TRIPLE TROUBLE OR THREE TIMES THE FUN???

Weekend.....? what weekend???

2012-02-12T23:16:00.000-04:00

I must have blined and missed it! It's Sunday night already? really???? I had a to do list on Friday that I was pretty sure would never get done!

Step Class 9am

Model at gym 10am

go to grocery store

go to bank

pick up books for MOM on bedrest

drop off photography coupon for church auction

hair appt noon

I was even a couple minutes early for my appointment and made all my planned stops. And yes, you read correctly, they needed someone to pose for pictures at they gym for their new website. I'm just not sure whether it's going to encourage any new business! I don't know that "keepin' it real" is always a plus in advertising...

I got done at the hairdresser's and got home with time to spare to meet the kids getting home from school. Immediately they wanted to have friends over. It was a gorgeous day out so I said she could come but they were playing outdoors Grumbled acceptance was heard. A few minutes later Tulip calls to see if she can come and I tell her to head down. She also wanted to know if Sweetie's BFF next door is also coming but I told her she wasn't & then we hung up. I told the girls to get their stuff on to go out and a few minutes later Tulip is at the door and they all head out to play. Then the phone rings again. It's BFF's dad. "Hi Kelly, ummm it's Ian.. Tulip phoned to ask if BFF could come over to your house...." Seriously? not a huge deal but rather odd isn't it????? How does Tulip know I want the whole neighbourhood here? what if it wasn't a good day? luckily it didn't really matter too much since they had to play outside so I told him to send her over.

Everyone was outdoors when I heard someone come in and go in to the bathroom. Ok no problem, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go right? They were in there a good long while & I went about my stuff, prepping supper etc. Suddenly someone is standing at my side. It's BFF's big sister who got home from middle school. "Hi Kelly!" Oh. hi!..... awkward silence as she just stands there and watches me. Ummmm the kids are all out in the backyard. "yeah. I know." more standing and watching. I kept working. she kept standing and then starts telling me their exciting plans for the weekend.

BFF & her sister had to head home around 4 to get started on their big night out so it was just Tulip and my three left and they came barreling in at 4:45, ready to ditch their winter gear and come in and ~~wreck~~ play in the house. unh unh! I reminded them it was an outdoor playdate only. *insert chorus of whining here* I really didn't want a mess so I told them to watch for Murray coming and to walk Tulip home. Then Tulip pipes up "well WHY can't I stay for supper??????????" ummmm because it's weird to invite yourself over???? Murray got home just in the nick of time as I was getting slightly exasperated! He trucked them off and came back just in time to sit down to dinner.

Right after I ate I went to see my friend Stacey who was in town for her grandfather's funeral. That night was the visitation so I went to be with her as they were having a hard time. I kept her company til it was over and she said it wasn't nearly as horrible as she'd been dreading.

When I got home I decided I needed a new facebook profile pic and no time like hair appointment day!

Acorn's parents decided to hire me for some family photos so I packed up my gear Friday night and headed to their place Saturday morning. I got trigger happy and we had wardrobe changes, various set ups indoors and outdoors. Before I knew it, 3 hours had gone by! I had meant to finish up around 1pm and then bring Acorn home with me to make up for not bringing Lovey when I came over! Acorn kept asking "is it time for you to kidnap me yet?" Finally it was time to hit the road and she was a very willing victim :)

Lovey & the girls flew to the door as soon as I drove in honking. Acorn enjoyed the attention and opened her door and just sat there enjoying the whooping and hollering for a minute before racing in to join them. Or perhaps she was reconsidering her decision to come at all!!!

The weather was a bit iffy so Acorn had packed a bag just in case she "HAD" to sleepover. At supper I announced the bad news that the weather wasn't bad enough to trap us at home. Groans of disappointment filled the room!

We dropped her off to meet her dad at her sister's dance lesson and then we all went to a hockey game! The kids had free tickets so we decided it was a good night to all go. Lovey & Sweetie were ok with the 1st two periods but by the 3rd, they'd completely lost interest (roughly around the same time the popcorn and cotton candy ran out strangely enough...) At ten minutes left in the 3rd, I took the 2 of them out to get the van cleaned off and ready to go. Honey & Murray stayed til the end as the home team never loses while Honey's there and we didn't want to jinx them.

By the time we got home it was 10 and then 10:30 by the time everyone was tucked in, prayed with, hugged and kissed. I was pretty tired myself but we were expecting company for lunch on Sunday so needed to prep some food and I also haaaaaaaaaaaaaad to have a peek at the images from the session and then there's always some facebook catch up to do.... 1am came way too fast and I packed it in and slept like a log!

Check out the amazing juggling seen at lunch time. Murray can totally kill it with 2 oranges but that's the limit so far. The kids are really impressed with his mad skillz though and frequently request that he juggle for them. They ooh and ahhhh and it all cracks me up every time.

Honey tried her hand at it and came up with this deep thought:: if juggling was just one orange, it would be pretty easy. but not every entertaining.

Averting Disaster!

2012-02-10T23:20:00.001-04:00

I was grocery shopping a couple of weeks ago and got to the peanut butter (aka our main staple) section. I went to grab my usual 2kg (aka 2 week supply) and jerked my hand back aghast as I saw the sticker. $10.99?!?!?!? TELL me that's a typo!!!!!! I dragged a bottle around til I found someone to price check it, and correct it! But alas, it was not to be. PB really did go from $6.99 to $10.99 recently, or at least Kraft PB did. I put it back and bought the Skippy since it was "only" 8.79 but it still hurt.Then it hurt more when they wouldn't even deign to EAT my $8.79 PB. After a couple of days of PBlessness, Lovey cracked and ate it. It definitely tastes different and I also prefer the Kraft but at $10.99, we're just going to have to suck it up and get used to a different brand.

Or are we??? Coupon Kelly is very resourceful! and I've banded together with other ~~cheapskates~~ thrifty moms who are on the lookout for deals and great coupon finds. Someone alerted me to a sale at the grocery store that started today. I made sure to stop in today as once this news gets out, the store will get swarmed and the shelves will be emptied! So, usually I pay $6.99 for 2kg but due to the peanut shortage, prices have soared to $10.99. In the midst of this international emergency state of affairs, I managed to get the brand I wanted at LESS than the usual price. Oh yeah, I DID!!!!!!!!! That's how I roll :)))

ok, drumroll please................................. $2.99/KG

Thank you. Thank you very much. :)))

so we should be set for a couple months at least and hope peanut stocks rebound by then!

Another Day, Another Scrape!

2012-02-07T23:42:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, Honey walked into a pole at dance class and banged up her eye and got a small cut. Very painful to say the least. So far, no shiner but you can see the cuts on the eyebrow and just below the eye.

Today Lovey came home sporting this mess! She was playing "hockey" with another girl and they were sitting on the snow, sliding an ice chunk back and forth when the other girl forgot she was holding it and turned suddenly when someone called her name. Lovey was just in the right range to catch it between the eyes.

We can't wait to see what Sweetie comes home with tomorrow!

The other day, the gym manager told me she had a business proposition for me! She asked if I'd head up a cross country skiing group twice a week over the winter. There are awesome trails near the club that we can get on and a few of us did this last year. This year they want to promote it more to take advantage of their location. I am featured on the newest poster!!! (ok, well, it's just my name & email address but ya gotta start somewhere right?) I'm not sure what she meant by business proposition as I have yet to be asked for personal details required for payroll.... hmmm another job that doesn't pay anything, just what I needed!!!! LOL at least this one has the benefit of fresh air & exercise and other adult company!

Sweetie helped me practice setting my white balance in camera today using my new gray card! I can imagine your excitement at seeing how I've mastered yet another photography gadget/tool/overpriced piece of cardboard. :))) Well it's fun for me so that's the main thing!

Oh and guess who got their first cavity filled today? She might be directly above this line but I really can't say as she doesn't want ANYONE to know about this development. This morning I was writing the note for her to be excused so I could pick her up and she said "DON'T tell her I'm going to the dentist!!!!" Luckily our dentist only uses white fillings so there's no obvious evidence. It was very small and didn't require any freezing so she was in & out of the chair 10 minutes and $100 later. But you didn't hear this from me....

Coupon Kelly Hits the Bigtime!

2012-02-05T22:58:00.000-04:00

Some people get hooked on the weather network, some get excited about cooking shows. Know what shows fascinate me? Extreme couponing. They also tend to annoy me because they're all based in the states so the offers, prices and deals are unheard of around here.

Then, last week, bestill my heart, I saw these magic words on the flyer! "Double Coupon Days". They had my attention. It's a small pharmacy that I don't shop at often as I can usually get what I need at the grocery store. But for double coupon day, I was willing to make an exception. I had some great product coupons too!

$10 off Tylenol Back Pain

$2.50 off Sensodyne

$3.00 off Children's Tylenol

$2.00 off Systane Eye Drops

So at dance class last week, Teena and I snuck out to experience life in the extreme lane. (deal shopping is greatly enhanced with the right teammate!)

We scanned the shelves looking for the right products and I found almost everything I had a coupon for. We got to the cash and my total didn't sound as impressive as I'd hoped. She had rung all the coupons in as $4 by mistake. Then she took them all off, then she double scanned one product. Then she put in a $0.12 coupon. Then she put in the right coupons. Still seemed too high but I'd already made her check and re total it so I was probably just confused. I paid and while Teena was getting rung through, I checked my receipt. Aha! The $10.00 coupon wasn't $20. it was only $12 and none of the others had been doubled properly either.

I pointed it out and she explained that there was a maximum on the doubling. It could only be double up to an extra $2.00 off. A coworker in the background piped up "there ARE rules you know!!!!". Well obviously I didn't know but thank you for that helpful input. The fact that I questioned my total at least TWICE during the transaction may have been a good indicator that I was unaware how the promotion worked. That probably would have been a good time to throw in "just so you know, the coupon doesn't double if it's over $2.00, did you still want to buy xyz?". Nah, ring it all through and hope nobody notices. Oh I don't think so Ms. Pharmasave! Instead of saving time by skipping the helpful tip, now we've got to do a refund. So I returned the back pain meds (Murray said he'll just chug a couple beer if he has any more on ice collisions) and got cash back instead of crediting my credit card back. So they had to pay the full amount in whatever the fees are for credit card processing, they gave me airmiles on the full purchase and spent the extra time doing the refund. Apparently they weren't enjoying double coupon day as much as I was! I used to work at a grocery store when I was in university and the manager always got cranky when shoppers came in and only bought the sale items. *(&%$^ cherry pickers!!!! he'd call t hem. LOL

Oh well, I saved quite a bit and got the stuff I wanted! Hopefully the grocery stores will start doing this too! (although I'm not holding my breath!)

We've got one dog-less week under our belts and there is still sadness and missing him like crazy but not nearly as intense and raw. I can get through most days without a crying bender so I guess that's progress... The girls don't mention him much during they day but still talk about him and pray for him at night. Sweetie asked the other day if we could get a 2nd kitten now. Since our first cat is crazy enough to eat himself, I doubt it would be wise to bring in a small, defenceless kitten!

Lo and behold!

2012-02-01T23:38:00.003-04:00

I had one bright spot on the weekend so I thought I should post something upbeat so I don't have to type through tears again!

Back in 2008, one of my cousins asked me if I would shoot his wedding and then I also ended up making their wedding cake. I didn't have my photography business set up then and they were looking for a free photographer so it was a perfect match! However, they had planned to make me a pair of earrings as they felt it would be a more fair exchange of services that way. I wasn't too concerned about it and had long since forgotten about the offer until Aunt Cathy dropped by with a little box for me!

I had had a pair similar to this but as with all favourite earrings, one got lost. When they had asked what I'd like, I had given them the remaining one and she recreated them almost exactly!

Something very positive and much appreciated in such a sad time! Loving my new earrings!!!

Day 5- not as horribly awful as days 1-4 but still pretty darn empty...

Life Goes On...

2012-01-31T23:25:00.000-04:00

but it ain't real pretty right now!

Murphyless Day 4

I don't think a single one of us has had a tear-free day since last Thursday. The girls have been in school and are busy during the day and forget for a bit I think. Then at bedtime, Lovey gets dwelling on it and that gets Honey started and tonight was a messy tuck in! Sweetie hasn't said too much but mentions him in her prayers each night and so do the others.

So many reminders everywhere make it hard to really put it out of mind for long. I have a hard time going to bed at night, it takes awhile to fall asleep. The first thing I think about as soon as my mind starts turning over in the morning is "hes' still gone". Every creak on the stairs, I look for him. Every time I return home, I'm bracing for the emptiness that the house holds. I keep looking for him on the couch where he always slept. He keeps not being there. I walked in the bedroom the other night and saw an elongated dark lumpy shape lying on our bed and my heart soared!!!! then in the same split second it came crashing back down again as I realized it was just my black puffy coat. I glance out the window and my eyes automatically scan the white snow for his brown coat meandering about and am disheartened every time I realize my mistake. Yesterday morning Murray & I were eating breakfast when we heard the sweet familiar sound & rhythm of a fast whap, whap, whap, whap coming from the hallway. Murphy's tail hitting the bannister!!!!!!!!! How ????? Even knowing the utter impossibility of it, I couldn't stop myself from going to find him. But of course he wasn't there. It was Lovey in the bathroom, banging the hairbrush on the counter at just the right speed.

Apparently it's going to take awhile to rewire the Murphy section of my brain! I know it will take time and we'll never stop missing him but eventually the pain won't be so fresh and deep. Today wasn't as hard as the first couple of days so I can tell we're making progress. There are lots of moments where I think "ok, it's ok right now. I've got a grip. It's not so bad. Ok." and then wham something hits me with that awful gut wrenching sadness and just about knocks me down.

We've had so many kind messages and our parents are phoning in to make sure we're still standing. Don't worry, we're getting there but we're not in a big hurry to move on completely just yet :))) It IS getting easier
but I think I need a few more days of wallowing yet.

In the meantime, PW is trying to fill the gap by being an obnoxious schmuck :) He's storming about night & day, yowling at us for treats, to be patted and for random visits to the front door, apparently just to make sure it's still operational because he doesn't ever actually go through it once I open it for him! He's probably wondering where his buddy is too :(((

Sweetie found him curled up in her doll stroller tonight and she carefully wheeled it into the kitchen to show me. Of course he didn't stay long but we did see him in the act. She lured him back in with some treats and it made everybody laugh.

Worst Vet Trip EVER.

2012-01-29T00:57:00.002-04:00

Warning: you may want to skip this one, or at least get your kleenex out.You don't have to read it, but I really needed to write it to have for our story.

Yesterday afternoon I took Murphy to see the vet, hoping against hope for something, ANYthing to help my Murphy baby. She looked at him standing there in his new lopsided way. They weighed him and he was down another 5kg from the fall. She asked me how old he was. She asked how long he'd been refusing food. She asked me what his quality of life was like lately. There were no good answers to give and she had delicately, gently and softly led me to the conclusion that was obvious to her, the one I did NOT want to see. So I did what I do best of all. I cried.

I couldn't deny the situation any longer. I had to decide to let him go. To decide that I would never walk into a room and be greeted by that head rising, those warm eyes reaching mine and that enthusiastic tail beating the crap out of everything in reach. I had to decide. but I didn't want to "choose" THAT!!!! Who wants to give up that kind of adoration and love????

She also told me that he was getting dehydrated and was probably quite uncomfortable and would become even more so over the next few days. Well I didn't want that either. I asked if they'd be able to look after him that day if we decided to go that route. She said they would make it work and fit us in. Crap. I had told the girls before I left that nothing would be happening that day. I asked what time they had an appointment available and if I should come back later. She said they didn't really have any appointments and would just make it work and get him in whenever Murray could get there.

I phoned Murray to see what he wanted to do. He agreed that Murphy deserved to be free of pain and not to suffer any more and would bring the girls to say goodbye. I sat on the floor with Murphy in my lap, holding him and stroking those soft silky ears, kiss his head and praying for strength. This interlude took roughly half an hour and at least half a box of Puffs tissues. The vet & tech each popped in to check on us while we waited.

Finally I saw the van pull in. I heard the wailing as soon as they opened their doors. They weren't holding back, that's for sure and I couldn't blame them. They came traipsing down the hall, wet little faces, eyes already red rimmed and loudly declaring their love for Murphy. The vet left us alone but with the thin walls, I'm sure they could hear every tear and promise to never forget, to always love & miss him. We huddled around our boy and cried and hurt there together for awhile.

The girls were worried about what would happen so I explained that they'd just give Murphy a needle and that he'd quickly go to sleep and not hurt anymore. Then what? they wanted to know. I didn't want to get into specifics but my inquisitive little girls demanded to know exactly what was going to be done with Murphy afterwards. I tried telling them that they vet would take care of Murphy. HOW? What will they do with him? Do they bury him???? Murray explained that he would be cremated. A new wave of panicked, shrieking outrage crashed down on us as they put their feet down and protested their little hearts out. "Noooooo!!!! I don't want them to burn him!!!!!" and cried and yelled until Murray said we could bring him home with us and bury him ourselves.

Murray went out and changed the arrangements and paid our bill so we would be able to leave immediately. I have never been so NOT ready for a moment in my entire life. We proceeded anyway because we were never going to be "OK" with it, no matter how many minutes they gave us. Honey & Sweetie didn't want to stay in the room so Murray took them out to the waiting area. I couldn't leave him alone with strangers and wanted him to have a familiar loving face with him for the end. I stayed and Lovey couldn't be pried out either. I cradled his head in my lap and patted him and talked to him. Lovey hugged his back and assured him she would never forget him and would always love him. As they prepped him for the needle she started to sob very hard. I could tell because I could hear her over my own so it had to be pretty powerful. The tech asked if she wanted to go with her sisters and she insisted emphatically that she wanted to stay with him.

They put the IV in and within seconds he slackened and was gone. He still felt so soft, warm and real. It didn't feel like he could really be gone so fast. How could someone that cherished be here one moment and then completely gone the next????? It was a relief to know he was at peace and that nothing hurt him anymore but the pain immediately took up residence in all our hearts. I instantly regretted not getting one last Murphy kiss with that rough tongue ripping across my cheek. I wish I could have one more of those and am mad that I forgot.

The others came back in the room and the crying intensified, interspersed with loudly proclaimed "I LOVE YOU MURPHY!" and wails of "my heart has a hole in it!" "why did he have to die?????" "I miss him already!" "I'll never forget you Murphy NEVER!!!!!" and "best dog EVER" might have been mentioned a few times. Sweetie looked at me and said "I don't ever want to get another dog Mummy!" I nodded and said "because this hurts too much huh?" and more tears fell and I hugged her close. Honey stated that she was never going to be able to be happy or smile ever again. Lovey just sobbed and sobbed and couldn't get out much that was intelligible but I think there might have been something about no more joy in her life ever.

After a few minutes we realized we weren't going to settle down any time soon. Murray gathered our boy up in his arms and started out. The rest of us hung our heads and sobbed and cried our way out the door past the other patients in the waiting area. They had given us some of his fur to save but I forgot to get the baggie they had offered me. I went back in to ask for it and found everyone in the waiting room with tears running down their faces. Are we powerful or what? That's some good crying when you can take down perfect strangers with you!

Since we'd ended up with both vehicles there, Murray asked if I wanted to drive with the girls or if I wanted him to take them. He warned me that they'd been very teary and vocal the entire way to the vet and that he expected the same for the return trip. Knowing my girls, I expected no less and since I'm pretty sure t hey inherited 100% of their overly dramatic, emotionally charged grieving capacity from me, I felt it was only fair to shoulder this part of the blow.

Murphy was in the Subaru and they'd all moved their booster seats over so they could travel with him. Since we got the van in July, they have never ONCE opted to drive in the station wagon. I climbed into the Subaru and followed Murray home. It was terrible weather. Snow and ice were flying as we slowly made our way. The van had trouble getting up one of the streets. I thought I was going to have to push him but then he made the final section. The girls fully met all my expectations. Tears were constant, declarations of undying love flew, the pain was too much to imagine going through ever again. The one that surprised me was the vehement anger towards Adam & Eve. Yep, those two took the brunt of it. If only they hadn't eaten that apple, nobody would EVER have to die. and they scornfully wanted to know "who listens to a talking snake anyway??????" Even in my saddest moments, those girls can put a smile on my face. They couldn't understand HOW I could be smiling at a time like this!!!!

We finally got home and got Murphy into the garage and went inside to get dressed for grave digging. We decided on a spot in the woods since he liked to lay under the trees whenever he was outdoors. The ground was frozen solid of course. All that mild weather this winter and we had to do this during the one week of freezing temperatures??? We started a small fire inside a barrel to try and thaw the ground and Murray, God bless him, chipped and poked and prodded that earth until he broke through to softer ground. We gathered brush and sticks to keep the fire going and after an hour or so we took a break for supper.

Lovey was rather disgusted. She had been requesting chicken burgers for ages and that night we were finally going to have them and now there was no way she could enjoy them! Murray went right back out to continue digging. We went out for awhile but the girls got cold so I brought them in and put their movie on and went back out with Murray to keep the fire going. It wasn't doing much but at least it gave light and some warmth. Digging in the dark and the cold rainy sleet is pretty sad work.

Eventually the movie finished and they put on their pj's, brushed their teeth and cleaned up their Barbie blitz in the living room while they waited for us to come in. They cried some more but fell asleep quickly and I went back out with Murray for awhile. I packed it up and went in, in case the girls woke up. I was pretty exhausted myself but couldn't go to bed while he was still out there battling it out. It was after 11pm by the time he'd carved out a large enough space. He was covered in mud, exhausted mentally, physically and even emotionally I think. We went to bed but he couldn't sleep. I conked out til 4 or so and then was awake enough to remember the Murphy-less state of affairs we were now in and I couldn't hold back the tears so it was a good thing he wasn't really sleeping. I eventually cried myself back to sleep for a couple of hours and then it was time to get Lovey up for her group violin rehearsal. It was their first one and is for an upcoming competition so we thought she should try to go. She said she was fine and got ready without any difficulty. It was only a 30 minute session and she did fine. While she & Murray were preparing to leave, the other 2 got up and crawled into bed with me for a cuddle and cry session. We talked about funny Murphy memories and that felt good but did feel sad too.

Once Lovey was back from violin it was time for the funeral. Murray went out ahead to get Murphy settled into his resting place and then came in with tears & nose running, to get us. I don't even want to know what he had to do to get Murphy through the small opening. It obviously hadn't been easy on him.

We looked and looked all over to find his favourite toy, the water Kong but we couldn't find it anywhere. Instead we found a different Kong and everyone threw in a Snausage for him and then Murray started filling it in. For some reason, this was the part I couldn't bear to witness. The girls and I set off to hunt down some rocks to put on top of the earth and I stalled until I was sure I wouldn't be able to see Murphy lying there anymore. We helped tamp down the earth and then Sweetie asked if she could pray for Murphy and she led us in a beautiful, heartfelt and loving prayer. She asked God to make a place for Murphy, to help him find a friend to play with and to be happy there (we suggested that God lead him to Monty, his best friend when they were puppies together, the girls thought that was a good idea), to let Murphy know we would always love him and remember him and she had some other words but I can't remember them now. It was lovely and sweet though.

The rest of today was very low key, we watched lots of tv, very slack on rules and eating requirements. Murray shoveled out the snowy driveway then he & Lovey made applesauce. I watched an online photography workshop and tried to stay awake. While we made supper, Lovey went on a cleaning binge and reorganized the pantry, cleaned the bathroom counter and washed all the windows and mirrors she could reach. Every once in awhile the girls would wander over and say simply "it hurts. I still miss him" which would of course set off a fresh round of tears and hugs.

As I walk around the house, everything makes me think of Murphy of course. Every time I go downstairs, I keep expecting him to be on the couch, to raise his head when I walk in, to thump his tail in greeting and start to quiver with excitement while he waits for me to come pat him. I think I hear his collar jingle or hear him shift around on the couch as I sit here at the computer. Throughout the day we've found things and started gathering and putting away dishes, his treats etc. It's so hard to accept that such an important part of our family, who was JUST here, can really be gone forever. His presence stills seems so vivid!!! He can't really be gone forever surely???? I want to scream "bring my Murphy baby back!!!!!" but it wouldn't do any good and I don't want to confirm all those sneaking suspicions out there than I'm a raving lunatic.

The girls were all tired out early tonight and Murray was exhausted as well and went to bed right after they did. I'm tired too but can't seem to settle down yet. I have to get this all down first I guess and get it out of my head. Maybe that will make tomorrow a little easier.

We've gotten lots of nice messages and calls from others who loved Murphy like we did and lots from those who never even had the privilege of getting licked by that ridiculously long tongue and we're thankful for all the notes and greetings. It's hard to talk right now so sometimes I don't answer the phone or pass off to Murray when I start to lose it.

and it just wouldn't right not to have a few more pictures would it????? These are some of my all time pictures of my Murphy baby, my best Christmas present ever.

oh those little teeth! so sharp and quick!

always a snappy dresser!

Daddy's little helper!

We hope he's back to partying with his good buddy Monty!

Always our handsome boy!

The beach, aka The Happiest Place on Earth

He'd follow you anywhere for that waterkong!

Who are these little people???

Murphy's last Christmas

Our very last picture with him :(

We love you Murphy and we will never ever ever forget you.

Charge of the Lice Brigade!

2012-01-26T22:58:00.003-04:00

So far so good! The girls were with Tulip on Sunday and that's the day her mom found the lice on her. No sightings here yet and I'm checking daily, sometimes twice daily. It can take up to a week for nits to appear but I'm hoping my Tea Tree Oil trick saves my butt! In the meantime I'm sending the Braidy Bunch to school every day. It means getting up 20 minutes earlier and listening to a lot of whining as I braid their heads within an inch of their lives. Twenty minutes of that beats the pants off what Tulip's mom described to me on the phone last night though! She said it takes her about 2½ hours to go over Tulip's head, picking and pulling and Tulip cries the whole time, it hurts so much. She's also done 40-50 loads of laundry since Sunday night. Oy vey! I don't see us surviving that if it hits here.

But that's not our biggest concern at the moment. Murphy seems much worse this week. He's refusing to eat most of the time. We have been able to get one small meal into him each day, some DentaStix and he can't get enough snow lately. Weird. Last night he was out in the cold til 10pm and only came in because I went and dragged him in. Today he wanted back out early this morning and when I brought him in shivering around mid morning to get him warmed up, he turned around and wanted back out. I made him stay in for a couple of hours but by then it was sunny out so I let him go out til Murray got home from supper. He has no energy, and just lies on the floor or couch all day. Today he didn't even thump his tail whenever we came in to the room. When he's lying still, I have to look closely to see if he's even still breathing. I'm afraid it's not looking good. We're taking him to the vet tomorrow afternoon to get him looked at but we doubt this is a "fixable" situation. He seems so sad and listless. We hate seeing our Murphy baby like this and are trying to brace for the worst.

Wicked Hannah

2012-01-25T23:05:00.001-04:00

As with most famous youngsters, there comes a time when they take a turn for the worse! Hannah Montana used to be good fun and the girls loved everything about her. They've recently taken a distinct disliking to many of the shows/toys/activities that they thought were the bomb a couple years ago. One such casualty to their aging process has been Ms. Montana.

They dug out some HM accessories, made a couple changes and Presto! Bye Bye Montana & the new alter ego was born. H

I bet you didn't know that Hannah Montana has a dark side! We now know her as Wicked Hannah. As you can see, when you turn her belt buckle upside down, it's very obvious! Thank goodness the two roving reporters were onsite to fully document this discovery and share it with the world!

Ski a Little, Cry a Little.

2012-01-24T23:14:00.001-04:00

We headed out to the trail on our way to Grammie & Grandad's on the weekend but as usual, not everyone stayed happy!

All started off ok, Honey took the lead and was trucking along at her own pace and we all followed. Her speed wasn't quite fast enough for Lovey & Sweetie and during one of Honey's lulls, they made their move. Faster than you can say 'Angry Birds', those two ahead and passed her. Nothing infuriates her more than getting passed by! Unfortunately her fury takes the form of a tantrum and she threw herself to the ground and cried her heart out. and then refused to budge for 45 minutes. I'd had very little sleep the night before and had already had a blow up with Honey and her whining at breakfast. I decided not to tangle with her at that point and followed the other two, you know for safety! and let Murray get her up and moving (not realizing she wasn't going to move!) Eventually the three of us turned back and met back up with Honey & Murray, roughly 100m from where we left them.

Oh the happy memories of these fun filled loving family activities!!!

Above & Beyond The Call

2012-01-22T22:57:00.002-04:00

I got a call tonight from Tulip's mom. Tulip has lice. Tulip had the girls over to play at her house earlier this week and came to church with us today. Oooh boy. I've always known it's just a matter of time before we get hit but man I am still dreading it like you wouldn't believe. I did a quick comb through on two of the girls who were still awake but I didn't see anything. Somehow I don't feel completely reassured!

Then the phone rang again. Tulip's mom wanted to know if I could do her a favour. "sure! As long as it doesn't involve coming to your house!" I said and laughed. "oh it does, I wondered if you could come check me? Tulip & I share a hairbrush." Oh dear heaven. Ok. I told her I'd go when Murray got back from his run.

I went and didn't find anything. While I was there, she showed me Tulip's hair and what it looks like and what to check for. So I know better what I'm scanning for now.

And don't worry, I took proper precautions before I went:

Bring on the weekend!

2012-01-21T23:40:00.000-04:00

Murphy and I went to meet the bus yesterday and welcome the girls to the weekend! Everyone was excited because we were going to another skating party at Acorn's house! Lovey said Acorn talked about it all day "I wish it was already TONIGHT!!!!"

Poor old Murphy's having a hard time lately. He can't seem to get his feet under him and when he's unsure of walking across certain surfaces, he just gives up and lets the back end slide slowly to the ground. He's not moving around much these days at all and spends most of his time in the rec room and rarely comes upstairs anymore. His appetite isn't good but he still enjoys having someone pet him and delightfully thumps the floor into oblivion whenever someone comes into the room or sits down to pat him. We're not sure if he's got tummy troubles or if this is just the next phase of his elderly life.... (yeah, we know, but let us have our delusions ok????)

The weather was a bit nasty for driving to Acorn's, we probably shouldn't have attempted it but we weren't supposed to get much snow so we went anyway. We ended up following a plow most of the way, at very low speed but the road was nice & safe! We eventually got there and were the only ones to make it to the party. It was too bad but you know what that means, more dessert for us!!! We got supper out of the way, dug into my hot fudge brownie sundaes & chocolate sauce and then hit the ice! By this time the snow had stopped, the stars were clear and bright in the sky and we skated our hearts out. Actually, everyone would have skated longer than the time I pulled them off the ice! It was a great evening and we can't wait to go back for more! (standing invitation they said, woohoo!!!)

Silly girls!

2012-01-21T00:53:00.001-04:00

Guess what we discovered???? The girls got some silly putty in a box full of craft supplies for Christmas and there was silly putty in there. They've never seen it before and were completely fascinated with it. It stretches, it snaps, it bounces, it's amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing!!! Hours of pretty cheap entertainment have now been had with this magical substance so far :)))

Sweetie shaped this and said "Look Mummy! It's SillyPuttyME!!!

Not on HER watch!

2012-01-21T00:12:00.001-04:00

My heart is just about bursting with how proud I am of this little girl today!!! Sweetie came home from school and had a story about recess.

S: Mummy? Today on the playground I was with Acorn, waiting for Lovey.
Me: oh that's nice!
S: yeah, but then these 2 other kids came and started talking about Acorn.
Me: what happened???
S: they said "Her eyes are all weird and stuff. LOOK at her!!!!"
Me:awwwww,was Acorn upset????
S: and then I said to them, "Don't say that, it's not nice. She doesn't like to talk about that!!!!"
Me: You DID??????? What did they say????
S: nothing. they just left.
Me: Sweetie that is an awesome thing you did!!! You are a great friend! I am incredibly proud of you for saying that and standing up for Acorn. She probably felt much better after you did that.
S: well she was looking down at the ground, kind of sad and said "nobody likes me because of my eyes" but I told her "I DO! I like you A LOT Acorn!!!!"
Me: Sweetie, that was just the right thing to say.

Then I just about hugged the crap out of her and plastered her with kisses!!!! It's so easy to stand by and let other people get away with stuff like that. She can be so timid sometimes, I was surprised that she spoke up. She said she didn't yell at them or get upset which would also be easy to do. She held it together and let them know that talking like that was NOT ok. I hope they listened!

Good job Sweetie, Mummy & Daddy think you're a wonderful girl!!!!

High Tech Photography

2012-01-19T23:16:00.001-04:00

I'm trying to save up for a new camera. I've had mine for a few years and run into lots of situations where it doesn't perform well. Murray and I were talking about it at dinner when Honey chimed in.

H: new camera?!?!?? but you already have a camera Mummy!
Me: yes, but it doesn't work well sometimes so I'd like a better one.
Sweetie: ohhhhh!!!!! a better one!!!!!!!!!! like the kind where the pictures come out right away!!!!

All were in enthusiastic agreement that yes indeed, it would be a glorious day if Mummy got a fancy new camera like THAT!!!!

Kids do say the darnedest things huh?

Embarrassment!

2012-01-19T23:12:00.002-04:00

The kids got home from school yesterday and Lovey & Honey had lots to say as soon as they got off the bus. Excited chatter flowed from them as I swivelled back and forth trying to catch all the latest developments. Those 2 hung up their coats and scampered off to wash up (I make them get those school germs off right away!). Sweetie was still unloading her stuff when I asked if she had any news.

Sweetie: yes, I have news (dissolves into tears) BAD news!!!!!!!!!!
Me:(a little worried, school never called, what could have happened now?!?!?) What is it Sweetie????
S: *sob*cling to my neck*sob* I was *sob* in the bathroooooooooooooooom an-an-and C-c-onnor walked in and saw ME!!!!!!! *collapses into heap of tears*
Me: (jeepers, that IS bad and no fixing it either!) oh no! were you still on the toilet or had you finished already??

She explained that she was finishing up but was standing, pants still down when he came in. She was horribly embarrassed and I could only agree with her. It was awful and would feel terrible to have that happen. I still have bad dreams to this day of forgetting to wear clothes to school and being seen bare!!! We talked about how he probably didn't mean to and didn't want to see her. She said she thinks she heard him laughing after but I said he was probably embarrassed too and didn't know what to do.

She calmed down after a bit of cuddling and confirming that it was indeed awful and that I felt bad that it had happened to her. She hasn't mentioned it again and hopefully Connor has forgotten it and this won't come up at a party in middle school to haunt her!

On the upside, that's pretty much THE most embarrassing thing that can happen to a girl and she's already got it out of the way!

Earache :(

2012-01-17T14:04:00.000-04:00

Got a call from Murray while I was at the gym this morning. Lovey had an earache at school and needed to be picked up. I brought her home and she had a snack and went to bed and is still sleeping. I peeked in on her and found her cuddled up with some comforting companions. I think it's so sweet to see that she's still young enough that Barbie can make her feel better.

She also had a bad fall in gym and crashed face first into the floor and cut her lip and that's when her ears started to hurt. Her pupils were fine and no dizziness or vomiting so I don't think she has a concussion but we'll be watching her just in case!

Monday Blur

2012-01-16T22:44:00.000-04:00

Another Monday just whipped by! We just barely made it to the bus on time, then Murray left for work, I got ready & headed out for groceries. One of the big pluses about winter for me is that my car becomes an icebox! I got the groceries and left everything in the car when I stopped in to go to a couple classes at the gym on my way home. When I was done, everything that should be frozen was still frozen and the produce stayed cold but not icy. In the warmer months, I have to run home, throw all the cold stuff into refrigeration and then race back to make the 9am class! Tricky stuff let me tell ya!

When I got home I unpacked the groceries and had some lunch, made a lasagna for Murray to throw in for supper and then it was time to get changed and go pick the girls up from school. (exciting day so far, I know!)

Lovey's violin lesson was cancelled today so we had a little bit of leeway before dance class. I took them to the library to kill time & get homework started. We got some done but it's a pretty distracting place! Lovey & Sweetie thought it would be fun to use honorificabilitudinity as one of their spelling words to work on this week. They can already spell all the grade 2 & 3 sight words and spelling words so they're allowed to picke their own each week. Honey thought she'd like it too, then wrote it out once and said forget it, I'm picking something else!!!that's my sensible girl! LOL

Finally it was time to go to dance class for the first time in 2012. They were excited to get there so the novelty hasn't worn off yet!

Stars on Ice

2012-01-15T00:22:00.000-04:00

We got pond access!!! The neighbours' pond froze over very nicely so on the weekend, Murray and I shovelled it off while the kids skated around. On Tuesday after school, everyone tried it out and had a great time!

and for style points, Sweetie gets a TEN!

Artists in Residence

2012-01-15T00:09:00.001-04:00

We broke out the new paint sets yesterday and the girls painted up a storm. errrr I mean let their creativity flow! Many excellent pieces were quickly created! They were so fabulous in fact, that Sweetie decided they needed to have an art show!

They got their canvases prepared for showing and set up a gallery in the living room. Their best piece was placed in a special glass case in a prominent position in the gallery. We were trying to clean up supper while they got their show ready and you know how temperamental artists are! I wasn't moving fast enough for them and they were having a hard time containing their excitement. I was finally ready & had my camera set up to capture the grand opening and ribbon cutting ceremony!

Luckily, there were signs to guide us along the way so we didn't get lost in that place!

Here's the main display area (sheesh! you'd think they'd clean up a little for opening night!?!?!)

Artistes du jour...

and this little artist had some concerns about her invitation to a soiree the next night and really wasn't sure if she should go to Grammie's sleepover party or not. What if she missed us TOO much??? (and I'm only putting this in here so that in her teenage years, I can show her and say "See? used to be you couldn't bear to be away from me!!!!")

Word of the Day!

2012-01-10T23:49:00.000-04:00

You know how kids like to use big words sometimes? Lovey's reading "Smells Like Treasure" in bed one night.

Lovey: Mum!!! How do you say "h-o-n-
(insert 1st interruption here by Honey)
Lovey: o-r-i (another question from Honey)
Sweetie: (random question hollered from the next room)
Me: (trying to keep track of 3 separate conversations at once) oh! sounds like honor...
Lovey: f-i-c-a
Honey: (more jibber jabber to break what little train of thought I'd managed)
Lovey:b-i-(mumble mumble)d-i-n
Me: wait! are you still on the same word????
Honey (another question)
Sweetie (random comment probably related to bathroom stuff as it's followed by mad giggles)
Me: Lovey, can I see the word? I can't make out what you're spelling.

Ok, are you ready for this????

honorificabilitudinity!!!!

I didn't read the whole section to see WHY this was there but they immediately explained that it meant "honourableness". However that wasn't the last we've heard about honorificabilitudinity! She repeated it over and over, until she could rattle it off smoothly. She has practiced this so much and so often that I can hear it in my head even when she's not around!!!

She now likes to go up and ask people if they know what honorificabilitudinity means. Be prepared, you could be next :))

Another One Bites the Dust!

2012-01-10T23:36:00.000-04:00

Well Lovey got off the bus today and could barely contain her excitement.

MUM!!!!! my TOOTH!!!!!!!!!! Loooooook!!!!

and then she proceeded to nudge it with her tongue until it was sticking out from her gums at a 90º angle! I told her that it was time if she could do THAT with it.

Ok! YOU take it out!!! DO IT!!!!

So I gave it an experimental tug but it was holding on surprisingly well to whatever little filament that remained. I tried another small up and out it came and she smiled and smiled the gap toothed look of pride and delight at having finally gained the ranks of the upper level tooth loss. It wasn't actually all that pretty as that small piece that was attached was producing more blood than I'd have imagined! She ran in to admire her new look in the mirror and spit for awhile LOL

Christmas Card Photoshoot!

2012-01-08T23:26:00.000-04:00

Every year it's a scramble to get a photo taken to put in our Christmas cards. I'm the only one who really wants to do it and that's only at the beginning. By the end of it, I'm ready to disown the lot of them! This year I got a little smarter and planned it to coincide with a night that Grammie & Grandad were visiting. I set everything up and had Grandad in charge of pushing the shutter and Grammie in charge of trying to get the yahoos attention.

It seemed like the perfect solution but there's just no helping some people!!! Here we are in our spectacular outtake glory!

and here's what I managed to pull together for the actual card:

Then I decided I shouldn't be the one having all the fun and roped Grammie & Grandad into a few shots:

and miracle of miracles, we can actually pretend to be a nice normal family for all of 3 seconds, but that's all it took cuz my Daddy-o has a fast trigger finger!!!! A big thank you to my parents for assisting me on this nightmare project! (you can bet your sweet bippy you're on the job for next year too!!!! :)))

Piano Action

2012-01-08T00:23:00.002-04:00

Our sadly neglected piano has been getting some attention lately now that Lovey is learning a few things from Weazie. Despite her reluctance to take an actual lesson, Sweetie insists on Lovey showing her everything she learns! The two of them were sitting there plunking away and both can bang out Joy to the World now and they were giggling and playing and just sounded and looked so cute together!

and as an aside, we finally got our bifold doors installed! It's only been 3 years since we did the entryway! A very exciting development for sure! (ok, maybe more so for me than you but I had to share!!!)

On Frozen Pond

2012-01-08T00:02:00.002-04:00

We were invited to a skating party this weekend! It was soooo much fun! Lovey's friend from school & Irish dancing invited us and everyone was excited to go.

We stopped at Uncle Ralph's on the way so Lovey could work on some piano. Weazie needs a few hours of music volunteering for her next level/grade. Lovey's always picking out tunes on the keys at home so when Uncle Ralph asked if anyone would be interested in trying out some lessons, we signed her up! Sweetie was interested but wanted to know if she haaaaaaaaaaaaad to. I said she didn't. Well, then she wanted to know if she could quit anytime. I said she could. "ok, I'll do it then". Fear of commitment much???? Lovey was in for over half an hour & then Sweetie went in but she had lost interest by then and bailed out after 15 minutes LOL so much for that! Lovey is really enjoying it though and has already learned how to play Joy to the World so she's quite pleased with herself!

We headed to our next destination and had barely cracked the van doors open when Lovey's friend, Acorn came flying out and we heard a delighted screech of "Looooooooooooooooooooooooooooveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey!!!!!!!!!!!!". Acorn had set her kitchen timer for an hour and a half, waiting for it to countdown to arrival time and had been hoping we'd be very early. Obviously she's not familiar with our MO and the fact that we are almost never early and barely make it anywhere on time. This day we were right on schedule however and I was glad we were since she had obviously been waiting for us to arrive!

The potluck supper was yummy! The kids ate their mandatory teaspoon sized "meal" portion and then filled up on crackers and cheese of course :) Then we laced up and hit the ice. They have THE best skating pond I have ever seen! There were 3 families and that made for 16 people and we had tonnes of room! Even the baby went for a spin in his exersaucer! We skated from 7 til about 9pm and none of the kids were ready to go inside. There were lights strung in the trees and one overhead lighting rig so it was bright enough to see but not glaringly so. We went around and around, everyone had lovely rosy cheeks and big smiles plastered on their faces. I don't think we could have stayed late enough to suit any of them! Even after 2 hours, the only way we got them to give it up was the lure of hot chocolate waiting inside. After that, it was almost 10pm and they still weren't ready to go home but we had to pull the plug.

There were definitely ready for bed by the time we got home! It was another late night but well worth the fun and memories!

ithn't thee cute?

2012-01-05T00:17:00.001-04:00

and you thould hear her thpeak! Theee wath on a mithion the other night to get that 2nd upper tooth out! It wath pretty loothe but thee worked it like a fiend even though her gumth were bleeding all over her hand and the theet on her bed. I thought thee was thleeping already but a little while after we'd tucked her in I heard footthepth on the thtairth and a little voithe thaid "Mummy!!! I got it out!!!!"

She couldn't be happier with her toothless grin! Every time I see her it makes me giggle, it's just too stinking cute to see her little smile with such a chunk of teeth missing! She had kept the previous tooth that fell out and now had both upper teeth. She really wanted the $2 from the tooth fairy but hated to give up the teeth. I told her to keep them until she wanted the $2 more than she wanted the teeth. A couple days later, she crept downstairs, again long after she had been tucked in, to let me know she was going to let the tooth fairy have ONE tooth. In the morning she was thrilled to find 2 loonies under her pillow!

Getting too lazy!

2012-01-05T00:04:00.001-04:00

Ok, things are getting too lazy around here! Honey wasn't feeling well last night so she crawled in with me before Murray came to bed and she decided she didn't much care for going to her own bed when he did get there! So he left to sleep in her bed instead, rather than disturb or inconvenience her LOL

I woke up this morning a little after 8 and got ready to go to my 9am class at the gym. Lovey was up when I left and I figured the others would wake after hearing me banging around getting ready. Well! apparently not! Murray reported that the other 2 stayed in bed until 10:20!!!!!!!!! Yikes! longest sleep in ever! Getting off this vacation schedule is getting trickier every day! Gotta reverse the trend here soon.

I did the 9am weight lifting class which I really like. Then I thought I'd try out the yoga class right after that and now I know that an hour of yoga is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long for me! It was all stretching and didn't feel like I worked anything at all. Now I know stretching is good for you but it was just too much staying still. I can't be at rest for that long or I go craaaaaaaaazy!!! I went back tonight for spin class and enjoyed that MUCH more! That's the end of my yoga career I guess! back to Pilates next week instead and try to snap this core back into shape, it's a mess! I also signed up for a fitness challenge to lose 10 pounds in 3 months. If I accomplish this, I get 2 months membership for free and you know how much I love FREE. Now to see if I love FREE more than I love chips, chocolate, cake, icing..... you see the dilemma???!??!?!???

This afternoon we took the girls skating, hoping to use up some of that stored energy from all the sleeping in! Everyone was much happier this trip and skated around for the hour without any scowls or meltdowns, so woohoo!!! (you'll notice my success bar for this isn't set overly high huh?)

After skating we hit the library where Murray picked up a copy of The Scorch Trials which is the 2nd book in the Maze Runner series. I had borrowed the ebook on my iPad but it expired before we finished reading it. This left us in quite a state of curiosity!!! Everyone was excited to be able to continue the story tonight!

Once we had the book safely on board, we headed over to Aunt Cathy's to meet our newest cousin, Imc! Aunt Cathy's had her visiting with her mum for the last week and will be sad to see them leave tomorrow. They're planning to be back in the spring though so she can resume her grammie duties then :)))

New Year's Festivities!

2012-01-03T00:17:00.000-04:00

We brought in the new year with Murray's family this year and had a whirlwind of a weekend! Murray's on vacation til the girls are back in school so we were able to stay longer than usual. This allowed us to fit way more stuff in!

We arrived at midday Friday and grabbed a bite to eat and then went skating with Nanny and Auntie KK. Unfortunately some punk with a whistle decided the snowboarding helmets were not up to par as they were not CSA approved. We then had to get in a loooooooooooooooooong line to borrow appropriate headgear for the girls. That's all fine and dandy and I like to follow the rules and all that but let me tell ya, I was incredibly annoyed EVERY time we passed someone towing a kid in a freaking' BICYCLE helmet on the ice!!!!!!!! We wasted 45 minutes in that stupid line when what we should have done is hopped the fence in a different place! The guy that stopped us explained that it was because the helmets were only single impact and not multi impact. He didn't appreciate my promise that we would only let them fall once!

Sweetie was NOT living up to her moniker in her hockey helmet. She was determined to be miserable because she thought other people would think she looked dumb in the helmet. Skating lackadaisically, slumped over, at a snail's crawl with a big frown didn't look dumb at all though I guess. I'll take bad attitude for $200 please Alex! oh and a 15 minute time out when I get home! There wasn't any fixing her on the ice so I gave up, dragged her around until she forgot she was supposed to be miserable and by then the skate was over anyway. Lovey was on the other end of the spectrum of course and gave Nanny a workout trying to keep up with her. Honey very appropriately and cautiously skated at an enjoyable pace and observed all safety regulations!

I thought the skating and fresh air might tire them out and have them asleep early but the excitement of camping out in Nanny's room overpowered any sleepiness they might have felt. It was well after 10pm when they finally conked out!

The next morning I went out to meet a couple of friends I used to work with when we lived there. We had a great chat and many laughs as usual as we got caught up on each other's happenings. It went much too fast and I had to cut out early to make it to our next family event!

Murray, the girls & I, Nanny, Auntie KK, Uncle Andrew, Aunt Mandy & Mr. Bojangles all went swimming at the new facility in town. A very swanky pool with awesome waterslides, a huge pool, lots of floaty toys and lots of floor fountains to play in! The girls thrashed and splashed for almost 2 hours before we headed home.

I got ready and went to meet my friend Alisa and get her pictures ordered from the newborn session we'd done last time I was in town and I also got fed lots of yummy New Year's Eve snacks! I went from there to the party at Andrew & Mandy's where we played Balderdash while the kids ran wild, watched tv, stuffed their faces with cheesies and I'm not sure what else! We didn't make it to midnight though, but the girls got surprisingly close! We thought Lovey was going to check out when she crawled into a warm cozy bed in a dark room to watch tv but she & the others all hung on til it was time to go home. The quiet car ride was no match for even their staying power though. They were out like lights in minutes!

Sunday was a more relaxing day and our only activity besides lounging, was dinner at Karen & Paul's, Chinese food yummmmm!!!! We'd been wanting some for awhile so when Karen told us we were getting take out a couple weeks ago, it was pretty exciting news! (yeah, I know. but remember, we don't get out much!)

Today I dragged the kids out of bed by 8:30, trying to get out of this sleep in all morning, party all night schedule we've got going on! We drove home through a rainstorm and got here just in time to make some supper. (tuna noodle casserole that was met with much scorn from the little people!) We also enjoyed the reject cake I saved from certain destruction at Nanny's!!! :))) Yay for screw ups!!! haha!

A few snapshots from the weekend away!

Productivity!

2011-12-30T08:05:00.000-04:00

The kids are still enjoying working on their science kits and checking on their "grow your own crystals' kit. (no crystals yet but they're still hopeful but no longer checking every 20 minutes)

We went to see a play by a lunchbag theatre group. A fun Christmas present from our wonderful friend Shirley! The kids were quite excited to head to the theatre and we got to our seats and settled in for the show. The story was part traditional with a a few improv twists. They were fervently hoping that Murray would get pulled up on stage to play one of the parts but to his relief and their utter disappointment, he was spared. It had lots of silly parts that kept them entertained and amused and also had lots of audience participation but I noticed the girls weren't as in to that part this year. *sigh* They're getting older and not as willing to be goofy in public. After awhile they loosened up and did some of the stuff when we were cued for it but Honey was fairly reserved! LOL

When we got home, Honey whipped up a couple batches of candy from her Sour Science kit and gave us all samples. Then she & Sweetie helped Murray cut up apples for a big batch of apple sauce, yummmm! and good to have because I didn't get groceries this week and we're running out of fruit options!

After supper Grammie dropped in and visited for awhile on her way home from Boxing Day sale shopping. I thought all the busy-ness and activity of the day would have worn them out but they didn't settle down to sleep until after 10pm!!! This vacation schedule drives me nuts! Then they're sleepy in the morning and sleep til 8:30, then 9 the next day and then yesterday it was 9:30 before the last one rolled out of bed!!!!

Today I woke them up at 7:30, trying to rein in this runaway train of partying all night cuz I'm NOT cool with that!!! We were busy, got outside for a couple of hours for skating, played and ran around the house for a long while. We put them in bed at 8:30 but Sweetie was still awake at 10pm again!!! Gotta get them back on track before school starts again but we have some time.

Sewing Circle

2011-12-27T22:54:00.000-04:00

Sweetie got a sewing kit for Christmas so today she wanted to work on a project. She cut up some squares of material and wanted to sew the different patterns together to make a doll blanket for her sisters. She and I were working on that as Lovey & Murray tried out her Tasty Science kit and Honey read her book.

Things got a little hairy when I asked Sweetie to get her needle threader from her stocking so I could show her how to work it. That met with a cry of despair and a good long tantrum on the stairs while she resisted my unreasonable demands! Eventually she pulled it together and we were able to work on her blanket. Of course she wanted everything perfect from the get go and was very frustrated at any mistakes but caught on quickly and got going on her stitches after a few attempts.

Lovey then wandered in to see what we were up to and wanted to join in on the fun. I got her needle threaded and she promptly pulled it too hard and the thread came out. Then Sweetie finished a row and needed help knotting off the thread. Then Honey wanted to join in on the fun and put 47 scraps into a pattern and wanted to sew them together. Suddenly I had 3 tyrant seamstress wannabes all demanding instant service. I was not entirely comfortable being surrounded by angry, frustrated, overtired and stressed out workers with access to sharp pointy objects! Trying to keep up with the requests for help was daunting and frankly I was glad when it was time to get supper ready because by then, everyone was on the edge and trying to rein all that in was wearing me down!

Earlier in the day Honey worked on her Sour Candy project and made some suckers and marshmallows that were good and sour too! She was quite pleased with her production and was quite excited to have everyone sample her wares!

Thank goodness we got all these kits and activities for Christmas because it seems like they've forgotten how to entertain themselves. Every time I sit down to read or watch an online workshop, someone is hovering at my elbow with "what-do-I-doooooooooo???" syndrome!

They also haven't had any outdoor activity for almost 2 full days so tonight we hauled them out after supper for some skiing. It went much better than the initial "I don't WANT to go skiing" pronouncement. The snow wasn't ideal, not very deep and a bit too tacky. We just did a loop in the field across the street. We were going to cross the beaver pond but it looked a little sketchy and had too many rough patches so we turned around. It must have been a 45 minute trek and enough to knock their silly energy down a peg. They were wild at supper, laughing so hard they couldn't talk! At one point, and I can't remember what we were talking about, I said "sometimes you guys are hard to enjoy when you're being so ridiculous!" Lovey looked at me and immediately responded matter of factly "well, you made us so you'd better enjoy us!" and that just cracked Murray and I up. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em right?

One Good Day

2011-12-26T23:47:00.001-04:00

is apparently all we're entitled to around here! Yesterday's well behaved, mild mannered children were not here to stay! Lovey had a one hour crying, screaming jag about pants. Then later in the day Sweetie followed suit for just about the same amount of time over a sewing dilemma!

In between mood swings, they worked on a lot of Harry Potter Lego, bopped along to their MP3 players, singing their hearts out, started their crystal formations, built a robot, made their own gum and read their books.

Bedtime was a gong show as the book they're reading hit a creepy spot right before lights out. Hoping to have them settle more, we let them read for awhile in bed but by 9pm it was time for sleep. or so I thought! Sweetie was too scared. Honey's book was too sad and Lovey probably would have gone to sleep if the other two hadn't been carrying on.

I finally offered to let Sweetie sleep in my bed as that sometimes helps. However the other 2 heard that and were outraged at the injustice of the special privileges being doled out! I told them they could all crawl in if they wanted. What a waste of time! Two more trips up there to tell them to settle down as they fought over who got the middle, who had the most blankets, who was talking too much.... Honey didn't really want to be in there anyway but did NOT want to be alone in her room. On my last trip upstairs, I gave a warning that if they hadn't worked it out and settled down in 5 minutes, the sleepover at my place was cancelled. Almost exactly 5 minutes later, Honey comes tip tapping down the stairs, clutching Baabaa and says "they're still whispering!". So I told her they were all going back to their own beds then. "Good!" she says and happily heads back upstairs. "but this makes you a tattle tale!!!" I tell her. She remains unfazed by this and heads off!

Sweetie was still terrified of sleeping alone, so I told her to crawl in with Lovey but she had to be quiet or she was going to her own bed. Seems to have worked out ok :)

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T23:23:00.002-04:00

Christmas didn't get started around here til almost 7:30! unless of course you count the fact that I woke up every 20 minutes from 5:22 on :))) I'm not sure at what age I started waking my parents up at 4am but I'm sure my sleeping in days on Christmas morning are numbered!

At 7:20 I finally heard stirring in the other room. One little voice whispered to another little voice "It's Christmas!!!" The other little voice asked "I wonder if we're allowed to get up yet??!?!??!" That was all the prompting I needed & I flew out of bed to go get them!

We went downstairs to check out our stockings and found............... silly string!!!!!!!!!!!

Once we'd made a big ol' mess, we checked out the rest of our stuff and then ran up for a quick bowl of cereal before getting down to some serious ripping & tearing!

Lovey had anxiously been waiting for this sequel since last year in Grade 1 when she read the first one. She was very pleased to finally have her hands on Smells Like Treasure! In fact, we had to make her put it down so we could open gifts! Diehard reader or what?

As they opened their gifts, they were so appreciative, pleased and excited. They constantly thanked us all morning which was so nice to hear! They got many new toys and gadgets but were just as thrilled when they opened their bibles as anything else they received. Honey immediately opened hers and said "Oh good! now I have to look up Matthew 4!!!" So very serious that one!

Then we had the big finale. Just when he thought all was said and done I told him there was one more present to open. He looked all around but couldn't see it anywhere. I suggested he move the couch and sure enough there was something back there...

His very own canvas! but I might enjoy it now & then too ;)))

and since I didn't make it into any Christmas pictures this year, here's Murray with one of my toys! a wireless receiver for my flash unit. Woohoo! (trust me it's more exciting than it looks!)

Once gifts were all open, they dug into their stockings for more candy and had a minor feast on that until it was time for Belgian waffles with strawberries whip cream and chocolate sauce! Mmmmm mmmmmm good! only once a year or I'm sure we'd blow up!

After our healthy lunch, we got ready to head to M&D's for stage II and the festivities continued there. Every year Mum says she has cut back and is not getting as much but so far there's been no evidence of that. We are thoroughly spoiled by all the parents I think! (mind you, I'm not complaining!)

Christmas dinner was excellent and will give me something to do at the gym this week! I hope everyone had as wonderful Christmas as we did! The girls were so well behaved all day, remembered their manners and despite all the activity, never acted up at all!

'Twas the NIght Before Christmas...

2011-12-24T22:37:00.001-04:00

What doozy of a day! I was wide awake and excited first thing this morning. I tried to sleep in a bit. Unfortunately my mind had already started listing all the to do's for me! So at 7, I gave up and decided to get started on stuff. I baked a red velvet cake & put together some Icelandic Delight for supper. I also baked the sweet potatoes for the casserole for tomorrow. The kids ate breakfast and then I headed to the gym for my 9:30 class, thinking I was ahead of the game.

Class was fairly demanding but no more so than usual but by 11:30 I was exhausted. If I closed my eyes for a second, I started to drift off standing on the spot. I ate some lunch and desperately wanted some sleep so I asked if Murray minded if I checked out for awhile. He gave me the go ahead and once the kids finally stopped hollering, I was gone for a solid two hours. I had to force myself to get up because supper was waiting to be prepared.

Finally everything was ready, Mum & Dad had arrived and we ate not too long after I'd planned! Supper went well, everyone ate. It helps when I make a favourite, Swedish Meatballs. I'm not sure if Lovey was feeling too well, she only ate 2 meatballs and didn't feel like having any dessert but when she's full, she's full and she just doesn't want anything else, even if it's her all time favourite supper.

We got ready for church and made it there in good time. We were greeting at the door, handing out bulletins and candles. The kids were tripping over each other to get THEIR candle into the hands of whoever was coming through the door! Enthusiastic greeters are festive right?

Lovey did a violin solo at the beginning of the service, Away in a Manger and did a great job. What I noticed most of all was how COMFORTABLE she was in front of that big room with over 450 people in it!!!! It didn't even faze her, I'm not even sure she gave it a thought at all.and she's only 7½!!! Wow!. I had to do a reading and wasn't entirely sure I'd be keeping all my meatballs!!!

We sang Christmas carols the whole way to and home from church. I've never heard Partridge in a Pear Tree quite that fast before but they were belting it out and not trying to kill each other so I can't complain!

When we got home, they raced to get their jammies on but were NOT the least bit ready to go to sleep! Lovey had to wrap her presents for her sisters and then they settled down to read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas with Murray. We finally got them in bed and tucked in, prayers said a bit before 9:30 but the energy was still buzzing. Someone came to drop off a Christmas card at 10pm and RANG the doorbell! BOING! 3 little heads popped over the bannister, NEEDING to know who was here, what was going on etc. So the settling down process was totally blown out of the water! LOL Everything was calm and silent shortly after though so I think they finally crashed!

Tomorrow should be pretty wild! Hopefully they get some decent sleep. Honey had several moments of misery today over very minor upsets and a 2nd day of that won't be pretty!

School's Out for Christmas!

2011-12-23T23:13:00.001-04:00

Just to take things up a notch on the excitement scale, school is officially done til January! Vacation has begun and we couldn't be more pleased! All of yesterday's party fun got crammed into today's shortened program and they got lots of treats and junk while they were there so it was a raging success on all fronts. Then they came home to leftovers for lunch and were less than enthused about this mediocre vacation kick off! But mumma's got to clean out her fridge ya know!

Tulip's mom returned yesterday's favour by letting the girls all go over there to watch a movie and I got some mopping done and cleaned up the kitchen a bit to prepare for tomorrow night's special dinner guests that are coming in just to hear Lovey play at the Christmas Eve service! (ok so maybe they like the other 2 kids too!!)

Party On!

2011-12-23T23:05:00.001-04:00

We raced around like lunatics yesterday & crashed out the door just barely in time to catch the bus. I was surprised that I couldn't see the headlights coming down the road already! We waited a few minutes. Still nothing. Hmmmm. Murray wondered if the buses were delayed because of the weather. I ran in to check the district website but couldn't remember which district they were in right off the top of my head. I googled one number that came to mind but that obviously wasn't the right one because that page said all schools were closed. And that couldn't be right! Not on the 2nd last day of school, the last FULL day of school that I'd set aside for cleaning, wrapping and getting things finalized without interruptions or distractions.

Still in denial, I googled the school and unfortunately found out that I'd had the right district number after all. I thought the girls would be excited to have the day off but annoyed that they hadn't gotten to sleep in. When i went out and announced the news, all three groaned and moaned "awwwwwwwww!!!! no!!!!!". Their classes all had special activities, parties, movies, plays etc planned so it was the one day of the year that they DIDN'T want a day off.

Since my day was messed up beyond repair, I phoned Teena to see if she needed me to watch Boo for her but it turned out to be her one day off. She'd planned a similar day to mine except for shopping and errands.Since I was staying home anyway and not sure what to do with 3 Christmas crazed, at loose ends kids, I thought it would be helpful to bring in more of them and invited Boo over for the day so Teena could get her stuff done. That didn't seem loud or messy enough so then we called Tulip and the girls next door. That seemed to be just the right amount! I baked cookies and got icing ready for them to do some decorating.

While I was doing that, they tried to demolish the downstairs. Apparently, quiet activities like watching tv were not on their agenda!!! I quickly finished bagging the icing and got them to put away their swords and all other warfare.

The cookies were a big hit and they did a great job with minimal mess, surprisingly! There were even sprinkles involved and I didn't hear a single cascade of sugar! Once they'd sampled some of their work, I fired them out into the back yard to burn some of it off. Eventually they got cold and insisted on coming back in but by then it was almost supper. I decided it was in my best interests to send everyone home with all the toes they'd arrived with!

Teena and Boo joined us for supper since Dale was out shopping for the evening and this was like the icing on the, well, cookie I guess! They were super excited and turned it into a pj party supper and were quite confused as to why we'd want to wear our regular clothes to eat in!

Good food, great times, forever memories :)))

Not to be outdone by her sister...

2011-12-23T22:22:00.000-04:00

Honey's 2nd upper tooth came out yesterday at breakfast. It had been hanging by the most annoying thread for days. If I could have gotten within 3 feet of her, it would have been gone on Monday! She wasn't having any of it though. So several days of gooey slurping and clicking ensued. Blech! Now it's all over.... til the next one! She doesnt' want to give it up either. I've never heard of kids who aren't willing to trade in lost teeth for cash! Must get a DNA test pronto, these girls may not really be my daughters after all!!!

Polar Express!

2011-12-22T22:28:00.001-04:00

The Nanny & Grampy Express pulled into town yesterday! I didn't tell the girls they were coming so there were 3 very excited girls when these 2 landed on the doorstep! And then things got CRAZY when they started bringing in the gifts!

Surprisingly, Honey, Lovey & Sweetie were very cooperative and pleasant while taking everything downstairs.There was not one bit of fighting over who got to carry what. They unloaded the bags and sorted things out, placed everything nicely under the tree and it was all very calm and orderly. Definitely not their MO for most of this week, let me tell ya!

After the meet & greet portion of the afternoon, we went to pick Murray up from work and headed out for supper and had a great feed!

don't you play board games with a lucky sock on your head??? LOL! Not sure why she left that up there but I did toss it on. She must have forgotten about it when Murray started reading bedtime stories!

Invasion!

2011-12-22T22:18:00.001-04:00

We seem to have been inundated with little people from the North Pole! So far they're staying out of our way. They appear ready to swing down and commence mayhem at any given moment though!!! Hopefully they stick to swinging from the rafters for a few more days because I've got enough trouble makers on the ground here already!!

Gone!

2011-12-21T21:51:00.001-04:00

Sweetie's been working and working on her top teeth for quite some time now but until recently there was no progress. She came home on Monday with her tooth in a little tooth shaped container on a string around her neck. She finally succeeded and is very happy and also proud of the new gap toothed look she's sporting! I think it really bothered her when Honey's top tooth came out before hers. Honey's 2nd top one is hanging by a thread and you can hear her flicking it constantly. If she doesn't pull it out soon, I just may have to because the slurping and smacking is driving me bananas!!!

Shopaholic & Daughter

2011-12-20T21:49:00.000-04:00

Lovey has been anxious to go Christmas shopping for at least a week now. She was asking daily when we'd be able to go. She was very insistent that she wanted to buy gifts for her sisters with her own money. I thought she'd give the idea up after awhile but she wouldn't forget it. She barely had any money when she started asking. Then she got $10 from a sweet lady from church who spoils us silly.

As soon as she got home from school she wanted to know when we could go. I told her we had to wait until Murray got home. The minute he walked through the door, she hollered "ok Mum, we can go now!". Since we hadn't eaten, I wasn't quite as ready as she was! Supper was haddock and cheese and I wasn't sure how that was going to go over but she wanted to go so badly that she wolfed it all down, including vegetables in about 5 minutes flat! I haven't seen her eat fish like that since she was 1½!!! We were on our way by 5:15 and I was hoping to catch that window where all the shoppers go home for supper and the evening shoppers haven't come out yet. It worked pretty well, we found a space to park easily and didn't have any big line ups at the checkouts. We even got in and out of Costco in short order & were home by 7:15. (and she dithered terribly in Toys R Us!!!)

She had a whopping $19 to use tonight and she spent every penny and needed to borrow a dollar from me. She was so excited to make selections for them and we had to go back & forth to the different sections to compare and do a few price checks. It was hard to find things she thought they'd like that were within her budget. In the end she was very happy with her selections and so pleased & proud to have made her own purchases! She was so cute on her little spree tonight. Once she was done we celebrated with mini blizzards at Dairy Queen.

When she got home she told her sisters she'd gotten their gifts and that they couldn't peek in the bag! She also told them she'd used all her money for her shopping. Sweetie felt bad that she'd spent all her own money so she gave her the $10 she had gotten in her Christmas card. I wasn't sure what to do about that...??? Lovey thanked her and told her she didn't have to but Sweetie was quite insistent so she accepted it. Afterwards I told Sweetie that she'd been very sweet and generous. She just lit up at that compliment and said how good it had made her feel so good inside to help her sister. She obviously valued that more than the paper money so I guess it's a good investment!

Triple Joy Beauty Parlour Now Open!

2011-12-20T11:58:00.002-04:00

This holiday season, make sure you're looking your sparkly best at all the Christmas parties! Don't get your makeover by just anyone! Let our dedicated staff of three bring out the beauty in you! Services include manicures, make up application and hairstyling! Prices are very reasonable but we do recommend a reservation as appointments are limited. These girls are busy and very popular. In fact, the one in the yellow dress is so busy working on her own look that she can rarely fit a client in!

Grammie stayed for supper one night while she was in doing some Christmas shopping and as soon as the girls finished eating, th y scurried off and got themselves all glammed up. We didn't really know what was going on until Honey started to cry when Grammie was getting ready to leave. We didn't realize they'd been setting up their salon and were now ready for their first customer. Grammie quickly agreed to her surprise makeover appointment. She managed not to grit her teeth tooooo much during the heavy handed nail filing and let them style her hair to their liking. Murray opted out of his appointment which allowed me to get in even sooner than I'd hoped!

Project Candy, Complete!

2011-12-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

Honey had a presentation to do and the topic was Christmas traditions. Honey chose to speak on how we make candy together! Her first choice was the candle light service at church on Christmas Eve but since her sisters were going to talk about that with their classes, she wanted to do something different.

In order to properly prepare for the presentation, we needed to do some research of course! They were allowed to bring in a prop for their story so I suggested that she make a batch to take and share with her class. She printed out the recipe on a card to give to her teacher and we made enough photocopies to give out to her classmates.

Last night after supper she got out the stool and set to work at the stove. I helped her measure some of the ingredients and she added everything in and did almost all the stirring and closely monitored the candy thermometer. Every once in awhile she needed a break when her arm got too tired or hot.

We didn't include the pecans since it was going to school and I had to use different chocolate to avoid problems with nut allergies. Other than that, her candy turned out just like it usually does!

Her presentation went well and one of the students told her that it was the best one that day! (and other people had edible samples too!) She was pleased that it went so well and many students said they were going home to make their own that night :)))

Party in the House!!!

2011-12-18T00:03:00.000-04:00

Bringing the Christmas tree home last night pushed the kids right over the edge into full blown holiday insanity! They've been spazzy and goofy all day. I went to the gym and when I came in, the first thing Murray said to me was "uhhh they're a little excited." Master of the understatement that guy!

They've all got ants in their pants and just cannot sit or stand still for more than a nanosecond! Emotional volatility is at an all time high and it's like walking through an emotional minefield. I had stuff to prepare in order for the tree trimming party to begin so it was a long afternoon for them! While I was gone this morning they'd dragged out baby blankets, pillows & blankets and lots of lovely accessories around the house. They cleaned that up, but it took a good long while and interrupted my own clean up 47 times to ask when we could start. I would ask "well did you clean up the living room yet? No? well get back to work then!" They'd drift off and immediately lose focus and turn into bouncy giggly balls of ridiculous within 5 seconds. Then there were several urgent matters that they had to show me. Finally I started giving them lots of little jobs to keep them busy and that seemed to work well. Plus, since they wanted to get to the decorating, they were keen to help me with whatever I wanted. They changed their beds and Sweetie completely did hers alone. I walked by her room and everything was pulled up snug, sheets & quilts tucked tight under the corners. Upon closer inspection I did notice that not a single piece matched but she was so proud of her efforts that I just told her what an awesome job she'd done! The other two couldn't get their fitted sheets on straight and were like timebombs in there trying to get them fixed so I had to step in before they blew up! LOL

They helped me get all the food ready for our buffet, carrying and fetching everything I needed. Lovey took care of dumping the compost and of course fixed her hair for the party! Honey was keen for any job that needed doing and she & Sweetie set up the table for me.

Finally everything was ready and we got to eat! Apparently this was what they had really been waiting for because I didn't see anyone pick up a single ornament for a good long while after the buffet opened!

After some massive binging (and hopefully no purging later!), I cut them off and we got the ornaments on the tree! They were all fairly cooperative and helped each other find their ornaments and places for them. I laughed when they discussed how they were not putting Dora on the tree this year. I reminded Honey that it wasn't that long ago that she had a full scale melt down when her glass Dora ornament got broken. She doesn't even remember that!

Murray finds a way to cope with the holiday frenzy. He may be turning into the boozer Aunt Wanda accused him of being several years ago!

Crazy for Christmas!!!

2011-12-16T23:47:00.001-04:00

Wow. somebody, or rather, THREE somebodies are just a tad excited about some big holiday that's apparently on the horizon???

I didn't have advent calendars on Dec 1 so they made their own version. Actually Sweetie got it all drawn out and set up and they take turns colouring in the presents, one for each day of December. They haven't forgotten a day yet and not one fight about it either (with only 9 days to go surely something is going to crack though right???)

We finished supper early tonight and headed out to look at a lighting display we'd heard about. It was quite a show and the kids were good and wound up anyway so why not take that on the road in a small confined space after letting them catch up on 16 days worth of chocolate advent calendars??? (yep, not my wisest parenting moment..) They loved the show, especially when we opened the sun roof and let them watch from there. Don't worry Rick, we were driving at a very low speed on a back road in a trailer park and everyone was perfectly safe!

We did some decorating last week for their party and tonight we picked up a Christmas tree and got that set up in the stand. Tomorrow night is our tree trimming and appetizer and snack extravaganza. They'll be wild when they get up tomorrow, wanting to get right at that!

It's been a pretty productive week! I got all the editing done for my last client of 2012 and had her proofing session on Tuesday. So with that done, I was able to delve into the Christmas preparations!

I got some more shopping done, baked brown sugar shortbread, a batch of festive cookies, one batch of Toffee Butter Crunch, a pan of brown sugar fudge and some Mars Bar Delight (this one for Murray since he's not crazy about the other stuff!).

I got our Christmas card photos printed and started mailing out the farthest ones. If you're overseas or a great distance away, your card is in the mail!

Teena and I had our annual Christmas luncheon (with a coupon, woot woot!) and enjoyed a nice sit down meal with other people waiting on us!

We also went to the Christmas concert at school. Most of the mess from last week's water is cleaned up, the girls & I washed off all the foam tiles aka "flooring" today and they put that back together. I packaged up the goodie boxes for their teachers from all the baking and unloaded almost all that and we delivered those to the teachers today.

And I only missed 2 classes at the gym this week! Although with all that baking under my nose it was not a good week to be doing any skipping! Surely I'm making progress on this Christmas business???? Time will tell!!!

Show Time!

2011-12-15T23:42:00.001-04:00

We went to see the school Christmas concerts and they were sooooo good! Their music teacher does an amazing job with all the groups. The songs are all cute & funny, the costumes are always simple but tie in well with their pieces. I think it says a lot about her that when the Boys Choir came out to sing, there were 30-40 of them in the group! I watched the first few file out onto the risers, then another row and they just kept coming and coming out of the wings. Their number was also fantastic but of course I think the grade 2's were the best show in town!!!

Honey & Sweetie were in the same group and they sang Reindeer Rap which was super cute and they were doing some funky moves up there. They lyrics were pretty fast but I'd heard them plenty in the last few weeks so I could make out the words.

Sweetie's in the middle row just below the big blank space. Honey's in the same row, to the far right below the last reindeer on top. She was lifting her sunglasses trying to peek out at the crowd to find us I think!

Lovey's class & some other grade 2's did "I wanted a dog" and she was so excited and could barely contain herself from telling us the funny ending (the kid takes his baby sister to the exchange window & trades her in for a puppy LOL).

Honey was nervous this morning when she was leaving for school but she had the best moves on stage as far as I could tell and was really into it. Sweetie was concentrating so hard on getting her words out that she forgot she was supposed to be busting a move up there!

As they exited the stage, they were madly scanning the crowd, trying to make sure we'd all shown up! We were too far back though and they couldn't find us. After it was over, we walked over to the school and visited them in their classrooms and told them we'd loved the show. As we were leaving we overheard another kid say "wow! your mom and your dad AND your grandmother came to see you!!??!? lucky!!!" Yep, it's official, we're freaking awesome!!! :)))

Christmas Dance Show!

2011-12-11T22:52:00.001-04:00

We went to the girls dance show this weekend! They've been practicing week after week, getting their choreography down. Their costumes were fairly simple but still things we didn't really own! I borrowed one black skirt, found 1 shirt in a bag of clothes someone had given us, got one skirt & shirt at the used shop and had to break down and buy one new shirt at the store yesterday when nothing turned up anywhere else! (don't worry, I didn't pay full price, 30% off sale, chah-ching!)

The girls were quite excited to get ready although we had to push them out the door without dessert to make it there on time. (there goes parents-of-the-year again). They rushed to get their shoes on and were very excited when Lovey's friend TT loaned them each a pair of "bubble socks" to use in the show. She even brought over her sock glue and helped them ensure the socks would stay up during all the jumping and dancing around. She must have done a very good job because those socks didn't budge an inch and we'll be peeling off the glue residue all week! :)))

They did a great job in their show and loved watching the older girls do their numbers. The hard shoe dances were by far the favourites of the day. On the way home I asked if any of them would want to do hard shoe someday. Immediately Honey piped up with "who WOULDN'T want to do hard shoe Mum??!?!??!?" Silly me!

Not Again!!??!?!

2011-12-11T22:34:00.001-04:00

More water in the basement this week! I came home from the gym, grabbed some lunch and was headed to check my email when I slipped a bit on something wet. Fearing that Murphy had regurgitated some mess on the floor, I was hesitant to look down. There wasn't as much joy as one might expect upon realizing I hadn't actually stepped in a pile of barf. Instead, it was a couple inches of water on the floor, EVERYWHERE!!!

I phoned Murray, dreading the clean up. He came home in a flash and what had seemed so daunting before, he cleaned up in a little over an hour. Once he manned the shopvac, it didn't seem so intimidating anymore. I started pulling up our foam tile floor and putting furniture on blocks so we could get at everything.

Although it was a nuisance, it in no way compares to the mess we faced last time and I was able to appreciate many bright sides!

-it happened during the day & we didn't have to stay up all night bailing
-we were better prepared with our own powerful shopvac
-we still hadn't replaced our flooring
-the walls didn't have to be dismantled
-nothing was really ruined or had to be discarded
-we didn't need to call in an army to help us tear up a subfloor
-we fixed everything with a shopvac and sweltering heat

However, we can no longer live in denial, believing that this isn't going to be an ongoing problem. Time to pull our heads out of the sand and figure out a plan of attack! ....after hristmas..... probably...

Road Trip!

2011-12-07T22:48:00.001-04:00

We loaded up the van and went to visit Murray's family recently and spent a busy weekend there! As soon as we arrived, the kids immediately started asking where Mr. Bojangles was, when he was coming, how much longer til the got there! They were quite anxious to see their little cousin!

On Friday night we all went to a hockey game (except Lovey & Sweetie who stayed home to bake with Nanny). Honey got to sit with Mr. B so she was happy. It was almost enough to make Sweetie want to go to the game but not even for Mr B could she bring herself to attend (but it was close!).

On Saturday I went to photograph my friend's 10 day old baby boy. He was adorable and Princess Pamela is the very proud grandmother! It was a long session as he wasn't very interested in being a sleepy, easy to pose baby LOL We worked around that and I have lots of adorable shots to show Alisa when the baby gives her a chance :)

After the shoot, I raced back for a lovely roast beef dinner but had to rush and didn't have time for seconds on my mashed potatoes! As a Christmas gift, we took Andrew, Mandy, Karen & Paul and went to see a comedian, have a few drinks and lots of laughs! It was nice to have time together away from the craziness of the kids and do grown up stuff!

Meanwhile, back at the ~~farm~~ house, Nanny & Grampy had all 4 kids to themselves! Equally exciting for them I'm sure :))) Everyone was very excited about the big sleepover but not so interested in the sleeping part. Mayhem and flying stuffed animals ensued. Eventually they fell asleep because it was pretty quiet by the time we got in.

On Sunday Andrew & Rick had planned a big brunch of eggs, sausage, toast, bacon and it was quite a spread!!! I don't recall seeing either one man the fry pan but we still ate well thanks to Nancy's culinary intervention!

Lovey treated us to a concert while we waited for lunch time and she had an assistant to hold her music for her which she quite enjoyed!

We had a great visit and good weather for driving and you can't ask for more than that! thanks for the royal treatment Nanny & Grampy!

Field Trip!

2011-12-06T23:33:00.001-04:00

Lovey`s class went on a field trip a few weeks ago, to check out an old fashioned Christmas. Honey & Sweetie`s classes went the day before so I got to go twice, awesome! They had lots of interesting information and activities for the kids at the house. They were able to make some things and help decorate the home for Christmas. They also pretended it was Christmas Eve and received a stocking when they woke up with an apple, a candy cane and a doughnut man!

They had a great time and of course, Lovey had her good buddy by her side the whole time. I thought it was cute that her friend wasn`t content just sitting near her, she needed to have her hand in contact with her too. So sweet!!

It`s been a busy few weeks! I`ve had lots of business for photography jobs so that`s been good but definitely takes more time! I`m almost all caught up now, only have a few images left on a newborn session of Princess Pamela`s sweet grandson and then that`s the end of my 2012 customers I think! Only my own family photo session to do now..... *cringe*

Murray`s back into hockey, their team is doing well probably due to their awesome defenceman and partially to the new hotshot goalie they picked up :)))

No one is sick at the moment but with the holiday craziness coming, it`s only a matter of time I`m sure! We have all just gotten over some bad colds-sore throats so hopefully we get a few days reprieve at least!

PW Update

2011-12-06T23:19:00.001-04:00

PW seems to be doing a lot better and hasn`t lost any more of his tail recently! We have to watch Murphy`s food carefully or he will go for it everytime. He`s had a couple more chase-my-tail-and-shriek-like-a-banshee-when-my-teeth-sink-into-my-own-flesh moments but not nearly as often as they were happening. I can usually whistle to him and snap him out of it or even pick him up and pat him til he`s settled and purring. The tail seems to be healing but I think there are some sections at the tip that will be permanently bald!

Murphy`s also doing well and eating nicely. He wants to go for walks every day after the kids get on the bus. He`s fairly slow moving but as long as he`s still going, we`re happy!

Mummy's Little Helper

2011-11-24T22:10:00.001-04:00

I have a newborn shoot this weekend and went shopping around for a few props today! Honey helped me practice with them this afternoon. Here she is playing "big sister" for me :))) She was all keen to be my assistant until she heard Sweetie turn the tv on, suddenly she was exhausted from all that work I was putting on her! LOL Ah well, it was good while it lasted!!!

Anticipation

2011-11-24T22:04:00.001-04:00

The girls had hoped for school to be cancelled when we had some snow the other day! Unfortunately, it was business as usual! Murphy was anxious for them to get home too! I think I might get this printed and mounted for their bus driver for Christmas. He's had the route on our road for as long as I've been home with the girls. I remember waving to him when I'd have the girls out for walks in the stroller! I usually give him chocolates but that's got to be getting old by now isn't it???

Movie Night-Crashed!!!

2011-11-14T22:32:00.001-04:00

Our family movie nights are getting pretty famous! So much so that people are calling up out of the blue to get an invite or actually, to invite themselves!!! Practically stalking us I say! :))) Grammie and Grandad came down for movie night on the weekend and caused quite a stir.

It was Honey's turn to pick the movie and although she was partial to "Barbie Princess Charm School" she decided it might not be the best choice for Grandad! Instead she browsed a little further and felt that "Rio" would be a better choice as it said "fun for the whole family!" on the box.

There was a pre-movie concert, starring Lovey and her lovely assistants who announced each piece and accompanied her on The Stamping Song and led the applause after each number.

The girls wanted it to be like going to a real theatre so they made tickets for everyone, PW, Max & Murphy included. We had to line up on the stairs to "get in". The "staff" collected our tickets at the window and showed us to our seats.

Luckily, the box did not lie. It was a fun movie and Grammie and Grandad were thoroughly entertained :))) They had so much fun in fact, that they might even come again!!!

Stumped!

2011-11-13T23:06:00.001-04:00

Murray had a very productive day yesterday! A couple of years ago, in an attempt to help the strawberry patch get more sunlight, he cut down a small stand of birch trees. Since that time, the birch trees have started to stage a comeback. Murray decided to take them down a peg yesterday! He dug and pried and pulled out mud & stones with some help from his lovely assistant, Sweetie! She was quite proud to be so useful in this massive endeavour and worked along quite enthusiastically. Finally, late in the afternoon, triumph! The first stump was out! Check out the roots on that thing!

(stay tuned for exciting updates on my massive undertakings indoors AND out!)

Tail Trouble

2011-11-13T23:03:00.001-04:00

PW continues to wage war on his own tail but seems to have slowed down in the last couple of days. Hopefully preventing access to Murphy's dog food is helping him because if that isn't, I'm not sure what will! I didn't see him have any crazy spells today and he spent most of last night curled up on our bed, cozy, snug and purring calmly.

Crazy Cat!

2011-11-10T22:58:00.001-04:00

For the last fe days, we've noticed PW has been acting strangely. Lots of growling & hissing and then he runs for his life out of whatever room he's in. He's always been quite a character and has survived many cat fights, coyote attack and being shot at short range with birdshot.

The other day I was in the kitchen and heard him start one of his little episodes. I moved quickly to find out what he was growling at and looked around the room. From the noises he was making, I was sure we'd been invaded by a raccoon or worse, a skunk! If it were a mouse or bird he wouldn't be so angry and defensive so it had to be something bigger and scarier than him! When I came around the kitchen counter, I couldn't see anything. I got down on my hands & knees and examined under the table in case something was hanging around up there but seriously hoping there wasn't!!!

There wasn't any animal anywhere!!! and he's doing this often. I was afraid we had a poltergeist or something. Animals can sense these things you know! but then I wondered if maybe he was possessed himself. and then I couldn't decide which scenario was scariest! He's a pretty weird cat before you add any evil spirits!

After a couple more scenes in the night, and now that we realize his "foes" are all figments of his imagination, we decide it's time to call the vet. This morning I spoke with the receptionist who surprisingly has a sister whose cat did all the same stuff this time last year and they found out it was Feline Hyperesthesia .

This can only be diagnosed once they do a bunch of other tests to rule out other conditions. As I talked to her, I tried to picture my regular crazy PW having blood samples drawn. Totally not going to happen then, and certainly not now in his newly deteriorated mental state! I called Murray and he looked it up and the symptoms are bang on to what we're witnessing. We decided to watch and wait.

Then this afternoon I came home and found him sitting and facing into a wall with his tail stuck straight out behind him. Wait IS that his tail??? It's all wet, and stringy and shredded looking. What the heck?!??!?! Then he suddenly starts flicking the tail back and forth, glaring at it, low growling and hissing at the tail as it moves. He's afraid of his tail and has attacked it!!! Oh my word!!!!!!! No way was he going to let me wash that, I wouldn't risk my life to try. I took him to the bathroom and closed all the doors so he couldn't escape. I got out the Polysporin spray. This is the same spray that the girls swear is like pouring javex and ground glass into an open wound. I was more than a little hesitant to touch him at all! However, I was more afraid of it getting infected. So I covered him with a towel so he couldn't see the offending member or what I was doing to it! He didn't even flinch as I sprayed the cuts so there goes the girls' theory! I sat with him and petted him and he purred and purred. He even let me scratch his ears and under his chin. He didn't mind me touching him but I didn't want to push my luck as I was lucky to be alive as it was!

I phoned the vet back & talked to the same person again and she remarked that it still sounded exactly like her sister's situation. We decided not to take him in just yet, I can't see getting him stitched up. The symptoms can be caused by food allergies if there's been a change in diet. We're going to watch Murphy's food more carefully because PW has been stealing a lot of his stuff lately. Now that Murphy's food has tasty, crunchy bites with bacon and chunks of canned dog food meat and gravy on top, PW is constantly eating out of that dish and ignoring his own. Hopefully that's the trigger and we can prevent further damage!

Teenager Alert!

2011-11-10T22:49:00.001-04:00

We're getting our first taste of having a teenager in the family! Yesterday was the first day and so far, it's not too bad. No backtalk yet but the love of a good nap is already a well honed skill.

Happy 13th Birthday to our Murphy baby! A month ago we were so scared he wouldn't make it to his birthday but he did! He's not looking too spry for a new teenager and is definitely showing his dog years. :)))

He's still doing pretty well, appetite is good, a bit stiff and slower moving but still going! It's weird not to have to worry about the garbage or the kids' Halloween candy anymore bu the doesn't bother with that stuff. He tends to avoid the slippery linoleum floor in the kitchen so that's the upside!

We had a birthday cake for him last night and he thoroughly (and quite quickly!) enjoyed his piece! Aunt Cathy came out to join us for dinner as there was a special birthday in her family too! My cousin Daniel & his wife had their baby girl yesterday!

Too Early!

2011-11-09T23:13:00.001-04:00

The new bus schedule is killing us! Honey especially has been bearing the brunt of the 30 lost minutes of sleep. She could sleep an extra half an hour on the OLD schedule! Being shortchanged an additional half hour is wreaking havoc with her moods & attitudes. Today during math homework, she had a complete meltdown over the idea that they could all have a little teaspoon of icing if they got all their questions right on the practice questions I gave them. The wails of "it's not faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaair!!!!" bounced off the walls, before she'd even begun the exercise! Finally she was full out crying, still bemoaning the unfairness, uttering her hatred of math and concluding that she'd just rather not be alive! I told her she'd better go take a break in her room and come back when she was feeling better and told her to forget about the icing. Lovey never said a word and did all her questions correctly but in the subsequent chaos, her treat got missed. Sweetie was also upset at the "unfair" deal and started fussing also. I repeated my "whiners get nothing" stance and told them to forget about any icing sample.

Eventually Honey came back and worked through the questions. She likes to be quick and often skips questions by mistake and writes her numbers backwards. Before correcting her work, I asked her to make sure she hadn't missed any or gotten any numbers reversed. She glanced at her paper for a second or two and tossed it at me. Right away I saw 2 unanswered questions and a couple backwards 3's and told her she had missed a few things and circled them for her to finish/correct. More whining and crying and back onto the Great Icing Rip Off. I warned her that if she kept it up, there'd be no icing at supper or cake either for that matter. Rather than subdue it, the nagging was cranked up a notch. "why can't I have another chance??? please can I have a taste of the icing??? why? no FAIR!" and on and on (obviously forgetting that she had blown the previous "correct answers wins the treat" deal). I remind her at this point that that deal isn't on the table anymore and now she's risking her dessert serving of Murphy's birthday cake! That halts her in her tracks momentarily and Sweetie stops completely and whips through her questions! I give Honey at least 2 more warnings on subsequent whining and sauciness.

Murray got home around this point and took over the math duties while I finished getting supper ready and then moves on to practicing her spelling words. She makes no effort to spell them properly and makes mistakes in a fairly successful effort to annoy us both and then whines when he asks her to make the corrections. After all these extra "chances", I tell her she's out of the running for the birthday cake. Then I feel bad because we're celebrating Murphy's birthday and I hate to "deprive" her!!! but I let her go when she runs screaming to her room.

Aunt Cathy arrived for supper, the table's not set, the food isn't quite ready and everybody's cranky! Welcome to our humble home, please enjoy yourself amidst our emotional chaos!!!

Once Honey had calmed down a bit, I went to talk to her. At the end of the whole drama, I had realized that the girl is just overtired. On weekends, they all sleep an extra 2-3 hours past the usual wake up for school time. They just aren't getting enough sleep through the week and it has taken its toll. I went in and talk to her and told her this and that we need to change our routines to get her body more rest. She pulled me into a hug, crying and said "my body just wants more sleep!!!!". I also told her I'd changed my mind and she could have dessert. So much for taking a stand!!!

Fast Weekend!

2011-11-09T22:51:00.001-04:00

I borrowed a Canon 5D MkII from my friend Shelley for a photography job I had on Saturday so I did some practicing Friday night! Sweetie was my only willing candidate for outdoor practice on the foreign gear. I wanted to have a back up in case my own failed for some reason and I also wanted hers because the room I was shooting in was going to be somewhat dark for photography purposes and I wasn't getting good results using my external flash.

I practiced all night, trying different angles with my flash, trying my flash on her camera, trying to bounce the flash and all sorts of things. Finally I found a setting that worked like a charm and the harsh shadows I'd been fighting all night were gone! Hooray!

In the meantime I fooled around with Shelley's camera, testing it out in the basement with no flash at all. Hers can handle low light situations MUCH better than mine! These were all taken just using available light in the room and adjusting the settings for better light sensitivity. I couldn't get over the difference.

I've been thinking about switching brands on my next upgrade and this has convinced me, Pentax just can't match results like this! I'm leaning towards a Nikon though, they're supposedly even better for not being grainy in low light.

Saturday morning the kids slept til after 8 & I think Sweetie crawled in with Murray and conked out til 9! They wake up for school at 6 each day so they must not be getting enough rest through the week if they need a 2-3 hour sleep in on weekends! Murray's got another bad cold so he needed a sleep in too.

When I got home from the gym, it was time to pack up, go collect my lovely assistant, Babycakes and head to the shoot. It was at an awards ceremony in one of the government buildings downtown, all very serious and official! Not my usual speed! Babycakes handled all the paperwork for me while I got set up in the room. Everything went well and wasn't very long, except that I hadn't thought we'd need chairs to sit because we were "working" but man those speeches felt long while I was standing there trying not to shift around too much. It was interesting to hear all the good works being done by some of the teens and young adults in our province!

After the awards were done, there was a reception and more group photos to do a big mansion downtown. It was neat to be inside but I was a little more concerned about figuring out lighting and posing for the groups to really enjoy the ambiance of the place! One of my old bosses from the bank was there so that made things more comfortable for me!

By evening my legs were tired from all the standing (I know, rough life right?) and was glad to sit on the couch with my family & watch some Little House on the Prairie!

Sunday went by in a hurry too! Church in the morning, get home have some lunch, make some dessert for supper, then head to M&D's! I convinced Mum to have supper early so I could make it back in time for a special discount shopping night at TRU. Being the trooper she is, she did not stand in the way of me scoring some deals!

Luckily, the day before, the girls had gone to town on the TRU flyer and plastered their initials on everything pink, Barbie or baby doll!

Making my FIL proud :)))

2011-11-04T22:59:00.001-04:00

Guess what we got today Rick??? Murray will no longer have sudden PVR channel changes in the middle of his hockey games. Hello dual tuner!

Success!

2011-11-02T22:23:00.000-04:00

Honey has been working her top tooth for ages now, when she remembers! It's been loose for a long time though and 2 nights ago while we were tucking her in, she got me to try and pull it out but it didn't work. A few minutes later she came running down the hall "I got it!!!" holding the tooth in her hand. She's the first one to lose a top tooth so she was pretty stoked about that.

In the Woods!

2011-11-01T08:30:00.001-04:00

While Karen was here for a visit, we took the opportunity to hit the trail in the woods! We hadn't gone for a walk in there for ages, mostly because it's so much of a fight to get the kids to go. As usual, once we forced them in there, they were off and running, happy as clams! They climbed on rocks, played in puddles, checked out a dragonfly I found and had a blast in there!. Why do they make us work so hard? Don't they know that we know best already???

Boo to YOU!

2011-10-31T22:52:00.002-04:00

Happy Halloween! As usual this was a MUCH anticipated, MUCH discussed event at our house! Costumes were planned weeks and weeks in advance. They were sure of what they wanted much sooner than I was sure I could put it together! Luckily everything necessary was found in time for today. They actually had a party at a friend's on the weekend and got to do a trial run of their outfits.

Lovey had violin after school today but no one had homework thank goodness! We got home from the lesson and started cleaning up and getting supper ready. Luckily Murray gets home earlier now and could be put to work as well!

Monday is always busy but I had an eye appointment squeezed in on top of grocery run, strength class, lunch, put away groceries, baking, pick up girls, get to lesson, get home from lesson and start supper and finalize/mend costumes!

Mum & Dad came to dinner so they wouldn't this tradition! Sweetie ate in record time which worked out well as her makeup took the longest to do. Honey' costume was the easiest which also worked out perfectly as it took her the longest to choke down her supper! (and gag it back up.... but that's another story!!!)

Lovey got most of her costume on herself and just needed help hiding her hair under the hat brim and putting freckles on.

Murray took them on the first leg and they did the bottom part of the street while I had my supper and got the pictures downloaded. When they got back, Tulip had joined them and they were anxious to go!

It was much chillier than last year but Lovey couldn't be convinced to wear a coat! I tucked some extra mitts in my pocket just in case though. We'd been going for an hour or so before I convinced her and her chapped, red hands to put them though! Finally I'd convinced her! Me: there! how do your hands feel now Lovey? She responded "Good!" and I started to relish my triumph until she added "SAME AS BEFORE!"

and ran off to join the others. (but left the mitts on!) She was mostly concerned that her "Anne" look would be ruined by the uncharacteristic attire!

Around 7:30 we started heading for home but Sweetie didn't have a coat either and Lovey had run through some puddles in the dark and her feet were wet. We had to phone for emergency pick up! Grammie & Grandad were just coming back from a run to the store and scooped up Tulip, Lovey & Sweetie and took them home. Shortly after, the rest of us got picked up by Murray and were glad to warm up.

When we got home they dove into their candy bags and had quite a little treat fest! So much excitement in one night!!! It was late by the time they got settled down in bed so I'm letting them sleep in a bit tomorrow & driving them to school. The extra early bus run is not our friend after nights like these!!!

Sweetie made Bunny her own costume for greeting the trick or treaters at out door! The mask is handmade with looseleaf, Crayola markers and old ribbon . The cape is a headscarf. Lovey said it was a "Super Bunny" costume. Sweetie couldn't have been happier with that title!

Pumpkins & Pizza

2011-10-30T22:08:00.002-04:00

Party time at church! Families came for some pumpkin carving this afternoon and got all slimed up. The kids didn't mind & Sweetie was in up to her elbows, digging out the pumpkin guts. The parents did the actual carving after the kids sketched on their designs. While we finished up the knife work, they moved on to a game of chase & scream. If noise volume is any indication of success level, this was one rockin' event!

Once the pumpkins were finished up, the pizza fixins came out and the kids (with freshly washed hands!) decked out the pizza dough with all their favourites. (lots of cheese, token pepperoni slices, NO vegetables!). While those baked in the ovens, they played freeze dance to some appropriately spooky music.

Pizza was followed by cookies and candy and capped off a perfect event! Tulip has been coming to church with us for the last several weeks and made sure to get in on this party too :)))

Buyer's Regret

2011-10-26T12:34:00.003-04:00

Honey's class has a monkey theme this year. They can earn "monkey money" for doing good deeds etc in the classroom. Honey had over 100 monkey bucks saved up when her teacher "opened" the store the other day. She was so excited to tell me about her purchase when I picked them up on Monday. When she got in the car she finally had time to check out the puppy she had spent her money on. To her dismay, there wasn't really a puppy in there at all! The package said "pet in a bag" and sure enough you could see a mini canvas sack and sticking out of the sides were two furry ears and a tail coming out the back. If you squeeze the sack, you can hear a puppy barking. Honey tried and tried to open the bag but couldn't get it open and it didn't feel like a puppy in there at all! She handed it to me and I could tell right away it was one of those joke products and she wasn't ever getting a stuffed animal out of there!

She was so upset and the tears started right away. "but I saved and saved and spent almost all my money!!! 100 DOLLARS and it's not a REAL animal????? my teacher said there was a puppy in it!!!". Since it's an extra activity the teacher is doing, most likely out of her own pocket, I wasn't sure what to say to Honey. I didn't want her carrying on like that at school and there will be other "store" days for her to get something else. In the end I told her she could talk to her teacher the next day and explain how she'd been mistaken when she picked it but she decided it would be too hard to keep from crying and she didn't know how to explain herself without getting upset. Instead she's using it as a backpack decoration and saving up more monkey bucks for next time. Lesson learned, make sure you know what you're buying BEFORE you hand over all your hard earned monkey bucks!

Going Strong!

2011-10-26T12:18:00.000-04:00

Murphy has recovered nicely and seems to have most of his energy back. Now that he's not on the arthritis medication, he's a bit stiffer and slower moving but the main thing is that he's still moving! For a few weeks he'd only go for small walks, one or maybe two houses down the road and back. By the time he'd get home his back legs would be shaking from exhaustion and he'd go to sleep right away.

On the weekend we went for a walk in our old stomping grounds and he saw us leaving and immediately made it known that we were NOT going on any walk without him! Busted! We had to go back & get him & Murray was prepared to turn around with him when he got too tired. He never did! With the numerous stops that the girls make to play and explore (high speed hikers they are not!) he got lots of breaks and chances to catch his breath. He really slowed down for the last bit of the way home but he did last for an hour or so out there with us!

We're so happy that he's still hanging in there and enjoying it while it lasts!

My Party!

2011-10-23T22:49:00.002-04:00

We had a party last night to celebrate my big milestone birthday. My sister in law made a trip just to attend! Teena, Dale & Boo came for supper and we had deep fried turkey!!!!!!!!!! Teena has talked about this meal for ages and I've been dying to try it out and she made it happen for my big birthday:))) Dale was the one who had to slave over a hot vat but everyone greatly enjoyed the fruits of his labour. Even all the kids ate supper willingly! and Honey asked for 2nd and 3rd helpings. The seasonings made the meat so tasty & juicy and it was surprisingly not greasy at all. I had to tear myself away from the table to stop eating it. Mmmmm mmmm good! Colonel Sanders has nothing on Chef Dale!

Look, he's got a timer and everything!

After supper it was time to get things ready for stage 2, bonfire birthday party!!! with cake, s'mores, chips, cheesies, glow in the dark bracelets & sparklers! I'd invited my close friends & their families and they all arrived around 6:30. One guest was a wonderful surprise and I shrieked with delight when I realized who had walked in the door! (some people's ears may never recover) Nicolle had brought along Babycakes who used to go to our church and used to come hang out with me here with some of the other teens from youth group. Now that she's at another church, I rarely see her but miss her ALOT!

Murray got the buffet table set up and started bringing out the food and beverages and got the fire started with a little gasoline assistance! The sun had set by the time we had everything ready so we started with some sparklers and glow in the dark bracelets to keep the kids entertained while the rest of the food was being brought out.

The kids were beyond "wild with excitement". If a party could be judged solely by noise level, this thing was a raging success! We had trampoline action, haunted playhouse mischief, the pyrotechnics and lots of racing and tearing around AND caaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!!! mmmmmmm cake!!! I ordered it earlier in the week and had been looking forward to it ever since. oh cake, how do I love thee???

It was a great night & everybody went home full but tired! I enjoyed my party immensely and was so glad that people came! (I'm 40 but still worry that no one will show up if I invite them, shouldn't I be over this by now??? LOL)

HBDTM!

2011-10-22T21:26:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday To ME!!! I turned 40 the other day and what a great day I had! When I turned 30, I was a bit disappointed in the lack of hoopla and I may have casually commented half a dozen times on this oversight..... sooooo when I woke up on my big birthday this time, there were 40 balloons in the kitchen, hanging from Happy Birthday signs! Then as I was getting the kids ready for breakfast, they announced my birthday on the radio!!! We listen to the same morning show every day and I always phone in their birthdays and this year Murray & Sweetie won the draw on their birthdays & we got to to out to a restaurant with their gift certificate prizes. I was bracing myself, pretty sure that no one would have thought of it and was really excited when my name came on!!! He remembered! and went to the trouble of looking up the number and sneaking in the call from another room without me noticing!!! The girls sang Happy Birthday several times, right til the walked up the steps to get on the bus :)))

As the bus was coming, Lovey got concerned.

L (sad worried voice: )Mummy! it's your birthday! and.... we're going to school... and Daddy's leaving for work!! you're going to be all alone on your BIRTHDAY!!! What are you going to DO????

I assured her I had made plans to keep me from getting too lonely while they were all gone. After they left, I checked my email and got a message from Rocky Mountain Chocolate wishing me a happy birthday and telling me I won a free chocolate bar and to come pick it up.

To keep from getting too despondent, I went to my morning class at the gym, ran a couple of errands, got my chocolate & then met a bunch of people from the gym who were meeting for lunch to try out a new restaurant. (which was yummy and someone picked up my tab!) After lunch I went for a pedicure which was awesome and so relaxing. Must remember to do that again someday! By the time I was done that, I had to race home to meet the bus.

We had nachos for supper and enjoyed some birthday cake then we all curled up on the couch and watched a couple episodes of Little House on the Prairie. A perfect & cozy evening with my fave peeps :)))

Once the kids went to bed, I cracked open my birthday present that's been sitting in the spare bedroom for a few weeks and hooked it up to the computer and I'm in love!

Children of the Corn

2011-10-19T20:34:00.000-04:00

They also got bored unless it was their turn to be leader and pick where to go. We tried switching the leader up more often so they didn't have to wait as long but then they got sneaky. On Honey's turn, she led us OUT of the maze so she could leave! We stuck it out for a few more minutes until Lovey finally conceded defeat and we moved on to the other things at the farm.

They had some goats in this pen. If you put some food in the can, you could use the ropes to pull it up to a platform and dump it out for the goats to eat.

Super sliding fun!

Jumping!

Pedal Cart Racing!

Where's the brakes on this thing anyway??? and what kind of a mother watches her daughter's car crash and can barely take a picture because she's laughing too hard??? (well Murray was already on his way! but even he said "did she even try to steer?????")

Honey's making a spool of herself again!

Wisdom from Lovey

2011-10-17T22:05:00.002-04:00

Lovey: Hey Mum!
Me: Yes?
Lovey: do you know what SCHOOL stands for????
Me: ummm, no?
Lovey: Seven Crappy Hours Of Our Life!!! bwahahahahahahaha!!!!

Great, we've learned to scorn the place that shapes our future. She picked up this little nugget from the kid that wanted her to illegally give her a cookie at recess the other day. I don't know whether I'm more annoyed that someone's passing on a bad attitude or that this acronym has escaped my notice for 40 years!!!

Living it up to the Max!

2011-10-16T21:47:00.004-04:00

We had a guest for a couple days this week! Mum & Dad went away on a shopping trip and so Max stayed with us while they were gone. The girls really liked having him and made him a bed in Lovey & Honey's room, between their two beds. They argued over whose turn it was to take him to the bus stop or for a walk. It's the only time I've seen them all get ready for a walk after supper without a single complaint! No takers on cleaning up his mess on the walk though! LOL

Max was a little shy but very well behaved and we barely knew he was there as he likes to hide out most of the time! The only trouble was making sure he came out of his hiding spots to eat.

Jokers

2011-10-16T21:41:00.000-04:00

The girls have been fascinated by jokes for awhile now and often try to make up their own which usually flop because they don't quite understand how to make a play on words. Every once in awhile they come up with one that actually makes us laugh.

A couple of recent gems are:

Sweetie: Mum, what do dogs use to make themselves smell good?
Me: hmmm, I give up!
Sweetie: Furfume! GET IT?????? FUR-fume????

Honey: what do dogs wear to bed?
Me: hmmmm, well I
Honey: do you GIVE UP????
Me: ok yes, I give up. What do they wear???
Honey: pawjamas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Water Works

2011-10-13T07:17:00.002-04:00

Nanny's rain barrel needed emptying before they close up the cottage for the winter so Uncle Paul was "helping" the girls with this job. No one seems to mind all this extra work from what I can see! Many hands make light (but very wet!) work I always say!

Murray's taking a much deserved break after a long day of pulling everybody up the zip line!

Who doesn't love some night time sparkler action?

At The Office...

2011-10-13T07:06:00.005-04:00

Honey's teacher had this picture on the school website.

She's working on a writing project in her "office".

Cute!

Just Say No to Peer Pressure!

2011-10-12T22:07:00.003-04:00

Lovey apparently had an enticing snack in her lunch box today! So much so that the girl sitting next to her wanted some! (animal crackers have major appeal apparently). Since there are different allergies in the school, there has always been a firm, "no sharing" rule in all the classes. I'm pretty sure the other girl is aware of it, as is Lovey. So the request was declined. The request was repeated a few times and Lovey just kept saying no and told her that she wasn't allowed because it's against the rules. No problem! "just pass it to me under the table, the teacher won't see!!!" Lovey stood her ground and said she wouldn't do it because it's wrong.

Holy crap we ARE teaching them stuff!!!

I was very impressed with her because the other girl was probably right, the teacher most likely wouldn't catch the sleight of hand and no one would know. Lovey had plenty of cookies in her package and had we been at the park or having a playdate anywhere else, would have gladly shared (not sure if this would be the case if there was only ONE....).

And since the other girl had already had 3 snacks out of her own lunchbox, I'm pretty sure she wasn't starving, as it was only recess snack, not lunch time!!!!

Lovey, Mummy & Daddy are proud of you for doing the right thing!

Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day!

2011-10-11T11:43:00.001-04:00

My brother in law surprised us by getting all the hardware for a zip line at the cottage over Thanksgiving! My MIL & I split the harness but it was his idea and he had it all installed before we got there. The adults all had a go at it but it was mostly the kids who used it. They rode that thing from lunch time til bedtime! We attached headlamps to them once it got dark and that was pretty cool.

Talk about fun for all ages! We had everybody aged 7 to 70 on this thing! The Thanksgiving weather was perfect and the kids were happy outside all day long. (or for as long as they could find someone to pull them up the line to go again, and again, and again...). We all slept like rocks that night from all the fun & fresh air!

Three cheers for Uncle Paul!

Beach Buddies

2011-10-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

We had our last day at the cottage for 2011. It's always sad when cottage time ends, especially when we have to say goodbye to friends there. We won't see our favourite neighbour again until May or June next year. Miss G is 13 now and has always enjoyed spending time with the girls and looks forward to our visits, almost as much as our girls look forward to seeing her! She always checks in to find out what our visiting plans are and when we're going to be around and does her best to drop in whenever we're there. She has loads of patience with them and will spend hours playing games and swimming and digging in the mud for clay if it makes them happy!

Murphy Baby

2011-10-03T22:10:00.003-04:00

Our firstborn gave us quite a scare a couple weeks ago! He stayed outside all night and it was cold and damp weather. The next morning Murray went to look for him and saw him struggling to stand up. Murphy took a few steps towards him and then collapsed in a heap and couldn't get up. Murray feared he'd had a stroke! He brought him into the house and covered him with blankets to try and warm him up and stop the tremors and shivers coursing through Murphy's body. Other than that, Murphy was barely moving. Not sure what to do, we kept a close eye on him the rest of the day and tried to get him to drink or eat to no avail.We had to carry him outside and hold him up to take care of bathroom duties.

The next day was Monday and Murray got the earliest appointment he could and it was a long wait til 3pm. In the meantime I had to leave to pick the girls up from school, go to violin and then dance class and could not be at the appointment. I was terrified Murray would be coming home solo and cried off and on all day as I waited anxiously for news. Before the appointment time, Murphy did some business in the backyard so I collected a sample for Murray to take with him in case they needed it.

As it turned out, this helped the vet figure things out fairly quickly. The sample was full of blood which meant internal bleeding. His arthritis meds had the "possible" side effect for stomach ulcers that so we stopped the arthritis meds and started on antacids and stomach lining repair.

There was no more evidence of bleeding but his energy was non existent and so was his appetite. He had lost almost 15 pounds since he'd been to the vet in the spring for his needles. The vet urged us to get food into him, no matter what we had to do as he was severely anemic. A Labrador that won't play or eat is pretty much unheard of so we knew he was very very sick. He didn't even lift his head to look at us when we came near him. I had to put food in the blender and grind it to mush. We would sit on the floor with his head in our lap and shoot the mix down his throat with a syringe to trigger his swallowing reflex. It was the only way to get him to eat or drink or down those pills. He would try to pull away from us to avoid the feedings. He hated it. We hated it. We watched and waited and as you can imagine, I cried and worried constantly. He wouldn't even nibble his treats most days. A Dentabone sat untouched on the floor beside him for several days.

After a few more days, he started drinking out of his water bowl on his own if we placed it between his paws. He had to gaze at it for a few minutes before seeming to realize what it was and take a few tentative laps in the air until he could actually find the water in the bowl.

We could barely stand to see him like that but at the same time we couldn't stand the thought of making any other decision. We took every little improvement as reason to wait it out a bit longer. A few days after he started drinking on his own, I was hand feeding him some kitty treats and he was gobbling them up. I got some dog food Mum had sent for him to try that was a little smaller than his own. If I laced it with a generous portion of those kitty treats, he continued to eat. I mixed that together, threw in a little of his wet food and he gobbled it down! The excitement at seeing him eat of his own volition was huge! Maybe, just MAYBE this wasn't as hopeless as we'd thought!

I continued to put savory mixes together, generously throwing in bacon, rice, sausage etc with the food and he continued to eat. He got colour back in his pale gums. He now walks in and out, up and down the stairs, up and onto the couches and wants to go for walks in the mornings after the kids get on the bus.

He still seems a bit weak but not nearly as close to death's door as he seemed those first few days. He'll be 13 next month so we realize his time is limited but we are overjoyed that for now, he's still with us!

Closed for Season

2011-09-28T22:23:00.002-04:00

We drag our feet every year. Usually it's freezing outside by the time Murray convinces me to drain & clean the pool. I hate that job!!! By the end of the summer, I've had enough of the pool maintenance and try to ignore this one last task. It never works! However, this year we got lucky with some warm temperatures to clean in. I told the kids they should help scrub it out since they use it the most. They were unfazed by this logic. Then Lovey decided she wanted to help. Yes! Once Lovey was on board, Honey wanted in too. Woohoo! Sweetie came over and asked if she HAD to help and was ready to fight me to the death or deafness, whichever resulted from the screaming fit she was brewing up. Not wanting to tangle with her, I told her she didn't have to. I knew I'd be more likely to get help out of her if she thought it was her own idea. I told her she had to come outside with us while we worked since it was a nice day. She was ok with that & got changed out of her dress.

Once we got out there, Murray went to work with the mop. Honey & Lovey snagged some rags and got right down to it. Then I started pouring in warm water to slosh around. Soon there was much slipping, sliding, falling, more sliding.... Then, lo and behold, Sweetie was standing next to them and asking if she could help out now. Dang I'm good :)))

The last pool party of the season on one of the nicest days of the year, too bad it happened at the end of September when the pool was empty! Everyone had as much fun as we do when the pool is full though!

Who Needs Science Camp?

2011-09-15T22:05:00.000-04:00

We're not paying for some high falutin' science camp! Not when we've got Dr Gunk's Chemical Warehouse at our disposal! The kids were very excited to try out all the different experiments and Dr Gunk (btw, Andrew made that up Nancy, not me!) had prepared. And was she ever prepared! Worksheets, lab reports and supplies all ready & waiting for them to dig into.

They learned about acids vs bases, how vinegar affects an eggshell overnight, grew crystals and some other stuff that I can't recall (aka explain). They couldn't get enough of Nanny's experiments on their vacation this year. I hope she's researching for next year's labs because they are going to be looking for more and probably telling all their friends!

Plate Lickin' Good!

2011-09-13T21:48:00.000-04:00

Lovey was on a mission tonight! Poor Murray has been wanting salmon for supper for ages but he's the only one who enjoys it so I rarely put it on the menu. Since it was on sale this week, and it had been so long since I'd gotten it, I decided we'd have some. Tonight was salmon night. I gave very small (maybe a teaspoon full?) serving to each of the girls and waited for the crapstorm to start. Lo and behold, it DIDN'T!!!! Every single one of them ate their microscopic portions and cleaned up their plates well! I almost fell over. Then I remembered what they were playing for: Murray's homemade from scratch blueberry pie or Berry Bliss Cake or fresh baked chocolate chip cookies. Obviously, the stakes were high :)

At another meal earlier this week, the dreaded portion of that meal was under discussion.

Sweetie: Lovey? is broccoli your arch enemy?
Lovey: (scornful face & tone) NO! of course not. beans are!

That girl really gets into her work :)

Speaking of work, violin lessons have started up again and Lovey is nearly ready to move up to the next size of violin. When she started at age 5, her violin was 1/8 the size of a regular one. Then earlier this year she graduated to the ¼ size and now here she is with that one and her new ½ size! She's so excited to have a new (to her) instrument. Misty says she's not quite ready to move to the bigger one but will be very soon and she found a used one for us to buy so we're going to get it now. Lovey wanted to use it for practice tonight though.

Note to God

2011-09-11T18:36:00.003-04:00

Murray was picking the kids up from Sunday School one day & found Lovey finishing up some writing on the chalkboard :)

Bedtime on the Rocks Please!

2011-09-09T21:36:00.000-04:00

One evening on our vacation, it was getting close to bedtime so I told the girls to get their jammies on and then I went to take a few sunset pictures while they got ready. Since this process takes them forever, I knew I had enough time to get my shots and get back in time to tuck them in.

Little did I know, 2 little monkeys decided to follow me! They were immensely pleased with themselves and giggled madly at their daring adventure. Their laughter and joy at something so "naughty" was just slightly contagious and how can you be mad at these smiling faces? I didn't even try! They enjoyed their big night out for awhile and then I chased those scallywags right up to bed. Ahhh the memories!!!

First Day of Grade 2!

2011-09-06T22:41:00.000-04:00

School is now in session! The girls were ready & raring to go this morning and were out to the bus stop with time to spare. I wonder how many days I'll be able to say that this year? Not too many I expect!

Sweetie had some trouble sleeping last night and took forever to settle down. I think she may have been a bit anxious! This morning she told us she was worried because she couldn't remember where her new classroom was. Since it was right beside Honey's new class & Honey knew where that was, I told Sweetie to follow Honey. It was a great plan in theory. Or it would have been if Honey hadn't forgotten about it and left her sisters behind when she got off the bus first!

Not to worry, my little problem solver took care of the situation and went inside the school and asked someone (she's not too sure who) for help finding her new teacher and they got her to the right place.

Everyone was happy with their new teachers and to see their friends again. They were even more thrilled to come home to tell me there was homework tonight, for ME! I had 3 sets of contact info, emergency numbers, health info etc to fill out. Since it's only one night a year I think I got off pretty easy but made sure to grumble and complain so they could fully enjoy me doing my homework!

I made Classy Chicken (Lovey will even eat the broccoli in this meal!) for supper and we celebrated with a back to school chocolate cake! Unfortunately it was the only cake mix I had in the house & I was in a hurry & I'd forgotten that Honey doesn't like that kind. Uh oh. I was in BIG trouble. She had a huge fit upstairs, crying her eyes out about the flavour and how it was UNFAIR!!!!!!!!! When I didn't seem to react to this display, she took her show on the road to come find me downstairs to scream it into my face in case I hadn't heard properly. When I still didn't pay attention she started hollering "You're NOT LISTENING to me." Finally I looked at her and said "I'm listening & I can hear you fine, I just don't like how you're talking to me." Now that she knew I was paying attention, she switched back to the banshee mantra of "UNFAIR" until I told her to take that voice up to her room. She stormed off in a huff. Want to know the worst part? I actually felt bad for not making a cake that they would all enjoy. :( We did have a discussion about her behaviour later though as I couldn't just let that go!

As you can see, she got over it :)

Roller Derby Look Out

2011-09-04T22:17:00.004-04:00

The girls got out their rollerskates last week for an evening stroll but as usual, there were a few hiccups along the way. Before we even got out of the driveway, Honey had already switched over to her bike. That's fine, at least we're on our way. Not too far down the road, Sweetie's skates are giving her absolutely unbearable pain so we left them on the side of the road and she skipped off on her merry way. Screaming fit avoided and all is well with the world. Lovey is the last skater standing but eventually her skates are just too much for her too and are abandoned halfway down the road. We must be an interesting bunch to follow on these excursions, we're forever littering the street with discarded items, bikes, balls, skipping ropes.... you name it, someone has had a problem with it somewhere along the way and our path is strewn with an odd assortment of toys, equipment and sometimes outerwear. We eventually retrieve it all but until we do it's an interesting trail!

Oh, and if the weeds growin' on the side of the road are taller than yer kids, ya might be a redneck!

Honey, why are you making that serious face??? "I don't want pictures."

Clothing line pole still standing, even with a double load of laundry out on it! Woohoo!

Lawn Art...

2011-09-04T21:40:00.002-04:00

A house on our street has 2 different pairs of these adorning each end of their circular drive. We've always found them to be an interesting choice. Recently the property changed hands and we were curious as to whether the new owners would keep them or not. When it looked like a sledgehammer had been taken to them, we figured they were on their way out! Several weeks later, one is tipped over on its side, the one here is full of holes but the other 2 are still standing, untouched.... curiouser and curiouser!!!

Splashing Good Time!

2011-08-27T22:14:00.004-04:00

We went to a birthday party yesterday at a water park and the girls loved it! I'd never been to this place before so wasn't sure what to expect but it was pretty awesome! The girls haven't been on many waterslides but they got their fill at the party! They were older than most of the other kids as it was a friend of mine from the gym whose little guy was turning 4 so we were in the big kids section most of the time and only hooked up with the other party goers for the cake & presents part.

We got there a little after 1pm and they didn't start to get tired til after 5pm! They were happy as clams in there! With different sections to the park they were able to keep themselves busy and entertained the whole time and just had the one break when we got out for the party. In the rush to get out of the house, I forgot my bathing suit which I greatly regretted after watching them have a ball for 4 hours!!!

Nature Trail

2011-08-26T23:14:00.008-04:00

On a recent visit to Grammie & Grandad's the kids put in a request to check out the river so we ventured down! We managed to keep everyone on dry land most of the time and didn't have anyone go for a swim. I was pretty sure Sweetie was going to hit the water with the way she was actively scampering from rock to rock but she only got her feet wet but did have a few close calls!!!

Road Trip!

2011-08-26T21:53:00.006-04:00

The girls & I hit the road on Wednesday after the gym and went to visit my cousin Jane for a sleepover. I hadn't been to her "new" house that that they moved in to 4 years ago and now I'm wondering what on earth took me so long!!!!

The drive wasn't as long as I'd thought and to say we were blown away by the property (100 acres!!!) and hospitality would be an understatement. As soon as we arrived, Jane started cutting up the freshly baked bread to make some peanut butter fluff sandwiches. She had Lovey at "spreadable marshmallows" :)

After lunch we hiked up the monstrous hill that is her backyard and ventured through the woods up to a meadow where the girls discovered the joy of cow patties but not too closely. We checked out the view but as CJ said, "it's just an old hayfield but adults think it's all beautiful and stuff". We headed back down and changed to go to the creek to cool off. That was another adventure in itself. The path was quite overgrown and the grass was as tall as Janie & I. Luckily all the kids brought a sword and they beat back the thistles and other menacing vegetation. On the way we discovered some blackberries and Sweetie was loving those!

The creek was fairly shallow in most places and hip deep on the kids at the highest parts. They explored all around, finding interesting rocks and enjoying the cool water in between sword fights. Jane showed them how to scrape the rocks together to get coloured paste to use as body paint. Wow!

When we got back from the creek, we got a tour of Jane's garden and she let the kids dig for potatoes aka "buried treasure" and this was a huge highlight. They were so excited to pull the plants and find all the potatoes in the dirt. The squeals of delight were pretty cute. As if that wasn't enough fun and games, they also got to pick the peas AND pull some carrots!

Supper was amazing! Besides the home grown, freshly picked veggies we had delicious pork souvlaki, cheddar and crackers, some jalapeño dip, fresh tomatoes with herbed goat cheese and olive oil. I brought dessert so we topped that monster of a meal off with chocolate cheesecake muffins, mmmmmmm!!!!

As soon as we cleaned up the kitchen, we hightailed it over to Jane's brother in law's dairy farm to see the cows get milked. We were actually too late for that but still got a tour of the barns, visited the calves, patted some horses, fed grass to some other cows and then climbed & jumped around on the bales in the haybarn. Not a bad evening's entertainment... but wait! There's more!

We left the farm and headed back to Jane's for a bonfire! and roasted marshmallows!!! then we walked across the field to where it was nice & dark so we could look up at the stars for awhile.

It was a happily jam packed day & the girls enjoyed it to the hilt! By the time I tucked them in, I was tuckered out myself and went to bed about an hour after they did.

The next morning was a little more relaxing, just wandering about in her yard. CJ & I went out to do some photography practice as he's interested in learning more about that. We did some shooting and got him a new profile pic while we were at it. While we were doing that, the girls helped Jane pick more vegetables in the garden. At one point, Honey ran up to me, smiling, and said in a hushed voice "Mummy, I just love it here!!!!" and ran back off to continue her swordfight.

When I gave the final boarding call, they looked at me slightly confused and said "but.... I don't feel like leaving yet...?" You can't pay a higher compliment than that can you?

Sweetie's BFF :)

2011-08-18T22:16:00.002-04:00

Sweetie has been missing her BFF lately. She took apart a pair of shoes that had huge gemstones on the toe and made 2 necklaces out of them, one for herself and one for E. She wrote a note that said something along the lines of

"Dear E, I made this necklace for you because I think BFF's are special. I miss you. Sweetie"

and wrapped it up and delivered it to E's mailbox. A couple days later, E came over with a little stuffed heart and a note that said

"Dear Sweetie Thank you

For your necklace

and note It made my

day I miss you

From E"

When Sweetie saw the picture I took of Lovey & her BFF, she asked if she could have one with E for her photo album. Since E was over today for a swim, I got them to stand still for 10 seconds and grabbed a shot.

Soccer stylin!

Pole Down!

2011-08-18T21:56:00.002-04:00

Unfortunately, my clothesline repair didn't get me through the summer. R-guy and I only recently managed to finally cut the slack out of the line so the laundry didn't drag on the ground. The pole didn't seem up to the task though as I did hear a distinctive crack once there was more strain on the line. Sure enough, a few loads later, there was another cracking noise and the pole got a distinctive lean. Murray decided to knock it down before it came down on someone's head.

He has now remedied the situation though! He rigged up some wooden posts from the garage (send us an invoice Dad, we've dipped into your stash again I think...) and joined them together. He got the cement mixed up and into the ground last night. Now we just need to fill the hole in and hang the reel up and then I'm back in business. We've had some rainy weather so I haven't missed too many good line drying days!

Big Night Out

2011-08-15T22:30:00.003-04:00

Murray took the girls out to hear some orchestra music tonight while I was at spin class. Lovey & Sweetie were very excited to be going out to an event and went all out to get dressed for the event. Poor Honey & Murray were horribly underdressed but Lovey & Sweetie allowed them to accompany them anyway.

I asked Murray afterwards if anyone commented on the outfits and all he said was that they sure know how to make an entrance. One of the announcers onstage commented on their fashion sense when they arrived! :)

Messin' Around

2011-08-15T21:56:00.007-04:00

I've avoided most craft activities for quite awhile now. The mess drives me bonkers and they usually get antsy about their project when I can't help all of them right when they need me and the whining starts or they attempt to do more than they can really manage and ruin their project and get upset or they fight over the supplies. Oh, and did I mention the mess???

Lovey saw a craft idea in her magazine awhile ago and I've been ~~dodging it~~ trying to get supplies for it. Yesterday was grocery day and she pinned me down Sunday night, when she realized it was grocery day eve. I fell right into the trap too.

L: Mumma? is it Sunday night?

K: yes Lovey, it is.

L: well, then can you put breadsticks and licorice on the grocery list for tomorrow?

K: of course! (gah! busted!!)

Having no evasive manoeuvres left, I bought the requested items and after lunch I could delay no longer. I got out all the stuff and braced myself for the utter chaos to begin. It started off mildly but it didn't take long for things to take a sloppy turn. Icing, sugar sprinkles, bread crumbs, licorice bits, thumb prints, icing smears, sticky chairs but amazingly enough, no one got anything in their hair! I was still frazzled by the sugar bits that I knew were on the floor, getting stuck on their socks and no doubt traipsed through the rest of the house. There may have been a short period of me yelling GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN!!!! NOOOOOOO! TAKE YOUR SOCKS OFF FIRST, NOT THERE IN THE SUGAR PILE!!!!!!

But other than that, the fairy wand craft was a huge success. Now who is going to eat all these???

They loved making the "fairy" wands although Sweetie got bored after a couple and moved on to play something else while we finished up. She got distracted in the middle of one of hers and I looked over to see her taking a bite out of hers!