She got her ears pierced

Gerben and I firmly believe in waiting until our girls can decide for themselves before having their ears pierced. On November 13th, we finally gave in and took Emma to get her's pierced. She had been asking on and off for a few months prior to that and has been drooling over all the earrings at Claire's when she goes in their. I knew she wanted them done but I also knew that she is a bit of a chicken and was quite nervous about it hurting a lot. Who can blame her? It does hurt and we told her that.

How did I know she was completely serious about getting them done? Well, she did her research, as well as any six year old can. November 13th was a Friday and she came home from school with determination in her eyes. She had been talking to her friends at school and they were telling her all about what it was like. Emma's friend Hayley had only had hers done a few months before so she remembered it clearly. Her parents had bought some cream for her ears to numb them and so she didn't feel it at all. Emma immediately asked me to call Hayley's mom to find out what the cream was. If we could find that cream than she was ready to get this done. She practically stood beside me begging to call Hayley's mom. I did call her, but she wasn't home. I still managed to find out that this stuff is call Emla cream. I knew of the cream from my nursing days but at the time it was only prescription. Now you just have to ask at the pharmacy. It's behind the counter but they have it. So, I got it. I coated her ears in it and we heading to Cambridge. Amy recommended getting it done at Peoples Jewellers. So that is where we went. There was a ton of nervousness but in the end she was a trooper and she did it! No crying because she never felt it. She chose a beautiful pair of earrings that are pink flowers and she is now counting down the days until she can put new pretty earrings in her ears.

It was so cute, because as we were heading out of the mall and on to Amy's house for a visit I handed the phone to Emma so she could call Gramma and tell her all about them. Unfortunetly, Gramma wasn't home but she did get to speak to Grampa. I think he teased her about them more than anything but she was so proud to tell him all about them. I remember when I got mine done he kept telling me I would only come home with one ear pierced. I think he was carrying on the same joke with her.

Of course, my favourite part of the entire event was getting a chance to get some photos of the girls because Emma wanted to show off her earrings to Oma and Opa and Gramma and Grampa.
And these days, whatever Emma does, Natalia wants to do. So who knows, it may not be long before Natalia get's hers done as well but so far she only asks on rare occasions so until it becomes an obsession we will wait.

So what else have we been up to lately?

Seeing as it's been such a very, very long time since I've posted on here I decided to have a look back and see what else we have been up to lately.

In September, Gerben had a show to attend in Vancouver for work. When the time came we all made to trip with him and we jam packed a million activities into the week long trip. The first 5 days or so were dedicated to the show and so the girls and I got to do lots of lounging around the pool and touring the cool downtown area of Vancouver.

Part of the sight-seeing adventure in Vancounver included going to the Vancouver aquarium. In all honesty, it was much smaller than I expected but there was still lots and lots of cool things to see.




After the show was over, it was time to hit the road for a weekend of family time. The first item on the agenda was a tour of the Boeing Factory near Seattle. Emma and Gerben were taking the tour while Natalia and I stayed behind in the Museum part. Natalia wasn't big enough to take the tour. I know that Emma and Gerben really enjoyed the tour and we got several goodies to take home with us at the boeing store.

The next part of our weekend involved driving farther into Washington to take Emma to see Mount St. Helens. Anyone who know's Emma, know's she has a passion for volcano's and has for years. This was our opportunity to take her to see the destruction of one first hand. It was incredible. I couldn't believe how much damage you could still see. It was a powerful site. Definetly worth the drive down to see it.






The last leg of our trip took us back through Seattle while heading towards Vancouver for our flight home. We had some extra time so we made an extra stop at the Seattle Space Needle. It was ok. Way smaller than the CN tower but basically the same idea. I think the kids preferred the small amusement park below it more that the Space Needle itself. But I can't say I expected it to be any different.




So keep checking back here and maybe I will add a few more updates. I'm going to try.

Christmas is coming

Ok, so seeing as Christmas is fast approaching I thought it was high time I update this silly blog. I just wanted to share a few photos from my recent shoot with the girls. I got some new black seamless paper and the girls were more than willing to be my models. I love it when they are so agreeable.

Emma is growing up so fast. It blows me away. She just got her first report card for grade 2 and she made the Honour Roll. She is loving her teacher and her class this year. She is keeping a very busy lifestyle with dance, swimming and piano. Next up on the agenda is to get this girl skating. But first I need to get her new skates.






Natalia is the same old spirited little critter that she has always been. She is full of crazy stories to tell us. Today she told Gerben and I that a monster must have crept into her room while she was out and opened a box in her room. It was all we could do to not laugh at her. She is going to preschool 2 days a week and absolutely loving it! It is the highlight in her week. She is going to be so sad at the end of the week because she has a 3 week wait before it starts up again. Then to add insult to injury, swimming lessons is also finished this week. What in the world is she going to do with no swimming or preschool?





So all in all we are doing well. I have been working a part-time job lately. That's been lots of fun getting out of the house and doing something different. It's only seasonal with the chance of more but we will see how it goes. I know that if it doesn't go longer I am going to look for more work. I'm really liking the escape.

How cool are these?

Just having a little photoshop fun tonight. I learned a new trick and I love the results.

I just might print and frame these a cool abstract shots.

Long Point Beach

Seeing as we finally had a beautiful day this summer and the girls have been begging to go to the beach we decided to do that on Saturday. The weather was fantastic. Not too hot and not too cold. The girls had a blast playing in the waves. The water was fairly warm and the sand was perfect to play in. What more could you ask for at the beach?

The girls started by testing the water. Natalia needed a little help from Daddy because this was her first trip to a beach to swim. We saw the beach in Holland but never swam in it.

Of course we bought the girls some sand toys and we all took turns working on some sand creations. I thought Gerben's castle turned out pretty good.

This is what I like to do, sit at the edge and let the waves come over my legs. I must say that the waves were pretty high and the undertow was fairly strong. We insisted that the girls keep their lifejackets on.

The beautiful sky at the end of a fabulous day!

Coupon Crazy!!

Ok, so after I had my kids I was a bit of a coupon crazy mom. I refused to pay full price on things like diapers or wipes because you can ALWAYS find coupons. Well I had kind of fallen out of that scheme until I saw a website on the news. It's called Smart Canucks. It's AMAZING!! I can't believe how much of an idiot I have been. I didn't realize just how much money I could save doing this. I have saved a ton this week alone thanks to smart canucks pointing me in the direction of great coupons and great sales any ways to combine them.

For example, this week I saved 59.18 just for using coupons. I had a 25% off my entire purchase at Old Navy including sale items. That saved me $32.38 on Emma's back to school clothes. Plus another $6.00 off $26.00 at Zellers. This could get very addicting very quickly.

The funniest part was seeing my excitement when the smart source coupon clipper showed up in the mail today. Now I am off to figure out the best way to organize all my coupons and what to do with the saved money.

Thump, Thump, THUMP!

Do you hear that sound? "Thump, thump, THUMP!" That is me. Banging my head against a wall. OMG, Natalia is driving me CRAZY! She is such a pest right now. All she does is bug Emma. I swear she knows every button to push to get a reaction out of her and she uses them over and over again all day. She will sprint into Emma's room, grab the nearest item and run, while Emma just stands there and screams. OMG, I am so tired of it. You have no idea. If Natalia knows Emma is about to sit somewhere or do something she takes off running like a bat out of hell and makes sure she gets there first. Of course this leads to more screaming and crying from Emma. If Emma finally stands up to Natalia or we catch her in the act and give her shit Natalia will throw herself of the nearest piece of furniture and scream and cry into it. Is there a crime against having your child's voice box removed? Because right now I would happily sign her up for that. Or better yet, some sort of sound barrier between me and the kids. One that I could turn on and off as needed. Something like the Muffliato spell in Harry Potter. Oh how I wish I had something like that.

Tonight was one of those classic bratty little sister moments. Emma was sitting on the floor listening to her mp3 player and not bothering anyone. Natalia leaned over and yank the headphone out of Emma's ear. Just to be a brat. No other reason. URG!! Luckily Daddy caught her and she got in trouble.

In Natalia's defence, it's got to be tough when you receive mixed messages like this from your big sister.



It's not much of a "Happy Party" when you are constantly being told to "Stay Out" of the venue, aka Emma's Room.

To add to the frustrations around this house is this awful summer weather. It's so wet,yucky,cold and very unpredictable that it's tough to do anything with the kids. They are bored of being stuck in the house. They want to get out and do stuff but it always seems to be storming. This was the weather around here the other day.



Hail stones, the size of cherry pits, pelting our house. Not to mention the crazy thunderstorms. Just this morning we had one that took out the sensor in one of Gerben's coolers at work.

At least on Monday we did get out of the house for a bit. I took both the kids to Burford to meet up with some friends at the local splash pad and playground. It's awesome and the kids had a blast. Seeing this new splash pad and playground does make me miss a little bit of Burford. It would be fabulous to have this close to home but them again, it makes a great day trip.







Today, Emma had a classmate over to play. It was nice because adding one extra kid to the house cuts down on the fighting significantly plus gives the girls something different to do. They spent some time in the pool but the majority of the day was spent crafting. We did tons and tons of shrinky dinks and of course make beaded necklaces to hang them home.

Tomorrow, Emma has 2 more classmates coming for a visit. I am hoping that goes as smoothly as today does. Then on Monday, she starts 2 weeks of summer camp. It is going to be so good for her to get out of the house but I will need to find things for Natalia to do as well.

On a final note, I just have to share these pics with you. They are of a very cool leaf that was on my patio step this morning. It had really weird furry water drops on it. I strongly recommend clicking on the image for a larger view. It's cool.