Stream of whaaaat?

Winter is clearly leaving like a lion—and I gotta say, I’m bummed by it. Last week, Mother Nature taunted us with the first harbringers of spring—warm sunshine, chirping birds, melting snow, the sound of the run-off trickling into gutters, brown tufts of grass peeking out from lawns. It was heavenly. Looked like and Wiarton Willie finally had it right. An early spring and not a moment too soon. And, then, last Friday, right after she had us shedding mittens and parkas for jackets and sunglasses, she went ahead and dumped another 10 cm of the white stuff on us, followed by a week of frigid temperatures. Gawd.

Flash forward to yesterday—yup. More snow. Another 10 cm of the crap. Looks like grey, dreary skies all weekend. Utterly depressing. Truly. Mother Nature is one fickle b!tch.

I guess you could say I have cabin fever and wrong you would not be. I’m a proud Canadian, and I hate the thought of a green Christmas, but man, oh man—I was never meant for winter weather. I get to about mid-January and I’m done with it. Suivant, next.

But, we’ll get to spring eventually, I suppose—I’ll give Willie another week or so before I file an official grievance. In the meantime, I’ve got plenty to keep me busy. (When do I not?) Lots of things to cross off the To-Do list at home, of course, but I’ve also joined the Make-a-Wish team in Rockland as a volunteer, so I hope to be involved with Brooke and company in some fun events there. Looking forward to taking some wish-granting training soon, too.

Of course, I want to get started on that wish trip scrapbook, too, especially now that my sister-in-law Brenna—the star of scrapbooking superwebsite, ScrapSmith—found me some adorable mermaid/princess/fairy/Disney papers to work with. Gorgtastic! So, that’s another project that will be ever in the wings.

Must get back to the DISBoards as the folks there have been very patient with me while I have gone on blogging and trip-reporting hiatus for the last couple of months.

And, in spite of all my complaining, spring is coming, so that means time to get party-planning! Not only is there the usual Easter shenanigans to prepare for, but I’ve got a bundle of birthdays I need to celebrate. We have a lot of April birthdays in the family—my granny’s, my mother-in-law, my hubby, my brother (who will be 30 this year!) and, of course, Miss Avie, who will be two in just a few weeks. Eeek! I can’t believe it—seems like it was a couple of months ago that I began this blog to chronicle her coming into the world.

Here she is in a terribly unsteady iPhone users' hand (mine), perusing the Sears catalogue. Caught her ogling Dora tricycles. Little sister has already started catalogue shopping. Highly amusing. But, helpful, too. (One guess as to what my little sweetie will be getting for her birthday?)

She's growing up so fast. (FYI, her feet are growing at an average pace and are, in fact, quite normal-sized. In this pic, she was wearing Brooke's shoes.)

And, you know what she said to me this morning when I opened up her bedroom door to her little chattering voice? Prepare to gush....

“Oh! It’s my mommy. Love you!”

Yup. Sweetest thing ever.

Kid plucked all my heartstrings and the sound resonated all the way to work. In spite of the grey skies and bleak March terrain—which is saying something, I think.

More about her party plans forthcoming—but let’s just say, I’m very partyblog-inspired lately and have been showing my love of these awesome sites through Pinterest. Okay—can I say how much I love that website? I have found about a bazillion awesome, time-wasting websites in the last few weeks—Mod Clothes, We Heart It, Zulily—to add to my collection ol’ Flickr, Etsy, Contestgirl and Facebook standbys. But, honestly, it’s a struggle every time I sit down at the laptop because as the urge to creep along the pin boards is almost more than I can bear.... I adore it. I feel that website was created specifically with me in mind.

Seriously—I’m one of those peeps who has about 300 favourite websites stored on my browser and then saves a gazillion photos from different websites showing cool crafting, arty, entertaining or clothing ideas onto her hard drive. I’m not joking—there might just be more ‘mermaid party decoration’ photos there than there are pics of the girls. Now I can finally clear out all of those images and keep the ideas in one tidy little account somewhere in the cloud, all neatly sorted and organized and shared among like-minded friends.

Pinterest—my hard drive thanks you.

So, what’s all the point of this rambling piece? None whatsoever. Just a little stream of consciousness blurb to let you know I’m back.

Catch ya’ later.

A weekend earned

Another short post--really just want to share some random pics before we head out. Will be leaving after B's swim lessons tomorrow morning for a weekend in Tremblant with my sister's troop and another set of friends.

It won't be a long vacay--more like 24 hours, really--but a well-earned rest, I think. We're going to stay at a cottage on a frozen lake with an indoor pool and an outdoor jacuzzi. Tramping through the snowy village by day and cozying up by the fire, wine bottles and nachos by night.

There will be 14 of us in all--6 weary adults, 6 wild kids (one of whom is celebrating a birthday--Happy Day, Masyn!) and 2 teething babies. Should be a good time. (And, I don't write that in my usual sarcastic tone. I really think it will be a good time.)

Anyways, I snapped these today because I just loved Brooke's outfit. Santa brought those fuzzy leg warmers for her (courtesy of Dollarama) in her stocking and she wanted to wear them today. Still, it's a little chilly to be running around the house in a miniskirt, so we opted for some grey leggings under the skirt and beneath the leg warmers. We're Canadian, so we dress in layers, right?

What I didn't notice until after I had downloaded the photos is that I had also captured some of Brooke's writings on the floor. Yup--my kid just turned 3 and she can already read and print her name with absolutely no prompting whatsoever from me.

Not only does she know how to spell her own name (and can type it on the computer, too!), but she knows the first letter to Hubby's name, Avie's, Dave's, Grace's and mine. She's that smart. Natch. (Brushing knuckles on lapels.) We clearly have another brilliant writer in the family.

I especially love how she writes her 'B.' It's like she has already taken ownership of her initial and that just warms me inside. She always makes a curly loop between the first and second bumps--a really cursive, beautiful 'B.' (Just like her.) I love it--and I love her.

Anyways, after she 'wrote her list,' we went to wrap Masyn's gift and make her a birthday card. Brooke even signed it by herself. Adorable. I almost don't want to give the card to Masyn--even after Brooke worked diligently at decorating it with all of the stickers (and I do mean, ALL) to bedazzle it in Masyn's honour.

Another pic of Brooke ballerina-ing it in the living room, while Avie watches Caillou. And, yes, you'll note that the room looks a little like a toy typhoon blew through it--and you wouldn't necessarily be wrong. (Hey, at least the tree is gone. Took me almost a month to get everything packed up again. The Xmas boxes are still sitting in the dining room awaiting to be returned to the garage.) And, if you'll note--heart garland over the window. Getting ready for HappyHeartsDay! :)

I wanted to do a proper photo shoot today with the girls all dolled up in sweet little sugary dresses, but I just couldn't be bothered to clean up the destruction left behind the typhoon. (You should see the tiny terrorized faces frozen upon the forever-staring eyes of the dolls. To know the things they know! To see the things they've seen! The horror!) I'll have a go at it next week. Promise.

And, check out Avie's hair. My little sugarbee's hair was all over the place après nap. Love that flyaway baby hair. I swear, I'm not cutting that hair until she's well into her toddlerhood, either. Give her some glitter and a guitar and you could call my little punkrocker MiniPink. Too damn cute!

Okay, final photos. B in her own little winter wonderland.

Look at the expression on her face. Enjoy as she does.