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!

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.

3 Years Old, Already!

Today is my little Alexia's 3rd Birthday. How can that be? It seems it was not too long ago that we received the referral of an 8 month old baby girl? And now she is 3!

Alexia is such a great girl... smart, funny and quite a handful. She really does run this household as do most babies, I guess. Alexia loves her Jie Jie, Cara-Li, to pieces. Very often, she will reach over during a meal and give Cara-Li a big kiss on the cheek unsolicited. And that love goes both ways. Cara-Li takes such good care of her Mei Mei and enjoys playing with her tremendously. They are truly lucky to have one another.

Alexia, Xia Xia, my sweet pea... A very Happy Birthday to you!

We love you with all our hearts!

7th Birthday Celebrations

Today, we celebrated Cara-Li's 7th birthday with 14 dear friends from school and 'life'. It was a cooking party. The invitation was printed in the form of a recipe card and all guests had to make their own pizzas, salads and sundaes. Since the party was held at Loblaws, the kids had to go get their own groceries from the store. So upon arrival, each child received an apron and a chef hat. They were then divided into 3 teams. We had an adult assigned to each team and off we were to roam the store armed with a grocery list. My team was responsible for pizza ingredients. Up and down the aisles I went with 5 screaming kids running in all directions. Customers thought it to be the funniest thing to see 15 kids dressed like little chefs running through the store. That's because they were not the adult trying to control them :) Anyway, my team was pretty well-behaved until we approached the sliced olives. The 5 girls spotted them simultaneously and then as I watched in slow motion, there were a pile of olive cans flying in the air with one glass jar crashing to the ground. They all stopped, looked at each other, and one said, 'Guess we'll have to pay for that!' Too funny. Once in the kitchen, the kids had to chop, slice, and dice all the ingredients before actually making their pizzas, salads and sundaes. We also played theme appropriate game such as 'Pin the moustache on the chef' and 'Guess what this kitchen gadget does'. Auntie L made 2 wonderful 'pizza' cakes to help ring in her 7th birthday. The kids loved the fact that they could have pizza for dessert!

''7''

Today is a very special day. My sweet Cara-Li is 7 years old. Where has the time gone? Where is that frightened little girl that we met in China some years ago? In her place, we have a young lady that is so full of life with so much love to give. Over the years, Cara-Li has gained the confidence needed and freed herself from her fears and inhibitions. In the first few days she was with us, I knew she was special, a child with a heart of gold. I handed her a bowl of Cheerios and after figuring out that it was food, she went around the room and fed all the other babies first before actually eating herself . Till this day, Cara-Li does the very same thing. Cara-Li... my baby, my girl, my everything! Happy Birthday. I love you with all my heart.

Love Mom

Togas and Cottages

Phew!! What a weekend! Going to work is much easier, I am sure. Gord is in Arizona until Wednesday so I am alone with the girls. We did not go to the cottage this weekend as our dear friend J had her 10th birthday party, a Greek Mythology theme where all guests had to wear togas. Fine if it is 25 degrees out... not so much if it is -25 out! So we got up early in the AM and pulled out all our white sheets and tablecloths. I have not done this since I was 18! Alexia donned a card table tablecloth as she is little, Cara-Li had a slightly larger one and I wrapped myself in the largest tablecloth I could find. Lots of safety pins later and this is what we came up with.

J's parties are always the best! Her Mom always goes way out to convert their house into whatever the theme may be. So there were lots of columns and lots of flowing fabrics and lots of gold stuff. Of course, lunch was everything Greek from souvlaki to Greek salad to tzatziki... well you get the picture. For dessert, baklava and a chocolate fountain. Oh, of course, there was a birthday cake too! For entertainment, bobbing for olives (really large black grapes), Greek mythology quizzes and wonderwords, pin the eyeball on the the cyclops etc. There was a caricaturist on hand for all little guests to get their portrait done. Cara-Li's and Alexia's turned out so well that I already framed them and are ready for hanging. By the end of the said event, I dragged my 2 poor little tired children home (luckily we live just down the street) and dropped them into their beds. They were spent as I was!

We were supposed to lay low the next day but when I woke up to a wonderful and sunny morning, I convinced Cara-Li to go skiing. So off we were by 9:30 to get to the cottage to pick up our snow suits and then to the slopes 10 minutes from there. Only problem is once we got to the cottage (after we stopped at Ikea to get frames for the portraits), I discovered upon entering that our furnace had broken. Yup, saw my breath again. Twice in one week... I am seeing a pattern here. It was below 0 in the house and everything that is supposed to be in a liquid state was frozen solid. The question was, do I turn around and pretend that I was never there? After all, the damage is done. But the responsible side of me said no, you must assess the situation. So I dragged my 2 tired kids into the friggen igloo while I went into the basement to try to start the furnace. Need I remind you that Gord is sitting in balmy Arizona while my fingertips are falling off looking for the reset button on the furnace. It started at the flick of the switch and well, instead of watching the cottage thaw, we went skiing for a few hours. Once at the hill, I forgot about these recurring cottage troubles and picked up my new skis. Yes, I broke down and bought them. They were waiting for me at the pro shop as I had ordered them by phone. All is good with a new pair of skis. Upon our return to the cottage, all had thawed nicely except for a leak in the basement coming from the bathtub above which I think might have been there prior. Now, I believe that this is the 4th or 5th time the furnace has crapped out on us over the years. The furnace is new so I don't know exactly what causes it to stop. Well, it hasn't crapped out on us, it's always crapped out on ME in particular. Mysteriously, Gord is always out of the country and is usually somewhere very warm when all this happens. So I will be ordering the Freeze Alarm ASAP as I have asked Gord to do so so many times in the past. This little gizmo will alert you by phone when the temperature in the cottage drops below a certain degree. Happy Birthday, Gord! You just got yourself a early birthday present!