Easter Take 1

Easter came a little early to our house!!
Nanny brought in her Easter Gifts the day before Easter. She didnt think the kids would want to wait until supper time on Easter Sunday to get them! :):):):) I am just as happy to separate Easter from the whole Gift thing because Im not sure my kids Get the whole easter meaning (sure they do know the story) but it's allll about the gifts!! LOL

So after we went shopping, and drove to see the Larkin girls for a little while, we came home and Nanny came in to visit. She brought lots of bags :)

First Scott made the kids go into the living room and not look out the windows. He made them close their eyes on the couch :) They almost crawled out of their skin, they were so excited! LOL

Then Scott came riding in on Taylor's gift, a Scooter! LOL And not just any old scooter either! LOL


One look at the scooter and all 3 kids Jumped out of their skin! LOL They were very very excited! LOL



Nanny and Daddy watch the excitedment Taylor meets her Scooter :)

Of course by this time the other 2 kids have totally lost it LOL Where's Mine Where's Mine?




Holly got her much covetted Toronto Maple Leafs Jersey. Little does she know that it's a real one, that Nanny got on Ebay :) Go Nanny! LOL (or go Connie lol we KNOW who did the real Ebaying :)) Nanny even sewed a Masters tag on the back for her! Now they are discussing which number should go on the back.



Annika didnt know that she wanted Roller Skates, but she's thrilled to have them! LOL This was an idea from her wise and all knowing parents :) And no RollerSkating season would be complete without a Helmet to keep that little head safe! :):):)


Annika asked for some Rubber boots. Not just any rubber boots, but Toronto Maple Leaf boots. she was pleased to get all of her wishes!
Actually I wish she hadnt gotten everything she wanted. She was so sure that Nanny would get her exactly what she wanted, and she said if Nanny didn't, she would be in Big Trouble. Im sure she was only joking....


Taylor also got new rubber boots, the ones she wanted.
Lucky girls we have here!

Scrapping with Mom :)

Friday night I let the girls scrapbook with me. I can tell ya I didnt get a while lot done! they are a demanding lot!
So they set up in their three little areas. actually they set up on the floor of my space and I had to move them out. Seriously. Then they fought over who was going where and Taylor started tossing Holly's stuff out SO I gave Holly my big scrapping table and she had her own space. Thank goodness Annika was so nice and just wanted to be left alone on the floor :)



I gave hints and advice but mostly had to stay out of the whole discussion because I cant not interfere LOL!
They came up with their own creations on their own, and although it sometimes makes me shudder and it aint MY style LOL I have to say I am very proud of their intentions and the fun they have making their pages :):)) They are going to be awesome little scrappers!

Happy Easter Storm to us!!!

Yeah we are having a storm! We had So little snow this winter! And here it is, April 7/8, and we are having a storm! could be a foot of snow!! What is up with that?
I was trying to convince the kids that the Easter Bunny cannot come with all this snow but they reasoned that Santa would help him, and I considered that he was a snowshoe Hare and he could just hop over the snow.
So Happy Easter to Everyone! Enjoy your spring!

Sharing Bike Layouts

I got to Scrapping tonight :):):) Did 3 layouts on the Biking Adventures this week :):):)

Holly was scrapped with Ronnie's page sets, Rugged man, Flower Garden, and Peaches and Berries!
Annika was scrapped with Doris Castle's Gypsy Saree page set. Hilarious about her shoes :)
And Taylor was scrapped with my Little Comforts of Home page set at SBE :)

A Double Page

Again for the Treasures to Scrap contest, I did this 2 page spread for Taylor's Skate Carnival that was last week :)
Created with Kristen Cronin-Barrow's Page set from Scrapbook Your Own Website and Doris Castle's PhotoLifts.

Enchantment

Ive entered a contest with my Good friend Nancy Jones at Treasures To Scrap! We are the awesome Team TNT!!! We have a Challange and maybe a bonus each week and we are gathering points :)
I am the Digital Partner and I used Doris Castle's Enchantment kit from Scrapbook Graphics to make this layout of Holly. Spring is Sprung was the theme, using 3 flowers, spring colours, a title, at least one photo, and it has to be new :) So This layout resulted :):):):) I love this photo of Holly and I finally managed to scrap it :)

How Many List Members Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?

One to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.

Fourteen to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.

Seven to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.

Seven more to point out spelling/grammar errors in posts about changing light bulbs.

Five to flame the spell checkers.

Three to correct spelling/grammar flames.

Six to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb" ...

Another six to condemn those six as stupid.

Fifteen to claim experience in the lighting industry and give the correct spelling.

Nineteen to post that this group is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a lightbulb (or light bulb) forum.

Eleven to defend the posting to the group saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant to this group.

Thirty six to debate which method of changing light bulbs is superior, where to buy the best light bulbs, what brand of light bulbs work best for this technique and what brands are faulty.

Seven to post URLs where one can see examples of different light bulbs.

Four to post that the URLs were posted incorrectly and then post the corrected URL.

Three to post about links they found from the URLs that are relevant to this group which makes light bulbs relevant to this group.

Thirteen to link all posts to date, quote them in their entirety including all headers and signatures, and add "Me too"

Five to post to the group that they will no longer post because they cannot handle the light bulb controversy.

Four to say "didn't we go through this already a short time ago?"

Thirteen to say "do a Google search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs."

Three to tell a funny story about their cat and a light bulb.

AND

One group lurker to respond to the original post 6 months from now with something unrelated they found at snopes.com and start it all over again!

Playing with the Dogs

The dogs are almost as happy to be outside playing as the kids are! they might be more happy but they just cannot express it the same! Either way, it is nice to see them all out playing again!

Yesterday I was throwing the ball for the dogs. We have a Chuck-It which makes it much more fun for the dogs because the ball goes a really long way :) I apparently need 2 balls tho, because Dylan always beats Zoe to the ball. I bet he will attempt to get them both ;) MEN!!

Anyway Annika came out to play with us, and she wanted to thrown the ball for them. She cannot work it very well, and usually ends up slamming the ball about 5 feet in front of her! lol

So the dogs take off with the ball instead and have a nice little chase with it.
Annika tries to chase the dogs to get the ball, which makes the dogs ecstatic and doesnt thrill me because she's teaching them to take the ball and run away "sigh". So I convince her to run away from them and they will chase HER! LOL That works better but they still dont like to give Annika the ball. She tries to sneak in and steal it away from them.


Dogs are a little smarter than That LOL! They just pick up the ball and again she chases them. Never ending circle.


And they run and run and she chases and chases. There's lots of exercise getting gotten tho! LOL!


Annika gets the ball back...and there is triumph! She parades around with the dogs following, begging her to Throw it! PLEASE throw it! LOL Humans have prevailed in the land of Dog again.

She makes them suffer terribly! LOL She wont throw it again, because they will take it away. And she thinks it loads of fun for them to follow her around. Pied Piper anyone?

So in her quest to keep the ball, Annika taught little Zoe another bad habit (to join the dozen she has). She's learned to jump and snap at the ball. Mostly when it's in the chuck-It, but also when I had it in my hand. You can see in her eyes a single-mindedness, no matter what I am saying she's GOING to get that ball.



So Annika thought this was hilarious! She trotted around with the ball for at least 1/2 hour, letting Zoe leap and jump at it. Sometimes she got it out of the Chuck-It and ran off. Mostly Annika just let her follow.


She really gets some good height on those leaps! LOL!


Happy child, Tired dogs. It's about time!!!!!

Piano Lessons

Taylor's Piano lessons are going along really well! She still loves to practice and have her lessons, Im very happy about that!
She's finishing her second year (although started only last Spring so first full year) and hopefully next year she might be able to take part in the Music Festival :):):)

Saturday night Party

At Angela's house!!!! OH I love it when she plans something with us! She puts on the most wonderful classes!! LOL
I prepared some cards for the ladies to do but that's never all we do :):)

First we get there and get our drink in hand. I know exactly what the drink was because Angela gave us the recipe! It's a Rachel Ray's New Fav Drink, the Orange Jewel Martini YUM :):)
So with drink in hand we chat a little, looked at some Jewelry another lady had there for sale, and wait for all to arrive.



Then there is the "Opening Ceremonies". There's obviously no real opening Ceremony LOL but Angela's parties usually start with something that is Uplifting, Positive, thoughtful, and Inspiring. We all took turns reading a poem called Imagine a Woman. It is too too nice.

Then we did a little craft, with a vellum bag that Angela had prepared, we put ribbon and beads on to close the bag, then then we filled it with jelly beans, added some paper flowers to the top, and Tied it closed! TOO TOO cute, I love it!
LOL

We got a paint can each, with instuctions to freeze it with water, and then using a pattern, we are to punch through the can with a nail in the pattern. Then you paint the can black, put a candle inside, and Voila a lamp! LOL

We got some seeds for our can, and the reading, the recipes for the drink and a neat cheese ball/pear :) and a couple of neat Spring Recipes for a salad and a Strawberry Compote which Ive no idea what it is but it sounds YUMMMMY!


We made 2 cards in black and white for Birthday and something other, inspired by a card swap a friend was in :) they were awesome cards :):):)

But the real treat for me was spending an evening out with the girls :):) I havent really ever done enough of this, and I am so happy for this great group of ladies that get me out every once in awile to do something awesome and fun with THE GIRLS!!! :):):)

Bikes

Yeah I am going to replace Hockey and Skating with bikes now. Always bike photos ;):):)

The kids love their bikes. They are always looking to move up, but they love their bikes. No, they do not look after their bikes. But they love having them and riding them.

Scott also seems to like to collect bikes. LOL Last year he hurt Taylor's bike while attempting to force some pedals onto it. While waiting to fix this bike, he bought a new one from our Bike Enabler. We got Scott's bike from this friend before too. LOL So Taylor had 2 bikes. lol

Well Taylor's bike cannot be fixed. Apparently it's too cheap to get replacement parts for? That's the impression i got. We didnt tell Taylor, knowing she'd be sad. Besides, she already had another bike.

Then Brad comes up with another bike. This time, for me. I didnt mind my old bike, I kinda thought it was ok. But apparently I needed another, neat bike. And it is a nice bike. I dont mind it, it looks pretty cool. Lots of shocks and suspension and gears. lol So now I have a new bike.



Sure enough, yet another appeared. This new bike is a little bigger than the one Taylor started to use last year. It has shocks and stuff. And gears. LOL It's far too big for Holly, who was all too willing to give it a go.


Holly didnt take too long to get back to her own Holly-Sized bike. She's much happier being able to reach the ground!!

Taylor took up position on the new bike. It's brakes are so touchy she's quite sure she might go over the handle bars. I better convince her that back brakes are gooooood!

Annika wants her training wheels off. She's not really even close to being off them, but wants them off nonetheless. She was more concerned about her shoes looking silly than her bike. :):):)

So tyhen we wander along the road up and down, up and down. The road is a nice U shape and slow traffic is good.
We found Kariya and took her biking too :)

Blog Challenge #2 LIITD

"If I was given a once in a lifetime chance to do one thing over, it would be..."

OH there are so so so many things I would change if only I could!!!
lol And I realise that would change who I am now, but I would still change them. There are so many things that, no matter that they formed who I am now, did NOT make me a better person (no matter who thinks things happen for a reason and make us who we were meant to be)

Id turn the other way instead of meeting some of the people I did. Many people did not add anything positive to my life.

I'd make different important decisions. And I would decide what I wanted rather than what would have been best for so many other people around me.

I wouldnt have let others decide where my life was going. And I would have learned earlier where I wanted to go.

But of course the one thing I most want to change if I could, is I would have spent more time with my father when I could have. Even after I knew he was sick, I didnt honestly thing he would die and I didnt always take advantage of every minute I could have, because I was fairly convinced that there would be lots more time. I could not have known how little time there really was, but If I could do it over again, I would live that time like there really was not more time. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but why dont we take advantage of things when we can instead of always assuming there is going to be a tomorrow? Why Don't we live more like today is all we have and if we have a chance, get everything out of it we wanted to? I have too much to say left over. I have too much to ask. And I have too many hugs not given.

This is the thing I would choose to change, if I could only choose 1 thing.