Sara is Smiling

Halloween 2011

I love this picture!
So typical!


This year we timed our fall trip to Phoenix so that we'd be there on Halloween. Co coats stuffed under our costumes! No freezing noses or toesies!
It was a different experience. People sat out on their driveways in lawn chairs with big bowls of candy. There was much more of a community feel from this because as you took your kids around you'd linger and chat with your neighbours. The weather was so warm that it was a lovely evening stroll intead of a chore that you hope will be over as soon as it starts.

The kids looked great in their costumes. I ordered them from a site that doesn't ship to Canada. I've been wanting costumes from it for a few years now, and I finally had my chance!

Max is really into martial arts right now. He just earned his green belt!


Viking Warrior. You can't see the cape very well, but it's all fur lined. She also had a shield which we couldn't find when I was taking a picture.

I've never allowed my girls to be princesses for halloween. They can be princesses the other 364 days of the year, but not halloween. I made an exception for this dress. :-)

Quinn was (is) a monster. When I was thinking of costumes, this seemed only natural. :-)

The Sad Life of a Lonely Stick Bug

We were at a Tiger Splash show waiting for it to start when we noticed a stick bug was hanging out with us. We'd never seen one before and it entertained us during the wait.

Rachael was determined to pick it up, and it was more than willing to climb into her hand, but everytime it did she'd let out a little squeal and flip it off. Then she'd try again. The Tiger Splash turned into the Rachael show.

Once the show was underway we turned our attention away from Sticky, although I kept tabs on where he was because I didn't want him to crawl on me :-)
Afterwards, the kids wanted to know where Sticky had gotten to.
I pointed him out. They started over to see him WHEN............................
A lady walked by and CRUSHED HIM. Right before our eyes!
The horror!

Rest in Peace, Sticky.
Thanks for keeping my kids occupied while we waited. I'm truly grateful :-)

The Auntie Mare Face

Quinn had never met Mary before last week. Whenever Mary would talk to her or try to hold her Quinn would make this face:


While she's doing it, she's breathing hard through her nose as is evidenced by the booger that shot out while I was taking this.
We joked that Mary must by stinky, but I'm actually thinking this is Quinny's fake smile since the above picture is taken while I'm trying to get her to smile for the picture.
As far as fake smiles go, it's a pretty pathetic attempt.
By the way, I did get some actual smiles on the beach. It was easy. Quinn was in PARADISE. Crawling on sand must be a nice break for baby knees :-)



A few more beach pictures. We did this for a couple of hours before getting our sandy, damp butts on the plane. We really used every possible minute of our short vacation!



I don't know if you can see all the rain drops falling in the lake here. It poured for about 20 minutes, but we're hardcore and hardly flinched.



My nephew Baron wanted to be wrapped in his towel, but then waded back in the lake. He's a super cutie. He and Elly were thick as thieves although she kept calling him 'James' and Mary 'Auntie Jenn'. So much family! It's confusing for a 3 year old.

Wanna see a happy boy?

We found a super deal on some helicopter rides while we were in Osoyoos so took advantage. You don't get many opportunities to go up in a helicopter, after all.
Max: I'm so excited for my first helicopter ride!
Me: ...and maybe your only helicopter ride.
Max: What??
Me: I'm 35 and this is my first helicopter ride!

This conversation happened every 60 seconds or so through the headsets:
Eloise: Mama?
Me: Yes?
Eloise: I love you.
Max: GUH! Elly! Stop SAYING that!!
Pilot: *chuckle*

Do not adjust your screen. I really am that red.

We could only go up 3 at a time so I didn't get to ride with Charlie and Layla, but from all accounts they had a great time.

This post is a distraction from work :/

How does a 3 night stay at my sister's place cause me to be what feels like a month behind at work??

I'm sitting here struggling to catch up, and as I was looking for a certain file on my hard drive I saw the thumbnails for our trip and it made me smile.
So here's a quick break, and a sigh, and a happy memory before getting back to work. :-)


This was the picture that caught my eye and is responsible for my work not getting done right at this moment.
Cherry picking!
I'm not a big cherry fan, but there's just something about plucking food right off the tree that makes it divine.


You may be wondering why they're leaning.
We went to the COOLEST petting zoo. We weren't sure what to expect since Mary had never been there before either. She told me afterwards that she was really nervous that we would drive all that way and find a mud pit with a donkey. :-)
This was probably the cheapest thing we did, but was such an enjoyable way to spend half a day.

Oh, right..why are they leaning..

We were driving a golf cart on a tour of the grounds. They send you off on your own, in a golf cart, pulling the kids in a wagon behind you. So fun!

Go faster! Go faaaaasssster!

This photo was Max's idea.
"Take a picture of me with it in my pocket!"

Done aaand done. Take a picture? You don't need to ask me twice.

This photo was my idea, though the pose was 100% Elly.


Quinny - as cooperative as ever - as close to the peacock as I could get her without trying to grab handfuls of tail feathers.


And one more (sorry for the photo bomb post) because I love the old tractor.

Shortly after this photo was taken, Max stormed off upset about something.
I thought he had gone into this small barn piled high with hay stacks. I'm standing there on the pathway scolding the hay when Max walks up behind me. haha! I looked pretty silly :-)

We're Back!

and we had a marvelous time visiting my sister and her family in Osoyoos, BC.

She and her husband run a golf course at a resort so we stayed in a great suite there and enjoyed the pool and waterslide tremendously.

We did many things, but while we discussed it on the way home it was unanimous..our favourite activity was the hour and a half horseback ride.

More than the gocarts, the waterslide park, the amusement park, the beach, the petting zoo, the small town summer festival or the hotel pool.
That's Elly and I on the white horse in the front. Layla (my niece), Max and Charlie pick up the rear.
I asked why the horses had to go in that order (I would've preferred being closer to Charlie since she was TERRIFIED at the start), and they said because some of the horses don't like each other so they have to keep them separate. Just like my kids!

None of us had been horseback riding before. City slickers through and through. I even texted Quincey from the middle of the dessert on the back of my horse!
The guide asked, "Would you like me to hold your phone for you??" lol

I must've been 6 or 7 when my sister's friend put me up on her pony and I almost immediately got thrown off backwards. That's the extent of my experience with horses.
I overheard while Max was getting set up them asking him if he had any experience.
"Oh ya," he asserts, "I've ridden horses before. No problem."
I had to interject that his experience involves a pony on a wheel being led around in a circle for 2 1/2 minutes at the zoo so please..give him all the proper instruction.
Despite all the anxiety, we all did well and had fun!




Thanks, Mary, for keeping the baby and making this adventure possible!

Quinn on Vacation

Party.Pooper.
The days of kicking back by the pool with a good book while the kids splashed around are on hold until this little troublemaker is older.
She did enjoy her baby floaty thing much more than Elly ever did so that was nice.


But coooome ooooon...we're on vacation! Let's sleep in past 5:30am!
When you're a mom, bringing your kids on vacation means you're bringing your work with you and you're off routine and don't have all your regular tools so it's easily more work than if you had stayed home..
BUT
the weather, the water, the interesting things to see and do and all the family time makes it so worth it. We love our little vacations and all the craziness that comes with it.
And actually, she was exceptionally well behaved at Disney.
Born in the summer, by the time she was "awake" it was cold. The world is a cold, dark, snowy place to little Q. In fact, when I laid her in the grass for a picture this was her reaction:

Feet up, arms up, face up....What IS it????
Being outside in the sunshine and warm air, riding around in the stroller looking at all kinds of things was paradise!

Although I do think she envied the big kids juuuust a little.

So close yet so far away.

I did feel bad for Eloise because I underestimated the amount of walking involved and how zapped the kids get. Ideally, she should've been in a stroller too rather than sleeping on her Daddy's head.


In review:
Quinny + Disney + Stroller + Sun = A+
Quinny + R&R in AZ = Some relaxing, not so much with the resting. A solid B+.

Little Details

Disney sets the benchmark for attention to details. Even the people who sweep up garbage are bright and shiny and in cute uniforms. They've got a brand, and DANG they stick to it.
Here are the kids in their beds. That mural above lights up, and when you first turn it on it plays "A dream is a wish your heart makes". We left it on all night as a nightlight.


In the morning we ordered pancakes, and this is how they came.


This picture was a failed attempt at getting a picture of my horrible sunburned face with white raccoon eyes where my sunglasses were. You can't really see it, but you can see the bathroom sconce in the background..a Mickey hand!


Cotton Candy no less than half the height of your 3 year old.


Photo ops a-plenty.



With all the cool things to see and do in Disneyland, I couldn't pull my kids away frooooom......

frickin' ducks :/

The Celebrities

I didn't think I'd care about the characters and whether we met them or not, but when you're there it's JUST SO EXCITING!
Within minutes of arriving at the hotel, Goofy came bouncing by.
I had to get a picture of Max with him because, you know, they have the same dentist.

Goofy is holding Max's stuffy "Turtle". Not sure why.

I had planned ahead and made reservations at Ariel's Grotto. It's a restaurant where the princesses go around and visit with each and every kid at each and every table. The don't come all at once so our princess experience lasted the entire meal.
Aaaaaand..we missed our reservation. They were nice, though, and said if we didn't mind waiting a little bit they'd squeeze us in. As we sat there we must've seen them turn away at least 20 different groups so we felt very fortunate that they were working us in.
They sat us out on the patio by ourselves which was WONDERFUL because the weather was gorgeous and the kids could run around and not bother anyone. And what a view!! We couldn't figure out why they had it closed that day. When the princesses visited us out there it felt like a private event just for us. :-)


Unfortunately my camera had died so I was using Charlie's camera that Eloise had changed the resolution way down on. Blast. I can't print them, but hopefully they'll show up ok online.
I do have the picture they take for you as you enter.


At our table, first came Sleeping Beauty:

Then Cinderella:

I'm not sure what Elly is telling her here, but she was very chatty. It was cute.

Next came Belle. I wanted a picture of her with Max because he's the beast to her beauty and now that I'm explaining this it feels so like something lame my MOTHER WOULD DO and I'm really embarassed.

You can see how thrilled he is. Also got the girls, of course.

Belle was the coolest. She was super sweet with the girls and held Elly's hand. She loved Quinny and asked for a picture with her.

Quinny was unhappy that she had been interrupted from shovelling salad down her gullet.

And finally we were visited by Snow White. After taking her picture with Belle, I figured Quinn should be included in this picture too.
I laugh out loud everytime I see it.

Alright, alright, bad idea.

I'm not sure why I didn't have MY picture taken with any of them! Everytime one would show up I'd literally fly out of my chair and yell, "CINDERELLA!!" in a voice much more high pitched than normal. Slightly pathetic perhaps, but I'm sure they see overly enthusiastic moms all the time :-)

Our travels also brought us face to face with Captain Jack Sparrow.

You've got a little something on your shirt.....

And Alice in Wonderland pulled Max into a parade with the Mad Hatter, Mickey Mouse, Pinochio, and others. I thought I was video taping the whole thing. I wasn't. Camera malfunction numero dos. Got a super crappy picture, though, to prove I'm not lying.

He ended up holding Mad Hatter's hand and dancing around with all of them in celebration of their un-birthday.

Just another of the kids watching Mickey.

There was one other incident of our interactions with Disney Celebs, but it comes with video so I'm saving it for another entry :-)
Can you tell we had the greatest time???

A bird in the hand is worth two in your hair.

As you can see, my hair has gone completely out of control. It's super long, it's frizzy, it seems really thick but is falling out by the handfuls, and it has completely lost it's colour. It's in desperate need of some TLC.
This past week while at a parrot feeding exhibition it became - literally - a bird's nest. The bird you see above had some self control, however, the next bird couldn't believe his good fortune. A completely turn key piece of real estate.

He comes in for a closer inspection...
...decides he'll take it, and after some minor home improvments...

ahhhhh....Home Sweet Home!

It was a spectacle. Strangers were taking pictures of me.
The staff had to come and rescue me...or the bird, depending on how you look at it.


Max was bird friendly.

Charlie was having fun, but too skittish to hold the birds. And Elly....weeeellll...

it was a living nightmare for little Eloise. :-)