February 15-20 - Family Day Activities

 This weekend was Family Day in Ontario.  We had a busy weekend planned.  The Boy was going to camp on Friday night and wouldn`t be home until Sunday.  The Girl had a birthday party at a school friends house on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we drove up as a family to pick up the Boy.  Finally on Monday we went to visit my Mother-In-Law.  Lots of driving this weekend.  I got to spend some quality time with the Girl on Saturday before and after her party.  The Toddler and I went to the mall for a bit, while the Girl was at her party.  It was busy, but a great weekend.

Cake is fun!

On the way home from camp on Sunday afternoon, the Husband treated us to lunch at Frans`Restaurant in Barrie.  I hadn`t been to a Fran`s Restaurant in many years (since I did my nursing pre-grad at Sick Kids Hospital!).  

The Toddler was very excited, I think because the Boy was back.  The Boy seemed happy to see everyone (he is making his happy face below!).  He had fun at camp, but we aren`t completely sure what he did, because he is not good at recapping his activities.  The only things we got out of him were:  he played with the other kids with his camera and the sleeping bags, something about being a worm.  The other thing he told us was about making a rocket.  He said the Beaver`s rocket exploded before it fell back to the ground.  Oh and he was able to tell us what he ate, but according to the amount of food he at at lunch, I think there probably was not enough food at camp for my big eater!

The photo to the left is from last night.  Which is technically not Family Day, but he was so happy that I just had to take a picture.

This week is going to be crazy!  Tonight I need to take the Boy to get his Tux (he`s going to be amazingly handsome) for the wedding on Saturday, and then straight to Cubs.  The Girl is going to Sparks tonight (not her normal night, they are visiting with the Guides).  My parents are going to watch her and drop her off since I haven`t figured out how to clone myself yet.  If anyone knows how to do that, please let me know!

Things I miss

I love my kids.  I love my Husband.  I really do.  I love their cuddles, sense of humor, their quirks and their differences.  I especially love watching the Toddler grow up!  I am older now and he is benefitting from our experience with raising kids.  He also benefits from his older siblings who just love him to pieces.  Even though I love my kids, I miss things that I used to have.

I think the thing I miss the most - and you might be surprised by this - is my waist.  Somewhere in the last 10 years of pregnancies and up and down weights, I have misplaced my waist.  I know this because my pants never stay up.  It is embarrassing when I have to hike them up every time I get out of my chair at work.   I've tried belts, but they don't help.  Probably the only thing that will help me is to loose 50 lbs.

I also miss silence.  I enjoy my ride to work, it is quiet.  I enjoy being at work, it is quiet. There is no quiet in my house.  Even when the kids go to sleep I can hear the constant noises from the baby monitor (the humidfier and the space heater go on all night), there is also the snoring husband.  His snoring is worse when he is sick or if he sleeps on his back.

I miss the movies.  We used to go to the movies all the time.  Once I week.  The last movie I saw was...OK I just drew a blank.  I literally can't remember.  I think it was Megamind...or perhaps Tangled....no it must have been more recent. I think I went with the Girl.  Maybe it was Journey 2 the Centre of the Earth?  Is that even a movie?

OK so obviously the next thing I miss is my memory.  I can remember most things, but my long term memory isn't what it used to be.  Last year I even forgot to take the Girl to Sparks on a Monday night.  In the summer I forgot that I signed the kids up for skating, and then remembered 30 minutes before class, and we had to collect everything and head out the door. Somehow we made it on time.  This week we forgot her Sparks homework.  I should really be better at setting reminders on my phone, but I always forget to do that too.

This one I think about alot, and it is kind of a viscious circle.  I miss scrapbooking.  I started when the Boy was a baby.  I scrapped alot about him.  But now it seems as though the more things (and kids) I have to scrap about the less time I have to do it.  I think if I was kid-free I'd have so much time to do scrapbooking, but then I wouldn't have anything to scrap about.   I think the Girl thinks I don't love her as much because she doesn't have a scrapbook, and the Boy points it out all the time!

Anyhow this is a short list, I am sure there are more.  I also know that once the kids are older, I will have more time for these things, and probably (just maybe) get my waist back along with my memory.  Off to hike up my pants and get some stuff done - I just can't remember what I was going to do:)

Missed A Big One (January 29, 2013)

Yesterday I missed something great at Daycare.  Felt proud and sad at the same time.  The Toddler slept on a cot without his soother and he didn't cry.  What is better, his teacher said he woke up clapping and happy.  Like he was so proud of himself.  I suppose that is a good thing, but I feel like I missed it and it was a surprise to me when she told me.

This morning I dropped him off and he ran in and didn't even look at me.  Then he saw the door was open that joins the toddler and infant rooms and he ran inside, gave the teacher a hug and proceeded to find something to do in the toddler room.  He is trying to graduate all on his own, how independent!!

Valentine's Day

So every year we purchase those cheap looking cards from Walmart, and the kids have piles of them to sign and bring to various events the week of Valentine's Day.  This year they only needed Valentine's for their classes, which seems like a relief, but it is 24 for the Boy, 24 for the Girl and 14 for the Toddler.

I scoured Pinterest for ideas that were cute and easy to make.  Also for the school ones, they shouldn't include candy.  Well I included candy, but not much and the Valentine's were not centred around candy.

For the Boy and the Girl we picked out the "Bugs and Kisses" valentine.  Which is adorable!  I found it here.  I hunted around for the "bugs" to include in the gift, but when I finally found them at  Party City, they only had one bag of 48 bugs (which was enough for 24 valentines, and I needed 48 valentines - 96 bugs!)  The employee at the store called around to some other stores but no one had the package of bugs.  So we decided to do the Bugs and Kisses for the Boy and something different for the Girl.

For the Girl we wanted to make this cute butterfly out of a lollipop that I found here.  We were so excited!  But we couldn't find the round lollipops anywhere!  Disappointed we decided to make valentine flowers out of flat lollipops.  I found them here.  Well we used two lollipops and I added a label that personalized them.  I think they turned out alright, but I wish I had made the leaves better!

For the Toddler, I needed something that was toddler/baby friendly for his friends, some are just 6 months old!  So I decided that what ever I gave had to be in it's own sealed package and I didn't want to give out candy.  I found this cute valentine using goldfish crackers.  Instead of making my own packages of goldfish, I used pre-packaged store bought goldfish (like the one's you can put in your kids lunch!)  I printed the template and glued them to a larger circle of red paper.  Then I quickly wrote: from the Toddler, on the bottom and the girl taped them to each package of goldfish crackers.

And because I haven`t posted in a while, here is a picture of the Toddler making his `cheese`face and proudly climbing the stairs!  I tried my best to crop out the junk at the bottom of the stairs.  The Girl never puts her bag away!