Friday, December 27, 2013

In sickness and in health

I love celebrating our wedding anniversaries. We usually leave our kiddies at home with my parents and go on a very special date and have a fancy meal. This year we weren't able to do any of that because my daughter and I are both quite ill. 
Instead my father took the whole family out to a delicious meal at a kid friendly restaurant
And my sister bought us a nice cake. 
She said the three white chocolate buttons mean I love you. She's such a romantic! After dinner, my sister broke out some craft supplies and coerced me into making stuffed animals out of gloves as New Years presents for the kids. I was skeptical at first.
They turned out quite cute.
Well worth the two hours of strenuous manual labor =).
The day may not have turned out how I expected, and marriage may not be the happily ever after that all the fairy tales promised, but having the right man beside you makes the ups and downs of life bearable. I am so blessed to have found someone who is kind and funny and easy on the eyes!!! Love you Mohsin!!!!!

Monday, December 23, 2013

The beginning of a new expensive habit

We were thirty minutes early for an optometrist's appointment. Instead of waiting in the uncomfortable waiting room, we thought we would while our time away in a nearby Starbucks. It was the first time my kiddies had ever been inside a Starbucks. They LOVED it!

It was the first time they enjoyed their very own hot chocolates! Usually we get one cup and they share but this time, they had their very own cups.  Aside from the usual allure of a starbucks (great atmosphere, friendly staff) the fact that they made "kiddie" versions of the hot chocolate - it was a special small size and it was warm instead of hot - really made this experience memorable for the children. They already want to know when we are going to Starbucks again. Congratulations Starbucks, my school aged children are your loyal patrons after just one visit.

After the optometrists visit, we decided to go out for dinner. At the end of the meal we were given fortune cookies. The fortunes uncannily matched each of our individual personalities/situations in life.

Let's see if you can match the person with the fortune:

Fortunes:
1. When the moment comes, choose the one on your right.
2. Kisses make the old feel young again.
3. Two grins can make one grouch know happiness.
4. You are the center of every group's attention.


People:
a) my son
b)me
c) my husband
d) my daughter

Answers:

1 - c - my husband as a very important decision coming up very soon. I think this means that he should pick the choice that feels right to him
2 - b - I am a romantic at heart, but recently have been feeling too old to be romantic
3 - a - my son is turning out to be quite a comic. He loves making people laugh
4 - d - my daughter's teacher has told us that my daughter is doted upon my parents that volunteer in the classroom.

How serendipitous!

Friday, December 20, 2013

Time flies when you're baking cookies


Is it just me or does time speed up at the end of the year? We have the kids Birthdays and then it's Christmas Season with Christmas just a few days away. Around the corner is the our 9th year wedding anniversary, new years and then my birthday. I've been eating a million calories a day, baking and cooking like a mad person, getting to bed late and skipping the gym. This is a recipe for disaster!

Thankfully there are many good things about that make this frenetic activity worth it. Here are some highlights of the last week:

1. My son's Christmas concert. This is what he looked like just before the concert.

Sadly, I didn't get a good shot of him singing but the kids are so cute and some of the soloists where so talented.

2. My departmental Christmas party. It was a roaring 20s theme.

We are women hear us roar - oh except for my solo male colleague. Look at his smile.

3. We met a new neighbor

It's a snowy owl!

4. The kids made snow angels.......

...whilst I watched from inside the warmth of the kitchen

5. Also for the first time ever, dinner has been a collaboration in our house. I made the shrimp and chicken and my husband made daal, okra and spinach.

Dinner this week has been extra delicious!

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Party Animals

This Saturday we had three parties to attend. A birthday party, a children's Christmas party and "an introducing the husbands of a circle of girlfriends" party (with kids as well). I knew it would be difficult but I was confident that we would have a smooth day as I had noted it all down in my iCalendar on my iPhone. Guess what I couldn't find my iPhone that morning!!! Regardless, it went smoothly, proving once again, that I am not as dependent on technology as I'd like to think.

The first party was my son's first friend's birthday. I can't believe they are both six! We met when they were both three months. This is what their first playdate looked like:

This is what they looked like now - dancing to that insidious song, "What does the fox say" (Picture is intentionally blurry to show dance movement)

My our children have grown up so fast. The party featured the mad science lady who demonstrated a controlled explosion. Exciting! My friend made a treasure cake so there was chocolate gold coins inside the cake. So cool!

To burn off all the sugar, the kids went out to the backyard to take aim at the pinata. My son nearly conked our hostess on the head. Crazy!

The kids enjoyed the party immensely.

Next was the children's Christmas party, hosted by my workplace. I had never taken the children before. It was packed! The most notable moments were meeting Santa.

Hugging in the fake snow.

Playing in the bouncy castle and the bouncy smurf hut.

Getting their faces painted and also it was the first time my daughter had a snowcone.




She loved it!

Next was an evening at my friend's house. The women at this party had all met before. We do regular playdates for our children. We talk about each other often with our husband's so my friend thought it was prudent that our husbands meet the group as well. Here are our lovely hosts.

The kids had their meal first, which consisted of hotdogs and fries.

The grown ups had a very gourmet meal.

We played taboo, men vs women. Can you guess who won?

Meanwhilst the kids were meant to be watching a movie. This is how we left them.

Some of them chose to leave the confines of their cozy blankets and pillows and attacked our host instead.


Don't worry, he was survived =).I also managed to get some cute baby cuddle time in with the world's best baby. So happy and content all the time. He ALMOST made me want another one. (But no, that would be madness.)

The next morning we had playdate with some new neighbors that recently moved a few streets away. The boy is my son's friend from before and after program and the girl is about six months younger than my daughter. We were supposed to go grocery shopping, but I had to take a nap and we never made it out. We ended the day with both happiness and tears. My son read all 63 pages of cat in the hat all by himself! It took him 40 minutes, but he did it! I praised him and my daughter overheard. She's a competitive little thing, so she brought over the fairy encyclopedia to read to me. I was not allowed to read the words to her. I was not allowed to help her track the words on the page. I was not allowed to even turn the pages. SHE wanted to read it to me. Her efforts ended in tears and it took me 45 minutes to calm her down and get her to read a book more suitable to her level and then finally to bed. It was a fun filled weekend but now I am knackered!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Dora and my daughter

This week has been full of drama. First we went to see a Dora show.
My daughter was thrilled but my son was horrified. "I'm too old for this" exclaimed my new six year old. "It too girly" He sat and he pouted until about 5 minutes into the show and all of a sudden he was jumping around and doing all the things boot and Dora were asking of him. His favorite part of course was when Diego made a cameo.
Two days later it was my daughter turn to make her stage debut at her school Christmas concert. She sang Frosty the snowman and snowflake snowflake. 
She was also the percussionist, playing the bells. She jingle jangled so well. 

Sunday, December 1, 2013

In the spirit of the season

My daughter has been learning about hibernation at school recently. She learned that some of the smaller animals that hibernate die when they try to revive themselves from hibernation. This information has ignited a curiosity about death and god in her. At first she wanted to know if we would die when it got cold, then she wanted to know if god is a boy or a girl (neither) and what Allah (god) looked like (light upon light) . Tonight at dinner she brought the two concepts together asked me when will god die? I told her never.
My son who was listening in on the conversation said that this could not be true, everyone and everything dies. I explained that god is like a tree and all other living things are like the leaves on the tree. Every spring the leaves sprout on the tree and every autumn they turn color, fall of the tree and die, but the tree itself does not die, it lives on through winter to sprout new leaves in the spring.
My son nodded in agreement. He went on to say that we are a straight line and god is a circle. I asked him what he meant. He explained that we are born and then we are kids and then we are pre-teens and then we are teenagers and then we are adults and then we die. This is a straight line, but god just goes on and on like a circle. We have to pray and be good and god will take us into the circle when we die.
It was a profound moment. I felt that I was in the presence of someone very wise and witnessing a spiritual birth at the same time. 

Saturday, November 30, 2013

My feet hurt

The bottom of my feet are so painful because I have been on my feet all day. Today was kiddie birthday party day. My daughter's party was at noon, my son's party was at three, and then when we came home we hosted another party for my family from out of town. I am all partied out! Ok I'll stop whining to tell you about our day. It started off nicely enough with a princess themed party at an indoor playground for my daughter.

Except for the playground

It was so very pink.


My daughter was in Disney Princess heaven.


My son on the other hand was mortified.

He and the other boys we invited didn't even want to eat the princess Sofia cake because it was too girlie for him.

In the end he ate it though because after all who can turn down delicious cake.
Next on the agenda was a space themed party at the museum.

This is what my husband and I looked like before the party.


You don't want to know what we looked like at the end! Six year olds are an dangerous blend of high energy and mischievousness. Here are some unexpected things that happened at the party:
1. Two boys were so naughty during a space presentation that they got sent out of the planetarium by the party coordinator and I had to entertain them and hope that their feelings were not hurt.
2. The craft at the party was making asteroids out of foil streamers. My son hit me on the forehead with one that he made and it kinda hurt.
3. One boy thought it would be a really good idea to jump wildly on top of the craft table. (One of my brave friends kindly removed him from the table top - she's awesome!)
4. The kids were so loud that you couldn't hear music playing during freeze dance.
Most of this happened before they even had cake!

There was a moment of silence when the cake came out.

The kids were too busy eating! The afternoon ended with a missing child. He was found hanging out with a friend and his friend's mom on another floor, but for a moment there I was freaking out! After all that my husband and I went home to prepare dinner for my family. We sat the children down in front of the TV. The girls loved watching Equestria girls.

We ended the night with yet another cake.

Everyone had a great time and even though I am tired would do it all over again =)