Mom turns 59!! and a few shots from the rest of this busy week...

I flew to kelowna to see my mom (believe it or not, I actually typed 'winnipeg' before I erased it to write Kelowna!).....she had a birthday on Sunday!  I know its thursday night now, but I haven't made the time to edit a few of the shots!  As soon as I got back, the ground was hit....running!

Dad picked me up and we headed to Costco to return some jeans that he had bought......we tried to go look around afterwards, but he shops like the rest of us Moir women....'yeah! yeah! Lets go take a look....'...5 minutes pass "ok...lets get outta here...."  I love the dichotomy of his hard-core leather jacket and then his reading glasse.....a woman he knew made a point of stopping and chatted him up for a few minutes, all smiles and chatty chatty....women love this guy.....reading glasses or not.

 Best lunch EVER!!  The food was pretty great too.....

 After lunch, dad dropped me off with Carrie......we hung around the house for a little while {arg, the kids are so big and SO cute!!!}....Brad seemed to have things under control, so carrie got her pretty 'going out' skirt on, and we hopped off to the mall...where she shared her saavy couponing smarts with me!  Hello 17 tubes of toothpaste for 2.00!!!

After a little bit of shopping and 'ah...lets get outta here....'...we headed to the hotel for a little rest!  Here she is moments after saying 'i'm not going to sleep'......lol

 It was then time to wake up, change our mind about going for dinner, and order room service from the restaurant across the street!!!!!

 Mom arrived that night around 10....i think she was pretty fired up about her evening at the culinary contest where she was volunteering, and then arrived to a pretty somber, tired hotel room with 2 bagged girls in it!  At one point, she is sitting on the bed, looking at us, she takes a big sigh and says "umm...I think I am going to go home..."  Well, the promise of a walk in the morning convinced her to stay, but apparently she was up all night listening to us breathing.  She told us in the morning that we both started 'deep breathing' at 3am....sorta sweet, but had that comment come out of anyone elses mouth, would have been fully creepy!!

 She wore this boa for the rest of the day!!!  We didn't even have to make her!   Thanks to Amanda for the fun birthday idea....the glasses will continue to make their rounds to the next birthday girl....she kept the boa!

Peachland is a beautiful little town......reminded me of what kelowna used to feel like 10 years ago.

Skype sometimes just doesn't cut it.....this is the first time that i was able to 

hold her since last December.  Ellie is the sweetest little thing....

Making dinner for the birthday girl...both men hard at work....

Happy Birthday MOM!!!

Mom loves an early morning walk......

Playing Kings in the Corner....my parents tolerated LOVED playing cards....

Saying good bye......yup....he's definatly family.

But before I left, moms birthday request was to make a vat of laundry soap!  She didnt tell me til after that her couponing daughter had loaded her up with like 6 huge containers of laundry soap already!  The woman won't be buying any for years......

Nice to be home with these monkeys.....came home to a spotless house.....i love my husband.

Nic and Steve also had their baby on tuesday night!!!  She is so beautiful, named Amara......they are both still in hospital and i think Nic is eager to get home!  Thankfully her folks are both here for 2 weeks now, so she will have lots of support......

On Valentines day, I helped out with healthiest babies "love yourself day".....Laura asked me a few weeks ago.  It was a nice morning...I did nails (i wonder if she figured I am a girl so I can do nails? Bit of a mistake, but ah well)....I had a cappucino that morning while visiting Nic in the hospital, that by the time i got to this event, I was feeling a bit jittery......which is why i laughed when more than one of the girls asked if I would do a french tip on their nails....haha NO way!  Would have turned out like a squiggle line.....turns out i was fantastic with the red sparkle polish (it covers a multitude of errors!!)...thankfully it was valentines and many were persuaded with my suggestions!!  ;-)  Laura did a great job with this morning...I was very proud.

So, this blog has taken all week......now its saturday, and the deal was that we all put our electronics away at 9:45am to clean the house until 11:45.  Mel and Jon will be here at 12:30 for the day.....so I should start the prep!

Playing Hookey......

Dropped the kids off at school and made my way to E's house where I was met with THIS!!  {Yes folks, that IS a heated electric blanket!  She knows me well.......}.  I was then treated to the best manicure (she didn't mock me too bad this time around!), and a pedicure that left me easily ready for a nap.....she is the best in the business.....seriously.

 She waited til I got all my unimportant chit chat out of the way before dropping the amazing bomb that she is  having some big dreams....dreams that i am so excited about!!!

 Here we are pouring over segments of her dreams as she is attempting to put it into reality!! 

 I LOVE it!!!

 I left E's around 1:30 and earlier that morning I had a call from the school saying elliot had banged his mouth on the monkey bars and was quite upset.  So, after i left E's house, i went to pick up Elliot.  He sees me at the door and comes over, whispering "i need a break from school mom...."....so we signed him house, and ran hand in hand away from the school!!  {Isaac got to go to Carnival today--so he was off on a fun field trip....so i figured it was only fair!}.  We hit up a new thrift....here he is throwing pennies into one of those cylinder tubes.....

 Showing off his new 'jewel' at the stir fry place where we went for a snack......he looked at me and says 'This has been the best day ever!'....aw..

 Shopping at Thrift I saw a pair of my fav brand of sneakers: Privos!!!  But they were a size 7 1/2!!  Who do i know? who do i know? Hey!! Kelly has tiny feet!  Although she 'passed' when i texted her a pic, i said 'too bad, i got them for you.....', we met within a few minutes and she put them on and loves them!!!!!

 Time for a quick drink at mama's favorite place!!

 Elliot didn't like EITHER of the drinks...so he just sat there and played with his jewel.....

10 hour day....

Work, piano, friends.....

The day was good.  I met a house manager of a group home here in town, we got on really well!  He introduced me to all the individuals in the house ... they are a sweet bunch of guys ... and the rest of the work day always seems to go quite quickly, especially when the day is over at 2.  So....I had almost an hour to wait for the boys to get out of school, so I went to my happy place and did a little more work.

It's quite funny...my lovely black binder I purchased in mid October to make notes and write down what I am learning and tasks I need to finish ... and the book is pretty much full now.  It's awesome to go back to the beginning of the book and see some of the questions I asked myself to find out and how i know those answers now and they seem like such silly questions now!!

 Time for piano with the lovely Malea....brought her a kitkat after school today cause I figured she needed a break.

 This is where I normally go when the boys are at piano.....this is also normally the face we both wear during our times together.  Todays visit was marred by the arrival of an inappropriate text from a silly 19 year old who is now off my facebook.  But we had a nice time up until then....I love Christie's house...I love just walking in, coming upstairs, finding my blanket and just carrying on as we were......

 We raced home after piano, and i made the boys toast and smoothies for dinner.....they headed over to hang out with Paul and the boys tonight while Rach and I headed out.  Me to a much needed hair appointment, her to a much needed town hall meeting to discuss the pool!  Here she is popping in on her way home from the meeting....she had some pizza that Stevie and I had ordered half way through my appointment (Stevie is my new fav stylist!!).....I loved that she took me in the evening when I had the time. 

Want to see something funny?  Here are the people who surround me: {taken within 24 hours of eachother}
 Here you go....Zoolander, you got nothing on these guys!!

 

We have nice friends......

I was happy see Steve and Nic out at church sunday morning out in crofton.  They are so close to their baby girl arriving, that I was unsure...but I was thrilled to see her walk towards me Sunday morning.  We sat together and listened to a great message from Russ {Russ even used Chris in one of his analogies during the talk....got to love history with friends eh?}

Ava had her pool party in the afternoon, but our evening was free, so we were able to make plans with Steve and Nic....which i felt was pretty awesome considering its probably our last dinner with them as equal teams of 4!!!   Jiim was over for awhile after his walk with Barkley, so we all got caught up with eachother since they also all worked together at qwanoes as well.....

Chris and Steve headed out metal detecting {they both have gold fever!}...while Nic and I really got caught up...it had been too long, so it was so good for my soul just to talk together.....she is a really special friend.  We have already confirmed what DQ treat I will be bringing when Amara arrives on the scene!!

Floor Picnic!!!

 Mondays are great because the boys and I can come straight home after school/work.  I made beef stroganoff and salad for dinner!!  Its been a really low key night, especially since after the Rentons left, Chris went straight to bed with a headache (no ice capp today!).....Everett spent the evening walking around our house, laughing and screaming at how fast he was travelling ..happy kid!  While Leleini watched backyardigans with the boys while the adults enjoyed a nice meal and talking with not too much interruption!!  Evie was pretty awesome to watch tonight though.....probably the highlight.  Pretty cool doing life with these guys.....

 After they left, and Chris went to bed....isaac and elliot have a sweet game they play at nighttime together called Granny.  It has its own rules and storyline.....here is isaac as Granny (more like granny-panties if you ask me!!)

 And the caped avenger who must attack granny....or else 'Grannies rule, and young kids drool'.....

Time to make some lunches and get ready for another day!!  

Excited to see Mel tommorow after work while the boys are at piano!

Sunday

Kids are currently at the pool celebrating Ava's birthday with a bunch of girls and we were kindly 'excused'....we asked "Are you SURE??" over our shoulders as we skipped away happily down the steps for 2 hours.......we grocery shopped leisurely...and now I am dropped off here for awhile until the party is over.....I had a nice little visit with one of the french teachers who sat down with me for a bit to chat....lovely lady....was never even one of me kids teachers.....ack, i just love that school! 

We had a good time at church this morning as our friend Russ spoke and now sweet friends are coming for dinner tonight....so its been a really good day.

Ava takes on Nanaimo!!!

Today I dragged my family into action to clean the house....such a chore.....the hard thing about encouraging chris to do some of the chores, is that while he is doing said chore, he is looking around at anything else he can do.....example: put away laundry in bedroom...lead him to staring out our bedroom door at the bookshelf.  He then decides to unload all books, re-sort, move the bookcase to the office, etc......don't get me wrong, it looks fantastic now.....and getting the boys to clean their room is like herding kittens.  It's a real battle in my mind as I am dictating orders, checking when they say they are done and then re-checking...all i think is 'arg, this would be so easy to do on my own'...and the other side is thinking 'consider their future wives...these boys need to know how to help around the house....'

So after the shenanigans of house cleaning was over, we headed to my 'other' cleaning job at the chiro to bang that off before picking up Ava!  Since learning that i was going to have 2 little nieces on this side of the family, I have been excited to take them shopping for their birthday and let them pick their own birthday outfit.  Since i don't have daughters of my own, Ellie, Ava and Wren are as close as i am going to get!!  So, Ava was the first to fulfill the dream!!  We had fun....oh man, these three laughed and had a great time at the mall.

 Chris and Isaac were tuckered out.....but Ava was able to take advantage of the sales and got 2 t-shirts, a long sleeve sequin shirt, a fleece jacket, and a sweet pair of flair jeans that looked adorable!!  We were both pretty stoked...

 She is so much nicer to shop with than boys (obviously....)....I really hope

 I can make this a birthday tradition.....

 Dinner at Delicados on the way home.....i put a special cupcake sticker on her 

Chicken Nino.....Happy 8th birthday beautiful girl.

 Sigh....this was Elliot tonight on his 4th 'ask' to clean up his Kinex toys.  He is like a kitten chasing a butterfly....puts one piece away, and then decides he is thirsty, or the fire needs a log, or ...?  Arg!!  Just put your TOY AWAY!!!!!  Finally....he did....and I was under such duress at the end, that i had to take a picture at the success.

Friday......Double Dose of A!!

Rachel came over early this morning to watch greys with me....the kids had just left for school when I get a call from Chris saying 'the boys talked me into driving them to school!'....well then.  Good thing i got up early to make them lunches, got them breakfast and had them ready for the 8am bus......sigh.

After greys was over, Rach headed back to her place to clean minus her crew....and I had nice chats with my sister in Kelowna, and folks in Florida.....

Then it was time to walk...our friday routine when we are both available.  I love chatting with A....she is an easy sounding board, and sometimes it sucks, but normally its pretty great being pals with a therapist!

 When we finished.....chris and I had lunch together....the Rach and I had an overdue chat.  Its not often we get to really chat with 5 little guys running around all the time.  But the afternoon went by really quickly, and before long it was time to get the boys from the bus.  We had a little play together after school with Alex and Dylan....these are the boys who have known eachother pretty much since birth, so they play really well.  Amanda and I had a nice cup of tea and chatted until it was time to go.......we were both happy listening to our boys laugh together.

5 years ago!!

Love it!

Oh...and a little side note of a very proud mama:  Isaac got 14/15 on his english spelling test today!!