Connecticut

A year is much to long not to see my sister and her family, much too long!  I think I decided (probably we - Suzanne and I) that we would visit at Christmas.  I wanted her to come up here, but her kids only have a week off school, and that much travel is a bit too much for a week.  The plans were made - drive down on Boxing Day and return on New Years' Day.  Anna got sick, Suzanne got concerned, but after a wrestle, I felt good about going, Ken too.

The drive down was our best yet.  Fiona was so good.  She fussed a little, the girls fussed a little, but generally it was so good.  We were all really excited, the roads were amazing and the day went by at a good pace. We left our house at 10:30 and got to Suzanne and Matthew's right around 10.  We were introduced to Zeus and everyone visited for a little, but really, it was bedtime!

Sunday - church and then a nice quiet afternoon.  I did take one picture - well two.  Kate, the mouth unicorn.  It was good that I did, as the unicorn look didn't last the week!

Monday - Anniversary and Star Wars.  The plan changed a few times.  The boys were going to see Star Wars in the morning, the girls in the afternoon, Ken and I would go out for dinner.  Eventually it turned into Kate, Anna, Ken, Matthew, Joseph, and Thomas going to see Star Wars in the morning.  Suzanne, Fiona, Alice and I went shopping at Target.  Fiona fell asleep on the way home, and then it was decided that Ken and I would go see Star Wars, and then go out for dinner.  It still makes me giggle that Ken saw Star Wars twice in one day!  Episode 7 - The Force Awakens was awesome.  I really enjoyed it.  I think it was more or less exactly what I wanted it to be.  Afterward we went to dinner at Outback.  Ken and I used to frequent Outback Steakhouse many years ago.  I just checked the website - they operated in Ontario from 1996 - 2009.  I think that's probably why I don't remember the exit - I was busy with baby Kate!  I know the location on York Mills that we used to go to closing, but then they were all gone.  Anyway, we enjoyed our blooming onion and our steak, a lot!  YUM!  Thirteen years married to my love.  Each year gets better and better.  I am so grateful for my sweet Ken!

 

Zeus.  The kids are already telling Suzanne that Zeus likes me better.  He seems to like Ken too!

Tuesday - Launch and Pepe's Pizza.  Suzanne asked me if I wanted to jump.  This to me was a strange question.  I just thought everyone would jump.  Nope.  Suzanne, Matthew, Ken, they didn't jump.  Joey, Thomas, Anna, Kate, Alice, Fiona and I jumped.  And it was FUN!  Fiona and I were supposed to jump for an hour.  The rest of the kids for an hour and a half.  We got there a little late (you buy a launch time) and then we had to fill out waivers.  Joey was freaking out a little bit and the attendant told him not to worry, she'd give him extra time.  We all ended up jumping for TWO HOURS!  It was long, for my kids a little too long, but we all had a GREAT time!  Joey and Thomas are incredible, with their double flips.  It was fun to watch them.  Fiona and I found our own little corners and jumped to our hearts content.  Alice, Kate and Anna too.

After we jumped we went to a pizza place - YUM!  The pizza was really, really good.  It was called Pepe's - it is well known and highly rated for their "coal-fired pies".  

Wednesday - We talked about going out, but then we didn't.  There was a weather system that moved through late Monday night and into Tuesday morning.  It left a thin layer of icy snow, and this was perfect for some backyard tobogganing.  I didn't stay out for very long, but Ken and Suzanne were troopers staying out with the kids for over an hour.  

At some point in the day Kate lost her tooth.  I think it was in the morning.  There was some sort of scuffle between Kate and Ken on the couch.  Kicking, some scratching, some screaming, some mouth covering, and pop, the tooth was gone.  YAY!  Kate decided that she wanted to bring it home so as not to confuse Agatha - her tooth fairy.

Thursday - New Year's Eve and Kidcity. But before the outing, there was art.

Suzanne had talked about this place Kidcity and we had thought about going yesterday, but went today instead.  It was half an hour away in Middletown, Connecticut.  It is a Museum for kids eight and under.  There were lots of different rooms and each one had a theme.  Although, I'm not sure what the theme of the first room was exactly?  There was a car, and a sort of kitchen, and a sheriff's office, a flying saucer, a cave... seriously, what was the theme?  Not to mention these tubes that you put balls in that then came down a series of ramps, and pigs that just blew air out and kept balls in the air?!  There was also a farm area, a fish market, a diner, a medieval castle, a dress-up area, a jungle/musical instrument room, and a little cabin that Fiona and I didn't see.  My favourite part was the basement - the toddler area for 2 and under.  When Fiona and I finally went downstairs to check it out we were the only ones there!  We had fun playing and then a little bit later Suzanne, Ken and the girls found us.  We all hung out in the basement for maybe ten minutes as it was closing time. It was really fun!  

 

Zeus - I took some pics of Fiona and Zeus today.  I wasn't terribly worried because Zeus is a small dog, but I was a little concerned about how it would go staying for a week in a house with a dog.  Fiona did great, she loved Zeus, and Alice got better about tolerating him.  It was fun hanging out with a dog for a week.

 

Matthew had taken the boys to the church to play basketball, and by the time we got home they were heading out to watch a football game.  Suzanne planned appetizers for our "appy" new year - YUM!  The girls watched a movie in the basement - Song of the Sea, and Suzanne, Ken and I watched a documentary "Meet the Patels".  It was okay, but a little disappointing.  When the girls were finished their movie we watched a few of the countdowns on Netflix, ate some more, the girls danced, and then eventually it was bedtime.  Suzanne and I watched a few episodes of a T.V. show, Jane the Virgin, and eventually Suzanne, Matthew, Ken and I played a game.  We lost - Ken and I, but only by five points, so that didn't feel too bad, especially considering the bias towards American history and culture.  

Friday - And scene.  Done.  Sad.  I'm so, so glad that we could make the trip.  That the weather was good, that everyone was healthy.  That we had so much fun together.  So much fun.  Family is the best.  I am thankful for the gift my sister is to me.  I am thankful for our relationship.  For the relationships that are developing between our children.  Until the summer my sister!  Bye bye Bateses!

(Oh and just a word about the trip home.  Driving home is good, it is good to go home, but it was not the joyful trip down.  The kids were a little more on edge, heck, we all were.  We left South Windsor, Connecticut about 10:00 a.m. and got into Tottenham about 9:30 p.m.) 

The Funnies

January
Alice is currently working in a church. The lesson she is teaching is covering a wide variety of subjects, not the least of which is Heavenly Father gives us strength when we need help.


Ken is currently receiving instruction in the art of ninja dodgeball. (From Kate)


Alice: When I'm a teenager I can wipe the back of my bum when I poo.
Me: Well, hopefully before you're a teenager.
Alice: William is a teenager.
Me: Yes he is, and Isaac is a teenager.
Alice: He is a Connecticut cousin.
Me: Yes he is.
Alice: But Perry and Max aren't my cousins, they're just my friends from church.
Me: Yes, that's right.
Alice: So I can marry them.
Me: Yes, if they want to marry you.
Alice: Maybe I'll ask Max on Sunday if he wants to marry me.

The conversation while goal setting tonight.

Me: What should my goal be?
Kate: To take your clothes off.
Alice: You should have a naked show.

February
Me: I'm sorry we were fighting today.
Alice: (After a hug) That's okay Mom, I'll fight with you until I'm a grown up.
Me: Why?
Alice: Because when I'm a grown up I'll do my own things.


Kate: Mom, why are you so wrinkly? Is it because you're so old?


Playing with Daddy is fun, until it is not fun, and then there is a lot of screaming. 

Kate: Mom, for my next party I want a dog party. I'm ready to be seven. Mom, what do seven year olds do?

(Someone is a little jealous of Alice's fun presents, one cute little dog purse in particular!)

Is anyone ever ready for the terrible twos?!


Me: Alice you need to stop running in the library. This is not a gym, it is not a running place.
Alice: But it's too quiet.

Kate scampers in wearing her turquoise pants.

Kate: Mom, can I wear my "today's my favorite day" shirt?
Me: Well, are you sure it's the same colour turquoise?
Kate: I'll go check. (Scampers off)
Kate: (Returns with shirts and holds it next to her pants.) See it's the same colour.
Me: That's a lot of turquoise. You're going to be a turquoise monster.
Kate: (Speaking in a very serious voice.) I'm going to be a turquoise spy, and I will camouflage into anything that is turquoise.
Me: What exactly do you think you're going to see that is turquoise?
Kate: (Ponders this for a moment.) Well, if there's nothing turquoise, I'll wear a disguise! (Scampers off)

Alice is currently singing an Alice song. The lyrics are somewhat hard to make out, and they seem to be a mix of several songs that she knows, some that are made up and definitely one of the songs she's learning in church. "Angels will hasten the story to tell" has been repeated several times.

I love it when my children sing to themselves. It makes me think of this quote: A child who sings, is a happy child. ~Enrique Falabella

Me: Did you just wipe snot on me?
Alice: No, slobber.

(Being a Mom is so glamorous)

Me: It's only -11 now.
Alice: Does that mean we can go to the park?

March
I want there to be a childhood barf quota and I want Kate to have reached it this winter.

Alice: Kate, I wish your name was Phallus.

But of course she meant Falice, rhyming is fun!

Alice: Mom, guess who I was talking to in the basement?
Me: Who?
Alice: The Holy Ghost. He told me that whenever the basement is a mess I should clean it up. He also told me I'm nice.

Ken: While watching Fiona this afternoon, she started banging on the door, so I put her boots and coat on and we went outside. She then started hitting the car, so we got in. She got in her seat, so I buckled her and started the car. I asked her which way she wanted to go.. This way (right), or that way (left). We then drove around and at every intersection, I would ask her which way, and she would say this or that, and point in the corresponding direction. We ended up in the middle of nowhere, but at least she's happy.

All day today Alice would say random gibberish words and then proceed to tell me the English translation of what she had just said in Spanish. She also frequently asks me how to say things in French (Kate will most likely go to French Immersion in the fall), and she now tries to write in Chinese (Ken has written a few characters for the girls). It seems to me that someone has an affinity for languages!

April
Ken: Fiona just went in the closet and peed in my slipper. #neverwantedacat  Thanks, Wendy!

Alice to her cousins - I'll miss you as tall as this house.

Kate: (Upon noticing the box of minion cookies) I can only assume that they will both smell and taste like fart. 
Kate/Alice/Ken: giggles
Alice: I want to be a fart when I grow up.


Kate: Mom, do you remember the time I tried to use a Walmart bag as a parachute and it nearly killed me?

Kate: Is he going to die during general conference?

I guess Robert D. Hales looks a little frail.

Kate, Alice and I are decorating Easter eggs. Kate is singing made up Easter songs that sound vaguely like Christmas carols.

"It's a holly jolly figure, to have someone around. It's a holly jolly figure to have a feast of sound. It's Easter time."

May
I really wanted the brown smear I found on the carpet to be chocolate.
(No such luck. Sometimes being a parent is more awesome than it needs to be.)


Me: Alice, don't put the dandelion in your mouth.
Alice: It's my destiny.

I was working on a blog post on my computer this afternoon. Kate was playing on my computer this evening before coming to the table for a snack.

Kate: If you scroll up on the blog you'll see something.
Me: What did you do to my blog post? Did you delete something?
Kate: I didn't backspace anything, I just wrote something.

I went to the computer and scrolled up... the message: Mom stinks. Thanks Kate, thanks a lot.

After publishing this status update, I confronted Kate.

Me: Mom stinks? Nice Kate, thanks a lot. (Said while tickling her.)
Kate: What? Dad told me too!
Ken: Hey, you're not supposed to tell her!

So make that, thanks Ken, thanks a lot!

June

Alice: Am I smelling something I'm not supposed to smell?

So. Any suggestions for asking the neighbors to not smoke up outside our front window??

Alice: It was a babillion years ago.
Kate: Babillion isn't a real number.
Alice: It was a million years ago.
Kate: You weren't alive a million years ago, only Mom and Dad were.

Kate: Mom, I know what I want to do on Saturday.
Me: What's that?
Kate: (In a dreamy voice). I want to go to a spa. I want to get my nails done and I want cucumber on my eyes and gook on my face.

Alice: Mommy, do you have nostrils?
Me: Yes.
Alice: Did you use your nostrils to pull down the goat sink?

July
Alice: I want to whisper something in your ear. (Whispering) I love you until the earth explodes.

Me: Alice, why are your hands black? Oh dear and your mouth and shirt?
Alice: I tried to make my balloon black. Honestly, it did not work.

Me: Why are you sad?
Alice: Kate said it was her duty to hit me and kick me.

When the four year old says pull over, I'm going to barf, you should believe her.#parentingfun

Tonight at Family Home Evening...

Me: Kate, how do we use words to build each other up?

Kate and Ken then proceed to role-play a scenario in which Kate uses words to build up Ken.
Ken: Kate you filled my bucket.
Me: Fiona, can you fill Daddy's bucket?
Fiona then proceeds to find a bucket, put it on her head and march around the room yelling Daddy, Daddy, Daddy, for the LONGEST time EVER!

August

Last night Ken and I went to dinner with some awesome friends. Their daughters were watching our daughters. This was Kate's response when she was told it was bedtime.

Kate: You know nothing about love! You know nothing about love if you think I can go to bed without seeing my Mom!

When I came home from my girls night out, Alice came downstairs to give me a hug and as she wrapped her arms around my waist exclaimed, "I forgot what you looked like." Kate upon hearing this said, " Alice, that's the most ridiculous thing you've ever said to Mom."

Alice: I'm drawing your uterus pink and my uterus yellow.
Kate: She's drawing our uteruses.

September
Alice: Are you going to be the first one to die in our family?
Me: I don't know.
Alice: Well you could be, you are the oldest and Dad is the tallest. 
Me: Yep I could be.
Alice: Dad looks like he is the oldest, but he is the tallest.


Ken: And now we're married.
Me: Who?
Ken: Alice.
Me: What?!
Kate: Well I'm already married to Watson, you remember the dog at Heidi and Jonathon Todd's?
Me: Who performed the wedding?
Kate: No one, he kissed me.
Me: He kissed you and now you're married?
Kate: Yes, well I don't want to marry Ginger, she's old and she's a girl.
Me: But you want to marry a dog? Not a human?
Kate: Yes, maybe next time we can do the ceremony for real.
Me: Really?
Kate: Yes, and then if I marry a dog, I won't have to have a baby. Next time we go to Heidi and Todd's house, I really want to kiss Watson again.

Brought to you from kindergarten land... We were talking about colours in class today. I pulled out a black and white of a mountain scene to show the children.

Me: What do you notice about this picture.
Kindergarten Child: Is that fifty shades of grey?

Alice: I want a snack.
Me: Where were you five minutes ago when Kate was having a snack?
Alice: Rolling around on the big bed singing a song about God and me and Jesus.

Alice is currently having a snack.

October
Me: Fiona, are you ready to be done nursing? Big girls don't nurse. Are you ready to be a big girl?
Fiona: Um?
Me: Kate and Alice are big girls, they don't nurse.
Fiona: (Laughs) Just me, I'm a baby, meow, meow.

November

Random snippets of conversation...

Kate: You treat me like a baby. I'm not a baby. I'm almost ten.
(She is six.)

Alice: (Holding up a toy to Ken, in a sing-song voice) Hula dancing butt, hula dancing butt.

Fiona: (Arms spread wide, dancing on newly cleaned sheets, on a newly made bed.) Butthead! Butthead!

Happy Saturday.

Kate: Tomorrow I want to eat a hundred beans! You know why? It'll make me toot!

December

Me: I'm so excited to take you to see Santa on Saturday.
Fiona: NO! NOOOOOOOOO!
Me: It's Mommy's Christmas present.
Fiona: Why? I no wanna sit on Santa, I no wanna sit on Alice, I no wanna sit on anything! I'm too tired. I'll stay home with Daddy. It's too cold.

Today in Kindergartenland...

Student: (Looking at the picture on my ID tag...) Was that taken when you were a lot younger?
Me: No, just September.

Alice (seriously) : I really want to be a nurse when I grow up.
Kate (grumpily) : I want to be a horrible nobody.
Fiona (happily) : I want to be a horse.

Fiona pushed up her stool to the kitchen counter as Ken was removing the rest of the meat from the bird.

Fiona: Ah! A dinosaur! Get that out of here!

Merry Christmas everyone! May we all feel the peace and love that Jesus Christ has to offer.

(And may we not be afraid of a turkey carcass.)

Christmas Day

Christmas Day! Months of planning and preparing, of anticipating. Some things go well, some things don't. Ken's parents arrived late last night and were excited to be with us on Christmas morning to see Christmas through the girls' eyes. I don't think the girls disappointed!

The girls played with their Nana and Papa and I packed. (Tomorrow we're off to Connecticut.) And chef Ken, cooked up a storm in the kitchen! We weren't sure if Ken and Chris were staying, they didn't want to commit to anything. They stayed long enough to say a quick hi to my parents and then they were off to Lisa's.

So that meant Mom, Dad, Andrew and Rayna for dinner. Anything was going to be better than last year - barfing, crying, it was BAD. And it was better. Alice had a bit of a melt down because apparently she didn't get anything good for Christmas?! But dinner, dinner was awesome!

Christmas is family, and I'm so blessed with so much family to love and be loved. Merry Christmas!

McCartney Family Christmas

Laura hosted family Christmas at her house again.  It was lovely.  Laura and Joaquin have a happy home filled with love and that was the tone of the celebration today.  We completely dispensed with a gift exchange this year, and it was nice.  Everyone just enjoyed chatting and being family.  The little girls played, the big kids played, and the biggest kids chatted.  It was potluck and there was lots of yummy food. 

 In the absence of Eric (and all the Jakobs) Maureen took over his napping duties.

 And of course, it isn't really a party until someone gets naked? 

I feel like I was a little light on pictures, so next year I must go picture crazy again!  Merry Christmas McCartneys!

The Nativity

It was supposed to be a yearly event, our Christmas Eve tradition.  We started when? I'm not sure, but two years ago there was an ice storm and they show was canceled, and a year ago there was barfing.  This year we are going to have McCartney Family Christmas on Christmas Eve, so we needed to bump this up a day.  I was really excited for the girls to see it this year.

We got there early enough to get a seat in the front row.  It was great, except that we couldn't see the angels at all.  We either need to sit on the other side of the show next year, or higher up on the benches. 

I can't remember if it was during the show, or right after that Alice said, "I think that baby is baby Jesus."  Sometimes I think they listen when I talk?! I hope the girls felt the spirit.  I think they did.

After the show we went to Tim Horton's for donuts and hot chocolate.  It was a fun family night!