Mission 'Almost' Accomplished

UPDATE: Our friend C. called mid-afternoon on Thursday to see if we wanted to join her and her lovely daughter, G, for a quick bite at the Bistro before going to see a bunch of people shave their heads for charity. So there... the mission was, in fact, accomplished!!

During the week last week, I had made plans to dine out Wednesday and Thursday of this week. As I was sitting on the dock last Sunday, I received a Facebook invite for dinner on Monday. Since we are going away this weekend, Friday dinner would be in Stoneham. That left Tuesday night to fill and I would NOT be doing any cooking! So I scrambled a little to find something and then I remembered that our town always has a theme night in the park on Tuesdays. Perfect... Russian night for Tuesday!

So this is how it all panned (and will pan) out:

Monday: Dinner at Vino Restaurant to celebrate Mortimer's Mom's birthday. I was invited by one of her friends via Facebook and joined her galpals for a very loud but delightful dinner.

Tuesday: Russian Night was rained out but since the girls were at our friend's house for the evening, Gord and I went to the local Bistro and had a renovation meeting, a do we or don't we kind of discussion. Lots of lychee martinis and wine were consumed and by then, we pretty much agreed to go all out on the renos.

Wednesday: Dinner at Tapeo (a tapas bar) with A and C, our dear old friends and neighbors. It was fabulous! Not only was the company great but the food was outstanding. Anyone in the Montreal area MUST try this restaurant!

Thursday: Problem. Our dinner with M and E to celebrate our 2 year referral day called to cancel. Now what? I am scrambling to find a solution. Help!

Friday: Wine and cheese with Cara-Li's adoption group in Stoneham. We are gettting together with all 8 families for our annual reunion. Sound be fun!

Saturday: BBQ dinner in Stoneham.

Sunday: Dinner on the road on the way home.

And finally, Monday is the start of Phase One of the South Beach Diet which will last 2 weeks. No starches, no sugars and no ALCOHOL! Yikes...

Happy Referral Day!

Today, July 6th, marks 2 years since we got Alexia's referral. We didn't get to see her little face for another week but we did find out that there was an 8 month old baby girl named Guang Yun Xia waiting for us in China. And anyone who has gotten this call knows what a wonderful day referral day is. Certainly a day worth celebrating! In fact, we are going out for supper with another family that we travelled with this coming Thursday. We will be dining at the same restaurant as 2 years ago when we sat there totally consumed with excitement and anticipation. What a feeling! We are blessed to have this little girl join our family and the last 2 years could not have been the same without her. We love you Alexia Yun Xia!

Playgroup

This was Alexia's first day at playgroup which she goes to one morning a week. She was too cute and so proud to be going to 'school' with her backpack and a snack. The dropoff went extremely well, too well in fact, as she did not even bat an eyelash when I dropped her off :( She was just too excited to be doing what she big sister is doing!

Happy Canada Day!

First off, I would like to wish all my fellow Canadians a very Happy Canada Day! This is a day that we should be thankful that we are Canadians and truly be proud of who we are.

This is what we did on this day to commemorate it:

Since Canada Day fell on a Wednesday this year, we decided to spend it in town. Montreal-West always hold a parade through town followed by a party in the park complete with BBQ, bouncy games, cotton candy, band and fireworks.

Here is a photo of the Farrell Family on this day. Do you think we are proud Canadians?

There was a bunch of special guests at the parade such as clowns, RCMP officers and the SQ (provincial police).

The girls had such a great time with all their friends and most espedcially Cara-Li who got to stay out until 11:30PM to see the fireworks with her Dad!

Recap

Whew! Time is certainly flying by and it's not because we're spending all our waking moments enjoying the summer. The weather has not been great but yet we are still busy with everything!

Here's what we've been up to:

Cara-Li finished school almost 2 weeks ago with rave reviews from her wonderful teacher, Mme. V, who mentionned to me that Cara-Li was the student that showed the greatest improved throughout the year. She started off hardly speaking any French and being very reserved and quiet to a a young girl who is no longer shy to speak French. As Mme. V put it, 'Cara-Li blossomed into a beautiful rose right before everyone's eyes.' It is soooo nice to hear this and after my 5 minute telephone conversation with Mme. V, I was certainly the proudest Mom on earth! Congratulations Cara-Li on your success in 1st grade!

For Father's Day, we went to Granby Zoo. Every year we go to a park of sorts with the girls on this day. It is a great way to spend the day. This year we packed a lunch as I didn't want to eat the usual junk available at these places. It was great fun! Granby Zoo has been totally renovated adding a waterpark which is always welcomed at the end of the day when it is really hot out. To end the day, we then had dinner at my parents' house.

These bats were NOT part of the zoo animals. They were just these wild things hanging up side down for a nap! They were HUGE!

Next... since Cara-Li finished school a week before most, we sent her to the Day Camp at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts with a neignbour of ours, S. There she discovered that a girl from her class was also attending. The day always started off with a visit to the museum, sketching what they saw and then followed by reproducing their interpretion of the art. They did some painting, sculpting, stain glass painting and watercolour. It all ended with a vernissage where we got to visit the museum and their art work. It was extremely fabulous and Cara-Li really enjoyed her week there. After the exhibit, we had 30 minutes to kill before picking up a frien, we decided to stop off at Pub Alexandre and I had a wonderful Kir Royale on the terrace just like in Paris! A great start to the weekend!

Cara-Li is now in the Mo-West Day Camp for 4 weeks and in swimming for 9 weeks. She seems to be having fun with the other 10 boys in her group. Yup... they assign 1 girl with 10 boys! Who was the planner here? I was going to ask to have her moved but apparently she likes her group and doesn't want to change. Should I start worrying yet???

A couple of weeks ago, I, along with some friends from the neighbourhood, started power walking in the evening. We do this twice a week and for one hour. We are a group of eight and although not everyone comes each time, you are always guaranteed to have someone to walk with. We meet at 8:30PM at a particular corner and whoever is there is there. It has been great and my legs are starting to feel it. This is part of my get fit and lose weight program that I am on. So I go to the gym 3 times a week and power walk for 2. I rest on weekends. Also, in two weeks I will be starting the South Beach diet. With this, I should be able to lose the extra pounds that i didn't lose in the crazy diet from a few weeks ago. I am proud to say that I have not gained any of that weight back either!

Last weekend was our first weekend at the cottage. Luckily, there were no surprises. Gord was with us which explains the lack of surprise! Gord mysteriously is never around when stuff goes wrong at the cottage ;) Well, we did have one surprise. M, who is the 7 year old granddaughter of our cottage neighbour, was up visiting. Cara-Li and M. have not seen each other in 2 years but did not miss a stride. They kept going back and forth from one house to the other the entire weekend. M. is 2 days older than Cara-Li and is also adopted but from Georgia (not USA but Russia) so they have a very special connection. Here are some pictures of the girls fishing. Too cute!

That is all for now. Will try to post more frequently instead of one huge one every 2 weeks.

Happy Father's Day!

Dear Daddy,

We wish you, our Daddy, the bestest in the world, a very Happy Daddy's Day. We will have fun today going to the zoo to see all the animals. Thank you for all the things that you do for us like kissing our booboos and brushing our hair and playing with us.

We love you lots!!!

Your daughters,

Cara-Li and Alexia

Some Thoughts

Some of you asked what were the results of that nutty diet I was on last week. I lost 5 lbs. in 1 week. I must say I felt like crap during that week but now my clothes are fitting so much better! I need to lose 5 more lbs. but the memories of last week are still too fresh to start again. I will wait a little before doing it again. Mom lost 7 lbs. and Gord lst 8 lbs. My first meal was not too tasty and I had trouble getting it in, lunch was a little better and pretty normal by dinner. Now I am trying to be careful of what I eat until I figure out some sort of plan. I also continue to exercise 3 times a week. We shall see...

A couple of bittersweet moments this week:

First, I unpacked the diaper bag and retired it for good. Great news as Alexia is out of diapers... sad news as I most probably will never use that bag again :(

Second, Cara-Li scored her first goal at soccer today in the pouring rain (what a trouper!). Sad part, Mom wasn't there to witness it (I'm not crazy to sit in the rain!).

Third, for the first time I thought to myself that 2 kids is as much as we can handle. Always thought that we might go for a third but at this point I really feel that 2 is just right for our family. A little sad...