The Dream Team

For those of you who were feeling bad for me being alone since Steve left...well...save the sympathy. hee!hee! The day after Steve was Ontario bound, the Dream Team arrived on my doorstep. The Dream Team consists of my wonderful Mother and her fantastic sister, Germaine.

We had an amazing week visiting together and I was totally spoiled (the kids too!)...meals, free time, cleaning services, gifts AND ironed pillow cases! Great company too!!!

We even had an early birthday party for Abbey and Michael.

They were super excited to open gifts and blow out candles.

Big hugs for grand-maman!

...and the final picture is the Dream Team "high-fiving" for a job well done! I hope I have half of their energy when I'm 60 something! Thanks for everything this past week! I appreciate it very much...now...when are you two coming back?!?

Single Parent...

Well today was the day...Steve left for Trenton this morning to start his Herc course. We knew it was coming for a while now but that didn't make it any less hard. He left while the kids were sleeping to make it easier on everyone but it was still so difficult. Ugh!
The first words out of Michael's mouth this morning were "Where's Daddy?"... so heartbreaking!
Yesterday while I was at work and the kids were at school, Steve went shopping! When I got home the kitchen table was loaded with treats. Abbey got Ballerina Barbie, Michael got a new Transformer and I got beautiful roses and a book I've been wanting to buy. We were all very excited and it was nice to have something new for the kids to play with this morning.
So day 1 without Steve is over! We survived it! ha!ha!
Only 130 days to go...yikes let's not think about that!

Good Friends...

I came across this picture today of my friends, Alex and Shawn and their two children, Ethan and Lauren. We had a Pizza Night at my parent's house this summer and had so much fun catching up. I've been best buds with Shawn since as long as I can remember and now his family and mine hang out twice a year...summer in Ottawa and Florida! (Shawn's parents and my parents are friends as well and we've all travelled together since we were teenagers).
Michael and Abbey always have fun playing with Lauren in Siesta Key and it's VERY nice for Steve to have Shawn as a drinking partner on the beach and for me to have a shopping partner at the outlets in Florida (and Alex and I do a little drinking too! hee!hee!)



P.S. okay Alex...hopefully this pic will inspire you to start blogging again...SOON! :-)

GO-KARTING

Karter's Korner is only about 10 minutes from my parents house and is the longest paved Go-karting track in Eastern Ontario. Steve and I (and my parents - the official photographers) took Abbey and Michael there this summer. What a super fun time!

Here's the gang leaving the starting gates (in the pic above Steve and Michael are on their way and Abbey and I are just about to take off) Michael was raring to go...Abbey was a little more reluctant. Abbey and I did three laps, by then she had had enough. Michael and Steve were more then happy to take our extra lap tickets and zoomed around a few more times.

Boys will be boys...they loved every minute of it!

Karter's Korner also has a mini-track for battery operated four wheelers. This was a HUGE hit too because they got to drive them on their own. Abbey and Michael had the whole track to themselves. They are awesome drivers because of the golf cart grand-papa and grand-maman bought for them a few years back so they were totally comfortable doing this (and Mommy wasn't nervous at all!)

I remember going to Karter's Korners often as a child and now I get to experience it through my children's eyes. What could be better then that?!? Needless to say...this was not are only visit to K.K. this past summer!

Girls Cottage Getaway!

This summer MaryAnn hosted our 6th (or is it 7th?!?) Annual Girls Cottage Getaway! I always look so forward to this awesome time together...so many laughs!

This is the view from the top of MaryAnn's cottage. Absolutely pristine! Now there aren't many "inside" pictures I can show you...they've all been censored! (and hopefully deleted by now! lol!) but here's one of the Summer 2008 Richardson Lake crew. Sadly Laura and Shannon are missing. :-(

Thank you MA for always planning around my trip home. I appreciate it so much! Cheers to next year...and more bum boxer pics! ha!ha!

Shopping Extravaganza!!!!

This summer, my Mom, Aunt Germaine, cousins Claire, Diane and Carol and yours truly embarked on a 48 hour shopping extravaganza!!! With overnight bags packed, comfy footwear on and plastic (as in credit cards cha-ching!) in our pockets we were ready to rock! Montreal didn't stand a chance!!! This shopping trip was not for the faint of heart! We went hard core, non-stop from opening Saturday morning to closing Sunday afternoon.

This is the view we had of our fearless driver Claire...able to weave through traffic, back into very small parking spots with a HUGE truck, listen to 5 opinions on which way to go and drive back home without being able to see out the back window (too many bags!!!) Please note her hands at 10 and 2 for safety! ha!ha!

Here's the gang re-fueling at Reuben's, a famous smoke meat restaurant in downtown Mtl. Can you believe that not one of us had a smoked meat sandwich?!? none of us like them!?!? It was a fantastic lunch though. To the left...the Thelma's, to the right...the Louise's ha!ha!

Will the real Imelda Marcos please stand up hee!hee! Aunt Germaine to the left gives Imelda a run for her money in the shoe dept.

Tight quarters on the way home but so worth it!!! Everyone was successful...some more then others eh Di?!? ha!ha!

And finally a picture of my Mom and I in Old Montreal. What a fabulous getaway! Our first but definitely not LAST! I'm already excited about next year! Woohoo! I'm so lucky to have such wonderful family! Love you all!

disclaimer: thank you to our sponsors: Paquin & Assoc., Shell Canada, Canada Post, Scotiabank and Northern College.

Museum of Civilisation

This summer the Museum of Civilisation had a Bob the Builder exhibit. Bob is a big deal in our house (more for Michael but Abbey likes it too) so a couple of my girlfriends, their children and me and my little munchkins decided to go. It was so much fun! Although with all the excitement we (the Moms) didn't get to chat much but we stole a few minutes of catching up between activities.

The view from the museum is breathtaking. Steve and I had our wedding pictures taken there and they turned out amazing. In the picture below, Michael and Abbey are to the right with the Parliament buildings on the left across the river. It makes me happy just seeing this picture. What a beautiful place!

Here are my babes at the entrance of the Children's Museum literally shaking with excitement because the Bob exhibit was just around the corner! ha!ha!

The people who design these exhibits are geniuses...all the activities are so hands-on.

Here's my friend Angie's youngest son, Joel, having a blast on Scoop from Bob the Builder! Love the huge smile on his face...priceless!

To the left; Michael and Luke working away and to the right; Abbey sitting on Bob's cat! :-)

And finally a picture of me and my buddies, Angie and Caroline (you can see Caro's little princess Yasmine in this pic too!). We met my first year teaching at Holy Spirit in Stittsville, before husbands, mortgages, children...my how times have changed! What a great afternoon!