Where do I even start???

The award for bad blogger in 2011 goes to.....drum roll please.....me.  Life has taken over my free time on a very regular basis and I am actually working at work - there is no time to blog!  But here I am, 830pm on a Tuesday, kids in bed, Parker watching hockey and me with nothing but time on my hands.  Best to take advantage of that!

So let's see - where to start.  No major snow storms in a couple of weeks now, snow is starting to melt in fact and when it reaches 60 degrees by the end of this week there may not be a lot of snow left after that at all.

Rowan is continuing to do well in school.  She got a "report card" last week.  It's not really a report card so much as a progress report but out of a possible 3 in each category she got all 3's!  We were very pleased.
She also continues as a Daisy and is currently going through her first cookie sale!  I must say she did pretty good - we sold 33 boxes and she only needed to sell 12 to get a badge so I think we are good to stop :)

Lily is developing more and more personaility wise and she is by far the most outgoing one and the most fearless.  She is also progressing age wise nicely and in fact, for the first time, peed on the potty tonight!!

Last but not least - we surprised the girls a few weeks ago after Rowan had to come to work with me because of a snow delay and we promised her a surprise if she was good all day.

We're going to Disney World!  Whoo-hoo!!!!!!!  Not until the end of August this year when we are sure it will be ungodly hot there but we got a free dining plan and used the points on my credit card so it was hard to pass up.  Plus for some reason the girls had been asking when we were going for a few months so as much as I wanted to give them this as a gift at Christmas (hence the packaging) Parker convinced me to wait.  So wait we did and avoided their questions until the time seemed right and now they know and we are all very excited and cannot wait to go!

Snowed In

Well not completely but enough that the girls and I have the day off and it is 841am and Parker and Fred are still working on clearing the driveway.  A perfect time for me to catch up.  27 days into the  New Year and this is only my second entry!  Gasp.

So let's see - what has gone on in the past 3 weeks...

First Lily had her Kindercare Winter Gala 2011 a few weeks back.  Her class came out and said a poem called "Winter Sun" - it was of course, very cute.

Rowan attended her second Daisy meeting where we got cookies to sell!  She does not have to go door to door or to the supermarket or anything - just sell to friends and family, and she will earn her first badge!  So exciting.  We got 24 boxes to sell and are down to 3!  I should get the badge not her :)

We also signed Rowan up for T-Ball for the coming Spring.  So far we have just paid but do not know too many other details.  There will be a "draft" in March when she will be assigned to a team and we will get more information then.

And now the snow.  We have had a few nuisance storms all winter so far.  Nothing major, only one snow day prior to today and that day turned out to have been a waste of time.  Today however - we got a good storm, I am hearing 17-18 inches - whatever it was it was alot and thank goodness for neighbours with snow blowers.

Parker will have to get into work eventually - the girls and I will stay home.  There is an open bounce time this afternoon at Bounce U - we may check that out if the conditions look better by then.

Last but not least Rowan lost her 3rd tooth this morning.  This one was a front tooth - she looks like a hockey player - but a cute one!

Welcome to 2011

2011 - wow.

We spent New Years Eve as we always do, with Paul and JoAnn.  Had our usual filet mignons and crab legs and rang in the new year with as much gusto as we could muster.

This year we had help again from Rowan but also from Lily! She put herself down for a nap in Rowan's bed around 6pm and slept for a couple of hours - just enough time to get really cranky around 11:50pm but she hung on, Rowan and Parker went outside to bang pots and pans and they were both in bed by 12:15am.  The best part - they both slept until 9:30am the next morning!  Whoo-Hoo!

So here we are, 10 days into the new year and already a couple of big things have happened:

First, Rowan joined Daisys at Crooked Billet.  I had never heard of Daisys before but they are a precursor to Brownies which leads to Girl Scouts.  Alot of girls from her class are in it and so Rowan and McKenzie decided to join as well.  They had their first meeting this past Thursday.  They don't have a full uniform like Brownies do but they wear a blue vest that holds their badges.  I did not know where to put all the badges so we just wore the vest for the first meeting.

Next big news.  Lily can officially get out of her crib now.  She has been doing it for the past week so this past Friday night we finally got the side rail off and the toddler side rail on.  The first night her and Rowan must have spent 2 hours giggling back and forth, coming out of the room, crawling into each others beds etc until they finally passed out.  Saturday night the same thing occurred but not for as long a time.  Last night again with the nonsense but this time I told Rowan to go to sleep since she has school today and Lily stayed in the living room for a bit.  Guess who was a giant cranky pants this morning as a result?  Hopefully tonight the novelty will have worn off.

Last but not least the Eagles made it into the playoffs again this year.  First game was yesterday.  Parker had been invited to go to the game by an old friend and he accepted so just the girls and I were home to watch the game and look for Daddy on TV.  We never saw Parker on tv, the Eagles played terribly and lost and Lily, well Lily didn't make it.  Too much partying the night before in her big girl bed.

The funniest story of 2010

So as 2010 comes to a close I have failed to post what was the funniest story of 2010 and it only happened about 3 weeks ago.

Rowan has been learning to use On Demand on the TV so she and Lily can watch Caillou whenever they want - how Caillou has become THE show in our house is completely beyond me - but I digress.

Like I said, a few weeks ago we were eating dinner and Rowan asks if she can be excused to go watch Caillou.  I ask her if she thinks she can get it on okay and she says yes.  She is gone a couple of minutes and comes back to say she could not find it.  I tell her she has to sit and wait then until we are all done.  About 5 minutes later we all finish eating and Rowan asks if I can come help her with Caillou now.  Sure I say, grabbing dishes to bring into the kitchen with me.  I come into the kitchen and glance at the TV to see where she got stuck and see hard core porn on the tv - not just porn - hard core porn.  Sweet mother of God.

I scream and grab for the remote to try and change the channel wondering how the hell there is channel broadcasting this at dinnertime!  That's when I realize - it is not on TV - it is On Demand - and Rowan bought it, bought it!! For $13.99!  And it's called "One Hole Two Poles" - *GASP* 

I looked at Parker and said "You have to call Comcast".

While he is on the phone I hear him say - "Yes ma'am, we just figured out how to put parental controls on."

Not so much at the time but now, damn funny story to tell.

360 days til Christmas

Maybe if I remind myself of that now I will be more prepared next year.  The trip the week before Thanksgiving this year threw me all off my holiday game.  I wouldn't trade that trip for anything but it did cause some agita with the holidays but another Christmas has come and gone now.  The girls were spoiled like normal and it was a quiet one this year with just the four of us and Joe and Diane.  I did a tortiere on Christmas Eve and the traditional wreath on Christmas morning but for dinner on Christmas we had stuffed shells, sausage, meatballs, garlic bread and caesar salad.  It was fantastic!!!   May have to do that again next year or do something non traditional at least, like tacos!  Funny how I can start planning the food for next year but will do all my gift shopping in the last 3 weeks again.  LOL.

We also broke with more tradition and did three things differently this year:
1) We did not go to church on Christmas Eve - last year the service was not as good as it has been in the past because of the change in pastors and this year none of us was really willing to go so, so be it
2) Instead we went over to Paul and JoAnn's get together for an hour or so so they could all see the girls and we could see all of them - it was nice
3) Diane was little miss impatient this year and wanted the girls to open all their presents from them on Christmas Eve.  Parker resisted for a few hours but eventually caved - the girls were thrilled!

Lily could not have been more thrilled with that shovel - kept saying she was going to help Daddy in the snow with it.  Then there was bubble wrap in another package and that was the end - favourite gift hands down, bubble wrap.

After that excitement had died down they got the cookies and milk ready for Santa and laid their stockings out.  Then they got to hold Marschelle and say good bye until next year.

A few giggles but not too many concerns about Santa coming into their room and they were off to dream of sugar plums and presents.

Everyone slept until 730 on Christmas morning - except Joe and Diane, I think they were up earlier waiting for us! 

Santa had come while we slept.

An hour and a half later everything was open and the playing had begun.

Fa La La La La, La La La La

4 days til Christmas and my true love gave to me - the shortest day of the year.  Happy Winter Solstice.

So the truth is the girls are done and most of the food is bought.  Most of the baking is done, house is decorated inside and out, now I just have to clean the house and wrap the other 90% of gifts.  Argh.

Still didn't stop us from partaking in another holiday festival this past Saturday.  We went out to Koziar's Christmas Village about an hour and a half away.  Heard good things about it, figured it was worth a look.  Just the four of us went - it was a long drive and in retrospect going the Saturday before Christmas was probably a bad idea because it was packed, packed!  The girls seemed to enjoy it though and that's all that counts.

Lily's first haircut

Poor Lily -she is so the second child.  Rowan's first haircut was a photographed and videotaped affair with both Parker and I in attendance.  Lily's was at school from one of the teachers (Miss Sheena) and neither Parker nor I were there.  She really needed one and kept telling me she did not want it get it done - then another girl at school had her haircut and apparently all Lily wanted then was to get her haircut.  So we arranged it and thankfully Ali took some pictures for us at least - and of course they saved a lock of hair.

Her curls bounced back tight as ever so it seems she is destined to have curly hair for awhile still.