happy birthday granny

And just like that summer vacation is a wrap and what a fun summer it was!



Luckily we got to wrap it up in the best possible way. Celebrating Granny's birthday with an early (and ginormous) lunch, so kids who are starting school tomorrow could get to bed early and World's Cutest Nephews that live a million miles away could get back home in reasonably good time.

I am sure all of your families are perfectly delightful, but I have the absolute best one out there. True story. Lunch was a real collaboration. Uncle Dave and I prepped and cooked. Michael barbecued, the girls occupied TWCN and Auntie Mel kept the Grannies company.

We shot an absolutely epic family picture, where everyone's smiling except one disgruntled family member. I won't be so rude as to call them out in such a public space, but everyone who looked at the shot afterwards laughed their faces off. Even the disgruntled one.

We drank a million coffees and a couple of bottles of wine. The grandkids completely charmed their Grandmother (easily done, as I am sure you can imagine). There were lawn tractor rides, after Abby was done cutting the grass of course. And an absolutely adorable gluten free cake.

It was the perfect way to celebrate the lady who..... well there are hardly words..... my Mom is just great, not perfect, but she has never done anything less than the very best for all of us and she continues to be our Mom and takes care of us in ways we don't always realize we even need. Before you even realize you need her.... there she is. Her heart is always in the right place and we are so lucky she gets to be our Mom and even better.... Granny to our kids. We love you Mom, hope you enjoyed your day xoxo

happy bitrhday mama

Well it's September which means were on the cusp of the busy busy busy season here in Blogmotherland, even still we did manage to sneak away for the day to help Granny celebrate her birthday up North with half of the Hipsters and the World's Cutest Nephew.



She may be the tiniest bit over the moon about this little guy... it's so hard to tell. As always when the family is all together it was a great visit, but too short. Just over 4 hours of driving for 6 hours of visiting, but totally worth it.



We spoiled Granny the best we could with iced coffee treats and some homemade goodies, but we know the best gift was us just being able to make the trip. Actually we gave her the best gift we ever could have and left her with all three grandbabies while us "big kids" hit up Costco for some lunch supplies.

Anyone who's had the pleasure of being able to meet my Mom in person (and I so wish you all could) knows she's just the best Mom and Granny anybody could ask for. She's very likely the strongest person I know, having seen this entire family through times that would have completely leveled some people. There is no possible way she, herself, could have thought that she had it all together, that she had a steady hand on the wheel of the ship all these year, that she was 100% unshakeable no matter what got tossed her way. I know that for certain because I am her now.

I haven't had to deal with the kind of curveballs that she had by my age, but I am wading my way through raising these girls into kick ass adults and in no way does my hand feel steady. In no way do I have it even close to all together and I am completely shakeable. I guess the trick is making it seem the opposite is true to the littles. My Mom has never made me feel anything but safe, secure and protected. There was nothing to worry about growing up in terms of being taken care of. I can only hope to follow in her footsteps half as well.



Wishing the very happiest of birthdays to my wonderful Mom. We love you!!

forty

So today is my 40th birthday and I spent it rather quietly. Last night I thought I'd document the first day of my forties by taking a picture an hour, I hope y'all who follow me on facebook, twitter and/or instagram weren't bored to tears because it was a pretty epically boring old lady day.



It was full of epically delicious food though. Those two were up bright and early to make me some eggs benny with perfectly crispy bacon. There was birthday cake before lunch and more birthday cake after dinner. YOTFO*, right? My fortune cookie was perfect, my dinner companions the best and ML and I won all three hands of Sequence! Undefeated!!! I read a bunch and laid on the couch and collected birthday hugs.

I managed to keep the weeping to a minimum as my phone pinged all day with texts and facebook/instagram alerts. All that love is pretty overwhelming and I appreciate it all so very much. Thank you to everyone who took a moment to send birthday wishes my way. I am truly blessed to have you all in my life. xo

this is 40 for him

While we love a lot of things about our house it is not an ideal entertaining house in the winter. Over a hundred years ago when this house was built the words "open concept" and "entertaining space" had not yet been uttered, but none of those things deterred us from stuffing it to the gills with some of our very best friends to celebrate Michael's 40th birthday.

It was my favourite type of evening. Time spent laughing and talking with the people that make our life incredible. There was a completely perfect level of trash talk, funny stories, hugs, laughs, and hide and seek..... just the kids were playing that one. Rumor has it there was also an over abundance of food. At a Revill event? Unheard of! We had some surprises guests and some early leavers, but we were happy to have everyone here even if just for a little while.

So thank you to all the fine folks that came to help Mike celebrate a milestone birthday. Thank you for spoiling the birthday boy, completely unnecessary, your presence was gift enough, but the gesture was very much appreciated. Thank you all for being such a giant part of the good in our lives. If you had even a fraction of the fun that we both had, we'll declare it a rousing success! Much love to each and every one of you! xo

to me

So it was my birthday yesterday. If you ask Maya, I turned 23, but the rest of the world isn't buying that story. I did in fact turn 39 and as I said to the friends we had dinner with... I do not yet feel like a grown up. I mean, I'm pretty sure my Mom was a grown up by the age I am now. Well it seemed like it to me. I wonder if I seem like I'm a grown up to mine?

I had a pretty great day. Shopping with Grandma Linda in the morning. I was not planning on looking at any clothes, seeing as how the stuff I bought at Christmas is already too big, but she insisted and oh my gosh.... it is really fantastic for your ego to try on clothes on your 39th birthday that are way smaller than the sizes you were buying only 4 months ago. Trust me. I don't think I had really seen the physical changes in my body until yesterday. Wow! And it's hard for me to say that. I'm not one for bragging on myself.

My birthday is awkward for me. I have no hang up about age. I mean, the facts may tell you that I am indeed 39, but I don't feel 39 in any way, shape or form. I have a hard time accepting all the loveliness people send my way. It overwhelms me, emotionally. I feel it's more than I deserve, which isn't to say I think poorly of myself, but rather I don't understand why anyone is making a fuss over little ole me, if that makes any sense. If you happened to be shopping at the mall yesterday.... that was me weeping in the middle of the walkway because my shopping trip with Grandma Linda was just too much. I sound like fun huh? I just can't help it. Maybe because I know how much it's worth, all that loveliness.

Dinner we spent with very old, very dear friends and a new buddy. There were lots of laughs, some trash talk and some really delicious food. Singapore Street Noodles.... oh my yum! In a nutshell it was pretty much a perfect evening. My friends, they spoiled me. Facebook spoiled me with all the birthday love it sent my way. My phone pinged all day with messages. Thanks to all of you who took a few minutes to send a message my way. Each one made my day brighter. Much love to each and every one of you! xo

friday high five - a birthday edition

Today is a big day here at the blogmother ranch (which is not a ranch, we just like to live with illusions of grandeur), today is Michael's birthday. Celebrated in typical low key Michael fashion... hanging out with some of our besties, playing BINGO. Yep, BINGO! Put together as a special birthday treat by our little buddy Ben.

In honour of my main guy's birthday he gets to be the star of this week's Friday High Five. So my list of 5 things I love about the big lug is part of a bigger list of a 100. You can click on that little linky thing over there if you want to read the whole deal.

#63 He pushes me to take care of me. Sure, I hardly ever listen to him when he tells me to go to bed early, but still he keeps telling me.
#63 He secretly likes iCarly, despite what he tells the girls.
#64 He's just so likable... I have often said, if you don't like Mike, then the problem is likely with you.
#65 He makes me an egg white omelet every morning for breakfast.
#66 He makes the girls' lunches most days... even though they prefer that I make them.

Happy birthday Michael xo

milestone for maya

Today Maya got to experience her first birthday party with friends from school. We sent invitations to six kids in her class and one to a friend of Abby's. Out of the seven only two were able to come. I thought she might be disappointed with that, but in the end I think the party was the perfect size for her. There were a couple of moments were she seemed a bit overwhelmed with the attention being focused on her. Specifically when her guests (a set of twins) arrived and then again when we sang to her, but she bounced back very quickly. I'm not entirely convinced she would have bounced back so quickly if it was a larger group.

It was a very low key party. She wanted to watch Despicable Me, her favourite movie these days, have pizza, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting and like her big sister she collected canned goods instead of gifts. Well that's what the invite said, but the boys brought her a couple of puzzles tucked into the bag of groceries. I always find it curious when people do that..... bring a gift in addition to the donation that was requested in lieu of. What would you do in that situation? Just curious.

So they watched the movie while they coloured the Despicable Me colouring pages I printed out. After pizza and cake they moved off to the toy room to play some Wii for the last 30 minutes. Really it was perfect party for her. She says she had the best time, but she's having a hard time grasping that she's not five quite yet.....

Maya: I'm five!!
Me: Not until Wednesday, honey.
Maya: But we had my party.
Me: I know, but your birthday isn't until Wednesday.
Maya: But the twins were here.
Me: Yes, but today was just your party.
Maya: But there was cake and everyone said happy birthday Maya.

....and lather, rinse, repeat.

happy birthday grandma sandi

So Saturday was the night of the big rockin' 60th birthday party for Grandma Sandi. It was a real collaborative effort to pull the whole thing off. Papa OldBeard was not used to be on this side of the party planning duties and his nervousness that the whole party go off without a hitch was equal parts cute and annoying and I mean that in the sweetest way possible.

It was great to be able to hang out with family members I don't often get to hang with, even though I should.. like... all the time, because they are some super funny peeps.



My sisters-in-law showed up with that giant plant. I don't even want to tell you how many "giant bush" jokes that led too.... you know, because we're 12. Ahahahaha it still makes me laugh just thinking about it.



I could not resist these roses for Grandma Sandi. Aren't they just gorgeous?



My girls, of course, were right in the thick of it for present time.



I was insanely happy with how the cake turned out and so was Grandma Sandi.



It was just a great night. Lots of laughs and lots of love. If everybody had half as much fun as I did, then we did okay!

happy birthday

Sixty years ago today my Mom was born, the third child and second daughter to my Polish grandparents in the great province of Manitoba.



I'm a very sappy girl when it comes to my Mom. I love her tremendously and appreciate her more than I could ever adequately explain. Things weren't easy after my Dad died, but she saved us. She got us through and made sure that Uncle Dave and I grew up to be functioning members of society. I'm not sure how you say thank you for something like that.



Happy Birthday Mom! I love you!

happy happy birthday

So yeah, yesterday was not my best day. And, thanks everybody for the kind words. Things always seem better in the light of a new day. Which doesn't really mean that everything was solved and made right over night, but I feel better able to manage it all. My house is clean, my kids were dolls and I spent the evening volunteering at the fairgrounds hanging artwork in the school fair building. All things that make my heart happy.

Another thing that makes my heart happy.... friends. Today is my dear friend ML's birthday. You all know what a true blessing I consider Robin, my oldest bestest friend... would you hate me if I told you I have another one just like her? I like to call ML an old new friend. You see I've known ML for lots of years and her husband for even longer than that. We live in a ridiculously small village, it's almost impossible for us not to know each other.

Somewhere there was shift and I couldn't even pinpoint when it occurred. Was it when Mike and I started giving our time to the Parent's Council at Abby's school. ML was co-chair when we joined. She was co-chair - with Michael - this past school year. Was it when they gave us a hand with a fair function Mike was helping to organize? We would have been sunk if ML & T hadn't been able to help us out. Was it when we made them dinner as thanks for their help? Was it when Mike showed up at the farm to give T a hand when he knew T needed it? Was it when ML & I started walking together once a week. FYI those walking dates have since turned into GLEE! watching while knitting dates. I'm not sure. Maybe one of those things naturally led to the other and here we are with new best friends. Whatever it was I'm glad it brought us to this.

Like Robin, ML is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. She is never stingy with the hugs and she loves my girls to bits. She's never too tired to put on her nurse hat and give me medical advice. She's popped by the house to check on a potential case of fifth's disease (it wasn't), sprains (they weren't), chicken pox (it was) and more I can't think of now. We've shared dim sum, a spa day, lunches, jammie movie nights, many volunteer hours, shopping trips and a laugh filled weekend in Toronto. She encourages me and believes in me, even when I don't. She loves to just pop in (easy when you're just down the street... are you listening to me Robin... down the street there's houses for sale there.... you too Karen!) and doesn't mind (or judge) if the house looks like we let goats live in here. She folds my laundry and washes my dishes (by hand the last time she was here!). Even better she has a really great husband who's a really great fit with my husband. And for the cherry on top... ML & Robin.... like peas and carrots. What more could a girl ask for?

Happy birthday ML!

*what's cooking wednesday will return tomorrow

survivor

So we recently hosted a Survivor themed birthday party for Abby's little chums. It was great fun and I highly recommend it as a party theme. I think this is one of those big childhood memories Abby's is going to take with her into adulthood. We did take lots of pictures, but they include kids other than my own and since some folks ain't down with publishing their lives on the internet, I've got none to share with you, but trust me they are awesome and if you're lucky enough to be in my facebook posse then you've already seen them.

So how did we pull off a Survivor Party?

Here's how....

ML had the genius idea of picking up "buffs" for the teams. She showed up here on party day with orange and blue banadanas. We had divided the kids into teams with some input from the birthday girl. So ML labeled each one and helped the kids put them on.

As the guests arrived Abby handed out plastic leis I had picked up at the dollar store to serve as immunity necklaces, that way no one could get voted out of the party. Once the kids were outfitted in their buffs and immunity necklaces the kids got together with their tribe to come up with a tribe name and cheer. Then we started the challenges.

The challenges were fun, some we came up with ahead of time, others came to us on the fly. We did coconut bowling, which the kids loved so much we ended up making it a best two out of three event. I picked up bottles of bubbles at the dollar store to serve as pins.... also the kids got to take a bottle home with them afterward. At the grocery store I grabbed two coconuts to serve as the ball. Each tribe member got to "roll" two coconuts the length of our deck to knock over as many pins as they could. Mike and I did our best to pick out coconuts that were far from round, just to make it fun. That game got high marks from the tribes.

To be fair I think that one was our most survivor-esque challenge, the rest were typical games you'd see at a family reunion. We did a bean bag toss, threw a frisbee at a target, had a water relay race where they had to get water from one bucket to another... and the buckets were at opposite sides of the yard... and they only had a small cup.... and the cup had a hole in it. That was fun. We did an egg in spoon race an different variations of balloon races, one they had to hold the balloon between their knees, another race they had to hold it between two tribe members.

We broke the games up with two breaks, one for lunch about an hour in (it was a three hour party) and one for cupcakes about an hour later. I made volcano cupcakes, which was way easier than it sounds. I baked and iced cupcakes and then topped them with an upside down sugar cone I had cut the pointy end off about a quarter of the way down. I tinted a bit of icing orange and then warmed it for 30 seconds in the microwave so I could drizzle it down the sides of the sugar cone just like flowing lava.

After the second break we had about 30 minutes or so left in the party, so we made it "free play" time. We had them play freeze tag, but they played as their tribes. So one tribe member from each team was it and they could only tag the opposite team. We played a few rounds of that, then we threw in some wax museum, duck duck goose and hot potato.

It was a very simple party to throw and it didn't break the bank either. I think I spent $40 at the dollar store for supplies and than included "loot bags" which weren't actually loot bags. I picked up artist canvases that came with acrylic paints and brushes and the best part... they had a jungle scene already printed on them. So it was kind of like a coloring page, but on a canvas stretched over a frame. The kids took home a painting, a bottle of bubbles from bowling and some of my famous chocolate chip cookies.

I could definitely see having another Survivor party next year since we had ideas for games we didn't use, like puzzle building races (25 piece puzzles in a brown paper bag, no picture to work from), bug or worm eating contest using gummy worms/bugs, scavenger hunt and an obstacle course. I'll have to pay close attention to the challenges on the next season of survivor to see if there is anything we can use.

Abby was thrilled with the entire event, declaring it the best party ever! I had such fun with the whole thing, ML was awesome as our very own Jeff Probst of the party. It was just the best.

a very random post party wrap up

We had planned on having Abby's party here. Just a "small" backyard barbecue. Well small in this family ends up being about 20 people and that's just with Grandparents, Godparents, Aunts, Uncles and a smattering of cousins. All week the weather report went back and forth between "maybe showers" and "definitely a lot of rain". So we moved the whole she-bang to Papa and Grandma Linda's since they have more indoor entertaining space than we do. Luckily we survived the evening with the odd sprinkling of rain every now and then.



Tinkerbell was the theme of the cake this year. Abby actually wanted all the fairies, but I convinced her that Tinkerbell would be plenty. I had planned on starting on the cake Friday night, but instead spent it cuddled up on the couch watching Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium with the girls. It seemed a better way to spend my time. Of course that meant I was up at 5:30 am the next morning to get started on the cake. It actually came together quite easily as did the cupcakes... because there's no such thing as too much cake.



I am always endlessly grateful that Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel are willing to make the trek for the girl's parties. Especially those times that they can't spend the night. That means they've got at least 4 hours of driving time in one day, but they do it and never complain. And they always come up with some super cool gifts... it was a magic set this time. Abby was thrilled.



The kids pretty much entertained each other, while Maya tried her hardest to keep up. She was the youngest by three years, but she did okay. Of course the real fun was when Papa got out the lawn tractors and let the bigger kids drive them around the backyard. And wouldn't you know it, my kid was one of the bigger kids. All the kids thought this was the greatest thing ever. Although I have my suspicions that Papa was having at least as much (and likely even more) fun riding around with them.

It was all I could have asked for. Just a great relaxed night with my family. The food was excellent and there was too much in the leftovers department. Good thing, so Mike and I can both get back on track with the WW. We had a great time on our vacation and the scale definitely showed that. So while we enjoyed the potato salad, mexican pizza, devilled eggs, meatballs, macaroni salad and burgers it was nice not to bring home a lot of tempting treats.

Now I just have to figure out how to throw a Survivor party for a bunch of 8 year olds next Saturday and we can officially put a cap on the birthday celebrating.

And how was your weekend?

wasn't that a party

We've been having a great time tonight, celebrating Abby's birthday with family that came from near and far. We ate too much very good food. We talked and laughed and hugged. There was cake and presents and tractor rides. The rain held off in a kinda. sorta, good enough kind of way. It was just the best night with the best people. I wish we could do that every weekend.

I do have pictures to share, but I'm not feeling like testing the limits of my internet connection. Folks, I am beat! I was up at the crack of dawn this am and pretty much ran all day long. I'll leave you with this though... I make one damn cute Tinkerbell cake. Also my family rocks. For real life. I am thankful everyday that these are my people!

happy birthday baby

Well today is my Michael's birthday and in honour of this fine day I baked him a delicious chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. I know what you're thinking... that Shanny is a pretty awesome wife... and you are exactly right to think that, but here's further proof. I gave up my date with my not so secret boyfriend Jim Halpert in honour of the birthday festivities. Yep, missed out on the brand new episode of The Office. That is true love right there folks. And now I'm off to bed... after I set the PVR to record Jim, Pam, Michael & Dwight... oh Angela, Nard-dog, Stanley, Phyliss, Creed, Erin, Oscar, Toby, The Temp and Meredith too. Oh and Darryl, how could I forget hardworking Darryl down in the warehouse?

Happy birthday Mike. I love you more every day. There isn't a single person I'd rather be taking this crazy adventure with.

maya's party the good and the bad

The Good: While I focused on decorating Maya's cake and cupcakes my Mom cleaned my house. And I mean really cleaned my house. She vacuumed under the couch cushions and I don't even want to tell you about the collection of Polly Pockets, Little Pets, markers, sippy cups half full of a fermenting milk/cheese product, dust bunnies and various other kid stuff that she found under our couch and two love seats. Oh and she did my laundry.Well I put it into the appropriate machines, but she folded it all.

The Bad: Maya woke up with a fever. I should have realized it when she kept bursting into tears whenever some one so much as looked at her.

The Good: Motrin 8 hour fever reducer.

The Bad: It wore off exactly as we were having dinner and I had forgotten the bottle at home. Thankfully it was a short trip back home, but until it kicked in I had to eat my dinner with her on my lap. Just like the newborn days.

The Good: She did want to eat Doritos, so she'd get down off my lap, walk over to the buffet table and bring herself back one chip, climb into my lap and eat it, then get down and repeat the process.

The Bad: TLP "helpfully" brought Maya a little cup full chips so she wouldn't have to walk over and get them one at a time. TLP didn't realize I was using that little break to actually eat my own dinner. The look on her face was pretty funny though when she did figure it out, which was right after I told her the benefits of having Maya walk to the buffet table one chip at a time. I still love ya though, TLP.

The Good: Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel took care of all the food set up while I set up with craft table and dealt with......

The Bad: No water. As soon as we got to to the hall we realized there was no water coming out of any of the taps and we had 20 people coming for dinner in half an hour.

The Good: Papa!! He worked like crazy trying to figure out what happened to the water. When he realized the problem was likely four feet underground somewhere between the church and the manse he filled up buckets of water so we could flush toilets and wash dishes and rejoined the party.

The Bad: We were missing some of our favourite people - ML & her crew, The Mommy Project & her crew.



The Good: Auntie Yoli (and Jena!)!!! Oh my gosh how I miss that girl! Luckily she was off work and the weather co-operated so she could be with her god daughter for her birthday. I am so thankful she made the drive. And Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel, too. Not exactly a short trip for either party.

The Bad: No water made washing dishes a chore.

The Good: Papa & Grandma Linda!! They boiled water folks, to so they could wash the dishes. Seriously! Are they rockstars or what?! And they washed the dishes!! All of them. And then when I thanked them, they both looked at me and said - for what? we didn't do anything. Aww love this family of mine.

The Bad: The first look Maya got at her cake she growled at me - Is that my cake? I don't like Little People on my cake.



The Good: She got over it.

The Good: As Maya opened her gifts she took a break in between each one so she could hug each person individually and say thank you. After she asked if she could share the toy/game/book with her sister. Oh my gosh... heart melting everywhere.



The Good: Perler Beads. Need to occupy kids? Buy a bucket. I promise you will not be disappointed. We had kids from almost 4 to almost 60 quiet and occupied for for the entire evening.

The Good: All the extra hands helping tidy up after dinner!

The Good: Uncle Dave and Auntie Mel spent the night and Auntie Yoli and Jena came back to the house after the party wrapped up. We ended up playing spoons and yes at one point I had dragged Auntie Mel halfway across the kitchen table, both of us hanging on to one end of the same spoon for dear life. Oh and btw, I ended up victorious on that one.

The Bad: Overall I suck at spoons.

The Good: My brother is super funny. His comedic timing knows no bounds.

The Bad: Sometimes he's funny at inopportune times. Like when I'm drinking a bottle of water and then I shoot it out my nose. True story. It's more uncomfortable than you'd think.

The Best: We were with our amazing family celebrating one of our two amazing girls. Does it get any better than that? I mean, really.... who needs water when you have all of that?



Check out all the pictures at flickr

happy birthday heazer

So today is the lovely Heather's birthday! And even though she went off and left us I'm still going to share with you the 26 things I love about her...

1. She is the first official jammie movie night member. Jammie movie night was born after she came over to watch Twilight with me and I warned her I'd likely be in my jammies. She said if I was going to wear mine she was going to wear hers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
2. She is 100% Team Edward.
3. She lent me her Twilight books to read and I am so grateful she did.
4. She is also 100% Team Kate.
5. She makes some kick ass Super Nachoes.
6. For movie night she made them without meat because The Mommy Project is going veggie again.
7. She is an all-star facebook creeper.
8. She usually arrives to visit here with some little treat for the girls. Odds are.... it's chocolate.
9. Her dog Homer is the cutest thing evah! And she spoils him rotten.
10. She has fantastic hair.
11. She has an iphone (oh wait that one of the reasons I'm jealous of her!)
12. She once told me a story that began..... This is so embarrassing I'm not even sure why I'm telling you this but...
13. She recycles.
14. She's joined us for family game night.
15. She popped in a couple of weeks ago just because she had some time to kill... she could have gone shopping.
16. She is a champion shopper.
17. Even still she managed to go an entire month without setting foot into WalMart.
18. She is a funny funny girl. Some of my biggest laughs in the past year have been with her.
19. She's taken care of my facebook farm for me.
20. She makes killer rice krispie treats!
21. Our first date was to the American Idol concert. We big red puffy heart Danny Gokey!
22. She texts me while we are watching our favourite TV shows like Idol and The Office.
23. She's been known to leave me little surprises in the suggestion box.
24. She's really embraced all my friends that have joined us for jammie movie night.
25. She loves my cookies.
26. Her favaourite word is vagina.

Happy birthday my friend! xo

happy birthday mom... oh & what's cooking wednesday too

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday. It was just 59 short years ago that she was born in Manitoba. I always kind of marvelled at the fact that her and my Dad got together in Ontario, when she was born out west and he was born across the ocean in the Channel Islands. Fate is a funny thing. The good news is they did get together and -- as they say -- all because two people fell in love Dave and I exist today. So thanks for being born Mom. Thanks to my grandparents for having one more (and the two "one mores" than came after my Mom).



It's really hard to sum up my Mom in a few words on a "page". She is just so much to me. Without a doubt, she saved us. She is what kept this little family of ours going through some extremely dark and painful times. I'm not sure how she managed to keep herself together, let alone us, but she did. Even if it was only just when we were looking. Being a Mom, now myself, I can appreciate a little bit better what she gave to us. I could write a million words and never feel that I've been adequately grateful nor be able to fully explain how much I love her. Happy Birthday Mom!



And since this is my WCW post I have to thank my Mom for my mad baking skillz. Growing up she made the baking and decorating stuff look easy. I'm glad I had such a great teacher. And it's safe to say you can blame my frosting obsession on her. So whenever you're rolling your eyes and thinking - great another frosting recipe - just make sure to add a "thanks Diane" to the end.




What is What's Cooking Wednesday and how can I play?

What's cooking Wednesday was born out of a desire to get out of that what's for dinner rut. Playing is easy, on Wednesday post a recipe that has been tried and tested by you and then pop over here and add your name to the Mr. Linky. When entering your name also add the name of the recipe in brackets and make sure you link to your What's Cooking Wednesday post and not just your blog's front page. *All front page links will be deleted!* Don't make me be a jerk. And don't forget to link back here, the home of What's Cooking Wednesday.

So for example I would write Shan (Speedy Chicken Stir Fry) in the name section. For the URL section I would post this: http://shanrev.blogspot.com/2007/10/whats-cooking-wednesday-speedy-chicken.html

I'll let you in on a little secret, my WCW recipes are almost never made on a Wednesday. So feel free to cook and photograph whenever you have time and join us posting on Wednesday

michael

Well even though Mike's birthday was at the beginning of the month, we didn't get around to celebrating it with my Mom until March Break. She cooked up his favourite thing for dinner and bought him a maple walnut cheesecake. And I let her even though I hate maple walnut. But that's not even what this post is about. This post is all about the birthday candles which Mom and I happened to find at Zellers.



They spell out his name. How cool is that? Or how pathetic are we that we thought this was the coolest thing ever when we found them? And for the record, I wanted to get the ones that spelled out Mike, but my Mother pointed out that Michael was the same price, so why not get more bang for our buck? Smart woman she is.

And we'll close out the post with a rare family portrait.

they say it's your birthday

Today is Mike's birthday and that seems reason enough to list a few more of the reasons why I love him....

#53 He's a man who wears crocs.... outside and even sometimes off the property.
#54 He's always willing to help Abby navigate webkinz world online.
#55 He lets the kids have control of the TV when we get home from school/work.
#56 Gives a pretty great foot rub... (when he feels like it)
#57 He gave up the computer so I could write this and then head up to bed early early early.
#58 He helped me tidy the house and put both kids to bed even though it's his birthday and I totally would have let him slack off.
#59 That he's willing to play along with the girls and their wild imaginations.

Happy birthday Michael... love you!!

tiny moment - grandma linda's birthday cake

Tomorrow is Grandma Linda's birthday, but we celebrated it earlier this week so Abby wouldn't miss out on the party. Although being in the middle of a rushed and busy week I'm not sure you could necessarily call it a party. Papa ended up having to work. Grandma Linda showed up with her own cake and a used one at that. And we actually forgot to sing happy birthday. Something I didn't realize until about an hour and a half ago. And now I have a headache.

*note to self - make sure Grandma Linda's birthday is kick ass next year!

What more can I say about Grandma Linda that I haven't already said. She is an amazing lady. This family could not function without her. She deserves the best of everything! Happy birthday, Grandma Linda. We love you!!

Now back to the cake. It was an ice cream cake and, of course, it was frozen. It never occurred to me that Maya may need some help with it, but as they say necessity is the mother of invention.