New Years Eve 2009

The last day of 2009.  So hard to believe that this year is almost over.  It's ending so much happier than last year!  This time last year Lloyd was packed and about to head off to the airport for his flight to England.  He saw the New Year in on the plane - he doesn't quite remember seeing the New Year in because he was sleeping but he thinks the flight attendants brought round champagne and wished him Happy New Year....

I stayed home last year with the kids and we had lots of treats and games and we stayed up and watched Mamma Mia and watched the ball drop in New York too then I got very drunk and Susie and I were dancing to Abba music loudly at midnight - one of the boys filmed me dancing on the sofa.  I was very upset and sad and fed up that Lloyd was away from me in the midst of chaos here at the house - yes I was so sad for him that his Grandad had died, but it was New Year, the back of my house was missing and I had no kitchen at ALL.....we literally had an oven....I think we may have had a sink but we had nothing else.  The pipes kept freezing because the back of the house was missing and all we had was plastic sheets over part of it and the empty shell of what was going to be the new kitchen - the workmen were on holiday until after New Year and here I was in the middle of nowhere on my own with 5 kids and all these animals :(  At New Year :(  

Yes I was totally selfishly miserable :(  

So I got drunk and ate junk and danced and sang badly and had fun and the kids ran around blowing those horrible blowy horn things, high on sugar!!!

I missed Lloyd :(

And now here we are a year later already and things couldn't be more different!  We got up early and drove Laurence into town to his friends house as they have invited him to sleep over and go to a party with them.

Lloyd and I went to Starbucks for coffee/ breakfast and we had a stroll around Chapters - got myself a new book and magazine - and a new book light (this one I AM going to keep hidden from the children). We really went to the mall though to get a box of crackers for tomorrows big dinner - and I was really happy to find a box at half price in Chapters.   I also ran to the dollar store to get sparklers for tonight, and Silly String, blowers, table cloth and party plates etc etc.....nothing like leaving it to the last minute ;)

Now we're all set to celebrate :)  And this year I have Lloyd here with me :)

Breakfast for four...

Yesterday Laurence was at a sleepover, Susannah was at her second day of sleepovers, and we had to drop Chris at a house for a sledding party close to Rundle Park.  We decided to make the most of the day and so we took the two little ones to breakfast at Denny's downtown before heading to the museum.  We aren;t normally fans of Denny's but it was close by and child friendly.

I have to say that the food was REALLY good yesterday and so was the service!!  We had a great time in there and all came out really happy and full after our yummy breakfasts :)

Test post

Just testing out my new iphone app for blogging!!!


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Just BREATHE......

THIS website sums up EXACTLY why I have chosen the word BREATHE as my Word of the year for 2010.  Oh YES!!!  Yes it does!!!  I just couldn't have put it better myself!!!

There are certain situations that I plan to switch off fro and when they start to annoy me again I plan to just remind myself about my word - and just BREATHE......

And just like the song goes:

"So cradle your head in your hands,

And breathe... just breathe"

Last few days of Christmas.....

It's the last few days of the Christmas holidays and we are determined to make the most of them :)  I still have my decorations up at home, and as they still had their trees decorated at the museum, I took pictures of Abigail by them :)

I will take the decorations down at the weekend - and for sure on Monday when the children go back to school and we get back to our normal routine.  I don't feel sad that Christmas is over this year - I'm not happy it's over either - I feel content - I KNOW I made the most of every moment this December and we did sooooo much and really did make this Christmas special and fun and full of memories, and because of that I feel ready to let it be over.

I have my special JYC/ December Daily journal to remember it by and I have new classes starting in the new year to work on :)

That said, New Year isn't here yet, Lloyd and the children are still on 'Christmas Holidays', our cupboards are still full of Christmasy treats, and so we are still in 'Christmas mode'....

It will last until the weekend for sure :)

Stabbed By Mistake.....and Sam's Bison!!!

Of course, NO trip to the museum is complete without saying hello to Sams bison!!!  He LOVES the bison in the Aboriginal Exhibit.  He always stands and looks at it for ages and asks all kinds of questions about it before moving on.  It's interesting to hear his questions and see how they are developing as he gets older.  We also had to go and see 'Stabbed By Mistake's' Headdress.  We were amazed that Sam remembered his name!!!  He remembered the name and exactly where in the exhibit it was - so I guess we must go to the museum a lot :)

Fun at the museum....

Oh the delights you see!!!

Scenes from the Royal Alberta Museum....

Robert Munsch at the Museum.....

Sam LOVED ringing the doorbell above, whiule Abigail loved looking in the refrigerator below:

Abigail and I made up our own story by covering up certain words in these sentences:

We had great fun turning the boards to make the characters look VERY strange:

Sam and Abby decided that playing ring toss was MUCH more fun than actually doing the word searches they were supposed to be doing although Abby had found most of the words before she joined in the fun:

Building stories in the picture above, and performing a puppet show in the picture below....something to do with pizza delivery if I remember correctly ;)

Listening to stories in the car:

Mud puddle fun:

Today we went to the Much More Munsch Exhibit at the Royal Alberta Museum.  We had a really nice time there (as always) apart from the terrible HORRIBLE food, service and drinks in the cafe which was really disappointing because the food in there is normally FABULOUS and I sooooo look forward to going in there - it's normally really healthy and really fresh and today it was sooooo bad that I asked for a refund!!!!  Good job we had been out for a lovely breakfast that filled us up first thing in the morning!!  We had just been looking forward to coffee and a treat - thats all :(

Anyway, apart from THAT we had a lovely time and the children really enjoyed the exhibit.  Lloyd and I also enjoyed the Diamond Exhibit - I was really surprised that they have only been mining for diamonds in Canada since the 1990's!!!!  Wow!!    It was a fascinating Exhibit.  We entered our names to win a diamond - wish us luck ;)

Word of the year for 2010 - have you chosen yours????

Have YOU chosen your one little word for next year?  Need help to choose your Word of the Year????  Use this wonderful tool at Christine Kane's fabulous blog!!!

Another site you might find helpful for choosing your word is the Steady Mom.

I have chosen my word to reflect on for the upcoming year,  and my word is going to be:

BREATHE

There are many reasons for this...some of which I will go in to in another post....

Frosty Winter Wonderland.....

Our driveway in the hoar frost...

Lollipops children!! Treacle Tart and Ice Cream! All free Today!!

The child catcher always used to scare me when I was little! I guess that was the point really!! ;) LOVE this movie though, and we watched it this evening together. Such a sweet movie from simpler days.


Last night we watched Matilda and it was so much fun to watch Sam enjoying it - especially when Trenchpole swings the children around and throws them like a shotput - he would laugh out loud!!:





We are enjoying watching family movies each evening, that the children received for Christmas - sharing all the boxes of chocolates we were given and playing board games by the fire and Christmas lights :)


Silly blogger is messing about again - anyone know why it does that with the updated editing????

Annuals.....and good advice for a New Year!!

When I was a little girl I always received a new Annual for Christmas.  When I was very little it was either a 'Twinkle' Annual:

 or a 'Pippin' Annual:

and as I got older it changed to the Beano Annual:

and then the Jackie Annual:

and there were others such as the Just 17 Yearbook too.....and now, for the last few years, I've always had the Oprah Magazine 'annual' book.  This years is called 'Dream Big'.

It's full of the best articles from the last year of 'O' Magazine.   And one of these articles, especially, made me cry out YES!!!

Every month Oprah writes an article on what she 'Knows for sure....' and in this book, she writes an article that includes 20 of her favourite things she knows for sure!!  Here are a few of those things that I thought were wonderful....great advice for a new year!!  They aren't in the order Oprah had them...

You define your own life.  Don't let others write your script.

When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.

Trust your instincts.  Intuition doesn't lie.

Love doesn't hurt.  It feels really good.

Every day brings a chance to start over.

And this too shall pass.

When you don't know what to do, get still.  The answer will come.

I'd like to share another of my gifts with you.....

This year Abigail (7 years old) made all her gifts.  For instance, she made Laurence a doll out of bits and pieces - it looks a bit like a voodoo doll to be honest.....hhmmm...

For Chris she made the 'Best Brother of the Year award'.  Even Chris looked a little puzzled by THAT one ;)  For Daddy she made a porcupine out of paper and toothpicks/ cocktail sticks.  She also made him a mini album so that he can stick all his Christmas and family pictures in it (She made me one of these for Mothers Day this year).

So, when it came time to open my gift, she passed me a big gift to open, and I opened THIS:

It's a stable for farm animals and comes complete with an upstairs removable pig sty and three farm animals!!!!!  WOW!!!!!  Isn't it wonderful?????  Abigail is sooooo creative!!!  She worked away creatively in her bedroom for a day or two thinking up all kinds of things she could make for us all and then she wrapped them all up for us :)

Oh the things you can do with an old mandarin box ;)

Elk Island snapshots.......

Amber girl.....

Snow much fun!!!

Winters walk...

Snapshots.....