Be Hanging With Your Baby Friends

friend
frɛnd/
noun
1.
a person with drives one hour, hops on a ferry and drive another four hours to come visit you.
2.
a person who also brings their six, four and two year old.
3.
a person who also brings food for your freezer, crafts and “meaty” conversation. (My friend is a vegetarian. 😉)

There is nothing like friends who go the extra mile.

I am extremely grateful for this mommy friend, D, coming to visit this weekend. Our boys have known her and her brood since they were all in utero.

Look at the fun we had:

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There is nothing like the friends you have known since you were a baby!

Be Celebrating My Dad’s 17th Birthday

Me: Today is Papa’s birthday!!!!!!!

Boys: woohoo!

JC: How old is Papa?

Me: How old do you think he is?

JC: Five

Me: Well, you are six buddy and your oldest cousin, Justy, is sixteen. What do you think now?

JC: Hmmmmm…. Seventeen!

Happy seventeenth birthday dad! You are incredibly youthful, amazing with the boys and very generous.
We love you very much.

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Dad got OC a musical fire truck card for his second birthday. We bought him a Beach Boys musical card. Everyone loved it, especially OC!

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And the icing on the cake, my first hug and kiss for my mama. I haven’t wanted to get close to her since I have been unwell for six weeks!

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Be Springing Another Leak

We have sprung another leak!

This morning we woke up to a flurry of activity around our driveway that started spewing water again yesterday.

Two months ago, we had our first leak.

Now this:
7:00am Visit from the City workers.
7:08am Sexy Neck in his robe moving the cars out of the driveway. (I should have got a picture of that!)
7:30am Pumper truck shows up to start sucking the earth. (21st century version of a shovel!)

The boys are so excited. Me, I ain’t too sure. This is a little bit of a lot lately.

Enjoy our view:

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Update: Leak is fixed. It was our neighbours line this time around.

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Be Thinking/Reading in French

We are one year and two months into our first child in school.
We decided to put him into French Immersion due to our life before children living in Europe, class compositions in French Immersion and the brain/future benefit of learning another language. The only language that is offered is French, otherwise we may have preferred Spanish or perhaps even German.

As parents, we question many of our decisions that we have made for our boys. Today, we were given a small pat on the back that for our oldest French Immersion is the right track for him.

Today, we were in the car.
JC yelled out, “Seven cars. There were seven cars lined up at the light!”
I had a light bulb moment and asked, “Did you count that in your head in French or English?”
JC responded, “French of course Mama!”
My first thought was: thanks for translating to English for me and then I was surprised he was counting in French.

Here’s our Grade Oner reading his home reading tonight:
JC reading in French

Be Turning Chili into Quesadillas

Today with Taco Tuesday!

Instead of the usual hard tacos, I decided to get some rice wraps and try quesadillas.

It was so simple: cast iron frying pan, throw down a rice wrap, cheese, leftover chili and wrap on low heat and voila dinner was on the table. (Here is the chili recipe I made yesterday in the slow cooker.)

To add to the quesadillas while they were heating up, I cut up two avocados and added a bit of salt, paprika and garlic powder and mashed it all together. We also had some sour cream kicking around in the fridge to add on top of the avocado.

We got home from gymnastics at 5:20 and dinner was on the table fifteen minutes later. And it tasted GOOD!

Bon Appetit.

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And keep in mind, I ain’t no foodie. Just check out this blog for a real foodie!

Be Having Chili Monday

How often do you try a new recipe? How about a new recipe without an accompanying photo or taste test?

I must admit that I will almost never try a new recipe where I can’t see a picture of the finished product or I haven’t eaten it. Another look into my perfectionist ways!

Today, I took a recipe from my foodie friend and blogger and I am giving it a go! I have seen photos so I am confident my family will be eating a home cooked meal for dinner rather than takeout pizza.

Chili Monday could become a tradition. This was the easiest slow cooker recipe ever. I made it before we took JC to school at 8:15am so that tells you how easy it is.

Here’s this beautiful chili this morning:

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Checkout my foodie friend’s recipe and blog

Be Driving Home After Surgery

I have been singing this song all morning. Country Roads. This is the version by Olivia Newton-John, not John Denver.

Mom and dad are driving home in the sunshine today. They should be back at home before dinner. I am extremely grateful.

M was a star down in VCity holding the fort at the hotel, taking meals to the hotel, going swimming with dad and being a great support for mom and dad. Her hubby,C, again held down the fort at home to free M up and even endured the two hour pre-op appointment last Tuesday. What a team!

Nana and papa just dropped in on they way. Yeah!!

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