52 Weeks: Week 36

So I was caught up for all of 2 days, then I was exhausted again and let things slide. If it hasn't been yelling at me, it hasn't been getting any attention the last 2 weeks.

Week 36 featured my big girl starting the first grade, my baby girl missing her big sister and me giving way to much money to dental professionals.

D started Grade 1 the first Tuesday in September.  So far she loves it other than the major reduction in Lego time that school causes.  Poor kiddo couldn't give us a decent smile though. She took a header of a bunk bed while we were on vacation and it hurt to smile. (It also resulted in 2 trips to the dentist to make sure that her permanent tooth was going to stay permanent.)

C.S. spent Week 36 waiting for her big sister to come home from "cool" and refusing to wear her hat forwards.

See, hat is still backwards. To fill some time while D was a school I took C.S. to watch the start of a cycling race that was happening a 15 minute walk from our house. Somewhere in that group of cyclists is the reigning Tour de France champion so it was a pretty big deal. Of course, C.S. was mostly in love with the teams' support motorcycles so she barely noticed the very fit men in tight shorts the cyclists.

Friday, I spent the day doing something for Reid. I volunteered at the fundrasing golf tournament hosted by my support group. It was a lovely day and a lot of money was raised to help families whose babies have died. I would have much rather been celebrating his first day of pre-school or had D posing with him instead of trees planted for him, but I'll take what I can get.

52 Weeks: Week 35

Almost caught up now!

Week 35 was a busy week. We drove to the city were D.G. and I lived right after I finished university and D.G. flew there to join us for the rest of our "vacation". We spent the beginning of the week with my AMAZING friend G and her family. All the kids were very happy together and that left us plenty of time to go a little crazy in the kitchen. Pie, Eggs Benedict and perogies were all all made from scratch, including the english muffins. We also took the kids to the spray park and did some shopping too. It was definitely the happiest park of the vacation for me.

We also did one touristy type thing and took out girls to the stadium (and merchandise store) where our favorite football team plays.

The second half of the week was spent in D.G.'s home town for his sister's wedding. The AMAZING G and her husband let us trade my Mazda for their truck and RV for 4 days so we could camp out instead of cramming into a hotel room. Of course the best part of camping is eating cereal that mom would never left you have at home and eating it outside.

There was lots of work to prepare for the wedding and I am so glad Pi.nte.rest did not exist 12 years ago. My SIL is not a "girly girl" but the thanks to pinning, it was crafty wedding craziness. I ended up hemming all the groomsmen's pants (4 pairs) the day before the wedding.

D was the unofficial flower girl and did a great with her sign despite the wind and some very scratchy grass. She was allowed to wear her runners and socks instead of sandals which made her very happy. Of course the sign blocks the cute sweater and sash I made to go with her dress. (And no, there weren't 2 brides at the wedding, D started calling the groom "Auntie B___" a few years ago and it stuck.)

And just so you can see how cute C.S. was in her fancy dress, here she is dancing with her daddy at the reception.

52 Weeks: Week 34

Okay, making progress now. Only 2 weeks behind, for now.

Most of Week 34 was spent with my parents. It started with a drive of roughly 850 km which took about 11 hours to complete (including a couple longer stops). There were some short rough patches but mostly we did great and surviving that trip was definitely something to be happy about.

I'm lucky that my parents make the trip to come see us a few times a year, but there are family members and friends who don't make it out our way, or don't travel at all in my grandma's case, that we have to go visit.

My grandma will turn 95 at the end of October so every chance we get to see her is special.(D tells me 95 is really close to 100, which worries me because by that logic, I'm really close to 40.)

Of course C.S. decided not to allow G.G. to hold her, but she liked G.G.'s cane just fine.

D got to see her second cousin's N and D. My D and N are both in 1st grade this year and became penpals earlier in the summer. (all credit to my cousin on that one) All the cousins had a blast together and my D and N could have played together for days.

We also got to meet Baby S. (The brace is for hip displasia and it's temporary.) Totally precious and she's a miracle baby after her parents spent close to 10 years ttc and fighting the "unexplained infertility" diagnosis. D is definitely getting into the "I love babies" phase.

52 weeks: Week 33

Week 33 was a blur of preparations, for our "vacation" (aka visiting to family in the next province) and for back to school. I would have loved to do back to school right before school started but since D.G.'s sister set her wedding date for 3 days before school started, it had to be all done before we left.

C.S. got her first haircut.

D got a trim too so she wouldn't look too shaggy in any family photos taken at the wedding.

We also took D shopping for a first day of school outfit with some of her birthday money.

And the day before we left we went out for ice cream with D.G because we were leaving him at home for the first week of "vacation".

52 Weeks: Week 32

(Meant to finish this before I left for "vacation" but didn't quite make it so here it is now. If I get really ambitious someday I will add captions.)

Very fast review of week 32. The highlight  of the week was clearly D's 6th birthday party. We also spent the rest of the week in a post- party coma/ sugar-hangover so not too much else happened or got documented. Special thanks go to my wonderful friend E who took the pictures. ( if you are local to Canada's most northern capital and need a photographer her site is here)

52 Weeks: Week 30 and Week 31

I'm cheating and combing the last two weeks, but this is my blog and I'm doing this mostly for me so why not. The last 2 weeks have been crazy. It's all been because of things I chose to do, but it's been still crazy busy.

Week 30 saw us taking a quick trip south (3.5 hours south) to visit some friends and meet my new niece.  The visit was great despite a lack of hot water and Cleo discovered some new skills.

 

What's now making me crazy is that she wants to hang like this all the time and will use anything, including the door handles on my, car to do it.

My new niece is very sweet and very tiny and Delia was clearly thrilled to get to hold a tiny baby again. (No pictures though because my brother is definitely of the "I don't post personal photos on the interenet EVER" persausion.) I had a blast taking my 2.5 year old niece to the park with my girls and then wearing her on my back for the walk home. It was the perfect way to chat with her because she was right beside my ear and I could hear every question she asked. ("Auntie, does C.S. go to school?" "Why not? She's not the baby anymore.")

I also won simultaneous best mommy/worst mommy points by taking my girls to the evil golden arches for lunch on the way home. Of course this is the result when I asked them to look at me for a picture to send to their dad at work.

Then we were home and it was time to prepare for D's 6th birthday extravaganza. Of course we ended up doing a little (or way) too much. The problem is not her, it's us. D.G. and I like planning and making things too much and end up spending the whole week before staying up to 11 pm working on birthday related projects. Thanks to the internet, we have access to way too many ideas and so the list of project just keeps growing. Did I need to make a pinata? No, but did am I really proud of it? YES. D.G. built it and I decorated and filled it.
 

Next up marshmallow pops, another collaboration. I dipped them, he did the faces. It is very handy having a husband who can draw when you start all these crazy projects.

Then there was the cake making. After consulting the Lego party experts (i.e. mommy bloggers who are even more ambitious with their children's parties than me), I decided that a Lego cake had to be covered in fondant. Now I have no experience with fondant but I also decided to make the fondant from scratch. Three days before D's actually birthday, I had a moment of panic and decided I needed to practice using fondant. This way I could also use up some extra cake from the "party cake" and there would be something to eat on her birthday. This was the result. Not perfect, but pretty good and the fondant part went well enough that I didn't freak out and order an emergency cake for the party.

Then suddenly it was the end of the week and my first baby, my big girl, incredibly silly and creative child was 6 years old. She makes me so crazy and so proud in the same minute and I love her so much. How can she be 1/3 of the way to 18 already?

 

(Pictures from the party must wait until next week because it was a long weekend here and we had the party on Monday. Also I am exhausted and fighting off strep throat and plan on doing very little this week so I need those pictures to fill up the Week 32 post.)