Best Friends

The girls were reading a book called "Best Friends" and Honey came out to ask me a question. She pointed to the little girl in the picture and said "Sweetie says the other boy is Max but I just don't know what HER name is!" So I filled her in that it was "Emmy" and she took the book back to the living room where they were "reading" it together.

At lunch I asked them who their best friends were.

Honey: everybody!

Lovey: Grammie!

Sweetie (big lip pouting): Nanny and I reallllllly MISS her.

Gymnasts Extraordinaire!

No one made it to class this week except us, so we had the gym to ourselves. The kids are still enjoying it and they're pretty good at paying attention. However Sweetie does tend to drift off a little more whenever she's supposed to be waiting for her turn.


Since Teena & Boo weren't there I didn't bother with the playclimber this week. If they decided to play in there for 4 hours I'd be bored. As it turned out is was closed anyway so it didn't matter. I phoned Grammie to see if she'd like a visit & she happened to have an opening! : )

It turned out to be a very good move on my part as they were having pickled beans for lunch! Woohoo! I loooooooove those & rarely have them as Grammie's the only person I know that makes them. I had packed a lunch for us anyway so the girls just ate the sandwiches, they didn't show any enthusiasm at all for the pickled bean delicacy! Uncle Ralph had been invited as well so that was an added bonus.

After lunch the kids were quite content to play with Aunt Cathy's stuffed animals and Grammie & I cleaned up the lunch. Then we went into the sewing room while she showed them her purse and as she talked to them I sort of got cozy on the bed in there, sunny & warm.... so Grammie suggested I stay in there & they went in the next room. So I basically let a 90 year old lady babysit my three crazy kids. (it was only half an hour & she's pretty tough.... so that's ok.... isn't it???) I didn't really fall asleep but it was comfy & also funny to listen to them talk to her and ask her tonnes of questions. They've discovered the "why" stage and need to know everything! over and over again. We ended up staying there until a little after 3pm and they were really good the whole time we were there with only minor squabbles over the toys.

It was getting late by the time we got home (after a pit stop at the grocery store for chicken) and I had to get supper ready & bake a cake for Aunt Cathy's bakesale so it would be cooled & ready to decorate when I got home from choir. I managed to get all that done & wasn't even late for practice!

Wednesday, Great Day!

Wednesdays really are just about the best (not counting Grammieday of course!). We had a great time at playgroup and the girls really seemed to play with the other kids today. Most weeks they kind of do their own thing, sometimes the 3 of them together or just on their own.

I was chatting with Nicolle when her daughter P came to ask me to play leapfrog. Although she wasn't actually saying leapfrog, so it took a minute to figure it out. Once I realized what she wanted, we were set but Nicolle was looking at me incredulously. The fact that P knew anythign about the game at all was news to her! LOL P & I had played several weeks ago & it had never come up since. I'm not sure what made her think of it today but off we went to gather more froggers. First of all, 3-4 year olds are terrible leapfroggers. They can't crouch down into the proper form, forget trying to get them to make a decent line, they have a hard time staying down to wait for their turn and none of them can safely hop over the others. It was tricky but they had fun and no one got hurt. After a few minutes of that, I got them switched over to Ring Around the Rosie which went much better.

Later, I spotted Sweetie, having an apple picnic in a little hideout with a bunch of other girls, none of which were her sisters. The poor apple was totally maimed by the end & left a horrible mess but they seemed to think it went well. : )

Then I saw Lovey playing football/hockey with one of Yvonne's twins. also saw Honey be a superstar sharer! I was sooooooooooo proud & impressed. She was playing with a little toy & another girl came and snatched it out of her hands. Honey of course got upset and so the other mom & I got the girl to give it back to her. We told her that she could have it in a few minutes when Honey was done her turn. This was very upsetting to the empty handed girl and she started to cry. Honey didn't like seeing her upset and told her she was done her turn & gave it back to her. Awwwwwww!!!

We had a late lunch & then after an hour of chasing, cajoling and finally laying down the law, we went outside to play. The weather has been great the last couple of days & after that freezing cold spell, I want to take advantage while we can! They worked on their honey garden, pretended to be baby bunnies, got lost in the "forest" (aka the space around the 2 trees on our front lawn), planted carrots, potatoes, lettuce and some beans (in case the honey doesn't come up in the spring I guess) and played without complaints for an hour and a half while I worked on the garage. Finally I had to drag them back in so I could make supper. I was really pushing it, it was 4:36 before I started to take them in and they weren't real keen on the idea.

I managed to get supper ready in a hurry but dessert still was only just coming out of the oven when he got home. Our unfinished entryway has one redeeming feature. Perfect spot for cooling that is inaccessible to wildlife but still cold enough to take the heat out of a pan of squres in a hurry!

AND, (not sure I should be saying this out loud or even putting it in print!) they were completely tolerable at supper. They gave a rousing rendition of Johny Appleseed before starting & maintained good humour the whole meal AND they ate some food INCLUDING vegetables.

So a great day all round, happy kids, happy mumma and I get my 2 points for making it through the day without caving in & parking them in front of the tv!! Obviously tomorrow will be completely hellish right????

Taking Back My Garage!

Sooooo somewhere along the way, our "garage" turned into "garbage" and this last week, I've been trying to remedy that. We have TWO garages with practically NOTHING in them, yet have been parking our car out in the elements for over a year as I just couldn't seem to get around to cleaning them out! How lame is that??? We have 3 torchiere lamps in there, NONE of which work. What are we saving them for? Like I'm going to take up junk torchiere art & make something out of them???????? and I also swept for about an hour to clear the dirty floor. BUT my garage looks GREAT! It's so neat & tidy and spacious, you could put a car in there! : )))

Doesn't it look great? Our automobile is now protected & I will NOT be cleaning off my windshield to go to gymnastics tomorrow!

Here's some of the dirt I swept out into the driveway before I realized what I was doing! What was I thinking? Throwing away perfectly good dirt? In my family, we do not waste! I quicky realized the errors of my ways and gathered some buckets to store this handy & valuable grit. Next time the driveway gets all iced over, I'll be prepared with my free, nicely stored traction material. I like it when I do my family proud! : )))

Now if I could actually do something as constructive INDOORS.... although I have to say, my kitchen is still hanging in there, clutterfree!!!

Us, outdoors, in the snow... AGAIN

This scenario is getting a little dull isn't it? us & some snow, the dog & some snow. It's getting hard to jazz up these shots so I didn't really try for anything amazing today. It is what it is. boring ol' winter time.

I was checking email this morning when Honey came to find me.

H: Do you want to be the Queen?

Me: sounds like a good deal.

H: ok, you can be the queen, the queen on the puter if you li-iike

The girls had a visit with Bonny from Early Intervention this morning and we helped them make valentine's day cards. I know I'm their mum & all but I thought they did reallllllllly well! They cut out the heart shapes she'd drawn on coloured paper & then they had to fold a larger piece of paper in half to be the card. The heart was then glued on to the front of the card. Inside they wrote "I LOVE YOU". We helped them a bit & Bonny drew dotted lines for them to follow but they made pretty darn good attempts to follow them which I wasn't sure would happen! Sweetie was super careful with hers and even drew a really good "o" freehand. Ok, so this bragging sounds pretty lame but I was so proud of them!!! As she was leaving, Bonny cheerfully confirmed that next month is our last visit. Shouldn't she be just a teensy bit less excited??

The Devil you say!

I'm getting a little concerned about some recent developments with Murray.... for Christmas he asked for a book called The God Delusion which is an "intolerant book, full of scorn for religion and those who believe" and claims that the biblical Yahweh is "psychotic". I wasn't too sure about this selection but figured it was harmless curiousity and forgot about it. Until he woke up with these on his forehead this morning. They're only small marks now but it's just not a good sign.

Is it mere coincidence that the reading of this atheistic book and sprouting the horns of the devil have happened in the same week????? I THINK NOT!

Hanging Out en mi casa...

Nothing too too exciting today but sometimes that's not a bad thing! I had some excitement on Friday at the garage when I took the car in for an OIL CHANGE and left with a bill for $436 and NO oil change. Ugh! however brakes are rather important and not something to skimp on! They couldn't do the oil change since the engine coolant has sprung a leak and is everywhere under the hood apparently. The good news there is that we're still under the 100,000km mark and it's under warranty, whew! but we're at 96,600 so a couple of big trips plus normal running around, would have put us over before too long. If something had to go, now's a good a time as any I guess. So staying home watching the kids play was a welcome boredom compared to that kind of excitement. We just got new winter tires last month so I was hoping that would be our only big car expense for awhile but I guess I don't get to pick. ; )

this dress obviously needed a little something and this belt added just the right touch apparently!

Last night at supper, Honey was talking about "Ponyland" so I decided to find out more about it.
Me: How do you get to Ponyland?
H: You go over the rainbow bridges, up a steep mountain, past the fruitee and past the space.
Me: What is there in Ponyland?
H: ummmm gold... cherry bushes..
Me: What else?
H: 6 ponies, pony cake, pony corn...... and pony raisins.
Me: What do you do there?
H: oh, the ponies dance & play at bedtime and they sleep on hay inside the barn... the purple barn.
So now you have some fine tourist info for your next vacation if you're looking for something a little different!

Lovey, doing a little dance..

This afternoon one of my choir buddies came over for some scrapbooking assistance. A good friend of hers passed away on the weekend and she's trying to put a memory book together in a hurry and wanted to use some of my stuff. Being the sap I am, I get all teared up looking at the pictures of this woman from her days as a student but seeing as how her actual friend is managing to hold it together, I decide I'd better suck it up and actually managed not to let a single drop fall. It was close though! Anyway, we got her book off to a nice start and she was happy to have the title page done. While we were messing around with that, the girls were incredibly good & just watched their movie (I held off on any TV until Patti arrived) and Sweetie decided to go upstairs and read a book instead. I heard some little footsteps going upstairs so I went to investigate what sort of mess was in progress and was surprised to find my little Messy Marvin quietly reading to herself in her room. You just never know when they're going to surprise you. : )

Oh wait! I do have a little something exciting!! (well for me anyway) I found this template on the internet the other night & I think it would be perfect for showcasing some of our pictures from our session with Shooter Shelley last fall. I'm just not sure if she can get this size printed (10"x20") but I'm going to keep my fingers crossed because I reallllllllllllllllllllllllly want it!!!!!!!

Toddler Chat III

I was trying to get the kids to get dressed and finally succeeded in getting Honey's duds on but Lovey wasn't interested. I attempted to put my foot down.

Me: Lovey! You have to get dressed!

Honey, as she was walking out of the bedroom, loftily tossed over her shoulder: Yes Lovey. You really must. (then she flounced off down the hall)