Weekend fun!

We were off to PEI for the Atlantic Gymnastic Championships this past weekend.

The big girls travel with the team, there and back. So we didn't have to worry about them. Frank and I decided to take the two little ones with us and make a mini vacation out of it.

We left Fredericton at 8:30pm Thursday night, after some last minute craziness. Frank worked a full day, I had left the little ones playing outside while I got the truck packed and the girls ready for thier trip. They played hard and had tons of fun! I would throw food at them every so often and by the time Frank came home, they looked like 2 feral animals, with dirt streaked faces, black nails, and dusty pants, with HUGE smiles on thier faces!!

Frank gave them a quick soak, while I finished packing the truck and we headed out for supper on the road! By this point we had decided to leave late enough that they would fall asleep for the full 3 hour drive!!

WHAT WERE WE SMOKING??

Hanlin wasn't too bad.. he feel asleep about 1 hour into the ride.. (this from a kid who can't stay awake when we drive to the store 5 mins away)

Lily stayed awake for hours...falling asleep after 10pm! She told us she was listening to the radio with us (cbc "Q").

We arrived close to midnight, and both kids were now wide awake!

I'm not sure if the hotel staff felt sorry for us....

dragging in at midnight with 2 bright eyed kids asking for directions to the pool, a load of luggage that would put most celebraties to shame, a dog tired from being in her doggie seat belt for 3 hours and wanting to run around and 2 tired parents, dragging feet and crossed eyed holding a Venti coffee each now cold LOL

But the wonderful staff at the Rodd Charlottetown took one look and bumped us up to a suite!!

(thinking about it now.. maybe they just wanted us as far from the other patrons as possible!)

It was gorgeous, the kids had thier own room!! Halle-flipping-lujah!!

Each morning we had marvelous breakfast, then we would run out to watch gymnastics, then run back in time for the little ones to swim for hours! We walked all around downtown, picking up treats (candies and goodies for them and wine for us ;) ) We dined at a sweet little Thai spot.. Mmmm bubble tea..and got in even more swimming! We would sit in the room and read magazines and do a little work and even planned our summer vacation!

Saturday night the little ones had popcorn and a movie for supper (I said this was a vacation) and were off to bed before 8pm! Frank and I decided that we were hungier for something more than popcorn and we ordered room service!

Something we never do!

Man it was amazing! If I could of kissed the cook I would of!

Crispy Duck with a Blueberry Port Reduction and Beef Tenderloin with 5 Onion Marmalade

both cooked to a perfect medium rare... with roasted asparagus, squash, beets...and a bottle of Organic Cabernet Sauvignon Cono Sur... OH YUM!!

Then to be able to leave all the dirty dishes outside the door and then have the "magic dirty dish fairy" take them away!

Whoa.. a little bit a heaven...

Here's a view into our weekend...

A little bit of gymnastics:

A little bit of swimming:

A little bit of Gracie's Room work:

A little more gymnastics:

A little bit of work for Frank: (aka fun for Frank)

A little more swimming:

A little bit of good food:

A little bit of good wine: (ok, more than just a little bit..)

A lot of rest, fun and relaxation:

While visions of swimming and popcorn danced in thier heads:

and the dog got the best bed in the place!!

Lily and her teeth!

Not sure if you remember this post....back in February..

Mother of the year - Not me!!

But once again, Lily's teeth have been bothering her! After she finished her antibiotics last time, she had to have 2 root canals (pulpectomy). It was horrible, she was very good until close to the end of the appointment. The freezing didn't really take, because she had such a bad infection and she started to scream towards the end!! It is not something I want to ever put her through again.

When I got home from China, she told her teeth hurt. I thought they might still be tender from all the work she had done.. I watched her for a few days, her eating, behaviour.. and it didn't seem to change. I thought if her teeth hurt, she would be uncomfortable eating.

About a week after I got home, she came into my room at midnight (something she never does) complaining about her teeth. Frank went to get the Advil and I felt along her gum line...

OMG she had a huge abscess on the side of the last molar! HUGE

First thing in the morning, I called the dentist (at home) (It was Easter Weekend)!! and immediately got her on a strong antibiotic!

We went in to see him on the following Tuesday, and he referred us to another dentist that has Nitrous Oxide in his office.

Last Thursday, I got a call that the office had a cancellation and could bring her in that afternoon...I had to fast her for 3 hours, but I had already fed her breakfast, and sent her to school!

I took off for the school, grabbed her and took her to Star*Bucks.. (what did you expect.. go home and sit and think about the pain that was about to happen..NOT)!

We sat and had coffee and steamers and yogurt then started her fast. We talked about what was going to happen, about the mask on her nose, the gas and feeling funny.. (I had yet to tell her about the procedure as they had given me an appt for late in May..).

I'm so glad I did that, as we talked for a good hour, about all sorts of weird and funny "lily" things.. like.. "mommy, why do you take your boobies off"? and "Where do babies come from?" (ok, so we got off topic a bit)

Anyway, by the time we got to the dentist, she was calm and ready to go.. I on the other hand was nervous and starving!

The dentist started right away with the mask on her nose, and at first she tried to pull it off, but he held it on, and kept telling her to breathe deep. At first she said.. "No!" then 2 seconds later, she'd say "No?" but she would keep breathing in deeply..about 1 minute later, she was holding on to the mask, pushing her nose in it, snorting the stuff!! She even was giving it to her stuffed doggy! It was hillarious. She figured out very quickly that the more you breathe, the funnier you feel and she liked it!!!!!

She was tellling him that he had Magic Hands! (she thought the Assistant's Hands were his hands!) At one point she shouted "I'm Dizzy!! Look what I can do with my eyes" and proceeded to spin her eyes around in circles really really fast.. The dentist took one look and covered her eyes, and said, "oh, she has to stop that or I'm going to puke!" I had to leave, my stomache was turning and my palms were sweaty. Although it was funny, I hated seeing her out of control, with her eyes rolling in her head!

Even with the gas, and freezing she still gave a scream when he tried to pull the tooth, so he stopped and froze her again. He said he gave her more freezing than he would for an adult!

The tooth finally came out, and he couldn't believe the infection that came with it. The tooth was covered with stuff and it came out in gobs of gunk from where the tooth was and it bled soo bad! The pus came out for 5 days!!! YUCK

She seems to be feeling better today and seems to be in a much better mood!

@@@@@@@CAKE-TASTROPHY@@@@@@@

ULTIMATE LEMON LAYER CAKE

Abigail and I made this incredible cake last summer for Isabelle's birthday!

It turned out perfectly!!

I mean, like something out a magazine!

It was so good!

So we decided to try to make it again this week!!

We made the Lemon Curd first and let it sit overnight in the fridge! Tasted Fantastic!

We made the cake the next night and let that sit in the fridge to cool. Looked Fantastic!

We made the Seven Minute Frosting. Looked and Tasted Fantastic!

We perfectly and evenly cut the cake into 4 layers!

We're Fantastic!

Umm..ok, so maybe we

got a little cocky..

We assembled the cake, 1 cup of curd then a layer of cake, another cup of curd.. another layer...etc.. Finally we added the frosting to the top and as we were spreading it out, the cake started to have a catastrophic event!

It started to break apart in different sections, on different layers, big chunks of cake like fell like calving glaciers!

We all started to scream, yelling at Isabelle (who was in bed) to help as Frank, myself and Abigail since we all had our hands in the cake trying desperately to hold it together!

oh yeah.. did I mention that it was 9:30pm on a Tuesday night - school night?? When we're supposed to be all in bed??

(lucky for them they have tomorrow off for parent teacher interviews!)

It was a loosing battle, and I said just grab plates and put chunks of cake on it!

It broke into 4 huge slices, (hmm..4 people...4 slices..coincident??)

We were all covered in frosting and lemon curd and laughing like fools!

I put the cake in the fridge to try to salvage what I could.

Hoping that it would start to chill and hold together.

NOPE!

Darn thing started to slide right off the cake platter! URGH!!

We had no choice...

We cut the rest of the cake in half and put it into 2 large bowls and made:

@@@@@THE ULTIMATE LEMON TRIFLE CAKE@@@@@

THIS WAS THE BEST DARN TRIFLE WE'VE EVER MADE!!

HILLARIOUS!!

We were having supper the other night, and Hanlin devoured his.. very quickly without taking a breathe... and asked for seconds by grunting and pointing.. after reminding him of his manners.. I got up to get a second plate of food..

(Chicken Souvlaki, Persian Rice, Greek Salad and homemade pita! YUM) ( Took 2 of us all day to cook, but soo worth it!)

anyway, as I was getting his food, I hear Isabelle ask him.. Are you OK?... What's Wrong??

I turn around to find him holding his hand to his mouth with huge eyes! I grabbed a bucket.. (yeah, that is where my mind goes with 4 kids.. puke...) but he was still pointing for seconds..ok, so no puke!! whew!

So I stood beside him and watched for 15 seconds.. assessing..he made a little gurgle.. and gasp with surprise.. and I realized what was happening and brust out laughing!!

I said to him.."Hanlin.. you have the HICCUPS!".. "Watch... relax"....hiccup "see a hiccup!

I love having them! They're fun and they won't hurt you!"

How can some one not ever have the hiccups in 5.5years??

He relaxed and enjoyed his first case of the Hiccups! and his second plate of food.. which went into a third plate.. oh god.. the grocery bill we'll have when he's a teenager!!! OUCH!