September = Birthdays!

Someone turned 40 September 5. Give you a hint, its someone we all know and love!


Yes, Michael just got old! For his birthday we had a big BBQ out at his Mother's! All of his family came out to help us celebrate. It was really nice! For his birthday, I am taking him to the Dominican Republic for a week! A week! My mother is very...*very* kindly coming to watch the girls in Vancouver so they don't miss any school! How sweet is that?




Maeve turned 8 on Auntie Sara's 36th Birthday. I cannot believe I have an 8 year old! Maeve is growing up so fast it is making my head spin! Grade 3, knows everything (comes by that honestly), confident, talented and just generally wonderful this girl is!




This year we had an actual "birthday party". The kids all seemed to have a really good time, but I should have just had it here. We wound up doing all the work anyway! Maeve invited a few friends to make crafts at Michael's Craft store, have some cake and have their faces painted. It didn't ruin Maeve's party at all but it took an hour just to paint the faces of 5 kids! Maeve didn't even get hers done until 5mins after the party ended! Needless to say, I was a bit miffed. Meh.. it was all I could do not to take the facepaint stuff out of the girl's hands and do it myself. Not wanting to ruin the party, I just hung out with a few of my treasured Moms!



Thank you all for your gifts and calls. Maeve was a very happy girl on her 8th!

Next week, Madigan turns 6!

So last weekend we went canoodling with some friends. We drove out to Buntzen Lake in Port Moody ish area around 10 am and rented a Canoe!

Yes, we headed out all fed a healthy breakfast, with a prepared lunc.... ahh.. wooops, forgot the lunch. Once you get in to buntzen lake and the parking lot is full, they gate it off and you can't return. So we knew we were in it for the long haul..We were out on the lake for 6 hours with no food of our own but lots of water. Thankfully our friends shared their delightful picnic! I can't believe we were so dopey and didn't bring our lunch.



It was a GREAT day! The kids loved it, and although my arms hurt the next day I loved it too! I think we'll do it again! You can see in both pics "who" is paddling and "who" is taking pictures... ahuh.. same person.. Michael exerted alot of effort "steering".. right! OK ok, in both pictures neither of us are paddling!

Haha no just kidding! We did find out that Canoeing is a reflection of your life. If you haven't gone canoeing before you marry someone and have kids with them, you should. If you can survive a 6 hour trek while also keeping those aboard intact then you'll have many a happy years married!


**note to worried parent: all aboard did wear life jackets for the duration of the trip. these pictures were just as we started!
love you Mom

Summer 2011

Hello friends, fans and family! It'd be pretty tough to top the fantastic that Michael and the girls created (see earlier post) so I'll just give a brief update on our summer so far:

We rented a camper and went camping or "boating" as our friends called it. My sister referred to our luxury accommodation(not) as a "Glamper". Although dry and had a fridge, there was nothing glamorous about our camper!
It was old and ugly but it got us through some gross wet camping!




Lots of friends and fam made it out to visit us which was really nice.




Best marshmallow ever toasted 2011


... next year.. next year.. and we'll go in August again to catch the really awesome meteor shower and hopefully some nicer weather!

Maeve and Madigan are doing really well in their swimming programs. They have just completed Swim Kids 1(Madigan) and Swim Kids 2(Maeve) The swimming program is a little more expensive than we would have liked but it does mean that I don't have to sit at one of our community center pools for 2.5 hours. I'll pay it for the convenience alone! Plus the girls had a really really great instructor! I've enrolled them again the first week of August!


New bathing suit cover's I've fashioned because I'm brazilliant! Note this is not a padded room but a padded elevator someone was moving out of our building!


Michael and I agreed (yes, yes it is true) that the carpet MUST come up in our home... couldn't have come sooner because our Dr discovered that Maeve has some sort of allergy and moving the carpet can only ease her symptoms so thats good. We are in a holding pattern over the floor work because we have to do some pretty significant kitchen work to open it up. I'm really excited for the work to be done but of course it will be mostly weekend work. Maybe some family members want to come over and expedite the situation cough*Don & Jason* cough... I give Brodie a reprieve because of all the amazing work he is doing for his own place!

The summer is flying past and pretty soon I will be back at work. For that though, believe it or not I'm pretty excited! I'll be teaching a 3/4 Monday-Thursday am preschool class and a friday only parent participation class for 2 year olds! I'm pretty sure my head while be full grey this time next year!

In 2 weeks we'll be headed to the Island to visit Gramma Luvvie, Make & Saige Winter and Coorad... we sure do love us some cousins!

August 5,6,7 we'll be hanging out with Jacob and Mr Up In Everything Jaden... We'll be spending the night out at Gramma Susies so we can help watch the boys while she is at work. Sara will be attending CougarTown 2011.

Then... duh duh duhhhhhh back to work the last 2 weeks of August!

Sunday

So, while I was rocking out with Donnie @ the NKOTBSB concert, there was an equally fantastic concert going on at home...

voila:



I not only have two wonderfully talented children, but Michael's got some mad skillz too!~

Mad skillz

This year's Talent Show.... Maeve, her usual shy self took to the stage!




Oh how I love this confident, wonderful, amazing child! Besides my woohooing the whole school LOVED her act!

Where have we been?

As per, Casa Mussellam is being throw curve balls left right and centre! The most recent was the fantastic Ark sized flooding Mother's Day weekend. My work/Madigan's kindercare was flooded. It was flooded with not just rainwater. Yuck. Everything that was touched by this liquid has been packed up to be taken away and sanitized or tossed. We are operating out of school care/kindercare out of #1 Kingsway, our Community Centre where I used to head up the Infant room. Preschool has been cancelled temporarily, I do not know when we will be back in our building. Life is tough, life is challenging but man does time fly when you operate in crisis mode! Michael is settling in at his job. Of course he is working ridiculous hours, we only ever switch up the jobs right at crunch time! I'm beginning to think we are gluttons for punishment! Before this terrible flood occurred, I had booked a week off for a little RnR! Talk about cosmic timing! I took the girls over to my Moms and got to visit with all the cousins, catch a movie, drink some beers and really had a great time with some pretty great people I get to call family! I swear there were more children but I only caught one picture of this adorable happy little guy we call Conrad, or "Coo-ad" as his equally adorable sister calls him!

Over the last little while I had noticed that Maeve was squinting and not able to read signs that I think she should have soo off to the eye Dr and little Miss Maeve is now even more adorable! She picked these frames out herself! She says, "Everything is much sharper now, not as blurry." Glad we figured this out now before it affected her with headaches or not being able to read what was written on the board at school.


Madigan continues to be the most adorable, animal loving girl. She reads really well, can do anything she puts her mind to and has a wicked sense of humour! She is just like her Mother!



Thanks to these lovelies, I had a very wonderful manicure/pedicure while Daddy took them to the pool! What a great weekend!

Mother's Day

I am truly blessed. Thank you Michael, thank you my wonderful, beautiful and very very kind children. I absolutely adore you.

Bonjour

Bonjour mes amies, comment ca va? Nous sommes tres bien. Le semaine, Michel se rend à Montréal! Quell bon adventure!

Holy crap, if we are going to move to Montreal, my french needs alot of work! I sat here for ages trying to conjugate "To be" en francais,

nouse sommes
vous etes
il sont
elle sont
then something something something!

First things first...staying at the Hilton Garden Inn



Second... eat Montreal smoked Meat sandwich!




Something tells me Michael will come home with a stomach ache! Wait til he gets at the poutine!

xo
v

April 1

These may not be in chronological order but here is how April fools 2011 played out at our place!

Breaking News.....

Beep....beep....beep... this important broadcast has been brought to you by the letter T....






Tears have all dried, crying has stopped... our baby girl is missing one very tiny first tooth!

Look who it is!

Hello faithful followers!

We are all alive and in good health! Saddened greatly by the events unfolding in Japan but very very thankful we and our loved ones are safe and sound.

We are still looking for work, Michael is busy doing test shots for a few companies. Life with half cash flow is frightening but a little belt tightening hasn't ever hurt anyone really has it? !

I'm very sure that life is about to take a few new twists and turns, just wanted to let you all know that we are here, all doing well and ready to deal with the hand life gives us!

Post much?

Hello Peeps!

We are all happy and healthy over here at Casa Mussellam! Maeve is doing really well in grade 2 and Madigan is busy blowing our minds in kindergarten! Last year Maeve had some struggles with math, this year her teacher is making math fun! No more math induced tears!

Madigan is a reading little bookworm. Michael and I honestly anticipated a much tougher time with home reading than with Maeve. Turns out it "Looks" like she isn't listening to a word we are saying but some of it is sticking! There are a few other children in her kindergarten class that are reading too but everyone is still on the same level of books.

Working at MPCCA is really really rewarding. My boss is great! The hours can't be beat AND I get the summers/school holidays off! How excite is that? We are already planning our summer camping at Miracle beach... hopefully little Miss M and her new sister Little Miss Q can join us!

My brother and his wife are just putting the finishing touches on their beautiful new home which is conveniently located on my mom & Robin's property! I predict a summer full of cousin fun!

I guess I'm really really REALLY looking forward to this summer! Can you blame me?