Sophie and Kierra

For the last couple of weeks, Sophie has been asking if she can have a playdate with Kierra. She is 6, and ever since Sophie turned 5 this month, she seems to have entered the magical realm of being just a bit more grown-up.

So, today we met Kierra and her mom at McDonalds for lunch followed by a trip back to our house for some play. I think Sophie was on cloud 9 for most of the day.

It was topped off by babysitting by Shelley her favourite sitter tonight, as Vic and I went to a friend's birthday celebration.

All in all, a very good day.

no rest for the weary

Between a Tuesday 3 hour wait/visit at the hospital with Fynn to rule out pneumonia (just a bad cold), a week of work, laundry,shuttling the munchkins to/from daycare, haircuts, ballet and they gym, I'm beat.

Here the two of them are ripping around our house. I'm surprised Fynn doesn't come flying off his little dozer with the way Sophie pushes him.

i'm "slurping" my blog

I've always wanted to turn some of my blog posts into a book of sorts.

Something to complement the scrapbooking I'm doing for Sophie and Fynn.

I've started to put together a book of the posts I made about Fynn's first year over here.

Value Village find

We took a trip to Value Village today to find a retro outfit for me for my 80s staff party in a few weeks. I found a lovely (?) sweater dress with a big slouchy belt and Sophie eyed this little treasure.

It was only $3.99. She has seen them in stores before and has asked for one, so when I saw this in perfect condition, it seemed like a sweet little deal.

here comes the sun, here comes the sun

Yippee! We had sunshine today.

We made sure to get outside and get some of the good stuff. Fynn loved it.

Vic did a big bike ride and later he took Sophie for a swim.
I think both of them are going to be asleep pretty quickly tonight.

the playroom

When we built our house, one of the rooms I really wanted was a play area for Sophie and Fynn. Sophie and Fynn each have a bedroom on either end of a hallway separated by a shared bathroom and their play area. I really love it. It keeps the toys up and out of our main living area and it is carpeted so they have lots of nice soft places to play. Each night after their bath (Sophie currently likes to have her bath with Fynn) we get on jammies and just play for half an hour or so before stories.

I think when they get older it could work into a study area for them or a place for books and stuff.

does this sound like you?

I borrowed this little quiz from this book I have on loan.

Check all that apply.

- you secretly wish you had your own apartment.
- if you have to play Go Fish (in my case, Candyland) one more time, you will poke your eyeballs out.
- you feel guilty that you like going to work so much.
- you consider a trip to the dentist your special "alone time" (lately it has been trips to have a colonoscopy and hemmoroid removal)
- reading before bed feels like a luxury (YES!!)
- you find that browsing the aisles at Target (Zellers, Walmart, anywhere) by yourself is better than therapy.

Sophie and Fynn, I do adore you.

a manageable project

I did this Valentine's Day card holder tonight for Sophie's cards. It is stuffed full, so i may have to reinforce it with staples. The paper is Making Memories, Bazill cardstock and Basic Grey letter stickers.

Tomorrow night, I'll work on Fynn's.

a favourite quote

i can't forget this one. i love Anna Quindlen. i think it is why i scrapbook and blog.

..but the biggest mistake I made is the one that most of us make while doing this. I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of the three on them sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages 6, 4, and 1. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in a hurry to get on to the next things: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less.
Anna Quindlen

i'd promised myself...

that this year we would make Valentine's heart cookies together.
So, after a staff member's retirement party tonight, I got home and
got Sophie and Fynn into their baths, Fynn down to sleep and then we
whipped out some cookies.

actually they aren't bad. they are from this book. i ended up having to add more water to the cookie dough, but it seems okay.

6 on Sunday

Ahhh....the birthday (week) is behind us.

1. She is FIVE. The pool party on Saturday was a success.
2. I have never seen so much of this kind of merchandise by way of gifts.
3. She also got one of these. I am trying to understand the mania.
4. I picked up this today at Chapters. Looks so good. Sadly, the subject matter is very close to home with Vic's dad in advanced dementia.
5. Rented this last night. Very disturbing. I'm still thinking about it.
6. good night!

5 years ago today...

I was sitting in a hospital bed doped up on morphine (ahhh).
I had just had a c-section and was feeling blissfully in new mommy mode.

Sophie had her 5th birthday today.
It started out with a couple of gifts from mom and dad. She loved this new doll, particularly since she is dressed like a ballerina.

At lunch time I picked her up from daycare and took her out for lunch to one of her favourite places. For dinner she requested her favourite foods: carrots, chicken fingers and hash browns. Actually, it was very tasty and it was a TREAT to have dinner where both Fynn and Sophie had no complaints.

What I really needed...

This weekend, we went up to Silver Star for our 4th annual weekend with our friends/ski trip. It has really turned into the 4 other adults skiing and Vic and I doing other non-ski related things with Sophie and Fynn, but that's the way it is right now.

We went to Tube Town in the morning and then Sophie surprised us all by asking if she could ski (they have a kids' ski school). So after much mucking about, we got her outfitted in her rentals and she joined her "Ready Teddys" class in a 2 hour lesson.

After that it was my turn for some R and R. I had a booked a pedicure at the spa. Unfortunately, winter boots and pedicures do not mix. "Oh, yes we will put plastic bags over your feet and then slip on your boots. No smudging." Uh, no. My toes were a mess when I took off my boots at the condo. So back I went this a.m. for a fix. A pain. I really needed these funny socks.