Flying Solo!

Steve left Monday to visit his family in Alabama where they have been vacationing for a month. They are having a wonderful time golfing, eating out and spending time together...sans kids! I probably sound jealous (and I am a little bit because I LOVE being in the sun!) but I've had such nice week with Abbey and Michael. Saturday was awesome! We went to gymnastics, played outside in the beautiful sunshine and Mary came over with Jackson & Sophie for a play date. The day just flew by, actually the whole week did really. Steve gets home tomorrow evening, conveniently missing garbage week prep Ugh! and I'll be happy to see him (as will the kids) but I really enjoyed my time with my babes as well! I'm lucky and thankful to have them! (even when I wake up to Abbey's feet in my face!!!) hee!hee!

Easter Fun!

Bryan and Roberta (Steve's brother and sister-in-law) arrived on Friday to spend Easter long weekend with us. We had a wonderful weekend of good food, good company and good laughs! The kids were really into the whole Easter bunny thing this year. It was a blast! On Saturday night, we had fun dying eggs. I had TONS of them since I had cooked 30 to do Easter crafts with my class but didn't get to use them because of the snow day! (it's the one day I was disappointed that we didn't have school!)

Luckily the eggs didn't go to waste. Auntie Bobby is an expert egg dyer and we had so much fun decorating them. It's going to be an annual activity now for sure!!! Check out how vibrant the colours turned out!

Abbey and Michael put the eggs outside to entice the Easter Bunny to our house. hee!hee! It worked because it was chocolate overload here Easter morning!

FUN FUN FUN!

Here's Abbey and Michael dropping the eggs in the front yard and a picture of the loot. The Easter bunny even remembered the big kids in the family!

The kids ate early and while Steve was putting the finishing touches on his rack of lamb supper, I bathed the kids and set them up watching Dora so the adults could have a nice relaxing meal...and that it was! (and delicious too!) What a happy Easter indeed! :-)

I Deserve a Masters in Procrastination!

So the house is a mess...so much laundry and cleaning up to do! I have SO much to blog about because I had an AMAZING trip. But the funny thing about bogging is, if you don't do it often then you end up with a huge amount to write about and it seems daunting...plus our camera was broken so we used my parents camera and the plan was to make a CD of the pics before we left but the beach was just too hard to say goodbye to early on our last day so my Mom is sending me the CD in the mail. Sometimes you just need to show pictures.

So with ALL that I have to do, this is what I've accomplished so far
1) one load of laundry (I probably have 10 more to do!)
2) unpacked the kids (which consisted of a triage of dirty/clean clothes to wash and not really putting anything away)
3) a banana bread ?????????????? yes a banana bread...talk about procrastination eh?!?

The last time I made banana bread, Steve and I were newlyweds (6 years ago). I called his mother for her famous banana bread recipe that Steve LOVES. He gets home from work and I'm so proud that I've made something for him. Then he says "it doesn't really taste like my Moms" OYE! Needless to say...he hasn't eaten it since. ha!ha! Before today that is. I found my own recipe though and it was delicious!
I still have hope that I will be productive tonight. Steve's making a steak feast so hopefully the red meat will give me the kick in the butt I need!
Stay tuned for the Florida post..it's coming I swear!

The "Griswald's"!!!

Well it's 11:39pm and I'm almost finished packing. I'm a little late getting ready because of all this snow. We LOVE playing in the snow so instead of getting organized we went out as a family and shovelled, and played and went sledding. It might be our last time frolicking in the snow so we wanted to take advantage of it! Plus I think it's pretty cool that one day we'll be playing in the snow and the next the white sands of Siesta Key.
I feel like every time we go on a trip we're like the Griswald's from National Lampoon Vacation. All the craziness of getting ready will all pay off though in 31 hours when we are flying to Florida! I can't wait! Last year was amazing, but I think this year will be even better with the kids being more independent. I'll keep you all posted!

In Like A Lion...

Well it's March 1st and there's a snow storm out there today. The snowflakes are huge! Bring it on Mother Nature...I'm outta here in three days!!! Yahoo!

Steve got home safely...before the snow. We were all excited to welcome him home and we had a nice family night together. They lost Steve's luggage on the way home...with all our gifts! Very sad! We're hoping it arrives soon but this snow storm might delay it even more!

I finally finished my report cards (thanks to my Mom and my Donna). That feels great! No matter how many time you do them, it's still stressful! I'm so happy my Mom (a retired teacher) understands.

Tomorrow I'll go into school and plan for a sub for the four days I have off. Never fun but it's my friend Natalie who's in and I know she'll do a great job. We leave Monday after school for Halifax because our flight leaves at like 6 am on Tuesday.

My parents called from Florida tonight. They arrived safe and sound. I can't wait to be there. I'm sick of winter!

I'll try to blog from Florida. My camera is broken (Future Shop had to send it away and it's not looking like we're going to get it back) so they might be boring picture-less blog entries.

A Mother's Love!

Last week was insane for me...report cards looming, Steve away, a presentation to get nervous about, planning for a substitute teacher, a field trip and a sick caregiver to top in all off. It just wasn't a good week! I called my Mom... of course ('cause you know just hearing your Mom's voice makes it better) and cried and whined (what I do so well ha!ha!)

Anyway to make a long story short, I'm in an in-service Friday afternoon and all of a sudden I spot my Mother in the hallway. I literally started to sob right there! Can you believe how good she is to me?!? I'd been walking around with what seemed like the weight of the world on my shoulders and in that instant she took it all away. My heart just felt so good and light again.

Did I mention that she booked the trip right after we hung up the phone and that she's leaving for Florida for over a month two days after she leaves here (and we're all showing up in FL three days later!) ONLY A MOTHER'S LOVE FOR SURE!

My bathrooms are clean, clothes washed, meals prepared (all my favourites) but mostly my babies are happy while I concentrate on report cards. AHH! All is well in my world! Mom saves the day...AGAIN!!! She's SuperMan and June Cleaver all rolled into one...and she's all mine! Thank goodness I'm an only child 'cause she'd really be exhausted! ha!ha!

Valentine's Day!

I know this post is late but better late then never right?!? Valentine's Day was fun! Steve got me some beautiful red roses and a pink one for his little princess. Abbey was so proud. She walked around with it for over an hour before she let me put it in a vase.
(notice the big cut on her chin...she banged it on the corner of Steve's massive tv...poor little thing...it's completely healed now though)

Michael wasn't really into taking pictures that day so they are mostly of Abbey (no I'm not playing favourites...one was just less cooperative then the other!!!)

Last year, on my friend blog, she posted pictures of her family and their Valentine's tradition of using champagne flutes with supper. I loved the idea! And although I'm not ready to let Abbey and Michael use my "for show" stemware, I bought plastic flutes for us to enjoy our milk in. The kids thought it was great! Steve made an awesome supper, steak, shrimp and twice baked potatoes! Abbey and Michael LOVE seafood...they must have eaten 10 shrimp each and Michael can easily put back 4 ounces of steak. It's insane!



Here our my little Valentines enjoying our dinner in the dining room.