Party it up Pups.

  The kids are exactly 2 years and 6 weeks apart and last year after planning a spectacular My Little Pony party, I was too exhausted to do anything for Noah so for his birthday, we took him to a movie and he got a bag of popcorn. He was still happy and it doesn’t matter because he was 2 and he doesn’t remember anything. I could of told him we took him to Disneyland and just forgot the camera for pictures and he wouldn’t know the difference.  But anyways,  this year I got the igneous idea that I will just combine the kid’s birthday party because the thought of doing 2 parties so close together was just too exhausting to fathom. And don’t tell Noah but he doesn’t really have any of his own friends, they are all Natallie’s friends that just seem to like him too.

After I convinced the kids that a Princess-Batman party would be too creepy, the kids decided on Paw Patrol instead.  This was back in January so I had 8 months to plan and that’s also about how long it took for my online order of Paw Patrol mini figures took to ship over from China.

For Noah's 1st birthday I painstakingly made tractor shaped sugar cookies and I swore I would never attempt themed based sugar cookies again but in a moment of idiocy, I promised Natallie that yes, I could make dog boned shaped sugar cookies with each of the Paw Patrol pup colors. Why ?! Why do I subject myself to these things? After finally finding a dog bone cookie cutter,  making two failed recipes,  dashing to the store for more eggs and burning my arm with the hot cookie tray, I had lovely dog-bone shaped cookies ready for icing. However, the icing did not prove to be any easier. I quit after the icing was running everywhere and I dyed arm hands and part of the kitchen counter blue with food coloring. I quit after that. The kids can decorate their own stupid cookies at the party.  If I ever decide to make themed sugar cookies again,  please hit me in the head with a frying pan. But I have to admit, even though I wasn't able to do cookies in all the pup colors, just the blue cookies looked pretty cool coupled with the red dog dish I found at the dollar store.

 I like planning parties but unlike Natallie, I lack patience and precision so I loathe things like intricate cookie decorating or piping delicate cupcake designs. Simon must of seen me in the kitchen with my ziplock bag of icing and starring at the 40 cupcakes in the kitchen that needed to be iced. I must of had the I-hate-my-life look on my face because he said, "it's just like caulking. I use a caulking gun at work all the time." And who knew that his skills from the construction site would transfer to mad skills to icing cupcakes for your kids' birthday. Simon didn't do just a decent job, he iced the cupcakes a million times better than I could. And the kids were more than happy to help lick the beater and the spoons with all the extra icing.

It didn't take long to set up all the Paw Patrol awesome-ness and we were ready to have a PAW-TY!

The party was a blast. My ingenious plan to not ice the rest of those stupid cookies turned out to be a fun activity for the kids.

It wasn't a super hot day but that didn't seem to stop the kids from playing in the spray park. I was in denial that it was the end of summer and didn't bring any warm clothes for my kids so they were shivering at the end. Oh well, they had eaten so much sugar it kept them running like maniacs to keep warm.

We had the music pumping and the kids (well at least mine) were showing off their bizarre dance moves.  They must get it from Simon because I did not teach them those moves.  

It was also a pleasant surprise that the kids were totally into the party games this year. Last year when I tried to orchestrate a relay race with a group of mostly 3-4 year olds, it was just a mass exodus of small people running everywhere but this year, the kids understood that they couldn't run until the person in front passed them the dog bone and it was a lot of fun. We also did a relay race with Paw Patrol masks which the kids thought was hilarious. The most entertaining game was Skye, Skye, Chase (Duck, Duck, Goose). Some of the kids still didn't understand the game and would just run around in continuous circles but it made for a really good laugh for all the parents watching.

 One thing I didn't count on was how incredibly difficult it would be to light a sparkler candle when it was slightly cold and windy.  One candle finally got lit but blew out before we could even assemble anyone to start singing Happy Birthday. It took all the dads at the party , 2 entire packs of matches and finally lighting some wrapping paper on fire to light the second pack of sparkler candles I brought. Oh well,  it was pretty entertaining just to watch all the dads trying working on it.

Thank you for everyone who came, played, danced, ate and gifted the kids with presents. I'm exhausted but it was totally worth it. I'm also really glad that I am not doing this again for another 365 days.

googling rhabdomyolsis.

Not going to lie, life is on fast-forward right now...I feel like the treadmill is on full speed and if I don't focus I am going to fly off. So when my dear husband has been telling me that he feels like he's barely holding on, I don't blink an eye and when he tells me that sometimes he thinks he is going to have a heart attack, I nod and agree. I feel on the verge of a mental breakdown on a weekly basis. And when he leaves work early and sleeps for 15 hours straight, I wonder how long it takes to catch up on 5 years of sleep deprivation. But when we are on vacation in Kelowna and my strong-as-the-Hulk husband can't lift my suitcase, I start to worry. We spend the first day at the waterslides at he says his muscles are seized up and he can't catch the kids jumping into the pool, I am concerned. Then in the evening when he can't squeeze toothpaste out, we decide we better go to the ER.

Our friend dropped Simon off at the Kelowna ER and we waited at the beach that was next to the hospital. There was nothing we could do but wait for results and the kids had a lot of fun swimming and digging in the sand while Simon was hooked up to IVs and getting vials of blood tested. Two bags of saline and 5 hours later, the doctors released him and told him to rest because his levels of creatine kinase were off the charts. Apparently endurance athletes like marathon runners or long distance cyclists will have these symptoms too. The doctor just said to rest and drink a ton of Gatorade and go back to the ER if he still doesn't feel better.

So we drive off to Enderby and to the family farm. There is a secret 'island' that only the locals know of and we retreat to the private sandbar and do exactly what the doctor says. But maybe because I google and read aloud everything horrible that is associated with high levels of creatine kinase, Simon doesn't sleep well and neither do I so Simon goes to the ER in Vernon this time and gets retested again. Another five hours, another 4 vials of blood, EEG scan and assortment of other tests later, the doctor diagnoses Simon with rhabdomyolsis (pronounced like this: rhab·do·my·ol·y·sis). Basically, its the breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to the release of muscle fiber contents into the blood. But at least the doctor said he doesn't have the syndrome which is serious and could lead to kidney damage. He has the condition but not the disease.  I guess that is proof that being a dad is just like running a marathon or the Tour de France.

Simon didn't really like spending two days in the ER but with the assurance that Simon's heart was still ticking as it should and that he could recover from this gave us the reassurance we both needed to have a little fun with a few minor hiccups.

Natallie, our ever patient girl sat still in the warm shallow waters for so long with her net catching minnows. She did get a whole bunch of fish but she also got a leech suctioned to her arm! I was totally useless and panicking so it was good that another lady at the beach recognized what it was and was able to pry it off her arm. Blech. Leeches are disgusting creatures. Naturally, we built a jail for the leech in a bucket and the kids marched around it to make sure the leech served its jail time for its crime of scaring a little girl and her mother. And then a bit later, Noah stepped on bee and was crying uncontrollably. Again I was useless and didn't know what to do so Simon stepped in and was able to get the stinger out. It was his first bee sting and he didn't turn into a giant puff ball so its good to know he isn't allergic.

So other than a couple trips to the ER, a leech on the beach and a bee sting the rest of our trip was pretty relaxing and enjoyable. We paddleboarded, built sandcastles and sandmermaids and went to a farm market with animals. We fed donkeys and alpacas and ran away from a greedy goat and got really, really lost in a corn maze. It started out being fun but after awhile wandering around in a 34 degree heat in corn isn't that much fun so Simon helped bushwhack our way thru the corn and back out into civilization. If it wasn't for our short cut, we would still be in that corn maze right now.

Now that we are back home we are trying our best to slow down...it's challenging with 2 energizer-bunny lunatics that we affectionately call our children but we are trying to take little pauses in between the busyness to enjoy the little things - like having a slurpee picnic on the lawn when daddy comes home from work, going for a walk in the woods after dinner, tickling Noah til he squrims with his belly laugh, snuggling with the kids at bedtime and having a mini date night (i.e., watching White Collar on Netflix) together after the kids are asleep - we are trying to treasure these little things knowing that as crazy as this phase is that we will miss it so much when its over.

my city kids at farmer camp.

I am a city girl. Born and raised. When people say they grew up on a farm I think of how fabulous it must of been to grow up in the country - to walk barefoot in the wheat fields, having a little (talking) piglet like Babe as a pet, getting fresh milk from the cow and riding bareback on a horse in wide open spaces.

Then I married a country boy who grew up in those wide open spaces and it doesn't sound as glamorous as I was picturing it. Yes he did enjoy growing up with 90 acres of space to ride his dirt bike in the summer and had basically his own ski hill in his backyard in the winter. But as every farm kid knows, there are chores and a lot of them. And for Simon there were always chores that had to be done every day before school, on the weekends and there are no holidays. He said even Christmas morning he had to do chores before opening his presents under the tree. For awhile they had chickens and he collected eggs every morning. That sounds pretty fun but apparently hens aren't very fond of having their eggs stolen away. Simon ruffled a few feathers and endured a few painful pecks from their protective mothers. Legend has it that Simon's mom got so mad at a hen once because it hurt her little boy that she kicked it so hard that the hen  flew across the barn and never laid eggs again. I also forgot that farm animals get sick and taking care of a bloated cattle with pink eye is not so fun. I don't even know if I can mention it here but Simon can put castrating cattle on his list of super skills.

little Simon collecting chicken eggs

But who am I to ruin that country dream for my kids? They love going to the farm and visiting Grandma and Grandpa and going for tractor and ATV rides.  And Simon has been cultivating thier inner farmer with our backyard garden. Simon taught them how to plant seeds and water them and they were so proud to harvest our potatoes, carrots, lettuce, raspberries, strawberries and zucchinis the size of space ships.

But really experiencing the farm life means animals and we don't have any (except for the hamster which hasn't died in the 2 weeks we have owned it). Grandma and Grandpa don't have farm animals anymore either so when I saw "Farmer Camp" at the little petting zoo 10 minutes from my house, I was thrilled to sign them up.

It was the best way to experience the farm life without actually doing the hard work. The kids brushed the goats, gave a cow a bottle of milk, fed the animals their grains, had a close encounter with some pigs, collected chicken eggs (when their protective mothers weren't close by) and cuddled bunnies. Simon thought it was crazy that I was paying for them to do farm chores but now my city kids can say they were farmers for a week. Nothing wrong with that right?

camping done right.

Aug 7 2016

I knew it. I knew there was a way to go camping without the annoying parts of coordinating with friends and scrambling on 7 different computers trying to reserve a spot at a provincial park, paying to pitch a tent on the dirt ground, laboriously prepping all the food to cook on the campfire, washing all the dishes in a small basin of pumped water and walking to the bathrooms with a flashlight at night.

But there are parts of camping that are wonderful like the excitment of setting up the tent and arranging all the mattresses together,  roasting marshmellows and making s'mores, being in new location and going on a nature hike and staying up late chatting with friends with the ambiance of the campfire flickering.

I agree that camping is a truly Canadian experience and every kid should have camping experiences growing up but after still enduring symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder from our last camping trip we knew there had to be a better way. That's where our lovely friends Sarah and Jordan come in. They live in a house with a huge yard in Abbotsford, we told them about our desire to give our kids the camping experience without all the sucky parts it is for the parents and we came up with camping in their backyard. Their backyard is huge so we invited another couple with kids that also shared similiar views about camping. 7 kids and 6 adults, this is gonna be fun right??

Well, it was a great success. We set up 3 tents in their backyard and still had room for their massive trampoline, their playground structure and their hot tub. Yes, hot tub.

It was so great to have their house to cook dinner instead of trying to boil a pot of water over a camp stove for 30 minutes.  Sarah cooked a fabulous Mennonite dinner for us and we feasted on farmer's sausage, rollkuchen and watermelon.  Despite being part Mennonite, my kids have never had rollkuchen before but loved it. I mean who doesn't love deep fried dough dipped in corn syrup though?

The trampoline kept the kids (and Simon) occupied most of the weekend. They had a propane fireplace so we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. The kids got to stay up way past their usual bedtime but eventually went to sleep so we could go in the hot tub without them. We even went on a hike the next day to Cascade Falls just like we would if we were "really" camping.

I'd defiantly vote for backyard camping again next year....all the best parts of camping with a ton less work...although Noah did cry to go pee at 3:00am, I tried to convince him just to pee on the grass but he didn't go for it and started screaming but hey, at least I didn't need a flashlight to walk the 20 steps back inside the house !

how to start new family vacation traditions.

July 3 2016

So everyone who knows us already knows we always go snowboarding/skiing at Big White for our Christmas holiday but we haven't really had a summer family vacation that we do every year but I think we've figured out how to start a new family vacation tradition....

1. Pick an awesome venue. How about lakeside vacation rental at Cultus Lake? yes, that one will do just fine.

2. Bring fun toys that brings the family together. Enter the stand up paddle board. Everyone had a turn on it (except my mom). Noah's turn lasted all of 60 seconds until he started shrieking to get his feet back on dry land but I am hoping next year he will be braver. The paddle board was hours of entertainment for all of us - testing out how many adults we could put on it until it sank, trying yoga moves and not falling off and my sister trying to do cartwheels off the end.

3. Get Costco to sponsor the trip so no one has to cook much. Enjoy family dinners lake-side.
4. Make the most of lame kid-friendly attractions like Dino Town. I remember going to Dino Town when I was a kid and it looks like it not as changed since the early 90's. The kids loved it though....and when the mascots came out in their dusty costumes that look more archaic than Barney they were so excited for the show! If you are ever having a bad day at work then just think it could be worse and you could be a singing dancing dinosaur mascot. I can still hear the catchy theme song, it keeps me up at night sometimes... Welcome to DinoTown, everybody jump around....*shudder*

 5. Enjoy family time whether you are on a boat, on a board, on the beach, on a roller coaster or just throwing pebbles in the lake.

6. Pre-book your vacation for next year as soon as you get home or you won't get that same lakeside rental again! Then start counting down til next summer famjam!