And The Great Pumpkin’s Weight Is….

September 30, 2012 By

Yep, 837 pounds! (Check-out Jamie’s blog denverpumpkins.com for specs).

Though last year’s pumpkin weighed almost 100 pounds more, Jamie was pleased with the result. Growers have enormous tape measures and based on the measurements, Jamie’s pumpkin should have weighed about 770 pounds but it went 9 percent heavy.

Look at me with my pumpkin-geek speak. Impressed?

Though there were a few pumpkins with larger circumferences, Jamie passed them to place a surprising fourth.

The kiddos also placed fourth in a somewhat contested children’s division. More on that later (and how Haddie smack-talked the mohawk kid) but they were pleased with their 203-pounder.

When we first arrived, I had a nice woman come up to me who recognized me from my Denver Post articles about Jamie’s pumpkin obsession.

Still trying to figure out if that was a good thing?

And Jamie, of course, is a local celebrity with references to our NBC Marriage Ref appearance being thrown around. Beauty queen Mrs. Littleton even made a celebrity appearance!

Umm, OK.

While Jamie was busy doing his pumpkin business, the kiddos and I delved into the activities at Jared’s Giant Pumpkin Weigh-off and Festival that included a bouncy castle, face painting and balloon animals.

A maze….

 Water balloon sling shots,

And, of course, an obscene amount of oversized pumpkins and vegetables.

Cool pear!
1st place pumpkin

Jamie’s buddy Joe Scherber took first place with a pumpkin that was taping out to more than 1,400 pounds–a new Colorado record. Sadly, it went really light and *only* weighed 1,225 pounds.

Something that made me chuckle: Pumpkins allegedly lose several pounds of weight after they are cut from the vine so many growers wrap bags of water around the stem to help maintain their moisture. Scherber took it a step further and if you look closely at the pumpkin, you can see bags with yellow liquid. The contents? Gatorade.

Who knew pumpkins were athletes?

Following the day’s festivities, Jamie took us out for a celebratory dinner on the deck of Blue Canyon Grill in Golden.

But the true highlight for us all? Driving the streets with an 837-pound pumpkin in tow. People were hooping and hollering at us, delighted to catch a glimpse of such an anomaly. As we waved back at everyone, I marveled at our quirky family where oversized gourds and crazy trips are the norm.

And I couldn’t have been more grateful.

Next time: the smack-talkin’ in the children’s division weigh-off. Oh, the controversy.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

Hadley: Yoda Incarnate?

September 27, 2012 By

One of my favorite quotes:

Do or do not, there is no try.

I saw it for the first time when I was doing the full-pull in Moab–an insane day of rafting, biking and mountain biking. My friend John and I were trekking through Mill Creek Canyon to a cossetted swimming hole when I saw Yoda’s infamous words.

Fast-forward to last Sunday when Hadley had an exceptionally great day. Not only was she agreeable but she went above-and-beyond to be kind and make us a fancy dinner without asking. I fed her many praises and she glowed.

That night, in bed.

Me: “I was really impressed with Hadley today. She really tried to be good.”
Jamie: “She tries every day.”
Me: “Huh?”
Jamie: “Some days, she tries really hard to be good. And others, she tries to be bad.”

I’ll take the former, thanks.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, Jamie

Jamie’s wake-up call

September 13, 2012 By

Hadley’s back-to-school night was last week. She continues to love her new school and is making lots of friends.

After an overview from the principal, we went into the classroom so see what they’ve been working on these past weeks. The school’s philosophy is to teach academics through the arts and are they ever staying true to that.

 In orchestra, she’s learning the basics of posture, position, pizzicato, bowing and creating a beautiful sound on the violin.

Hugest bonus ever: she does not yet have violin homework so we haven’t had to listen to the painful trial-and-error process. Horribly played violin=nails on chalkboard!

She’s also learning the recorder, all-immersion Spanish and knitting in her Handwork program. Gym class is always outside rain or shine (exempting -20-degree days), which I LOVE. I think it’s ridiculous how everyone hunkers down at the first sign of inclement weather.

And yes, that’s the Canuck in me talking.

While we were sitting in the student’s desks getting an overview from Haddie’s teacher, I could see Jamie gazing around the room. After the orientation, he commented:

“The parents in Haddie’s class sure are old.”
“They’re all our age, Jamie.”

I suspect Botox is in his future.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor, Jamie

The Monster My Mother Created

September 6, 2012 By

We’re a family of contrasts.

Jamie obsessively clips his nails and for a while, Bode followed suit.

Though I usually suffer through a pedicure in the summer (the heel scraping is like nails on a chalkboard), I just can’t be bothered to care about my fingernails and it’s painfully obvious.

But Hadley is the worst of us all and has always thrown a huuuuuuge fit whenever we’ve attempted to cut her nails. This probably stems from deep-rooted anxieties of when she was just a week old, I attempted to clip them and accidentally cut her. 

As if being a new mom wasn’t stressful enough, we were on our way out the door to meet Grandma for lunch. So, I was the Mother of Improvisation and put a little stock on her hand. By the time we arrived, her baby paw was perched in the air, the sock saturated in blood.

Ahh, good memories.

So, when my mom suggested we take Hadley for her first mani-pedi before she got baptized, I was wary. I mean, you practically have to hold the girl down to clip her nails and how would she do in public?

Turns out, surprisingly well.

So well, in  fact, when we were in Calgary, she was excited for a girl’s day out for yet another mani-pedi.

That was over a month ago and her nails are looking mangy. I heard Jamie cutting his nails and begged him to cut the kids’ as well. Bode was game but Hadley took one look at him and said,

“Naw, I’d rather go to the pedicure place.”

And so it begins.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

Let’s hear it for the boy (and girl)

August 31, 2012 By

Thursday was one of those (rare-ish) days when you think, maybe I’m not such a complete failure as a mom and these kids are turning out OK.

And it happened on a day I was pretty down-and-out with the flu and a killer sinus infection. So pathetic was I that even slothful Fat Kitty ditched me because I was too boring just lying around.

Now, that’s pathetic.

For starters, Haddie brought me fresh-squeezed orange juice that she’d squeezed with her own two hands. Then, the first thing she did when she got home from school was prepared me a snack of cinnamon toast and fresh strawberries. But here’s the kicker: she did it before she ate.

If you have ravenous, sometimes egocentric kiddos like mine, you’ll realize just how amazing that is.

Then, Jamie forwarded me a message that Bode’s teacher left on our voicemail (Vonage sends an email transcript). She is the nicest lady and I wouldn’t be surprised if she had called a number of students (if not all) to give positive affirmations about her kids. Here’s what she raved about Bode:

Hi Mr. and Mrs. Johnson, it’s Bode’s teacher Jenny and I was just calling to let you know what a joy Bode as he is been doing such a fantastic job this week. He is an excellent listener. He is sitting just like he should in crisscross applesauce. He’s raising his hand and adding some of the most insightful comments I have ever heard from a first grade student so I just wanted to let you know that he is just a joy to have in class and that you’ve raised such a fabulous young man.

It’s so neat to have a leader in the classroom for my other students to see what it looks like to be a first grader and to be a listener and to be thinking all the time. So I just wanted to let you know what a joy he is. If you need anything please let me know and again thank you for raising such a fabulous young man and I will talk to you soon.

So, even though I’m down in the dumps I’m feeling pretty darn grateful today.

Fat Kitty rejection and all.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley

The Waldorf Rebels (plastic, anyone?)

August 30, 2012 By

If you’re not familiar with the Waldorf model of schools, they are very artsy and put a lot of focus on preserving the environment and clean living.

I’m down with that. I’m a recycling Nazi, always bring reusable grocery bags to the store and shun most processed foods by cooking our meals from scratch.

However, on the first day of school I packed Hadley’s school supplies in (gasp) a plastic grocery bag because I knew she’d never remember to bring the bag home and you know what?

I was the only one on campus with (gasp) plastic.

The school actually requests we pack healthy lunches and use reusable containers (i.e. no Ziplocs). This has stressed my friend Amie out to the point she FREAKS OUT her daughter will get flogged if she brings junk food to school.

Likely not flogging but I’m sure a jury trial would be involved.

But I got the following email from her yesterday:

Title: OMGOSH!

This morning a big tub of cheese balls were spotted being given to Hadley’s teacher. It created a quite a stir BUT they were not unwelcome. Hadley’s teacher just said, “They aren’t very Waldorf but your know kids just have to eat!” Bravo! So you can breathe a sigh of relief that they have balance! Great! take care, Amie

Whew! Tomorrow, I’ll slip a Rice Krispie treat into her lunch.

Because I’m a rebel like that.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

One-week freedom anniversary

August 29, 2012 By

Today marks one week that both kids have been in school and I’ve fallen into a nice pattern.

5:30 a.m. Wake up, work.
6:50 a.m. Wake up kids.
7 a.m. Wake up kids again. I really mean it this time. Get Bode breakfast
7:15 a.m. Wake up daughter AGAIN. Threats begin.
7:16-7:54 a.m. Eat breakfast, make beds, get ready, more threats.
7:55 a.m. Walk son to the bus stop
8:15 a.m. Drive Haddie and our carpool to school
8:30-10 a.m. Workout/play
10:30 a.m..-3:10 p.m. Work.
3:11 p.m. Pick-up kids, homework, chaos, dinner.
10:30 p.m. Fall into bed. If I’m lucky.

My level of productivity has astounded even me and it’s helped I haven’t had any glaring deadlines this week. After Labor Day, work meetings/lunches begin but I’m making a concerted effort to keep my first couple of hours free to hike or bike.

My friend Tiffanie asked me to help lead a 20-mile hike with the Scouts on Labor Day so I’ve been exploring some new routes in Boulder. Jamie calls it slacking off. I call it research.

Either way, I win.

As for the kids, they are thriving. Bode starts soccer next week and adores first grade, his teacher, the school and his buddies. In his assessment he tested waaaay above the standard in all his subjects and hopefully he’ll keep at it. I’m relishing our walks to the bus stop and that he still adores me enough to hug, kiss and even take me down in the occasional thumb war.

These are limited days, indeed.

Hadley is also doing really well and will begin swim team and piano lessons in September.

I, of course, was worried because she started a new school but she loves it. Well, she loves most aspects of it except the academic  part (which I suspect will be a battle until she graduates). She has made a BF in class, plays in the treehouse with all the boys at recess (gulp), is thrilled to be learning the violin in orchestra (painful earplug gulp), thinks she’s bilingual with her Spanish class and is counting down the days until her first field trip and the pranks they’ll pull on the boys

In our public school, they went to the museum, to a play or the zoo. Wanna know what her charter school has planned? A 3-day, 2-night camping trip to Mesa Verde National Park.

It’s no wonder she’s liking it.

And I’m really, really happy she’s there. Though there have been some preliminary hiccups/annoyances, I love the beautiful campus (I’ll have to post pictures soon) and the kind of activities they have planned. From their back-to-school picnic to a potluck with all the families in our class to a Fall Festival for the community to a 5K…that’s all within the next month.

And just how is Fat Kitty adjusting to our suddenly-quiet house?

Rather well, I’d have to say.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Family, Hadley Tagged With:

On looking like a doughnut; Haddie’s first day of school

August 22, 2012 By

On Haddie’s last day of her public school last spring, I asked if she was sad to be leaving all her friends. “Yes, but I’ll miss my teacher and Gracie (the class pet hamster) the most.”

She’s not really the sentimental type.

So, I was a bit relieved when she was showing some normal nervousness over starting her new charter school on Monday. We spent some time fixing up the school grounds last week and she got to know her teacher (LOVE HER) but we missed the back-to-school picnic because she was sick.

She was a ball of anxiety when I woke her up the first day of school and getting her out of bed was not pretty.

Fortunately, she cleans up rather well.

In her back-to-school outfit from Grandma B.

As we were leaving the house, I told her to go wash her face because she had dry-skin crusties. She washed and lotioned her face and that is when the freak-out happened, “I LOOK LIKE A DOUGHNUT!”

“What are you talking about?”

“My face. It’s tooooo shiny!”

Now, I don’t eat too many shiny doughnuts and I likely would have blown her off any other day but because it was the first day of school and she’s my kid (prone to irrational freak-outs when stressed), I powdered her face to calm her down.

Upon arriving at her new campus, it was bustling with activity and she anxiously looked around  for a friendly face.

She found it when she went to stand in line with her class. She was immediately encircled by three girls who raved about her hair.

I gave them several minutes to connect before walking over to give her the school supplies.

“Mom!” Hadley excitedly said as she pointed. “Morgan was in my first grade class!” Relief.

And so I took some pictures from a distance not wanting her to embarrass her.

I’ll just save that for Day 2 and beyond.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Hadley, Humor

Summer 2012: It’s a WRAP!

August 21, 2012 By

We’re currently in back-to-school mode but I’d be remiss if I didn’t post about some forgotten moments of summer.

Or rather, soon-to-be forgotten because I have the worst memory ever.

Of course, there was our trip to Calgary to visit my family, whom I’m missing like crazy. From My Favorite Ice Cream Shoppe.

Cute cousins
Attacking my bro Pat
Disturbing family pic w/ niece Emily, SIL Jane & creeper Pat
Overlooking downtown Calgary

To my almost-daily bike rides with Dad all over the city. Dude is in his 70s and still cranking out 20 miles/ride.

Not to be forgotten is our better-than epic trip to Disneyland to witness the opening of Cars Land.

‘Twas definitely in the Top 3 Vacations Ever.

And that means a lot because we’ve been on some killer trips.

Like this one to YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park.

We also had plenty of local adventures such as Heritage Square. I did a write-up at Mile High Mamas about it and between the alpine slide, amusement park and new Miner’s Maze Adventure, the kids had a blast.

Water Walkerz a.k.a. “hamster balls” were a hit

The claustrophobic need not attempt.

And then there were plenty of activities with the youth from our church. Every Tuesday night, they congregate for fun or service and my kids are always delighted when I let them tag along.

Like this boating adventure at Chatfield State Park.

Haddie tubing behind the boat w/ her two babysitters
Stomp rocket fun; minor nailing of geese involved

The weather turned really blustery and we were delighted our group of 30 had the beach to ourselves.

Fair-weather wussies.

On another youth activity, we hit Bear Creek Lake State Park for some good ol’ fashioned crawdad fishing, swimming and playing.

Building the crawdad swimming hole

And the scariest of the youth activities: tubing down Clear Creek. The Adventure Kids had a blast navigating the rapids.

Until they rode with me and we flipped backward and capsized. Want to talk about scary mom moments as I tried to swim upstream to collect them? I prefer not to. Big-time #MomFail.

But I made up for it on our final getaway before school at the Omni Interloken Resort in Broomfield where we endlessly played in the pool, fine-dined and scavenger-hunted with their Camp Omni program.

Poolside with the Honey
Snowcones at H2O Pool Bar

And, of course, we have to end with Hadley and Bode’s television debuton 9News.

Dear Denver Summer 2012: You about killed me with your record-breaking streak of 100-degree days in June and July.

But you’re definitely a summer we’ll never forget.

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Family travel, Hadley, Humor, Jamie Tagged With:

Mom Confessional: What I Did (and Mostly Did Not) Learn This Summer

August 20, 2012 By

School starts for my daughter today and I can’t help but reflect back upon the last few months. At the advent of every summer, I make grandiose plans.

We’ll do a different activity every day!
We’ll make lots of new friends!
We’ll engage our minds by daily learning in science, reading and math!

By summer’s end, the result is usually the same: “Yeah, right.”

It’s not that we didn’t learn a lot this summer. I learned:

1) Broken DVD players should be immediately replaced during multi-day road trips to Canada.
2) Husbands should not get two speeding tickets within a half-hour of each other in Wyoming.
2) Every detail of navigating Bowser’s Castle in Super Mario Bros on my son’s Nintendo DS.
4) I need a vacation at the end of summer vacation.

I really did try. A few weeks ago, I introduced my kids to Math Dice, a game I bought at the beginning of the summer. Predictably, my math-prodigy first grader answered all the questions while my math-challenged third grade daughter let him.

I wasn’t fooling anyone. Half-way through our game, she glared at me. “Hey, I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to trick me to do MATH!”

Though she’ll never make it as a mathematician, she may have a future as a private investigator.

The only thing I did really well (besides played, traveled and played some more) was encouraged the kids to read every day. But even that has its drawbacks–it’s called The Day of Reckoning.

In an ideal world, we could go to the library, check out a stack of books and return every last one of them on time.

In my world, due dates are forgotten, overdue charges are heaped up and books are lost.

My end-of-summer tab?

Well, let’s just say I learned something else: I’m single-handedly doing my part to support Jefferson County Public Libraries.

Better luck next summer.

CLICK TO READ ON AT MILEHIGHMAMAS.COM

© Crazy Bloggin’ Canuck–A Denver Mom’s Blog
Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor
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