little miss muffet

Little Miss Muffet, sat on her tuffet eating her curds and whey, when along came a spider, who sat down beside her and frightened Miss Muffet away.....

Later Daisy the Dog and Miss Muffet returned to her tuffet where Daisy enjoyed a spider snack and saved Miss Muffet's day!

I came across this 5 inch lovely in my laundry room and nearly fainted! I knew Jordan (on call that night) would not believe me about a large spider in the house, (I think baby spiders are large spiders)

so I took this pic as proof from a safe 10 foot distance. I then shut the door and returned with Daisy. At first even Daisy was reluctant to approach this very large spider but she soon had it in her mouth and was playing with it until it became a late night snack. Yeah Daisy, my hero!

I sent this pic to an entomologist and this was his response...  

"Don't worry, this is just a wolf spider, although quite a nice one! It's a beautiful specimen! Would have loved to have gotten it from you. If you come across one again just catch it in a cup and release it outside. The universe will thank you for it."

Sorry Mr. Entomologist, if I ever come across one of these again it is definitely not going into a cup!

And what is almost as disturbing as the indoor 5 inch spider...

the poor builder tiling work that is painfully obvious in the above picture!

dance recital

Dancer or Toddler in a tiara? Hard to tell the difference, I know.

Middle Child dressed for her year end dance recital (in full makeup and hair piece) is a frightening thing! 

She is seen here with her dance buds, amazing jazz teacher and Daddy shortly before leaving for the recital. If there are two things this girl loves to do, it's pose and dance!!

Unfortunately the excessive makeup is mandatory. Should you try to send them to the performance without it, it will only be applied backstage by another Mother or volunteer while you are finding your seat in the theatre.

Despite my misgivings (I don't think I was meant to be a dance Mom), she is happy and cannot wait to start again in the Fall. This year she tells me she wants to do ballet, jazz, acro, hip hop AND tap...God help me!

mommy daddy retreat

This year, Jordan and I decided we would not do Mother's Day/Father's Day gifts and instead take a short retreat to Phoenix with our good friend Elijah and his girlfriend. Does escaping your kids for a Mother's Day/Father's Day gift make you bad parents??

Hmmm...

Either way, Mother's Day 2011 will not be remembered in the top five best Mother's day of all time. It involved my husband being on call and 12 hours at the hospital with a sick Littlest Boy.

My day started early that Sunday morning when I asked Jordan to listen to Littlest Boy's chest before he left for work. I was concerned after I had been up with him most of the night with a bad cough and laboured breathing. Daddy confirmed that his right lung was not functioning well and suggested I pack up the kids and take him to the hospital. One of the perks of being married to a Dr. is that the ER was expecting us and called the Pediatrician as soon as we arrived. She took a listen, administered inhaled steroids and then told us to wait while they monitored him for bacterial versus viral pneumonia. It was a LONG day but the kids were troopers! I got home late that night to flowers that had obviously been delivered to my doorstep much earlier in the day. My husband always has a way of making me feel special, wilted flowers or not!

 

Father's Day was less traumatic and involved a quiet family day with all of Daddy's favourite foods....Earl's Fettuccine Alfredo and Marble Slab Creamery ice cream. Daddy's mixture of choice: banana, graham cracker and birthday cake ice cream...YUM!

We love you Daddy!

Our retreat - Sanctuary at Camel Back Mountain! It was beautiful and we really enjoyed our grown-up time with Elijah and Steph. I have to admit that Arizona would not have been my first choice...I am deathly afraid of snakes! Nevertheless, it was a nice escape from the everyday. Thanks Aunty Chris and Grandma for watching the kids and allowing us the opportunity to go! Also thanks to Sarah for being the best birthday party chauffeur ever!

cousins

My Ottawa cousin's father had a life changing stroke earlier this year and she has had a difficult time of late wrapping up his life in Barrie and moving him to Ottawa. The only silver lining in that cloud is that we have had the opportunity to see our cousins more often as she travelled back and forth between Ottawa and Barrie. She often used our home as a home base and the kids loved having the extra sleepovers...good times!