Spa, Spoilt and Birthdays

Tomorrow I am 40. Now this is not a fact which bothers me all that much.. until this morning when Meg said, "Mum, you know, you've been alive for 40 years." That's when I began to feel a little old... Still it's a great excuse for some fun and pampering.

This started yesterday with a day of fun with Olly who took the day off and arranged for the girls to be taken care. We had a lovely day; breakfast out, coffee, an early lunch with wine, an afternoon in the spa having massages and a blow dry, followed by steak at my favourite restaurant, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse - take a look at the website and you'll see why my mouth is watering just thinking about last night's dinner!

It was a super day! Thank you Olly!

I continued to be spoilt today. This morning Marcie (our next-door-neighbour) asked if she could 'have the girls for a couple of hours' - as if I'd refuse! When they returned a couple of hours later this is what I was presented with...

It is covered in Smarties, blueberries, chocolate chips and strawberries.... Yum!

And talking of birthdays, I had a bit of time to put some extra photos on the Flickr photostream, so you can now see some pictures of Tess' birthday.

There are lots more over there so take a look - her and her friends had a great time!

Funny, Faraway and First

Want to hear a funny story?

You know that Olly has started his sailing course (which has been a slight bone of contention since he did not inform me about how LONG the course was.... 7 Saturdays, 9-5pm). It has all been a little confused. He missed the first one because he thought the course started later in the year, and the second Saturday was so freezing cold and stormy they didn't go out on the water at all. So finally this Saturday looked all set. He goes down to the marina and is approached by the admin lady who discretely asked for a word.

"I don't have any record of you paying for the course."

Olly answered, rather abruptly, "I have paid - just check your records."

"Well that's the problem there is no record of you paying."

"Yes - I corresponded with Andrea - she took my money." As you can imagine, Olly's getting pretty ticked off at this point.

The admin lady looked at him and said, "There's no-one here called Andrea..."

Pause...

"This is Mooredale Sailing club?"

"No -this is Jamestown!!!!"

Ha! Olly had been sailing at the wrong club for the past 2 weeks... Ahh!!!!

Tess is just finishing a homework assignment. She has to choose a book to recommend to the whole class for their teacher to read aloud and write about why it should be chosen.

Her choice was 'The Magic Faraway Tree' by Enid Blyton. This was my favourite book when I was her age. I remember it as the first book I wanted to share with friends once I'd read it. There are actually 3 books in the series and I read them all back-to-back when I read it to the girls.

They loved it and Tess said she felt like she was in the story and never wanted me to finish a chapter. I think it would be an excellent choice for her class.

And finally and rather randomly I was going through some photos of Meg's first year and found these lovely ones of her with Grandma.... So just because here they are.

Karaoke, Ride and Survivor

Olly arrived home from work very excited on Friday night. He was carrying a very large bag.

"Guess what I've got in here... Well, you're never guess... It's a Karaoke machine!!!!"

A karaoke machine!!!! The girls were sooo thrilled. Olly's co-worker was having a clear-out and thought we'd like it... It doesn't actually work but the microphone does and we had lots of fun putting it through its paces last night.

I'm sure there's more where this one came from.

Today has been a beautiful 16 degrees, so we took advantage of the weather and the fact that Meg is now confident on her bike without training wheels and took a long bike ride down the Beaches. We cycled for miles, played on the beach, picked up lunch, then gorgeous ice-cream from Ed's - it really was a lovely day.

So now I have to dash because it's almost bedtime for the girls and then we're watching the finale of Survivor which Olly and I have been looking forward to all weekends.

See ya!

Book Club, Boxes and Walk-Through

Despite a dreadfully rainy and cold evening last night, there was a fantastic turn out for my book club. It was the first time I'd hosted and I wasn't sure how many ladies would come - we usually range between 5 and 8 people, so I put a couple of extra chairs in the living room... However, that just wasn't enough as 12 ladies turned up to discuss ' Through Black Spruce' by Joseph Boyden.

This was a pretty good book. About a native family in the north of Ontario and the stories of their lives. On the whole we liked it and I would recommend it if only for the interesting parts about Will's life living alone in the wilderness. Find it at Amazon if you're interested.

We have booked our moving date and the boxes are on their way. I have spent a large proportion of today standing staring into corners thinking, "Maybe I should start there..." I've been picking up boxes, sifting through them and then returning the boxes to their original places... Do you think 7 weeks is going to be enough time?

Tess finally got to see the new house today. Meg saw it when we did the inspection but Tess was at school that day. So I arranged for a walk-through of the house so she can see her new bedroom and new back yard, She was very excited and I was so glad to go through again... in my head the house has grown smaller and smaller over the last few weeks - it was good to see all the rooms again and begin to place the furniture. It is bigger than I remember....!

Meringue, World and Mothers

Olly was off on the first of his sailing days yesterday - there are 5 more weeks after this. The weather was horrible and the girls were busy playing with the Moores so I decided to have a cooking day.

I pulled out the oldest of my cook books (the one I made when I was in my 20s with clippings and cuttings from magazines) and found 'Mushroom Pots' (mushrooms in a creamy sauce under a pastry lid), 'Lemon & Basil Chicken' (roasted chicken finished with lemon and wine) served with spinach and bread and the yummiest dessert, 'Black Forest Meringue Cake' (a chocolate meringue sandwiched with chocolate, cherries and whipped cream). It was liked by all!

The girls had spent the best part of the day with Heather, Lily and Ashley which resulted in the usual craziness and backwards and forwards-ing (!?!!!) We watched a video to smooth things out for an hour or so and when Olly got home there was singing...

They have been learning 'We Are The World' at school - this is very cute...

And here it is Mothers Day. There has been lots of whispering and hiding and 'Did you see thats' around here for the past week. Olly and the girls made me breakfast in bed, brought me chocolates and about 20 homemade cards... So many lovely things from pictures to drawings to hearts to writing... I am very lucky!

Leased, Details and Fling

After a steady stream of people through the house over the past few days (which meant we've had to keep everything very tidy...) the house has finally been leased. It brings things into perspective that we only have a few weeks before we actually move. I had a moving company give us a quote yesterday, and I'll be getting boxes next week to begin the whole packing process... As our moves have been international previously I haven't had to pack everything up myself in a while. I'm sure it's going to take longer than I really think. The countdown is on to the 2nd July!

I wanted to show this picture that Meg did for me the other day. Pictures of pet shops are her favourite thing to draw; she usually does them at bedtime, sitting hunched over her desk with her little lamp on. In the morning she'll present me with her masterpiece and explain each compartment to me.

I just love the details. Can you spot the chameleon who is camouflaged? Did you notice the tree frog with his feet against the glass? there are stick insects (or stick bugs as she calls them), rabbits, fish, hamsters, birds in cages, there's even a little hermit crab... I think they're amazing.

The reason this post is late is that I started yesterday and then ran out of time as it was the big school fundraiser last night; the John Wanless Spring Fling.

Because the school is so big (over 750 students) this is a huge event, and very posh. It was an interesting evening; connecting with people you don't often see and making connections wit parents we hadn't yet met. It was difficult to recognise people. We are so used to seeing each other on the school yard, no make up, track suits and jeans, hats on heads... Everyone had pushed the boat out; posh frocks, hair do's, make up... It was so much fun...

I'll try to keep up this week.

Beautiful, Beautiful and Beautiful

This has been a nice day!

When I picked Meg up from school last Tuesday her teacher, Lauren, said to me, "Oh Meg said the most beautiful thing about you. She said, 'I love my mom because she is so pretty and she smells of England...'"

I don't know what 'smelling of England' is, but it was meant to be a compliment and I took it as such...

Now, my other lovely also said a beautiful thing this morning. She had left her 'diary' in my room. This is where she writes things about friends and I've seen little poems and stories (quite by accident you understand...). Anyway, I was passing this precious book to her and she whispered, "It's funny, since I've been older, there seems to be more to write in there...!"


Do you think the teenage angst has begun already?

Today has been the most beautiful day. It has been really warm but not hot; no humidity either, which is a blessing on a warm day. There has been a cooling breeze and it's felt great to be in the city.

However, around half an hour ago it began to cloud over and before we knew it there was a thunderstorm and rain, rain, rain....

Let's hope the good weather returns in time for Tess' track and field meet tomorrow...

Tonsillitis, Brazil and Tidying

So I know I haven't been very good at keeping up to date this weekend but I do have an excuse... I have been ill with tonsillitis again...!!! [Canadians call it 'strep'] I just call it painful throat, lethargy and fever, plus a lovely rash... Do you get the picture? Anyway, I have been given the most complicated antibiotics EVER!!! 'Take two tablets four times a day for the first 5 days then two tablets three times a day for the next four days. Take one hour before food or two hours after food...' That pretty much rules me out!!!!! There is never a time when I haven't eaten for that long... No wonder it keeps coming back.

Olly and I have managed to sort photos of his trip to Brazil. Here's a couple:

But if you'd like to see more, take a look over there and click to see more pictures. He took some great shots.

Today has been a frenzy of tidying up because I forgot that we would be required to let people into our house to view the house for rental. There was one couple today and three more lined up for tomorrow. Everyone has instructions for keeping the house respectable; Ol - loading the dishwasher, Meg - picking cushions up from the floor, Tess - making beds, Vickie- EVERYTHING ELSE!!!! Let's hope someone tomorrow wants the place.