A royal morning.

Usually our morning unfolds like this.  I get up at the crack of dawn for work, Peter wakes up shortly afterwards and turns on TSN.  Sheldon eventually joins him and they watch the highlights together. Juliana sleeps until the latest possible second that she can.

On Friday, Peter turned the TV on to the Royal Wedding while I was still trying to drag my butt out of bed.  Two minutes in and I was hooked.

When Sheldon came into our room, he took one look and said "You're watching this?  I'm not watching this.  Tell me who wins."  And he left.

When I went came back to check in after my shower I found Juliana in my spot.  Apparently, Peter had woken her up to watch.  And she was loving the whole fairytale.  (Although clearly she had to process some details in her head.  By breakfast time she shared this little discovery:  "Oh, it's the time difference...I wondered why they were getting married at 6:30 in the morning".)

The wedding was beautiful.  Kate was stunning.  And I loved when they first got in the carriage for the ride back to Buckingham Palace and you could read their lips when she asked if he was happy.  He nodded and they both beamed at each other.

I had to wait to see the kisses until the kids were tucked in bed late last night.  But it was worth the wait.

I wasn't planning on getting up for the Royal Wedding.  Those wee hours are a little too wee for me.  Except when I have to work.  In the end, I'm glad that I saw it. I only wish that I'd had a tiara too.

Thank you, Grandma.

How do you spell spoiled?

I spell it U-G-G.

My mom is back from her adventure in Australia and she brought a treat for the girls.

Knowing how much Juliana loves her gold "Uggies", you can imagine her delight when she saw that Grandma bought her a pair of Uggs. Real Uggs.

And what is the only thing better than your own real-Uggs?  When your BFF cousin gets a pair too.

Our Easter weekend.

It was a beautiful long weekend spent with Susan and her family. The food was delicious, the laughs were hearty, the cousins had a blast, the basketball net was well used, the swings felt like freedom, the music and dancing was aplenty. The kids had a museum visit with their grandparents and I joined them for dinner (and a whole lot of childish fun!) with Linda and Glenn.  My sister and I had a great afternoon together - lunch and shopping - and we spent some time baking. We skyped with Lucy and fresh-baby Simon, we drank coffee in the park with the girls, there was an evening walk, and sleep-ins every morning. 

A perfect long weekend.

Road trip.

When the kids were younger, we'd make the two hour drive to my mom's.  Once we were happy on the road, I'd check with the kids to make sure that they were okay and then I'd crank the music and sing along, very loudly, while they distracted themselves with books and games.  Singing passed the driving time for me and had the added bonus of blocking out the sound of them yelling at each other.  (I've since been informed that while I was singing the kids tried to tell me that I was bugging them.  See?  That's why it was important to turn it up loud and sing even louder.) 

With Peter away for almost two weeks, I needed to find something to do for Easter weekend, something to distract us from missing him.

A road trip to visit family was just the thing.

Four hours in a car loaded with iPods for the kids, CDs for me, and food for all.  We couldn't possibly need anything else.

It turns out that we didn't even need all that.

Juliana plugged in her iPod.  And then my girl who doesn't like to sing in front of anyone started to belt out the tunes - Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, Black Eyed Peas, Michael Buble, Bruno Mars, and more Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber.  When I recognized the song, I sang along.  

It wasn't until she was reaching the 90 minute mark that she started to fade.  Her singing got quieter and I honestly thought that, like she often does at bedtime, she was going to sing herself to sleep.

We really need to boost her singing stamina because I could have listened to that sweet voice all night.

Picture perfect

Last weekend was picture day for Juliana's dance class.  In a perfect world - not a big deal, really.  Throw on the costume, whip her hair into a bun.  A little blush and some lipstuff.  Drive her, drop her, watch her smile and then bring her home.

But things are never perfect.

The night before was a group sleepover at her friends house - a birthday party for their dolls.  There were streamers and balloons, party food, and spa treatments.  I made arrangements to pick her up in the morning with enough time to do the aforementioned dance photo preparations.

Imagine my surprise when I picked her up the next morning and she had the remnants of a marker-made curly mustache and beard on her face.

It was one of those moments that my inner-parent wanted to blow.  My inner-parent wanted to know what in the world she was thinking.  But my inner-parent was over taken by appropriate-parent.  It had to be considering I was surrounded by other children with marker faces and other parents picking up their girls.  I took a deep breath and said a few prayers that it was washable.

We drove home in a very quiet car and at home we sudsed up a facecloth and scrubbed.  Fortunately (for all of us) it came off.

And then we threw on the costume, whipped her hair into a bun, threw on a little blush and some lipstuff.

Picture perfect.

Two hours of heaven.

It's been awhile since we've had a skatepark in town.  As a result, we spend a lot of weekends driving the 30 minutes to drop Sheldon at the nearest indoor skatepark.  While he's there, I have to find ways to pass two hours of time before picking him up again. 

Recently I took Juliana to the mall. 

My kids are sprouting and she was in desperate need of pants and spring clothes so that's how we ended up on our shopping spree.  We found deal after deal after deal.  And after every purchase, Juliana insisted on carrying all the bags.  It was like being on television, she said.  She's always wanted to have to carry tons of bags.  

She was in heaven.

Funny boy.

Our conversation was about jamming.  Specifically, Sheldon and his friends jamming at school on Mondays at lunch.  So I asked him if they were going to put something together for the talent show at school.  His response?

"You're asking me to use my talents in a petty competition?  
Would you ask Picasso to play Pictionary?
Would you ask Jacques Cousteau to play Go Fish?"

It's hard to have a comic as a son.  Although he comes by it honestly - have you met his father?

I'm just wondering where he gets his material.  It's gotta be Corner Gas or Big Bang Theory.

Either way, he keeps me in stitches.

 

 

Puzzle me this.

My baby was weighed at the doctor's office this afternoon.

In less than a year he has sprouted up almost 3" and put on an invisible 14 lbs.

So, how is it possible that his pants are still hanging half-way down his butt*?

*I wanted to post a photo as evidence but was informed that it would be "disrespectful".  He may only be not-quite-14 but he's kinda right.....

Biking into spring.

Around and around the block.  Around the school.  Around the neighbourhood.  Around friend's houses.  Around the block some more.......

When she got back, Juliana said "I could do this until midnight!"

After school today she told me that she had let her teacher know that she had an active weekend and she wanted to keep it up.  So she was back on her bike and around and around the block again....