Thanksgiving Weekend DAY 2

Yet another routine day around the household. The day outside today was BEAUTIFUL! Wow! Blue sky, warm sun, a bit windy and there was a chill in the air. But it is OCTOBER PEOPLE! So I'm not complaining. I could have days like this until Nov. 5. I would be a happy person. And on to our events of the day.

1.) We hit costco this morning. The kids and I packed up nice and early (ok, early for us. We were in the parking lot of costco by 945 this morning. Definately a feat when we all didn't roll out of bed until 0800.) and hit the trail. I would say this was one of the better decisions on my part. I only went because we ran out of dogfood and the puppies were starv-ing! So on the advice of Papa Bear, who attempted to go last night but had to abandoned his cart in the tv section because the line ups (or lack thereof, apparently it was chaos it was so busy ) were absolutely insane, I geared up for an early attack. I would say we missed the first wave of insanity. I parked yon monster truck out in the boondocks where I could completely take advantage of a pull-thru parking spot. And by the time we got out (no line ups! Yay!) people were lined up to take my parking stall. Face it, no one parks in la-la-land unless they really have to. So I would have to assume that costco became nutso after we left. But we did sacrifice Mr.Mister's nap to get 'er done. He fell asleep on the way home, but successfully transfer without waking to his bed. Hand-pump that feat! YEAH!

2.) We pulled out the Halloween decorations and took advantage of the nice weather to get our house looking a little more ghoulish. Ok, not ghoulish because our theme always seems to be spiders. But one year I will have some grave stones and scary fencing with ghosties floating away in our front yard. But for the mean time we will stick to non-scary stuff. I'm ok with that.

And of course I had a helper 'helping' me out. Good thing Gramma showed up to watch and take care of the little guy while all this commotion was going on.

My helper 'helped' me unpack the Halloween box. It was very exciting. Full of pumpkins and spiders and spiderwebs and sparkly lights. Oh and this fabulous witches hat. "I'm a witch and I'm SCAAAAAAAARY!" That's what we got told anyhow.

3.) We still had some time before dinner so we went out for a walk. Lil' Miss rode her bike and Gramma and I and Mr.Mister strolled along and enjoyed the beautiful day. Lil' Miss finally figured out that we were going the 'special way'. Yes, we headed to the Mac's store for a slurpee. She acted like she goes there all the time. In fact I do believe she told Gramma this. Now Gramma probably thinks I feed her sugar whenever I get the opportunity to. But I don't. Just for the record!

We took a longer way home and I ended up with a sleep walker whom I finally had to pick up and carry home. Gramma carried her bike.

4.) Supper was nice. Ham, scalloped potatoes and broccoli. Both little ones enjoyed a feast (ate ALL their dinner. It was nice.) Mr. Mister hit the sack (and boy did he ever. He was pooched!) and we all retired to the basement to watch the Lion King on blu-ray in 1080 HD. Apparently for the longest time we have been watching our HD/Blu-ray in 780, which is not technically HD. Papa Bear finally got his act together and set the tv up properly (like I know what I'm talking about.....not really......) and now we have spectacular tv with BOSE sound (once again, I'll have to take his work for it....). But it really is pretty spectacular and just like being at the movies. Nifty. Lil' Miss stayed awake for the whole movie and watched it. I was amazed. Although I think she was just too tired to be her traditional jumping bean self. Now I'm waiting for the sadness and nightmares to begin. A few sketchy parts, but of course we'll see how much impact they made tonight.

And that's it that's all. Tomorrow.....PUMPKIN PATCH!!!!!

Alright! Are you ready for pictures? Well here they come. Thanksgiving weekend DAY 1!!!! Today wasn't an overly spectacular day. Pretty routine. Mr. Mister was somewhat cranky today and uncooperative, which is really out of the norm for him. So not sure what's up there....other than yet another snotty nose and cough (poor stinker, he just can't get away from them!!!!) And Lil' Miss was in fine form and doing her usual. So enough chat, here's the pictures!

To start out our morning we headed for the park. NOBODY! wanted to nap this morning, so what better thing to do than go out and get some fresh air.

So Mr. Mister got his fair intake of sand. He got right down to it once I plunked him down. Does this mean he might have been hungrey?????? No. I'm going to take it as part of the 'experimenting' stage. I remember Lil' Miss doing this too. Then of course he got his dose of swinging. What little kid doesn't like that!?!?!

And Lil' Miss did her own version of swinging. Because we've graduated from just sitting on our butts on the swing. We swing on our tummys and now even stand on the seat! Plus she now goes down the slide on her tummy as well. We all know how that is going to end up one day.....splat. But for now she thinks it's fun.

So in the afternoon AFTER I forced everyone to have a nap (kids, dogs, I watched some PVR'd stuff.....woo!) we headed back outside. Mr.Mister was in even finer form, crying and complaining. I made him stay outside anyhow. And Lil' Miss helped me start cleaning up the backyard. Not all the leaves are off the trees yet, but we had to start filling our pumpkin bags so they'd be ready for Halloween. I only wanted to fill one, but got talked into filling the 2nd one...and ended up doing it on my own to boot because I'm the only one with a reasonable attention span. And Mr.Mister pretty much just crawled around and cried. But I did manage to get a couple of pictures of him without the tears.

We buried him in leaves! He didn't protest....too much.

And then Lil' Miss wanted in on some leaf action.

Here she's actually trying to pull Mr.Mister's thumb from his mouth. It wasn't budging. Shortly after we came back inside and he cheered up a bit more. After the two of them chased several golf balls around the kitchen for a bit, supper came, then bedtime routine. And that ended a fairly routine day at home. I'd have to say that I did get some fairly good pictures out of the day's events. And I hardly even tweaked them in my really sad photo program. Maybe there is something to using the manual setting on the fancy camera!

Tomorrow.....Turkey Dinner!!!!!!!!

Ok, so the weather here has been less than stellar. My concern? I'm missing all those fabulous colours out there! When am I supposed to go out and take cute kid pics in the fall leaves if it continues to be wet and cold?????? Boooooo! So I'm hoping for a turn around tomorrow and maybe a trip to someplace leafy and yellowy/orange with some red thrown in. And not all on the ground either. I want some of that up in the trees too.

And on that note it is Thanksgiving weekend starting tomorrow. And we shall be spending it in a small quiet way, which is ok. But because of this, I will attempt to post each day of the weekend and keep all those loved ones who are far away from us up to date and informed on all the happenings of this to-be action packed weekend! We do have a few things planned along with Thanksgiving dinner (to be held on Saturday, due to our action packed weekend!) and I'll try to blog them at the end of each day. It is my goal for this month. I actually want to do this for the Halloween weekend as well. We'll see how un-procrastinating I can be!

So I leave you with this....

Just a quick update for those wondering about my Threadcake. It lost out to peanut butter sandwiches, moldy zombie peanut butter sandwiches and the undead. So needless to say I was really disappointed. Especially because it seems everyone is infatuated with mold, disease, the undead and grossness. Having said that, the cakes that won were good, just not my style at all, so Ì am biased. But I did win because my birthday girl really loved it. And it was fun to eat. And pretty fun / non stressful to make.

I did try. I tried really hard. But I just couldn't do it. I wanted to try out for a scrapbook design team. I got all my poop in a group and had appropriate galleries and what nots. But at the last minute I chickened out. I'm not sure why. I couldn't press the submit button. But because of that I now have some layouts to show here! I've been on fire.

I didn't think I'd scrapbook anymore summer (beach house) pictures. But I couldn't help myself. I really want to remember the fun times on the beach so I guess the best way to do that is just keep scrapbooking the pictures. All of these were done with Cosmo Cricket paper. A style of paper that I didn't think I would normally use. Yet, I bought it on a whim (sale/clearance bin) because I have NO paper that says 'beach' to me. And I've now used it all up. Done.

Do you need a pick-me-up?

Well, DO YOU???

Then check out the pictures that follow.....

So do you think he should be in Star Trek? Maybe as Captain Jean-Luc Picard????? The thought just popped into my head when I saw this picture. Maybe Mr.Mister has a future at NASA.

Well, maybe not. Don't think he's going to get very far sucking that thumb.

How about his sister? Apparently she thinks she should be in every picture that I take. If I attempt to do some shots of Mr.Mister, she's in there like a dirty shirt. But really, I don't mind.

No, Polly isn't yelling at me. She's eating grass. I didn't know dogs were such prolific grazers until we got our two dogs. You can find them regularly chowing down in the back yard like sheep.

And that is it for today!

Can I just say that I've been on a tear? Yes, a fanatical scrapbooking tear. My beach house mini book is...DONE! DONE PEOPLE! Ha!

No! I have not been neglecting the kids.

Yes! I have been neglecting important housework items, with the exception of laundry, dishes and dinner. Bathrooms = nuclear zones. Ewwwwwww.

Yes! I have been staying up late and I will start paying for that soon I'm sure.

No! I did not use up my scrapbooking supplies. I used to think mini album = mucho scrapbooking supplies. I was wrong. Still have paper, brads, jillibean sprouts (thanks Stacy!), glue and ribbon left. I am in short supply of pop-up dots though. Let the rummaging through old boxes of supplies begin.

Yes! I am happy that I actually finished something in record time (for me!).

Yes! I could add to it but I'm not going to. Pretty sure that done is done.

Now, let's roll out some pictures....shall we??????

There. Not bad if I do say so myself. Now, onto new projects!!

Threadcakes

I baked, I entered, and now we wait. Ok, I won't kid myself. But I think my entry ranks up there with the top 30%. There are some well done cakes. And I would love to have boxes and boxes of cake mix. Please. My sweet tooth must be acting up. I'm feeling a craving to make cupcakes.

Interesting how this.....

Gets to this, and becomes.....

THIS! Wowee!

Random thoughts floating through my noggin....

*I wish this darn sore throat would go away. Think I've now officially had some version of a cold since december 2010. Boooo.

*Bumpity bump, bumpity bump, I'm all green and covered in bumps; Sweeter than a box of sugar lumps; Oh it's nice to be a frog. @Gramma....Cheers!!

*Laundry, dishes, groceries, oh my!

*Big sis, this caramel chamomile tea is quite tasty with a hint of honey!!

*Rain rain go away, I'd like to weed my garden today...or tomorrow, or someday....soon.

*I'm gonna try Mr. mister in the baby bjorn again....I hope he likes it. He just doesn't know what he's missing.

*If that darn truck deserts me in the walmart parking lot, someone is going to get their arse kicked (used demo I'm driving right now. Would be fine if it had reliable starting power).

*back to thinking what to do for supper. Sigh.

I should be sleeping. But I'm not. I'm falling asleep sitting here, but can't seem to make myself go to bed. And the little guy in the crib upstairs is having a heck of a time trying to sleep. I think he's teething. We'll be heading out tomorrow am to re-stock ourselves with tylenol. Not that I think it does a whole lot of good. But just in case.

So today was a cupcake day. I'd have to say these little suckers turned out ok. I did a dry run of sorts a couple of days ago because both the cupcake recipe and the icing recipe I wanted to use were new to me. So I had to make them to see if they were up to standard. They were not. But after some tweaking, I think I got me some good buttercream icing, and perhaps a new tasty lemon cupcake recipe. Gotta expand out of the chocolate sooner or later!

Check out that icing technique. Kind of beats the everyday swirl. Ok, that's code for 'I can't seem to get that swirl mastered yet'.

So lemon cupcakes with pink and white buttercream frosting on top with some fondant flowers for that special added touch. Not bad I'm thinking.

Ok, the bottom of this one looks messy. Just ignore it. It must have been one of the first ones, or Mr.Mister might have been crying and threw me off a bit in a big rush to go and try and soothe him....then beg him to let me have 30 minutes so I could finish these suckers off.

And my cakepop model would like to draw your eye to the robot cakepops mommy spent all night making...without her special model helper! But of course mommy will insist that her model help her in ingesting those lovely cakepops. They are sure to bring a smile to her face. Oh, wait....they already have!!

These were done with additional cupcakes for a neighbors 1st birthday party. If Lil' Missus face is any indication, they were probably very much enjoyed!

Nothing's cuter than a baby in a jolly jumper. Case in point, take a peek at the cutie pics of Mr. Mister having a darn good time in the JJ.

This would be his second time in the jolly jumper. He got the hang of it right away. And his facial expressions were so cute. Big wide open mouth making little squealing noises. And the drool. Needless to say the next time he attempted the JJ, he got slapped with a bib. Which he promptly tried to eat and therefore increased the flow of drool tenfold. Still cute as a button though!

E is a favorite letter around our house. We are reminded almost everytime Lil' Miss sees an E. So yes, she was thrilled when I finally finished this project and hung it in her room. I'd like to add some more small E's; if I could find them. Regardless, this is a good start...or a good finish...depending on what else I can find.

And they're done with pink. Because right now, pink is her favorite colour. I did not push pink on her, she has decided herself that pink is where it's at!

Camping? Anyone?

I dare anybody to go camping with us. ANYBODY!!!! Do you have the guts? Do you have the determination? Do you have the DARE?????

I swear we have some of the worst luck camping. (Yes, I know it could be worse, but for the dramatic flair I need for this story to be interesting, we're going with THE worst luck.) Last summer we had a nice trip planned. Down to Radium Springs, some golfing, a little hot springing, sightseeing. You know, the usual vacation touristy stuff. Then up to Banff to stay overnight at Lake Louise, because we've never been there. Then up through the parks to the Columbia Icefields to do a tour and on to Jasper to camp a couple nights before we headed home. Well, first stumbling block....I was pregnant and sick. My patience was low and I felt like crap. Morning sickness, heartburn, headaches, tired. Made for some really fun camping. Hear my sarcasim. Radium was nice and hot. +30 degrees and sunny. Lake Louise was rainy and cold. Whatever, we can handle the rain. Did I mention we did this trip at the end of July? Columbia Icefields the rain was coming down sideways. So no, we did not stop to tour. Jasper, much more of the same. Whatever, we'd spend a night and see what the next morning was like. Woke up to snow. Yes, people; SNOW! Yes, I know this is Alberta and the weather changes. But we did not pack for snow. Plus we had the slide out on the trailer and the awning down, and the snow piled up and our battery ran low on the trailer....we did NOT have full hook ups. Whatever. It was not a pretty site. We did get luck and were able to pull our awning in still intact. There was a point when I thought we were going to lose it. And the slide leaked like a sieve. But we managed to pack up and head home.

So this past weekend we headed down to Kananaskis. Now it is the end of May and the forecast called for heavy rains and low temps. Whatever...I've been through rain AND snow, I packed appropriately. 1030pm on Thursday we turn into Kananaskis and five minutes down the road the heavy rains turn to SNOW! Yep, snow. AGAIN! Hey, I packed appropriately. Lil' Miss had her rain gear and boots, long sleeves and pants. So did I. Mr. Hubs....he did not. I warned him. We'll leave it at that. So regardless of the snow collecting on the highway, we continue on. Mr. Hubs, he's ok pulling the trailer. He wasn't panicking...yet. We pull into Mt.Kidd and park in our site. The snow is just a-coming down. We don't roll out the awning, we don't put out the slide. Trailer is still somewhat functional without the slide. Tuck the kiddos into bed and roll ourselves up into our sleeping bags.

Yes, it was still snowing when we woke up. The snow plows were out, plowing out the very undeserving campers. Take note that the road Lil' Miss is walking on has already been plowed once.

People, I want you to look at how much snow has accumulated on that picnic table. There is a good foot there. And this is in the morning at about 1000am. So, what does one do when this happens? You can only hangout so long in a crowded trailer colouring, playing 'crazy eyes' (don't ask), and taking family portraits (on a different camera...). So daddy and Lil' Man had a nap and Lil' Miss and I went outside for some winter activities.

This included running through the snow, throwing snowballs at each other, and of course building snowmen. This is Lil' Miss' attempt at stacking snow.

And here are the mommy and daddy snowmen we built together. Take note of the snowman on the left. It sports a had designed and built by the Lil' Miss.

So that killed about an hour. It was 230pm and still snowing. What do fair weather campers like us do at this point? We pack up and head for non-snowing ground. We figured even if we camped somewhere else in the rain, at least we could safely put the slide on the trailer out and roll out the awning. So that is what we did. We headed for Calgary. And visited family. Camped in a nice campground there and got nothing but sunshine (for the most part).

So....the dare is still there.....Any takers? Wanna go camping?????

CAKE POPS

Yes, I'm still addicted to making cake pops. Perhaps it is my affinity for sugar....chocolate.....tasty treats.....

So I make cake pops and pass them around to the neighbors. I'm sure they are sick of me doing. If they are....I'll just start leaving them anonymously in their mailboxes or on their doorsteps.

This time I thought I'd take a little time and make a bouquet. Hey, all the cake poppers are doing it I'm sure. It turned out ok. The children who recieved it were thrilled!

Look at those tastee little morsels. Yeah, they were good. Chocolate cherry flavoured. Double dipped and some in the shape of flowers. Pretty cute.

And a nice little decoration on top. But why waste a pretty flower? It is actually a hair clip. It was pretty cute too....until if fell apart. Note to self. Use stronger adhesive. I kind of knew it was going to. It was made on the spur of the moment at the last second before I delivered the cake pop pot (say that 3 times fast!!). So I've already got ideas on how to make it more durable. Yep, another crafting obsession to add to my list.

I've done it! My first venture into quilting. A lovely wall hanging to bring in spring. Well, spring is already here, so let's just celebrate that spring has arrived. I would love to do some more of these, but it took me almost 2 years to get this one done...or maybe it just took me one year. I don't know, I can't remember. Anyhow onto the next project in my 'Project: FINISH' worklist. I have 4 more to do and two of them are almost finished. I may get one more done before we take off camping for the weekend, we shall see.

Anyhow, how about a cute picture for the masses.

Take note of the 'flex and game face' poser in the background. Apparently her lil' bro thinks she's a funny girl. She is a funny girl. And you should see her dance. Them dancing shoes she's got on in the picture aren't on her feet just for show. They're her 'tappin' shoes. So there.

I'm onto a couple of new projects. Actually one or two of them are ones that really needed to be finished as they were started a loooooong time ago. My goal this week was to finish one project a day. That's how close to finishing these projects I am. But, sad to say I have not finished anything yet and it's Thursday evening at 10:02 pm. So what am I to do? Well, after I've finished this post, I'm going to finish one. And I will be posting it on the blog either late late tonite or tomorrow sometime just to show that I got something done this week! So there. And I shall leave you with this bit of wisdom.

Who needs technology to have fun?

On days when Big J is at work until very late at night, Lil' Miss has a shower with me as her bedtime bath. That way it's quick, the Little Man doesn't have to cry for too long as he misses his mommy, and mommy gets to have a shower too (heaven forbid the thought!!!) But lately getting Lil' Miss into the shower has proved to be very difficult. Not really sure why. It started out as a novelty and very exciting. Not so much anymore. Anyhow, tonight, getting her upstairs and naked wasn't the problem. Getting her into the bathroom itself wasn't a problem (I'm usually chasing her around, she's naked and I'm naked and Little Man is crying because he thinks mommy has deserted him. Lil' Miss is giving mommy the fake out and running into every room except the appropriate bathroom). I told her to strip off her pull up, which she did fine and promptly went to go pee on the toilet. Hey, not going to argue with that.

I start up the shower.

I know she hasn't pooped at all today and she's a pretty regular little girl...at least 2x a day. And so far today....nothing. So of course I'm suspicious.

Drag her into the shower after she launches herself off the toilet.

She starts to cry. "Mommy I have to poooooop. Mommy I HAVE TO POOOOOOOP!!!" What do you do. One doesn't want to discourage her from pooooooping on the potty, so I let her go back to the potty and attempt to poop.

"Mommy I need that book!" Ok, I give her the book. I am promptly informed that this book titled "Learning the 'DIRTY' tricks of the trade when it comes to car sales' is a Daddy and Lil' Miss book. Ok. Whatever. She's reading the book as she sits on the potty. I inform her that I'm taking my shower while she poops, but she'd better not get off that toilet until she's done and when she's done she's heading straight for the shower to get clean. Yes, I'll be watching her! I get a weird look in return. Ok.

I have my shower. I warn her that I'm almost done and that if she's not done pooooping before I'm done my shower I'll be manhandling her into the shower whether she's done or not and she'll be getting cleaned up. I get another weird look.

All of a sudden I get soap in my eyes (disaster for me....I hate getting soap in my eyes...I become extremely blind). Then I hear the book drop. I hear some squirming. I can't see a darn thing except.....this scenario plays out in my mind...Lil' Miss takes advantage of mommy's blinding situation and leaps off the toilet. She races out of the room to the farthest corner of the farthest room, squats and takes the long awaited poop. Then stops in to see the Little Man who is wailing away and is trapped in his crib to tell him "It's ok, mommy is coming!" Then bolts her poooopy bum downstairs to watch Okey Dokey on tv because I forgot to turn the tv off before we headed upstairs and it's one of her favorite shows. Plants said pooooopy bum on my couch and feels really smart with herself.

Fortuneately it did not happen. But, people, what you need to understand is that this could very likely have become a very real event. Because this is how a 2 year old's mind works!!!! All portions of this scenario have played out at different times already. Yes, uh huh.

Anyhow, I ended up hauling her unpoooopy bum into the shower because no poop came and she was crying and mad because she had to poop, but mommy decided that cleanliness was more important than potty training and after 5 minutes of cleaning her up, the tears disappeared and were totally forgotten because by that time she had her yellow towel wrapped around her and promptly discovered that her yellow towel MATCHED HER YELLOW PANTIES THAT SHE WORE TODAY THAT WERE LYING ON THE FLOOR!!! Wowee! Talk about an exciting discovery. Kids!