Maelie's Mama

Maelie's American Girl

2012-01-13T04:13:00.001-05:00

For Christmas, Maelie used some Christmas money and we ordered an American Girl. She doesn't really *play* with dolls, however she really wanted one that she could dress up as well as do her hair! Needless to say, after paying what we did for the doll, I didn't want to start paying more for the doll's wardrobe than I do for my own! So i got a few online , Simplicity and McCall's patterns and got to work. I really really am basic at sewing !! I made her some cute skinny jeans!

We are not sure if this top is a dress or a long shirt. This outfit was a surprise as Maelie was away for a sleepover. When she walked in, it's the first thing she saw and was ECSTATIC!

Some of the cheap clearance fabric I got was stretchy pink and stretchy aqua. I made some little legging style pants (same as the jeans pattern). It's SO easy!!

We can't see it very well on the picture but this top is reddish and has sequins on it. Maelie uses it as a sleeveless vest and usually ties a red ribbon around her waist. It's so adorable to see her mix and match different outfits.

I had to almost bribe her to get a simple picture !!

My next goal is to teach Maelie how to sew the basics. I know she will hava a ton of fun learning. Her great-grandma Matante would be so proud!! :)

Sen vs Devils

2012-01-03T06:40:00.000-05:00

Maelie and Bill went to see the Devils !

Well the Devils ended up losing but it was a really good game though :) They had a wonderful Daddy / Daughter time while I was in bed getting some sleep! Worked perfectly for everyone haha!!

A night out

2012-01-02T18:18:00.002-05:00

Can you guess where Maelie and Bill are heading out to tonight?

Hmmmmm..... ???

Could it be....

A New Jersey Devil's hockey game?? Why yes it is!!

New Year's supper

2012-01-02T18:09:00.002-05:00

For supper on New Year's Day, we went to Montana's. I suggested that maelie bring along her Cranium Brain Break. It was a great idea because it took a while before we got our food! I think everyone with a child 8+ should get this game! It is packed with 1 minute games and so you can play while you are waiting for a meal, and appointment, etc....! And it is so much better than just using technology to entertain your children!

Once our food arrived, it was quick to put it away. We had an awesome time!! By the look on Maelie's face.... she had an awesome time eating dessert!

Happy New Year 2012!

2012-01-01T10:32:00.003-05:00

It's already 2012. A leap year!

2011 was a wonderful year ... good times with friends and family, new adventures, old adventures, crafting, cooking, loving, changing.

What I am looking forward to in 2012 is:

- being creative
- being happy
- enjoying the life I have been given
- loving my friends family
- decluttering and organizing
- cooking wholesome foods

I would really like to do Project 365... which would mean taking at least 1 picture a day for the whole year! I guess this year would be project 366!

Happy New Year too everyone ! :) May this be the best yet!

A night on the town !

2011-12-31T18:28:00.000-05:00

At least one person in this house will still be awake to ring in the New Year!

Grand-maman's new year visit

2011-12-30T10:48:00.003-05:00

For the 3rd year in a row, Grand-maman came to spend new year's with us. Of course, she travels with her pie dough and all her tools!

She put Maelie to work on making Mexican pies and an apple pie.

She taught her how to cut the extra dough off ...

Here is the perfect Mexican meat pie!

a lot of this going on

2011-12-27T06:05:00.001-05:00

How we LOVE vacation time!! We don't get to relax in our jammies much on most days... but Christmas time rocks!!! :)

Maelie's homemade pizza!

2011-12-26T19:08:00.002-05:00

Maelie decided that it was her night to cook!! She took out her kids can cook book and started making her pizza dough from scratch!!

Half of it was covered in her favorite toppings: nothing and the other half was covered in Bill's favorite toppings: everything. LOL

It turned out delicious!!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-26T06:56:00.006-05:00

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Day filled with love. Our day started off before 5 am when Maelie got up and went through her stocking. She was just too excited !!

Once Lisa was up, we started working on the presents! It was a fun time :) Peluche's present was LOTS of affection :)

We were all very happy with our surprises! It was quite fun!! How blessed we are to be able to spend Christmas together. Maelie got an Air Hog helicopter with a camera. She spent the day flying it and charging it. It only got stuck in my hair ONCE! LOL

A colleague at work said she was doing a brunch raclette. I thought I would try that! It turned out awesome!

We had mini pancakes, potatoes, sausages, omelettes, meat pie, potato bacon pie, beans, coffee and juice!

Our afternoon was spent relaxing, cleaning Christmas wrapping paper up, and preparing for the next meal!! Lisa made some amazing dishes... Tortilla Espanola

And Croquettes with ham and cheese (to die for). We of course didn't have the proper ham or cheese on hand, however it worked well with black forest ham and mozza cheese!

I made some bruschetta with a few missing ingredients... and i made an asiago artichoke dip! MMmmmmmmmmmmm.

I guess our day revolved around food! That's what Christmas is, isn't it? We didn't go traditional on the supper, but we did go AWESOME :)

As a dessert.... what better to eat than a Tiramisu buche de Noel?! It was delicious!!!

What a beautiful day! It snowed most of the day so we did end up with a white Christmas.

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 24

2011-12-24T20:20:00.001-05:00

Christmas Eve at last!! Hurray! One little girl is VERY excited!! This morning was the last advent calendar. Her last advent calendar turned out to be EMPTY... she had to open up a gift!

She received her American Girl! It came in the mail a week ago but we waited until the right time to give it to her. She had used up money she got from different relatives to order it.

Maelie insisted we have an early supper so she could go to bed earlier. I made a Pillsbury Christmas tree and chicken veggie rice.

After supper we opened up our Christmas Eve presents .. Maelie, Lisa and Bill got jammies!

and i got chocolate covered pretzels... MMMMMMMmmmmmm!

After that we played games for family game night! Spelloker and Jok-R-Rummy. Maelie was really tired so we headed off to bed after the games!

We are so ready for Christmas!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 23

2011-12-23T19:30:00.004-05:00

As Maelie says: it's Christmas Eve Eve. One of the 3 most exciting days this week! Maelie had a little bit of help opening up her advent calendar today!

Maelie came to work with me. We set up a movie, crafts and snacks for the kids and they had a good time. I was relieved once it was time to go home! Vacation for 10 days! YAY!!

At home, I wrapped up a few chocolate suckers I had for neighbors and friends we will see during the holidays. It just looks more festive with treats around!

I also made little Santas to put at the end of these M&M sleeves. They are so cute! I found the idea for the Santa on a blog somewhere but I forget where.

It's all made with different punches and real easy to put together.

This evening we also opened up an activity present. Maelie was curious as to why I was giving her a ball of yarn!

I quickly cut circles out of a box in the recycling and taught her how to go around and around to make....

POM POMS!! The yarn was glittery white so once completed... we used them as snowflake ornaments!

Maelie made 3 more and we hung them all on the tree :)

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 22

2011-12-22T20:20:00.002-05:00

Day 22!! last day of school for Maelie. Her school was having a sing along tomorrow but she rather come to my work. I still cannot believe how close we are to the day I've been anticipating for soooooo long! In September I started counting the days. This whole season gets me excited!!

This evening we went out for supper with Sonia and Naomie. The girls were SO excited to give each other gifts! I am so relieved that the are always more excited about giving their gifts than receiving them!

Sonia and her family are going away for a few days to go skiing where there actually IS snow... (not here)! So guess who we have as a special Christmas guest? Yes indeed! The famous Peluche! I better get a gift for him under the tree!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 21

2011-12-21T19:19:00.002-05:00

Maelie is starting to get up earlier and earlier every day now... she is getting SO excited!

It was a rainy day with a bit of freezing rain by the end of the day... not very safe on the roads!!

We stay put at home. Jessica, our neighbor, dropped by the play with Maelie a little. They like to make menus and set really high prices to their food.

I had donated a 5 lb chocolate sleigh for our charity auction at work, so the lady was picking it up this evening. It looked awesome!

Afterwards, Maelie and I crafted a bit with beads. She is not very patient with some crafts!!

My project for tonight in the kitchen? Irish creme fudge. Turned out awesome!

4 days left til Christmas!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 20

2011-12-20T20:19:00.002-05:00

Day 20 - how this week is flying by!!

This morning Maelie brought her teachers gifts to school. Everyone was happy. Her homeroom teacher was really happy with her apron, apparently she showed it off to others during the day! Makes me happy... since sometimes you just don't know what to give to someone!!

I managed to pinch a nerve in my upper back when I carried all the arrangements to school! The back door was a bit frozen, and I pulled the wrong way. I felt it get caught! OUCH! it was quite inflamed during the day.

This evening, we were not in any rush so I told Maelie that if her homework was done, we could open an activity present. First we had supper together watching Glee from a few weeks ago. Then Maelie laid out the activity presents and she made her choice.... she knew what she was looking for.

... and she found it :) The gingerbread house!!

We got to work... but man oh man that icing was sticky!!

Assembling it is the less messy part !! I stopped taking pics once my hands were a mess!

Ta-Da!!! I find it turned out AWESOME!! :)

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 19

2011-12-19T20:19:00.004-05:00

Day 19! Maelie was a bit sick during the night so the morning was rather difficult and slow! We got to school and work late.

It was my last Christmas card making workshop at work today. It usually is on Wednesday's, but had been moved to Thursday last week, and since I was home that day, I moved it to today! This is the sample card I made:

Our mailbox was full today! 6 more lovely Christmas cards! This is what we have received so far!

We finished up the teacher gifts so that Maelie could take them to school.

I spend hours making my Christmas chocolates and really enjoy how they turn out !!

Maelie's teacher doesn't eat sweets so we found another option for her. Also, she is Jewish so her present will be given tomorrow... just on time for Hanukkah! Here is a wonderful apron made by my friend Rosa. Maelie's teacher loved the apron Sonia was wearing at school and it is very similar to this one.... so I am hoping she will be happy to get one of her own!

It's the first time we gave a Hanukkah present to a teacher! I am glad we are able to learn more about Hanukkah and the Jewish culture. I love this wrapping paper and ribbon!!

6 days left!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 18

2011-12-18T20:19:00.004-05:00

Waking up was not very hard to do today! Of course, it's the weekend! So why sleep in when it is the weekend? 1 week until Christmas morning!!

Maelie had a fun family tournament at bowling today so Bill played with her. They both were so exhausted even before they started!

After bowling, we headed off to Sonia's house for a cookie baking afternoon. Maelie found some of her energy to play all afternoon! Here is Peluche the reindeer.

Since Peluche the reindeer did not do his job right, Maelie and Naomie decided that they would become the reindeer. I can sense a sigh of relief from Peluche!

They relaxed a little while watching a Glee Christmas episode.

Meanwhile Sonia and I were in business! We burnt two batches of cookies, sadly enough. I was not used to her oven and it heats up warmer than what it actually says!! So we had to turn it down and move the grill up. Then it was smoothe sailing!

Here are some of our goodies! Thay all come from yhe Better Homes and Gardens "The Ultimate Cookie Book".

From left to right in the first picture: Maple Oatmeal Drops, Chocolate Thumbprints and White chocolate cherry shortbread.

Here are Pecan nut cookies.

Before I left, Sonia gave me a present of more goodies!! MMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmm!!! Thank you!!!

It was a fun afternoon and evening and hopefully it will become another tradition!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 17

2011-12-17T20:19:00.000-05:00

Day 17 started off differently than other days! I left at about 5:15 to go to Walmart in Ottawa. It's open 24 hours so I did my groceries and came home to find Maelie and Lisa already up! So they took charge of the advent calendar while I was away.... but they DID remember to take pictures!! :)

We went to bowling in the morning. Maelie placed 1st for the 4 step tournament! This means that she is now part of the team of 4 that will train to go to regionals, provincials and nationals if they make it that far! Of course I wish they'd make it to the nationals because they are held in Newfoundland this year in May. When else would I get the chance to go to Newfoundland! My priority though, is that Maelie enjoys herself during the competition and that she develops skills, friendship and good sportsmanship.

After bowling we came home and soon after, the phone rang. Friends from school wanted her to come over and play. So off she went for the afternoon and part of the evening. When I picked her up, surprise surprise, she had lost 2 of her bottom teeth!! One on each side! They were holding by a pointy end, no wonder she had been so sore recently. Both of these teeth had a tiny filling on them. Good riddance!

Once back home, Maelie helped me out with the teacher gifts for this year. Her homeroom teacher will be getting something non edible because she is extremely health conscious and will not eat sweets. Plus, she will not be getting a Christmas gift but a Hanukkah gift. I don't want to post a pic yet, but it's awesome!

I enjoy making these arrangements. They are a lot of work and time consuming ... and my kitchen becomes a dysfunctional area, but i enjoy it a lot and i love they way they turn out! :) If a person happens to not like chocolate, well they can always offer it to someone, so either way, people are happy.

1 week 'til Christmas Eve!!!!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 16

2011-12-16T20:19:00.000-05:00

Day number 16! Maelie's box was already popping open! What a coincidence... she was all dressed up and ready to go to school... but she didn't have socks on! There were Joshua Perets socks in her box! She put them on right away and we headed off to work and school. I got Maelie to shower and get dressed this morning before the advent calendar.

What to my wondering eyes should appear? Tasty little Godiva truffles for breakfast! OOOOOOh la la! Thank you Lisa!

At work, it's not unusual for me to have a swarm of people at my desk asking for something or needing help. That's what I do best. But suddenyl today, to my right popped up some people, then to my left, until I had my card making ladies ALL around me!!! They presented me with a gift to thank me for the card making workshops we did throughout the year! OH MY! I was SO shy and nervous! I don't like when the attention is on me. They had wrapped the present in a few layers, and I had to open it with oven mitts! We had a laugh!! I had NO CLUE what it could be!! It turned out to be this LOVELY crafting suitcase on wheels!! I guess they are tired of seeing me come to work with my gazillion bags of craft stuff! I always wanted to buy myself one of these, but there was always something else i *needed*. :) All I can say is WOW...I am flattered and honored!

Maelie and I had a grown up surprise 40th birthday party to attend!! I was not going to stay long and Maelie adores Nicole, who the party was for. So we headed off to the hotel at the casino. This guy greeted us at the door!

How could I not take a pic of Maelie with this awesome Christmas tree!!

We were all in a huge sweet at the hotel, and Nicole showed up. Her mom had even flown in from out west to be at the party! Nicole was crying when she saw her mama... :) It was SO touching!!

On the way home, Maelie said "mom, why isn't Nicole married?"
I responded "well I guess maybe she didn't find the right one yet"
Maelie added "Well mom, it's kind of too late now. She's 40! She'll never find the right one."

ah... the bluntness and innocence of a 9 year old :) Gotta love it!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 15

2011-12-15T19:18:00.003-05:00

10 more days til Christmas! Everyone in this house is excited! Even if it doesn't show in the morning pictures LOL.

Today was a VERY quiet day. I stayed home because I was sore and exhausted! I think I pushed myself a lot in the past week and I guess my body was asking me to relax. It felt nice ! I rather take one day to rest that to burn out at Christmas.

We DID however go to bowling practice. Not for long because Maelie was tired.I don't want to wear her down as well!!

She did her presentation on Christmas in the Ukraine today. She brought in her cookies and shared with her class. She said it went very well and that the teacher read her book, "The Spider's Gift, A Ukrainian Christmas Story" to the class. It's a sweet story that talks about Ukrainian traditions at Christmas and it includes why a spider in your Christmas tree is supposed to bring you luck. I am really proud that Maelie is making an effort with her projects this year. She really wants to get good grades!

As Maelie finished her supper, our neighbor Jessica came over. Poor her, we are usually always so busy with homework and other stuff on weekdays that Maelie brushed her off a lot. This time I figured she could play at least for a few minutes. So we chit chatted a bit with her and then they got dressed up!

She was so cute because upon entering the very cluttered and messy kitchen, she says "Wow, your house is very decorated!" Now that's going to be my new vision of my kitchen when I am in the midst of a million projects! LOL

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 14

2011-12-14T19:18:00.004-05:00

Maelie opened up her calendar today and it was a Walmart gift card!

We were having a Christmas pot luck today at work. I made some Pillsbury Christmas trees. It all started out with slicing a pack of Pillsbury dough.

You then shape them and bake them in the shape of a tree! I really wish I remembered to take a picture at work once it was all put together... it turned out gorgeous with some tiny tomatoes, little slices of carrots, celeri and broccoli on it.

I also finished up my spiral cookies before going to work. I entered them in the baking competition even if they didn't turn out perfectly spiralish!

After work/school, Maelie wanted us to make a Ukrainian recipe that she could take to school tomorrow. Her project is on Christmas in the Ukraine. I am pretty sure the recipe we found did not say "drop 2 cups of flour on the floor". The recipe was: Ukrainian Christmas honey cookies.

After Maelie vacuumed up her flour mess, she mixed all the ingredients together and made the yummy smelling cookie dough. She rolled out the dough herself. I had to show her what to do when everything sticks everywhere. Dough on counter, dough on pin.... she grumble at it, but that didn't help. A little flour takes care of that! She did a great job! I was in charge of putting them in the oven. AND cleaning up of course.

Look how cute they turned out!

After supper and cookie baking, Maelie got to open an activity present... turned out to be a Christmas activity book! Maelie enjoys books that you can do something with other than just read! She did a few pages while we watched a show on tv together (Zack and Cody)

and then it was time for bed......!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 13

2011-12-13T19:18:00.000-05:00

Maelie had a very hard time getting up today! But we managed to get up and not miss the bus! That seems to be a running thing around Christmas time... it's easy to be too tired to get up on time to go to school!

At the end of the day, Maelie had an orthodontist appointment. We were really happy to hear that I don't have to crank her expander anymore! He mouth has responded very well and has expanded enough to make room for all of her teeth apparently! So now Maelie cannot wait to go back at the beginning of February and get 2 litte braces on her front teeth to bring them closer together. Once thare are close enough, she will get more braces to pull the neighboring teeth into place. Sounds like a plan!

Once home, I had to start preparing food for the pot luck at work on Wednesday. I made some meatballs in the slow cooker.

I was working on an entirely different idea than the one below, but it didn't work out so well! So I ended up with these! Some days it just all goes wrong!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 12

2011-12-12T19:18:00.001-05:00

This morning Maelie had a number inside her advent calendar box. She enjoys fishing around to find the correct number!

Once her sleepyhead was done that, I told her that her mailbox flag was up! She was excited to see the message from her daddy :)

After work and school today, we embarked once again on a baking and chocolate frenzy!

Do you know how much this sleigh weighs? Just short of 3 lbs !! That's a lot of chocolate !! You could even lift weights with it! However, it is not recommended to lifts weights with chocolate :)

Maelie worked on her project on Christmas in the Ukraine. Thank goodness she finally got it done!! I really hope we get a break from homework for the Christmas season because I must honestly say, grade 4 homework is exhausting!! Kids tend to like to argue with their parents about how to do things!

We are officially half way through our advent calendars!!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 11

2011-12-11T20:18:00.004-05:00

What a wonderful, FULL day! Maelie got a Joshua Perets t-shirt in her advent calendar so of course that's what she had to wear today!

Lisa decided to make pancakes for breakfast with her sidekick Maelie. When I took the camera out, she put Maelie in charge LOL

Jacinthe and her kids arrived early after lunch and we put the kids to work! They painted the chocolate moulds in very interesting color patterns!

Maelie casually moved the mould up in front of her face as I took the picture... LOL

As an activity present, Maelie got a mailbox. We love having a mailbox out during Christmas season. It usually sits at the computer desk and Bill and Maelie write each other little notes! Since Bill works a lot of overtime during Christmas, we don't see him as much. Having this little mailbox makes sure they keep in touch! Maelie always looks forward to seeing the flag up in the morning!

This is today's outcome! Between chocolates and baking.... I really appreciated bedtime!!

These peanut butter squares? To die for!! Very sweet but very tasty and easy to make! The recipe comes from a book I had bought used somewhere.

There are a must make every year. Martha Stewart's Molasses spice cookies. Simple and quick and tasty!

This recipe for whipped shortbread is also so yummy it melts in your mouth!! I already forget which magazine I used for the recipe since I put them away!

My cookies jar went from "Empty" to "Full" today, that's for sure!! He seems quite happy doesn't he?

After all of this baking and chocolate making, I sat down for a bit with Maelie and Lisa and we chit chatted. Lisa had a nice warm tea that smelled awesome!! Not long after that it was time for bed... :)

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 10

2011-12-10T22:18:00.003-05:00

Saturday... Day 10!!

Maelie got a pair of Joshua Perets socks... she was so happy! It doesn't take much some days! haha Actually,. it's always the element of surprise that gets them excited! I can't wait for Christmas because it is FULL of surprises!!

As you can possible tell... today my camera was resting! LOL the rest of the post has no pictures!

Maelie and I went to bowling in the morning. She is doing extremely well. This week was the second week for the 4-step to stardom tournament qualifications. So far she is in first place in her group!! WoW!! I think she will place for sure since they take the first 4 kids and make a team with them. She would have to play her worse ever next week to not place. She is excited to make the team. The 4-step tournament is the BIG tournament. If they end up winning in the provincials, they go to Nationals in May. This year it is in Newfoundland. Wouldn't that be nice??

After her bowling, I quickly made a spinach dip wreath for Jacinthe. We were invited to go to her house for a big dinner, however since my weekend was full, I had to decline. But I did insist on dropping off the wreath!

After that, Lisa and I had to go to T&T Supermarket and to Chapters to pick up some last minute gifts that I have to mail before Monday. Maelie stayed home with her Daddy and they hung out together. She was happy since she needed some alone time with him.

Once home, in the evening, I finished writing in all my Christmas cards and worked on some crafts a bit with Sonia while Maelie played with Naomie and then it was time for bed! The big job of writing in all the cards took hours, but I needed to get that done to mail them Monday!

Sunday will be another very busy day... how weekends fly!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 9

2011-12-09T20:17:00.003-05:00

We are more than 1/3 through our advent calendar!! It's crazy !! Maelie made the extra effort to get up early today because Lisa was working mornings... so this meant that the advent calendar opening was at 5:30!

Lisa didn't think it was a great idea to take a picture of her that early and not fixed up... so I asked her if I could take a pic of her gingerbread jammies to prove that she has the Christmas spirit!! Ok... it IS written Bite me on them... but that's adorable!

Today was a normal day of work and school. In the evening, Sonian and Naomie came by since we have a few Christmas cards left to finish up (the number keeps multiplying!) I wish I could send some to everyone!!

The girls played with Naomie's American Girls. Even as they grow up, I am glad they still enjoy *playing* together.

When we craft we usually try to have a quick already made lunch just so we won't lose crafting time in the kitchen!! Patrick picked up McDonald's for us on his way home. How kind of him!! :)

We had a great relaxing craftin time listening to Christmas music while the girls played, listening to Christmas music as well! What a wonderful day!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 8

2011-12-07T19:17:00.008-05:00

Maelie slept in a little today as she was very tired. She opened up her advent calendar and it was a number !

100 - the lucky number! It felt like a chocolate bar when you touched it.

Glittery eye shadow... ! I reminded her that a little goes a long way!

At school today, Maelie receive her prize for her cookie dough sales. It's a bubble machine! She tried it out on th porch and it was quite fun!

After her homework was done, she was allowed to open up an activity present.

It was a few activities that we could do together. Make it and bake it ornaments.

It wasn't easy to get the little plastic thingies inside the frame.

Ta-da! Maelie's penguin! and my snowman!

A new ornament for our tree :) hurray!

What a great chatty evening we had! Lisa was home as well so we giggled and had a fun evening! :)

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 7

2011-12-07T19:17:00.003-05:00

Day 7, I may sound like a broken record but man oh man time is flying by!! Today is also Michelle's 24th birthday! Happy birthday Michelle!

Maelie was up somewhat bright and early. This year, she seems to need to sleep in a bit more! In the past years, she was always up way before the crack of dawn for the advent calendar it seems. Now she just wishes she could sleep a bit more!

Today was my card making workshop at work. We all got together and made Christmas cards :) Next week is out last one until the new year!

I worked on my Christmas cards today again. Addresses on envelopes - complete. While I was making a few extra cards since I am only up to 44, Maelie read some french books to me.

Once she was done that, she sat down with me and wrote a thank you card for some Christmas money she received. She had made some cards a few weekends ago so she used one of those.

I am almost done my Christmas shopping. It's the wrapping that is a whole other project!! LOL Not many days left now... !!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 6

2011-12-06T18:17:00.003-05:00

The day started off pretty tired! Poor Maelie seems to need more sleep these days. She was a bit upset with me though because I woke her up late. She doesn't like to be rushed in the morning.

The reason I woke her up late was because I was in the midst of making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies! I brought a bunch to work and left a couple dozen at home. They disappeared very quickly!

After work, we had to go pick up our English Bay cookie dough orders that we had bought as a fundraiser. More cookies! Maelie had made me promise that we would make some of the ones she chose... so here she is making 9 of her cookies! While the cookies baked, I washed my kitchen and washroom floors. They needed it pretty badly!!

It was quite a day....Maelie has been crabby so I insisted on a 6:30 bedtime tonight!! We will read for a bit and then lights out at 7.

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 5

2011-12-05T20:23:00.000-05:00

Day 5 and Maelie was too pooped to get up! It took a lot of convincing today to get out of the warm bed! Even the advent calendar was not the most motivating!

I let Maelie open up one of her activity presents this evening. I know she was dying to open one. She took them out from under the tree and then had to decide.

She ended up with sand ornaments!

We sat down together and worked on our ornaments.It was quite enjoyable as we chit chatted. Maelie opened herself up and shared some of her feelings with me so I felt honoured. I just listened to her and asked a few questions. It's amazing what we can do when our hands are busy!

Ta da! Completed and ready to hang on the tree.

Maelie chose a nice spot where we could all see the addition to our tree.

I love spending time with my baby :)

We ended up in bed pretty early and read for about an hour! It was quite a nice relaxing evening.

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 4

2011-12-04T20:23:00.003-05:00

Our day started off with the advent calendar of course! Maelie got some Joshua Perets undies today. They are so cute!

At 10 am she had a bowling tournament in Aylmer. Their lanes are quite different than ours! So it's no wonder the girls took a little while to adapt.

Their coach spoke with them before the game. She is very sweet. They ended up with 5th place, but a very close 5th. Between 2nd place and 5th, there were less than 50 points!!

After the tournament we came home. I was tempted to do a litte baking ....

But I ended up crafting with Sonia while Maelie and Naomie played. They had a BLAST , we could hear them giggling all afternoon. Sonia and I listened to Christmas music in my craft room and worked on these little beauties!! I got the instructions on Qbees Quest blog. These little trees have lots of steps, but they are not complicated. Just a bit time consuming.

Another wonderful December Day! I wish we didn't have to work tomorrow though...!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 3

2011-12-03T21:23:00.003-05:00

Day 3 already! How fast December flies by. We wait for it all year and them boom! it's gone in a flash!!

This morning Maelie had bowling, and she played pretty good! She played one game over 200. In the afternoon she went shopping with Bill and Lisa at the mall, whereas I went shopping by myself. I needed to go to a specific mall for a specific something. I got lucky, found what I needed and didn't have to fight too many crowds.

Once I got back, Maelie and I were going to Jacinthe's for a homemade chinese supper. It was delicious! Her table was rather pretty and festive! She took her fancy cutlery out for us :) hehe

Maelie played with Myriam all evening. SHe really enjoys playing with her because she has such an imagination! It's really one of the only places she will allow herself to play all these role playing games. I really love that she lets herself be a kid sometimes :)

On the way home, we took a little detour to see some awesome lit up houses! We barely go out at night so to see them all lit up was a treat! This first side by side home backs out on a main street by one of the highway exits. The back of the home is really just as full as the front of the home if you can picture that!!

This home is closer to our house. The first time we saw it last year, I was shocked at how many blow up things one could have in their yard! We can't see them clearly but I would say at least 10 or so!! What was neat is that when you turn down on that street, most of the houses have a lot of lights... not to THAT extent, but they did have their share! Maelie loved it! She is actually disappointed that we don't go that far with decorations. :) I would love to see their electricity bill!

What a wonderful Saturday!!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 2

2011-12-02T21:18:00.001-05:00

Aha! Day 2 already and another early morning in this house ! As mentioned before, December is the only month where I don't have to wake Maelie up... she hurries down way too early for her advent calendar!

Maelie got another number today in her calendar so she had to go get present #14.

There was no way Lisa would sneak out of the house to go to work without opening up her advent calendar too! Maelie would just not have that!

A little snack for later :)

What did we see outside when we left for school & work? A tad bit of the white stuff! Not enough in my books...and none of it will stay. It was nice to see it falling though! There were a lot of accidents on the roads... which is not surprising but a bit silly. Slow down everyone when there is snow... you don't know what's underneath it!

At work, we had organized our Christmas lunch at the casino restaurant. Needless to say, it was delicious. Strangely enough, I gave rave reviews of the brussel sprouts! Then again, there was bacon mixed in with them so that could be why they were drop dead delicious. Dessert was also totally incredibly amazing. So much that I forgot to take a picture !! By the time I noticed, I only had a couple of bites left!!

When we got home, I decided we should make seasonal rice cripsie squares!! MMMMmmmmm.... Maelie made the whole recipe by herself while i snapped a few pics :)

They turned out perfect!!

Sonia and Naomie came over for a bit of crafting this evening. Naomie taught Maelie how to sew so they spent hours making clothes and pillows for the Webkinz!

It brought back some feelings from when I was little and learned how to sew :) Not professionally, but just enough to get by sewing stuff for my dolls and stuffed animals. The fabric that Maelie and Naomie were using tonight were scraps that Matante had given me before she passed away. I love that I can share them with Maelie!

Countdown to Christmas 2011 - Day 1

2011-12-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

Finally, the first day of December has arrived! Maelie was so excited to open up her advent calendar that she was up at 5:15! You can probably tell with the little tired eyes!

Her advent item had a number on it so she had to open up a gift that had that number! It was a little reading light that she can attach to her book in bed. She was very happy. Poor Lisa was very tired and did not agree to a picture in the morning!! Thankfully her advent calendar was a little gift card for Starbucks to wake her up!

We had ordered an ornament for Lisa a while back so she could have her own ornament on the tree. A Tardis from Dr. Who! It just happened to come in today so Maelie hurried and wrapped it up nicely. She gave it to Lisa the minute we saw her!

Beautiful!!

Today our day was filled with school, work, bowling practice, and wrapping. Nicole came over and helped wrap the gifts we are using for the Christmas lunch at work tomorrow. Maelie was ecstatic! She LOVES Nicole!

All in all we had a wonderful day and are looking forward to the weekend!

It's beginning to look a lot like December in here!

2011-11-30T05:05:00.003-05:00

I have a very hard time containing my excitement once we get to December! Tomorrow is it... the beginning of one of the best months in the year!! It is also THAT time of the year again when we have advent calendars. I made 2 this year since Lisa is living with us for a bit :) It's fun and challenging to find ideas for 2 completely different tastes and age ranges!!

This year I made boxes and bags and glued them to a white canvas. I glued them around randomly one evening and the next, I put the numbers on them, so even *I* don't remember what is in the boxes! Maelie is very excited that it is time for the calendar again :)

It's probably the only month other than the summer months where I don't have to work hard to wake her up in the morning!

Watch for my annual Christmas countdown where I post every day this month until Christmas!

Feed me, please!

2011-11-28T06:44:00.003-05:00

Peluche returned to his house last night, but not before a begging session!

"pleeeeeeeeease feed me!!"

not an early bird

2011-11-26T05:05:00.003-05:00

This is the look I get from Peluche when I wake up too early for him:

This is how he ends up.... just rolls over and goes back to bed!

Christmas cookies

2011-11-25T16:48:00.000-05:00

Every year we HAVE to get a pack of the Christmas Pillsbury cookies. Maelie did not have faith in me because every year, even following the instructions, they burned!! So this year I was determined to have them come out just right!

Peluche LOVES to help us in the kitchen! He is the floor manager.

Maelie loved the way they turned out this year!

What a surprise!

2011-11-25T06:38:00.001-05:00

On Thursday while at work, I received an e-mail from Kath saying she would be in town!! Not for long though, just in passing... so all the stars and snowflakes aligned and I was able to leave work and go for lunch with her and her little family! It had been about 2 years since we saw each other! It felt like we'd seen each other yesterday. Some friendships are like that :) Very comfortable!

I couldn't believe how much older and mature her kids were. Nathan is quite talkative for his age!!

Thanks for letting me know you were in town Kath! I would have done everything in my power to see you guys no matter what!

Maelie's speech

2011-11-23T04:55:00.000-05:00

This year was Maelie's first year at public speaking! She placed in the first three in her class so she had to go in front of the school & parents & judges! Her topic was "The price you pay for perfect teeth". You can probably guess that it was about the orthodontic treatments she is receiving :)

She did it perfectly! I was amazed! There were 3 winnders, and 2 honorable mentions. Maelie got the first honorable mention! I was SO proud!! (too bad on the pic she looks like she is fifth, but she is actually 4th). She was a bit hard on herself for not having won first place, but I was SOOOOOO proud of all the work she did! Even her teacher commented that she should have been in the first 3. :)

She is just starting public speaking... there are many more years of it to go!!

This and that

2011-11-21T04:57:00.003-05:00

We are in full prep mode for Christmas now. Our home is becoming more and more cheery....LOL ok, maybe Maelie and I are getting more excited. Pictured above are my new curtains in the main floor washroom. Beautiful cardinals! I can keep these up all winter, not just Christmas. My kitchen curtains are snowflakes, my main door ones are snowmen, so they can also stay up all winter.I put up my snowman shower curtains that Kathleen had got me as a gift years ago! It feels wintery in here! We are just missing some snow!

Maelie really enjoys sitting by the tree and organizing the Little People reindeer and Santa. Even if she knows the true story now, she still sees her Santa and reindeer set as a tradition now :) She has also started keeping count of the activity presents. Each year, I put a bunch of activity presents under the tree. They can me teeny tiny activities or a bit more time consuming activities, but the thing it, we do the activity together, so it's fun! Even if it is just 5 minutes in our day! I told Maelie we would start them up on December 1st, and not earlier, so she is very excited. We had a few left from last year, and we have a few new ones this year. We certainly don't open one up every day... when Maelie has a busy schedule we skip a day.

Recently, Maelie started her orthodontic treatments. She had a palatal expander which basically is put directly on her palate and we must roll the little wheel in the middle to expand the mechanism every other day. This will allow her palate to get bigger. Right now she doesn't even have enough room for her baby teeth! Let alone her grown up ones! After about 6 months or so, she will need some other thing (name unknown!) to keep her palate widened as her grown up teeth keep on coming in. Once they are all out, she will get braces to try and get all the teeth in their right spots. This will for sure be quite a long treatment! But I am sure it will pay off in the long run since Maelie has teeth that are in quite weird places at the moment! LOL

On another note, Maelie just got her report card! This is probably the first one in her schooling career that actually makes sense!! The Ministry of Education modified their report cards so that we could get an accurate picture of our kids' grades. Here is what Maelie got this term:

English 86
French 90
Math 96
Science 82
Geography, history and citizenship 86
Music 89
Visual arts 85
Ethics and religious culture 85
Phys ed 80

Needless to say we are really proud of her!

Maelie will also be sharing her speech in front of the school, judges and parents tomorrow! Three kids from each grade were chosen to share their speech. I can't wait to see her do it in front of so many people!! :) It brings back so many memories from my younger days.... how much we hated speeches! LOL Good luck Maelie!

Combo tournament

2011-11-13T13:54:00.003-05:00

Maelie had a tournament today. It was the Combo tournament where the teams were one Bantam, one Junior and one Senior per team. This is the only tournament where they can move kids up in levels to form more teams. Maelie ended up being the Junior on the team. The junior girl ended up being the senior. The three girls played well and above their average (which was what counted)

Maelie's team won first place! They will be in the Combo regionals early Decmber. Way to go girls!!

Let us Remember

2011-11-13T07:57:00.004-05:00

Friday was Remembrance Day. IMaelie had a Remembrance Day assembly at school. Her class was singing "Let me be a child of peace..." so of course I attended.

After the minute of slience, the kids went up on stage from each grade and taped their wreaths made with hands of poppies. One child just lost his great grandpa a month ago. This great-grandpa had fought in WW2. His mom had printed a picture of him to bring to the ceremony. Maelie's classmate was so proud to hang it up on the wall so we could remember him and his service as well. He has a smile when he came down from the stage.

It was quite touching to see them hang up their wreaths. My heart is always very sensitive when I think of all the servicemen and servicewomen who gave their lives in the war, and other missions, to help us live a better life. Who knows what would have happened if they didn't do what they did!

Every time I hear of a fallen soldier, it breaks my heart for their loved ones. They never get to say goodbye, never get one last hug. When I see a veteran, I can't help but feel some sadness for them as they probably had to leave some of their friends behind when they returned home.

Maelie decided to pose beside their class wreath.

Here is Maelie with Major Lemyre. To us, he is a friend, but to Canada, he is a serviceman, a hero! Thank you for your service !

I really hope you had a chance to remember on 11/11/11. I know we did.

It's up and i LOVE it!

2011-11-07T06:03:00.003-05:00

Maelie was begging for us to put up the tree. Like me, she love the feelings you get before Christmas. For Maelie it is mostly the anticipation of the whole holiday season!

Yes a lot of people find us crazy, but this is how we are, this is what we love! We love to be excited about every little thing. It brings joy to our lives!

I love the way that we are spontaneous. That we just go with the flow and just enjoy it! We are not promised tomorrow... so let's enjoy it today!

Cheers! Here's to the beginning of another festive season!!

Pumpkin Carving in the workplace

2011-11-01T17:43:00.002-04:00

Here is my last post about Halloween this year!

We had 6 teams participate this year in our 2nd annual Halloween pumpkin carving contest this year. It's amazing how crazy it got ! I would have loved to see a lot of them in the dark. This room did not do some of them justice! I already booked a room for next year and it has now windows....

I love how everyone was so into it!

Here is the treat table we had for everyone who dropped in

I'm glad that it had a great turn out!! Now we have to prep for Christmas!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-01T04:03:00.005-04:00

Sunday evening, Maelie mentioned that we had not prepared the bags for the trick or treaters yet. So we spread out on the table and filled 75 bags up. We had extra candy on the side in case we had more than 75 kids. Maelie was not feeling too good all day Sunday.

We barely slept Sunday night, Maelie was complaining of aches and pains, and by Monday morning, she had a fever. Poor Maelie had to stay home from school on Halloween! We kept the fever down by alternating advil and tylenol. By the time I got home from work, she was all ready to carve pumpkins. How did I teach her to carve a pumpkin? Here's a knife, make a hole in the pumpkin the way you want it to look. And don't get upset if it doesn't turn out exactly as planned. That's normal!

So she worked and worked and it turns out she was ecstatic with her pumpkins!

Lisa also had a whole plan in mind, she worked really hard. Now I don't even remember what it was exactly, however, a Dr. Who fan would know right away! (it's the one on the right attacking Maelie's pumpkin on the left )

Maelie didn't want to dress up as a zombie since she was still not 100%, so I told her to just put her witch costume on. Simple and easy.

She trick or treated at our immediate neighbors houses (5 of them). This particular house had a projector displaying things in their window! It was awesome!

It was warm enough at the beginning to sit outside for a bit. Maelie handed out the candy to the kids. We didn't get as many little kids as I would have hoped. We did however get a lot of teenagers that were taller than me.

By 7:15, Maelie was begging me to shut down so we could go to bed! We stayed open til 7:45 and then moved the pumpkins closer to our house so they wouldn't be thrown on the road during the night like the fate of some pumpkins on our street last year!

All in all it was a good day! Now to recuperate on all the lost sleep in the past weeks!!

Happy Halloween Party 2011

2011-10-29T20:59:00.009-04:00

Today was Maelie's 4th annual Halloween party! We had a busy day... bowling in the morning, a birthday party to attend in the afternoon and the Halloween party in the evening.

A lot of the guests were at the other party that afternoon, so I drove 3 other kids with us. Everyone basically arrived at the same time. We stayed outside for a bit waiting for the few kids who were missing.

The kids colored the driveway, it was nice!!

Once all the kids arrived, we let the games begin! A while back, our neighbor was getting rid of a huge board, so we salvaged it and turned it into a Halloween dart board! The kids loved it!

Mathieu was proud of his score! You can see the board on the left hand side of this picture.

After that game, we went and played a messy game of "Find the worms in the spaghetti". The worms were just a bit bigger than the spaghetti, so they were quite difficult to find wearing a blindfold of course!

After that game, the kids seemed to be hungry a bit so we had supper. I made eyeballs out of chicken balls from M&M.

Here are the ghosts that I made with egg rolls wrappers. I thought it was the greatest idea on earth when i thought of it, but then I googled it and apparently someone else had thought of this idea first.

We had some spider wieners. I broke one spaghetti in 4 pieces for each piece of wiener. I stuck the spaghetti in the wieners before cooking. MUCH easier that doing that once the noodles are soft! LOL

Here is my very first and very poor attempt to making cake pops!! man they're tough ones to make look nice! I SO admire Bakerella for being so talented with cake pops. I think I will try to make ghost ones with fondant next time.

Hi kids! enjoying the food???

Store bought donuts.... i just ran out of time... plus the kids barely ever eat dessert, they are always too full!!

After supper, we played a game outside. I lit up 2 pumpkins and then the kids had to use the spray bottle and put out the flame. They enjoyed it but it was a very quick and easy game!!

I should have made the openings a bit smaller to make it more difficult.

After this game, we headed back downstairs, When i came into the room, they were all together and started singing "i'm sexy and I know it" LOL sooooo cute - maybe not the most appropriate song for 4th graders! Even so, I told them to do it again so I could take the picture.

We played a game of Bingo with Halloween images.

Each their turn, they had to pull one of the strings off the ceiling and it had one of the picture that was also on their Bingo sheets.

Our second to last game was catapulting tiny spiders onto a big web! They were really good at doing that!

There's the web that they landed on. One of the kids shot his 5 spiders at once and they all got stuck to the web! It was cool!

We ended with the pinata.... Parents started arriving so we had to hurry!! What a nice way to end the party!

The kids got to take home a prize for every game they played, and they also got to take their placemats home. I think they were pretty happy with all the loot.

Here is Maelie's loot once everything has been removed from its packaging! :)

I am very happy with the party!! All the kids seem to have had a good time and Maelie loved it which is what counts !! :)

Cheers to another year before the next one!

getting the house ready

2011-10-28T06:38:00.003-04:00

It's the final day before Maelie's Halloween party and the preparations are in full swing! I put up a cute banner I made from some graphics I bought from Amanda Parker. It is welcoming and festive!

As usual I have to have a bit of chocolate hanging around for the occasion! A haunted house with many little bite sized pieces....

Here is my mummy serving platter. I got this idea from one of my Halloween magazines. It was easy to make and looks awesome! I hope it doesn't scare the kids!

I can't wait for the party! I have a bunch of fun games planned, most of the prep has already been made. I will have 11 kids running around the house tomorrow evening ready for a good time! I will post pics of the party for sure!

Twas the week before Halloween

2011-10-25T05:26:00.005-04:00

This past weekend we attended Naomie's Halloween party. They live in the country so the party was mainly outdoors in the woods, shed and barn! Grand-mana was also visiting for the weekend so to her surprise, she was participating at the Halloween party too!

The day started off with Maelie getting wounded. Be careful, it is really pretty gross.

I saw a tutorial online where they used rolled up toilet paper to make the sides of the open wound. So of course, I had to give it a try! Maelie LOVED it! She was proud to go to bowing with her open wound. I suggested she wear a long sleeved shirt, but she preferred showing it off. I must admit though... when we stopped at Subway with grand-maman for lunch, I forced her to keep her jacket on. There's just something about gross open wounds and people eating that just don't go together!

That afternoon, I worked on Maelie's open wound on her head. She loved it !

Naomie was staying with us for the afternoon so that her parents could set up the party without her seeing anything. They got dressed up and then had a mini photo shoot.

In action!

We went to pick up Melyna and brought her with us to the party. Here we are, the first guests!

My job was to set up the tasting table, hence why I have pics of that but nothing else!! Here is my spot in the shed.

There was cat poop:

Spicy maggots, pimples, baby intestines, fish eyes

vampire blood

Worms, witch nails, swamp dip, dirty Q-tips

and the tasty baby poop! I wish I had a diaper to serve it on :)

The guests were split up in three groups. Maelie's group was the group who almost ate everything I had! LOL Melyna really loved the dirty Q-tips, she had 4!

Grand-maman was the farmer at the front door making the kids do tricks for treats!

Look at these gorgeous witch bags that Sonia made for them to take home.

What is a visit to Sonia's without a picture of Peluche?? :) He was the taste tester for the gross table! His preference seemed to be the hickory sticks and wieners! LOL

All in all we had a wonderful time! So much time and effort was put into the party! Thanks for having us at the party Patrick and Sonia!

Maelie's Halloween party is coming to town!

2011-10-17T18:58:00.003-04:00

Today Maelie handed out her Halloween invitations. She couldn't wait anymore!

We packed them up in a clear bag, afraid to squish them!

Maelie wrote each child's name on the bag with a sharpie and off they went...!! She was really proud of her invitations once again this year. It's always fun to find sweet ideas online!!

You can click on Maelie's Mama's Crafts on the right hand side of my blog to see what Halloween stuff we've been working on!! It's less than 2 weeks away! Lots of pictures to come until then!

Fall Fun

2011-10-15T19:37:00.001-04:00

Fun times in the leaves with Cindy and Maelie.

Our trip to Portage

2011-10-15T18:27:00.006-04:00

For Thanksgiving this year, we packed our bags and headed off to visit Bill's family in Portage la Prairie. We hadn't been out there in 5 years (for a funeral) and 6 years since we lived there. Maelie was happy to go on the plane! It was practically new to her since the last time she flew she was 4 years old.

When we arrived at Grandma's house, Maelie and Bill went out in the yard and saw a few deer ! They are always all over the place around Grandma's house.

We met Catarina. She is a funny cat. She always sits with her back to you.

Here is a family picture right before breakfast. I had some yummy potato pancakes that morning.... mmmmmmm.....

On Sunday, Grandma was preparing a big turkey dinner. There was a big fight to remove the turkey neck ! We had the tools taken out and everything!!

This is the view we had in the front window. The little baby horses were SO adorable.

As always, I had to spell out Maelie somewhere! I wonder if someone will ever find it before the snow falls :)

For Thanksgiving dinner, Michelle and Jamie came with Ryder. He is SOOOOO adorable! Such a smiley boy. We really wish we could spend more time with him. He is a sweetheart!

Look at his eyes!

Carla, Brian and Ben also came. I had never met Ben before so it was so sweet to meet him. He is a cutie!!

Ryder kept laughing so hard when he saw Ben! It was the sweetest thing. They entertained us all evening!

Here is a picture of Michelle's little family. What a beautiful picture!

The next day, Cindy and I went with Maelie to the pool. It was an awesome place! The only disadvantage was that it was SO hot and humid that Maelie's lungs ached after about half an hour.

This is how big the slide was:

Maelie was so happy! She tried it over and over and over again.

There was the cutest little lazy river at the pool... see if you can find Maelie in the crowd!

Tuesday we decided to head out to the city to get a HOT GREEK SALAD AT NIKOS!!! YUM! I have been craving this for 6 years!

It was as tasty as I remembered it!

We got together with Shannon, Chase and Chloe for supper and it was wonderful to see them again after all this time!! They are such beautiful and wonderful kids!

Another little Maelie in the sand... :)

This was the routine on most mornings... a little Tim Hortons run....!

On Thursday we headed out to the city as a family to go play bowling. Maelie played her games for the Saturday she would miss in her league. She played very well! Of course she beat us grown ups!!

Maelie was very giddy playing bowling! She loves to share her favorite sport with her family :)

On Friday, we took things easy and hung out in the city. Maelie was glad to have Bill and Cindy to play Life with!

We headed out to the park close by with a rake and took advantage of the millions and millions of leaves! Maelie had a smile on her face th whole time we were there!

We had a wonderful week out in Portage. It was really nice to see family that we had not seen in so long. Grandma and Cindy took very good care of us while we were there! It was bittersweet coming back. We were glad to see our home, yet we were sad to leave such kind, loving people. We really hope to be able to see each other again sooner than 6 years from now this time around!!

Beet time!

2011-10-02T06:36:00.002-04:00

Saturday was the day for canning beets! The safest person to can anything with is Jacinthe. She is so concerned with bacteria and canning that believe me, I will have the safest beets in the world! LOL

She had tons of beets in her garden and I also added a 10 lb bag from the grocery store. We boiled them up in her "presto" and then cut them up. The pots had been cleaned, heated and sterilized and were sitting in a hot over when I got there. All the pots were reheated after filling with boiling hot vinegar and sugar.

Don't they look so beautiful?

It's quite satifying to see this bounty of beets! and hearing pop after pop - the sound of the lid sealing the beets in!

I cherish the purple hands that I ended up with! It's a sign of our hard work on a chilly afternoon on October 1st :)

It's been a while!

2011-09-27T04:35:00.002-04:00

Since my last post was a while back, I will just recap. I don't necessarily remember which day is which! :)

Naomie came over one evening and her and Maelie prepared a show for us to watch. They dressed up and danced all evening.

While we sat and watched the show... Peluche decided to be a traitor!! He decided to get some lovin' from Lisa instead of me! hahaha He takes all the affection he can get that lil guy!

I made a few batches of apples brownies for work. This recipe is very easy and most people ADORE it! The trick I think is to not over cook it. I don't even add the caramel, it's quite sweet!

Remember Maelie's triops sea creatures kit from a couple posts ago? Well he has officially turned into this! It creeps me out a little! Apparently, their lifespan is 20 to 90 days so we are ok.

Last week I ended up with Strep throat. I had a very rough few days! Missed two and a half days of work and had a ton of fever, which is very rare for me. So far no one else in the household got sick so I am glad I kept it to myself! Now hopefully that's it for the fall & winter! :)

Halloween is coming and since this weekend is officially October, the decorations can come out without me feeling bad!

WWE : Monday Night Raw

2011-09-13T08:37:00.003-04:00

Last night, as a very special outing, Maelie headed off to Scotiabank Place, not for a hockey game this time, but for Monday Night Raw!! Bill loves wrestling and has always shared it with his girls. Maelie was rather excited to go.

Of course the Blackberry pic Bill took is not very nice because it was so dark and crowded, but we at least get the idea of what it looked when looking at this picture. I like when there are a few events that she only shares with her daddy. It makes them bond more as father-daughter. There's just something so cute about that!

our weekend

2011-09-11T19:18:00.006-04:00

Maelie started up bowling again! She was quite happy. We could only stay for one game this time because Maelie had 2 birthday parties to attend.

She went to Fun Junction for her friend Theo's party. She has been there many times now as it seems it was the hot spot for bday parties!! The next party was at Sierra's house. Maelie enjoyed herself at both parties ! She would not miss a party for anything :)

Maelie also decided that it was time to try out her sea creatures kit. She got this last year through Scholastic.

Sunday morning, Maelie made some carrot muffins and then invited Bill and I to come for breakfast in the kitchen. We had a muffin and coffee... how sweet!

They were extra moist! Yum yum!!

We went apple picking Sunday morning and it was a lovely day! I had never seen so many people at Verger Croque pommes before!! There were 8 rows of parking taken up!

Maelie just adores climbing the ladders to go get apples. The apples on top taste MUCH better than the apples at the bottom! LOL

I managed to get a cute pic of Lisa and Maelie together. They looked so nice out there in the sun!!

Maelie was actually eating an apple so I HAD to take pictures!!

Lisa went around taking pictures as well :)

There were TONS of beautiful tasty apples!!

Yum....!

We love the tradition of apple picking year after year :) Lots of apples for apple brownies now!!

Sunday afternoon, Maelie had another bday party to attend, this time it was Mia's party at Cosmic Adventures while I went to a Tupperware get together with my friend Jacinthe. She is trying out being a Tupperware lady so I will be hosting a get together soon so she can practice :)

It was quite the full weekend!!

Sisterly love

2011-09-10T07:55:00.004-04:00

Last Sunday, we had a big surprise for Maelie. Lisa, her oldest sister, was moving in with us for a while prior to her future life adventures! We are blessed beyond belief to get to spend this time together. We had kept it a secret from Maelie until we were actually at the airport picking her up. We tricked Maelie into thinking we had to pick up our plane tickets for our trip to Winnipeg in the fall. She had no issues believing us! Even if it was 10 PM and Maelie and I are usually sleeping by then. No questions asked....

We took our time and just were looking at a few things before *picking up our tickets* and lo' and behold... here came Lisa!

I was only able to get a blurry picture of the surprise!! Maelie's face was shocked. She could barely look at anyone or focus and she was shaking. She wasn't really getting what was going on!! Bill had to grab her water and pop corn snack before she dropped them!

Life of course is pretty busy with work and school but we certainly hope to have a lot of fun times with Lisa while she is here :) I feel very blessed that she chose to spend time with us and that she wants to develop a deeper relationship with her little sister who worships her!

Maelie's 1st day of grade 4!

2011-08-30T15:36:00.002-04:00

First day of grade 4 today, and OF COURSE Maelie wanted to take the bus. It is not cool at all for mom to come to school anymore (sadly enough!!).

"Mom will you please STOP taking pictures?????"

She came home very happy and content with her day. She thinks her teacher is cool and funny. What a relief for mom!!!

The new "back to school" do

2011-08-29T17:48:00.002-04:00

Maelie has been really blonde for quite a while. I didn't mind bleaching her hair (because it grows back). However she didn't like how the bleach itch her scalp a little when we did it, so we decided to go back to her natural color!

She loved her hairdresser. That always helps! and her hairdresser complimented her look, so that did it for her.

I love it! but the important thing is that SHE loves it!!

Some family time

2011-08-29T16:53:00.010-04:00

Random pics of the time spent together this past week:

We made fires, and the little ones Nathan and Brennan loved to throw wood in the fire!

Grand-maman took us to go see the turtles. Some people are actually studying the turtles near grand-maman's house and so we were able to see some that hatched overnight!

Here is a close up of how little they are...

Here are a bunch of them that were born that night.

The kids climbed the rock mountains and threw rocks at the imaginary monsters...

We celebrated Jo's 40th birthday having supper in the garage!

I picked up some Borax and taught the kids how to make goo, of course!

Who doesn't love goo ?

Actually, Lucas is not too fond of the texture. But Jo seems to be having fun!

Maelie loves it though.... she loves anything messy!

One day we went to Lac des Piles. That's the lake I spent a lot of my childhood at. It's clean and beautiful.

There is Maelie brave enough to just run and jump in!

Lucas followed closely!

We tried to get a pic of grand-papa and the grandkids but of course they didn't all look in the same direction at the same time.

The ids spent lots of time outdoors... even if the bazillion bugs!!!

Maelie was spoiled and bought herself an airhog airplane. The little ones LOVED watching it fly.

We had a few issues with it landing high in trees, on the roof of the garage and on the roof of the house... but all in all it didn't suffer too much damage!

Jo told me that i NEEDED to try out a new Smores version.... toast, PB and a marshmallow.... interesting....

Maelie preferred her grilled cheese on the fire... :)

The two older cousins enjoying snacking on the swing....

On day we had a pic nic at a local park. Here is Maelie posing in a tree:

That park had water games which were quite different from ours!

There was barely anyone there since it wasn't overly hot.

The kids had a blast for quite a while and I just shot a gazillion pics! A lot of them ended up blurry because of the running around. Sweet Nathan enjoyed himself SO MUCH! He laughed and didn't stop moving for more than 1 second!

This cutey pattotie Brennan enjoyed it a lot too!!

Sadly we had to say goodbye on Sunday morning to head back home. It's always bittersweet because we love being with family, but we are also happy to come back home. I love my nephews!

My neighbors sunflowers

2011-08-16T19:33:00.003-04:00

I *heart* sunflowers. I love going outside in the yard and taking a peek at my neighbor's sunflowers....

This neighbor is two doors down, and the sunflowers are growing higher than the 6 foot fence that lies between them and my other neighbors! They must be at least 7 feet tall!

Might as well Jump!

2011-08-16T19:24:00.004-04:00

4 AA batteries at the store: 2.99

A gazillion pictures taken of the children jumping and laughing: PRICELESS

The past week in pictures

2011-08-14T18:18:00.006-04:00

I seem to have neglected blogging last week. Here is our week in pictures.

Maelie loves playing Monopoly with Bill and I, so we played a game and for the first time, i won!

We were dog sitting for about 9 days as Sonia was gone on a vacation. We love having Peluche over! He is full of unconditional love.... especially when you are having food. LOL

Sierra came for a sleepover! The girls played so nicely and had a great time! I love that Maelie has such a good group of friends. This will pay off later on as well!

Maelie also went to a sleepover at my friend Jacinthe's house. She has bonded more with her girls this week, and it is nice to see! I dropped off her suitcase at Amelie's soccer. Of course I had to take Peluche for the outing!

Amelie has grown so much in the past while! We had not seen her for a bit and she is blossoming into a beautiful young woman! It's funny for me to remember the first time I saw her, I was not even pregnant yet, and Amelie was just about a year and a half. I met her where I was volunteering. Who knew that this brief encounter would cause a friendship to last 10 years through many different cities and a few more kids. I like to remember these things. Just being in the right place at the right time.

On Friday, Maelie gave Bill and I an invitation. We each received the same one but with our name on it. Here is Bill's:

The information on the supper was inside:

Maelie, with minimum assistance, made us a nice supper of alfredo penne with bread and veggies. It tasted awesome!

It was presented very nicely too!

After supper, we played a new game that Maelie got at Christmas that we had not tried yet!

It was basically a mix of poker and 5 letter words. It was quite fun!

We sat at the table with 3 dictionaries and play for quite a while!

It was an awesome week, awesome family, awesome friends, awesome memories! :)

Our new pets

2011-08-14T18:01:00.003-04:00

Maelie got a worm farm kit on her birthday last year. We just took it out and finally got it ready!

After reading the instructions, she set it all up with the stickers and parts.

Once it was all set up, we went worm hunting. Unfortunately it was a hot day so it was harder to find worms. On a rainy day, we will for sure get more.

We filled the ant farm with dirt and colored sand so we could see the worms paths.

Added a bit of water....

Here is our new companion:

Once settled, we put up the walls so he could remain in the dark. We can remove the cardboard walls easily to take a peek.

The two worms now have a spot in our home!

Buskerfest 2011

2011-07-31T07:28:00.003-04:00

Our usual activity for the long weekend of August is going to the Buskerfest in Ottawa! We just love the quality of the street performers at the Beskerfest!

Here are the girls with a snowcone since it was extremely hot in the sun. There was a cool breeze in the shade so that was ok.

The first act we saw was the Puppet Tamer Show. He was pretty humourous for both kids and adults. It was cute.

We saw Bendy Em again. She is extremely flexible and her body is absolute art! This year, she got inside that little 17 inch box again, however this year she added a basketball!

Bike Boy returned again this year and as usualy he was pretty funny.

Maelie and Naomie were very attentive while watching the Cowguys!

This was the show we all adored the most! Flame Oz ! They have so much energy during the show and they are always upbeat and smiling. The crowd was wild! Doesn't everyone love a show with fire? :)

At the end, we got pics of all the Flame Oz crew individually. The one with Dave - the one the girls found so cute - is a bit dark, so I will just post 2 of other people. Dmitri even let the girls hold the balls that he uses during the show. Of course this is now the number one item on Maelie's Christmas list!!

As usual we had a GREAT time! It's awesome to see groups we saw last year but also great to see new faces. Thankfully other that a thunderstorm after the show on Friday, the performers get a perfectly sunny weekend!

Supper with friends

2011-07-30T10:05:00.000-04:00

On Friday evening, Jacinthe came over with her kids and Sonia came over with Naomie. They all get along so well! We shared a great supper of chicken wings, bruschetta, veggies and corn! Yum!

After a great meal, we crafted while the kids swam and jumped on the trampoline and played. It is amazing how you can have so many kids together and it all goes peacefully ! The kids were awesome, they cleaned up after themselves and got along great! It's so wonderful to have such wonderful friendships! When you are far away from family, it's important to have some friends you can lean on :)

Maelie's Webkinz party

2011-07-28T07:16:00.000-04:00

Here is Maelie getting her Webkinz ready to party...

This is what Peluche does when Maelie is away....

Rough Day

2011-07-28T07:13:00.000-04:00

Apparently Bill and Peluche had a rough day!

We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

2011-07-20T15:13:00.011-04:00

We disappeared for the past few days.... Maelie and I headed off to Granby for our mini summer vacation.

We left Sunday bright an early, early enough that we were alone on the road for the first hour... and had NO issues at all driving by Montreal. We arrived at the zoo at about 9:30 and there were already tons of people waiting by the gates! We parked close to the Amazoo part since I figured our afternoon would probably be spent there in the heat! It was hilarious once the gates opened. People by the dozens ran in SO fast with their coolers. At first I wasn't sure why... but then when we walked in and saw people grabbing long chairs and reserving tables with their coolers... I understood! They were not new to this that's for sure.

Maelie and I locked up our swimming stuff and off we went to the zoo part.

I forget the name of these guys but they really looked like a mixture of rabbit, dog and kangaroo!

We of course saw the typical zoo animals such as zebras, rhinos, elephants...

and cute giraffes! This one must have a hippie side to it... it is a tree hugger.

After a quick tour of part of the zoo, Maelie needed to get refreshed! So we headed back to the Amazoo area and went in the wave pool. I didn't take pics in the main wave pool area because I didn't bring my camera as I was in the water. I felt it was too risky to just leave my camera where anyone could take it so I locked it up.

I did manage to take a few pics just before changing into my bathing suit.

After a refreshing little swim, Maelie took a ride on a dromedary camel.

I found this cool frame of Maelie for sale at the zoo! kidding of course.... they don't have this kind of animal there!!

There was a cute mini farm area where you could walk in and pet the animals.

We never get tired of petting farm animals!

We visited the new exhibit: the rays. We happened to stand near the lady who was watching the exhibit and making sure people didn't touch the tail. She was very knowledgable about the rays and loved sharing what she knew! Maelie enjoyed petting them.

hmmm how about a little surfing?

"Sure mom! Hey dudes! Look at me.... I'm surfing!"

We went to visit the parrots. We bought some nectar to attract them onto us... but apparently this parrot just wanted to check itself out in my sunglasses.

Maelie loved feeding the parrots! They were so adorable! and not very shy....

After our adventure at the zoo, we went out for supper and then went to the motel to end the day! It was a rather 1980ish type motel. Clean... but not in style! The next morning we headed off to Sherbrooke to visit a place that I was curious about. Maelie SO didn't care about going to see Lune de Miel. It was all about bees. I enjoyed it a lot and thought that the quality of their tour was excellent. The place was VERY clean, and the lady was very interesting and knew her stuff....

It was very hot so we checked into our hotel early. Maelie was quite impressed with the size of the king sized bed!

We swam for quite a while and then went out for supper. Maelie was all dressed up nicely :) When we came back, we layed down on the ned and watched Canada's Worst Driver. We laughed so hard we were both in tears on the bed!

At about 6 am in the morning, after a wonderful sleep, Maelie woke me up. This is how it went:

"mom, i'm sorry i woke you up"
"uh... no you're not"
"you're right. But i wish i was sorry"
LOL She cracks me up!!

We got up and headed back to Granby for another day at the zoo and amazoo. Maelie started off with the lazy river before the crowd got too big. She was on her own for the whole ride!

It looked really relaxing! I didn't want to go in because I had a feeling I was not going to be able to get out of the tube at the end!

Our plan for the day was to enjoy the pools when we were hot, and visit a few of the animals from the day before that we really enjoyed. Of course we had to return to see the parrots! This time, 2 of them flew onto Maelie's head and were fighting for the nectar. One parrot stole Maelie's cup and flew away with it!

Maelie poked her head in the dome and i pointed to the left so she could see what was right beside her... a huge cat eating a HUGE bone! If you look closely you will see Maelie in the dome peeking out.

Of course, we also had to stop by and see the rays again! Maelie was really impressed with them... she talked about them a lot!

Before lunch, Maelie mustered up the strength to to on the Anaconda ride! She is working herself up in roller coaster sizes....!

There she is in the 3rd buggy.

She also tried the bumper cars a bunch of times! She really enjoyed picking up speed and hitting others.

After the rides, we spent the afternoon in the wave pool and in the volcano pool as well. It was awesome! By 5 pm, we packed up and left since the drive back was 3 hours plus. Maelie passed out about 2 minutes after we left and slept until we entered Ottawa! Lucky her!

We had a great few days of summer vacation. We just wish it would have lasted longer!!!

A stormy evening out

2011-07-14T19:04:00.003-04:00

On Wednesday, Maelie was supposed to have a playdate however the friend cancelled since she was not feeling well. Maelie really wanted to do something active, but it was stormy outside.

We decided to go to Clip n' Climb with Jessica, our neighbor.

I was alone with both kids so I did a lot of clipping!! They did the climbing...!

There are so many walls to climb and Maelie is getting more comfortable now that she has been there a couple times.

Jessica was a bit nervous but it was her first time, and she is not a huge risktaker either. (just like Maelie)

Cute Maelie!

I was surprised at all the stuff she insisted on climbing this time around!

She went all the way to the top of the 30 feet green poles with a BLINDFOLD on this time!! Crazy girl!!

This pic of Jessica through the glass shows us how happy she was that she came with us! She is such a sweetheart!

Good bye Ingvild!

2011-07-10T19:36:00.003-04:00

Today was not my favorite day at all! We had to say good bye to our dear friend Ingvild. Ingvild came to Canada in August 2010 to live with Sonia's family. She went to a french school to learn the language.

Ingvild is such a wonderful young woman! She is so easy to talk to and will engage conversation with everyone! She is very interesting, kind and loving. She blended so well with Sonia's family that we felt like she was their real daughter.

We had our regular shopping outings (all us girls together), play dates and craft dates, "The Works" dates, adventure date, etc!! Ingvild was a part of our lives just short of 11 months but I feel as if I have known her all my life!

Unfortunately... time went by fast and today showed up. Ingvild left to go back home to Norway. We went out for brunch with her this morning and chit chatted. We exhanged gifts, hugged and parted ways, pretending that we were going to see each other tomorrow! That made it easier. But as I drove away, my heart was pretty sad. In this case, tomorrow is going to be pretty far away.....!

Good bye Ingvild! We'll miss you! Thanks for finding such a nice spot in our hearts! :)

Duck pond

2011-07-10T19:31:00.003-04:00

This afternoon, we headed off to Lac Beauchamp with our neighbor Jessica to go hunt for frogs. To our sad surprise, the beach was closed until further notice. Apparently the water samples weren't too too good... not a good place to go wading in!! Our plans changed and we had supper at McD's. After supper we bought 2 loaves of bread and headed off to the duck pond.

We never get tired of the little ducks! So many of them were tame this time around. Last spring, it was full of geese! So it was nice to see so many ducks!

This is what summer vacation is about

2011-07-09T14:03:00.003-04:00

This week was a quiet week, mainly because I was working. Maelie stayed home with Bill and enjoyed her lazy days :)

Peluche was staying with us for 4 days. We enjoyed his company!

Maelie had her friend Sierra over one day, the next she had her friend Heather over, and then the next day she went to her friends Lorry and Rebecca's house to play. By the fourth day, she needed a break from all this playing! So she relaxed at home and played a little bit with our neighbor Jessica.

Friday evening, Maelie headed off with Sonia, Patrick and Ingvild to pick up Naomie at camp. Apparently the reunion was wonderful! Maelie had a sleepover at Naomie's house and is still there this afternoon. She will be back this evening.

We are actually pretty sad today because Ingvild is leaving tomorrow after 11 months in Canada. She is returning to Norway. Thankfully we will see her tomorrow morning to say goodbye! I don't like good-byes....!

Wearing out the dog

2011-07-08T19:48:00.000-04:00

Peluche LOVES going for a walk around the block when he visits. Poor guy, I felt back since we didn't take him out much one day while he was here. So I asked Maelie to make him run a bit for exercise! There they go.....

There they go the other way...

Maelie wonders if he ever runs out of steam!

ahhhhhhh.... maybe he does :)

Saturday

2011-07-03T04:49:00.004-04:00

Saturday morning we just hung out in Grand-maman's forest. It was looking like it was going to be a HOT day! Maelie really was hoping to go fishing. We went to Pisciculture Les Truites de la Mauricie in St-Tite.

It was a cute little lake with a gazillion trout. This is by far the best way to fish with a not so patient child on a hot day! About 3 seconds after Maelie threw the hook in the lake, she caught a fish! Every time! I let grand-maman be on worm AND fish duty.

I prefer just watching and taking pictures! Fish are not my cup of tea, but I want Maelie to get as many fun experiences as she can.... not limiting her because of my likes and dislikes.

She caught one! She got all excited every single time :)

She tried to grab her fish so I could take a picture, but it kept slipping.

Here is the loot! The lady at the fishing place cleaned the fish so she could measure them (for costing). Maelie watched every step ! Here are the 11 trout.

Well deserved treat in the heat!

Maelie insisted on chopping off the heads herself. I am surprised at how she just enjoyed it so much!

She kept insisting I take her picture during every step... which is unusual! Here she is eating her catch. She ate a bit but she found it was a little but too mushy. Grand maman thought it was delicious! I didn't taste it though, I have an aversion to fish.

Once the fish was done, Maelie and I packed the car and left for home. It was an uneventful 4 hour drive. It was nice to sleep without mosquitos!! Though I have many leftover itchy spots on my body to serve as memories of our few days away :)

One more day off and then it's back to work! Already!

Friday - 5th vacation day - Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-02T21:56:00.005-04:00

Friday afternoon, we headed off to visit my aunt Helene at Lac a la Tortue. She invited us over for a bit of hot tubbing and chit chat! It's always nice to see her. WHile we waited for grand-maman to arrive, Maelie pretended she was the captain of the pontoon.

Here are Helene, Grand maman and Maelie in the flowers.

Maelie was the first to get in the hot tub. It was sooooo nice and relaxing. I didn't want to get out!

Of course, we don't go anywhere without Maelie's net! She tried to catch *anything* at the lake... but was not successful.

After our visit.... we headed off to a chicken farm to get some chickens for grand maman's chicken house! They had a pile of oversized bales of hay!!

Maelie was allowed to choose some for herself (they will live at grand-maman's house though). She sat in the middle of the back seat with chickens on her left and chickens on her right.

Here she is with one of her cuties. We thought they looked like alpacas!

Here are all the little ones that Maelie chose.

This couple if the one that grand-maman chose.

After supper, we made a fire and had a few yummy marshmallows for dessert....!

Here is the double roasting tool!

Maelie was worried about getting close to the fire so she would throw the pieces of wood from far away!! She put some bug spray earlier on and noticed on the can that it said flammable. She thought that she was very flammable. I actually had to even convince her that she COULD roast her marshmallows and not explode!

After that tasty treat, we all headed off to bed!

Thursday - 4th vacation day

2011-07-02T21:40:00.004-04:00

Thursday we left for a few days to visit grand-maman. I printed off a USA map and a Canada map so that Maelie could check off all the license plates we saw. I find it's a fun game to keep her mind busy.

We left early and stopped in Pointe Claire to do a little bit of shopping. Maelie wanted to visit Bench. We don't have one in Ottawa yet, so we decided to check it out.

That mall also had a Joshua Perets store. That's another brand that Maelie really likes. I love that their colors are so bright and alive! They always have some shirts on sale so those are the ones we always buy.

Maelie was showing off one of her new Bench shirts when we stopped to get supper.

Here is the world's BEST poutine. You can find it on 5th street in Shawinigan at the second little chip wagon. It is truly the tastiest and is made with crinkled fries! YUM!!

beauty

The minute we got to grand-maman's place, Maelie got the mosquito net for her head and went out to hunt for frogs. It didn't last long because of the amount of mosquitos. It was INSANE!!!

Here is the mosquito factory.... they are all breeding like crazy around here!!

We went to bed early that night. Grand-maman was working til 11 pm so we didn't see her until the next morning.

Wednesday - 3rd vacation day

2011-06-29T20:45:00.007-04:00

Our day started off with Maelie wanting to make a smoothie again. She loves using our freshly picked strawberries from yesterday. We froze them so that they would be used like ice cubes.

She served us all a glass. Yum yum!! She can make these on her own in my Magic bullet and it doesn't mess up the kitchen! Bonus!

Margaret came by early afternoon to make some graduation chocolates for her oldest daughter. I forgot to take a picture! It was nice to chit chat with Margaret again!

Afterwards, we headed off with with Sonia's family to go try out Clip n' Climb at Altitude Gym. Altitude gym is a newer rock climbing place in the city. I discovered Clip n' Climb after a friend on Facebook said she had been with her girls.

Maelie is not a natural born climber. I had to rescue her a couple times in a McDonald's play structure when she was younger. She is braver and braver now! She will try more things and challenges herself.

Here she was climbing on green poles that got up REALLY high!!

Almost there.....

Here she is at the top! She only had one step left but she had nothing to hold on to, so I am happy she chose to stay on that one! The poles are wobblier the higher you get.

Here is Maelie on the right side, and Ingvild on the left.

Maelie on the bright colorful squares...

Maelie on the left and Wilyam on the right. He was pretty darned quick to get up there! His goal was to rush up to smash the button at the top.

Patrick tried this slide... you had to hold on tight to the top and then let go when you were ready.

I got a picture of Naomie going up and then my battery died on my camera so I missed when she went down!! Thankfully I had 2 extra sets of batteries, but by then it was too late to capture the moment.

Maelie trying another wall...

Maelie wanted to try going up and jumping down trying to grab the bar on the way down. I think it's a bit like walking the plank. She got pretty scared when she jumped, and she missed it completely. You have to REALLY trust that the ropes are going to hold you when you jump!

After a great fun-filled time at Clip N' Climb, we headed off to have supper together at the Cage aux Sports. Here is a picture of Sonia and family.

Here's a pic of my crazy baby who did not want me to take a picture of her!!

We will for sure go back to that place at somepoint during the summer! Maelie loved it and I am sure she will sleep well tonight with that workout!!

Tuesday - 2nd vacation day - part 2

2011-06-28T19:04:00.004-04:00

Maelie had invited over some friends today. Lorry and Rebecca are identical twins... and by this I mean I have to memorize who is wearing what clothing so that I can remember who is who. I seriously wonder what it is like to starte at yourself when you are really staring at your sister!

Maelie was very happy to have some friends over.

The 3 of them spent a lot of time in the pool today. It wasn't sunny, but it was warm. All I could hear was laughing and more laughing!

I prepared a little pic nic type lunch for them and they insisted on eating it on the trampoline together.

Here they are looking so sweet! Such good girls!

After lunch there was more swimming....

and more jumping!

After a nice afternoon with the girls, Maelie and I rested a bit, and later on we went for our yearly visit to La Lichette. We always go once during the summer!

Maelie takes whatever is closest to a blizzard. Ice cream and oreo.

On the way home I surprised Maelie and stopped by a park in another neighborhood that she really likes!

I always think it looks like an IKEA version of a park... it's pretty funky!

A little quick note in the sand!

The ring turns when you walk on it or sit at the top part. I decided to get on at the top and see where it led me!

Since I am much heavier than Maelie, it turned super fast... but once at the bottom, when it turns to go up again, my position is very awkward and it's like the ring is going to catapult me far away! Maelie pictured it way too well in her head that she just burst out laughing!!

Tuesday - 2nd vacation day - part 1

2011-06-28T11:06:00.005-04:00

Once a year, I like to go strawberry picking. Today just happened to be that day! It is grey outside, but not raining so it was a comfortable day to do so. The strawberries were happy to see so many people I think! There were millions!! We basically could fill our baskets without moving 3 feet.

Sonia, Naomie, Ingvild, Francesca (Ingvild's friend) and Wilyam (Naomie's cousin) joined us as well. They were all yawning when they arrived at the farm. Not used to getting up early I guess!!

Last year, Maelie had gone strawberry picking with Sonia and Natalie and the kids, but I had to work. I was happy that this year I took time off during strawberry season!

Maelie always takes a picture with a strawberry in her mouth... however after we take the picture, she spits it out. LOL That girl does not like strawberries!!

Here are Ingvild (with a strawberry in her mouth) and Francesca.

Finally a picture of Sonia looking normal! LOL I quickly took a picture before she could make a crazy face!!

Here is Wilyam... he is so adorable! Very calm and smart.

Here is Naomie... she was making a running commentary of every strawberry she picked! LOL So sweet...!

and here is my loot! yum yum!!

and a bonus pic of my baby :)

Monday - 1st vacation day

2011-06-28T10:59:00.003-04:00

Being that we went to bed late Sunday, Monday was a slow starting day! Maelie woke up with a sinus cold & allergies. It was super hot & sunny outside.

We didn't so much take advantage of the sun and heat.... we stayed inside a bit in the air conditioning. Some days I wonder about my memory because I have no clue what we did in the morning!!

In the afternoon we ran a couple of errands and visited Chapters. i *LOVE* Chapters, and I especially love that Maelie loves Chapters!

I am glad that she has included reading in her daily activities for Summer vacation!

One series she loves is "Would you rather". She had three from this series, but we picked up another one.

Let's just say that after an hour of being questioned "Would you rather" .... I was all would you rathered out!!

We played a bit of Mario Brothers on the Wii together and once Maelie was in bed, I watched a movie in my bed too: Hall Pass. Stayed up a bit too late!!

All in all it was a very nice quiet day. Very nice way to start off my vacation!

RCMP Canadian Sunset Ceremonies

2011-06-27T06:39:00.005-04:00

Yesterday we headed off for the first time to see the RCMP Canadian Sunset Ceremonies. We got there a bit late so we missed most of whatever happened before the horses, and our view was not that perfect, but it was beautiful anyway! The horses are gorgeous and they did a perfect job!

Here is Maelie with a mountie who kindly let us take pictures.

The horses make it look so naturally and flowing when they prance around in unison.

Here is a short video of the show... note how the lady just stands up and blocks my view at the end. I wish people who brought chairs remained seated in them to allow the people at the back to see! She did this for most of the show.

Since we arrived so late, we were way at the end of the field in the parking area. Needless to say we were not going anywhere anytime soon. Sonia had planned for such an event and had a few items in her trunk. Frisbees and a football.

Once worn out a little bit, the kids sat down for a snack.

It took us an hour to get out of the parking lot! but at least we were having a good time waiting and then the ride home was full of laughs.

a day at the lake

2011-06-26T15:06:00.006-04:00

This morning it was pretty grey and chilly, but not cold. Just a perfect day to go fishing for tadpoles! Maelie LOVES going to Lac Beauchamp to hunt. She doesn't injure anything she catches, she just releases them.

Tristan and Maelie were hunting in the swamp area. I just waited to see if there was gonna be any crocodiles!! It just looked like there should be a few.

Here is Tristan on a log.

Both of them had their crocs stuck in the mud at this point and were yelling out "Gross!!"

What a serene view!

Here are a couple of the little guys they caught...

We were able to borrow a paddleboat with our Acces Gatineau card. How blessed we are to be able to do so many things for free with that card!! Maelie and Tristan were off paddling together. They look like they are holding hands but they were actually just both getting ready to steer. Each their turn (the control is in the middle)

They went around for a bit, and at this point, all i could hear was Maelie yelling "where are the brakes on this thing??" ahahahaha who knew you would need brakes on a paddleboat!

There were a few geese families all over the water and land. They were so cute... some were even just a bit too friendly.

On our way home, we noticed that they were prepping the site for Merveilles de Sable next weekend. The big yellow chair that they actually had at the winter festival was there... so I told Maelie and Trist to get on!

On our way home we all were starving so we grabbed hot dogs along the way. Once we got home the kids swam for a bit.... and then relaxed and read to each other from the "Would you Rather..." books. I love that they are reading during their summer vacation already!!

Ah...... I love life....

Before and After for another grad!

2011-06-25T18:57:00.006-04:00

Maelie and I had the honor of accompanying Ingvild and Ida to their hair appointment this morning for their high school grad!

Here they are before they got started.

Here is Ingvild during the hair appoinment...

Here is Ida.....

And here is Maelie! Yes... this hair salon allows you to go in the pool and hot tub while you are waiting!! I have found my new hair salon for sure now!!

Here is the back of Ingvild's head once it was done.

Here she is in all her beauty!

Here is Ida's front look:

Side look:

and back look... gorgeous locks:

What beautiful young ladies!

edited to add (i stole this pic from facebook since i didn't have any final all dressed up shots!!

School's out!!

2011-06-25T17:34:00.004-04:00

Maelie's last day of school was Thursday but we took her out on Wednesday. They were not doing anything anymore so I figured what's one day?

Here she is with her friend Kelly saying goodbye to each other for a while!

Maelie and I were invited to go to Naomie's grade 6 grad. She was so pretty with her nice pink dress!

I had worked hard all morning to ice Sonia's cupcakes really nicely and then they all died on the way to school! Some even flipped upside down!! They looked horrible once we were going to take them out, so I tried to use a knife to fix them up, but they really didn't look nice. Fortunately, the kids didn't care about the look of the icing! They only cared about seeing their pics on the cupcakes! LOL Those looked awesome at least!!

Here is my little munchkin having her lunch while looking through Naomie's yearbook.

Sonia did a great job turning some 1$ styrofoam planters we bought at a yard sale into awesome ginormous graduation hats!

The grad was really awesome and I heard SO many wonderful comments! A few parents who had been through a bunch of them even said this one was the best they've been to yet! How flattering! I am glad the credit came back to Sonia for her awesome job... seems like too often other people like to take the credit for others' hard work nowadays.

We are looking forward to a wonderful summer full of fun times... and then getting ready for grade 4!! Woo hoo!!

mid-June memories

2011-06-19T19:51:00.007-04:00

Maelie was all ready on Friday morning to do her part in the talent show! She put on her favorite shirt and was pretty happy that I took a picture (one of the rare occasions!)

Her group was on first and they presented the true story of the 3 little pigs. It was cute. Maelie was proud that she knew all her lines by heart! It proves that it pays to practice!! She also won a citizenship award! This award was given to "a student who demonstrated leadership, generosity,, has been a role model, is kind and friendly to others". I am extremely proud of my baby!!

Naomie was dancing with other girls from her class to Thriller. They did an awesome job! Apparently they came a long way from how they were in the beginning...!

It was deadly hot in the gym at school so on our way home Maelie was kinda hungry for something cold..... so we stopped for a treat :)

Maelie had a gift card that she saved for quite a whole, so on Friday evening, we decided to use it and get an Ipod shuffle. Maelie's MP3 was letting her down, so she was ecstatic to get her new toy. I had also bought a Wussup dog speaker set a LONG time ago on clearance (maybe 2.5 yrs ago?) and so I took it out and she connected them to listen to her music. She loved it!

I love catching Maelie just lying down anywhere unable to let go of her book! She has a bunch of books that she adores and she actually sneaks her books out in class to read!! How could I not be proud??

Saturday, Maelie has a pool party to attend in the afternoon. It was also Sonia's birthday so after the pool party, we drove to her place and gave her a handmade gumball machine with suckers in it! It turned out so cute! A great idea for a party too!

We stayed for supper with their family. Ingvild was kind enough to give the girls a horse ride! Naomie was at a birthday party so it was just Maelie and Coraly, Naomie's little cousin.

After Maelie it was Coraly's turn on the horse. So cute!!

After the horse ride, Maelie entertained Coraly in the pool. She got to see first hand what a little sister would be like! LOL

Fast forward to Sunday morning: Father's Day. Bill cleaned the pool while Maelie watched. He takes pride in the clearest water we've ever seen this year! We love it! Afterwards we went for a Father's Day brunch. Yum Yum!!

I tried to get Maelie in action! I love this picture! It turned out awesome!

In the afternoon, we went for a much needed car wash. I had bird poop on my windows... so off we went.

Hi, Cutie!!

I surprised Maelie by taking her somewhere fun!

There was a little fair not too far away so she did a few rides! This is one of her favorties.

She enjoyed the bumper cars too...

The butterfly ride was refreshing since the wind was blowing on her!

I managed to get a bit of a sunburn on my face, with my sunglass markings on the sides. I feel very summery!! I love that we already have lots of fun stuff happening and it's just the beginning of this season :) We are staying up later, and getting up earlier to enjoy the day.... Maelie only has 4 days of school left and then she is free for the summer!! Hurray!!

My motto at the moment: Life is Beautiful!

What have we been up to?

2011-06-15T04:11:00.004-04:00

Apparently I haven't update in a while! Last week , we had sunny days and so Maelie swam with Tristan a couple of evenings.

I was very excited that Friday was my bday....except when I got up on Friday....!! I felt like crap! I was not even able to get off the couch to go to work. Grand maman had come for a visit for my bday. Poor her, I was not good company at all! She made such an effort to make my bday a nice one. I could barely eat and felt generally horrible. I thought "wow.... 36 SUCKS!"

By Sunday I was feeling a bit better and I felt bad that I had bored Maelie to death. So off we went to Petrie Island to the beach and the swamp! It was too cold to swim, but Maelie just wanted to try and catch frogs anyway!

It was so sweet when we saw these turtles !! What wonderful wildlife!

Maelie would NOT stop the hunt until she found her frog. Most of them were really fast!

At last! She found it!

What a blessing to spend such a wonderful afternoon with my sweetheart! :)

Canadian Defence Community Family Appreciation Day

2011-06-05T06:11:00.004-04:00

We attended the Defence Community Family Appreciation Day yesterday. It was a warm, humid and gorgeous day! Maelie was especially happy to be able to climb SO many huge army vehicles. I don't know all of their specific names, to me they are all tanks.

It was so cute seeing her climb all over the place asking me if it was sturdy enough.... hmmmm an army vehicle SHOULD be sturdy!! Note that she is wearing white!! I didn't actually notice this until we were driving in the car... it was too late to go get darker colors.

Hi!

She tried some shooting with the cadets. She was not so amazed with that. She prefers climbing to shooting!

Climbing again....!

She even got to take a ride in a LAV! She was so excited about that!

Here she is in her seat ready to roar!

There were a few games all over the place, blow up structures & slides, a rick climbing wall, and lots of sponsors who had little things to give away. One sponsor gave snowcones so Maelie was happy about that since it was so hot! Here she is... strong woman!

More vehicle climbing....

She tried out a jet too... but still went back to climbing afterwards!

It was such a wonderful event with thousands of people! I personally think it was extremely well organized. They had SO many generous prizes that it took over an hour to raffle them off! Unfortunately we didn't win... but it was fun trying!

We headed home hot, tanned and exhausted! we stopped to get a treat at Starbucks.... a frappuccino! Yum!

What a nice way to spend our day. How I love fun events like this! :) Thanks to all the organizers and tons of volunteers who made it happen! You ROCK! :)

Red Walk/Run

2011-06-05T05:56:00.003-04:00

Friday Maelie had a PD day and so she joined me in the Red Walk/Run in support of the military. It was a beautiful sunny day so the first step was of course sunscreen!

Maelie was extremely proud to wear her red "Support our Troops" sleeveless shirt.

We waited for the start of the walk. Maelie was amazed at how many people were there.

We can see hundreds and thousands of people in the background!

We were so blessed to have a wonderful sunny, yet not too hot day! Maelie was pretty pooped after the walk. She also said she will not be participating again because it was boring... walking for no reason in her mind.... BORING! LOL I on the other hand thought it was nice. I love how people gather together to show their support for something. How our perspective changes in the years!

Snorkeling

2011-06-03T06:08:00.003-04:00

It was pretty cold on Thursday evening, but Maelie had used her gift card at Walmart to by a snorkeling kit.... so nothing was going to stop her from trying it out! Not even cold weather or a pool at 68 degrees!!