When we got there it was brighter and warmer than we expected, so we got some outside playtime in before having pizzas for dinner. We played cornhole which Dom was just as good as me at. Not saying much for him, but he's 7... I'm 32. Haha! Gramma on the other hand was sinking the beanbags like nobody's business.
The whole visit was relaxing and filled with quality time for everyone. We brought Sherlock and they were watching Juniper too. I was a bit nervous about having 4 adults, 3 kids and 3 dogs there, but the dogs actually did really great. Dom especially LOVED Juniper. I may have to offer to watch her next time they go away. They were two peas in a pod.
We did crafts, we went to the park, we went in the hot tub, and played lots of games!
Discussing how to teach the in-laws beer pong
And succeeding!
So many easter art projects! Go Emilia!
Juniper was very much wishing she could join us in the hot tub.
Thought I snuck a cute pic of the kids before beditme. Zoom in on Dom's face haha!
On Saturday we got home in time for nap and I made buddha bowls for dinner and then we filmed something for a special project which will be posted below! Dave and I stayed up to watch the Australia F1 race! Not the most exciting race ever, but it was also not the most predictable race ever!
Something got Dave "All Shook Up"...
Had to get a picture of Verstappen at the bottom of the chart haha.
On Sunday we celebrated Phoebe's birthday! We went to her party at Williams Park in the morning. The kids picked out and wrapped her gifts, and made cards for her. It was chilly, but beautiful at the park! I am really appreciating this year how much easier it gets as the kids get older!
Wait. Eva let me do her hair for once!
I let the kids wrap the gifts and make cards themselves. They were extra proud to give them to Phoebe.
Of course the kids always find it hard to go to someone else's party and watch them open gifts. During Eva's nap, Dom & Emilia set up a game of "Pass the Parcel" for us all to play. They each wrapped something from the house in 7 layers of paper and we played two rounds. Emilia won one, and Eva won one. They spent so long setting up the game haha. It was awesome.
Monday there was an early Canucks game. Dom insisted we all put our jerseys on and get a family photo. I will never pass up a chance for that! Camera timer for the win :)
Our fav.
They wanted a serious one too
Dave is in fact awake... We let Dom stay up for an extra period after bedtime and he wanted to hold hands with Dave <3
Tuesday Emilia had horseback riding again. Again, she got put on a new to her horse. He was even bigger than the one last week (Picasso). This was Ekko. Emilia was more nervous as Ekko is rather pushy and kept shoving me around (I think just trying to get attention and pets). While being nervous, she was also very brave and did the thing! She had a different instructor again and spoke up to advocate for herself when she found Ekko to be too bouncy for her. She ended up switching horses with another girl mid-class. The horse she got put on was one I never thought she'd ride. When she's in the stall she's always "choosing violence" as the staff say, and we've witnessed her nearly kick down her door. Apparently she's great to ride though... phew! I was so proud of Emilia for advocating for herself. And glad she got off Ekko, because the next girl that was on him also found him bouncy and JUST ABOUT fell off while trotting.
This is Trinkett, the second horse. A much better fit for Emilia size-wise.
Dom is obsessed with charts, stats, hockey, and all of these things put together. The other night at 915pm (... why so late!), he came downstairs and handed us this first paper followed by the second one.
Summer Break. 5 Weeks. Hockey! 30 Games. 32 Teams. 4 Teams do not get 2 games.
Then the schedule actually follows those rules. How did he do this? I don't know. Very impressive!
These caught me at Costco last Thursday. They're too cute and hopefully useful!
I also (FINALLY) bought Dave and myself rain jackets and rain pant sets that were on sale at Costco. Tested out my jacket that day and it was a success!
I gave everyone haircuts on Thursday too. I was planning on just doing the boys, but then Emilia really really wanted to go shorter. I cut it, and she asked if I'd be brave enough to take off another 2 inches. We did it and she LOVES it and looks so cute!
Friday was a really huge day for us. Gramma & Grandpa were out during the day. Grandpa and Dave cleaned out our garage big time. They rearranged some shelves, cleaned up a mouse nest, got rid of a bunch of stuff, and made it much more functional! While they did that, we made cookies and hung out upstairs in preparation for Oma's 80th birthday party in the afternoon/evening!
As mentioned above, we had Oma's 80th birthday party in the afternoon. It was hosted at my uncles house and was open to family and significant others. There were 59 people in that house haha! What a legacy she and Opa have created!
It's a tradition in the family to do skits, songs, poems, etc. for big celebrations. I think pretty much every family did something. We were considering performing a parody of some Elvis songs, but Mom & Dad went off to Maui for 10 days in the middle of March, so I wasn't sure it would come together. I had the idea to do a video instead. We put together a little (satirical) historical video of Oma's life, interviewing people throughout her life and hitting some key points. It definitely took some work, took a couple days of filming and quite a few editing hours, but it came together perfectly and was a huuuuge hit! It allowed us to be able to sit back and enjoy on the actual day instead of stressing about performing, it made it so everyone could follow along (subtitles), and people can rewatch it (which has already happened a lot apparently haha)!
Check out that crew!
Aunty Ashleigh playing a game with the littles which Myles proudly turned into a dancing show off game.
Dad also rewrote "That's All Right" by Elvis to be "Happy Birthday Mama (Oma)". We had the lyrics up and everyong sang along.
A little game of "You know you grew up with Oma if..."
An Elvis re-write performance by Carmen (sense a theme yet?). There was another group of sharing and another song as well, but I forgot to get a picture!
After the performances, a mini Black Russian was brought to everyone who wished to partake in the toast. Black Russian is widely known to be Oma's drink.
Never mind this Rose! It's time for a Black Russian toast! Haha
Cheers! Steph and I see each other like once a year, but it's always such a pleasure to catch up <3
After the first part of the evening with everyone, all the grandkids and great grandkids left while the older two generations had dinner together. Most people went home to put their kids to bed, etc. Jeff & Marta opened up their house to whichever grandkids wanted to come over to hang out and then go back for the post-dinner party. I was able to go which was fun! Dave and I found a last-second babysitter so he came back for the after-party too!
Marta made espresso shots :)
The king and queen of FOMO
All the younger cousins are old now (15+) and we got to hang out with them as teenagers/grown ups. Weird and awesome and hilarious and a nice reminder that I'm old now.
Gina is the other reason we all gathered this weekend! As you can see, she's expecting her first very soon! So we had Oma's party on Friday, and then the next day had a baby shower to celebrate her!
Karaoke at the after party
Oma closed out the evening singing Elvis' version of "How Great Thou Art". Beautiful. I hope (sense) that she felt very honoured that evening and I'm so grateful that everything came together and that JUST ABOUT everyone was able to make it to the party. It was definitely a party to remember!
I had a very (self-inflicted) slow start on Saturday morning. People hangover and also real hangover haha. We rallied though! That afternoon we were out to Gina's baby shower with most of the same crew from the night before! Many of them inflicted with the same slow start as me haha. Jeff & Marta offered their house for the party. They live in Opa and Oma's old house which made it extra cool having all that family together there.
We had Steph & Darin over to watch Hamilton after the shower. I was completely poopered and not up for hosting, but sitting down to hang out and watch Hamilton? Any time!!!
I went to bed Saturday night and found this on my pillow.
This is very out of character and very sweet of him :)
Hi, I'm Renee, and I don't know how to slow down. We definitely made the most out of the last weekend of Spring Break! On Sunday we were invited to Aldor Acres with Scott & Ash and Phoebe. We had so much fun cuddling the baby animals, getting peed on by baby bunnies, going on the hay ride, having treats, and visiting the petting zoo. I'm glad they invited us and had a coupon or we probably never would have gone. It was also a lot less busy than I was expecting. A nice treat!
These girls. Straight out of the vehicles are holding hands of course <3
Petting a fresh little baby chick
I mean check out these tiny bunnies!?!
Happy place! Even though there's pee on my sweater... haha
Can't miss the kittens!
These kids love cats so much. Lucky for Dave, there are people who come over who are allergic, or else we'd probably have one. Cats are not Dave's favorite haha.
Why is Dom looking like such a teenager?
There was an emu in the petting zoo. And EMU! Ostriches are one of my top 2 animals that freak me out. Octopuses are #1. Emus are close enough to ostriches to be up there, but I was brave. I petted it. I tried not to panic when it looked at me.
100% straight out of Jurassic Park
I learned something new this day. Apparently Emus do this and waddle around like this to be close to the ground for eating sometimes.
Oh Hi Shaun.
Attempted a family photo at the very end. Probably should have done that at the beginning haha!
We came home for nap and then promptly headed to Mom & Dad's for an Easter Egg Hunt and dinner with them. We hadn't actually hung out since they returned from Maui other than the big family events. I wasn't going to do an egg hunt this year, but last week Dom said, "I just can't wait for our easter egg hunt!" Guess that's happening! Haha. I kept it simple. Re-used eggs from last year, and put a sticker and a Mini Egg in each one. Mom bought some jelly beans and some easter crafts at the dollar store and bam. Special enough for them!
I didn't have baskets, so the kids decorated paper bags. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated! They didn't seem to notice the difference.
A special nostalgic treat for the kids! Growing up, Dad worked for Clearly Canadian so we would get this stuff for free and lived off it. Mom bought each of the kids a bottle to enjoy. They all downed them haha.
I happened to have a pack of fun straws in my bag "just in case". I don't know just in case what, but they came in handy!
Watching a dance video from Myles
Finally we made it to Easter Monday! No plans in the calendar other than a shoot for Dave. A day to relax, right?! WRONG!!
I woke up early to have a nice quiet morning by myself and as I sat drinking my coffee, I heard the most unsettling of noises. Scritching in the wall behind my head. Dave came down and heard it too. Boo... It seems that the nest they cleaned up in the garage didn't rid us of mice, it just relocated them into the walls!!
We had a sense, and checked the pantry, and sure enough there was mouse poop on the floor. NOOOO!!! And under the kitchen sink and a bit behind the fridge and stove. They'd been crumb hunting. There was no evidence of chewing anything anywhere which I'm grateful for. I'm also grateful that almost everything in our pantry is in plastic containers or cans, so we didn't have to throw out much.
It did mean we had to gut the pantry, bleach the whole kitchen, move the appliances, and displace and confuse our children on our one day off. It was a hairy start to the morning, but it did end up being incredibly productive. We have caught two mice now and are hoping that's it, but will obviously continue setting traps until we have them all, and have an exterminator in to help us seal any holes in the garage. Ugh.
Then at bedtime last night we of course have to deal with the feelings Emilia has about the fact that we had to kill a mouse. (I definitely have the feelings too, so we shared a tear and said some words for the mouse). Praying we don't find any more evidence of mice IN THE HOUSE!!!! Good golly. Gross.
We are not the only unit in the complex to be having mouse issues in the garage, but I wasn't expecting them in my kitchen :(. It certainly set me off on a cleaning spree though...
Our dog has no killer instinct... Maybe we do need a cat haha.
We planned to do dinner with Jesse and Kirstin which I was looking forward to. Alas, Eva woke up from her nap with a fever so we stayed inside while everyone else ate outside. Not exactly what I had in mind, and not looking forward to whatever this is spreading through the house. Overnight her fever was at 103, but I gave her some meds and so far today she doesn't have any symptoms. We'll see what happens! Maybe she's just burnt out haha... Can't say I blame her!
This cupboard above the fridge was a complete hazard in the house. I just threw everything up there and it would fall out every time I opened the cupboard. Finally while everyone else ate dinner outside, I grabbed some bins and reorganized it. Phew!!! We have our outdoor eating supplies basket, trays, party supplies, and then a bucket of random margarita glasses, etc.
That Spring Break felt long. A good kind of long. It made me feel excited for the summer. The kids are just getting to an easier age, they can play outside, they're more independent, we can go out and do more things with less worry, we can play games, etc. etc. While it was super fun and busy and great to have all that family time, I am ready for the start of routine again! We have Eva and Emilia's birthdays coming up in the next month and a bit too!
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