Mother's day weekend

 

I was lucky enough to receive breakfast in bed made by Heather and Finlay. Toast and tea. Heather had wanted to give me jam on my toast and Finlay wanted peanut butter ...so I got both...lucky me!!!

The weather was beautiful that weekend so we decided to go out for our first family hike for the year. Of to Johnston lake we went and I had heard that there was a swing in one of the trees somewhere.

So off we went exploring and started on our way around the lake...I had no idea where the swing was and I was hoping that it would be easily found. It was only by chance that James looked up into the trees as we hiked around that we found it.. and even I got quite excited.!!! ...I don't often feel my age .

swinging into my 40"s

Enjoying the view at the head of the lake

Sleep over fun

My close friend has been helping us out for the past year and collects Heather and Finlay from daycare every second Thursday while I am at work. Felix is ages with Heather and Ansophie is ages with Finlay.The kids enjoy a play date, dinner and lots of fun and have developed a lovely friendship. They all play very well together and are easy to have around together. I have often offered to look after Angeline's children so that she can go for a date with Jo, eager to repay the favors that she has done for me......Well it only took a year, so I was very excited when she asked if we could have the kids overnight, while they went to a concert in Calgary and immediately replied with a yes!!

It was the first time that we had had a sleep over so were interested in how it would go. As you can see from the photos they had a ton of fun. We made pizza, played football in the park and had a movie and pop corn. They were exhausted by bed time. The boys dropped off to sleep almost immediately, while the girls chatted for a while...just as girls do.

Then at 4 AM I heard Heather shouting in her usual loud voice for me "Mum...Mum...Mum" So I jumped out of bed and got to her room as quickly as possible before she woke the boys, to find her tell me that Ansophie was crying. That was quickly resolved and she quickly settled. But then 2 little boys were standing in the door way...oh oh!! this could be it, 4 children all awake at 4 in the morning...we may be in for a long day!!! However thankfully they all went back to sleep to my pleasant surprise.

Pancakes for breakfast, more play and many group hugs before they left. Great success...it seemed easier to have 4 kids than 2 and almost made me wish that I had more...but must remember that they were not all mine!!!

Happy Birthday Mum

Well the day had finally arrived when Mum turned 40 and it was with trepidation from my perspective. However the kids were thoroughly excited. The day before Heather had apparently told her whole class that it was her mum's birthday and proceeded to tell the teacher that she wouldn't be at school as she was spending it with Mum. So James also had the day off work and we decided to have a day trip to the zoo to see the penguins.

The penguins are a relatively new attraction at Calgary zoo and wait times at the weekend have been upto 2 hours...I was not prepared to wait that long so were glad that we had the opportunity to go mid week. we stood in line for about 30 mins and by that time everybody knew it was my birthday.

Looking out for animals,as you can see Finlay continues to like an afternoon siesta. He has been known to be sitting in his car seat at 10 am ready for a day trip and sigh and say" I'm tired" and promptly fall asleep.

Oh but wait ...he spotted a tiger...his favorite animal.

The Cake

Now the cake...A few days before my birthday I suggested that I make my own cake, Heather naturally, with her birthday spirit wanted to help, so Sunday was going to be the day.....6AM on Sunday morning Heather comes to wake me up asking if we can go and make the cake now..An hour later the cake making was underway with flour and sugar all over the kitchen....but the result was great....

We returned from the zoo later than expected so went to the George Town for dinner and heather promptly told the waiter that we were only having dinner..no desert ...it's my mums birthday you know and we are going home for cake .......and the cake had 40 candles put in by Heather and Finlay.

and they took some puff to blow them out.