Sparks Adventure Day Camp

Sparks has been keeping Sam and their girls quite busy these days. On Sunday she attended the District Adventure Camp with the rest of the Girl Guides and participated in Wildplay events throughout the day. It was her first time climbing the rock wall which she's been dying to try for eons. She had a fantastic time and did a great job at all the activities.

Relaxed April

Sam is in a balanced calendar school system where she's at school for three months and one month off. April was a good break for us and allowed me to have some bonding time with my girlfriends. We headed downtown, shopped 'til we dropped at Metrotown, relaxed with an incredible pedicure, put ourselves up at the Sheraton overnight and enjoyed a well overdue girls weekend....sort of making up for February when I missed the girls weekend after I came down with the stomach flu just days prior. All in all we had a great time and I can't wait for the next time away with my BFF's. Thanks so much Jen, I'm so blessed to have you!

First Sparks Camp Out

 Sam had her first 2-night Sparks camp out last weekend. She was so excited  but ended up in tears both nights feeling quite homesick. Despite missing mom and dad she had fun having her face painted, doing crafts, playing games, sitting by the campfire singing songs and roasting smores. When I picked her up she was exhausted but says she'd do it all over again.

March

Posting anything in the month of March has been a bit of a challenge when all I've been dealing with is sickies in the house...when does the fun ever end? Everyone I know has been sick for weeks on end and just when you think you're done you get hit with something else. Sam had the stomach flu at the beginning of the month, while I fought a cold which turned into a sinus infection. A couple of weeks later Sam came down with a fever that lasted 3 days, with a bad cold that lasted for 2 weeks. Now that she's better I'm praying we all keep healthy and the flu is all finally over with for this season.  I did however manage to get out with my girlfriends for a little break one weekend, to join the adult world again which was much needed!

The weather has been very mild, anywhere from 10C to (17C at one point). This gave me a chance to assess the garden situation, trim things up, rake leaves and fertilize the sorry excuse for a lawn we have (I swear if we had extra money to just throw away I'd hire someone and hard-scape the entire backyard....with water fountains and all!) I had to tackle one palm tree...the tree that didn't have a shelter over the winter, and cut off the fried leaves it suffered from all of the freeze. My poor baby went from this....to this.....to this....

 

Now look at the beautiful palm that took shelter from all of the freeze and rain...

Hmmmm.... with....or without?

First Tooth and Dental Surgery

This post is a bit overdue and fits into the month of February. In the first week Samantha finally managed to wiggle and pull out her loose tooth that has been ready for probably a month. She was so squeamish about the whole thing, favoring it by not eating much and not even touching it with the tooth brush. It was so loose one night just an hour before a Girl Guides overnight camp out, we talked her into pulling it so it wouldn't be a problem for her over the weekend. She resisted with everything she had in her while Wayne and I practically had her pinned to the couch. It didn't have to be such a dramatic event, but she wasn't going to budge. After an long hour of crying and fighting, she had enough....sat straight up and insisted she do it herself, took a napkin and pulled it out (after a few tries). She put it in her pink tooth-fairy box the dentist gave to her and was so proud of her little empty space with the adult tooth growing behind it. She showed it off, smiling to everyone at Sparks.

On the last week of February Samantha went to her dental surgery appointment and had 2 baby root canals, four crowns and four fillings done. Poor thing went through quite a rough day, but she was a trooper. All I can say is thank goodness for our dental benefits EESH! We still had to fork out a good chunk of cash but at least its done now and she has no more pain. Eventually these teeth will fall out but not until she's 10, so she has to take good care of them. DONE are the teeth issues...at least for a while we hope.

All four corners

Happy 6th Birthday My Baby!

Time has sure flown by and while it seems like just yesterday she was 3, Sam turned a whopping 6 years old  *just like that*. Where did 4 and 5 go??

We celebrated on the weekend at McDonalds with all her friends. I planned it with a kinder mom whose son has his birthday just 2 days beforehand and since they all have mutual friends it worked out perfect.
Sam wanted a surprise party so grandma suggested that we go to McDonald's for lunch. When we showed up she noticed one person from her class inside the play area so we opened the door and everyone yelled "Surprise!" She was  shocked at first and was so cute to see the look on her face slowly come to realize that the party was for her. Unfortunately it all happened so fast I didn't have time to pull out my camera.

Yesterday on her actual birthday her whole class sang to her and they shared cookies I took over for snack time. Her teacher gives out books for the kids as birthday gifts so she's got one more for her great collection. When she got home she enjoyed watching her new Tinkerbell movie with her favorite lunch Mac and Cheese. At night she was spoiled rotten with gifts from all grandparents and mommy and daddy, ate her favorite cheese pizza, followed by her favorite decedent chocolate cake. I have one happy girl...and very busy today with all her new gifts!

Happy Valentine's Day

Mom and Rick came down for the week and we all got to celebrate Valentine's Day together - Greek style. YUM!
 

Happy 40 To Meeee

Here's to a new chapter, a new beginning in my life, at 40 years of age...how the heck did I get here so fast! This is the age I remember my parents being when, what felt just like yesterday, I was in high school. Now I'm here and in 10 years I'll be 50...just like Ross reminds Joey in the above Friends clip which echoes my sentiments exactly!

Really though, turning 39 I think was worse, as I knew it was the end of my incredible 30's and being on the downslide to the next decade. It's given me much time to reflect, accept, want to change certain things, appreciate (or not) the hardships and challenges I conquered along the way, being proud of my accomplishments and realize the strengths I have built because of it all. It's empowering to begin a new phase of 'ME'. I know who I am better than I ever have and with that I can continue being proactive in 'living my best life' - (my favorite quote I mantra from Oprah).

 We celebrated over the weekend with 7 of my greatest friends, old and new, plus their spouses in White Rock. I chose my favorite go-to restaurant The Boathouse overlooking the ocean. They decked me out in "40" party accessories which made it so much more fun and they all hit it off so well I think a dinner party with them all is in order soon! So blessed to have such great people in my life!

Correction - on the 'Walker'

Okay people, so that we're clear here....I know the last post sounds a little misleading in that the 'walker' was intended for me. I reread it and laughed out loud - I know I'm turning 40 soon, but I really think I shot myself in the foot with this one. ha ha!

Family Sunday Skate

Today was family skate day with the Girl Guides Sparks unit. It was Sam's first time on skates and mommy's first time on skates in 30 years! There were 'walkers' as I remember them as a kid, to help the little ones so I grabbed the last one available. Sam was pretty determined to get it right, through all the grunts and frustration and with a couple of breaks here and there. I took her back out without the walker and skated backwards with her for the most part. By the end we were skating side by side only holding hands and she eventually let go of me for a few seconds to shuffle her way to the side boards. I think we did a pretty good job of holding each other up; neither of us fell down once! I've gotta get her back out there again soon!

January

How does a kid start the new year, 2 weeks into the school year? Sick of course....yet AGAIN! January has been the worst for sick days with so many people I hear from school - kids and parents and teachers. Of course Sam catches the next thing going around and so I get it and so on. Finally we're back to health from our colds, although Sam's cough is still hanging on a bit.

We also took her for her dental cleaning last week and found that she has some cavities - yikes! I won't bother mentioning how many, it's too embarrassing. Nevertheless she has to have them filled and so we've been referred to a pediatric dentist due to her high level of anxiety in the chair. Did I mention she has her first loose tooth? yes. she's very squeemish about it, so this made the visit that much worse. It's been wiggling since Christmas time and it's not really budging even with the adult tooth growing....she's encouraged to push it out for the tooth fairy! The consultation was pretty nerve wracking for mama, as I learned what she'll have to go through with sedation and one baby root canal. The dentist handed me tissues as he reassured me she won't remember a thing when she wakes up. My poor baby, I know exactly what she's going to feel like and can only imagine how confused she will feel when she wakes up and doesn't understand why her mouth feels the way it does. You can't explain it to a 5 yr old. At the same time I asked if there are any meds in it for me while I'm there too.
just kidding.
okay not really.
Anyway, the appt. for all of this is set for the end of February and I won't even begin to explain how much this will cost.

On a lighter and more exciting note (at least for me)....

This has been a big month for my favorite hockey player of all time, Wayne Gretzky! He turned 50 on the 26th....happy birthday from your #1 FAN! Which reminds me that since I've always known us to be 10 years apart, I'll be turning the big 4 - 0 next month...yikes! I've got 2 birthday parties planned, this party is 2 weeks long (sporadically).

Happy 2011!

Happy New Year to all - we hope this year brings much love and exciting adventures ahead! We rang in the new year at home with Sam eastern standard time so we could put her to bed at a decent hour. She and Wayne played all sorts of Wii games while I served M&M appetizers with nachos and Epicure guacamole....yum!

Christmas in Vernon was awesome, but a very short 4 day trip. The mountain passes were way better than we thought, with a couple of exceptions but that's to be expected.

Update with a Merry Christmas!

 Wow has it been busy around here since the last week of November! We started with a visit from Wayne's mom who flew out from Ottawa for his birthday. We had a surprise party for him joined by the rest of his family - even his cousins flew out from Calgary and fun was had by all! Then our festivities wound down when Sam and I got sick with colds/flu. Trying to prepare for Christmas and hoping Wayne's mom wouldn't catch it, we managed to get through it, antibiotics and all. Soon we will be heading to Vernon for Christmas and we're so excited to celebrate with family for the first time in 3 years! Please pray for a safe trip through the mountain passes, as the weather is supposed to be pretty unsettled. Thank you!!

From Wayne and Yours Truly, here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best in the new year!

Sammy and her 'YaYa' sure did a lot of baking!

A sick Sammy with her best pal Max looking after her.

First Snow Storm

Vancouver got hit with 15cm of snow a couple of days ago, thanks to La Nina -  
cooler than normal waters in the eastern and central Pacific Ocean. We had this 2 years ago where snow accumulated to 60cm in a week. This weekend we are back to our normal seasonal temperatures with typical west coast rain. Sammy sure had a fun time in the snow while it lasted, while my palms and bananas were all snug in their beds.

isn't she lovely

snow princess

she even has eyelashes!

Sparks Mother/Daughter Sleepover

Friday was Sam's first ever sleepover. The our Sparks had a Mother/Daughter spa-themed event where we painted picture frames, colored Shrinky Dinks, applied beauty masks, painted nails, sipped on hot chocolate with marshmallows and watched a movie before bed. The next morning we made bath salts, decorated our painted frames and had a fashion show. This was interesting; we wrapped the girls in toilet paper dresses, decorated them with princess accessories and added a bit of makeup. They paraded around the room once, waving and pretending to be on the runway. so cute!  What a great experience for the girls....and the moms had fun too, despite a not-so-great sleep, but it was worth it.

Shrinky Dinks!

Mug Up!

"Hot Cocoa!"

The Princess and the Frog

Making memories.

Mother/Daughter memory frame

Bath Salts

shake shake shake!

Toilet paper dress

15 min. of beauty queen fame

I Promise...

 This week Samantha had her Sparks enrollment and was officially sworn in as a Girl Guide. The ceremony was so cute, with all of the little Sparks so proud of themselves. Afterward they got to enjoy a yummy rainbow cake, which I think was Sam's favorite part of course.

Pumpkin Patch

 Sam's kindergarten class made a trip to the pumpkin patch on Friday. It was a bit cold but the many attractions kept the kiddies warmer than the parents. There was everything from a tractor ride to a corn maze, animal farms to woodland trails, eating snacks in a tee pee and even panning for gold.

The donkey was one of her favorite animals besides the turkey, which she found to be absolutely hilarious.

My little farmer

                                                 

Tee pee snacks

                                                

Mushroom forest full of gnomes and fairies

At the end Sam picked the perfect pumpkin.

...and this is how we carved it!