What a week ... we are heading into !!!

Its Spring Its Spring Its Spring Its Spring Its Spring Its Spring Its Spring Its ............................SPRING .............

And it looks as if we will have a wonderful warm Easter Weekend ...and I was feeling pretty good about this week and all I would accomplish... after all, the snow shovels have been put away and the bicycles are out and 'on the road' - what more could life offer at the end of March for Heavens sake!! However seems as if I've been nailed with one horrific and awful cold and with still so much to get done !!!! ...showing our available rental properties, one to a prospective buyer, getting some work done on one property we'd like to rent by end of April, taxes needing to be put together for our accountant ( very close but not quite done thanks to real life ) , Easter, Chris's birthday, keeping the household in order, real estate of course ( just supposed to be my full time career!!! ) , In addition to all this ... my Mazda needed some attention in the clutch and brake areas and then of course Dave ( our awesome car expert at Schlichter's ) wanted me to get the winter tires OFF the Mazda as we are going to be having such warm weather this weekend...and we do not want to ruin those lovely winter tires I paid so much for last November !! ( of course NEW all weather tires are needed now - we knew this last fall when the old ones came off). Sigh - am I rambling ?? Feeling very stressed this week instead of enjoying how fantastic life is. OK attitude adjustment time. I am such a slow learner in so many ways .... instead of stressing just slow it down !! ( yeah right - easy to say , hard to do ) Well I try !! So today I rebooked several appointments to give myself some get well time - instead of making myself sicker and more stressed -this included moving Chris's birthday to Friday - didn't know you could do that did ya ?? Well Chris's birthday is tomorrow but will be celebrated in our house FRIDAY this year !!! I figure its a plus ... hey - a few more days to spend being a year younger ...what a gift !!

Think the kitties have it right though ....napping in the sunshine - ahhhh !!!! That would be the life !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Think the kitties have it figured out !

Its Spring Its Spring

Ah Spring!!!

Well not quite yet but it certainly does feel like spring even if its truly just 2/3's of the way through March !!! But the signs are all there and one sign in particular !! The bicycles are out, the kids are out and ..... the Dads are out ( fixing the bikes naturally !!). Yes, the earliest sign of spring is not the robins and the buds on the trees but the bikes and the Dads - Dads on hands and knees pumping air in tires, adjusting seats, adding or removing training wheels - YUP !!! Its Spring !!

Ahhhh The Day After .....

The sleepover was a tremendous success! Birthday girl's mom, Tracey, looked exhausted !! The last party girls to fall asleep dropped off around 2:30 am after some stern words from the tired hosts. I picked up Rosalind this morning around 10:30 - Rosalind who usually bubbles as our social butterfly was very quiet today !! Bedtime was just after 7pm tonight - no surprise there !!

The Ultimate Girlie Experience : The Sleepover !!!!

PARTY PARTY PARTY !!!!

Well the big party started today at 4:30 at the Build A Bear at Fairview Mall, then moved to the birthday girls home for build your own pizza followed by movies and a sleepover pajama party ( I somehow doubt that the 'sleep' in sleepover applies here ) and then a build your own waffle breakfast - do you detect a theme ? I suspect the parents will be trying to grab naps tomorrow as they will be- seriously sleep deprived not to mention that an hours sleep is already lost due to the time change. Rosalind is so excited - I am not sure which part of this party agenda she considers to be the best part ... the build a bear, the pajama party, the build your own pizza - who knows. Guess we will hear all about this tomorrow after the build your own waffle breakfast !!!

Carolina has been stuck with her parents tonight - hopefully she will enjoy the extra undivided attention !! She usually misses Roz though when Roz is busy with her social activities. Tonight she has been a bit sniffly and has just been hanging out on the couch ... bedtime soon for her I think .....And tomorrow comes sooner than we think tonight anyways ...

The Escape .........

This past weekend Chris and I escaped to Bear Trail Inn - Couples Resort. Erik and Lisa ( bless them !!!) took on the girls and Mike and Frances took care of Chris's car ( he is working in Toronto now or should I say again ) so we rendezvoued at their place and took my car up to the resort. It was an incredible weekend . I hadn't really realized how tired we both were ....lots of napping etc, well you know, etc ........

Because we were repeat customers ( we had gone up there back in 98 or 99 ) I got a free spa treatment !! How cool that was. Saturday night is a dressup night for dinner - the atmosphere is quietly sophisticated and the food was awesome. And the desserts - sigh !!!!! They had a raspberry cheesecake that was just amazing. We took our desserts back to the room and had them for breakfast - well that is before we had breakfast each morning we started with dessert. The list of activities is sooo extensive - dog sledding, snow shoeing, ice fishing, the spa , horse back riding etc etc. The rooms have a jacuzzi and a wood burning fireplace and are soooo comfy you just don't want to leave .

We walked across the lake - that was it for exercise - no wind and a warm winter day - all that fresh air - hmmm time for another nap ??

Getting away from the regular routine was so fabulous -- we need to do this again !!!!!

Forever Family Day !!

Hard to believe that March 2003, we were in China holding our eldest daughter, Rosalind for the very first time. A curly-haired crying little bundle who took three days to decide we were ok. Then we saw the smiliest bubbliest little social butterfly emerge !! Seven years ago - they have just flown by.

So tonight to celebrate we went out to the Kings Buffet and enjoyed a great meal followed by a trip to Build A Bear. Rosalind's friend Cassandra has a birthday this coming weekend and the birthday plan is a fantastic sleepover prefaced by a trip to Build A Bear. So I admit it I stole the idea as I thought our two would just love to do this together - don't think it will steal any thunder from Cassandra's party - Rosalind will be thrilled to get to do it again and Carolina will be ok as she will have one Build A Bear of her own.

Well Rosalind chose a wolf ( Cuddles ) and Carolina chose a unicorn ( Pink). That to my surprise took very little time. Then we went to the stuffing station and there the little critters were stuffed to their new owners idea of perfection - soft and cuddly or firm ( or firmer ) The girls picked hearts to put in their little stuffies and there was a little ceremony around the heart going into the stuffie. Then on to the fluffing station and then the clothes. The clothes - oh my heaven - that took forever ... so much to choose from , it was almost overwhelming but the girls had a great time taking their selections to the dressing rooms to try outfits on their new pets. It was fun and they came home totally exhausted with their new stuffies in their box houses !! Those are some expensive stuffies but it was a very special day !!!!!

And A Good Time Was Had By All ....

Well the Olympics are over - the flame is out, the flag has been passed on to Sochi, Russia for the 2014 winter games. The party last night was amazing !!! Vancouver and Canada - well done !! It was just so fantastic to see all the athletes - to see Joannie Rochette carrying the flag for Canada - all come into the stadium . To see the kids with their snowboards all stream in - a thousand kids !!!! Party, party, party - all over the country ...part of King St in Waterloo was closed for the celebrations !!

And we created a new record for Olympic gold metals won in any Winter Olympic games - 14 !!!

Now we are back to business as usual - sigh - no more silly late nights while I try to see every last minute of every event so I can report to Rosalind at breakfast the next morning ( this is required even though the KW Record does a much better job ). Deep breath and back to business...............