lil skater dudette

Amelia discovered Aiden's skateboard this week end. She likes to sit and roll (I can handle that).

week end review

Why do the week ends always fly by? (but the weeks seem to also). Friday night, Dale went to the pool with the kiddo's and I played Bunco with a nice group of ladies and had a great time. I've always been curious and thought it was a card game (it's with dice). Saturday, I finished Amelia's Easter dress, rain + soccer and an impromptu date night. Sunday we did a family bike ride and enjoyed the beautiful morning and views. We rode the Alabama trail to Whatcom Falls Park and connected back at Silver Beach to go home. I was feeling a little masochistic so Aiden and I headed to the high school track and I ran a few laps and headed over to the monster stairs below our house. I could only manage up and down three times but it's a start. After lunch on Sunday we headed up to Canada to celebrate some March family birthdays and visit. The kids enjoyed dressing up in Gram's jewelry and eating yummy carrot cake. Afterwards, we headed to the Loffler's for dinner and a great visit. It was a good week end except for getting pulled in at the border on the way home and waking sleeping children and Dale discovering he was covered in hives (maybe from the pool?) last night.

question?

Would hot shots melt my rubber boots? I have got to figure something out for this soccer season! Don't feel to bad for me, Dale just booked the babysitter and is taking me out for a spontaneous dinner. Scotty Brown's or Giuseppe's I can't decide. I guess he felt bad that I took Aiden to soccer and ho got to stay toasty warm at home while Amelia napped.

spring to do list:

It's that time again, another season, another family activity list.
1) the Vancouver Aquarium
2) Woodland Park Zoo
3) Hovander Park (to see the baby animals and Amelia told me the other day she wanted to drive a tractor)
4) ride our bikes on Lopez Island (and scope out as possible campsite for Dale and I)
5) try and find Clayton Beach bike trail
6) the Tulip Festival (real pictures in the fields this year,Dale)
7) Farmer's Market
8) plant our vegetable and flower gardens
9) the Wickersham train
10) annual Higgins Lake road trip on the May long week end

mama's sweat shop

Amelia's dress kits arrived yesterday! This morning I broke out the sewing machine and got busy. In just over 3 hours I completed the first dress. I could never make it as a seamstress. I think I'll call it a day. I'm looking forward to making one of the dresses her Easter dress. Hope I have enough time to finish it.

the powder room

Dale and I were both a little bored with the paint color in the powder room. He was itching to do a little demo/construction work so he removed the built in medicine cabinet and made a niche, painted the room a new color and put in a new medicine cabinet and light fixture. The light fixture is missing one of the glass shades but as soon as they're back in stock we'll be complete.

so sorry...

to keep you in suspense about the mystery room. I was waylaid with a lovely case of the stomach flu. I'm finished with my (unsalted) saltines and sprite and will hopefully finish up the room today and take a picture.

can you guess?

where this picture was taken in our house?

game on

Aiden had his first soccer practice of the spring season last night. He seems very excited about playing soccer this year and I hope his attention span has increased. In the fall 90 seconds after a game would start we was staring off into space or goofing around with a buddy. Most importantly, I hope it doesn't pour rain (or snow) for the practices and games!

what a week end!

That's what I said to Dale as we pulled into the driveway yesterday. You know those week ends that you feel like you couldn't have packed anything more in. It was one of those. Friday night we actually got the kids to bed before 7:30 and were able to enjoy some sushi and watch a movie in peace and quiet. Nice. We woke up early Saturday put the kids in the car in their jammies and headed to Grandma and Grandpa's. We dropped the kids off and headed to Grouse Mountain with Tracy and Martin. We spent the day skiing and snowboarding sans kiddos. Nice. After a long day of skiing we headed back to my parents, cleaned up and headed out to the pub for dinner. Nice. Sunday we visited with my parents, headed over to some friends for a visit and then decided to tackle IKEA on a Sunday. By then is was late afternoon and the kids were done with shopping. Not so nice. We picked up a few things and headed home. We decided to take a different border crossing and realized the line was huge. So we stopped at the duty free hoping to cut off some waiting time. We wound up waiting an hour just to leave the duty free parking lot. Not so nice. Amelia slept through the whole border line up. Nice. We pulled into the driveway and 6:00pm and I felt like we had a very full week end.

fishy field trip

Aiden had a field trip today to learn about the salmon life cycle. I thought we were releasing some salmon into the bay. But they save that for the older grades. Dale was able to meet up with us on the field trip and that made Aiden's day!

Dear Spring,

You are going to come this year, right?

a visit to the dentist

Today both kids went to the dentist. It was Amelia's first time and she did fabulously. As fabulously as a two year old that was woken from her nap and wouldn't let me brush her teeth before leaving home. By the time we reached our destination she had mellowed quite a bit and was docile for the entire visit. The hygienist remarked she had never seen a two year old sit so still during an exam. The trick was she loved wearing the sunglasses and having all the attention on her. I fear she is going to be the biggest diva one day. Aiden is so grown up, he went and had his entire dental exam, cleaning and x rays all by himself. When did he get so big? The best part of the dentist is the prizes. I remember picking out those lovely rings and now it's even better. Amelia got a rubber ducky (her favorite toy in the world) and Aiden got an alien attached to parachute. And most importantly, no cavities!

feels good...

to have my scrapbooks organized and labeled. I did some scrapbooking with Tracy this week end and am feeling pretty caught up. Dale went up to Canada to an 'Ultimate Table Hockey Championship' and Tracy came and stayed with the kids. The kids all played smashingly and we were able to sit and scrapbook. It's been years since that was a reality.

just in case....

you thought the toothpaste mess was an isolated incident. This is what she did the chocolate pudding and a cookie while I turned my back for 2 and a half minutes.

little rascal

Saturday morning Dale was on the phone catching up with his brother and I was in the basement tidying up my craft room. Dale thought Amelia was with me and I thought she was upstairs with him. After his 45 minute phone call we discovered neither was the case. Calling for her and checking upstairs Dale called for me to grab the camera. Amelia's favorite thing to do is hang out in our master bathroom and closet. Usually there is a little toothpaste or lip gloss involved. That day she went whole hog and had layers upon layers of toothpaste on her face over top her original lip gloss 'kittycat whiskers'. The funniest thing though was she had put the toothpaste up her nostrils with the lip gloss applicator. She was sneezing uncontrollably due to the nasal irritation but I was determined to get a picture before helping her clean up. Dale thinks this might have cured her toothpaste addiction but I know better. If anyone was concerned about her toothpaste consumption I have already called poison control in the past and we just washed her up and gave her a glass milk. She is a chronic toothpaste offender.

our little reader

Last night Aiden read his first book! It was a library book titled "Electricity." This is huge for him. He's very resistant to sound out words and read books by himself. (Even though I know he can it). He was so proud of himself that he read the book twice and his grin was so precious. Another milestone checked off, sigh.

our new night tables!

Our night tables arrived on Monday. I love them. Now I just have to figure out some artwork for the walls. What a chain reaction.

what a great idea

Yesterday while doing a little online surfing I came across a fabulous idea. I have been wanting to try out a little bit of sewing for Amelia. I am pretty much a beginner sewer, straight lines, no zippers and I dread following a pattern. On Etsy there is a lil shop that sells pre assembled dress and shirt kits(littlefishbigpond). The fabric is already cut into the required pieces and they send the instructions and matching thread. The prices are really reasonable and the fabrics are adorable! I can't wait for these to arrive in the mail.

you at two.

Dear Miss Meelers,
You are at the adorable age of two and I wanted to record some of the highlights of this stage in your life.
- you are obsessed with the character Scat from Ice Age (it has been the only character you have ever been interested in besides Elmo)
- you love chockit (chocolate) and routinely ask for it for breakfast
- you could exist entirely on fruit snacks and granola bars if we let you
- you love to play tea party but you drink 'coffee' out of your cup
- you like to color but we have to keep a close eye that you don't decorate the house with your crayons and markers
- you are very stubborn
- you are such a Mama's girl these days
- you think Dr.Seuss is the Grinch and point him out in all the Dr.Seuss books "the Grinch scares me, he bites my toes" ( I fear you have had some really bad nightmares and we shouldn't have read the Grinch on Christmas Eve)
- you think it's socially acceptable to ask people if they've 'pooed' because we ask you all the time
- your giggle makes me giggle
We love you like crazy!