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!

memory lane

Recently, while driving through Brampton, I recognized my old elementary school and asked Jordan to pull over so I could enter an address into the nav. Our destination...the house we moved into with my Aunt after returning from Saudi Arabia. In this tiny home dwelled my mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, Ottawa cousin, Winnipeg cousin and my amazing Grandmother. It is hard now for me to imagine 4 adults and 5 children living in this 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom townhouse but somehow we all fit and it never seemed crowded!

What you are looking at is a small cemetery at the end our street where we played until the streetlight came on and it was time to go home for dinner. I remember picking pine cones for crafts and playing hide and go seek amongst the tombstones. Playing in a cemetery seems a little creepy to me now but I never gave it a second thought then!

This is a picture I know my sister would soon forget. One day she took my 10 speed bike (which was much to big for her) and crashed into the wall of the underpass. She actually tore her gums from her jawbone, had terrible abrasions along her body and suffered internal injuries. On a happier note, we also used this underpass to get to our favourite store...Bi-Way! Here we stayed well stocked in jelly shoes and neon tops...this was the Cyndi Lauper and Madonna's material girl era after all! My Ottawa cousin and I spent a lot of time creating dance routines. This is us dressed for a backyard performance...

Visiting Lansing Square took me back to a very happy time in my childhood filled with memories of cabbage patch dolls, Grandma's broccoli/cauliflower stem snack, listening to mini pops albums, catching leeches with Winnipeg Cousin, mini golf at the Community Centre, sneaking off in the early morning for nature hikes (sorry we scared you Grandma) and dancing in the backyard. Seriously good times!!

To complete this trip down memory lane I thought I should also include a picture of my Grandmother Daisy and a Saudi family pic from a date farm in 1984. Uncle Mike looks pretty cute in those overalls!

birthday girl

Middle Child turned 5 this April. This picture was taken on her birthday...a new family tradition that includes a list of our favourite things.

• She absolutely loves dancing and counts the days to Saturday morning dance class.
• Little girl sandwiches are when Mommy and Daddy sandwich her in a big hug!
• Lattes = warm milk at bedtime.
• She still loves her asi's...her favourite is always Aunty Rhian's newest creation.
• She recently asked if she could do tap dancing in the Fall simply for the high heeled shoes!
• a favourite past time is arranging ALL of her dolls and stuffies for tea parties as seen here

The really rosy cheeks is a result of the makeup she secretly applied for this pajama/tea party

• Most days this little girl can be found with a marker in hand. We really enjoy her creative drawings....

She described this picture as her and I in a storm with smiles because we are together and we have umbrellas to keep us dry. She also said it was
her job to keep the butterfly dry. She got me down perfect as you will find me in a t-shirt and jeans most days. Middle Child is a girly girl and drew herself in a dress. She has told us she wants to be an artist when she grows up. I personally think she is well on her way at 5.

We celebrated her birthday at the Party Closet. Baba & Gido were here and unfortunately Grandma broke her ankle the day before she was supposed to leave and did not make it. Middle Child had lots of fun with her friends from school and dance and of course, cousin E. The girls dressed up, made bracelets, had their makeup & nails done and performed an amazing fashion show! Big smiles all around....

Middle Child certainly loves being the centre of attention! Look at the smile on her face while the girls circled around her...

Party crafts included personalized loot bag tags that could be reused for schoolbags, backpacks, etc.

Customized cutlery bags that are also available through paper by paperdolls and handmade photo cupcake toppers and cupcake wrappers. I must say this is still my favourite part of the kids parties!!

  

The "boys" joined us at the end for cupcakes and cake. Littlest Boy was too busy eating to take time to smile!

As you can see, April was cold and we still needed our winter parkas.

 

 
Happy Birthday Middle Child!
You will always be our little bit little and a little bit big!

grandpa

Grandpa and Grandma Bev came to visit us for a week this March. We had a lot of fun at Cora's enjoying our favourite meal...breakfast, playing at Chucky Cheese and creating new friends at Build-A-Bear!

Grandpa and Grandma Bev also got to see Middle Child in action at dance class. She was working extra hard for her audience...

Middle Child was worried about her grandparents being lonely in the basement guest room and offered some of her stuffed friends for company...isn't she thoughtful!?!