Another Dad, Another Birthday

I think that it is funny that my Dad's birthday is the day before Ken's Dad's birthday!  They are seven years apart, but that's neither here nor there!  Ken's parents are actually in town this week and so we had an "almost everyone in the McCartney Family" birthday party for Ken Sr. at Maureen's.  It was a fun night enjoying family.  I so enjoy the girls enjoying their cousins.  We had pizza and treats and cake and fun.  It was just a fun night.  Funniest moment of the evening though was the singing of Happy Birthday.  Many candles were lit and placed on the cake and then because of this Ken was given instructions not to spit all over the cake while blowing out his candles... this led to the unorthodox, blowing out of the candles before the song was done.  I've never seen this before, and I think we were all thrown off by this.  No one clapped.  We all just laughed.  HA!

Oh but wait, I forgot... the funniest, most awkward part of the night was right before we left when Kate was asking everyone to have a naked party.  She doesn't get silly at bed time... nope not her!  She asked the newly engaged couple to take their shirts off and run around with her.  Yup, not awkward at all!  And of course the more we told her to stop, the sillier she got!  She did eventually get changed into her pjs and we did leave, without having a naked party!

 

My Dream Job?

What is my dream job?  Staying at home with my kids full time forever.  But they don't stay kids forever.  And there's this thing called money.  Money.  Yuck.  And this thing where I feel like I do good things, I'm a positive force for good in the lives of young people.  My three little people being the most important young people.  But.

I'm freaking out right now.  I looked at the Vacancy List tonight, just for fun.  And there on the screen, a half time position, music/prep coverage in Kettleby.  Kettleby is one of the closest YRDSB schools to us in Tottenham.  It would take twenty minutes to get there.  And it's a little school.  I loved teaching in King and I've always wanted to go back to a little school.

In part there is no reason to freak out because there are just too many what ifs.  What if I'm not the right fit for the school?  What if I don't like it?  What if they've already hired someone else?  Not to mention that as of right now I'm approved for an infant care leave - a leave which will keep me out of school until May 2015.

This past week I've been thinking about what do I want to do.  Do I want to work part time in the classroom, or do I want to build my own piano studio? 

You know in movies when the movie star is faced with this difficult decision and their guardian angel comes and shows them all of the alternate realities?  I want someone to come and show me the future.  I want someone to tell me what to do.  Sadly, I know this won't happen.  I need to go to bed.  Perhaps my dreams will tell me the answer?

Dad's 74th Birthday

First were the presents.  I brought Suzanne's present - butter tarts, coke zero and chicken pot pie.  Dad loves food.  He said "forget Weight Watchers this week!" with a huge smile on his face!

Kate was so excited to give him our cards.  Dad loves cards with pictures of the girls, and I love making cards with pictures of the girls!  WIN!  I should also say, that Dad loved the picture of him and Suzanne that she put on the front of her card.  So cute - it was of her and Dad on Centre Island.  I'll just add it, because it's too cute!

Back to Kate.  She was very excited to give Grandpa his presents. In fact, poor Nancy (Dad's cousin), we totally interrupted her giving Dad his present.

After the presents we chatted, waited for the food to arrive, and for Rayna and Andrew to arrive.  I helped Mom make this fun potato recipe I found on facebook.  Then we ate.  Then it was time for cake.  We had carrot cake.  It threw me.  We always have ice cream cakes for birthdays, but the Baskin Robbins that Mom and Dad always used to go to has closed.

And then there was running around, more chatting, tv watching, baby watching.  Crazy grandchildren.  All manor of good fun! 

And another present, Fiona didn't cry when she saw you.  She even smiled a little when you held her!  Happy Birthday Dad!  We all love you so much.

Fiona, the stairs and her cute teeth!

Six hours after posting about Fiona's new accomplishments during her eighth month she adds something new.  She discovered the stairs.  And this morning - with a little help, she climbed the stairs from the office to the kitchen - four steps in total.

I almost went back and added the photo to the post I'd written earlier that day... oh and I had to put a new sweater on her because she made a mess of herself at lunch.  But I decided after I still hadn't added the photo, and after I finally captured her cute two bottom teeth that I would make a separate post all together!  So here it is.  Another post dedicated to my cute smart little flower.  Stairs and teeth!  So many adventures!

Cold Creek Conservation Area

Today we went for a family walk.

And it was AWESOME! 

(We saw tracks - deer, rabbit, squirrel, and dog, and we saw woodpecker holes.  Woodpecker morphed into ritz-cracker, care of Alice - from wood-cracker.  Kate walked the whole way without a single complaint, and Alice only fell apart about 5 minutes from the car and Ken was able to quickly bring her back to sanity.)

Fiona is Nine Months Old!

She's been out as long as she was in!  CRAZY!  I can't believe we're three months away from a whole year.  Miss Fiona has been busy this month.  She is now doing some cross crawling and some inch-worming.  She can pull herself to stand.  She can go from her tummy to a seated position and back down again to crawl. She's saying Ma-ma-ma-ma and Da-da-da-da, I think soon enough we'll be able to call one or both her first word.  She was sick for a week this past month and so not herself.  She really is a smiley happy girl, most of the time!  She loves her sisters and they love her.  I love my girls so much!  I am one blessed woman!

Oh and I almost forgot - peek-a-boo!  Fiona is now able to enjoy peek-a-boo.  I'm not sure which is cuter, when she does it, or when you do it to her!  Nine months is such a fun age.