Baby Henry!

On the 26th, we headed to Trenton to visit Steve's family. It would be the first time Abbey and Michael (and I) got to meet Henry Jeffery McAlpine (born Nov. 5th)We were all very excited. I was able to get some cute pictures of the newest addition to the McAlpine family.

Here are the three McAlpine grandchildren!

Caught Ya!

Only a grand-daughter could get away with playing like THIS on Grand-papa's pool table! lol!

Holidays!

Christmas is always an exciting time of year but we were all SUPER excited this year because Christmas holidays meant time with Daddy! The flight to Ottawa from Greenwood was good (we even arrived a half hour early!) Abbey and Michael were no less then amazing. I'm so lucky to have such great travellers.

Steve met us at the airport...tons of hugs, kisses and happy tears all around! We were actually quite lucky to have made it out of NS. We left and landed at just the right time, missing the big storms in both provinces.

After packing up the car (I did NOTHING this time woohoo!) we were off the Beddington Ave. The minute I walk into that house, all is good in my world! Home SWEET Home!

Christmas day was awesome! We opened stockings first...

then we were off to the big stuff under the tree! We all got very spoiled!

The kids are SOOO into Santa this year. it all just keeps getting better and better! Christmas 2008 was wonderful! Thanks Mom and Dad for making it so special! xo

CHECKLIST!

Clothes packed = check
Snacks packed = check
Car seats packed = check
Plane activities packed = check
House cleaned = check
Garbage ready for pick-up = check
Kids fed, clean and dressed = check
Mom frazzled and on the verge of a nervous breakdown = CHECK!

Ha!ha! I can't believe I got it all done but I did!!! I'm heading HOME! woohoo!

Christmas Concert!

Abbey and Michael's first Christmas concert was this week. It was scheduled for Wednesday evening at 6:30. Perfect I thought! Well, sometimes the best laid out plans do not work out.

Wednesday we had Snow Day #3 in Nova Scotia. This meant that my students concert at school would be cancelled and that my children's concert would also be cancelled! Of course they were both rescheduled for Thursday afternoon! OH MY GOD!!! How could I be in two places at once!?! Thankfully the French school's concert was set for 1pm and ours at 1:30pm. Only 8 minutes separates the two schools if you're burning down Bridge Street. I knew Abbey and Michael were the second group to go on so, with my Principal's blessing; love her! and internal coverage, I set off to watch my children sing! WooHoo!

I went to their class first so that they could see me and know I was there in case they couldn't find me in the crowd. They were all dressed and ready to go for their first performance (or spectacle as Abbey says!). Abbey was Mrs Claus and Michael a little elf.

They were beyond cute! I just laughed to myself when I saw them both with little hats on. That morning I showered with both of them so that their hair would be just right. Abbey's perfectly blow dried under and Michael's gelled up just like Daddy does it! My efforts were in vain but whatever! They still looked adorable! I started tearing up before they even started singing. Pathetic I know! They sang the little song "Au temps des fetes" so well and everyone cheered! They gym was packed but they seemed unfazed by all (much to my amazement!) I couldn't have been more proud! After quick hugs and congratulatory kisses, I raced back to my school just in time for my classes first song! Whew! I made it! My class performed 5 songs and did really well too! I felt like Superwoman having accomplished it all! Children, students, parents and administration all happy! All was well! Now I needed a big glass of red wine! Thank goodness I've gotten over the fact that drinking alone isn't bad since Steve's been gone! ha!ha!

NIFTY FIFTY!

This week my wonderful friend Donna turned 50! This is completely insane to me because in my eyes, she's the same age as me?!?

Donna is affectionately known around school as "The Queen" and some of our staff took the "royal" theme to town for her birthday celebration. When she arrived at school on Monday morning, her office had been transformed...complete with a throne and plenty of decorations. It was awesome! Every class in the school was assigned a time to surprise Donna with 50 "something". Some people were so creative! She was totally surprised! Donna got everything she deserved for her birthday... lots of attention, gifts, sweets, surprise visitors and special treatment. I hope you had a super day Donna! We all love you so much! You are the glue of our school, my personal therapist, my lunch time date and a perfect friend! xo

Here's Donna in her office with a little visitor! To read more about her birthday you can check out her blog too http://peterssm.blogspot.com/

Chester!

Last weekend my friend Andrea bought a little puppy Pug for her girls. On Saturday night we went over to visit it and Oh My Goodness...is it adorable! Makes me want to get a dog soooooooooo bad! Abbey and Michael LOVED playing with the little pup.

Abbey was so smitten with Chester and wanted him in her arms ALL night long. I think she would be fantastic with a pet.

Chester fell asleep on Michael in this position. So sweet! There are two more males left Steve...hmmm! What do you think? lol!












Thanks for having us over Andrea. We love the new addition (and Willa too!)

Base Christmas Party!

This weekend Michael, Abbey and I went to the Base Christmas Party with our neighbours the Tromp Family. It was a big pancake breakfast with face painting, balloon making, magic shows and of course Mr and Mrs Claus. Tons of FUN! We had a great time together! It was nice to see all our military friends and their families. (and also get so many words of encouragement about surviving without your husband from women who have done it and lived to tell ha!ha!!)

I can't believe the difference one year can make. Abbey and Michael aren't scared of Santa at all now. We waited in line and they went right up to Santa and told him what they wanted. They are still asking for a pink dress (Abbey) and a big truck (Michael)....and they won't be disappointed!

Hats off to the Base for putting on such a great family fun day! (and to the Tromp Family for letting us tag along!)

Michael's Turn!

So, Michael wanted to sing a Christmas carol too!...and you know how my kids love anything and everything that sings. Well he decided to sing along to a decorations that my friend Shannon bought me years ago. From the constant playing (and probably being dropped many times) it skips every now and then. This video was us trying to get a good recording of Michael singing but it totally didn't work out...but it's cute nonetheless so here it is! More laughing than singing really! ha!ha!

Abbey's Christmas Song!

My Mom bought this beautiful musical snow globe for Abbey and Michael...and no joke I hear it play "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" no less then a dozen times a day. They love hearing the song and shaking the globe...all day long! Here's Abbey singing to it (little French accent and all!)

P.S. A parent of one of the children in my class gave us this unicorn costume and Abbey loves it! She always has it on...so that explains why she's singing a Christmas song in a Halloween costume! ha!ha!

Visit with Santa!

This is the first year that Abbey and Michael sat with Santa...without Mommy or Daddy! No tears and they actually told him what they wanted. Abbey told Santa she wants a pink dress and Michael wants a big truck (the boy seriously has like 50 trucks already...good grief!) Anyway, I'm very excited to scrapbook a Santa picture where they are not crying or Steve and I aren't in the picture as well. YAY! I'm so happy!

Aren't they adorable!?! They are smiling but not 100% sure! ha!ha!

P.S. Thanks for scanning Donna! xo

Snow Day #2!

What a difference three days can make! On Monday I took this picture from my back deck.

This is a picture of the same view taken today. Snow is all gone but we are home again due to all the freezing rain last night. WooHoo for Snow Day #2!

Lots of activity in the McAlpine household during Snow Days. Aside from cooking, doing dishes, cleaning up, doing laundry, changing beds, running some errands, eating out, playing and of course NAPPING...we did this today...

crafts, crafts and more crafts! A good family friend of my parents sent me 4 huge boxes of scrapbooking supplies and the kids have a field day with all the treasures we found in them. I was LOVING Denyse today because those "treasures" filled up a good hour of our day! Merci Denyse!

We also tackled the puzzle Mary sent us again! Abbey and Michael love finding the face pieces! They'll scream out "I found Jackson's eyes!" It's hilarious! Thanks Mary!

And we made forts! I am not an expert fort maker like Steve but this one was pretty good if I do say so myself! ha!ha!

Busy busy day! but totally FUN!

Snow Day #1

What's better then waking up and finding out it's a Snow Day? Waking up, finding out it's a Snow Day AND hearing your neighbour snowblowing your driveway! Yay! for my wonderful neighbour Scott!

Today was the first of (hopefully) many Snow Days to come. We woke up to a Winter Wonderland and had such a fun time playing inside and outside. Believe it or not we actually played on the swing set my parents bought us. Here's proof...

It really is the gift that keeps on giving Grand-papa...who knew we would use it EVERY season!

So on the second round of outdoor play, our neighbour Christina was out. She's in grade 2 but has a little sister and is really good with Abbey and Michael. It took the three of them like half an hour to fill up the sled with those boulders. And of course when Michael couldn't pull it...guess who did? Yes...yours truly (with all three kids sitting on top) Luckily they kept falling off so I'd get many breaks. Thank goodness!

It was so beautiful out and I really enjoyed playing outside with the kids. Check out this picture of Abbey and Christina taken out back behind our house. The snow covered trees are spectacular. A Winter Wonderland indeed!

My Week In Review...

Monday my Mom left....ugh! Devastating! I HATE saying goodbye to my Mom! So sad! We did have such a nice week together (totally bonus thanks to my Dad!) and I know that there is less than three weeks to go until I'm reunited with my hubby and everyone in Ontario. Yay!

On Tuesday, we had our Internal Review Team look over our Accreditation document for the first time. I'm co-chair for our school's accreditation team (kinda like School Success Planning) and we've put in many hours of work on this massive document that supports Student Achievement and School Performance and last night we showed it to our Parent Council and some staff members. It went well but was a draining night and I got home just in time to read bedtime stories.

Wednesday was all about the kids. I felt bad being out all night on Tuesday (and coming home late from the airport on Monday) so I wanted to just to do fun things with them on Wed. evening. Well...they hadn't slept that great the night before and were so cranky after school. Yeech! Made it very hard for Mommy to be happy and fun! I think I pulled it off as best I could though! ha!ha!

Thursday is my TV night. I love Survivor and Grey's Anatomy. But lately Grey's has been disappointing. What's with the whole Dead Denny thing...good grief! I hope that story line is over soon!

Friday night I went to the Kingston Arena with the kids. Santa was there, sleigh rides and free skating as well. I forgot my camera and was so disappointed but really I had no time to take pictures. Thank goodness my friend Andrea was there to help me with the kids. It's impossible for one person to handle two four year olds on skates!!! A lot of my students were there too and they loved holding Michael and Abbey's hands as well. So cute...and tiring! We were all asleep not long after we got home.

Today was all about playing, pancake making and outdoor fun. It was nice and sunny (although a bit cold) so we took the bikes out around the block and played on the swing set. We don't have a stitch of snow anymore.
Abbey is obsessed with Cinderella these days. My Dad bought her a huge cuddly Cinderella doll and she sleeps with it every night. We play Cinderella ALL day long. Abbey's Cinderella, Michael is the Prince and I'm always the ugly, mean step sister (I'm starting to get a complex about it really! ha!ha!). When my Mom was here, she was the Fairy God Mother but now were down a character. I'm sure at Christmas, Abbey will assign parts to everyone. She's hilarious!
Tomorrow, I'll go into school for a bit as always and we also have a Christmas party to attend. Should be fun! Monday it starts all over again.
This week we have Parent/Teacher interviews. Wish me luck!

First Big Snowfall!

We had our first big snowfall when my parents were visiting last week. And what a snowfall it was...44 cm by the end of it all!!! Of course it happened on the weekend...what a waste of two good snow days! ha!ha!

This was the view from my back deck when it was all said and done. SO beautiful! (but not fun to shovel!....thank God we didn't have to...gotta love having Mr. Plow on speed dial!!!)

We all love the snow so we decided to dress up and go out to play in it.

Some of the neighbourhood kids were out already so we joined in the fun!

Here's a picture of my Dad at the center of all the action. He had all the children laughing and having a ball playing and sliding. Only a grand-papa's love eh?!?

I love the picture below of my Dad and Michael. They are having so much fun together.

They are great buddies!

My Dad was soaked from head to toe and thank God he's so physically fit because I'm sure any other person would have been sore after what those kids put him through.

Nothing a little ZZZZZ's can't fix. Here's the next picture that was taken once we got inside!

Thanks for the great visit and for saving me during my report cards. You are the BEST!