What a weekend! And I seem to remember saying this weekend would be a QUIET one, NOT!

So Friday night was not bad, Saturday morning we took the whole family out to the free craft session at Michaels. They used a new Crayola product – a sort of clay type thing called Model Magic. They simply softened it up and then pressed their hands in to make a handprint. I loved the way they turned out and am planning on picking up a container of the stuff to use to make prints of Echo to give to a few people for Christmas. Lightweight and nice and durable I definitely think it will make a nice treasure.

Crafting (Gavin blue)

After our craft we ran out and about shopping… Dollarama, Bulk Barn. Which I must say is THE PLACE for spices! Add to that a 3.00 off if you spend 10.00 coupon and we were sitting pretty with treats to boot. I think we will head back soon enough to get more. They have cake and cookie and brownie mixes that I have Christmas present plans for… potentially!

After a nice nap (for Echo and myself and I think Emanuel and Trinity) the big excitement arrived – after over a year AUNTY ESTHER was on our doorstep, as fabulous as ever!

Fabulous Aunty Esther

She was in Grenada for a year to get her masters and we missed her dearly. The boys remembered her and Trinity warmed to her before too long, but it was Miss Echo who stole her heart this visit with her willingness to snuggle in for a nice cuddle and her tiny little frame. Ken and I were just so glad to see her in the flesh and have the chance to really catch up. She stayed the night and left late this afternoon so all in all it was a terrific visit.

All 5 Kids (Gavin left)

We sit and wait now – to see if she gets a job here in the city we live in or elsewhere. No matter what, having her back in Alberta means we are able to see her much more often. Something all 7 of us (I am sure) are VERY thankful for. Emanuel was quite sure Aunty Esther didn’t NEED to leave… after all how could she WANT to?

While Esther was still here we had Yoyo, Jon and Yoyo’s mom come by for a visit to meet baby Echo. Then Yoyo’s mom and Jon took the boys (all 3 of them!) out to the grocery store to get snacks! So kind of her. Which let me get in a little bit quieter visit with Yoyo. Apparently her mom is staying longer than originally planned – until October, so I am sure we will get in a couple more visits! The kids do love it when people come by.

Yoyo's Mom

Yoyo and Jon and Echo

As Esther was preparing to leave Nathan and Ada arrived with Baby Anna. So we got in a nice long visit with them too. Anna is almost 3 months old now! And certainly makes Echo look tiny! We are still keeping fingers crossed that the weather will warm up one last time so we can go out for a picnic with them. Last year the weather held into September, but this year… who knows!

GodMommy Ada and Echo

So TONS of visitors this weekend, and activity… this upcoming week looks much less hectic so far. We are still trying to get in that first paediatrician appointment for Echo, and Ken has a laundry list of beginning of the week calls to make (nothing new there). I am still rather surprised that the end of the month is here! Where did the time go? Ken and I are working on making up the basic bodies of some felt puppets for the kids to decorate tomorrow using a template, and I have the last of our gardening stuff to wrap up and the lapbooks to assemble… the forms are basically ready for faxing for our board registration tomorrow and life is certainly moving on at a fair clip! I am hoping I can sneak in some time to bring up my pre pregnancy clothes, sort through the baby girl box for anything newborn (still too big for Echo) AND get a bit of the downstairs cleaned… my brother and his family are supposed to be coming by beginning of September for a visit after all.

And don’t forget photos of baby… definitely want to take more of those! Oh for more hours in a day!

Two of my girls 🙂

I have hit the point of non-restful nights it seems. The joys of the last months of pregnancy! In fact, we are getting down to WEEKS now… I am at 35+ weeks as I type and that is definitely nearing the end. Which means time to rush rush rush and get ready for baby! This upcoming week’s goal – moving MOST of the twins’ stuff into the basement spare room. A move I am a wee bit nervous about. This puts them way out of reach in the far corner of the basement, where to get upstairs they have to walk through the laundry room (not really a finished room) and have access to the basement washroom (unfinished floor – gotta do something about that at least temporarily). Beyond all that — they can get to the playroom EASILY! It is going to be interesting.

Our weekend has been somewhat productive and absolutely NOT as busy as the previous few have been (thank goodness). We started Saturday with rushing Ken off to the bottle depot to take in the mountain of bottles, cans and milk containers in the garage (spending cash). Once back successfully from his mission we headed off to Grandma’s. Top of the to-do list there… SPLASH PARK!

This was the splash park we went to when the boys were tiny and Emanuel a baby, but the first time Trinity has ever been and Emanuel gone when he could actually play. It turns out Emanuel is not hugely fond of the spray portion of the park but LOVES the water feature. Trinity is much more adventurous than Emanuel when it comes to water.

Walking to the splash park (Gavin red hat)

Emanuel playing with his bucket of water

The water table

Intrepid splasher

After the splash park Ken and I dropped off the kids with mom long enough to run errands. I officially have my wet diaper container for the diaper bag and the liners for the diapers. Now all I am waiting on is the large diaper bag for in the diaper pail… then we are officially ready to cloth diaper! We made a stop at Superstore to get new rubberboots for Emanuel and photos for my project for our nephew. I snuck in some new shoes for Trinity (on super sale for under 2.00) and we picked up some parboil rice which is on my approved list for foods. My late lunch was a treat – chicken quesadilla and a medium KFC coleslaw (the only food at that restaurant I was rather sure was “safe”).

We spent our afternoon at mom’s hanging out and resting – poor Trinity passed out with my mom on the couch!

Fast asleep

And then for supper – BBQ by Mike… some of the most delicious steaks I have had in ages along with veggies, coleslaw and biscuits for everyone but me. Some more play time, Ken working on a virus on the computer there and then home for the night. Grandma had one last special treat – new slippers! Some Olympic ones came into her store in all the right sizes!!

Trinity in her new slippers

I got a nice bit of scrapbooking done as well! The Cricut bug has bitten me hardcore I am afraid!

First page of our mountain trip

Page 2

Trinity pulling her own wagon at the Pets in the Park

Sunday was a basically unplanned day… BUT we managed a trip to IKEA to get a shelving unit on sale (which of course meant DINNER there too!)… we cannot get enough storage in this place!

New shelf!

AND visitors! Yoyo and Jon (who you will remember from the wedding Trinity was a flowergirl in) and Yoyo’s mom (who is here until end of September from China, her dad had to head back this month) came over for an afternoon visit.

One of their professional photographer pictures... I have to say I think they are one of the best looking bride and groom duos I have seen in my life.

Bearing a gift for the baby – a humidifier shaped like a frog (total cuteness and off of our registry) and SNACKS! Chinese snacks, things like rice cookies wrapped in seaweed… dried mango and sweets… oh and almond crackers which were Trinity’s favourite! Language is no barrier between Yoyo’s lovely mom and our kids. We are hoping to visit with all 3 again before she returns to China in September.

Yoyo's Mom with Trinity

So a rather restive day if you don’t add in the interrupted night (just couldn’t sleep) or the fact that I couldn’t sort myself out for a nice nap. BUT we had fun and tomorrow is an uncomplicated day – Ken will get work done, we will start putting together the camping lapbooks (the peas are not grown enough to finish off the last of the gardening book) and continue our prep work for moving the twins to the basement. My hope is that the weather will play nice so we can head out to a nearby splash park and enjoy a bit more of the summer. After all sun means my raspberries will continue ripening!!

4 of the best things in my life! (Zander left)

And what a busy 4 days it has been!! Starting with my doctor’s appointment on Wednesday, Thursday’s being my Birthday, Friday’s last minute shopping, Saturday’s wedding and ending with Sunday’s double feature of Pets in the Park followed by Isabella’s birthday party we have been on the go pretty much constantly!

The doctor’s appointment was not the best of this pregnancy for sure… to start with my ultra sound results were NOT there so we couldn’t even discuss that. Then, the glucose retest… FAIL with 10 at the one hour and 11 at the second. Not hugely high numbers but coupled with my continued weight loss (another 2 lbs for a total of 4… which, for those keeping track has me at 125.4 lbs now… a mere 8lbs from my start weight) I am officially a medical anomaly. With my low weight etc etc I should NOT be diabetic but the test says I am. So the doctor has given me strict instructions NOT to follow the diabetic diet – NOT to cut carbs but to remove all those excess sugars and eat more than the portion control says and bulk back up. What this means is that instead of managing my condition with the normal diet I am to just do the metering (which luckily Mike has a spare meter, strips, etc) and watch for the need to use insulin. JOY. My bloodpressure was a little low but the baby’s heart rate was a steady 140. So at least BABY is doing well. My next appointment is in 2 weeks and my 3 hour diabetic class is on the 2nd (yay?).

So there was some necessary pouting of course… and a bit of crying… and now I deal.

With Thursday being my birthday we spent it with a bit of shopping and a lot of family time.

31 years old and proud of it! (Gavin left)

My 3 little boys (Zander left)

Miss Trinity

I even got a scrapbook page done for Trinity’s book!

Meeting Baby Anna

Friday we had to run to The Mall… I got myself a shirt for our family photos, and picked up my birthday gift for being a card holder at Sephora.

Sephora booty!

I also went out to one of my favourite speciality grocery stores and got myself some red pepper dip (mm). With whole wheat pitas… very healthy!

Friday night was Yoyo and Jon’s rehearsal… Since only Trinity was involved (flowergirl), she and Ken went to the hotel to do that and the boys and I stayed home. There wasn’t much of a rehearsal BUT Yoyo’s mom was happy to see Trinity… she gave her chocolates! And apparently Trinity made a bunch of friends with the bridesmaids, groomsmen and anyone else she met. Ken and Trinity stayed late to get used to the people AND to help decorate which meant Trinity ALSO got to play with balloons! Talk about a happy little girl.

Yoyo and Trinity

Saturday was the Wu/Mah wedding… Trinity was a BIT reluctant at first to put on the dress but once we got it on and her settled she refused to take it off, even towards the end of the evening when she was VERY warm and worn out the dress HAD TO stay on!

Coming to grips with the dress

These need to be edited due to a red mark on her face but they are cute!

Close up unedited

With her flowers

And again

I took a few pictures in my special “fancy dress” – the same one I wore for my cousin’s wedding back in May. I think it looks different with the larger belly but definitely still pretty!

32 Weeks

We got to the venue early (upon request) for a more formal run through… so around 4, Ted in tow. Trinity took full advantage of this time to run around and make more new friends.

Uncle Ted

The tables were beautiful… the centrepiece was actually little boxes shaped like slices of cake each with a selection of chocolates. There were also little individual favour boxes with little cell phone charms in them ( of different food items from China). Trinity ended up with basically everyone’s at the table and proceeded to play with them. (oh and don’t forget the packages of gum… what a sweet gesture)

Our table

The centrepiece

The wedding was relatively simple… a procession, a Chinese sand tradition, a saying of their vows (very sweet) and a duet song and played on the piano by the bride and groom. Trinity rode with daddy since they started late (close to 7).

Not part of the procession but before the wedding started they were sweet enough to stand still so I could take a picture!

In following tradition there were party games… including a session of musical chairs with the kids (I think it was supposed to be a more adult version but the kids heard MUSICAL CHAIRS and leapt for it,). The bride had a couple of dress changes – from her beautiful wedding gown to a lovely purple formal gown and then again into a beautiful fuchsia outfit. Yoyo was an absolutely GORGEOUS bride and Jon a handsome groom. Ken and I were so honoured and proud to have our daughter asked to be part of this occasion!

One of the amazing portraits they had done in China

Stopping by as they did their toasts at each table... You cna't see it but she is in the lovely purple creation. Taking a moment to say hi to the flowergirl!

The meal which went on before the party games was absolutely AMAZING. Starting with a squash soup (which I had to take a picture of)… then a spinach and watercress salad… the main course was AAA Alberta beef cooked to perfection. They were well prepared for Trinity with cheese and crackers and then chicken fingers and fries.

Amazing soup

Don’t forget the desert – cheesecake with a little chocolate cake for Miss Trinity (who was not at all interested having gone back to her new toys). A huge piece, I only ate HALF of mine – to be responsible of course!

The two deserts

They had another cake – a Chinese kind I think, that was their wedding cake – 5 tiers… I didn’t try any but we did get pictures!

Cutting the cake (that is the 3rd dress!)

Oh and don’t forget our favourite image from an underwater shoot they got asked to do by their photographer. AMAZING!

The amazing water shoot!

Trinity even made a new friend with another little girl… playing with balloons of course!

Playing with a new friend

We were there VERY late – after 11pm! Thankfully (He)Chris was able to stay so late and watch after the boys who were treated to a night of Wii games, hotdogs and other fun guy stuff. THANK YOU SO MUCH CHRIS!!!

We sat with Xinny and Alan, Xinny's parents, Sean and Ted

So after a looong but terrific evening we had an early morning with Grandma and Mike and Harley and Pets in the Park. Harley was basically well behaved and the kids listened well enough that the morning was actually quiet fun! Though HOT! We even got a change to pet a kitten – in the SPCA’s adoption centre.

Walking to the venue (Zander left)

Enjoying the sun

Grandma and Ice Cream

Kitten!

We came home from that for an hour to cool down and regroup and then head BACK OUT to the den Otter home and Isabella’s 5th birthday party. The perfect weather for splashing in the pool in the backyard for the kids and sitting in the shade on the deck for the adults!

Trinity in the tiny pool

Slip and Slide (Gavin)

It is hard to believe our god-daughter is really 5yrs old! Where has the time gone?

Isabella

So tonight we are surrounded by exhausted and over stimulated children but the weekend was certainly a success. The plan for this upcoming week is no less daunting. Monday the twins have their yearly doctor’s appointment, Monday night the plan is to have all the boys and Ken camp out in the backyard… Tuesday we have to get our camping stuff done for the lapbooks, Wednesday is a library program and it looks like my dad visiting overnight! Thursday is Canada Day so we will spend most of the day with my dad and then head to my mom’s for dinner and maybe fireworks with Friday being my 3 hour diabetic class at 8:15 in the morning (and they want us to eat breakfast before we get there!!). Yikes!

OH and before I forget… now that we have given the bridal party their gift! The stitch!!

THE gift!