Mama turned 33 today!!

There has been so much going on lately that i haven't made the time to blog! But as we are prepping for our big trip (hate to say much more than that on a pulic blog, but those i love know what we are doing!)--i will give a succint overview of the last few big events that i think are worth mentioning! Sans photos though since my camera battery has died.....

My wonderful mother flew out a few days ago to spend 2 full days with us...she cooked, stayed up late with me and slept in, played with the boys, made cookies with the boys (pics to follow soon i hope, cause THAT was funny!)--i am the same way, i have to admit, so i come by it honestly, but she has a romantic idea in her head of wanting sweet time spent with her grandchildren making cookies together....when in actuality, its alot of work to show them how to use the cookie cutters, place it nicely on the pan, try to stop elliot from putting handfuls of raw dough into his mouth. I think it was another 'lesson in spirituality' as she likes to put it! ;-) But honestly, i think she made some really nice memories with the boys this week.

She took Caleb home on the plane with her...we bought a crate on the way to the airport this morning for him to travel in..once he got to kelowna, she took him to the doggie spa....he definatly had a more 'pampering' day than i did!!! But he is going to be staying with 2 major major dog lovers while we are away...so i am thrilled he is going to be there.

What else......Duncan light up was last night and honestly, it was so nice for me as so many of my favorite people were there. i felt so lucky to have people around me i find interesting and genuinely care about. The light up itself really sucked, but having my mom there and alot of my good friends just made it pretty special.

Today is my birthday.....i woke up early to get my mom to the airport-5:30 alarm....out the door driving by 6. Decided to take Isaac with me, leave Chris and Elliot at home, and have a nice day out shopping with my eldest. He was quite good at lululemon (part of my birthday presents were from people who love me who know i love lululemon and pretty much live in them AND i was ready for a new pair--so i got lots of money to go towards them....thank goodness cause they are insanely expensive!!!) But isaac had opinions on colors and styles, for the most part was pretty fun. We went out for chinese food together....MEC, lulu....the regular stops.

Home by 4, totally exhausted....Chris had the house cleaned and ready for guests when i walked in....very lovely. I crashed on the couch for a few hours, Cristin arrived a little early to find me on the couch, in my pj's, with the drool drying on the armrest!! She bought me a beautiful bracelet from mexico-so sweet. Amanda then arrived with our favorite McCain cake (she tried to get McCaines to make it as her wedding cake, but they refused...aw)--and she brought ginger beer and a tim's card for me to have a coffee on her!! so sweet too!!

So, chris took care of the boys, while me and my good friends cooked...we made Rebars Santa fe Pasta salad with candied salmon (though neither of them wanted it in theirs!! (weirdos! well, cristin is allergic, so she is excused...)..anyways...we cooked, made an appie plate of brie, bread, apples and grapes, grabbed a ginger beer and hit the couch to watch SPLASH....an oldie but goodie.

I was so tired tonight from the whole day that had my other guests been able to make the party, i think i probably would have cancelled it. But with these 2 girls who can show up and i can still be in my pj's and feel fine about it.....i figured i could handle it, and i really had the nicest time ever...so chill, good food, lots of laughs......so lucky. To top it off, i got lots of phonecalls as well as 25 facebook emails with birthday wishes.....so i am feeling pretty good at 33 thus far!

I realize this is a very boring post to many of you, but i don't keep a journal, this is it--so i need to get down the thoughts while they are still in my head and can remember a few of the special moments that are important to only me.

So it was, in all honesty, a very happy birthday. My fortune cookie today read "you will have good luck today", when i think it really should have read 'you will be very blessed today'......because i was.

This video has made me happy for days!

(2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

Crossing the Border!

It was time for an adventure, a time to get away from the dishes, cleaning and cooking, a sort of 'dry run' for the big December trip -- so, we headed South to see this woman:

She is my new favorite discovery! Her name is Susan and guess what i discovered less than 4 years ago?! She is part of my family! Her husband is Mike and she has 2 sons names Daniel and Eli.....they live in Mt Vernon just 20 minutes from the Mt Washington ferry.

You know those people you meed randomly and love right away because there is something about them that makes you feel good? She is one of them.....

We got there around 3pm on wed and headed back to her house to chill and play and eat, and to recover from the 2 hour drive to the ferry, the 1 hour wait for the ferry, and the 3 hour ferry.

The next day she had a really nice day planned for us - she took us to the childrens museum.

There was painting (Elliot was kind enough to spatter some nice purple paint on Susans bum so her jeans would look a little more designer'ish. (please also note how he is two-fisting the paintbrushes--there is a chance this little guy is going to be a lefty....seriously)

This was Isaacs favorite part of the museum--Crane Operator.

He was actually quite good...here he is trying to hit me with the bag that hung from the crane!

His little assistant....

Elliot loved this one too, but refused to go in with his shoes on....proper little guy.

There was a boat at the museum....have to be honest, head lice definatly crossed my mind.

Hitching a ride with Susan.....

Semi Truck Driver

We did a little outlet store shopping for the boys (isaac had NO pants left that didn't look like clam diggers on him!), we had chinese food for lunch, chased the boys around, watched alot of Veggie tales, and the kids were in bed by 7 and Susan and i were out the door by 7:05 leaving Mike to 'babysit' (he said it was the easier babysitting gig he's had in ages..the boys didn't make a sound)

Susan shops like me (and my mother too, for that matter)--we swing the doors open, do a quick scope of the store, decide in that second if it's worth is to go in, if yes, we swoop through the perimeter, back up the middle and out!! Time was of the essence!

I found a sweater and had to decide between these 2 shoes....which do you think was the pair that was chosen?
It was a really nice trip, to a really pretty place, with a really amazing woman.

R2D2

When Isaac wakes up in the morning, he heads upstairs to play toys and watch treehouse til we all get up.

To preface the story, Isaac got a new toy the day after halloween -- the deal was he was given the opportunity to give all his candy away in exchange for a toy.....which he gladly accepted. So, this is what he chose (please note the tiny R2D2 in the spaceship):

So, this is the tiny R2D2 that he has been playing with all week:
But THIS is the R2D2 he is used to playing with prior to getting the tiny one.

The story is this: Isaac is playing upstairs and while hanging out with his toys, he looks over across the room and sees the big R2D2 laying there...he then RUNS down the stairs to our room crying "I'm scared!! I'm scared!! R2D2 got bigger!!" and he is totally freaked that his toy is possessed or something. Kinda wigged us out too because he was so scared.....but chris heads upstairs to see what is going on ... and finds R2D2 pushed right against the far wall with a bunch of toys piled on top of it!! I guess Isaac thought he would stop the madness by burying it!! and then ran away crying........i love that he takes care of a problem before he leaves! It totally reminded me of when my parents bought me this life size clown when i was younger....it would sit in my room and stare at me at night and totally scare me....so one time, i took it downstairs in the middle of the night and hucked it into their office closet.

$60

Yes.....$60 is the amount I always seem to spend when i enter into the local village market for groceries! Even tonight--i went in with a list of 4 things: eggs, milk, apples and cheese...and came out with 4 bags totalling around $60'ish dollars. My fridge is packed since i am currently trying to make a conscious effort to eat well and eat at home....both require alot of planning and self control since subway is SO easy to pick up on the ride home!!

It's like going to the grocery store sans enfants is like a social outing----i peruse the aisles, leisurely look at the meat, contemplate how much sugar is in certain jams and cereals. Casually throwing things in my cart that we will enjoy eating in the next few days and voila!! Poof! $60 bucks gone.....and those nasty bakers put out brownies on their free little tray just as i had finished my hour long walk with Amanda.....seriously!!

Does that ever happen to you??

Monday

Hard to believe its November already! The leaves aren't all on the ground yet and it isn't that cold...but just the fact that i am writing November on my cheques sort of blows my mind!
Here is my day so far and i hope you are impressed by what i squeezed into the 2 hours that Isaac was in preschool! Got out of bed around 9 (elliot was still asleep until our friends arrived at 10)---we went to bed late last night, so it was a nice morning to sleep in.
Amanda and her kids arrived. I made snack mix and granola bars in the time she was here for a quick tea before Alex's dentist appointment. The boys and i had toast and fruit for lunch, i put the ribs in the crock pot for dinner, and hustled out for preschool at noon.

With Isaac dropped off, i did the following: took Elliot swimming at the new pool, went through the gong show re-dressing after!! (seriously--isn't that the worst part of taking them swimming???), went to the farmers market to pick up veggies and groceries, had a quick visit with my good friend Christie at the market, vacuumed and cleaned the van, and was right on time to pick up Isaac at 2:45. So......isn't it impressive what one can accomplish when under the gun!!??

The Making and Revealing of WALL-E

Since the fall we have been chatting with our eldest about what he would choose to be if he could be ANYTHING for halloween! His most imaginative answer was: WALL-E!!! Here is a refresher, if you don't know who WALL-E is:

So, Chris, also being of the imaginative mind, set to work doing up the plans and dimensions on the computer and put in a whole pile of late nights to create the costume. I only grabbed a shot of this process on the last night when i helped a little painting WALL-E's tires.
Finished Product!! Note the compartment that comes out to collect the candy!We headed to Mike and Lauras.... (umm...don't ask, even they didn't know what they were!--but they had more spirit than chris and i who did not dress up this year) but we went to their new house for dinner and trick or treating in their neighborhood afterwards. Here is Elliot below doing his famous "MORE" sign for more candy and the sad little face he used ALL night on anyone who would make eye contact with him to unwrap any candy he would be chewing on...he chewed on alot of wrappers last night!

We headed over to Jenny and Trents. See pics below..... Trent said Jenny was a bar wench, but she denied it....i actually can't remember what she was supposed to be, but definatly something alot more wholesome than a bar wench!! But she made the whole costume, that talented woman!! Isn't she cute??Marg and Gordon were there too providing much comfort for little Elliot who couldn't get many people to comply with his demands for MORE candy.... Cousins arriving at the door at Jenny and Trents: WALL-E, a ghose, a troll and a lion!
Cousins playing in the jeep that Trent is rebuilding from the ground up--its pretty amazing..the kids loved it and asked 'when the jeep gets on the road, do they have to wear helmets to ride in it??' good question eh? i think isaacs face is like "only sissie's wear helmets, i want to DRIVE!!"

Action packed Sword Fight

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2008!!