Another Surprise!

I love surprises! Especially when I'm the one doing the surprising :))) Last year our pool was on its last season. The leaks just kept coming and I couldn't keep them all patched. It had been well used and loved for at least 4 seasons and had stretched and was losing water and height! Murray received a little inheritance this year and we thought this would be a good opportunity to upgrade our pool, unbeknownst to the kiddos!



As the weather turned from snow to sunnier days, the girls got to thinking about that pool. They wondered what they'd do without one! They asked if we could get another pool so I mentioned that pools were expensive and we'd have to wait and see. Sweetie asked if we'd consider just even getting a wading pool so they'd have something. I assured her we'd get them something to slash in and that we could definitely manage a wading pool. I did warn them that a new pool would definitely NOT be the size they had last time. They nodded and seemed to understand. They did keep asking occasionally, usually on a hot day, when we would have a new one.
I went to a home show several weeks ago and checked out pool companies and got some info. Then I put down a deposit and picked one out. They came to check the yard while the kids were out and then yesterday, they came back to do the installation. It was a bit tricky keeping the secret all day with guys working in the backyard and boxes of pool materials all over. But I am a master of secret keeping!!! muahahahha!!!

They only had a half day of school so were home well before the guys were finished. I'd warned them all that the girls had no idea and that they weren't to mention anything and if anyone asked, they were just doing some landscaping. The girls came off the bus, instantly curious. "what are they doing Mum???" I said "well, they're fixing up the lawn where the pool was. It got all messy and muddy there." (TRUE!) "now come in and get washed up, it's lunchtime." (TRUE!) "But Mum, aren't we getting a wading pool!?!??" (ooh good question!) "Well, a new pool won't take up the same space the other one did so we still have to do something about all that mud." (TRUE!)

Luckily, they're easily distracted and we had lunch, finished homework and they played and watched tv the rest of the afternoon. Then I was in the backyard taking Checkers to pee when Honey had a question and came to the door to talk to me JUST as they were putting the pool walls up!!! She was turned in the wrong direction so I answered her question, silently willing her NOT to turn around. It was all fine until she started to shut the door and something caught her eye. I could see the guys all freeze in position, wondering what I was going to do now. Honey, miss inquisitive, of course wanted to know what they were doing. I could only reply "ummm, not sure, I guess they're blocking it off or something so they can work in there." and then I asked her something unrelated as I scooted her back inside to finish whatever she was working on.

The guys looked at me and said "pretty good. but what are you going to do when the water truck shows up???" I replied "well don't you have to water new lawns????" They laughed and shook their heads and went back to work. At supper time the water truck came with the first load but the girls were watching tv and didn't see or hear a thing. Murray wondered if they'd even notice a difference or know that this was a "big" pool. I was dumbfounded. Had we just blown the bank on something they wouldn't realize was any better than the previous one? Surely they'd be wowed??? Finally, I couldn't stand the suspense anymore and told Murray to call them for supper and then to say "hey let's go see how they're doing with the backyard." while I set up the video and regular camera out on the deck. Just as they were about to come out, the water guy comes over to ask me questions and distracted me!!! I missed their initial reactions but they were definitely surprised and very excited!!!

We're looking forward to some sunny weather now!

 

Extreme Room Makeover!

A few weeks ago, Sweetie asked me, "Mum, you know how some people have those bedrooms where, you know, everything... matches and looks neat????" with a bit of a wistful note in her voice. I said that I knew what she meant and asked if she'd like a room like that. Here eyes lit up and she responded "COULD I???" So I said we'd try and do it sometime when things calmed down. Her room is pretty small and used to be my scrapbook room that I'd painted a nice sunny yellow years before she was born. We painted and decorated one room to be the nursery when they were born and when she ended up in the other room, it never got any decoration whatsoever. I figured she was due to get a fresh look!

She showed me some colours she liked and as I was doing Christmas shopping I kept an eye out for bedding in that hue. I couldn't find anything quite right in the stores. Finally we went online and browsed there instead and found one she LOVED. Then I hunted around and scrounged up a 20% off coupon and headed out to shop!

We got the bedding set and then went to the paint store and got some paint to match and told her I'd start working on it "sometime when I had free time". :)

Then Grammie & Grandad conveniently arranged a 2 night stay for the girls at their place and once they were off, I set to work tearing down the shelving and pollyfilla-ing. Murray dragged out all the mattresses. A couple years ago she jumped on her bed (despite repeated warnings!) one too many times! The bedframe cracked and she had been sleeping on her mattress & bedspring, plus the mattress and bedspring from the spare bedroom from the downstairs flooded out spare bedroom, a la princess and the pea ever since. While I took the room apart, Murray repaired the bed frame for her. I got the room prepped and ready to start the next day!

The next morning I headed out in search of some accents for the room and hit the jackpot at Walmart of all places! They had exactly the touches I wanted to add and getting everything in one spot was pretty convenient!

I finally got home, slammed down a fruit smoothie for lunch because it was fast and got to work on the cutting in and trimming around the room. It took for-freaking-ever. I haaaaaaaaaaate painting. I'm messy and spilly!!! I don't have a steady hand and there were mistakes everywhere, aaaaaarghhhh!!! I was up til 2am getting the last of the painting done. I woke up the next morning, knowing I only had a few hours til Mum brought the kids back. There were a lot of spots to touch up and the room still had to be reassembled, some trim painted and accents put up!!! It was a whirlwind morning and I was nailing the last piece of trim back on as Mum's car pulled in the driveway.

The night before, Murray asked if I would be disappointed if she didn't like it. My heart sunk! I hadn't even considered that possibility! I'd killed myself all weekend, picking out all the perfect little touches, back breaking labour that I detest..... HOW could she NOT like it???? Yet, I knew suddenly, it was all too possible! This was the girl who disliked pants on sight because she could tell at a glance that they'd be too "rimbly"!!! She MIGHT NOT LIKE what I'd picked or how I'd arranged it!!!! It was too late though, I was already committed by the time he asked and I just had to hope for the best. It certainly didn't look worse than when I'd started so I decided it would just have to do. She had no idea I was doing it while she was gone so it could be a rude awakening...

Here's the before:

 and after!

 and her first look at the room, shocked! (shocked good? or shocked horrified?!?!??)

 annnnnnnnnnnnnnnd YES! It's shocked GOOD!!! Yay Mumma!

She's been in it a week and it still looks neat as a pin! She's been sorting through all the things we took out and discarding lots of things and sorting and organizing what she wants to keep. She doesn't want it getting junked up and has been diligent with it for 7 days straight, which I'm pretty sure is a record!

Before embarking on this mission of gargantuan proportions, I'd talked to Lovey & Honey about their room and whether they still liked their teddy bear & baby block border. They were quite adamant that they didn't want ANYTHING changed. I'd suspected as much. Those two don't like changing their sheets! I replaced Lovey's blankets once and it took a week of bedtime crying before she adjusted to the drastic change! Within 5 minutes of seeing Sweetie's room makeover, both of them did a 180 and are now in the process of fighting over colours and themes. After listening to the bickering for half an hour, I forbid any further vocal discussion and said all future negotiations must be done via text through their iPods so I didn't have to listen to it. So far Lovey is campaigning for some red but Honey's holding out for all purple and until Lovey agrees, she's refusing to part with the teddy bears on the walls. There's no way to work on it while they're around anyway so until someone kidnaps my children again, it's a moot point for now.  :)

Checkers anyone?

Everyone's been wanting another dog for quite some time so Murray & I started stalking the fan page of the breeder where we got Murphy and sure enough, more puppies were coming around Christmas!!!  Keeping this gift a secret was SO hard!!! The excitement was killing us but we really wanted to surprise the kids so we managed to hold it together!

This past weekend was the first time the puppies were old enough to visit so we loaded up the van and told the kids we were going to visit their grandparents. (technically true, we just didn't mention the detour to a kennel on the way :)

Being used to the 2 hour cottage trip, they got bored on the 5 hour journey, especially after the batteries to their iPods died. (they are apparently incapable of entertaining themselves for more than 5 minutes without the aid of electronic devices and filled the rest of the time with "why is it taking so long? are we almost there? How many more minutes??? wash, rinse, repeat!)

By the time we arrived, I'm not sure if I was more excited to go see the dog or just to get OUT of the vehicle!?!?!?

Along the way Murray took a wrong exit which was at about the point we should have been leaving the highway to go their grandparents but of course there were no familiar sights and they started asking our ETA all over again. We got back on the highway quickly and told them we'd made a mistake and had to get back on the highway. They were unhappy that the driving wasn't done but not overly suspicious.

Finally we pulled into the yard, which of course was NOT the yard they were expecting. I told them we just needed to make a little stop before going to their grandparents. "ohhhhhh nooooooooo. What do we have to go  here for? Where are we? What are we doing?..." Then Murray told them to read the sign on the barn. "Labrador Retrievers & Puppies". They read that and Lovey burst out " Are WE getting a PUPPY?!?!??!?!" Sweetie echoed her question with just as much volume and enthusiasm. I answered quickly and told them we were NOT getting a puppy today and then grinned and said " we're just picking one out!"  

The screams and questions of "REALLY!?!?!? We're GETTING A PUPPY?!?!??!" rocked the van but then I noticed one little girl was not sharing the excitement. I jokingly asked her if she was disappointed with the news and she burst into tears and stammered out "Murphy! I feel like he'll think we're replacing him!"

Poor little thing was terribly worried about Murphy's feelings.  Sweetie told her that Murphy would be happy because we were getting another lab and that he'd think "oh they really liked my kind!" but that didn't turn her around. Knowing nothing cures sadness like a warm wriggly puppy, we got her inside and all concerns quickly dissipated once she had this little guy in her arms. Not another tear was shed, only smiles all round.

 We had 2 puppies to choose from and both were examined and cuddled thoroughly. I'm not sure which pictures show our guy and which are the other. It was a tough call. In the end we picked the cute one. haha!

It was a tight fit in there with the breeder, the five of us, two whelping boxes, dog supplies and 18 puppies but we spent an hour jammed in there happy as clams!!!

 In the end we chose this little one and the girls got to pick a ribbon to put around his neck so the breeder could identify ours. We had thought about naming him Buddy but in the van on the way home, Lovey said "Buddy is just sooooo... common" so we brainstormed about other possible names. She promptly supplied every name she'd read in her puppy books, Buttons, Lucky etc but those are just as common as Buddy! so we kept thinking.

 Then I thought of his little black & white ribbon that reminded me of a checkerboard pattern and suggested we name him Checkers. It definitely wasn't common! It took some pondering but in the end everyone decided on that one. Well, Miss Contrary wasn't sure but in the end she got on board and we contacted the breeder to tell her the final decision!

 Checkers is only 3½ weeks old so will be staying with his mum for a bit longer and we'll be able to bring him home in January. Meanwhile, we have to retrain ourselves to be puppy proofing all the time. Hopefully a few weeks will be enough time to prep! We're so excited and can't wait for him to be here!!!

Birthday-Round One

On Saturday morning, we told the girls Old Nanny had a surprise for them. Of course they wanted to know what it was but all we told them was that they shouldn't wear a dress/skirt and they needed their rubber boots. Immediate guesses started flying. "Maybe it's tickets to Disney!" (rubber boots mandatory attire in Florida???). I asked if they really thought Old Nanny had bought us 5 tickets to Disney??? wouldn't that be a little expensive??? They looked at me like I was crazy and said "well, not YOU, she's only taking US!!!"

Then they got thinking a little more and thought it might be something involving dirt since they had to wear the pants and boots. "Are we going to bury dead people?!?!??!?!" Happy  birthday kids, here's your shovel!" LMBO

Finally we were at the meeting place and she got out of her car. ANOTHER hint!

At this point they were  highly suspicious that there might be a horse involved but weren't absolutely sure.

We arrived at the farm and confirmed that they were going riding and they were excited to get going. Old Nanny's daughter met us at the gate & took us to meet her horse. Honey was quite intimidated, Lovey plastered herself to his neck and Sweetie just wanted to get started!

Lovey was the most fearless so she went first and loved it from the instant her foot  hit the stirrup! Sweetie waited and waited rather impatiently for her turn to finally come and was up in that seat with no hesitation. Honey watched and kept telling me she wasn't going to take a turn, too scared!!! Finally it was her turn and she was still anxious so Jill offered to ride with her (not wanting a nervous rider on her horse) and then Honey didn't like that idea but Jill wasn't taking any chances. It turned out well because with Jill at the reins, she was able to go faster than when she's walking the horse. After a few trips around, Honey was comfortable so Jill let her ride on her own (but still leading from the ground) and she enjoyed the rest of her ride solo!

After the ride, Old Nanny spoiled us further by taking us to DQ for lunch! Yummm! We had to hurry off as the girls were invited to Tulip's bday party at 1pm and I still had stuff to do to get ready for THEIR party at 6:30.

Thank you Old Nanny for giving our little girls a fabulous birthday party! Every girl really wants a horse and Jill is living the dream!!! Thanks to Jill for sharing hers with us!

 

Breakfast in Bed

Talk about service with a smile! They talked all week about surprising Murray on his birthday with breakfast in bed. What to have, how to get it ready, what to put with it etc. Lovey was given a daffodil by a friend earlier in the week so she saved it for Murray's bkfast tray and "kept it alive" hidden in her night stand by shining a little LED finger light on it all week and keeping the whole thing covered by her housecoat. They made posters for him and we rushed to get the breakfast done before Lovey had to leave for her early morning violin rehearsal.

He caught on to us when he got out of bed and we wouldn't let him in the kitchen and banished him back to the bedroom but he enjoyed the delivery and ate every bite from the comfort of his own bed! The crew couldn't have been more pleased with this successful adventure!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Busy day yesterday with all the bullying drama (see other post) and I was also babysitting the two girls next door at the time and had to leave the house by 5:30 to volunteer at the church fundraising dinner downtown. A little hectic and rushed but all under control!

The girls all enjoyed their valentines and treats and were excited to give their own out. They got lots of nice comments. The other kids were amazed that their mom "who does stuff with pictures" as Honey put it when she couldn't remember the word "photographer at school LOL, got their FACES  on the valentine. Not sure why it was amazing this year, it's the 4th time they've given out this type! Lovey's party wasn't until today as their Tuesday schedule was too busy to fit it in.

The girls got a parcel in the mail from Nanny & Grampy with some little surprises and treats. They got cards & stickers from Grammie & Grandad and more stuff from school. It wasn't an excessive amount this year which was nice since they're still working on Halloween candy here!

I taped sparkly cupids to the inside cover of their lunchboxes and put a marshmallow heart for their dessert so it was quite a surprise when they opened it up at school. I also surprised Murray by making lobster sandwiches and sneaking some Lindt raspberry chocolates in there when he wasn't looking. I had the whole lunch packed and ready (cupid in there and everything!) at the top of the stairs so he wouldn't need to open it in the kitchen. He grabbed it on the way by and totally burst my bubble by reminding me that he didn't need a lunch as they were having meetings that day and ordering in pizza. Uh oh. 2 day old lobster sandwiches wouldn't be very good.... but I didn't want to say anything and spoil the surprise. My concerned look and lack of words tipped him off though. He opened  his lunch as soon as he got there and had the sandwiches at 8:30! I guess that's still a success right?

We had to rush through dinner since I had to leave early. The fundraiser went well and my photography coupon got a good price so I was happy to get that donation for the church. The event was oversold and they raised a lot of money for the renovations we need done. But what a late night! We were there cleaning up, dismantling and doing dishes til after 11pm. We left even though there were still 3 or 4 loads to put through the dishwasher! So much for the 7:30/8ish I'd told Murray when I left. oops!

I got my valentine's surprise early! Murray took the girls shopping on Saturday while I was at Acorn's house for their photoshoot! A gorgeous bouquet was waiting on the table when I got home, woohoo!!

Even though I had to skip out early, I still had a nice dinner for us! Or so I thought! Sweetie and Lovey had trouble getting their scallops down and did not get to have their strawberries dipped in chocolate and didn't get to have any of the red velvet cupcakes with creamcheese frosting! more for us!!!