Creating Memories!

It's fun to come home to my family playing and laughing and having fun!  I walked in on an impromptu game of "hockey" in our small little yard.  Sometimes as adults we get so wrapped up in serious things that we forget to play with our kids and to let ourselves just "be".  We need to do that more.  I need to do that more!



Here's the scene I came home to today:

Creating memories.  Awesome. :) Cath

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50's Sock Hop! (Tomboy in a Skirt Alert!)

My daughter's grade 5 class have been learning some swing and jive dances in their gym class.  For Valentine's Day, their teacher threw them a 50's sock hop.  Everyone got dressed up in their 50's dance outfits, all the parents were invited and they topped it off with an ice cream root beer float.  The kids loved it!

I didn't want to spend money on a costume because knowing my daughter, she will never ever wear this for a costume again.  She is a tomboy through and through.  Last year for Halloween she went as a dead chef, the year before a dead bride (you get the picture...she's just not into girly costumes).

So I used what we had.  She has ONE skirt, so I dug that out and wiped the dust off of it...LOL!!

Then I printed off a picture of a poodle, cut it out and traced it onto red felt.

Once I had the felt cut out, I pinned it to the skirt and then hand-sewed it on.

Then to wrap up the look she wore a red cardigan sweater, a scarf around her neck and canvas style runners.  I couldn't get her to wear a pony tail or the frilly socks I made..but hey, I got her into a skirt!


For a non-sewing person I think it turned out pretty good!

And she looked SO cute even if she says she felt very awkward!

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Road Trip! Errrr...with a side trip...

This past weekend my 11 year old daughter, Maya, was in a Ringette Tournament in the city of Kelowna, which is about a 4 hour drive from our house.

Her team name is "The Warriors":

With "Warrior" paint on her face before a game.

Trying to look like a tough "Warrior"!

Our tradition with this tournament every year is to make it a "girls weekend away" but this year we had to do it a little different.  I am just feeling way too sick right now to manage the drive and everything else by myself.  I actually need so much more rest than I've ever needed.  These chemo pills are giving me "foggy brain", major fatigue, nausea and weakness...it's just yucky.  But never fear...my hubby is here!  My wonderful guy drove and when I needed rest he took me back to our hotel room to sleep, made sure I was in bed early every night and got me a coffee every morning.  Love him!

And good thing he came, because guess where I spent the better part of Friday?  At the Kelowna Cancer Agency!  Good times!  You know, I've told you how great my hubby is and how much I love him so I feel it's okay to tell you this little story...

In our home, Michael does the packing.  I get everyones stuff washed and together in piles on the bed, but he's the one who packs it into our luggage...he packs like a tetris game...it's a skill!  I don't even bother anymore to try and pack as he just unpacks and re-packs it again.  ANYWAYS, I had the piles on the bed ready to pack....and he packed it all up, so. I. thought.  So on the Thursday night, I realize that "the pills" were not packed.  Hubby says, "Well I saw them on the bed but they weren't on a pile so I didn't pack them."  Deep breath..."ommm...ommm".  I'm on a pretty heavy duty dose so when I miss a pill (I take 2 per day) the side effects are not pleasant....just sayin'.

The next morning we called the pharmacy who said it is very important to take these pills or I may start to hemorrhage again...no thanks!  Unfortunately, no pharmacy in Kelowna carries them except for the Cancer Clinic which, thank goodness, was open.  Several hours later, I was able to get an emergency 3 day supply.  Phew!

The rest of the weekend was great!

We watched Maya's games...they won 2 and lost 2 (but only just!).  Maya bonded with the team and we bonded with the parents, they went swimming and played games and  I didn't have to do any cooking or dishes for 3 days...yippee!  I couldn't do as much as I normally would have but all in all it was great weekend and I'm so glad that the 3 of us went.

And hey, isn't my little athlete so AWESOME!?!

Here's where I'm linking up!

My 2 little Valentine's

Today I'm going to share with you the 'Valentine's' that I have made for my 2 youngest kids, ages 7 and 11.  I wanted it to be something they could use, something that wouldn't just end up in the trash within a week and something that would show them how much we love them.  I think this idea has incorporated all of the above!

Insulated Water Cups filled with chocolate, gummies and a love note!  The reason this fits so well, is that my kids love drinking water and this way they have their very own cups (dark blue for Matthew and light blue for Maya) with lids (less spillage) so they can always have water with them.  For kids who aren't water fans, this will encourage them to drink it more.

Materials Used: 

Insulated cup (I got mine for $5 each at The Canadian Superstore)

Valentine paper (1 piece cost .99 cents)

Candy & Chocolate (bought in bulk for $3.00)

Love note (I have included a FREE printable for this)

Total Cost: $8.99 total ($4.50 per kid)....not bad!

Here's what I did:

Bought 2 cups (insulated with lids and straws) and 'heart' paper.

Cut the paper to fit inside the cup.

I created a printable (free for you...just right click and save or email me and I can forward you a copy:)

My husband and I each filled in our 5 reasons (so really they got 10 reasons...moms and dads are different and each appreciate different things so I thought it would be cool if they heard 5 things from each of us.)

After we filled out our lists, we popped it inside the cup along with some heart shaped chocolates and gummies.

Here's what it looks like...pretty and simple and not expensive.  Win - Win - Win!

I think they're going to really like them!

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