Choral Competition

 

The girls' school participated in a choral competition last week. They've been going to practices every week for months now. Almost all their friends are in the choir. Honey hadn't joined in the fall and was the only girl left in the classroom at lunchtime. Her teacher felt bad for her and let her go eat with her sisters next door. Once the Christmas concert was over, Honey and Lovey didn't hesitate, they wanted in on this choir business! Since they returned in January they've been working on their pieces. The music teacher emailed them the songs so they could listen & practice the words at home.

Their french immersion classes sang a French song together and the choir (90 kids!) did a separate number that compiled a bunch of songs from the sixties.

The music teacher is a choral competition pro! She always adds simple yet effective touches for wardrobe, actions and music that consistently impress the judges. This year, the judge told them that they'd made him forget to that he was judging and instead found himself just enjoying the performance. Their school won all their categories! They were flushed with pride at their placements and the high marks they received.

Grammie was able to change her work schedule and come watch the shows and Shirley made it too! They were excited to their fans. Unfortunately Murray was away for a work trip and couldn't make it. Please take note of Lovey's last minute pencil skirt! We bought the materials and being the master seamstress I am, I figured I could just use heatbond for the bottom hem and glue gun the back seam and elastic waist band and Velcro closure. WRONG! As soon as she started walking, the back seam slowly started peeling apart. We were 2 seconds away from a traumatic wardrobe malfunction when I called in reinforcements and got Penny on the job. She quickly zipped around with her sewing machine and saved the day. Note to self: glue gun NOT ideal for load bearing seams!!!

Fire When Ready!

Never waste a warm sunny day! (although I'm sure that has happened here once or twice at least somewhere along the line)

All day the girls talked about having a water fight since the weather was so nice out! I figured they'd change their minds by the time evening came and it started to cool off. Nope. They were bound and determined. They loaded up their weapons and charged out to battle it out in the yard. I watched from the moderate safety of the deck. Once they realized I was up there, they safety part went out the window  and I got fired on! Luckily I was able to regain what little authority I have left around here and forbid them from shooting at the camera!

They raced around the yard for a good long while, chasing each other, giggling like mad and getting good and soaked. Good times and listening to the laughter was such a treat!

Birthday Boy!

Another year down and lots more to go! Murray's birthday was on the weekend and his parents came to spend it with him. The girls had a great time preparing for their arrival and turned the house into a hotel! There were signs all over "Welcome to the hotel"  "Hotel Information", a check in desk, room numbers, do not disturb signs, room keys, the whole works. It was very serious business getting it all done. You should have seen housekeeping turning the guest suite from a hockey storage locker into deluxe accommodations. I should tell them we're having guests every weekend!


Friday night was pretty low key and we just stayed home but Saturday there was gymnastics and a violin rehearsal and Rick & I went to check out home building projects at a local event. Saturday evening we got treated to dinner out and Murray got his favourite salmon dinner! We came home afterwards for birthday cake and it was yummy! Once dessert was out of the way it was time to get the popcorn for family movie night. We watched Doggie B. or rather we suffered through Doggie B. Guess who's turn it was to pick? Yep. Lovey. I can't remember the last time we saw a non dog movie on her night. It's getting to be pretty slim pickings! It was the longest drawn out boring story I've seen in a long time. It was so lame at times that I thought for sure even the girls would be complaining but nope, they thought it was great! Well except for the part when the little dog did the triple aerial somersault, that might not have been totally authentic but everything else was great!

The next morning we got everyone cleaned up for church while the hotel guests were left to fend for themselves. (this might have negatively affected housekeeping's tip haha!) We managed to arrive with a couple minutes to spare and found the whole congregation assembled in the hall instead of the sanctuary which threw us off! I thought we'd somehow missed an announcement and were late for service or something. It turned out the boiler wasn't working properly and the sanctuary was too cold. Whew!

After worship, Lovey, Sweetie and I ran around picking up the last of Murray's gifts and got back just in time to grab some lunch before Lovey had to head off to her recital. Honey, Sweetie and I stayed home to prep for the birthday dinner while the others went to the concert.

We tried out our new beer butt chicken roaster. (official name unknown, just go with it) The bbq needed some parts replaced so Murray got those taken care of and we fired it up and roasted that bird to perfection. Ok so I stayed inside toasty warm while Murray worked the grill but I did the seasoning and assembly!

Murray's parents had to get back home for their next birthday celebration so the kids gave them a big sendoff, chasing their truck down the street and hollering and waving. Nothing says love like that does it??? Just as they lost sight of the truck, Grammie & Grandad came along and they hitched a ride back to the house. Perfect timing!

Lots of celebrating & lots of fun with family!

Our latest hair creation, the princess crown of hair!

Happy Easter

Easter was off to a fairly early start! (unless you ask my parents, who were forced out of bed at 3, 4 or 5 am on holidays involving chocolate and or presents- Mum, Dad? Kelly of present day would sincerely like to apologize for Kelly of the past's inability to let you get a full night's sleep on those occasions) Ok so back to my story!

The girls woke up at 6am, wondering if it was time to start yet. Normally that would be half decent. Unfortunately I stayed up late didn't finish Easter Bunny duty til after 1am. At that time, I secured the puppy in his kennel so that he didn't go all hari kari on the loot and OD. Responsible pet owner right??? yes! BUT for some reason, he had trouble sleeping in there and kept breaking into these panting marathons which were VERY loud!!! I took him to the kitchen to get a drink fighting all his lurching instincts to go after those foil eggs! I got him back in his kennel and slipped back into that sweet slumbering state only to be woken up less than an hour later by the same thing. I decided to close our doors and let him out, more freedom but still no chocolate access annnnnnnnnd then dozed back off. No dice. He's still having trouble and every time I went to the bathroom he followed me and flopped down on the cold tile and slept. I couldn't leave him there, the girls might get up in the night & I wouldn't hear them and they wouldn't be alert enough to worry about the candy. I had the brainstorm to lock the bathroom door to the hallway so the kids couldn't release the hound that way and went back to my room through the cheater door. I had to explain the plan to Murray in his deep sleep, cough med hazy state but he sortof got the gist of it. Success! by 3 or so, the problem was solved but I wasn't feel any Easter cheer 3 hours later so I convinced them to hold off til 6:30 because those two fifteen minute segments (time check from Sweetie at 6:15 made a world of difference!

They raced out to the living room to assess the situation and devise their plan of attack! No they didn't! they were oohing and ahhhing and running amok until I reminded them to get their baskets from the kitchen to collect the goods. The hunt didn't take long, there aren't really many good spots and with 3 sets of eyes & hands working together, what one misses, the other 2 are bound to notice. They were pretty happy with it though and then went in to make sure there was a fair split of the merchandise.

The highlight was watching them look at their stuff. When Lovey realized there was a 3rd book in the series she was reading that she hadn't even heard of yet, that was mum gold right there and totally getting up for. Murray couldn't figure out why I got up with them instead of sleeping like him but I couldn't miss those expressions of surprise & delight and all the excitement. The rest of the day I paid for those moments but it was completely worth it! I told him he wasn't invested enough! After the time & effort to run around preparing for Easter morning, I'm not getting ripped off by missing out on that!

Hockey Star!

It's almost the end of hockey season and interest is flagging all round! Even Murray has almost had his fill of ice times and running back & forth to rinks. This weekend the girls had a few games and by last evening, Honey had had enough. She did NOT want to go. But when she heard Grammie & Grandad were coming to watch, she decided she'd lace up and hit the ice after all.

Good thing she did! At the end of the game, the coach awarded her a mini stick for "Player of the Game". We're not sure what she did that caught his eye but it certainly perked her right up and was the highlight of her year. She's not sure she'll sign up again in the fall but was certainly riding high on this last night. After he gave it to her they all headed for the dressing room and she just sat and stared at the stick in awe and almost looked a little teary eyed. They had a great game, won 8-5! It was their first win in MONTHS!

When we got home, she had some celebratory ice cream on our new "special day" plate that I painted at on our recent visit to Pottery Palace. She was quite pleased to be the first to use it, especially since she hadn't eaten her supper and never made it to the dessert round!

Baby Checkers!

January and February are the slow season in photography so I find myself with some enjoyable downtime but I needed to take pictures of something!!! So I set up my natural light "studio" in the living room and grabbed our boy the new guy for some shots! and voila! A newborn session!

He's grown again already since I took these and is doing quite well with training! Accidents are getting fewer and farther between and he sleeps for longer stretches at night. hooray! and it is so cute how he follows me around all the time, just like a, well, puppy!

Moving Up in the World of Irish Dance

The long awaited day has passed! We are in HARD SHOES!!!!! No longer are we softshoeing around with the soft smooth sound of leather against floor. No! We are clacking, banging and stomping to our heart's content! Sweetie decided not  to continue with Irish Dance after Christmas and I thought this development might make  her question her decision but she didn't bat an eye. So far the only thing she misses about dancing is the sucker the teacher gives them after class. Much cheaper to bring some of her Halloween candy (yes, STILL!) with us instead of paying of lessons she doesn't want! She's loving her gymnastics though so that's good!

Lovey & Honey were over the moon to get to Hard Shoe though and can't get enough of it. The first part of class was still softshoes so they had to put those on first and it just about killed them! At the halfway point they came flying out for the changeover and the excitement was crazy! Then the teachers asked them to come back in and STAND STILL. bahahahahhaaa! Good luck with that. Teachers, here's a tip for your next group: buy some earplugs, let them in on that first day, shut the door with you just outside it. Let them bang it out until they deafen themselves, sayyyyy 5-10 minute til they get it all out of their systems, THEN go in and try to teach them something. :)