Lily seemed to really enjoy her "Rock and Roll/Princess/Sheep" themed birthday party!

I don't know how I managed to work all 3 themes into a party.. but it seemed to work!
I threw together everything at the last minute. The cake only came out of the oven at 5pm and had to be cooled and decorated before the guests arrived at 6:30pm.
I even bribed the older girls to skip gymnastics to help me!!




Here's the finished sheep!!
Gotta love mini-marshmallows!

THANKSGIVING!!!

Ahhh, yes, thanksgiving....

I thought I would get an extra step forward towards heaven by inviting our priest who also happens to be Frank's uncle, to Thanksgiving Supper tonight!

I didn't really think he would accept, (he never does) but.....oh yes....... SURE, he'd love to join us...and asked.."what time is supper?"
I almost shit my pants right in the church!

I have a 14lb turkey sitting in my fridge, 4 pies that are still just a figment of my imagination, potatoes to peel and cook and Frank and my dad have taken apart most of my kitchen floor to install bench sitting and we're at 11:30am mass... oh my god... oh my god.......

"ummm.....5pm??"

We rush home after mass in a freaking panic!!

I call my neighbor, (who is gone away for the weekend)
"Can I use your ovens???????"
We throw the turkey and stuffing (that thankfully I prepared before church) into the oven and start making the pie crusts. Abigail starts on the pumpkin pie and Isabelle on the Apple pies.
We manage to get them into the oven (at Mary's) (using 2 ovens) ((thank god that woman has 2 ovens)).

Dad and Frank get the church pew (which is our new bench sitting) into the kitchen,


I over cooked 1 apple pie and had to air out my neighbor's house (sorry Mary, I'll replace the foil on the bottom of the oven on Tuesday) but the turkey actually is done cooking at 5pm, just as Father Jack walks into the back yard!!
whew... 1 step closer to heaven....
So we sit down to supper, Father says grace, and I'm thinking...
1 foot closer to heaven......

when Lily decides to practice her french words, very loudly, right beside Father.
COCK!!! COCK!!!! COCK!!!!!! COCK!!!!! COCK!!!!!!!
I'm chocking down my turkey, trying to say, .. "yes, that is how we say ROOSTER in French, ROOSTER, ROOSTER". to no avail..

~~~~ oh god.... where's the wine??~~~~

Then, trying to change the subject, he asks if we're going to put Hanlin into Hockey this year.
Lily then shouts out that her "daddy plays hockey, and there was a man who hit daddy in the nose with a puck and that wasn't very nice.." Father Jack listening intently to her, agreed. Then she announces that she "wants the man to come over to her house to tell him to SHUT UP because it wasn't very nice to hit her daddy and she is very mad!!'

~~~~oh god..... WINE.... MORE WINE!!!~~~~~~

we finally managed to finish eating, and enjoy ourselves for the most part, with all 4 of my children sitting almost angelic (cough cough) in the church pew!!

.. and can you believe that whole dinner experience happened in 1.5 hours???
.. and can you believe I finished a bottle of wine in 2 hours???
Most of it being consumed just after he left??

What is that old saying???
1 step forward... 2 steps back??

**(to come to Lily's defense, she saw pictures of Frank's broken nose last week and was very very upset that some one would hurt her daddy, and although we tried to tell her that this happened a long time ago, and that the man didn't try to hurt him on purpose, that is was an accident, she just couldn't understand and was very MAD!! and she has NEVER said shut up before, but boy, was she mad telling the story!)**
**(and she has been saying her french words almost every day, but they have been about Halloween, no farm animals until now!)**

~~~~~~UPDATE~~~~~~
I finally figured out where Lily heard "shut-up". From 2 movies she has just recently watched..
Little Orphan Annie and Toy Story!! They saw it all the time on the movie. Terrible!

GASP!!!


my baby turns 5 today......

For her birthday supper tonight, she asked for Pizza and French Fries! I can handle that!! YUM!
I made a quick cake today, but I'll make another on Friday, in what ever "theme" she picks.. hopefully nothing too hard!
Friday also happens to be her Forever Family Day!!

WOW!
We've had a week of firsts around here!! I've been meaning to post about everything, but WOW, it's also been super super busy!!

So, lets see..
First of all:
Hanlin learned to ride his bike without training wheels! He was very hesitant to take off the training wheels, but with Daddy's encouragement, he tried and believe it or not, he got it his very first try! Frank couldn't believe it!
Hanlin is funny like that, he won't try something new, he'll balk, cry, and complain. But when he does try it (usually forced) he is able to do whatever the task was, be it riding his bike, or pumping his legs on the swing or cutting his food with a knife...


He has come so far in 1 year! When we first arrived back in Canada, he was so clumsy. Actually more than clumsy..it was worrisome. I can't tell you the amount of times he walked into walls, or fell while walking. It was so weird, he would be just walking along down the hallway, then trip over his own feet, he would drop his food all over the place, drool, whine.. (wait, I'm getting him confused with Frank)! He was so much like a 2 year old in so many ways, and actually, a 2 year old would of been more advanced.
I did a lot of "therapy" with him, playing with play-dough to help strengthen his hands, using scissors and cutting pages, upon pages of paper.. (Lily thought this was the best ever!)
and until the weather turned too cold, he went outside to play, run, swing, and climb! The poor kid had so many bruises at first, but eventually he got used to his body, and moving around in it!
It took about 9 months, but he caught up and he is on par with other 5.5year olds, I might even brag, and say in some skills, he is advanced! You should see him kick a soccer ball!
He really has come a long way. He still loves to tease Lily and has gotten quite good at it. He loves to cuddle, and has no problem showing affection and tells us he loves us. He especially loves Daddy! He'll follow him around everywhere, asking questions, talking, pointing, more talking.. oh, did I mention talking.... I've never heard anyone talk as much as this kid, he talks non-stop! It's exhausting! Our conversations will go something like this:
Hanlin: Mom? What's that? (pointing to the phone) (he knows what a phone is, he has 3 play cell phones that he carries everywhere and talks on them obsessively).
Me: What do you think it is?
Hanlin: A phone.
Me: Did you know it was a phone?
Hanlin: (smiling) yes!
Me: Then why did you ask me?
Hanlin now runs and grabs all his phones..: I have phones, like you and daddy!
Me: Yes, you do! You like to talk on your phones.
Hanlin: Is that a phone? (pointing to my cell, which he knows is a phone)
Me: No, It's a laundry basket (being a smart ass).
Hanlin: laughing.. no mommy, it's a phone! Like mine!! See!!
Hanlin: Mom? What's that...??
and so the conversation goes.. and goes and goes...
Although he knows the answer, he still has to ask the question. Even if its none of his business. Who are we talking to, what did Abigail say, who was on the phone.. It has gotten so bad that even his teacher has commented on it. Now he knows that if he asks question after question, that he knows the answer to, or if he it is none of his business (because he can get rude), then he has a time out. He hasn't had a time out for that since the spring! (whew) We finally figured out that he was asking questions to get our attention away from what ever we were doing and be given to him. For example, he would bombard the teacher with nonsense (usually none of his business) questions whenever she would be busy with another child, or if I was busy with Lily or or the phone or the computer. He was so spoiled, and had all the attention on him at all times for 4.5 years, that when the attention was placed elsewhere, he felt he needed to divert it to him. Although he still talks a lot, its not so bad anymore, and we have some really great conversations! He's a really good kid!



Another first was school!!!!! Which went off without a hitch!! (and NO I did NOT cry) are you kidding me? I was so happy to see them off, I almost sent them a week early!!
They love school! They love the bus! They love eating lunch at school! They love playing in the school yard and they love their teachers! yup, separate classes for these two! This way, they are able to grow and develop without the other peering and comparing and it has been amazing for the 2 of them.


I drove them to school the first 2 days, then they took the bus! They were dying to take the bus right away, but I wanted to be sure they understood where to go in the school first, before trying to figure out the bus! But by day 2 they were raring to go, and wanted nothing to do with me driving them!

Whew! that is a lot of firsts!! Now I'm ready for MY first...

MY first time alone in 12 years.. all the kids in school and I'm home alone for the first time in 12 years!!!!!

LOVE IT!
I just love it!!

grrrrr........


I HATE frosh week!!

Some yahoo on "hero juice" decided to test out his strength on our fronch porch window Monday night!!



Every year during Frosh week, downtown becomes a zoo... windows broken, mailboxes tipped, loud, yelling crazies, away from Mama's bosom for the first time, and they forget all respect!
We live downtown, but we're a bit of a walk from the center of town.. (about 10 mins). When we first moved here 12 years ago, our windows were broken quite often, and things stolen from our cars and yard.. but it has settled down a lot over the last 6 years. So I was very surprised to find the window broken in the morning. I can't believe we slept through it!
Yes, the glass is replaceable, but the house is over 100 years old, and the whole front porch has original glass in it, you the kind, that wavy thick well..old glass..!

We're replacing it with tempered glass, so next time instead of breaking my glass, they'll break their knuckles!
At least this time they did leave with a (well deserved) big boo boo!!

YUP! that is a honking piece of skin attached to the window!!
Is it sick that I enjoy the fact that this must of hurt like a bugger??



On a happier note.... I have a couple of huge blog posts that I've been working on...
We've had a lot of 'firsts" happen this past week.. and I really have to post about it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISABELLE!

We had a quick birthday celebration tonight! Tomorrow, she is having an Amazing Race Birthday party with her friends! I'll blog more with pictures tomorrow after the party! I've been working on it for a while. Should be fun!!
I made her (at her request) a 3 layer dark chocolate cake with Boiled Icing! Our neighbors came over to help celebrate, and I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the cake.. (it looked gorgeous), but there is 1 mangled slice left.... well, you get the picture! LOL It was good!! Damn good!!

Look at this cake Abigail and I made the other night!
Ultimate Lemon Layer Cake! The lemon curd is made from fresh squeeze lemons and the cake has 10 eggs in it with a meringue/frosting! YUM YUM

In our backyard, our grass would never never grow. We have a huge maple tree that seems to suck the life out of the grass. The grass is dry, hard dead and lumpy!! Making it no fun to play on! We never sat on the lawn, played on it or enjoyed it!!

So after 12 years of trying (and spending a fortune) on getting the grass to grow, we decided to give up and build a deck right on top of it!!

The edges have to be trimmed evenly, but here is the now completed deck! It took about 4 weekends to complete and everyone had a hand in helping out.

This is entering our backyard..

and these 2 are from the back of the yard, by the play structure.

We absolutely love it!
We've eaten every meal possible out there, had a BBQ party last night with 6 other couples and 7 kids, and almost every evening we've enjoyed a glass of wine with candles lit around the deck!

SO NICE! We should of done this years ago.
It opens up our back yard by about 50% !!



and check out this crazy fool enjoying the pool tonight!!