Busy Times!

It is been a busy couple of weeks. Thought I'd take a minute to recap.

Two weekends ago, the girls attended Gabba Gabba's 5th birthday party at Kazoum, one of those indoor playgrounds. They had such a great time running around and surprisingly, Alexia was able to keep up with all the big girls. Of course, she had her big sister to make sure she was OK!

It was yet another birthday party the following day. This time it was one of Alexia's music classmates, William, who turned 1. They had this most incredibly large inflatable set up in the local high school gym. His dad being a techer there obviously has connections. You may notice that there are more photos of this party as I knew no one there.

Last Saturday morning, we went to the Santa Claus Parade in downtown Montreal. We have been going to this event for the last several years and although it is fun for the kids, it is truly a huge effort for the parents. It's usually cold, you have to park miles away, lug your chairs and cameras and stuff all those miles only to sit there for an hour anxiously awaiting Santa Claus' arrival. And what does he do?? He zips by soooo quickly that I didn't even have time to snap a picture. And right behind his float is the street washers, you know spraying water and all! So I didn't get to see Santa but I got a free boot wash!

That same evening was the annual Fall Party for the Italian Association that I helped plan. All went well even though things were looking a little meeger days earlier. I nearly got an ulcer as no tickets were sold prior to the event. All tickets were sold at the door. A little difficult to plan when you don't know how many will show. In the end we had 130 people attend when we had planned for 140. Not a bad guess!

I wasn't really thinking when I planned a mini-reunion for Cara-Li's adoption group for the very next morning. We went for an early dim-sum lunch followed by another visit to an indoor playground, this time in Laval. We were there for nearly 4 hours and the girls were soooo exhausted by days end. They were both snoring in the back seat 5 seconds after we left! This day got me thinking. How many of our parents would have sat on terribly uncomfortable chair drinking terrible coffee for 4 hours while their children played? I know my parents wouldn't have!

And finally for this weekend, since Gordie is in St. Louis having a grand old time with the boys, we decided to sort of lay low. I took the girls to see Fantastic Mr. Fox last night. It was Alexia's first time at the movies. She was pretty good but didn't understand the concept of using her little voice when the movie was playing. Good thing we had lots of popcorn as that kept her mouth busy! This morning, after dropping the girls off at our friend, J's, house, I headed off for some power shopping. 23 kiddie gifts for the Italian Xmas party and 43 for the Chinese Xmas party! I had a plan and was able to purchase all but one gift. And all this before a 2:30 birthday party on the South Shore for M who turned 3. M's party was a snowman theme so it was snowman all the way from snowman foam art to snowman cookie decorating to a snowman BD cake. A great time was had by all!

Well, that's it for now. It is pretty late now on Sunday night and I need to get my beauty sleep! Night-night!

Frustrated!

I am soooooo frustrated today! Everything in my life is either broken, degenerating, not working properly or falling apart!

• my favorite little under-the-counter TV in the kitchen blew up the other night. Worst part is no one will fix it nor can I find a replacement. My life is over!
• my NEW microwave is making a rattling sound
• the NEW hinges on our kitchen cabinets are breaking one by one (I walked in the other day to find Gord with an entire cabinet door in his hand!)
• my newly remodeled kitchen will never get finished (Gord refuses to paint the walls and new door)
• Gord left the garage door open and a little family of mice moved in (we did catch the buggers though!)
• my CD player will not play
• Cara-Li's computer only connects to Internet when it wants to
• my video Ipod is full and therefore cannot download any more shows (I have fixed this problem... bought a new, much bigger Ipod)
• the door handle to Cara-Li's closet remained in my hand while the other one fell on my foot (those old glass knobs are VERY heavy!)
• the closet door handle broke and poor nanny had to wait an hour to get her coat
• there is a 10 foot long gash in my work office (we had water leaking between the walls) that I know will never get closed up
• the lights on my dash in the car are all lit up making it look like a Xmas tree
• my ceiling in the family room is falling down (water damage from 2 years ago)
• Gord finally changed the outdoor light bulb that has been burnt for 2 months only to discover another one burnt out last night

Need I go on? Oh, yeah! I got up early this AM to go to Wal-Mart to get some things off my list. Forgot my purse at home...

Even Moms Make Mistakes!

It has been a week since my 'odd' experience and I now feel OK to talk about it here.

We went out for dinner last Friday with 3 other couples to celebrate our dear friend P's birthday. You know, a night out, adults only at a really hip restaurant on Mont Royal. I was really looking forward to it as it had been a while since we had done this sans kids. In fact, the day started with an unexpected H1N1 vaccination. The regulations had changed and Cara-Li had the day off from school so we rushed off to get that done. Anyway, fast forward to dinner. We began the evening with cocktails, followed by a lovely dinner and lots and lots of wine. At one point after our main course, I began to feel a little funny. I wasn't able to follow the conversation. In fact, it made me feel like I was spiraling out of control. And then I felt it. I was going to pass out. Since I am a fainter by nature, I know what it feels like moments before the big crash. I was smart enough to reach over to the person next to me which happened to be birthday boy and state 'I am going to faint....'. At this point, Gord was also beside me as he saw that look on face (one that he has seen before). I was escorted outside to get some fresh air and that did bring me back a little. I was flopped over into their arms and I could feel myself going. I tried to convince myself to go but something inside me said not to as I had the feeling that I would never come back. So here I was, outside on Mont Royal street, flopped over feeling like I was circling the drain for what was about 10 minutes. A verrrrry long ten minutes as I fought and struggled. And then I was back. Just like that. I went back in the restaurant, drank some water as we waited to pay. And then, I was going again. The lights were going out again. So I was whisked off once again into the cool night air. By the time we went back in the restaurant a second time, we had really given all the patrons quite the show! No one really quite understood what was going on. After that, I was fine, shaken up a bit, but fine.

Another funny thing about that night. We were driving home when Gord decided we had to stop at a convenience store. What was really funny was that it was 10:36PM. Gord was going in to buy 4 bottles of water. In our younger days, we'd still be buying beer at that time!

Anyway, after what happened that night, I spent all of Saturday being grateful that I was alive. It was a very strange experience to say the least, one that I will not soon forget.

The moral of the story is even Moms make mistakes!

Cute Alexia Video

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Isn't she just the cutest?

Interesting how no one commented on my trip to Hawaii...

Some People are Just Plain Lucky!

I am very lucky to still see my childhood BFF on a very regular basis, LC. We have been through so much together: childhood play, puberty, boyfriends etc. When LC got married and had a child, her priorities changed (rightfully so) and I was single and childless. So enter my now BFF, LG. We met when we were in our early twenties and she has been there through cegep, boyfriends and many adult like problems. Needless to say, I consider myself extremely lucky to have two BFFs!

So a few weeks ago, my now BFF, LG, announces that she has won a trip to Hawaii! Lucky her. And everyone assumes that, she being single and I being her BFF, that I would be the lucky recepient of that second ticket to Hawaii. Also, LG is the one I went to Paris with last year and we decided that we would travel together once every 2 years. A shoe in, you all think. But she did the honorable thing and took the time to think about.

Last night, at my 25th High School Reunion, which I attended with LC, my childhood BFF, one of the door prizes was a 7-day cruise in the Caribean. I was feeling somewhat lucky and having won nothing of the 120 door prizes, I just assumed that my number, 126, was in that box to win the trip. And with every number being pulled out, my odds were getting greater. The MC draws the number and (enter drumroll here), the winning number was......................................................................................................................




127!!!!



My BFF is the winner! Great for her. Not so great for me as she just announced to me that after 6 years of being single (she's divorced), she now has a boyfriend. Guess who'll be going on the trip....

Fast forward to this morning, I call LG to tell her the funny outcome. That my 2 BFFs has both won trips and I was flat out on my ass! LG then proceeds to beat around the bush and finally announces that




I AM GOING TO HAWAII!!!!!!



YAHOO! So, in fact, having not actually won anything myself, I've got one trip to Hawaii in the bag and if I play my cards right and lobby quietly, LC may come to her senses and see that I am much more important that some new found boyfriend and take me instead! Heehee!

25th High School Reunion

So today started off with a visit to my hairdresser to get my hair done for my 25th high school reunion. Wow! 25 years already! Where has all the time gone? I had been looking forward to this event for awhile yet I am still unsure why. My high school years weren't exactly the best years of my life. I was way too shy and way too insecure of myself. But for some reason, it was like I wanted to go back, stand tall and say to everyone, here I am! So that's what I did. I attended with my two girlfriends, the same two that I spent the entire 5 years attached to. It actually made many people smile to see us still together after all those years! Here is the one picture that I did manage to have taken. The organizing committee hired a photographer to snap shots of the entire evening and of every guest arriving on the red carpet (just like stars!). These pictures will be available in a few weeks and I will post more then.





I was not the only one to attend a party. Cara-Li and Alexia were invited to M's birthday party at Build-a-Bear Workshop. Here they are with Chocolate and Brownie, the new additions to our household!

Please Join us for a Tea Party!

Stick a fork in me... I am done like dinner. When planning your daughter's 3rd birthday party with approximately 30 guests, here's a word of advice. Do not, under any circumstance, plan to have the party the day after Halloween! Halloween is already a day that requires lots of preparation. Costumes to plan and make, hundreds and hundreds of treat bags to pack, piles of pumpkins to carve. Not to mention the traditional dinner of pumpkin soup, chili and corn muffins. Add to this, a tea party. Oy!

I spent most of Saturday preparing the stuffing for 4 different tea sandwiches, baking teeny tiny cupcakes and scones, not to mention doing all the shopping. Then all of Sunday morning was dedicated to decorating and actually making and plating all the food. Good thing high tea is in the afternoon!

All little guests were asked to wear hat and gloves if they wished and were invited to bring their favorite teddy or doll for tea. We had some games for them such as 'Pin the Tea Bag on the Teapot' and 'Hot Tea Pot'. Not to mention some arts and crafts. Several types of teas were served (of course) along with the food. I forgot to make coffee (I was really concerned about the tea) and some people made comments that it was somewhat strange not to see any coffee in sight since we are afterall in the coffee business!

ll in all, it wa great. Alexia enjoyed her day and that's all that counts.

Here are some pictures of the day.