Renovation Hell & Mexico Heaven

Disclaimer: This is a long post. Really long. It has taken me a month to go through pictures and get it written. I apologize in advance. lol

Renos are tough. We've been pretty focused on them since the middle of January, in an attempt to get our house ready to put up for sale & take advantage of the spring market. It's so hard to get done all the stuff we usually do, in addition to what ended up being a full time renovation job on top of it all. Since January, our home has felt like a place of constant dust & mess, our kitchen has become a tool storage area, because I was so busy, I stopped preparing my usual healthy meals, our kids spent a lot of time in front of the tube. Mr. Q now knows the theme song from Jake and the Neverland Pirates by heart.

The TV was the babysitter for 6 weeks of their short little lives. Sad, I know. The chaos was really affecting my mental health. You know that feeling when you've been going too hard for too long and the light at the end of the tunnel seems much too far away? That's how I felt. Then, a little seed of happiness popped into our lives. My parents told us that they wanted to take us all to Mexico for a week in mid April. At that point, it was a month away. We were all so excited! I desperately wanted to finish the renos before we left so we could get it up for sale & I could just relax and not worry about my to-do list anymore. It's only me with this problem, Matt wouldn't be worried while we were gone. I started working overtime on the house, dragging my poor husband along for my crazy ride. We stayed up 'till midnight or later night after night, followed by a hot shower & finally collapsing in bed exhausted (with sopping wet hair). I had this countdown to our week of relaxing in the back of my brain, but I couldn't have a moment of peace before then, not unless the renos were finished. The week came for us to go on our vacation, I had worked myself non-stop but was unable to get it all pulled together in time. I felt like I had failed to accomplish my self-imposed (unrealistic) goals, and instead of being proud of all the things we had accomplished, I was disappointed in being unable to get more done. This is a real big personality flaw of mine. I recognize it, and it drives me bonkers. I worked on the house until noon on Friday and then started packing (for 5 people...) for our flight that we had to be up at 2am Saturday morning to catch. Crazy, I know. We went shopping for t-shirts and shorts in the early evening and were at the mall until it closed. We finally had the suitcases packed and waiting by the door at 1am. No point in sleeping at that point, right?

The flight there was pretty uneventful. The girls like to colour and Mr. Q slept most of the way. I was exhausted and slept on and off between trips to the teeny tiny bathroom that is not designed for a mom to bring her little children into. The super sonic toilet flush is pretty terrifying to a 3 year old. Our kids, I must admit, were angels on the plane. We received many compliments from other passengers on their good behavior. Makes a mama proud.

We stepped off the plane at PVR and the heat & humidity was almost shocking (in a really good way!). We went from a weather forcast with a snowfall warning, to beautiful, tropical sunshine. It was wonderful.

We stayed at the Friendly Vallarta resort. We went up to our room and stepped out on the balcony to see the most gorgeous view.

Stunning, no? We spent a week as a family, enjoying each other, the weather, the water, the break. It was perfect. My parents, my sister &  her family, my brother & his wife, and another brother all went together. There were 16 of us total. Another brother and his wife were not able to come as they are expecting twin baby girls soon and couldn't travel. Often, someone mentioned that they wished they were with us. Hopefully next time there will be 20 (or more??) of us.
When we arrived, we almost immediately got changed into our swimsuits, slathered on the SPF 3000 and sunhats and went swimming right away. The pool had a little kids area that was only about 18" deep or so and there was a ledge around most of the pool that the kids were comfortable walking on.

There were many trips to the little cabana that had the slushy drinks. The food/drink servers were outstanding. You never went too long without someone bringing you something yummy. All-Inclusive is definitely the way to go. It was SO nice not having to prepare meals or clean up. I kept reflecting on that several times each day. It makes for a true vacation. As we are teetotalers, the non-stop alcohol wasn't an enticement, but once we told the waiters we don't drink, they remembered who we were and said, "No-alcohol, right?" whenever we'd order a drink. That's great service.

Before church on Sunday, we went for a walk along the beach together. The girls wanted to stick their toes in. Miss C. got pretty wet. I was randomly asked to play piano at church. It was interesting to play these Spanish hymns, because even though the tunes were mostly the same, the notes were slightly off from what I'm used to because the translation of the hymns didn't necessarily allow for the same number of notes in each measure. I don't know if the musical terms are correct, but it was just a bit off.

We had a quiet afternoon. Mr. Q had fun building sand castles with his cousins. He always sticks out his tongue when he is concentrating on something.

Quick break from playing to have a cuddle with Grandma.

Tuesday, we went on a fun excursion with the whole gang. It was a day long Pirate ship voyage & was really different and fun. Grandma and Papa had been before and wanted to take the grandkids. This was taken during breakfast in the ships galley.

We sailed across the bay to this beautiful beach with gorgeous clear water where we took an hour or two to play on the beach. The water was so nice. Little Miss C loves the waves pushing her back to shore.
Awe. I love that guy.

On the beach, the pirates had a treasure hunt lined up for the kids. They had to follow clues on a map & eventually unearthed the buried treasure. That was one of the highlights of the trip for the kids. They are still talking about it regularly a month later.

Thanks, dude in the green shirt, for joining our family picture... lol

Miss A was wiped out from all the sun the day before. I think she had a dose of heat exhaustion. We mostly just kept her out of the sun and drinking a lot of water. The only thing she really wanted to participate in was the treasure hunt. Poor sweetie. Thank goodness she was fine the next day.

We spent Wednesday at the Puerto Vallarta Zoo. The entire place is almost like a huge petting & feeding zoo. You can get really close to the animals (my brother-in-law was licked by a giraffe...) but I'd have to say that I found the conditions deplorable. The alligators were in these tiny puddles of water, the hippos had a hot tub worth of dirty water to sit in, the pens had next to no vegetation, just concrete. I'm not an activist, but to me, it was sad. To my kids, however, it was the coolest thing ever. They loved feeding the animals & didn't notice the conditions at all. I wouldn't go back.

We spent the next day hanging out at the pool for the most part. The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins. We made sure they kept their hats and reapplied sunscreen several times. I didn't want to deal with kids complaining about sunburn pain.  I laid in the shade of a big umbrella, reading the Septimus Heap series listening to the kids laugh and splash and play for most of the day. It was so perfect.
Later that night, my parents were so kind to watch the kids while Matt & I went to the Rythms of the Night, along with my brother and sister-in-law. It was probably the highlight of the trip for me. It starts off with an hour long catamaran ride to Las Caletas, where you eat a really nice meal on the most stunning beach. After supper, we had a while to walk on the beach & enjoy the stunning scenery. Then, there was the open air show of music, dance and pyrotechnics. I'd describe it as Mayan history meets Cirque du Soleil, in the middle of a gorgeous beach and jungle. After the show, you follow the candle/torch lit paths back to the boat where you travel back to Puerto Vallarta. It was well worth the price & I'd do it again in a flash if given the chance. :)

While in the cab, traveling home from the zoo, my dad asked Miss A what her favorite animal was, expecting her to say hippo or giraffe or some other animal that she had just seen. Without hesitation she replied, "Dolphins!!" I had been toying with the idea of taking her to swim with the dolphins, but her reply pretty much cemented in my mind that I was actually going to take her. Friday, Miss A & I were able to have a most memorable mommy daughter date. The dolphins name was Angel. He is 8 years old. His skin is super smooth and not at all slimy. Angel was very well trained, and Miss A seemed to be comfortable with him, but she wouldn't let him kiss her.  Before bed tonight, Miss A was looking at a picture of her and Angel pinned up on her magnet board in her room and she said, "I miss Angel."  It was awesome to see Miss A so super excited and grinning. I'm so glad we went. :)

The next day was the day we traveled home. Our kids were again really great on the plane. When we arrived at the airport here, it was snowing... on April 20th. I wasn't impressed, but I could deal with it.

This trip was a wonderful break from all the renos we have been working on. I really, really needed to relax, and this vacation was like hitting a reset switch. I am truly grateful to my parents for their generosity and kindness. We have such fun lasting memories our family can share, and it's because of this trip. To be honest, Mexico was never a destination that I really wanted to go to. It seemed like such a typical place that everyone and their dog goes to. I thought I would prefer somewhere more exotic, like Hawaii or Tahiti, but I have to say it was the most awesome vacation ever! I guess I don't have anything to compare it to, but it doesn't matter. It was fun. It was relaxing. It was a week of heaven with people I love. Thanks mom and dad. We love you!



PS
We had our house up for sale 8 days after we got home from Mexico.

We got an offer after 5 days and after we negotiated a bit it sold the next day. They did the property inspection and all conditions were removed on Mother's Day. What a huge weight lifted!
It's been a whirlwind of change.
We packed up one of our best friends, Leah, on Saturday for her new life across the country, and we are moving as well this coming Saturday. As my mother and father-in-law are serving a mission in the Ukraine, they had an empty house we are taking over for a while. We are truly grateful to them for providing us a home.

Life is busy, but good. I'm living a wonderful life. I try to see the good and count my blessings everyday... kick me if you hear me complain. :)

St. Albert International Children's Festival

Thursday of this week, I got to help out with Miss A's kindergarten class field trip to the St. Albert International Children's Festival. My sister was nice enough to keep Mr. Q and Miss C for the day, so Miss A and I got to spend some quality time together, along with 16 other kids from her class.

They made these cute t-shirts to make it easier to keep track of all the kids. Each of the kids drew a self portrait and then someone must have Photoshopped them together. The back said, "En maternelle j'ai aimé.... (In kindergarten, I liked...) and each child wrote what they liked best. Miss A's shirt said, "Les chansons" (the songs). The shirts were cute, but they should have been neon green!  My favorite was one little boys that said he liked recess the best.
 I met the kindergarten class at their first activity at 9:30am at the booth for the St. Albert Art Gallery. It was called TransFORMation & it was really fun. They divided her class into three groups and they had 3 tables set up, which the groups rotated through.

The first was a table where the kids made these sculptures out of recycled bottles, toilet paper tubes, wire, packing bubbles, paper cups, etc. It was amazing what creative minds the kids had! The second table they were able to paper maché the sculptures that previous classes had made. The third table was set up to paint paper maché-ed sculptures from the day before that had already dried. It was a great project that the kids all seemed to really like.

The next activity was a trip to the Dinosaur Petting Zoo. It was a little scary for some of the kindergarten kids, but Miss A was okay. I think if she had been in the front row, it might have been a different story! The pic above right shows Miss A with her kindergarten teacher, Mme. Christiane.
It was a great (and tiring) day! They got to jump in bouncy castles, had a picnic lunch, Miss A got to sit in a firetruck & she had her face painted. Finally, at the end of the day we got some cotton candy and headed home.
 We had so much fun that I didn't want my other munchkins to miss out. The next day, when Miss A was at school, back I went with Miss C and Mr. Q in tow! My sister and her boys came along too. We hadn't bought tickets for the same activities that the kindergarten class had, so we just did some exploring on our own.

Mr. Q enjoyed sitting in the army jeep, though he didn't want to wear the headphones. Maybe when he's big enough to see over the dash! The combat engineers from the army base built a foot bridge across the Sturgeon River, I guess it might have been a training exercise, but it made it much more convenient to get to our car!

They also did some face painting while they were there. Miss C wasn't too interested in camo paint, so we headed over to the 'girl face paint' tent so she could get a flower, a ladybug and a butterfly. I'd have to say the line was much shorter for the camo.

We found a tent my the Education Station that had a great big sand table filled with plastic beads. The kids loved it. I won't even entertain the thought of getting one, though I know they would enjoy it. What a crazy mess! They also had this moon dough and these Magformers that the boys really liked.

One of the other things the kids were able to do was to paint with MONK. She starts a painting and then people add to her paintings, stroke by stroke. There was a painting she was working on that was really stunning. The kids, especially Mr. Q really enjoyed it. I had to physically pick him up and drag him away.

The kids also got to jump in the bouncy castle and went to a music making tent where they got to play with all sorts of different instruments and explore the sounds they made. It was quite a noisy venue, but fun. I'm just glad I didn't have to sit there all day! Before we left the kids got to have their first snow cones ever. They were very appealing to them, but when I tasted a bit, I realized that Slurpee's are much better.

When we got home, I was exhausted! Two days straight was probably too much for me. I'll probably take them again next year, but maybe spread it out a few days. I love summer!

A glimpse through our spooky windows...

After Halloween last year, I bought some spiderwebs in the clearance area at Superstore, and miracle of all miracles, I actually remembered I had it! Last night, I thought it would be fun to decorate the house with the kids, so we got to work creating monster window decorations, while Matt had a night out building something with one of his friends.I stole the idea from a friend of mine, Niki.

We used sheets of black poster board (which happened to fit in our windows perfectly!) and tissue paper from my wrapping/gift bag stash.  The poster board was 2/$1 at the dollar store, so the total cost was $4.50.

 We had a blast doing it. The kids kept pretending the hanging monster with the arms was going to grab them, and they'd squeal and run away. Too cute! They were especially happy that I let them stay up late to see how they looked from outside after dark.

Since I last posted, we had Miss A's 5th birthday. She wanted to have a makeover party, so we invited a few of her friends from school and had a great time. Here's her invitation:

Seven little girls showed up. The thought crossed my mind to invite all the girls in her class, but I decided that I'd probably go insane, especially if parents came and brought younger siblings... my house is not very big!

I couldn't really think of any traditional games that had anything to do with makeovers for the girls, but I came up with a few weird things that went over pretty well. First I put a dollop of Vaseline on the girls nose and they had to get cotton balls to stick to them. Miss A refused to do that one because she hates being dirty, and Vaseline is sticky. She is definitely Matt's daughter. I found these super long straws at the dollar store. I put a bowl full of water and dish soap inside a big plastic bin, the girls had to blow the straws until they filled the whole bin with bubbles. Then, I had a few balloons and the girls had to use a hair dryer to blow the balloons into a laundry basket tipped on its side. The bubbles was by far the most popular of the games.

My wonderful stylist friend Jen agreed to stay at the party to help me with the hair and nails. We put hair bling in the girls hair, as you can almost see in the photo of Miss A, and painted their nails. We also stuck a little jewel to most of their nails, but those didn't last too long. I was happy that the kids managed to keep their hands glued to the table until their nails were dry, for the most part, and I didn't have to deal with any nasty nail polish mishaps. I'm grateful for those cheap plastic tablecloths.

 The cake was a sad story. I stayed up until 4:30am and the fondant was a nightmare. My first batch had to be thrown out at 11:30pm, due to the paddles on my Bosch mixer exploding into shards through the fondant. My poor Bosch. I went ahead and made my second batch. For some reason, that batch never got to the right consistency probably due to an overtired-not-thinking-straight error on my part. Overall, it was a heartbreaking mess. Finally at about 4am, I decided I gave up and threw the ugly, bumpy, crumbly fondant on the cake and called it a night. It was supposed to look like a bottle of nail polish. Not one of my best cakes, that's for sure. Oh well, at least I tried.

 We were able to go to Saskatchewan for Thanksgiving and also for my great grandma Dorothy Palmer's 100th Birthday party. Her birthday isn't until next month, but you don't want to put off a party for this occasion too long. It was nice to be able to go and see her, though she doesn't remember us anymore due to Alzheimer's. Almost all of her descendents were able to be there.
Great grandma Dorothy lived a block down the street from me when I was growing up. I can remember watching the ants on the  peonies that lined the front of her home. I used to push our lawn mower to her house to mow the grass for her. I always remember her front room had bright red carpet and all sorts of trinkets that we weren't allowed to touch. She's a hard worker. She still washed her own floors (probably on her hands and knees) when she was 90. Grandma Dorothy hated wastefulness, and has a sweet tooth like no other. She had a tin foil collection in a drawer in the kitchen. Before the Alzheimer's struck, she had a great memory for peoples names and birthdays and who they married. I didn't inherit that trait, but my grandma sure did. Grandma Dorothy is a great woman whose legacy will last long beyond her time here. She only has one daughter, 5 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren, I think there are 23 great-great grandkids (my kids fit here), and I know there are some great-great-great grandchildren now too.

Thanks for everything, Great Grandma Dorothy! We love you!

Summer Lovin' - Had Me a Blast!!

Earlier this week, we got back from our summer holiday. Every year, we meet up with my side of the family and go camping together. This year, we met at Meeting Lake Regional Park in Saskatchewan. The kids had a blast playing on the beach with their cousins.

We went fishing together. My brother was nice enough to do the dirty work when he took all us girls out fishing. I caught 2 little Jack fish. Better than nothing. They are both back in the lake growing bigger, so I can catch them again next year. 

Monday, we planned on going to Blue Mountain, but we were really low on gas, and knew we needed to stop to fill up. This tiny little town called Rabbit Lake had a gas sign, but it was a misrepresentation. There was no service stations for 43 km in one direction and 76km in the other. We decided to attempt to drive to Blue Mountain and figure it out. We gave the owner of Blue Mountain some cash and they let us fill up from their big fuel tank. They saved the day. Nice people.

 Blue Mountain is between North Battleford and the campground we were staying at. It had a 500 meter zipline that we went on. The girls both had a fantastic ride down the hill, but Mr. Q started to cry every time we approached the tower, so we decided not to take him down. Miss C picked me a pretty flower. What a sweetheart!

Here we are flying down the zipline. Miss C and I went down together, sitting in the harnesses granny style. Matt and Miss A went down rodeo style. Miss C has asked me if we can go ziplining again about 10 times in the last half hour. The wind was really strong towards us, so Miss C and I didn't make it the whole way to the bottom and I had to pull us to the point where someone could grab onto my leg.

The top left picture is my grandma! I was really proud of her for making the leap. She is awesome! Way to go everyone! I thought this was such a fun, memorable activity. Thanks, Mom and Dad for such a fun outing.

I think my favorite part of the holiday was sitting around the campfire every night telling stories and talking with my family after the kids were tucked in bed, roasting marshmallows and looking at the stars. Gotta love that!

 Here's a blurry moment of peace on the way home. I do mean moment. It lasted all of 2 or 3 minutes. Mr Q was not a happy camper on the way home. We enjoyed the quiet while it lasted!

Calling All Superheroes!!

Today is little C's 3rd birthday. We had a fun superhero themed party for her last week. Here's the invitation.

I tried to take a picture of all the little superheroes, but it was impossible. If someone knows how to get 9 kids 5 and under to stand still, in the same place, at the same time, for a picture, let me know! This pic has the most kids in it. The birthday girl was crying inside at this point, I believe, after whacking her head on the edge of the granite counter. It was a rough day for her, all around. 

I made capes & masks for the little superheroes, instead of giving out candy as treat bags. The capes were a bigger hit than the masks. I had a hard time judging the head sizes for the kids, and hardly any of the masks fit. I used my own children as templates and they have either abnormally large or small heads, so it didn't work out quite as well as I had hoped.

Here's a shot showing the capes. The kids all had their initial on the back. I was really happy with how cute they turned out. Miss C was still grumpy at this point and refused to look at the camera. Miss A is quite the ham, on the other hand.

We had an obstacle course of sorts where the kids raced marbles through pool noodles, threw a ball through hula hoops suspended in the tree, had to bounce on a ball with a handle around some traffic cones, then I was going to have the kids walk the plank (over the kiddie pool), but in the mad rush before the kids arrived, I forgot and then couldn't get it set up in time. I think they had fun anyway!

The kiddie pool had been filled with this homemade bubble concoction, which was basically water with 5 cups of Dawn dish soap and a little bottle of glycerine I bought at the drug store. When the wind had died down, it made some nice big bubbles. Of course, C sat down in the pool and got fantastically soapy and wet. She had a blast with the big bubbles!

We had rainbow themed food, since the superhero capes were a rainbow of colours. I bought a package of rainbow licorice and my (almost 3 year old) nephew probably ate 10 pieces. The rainbow jell-o was fun. I messed up on the bottom purple layer, but got the hang of it after that. It really looked cute! The rainbow fruit kabobs were also a hit. We had hotdogs and veggies, but I only took pictures of the rainbow foods.

Instead of doing a superhero cake, I decided to make a rainbow one. I bought a bottle of pink bubblegum flavoring at a little kitchen store in town and used that in the frosting instead of vanilla. What 3 year old doesn't like bubblegum? I personally thought that the cake looked a lot better than it tasted but whatever, it was a party for my little sweetie!

The birthday girl got to enjoy the first piece of birthday cake. Her favorite was the purple layer.

My sweet little "C" has been a joy to us since she joined our family 3 years ago. She has the most adorable tiny speaking voice and is always telling the rest of her family that she loves us. She is loving and kind. We gave her a package of 3 Lip Smackers lip balm (oh, how our girls love lip balm...) today and she let her sister choose which one she wanted, without us even suggesting her share it. What a sweetie! Happy Birthday, little missy! We love you!

Family and Food & Dancing

We had such a great evening last night. My sister and brother-in-law came over with their 3 little boys and Auntie Leah came over too. I invited my sisters family over last minute and hadn't marinated enough pork tenderloin for everyone, so when they offered to bring some crab over for supper, we were excited. Well, maybe all of us weren't excited. Auntie Leah doesn't eat seafood. I don't know if there is a term for that. Maybe anti-pescatarian?? Anyway, we had plenty of pork tenderloin for her!
We made our own salad rolls with rice paper wrappers, matchstick carrots, cucumbers, bean thread noodles, green onions, crab (Mmmm...) fresh basil from the garden (the mint isn't ready yet) and sesame oil. They were good. We made a dip with rice vinegar, brown sugar, grated gingerroot, minced garlic, cornstarch, soya sauce, and red pepper flakes.
We played Just Dance for a bit on the Wii. We were introduced to the game while we were at a family reunion a few weeks ago. Since we got it the girls have been loving it. Matt and I get some dancing in too...

For a 4 year old, A is pretty good at it! Maybe it's from hanging out with me at Zumba class!
It is just too fun! Who would be up for a girls Just Dance night?
Anyway, it was a fabulous Sunday afternoon. Thanks for coming, everyone!

How Does my Garden Grow?

 I went outside today to snap a few pics of my flowers. They are looking so pretty right now. Most of them have been blooming for a while, but between the rain and the gigantic mosquitoes, I haven't been spending a whole lot of time outside. Hopefully it will be sunny for a few days so I can get the vegetable garden weeded.

Q was making silly faces at the camera today, so I snapped away. Here are a few of my handsome little guy.

 

C is definitely a little mama's girl. She is constantly on the move. It's nice to catch her in a quiet moment every once in a while. Cuddles with my kids are always brief, so I take them when I can get them.

We had a couple of little friends spend the day with us today. The kids rode bikes and blew bubbles in the garage. They also pulled all the cushions off the couches and had a bouncy good time in the living room. Who needs a bouncy house!

They played so nicely together that I just ignored the mess. That's hard for me to do. I'm glad I let them work off some energy, because they completely exhausted themselves! What a bunch of cuties!