We're back

Hello everyone, I have been a very boring blogger once again but life has been good. We took off to Florida with the munchkins for about 10 days and had a really good time. The weather was gorgeous the whole time. I love road trips and hope the kids will cherish these times we spend together. Bartley always makes a new road trip CD usually with hits from the 80 the kids think it's soooooo cool. We sing a lot and they watch movies on his laptop, eat lots of junk, play road trip bingo to make the 24 hours or so go by faster. Small price to pay for the difference in price with flying. We went to the beach everyday, and brought enough shells back to start our own little store. We got to go pick oranges which for me was one of my highlights and drink the . We also rented a boat for the better part of a day to go see or more "find" the manatees. We were out on the boat for hours and finally on our way back got to see probably 6 or so of them. I can't believe how fast March is going by. Our Ladies Retreat at church is this week-end so I'm taking off in a couple of hours and will be getting back tomorrow night. And early Tuesday morning Bartley and I take off for San Diego for 8 days for his board meetings+ couple days of fun. Actually ALL fun for me :) I feel very blessed to have my wonderful sister who is willing to come here and keep my 4+ hers to allow her big sister to soak in the sun xox Pay back will come :) So in a couple of weeks I will hopefully be more interesting on my posts but for now I'm just kind of enjoying March and spring to the max and all the blessings.

Take the time...

3 girls

We had a good week-end. Got to spend some time with my brother and mimi on Friday night just hanging out, we bought some really nice sushi, and I was brave enough to try everything, raw fish and fish eggs. I have to say it was yummy, rather surprising but it's so much fun to challenge your taste buds. Since living in Ontario and being surrounded with so many different cultures I've eaten so many different things and it's wonderful to keep trying. We had a Saturday morning of chores and in the afternoon we split, daddy with the boys at hockey and me with the girls doing odds and ends for our trip. We had a lot of fun, stopping in to Terra Greenhouse to check out All the orchids they had. Have I ever said how I love that place :)
So much fun on a cold day to walk in that warm greenhouse and see geranium starting and tons of flowers. I've would love to buy an orchid but they are so expensive and I really don't know how to take care of them so it would be a personal challenge, but a fun one. We also did a lot of other stops and I listen to my girls and see how different we are in many small ways especially Maggy and I. She loves to dress in bright colors and would be flashy if she could :) I have to push myself to wear something else then black. She loves loud music, I love mellow. She hates talking on the phone, well ... She hates cheese, I couldn't live without out. So many more little detailed stuff but when it comes down to important things I love to hear her talk about what she values and to see that what we have been teaching her is becoming a heart thing, even with all of the pressures from kids her ages she is such a good girl and I'm so pround of her. On our stop we went to shop for shoes and I thought o.k girls lets go in and out and see if we can find anything WELL think again. Maggy had her pants rolled up and wearing bright red leather patten heels she comes walking down the isle saying " Mommy these are the shoes of my dreams" "I just love these shoes she kept saying" I just smiled and said they won't be great for the beach :) and Emma also found her dream PINK shoes but those were age appropriate. We probably spent 50 minutes as the girls just tried shoes after shoes, I thought next time I better be ready for this. They are growing to be there own little ladies It was fun to see that they knew exactly what they liked, and when it's just a matter of my taste over theirs well I can't force then to only wear earth tones because I love it :) but Maggy will have to keep dreaming about those red shoes. We are going on a girls night out tonight trying to find her "other" dream shoes.

The view from my front door...

Happy 1st of March what a change from yesterday, snow, rain, wind kind of crazy weather. I'm going to bed feeling so warm from sitting by the fire place for 2 hours I was reading a great book but at the same time trying to stay awake to make it to the next chapter and then to the next, drinking hot tea and listening to the wind rattling all the windows ( and we have big windows) and the rain making so much commotion outside. We were going to have my brother and beautiful sister in law over, but decided to take it easy and it was wonderful. Sometimes it's good to get a little bored and slow down. I love the wind, and the rain and if I could I would go sit on the porch with a big blanket and indulge myself like on a summer night. But it's only March and it will still be a while before I can do that. It still sounds amazing from inside my warm house. Good night :)