Spring Thing Family Fun Event

This morning we went to our church's Spring Thing Family Fun Event. It started with a yummy pancake breakfast. And no, it wasn't just plain pancakes with syrup- there were plain, chocolate chip and blueberry pancakes with not only syrup for a topping, but apples and whipped cream! They also had fresh fruit and juice to finish off a delicious breakfast. Kaley of course was ecstatic with all of the people there and her friends from the daycare, so she didn't have much time for eating.
After the breakfast, there were pictures with the Easter Bunny and face painting for the kids. Then, we all headed outside to the back field for a family riddle Easter egg hunt. We were given clues and had to go to 15 different stations to collect Easter eggs and our next clue. We made it to #3 and then Kaley was just as happy to run around the field! We had a great time this morning and it was fun to see so many daycare families and their children there. Kaley's highlight of the morning was the little chocolate eggs:-)

Kaley with the Easter Bunny!

Out at the Egg hunt

The prize! (And yes, the runny nose)

The Baby's Heartbeat!

Today I had my 17 week check up at the doctor's office and I had forgotten from the last time, that it was at this appointment where I was able to listen to the heartbeat for the first time. I can still remember the day when I went in pregnant with Kaley and was amazed and so taken back by the fact that at just 4 months old, you could hear this tiny tiny heart beating! I get teary eyed just thinking about it.

Today was no different. I am amazed at how much I *missed* during Kaley's pregnancy and how much more aware I am with this pregnancy. Maybe it is because my life is so much different now than when it was before we had Kaley. I am working, but it not my entire focus. I have made more time to spend enjoying each day for what it is instead of cramming work into every spare minute and then feeling spent by the weekend. This pregnancy, in fact, seems to be going much slower than I remember from Kaley's, which is a good thing. I am taking more time to enjoy these nine months and to savour the small changes that are happening each week. Pregnancy is such a magical thing!

Talking about magical, our baby at just 17 weeks old is fully formed with all the major organs developed, the nails and hair have started growing, 32 little teeth buds have formed in the jaw, is starting to suck, is aware of noise and light and responds to touch, the limbs are fully formed, and can frown and squint!

Truly amazing - no wonder they call pregnancy a miracle!

Mark's Spring Break Project

We decided that one of the projects that was most needed in our home was a larger coat closet in the entry way. The closet that was built with the house was too small and the space where it was situated at had a foot or two to the right that was wasted, unusable space. Believe me, we tried to fit many things there and nothing really worked. Our entryway was too crowded and awkward no matter how we organized things.

So, my genius of a husband put together this idea to expand the closet by moving a wall and making it flush with the wall in the kitchen. He tore down the outside wall, moved it about two feet, put in new dry wall, installed new tile in the space where the old wall was, added grout, put shelving up and installed double sliding doors; thus making a completely new closet and a much less cluttered entry way. Now to figure out how to decorate it! Mark is simply amazing in his abilities to renovate. What a gem:-)

The new wall!

The old tile removed and cleaned up.

Putting down the new tile.

The sanding of the mud- yuck!

Putting the grout on.

The new shelving put up. Room for coats up above and a shelf half way down for Kaley's coats to go (and baby #2).

On the right side, room for more coats and the shoes underneath. What you can't see, is there is a carpet and a boot tray on the left so there is plenty of room for muddy and wet shoes. They no longer need to be in the hallway! Yeah!

The new sliding doors!

The finished product and a much bigger entry way. Nice job honey!

Spring Break Projects

This past week was Spring Break for me which meant a week of no work! Yeah! My parents were here visiting which was such a nats around the city that Kaley would enjoy. When Kaley went down for her nap, that is when I was able to concentrate on some projects around the house that I've been wanting to tackle for some time. Luckily, dad and mom wanted to help so I got twice the amount of work done that I wanted to!

Project #1 (Biggest project) Playroom for Kaley
I understand the importance of playtime for a toddler, so I wanted to create an area where Kaley could freely play with whatever she was interested in, and could leave her things out without having to have it picked up. The best place was in the basement, so the first thing was to clean out the main room in the basement, then organize her toys and then put it all together.

The old t.v. cabinet that is now where Kaley's toys are kept.

Some of her toys in the cabinet.

Her big girl play toys.

The music corner for our little musician! (The piano is the one that I usually practice on, but Kaley has quickly adopted it as hers when I'm not using it!)

Kaley's craft corner

Project #2 - My Craft Room
I have tried three different ideas for my craft room. If first tried a storage room, then tried to make it portable and then tried it up in our bedroom. None of which worked very well at all. So, when we were designing Kaley's playroom, we were able to put all of my craft items in a corner of the playroom. Now we can both be creative and play together in one place!



Project #3- A Storage place for winter coats
As we've found in the last two years, we have more and more things that are needed for a two year old. One of the things that seemed to be growing faster than we could keep up with, is the coats, jackets, snowsuits, etc. So, after some moving around and cleaning out of some areas, dad was able to put up a board in the storage area beneath the stairs to put all her things! It works perfect!



There were other little projects that we got done, but these were the biggest ones, and it is so nice that they are done. Thanks dad and mom for your help, you were a blessing!

Kaley's Birthday Celebration

We had a lot of fun celebrating Kaley's birthday tonight. The celebration started by going out to Burger Street for dinner. Kaley had her favourite foods: chocolate milk, pickles, french fries, cucumbers and black olives. Quite the birthday dinner!







Then after that we headed over to Retro Planet for some fun playing the arcade games. Her favourite game is the Skeeball game. This is where we spent most of our time.







After that, daddy took her over to the basketball game where she played against daddy to see who would get the most baskets. She was quite the basketball player!









The cars found her attention next and I must say, she had it mastered! She was shifting and steering and beeping the horn like an old pro. It was really cute. Then she saw the truck driving game and had to try that too.













Then we headed home to open her gifts. We figured that since she was already tired, that we would save the cupcakes until tomorrow. She was very excited about her guitar and her very special birthday card from daddy that had Elmo singing "Happy Birthday", and had a great time playing with them. She also got some clothes, which failed in comparison to the ultimate guitar. Now to get it tuned and get a strap for her.








It was a great evening spent together celebrating Kaley's birthday. She enjoyed herself and we had just as much fun with her! Happy birthday sweetheart.

Happy Birthday Sweet Kaley!!!

Our "baby" turned the monumental 2 today! It is hard to believe that it has already been two years that she became a part of our family. I can still remember the day like it was yesterday. Kaley is such a sweet, loving, vivacious, energetic and happy little girl. She lights up our lives with her sense of humor, her unique look on life and her quest to learn more and do more. We are so proud of the little person that she has become in the short two years of her life so far. Happy birthday sweetheart!!! Daddy and mommy love you so very much:-)

"I Skate! I Skate!"

Tonight we had our church's family fun night event which was skating at the Barrie City hall outdoor rink. This was Kaley's first encounter with ice and she had so much fun. We thought that we would bring the sled and have Grandma pull her around in the sled around the outside. Ha ha, that happened for all of two seconds. The minute we got to the skating rink, out she came from the sled and right onto the rink boots and all and didn't look back. She had so much fun! She had no idea that she didn't have skates on her feet, she just ran around in circles saying "I skate! I skate!" We finally got a video of her saying it and I must say that it is really cute:-). She did start off with all of the proper winter clothes in order to keep her warm, but halfway through she pulled off her scarf, mittens, coat and had started on her hat and snowpants when we had to stop the removal of clothing! It was a lot of fun and afterwards we headed to Second Cup to get a cup of hot chocolate to warm us up. Very fun family night indeed! Now it is time for mommy's legs to get soar from all of the exercise she did tonight (yep I'm REALLY out of shape)!