Tag Archive | Wii

A Special Weekend… Apart

I love a good weekend and this weekend was a GOOD weekend. Although not the conventional way to celebrate a VERY special day… as of Satutrday June 16th Ken and I have been married for 11 years! Good and bad, thick and thin we have been together and I am so glad that we have decades more to look forward to! With my pet sitting vacation set up to start on the 16th we decided to celebrate more properly AFTER I get back. Instead, we simplified each of our lives by dividing up the child care. Trinity and Echo headed into the big city with Kathy and myself around lunch time and Ken and the boys remained at Grandma’s with plans of their own. 

We had a car full of stuff to bring with us including a playpen, stroller and the necessary carseats. I am always amazed at how much I need to take when visiting people who are not accustomed to babies and small children. Thank goodness for the 1.50 booster I picked up during JayWalkers at mom’s store. 

Boosted baby

Of course we had a few stops along the way… Mac’s on the way out of town (of course… company loyalty and all that for Kathy), and then a bathroom stop at the next city. THEN lunch! A late lunch but a YUMMY one! With all the Gasoline Alley had to offer we chose a family favourite – KFC! We had popcorn chicken and fries and gravy… and another potty break.

Lunch

After that it was on to Kathy’s and the kitties… settling in took little or no time, once we got everything out of the car and in the door. Mom’s playpen is smaller than ours so takes up less room in the spare room which is awesome. Thankfully Echo is tiny so really does not need much space to begin with. Once everything was safely stowed and kids refreshed it was grocery store time. Not the best trip as both girls were cranky but necessary. We picked up all sorts of fun foods all given the Trinity stamp of approval. This week is going to be a Trinity friendly meal week. She has not been eating much lately and I am thinking that is partially due to the creative meals mom has been making us. She is just in need of old familiars. So we are definitely obliging. 

Thus she was eating Kraft Dinner at like 9pm that night but she was EATING! 

Sunday morning Echo once again reminded me of how much she LOVES early mornings… 4:30, 5:30 AND finally 6:30 when we got up. Thank goodness we had no concrete plans… Ken and the boys on the other hand had FOUR viewings to go to back where we used to live and all this on… FATHER’S DAY! I did my part by having Trinity send her Daddy flowers online (yay app), messaging my dad through my stepmom on Facebook (I do not have US long distance available right now sadly), and making sure that the Father’s Day books the kids made at the library were given to Mike and Ken. 

After breakfast, kitty time, washing laundry, changing Echo MULTIPLE times and sorting through what we wanted to do for the day (not much thank you)… it was time to head to IKEA! Ohhh it has been an age since we have been! But first Trinity and Kathy decided to take advantage of the lovely morning weather (good plan as it did NOT last the whole day) and go out front and plant some flowers. 

Out in the sunshine

This coincided nicely with a bath for me and a nap for the early bird… then after we got motivated and into the car it was time to head to IKEA. Kathy needed plastic dishes and stools for Trinity. I love love love IKEA stools. They are the perfect bathroom height. And of course to check out the food section. 

Then it was time for Sobeys and picking up the groceries we missed on our tired walk through Superstore the night before. Trinity got her own tiny cart of which she was VERY proud! 

A Trinity sized cart

After cookie club and check out it was a mad dash out to the car as the weather decidedly turned against us. So of course, a drive through Starbucks was required and Trinity got her first fancy drink from there! Strawberries and cream milkshake thing… was she ever proud! And for supper we HAD TO introduce Kathy to the world of pita pizzas… she is another convert! We even had PINEAPPLE! What is there to do after supper but a bath for Trinity and some medication (she has a nasty bug bite under her chin I noticed on Saturday and it is taking FOREVER even with the Benedryl to go down) and then bed for her with Echo following around an hour later. 

The first I noticed it... it is smaller now and not as red

That left two adults up with free time… what better to do with it than play a Wii boardgame style game?? Seriously! Add in more cherry pie (we had that the night before), white chocolate Magnum bars and Pepsi and we had a blast. The kitties supervised of course. 

Neko

Ghostly Ozo

This is actually pie from Saturday with white chocolate ice cream but you get the idea

I have to admit, not having all the boys to chase and the house to tidy and the extra people in general to deal with was marvelous. I spent some time searching the elusive rental, enjoying time with a good friend, playing with my girls and generally being more… ME! A much needed respite even though I am missing Ken a lot… I am sure he is finding life a little more relaxing without his womenfolks! 

Girls together

Ozo looking gorgeous

Happy Mother’s Day

And what a Mother’s Day I have had! We started off with an early morning getting everyone into their church clothes for Sunday School at our church. There was some grumbling and my first thing in the morning picture was a flop as Trinity was rather sure we would never get to what SHE wanted to do – get a princess skipping rope. But we all cleaned up nice. 

We actually misjudged how long it takes to get to the city from Chris and Chris’. So we were a little early… that meant we had time for a Tim Hortons stop off… special coffee for Mommy and Daddy. And then onto the church. Trinity was a little reticent about going to class but in the end they all went. The church is VERY excited about the 3rd of June when they plan to present all the costumes mom has made for them. Actually… there are TWO more bags waiting at mom’s as well! I will have to bring those the Sunday before as we are planning an extended visit at mom’s anyway to watch the house and dog. 

Just the girls! Echo's dress was a recent gift from my mom, Trinity's a gift from my step mom and sister back when she was baptized as a baby!

Anyway, after Sunday School we took ANOTHER set of pictures on the lawn as best we could and then it was time to coordinate with Karyn. Ken’s sneakers have been on the way out for ages now so we added in a visit to the mall for some shoe shopping. The kids were bored out of their minds and of course I had to nag a little to make sure it was like ALL our shopping trips when Ken is involved (he is VERY picky and a VERY slow shopper) but I think it was fun! We ended up finding a lovely pair ON SALE so it was all good. 

The best one of ALL my kids together

Just the big ones

A cute one of Echo (I made her the headband for another dress)

Karyn took Zander and we split up at that point. The rest of us changed out of our church clothes (except Ken who apparently missed that memo) and headed to the grocery store to get our picnic. A pre-cooked whole chicken to start, Emanuel picked out orange no name pop (actually REALLY good), some random unusual chips, water and some lemongrass pepper seasoning. With Karyn’s chocolate cupcakes we had a fine meal. 

Echo and the water cup she dumped all over herself

Gavin and Zander

After meal it was playground time. Zander informed me that he made some great friends and everyone had fun. 

Gavin on a slide

We let Echo down for a little bit but she had thrown off her sandals in the van and the ground was getting hot! 

At ground level

This was a good indication that it was time to leave for Karyn’s house. Ken needed to check email (viewings got postponed to tomorrow due to wives saying uhhhh do you KNOW what day it is today???) and have a nap (poor man got too much sun in his Sunday best). In the mean time Echo tore apart some paper (nothing super important), some bubbles were blown and the Wii was played! A good break in a cool apartment. 

Wii

After that break it was time to head back to Chris and Chris’… I think we did an admirable job of tiring out the children! Baths and bed after a light supper worked out just fine. Oh, I forgot to mention, yesterday we moved Trinity into the booster seat and Echo into Trinity’s BIG GIRL seat! Talk about exciting! 

Big girl!!

End the night with a fire out back for the adults and it has been a grand Mother’s Day.

Fire

And tomorrow I get my haircut AND get to go iPad cover shopping (my gift from my family). YAY! 

I still have a bit of a shock at times when I realize I am the mother of 5! How blessed am I???

And So We Make it to the Mid Week Point

Mid week already and the Valentine’s Day/Birthday fun continues. I got to sleep in this morning as Ken had hooked the Wii up and put the kids’ new drawing game on. It is basically a tablet and they loved it! As I was asleep during the play time I am not exactly sure what all there is to do but I do know that everyone had something they COULD do!

We have continued our Inuit learning. Today it was hunting and Inuksuks. I have been alternating with them writing things down and myself. That way we are focusing on the content and not so much the frustration of having to print letters and words. We keep finding more and more interesting things about this group of peoples!!!

We spent a nice chunk of time with our workbooks and with Sean here for a visit Ken and I were able to leave everyone (Echo was sleeping) at home and do some very necessary grocery shopping. I am on the look out constantly to find ways to cut corners with food. The kids have HUGE appetites and our wallet is far from full enough to indulge all their fancies. I think my best find to date was the breadmaker. Our first was Ken’s mother’s and when we used it until it broke I found another on Kijiji for a steal. Add to that recipes like my mom’s brown beans that we converted to a slow cooker recipe and really ANY slow cooker recipe and we are able to stretch things further. I would love to hear more ideas from people! We use a lot of rice, potatoes and noodles as well. Anything to decrease the amount of meat as the main. Any advice? Supper tonight was helped along with the lovely piece of moose sent home from Grandma’s! Having a step-father who is a registered native american is lovely… he gets to hunt for personal use and as we are a part of his family… well we are VERY appreciative!

Workbooks in the sunshine

And some Magic School Bus

I have to share another Valentine’s themed worksheet the twins did today – this onehas the boys write something lovely or nice for family. Each of the hearts has a slightly different saying to finish. I had the boys each do one for each other and then they either did an Emanuel or a Trinity. I think it is important to get them to focus on  good things about their siblings! Sometimes I think we ALL need a reminder to look for the GOOD in people.  

Finished hearts

Oh don’t forget about the maze Emanuel did this morning. He loves a good maze. Of course what was REALLY wonderful was the picture he drew on the back of the sheet. I think the maze will be sacrificed to paste the picture into our Inuit lapbook. I love spontaneous creativity. 

Emanuel and his Inukshuk

I have been creating my own little parliament of Valentine themed owls (a little later for the special day I know). I figure I will put a few up on Facebook and then the rest will be gifted through the year. 

Owls

So I am still debating other presents… and my weekend goal is to get that extra page up here on my blog for ideas and suggestions. I do so like to work ahead! I do need to get a nice variety of owls sitting on my shelves for when the need comes! 

I have to admit, I have been feeling a tinge of green-ness about the eyes lately… metaphorically speaking. It seems like that feeling is  a slightly familiar one when it comes to gift giving events and holidays. Those visual and material signs of affection, approval and generosity are lovely to receive but when not possible to do so (or give for that matter), are hard to watch. Now don’t get me wrong, we have what we need… some of what we want and are truly blessed here in our little home BUT (oh is there always going to be a but?) there are those unrealistic wishes that create the discontent. I have been spending some time, these past weeks… well since Christmas really… trying to reassess in my mind what IS important, what things, trips, events, etc are necessary to myself and my family’s true happiness. I am one of  two adults in this home and my expectations cannot be the same as my children who do NOT understand the realities… we do not NEED every new thing, or even every OLD thing… we do not have to compete/compare with the rest of the world. What we DO need is happiness in our hearts. We can share that and our love abundantly and really, I think the world does not gift that enough. Do I WANT a new toy or two, yes, but what I NEED to stability, my husband, my kids, my family and friends… I need to be aware of the fact that what I create is as special as something much more expensive when I find the right recipient. I may not be able to buy the kids the newest toys BUT when Emanuel asks for an owl, well I can make that… teach Gavin a new stitch, create hair things for our Trinity or simply play a game with Zander. Someday we will be in a position to do and give more, I hope that at that time I still remember the priceless lessons and the sweet gifts I have received that have not been costly now! 

But enough of that… Valentine’s week continues and with it desert with Ken and time to myself to create… maybe TOMORROW I will get my time with my brush and ink to practice my characters???? 

Cuties!

This entry was posted on 16/02/2012, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment