older lady got all excited that Matt had been to Hay River. Er, actually, no. We explained the truth to her. Matt & Sam were very uninterested in the museum. But they LOVED the escalators. Their harried mother was overheard more than once barking, "Get off those. /Don't go down the up escalator./If you fall you will crack your head open.

The exhibit was on a Polish-born Jewish doctor who cared for orphans. Eventually those in his care were sent to concentration camps & gassed. But the focus was on his care of them during the years they lived in the Warsaw Ghetto.

The boys got excited when they found out there was going to be a film - a 4-D film. A university student staff person came to the front & said in a monotone voice: "Hello. How are you today? Good." His whole speech was done in monotone without appropriate movements that a human uses. I whispered to Dan, "I think he IS a crash test dummy. Or maybe a robot." It was surreal. The kids loved the film & the crash test dummy guy even let them look behind the screen to see the four dimensions. (I do not know how it could be 4-D. Please don't ask me to explain.)

In the end we got to see very little of the special exhibition. But we did have a lot of fun.

Matt wins reading award

Just a quick note to celebrate Matt's great achievement. He read 7 Harry Potter books - all of them in 5 weeks. He didn't think he was interested but once Ron started reading him the first one he was hooked. He stayed up late. He woke up early. He took breaks & read other books. This morning he finished the last one.

He wants a prize - time on the computer playing games. I said what I always say: "Is it raining?" I suggested a boy-sized cake from the store.

We are still negotiating.

French Kissing

At 7 am this morning Sam said, "Mom, the world record for french kissing is 18 hours, 22 minutes & 32 seconds." I asked him how he found out the world record for french kissing. He said, "Andrew's friend told me." I then asked the second obvious question. "Sam, what is french kissing?" Sam said, "just kissing on your lips". He demonstrated by giving me a sweet kiss on the lips.

Whoa. That was a close one.

The Second Annual Go-Kart Adventure

During our holidays we went on our second annual go-karting adventure. We went to this place called "Atlantic Playland" ~ it could also be named rip-off family fun park. I think you guys have all been to places like this - built in the 60's & not much updated since then. Everyone that works there looks 16 & have to wear the most pathetic red shorts & pink pin-striped shirts. We bought our tickets & went to wait in line. Matt made sure he showed the 16 year old attendant his scar from last year. Imagine the little boys disappointment when they found out they were too young to drive. They had to go in a two-seater bat mobile with Mom & Dad. Tears were shed - not just by the boys but by Ron who wanted to prove his go-karting supremacy once & for all. I took Matt on the first round. My Bat-Mobile was slow so we could not be contenders to win. So we made our own fun. When the attendant wasn't looking I gave Matt the wheel. He was very nervous - he likes to follow the rules but eventually he caught on to driving from the passenger seat. On the second round I traded with Ron so that I had Sam. I figured Ron would give Matt a wild adventure. When I asked about it later Ron said, "Oh, no. I didn't let him drive." This wasn't a safety issue. This was a man issue. Sam & I had fun - he couldn't reach the steering wheel so I just started driving crazily all over the track, weaving back & forth across lanes. Sam loved living on the edge, screaming excitedly, "Mom! Be careful. We might have an accident."

We had just a few tickets left. Ron used his charm to get Matt, Sam & Katelyn a ride on a Ferris Wheel even though we were a bit short of tickets. They LOVED it - though the people below them didn't. Whenever they were at the top Matt would scream convincingly, "whoa - I'm going to barf."

SO MUCH FUN

I have always been amazed at the resourcefulness of kids in the absence of toys. Take away computers, TV, games etc, and they find a stick which becomes a gun or a sword. In Africa kids keep wheels rolling down the streets with sticks all in the name of fun. But Marsha has already blogged about the "man challenge" so I'll just post a picture of Sam the current master. Anyone want to try and beat his 31:37.58 m:s:h record? Some light girl could put these boys in their place.

Survivor Stop Sign Challenge

With no computer privileges this summer our kids have become pretty creative in how to spend their time. The latest recreation is climbing the stop sign & timing each other to see how long they can stay up there. Dan stayed up for 3:06 & claimed, "I'll bet no one can beat me." Sam stayed up for 10:11. Matt took up the challenge & stayed up for 21:52. Everyone figured that was an unbeatable record. Sam was mad that Matt had beaten him. He had broken his pinky finger earlier in the day & had it splinted. I wondered if I should not allow him to climb the pole. But one cannot stop the "Man Challenges" as the boys call them. He stayed up for 30:05! Dan told us it wasn't pretty. After 20 minutes he began sweating & crying. Sometimes he would be an inch from the bottom of the pole but then would climb back up. Sam said it was so hot he couldn't stand it.

Doesn't this sound like Survivor?

The Swimming Summer

A lot of our summer has been spent swimming. Matt gets the award for most improved swimmer. Last year he came up with the most amazing excuses to his swim teacher about why he couldn't put his face in the water. We put lifejackets on Matt & Sam & then all of us have been swimming across the lake together. Sarah uses a National Geographic narrator's voice to say, "the Abarbanel's like to swim in groups".

At one point in the summer our favourite beach closed. We went searching for a new beach. (Because Halifax is on the ocean there are many lakes in the city - remember learning about all the water from rivers and lakes draining into the ocean? It is TRUE! We have 3 lakes within a 7 minute drive of home.) But I digress. We found a new lake. It is a beautiful spot - park like setting, surrounded by woods so that you would never know you are still in the city. There were cliffs that we saw people jumping off. (Really they were probably more like rocks but cliffs makes me sound so cool.) Dan asked the lifeguard if it was safe - the lifeguard said yes. So Dan & I headed over. I thought "I'll be really cool & jump off with him." The first jump was OK but I felt a little pull in an old hip injury. The second time I decided to tuck to protect my hip. I hit bottom & scraped my foot. I went over to the SAME lifeguard & let him know I had hit bottom. He said, "that's why we teach kids that they should always look before they leap."

Back in the Blogger World

Hi to our faithful readers! We have been back from vacation for awhile & feel it is high time to put you guys out of your "Where are the Abarbablogs? misery". We had a really fun vacation. Just before vacation we went "Group Camping" with a bunch of university students at Fundy National Park. It is beautiful there - right on the ocean with the world's highest tides. We learned this the hard way - while having an enjoyable & intense talk with Ash we noticed our feet getting wet! Our boss organized a hike that he said was really nice. Thirty of us set off. It was very intense - all uphill. I love hiking but I felt that it was more than I could do. I felt a bit ashamed because I would have considered myself to be in reasonable shape. But the ground levelled out eventually & it was very pleasant. When we read the guide later this hike was listed under the "extremely difficult 7 km hike - do not attempt without water (I had none) or first aid kit."

On the way TO Fundy we stopped at a coal mining museum in Spring Hill. This is a very poor little Nova Scotian town - but hometown of Anne Murray & - you guessed it - the Spring Hill coal museum. I had visited it as a 9 year old & thought it was cool. Things started off slow. Our tour guide was a grizzled old man with lots of tattoos. He kept saying, "I'll tell you about that later." It wasn't an impressive start - so bad in fact that Katelyn whispered, "is this the same tour guide as you had as a kid, Mom?". The real fun started when we all put on authentic coal miners hard hats, yellow rain slickers & rubber boots. Then we went down under the ground into a mining shaft. It was claustrophobic, the air was bad yet quite warm. We asked why & the tour guide said, "because you are closer to the earth's core". Hmmm. He let the kids mine for coal which made them very happy. We took plastic bags of it camping & used it in our campfires. Sammy & Matty looked very cute in their coal mining costumes & I am sorry we didn't get a picture. It was a real memory maker experience.

1 month (& 5 days ) from the last blog

well we have not been bloged in 1 month & 5 days (that's why we have been laging)


this is a note love matt