I went to Gymnastics Day Camp on my PD Day and I finally got my house for my American Girls!

He said

What a week we had! While the first part of the week was focused around the Watch at work, the latter definitely was all about music and family which are some of our favourite things around the TeeterPod.

Tuesday I was off work and among other things we had scheduled the second appointment for Emelia with our family doctor to work away at removing the two plantar warts that Emelia has on both of her feet. Our doctor figures they are from either the gym or the pool at the Y (or both) since they are viral infections—usually from places of high public use. Emelia has decided that she is not a fan of the treatment which is essentially freezing the wart with liquid nitrogen which leaves her with a ‘burny feeling she doesn’t like’. We’re hoping in the by her next appointment in two weeks that we’re all done and they’re all cleared up.

Thursday, Danielle and I had a much-needed Mummy & Daddy night out to see Great Lake Swimmers – one of our favourite bands – play at The Aeolian Hall. The trouble was, a couple nights in advance Emelia decided that Mummy & Daddy nights were the “worst invention ever“. After a lot of preemptive conversations in advance and right up to the moment we were leaving the house, we finally had Emelia begrudgingly alright with Poppa watching her and us leaving the house. And thank god she did, because was it ever just the night that we needed! Great Lake Swimmers are a band that both Danielle and I simply adore, and The Aeolian Hall is where one of our favourite albums of theirs (Ongiara) was recorded at. Seeing them there was like reliving that album in the magic that made their sound possible. We had a great night and were able to get Danielle a little more recharged after having a difficult week with both a nagging cold she has been battling as well as challenging times with some of the daycare kids who are feeling the effects of having been penned inside for too many winter months. The music and the night out were just what the doctor ordered.

Friday was a close shift at work for me which allowed me to play my last week of Friday morning hockey before our summer break as well as being able to take the morning at a bit of a lazy pace. With that shift out of the way, that brought me to a rare Saturday and Sunday off work which left two very important things open for me.  Number one… for the first time in three years I was actually off for Record Store Day since joining Apple so that was very exciting. And, Number two… I was off  work on Sunday to celebrate Poppa’s 75th Birthday. And above all, as always I was off on a weekend with my two partners in crime in Danielle and Emelia.

Saturday we got up when we wanted and proceeded – like usual – to get ready for the day at leisurely pace. Once everyone was up, we were all caffeinated and loaded up with breakfast, it was time to head out to our two favourite, local and independent record stores: Grooves and Speed City Records. Between the two locations I spent way more than I should, but got everything I was looking for. Emelia of course was feeling a little punchy after I got started into record shopping, but I ended up being pretty efficient and we got on to the other things we had planned for the day.

The next trip was out to the city dump to take the eight or so bags of yard waste filled with mulch from the side yard as we look to make the transition back to a grassed side yard for the kids. And the second trip after that was out to visit Wolfie at her winter hibernating location to get some things we needed to ready the Pilot to pick her up and bring her to our driveway for her summer storage, ready for the camping season. It was great to see her and it helped us feel like camping season was a lot closer than we had been feeling.

The rest of Saturday was really devoted to bringing home Emelia’s beloved American Girls doll house, but I will let Danielle tell that exciting and full of cuss words adventure.

Today was all about celebrating Poppa’s seventy-fifth birthday. Well, the first part of the day was really about groceries and the usually running around, but, after that was completed it was over to our gracious hosts my brother Matthew and his finance Shawn to celebrate with family for Dad’s birthday. Unfortunately my brother David ran into some serious car trouble and their family wasn’t able to make it down, but the rest of the London Teeters were there as well as the entire contingent of my Dad’s sisters who made it down from Wallaceburg to celebrate with us. There was a feast-and-a-half for us all to take in and there was a lot of laughter and smiles to go around. It was a really great time and I was happiest that Dad got to spend this time with all those closest to him, which I am sure made the day even more special for him.

We got home entirely too late with Emelia entirely over tired and over stimulated, but here we are wrapping up the weekend and looking back at a really great week that had a lot of the things we love most in it. Which is pretty much the story I always want to tell here.

Off to soak of the final, few minutes.

She said

The week was for the most part uneventful, the weather had finally warmed so I was able to get the kids out a lot and let them burn off the winter cabin fever. Now they did give me a run for my money a few of the days but the warm weather made it bearable.

We had an amazing night out Thursday night as John mentioned which was perfectly timed as it was a particularly challenging day with the daycare kids. The night out was glorious, seeing Great Lakes Swimmers is always an amazing show and as always they put on an incredible show. Thankfully by the time we left for the evening Emelia had calmed from her protest that we were not to go out without her. She had a great visit with Poppa and John and I had a great night out.

Before we knew it the weekend was here. And all the plans for the weekend were all laid out. Some went well and smoothly and some well not so much.

Saturday morning I got a bit of a sleep in, once up we had breakfast and decided that if John wanted some good selection for records for record store day we would need to get our butts in gear. John was in heaven, Emelia was slightly less than thrilled. Within a few minutes I was getting the kid line of ‘I’m bored’. After hearing it for what felt like 100x I let John be in his happy place and took Emelia over to the library to look around and grab myself a second coffee. She and I played some games and looked at books. A little while later John joined us and we were heading home.

The second leg of our trip was packing up all the yard waste I had collected out of the side and front yard to drop off at the yard collection at the city dump. All was planned out, we would grab something from the trailer, make the drop at the dump and then go to the landscaping suppliers and get the sod and materials needed to get our sod laid in the side yard. Well, best laid plans, who knew that the sod is not being delivered to any of the companies until this week making the sod not available until NEXT weekend. So we have a yard all ready, top soil ready and no sod. Now to keep the kids off the muddy yard for a week until hopefully we are ready to lay everything next weekend. Not ideal but hopefully next weekend we will be back in business.
But the good news, for Emelia at least, was that while we were about to leave the gardening centre we got a text from the woman who was making the doll house we had ordered for Emelia. Late last year I had found a Facebook group of people who make custom work, local crafters. Through this group we found the woman who made our curtains, but also through this group I found a woman who does a lot of custom kids toys and especially doll furniture. Though conversations I asked if she could make a doll house for Emelia’s American Girls. After a bit of back and forth on design set by Emelia’s wish list we had a design and a very reasonable price consider the materials and time it would take to make this house.

After waiting weeks for it to be built we had the call. Beyond excited Emelia came with us to pick up the house. Well we realized very quickly that the house was never going to fit in the truck with Emelia in the vehicle. A quick call to grandma and we had Emelia over at her place to pick up the house and then bring it home. We returned and realized very quickly that this massive house was not even going to fit into the back of our Pilot. What to do? Trying to find anyone we knew who had a pick-up truck failed and we had to go rent a pick up to bring it home.

We finally got the house home, first thing house is made from wood, it is 4 feet wide and over 6 feet tall and has hard wood floors. Needless to say it weights a TON! John and I finally got it up on the porch and got it in the house and that is as far as we could get it. The house was FAR too big to go up the stairs. No matter what we tried it was NOT going up those stairs.

I had gotten a text from the woman who made the house asking how we made out getting it home and that is when I said it’s so big it won’t go up the stairs. She VERY sweetly offered to come over with her husband and help us figure this mess out. The first attempt was to take off the third floor of the house to take it up in two parts. Nope that still didn’t work. The tight turn at our bottom steps made it impossible to get it up the turn. So we literally had to take the entire house apart and take it up in parts and reassemble the house in her room. Bless Toni and Dan for being soooooo patient and loving and helping us get it back together in one piece.

So needless to say there was a fair bit of swearing in the adults heads but in the end Emelia is in love. She has already put what furniture she has in the house.

Today was more about the doll house. She played in her room with her doll house to give her parents some extra sleep in time. Once we all were up and fed we planned out our day. Emelia and I planned out what she saw as the important task of the morning which was getting the paint to paint the rooms in her new house. With her dolls assistance (don’t ask) we all planned out the colours for the rooms. After getting groceries we made our way to Home Depot to get the paint for each room. Her dolls (Saige and Ivy) came with us to make the final choices and in the end she made some perfect choices.

By the time we got home and settled we only had a short time to get some paint on the walls of the house. So we managed to get two of the rooms done and Emelia is so happy. We will get the other rooms painted this week and then she and I can have some crafting time over the next few weeks and get the rest of the house put together. She has some saving to do with her allowance to finish the rest of the furniture she needs for the living room so it will take time before everything is complete. It has been fun doing all this with her. But I can say, she had better be into American Girl for a LONG time after this house was bought.

Once we got the paint cleaned off ourselves we made our way to Matthew and Shawn to celebrate Doug’s 75th birthday. The whole party was amazing. Lots of laughs, lots of time with family and far too much yummy food. We just love spending time with family realizing that each time we get together it is a gift, life is short and you should always spend it with the people you love. Love each other unconditionally and cherish each laugh and celebration. I am so grateful to be part of such an amazing and supportive family and so love that our daughter is part of this experience too.

On that note it is another long week ahead and it far past my bedtime. So goodnight!