halloween

Yep, I will totally blog about Halloween even though it happened a whole week ago. Lazy blogging for the win!

For those of you who have been hanging around for a while or who know me in the real world, then you know that Halloween doesn't exactly blow my skirt up, but I am learning to embrace it. There were a few more Halloweenie decorations that worked their way into the house this year and I dressed up, not once but twice!



The girls took control of the pumpkins this year.... Maya did the ghost and Abby, the hands.



Both girls went with a Day of the Dead/Sugar Skull theme. Abby grabbed this face tattoo at the dollar store and I jazzed it up a bit with some face paint. We were both pretty happy with how it turned out.



We trick or treated with friends and then curled up to watch Pitch Perfect 2 while I ate all the spicy Doritos the kids collected (wimpy palettes for the win!)

Hope you all had an equally fantastic haunting!

way to be optimistic

Today is a snow day! Maya got over the disappointment relatively quickly and we soon settled in to a binge watching session of the Gilmore Girls because we couldn't think of a better way to spend a bonus day off. The kids stomped around in the drifts surrounding the house and Abby attempted to teach Maya a new rainbow loom pattern and basically they were just enjoying each other's company.

Maya: Do you think we'll be able to spend the whole day without arguing.
Abby: Hmmm, probably.
Maya: Not.

Hope you all enjoyed your snow day if you got one.

lady cave

It used to be the toyroom, but the little people here are turning into almost big people and there isn't a lot of playing with toys going on around here. For the past few months we have been working on decluttering. The shelves in the toyroom were full of toys nobody touched any longer. Little People, Little Pets, little kid board games.... you get the picture. So we cleared a lot of stuff out and then did nothing for a month or two, the fact that we are months away from co-habitating with a teenager forced us, and by us I mean me, to go back in and take another look. The girls were very helpful about deciding what sorts of things had run their course and we cleaned out a bunch ore stuff. It's never an easy job and I'd just as soon not do it, but there's only so much space to be had in blogmotherland. Anyway we purged and cleaned and tidied and rearranged some furniture and what did we get for our troubles....



Friends of ours have some hang out space in their basement that they call the Man Cave. Our first evening hanging out in the toyroom was for us three girls to watch Gilmore Girls while Mike watched the Raptors on the big screen. As we were getting glasses of water and knitting (okay that one was just me) and fuzzy blankets Abby told her Dad that we would be retiring to the Lady Cave and he was not allowed to join us. I think Mike laughed for three days about that one and by that time the name had stuck. It's actually officially official now that we have the sign and everything.

Now my bloggy friend Lynn asked me what the Lady Cave looked like (aka what do the tweens want in a hangout space) and it turns out not too much....



A TV, ideally a TV with Netflix and we're working on that, but it hasn't happened just yet. They do have a dvd player and the Wii. Lego is still king around here, so we used the space to display some already built projects that the kids love to play with.



A futon because the Lady Cave also doubles as our guest room. A couple of weeks ago I picked up two end table for super duper cheap and pushed them together as a coffee table. The girls are forever borrowing my nesting table to use in there. Solved that problem.



And a Christmas tree. Maya was so upset about taking down our tree that I agreed to let the little one in there stay up for longer.... which probably means it will still be there in October, but whatever. Pick your battles, right.

So that's it, that's our little tweenie hang out space. A space she can call her own to have friends over and not have to hang out in the same public spaces as her lame-o parents.

The absolute best part though... Abby, Maya and I have been binge watching Gilmore Girls which we now do in the Lady Cave and every time we are preparing to watch an episode or three Maya summons us all by yelling out, Lady Cavers assemble!! Funniest thing ever.

so long 2014

Well if you need me at all tonight you can find me being the best kind of inappropriate with some of my most horrible friends. I cannot think of a better way to finish up 2014.

I guess this is the point where I write a yearly wrap up, or I would have back in the days when I was a Mommy Blogger Extraordinare. I kinda miss those days, if not necessarily the toilet training and sleepless nights that fueled the posts in those days. I'm not really sure how I feel about 2014, I mean at first glance it was pretty great. My goal is always to have had more laughs then tears and I certainly accomplished that, but it's all a bit of a hazy blur. It seemed like an incredibly busy year that just kind of pulled me along in it's wake. I don't regret any of it, but I do regret the things I had to miss because I was obligated elsewhere. A sign of being a popular girl I guess, more invitations than time. In saying that I'm not sure what I could have altered, but even still, if I could have been everywhere I would have.

There were a lot of gifts I enjoyed this year, the gifts of friendship, leadership, understanding, compassion and new experiences to name just a few. I do feel like I lost my focus a bit, the year of Health can be written off as a disaster. The Year of AWESOME was definitely more successful as well as being more fun. I hope to get a bit of that back this year.

My family and friends, of course are top drawer! I may be the luckiest girl in the world to be able to share this life with them. Special mention to Michael and our girls, the crew that is at ground zero of this crazy life we lead. They make every minute of it worth while. I'll round out this post and this year looking forward to the fun things that 2015 will bring, as always, hoping for mmore laughs than tears. Fingers crossed that's what we get.

Much love to you all.

just horrible

So Jammie Movie Night is still a thing that's happening here in Blogmotherland and it remains as one of my favourite evenings of the month. December brings the extra special Holiday Edition of JMN and in years past that has always meant that we let our guys join us and Mike gets to pick the movie. Just for kicks this year we mixed it up with a little Cards Against Humanity in place of the movie. Are you aware of this game?

The box the game comes in describes it as a game for horrible people. It is akin to Apples to Apples, if you've played that, but the questions and the answers are inappropriate for family game night. It is completely hysterical with the right group of people and lucky for us we have hysterical and inappropriate friends!

To keep things interesting and also fun I went so far as to order a "trophy" for the player who was the most horrible among us.. aka won the most hands over the course of the evening.



A coffee mug so everyone would know what a truly horrible person you are.

Also because I am the best wife ever I bought Mike the 10 Days of Kwanzaa or Whatever from the makers of Cards Against Humanity. In exchange for my hard earned cash the funny folks at CAH promise to mail him ten gifts during the month of December. Merry Christmas Michael! And his first gift....



Cards that put him in the game. It goes without saying that everyone was looking forward to putting the Mike cards into play.



Very basically, this is how you play. The Card Czar reads out the black card, everyone plays a white card from their hand and the Card Czar picks the best/funniest card. This is what happened when Mike's card got put into play. So, so funny..... because they're all true. Especially the Justin Bieber card!

As you can imagine it was a night of endless laughs and endless inappropriateness. The kind of night that makes you forget your troubles for a few hours. The very best kind of evening with the very best kind of people and one horrible horrible person....



Thanks to everyone you came and had horrible fun with us. Can't wait to do it again!

words of wisdom

Every couple of weeks or so I write out a few words of wisdom and stick it on the side of the fridge. There's no rhyme or reason to the when or the what. It's just whatever tickles my fancy whenever the mood strikes me. I never tell the kids I've changed the quote, I just wait for them to notice. It doesn't usually take very long. Once the girls have noticed the new words of wisdom it usually sparks a discussion. Do they like it? What does it mean to them? How can/do they put those words into the every day.



This is what's up there right now. I liked this one right away. My girls will tell you I am always on them about being kind and polite. That we aren't going to like everyone in this world, but I expect them to treat everyone with respect and kindness, it's kind of my mantra and I am far from perfect at it, but I try and somedays I come out better than others. This takes all of that to the next level. It's all well and good to be kind and polite, but taking a moment to make someone else happy, for no other reason than you can..... that's a pretty beautiful thing.

I don't just do these things for the girl's benefit, but my own as well. Since I posted this on the fridge I have been trying to do exactly that... with varying degrees of success. Some days when you've cleaned the puke bowl out for the 16th time and you're operating on two hours of sleep it's not easy to take the time to try and make some one else happy, but I give it my best shot and let me tell you it is so worth it when it all comes together.

happy halloween

This Halloween I was lucky enough to spend it with one of my best girls JB at the kids' school getting ready for the highly anticipated Halloween Dance-a-thon, the school's biggest fundraiser. I was so thankful to be able to be there as Maya was presented with an iPad mini, her prize for being the school's highest fundraiser. Again, big thank yous going out to all the folks that supported her. The money will be put to very good use at our tiny school. As for Maya she was completely over the moon and had a few tears to shed after she picked up her prize. Many hours later as she was sitting on the couch she said.... Did I really win this or am I dreaming?

We did all the usual Halloweeny type stuff like carving pumpkins...



Spongebob by moi at Maya's request.



Severed cheerleader head by Abby.



The girls dressed up as a zombie and a hippie. We wandered the neighbourhood with friends until we were pretty much the last ones out there. We finally met the new neighbours (they only moved in way back in February). We secretly deposited a freaky looking clown pumpkin on another neighbour's porch. Trust me when I tell you it was so freaky I made Abby sneak it across the street. Also it should be noted that the freaky looking clown prank receiver was totally asking for it (xo JJ). And then Abby and I both lost our voices..... I guess that's karma for ya. So we wrapped up the weekend drinking a lot of tea and watching a lot of Suits and Parks and Rec.

I hope your weekend was just as awesome.

happy thanksgiving

We spent the weekend in the very best way, with family and turkey and dessert. There were walks on the trail with a drunken toddler. Gosh I forgot how long it takes you to walk even a short distance when the little ones have to check out every rock, stick and pebble along the way. Good thing the World's Cutest Nephew has me totally under his charm. There were multiple hands of Apples to Apples and even more hands of Cards Against Humanity once the little ones were safely tucked into bed. My sides are still hurting from the laughing. There were books to read to the World's Cutest Nephew..... and that may have been the only time he sat still all weekend. Little boys are busy, yo! There were stories and laughs to share, dogs to walk, a Gord Bamford concert to squeeze in, a barn to tour, sleepovers to have, breakfast to share, multiple cups of coffee to share, besties to catch up with and Seinfeld to watch. I am so thankful for weekends just like this. For the beautiful people who make up my life and fill my heart. For all of the parents who love us and our kids so very much. For brothers and sisters and friends who most certainly have become family. For days full of plans and jammie days. For good books and family nights. For volunteering and volunteering friends and bloggy friends I've never met. For chocolate cake and pumpkin pie.... oh wait.... not pumpkin pie because, blerg! I m thankful for all the little things that round out this lovely little life we've made here. I hope you all had a lovely weekend as well.

ribbons for everyone

Another bit of fair fun... the whole family entered items to be judged at the fair. I'm not going to lie the night before the entry drop off was Ka Ray Zee! Abby was heavy into the baking this year, we turned the oven on as soon as we got home and I think I finally turned it off at about midnight because Michael was also into the baking this year. On a whim he decided to try and bake a coffee cake and wouldn't you know it he won first place and $10 for his troubles. Mike also tried his hand at penmanship, folk art painting and antiques and walked away with a cool $18 over all. Maya entered some bits of artsy type things, like a Canada Day door decoration (first place!), a piece of her pottery, some paintings and she has a $24 pay day coming to her. Abby got to enter in both the School Fair and the Junior department this year! She baked up cookies, brownies, two kinds of biscuits, and rice krispie squares. As well she entered lots of photographs, some drawings, a very kick ass Canadian Adventure story (starring my girl TC that took 1st place!!) and some other artsy stuff and she came away with $40 Me, I was very happy and proud to take first place in a photo category that was in memory of a friend's father. I baked a tiny bit in amongst Mike and Abby hogging the oven and I kicked Mike's butt in penmanship! Well okay I only scored a 5th, but he didn't place at all, so I can totally do that. The four of us had a lot of fun checking out how we all did with our projects. It was a little chaotic getting it all ready, but I'm really glad we took the time. Can't wait for next year. Have you ever entered something in a fair?

p2a

Every year the Paris to Ancaster race goes pretty much right through our backyard so this afternoon the girls and I dragged ourselves over to the edge of the road and did our duty cheering on some of the hundreds and hundreds of riders that cycled through. We went out there for the purpose of cheering on Abby's bestie when she whipped through town, but as it turns out we had a fun time cheering on all those folks we didn't know as well.

While we were out there we collected....

Seven high fives.
More thank yous than we could count.
And many more waves and nods and tired smiles.
And one guy asked if we would dispose of his garbage. Which we did.

We fielded questions like....
Is this the finish line?
Did I win?
Almost finished, right?

We saw....
Two tandem bikes.
Three trail-a-bikes.
And one unicycle ridden by what had to be one awesome dude.

The girls and I stood out there for over an hour clapping and waving and being encouraging. We played along with the jokesters..... cyclists are a funny and polite bunch and I'm not just saying that because a bunch of my favourite people are cyclists. 

And we did, of course, cheer on Abby's bestie when she got to town. Although she was mostly past us by the time I realized it was her. They all start to look a like those cyclists. Of course I had my eyes peeled for a "little kid", but those little kids are as big as me now, so that clearly wasn't a strategy that was going to work. All in all the kids and I had a super fun time.

boo

Well Halloween has been and gone and we have a nice evening out trick or treating with friends despite the rain and the wind and the cold. The kids came back with a pretty impressive score that was worth coming home looking like a couple of drowned rats.



None of the kids in my charge (three of them) had any interest in checking out the local haunted house in our church basement. My girl ML helped to set it up and was freaking herself out doing it, so I breathed a little sigh of relief that we got to bypass that one. Halloween is no longer an anxiety inducing holiday for me, but I'm really not looking to push my luck.



Also all these dang kids are getting too tall. I kept mistaking The Abster's bestie for a parent in the dark so I was constantly "losing her". Don't worry JJ, no children were actually lost.... this year.



Mom! Mom! Mom! Phineas and Ferb are carving themselves into a pumpkin!!


And that was our Halloween. I was actually sorry it was over.... what's that now, Shanny's liking Halloween. Who would have ever thought it?

How was yours?

i want some cash

Mike is a social guy. He tries to tell you he's not and he claims to hate small talk, but you'd never know it if you ran into him at a function or even grocery shopping. So when he told me he was meeting a friend for "10 minutes" the other night, I thought the kids and I would tagalong because I knew during the time they were talking I could get some work done at the fairgrounds where they were meeting. It's only about two weeks until the fair opens and there is still lots to do in our little corner. I won't be that long, I promise. There's no point to you coming with me because I'm literally going to be 10 minutes. Just stay here with the kids and I'll be back soon. This conversation was brought on by the fact that Abby was off at her bestie's house and Maya was running around the backyard and they needed showers etc. So off I sent him on his own.

I was brushing and braiding Maya's hair after her bath and Abby was in the shower when Mike came strolling back in the house a full 90 minutes after he left. Well that was the longest 10 minutes in the history of forever I remarked. Turns out his friends had taken him geo-caching after their 10 minute meeting and the dude is hooked. He may have geo-cached on his own a couple of times after work this week and the whole family geo-cached on our way home from the library the other night.



This geo-cache.... which this chick found after watching Mike walk around in circles for 5 minutes :)...... was located at the edge of the cemetery where Mike's grandparents are buried. Once we were done we headed over to pay our respects. The four of us huddled around the front of the stone talking about the grandparents Mike doesn't remember when Mike says, Is it okay to take a picture of a headstone? And before I could get my mouth open Abby piped up, Yeah, it's okay, but I wouldn't post it on instagram. She's quick, that one!

Mike and Abby went back out and found one more last night and the good news is we live very close to a trail dotted with lots of them because it looks like this is going to become our new family favourite activity.

Have you ever geo-cached before?

family fun night

I love our weekly trips to the library. I'm endlessly fascinated by what the girls pick out all on their own. These days we hit the door and every one scatters to their different areas of interest. Maya has been on a real Robert Munsch kick, which I'm enjoying as much as she is. This week she came home with the Paper Bag Princess which we've read many times and own a copy of ourselves, but this one had a different lay out so it required a borrow.

Abby spends a lot of time looking through the documentaries and even borrowed pilates to try, but then she broke her thumb so we never gave it a go after all. She's intrigued by the Boy in the Bubble, but it hasn't been in the last few times we've gone. She's also checking out the classics and by classics I mean movies that we're big when Mike and I were kids. On tap for this weekend... Raiders of the Lost Ark..... on Blue Ray!

birthday dinner

While yesterday was Mom's official birthday, today we gathered the whole damn gang together to eat some grilled meats, salad, pretty purple potatoes and, of course, birthday cake. We're always happy when Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel are able to join us for family celebrations. Of course we always wish they could stay longer. Today was just a short one day type of visit, but a little visit is always infinitely better than no visit at all.



Even better Uncle Dave did all the bbqing because he's awesome like that. They also brought the most delicious sausage (maple bacon!!!)  with them. It's so good it's almost worth moving up north for. Almost. Most likely we'll stay down here and have them bring it to us. Yep, that works.



It wasn't a fancy night, by any stretch of the imagination, but perfect none the less.



Granny was suitably loved on and she had happy birthday sung to her twice because Maya missed the first time around.She got caught up in a game of fetch with Adelaide, you know how it goes.



Happy birthday again Mom. Love you!

elwood strikes again

Today the Elwood plan was a bit on the elaborate side. Got to keep that ten year old guessing, ya know. So I wrote two notes. One that asked them to tidy up and get ready to go out, seeing as how we were wasting away the morning laying around the living room. The other note I wrote and left in the mail box for my sweet Mama. Our plan had been to take the girls swimming at Brant Park. So Granny showed up with note in hand that had been [wink wink] left at her place [/wink wink] with instructions from Elwood to bring it to the girls. The note said Elwood wanted them to go swimming and to ask Granny if she wanted to come along, but alas Granny didn't have her suit.... or did she? Elwood said to check the trunk of Granny's car and what do you know...... there was Granny's suit, towels and even a picnic dinner.

Very big grin! The kids were completely gobsmacked!

I had never been to or even heard of Brant Park before, but the girls were camping there earlier this summer and fell in love with the pool and it's easy to see why. I mean it's huge and lagoon style. Is that what they call it? You walk into it like you would a lake.



This was actually the first time I'd been swimming this summer. Way to leave until the last minute, eh? It was great to see what a little fish Maya has become. She's a champion dog paddler, but when you get her under the water she's a torpedo. We swam/walked a few laps around that giant pool ensuring the kids and I were thoroughly beat by the end of the day. The black lines represent where the bottom begins to drop off. The pool does have two areas that are marked off by buoys if you wanted to keep your littler ones corralled in one area.



Today was a great day to go because we pretty much had the place to ourselves. It gave the kids lots of room to play Marco Polo. Inflatable toys of any kind are not allowed in the pool, which was kind of nice not to have to keep track of anything other than ourselves. Of course one of the kids dropped the only pair of goggles we had with us. The ones made out of clear rubber. As luck would have it I ended up stepping right on them, which still boggles my mind. I mean the pool is like an acre. Oh and it has a little splash pad for the littles or us old ladies who are trying to ease into cool pool water.



The admission was very reasonable, it only cost $20.50 for the four of us to spend the day at the park. It's $5.50 just for the park and an extra dollar if you want to swim for adults, $2.75 with the extra dollar swimming charge for the kids.



They don't allow food in the pool area, so we stepped out to the picnic tables just outside the pool for a little picnic. Maya may have eaten some chocolate.... maybe...... before we went back to swim some more. The pool is open from 11am - 7:30pm.



It was a really great day with my Mom and my baby girls..... can you tell by those smiles? Thanks Elwood, for the trip.

guess who's back

So this summer has been insanely busy, but low key at the same time. We've had lots of functions to attend and obligations to uphold, but we haven't really done much in the way to family fun stuff with the kids. Mike and I are off this week, the kids go back to school next week and I thought summer should go out with a bang! So I brought Elwood out of hiding!

I almost blew the whole thing out of the water since Abby saw me with the "Elwood paper" in my hand before I wrote the note. Luckily I had just written the grocery list on the same paper, so I able to put her off. Although I'm not 100% sure she let the argument go for my sake or her's or her little sister's because even when she was questioning the existence of Elwood she was doing it quietly so Maya didn't hear.

Today's note instructed the girls to get cleaned up and ready to head out the door at 11:45am. We got ready and low and behold there was a another note waiting. This one instructed us to head over to the Meadowlands and open the sealed envelope when we got there. The envelope had movie passes and instructions to see the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie and so we did.

So the movie was good, the popcorn tasty and the kids were thrilled with their treat from Elwood. I can't wait to have more Elwood fun for the rest of this week.

i love a parade

It was time once again for one of my favourite nights of the year, the Cactus Fest parade. Although I'm still unclear about why it's a *cactus* fest up here in the frozen tundra. I guess I could google it, but meh. I think it's safe to say this parade is a family favourite. I'm not really sure why. Maybe because it's on a warm summer evening. Perhaps it's because of the gaggle of girlfriends and kids that we meet up with. Maybe it's the band in the short shorts... which actually didn't seem to be all that short. They were so long this year I was forced to pick a new favourite marching band..... behold, the top hat band!



Aren't they awesome? They were certainly pleased with taking me on as their brand new number one fan They actually stopped, mid parade, for a little visit.



Maybe it's because you never know what sort of fun things are going to happen at a parade. Things like this....



This is Maya's begging for cotton candy face. Pathetic, isn't it? I didn't fall for it though.

Oh and Maya had the chance to hand feed a wild animal.



It was pretty much the most uh-maw-zing moment of her day.



I got to satisfy my babylust.



And we laughed and trash talked and gossiped and contemplated buying french fries and my purse filled up with candy and flyers and book marks and a whole bunch of pencils. Yep, it was a good night.

tale as old as time

It's been a while since we had a girls night out with Grandma Linda. Traditionally we do Girls Day over March Break at Disney on Ice. Our plan was to do that again this year until we realized that Disney was replaying the exact same show they did a few years ago. So we skipped Disney on Ice this year, but never really organized anything else.

Then our completely adorable and uber talented choir director was playing Belle in a production of Beauty and the Beast. Seemed like the perfect Girls Day set up.




It may have been Girls Day, but the girls ditched us pretty quickly when they were offered front row seats with Belle's family. I do love to see their expressions when we're on an outing like this, but this was an offer to good to refuse. "Belle" started the show right in front of the girls, which they thought was the best thing ever. I found out later that as she started to sing the opening song my kids were whispering her name. Thankfully she thinks they are adorable.

As I mentioned, Belle is uber talented and she did an amazing job. She's a natural for sure. By the time we got to the curtain call, I was overwhelmed. I know, you're all shocked. Honestly, though I get in a situation like that and knowing Belle and her family..... well I know if she was my daughter I'd be busting with pride (and her family was, without a doubt) and the next thing you know I am drowning in empathy. That's how I roll.





After the show the girls waited patiently for their turn to give Belle a squeeze and tell her what a wonderful job she had done. It was a really great night, for all involved! And of course the girls have declared it the best day ever! Thanks Grandma Linda for another fantastic Girls Day!

this weekend by the numbers

500 meatballs made
12kg pasta cooked
100+ people fed
$900+ raised for the Canadian Cancer Society
1/2 a bottle of hair dye applied
378 hugs exchanged
0.002 seconds spent with my brother
753 cyclists cheered on
1 cup of tea with two of my favourite people
countless thank yous

egged

We got egged!







This surprise egg hunt was waiting for us when we got home from church Sunday morning.





We have some pretty awesome people in our lives!





Thanks Easter Bunny!