The New Sensation!

Our newest family member has arrived! We were so excited to follow Aunt Mandy's progress and hear about the baby being born and couldn't wait to go meet him. We arranged a trip to see him at 2 weeks old, it was good timing, not many activities that weekend to miss, it would be Easter so we could spend extra time and not be so rushed as we usually are on weekend trips there. Everyone was psyched! and then the flu hit. Sweetie was so sick! High fever and the whole nine yards. She started on Wednesday and we thought it might pass by the weekend but it raged right on through! Not only did she feel terrible just being sick, but she was so disappointed that we couldn't go see the baby! Everyone was sad to miss it but there was no avoiding it.

With other end of year events, he was a month old before we got to see him but we greatly enjoyed getting our hands on him at long last! We all took turns holding and admiring  him until the absolute last minute. Mr Bojangles was out at a birthday party when we arrived but he was very excited to introduce us to his baby brother when he got there! Baby Bash was a big hit!

Housewarming!

We went to my cousin Simon's housewarming party a few weeks ago and Checkers got to play with their puppy and put a lot of miles on that night! The girls were in love with this sweet fluffy bundle and had fun with the other kids at the party. Their real estate agent cooked and fed us all night. Craziest potluck ever.

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New Cousins!

This year at the cottage, we rounded up some extra cousins for the girls to play with! Murray's cousin brought his family to visit and it was SO MUCH FUN! Their daughter Kia was just a bit younger than our girls and they all played with her and she fit right in perfectly. Their son was almost the same age as Mr Bojangles so there was some boys to offset the girl craziness in there. For the most part all 6 of them ran as a pack, sortof like a louder, gigglier version of doing the Locomotion. They kept themselves entertained and there was always somebody to do something with. Their crew runs a pretty tight ship though and we were left in the dust every time at the "Getting Ready to Go Anywhere Olympics". We would plan an activity and I was still saying "ok, girls, get..." and bam. Those other 2 kids had bathing suits on, sunscreen slathered and towels & beach toys ready and were left waiting another 45 minutes while we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off and a lot of "Why haven't you turned your iPod off yet?" "Why is your bathing suit on the floor instead of on you???!?!??"  So embarrassing when it becomes blatantly obvious that we have no clue what we're doing as parents!!!

Despite our dilly dallying, they still hung out with us and we had one of our best visits that week I think. Happy, busy kids makes a world of difference! We swam, got them converted to our "eat meal, have fruit, get dessert" brainwashing, played Pictionary, had meals outdoors, jumped off the wharf and just enjoyed the great weather and wonderful company!

Headed for Home

All weekend long, Honey kept disappearing for long stretches and eventually we'd notice (hey, we're good parents like that!) and go looking for her. Each time, she was in the basement, playing with old Star Wars figures! She couldn't get enough of these guys! Every single chance she got, she was down there even when the other kids were off playing other stuff or watching TV.

 Some last minute playtime with Mr. Bojangles before we left!

 Nanny packed us a picnic lunch but when we stopped to eat it was very chilly outside so we suspended our "no eating in the car" rule and snacked as we drove. Murray ordered his very first Tim Horton's coffee (and won a free one!) and found out that he does not know his wife's favourite doughnut! Together since 1996 and he's never noticed that I always get a chocolate dip??? (he generally prefers a chocolate chocolate dip himself :P )

When we got home, we needed to stretch our legs so we went for our first bike ride of 2012. Unfortunately, 3/5 bikers forgot all the biking skills they acquired in 2011. Two out of the three were able to re-learn without much delay. That only left one girl, one stubborn, do it her way, make no progress, start with the wrong pedal up, take no advice girl. Now I don't want to mention any names or anything but ...

(ahem, cough, cough------------>).

There's just no helping some people, they just have to do it for themselves!

Swamp Time!

We went o  visit my cousin Jane & her family recently in their home, affectionately known as the Swamp. The girls and I went last summer and had so much fun! There was supposed to be a snowstorm so we were looking forward to lots of sliding and skiing and all sorts of outdoor fun!

Then it rained all night instead and our plans went right out the window! We still went outside but we didn't quite have as much white stuff to work with as we'd planned. The sliding hill there is nice and long, not overly steep but it goes forever!

Murray decided to use his cross country skis and they worked pretty well til the dog got in his path and didn't appear interested in budging. Murray tried to ski around him and it didn't go well. He ended up doing a face plant into the rough icy snow just after the dog sauntered off of course. When he came up the hill I thought he'd broken his nose, there was a lot of blood on his face from all the tiny cuts! He cleaned it up and had some bad snow rash for a couple of days but nothing broken!

The sliding was fun and Kevin gave the kids a tow back up the hill on the snowmobile so it was a win win for them! The cousins all had fun playing together and we had another great visit!

Mr. Bojangles Visit!

We  had a visitor recently!!! Uncle Andrew brought Mr. Bojangles to hang out with us while he was off to a race. The girls were so excited to see him and hovered over him the whole time. He got skis for Christmas so we all went out after lunch to give it a try. He'd only been out once but was doing pretty well til we got to a ditch and had to go down into it to follow the trail. Once he saw a crack in the snow, he freaked out! He was sure the crack was going to swallow him whole. I managed to distract him a bit but he cried and laid down and insisted he wanted to go HOME!!!!  and he was not referring to our place! I didn't want to end it with him being so upset so I got him up and going and we caught up to the girls but then had to turn around and go back the same way. It didn't go over very well but we got past the gaping maw of earth & ice and raced Sweetie and passed her and that made him pretty happy. Sweetie on the other hand, was loudly insisting that she DIDN'T WANT to race. I sent Murray back to zip her lip so I could keep Mr B on track. I skied with him standing between my skis and braced him so he couldn't tip. On the way out he was scared of every little dip in the field. On the way back we flew down a long slope with him saying "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!! FUN!!!!" That's how I  roll ;)))

They all played outdoors for quite awhile once they were in the yard. A little army of snowmen was created, a fort got started and then abandoned when the hot chocolate came out!

After supper it was movie night and we'd recorded The Princess Bride the night before but Mr. B kept saying "No, I hate that movie!" I tried to jazz it up, and told him there were pirates and sword fights..... "I hate sohdfights!" Well not ten minutes later, he runs into the kitchen with a Nerf sword, asking "Sweetie!!! want to have a sohdfight????" I said "hey! you hate sword fights remember???" He looks at me and then back at Sweetie. "Sweetie, you want to have a light sabre fight???"

I told them to go clean up the disaster they'd turned our living room into and all 3 girls trooped in and got to work. Mr. B trotted off downstairs so I went down and asked him to go give them a hand. He quickly explained "I didn't touch any of that stuff" with a complete deadpan expression. So much so that I had to scan back to them playing that afternoon to make sure I really had seen him playing up there! Oh yeah, he was! I sent him up but was laughing too hard to seem very authoritative about it! He helped them out anyway though.

Lovey had an altercation with Honey a week before. It was at bedtime and Lovey had been arranging her blankets "just so" when apparently Honey touched Lovey's bed, infuriating her and she lashed out and hit Honey. No blood just hurt feelings but Lovey had brought down both fists on Sweetie's head a few weeks before that for something else and had gotten her screen privileges revoked for a week that time. This time Murray upped it to 2 weeks so Lovey wasn't allowed to watch the movie. Instead she & Mr. B played upstairs while we were downstairs. She played with him and the stuffed animals. Then she took him to her room and they curled up in her bed while she read him stories. I think she'll be a good babysitter, as long as no one messes with her stuff!

Road Trip!

The girls & I hit the road on Wednesday after the gym and went to visit my cousin Jane for a sleepover. I hadn't been to her "new" house that that they moved in to 4 years ago and now I'm wondering what on earth took me so long!!!!

The drive wasn't as long as I'd thought and to say we were blown away by the property (100 acres!!!) and hospitality would be an understatement. As soon as we arrived, Jane started cutting up the freshly baked bread to make some peanut butter fluff sandwiches. She had Lovey at "spreadable marshmallows" :)

After lunch we hiked up the monstrous hill that is her backyard and ventured through the woods up to a meadow where the girls discovered the joy of cow patties but not too closely. We checked out the view but as CJ said, "it's just an old hayfield but adults think it's all beautiful and stuff". We headed back down and changed to go to the creek to cool off. That was another adventure in itself. The path was quite overgrown and the grass was as tall as Janie & I. Luckily all the kids brought a sword and they beat back the thistles and other menacing vegetation. On the way we discovered some blackberries and Sweetie was loving those!

The creek was fairly shallow in most places and hip deep on the kids at the highest parts. They explored all around, finding interesting rocks and enjoying the cool water in between sword fights. Jane showed them how to scrape the rocks together to get coloured paste to use as body paint. Wow!

When we got back from the creek, we got a tour of Jane's garden and she let the kids dig for potatoes aka "buried treasure" and this was a huge highlight. They were so excited to pull the plants and find all the potatoes in the dirt. The squeals of delight were pretty cute. As if that wasn't enough fun and games, they also got to pick the peas AND pull some carrots!

Supper was amazing! Besides the home grown, freshly picked veggies we had delicious pork souvlaki, cheddar and crackers, some jalapeño dip, fresh tomatoes with herbed goat cheese and olive oil. I brought dessert so we topped that monster of a meal off with chocolate cheesecake muffins, mmmmmmm!!!!

As soon as we cleaned up the kitchen, we hightailed it over to Jane's brother in law's dairy farm to see the cows get milked. We were actually too late for that but still got a tour of the barns, visited the calves, patted some horses, fed grass to some other cows and then climbed & jumped around on the bales in the haybarn. Not a bad evening's entertainment... but wait! There's more!

We left the farm and headed back to Jane's for a bonfire! and roasted marshmallows!!! then we walked across the field to where it was nice & dark so we could look up at the stars for awhile.

It was a happily jam packed day & the girls enjoyed it to the hilt! By the time I tucked them in, I was tuckered out myself and went to bed about an hour after they did.

The next morning was a little more relaxing, just wandering about in her yard. CJ & I went out to do some photography practice as he's interested in learning more about that. We did some shooting and got him a new profile pic while we were at it. While we were doing that, the girls helped Jane pick more vegetables in the garden. At one point, Honey ran up to me, smiling, and said in a hushed voice "Mummy, I just love it here!!!!" and ran back off to continue her swordfight.

When I gave the final boarding call, they looked at me slightly confused and said "but.... I don't feel like leaving yet...?" You can't pay a higher compliment than that can you?