Tuesday, September 27, 2011

My Heart Melted

Last night Little Girl was tired and asked me to carry her upstairs to her room at bed time.
Knowing these moments are becoming fewer and fewer, I happily picker her up with her blankie and carried her.
But man is she heavy, over 40 pounds now, here is the conversation I had with her:
Me: Wow Little Girl, you are heavy!  You need to stop growing so Mommy can still carry you to bed.
Little Girl: no, I want to be big.
Me: you want to be big, why?
Little Girl: I want to be big like you so I can be a Mommy too.
Me: (my heart has melted) Honey, I think that is one of the nicest things you have ever said to me.

Friday, September 23, 2011

New Barbie Clothes

Have I mentioned before that we have the best Day Home lady ever!

I arrived to pick up the kids the other day and Anna had made Little Girl the cutest Barbie outfits ever.
As soon as we arrived home, she needed to dress the girls.

Little Girl loves them.  Every day she dresses and undresses them - these are apparently pajamas - so twice a day they get changed just like she does.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Thai Cooking Class

I love to cook.  I know how to cook a big family turkey dinner and not freak out or burn anything.
I know how to barbecue.
I know how to chop an onion, mince garlic and fold in my egg whites so my soufflé will not fall.

But I grew up in the Canadian Prairies with a father that likes meat, potatoes, salt and very little pepper.
My adventurous side of cooking was not something I developed at home with my Mom. 
It is something I have learned on my own and I have benefitted by having a husband that will eat almost anything.

So when my girlfriend called and told me Café Divine in Okotoks was hosting a Thai cooking class, I was there.

I have cooked very little Thai food – I have tried to find a good Pad Thai recipe to no avail.  I have used store bought Green Curry Paste and Red Curry Paste, but what I have cooked has always been very North Americanized.  That is not a bad thing, but it is certainly not authentic.


Café Divine hosts a wonderful cooking class with Chef Darren and Chef Adrienne.   Darren was very informative, you can tell he has done his research, he spend a lot of time planning the recipes, making slight changes to incorporate local  ingredients since some authentic Thai vegetables or proteins are not as easy to get around here.

The class was awesome.  Sarah and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and came out with some fantastic recipes we are both going to be making at home very soon.

Check out their website for upcoming classes.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

My Big Girl and Little Baby Boy

As soon as you have your first child it seems like you are barely home from the hospital and everyone’s next question is “when are you having another one?”

Thankfully for us, both Hubby and I wanted more than one child.  We have decided 2 is our perfect number.

But something I have noticed in raising these 2 so far is how much I have projected on to each of them.

I have projected Little Girl to be a much bigger girl than she really was, because suddenly she was a big sister.  They are just under 20 months apart in age.  When Little Boy was born, she was not yet 2, she was not potty trained, she was not even in pull-ups, she had minimal communication skills, she was still drinking her milk out of a bottle for god’s sake and yet I expected her to be so much older.


Little Boy - 10 days old; Little Girl - 20 months old!


And I have also projected Little Boy into being my baby for much longer than I did with her (or I see other parents do).
He is turning 3 in November and just last weekend I carried him home from a play date instead of making him walk – he is over 30 pounds, has been walking for almost 2 years, and was more than capable of walking, but yet I caved to his asking to be carried.

But at the same time I am not ready for my baby to grow up.  Every time I refer to him as a baby, he corrects me and tells me he is not a baby!  And every time I remind him he will always be MY baby, even when he is bigger than me and hates Mommy kisses.

What about you?  What expectations have you put onto your children, have you been the same as me, expecting your oldest to grow up so much faster just because they are the oldest?

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Working Weekend

This past weekend we headed out to the trailer and took advantage of the quiet campground to do a bunch of work.

Hubby finished cutting up and chopping the wood.


Little Boy helped.

Little Girl was a great help moving the wood.


I love how she has to wear a dress every day and it does not matter what the job is, she will do it in a dress.

 Even Brutis was tired at the end of the day.


This weekend we did what we call as our pre-shut down.  We are going out one more time this fall when we will shut down the trailer for the season, but this past trip was for cleaning up the summer stuff.
Deflating the water toys, cutting up the wood for next year, cleaning out the fridge, freezer and pantry of everything except what we will need for our last trip out.

What about you?  Are you done camping for the season?  If not, when is your last trip out?

Monday, September 19, 2011

A Wood Shed

This summer our project out at our campsite was to build a wood shed.

Hubby took a look at a few other wood shed around, planned it out and look at what we have now.


Of course I can't take a picture without the kids running in to be included.


We decided to make a smaller section for chair storage.  This will clean up our deck considerably with all the chairs now living in their new home.

Johnson Canyon

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a hike with the kids.
We were planning on going much closer to home (Elbow Falls) but due to bear activity it was closed so we headed to Johnson Canyon.

Both kids did fantastic on the hike (we only went as far as the lower falls), it is a nice easy hike for any age.




 


Of course I forgot to get new batteries for the camera before we headed out, so no water falls pictures.

Monday, September 12, 2011

On My Nightstand - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn




A Tree Grows in Brooklyn – By Betty Smith
On the back cover:
“A profoundly moving novel, and an honest and true one.  It cuts to the heart of life... If you miss A Tree Grows in Brooklyn you will deny yourself a rich experience.  It is a poignant and deeply understand story of childhood and family relationships.

The Nolans living in the Williamsburg slums of Brooklyn from 1902 until 1919... Their daughter, Francie, and their son, Neely, knew more than their fair share of the privations and sufferings that are the lot of a great city’s poor.  Primarily this is Francie’s book.  She is a superb feat of characterization, an imagination, alert, resourceful child.  And Francie’s growing up and beginnings of wisdom are the substance of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.”

First published in 1943, and selected to be one of the books of the century by The New York Library.

My thoughts:
I liked this book, I would not rank it in my top 10 or even top 20, but it was a good book.
It was very well written, it told a story that ultimately is timeless, family and love, desires, rich and poor.
I have read so few books set in this time frame in North America it was really neat to see what life was like back then.  To see just how different the poor of 1919 are to the poor of 2011.

My rating: 4 out of 5.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

10 Years Ago

When I was growing up I heard my parents talk about where they were when Neil Armstrong first walked on the moon, I heard them talk about where they were when they first heard about JFK being shot.

Unfortunately for us, we all now have a memory like that.
A where where you when...

Where were you when you first heard about a plane being flown into the World Trade Centre?

Over the last week, as the 10 year anniversary of 9/11 has been approaching, there has been tons of news coverage about it, and Hubby dug this out of the basement.

These are complete newspapers from the day after.

We spent a little bit of time looking at them, reading a few of the stories, feeling and remembering the raw pain that we all felt that day.

  


 

I was living in London, Ontario that day.  I was suppose to get on a plane and fly to the Bahamas on Thursday for a company retreat, needless to say, that never happened.

Where were you?

Friday, September 09, 2011

Winning

How many times have you said “I never win anything.”  I have said it more times than I can count. But guess what?  I won something!

Now I wish I was telling you all I won the lottery, if I was to win one thing in life – that would be my pick – but really who would not pick that?

I won a trampoline!

I entered a contest online on The Yummy Mommy Club website.  About a week later, I got an email saying I won.
I have to be honest – I did not believe it.  I almost didn’t even tell Hubby I thought there is no way.
But I emailed them back my contract information for shipping, and it all sounded legit.

But I still had a hard time believing it, hence I have not blogged about it. 
But I got my trampoline delivered yesterday!

I actually won something! 


(photo used with permission)

As a child growing up, I had a friend whose Grandma lived down the road and they had a trampoline, we used to head over there all the time and jump and jump and jump.
I loved it.  I always wanted one, but I knew they were expensive and knew that was not something my parents would buy us.
I also know they can be very dangerous.  But this one.  It looks like they have gotten some rocket scientists to re-design it to be as safe as possible.

Since we are in Canada, and snow is soon going to fly, my lovely trampoline is still in its boxes in the basement, we will wait until spring to set it up.
I am sure there will be plenty of photos of kids and adults jumping next year.
(My sister actually told me she will come over and use it whenever she can.)

What about you?
Have you ever won something? 
What did you win?

Garden Update - Tomatoes

It has been quite a while since I updated you all about my garden.

We have been happily enjoying our daily harvests.

So far we are almost done the peas, although there seem to be more every time I go out and check, I am not sure where they are coming from.
I just harvested the last of the green beans.

We have been getting lots of carrots and tons of tomatoes.

Last week we had 2 days of rain, and then we headed out of town for an extended long weekend, so when we came back we had a lot of tomatoes.

The picture below is a bowl full of cherry and grape tomatoes.
Little Girl eats them like candy, we have to tell her to stop eating them, or she would never would.


Still to come are my Roma tomatoes, they are starting to turn red, but we still have a while to go before they are going to be ready.
Our strawberries are also still producing - of course I never get to eat them, Little Boy and Little Girl are hoovers in the strawberry department.

Thursday, September 08, 2011

No Tears!

Yesterday was Little Girl's first day of pre-school!

She was so excited in the morning - getting out of bed the first time I asked her to - getting dressed right away and letting me comb her hair (a daily battle I often don't fight).

Here she is in the morning - ready to go to day home with her backpack.


She will be going 4 afternoons a week, and she gets to go with her best friend.
Here they are together right before going in.




In the class room with her name tag.  Look at how excited she is!


Bye Mom!

She has a great first day.  She was super excited to be there and did not cry or fuss at all - she made sure I said good-bye, but then was more than ready for me to go.

I am so super proud of her.  We were not sure what to expect, it was just under a year ago we had swimming lessons that ended up with her not even in the water for more than half the classes.
Amazing how fast she is changing and becoming this independent little girl.

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Firsts

It is hard to keep track of all the 'firsts' we have had already as parents.

Some you remember like they happened yesterday some you want to forget.

Tomorrow we are having a very exciting 'first'.


Tomorrow is Little Girl's first day of school.
Preschool starts tomorrow and we are all excited.

A lot of my mommy friends did this last year, but since I work full time and the kids are in a day home we decided to skip the age 3 preschool year and just do the age 4 one.

We have a backpack, some new clothes and a new pair of shoes.
I have the afternoon off work and I get to take my baby girl to her first day of school.

Little Girl is pretty shy when she first meets anyone. Swimming lessons last year were an absolute disaster, so we felt it necessary to get her into preschool to help with her shyness and also to give her more exposure to other kids her age. She is in a dayhome, but there are only 4 kids total, she is the oldest and Little Boy is the next oldest. So we felt it to be important for her to have that exposure.

What about you?  Did you put your kids in preschool?  What age and why?


Friday, September 02, 2011

Fishing

This summer Hubby and I were talking a lot about getting the kids a fishing rod.  Since we spend so much time out at the lake, why not.

I wanted to get them Disney fishing rods - follow the links - Princess and Cars.
They are cheap, small for small kids - I thought they were prefect.
But, we camp in BC.  So, when I sent Hubby into town to get them from Wal-Mart - they are way more expensive than in Calgary.
And he thought they needed more features.

So - he got them full size fishing rods - they had a little tackle box, which they love, but we have to keep all the hooks in Hubby's tackle box for safety reasons.

Hubby took them down the first time to the dock to fish - Little Boy has no patience, Little Girl has more - but alas, no fish bit in the first 10 minutes.

Now I get to come and help.  Here are some photos from our last time out - again, no fish biting in the first 10 minutes.
(Someone is going to have to tell them it takes longer.)



Thursday, September 01, 2011

Princesses

If you have a little boy, you might know what I am talking about. 
If you have an older girl and a younger son, you know exactly what I am talking about.

The younger child tends to copy the older one - in our family - Little Boy copies Little Girl all the time.

Since Little Girl is in the peak of princess land, that means we dress up as a princess often, and so does Little Boy.




Let me tell you - this boy can wear a pair of heals better than a lot of women I know.

I have more than once told him not to walk on the stairs in heals and not to kick soccer balls in heals.