Tuesday Night 10:00 p.m.

Home by 8:45. Picked up C on the way home.
Rob is away tonight for work - so the girls were on their own. C actually had to walk to work.
Ev made dinner - leftover tortellini was the plan but I spied some cans in the recycle bin so Mr. Chefboyardee may have made an appearance.
I finally made some banana muffins - only 17 black bananas left in the freezer.
The girls are all up to bed now, Leah had a bath and I tucked her into my bed. Dishes are done, sinks are clean and empty and I'm sitting here with a glass of wine, blue cheese and crackers.
Everyone has their stuff at the door as it is going to be a busy morning.
Cheerleading at 6. I have to be out of the house early as well (though not that early), so Leah is getting shipped to the neighbours when I leave. That is good news all round for Leah and the 3 girls next door - they haven't seen each other for a week.
I have to get to the passport office as soon as it opens tomorrow. I'm supposed to be flying to Washington on Thursday night - just need a passport and - well, let's just see how I do with the passport before I ask for another vacation day....
Just a few more things to do before bed:
Send an invite for the Cousin's Easter party
Find location of passport office
Try not to pour another glass of wine
Find iPod headphones that someone "borrowed"
Get my stuff ready for tomorrow
Stretch
All is good.

Last week

...was March Break. It was relaxing - which means that we didn't do much. Mostly because mom was keeping in touch with work - especially on Monday and Tuesday. However, the girls did get to a movie, had some sleepovers, spent time with Grandma and Grandpa, did some makeovers, did some shopping and made it in to the city for an afternoon. Some pix from that day:

On our way we dropped in to Dad's office - thanks for lunch!


The little girls enjoyed the subway ride -


Ev caught up with Glenn Gould -


Checking out the tribute to workers killed on the job -



Watching for falling cars on Queen Street -



Just realized that next March Break I will be working in Vancouver. Wow!
Thanks girls for putting up with workng mom. Hope you have some good memories from our time together.

Mission Den Declutter

Sunday afternoon - and here I am finally in the den where I should have been last Monday - to declutter.
Finding lots of interesting things - throwing out as much as I can, finding a place for the rest - have only scratched the surface.

i. I've unearthed lots of items of interest that belong to Leah. One is a list of text message acronyms (now posted on her bulletin board)and the other is a sheet of lyrics to Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" (also on her bulletin board).
One evening I heard her in the den playing it OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN. She, like the rest of our family, is entranced by that song, and wanted to learn all the words. There she was, pen in hand, listening intently, and madly writing down each word as fast as she could. I helped her a bit, then suggested that we look up the lyrics online. That opened up a whole new world for her. We found and printed lyrics to many of her favourite songs. I'm hoping that I find her handwritten notes - those will be put away in her scrapbook. Memories of my curious, passionate child.

ii. Yippee! I am catching up on family blogs and find that cousin Kyran just published an article on decluttering. Procrastination gives way to serendipity again!

iii. More loose pictures put away. 20 plus cords stashed away (we must have at least 100 cords - I'm sure that we don't have 100 electronic devices). Of course, I still can't find the cord for Leah's camera. I want to download pix from our only March break adventure and can't! However, I did find Leah's runners, gym clothes and library book.

Break time: Leah and I are taking turns reading. Time to stop multi-tasking. The laundry, blog, clutter, lunches will just have to wait.

Fabulous Fifteen

Well, it has come to this. A fifteen year old Ev. How did we celebrate? With 15+ of our closest friends and family.
Let's see:

Sharing birthday cakes with cousin Brandon (6 on the 16th)



With mom and dad, Uncle Ron, Aunt Michelle, the Bassans & McCormacks

With Carson (modelling her grad dress) and Grandpa (Dad keeps asking- "that's a top right?")


And with big sis:


Ev got a call from the Florida Seniors Choir today - she loved that.
Happy birthday beautiful!

Catching up...

New uniforms:



Playing Rock Band with the cousins:




Bowling fundraiser for the Cheerleaders:

Snow Day!

Finally - a snow day! The kids stayed home from school, and I stayed home from work. I wasn't home because of the weather - although I'm sure there were major delays and problems with the trains, but because I had booked it off weeks earlier for some dr's appointments.

Even though the kids couldn't walk 5 blocks to school, I was able to drive back and forth across town for appointments and tests. (It was pretty slippery though.)

It was an added bonus to spend time with the kids in between appointments. Leah played next door all morning, then played outside with the neighbours for an hour or so.


They were at our place in the afternoon, playing American Idol karaoke - after some mugs of hot chocolate.

Ev had a great day too! She had 3 friends over and they spent most of the day setting up and posing as Teen Vogue models. It seems we have enough clothes for 4 girls to model and pose in FOR A WHOLE DAY! Here they are in the front room looking at the shots on Ev's camera. Note the backdrop...and the outfits!



Tomorrow is a PA day for the girls. What a week! Rob is taking Ev & Leah skiing in Ellicotville where our friends are spending a mini vacation. I'll be slugging it out at work trying to get my project off the ground (well, actually, on the ground).
And C is on her own - maybe she can do baking with Omi. It must be winter, we are all craving chocolate and desserts.

Only 4 1/2 months till summer!

Another Sunday night

The Eagles DVD Hell Freezes Over is playing in the next room while Ev and I work in the den. Great music - even Ev likes it.

Leah and Rob are upstairs keeping each other company while playing DS (Rob) and doing homework (Leah).

C is at a friend's studying for a biology exam. At least that's what I've been told.

We had a relatively quiet weekend. Spent a lovely Friday evening at the home of one of the hockey parents - home made pizza, lots of wine and lots of laughs. Thank you Gina and Chris.

Hockey at 10:30 on Saturday. Great game, but we lost 3-2 to an undefeated team. It was a beautiful sunny day - cold too - but nice enough to head out for some exercise after getting the house vacuumed and in some semblance of order. Rob and I ran/walked for what felt like an hour, but apparently was only 22 minutes! I can feel it in my legs today - yesterday I just felt my chest burn. I spent the rest of the day resting. Ooh - we watched The Dark Knight - it was better than I expected. Heath Ledger really was fabulous as the Joker.

Lots of fitness for Rob, Ev & Leah today - they met Dwayne and his kids at Glen Eden for a day of skiing. They came back happy and in one piece - hooray!

Once they were out of the house this morning, I put together some crockpot chili, then headed to Hamilton to visit Loretta. We went to her local diner for lunch, then back to her house to catch up. What a great afternoon.

I guess that I had better go make lunches now, and call Dad to see what he is up to. And I have to get one more load of laundry in - I did not get much done yesterday. Ev is still working on a card for a friend who is in the hospital. Here she is at the desk right across from me:



Get well soon Kristen!