playing catch up - winter 2017

This winter has been filled with travels for both Cal and I. I kicked off the year by heading to Denver for a conference in January, which was fantastic. As someone who is typically developing and delivering learning sessions of all kinds, it was sooooo nice to sit back and just be a learner. I soaked up my three days there, and enjoyed my first trip to Colorado, though I didn't get to travel much beyond the hotel. Of course I was there just days after Trump's inauguration which made for an interesting time to travel to the States. But that's probably a story for another day! 

At the beginning of February, I also got to hop on a plane to Vancouver for a quick wedding weekend! Much of my dad's family - including my mum, dad, brother and sister in law - were in attendance as my cousin was married in a lovely winter ceremony. Of course, we choose only to come to town at the most exciting times, and Vancouver was experiencing their biggest snowstorm in years, shattering many snowfall records seen in their history. For us Ontarians, the snow was pretty minimal, but it makes you appreciate the city services we have in place for snow removal! It sure made for some stunning wedding pictures though! More importantly, we had the majority of our cousins together for the first time in years. I was only in town for about 48 hours, but I soaked up every minute with the cousins who I adore, and just wish that I was able to see more frequently. 

A couple weeks later, it was Cal's turn to hop on a plane, when he headed off on his annual Daytona 500 trip. He certainly didn't experience any snowfall, and instead enjoyed a week of fun in the sun with the other side of my family! The girls and I held down the fort while - I assume - he drank beer, attended races, hung with my family, drank beer, drove fast cars and drank a little more beer. A well deserved mini-vacation for my hard-working mister. 

In April, Cal was off once again to spend Easter weekend in Calgary with one of his oldest friends and his family. Living multiple provinces apart means that we don't see these friends as often as we'd like, so it was such a nice opportunity for him to go visit, and spend time with D, Katie and their three sweet little kiddos. While most of the time was spent in Calgary, he and D also took a 3-hour detour for a night in Edmonton to see John Mayer on his recent tour.

I'll try to stay away from mentioning my favourite story from his Calgary trip - the one where Cal left for his flight that first morning and called me just before 6am from his airport gate to let me know he'd lost his wallet...and his keys. Thankfully, he was flying out of the Hamilton airport, so the girls and I hopped in the car and saved the day with his spare set of keys that opened the truck where his wallet had fallen out. After holding up the plane, he hopped on and made his way to Calgary... but right, I'll stay away from mentioning that. :) 

Now it's May and we're staying put a little bit more! The boat is out of storage, and once it actually warms up around here, we are so ready to get it out for a ride. Lady M has the countdown on until the last day of school, and I'm looking forward to getting through the push to the end of the school year, and taking a little time off over the summer to spend with my fam. 

playing catch up - fall 2016

Well, talk about falling behind in my blogging duties! It seems I haven't written in nearly a year, which is just crazy seeing as there has been no shortage of stories and happenings in our little world...but it just goes to show how time really does fly. With a summer filled with boating, vacation time and another visit to our camp, September was quickly upon us. So, let's play a little catch up, beginning with the fall of 2016:

Starting School 
In September my beautiful girls began another year of school with Lady M heading off to Grade 3 and her little sister, Lady A, making her way into the trenches of Senior Kindergarten. Lady M began on the Tuesday after Labour Day and was quite excited about the teacher and classmates she had. Her happiness lasted just one month before school numbers forced some reorganization within the school and she found herself moved into a grade 2/3 split class with a teacher whom she feared quite a lot. It seemed that the change wasn't working so well for her, and my little girl was coming home in tears most days which was absolutely heartbreaking to Cal and I. So, with my parent advocate hat on, I paid a visit to the school, had a great meeting with her teacher and things have only looked up since then. She's had a great year so far...even now that the dreaded EQAO testing is on the horizon. (Provincial-wide testing required in grade 3 for those of you reading outside of Ontario!).

Lady A didn't begin school until the Wednesday after Labour Day which meant she had one whole extra day of summer. Lady M had distinct memories of her extra day she had before beginning SK and recalled that she got to spend the day with her Daddy and visit Marineland. Of course she shared this information with her younger sister, who was SUPER excited that she - naturally - would get this special treatment too! So off she and Cal went to enjoy their father-daughter day (and they had a blast!). Lady A began SK the next day, and while she's very ready to move onto the bigger challenges that grade one will bring, she's had a great year. She loves to take on leadership roles with the younger kids in the class (who are we kidding - she leads the older ones too). When I went in for parent observation in the fall, two little girls (both in JK) were sitting with Lady A and I at the round table and one told me "Lady A is so nice. She always helps me when I need it" - completely melting this mama's heart. Then the other one piped up to add "Lady A always helps me too!". Awwww.

Country Livin'

Ladies M&A watching the Horse Pull at the Fair

Since moving to our new house, we are completely embracing our 'country livin'' lifestyle. Where we live may not be true country to most people, but to us city kids, we basically live in the sticks. (Just ask my brother, who basically thinks I've moved to northern Sweden). We even had a wild turkey run in front of our car the other day when we were heading somewhere; and that happened right near the tractor dealership...so yes, I'd say we're kickin' it country style!

One of our favourite events this fall was heading to the Fair in our town...complete with rickety rides that look like they're going to fall apart, a demolition derby (Cal and the girls went to this!), a goat show and the horse pull which my girls watched with rapt attention! And one of the best parts, is that it's all just a 3 minute walk from our house.

We have also managed to move many of the girls lessons really close to home. Lady M began horseback riding this year, and the barn is just 5 minutes away. She is absolutely loving it - she seems so grown up and responsible when she's around the horses, and has taken to riding like a complete natural. She also started ballet for the first time, and the dance studio is one-minute from our home. Truthfully, I always thought ballet would bore the heck out of her, but after watching her dance a lyrical number at camp this past summer, I was converted. She absolutely loves her ballet class, appreciates the amount of french words in this style of dance, and pirouettes around our house all day long.

So, it would seem that country livin' is treating us quite well.

A Marrying Muffy 
Over Thanksgiving weekend, I happily hopped a plane to Vancouver, then continued on to the small town of Prince George in Northern BC where my beautiful friend Ashley lives. Visiting PG for the first time, Ashley and her fiance Jason showed me around and gave me a chance to see a little bit of their lifestyle after hearing about it for many years.

On my second day there, the three of us hopped in a car and enjoyed a four hour ride to Jasper, Alberta taking in the beautiful scenery along the way. I was over the moon to be her only guest, and maid of honour, at a picturesque wedding in Jasper that weekend. Between rock slides, autumn snowfall, changed flights and countless stories, my best friend married the man of her dreams in a beautiful cabin in the mountains, and we toasted the happy couple at the Jasper Brewing Company for their reception. Now, that's the way to spend Thanksgiving!

8 is Great!
In November, my beautiful oldest girl celebrated her 8th birthday. Seeming more grown up by the minute, we hosted a party for several of her friends where they had the chance to do crafts, decorate cupcakes, play games and just enjoy each other's company. The theme was Harry Potter, and we had a blast putting everything together to somehow recognize her current favourite book. It was Lady M's first birthday in our new house and we had  great time.

Just a few days before, Lady M and I had taken a piping class at our local Michaels store - learning the finer techniques of piping icing onto cakes and cupcakes. The class was just $10 each - a real steal! Having signed up weeks in advance, as they day drew closer, I was fearful that I didn't have all of the cake decorating supplies we needed. So, the morning of the class, I called the store to confirm whether I needed to bring any additional items. The person on the phone said "didn't you get the list when you registered?" Ummm, no. I did not. He then began to rattle off the looooong list of items that Lady M and I required...oh, and we'd need two of everything of course.

So, thanks to the recommendation of a good friend, we learned that the Wilton items were much less expensive at Wal-Mart, so off we went. Well over $100 later, we had everything we needed - so much for that $10 steal of a deal! We arrived to the class to find out it was just the two of us who had registered, which was awesome. We also learned that the kind sales clerk on the phone had only given us 1/2 of the required list of items.

Oh well! We managed just fine and learned all sorts of techniques and had a great time doing it. Lady M is a natural when it comes to this sort of thing, but more importantly, I love having time where she and I can just be together. At 8 she is growing so quickly, and I love any time I get to spend with her.

A Decade 
Just a few days after Lady M's birthday, Cal and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. We even managed to take a day off work and get away for one night, which was lovely. We had a nice escape to Collingwood where we enjoyed dinner out, got our boat into storage and warded off one woman's best attempts to get us to buy into a timeshare!

Most importantly, I'm so grateful to have spent the last ten years happily married to him, and look forward to the next ten!

Holiday Fun

Heading downstairs on Christmas morning

I'm always a fan of Christmastime, and this year was no different. Though I started to wonder if some of the magic was slipping away when Lady M began questioning whether the big guy was real in November. While it seemed like the jig may have been up, she did a complete about face and continued on through the season a true believer.

Both girls had a holiday recital at their school, and unfortunately I couldn't attend Lady A's this year, so Cal and my Dad were there to support her. Lady M had one at her school, and Cal couldn't attend that one, so my dad and I did! Clearly, Dad was the constant on the 2016 recital circuit - I believe he also made it to both of my nephews shows too! Lady M joined the choir this year, so on top of the presentation her grade 3 class did, she also sang numerous songs with the choir - so lovely.

I took the full two weeks off over the holidays, which I just love. I enjoy the time with the kiddos, and knowing that their holiday break is also mine. We visited with family and friends, did crafts, had outings and just enjoyed the down time where we didn't have to wake up and rush out of the door each morning.

On Christmas day, they crept down the stairs in their matching jammies and the day and the rest of the holiday was just lovely.

Cal was able to take some time off over the holidays too, and we headed up north to visit some of his family. Though snow was minimal all over this year, they certainly had more than we did, and we all had a chance to go snowmobiling. It was Lady M's second time, and Lady A's first. It was also my first time - a great experience!

As usual, our fall and early winter were filled with fun adventures, and it was a great way to end 2016.

roy, ahoy!

So, my husband has always wanted a boat. He grew up spending most of his time at the cottage with his grandfather touring around the lake on their boat. It is an activity that holds plenty of fond memories for him, and one that he's always wanted to recreate for our own kids.

While my childhood wasn't filled with boating or a cottage, we spent most summers with our family in Florida. I rode my first jet-ski around the age of 7 and was completely hooked. Of course the weather in Florida is a little more conducive to water sports than it is in Ontario, but that wasn't going to stop us!

We have been talking about it for a number of years, and decided a while ago that we wanted to get a boat. We planned that once we had settled in our new house, we'd take a little time off from travelling and get ourselves a speedboat that would allow for a summer filled with rides on the water, tubing, swimming and just good ol' family time.

Fast forward to this past May: Cal and Lady M were heading out one day a few weeks ago, and I knew they were going by the boat dealership to have a look at some options my hubby had his eye on. He'd been looking online for ages, checking out all of our options. He tends to be very detail oriented in his shopping - learning all he can, perusing every option. So off they went to the dealership to have a look. Just browsing...

...or so I thought.

A short while later I received the call from Cal and Lady M. Their excitement was noticeable right off the bat, and Cal shared excitedly: "Guess what? We're boat owners!"

My reaction was not what he expected. It was lacking the enthusiasm coming from the other end of the phone. Now, please note this caught me off guard on a very busy day. Lady A and I were at home knee-deep in preparations for her birthday party the next day, cleaning, cooking and trying to get her to a hair appointment on time. Not surprisingly, my reaction was not the most positive when I learned that we were boat owners and the excitement that once existed in that red Dodge Ram quickly dwindled.

I carried on with my mile-long to-do list, and our day moved forward. By the next day when the party was over the news of our new watercraft had sunk in. Sure, my sweet husband had jumped the gun a little, but he made a great choice, and upon learning more I was getting really excited too!

Fast forward a couple of weeks, and the boat is now in our possession, and I too have my boating licence. We have docked it in a marina just 20 minutes from our house - and a convenient 5-minute drive from Cal's office. I suspect that if the wifi reaches, our lovely new navy blue Monterey may be his summer office.

We took it for the inaugural family spin this past weekend, and while the water in Lake Ontario was still a little chilly to jump in, the nearly 30 degree temps made for a beautiful afternoon on the water.

Looking forward to many more...

this is 5

Time continues to fly around our home. It seems that I blinked one moment, and the next my youngest little girl, Lady A, turned 5.

A few weeks prior to the big day, excitement was already mounting. There weren't any momentous gifts she was hoping for, but there was one thing: gum. Ahh yes, a nice, fruity piece of gum is what my nearly-five-year-old was genuinely hoping for.

It started back when her big sister, Lady M was about 3. One day, seeing Cal have a piece of gum she asked for one. Cal casually said "you're not old enough to have gum yet", to which Lady M queried:"well, how old do I have to be?" Cal threw a number out into thin air that was seemingly light years away. "You have to be 5" he told her, and she tucked that little nugget away in her spongy 3-year-old brain.

Fast forward to her approaching 5th birthday, and when asked what she wanted, I recall her rattling off a list of things, punctuating it with "and GUM"!! Gum? Cal and I both questioned at the time. Seemed like an odd request, until she said "yup - you told me I could have gum when I turned 5!" Ahh, that one came back like a very patient boomerang.

Now, since she was a little girl, Lady M has told her little sister that she too can have gum when she turns the ripe old age of 5. True to our word, Lady A received a package of watermelon gum to celebrate the big day. She chose only to lick it a little bit before throwing it away, saying "maybe I'll try chewing it next time".

We celebrated Lady A turning "a whole hand" by hosting a tea party at our house for 8 kindergarten girls on a Sunday afternoon. The day before, on Saturday, I prepped the party needs and my mum and I took the almost-birthday-girl for a haircut. She chose to give her hair a significant chop, and suddenly looked so much older, and also looks like the spitting image of her big sister! Cal and Lady M were out for the evening, and Lady A was very sad that she wouldn't get to showcase her new short locks to them before going to bed that night, but drifted off into dreamland nonetheless...

Before!

After!

...until about 11:30pm when Cal and I were downstairs hanging the final decorations and a tiny little voice called "hey, guys?" from the stairs. When Cal went around to her, she popped up on her feet, arms in the air and proclaimed "look at my hair!!" nice and loud! It was awesome...she decided that her Daddy was going to see her new haircut no matter what! After that he tucked her back and in and she drifted off...

...until 12:05am, when Cal was in our upstairs family room. I was in the kitchen fixing the last of the party food, when Lady A's very excited voice rang through the house "IT'S PARTY DAY!!". Yes, at five minutes past midnight, she was correct...however, once again we had to put the excited little munchkin back to bed!

While Sunday's tea party was a great shin-dig, it certainly cemented my respect for her teachers who have 30 of them on a daily basis! The girls started by decorating their own loot bags, then made a vase craft that they could take home as a party favour. Between the crafts, tea sandwiches, cupcakes (courtesy of Grandma), presents, games and play time, 3 hours zipped by pretty quickly and all the girls seemed quite happy.

Monday was her real birthday, and she woke up excited to open her "morning presents" and then skipped off to school where she celebrated all day and shared her birthday with her teacher which made her even more excited. That night she came home, and we had [almost!] all of our immediate family over for dinner. Spoiled by grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, she had a full day of celebration, topped off with a Smartie cake that she had requested I make for her.

After a whirlwind few days, our sweet girl was officially 5 and ready to continue taking on the world.

7 year old scientist

IIn the whirlwind of house closings this November, I'm a little behind in sharing the tales of Lady M's 7th birthday. This year, I feel as though her birthday was a little taken over by our moving plans. but I think she still felt very special overall!

Last year, Lady M participated in a school-based program called Mad Science. Each week the group participated in different scientific demonstrations and hands-on activities, and every week she came home raving about what she had learned and observed. Fast forward to this fall, she decided that she wanted to have a Mad Science birthday party.

Her special day fell on a Satuday, so after happily being l'etoile du jour in class on Friday, she was ready for a full birthday celebration on Saturday! For some reason, I decided to host the party at our house. Typically, I felt that the house was a bit too small to accommodate a group of parents or kids, but decided to go for it. One final soirée in our home; what better reason than to celebrate our oldest girl!

We used a room in the basement as the "science lab" and the scientist, Dr. D. Enay, arrived promptly to set up her schtick while the kids congregated upstairs. When she was set, the kids headed down to enjoy the demonstrations and activities that she had planned, and they were mesmerized!!

From magic tricks to dry ice demonstrations, the scientist had the full attention of the group for almost two straight hours! It was awesome to watch the kids reactions to the experiments, and to hear the commentary they shared throughout. At the end, they all had an opportunity to make their own silly putty to take home, along with a science goody bag filled with about eight different at-home activities.

After some pizza and cake the crew left, family remained and we finished up her birthday by giving her some time to sift through the numerous presents she had received from her friends. Notable favorites this year - shopkins, rock 'n' royals barbie dolls and loads of Rainbow Fairy books.

That night, my freshly minted 7 year old climbed into bed and snuggled up with one of her new books. Although packing and moving was high on the priority list this year, I think she was well aware that her day was our #1 priority, and we had a great time celebrating her champagne birthday.

And in true 7-year-old fashion, she lost one of her front teeth about two weeks later...

goodbye, home

The temperature dropped below zero outside as we closed the door to our old home, and began a new season in our lives. We moved into our townhouse in 2008 when I was 37 weeks pregnant with Lady M, about to begin our parenting adventure. I spent hours waddling through Home Depot as we prepared the house for our new arrival. A couple of weeks ago we had her 7th birthday party at the house, and then began to pack our lives away in preparation for our move.

It's funny the amount of memories that linger in a home. Seven years may not seem like a terribly long time, but we've seen a lot of firsts in that house, and it's shaped many of our memories as a family of four.

We brought both of our girls home from the hospital to that house and watched them begin to crawl and take their first steps in the hallways. We must have walked six thousand laps around the kitchen island while trying to soothe the babies back to sleep. We've bandaged scraped knees, had thousands of family meals together, ridden bikes, drawn countless chalk pictures on the driveway and snuggled up for many family movie nights. We've celebrated 25 birthdays there, spent seven Christmases decorating, baking and celebrating.

Thinking back on all of this started to make me a little emotional as we gathered up the last of our things. Thankfully, we squeezed in a final visit to our first home, complete with a moving box picnic dinner and an impromptu dance party in our bare living room. After that, we shut the door for the last time. 

I know that our new home will provide the setting for new memories, and the ones we've created in our townhome will always be special.

Thankfully, the new house we're now settling into is just what we all wanted. After a long journey to find it we are thrilled to be in our new town, closer to the girls' schools and in a lovely neighbourhood with a lot more space to play.

Paramount Drive will always be a special part of our lives, but we're all excited to shape new experiences, make new memories and ride our bikes on a brand new street.

our jamaican adventure

There's nothing quite like a family vacation. Even better when you get to head to a country that you've always wanted to cross off your travel list. For me, Jamaica was a place that I had always wanted to visit, so when Cal's cousin decided to get married there we were happy to accept the invitation to head south to celebrate with them.

This trip has been planned since early this year, and with plans to go to Florida, then camp over the summer, we didn't tell the girls about it for quite some time. We figured they could enjoy the other adventures we had planned, then they could learn about the trip to Jamaica to shorten their waiting time. We told them around early September, showed them the website for the resort, and they began to count the days...

On October 22nd, we boarded the plane to Montego Bay and headed to the Grand Palladium Resort & Spa. Lady A hopped into her plane seat, buckled up and surveyed the area. She promptly looked over at Cal, eyeing her armrest and asked "Daddy - which button do I push to get a massage?"

From the moment we got to the resort, we had two little girls who settled very easily into the all-inclusive lifestyle; gladly sipping on virgin Pina Coladas (Lady M) and virgin strawberry daiquiris (Lady A) when desired.

Upon arrival we realized that we'd had a slight mishap with our luggage. I had carefully packed all of the toiletries into large freezer ziploc bags before putting them in the suitcase. In my preparation back home I had tried to distribute these items between Cal's bag and mine to ensure neither bag was overweight when we got to the airport. Well, the weight distribution was excellent, however, it seems that the sunscreen fully exploded in flight, bursting out of the ziploc and spraying all over the suitcase it was in. That suitcase was not mine. Suddenly Cal's wardrobe for the week was cut in half.

Thankfully, that was the worst thing that happened all week; the rest of our days were happily filled with swimming, relaxation and fun.

Some highlights:

• Lady A mastered the fine art of swimming through the pool with her drink held high enough, to the laughter and cheers of many of the adults at the pool.
• The girls loved the variety of pools to choose from, and moved happily from the kid pool (filled with waterslides, waterfalls and fun), to the enormous main pool, to the beach. Lady A even began to swim on her own, under water about 20 feet between Cal and I. 
• We had a great day trip to Negril on a catamaran where we had lunch at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville, visited a local mall and watched the cliff divers at Rick's Cafe. 

• Part of the day trip was having the opportunity to snorkel too. This was a first for all four of us, and the tour guides from the catamaran were awesome with the girls! One guide had a life preserver that both girls held on to as he pulled it through the Caribbean sea. He would dive down into the water and bring something special up for them. On various dives he brought up a sea cucumber, female sea urchin, starfish, sand dollar and assorted shells and the girls were mesmerized while happily splashing around, and peeking under the water throughout the adventure. 
• Lady M bravely took the plunge (from the lowest platform) at Rick's Cafe into Cal's arms, and was quite excited about it! I played my anxious mom card and said that Amelia would have to wait until next time. 
• Both girls got to head to the resort spa one afternoon to get some braids in their hair. Now I realize that the woman who did them was skilled in the area of braiding, but DAMN, she was FAST! I was mesmerized by her speed and efficiency. I should have taken lessons; it would make our morning routine at home much faster.  

Of course the reason we headed south was to celebrate the wedding of one super fabulous couple with Cal's family, and their special day was lovely. The ceremony was at noon, followed by pictures and pool time, then the reception was at 6:30pm. After a full and fun day, Lady A passed out in my arms during the speeches. Lady M lasted a little longer, happily playing with her older cousin until about 10pm when she hit her limit and Cal brought her back to the room for a good night sleep.

The rest of the week was really just filled with lots of swimming, eating and relaxation. I polished off a couple of books, worked on my tan and just enjoyed being disconnected for a while. Lady M certainly settled into the caribbean life, and proved that when she was out swimming one morning and asked:

"Is it 10 o'clock yet?".
Me: "I'm not sure, why?"
Lady M: "Because that's when the swim-up bar opens!"

Clearly my almost 7-year-old girl has her all-inclusive priorities straight!

It's always a treat when we can take some time away from the real world. Waking up when we wanted, not having to rush to school/work and having lots of extra hours in the day to spend time as a family was wonderful. The girls were not ready to leave when Thursday came around again, but they were rockstar travellers, even on the flight that didn't land until 2:00am. Lady A was sleeping against the airplane window before we ever left the gate in Montego Bay, but woke up four hours later in Toronto telling us she'd been awake the whole way. :)

Though we were all sad to see the vacation come to an end, we'll happily look forward to our next travel adventure, wherever that may be!

Lady A wistfully saying goodbye to the resort!