Chillaxing at the hotel on Friday night....

Busy day planned for tomorrow.....so I'm switching off now and getting snow sleep.

Nighty nights xxx

x

Our Thursday - Springbreak continues :)

This was the view from our hotel window last night:

Continental breakfast was included in the deal we had, and so we woke up in time to go down to the breakfast room.  The children loved being able to help themselves to whatever they liked.  Toast, bagels, cold cereals, muffins, fruit, tea, coffee, hot chocolates, juices......it was fairly busy and lots of children...so t wasn't so bad that Sam was his usual chatty self  :)  

One lady came over and told me that she couldn't believe how much like her friend I looked and she had found it strange as she was in Edmonton to meet up with her and hadn't seen her for a while and then saw me and was like WOW she thought it was her :)  

Abby was tired but still wanted to go to the pool.  It is a great hotel as they let you check out late - at 1pm instead of 11am - so we got to sue the pool again in the morning :)  Abby relaxed in the hot tub for a while before going for a swim:

I took Susannah's phone away for a day last week and made her read a book - it has got her back in to reading again and now she constantly had her head in a book :)  Yay!  she has been reading constantly ALL week which is lovely to see:

Sa and Abby had so much fun in the pool and made several friends while we were there with children who were staying at the hotel:

A heart Sam made for me from glow sticks:

Today was a gorgeous sunny Spring day.  13c.

We headed home by lunchtime to check on Laurence.  his friends had already left to go home and he was relaxing.  Abigail made some grapefruit juice from the juicer we got at Ikea.  I ate half a grapefruit out on the deck in the sunshine.  Mmmmmm :)

Then we left Susannah and Laurence at home and headed to Park day to meet up with friends at Broadmoor Lake playground.  The first homeschool park day of the year for us :)  I chatted with my friends and Abby and Sam spent the afternoon cycling and playing and chatting with theirs :)  They like taking their bikes to the park.  Sam loves being able to cycle now:

Tomorrow they head off to their dads for the weekend and I have plans for my big two :)  

It's going to be a good weekend :)  

We have had a lovely Spring break.  I hope you have too!

Glow stick fun!!!

As an extra treat in the hotel tonight I bought a few packs of glow sticks from Dollarama,

and after the pool, I filled the bath tub for Sam and then put them in the bath for him.  This is something I saw on Pinterest :)  

It was really beautiful with the lights off and the room lit up by glow sticks - the water lit up by them :)  

Fun :)

We are having a fun Spring Break - looking forward to tomorrow - we get breakfast here and a late checkout before heading to a homeschool park day with friends....then Abby and Sam are off to their Dads for the evening and I am off to pub quiz :)  

I hope Laurence is having a fun night with his friends - poor Rosie in a house full of teens....sigh :)  

Our Wednesday.....

Abigail had a class at the library today, so we headed there and spent an hour or so hanging out, while she enjoyed her class.  She loved it and came out with a box of candy too!!  A friend of hers was in the class as well :)  

Susannah read and Sam played on the computers, before joining us and looking through a book on 'treasure' with me - and we learmed all about the Royal Jewels  and about treasure and why people were buried with gold and treasure through history etc etc...

After the library we did some shopping and I popped in to make my appointment with Sandy to get my taxes done...I am so not organized this year!  Too busy and distracted by other things I guess!  

A few errands ready for this evening...home to check on Laurence and his friends, and then we were off!!  A while ago we got a great deal on a night in a hotel in town - I bought it because it was REALLY cheap.  It was for 4 people for a night in a hotel with a pool and included breakfast!!  I think it was $50!!  

Anyway I bought the deal and decided to book it for this week - so it was something fun to do during Spring Break.  So glad we did - we are having such a fun time - it is quiet here BUT a couple of other families had the same idea - enough that the kids had other children to play with in the pool - it wasn't busy - but fun for them :)  

One of the highlights for the kids of course is having tv for the night - another treat lol:

Susannah and I relaxed in the hot tub and read:

Abby and Sam enjoyed the pool:

Susannah and I sat by the pool:

1. What's the last job you did that required elbow grease?

Scrubbing paint and dried mod podge from art tables in the classroom :)  

2. March Madness, aka the men's Division I basketball championship, is nearing an end...what sort of 'madness' has your house seen this month?

This house is ALWAYS a mad house - and I LOVE it :)  Abby gave Rosie a hair cut and shaved half her head :)  I  teach art classes to families, children, adults....and it can get crazy here.....we always seem to have extras here at weekends and the house is always full of laughter and chaos...

3. What's your favourite shop for browsing?

Goodwill or The Antiques Mall, or  Junque Cellar on Whyte, or Mars and Venus...or Rowena...or Michaels...

4. Is there ever a time when giving up makes sense?

No....but then perhaps I don't see it as 'giving up'...I see it as 'changing direction'....taking a different path....changing a plan....trying a new way of doing something....looking at things in a different way.  just because something didn't work out doesn't mean it has failed - maybe it just means you have to take a different path....or were meant for a different journey.  

5. What's a song you love that contains the name of a city, state or country in its title?

Probably the one by Train.   Save Me San Francisco.

6. When did you first begin using a computer?

The old BBC Computers at school :)

7. Did you buy girl scout cookies this year? What's your favorite?

I bought some in the Fall from Brandy...I haven't bought any recently - I only like the mint ones...

8. Insert your own random thought here.

I really need to get up and in the shower as we have to head off to Abigails class and then to the hotel!!  Have a great day everyone!

Love this :)

Pictures from this evening.

Laurence, Susannah and I had some errands to run on Gateway Blvd this evening...so we headed over in that direction....we also had to pick up some cake flour for the cupcakes I have to make tomorrow.    When we got home I did my banking and then soaked in the bath for a while.  Rosie made herself VERY comfortable on the bed:

Sam and Abby got back from their Dads at 9:30.  Then they put Garfield on tv and played 'Alphabet Old Mudd' together while they watched the movie.  By the time it was over their Melatonin had kicked in and they were all ready for sleep.  

Old Mudd is a great card game for phonics, alphabet, uppercase and lower case etc etc....Sam is doing so great now but still LOVES this game :)  

He also was telling me about his house he built on Minecraft - he was planning it this afternoon and telling me about it then - so he built it on the server at his dads place and was telling me about it when he got home - how it never snows there...there are no strange animals - just sheep etc...no guinea pigs etc etc....he loves Minecraft :)

Which reminds me - can you believe that after just TWO months, Draw Something has sold for 200 MILLION dollars????  Wow!!!  Good for them :)  thats amazing :)  

Scenic pictures from this evenings drive...

Pot luck lunch....

Today we were invited to friends for a pot luck lunch.  I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the gorgeous mug I used while I was there :)  Isn't it so cute???

Samuel had NOT wanted to go as soon as he had heard that we were going to the home of a friend of Abigails...but I knew he would have fun, so I didn't give him the choice :)

I was totally right - as soon as we were half way there he was already excited - for a start, we had packed his bike and helmet :)  

Abigail and one friend went off on a cycle ride around the subdivision and had a great time :)  They also had a great deal of fun on the trampoline making up 'routines' of tricks!!  Sam had taken a baseball bat and played with that with some of the children - and also seemed to have great fun with the only other boy who was there - although he is happy to play with boys and girls...

He was also extremely thrilled with the bowl of ice cream he was given - especially when he was also given mint Girl Guide cookies to go with it!!!

I enjoyed just chatting with the other Moms....and seeing my friends new home - which is really lovely :)   

Breakfast at Ikea for Spring Break :)

This morning we headed over to Ikea and had breakfast there. 

We haven't done that for YEARS lol so I wasn't even too sure if they still did it, but we took the chance!  

The kids LOVED it - breakfast there is sooooo CHEAP and actually REALLY good!  As well as the old breakfast they used to do - you can now add all kinds of things to the basic selection for just 79c.  So for 5 of us to have a HUGE breakfast which included everyone having whatever they wanted - and yummy fresh fruit, really good cranberry and lemon muffins (still warm), pancakes and endless coffee/ chocolate milk or juice etc....it was just $23.

That was including the basic breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausages and hashbrowns.  So needless to say we were all pretty stuffed!!  :)

There was a fire truck at Ikea today and it was parked right below our table outside, so we got to watch that as we ate - it was there for the children to go in and meet the fire officers and get hats from Sparky or whatever the dog's name is....

While we were there the news cameras arrived and filmed a bit about it...so we got to watch that too, although they weren't there long.  It was CBS I believe???  

After breakfast we all had a walk around the store - Susannah and her friend went off on their own and I took the younger two with me...I only got a few things - including what I went there for - tin openers :)  in colours to match my kitchen lol! And a pretty napkin holder :)  

We then headed home as the older girls didn't feel 100%....they blamed the breakfast lol but maybe they ate too MUCH lol - because the rest of us felt fine!!  They were fine anyway once we got home....

It gave us time to rest for a bit and then Sam, Abby and I headed out again :)

Scenic pictures from my drive home with laurence yesterday.