This past week

Monday - grocery shopping - exciting stuff!!  Tuesday - met with two of my Orangeville friends for our little scripture group.  We had an uplifting and fun chat.

Wednesday!  Michelle, Marisol and Amelie were unable to attend Kate's party on the weekend.  We agreed that we would celebrate Kate's birthday afterwards like we had celebrated Marisol's in November!  We went to the McDonald's play place in Bolton again and we had a grand time.  We ate lunch, the girls played, Kate was given a Princess and the Pea game (which we played when we got home and is a great little game!) and we had oreo cookie blizzards for dessert!  Not long before we were leaving Michelle told me some exciting news.  There are now ballet classes at the Tottenham Community centre!  When we got home from McDonald's I registered the girls.  Tomorrow is their first class!  SO EXCITING!

Thursday is now going to be BALLET DAY!  Seeing as we had only registered yesterday we didn't have much time to come up with the outfits... Michelle had been able to purchase clothing for Amelie at the Walmart in Alliston and so today Ken, Alice, Fiona and I made a trip up.  Unfortunately they only had tights, no shoes and no leotards to be found.  Alice of course didn't care but Kate... ugh.  All day Alice kept asking about her class.  She was excited all day.  She wore pink tights, a pink bathing suit and her pink slippers to class and was as happy as a lark.  The class was quite hysterical.  The two and three year olds were all over the place.  The teacher seems great though, so I'm very happy.

Kate.  When we picked up Kate from school and she asked about her ballet clothes she was very, very upset.  I was the worst Mom in the world and she kept going on and on and on.  Talk about ungrateful.  I tried to reason with her but eventually I had to threaten to not take her to class at all if she didn't stop complaining and insulting.  We were able to put together a pink shirt, pink skort, pink tights and her Dora ballet slippers.  It worked, for the moment. 

Kate's class was a closed class so we weren't able to watch.  Michelle told me that she has some clothing that we can borrow.  Next week I will take pics.  And probably video of Alice's class!  One more thing, Alice was very sad after her class was done.  She wanted to keep going.  She loved her class very much.  Oh and someday Kate will understand what being grateful is all about... I will keep teaching her and one day she'll get it!

Friday... nice quiet day at home.  Only thing to report was that for the third day in a row (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Kate didn't go to school Wednesday) Alice was a total mess picking up Kate.  I suppose Thursday it was Kate too - complaining loudly about her lack of ballet costume... but three days in a row of hysteria.  She calmed down faster today but still.  Ken was here to witness the ugliness today.  Alice cried and screamed the whole way there and the whole way home.  Today she thrashed and thrashed and I could barely keep her on the stroller.  One of the high school students that I frequently pass on the way to get Kate stopped and asked if I needed assistance.  I asked him if he had a cure for being two.  He said "being three?"  It was quite funny.  I'm really hoping that Monday will be a happy pick up!

Saturday!!!
SONIA!  Where to start.  Sone and I met at a YSA conference in Brampton in the fall of 1999.  She sang and I introduced myself.  I had actually met her before that.  My friend Brennan who moved to Ottawa came to billet at my parent's house in Thornhill and brought a car load from Ottawa.  Sone was in that car load.  Well she had now moved to Toronto.  We became friends quickly and easily.  We even lived together in Cabbagetown from June 2001-September 2001.  After we lived together she moved in with a bunch of girls in a house on Spadina.  It was while she was living in that house that she became friends with Ken.  I then also became friends with Ken. 

I spent a good deal of time with Sonia after coming home from university.  She was and still is a very important friend to me.  When she and Ben first married they were living in Toronto while Ben finished his undergrad.  Then Ben decided on graduate work in Ottawa, and off they went.  I don't even know how long ago that was now.  Sone and Ben have two boys, Moses, born the same year as Kate, and Knox, born the same year as Alice.  The last time that I saw Sone our first born babies looked like this... 

August 1, 2009.  Moses was not quite 3 months and Kate was a grabby handed almost 7 month old.  Moses did not think much of Kate.  Kate wanted to eat Moses.

 

(Oh and Sone, here's the picture of you in my house March 9th - Ben holding a sleeping two month old Kate.)

I can't honestly believe that we hadn't seen each other for four and a half years.  That is too long, but that is life sometimes isn't it?  Sonia and Ben and the boys came down this weekend to stay with Ben's brother, his wife and their boys in Pickering.  We were able to come be part of their family weekend and we had a great time.  It is always so wonderful to see an old friend.  To pick up just like you had seen them yesterday.  I'm not exactly sure what our kids thought of each other.  They kind of played around each other, but not really with each other.  Regardless of the kids, I had a wonderful visit with a wonderful friend.  And we adults all played a fun game that I cannot remember the name of.  (Must remember to ask, it was a great game!  And I'm not just saying that because I won!)

And now it is almost dinner time on Sunday.  It's been a peaceful relaxing Sunday afternoon.  I love going to church in the morning and driving less than 30 minutes to church!  YAY!  Life is good.  I'm looking forward to this week and celebrating the birthday of my love!

OH and I almost forgot!  TOILET TRAINING!  Alice is on the road.  Well, near the road in the Alice way that Alice does what Alice wants when Alice wants to.  She's been mostly peeing in the potty all week - mostly.  After two days of wearing underwear and peeing in various locations around the house, Alice decided that she would rather wear pullups and she's really done quite well.  With reminding and a hershey kiss she will pee on the potty.  So far we've had five days of only peeing in the potty (out of ten) and no accidents. Three of the days she peed in the pullup once and the rest of the time in the potty, two of the days... don't ask!   Like Kate it will take a while for number two to be sorted out.  She has plainly told me that she doesn't know how and she goes to her "hallway that I poo in".   

I really do love my life.  Life is more than good, it's great.  I love being a Mom and a wife.

The Pirate Party

It is done... normal life can now resume!

The cake.  I could do an entire post just about the cake.  My Mom's friend Maurie messaged me a month ago asking when the girls birthdays were so she could make cakes for them.  She sent pictures of ideas for a pirate cake.  Kate picked the pink pirate ship.  We picked up the cake last night at my Mom's.  It looked amazing.  Absolutely amazing.  I think we were all in awe of the cake.  At its tallest point it was four layers of cake.  It was wrapped in pink fondant.  She bought Play Mobile pirate people to go on top.  Happy Birthday was written on top of the ship, 5 on the front and Kate on the back.  Eating the cake was just as awesome as looking at it.  It tasted so good.  SO GOOD! (Thank you to Maurie for the awesome cake and to Grandma/Mom for paying for it!)

The party was to be from 11 - 1pm.  This was the first year that Kate invited her own friends, eleven kids were invited, eight kids were able to come.  Four school friends - Abby, Gwyneth, Natalie, Madison, and four "Mommy" friends, Darby, Ava, Cooper, Ciaran.  Originally the plan was for Ken to dress up like Red Beard the pirate.  We would have pirate competitions to win clues to solve a riddle, and then Red Beard would give up his treasure map.  The treasure being the candy filled pinata.  This first hitch, Ken wouldn't/didn't dress up.  He wanted to sit and chat.  We had both been going all morning (not to mention the night before) getting things ready and well, there is this thing called fatigue.

The kids began arriving right at 11.  They started playing in the basement.  They were up and down and up and down and they were all happy and I almost didn't want to bother them.  We then did a modified version of things.  We did the party poppers (aka Christmas crackers) and then I gave Kate the clues to read.  She guessed that the treasure was in the crawl space, which earned her the map.  Then the kids worked on smashing the pinata.  The smashed away for quite a while.  It is always so amusing to watch the smashing.  Some kids lightly tap the pinata while other kids hit it for all they're worth.  The fun is, you never know which kids are the biggest smashers! The biggest smashers were Ciaran, Darby, Gwyn and Cooper.

After the pinata was smashed the kids ate pizza, and then THE CAKE!  

Then the school friends left. And darn it, I forgot to take a couch picture of everyone.  I made these silly pirate hats and I bought moustaches.  The moustaches and hats got forgotten about.  I did remember them eventually - the hats that is, and after the school friends left, and during the chaotic present opening, we took a group shot on the couch.  (Well several group shots! I took these pics, but my sweet friend Ruth took most of the pics during the party - THANK YOU RUTH!)

Then one by one the "Mommy" friends left. 

Parties are crazy.  I have been stressing and planning this thing all week.  I'm feeling like maybe I over plan.  Maybe.  I'm not sure what I'm thinking totally because I'm tired. 

I think I'm feeling a little bit of post-party-let-down. I'm trying to put my finger on what that is exactly.  Is it because we were all cranky tonight?  Is it because Kate seemed greedy and ungrateful, even though she wasn't earlier?  Is it because there is so much stuff in our house it feels kind of gross to add more?  I feel like I want parties to be something different as my children get older.  Service and gratitude... how can you have a fun party and incorporate service and gratitude?  Oh and being nice to your sister.  Kate was not very nice to poor little Alice today.  Alice had a little bit of a hard time with it being Kate's party and Kate was not very forgiving.  Always things to learn I suppose, that is what we are here to do, learn! 

(Okay, I hit post thinking that I remembered all the things I wanted to, but I didn't!  I wanted to remember that Fiona slept through almost the entire party.  That Kate was supposed to be dressed up like Izzy from Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  I made her a kerchief and a little pouch which she was wearing at the beginning of the party, but took off and somehow I never did get a picture of her.  AND most important of all, even though we were stressed and at times crazy, we really did have a great time with all our friends!  I do love birthdays and parties!)