Tales From the Minivan

Today was Christmas (in July) at our house!  Everything kind of just fell into place.  Our original plan was to go away for the weekend, but at the last minute we decided to stay home.  Well, I didn’t want the kids to be too disappointed so wanted to do something fun in lieu of traveling.

On Thursday I took the boys to the mall to pick out a birthday gift for a friend of theirs and while there, the boys got really excited.  They starting shouting, “Look Mommy Santa’s here!”  Much to my surprise, they were correct, there in the middle of the mall was Santa’s little set-up big Green Chair and Christmas trees and all (no Santa though)!

It seems that our local mall in conjunction with a festival in the city where having a Christmas in July celebration, and Santa Claus was going to be at the mall on Saturday.  I knew we couldn’t make it to the mall on Saturday as the boys had a birthday party to go to, but a friend did and I had to laugh at what Santa was wearing!

When we decided not to go away, I thought why not take advantage of this and do our own Christmas in July!  We actually had this as a fun activity to do on our Summer Fun Calendar.  So Andrew, Mackenzie and I conspired and picked up a few summer themed gifts for the kids, Rocket Fishing Rods for the boys, a pair of inline skates for Mackenzie and a fun Mickey Mouse light up toy for Finn.

Finn really liked the tiny little Christmas Tree!

Santa even brought some summer reading material for Mom & Dad looks like Santa is going Green too.  Thanks Santa!

To finish off the day in true Christmas spirit we had a full turkey dinner with all the fixings, and ate outside on our back deck.  It was a little windy so we did end up going back inside for seconds and the fresh strawberry shortcake got forgotten, so I guess we’ll have that tomorrow!

Living in Saint John, NB definitely has it’s fair share of positives and negatives, but by far the worst has to be the FOG!  Saint John is the 3rd Foggiest City in Canada  with 98.29 foggy days per year. Second place goes to Halifax, NS with 99.53, and first place goes to St. John’s, NL with a whopping 118.96 days per year!!

I am 35 years old, and for the majority of my 35 years I have lived in Saint John, NB.  In those 35 years, I can honestly count on both hands the number of times that our Canada Day Fireworks have actually gone off on Canada Day.  “Why didn’t they go off?”, you ask.  They were fogged out, and this year was no different!  It was looking optimistic in the afternoon, then that late afternoon breeze brought the fog back in from the Bay of Fundy.  Living close to the harbour, also has it’s advantages and disadvantages too. One disadvantage being the Saint John Harbour’s foghorn, it could easily wake the dead!

Canada Day started off nicely, I got the whole crew dressed in denim and red shirts and we sauntered our way uptown.  Saint John does not have a “downtown”, only and uptown.  I never really understood this, but this is the way it’s always been.  Maybe I’ll have to look into the history of this some day!

  Finn rode on my back for the entire afternoon in my Ergo Carrier.  I can not say enough positive things about this carrier.  It really is amazingly comfortable even carrying a 25lb toddler for hours!  My favorite part is the extra padding in the waist band and the shoulder straps.  My only wish is that they’d come out with some more colourful designs or fabrics.  So ErgoBaby Inc. if you’re listening, you need to “pimp your carriers” as CPO’s Moderator of our Baby Wearing Board would say!

After walking around uptown and looking through all of the JUNK at the Giant Uptown Flea Market, we spotted a sign near the foot of King Street that said “Free Trolley Rides- 1pm, 2:30pm & 4pm”.  I instantly looked at my watch and got excited it was 2:25pm and then realized we must have just missed it as no one was waiting. I asked a gentleman sitting there and he confirmed it.  He did mention though that the driver was ahead of schedule and would most likely be back around 3:30pm instead of 4pm.  So we walked over to Market Square’s Boardwalk area to kill some time.

I’ve wanted to take one of these Trolley rides for a while now and actually mentioned wanting to take the kids on a tour in our latest episode of Momtalk Podcast called Your Perfect Staycation.  Here’s a little history on Saint John’s Trolley’s- one of the tour agencies in the city bought them a few years ago.  They are the San Francisco style ones made to look like street cars, incidentally Saint John, NB was actually the first city in Canada to have a Street Car. Well as you can see by the photo to the right we arrived back just in time to get the last free tour!  Ciaran fell asleep 3/4 of the way through, but I think the kids really enjoyed it and learned a few cool facts about Saint John, I know I did!

Our Canada Day Fireworks were postponed 3 nights in a row, then finally on the 4th of July, us Saint Johner’s got to witness a great show!

Earlier in the evening I hauled out my camera’s manual and looked up what setting would be the best for fireworks. I have to admit as much as I love my digital SLR, the amount of different settings are overwhelming, I really need to take a course!  We parked the minivan down by the waterfront and flipped the rear bench seat over so the kids could sit there and watch. This is one of the cool features I like in our van! Here’s a few shots from the evening:

I have to say, I had a pretty amazing childhood when I think back to growing up.  There’s a lot of reasons but number 1&2 have to be my parents.  Were we spoiled, maybe just a little, but I know that I was always appreciative of everything my parents did for me and my brother.  They instilled many values that I hope to pass down to my kids.

Geographically the place where I grew up Bradley Lake, was the absolute best.  My parents built our home on a small private road on the lake’s waterfront back in 1978.  My maternal grandparents summer vacationed here every year and with it’s close proximity to the city it was the perfect place to get away from the FOG in Saint John.  On our little road (of 8 houses) that my father unofficially named Cedar Brook Cresent there was 20 kids no more than 6 years apart. There was always games of baseball, soccer and water fights, canoe & kayak races and plenty of swimming!  We were often in the water from just before lunch to just before bed.  I can’t remember ever being bored and always felt very safe.  We always had strict rules about water safety and all of the parents were united on this front, which was why I think there was never any close calls around the water.

Today we spent time out at Dad’s for Father’s Day. My brother Curtis and his girlfriend Sam joined us as well as my little brothers Nathan and Jonathan (almost 11 & 13).  We had a nice BBQ and were going to take a swim in the pool but the overcast skies made it a bit cool for it.  Instead we took out the Kayaks.  It was really cool, and once again brought back many memories of kayaking in the wooden kayaks that my nextdoor neighbour made back in the 80’s.  I took ythe boys out for their first official Kayak ride and Mackenzie took off like a pro by herself in the other.

I hope to get out to the lake a lot this summer, and hopefully my love of the water will rub off on the kids.  I feel at peace when I around a body of water.  I loved waking up on a summer morning with calmness in the air and the lake as smooth as glass without a ripple to be seen.  Occasionally you’d hear loons calling each other, or the Andrew’s brothers calling the loons.  It really was a childhood I would never trade.

On Dad’s deck with the lake in the background:

Future Kayakers?

Monday was spent doing a little park hopping. We started out at Disney Hollywood Studios (aka MGM Studios as I’m used to it being called). Disney now has professional photographers all over the place that take photos for you. They give you a little credit card size card with a bar code and each time you get your photo taken by them they scan your card and you can look at the photos online. There you can crop, edit, add borders and other fun things to the photos. Here’s a few from when we first arrived at Hollywood Studios:

Yes we’re all in tie-dyes, and we weren’t the only ones either!

I love that last shot. The photographer told us all to point at that one spot and when told is there’d be a surprise in the pic!

We decided to go grab some Fast Passes for some of the more popular bigger rides like the Tower of Terror and Areosmith’s Rockin’ Rollercoaster. You may be asking, “What is a Fast Pass?” At the majority of the bigger rides, Disney has set up a FastPass Distribution. You put in your Park Pass, and out pops a ticket telling you when to come back to the ride. They normally give you a timeframe of an hour. What this allows you to do and pass by the longer line up and only wait for a few minutes! It was great, I highly recommend using this feature. The most we had to wait for any ride was about 15 minutes, but the wait times listed on the rides were much longer.

After getting our Fast Passes we knew we had about an hour to explore some other parts of the part and happened upon the Star Wars ride called Star Tours. The boys were very excited about this. Ciaran just made the height restriction of 40 inches. I was a little worried about this as I had been reading online that some kids were being turned away when they got to the ride even though they were measuring fine at the first part of the line. Star Tours is a flight simulator ride, where you flying through space and a silly robot, with not a lot of flying skills is at the helm. Ciaran wasn’t too sure about this one! As with most Disney rides, the exit to the ride flies you into a themed giftshop, here’s the boys with there Star Wars Helmets on.

I figured the kids would love the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Play area. On the way there we manged to spot Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable!

Liam was only concerned with getting to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids playground, so wouldn’t get in the photo. Who could blame him, it’s a huge play structure that’s made to look like the movieset, ie. all of the toys, insects and other objects are giant. We figured this would be a good place for them to play, while we decided to utilize our Fast Passes.

Here’s a shot of my Mom and Ciaran

The HUGE Super Soaker

A cool slide that’s a roll of Kodak Film

Ant riding

Worlds Largest Playdough Container

For the majority of the bigger Disney Rides, they also allow you to Baby Swap. Baby Swapping allows both parents and the rest of their party to wait in line together. When it’s their turn to ride, one parents stays back with the baby and rides. When the ride is over they swap the baby to the other parent and their part rides again. We figured that we would take Finn with us and then Katelyn the little daredevil could get to ride twice! In theory this was great but did not work so well. Both the Tower of Terror and Rockin’ Roller Coaster would not let Finn into the lines, so I had to wait back until they were of the ride then get back in line again. It took twice as long to ride because of this! Very frustrating! We did manage to take some photos of the monitors displaying photos taken of us on the ride. Notice my look of sheer panic!

Andrew and Katelyn in the front row

Yes that’s me in the back on the right!

After taking a lot longer than we expected we rushed back to the Kids playset to find out that it was just closed due to a quick shower. We found the rest of the gang just getting ready to have lunch. While we were eating Andrew noticed a co-worker! It was so funny, of all places to run into someone! It really is too small of a world sometimes! We then did the Movie Backlot Tour which really hasn’t changed a bit since I worked there in 1992. Finn decided this would be a great place (and so did I) for him to have a nice little nursing session while on the Backlot Tram.

We then decided to take the boys to see the Playhouse Disney Show and take the bigger girls to the Animation expo. Mackenzie is really interested in computerized animation, so I decided this would be fun to do with her and Katelyn and brought Finn with me. Andrew and the two Nannies took Liam and Ciaran, just as they were looking for the entrance my mom decided to ask a Cast Member (Disney’s name for employee) where it was and he said to them, “Don’t worry about that you guys come right with me!” He made them the Playhouse Disney Family of the show and they got front row seats and a cute little certificate!

Finn the girls and I also had our own little magical moment when we came out of the Animation Presentation. We got to meet Fantasia Mickey! This was Finn’s first Muckey Meeting and the Disney Photographer captures it so well! Here’s a few shots:

That’s it for Part one, I’ll update soon with Part two !!!

Ok this is my 3rd attempt to get a post in here, believe it or now I have 3 saved half posts!

I’ll get to this one first though! This past week I got to meet another Cpo’er, Miscouchemommy, the timing worked out perfectly, although I could have sat and chatted with her for hours! Kelly was in Fredericton for a work conference, and I needed to go to Fredericton as there was a group meeting with a lawyer. Looks like some of us that had kids already enrolled for this coming fall for Grade One are going to pursue legal action! I’ll write more about this later! Coincidentally the meeting was on the exact same road as Kelly’s hotel!

I ran a couple of errands when I first arrived, got a new copy of Mackenzie’s Birth Certificate with her new last name! Yes, it’s official as of March 17th, Mackenzie’s adoption was finalized. After getting her updated BC, I stopped into the passport office to see what I needed to do to get her passport changed. We only get hers renewed last year, and for the name change we have to apply for a whole new passport along with the entire fee again. What a money grab!

After finishing my tasks I headed over to the hotel where Kelly was staying. It was so warm in Fredericton I had my windows down in the van. When I parked I noticed this bug right on my windshield, at first I panicked, as I have this fear of wasps and hornets, (well actually anything that stings) then I looked again and it was a Ladybug!! So of course I had to snap a pic. The clarity is not the best as I brought my little cam and not the DSLR.

I walked into the Hotel and noticed Kelly right away, and we headed over to the Diplomat Restaurant right next door to the hotel. The poor waitress had to come back a few times as we were gabbing to much to even look at our menus! I got a Lobster Roll Platter and Kelly got the Lobster Chowder, it was delicious!

Next came dessert, their menu was very vague, cheesecakes, cakes and pies. When I questioned our server what they were she said, “You have to go and take a look at the display fridge!” We walked over, and literally started drooling! I got the “Turtle Cheesecake” and Kelly got the “Cappuccino”. I highly recommend their cheesecakes!

Before we knew it, it was almost 6:30pm which is when my meeting was. We grabbed a couple of photos, and exchanged some goods! LOL! I have been raving about this seasoning called Bell’s for months, you may have seen a recipe called Crockpot Stuffing. Well, Kelly was interested in a box, and since I’m so close to the border, it’s much easier for me to get some. So I promised her that I would give her a box when we met up. She knew I was a big fan of Coke, specifically in a glass bottle. PEI, is one of the last places to still use glass bottles for their soft drinks. Sadly though, the bottling plant will be closing so Kelly picked me up 10 750ml bottles! Oh how I love my Coke! I’ll be sure to ration them out!

It was really great meeting Kelly IRL! We hope to definitely meet up again on her turf in PEI this summer!

As I know many of you are aware Andrew and I got married in a very unconventional way, on St. Patrick’s Day in the Irish Pub we met at. Here’s a post from CPO’s Message Boards I originally wrote 3 days after I got married in 2005 all about how we came to the decision to get married on St Patrick’s Day and how our little “pub” wedding turned into a national news segment. (I still joke it must have been a slow news day!) There’s also a few pics so keep reading to the bottom!
So as some of you may know by now, my long-time significant other and I have finally “tied the knot”.

I thought I would share our story of how my idea for a small little ceremony turned into a national news segment.

Andrew and I met 4 years ago in a local Irish Pub (O’Leary’s), since meeting we’ve built a great little family. Andrew proposed to me 2 years after meeting while vacationing at Walt Disney World. It was like a dream! He had it all arranged, previous to arriving. Our first night there we visited the Magic Kingdom. He seemed antsy all evening but I had no idea why, then just as the fireworks were about to begin, 2 cast members walked us into a roped off area called the “Secret Rose Garden” waiting there was a bottle a sparkling cider, chocolate truffles, & chocolate covered strawberries. I had no idea what was happening, I kept thinking…”I don’t think were supposed to be in this area, someone else is going to be upset we have their reserved spot for the fireworks viewing”. Then just as the fireworks began he dropped down on one knee and passed me a glass slipper, inside the most beautiful 3 stone diamond ring, and proposed. Of course, I accepted!

Now getting married had always been talked about, but was one of those things we kept putting off, our son Liam was born later that year (2002). We decided to have another sibling for him closer in age than his big sis Mackenzie, so little Ciaran was born almost 2 years to the day later. We were busy building our family so getting married just seemed to not be a big priority. Then a life changing event happened in early Feb that put things in better perspective for us. While Andrew was playing his weekly hockey game with his buddies, tragically one of them collapsed and died right in front of them. The next day we both decided together that we need to make time to get married.

A week or so passed and I thought to myself, St Patrick’s Day is coming up wouldn’t be great to have that as our anniversary date? I thought a small civil ceremony, in the place we met, our local pub, my parents , his parents, the kids and our witnesses. I knew that the date was quickly approaching so there wasn’t much time to do more than that.
We got a hold of the pubs owner, who happens to be a good friend of Andrew’s, and he was gracious enough to allow us to use the pub as our venue, and closed off a major portion for us to celebrate that afternoon. Remember this is also his busiest day of the year, and Saint John is “Canada’s Most Irish City”.

Now that the venue was established, our next step was wedding rings. We knew that we really wanted to get Irish Claddagh Bands. So while searching the net, I found the “Irish Soulmate Band”. It had the gaelic words “Mo Anam Cara” etched into the band which translate into “My Soul Friend”, they also have the Claddagh symbol inbetween each word. Perfect! Seeing that my name is Cara, the next hurdle was making sure we could get these shipped to us quickly as they had to be sent from Ireland. Thank you www.irishcelticjewels.com !!

As the next few weeks went on I hadn’t done any more planning, we had our venue the rings were ordered, we found someone to marry us, we told our immediate family, (who I might add were not overly enthusiastic about our non-traditional idea), but really liked the date, Andrew’s parents actually got engaged on St. Patrick’s Day, they of course have Irish roots so it’s a significant day in their lives. Andrew then took an annual trip he makes with his friends, he happened to mention our plans which were met with much enthusiasm, at that point he informally invited them ALL. Gradually, more and more people started hearing about it, and our invitee list was growing… I needed to start planning a “real wedding”, our list had grown to almost 80.

Now it was time to find a dress, I could never have envisioned myself in a tradition wedding dress, but my mother was insisting we just go take a look. The first bridal shop we visited had this gorgeous flash green gown in the display window. I pointed it out to mom and laughed, “Wouldn’t that be funny, get married on St Paddy’s Day in a green dress!” Mom just rolled her eyes. We went into the shop and looked around, just as we were heading out, I looked back at the dress, and said, “Why don’t I just try it?” Mom, much to her chagrin agreed. It fit perfect, like it was made for me. We left the shop, went to a few others, tried on tons of other gowns, but I couldn’t get the green one out of my mind. We went back and I bought it on the spot.

Now being my mothers only daughter, she wanted the whole she-bang and was insisting that we now get a photographer. I refused, saying that everyone we know has gone digital, we’ll be able to obtain their photos, for no cost at all. So not liking this, she came up with an idea to leak it to our local newspapers editor, thinking they may send a photographer to get photos, this was her way around me not wanting a photographer. The paper loved the idea and interviewed us at the pub during an annual children’s charity breakfast, that supports a program that brings children to Saint John from Belfast for 2 weeks during the summer. The article was in Monday’s paper with a nice color shot of us in front of the pub, it was really nice. The photographer mentioned he might try and get back if it was OK at the ceremony to get a photo of me in my green dress, to appease my mother, I agreed. What ensued after this is quite surreal!

CBC Radio called and wanted us to do an interview with them to open their morning show, another local radio station wanted us to help with their humorous morning drive to work show all on the morning of our wedding day. It was great fun! Dave the pub’s owner offered to pick me up in a Hummer he sponsors. When he arrived at the hotel, he warned me “they” were all waiting. I’m thinking our guests family…Andrew, but no “They”, meant photographers, TV cameras and reporters. I was in disbelief that our little pub wedding had gained this much attention. I tried my best to answer all of their questions, but in the end I blocked it all out and focused on the man I love, and pretended that we were the only 2 in the room. Andrew, if you’ve managed to find this I just want to say, “I Love You!”

Telegraph-Journal | Saint John
As published on page A1 on March 18, 2005

THE BRIDE WORE GREEN
(Peter Walsh/Telegraph-Journal)

Cara Fanjoy and Andrew Miller raise mugs of green beer to toast the new life they began Thursday afternoon as a married couple. Saint John’s uptown Irish pub O’Leary’s became the setting for their St. Patrick’s Day wedding. The couple met there and became Friday night, after-work regulars at the pub, which closed its doors for several hours so they, family and friends could enjoy the venue for the celebrations.

Me getting out of the Hummer

My Dad and I

Getting Interviewed by the CBC and CTV!

My Dad and Mom on the left and Andrew’s Parents on the right.

My Dad, Grandmother and on the far right my brother Curtis

A Family Shot!

I can hardly believe Finn is a year old today! He really has brought a lot of joy to our entire family. To commerate his first year with us, I thought I’d share his “Birth Story” once again!

Friday morning, when I woke up I was sore but thought it must have been from doing too much the night before. I notice that my uterine tightenings, were more than that, as the were accompanied by pelvic pressure too, I was starting to lose my mucous plug, as well I could really feel that the baby had dropped so of course I got comparison pics! The photo on the left was taken 5 days before.

DH came home for lunch and I was still having irregular somewhat painful contractions, I told him to go back to work but to have his Blackberry with him at all times (he tends to leave it on his desk). Around 3:40pm I called him and told him he better come home…I wasn’t sure if this was just the early stages or not, but I wanted to try and start timing them, and the boys were driving me crazy!

Here’s me at 8:15pm, I had to check the camera and see when the pic was taken as I didn’t believe it!
Birthing Ball @ 8:15pm

It’s funny as my plan was to listen to really relaxing music, Enya, PM Dawn & Enigma, but when the time came, I was listening to Dance Music! Usher, Ice Cube and Black Eyed Peas! When I finished on the Ball, I decided to go and try and pee. After this no more ball for me…I decided to sit up in bed. Contractions were pretty much right on top of one another with a lot of pressure. I sent Andrew out to get someone, and the person (not sure if she was a nurse or receptionist) at the desk said everyone was busy and I’d have to wait. He was too nice, and said, “Ok I’ll let her know.”. I then said to him, “ If the next contraction is like the last one, they better get their butts in here!” Just then, I could see and hear a heard of people walking past my room and commanded Andrew to, “GO GET THEM NOW!”Fuming

They got there and checked me, and I was fully dilated, and my water still had not broken, I warned them once it did, that the baby was going to come with it! There was a lit of commotion in the room and then I felt my water break, and told them, “ I have to push now! “ Doc said, “ That’s fine go ahead!”, thinking that he still had time to get his gown on. The first push and his head was almost out, and he told me just to do little tiny pushes. After his head was born, one more big push and he was out! Born at 8:41pm! The doc put him right up on my belly, I was so happy as this is my first time that’s ever been done and Andrew cut the cord.
Here’s Finn right after he was born on my belly.

Finn Charles Miller weighed a healthy 7lbs 14 and ¼ oz and was 21 inches long which surprised me as he was 10 days early. Once he was cleaned up and weighed he latched right on and nursed like a pro!

After being in the birthing suite for another hour or so the nurse then told me that they had to keep Finn in the NICU overnight for observation because I didn’t have the antibiotics in my system 4 hours prior to his birth. This upset me a little as my doc told me not to worry about getting to the hospital too early. The nurse assured me that he would be brought to me when he needed to be fed and to get some rest. I barely slept as every time I heard foot steps I thought it was them bringing him to me. He was only brought twice between 11pm & 8am which upset me a little. The next morning the Pediatrician on call, gave him a clean bill of health, but wanted him to stay one more night to be on the safe side because of the GBS. Sunday morning we were released and headed home! Finn only lost 200g while in the hospital, and as of Tuesday morning he’s back up over his birth weight again!

Here’s few more pics!

First Sling Ride in the Hospital

Going home outfit

Proud Big Brothers

Loving Big Sissy

Doctor Dad?

Happy Birthday sweet boy! This year has gone by too quickly!

Here’s a few shots of Finn enjoying his First taste of Birthday Cake! It really was a small slice, however he manged to make it look like a lot more!

This is a holiday event that I’ve really looked forward to over the past few years. I know I’ve spoken about it in some of our Podcasts, specifically Cookie Exchange 101 but it’s a great thing to do with your friends at this busy time of year. This years event included 5 of us (Johnnysmom, KVMom, MomtoDarrandBre, SarahNB and myself Ladybug Mom),we all met through CPO at some point which is pretty cool! It was so nice to catch up, and of course listen to KVMom’s hilarious stories, she can always get us in tears from laughing so much. Here’s a group shot of us, minus SarahNB who took the photo.

This year I decided to try Chantelle’s Truffles she posted in her blog. I made them the evening before at about 10pm. Note to self, do not procrastinate when it comes to truffles, as they can’t be rushed! I decided to do a little twist and add some Caramel Baileys to the cream cheese mixture, this cause the mixture to take a little longer to harden, and take longer to prepare. From what I heard (I ran out of time and didn’t end up making some for us) they tasted really good, I may make some for a treat in the new year.

It seems that I may also have started a personal tradition for our Cookie Swap day…this is the second year in a row that I decided to take my pre-Christmas day-trip to Maine. It was a busy day, but worth the trip down, who can turn down cream cheese at 99 cents a brick?! I also picked up a nice spiral ham at $1.49lb (compared to $3.49lb here) for Christmas Dinner to have alongside the Turkey. I managed to get home almost on time, but brought Finn with me as he was needing a little cuddle time after the drive back.

It was great evening, and I promise not to plan my shopping trip to Maine on the same day next year Sarah!

That’s Sarah’s tree behind me, isn’t it great?

It was decided this year instead of having two separate concerts for the K-5 and 6-8 they would have only one concert! This makes it easier for us parents that have one in Elementary and one in Middle School. Everything was all set, Ciaran would spend the morning with my FIL and we would drive Liam and Mackenzie to school that morning and take Finn with us. Now getting everyone out the door in the morning is always a challenge. I would say it’s probably one of the most stressful things for me, getting the boys strapped into their carseats, making sure that I have everything, and the kids have everything, it always seems that something gets left behind. School Concert day was one of these days…Liam’s backpack with his lunch and dress shoes (of course he insisted on wearing his suit) was sitting right at his launchpad in the front room! I, of course was upset but tried to not let it get to me. I decided the best thing to do, was watch Liam as his class was one of the first to perform, then sneak out and head home to make sure I got back in time for his recess and to see Mackenzie’s class sing. They looked so cute with they antlers they made in class singing Rudolph. Here’s a few shots:

After Liam performed I snuck out and rushed home to grab his backpack and lunch. I also grabbed a change of clothing just in case he wanted to change out of his suit, he replied with a, “No mommy the boys said I looked like the principal!” I guess in Kindergarten this is still a good thing! I ran back up to the gym, only to find out I had just missed Mackenzie’s class! This is honestly the first time I had wished we lived closer to the school. The kids are in French Immersion, and ouir neighbourhood’s school doesn’t offer it, so they have to get bussed to another part of the city. It’s a nice big school (formerly a highschool) with lots of immenities, but can be inconvenient at times. Although I did miss her perform, my MIL got a video of her and I grabbed a few shots of her and one with her friend Joli.

I am officially the mom of a 3 year old and 5 year old. Ciaran and Liam both had their birthdays this past week. We ended up having a family dinner to celebrate both birthdays. Liam was a little bit disappointed with this as he wanted his own party with “his friends”. Unfortunately there is a new policy at his Kindergarten this year that the kids are not allowed to send birthday party invitations to school. I understand the reasoning around it, but if your child us a bus student you never get a chance to meet their friend’s parents. I’m hoping at the Parent Teacher Conferences, I can introduce myself to a few of them, and possibly set up a play date some weekend.

For their party I decided to do a turkey dinner with all of the fixin’s, since I didn’t get to do one for Thanksgiving. It was great as it gave us lots of leftovers for the next few days, and I even made a pot of turkey stock to freeze for soup bases, and I made a Turkey Shephard’s Pie to freeze. I’ve mentioned making this before on our “What’s for Dinner” Podcast. I really like it, as I’ll pull it our in a few weeks, and it’s just like having turkey Dinner without all the work!

After dinner, each of the boys had their own cakes. They have been eyeing these cakes at our local grocery
store for the past couple of years, they are real icecream cones around them, (well the icecream is actually icing, but the cones are real!) so I decided to surprise them with these:

It was nice to have both sides of our family together, and gave me a chance to start talking to my dad about a planning a trip to Walt Disney World for the March Break! He is hoping to join us with his boys who are a year older and a year younger than Mackenzie. We were going to wait another year, but with our strong dollar we thought we’d take advantage of it! I’ll be sure to share some of our plans here.

As well, over the next few entries, I thought I’d share some of our favorite travel tips and moments over the past 5 years.

Happy Birthday my sweet boys! Here’s a few pics of them over the years! I will add them from my other PC soon!

Liam through the Years

Liam at 1 Week

Liam’s First Birthday

Liam’s Second Birthday

Liam’s Third Birthday

Liam’s Fourth Birthday

Liam’s Fifth Birthday

Ciaran Through the Years

Ciaran at One Week

Ciaran’s First Birthday

as well, here’s a VIDEO we took that day:

Ciaran’s 1st

Ciaran’s Second Birthday with Liam

Ciarans’s 3rd Birthday