We have water again! 

Yesterday Madi and I were talking about the activity centers at school. Whenever they have free choice she ALWAYS picks the "farm centre" (toy farm set). So, yesterday was a day she got to choose her activity so I said "I know what centre you picked!" She sighed and said "Mom, I think I'm falling in love with the farm centre." The way she said it you would have thought she had just met Mr. Right!

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We have begun the potty training process with Miss Eden. The first day was great - she even went on her own while I was downstairs doing laundry. The next day was like she had never seen a potty before. Then we had a couple busy days where we weren't at home - then this week we've started back up. She's doing good. It's hard because I have to put on a diaper to go get Madi and take Madi to school, and then for naps and then for bedtime... doesn't seem to give her much time to learn! Madi is the supportive older sister though and has to come check what Eden has done each time and cheer for her and make sure we all do our "Potty Parade" (we cheer and dance around).

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Eden got her hair cut and it is the cutest thing ever. Hope t get some pics tomorrow.
Madi's friend Noah at school - the one who told his mom he had met the woman he was going to marry (Madi) told his mom this week that he loves Madi more than her (his own mom). One smitten boy!

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We've come up with this idea to do our family night based on the letter of the week at school. So last week was "C" so we did "Camping" and had our pretend campout. This week is "D" so Mark is taking the girls on a "double daddy dessert date" tomorrow. We'll see how long we can carry this out - for now it's fun.

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We went tobogganing today with Jake & Natasha. Jake & Madi were up and down and up and down the hill - just beaming. They had SO much fun! Eden was happy wandering around, picking up sticks and getting in the way. We're going again tomorrow with Noah and his mom and sister, Teegan.

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Eden has taken to being a kangaroo and carrying stuffed animals in her "pouch" (down the front of her pants) while hopping through the house. She likes to be called "Joey Eden" when she is a kangaroo. She decides who she is when she is pretending and is quite adamant that she is to be called only that and you are only to be called what she tells you. For example today she was pretending to be "Eden 's Mommy" and I Was "Eden". She would only answer to "Eden's Mommy".

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I now have to go back to child locking our cupboards. Eden has taken to helping herself to our snack cupboard. Today I was on the phone - came back and she had dumped the entire box of animal crackers on the table in one big pile. Then she closed the empty box and put it back in the cupboard. When I came in the kitchen she was eating from her pile and freaked out when I told her she couldn't eat them all. 

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I burnt REALLY bad some food tonight. I had the burner on too high and I ran upstairs for a "second" to get something, and then got distracted by this and that and this and... wow! Smoky kitchen! The girls were quite thrilled. Madi insisted her and Eden get their boots on and go outside and check if the house was on fire. I found them just as Madi was trying to open the front door - they had t-shirts, no pants and their winter boots. Then Eden came in the kitchen and sang "fire's burning, fire's burning, draw nearer, draw nearer..." and on and on they unknowingly mocked me!

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The girls have been in "Buddy Mode" lately - which is great except they can't fall asleep because they're giggling and in each other's bunks and so on. ANd ever since we got back from vacation they have been waking up REALLY early - like 6am rather than their usual 7-7:30ish. This is not only an ungodly hour to deal with requests for breakfast, dinosaurs, movies, etc. - but this is when I use to exercise! So, then I've tried to exercise when they nap - but I'm so tired I fall asleep with them when I lay down to read their stories. Finally got back on track with exercising - phew!

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Had a photo shoot last night for a couple's 50th anniversary. 50 years. Can not even imagine. I love watching older couples who are so comfortable and content with each other. It's great. My parents celebrate their 40th this year. Weird.

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Had to have the "fibbing" talk with Madi. She todl me a few things taht happened in class that were totally believable, but when I asked her teacher about them - she said they never happened. And even Madi had told me all about the new girl "Ang" - there's no new girl. So we had to explain if she's just joking, she needs to tell us and the difference between the truth and lying. How am I ever going to know when she's telling me the truth about her day?

"Mom, why did God make me the best kid ever?"

Madison age 4

Took the girls toboganning. I had taken Madi two years ago - but last year we had no snow and this is our first chance to go since the snow this year. Let's just say she LOVED it! She wanted to go down bigger and faster hills and loved, loved, loved it! Eden was going down on her own too and loving it - until she and Madi crashed.

It was a really fun morning!

Yesterday when I was on the phone with a client I heard Madi pull a chair up to the kitchen counter and open a drawer. Then she walked by me with all our spoons and said she was doing a magic trick. I tried to mouth "go put them back" but she didn't and I then forgot by the time I got off the phone. Until last night when we went to eat supper and we had no spoons - and now Madi can't remember what she did with them! HEr magic trick worked - she really did make them disapperar!!

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Eden now wants to be called "Eden-saurus" and we're all mommy-saurus, daddy-saurus and Madi-saurus. This is from reading the book "Potty Poo Poo Wee Wee".

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New favourite snacks - yogurt with granola cereal and fruit. Yum! Baked chickpeas with roasted garlic and red pepper seasoning.

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Only commercial EVER that gets me angry EVERY time I hear it is the one on the radio in support of smoking. It has the nerve to say that by banning smoking in nursing homes and suhc we are saying we don't care for the elderly by making them smoke outdoors. Ignorant.

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Yesterday I was in Sears at Centre Mall - but had parked at teh otehr end at Zellers. It said 5 minutes to closing so I started wandering towards the mall doors. I get there and they're locked! I asked teh nearest staff if I get get out anyhow - only by using teh furtest doors possible to outside. I said "But yo never announced you were closed." She said "there's the bell now." A bell? Am I suppose to know their signal? So I had to walk the length of the mall in -25 weather. Nice. Drives me crazy when stopres close before their advertiosed closing time. Whne I went into Sears it was about 8:40 and some stores were already starting to close their doors.

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Here are some random photos now. Relized that I haven't been taking many pics of my girls lately - have to correct that!

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Playing in the snow on Wed. before this arctic temperature hit!

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Went to the new McD's with the Neudorfs and Goodyears today (it's a PA day). It was a great morning!! What a great play land! Nice to spend teh morning there - and the girls just had apples and caramel (and so did I - yummmmm!)

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Random goofy girls...

Madi and her new-ish haircut (it's been a couple weeks but I haven't posted a pic of it yet)


Madi trying to fill her daddy's shoes


Eden being a rascal and hiding in the cupboards

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Tonight we had a camp out for our family night. This week at WW they have a recipe for s'mores which got me thinking about camping. Then Madi started talking about camping since "C" is the letter of the week. We set up a tent tonight in the living room and had hot dogs and s'mores and all wore shorts. Madi told me she got suburnt though. We made binoculars and went exploring. Put the campfire on the TV and the girls pretended to roast marshmallows while Mark really roasted them over candles. A nice break from the snow outside!!

Well, I suppose I should write a bit about our trip.

It was GREAT! We had perfect weather - never too hot where you feel sticky and gross - but hot enough to be out by the pool or on the beach every day.

On the way to the airport (5am on a Sunday) we realized we forgot to pack our sunscreen - so we went to the 24hr Sobeys and I ran in and bought some. Thing is I bought sunblock instead of sunscreen - so we didn't get much tan at all.

The resort was nice. It had the buffet, a pizzeria and a grill and the different bars (3 or 4 down by the pools and beach) and then the restaurants you have to make reservations for - Italian, Mexican and a Steakhouse. The pizzeria was our favourite - it was overlooking the beach and was all open and quaint - candlelit and lanterns - and hardly anyone went there. Best pizza ever!

We took the city bus into Puerto Plata one day which was a lot of fun. Love wandering around the main city away from the resorts. The people there are very poor and are always asking for money or for you to buy something - but they are good about accepting "no". I've been in other countries where they will just keep buggging you and hounding you. But here they were polite and we never felt in danger.

The best part of the trip was the beach. Our resort was at the end of the strip of resorts on the beach. If we turned left on the beach we would walk by all the resorts - we'd do this once a day or so and have fun people watching. But the best was if we turned right out of our resort within 5 minutes we hit quiet beach. Then we kept walking and walking - crossed two places where you had to wade through water as the beach ended and it took us to our own private beach. You would see the odd person every so often, but there was enough beach that no one had to stop within eyesight of another person. Loved that.

We stayed by the pool a lot - it was nice and quiet. The pool by our room was more the quiet one where people read and lounged. The other pool area was noisier where there were more games and such. Mark and I went to the other pool one day and he got roped in to Waterpolo - had a lot of fun.

We both read a lot - Mark even finished books! I read:
The Locket
The Carousel
Angry Housewives Eating Bonbons

and then I had this idea to read some of my old favourite kid's books so I read:
Blubber
Beezus & Ramona
DoubleFudge

Mark and I both loved Fudge - had us laughing out loud. And I liked the novels I read. I also read parts of Spirit of the Disciplines which is excellent - I just have a hard time reading non-fiction and concentrating when in that setting.

The girls were happy to see us home - although Eden was a bit confused. Whenever someone asked where we were when we were away she told them we were jogging. She must think we're much more fit than we are!!

I had prepared a video with a corresponding gift bag for each day we were gone - each day had a book Mark or I would read on the video and then I left the book (usually a library book that was new to the girls) in the giftbag for them to enjoy along with some other craft or item that went along with the book. For example the one days book was "I want to be a Cowgirl" so I left their cowboy boots from the dressup box in the bag along with a cowboy hat for my sister to wear with them. Well the cowboy boots were a hit - the girls are still wearing them and talking about them. You would never have kown they've had them for over a year in the dress up box neglected!

Madi has been overly affectionate since we got back. I hear every ten minutes or so "I love you, mom. You're the bestest mom ever." Very cute. Eden never grasped where we were so I think she's more confused. At first when I'd get up to go to the washroom or anything she'd yell "Don't leave me!" but now she's back to herself.

Couldn't believe how much the girls seemed to have grown while we were away. Both Mark and I both said that they seem so much older since we left. Time goes by too quick!

All in all it was a great vacation - a good chance to relax and reconnect. We both agreed that all-inclusives are fun and a great deal - but not something we feel drawn to do a lot of. We both prefer our usual style of travel - fly somewhere and then sleep in hostels, cars, bus stations, camp, etc. and make our own food. This is more our personality and liking. But this trip was what we needed at this time. Fun!

A big thank you to my mom & dad and to Marcie for splitting the week watching our girls. I know they had a lot of fun with you guys.