Game Day

This week the kids had a day off school. Funny, Annika did not have a day off school, so while the big kids stayed home, Annika went to school.

I had a snowball effect occur this day off. Taylor asked to have Cara come for the night, so I said it was ok. Cara is no trouble at all; In fact she's a huge helper! Then Lane asked to come for the day. Ok, Lane is no trouble. lol Aleah was coming for the day. Ok, the big kids can look after Aleah. Then Katelyn did NOT come. She spent the day with her father. ok, Holly can play with Lane, they pair off nicely. So we had 5 kids here most of the day. Thankfully Debbie picked Annika up at preschool and took her home. I was trying to figure out how I was going to pick her up with all these kids! LOL

There were a few games of MouseTrap played that day :) I remember this game when we were kids, we didnt have it but Nanny Perkins did and we loved to play it! I dont really "get" it tho LOL!

Aleah didnt so much play as she did Watch :):):)

Taylor and Cara mostly kept to themselves. They avoided everyone else (dont think THIS did not cause some issues) and really were very quiet. They did not really look after Aleah tho, Holly did most of that lol. Aleah was quite in her glory with all these Big Girls around. A nice change for her, for sure.

I used to love days off school... the charm is wearing off. They used to be nice quiet days just me and the girls. Now the kids have social lives and sheesh I cant get them alone!!!

Spinning

Annika Loves spinning :) She watched Emily Young this week and they did some Ballet! So she ran for her ballet clothes and spent the rest of the morning spinning :) she also did some moves shown in the show (what are they? I dunno but it was cute) but the SPINNING was hilarious!

Saturday Morning Sleepies

UGH Saturday morning came wayyyyyy too early today! Ive had a long long week with kids and other commitments, and now I am awake! Ive been awake over an hour and it's only 808! :(:(:( I want to blame Annika. She came into the bed and woke us up and would not go back to sleep. But we sent her off to the TV and could have gone back to sleep. So then I want to blame Scott. He said he locked up the dogs last night, and I believed him. But he meant he locked up Zoe only, leaving Dylan free to pace around the house. We have hard floors and he has toenails. "sigh" bad mix. So the dog pacing and pacing and pacing eventually dragged me out of bed. I suppose I really have to blame myself because after my responsible adult husband told me he locked up the dogs, I did not go behind him checking like he was 6, to see that he really had locked them up, and therefore I am awake at like 630!
I really needed some sleep. Really did.

So I did some card classes this week! Im not likely to post any of the cards, they are not particularly special or original. although I do need to take a photo of the project we made in Stampers' Club, It's going to be a gift so I might not post it just yet.
I did a Scrapbook class Monday night (until Midnight YIKES) then to hit some of the people who could not come, I did it again on Fridau morning and voila 2 pages done and into my book :)




Pretty much All Stampin' Up products, papers, cardstock, inks, embellishments :)
This is photos of Annika at Rushton's Beach in Brule last summer. We had gone with the Larkins and spent a night at a cottage right on the beach. Annika got up really early and would not go back to sleep, so I took her outside for a walk. She chatted and chittered on the whole time about the waves and the crabs and the sand and the rocks and the birds and the sun and the clouds...you get the picture. It was really awesome time to get to spend with her and even tho it was early and I might have mentioned before my inability to cope with times before 8 am, I would do it again. I am so glad we didnt waste that morning laying in bed.

I suppose I should be glad I am awake already. I have wayyyy too much to do today :)

Blog Challenge LIITD Week 1

What makes my World go around?

My Girls!

Not exactly a hard choice. Their schedule is my schedule. Their sicknesses are my sicknesses. Their interests are my interests. mostly. Some of my interests are their interests, it works both ways.

A few years ago when Taylor was in Day care and I was expecting Holly it occurred to me that the babysitter and Scott were raising Taylor while I worked 18 hours a day. When I was home I was stressed and on call and cranky and quite nauseous all the time...the being on call was unpleasant.

So when I was off with Holly I decided to stay home as long as I could. And I have been lucky enough to be able to and still have a life. Not everything we want, but lots. I have let them make my world go around. And I am really happy about that. I'm not missing anything, and Im able to do a lot for them that working 18 hours a day wont let me, like going on class trips and stuff.

Next year Annika will be in Preschool more and I wont really have to have their lives run mine. They will still make my world go around, but they will be more balanced out by something of my own. And My world wont be so lopsided.

First Biking Day

We finally convinced Scott to get the bikes out today :) It was really warm (if you call 10 warm) and the kids were Dying to get out there! LOL
They headed out a few times LOL I had to make them get some pants and coats on it wasnt THAT nice!

Holly says she is still too cold! Good! Go back for a sweater LOL!





A really nice springish day!

All Star hockey Game

Holly was lucky to be asked to participate in the hockey game in Truro between the Police Association of Nova Scotia, and the Tim Horton's All Stars. It's a big deal here I suppose, someone calls me every single year to try to get me to buy tickets to it! :)
As part of the act, some Tim Bits (young hockey players) play for a few minutes of the game :) And they asked Holly to come!
She was SO excited! She talked about it for days! And when she got up in the morning she said "THIS is the day :):):)"
After School Holly wanted to get ready right away but we had to eat first :)
When it was finally time to go, she was in the car waiting :)
We went to the rink and met her teammates in front, and went in together to the Tim Bits Dressing Room :):):)
Holly's team wasnt on until almost the end of the first period so she put on most of her gear then went out to watch the game :)
The All Star Team's Line Up included some NHL players and some local players from colleges and associations as well :)
the Police Association included...Police Officers I think :)
After the opening ceremony the game was on! It didnt take very long to see that the Tim Horton's All Stars were in a league of their own ;)
Nanny and Grampy, Angie, Riley, and Linden came to watch Holly play her part!

It was finally time to get ready!

daddy helped Holly into the rest of her gear and her Police Association Jersey :):)
Waiting was Very impatient :) The kids were very hyper :)
The team of 6 Tim Bits, ready and waiting for their 2 minutes of Fame :)
A little Pre-Game strategy session :)

So the whole show went that the Referee brought out his Radar Gun and started giving Penalties. Skating TOo Fast! Skating Too Slow !:) eventually there was only one Police Association player left...the Goalie! Since that was not much of a game, they brought in replacements..."The TimBits!" hehehe

There's my little Tim Bit heading out onto the ice :) Nothing Shy about her :):):)

Lining up on the Blue Line!



A little Milling around while the announcer did his thing :)

And then it was ON! The Face off! See the fellows on their knees?
;)

Holly hangs out somewhere around the middle :)

Most of the Hockey players just kinda watch the little ones Fight it out. Cant wait til they learn to stop fighting each other ;)


A great experience for Holly :) I didnt realise she was so NOT shy LOL! She was not scared for a moment!

After they changed out of their clothes they were able to visit the All Stars in their dressing room :) She had them ALL sign her Maple Leafs hat.
Certainly a keepsake for good!
Taylor met up with a few of her friends and spent the rest of the game with them! :)
Holly and Grampy got an ice cream then we watched some of the game which was high scoring and very showy and pretty entertaining.

Go Holly Go!

Constant Companion

He even moves the keyboard over OH so carefully so that there's room for his fluffy butt on my desk! I can still work this way, so I have nothing to complain about!

Spring in Nova Scotia.

Looking for some signs of spring? not gonna find a whole lot of them here.




Spring comes really slowly around here. We get a nice day, lots of warm sun, lots of melting snow and everyone feels HOPE. Then we get a snow day. Then that melts and there's more mud. Yup mud season. It's on everything. It's on everyone.

It snowed Monday. Melted by noon.
Snowed Tuesday. Then that lasted til almost supper. It was actually a really snowy day. bad roads. But that melted.
Snowed Wednesday morning. That was a cold day. It stayed for the most part all day.

Wednesday was Spring.

There are signs if you really look for them. Crocuses are starting to come up. Because we didnt get a snowcover that lasted, the grass is not really brown, but more green.
My tulips will come up later than the ones across the street, because they are planted on the wrong side of my house. The front spends a lot of the day in shade, so it's cooler and slower to grow stuff.
And that's if the deer let the tulips grow. 2 years ago they ate every one. Even the ones under our bedroom windows.
Last year it was the Hostas. The deer ate the Hostas. Know how expensive those things are? Sheesh.
We should have 3 brand new nice hostas. But someone stole them. Weird huh? The kids each planted a tiny hosta at the NSAC open house. And they were in three little pots in a nice little tray to hold the water. Supposed to spend 2 weeks there before moving to the ground. And in the second week, the tray and all vanished. No pots, no hostas. rememberhow expensive those things are? Ok well they are not cheap! lOl

So still waiting on some sign of spring here!

Night or um Day at the Museum

Thursday bright and early we headed off for the City :) Our girls, and Katelyn and Cara came along to the Museum of Natural History. This was our big outting for the March break! LOL
We drove down in the Explorer, plenty of seats :)
We got there in time for a very early lunch, eaten in the car, then piled in to the Museum! I had one rule, that they had to stay where I could see them at all times! And those little darling children...stayed where I could see them at all times! Thank GOODNESS! The crowds were crazy! It was pushing space only! Holly and Katelyn stayed close together, and Cara and Taylor were my little Annika watchers! They All stayed together almost the whole time!
The exhibit at the museum right now was the Reptiles Real and Robotic.
We started our tour at the Robotic Reptiles. :):)
Holly gave this Rattlesnake a wide berth! LOL
This Chameleon was SO cool, it's tongue came out and zapped the bee! LOL
These things were really big!
We quickly zipped around the corner to see some Bullfrogs, snakes, and a few other things. They quickly found the first Real snake to hold!
This Garter Snake didnt cause anyone to panic so I worried a little less about the day. LOL
They took turns holding this harmless little dude til they got totally crowded out!

We then almost RAN through a bunch of exhibits. I was trying to get them to slow down and read some of the stuff on the plaques to them. NOT interested. I occassionally got them to glance at interesting arrow heads and spears from NS but they didnt have a great lot of interest in anything that was not moving and/or breathing LOL.

A Milk snake was waiting around the corner! They were fascinated with the feel of the snake skin lol.

Then there was time for a little down time. There was a sand box with some little artifacts and snakes buried in it. There were paint brushes and little shovels to use to excavate the site and find the hidden things LOL

A little magnetic puzzle caught Holly's attention and kept it.

Time for a bathroom break in the basement, and there we found a lounge for a snack and drink! Good time for a break.

Near the lounge in the basement was a room. "sigh" I knew as soon as we walked in, it was not going to be a quick stop. The Ag awareness Exhibit from the fairs and exhibitions we went to all last summer was IN THE BASEMENT lol. and the kids were SO excited! Farmer for a Day! LOL We spent half the summer looking at this stuff! But they pretended it was the first time! The milked the cow
And got a sticker for their efforts.
They stuck their hands into boxes and guessed what they were touching. Things like apples and potatoes and pig waterer nipples and milking inflations. LOL
And they got to touch the newborn chicks! LOL There was an incubator with eggs in it that were hatching! They watched for a long time but no eggs hatched LOL but you could see the chick trying to peck it's way out. And the chicks that were more than a day old were able to move to the warm pen and the kids could touch them! I settled in and watched them for a long time but eventually had to drag them back upstairs to catch the Lizard Brain lecture.
They had a little talk about Lizard brains and touch a Gelly brain that looked and felt surprisingly like real brains. Then they made some neurons out of clay, pipe cleaners, and sequins to be the cell body, dendrites, and cell nucleus. It was soooo cool! The kids...were slightly less impressed but still did like their craft.
The kids checked out some fish exhibits, some real salt water tanks with live sea creatures in them, and poor Holly couldnt keep up, she was so excited about the sea worms and urchins. There was lifesized whales and dolphins, turtles and eels. Bones to look at and bones to touch. And then yes, another live snake.
This ball python was the biggest one they got to touch!
Friendly little creature, it climbed right on and they carried it around on their necks.

Taylor was in her glory! I dont think she realizes that her snake doesnt do that...neck thing. It needs to be held in her hands and supported along it's length. She's going to want a Python next.
Holly had a little moment with said Python, before handing it off
To Annika who actully seemed the most unsettled with this snake being on her neck, when it wrapped its tale under one arm, and it's head under the other, she struggled til she found the head and then she proceeded to tell it to behave. LOL

A group photo of my little tired museum goers. They were starting to slow down at this point.
We heard the announcement for the Live Reptile show and headed down to the corner where the show was to be held. The kids had a few minutes to rest before the show started.
In the show they talked alot about reptiles and how they are different from Amphibians LOL Using lots of big words. The girl had the milk snake and the fellow had a 3 foot igunana. Sorry no better photo :)
After this show we went back and finished the exhibits. Then we went for another snack, another rest, another look at the Farm exhibit. The chick they had been watching hatched "sigh" lol. Cute! And they milked the cow again. And did a spin the wheel thing to earn a pencil. And they coloured. And then finally Scott called and it was time to go meet him.
Good trip home :) tired kids :)