hair, art & cupcakes

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I have been one crazy, busy mama in the last week or so.  It felt as if we had something going on almost every day.  We have had our fair share of illness in the last little while but that is over now and all I want to do is focus on what’s been great and fun instead.

So here goes …

It was “crazy hair day” last Friday which meant the girls were allowed to wear their hair funny or funky at school.  I tried my best to do “crazy” but all I could manage was “cute” hair.  The girls didn’t seem to mind my creations so we went with it!  I’m so daring, I know.

Little B’s school had an open house one day and we were invited to come and see all of the wonderful things our little princess has been doing in grade one.  I managed to snap only two photos with my iPhone.  Above left is Little B’s creation of our family if we were snowmen instead of humans.  To the right is a landscape drawing she so carefully drew and coloured using pastels.  Don’t you just love her depiction of a boulder?


Last but not least, I tried to be a little bit Martha Stewart last week in that I decided to make homemade Jello Swirl cupcakes for my first graders. Let’s just say it was more work than I bargained for but it was worth the smiles I received in return while my students devoured them in seconds.  The icing is even homemade! I think they turned out pretty nice looking, don’t you?

What fun or crazy things have you been up to this week?

one day of homeschooling

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In the last month, the girls have had to stay home a few days due to illness.  My youngest loves being home with mama but my first grader hates missing school.

The last few times I had them both home with me, I promised to re-inact school for them so they wouldn’t feel like they were actually missing it.

We did a little bit of math.  Little B wanted to show me how well she knows how to multiply so she gave me a lesson on how to sort glass rocks into groups.

Little H, my preschooler, practiced printing her lowercase letters.  She loves doing this on the whiteboard.

Little B made little H a chart of sight words and word family words she should practice daily.  It now hangs on our refrigerator and Little H takes it down every day to practice printing a few of the words (even though she cannot read them yet).

Last but not least, the two girls worked on this art project using marshmallows and fruit loops.  The idea was to create a picture using only 100 items.  Once complete, Little B proudly took it to school to put on display in celebration of already being in school for 100 days this year.

On days like this, I often think about homeschooling my girls because it would allow me to plan and directly control what they learn.  Truth is, my girls love everything about school and would rather be there than at home with me.  They love to see and play with friends and they love their teachers.  Why would I ever want to change what they love?

So instead, I save our “activity days” for after school, holidays and weekends.  It gives us creative and fun things to do together.  It also allows me to supplement what they’re learning at school with things I feel are important for them to learn or practice at home.

In the end, we’re all happy ~ the girls … AND me.

my guy ~ on his birthday

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Today is your birthday, sweet husband of mine, and in honour of it I’ve come up with a list of a few things I love about you.


I love how much you adore the outdoors and everything that nature has to offer, teach and share with us.


I love it when you tell me I’m beautiful even when we’ve worked up a sweat hiking or have been camping without the comforts of home and I look like this!


I love how hands on and involved you always are with our girls no matter what we’re doing and no matter where we are.


I love how you always make sure to expose your girls to every aspect of the outdoors even though they’re still so young and not able to do half the stuff you can’t wait to do with them once they’re old enough.


I love it when you get all excited to take us on new and exciting adventures that involve hiking and exploring beautiful scenery and the peacefulness that comes from being one with nature.

But more than any else, I love how happy you make me all the time, even when I’m mad at you.  It’s impossible to stay mad at you longer than a few hours.  You’re not perfect Mr.  … but you’re perfect for me and I think we make a pretty loveable couple.

Who knew our puzzle pieces would match so well?

Happy Birthday! One more year and you join me in my decade.  Enjoy your 30′s sweetheart!

sunday family fun

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Over the weekend, the sun decided to grace us with its presence so we took the opportunity to get ourselves the heck outside. I’m not exaggerating when I say the girls wanted to play with every outside toy we have stored in the garage.  Bikes, scooters, wagons, roller-blades and their new battery operated Jeep – all came out to play!

For Christmas, the girls were given the pink Jeep from their grandparents.  They could barely contain their excitement when we told them they could take it out of the garage for a spin. Let’s just say that daddy and I got to see our fair share of reckless driving and we’re not looking forward to the day these two girls get their driver’s licenses!

Little B, our family monkey, spent a great deal of her outside time climbing trees. Climbing things, these days, seems to be her favourite pass-time. If not climbing and swinging on monkey bars, she’s in trees and when inside, she climbs furniture. Yes, it’s lovely isn’t it!

Nevertheless, our Sunday afternoon outside was nothing short of fun.  Even daddy got out the basketball and challenged his better half – me – to a few rounds of “All Around the World”.  That’s right. I most certainly have basketball skills.  That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

I look forward to more Sundays like this now that daylight savings time is just around the corner.  More Sun? We’re so ready for more!

How have you been spending your Sunday afternoon these days?

 

mom shades

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It’s funny how when we’re kids, we see the world one way and then when we become responsible, child-rearing adults … everything changes.

Now that I’m a grown-up (most of the time), I wear mommy shades and see a whole other world I never knew existed.

Sure I saw all of the hard work and effort my mom put into raising my sisters and I.
Sure I saw her grumpy and tired self every now and then.
Sure she lost her patience with us when we would argue over toys, clothes or time in the bathroom.
Sure she never got to go out on any “date nights’ with my dad or spend much quality time together.
Sure she was always cleaning, cooking, washing, folding, organizing and managing

But … she made it all look easy.  At least that’s the way I saw it while wearing my kid glasses.

I always said that when I became a mother, I was going to be a kick-ass one. I was going to be cool, fun, laid back and stylish.  I was going to be a less grumpy mother than my own.  The teenager me swore that I would be the best mom ever.

Silly teenager glasses! Oh how you distorted my perception of reality.  Once I was awarded my mommy shades, I learned the real truth about motherhood.

No one ever told me that once I became a mother …

I would never be able to do my business in the bathroom without an audience.

I would never sleep the same or get enough sleep again.

I would never have a moment to myself.

I would be sweeping the kitchen floor 100x a day, picking up toys 50x a day and washing dirty, stinky clothes every day.

I would become physically drained from having to chase after kids all day long and break up fights over toys.

I would become emotionally drained from all the worrying about them.

I would miss adult conversation.

I would have to schedule having a shower.

My stylish wardrobe would consist of jeans and t-shirts.

A trip to the grocery store on my own would feel like winning the lottery.

But most of all, no one told me that once I became a mother … a simple little smile could melt my heart, the cuddles would warm my soul, and watching them grow and change would make me so proud.

I brought these sweethearts into the world and no matter how challenging it all may be and how often I feel like I’m failing at it, my true reward comes from knowing that my girls love me unconditionally – Grumpy Mom or not.

a real houswife of vancouver

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You won’t believe where I am today!

I’m being featured over at the The Thirties Grind for Melissa’s series The Real Real Housewives of Vancouver.

Would love it if you hopped on over to Melissa’s place and had yourself a read about me.

Feel free to leave me some comment love too.

Will love you forever!

 

redwood park: where the fairies live

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A friend of mine told me about a special forest in South Surrey that is home to tiny little fairies.

Fairies you say? YES!

We decided to visit Redwood Park with our girls and our girls decided their mission would be to find a real life fairy.

First, we found Redwood Park’s super cool playground.  The girls ran, climbed, spun, slid, jumped on and off and hid on the play-toy while daddy and I watched and talked.

Eventually, we took off on one of the park’s trails in pursuit of the fairy forest. We looked high and low until we finally saw a tree with a tiny little brown door at the bottom of it’s stump.  The girls screamed and ran to find each and every fairy door on each and every tree thereafter.  They were ecstatic beyond belief!

Then came the 101 questions about fairies.  Would we see a fairy go in or come out of their home? How do they get in through the doors? How many fairies live in each tree?  Do fairies have babies?

About 25 white lies later, we decided to call it a day.

Needless to say, Redwood Forest – in all of it’s fairy glory – was a grand success. We hadn’t even left the forest grounds and the girls were already asking when we could return.

Soon, we promised.

mama teach us: reading with Ivy and Bean

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My first grader, Little B, is a really good reader.  She’s been reading since she first started Kindergarten.

Now, she’s reading chapter books and her favourite series is the Ivy and Bean Collection written by Annie Barrows and illustrated by Sophie Blackall.

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Ivy and Bean are two friends who never thought they’d like each other “but when Bean plays a trick on her big sister and has to hide – quick – Ivy comes to the rescue with her wand, some face paint, and a bucket of works“. The rest is history!

What makes Ivy and Bean books so fun and interesting to read, Little B?

“They are funny. Ivy and Bean like to use their imaginations a lot which usually get them into a lot of trouble. They’re just cool girls who know how to have fun”. 

Little B is currently reading book number 9 titled, Ivy and Bean Make the Rules!

When it comes to buying books for my classroom library, I like to take advice from the little people who would be reading my books.  So if Little B is crazy about Ivy and Bean, I can only imagine the first grade girls in my class will feel the same.

I think I just may need to start building my Ivy and Bean book collection for school.  I’m a sucker for a good read and so are my students.

Other Ivy and Bean book titles:

Ivy and Bean: The Ghost That Had To Go – book 2

Ivy and Bean Break the Fossil Record – book 3

Ivy and Bean Take Care of the Babysitter – book 4

Ivy and Bean: Bound to be Bad – book 5

Ivy and Bean: Doomed to Dance – book 6

Ivy and Bean: What’s the Big Idea? – book 7

Ivy and Bean: No News is Good News – book 8

Ivy and Bean Make the Rules! – book 9

the anniversary

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Every year, hubby and I alternate planning a weekend away to celebrate our wedding anniversary.

It’ll be 8 years in March but we decided to celebrate early this year.

We spent the greater part of this last Saturday snowshoeing up at Mt. Seymour in North Vancouver.  We couldn’t have picked a better day to go. We experienced clear sky and soft, light snow flakes while we explored the many snowshoeing trails of the mountain.

Although the mountain seemed busy, the snowshoeing trails were not and we managed to walk along the trails and bask in the wonderful sounds of mountain nature in Winter.

Silence can be so beautiful.

One of the things I love about our weekends away is the time we get to actually relax and have full conversation.  If you’re a parent, you totally get what I mean.

A stop over at Starbucks after snowshoeing helped to warm us up again.  A tall, vanilla latte and an Americano did the trick!

We lunched at a quaint little sushi place called Akebono located in the Londsdale Quay. We explored the market and took in the great smells of different foods.
The market also contained quaint little shops we had fun visiting.

We did a lot of walking.
We took a lot of pictures.
We dined at Antoli’s Souvlaki Restaurant where we enjoyed yummy Greek cuisine.

The best part of our trip was getting to sleep in as late as we wanted. There were no little people to wake us up at the crack of dawn.

A good night’s sleep and a breakfast of crepes the following morning and then back home to the kids.

As much as we miss them while we’re gone, hubby and I love getting to spend quality time together – just us two.

Cheers to us until next year!