A weekend of fun

This weekend was very relaxing. There was a bit of cuddling with daddy.



A bit of grooming daddy.



And lots of outdoor fun...!
Initially we went to Lac Beauchamp with Jacinthe and her kids. It was packed with people as it was Family Fund Day. We weren't even able to get some tire tubes to slide down the hills. Maelie was getting rather impatient as we could see everyone slide and skate but we weren't doing either activities! So we packed up and left instead. We drove to a Ernest Gaboury hill. Its a big hill close to our house. We brought 2 crazy carpets with us and slid down the hill! We had a blast. There's a reason they call them crazy carpets I am sure...!! After many times up and down, we headed home as we were pooped! and sweating bullets too...! such a beautiful day. We'll go back there for sure soon. We may even go back to Lac Beauchamp on a quieter day. They rent skates for free and so I may take Maelie skating for the first time. I won't be putting skates on though... i dislike them with a passion. The last time I went ice skating, I was 12 years old and VERY grumpy. Skates are just not comfy on my feet and I remember not finding any pleasure in it. I am hoping not to pass that on to my daughter! I may just bring Bill along so he can put the skates on and go with her. I will follow in my boots!

Time to get ready to hit the sack early, and get back into the work routine. I wish weekends were longer.

Great toy

I'm a mom who LOVES toys. Ever since Maelie was born, I have been yard saling to get good toys at cheap prices. There are some times though, I do go out and pay more for toys that I find are worth it. Especially ones I know I more than likely won't find at yard sales.

One of these toys is Wedgits. Maelie discovered this toy at the chiropractor office that Bill went to in Winnipeg. This year for Christmas, we bought it for her (from a family member). This is the set we have:

Maelie absolutely loves it. It is close to 30$ in stores around here, but well worth it. The pieces are very solid and will definitely not ever break. There are cards that can be bought seperately to make different designs. We will be getting those for Maelie for her birthday. We are also thinking of getting another set so she can build different and more complex things. The bigger sets are pricier, but since she enjoys the game, and we enjoy playing with her as well, then we are all for the investment. It is a game that can be used for many years as well. I definitely recommend it !

Take the time to grant a wish!

Doesn't it make you feel good when you can grant someone a wish?

A little boy named Shane Bernier out here in the Gatineau/Ottawa area is fighting lukemia. This little boy was asked if he had a wish. He did not wish for an X Box, he did not wish for a trip anywhere, all he wished for is: A BIRTHDAY CARD! This little boy would like to receive as many birthday cards as he can for his 8th birthday on May 30th !

The radio station Energie talked about this today, and their local station (104,1) asked that we mail cards to this little boy at their address and they will forward it to him.

Here is the address:

Shane Souhait Energie
15 rue Taschereau,
Gatineau, QC, J8Y 2V6.

That's all it takes to make this little boy happy!

what can we talk about?

Do you have people you can e-mail all day and speak to a few times a week on the phone and *always* have something to say?

My sister and I are this way.
Today she e-mailed me informing me that she had nothing to do at work, and since I am rather busy and can't e-mail back and forth, she decided to clean up her e-mail box. She had over 10,000 sent items since last October. Of that amount, over 5,000 e-mails were from me. So i asked her to tell me what i was talking about in October 2005 (i just picked a date out of the blue). So she copied and sent me the e-mail. Interestingly enough, the e-mail was about food! Not one day goes by where we don't talk about food apparently. LOL

and you are telling this to WHO?

Maelie sits with her empty salad bowl.

"Mom i have to tell you something"
"what, sweetheart ?"
"well sometimes, when no one is looking, i sip up the rest of my dressing from the bowl like this, see?" *slurp*

thought: Isn't your mom the one you would hide this from?

Valentines plans already

These are some of the Valentines chocolates I worked on this morning. I love making chocolates as I find it so relaxing. And of course... it makes people happy when you offer them some chocolates.





Those are suckers, i wrapped themall up after taking the picture, they have a bag with gorgeous little Valentines ribbons. Sometimes,I could spend all day making these. I end up messing the kitchen up of course, but it's all worth it!

Guess what day it is

Well today is Ti-Min's birthday! Ti-min has been very important since Maelie got up today. She seems to choose one stuffed animal on a daily basis as her important one. For Ti-Min's birthday,Maelie organized a party, as you can see on the picture, those were the guests. They include Jackson (grey cat), Mama cat (brown cat) and Rudolph and Clarice, Nose-kiss and Lambie. Maelie dressed them up for the occasionwith jewels and hair clips. She gave them all a ride on her scooter and then they all sat on the couch for Ti-Min to read his birthday card (hand made by Maelie) and for us to sing happy birthday to him.

What an honor to be invited to the party!
Happy Birthday Ti-Min!

Snow

This is what it looks like at our house these days. All this snow came to us on Monday the 15th... 1st day of my new work. This snow was much appreciated for skiers, snowboarders and any outdoor activity fans. Maelie is excited about the prospect of going sledding someday! When it warms up a bit we will take the sled out, or the crazy carpets and head for the hills!

Guess what we did today?

Maelie decided this morning that she would LOVE to have her ears pierced. I decided to call the place close to our house and ask if they had a spot for her. They suggested we get a cream to numb her earlobes called EMLA. We had to put that creamon her earlobes an hour prior to the piercing and cover it with bandaids.

We got there at 1:30 and they were all ready for Maelie. She chose cute little pretend diamonds and at 1:32 it was done and over with!

Here's a closer look:


She is so proud of herself! She had to call Grand-maman immediately when we got home to share the exciting news.

Sandbox remake

This is our sandbox. It is a water/sand table that we keep outside in the summer. The second half which holds the water is put away until spring. However, the sand part, we take inside in the fall, we wash it and then fill it up with rice! Its a non-messy alternative. Kids love to play in the ricebox. Unfortunately sometimes when we have friends over, they get a bit carried away with the rice and we end up with rice hiding EVERYWHERE in the house for weeks on end!




Most of the time, this is a very relaxing game and it is easy to sweep up the mess and throw in the garbage. I would suggest every parent to have some kind of activity like this on hand. Even just having a big flat Rubbermaid container, filling it with rice and having a lid on it is great! You can even store it under a bed when not in use.

Another alternative is to dye the rice, or even some pasta. Place the pasta in a Ziploc bag, mix rubbing alcohol and dye together then pour in the ziploc and mix the noodles or rice with it. Then you spread it out and let it dry overnight. Kids love colored rice or pasta to play with or to make crafts.

Keeping up with the posts!

Wow, have I ever been missing in action! I don't really want to talk about work on my blog, however I do want to explain that this week, I changed jobs. I went from a job that had *some* down time to a job in which I sometimes can't even manage to read an e-mail from my own sister during the day! To me, that's a big deal. I know it will get easier in time, and I really enjoy my new workplace, bu it is truly an adaptation. I finish work a bit later, and have so much stuff to learn. So it is all crammed in somewhere in my schedule! No more time to relax. This is why this blog was not updated. Just getting used to the new routine....

In the car the day before yesterday, Maelie asked me:

"Mom, does Jesus have a phone?"
"Actually sweety, Jesus is dead,remember?"
"Oh, ok ,so do you have his phone number, mom?"

Happy weekend! Snow is finally here... it arrived as a *snowstorm* on my first day at my new job. Looks like it is here to stay.

on getting married

coming home from daycare...

"Mom, I am going to marry Mattheo"
"Oh, ok"
"well, unless Haylee snatches him first"

...must be true love.

Here she is... all dressed up

This is what I was talking about in my last blog entry.
Here is Maelie this morning.
We can't see all that well as it is not a close up. I just asked bill to take a pic and send it to me before she went to daycare.
This skirt *almost* wasn't up to par as it is *GASP* BLACK! In her mind, real girls don't wear black as it's not pretty. But with a lot of convincing... she likes it.
"It has frills on it! and twirl... see how nice it twirls?? oooh! and it has a bow!"
in my mind : "and it was only $4.95 on clearance at Sears!"

Dress code

Maelie is a bit over 4 and a half now. She has taken well to dressing herself. Actually, most days, let me rephrase that. She chooses her clothes but wants us to dress her. Other days, she runs to her room, shuts the door and proceeds to change 3 times.

I am not a fashion conscious person. I don't follow the trends when I need to get new clothes. Actually, I go for what fits! and if it does fit, I get it in every. single. color. i ADORE cute kids clothes though.

Maelie has decided that skirts are the best thing since rye bread (takes after her dad... for the bread, not the skirts). Anyway, both tops and bottoms need to have as many designs as possible. and sparkles or jewels. The the tights ALSO need to be colored and have designs on them.

Since she outgrew most of her clothes recently, for Christmas I got her lots of bigger clothes. I also had to choose wisely as if it does not have color or designs or jewels, she will likely not wear it.

As we went through her dresser together to find out what fit and what didn't, anything that was white, she would exclaim "mommy! this *doesn't* fit", even if it obviously did. I told her it DID fit, but she had this mortified look on her face and said "but it's WHITE". what a cruel mother I am... buying a white shirt for my daughter.

When she was little (0-2 yrs), she had a ton of white shirts. I would keep her shirts plain in order to match her multi designed pants or overalls. and it was also easier when bill went to dress her since he is less reliable than Maelie in kid fashion. If there were only white shirts, he could hardly go wrong! So I think this may be where I created a child with a HATE for white shirts.

I don't want to raise a child who is all about fashion . But i do understand that at this age, they want to make their own choices and decisions. So since clothes is one place where they can have control, I think it's important to just let them decide what to wear. Of course, within the guidelines that we choose as parents (no skimpy clothing for a 4 year old!)

Nothing better than a tea party

Now what little girl does not like a tea party? This is what I was lucky enough to do this weekend. Mid-day tea party, still in our jammies after a morning of bringing down the Christmas tree and sweeping up the mess. Who knew our living room was actually twice the size it had been for the past month!

Maelie treated me to a nice tea party with the new tea set she received from Santa. It was a plain set with a bunch of paints. So she sat down and patiently painted most of the 4 settings. She was really proud of herself. We baked the China as it stated in the instructions. Apparently for the paint to set...however the paint on one of the plates is easily rubbed off. So much for permanent paint!



Does this really look like Ottawa in January? Something is wrong with this picture! There is no snow! Most people I know across the country are having weather changes. I think Mother Nature is having *issues*. Maybe it is menopause, who knows. I am still wearing my spring jacket and technically, winter is almost over. Tulips have been spotted in some places. We did have snow for a few hours today. It snowed during the night however it rained this morning. So there is nothing left. In the area where I live, our snowplows and salt trucks are just waiting to jump on the job! This morning as I left for work at 7:00 am, the snowplow had already been by and I live on a very quiet street, so that is not very common. The salt trucks are always out much before the crack of dawn as well. I cannot complain about that as it makes the roads much safer to get to work.

What do you do with all of this?

Well, resolving to eat more healthy and take care of myself more in the new year means... more produce than you know what to do with!

Here is what my fridge looked like after I received my order of organic food last night. When I place an order, I usually get it Friday night after 7 pm. I don't have the energy at that time to place it all nicely and organize it in the fridge. I order from Emile Peloquin and his produce is always incredible. The service is great as well, and delivery is free. I have ordered from him on and off for months now. The only reason I stopped for a while was that the delivery was a bit late for me... around 8:30 pm. Sorry to break this to you but at 8:30, I am in bed ready to sleep. So if he can keep the delivery prior to 8 pm, I will continue ordering.

So do you want a really QUICK way to have your husband flip out and not sleep at night? Yes, I have found the best way to do this. Order organic cherries for 18 $ for a little over a pound. But I guess considering that I enjoy a bowl of cherries MORE than going out for a night on the town, which could potentially cost about 40$ or more, then it is a deal! I sat in my cozy rocking chair last night with a child sized bowl of organic cherries and enjoyed every second of it. Believe me, I chose not to have the whole pound in one sitting. Just because I love my husband and don't want him to have a heart attack seeing me eat 18$ worth of food for a snack.

But... they were damned good! and I think I will go hide in the kitchen now and eat a few of them.

Happy weekend.

Let me talk about my little girl a bit. She is enjoying her last year before school begins. She will be 5 in April. Her first language is English however she has been learning french for a year and she is now quite bilingual (my family is french). She loves arts and crafts and cooking with her mom. She is quite the party girl as well. She enjoys dressing up and dancing and she has this particular love of flags and knows a lot of them.

Maelie always has the most interesting questions and I think she enjoys making it tough on her mom! I am constantly looking for answers for her. Apparently, I was told this weekend, that a simple yes or no will do for some kids! However I don't think it will do for mine. She will push and push until she gets the WHOLE story. This includes how cats have babies, how they mate, and to top it off... how *exactly* was Jesus crucified. Go figure. There is SO much more. But that can be for other posts!

Right now, she is determined that she is a veterinarian. When discussing potential future jobs this weekend, she informed me that it was too bad she couldn't be a teacher since she was already a vet. Who knew that you could have such a limited career choice by age 4.5!

It's about time!

Ok, I have to admit, I am a blog voyeur! I have spent so many months reading and becoming addicted to other peoples blogs! I guess to me it is much more convenient than reality tv, and more real of course. I discovered blogs through my greatest friend Kath. She started a blog and so I would read hers. Then she'd post a link to someone elses blog, and it just went on and on! I personally enjoy the mommyblogs and the crafty blogs, but especially the ones that have a mix of both.

I have been wanting to start up a blog for a while, took the steps to do so, but then was full of anxiety and didn't go ahead with it. I guess posting on the net is a scary thing! Plus I am SO not a writer. I am more of what we call a babbler.

Now as for the reason I *finally* started my blog. Molly (one of the blogs I read daily) is hosting a mini-swap. (Thanks for letting me join even when I didn't have a blog) I have always loved reading about swaps and wanted to participate, but when you don't have your own blog, you are just a little piece of dust in the universe that no one knows about. So here I am.

My name is Jenn and I am a mom. I am many other things but it's the one I love being the most. And on this blog, I will mainly talk about my daughter, Maelie (4.5 yrs of age), my interests which are rather crafty, and I also am working on being healthier in the New Year, so I will also cover my interests in that area.

Please note that I know nothing about Html so my posts may be rather funny looking as I work on adding bells and whistles. I don't like reading instruction manuals and I just go with the flow and try things out.

So welcome to my blog!