A Weekend with 2

This week I haven't been feeling the greatest between allergies a slight cold and late nights and just feeling like utter crap I have been feeling pretty drained. I'm trying to keep up with everything and so far its been going ok there is room for improvement but all in all its going well.

This weekend I offered to watch my friends little guy who is just a year younger then L and they are pretty much best friends. We call them boyfriend and girlfriend because they are just the cutest together. They also play really really well together which makes the whole thing super nice!

I wasn't sure what we were going to eat for lunch and dinner today as I would have both kids for both eating periods of the day. I ended up ordering myself a small pizza and got them chicken bites and fries and at the request of my kiddo potato wedges as well. The food got here super quick which was really nice L didn't want any nuggets and only ate fries and wedges and G ate 1 nugget (I gave him 3). They are both picky eaters but usually eat pretty well in each others company but they just weren't feeling it today.

We spent the morning playing and watching Noddy and had lunch and then after lunch we watched 2 more episodes of Noddy and the went outside for a swim in the pool. This was the fun part G took no time to get in the pool and was having a blast while my child who has only had one swimming lesson and now thinks she's a mermaid refused to put on and wear her puddle jumper in the pool. I made a deal with her that she could do 3 of her mermaid swims and then she had to put on her jumper she did and then the fight began. Finally I was able to put it on her and she proceeded to sit one the step to the pool for the next 20 min whining. I finally decided to see if she would jump into the deep end of the pool and joked around with her she jumped in a couple times and then all was good with the world.

The kids spent 2 hours in the pool and then decided they had had enough and were ready to go in so we did. we had a bit more of our lunch for dinner and the rest of the day the kids just wanted to play family/house in the living room and watch more Noddy so thats what they did and I sat at the kitchen table and worked. All in all it was a great day with only one melt down from my own child!

A great day!

Today I would say was a great day! When ever L and I plan to do something special on a day such as going to see a movie like today. I try to make it a special day for her. We don't get out all the time as I don't have my license yet (Still working on it). So today we went to see Despicable me 3 Which I knew L would sit and watch at the theatre and be happy to see. We went to the closest theatre here (there are 2 in the city) and we tried out the new reclining seats which I have to say were pretty awesome. I haven't been to the movie theatre in ages as the seats always bother my legs and I get restless. Today was a different story and I was happy about it. I was really happy with how well L did at the movies she sat really well and watched the movie she laughed and was pretty quite which for a kid that never stops talking was pretty good. When we got to the theatre we went straight to the concession stand cause of course we needed to have popcorn. It took forever for the guy at the concession to get the order of the person at the front of the line. It ended up that we were late getting into the movie but the only thing we missed luckily was the previews. The movie it's self was ok but I did almost fall asleep a few times.

After the movie was over L raved about it and how fun it was. She wants to go back and do it again! At the theatre they have an arcade and of course we had to go and play a few games. First I had to figure out how it now worked as they no longer have the tokens and stuff  I was used to. We went and got a swipe card for the games. we played a bunch of games some of them were better than others and some were easier than others for L to play. After that we moved on.

We went shopping next Carters was having a big sale so we went and I got L a new dress and a new pair of shorts cause I'm trying to watch how much I spend these days. We went to a few other stores and didn't buy anything just looked around and window shopped I almost bought a bunch of stuff at one store but then I went and put everything back I was a good girl.

After walking down through all the stores we went to a restaurant and had some dinner. We ordered and then sat and waited for it to come we cuddled a little and then L put her head down on my lap and she was out like a light. Our food ended up coming while she slept on my lap so I had to eat very carefully haha. I ended up having to get the waitress to grab the ketchup off the table for me because it was on the other side of the table and I couldn't reach it. Once I finished my food the service at the restaurant went down hill from there. I didn't see the waitress after that for at least 20 minutes and then L woke up and had to use the washroom so we grabbed our stuff from the table and went to the washroom when we got back to the table they had started to clear our table but had left it. I sat there for a little while longer trying to get someone to help me but no go. So finally the manager came along and asked if I needed anything and I told her I had been waiting for my waitress to come and get me the bill but she hadn't come back so the manager went and got it and got me to pay through her. We could finally leave. I probably could have walked out and no one would be the wiser but I'm not that kind of person I just don't tip well when you ignore me.

All in all it was a great day and L enjoyed it immensely!

Best Birthday EVER!

So as stated in another post it was L's birthday this weekend and we went away to a local resort that recently opened up. Her birthday happens to be the same day as Canada day so we always try to make it special for her. The last few years we have always done her birthday on her birthday and just done it at lunch so that others could attend but still partake in their evening fireworks and all. I wasn't sure how this year was going to go as I still wanted her birthday to feel like her birthday to her.

L has been counting down to her birthday for over a week and she would always ask me how many more sleeps until my birthday mom and I would show her with my fingers. While away we shared a bed and It was the funniest/cutest thing. L woke up the morning of her birthday looked over at me in bed and said mommy look. She held up her fist showing there were no more sleeps to count and yelled "IT'S MY BIRTHDAY!!!" I have never seen this kid more excited.

I wanted to wait to open presents until my sister was able to watch her considering the whole reason we were staying there was so that she could be there for her birthday. But my little 4 yr old couldn't wait she had to have her presents!! So I ended up recording as she opened them up. As she opened up her first present she started saying "it's you will see" as she tried to get her present out of the box I ended up having to tell her to turn the box upside down to which the baby fell out of the box for her to show us. She was super excited to have her new baby as her old one was mangled and broken.

Her second present from mommy was a Plasma car. She has ridden on one of these at a friends house and the kids had so much fun on them I figured if I could get it for a good price I would get her one which I did. She was super excited when she opened that present and insisted that her Papas build it right away!

I bought a special shirt for L to wear that day as it was Canada day I still wanted her to be noticed for her birthday so she wore a Happy Birthday to me shirt for Old Navy.

It ended up being a rainy day so we drove into the next town and went to Walmart to pick up some board games and supplies. When we got back to the cabin we were staying in my sister had left surprise birthday cupcakes for L. We ate them and sat on the floor of the cabin playing and watching Sing on my laptop. Thankfully the weather got nicer and we were able to go outside and play a bit. We went and had a late dinner at the restaurant and L got a special piece of cake with rose cut strawberries.

That evening we went out to the docks and we went fishing with L's new fishing rod (the rod sucked) we didn't catch anything but we had fun for a bit.

We had a hard time finding fireworks but were able to see some someone was putting off near by we just had to watch them through the trees but it was good enough for us.

L went to bed a very satisfied and tired child!

She said mom that was the BEST birthday EVER!
(Mission accomplished)
What she didn't know was that there was a surprise party for her the very next day!

My Apologies

I apologize I didn't post anything yesterday. I had the full intention of writing something out yesterday and posting even if it was something small but the day got away from me. This is my first week home with L full time. It's been a bit of a change and I'm trying to balance both my work life and my paying attention and parenting my child life. We have done a lot in the last couple days that hasn't given me anytime to get on here and write. I'm pre planning a bunch of posts so that I don't get too far behind as I would really like to keep this blog going. It's some what of an outlet for me and I do enjoy it even if I'm not very good at it.

Today was a full day of excitement we went to a free playdate at our local kids indoor gym which L loved! I met up with an old friend who I haven't seen in probably 8 years which was great she had one of her 4 kids there and I had L. It was funny watching L show her little guy how to go places in the gym and help him out of places when he was stuck. She is a total mother hen. After we spent a good hour and a half at the gym we went over to our local Crock-a-doodle and painted some pottery that L is going to surprise her grandma with for mothers day. She was so excited and loved every minute of it she would go there again in a heart beat and so would I. We ended out big day with a visit to McDonald's where we ate Lunch together.

All in all it was a pretty good day for us and tomorrow I am totally planing on not leaving the house and enjoying being home and hopefully getting a bunch of work done that I haven't gotten done yet OOPS!

Crayola Bathtub Crayons *Wednesday Review*

Today's Wednesday review is Crayola's Bathtub Crayons. When I saw these in the store I was kind of excited I thought L will love these! L loves to colour so bath time and colouring just seemed perfect. So last night it was bath time and I decided to surprise her with them and try them out for the first time.

You get 10 colours in the package. There is a little clicking part on the crayons that allow you to move them up out of their plastic casing. I find with the plastic casing I like it but then I also found that the crayon was very wobbly in it so you can't move the crayon up too fast or they will brake off.

The Crayon has great colour and goes on pretty thick. They are basically actual crayons just in a plastic case. L loved these and drew all over the tub. She asked to draw on the tile wall so I told her to test it out in a little patch to make sure it would wipe off before we committed. When she drew she drew slightly in the grout between the tiles and we weren't able to get the crayon to come off the grout. So this should only be used on tile and bath and stay away from the grout. 

After a while of drawing (even the adults were colouring) it was time to get out and clean up so here is the real test. The crayon was relatively easy to wipe off with just a wet paper towel. If you touched any of the crayon with your hands it would come off onto your skin but easily washed off. 

The only issues with these that I found was that I have some pink left over crayon colouring that I can't seem to clean off of the side of the tub. So now I have a slight pink colour on the inside sides of the tub. It's not totally noticeable and I'm hoping in time it will come off. It was a little disappointing though to not be able to totally clean it up. I even tried using a mild bleach spray and that didn't help.

All in all I like this product but probably won't use it again We tried the crayons again tonight and it left marks on the tub that I am having a hard time cleaning up and since the tub has dried marks that I thought I had cleaned are now showing from the other day. All in all I would give this product a 3 out of 5. It's a lot of fun and well constructed but leaves marks in the tub which just isn't something I want. 

Baking With Mommy *Tip Tuesday*

Tip Tuesday! Heres my tip if you want to bake but don't want to do a lot of clean up or don't have a ton of time Quaker Muffin Mix is what you need! I know there is always things like pillsbury products that you just roll out and they are ready for the oven, but my kiddo always wants to do more then just roll out dough. L loves to bake and make things so this gives a little extra for her to do. There are only 3 ingredients needed, Muffin mix, water and an egg. We always add chocolate chips but you could probably add fruit or something else to them as well.

We usually make a 12 muffins which is 3 cups of mix. There is enough mix to make 24 muffins. All you have to do is pour 3 cups of mix into the bowl add in the 3/4s water and 1 egg. Mix that all together and you are ready to add them to your muffin pan. We always add about a cup of chocolate chips give or take. L loves to be the one to crack the egg which I have to say she does a great job at. L basically makes them on her own while I watch her and instruct her on what to do next.

The next thing we do is take a ice cream scoop and scoop the batter into the muffin pan. The oven should be preheated to 400 already. Put the pan in the middle rack in the oven for about 15 minutes. The should have risen and look golden brown. Take a tooth pick and stick it in the muffin if you pull it out and there is muffin stuck to the pick than it needs more time if not its done.

Once The muffins are taken out of the oven I let them sit for about a minute or two and then I take a fork and flip them onto there side. I like my muffins to have a crispy outside so I flip them and then take them out of the pan and place them on a cooling rack. This gives them a great crispy outside.  Yummy Yummy!

In our house 12 muffins made this way usually last a day and a half. We usually don't have any muffins after the following morning. L has so much fun with this and she is so excited that she made something for us all.

This is just a fun quick and easy thing for us to do especially on a rainy day. The clean up is super quick and easy as there really aren't many ingredients and you are just using 1 big bowl and 2 measuring cups.

Quaker Muffin mic for the win in this household!

Summer Plans

Summer Plans! I always have a lot of plans that I create and want to do but half the time they never get followed through. Well this year I am determined to do at least a few things on my list of things I want to do.

- Take L to the zoo for the first time! This could actually happen this year as we received a free child admission to the zoo with the purchase of an adult pass. So this is the one thing I really want to happen because I think L would have so much fun and she loves animals!

- Go to the butterfly Conservatory.

- Go Camping. This we are kind of doing I will probably count it as doing this but we have rented a cabin at a local resort. We will be spending our Canada weekend there and we are very excited to get away and do this.

- I want to relax with L a little and just spend a few days by the pool not caring about work or anything. Just the 2 of us having fun together.

- I want to read 2 books this summer. I should say I want to read 1 book because lets be real I never get time to read but I figure its better to give myself a big goal than a little one.

- I would love to go to my Aunt and Uncles this summer with L and spend some time with them L loves them and they think of her as their grandchild as their son doesn't have any kids but is L's god father.

Those are basically the main Big things I want to do this summer and I'm hoping to do at least the first 3.