and the partying begins

Turning 5 years old is quite an event. Maelie is officially going to be 5 on April 8th. However, we have already started to party! This past weekend, grand-maman and Gilles came for a visit. My mom will be away in PEI on Maelie's bday to babysit Lucas, therefore she wanted to come and celebrate Maelie's bday. It was quite an eventful weekend. Maelie was very anxious to have company. Saturday morning was VERY long and hard. Grand-maman and Gilles arrived at 1:00 pm. Maelie reallt doesn't know what to do with herself when she is waiting for someone to visit. So in the afternoon, grand-maman asked Maelie what she would like to get as a surprise for her bday. Maelie replied that she wanted a little make up kit from Toysrus. So off we went to Toysrus to get the surprise. Maelie was very excited as she got to buy 2 items. And then as a bonus, she got to waste money in the machines that give you 3 chances to win a cheap stuffed animal! She is aware that only grand-parents put money in those machines. We then headed out to the mall to go to the GIRL store, which in our world is Ardène. Maelie chose the absolutely most tacky earrings ever. Good thing she won't take off her earrings yet. So now we were armed with nice makeup and earrings. While I walked to get the car, grand-maman taught Maelie how to apply makeup. When I got back to the mall doors with the car, there was Maelie wearing pink eyeshadow!! All she needed was heels and a mini skirt and she would look like a tramp!

After our visit to the mall, we headed out to La Cage aux Sports for supper. Bill met us there. Maelie had a helium balloon written 5 on it and her bday hat which she has worn every year for 3 years now. At this particular restaurant, when it is your bday, they get the horn going and the light flashing, and come and sing at your table. Of course, when we got to the washroom, we heard them come and sing to Maelie. She was very worried that she had missed out on it. We got back to our table and Maelie was waiting and waiting asking when they would come back. Finally, the staff arrived, sang to her as she was standing on her chair with a grin a mile wide. Once they left, she commented : "Wow, mom , I was REALLY surprised!!"
hmmmm... it seems to me she had a feeling that it was gonna happen. ahhaha

At home, Maelie opened up her gift from grand-maman and Gilles. It is a Fort making set from Cranium.


(note: this picture is fromt he Cranium website so I don't know the kids)

Maelie loves to make "cabanes" so this is the perfect game for her. It is set up in our living room and she basically lives in it, with her makeup of course.

Sunday we visited Ikea with grand-maman and Gilles. We also stopped at Michael's as they are side by side. We went back home with a few goodies and then had a birthday party to attend that afternoon across the street. That went ok. Maelie LOVED playing with the little boys Acceleracers game by Hot Wheels. It was funny as the girls spent a good half hour playing with that game whereas the boys were playing elsewhere.

I am now working on the planning of Maelie's birthday party. She will have her daycare friends birthday party this weekend on Sunday as she doesn't want it on Easter weekend. So this week will be a busy week of making princess hats and prince crowns! It's a prince and princess Party with kids of various ages. It's always interesting to host a multi-age party.

Next weekend grand-papa and Lucie are coming for a visit, so we will be in for another wonderful time! Stay tuned for details!

Spring is finally here!



Almost time for worm picking!

in bed

I was reading Dooce this morning as I do every week or so now due to lack of time. Today she was mentioning her daughters bedtime habits.

Maelie has been in her big girl bed for 3 years now. One thing I am proud to say is that once we tuck her in bed, she doesn't get up. That is a good thing you would think. Except that, she will not get up to go to the bathroom until i have said "OK". She will yell from her room at any time of the night "Mom, i need to pee". to that, i need to reply "well go." otherwise, she will not budge and she will yell louder and louder until i respond. Good thing I am a light sleeper when it comes to Maelie.

Another thing that happens occasionally as well is:

Maelie makes a bit of noise in her bed.
"Maelie, go to sleep!"
"But mom, I can't. Nosekiss fell out of bed!!!!!!!" (yes, dramatic)
"um, well just go pick him up."
"oh. i can get up? but i thought i couldn't get out of my bed"
"well if you drop something or need to go pee, you can get up."
"oh. i didn't know that."
She then gets up and picks up the dropped stuffed animal.

This is repeated any time a stuffed animal falls down. I don't have to get out of bed. But i have to give her permission to pick it up! and she acts as surprised everytime when I tell her she can get up to go pee or to pick the animal up.

SO i am proud to say that i never had to fight with her to stay in bed! :)

Staying up late

This past weekend, we were invited for supper at some friends' house. By 8:30 I was ready to go home and get myself and Maelie to bed (no we are not very late guests at all). When I asked Maelie to come, she said "but mom, i didn't have time to play" so I just told her that i would let her play for 5 minutes but then we would have to go. Well, long story short, one friend taught me a new card game and so 4 of us end up sitting down to play. Those 5 minutes turned to over an hour! By the time we left, it was a bit after 10. VERY late by our standards. By the time we got to bed, it was shortly after 11.

Sunday morning, Maelie woke up at 8:00, REALLY tired. Predictable after going to bed SO late. Later on that day, I told Maelie "Sweetheart, poor little thing you are so tired!"

To which she replied "Mommy, it's all your fault. You are the one who kept me up too late. You shouldn't do that. The next time, you need to get me home and ready for bed not later than 8:30 "

hmmm... I was TOLD.

When I tried to get her going, and said "well sweetie, at 8:30, I asked you to go home and you said no you were busy. Then I said 5 more minutes."

"But Mom, I don't know how much 5 minutes is, I can't tell the time. But I know that was much more than 5 minutes."

LOL, and who is the adult here?
I had to promise I would not take her out later than 8:30. I will remember this when she is a teenager....

Beautiful day

Sunday was a totally gorgeous, perfect day! We started off pretty lazy though. Maelie didn't want to get dressed or go out, so who was I to force her! Deep down I wanted to stay in my jammies too! So we stayed in, relaxed, and then had a tea party for lunch. Spaghetti and oranges. Yum! :) Maelie played a few magic tricks and made her oranges disappear. There is still no trace of them...

In the mid-afternoon, the guilt set in as I watched the sunshine outside. I figured we needed to get out and take advantage of Mother Nature's good mood. So we went out for a bit, drove to one of my favorite dollar stores. We then went to Toysrus for a brief visit and to try all the bikes. Maelie never tires of trying the bikes in that store.

Once we got home, we took out Maelies old bike and she drove around in the driveway for a good hour. The sun was warm and everything was melting. Let's just hope this is it... spring is here. I *SO* miss spring! I think in my old age I am starting to have such a hard time with winter!

Spring break is over on the Quebec side this week, yet it is only starting on the Ottawa side. So Maelie goes back to daycare today. I think she missed her friends a bit. This week we tried to cut her nap out so she would sleep more during the night. Well, as a mom I have learned that my plans don't always work.

In this picture we just got back from the restaurant one day this week. Maelie was SO exhausted to the point that she was giddy. She just laughed and laughed and laughed. She was laughing so hard she just dropped to the ground and was unable to get up! Maybe nap time isn't quite over yet :)

Happy Monday...!

To those who wonder what carpet tastes like

Maelie and I went to Buck or Two today. I told her she could choose one item. She chose cotton candy.

In the car, I let her have a small piece.

"Mmmmmmmmm.... mom, this cotton candy tastes SO good! It tastes like carpet!"

so if any of you were wondering.....

Parties parties and more parties

'Tis the season to be partying!

This weekend, we had 2 kid parties to attend. This is what happens when you have lots of little friends. You are invited to party after party. Maelie wants to go to every party but there is one condition... I have to attend to. She will not go to a party on her own. She likes having her mama around just in case. It's a real good thing that I enjoy attending kids parties.

Saturday we went to Amelie's 7th bday. She was born on the same day as Lucas, my nephew, March 8th, 2000. Jacinthe (her mom) made an awesome princess/Barbie ice cream cake! It was awesome and very original. Her daughter Amelie actually was so happy when she saw it that she started crying! I have never seen a 7 year old so happy that they cried. It was so sweet.



It was made with strawberry ice cream. The insides had vanilla ice cream and cookie crumbs. She may be getting an order for Maelie's bday...!



This is what it looked like on and off all day Saturday.
Friday we had a snowstorm, so I went to work by 6:45 AM. Everyone left early all it was really bad outside. My boss never suggested that we leave early so I stayed until my usual 4 pm. By 4, the storm had stopped, the snowplows had done their work and the roads were better than they had every been. As a bonus, there was about one quarter of the usual traffic! I got to the sitters in record time!

Sunday we went to Matheo's party. He turned 4 years old. He is one of Maelie's daycare friends. She actually loves this little boy a lot. You gotta admit, he is pretty darned cute..



Maelie was very excited about his party. Last night she took out her party dress, and this morning, by 7:15, she had her princess dress on, pink tights and pink shirt. She was very anxious to go. Thank goodness it was an early 10 AM party as opposed to an afternoon one!



Here she is playing musical chairs with the other kids. They had a good time and it was all in fun and not too competitive. They had a pinata, snacks and cake so all in all it was a fun time!

I am a bit disappointed in my camera. When I take pics indoors, it doesn't work as well as I would like it too. Many of my pictures end up blurry. Perhaps it has something to do with me taking pics of young , moving objects such as kids all the time. I really think I need to look for something more efficient. On eof the parents at the party seemed to have a camera that was rather efficient. I don't want all of Maelie's memories to be blurry when she gets older! Goodness! I will look into it.

In the meantime we are still enjoying our little Baby Chinchilla. She is fun to have around. Very quiet during the day that's for sure. I tried to take a picture of her when she is taking her sand bath. Here she is rolling around in it.



And here she is sitting up in her sand bath.



Ya gotta love such a cute little creature !

Anyway, March break is here, and so schools are closed next week, and our sitter is as well. Bill will be staying home all week with Maelie. I will prepare my list of things to do for the house-husband! I know I will quickly get used to him staying home. Things to look forward to when he eventually retires! Groceries, cleaning, laundry, etc! :) I can't say I will depend on him for meals though.. there are only so many frozen perogies and Kraft dinner that one can eat.

Hopefully I will get to update this site a bit more this week :)