Sunny Sunday

Well what a beautiful weekend it was. To think it's only April and having had another great weekend of weather is almost too good to be true. While Saturday started out painfully for me (I had a 13km run that I managed to get through with the help of my running buddy), it ended with the company of wonderful friends and conversation over good food (If I do say so myself). Today, after spending 3 hours putting a BBQ together with Andrew, we took the kiddies out for some warm sun & fresh air. Our first destination was Quidi Vidi, followed by ice cream and then Middle Cove beach for some frolicking in the sun.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

What's in the box Mom?

Say iceberg!

Oooo, that's a little cold!

First meal on the BBQ!

Charlotte's Dance Recital

My beautiful little dancer (who LOVES to pose for the camera)

Charlotte LOVES to dance. She's always dancing. The house, the park, the car, the shops, anywhere she hears music, she starts to dance. 


We put Charlotte in dance for the first time when she was two. She had, in fact just turned two the month before so was one of the youngest in her class. I always said she was a interpretive dancer, dancing to her own beat so to speak. When it came time for the recital, all the Mommies were a little worried about their 2 year olds dancing on stage in front of the bright lights, having a very late night and having some sort of emotional meltdown. Well, the meltdown was left for this Mommy (I cried when the first little kiddies came on stage and Charlotte's class wasn't until much later). Charlotte did wonderfully. She watched her teachers as they did the steps too, and it was the cutest thing. I remember last year when I stood in line with all the other parents vying for tickets. One father said he paid hundreds of dollars to watch his child stand on stage and pick her nose. We all laughed (while inside hoping that wouldn't be our child) but you know what, even if it had been, it would have been worth it. The little ones dancing, so very cute.

Last Year's dance recital. Charlotte is 3rd from left.

Last night was Charlotte's second dance recital. I sent her to daycare for the morning (I needed a little birthday time to myself) and picked her up in the afternoon to take her home and get her ready. I gave myself lots of time to do her hair (I am not a hairdresser) and well, by the time 5pm came round, she was pretty much ready to go and we were all running around like crazy people. But, we were at the recital by 6pm and Charlotte was as excited as she could be. We kissed her, told her to break a leg and she was gone into the bowels of the arts and culture centre where the next time we'd see her would be on stage.


 It was the first time that Charlotte was on the stage sans teachers and she had a blast. Did she do all the steps? Nope. Did she do most of the steps? Not really. Did she do some of the steps? Absolutely. Did she enjoy it? You betcha. From the moment she came out on stage hand in hand with her partner Ava (aka her best dancing friend) she had a blast. She stood there, looked around, saw (and pointed to) the flowers motif behind her, twirled, clapped hands and danced with Ava when she was supposed to (or close to the right time) and had a ball doing it. All the kiddies did. They were just so darned cute.

Last night's recital - The Green Grass Grows. Charlotte is 4th from right.

The finale was another 3 hours later and yes, Charlotte stayed for that too. She wanted to see the balloons at the end and when all the dancers came on stage, her class was one of the last to come out and hand in hand they did. They were all still smiling after a very long day and still had a great time (although Charlotte found the music a tad too loud). After the recital I went down and got her. She looked so very tired but smiled when we handed her the flowers from us and Nana and Poppy. Although she wouldn't have her picture taken then, we did convince her to have more pictures taken when we got home. Then, once the excitement had subsided, we got her into bed and off she went to dreamland. 

Flowers from Mommy & Daddy

Flowers from Nana and Poppy

I'm already looking forward to next year. There are really only a couple of more years where the fun of being on stage outweighs the need to do the dance correctly and in time with everyone. While it'll still be lovely to see her dance and progress, there's nothing like seeing her on stage now, doing what she loves to do. DANCE.

Turning 39

So I turned 39 today. My last year as a thirty-something. Andrew asked me last night how I felt. Me being one of many words said “good”. It is good that I am turning 39. I have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children. I am surrounded by loving family and friends, who are there for me, whenever I need them. I can’t really ask for more.

When I turned 30, I marked that year by running the London Marathon and then touring Europe for 6 weeks before moving to Ontario to start our new life in Canada. It was a big year. The year I turned 32, we packed up our belongings, put the 6-week-old puppy we’d just bought in the front seat with me and drove to St. John’s to continue our life in Canada. We were blessed beyond belief when Charlotte came into our lives the year I turned 35 and then last year, our sweet little boy completed our family. I’ve had a good run in my thirties.

I still have one year left as a thirty-something and for me; it’s going to be a big one. What does this year hold for me? Well, at the moment, I am training to run the Tely 10 and then a ½ marathon in September. I’m not a runner (well, yeah, I guess I am), but it doesn’t come naturally, so it’s a big thing to be running these long weekend runs. I am also working on something that I can’t share with you at the moment, but that will be a life-changing event that I have huge aspirations for. Sounds interesting doesn’t it? I can’t wait to share.

But, more than all this, I have my family. I have another year (one of many) to spend time with my husband and watching our children live, love, laugh, grow, learn and most of all, be kids.  It’s what I look forward to most of all.

So, no, I don’t mind turning 39. Instead, I look forward to the next year and all that turning the big 4-0 has to offer.

Today, I had a wonderful day. Breakfast and pressies with the family, a leisurely day which included a run, coffee with baileys and cake (all before 11am) and getting my little girl ready for her dance recital tonight. In all, a wonderful 39th birthday.

This was one of my favourite gifts from Charlotte and Harrison.

Charlotte made my cake... with a little help from Daddy. 

Harrison is Eight Months Old Today!

Today my baby is 8 months old. Another month has come and gone. Harrison isn't feeling the greatest at the moment. He had a temperature for a couple of days and now he's just not a happy boy. While he seemed better today, he still wasn't himself. It took a lot to get a smile out of him and well, even then it was just a small one.


Harrison is a joy to have around. He's such a happy baby. He's been sleeping through the night (well, until the past couple of days) and has a couple of naps a day. 


Charlotte still makes him laugh the most and he's fascinated with everything she does. He of course puts everything in his mouth which annoys Charlotte to no end when it's one of her toys. It's quite funny actually. It's as if he does it just to tease her. A glimpse of the future maybe?


Harrison has a good appetite. Not as good as Charlotte, but good. He pretty much eats what we do and we're starting to make the pieces a little bigger. His favourite food is banana, followed closely behind by apple and prunes. 


He's on the move. Slowly but surely. Harrison moves backwards and in circles and is now starting to pull himself along the floor. Especially if there's something in front of him that he's not supposed to have. He's particularly partial to the remote control. He puts his legs under him, but he just needs to figure out how to work with them. He'll get there.


Still a little guy. Big things come in small packages. That's what I always said about Charlotte and what I say about Harrison. He's got his Daddy's short legs (still wearing 3-6 months pants) but a longer body. He's now wearing 6-12 month clothes and weighs between 15-16 pounds. He's not a chubby baby but still has kissable and pinchable cheeks.


Harrison's starting to get a real personality now. He is always sticking his tongue out and will put his mouth on my chin and blow raspberries. He hasn't said any words yet, but when I say Mom, Mom, Mom and Dad, Dad, Dad, he just laughs. No teeth either. I'm hoping that's why he's feeling like he is now and they'll be down pretty soon.


So, that's Harrison at 8 months. He makes us smile everyday, even when he's not feeling much like doing so.


Love you babes!

Harrison just wasn't in the mood for a photo today. I took this one on Easter Sunday.

Crafty Wednesday

Today Charlotte and I looked for some crafts for her to do today and while we saw some that we're going to do once I get the supplies, there was nothing that took her fancy.


Charlotte loves to paint. She often paints pictures for people we're going to see or who we've recently seen. You can't ask her to paint a picture for someone, she has to want to paint one. About a month or so ago, after we'd had a snowstorm, our next door neighbour was out shovelling his driveway. Ben and his wife Daisy are in their late 60s, have three grown children and 4 grandkids. They are a lovely couple who whenever they see Charlotte call out to her and say hello. Well, Ben saw Charlotte watching her in the window and waved to her. She in turn, waved to him and then blew him a kiss. She right then and there decided she was going to paint Ben a picture. 


So, we got out the paints and a painting she did go. Later that day, we went out and shovelled and I suggested that we take the picture over to Ben. She readily agreed and we went over and gave the painting of a rainbow to Ben. She told him she wanted him to have a "rainbow day". No, I'm not kidding. He thought that was lovely and went for his wallet and gave her $5. I told him not to, but there was no point. It was too late. As we left and he closed his door I heard him say to his wife "that made my day". I said to Charlotte "you just sold your first painting!"


Ben and Daisy are having new siding put on their house. They started it on Monday. When Charlotte saw someone working on their house she asked my what they were doing. I told her they were getting new siding put on and she wondered what colour. (She'd like to have a pink house). I told her that the next time we saw Ben she should ask him. So, later that morning we were outside in the garden and Ben came over to say Hi and give Charlotte some Easter candy. She then asked him what colour the house was going to be. He told her yellow. She seemed very happy with that. Ben then said he'd bring over a piece of the siding if he had any left over. I didn't think much of it until yesterday evening, a knock came on the door and here was Ben with two pieces of siding!


Charlotte was very excited and well, I just wondered what we were going to do with them. Well, today Charlotte asked if we could make something out of them. I told her we'd have to think about that and see what we could come up with. This afternoon, after playing outside and getting some rocks for another project, she decided to paint them. She got out her paints and decided what colours she'd use and well, this is what we got. It actually looks quite nice. I'm going to suggest we trim the edge though.

Decorating Easter Eggs

Today was a beautiful sunny day (well, the majority of it was sunny). It started for us in Mount Pearl where Andrew dropped me off and went for breakfast with Charlotte and Harrison while I met a couple of friends who were running the Tely 10 route at the 4 mile mark and ran the rest of the way with them. It was great to run outside in the sunshine but even better to have someone to run with. The time went quite fast and before we knew it, we were at Bannerman Park where I met up with Andrew and the kids.


This afternoon we decided to decorate some eggs as we're out tomorrow afternoon. This is the first year for doing this with Charlotte. I bought a kit to do it last year and we didn't get around to it.I don't know if she would have had as much fun as she did this year.  I found an idea online for decorating eggs with crayons. You boil the eggs and while they are still hot, you colour them with crayons. We thought we'd try them rather than the kit I had. I thought that they'd be more vibrant in colour and I was right. They turned out great.

Once the eggs were boiled, we put them in egg cups and coloured them. I had cut up some crayons as well which gave a really nice effect. You have to be careful when you turn them over to colour the other side as they are hot and slippery. We also took a couple of coloured ones and lightly went over them with a paper towel. They blended the colours and gave a nice effect.

The look of concentration

Trying out the shaved crayon

In all, Charlotte had a great time and coloured some lovely eggs. She wanted to display them in individual egg cups so we cut up an egg carton, painted the cups and they will display the eggs over the next couple of days. 

The eggs in their cups

Hot Cross Buns

I LOVE traditions. Easter for me holds many traditions. When I was younger we had our family traditions that we did every year. Going to church, decorating eggs, putting out our Easter baskets for the Easter bunny, having the Easter egg hunt in the morning and of course getting together with family for an Easter dinner. 


Now that I have my own family, we're starting our own Easter traditions. Many of which we did when I was younger. This year Charlotte is old enough to understand more about the Easter bunny. We've also explained to her about the religious aspect of Easter but that's going to take a little more explaining for her to fully understand. 


Every Good Friday, I make Hot Cross buns. It's become one of the traditions. This Good Friday morning, I'll be running 10km of the Tely 10 route with a couple of friends (maybe a new tradition?). As a result, I decided to make my hot cross buns today so that I wouldn't have to worry about them tomorrow. Instead, following our run, I'll have the rest of the day to spend with the family. 


I've tried a number of different recipes, but this one I used today, is very good. I got it from allrecipes.com. Rather than use the recipe for the icing (I find it never makes a good cross), I used the leftover icing from our bunny cakes and added in a little orange juice. They were a big hit with everyone. Yummy!

Mmmmm good - just out of the oven!

Crafty Wednesday

Well, today was another busy one. Breakfast, tidying and cleaning the house, a 3 mile run and a shower all before 11am! With all that out of the way, and with Harrison having two naps, we got on with some craft time.


Today's crafts were Easter themed. Both were a little more advanced for Charlotte so she could only help a little, but she still enjoyed seeing them develop. 


I got the idea for the first one from a fellow mama in Harrison's play date group. She's a Pathfinder leader and was making these with her group. I thought they'd make a cute little craft for Charlotte. This little guy is made from two Vachon half moon cakes put together. You cover the cakes with icing and then decorate. We used mini M&Ms for the eyes and nose and licorice shoelaces for whiskers. I tried covering the body with a white confetti type candy, but it didn't really work and Charlotte was a little impatient to wait for them to be completely covered. The result, cute little bunnies that Charlotte couldn't wait to sink her teeth into. :)

Charlotte's little bunny

After lunch and while Harrison was napping for the second time, I decided to make an Easter banner I'd been thinking about for a couple of weeks. I saw it on this blog and thought it very cute. I had spent the past couple of weeks contemplating on how I'd make the banner. The blog gives a template which is great. My contemplation came on what I'd make the banner out of. Kara used book pages for the background and patterned paper for the eggs. The eggs, no problem. I have lots of coloured card stock that would be great for an Easter themed banner. The problem was the background. The book pages. Being a lover of books, I couldn't see myself cutting up a book. So, I looked at other card stock I had - plain paper, patterned, coloured, white. I didn't like the options. They clashed with the eggs. So, I went to look at some of my books. I found a couple I had read and didn't like so I justified cutting them up that way. 


So, using the template from the website, I traced out the banner on the book pages and cut them out. I did the same for the eggs. To make the eggs 3D, I folded one of the eggs in half and then glued it to the other of the same colour. I then used distress ink along the edges of both the eggs and banners. Once they were all distressed, I folded the top of the banners (about an inch), placed the coloured wool in the crease and then glued the flap. I then glued the eggs to the centre and voila. One Easter banner.


I think it's quite cute.

Harrison's Birthday Gift- Week 2

This morning, before taking Harrison to his play date, we went off to Nana and Poppy's to spend some time on Harrison's gift. Well, I did. Harrison, he slept and played with Nana. 


So today we finished edging the boards and then joined them together to form the two end pieces of the project. Rather than just gluing and clamping them together, we used a biscuit joiner and cut grooves into the edges of the boards, inserted thin pieces of wood called biscuits and then glued the boards together. By doing it this way you make the boards stronger and there is less chance of them coming apart as the years go by.


Once the boards were joined together, we made sure the edges were even and the boards flat before tightening the clamps. One of the boards we had was bowed a bit, but with a little manoeuvring (thanks Dad) we got them nice and flat before the clamps were tightened and the glue dry.


The boards will now remain clamped for the next couple of days to ensure that the joins are as strong as possible. We don't want those boards moving!


Next week, we do the other sides. 

Once the edges are smooth, mark out where the slits are to go in the wood.

Always try the machines out on a scrap piece of wood before doing the real thing. You only get one chance!

Doing the real thing with the biscuit joiner

The boards with the biscuits ready to be inserted into the other piece

A close up of the biscuit. Make sure you put enough wood glue on to get a good seal

One of the end pieces clamped together and ready to dry