I love Harry Potter! I was invited to 2 birthday parties this weekend! And I went to Toronto to see Jill Barber! 

He said

What a week! It started out with the planning to get down to Toronto on Thursday with Emelia and I to see our friend Jill Barber play a very special show with her brother Matthew at the CBC headquarters in the same wonderful Studio 211 that Danielle and I had the fortune of seeing Kathleen Edwards showcase her new (at the time) album Voyageur.  Jill & Matthew were doing the same with their new, joint project called The Family Album a mix of cover and original songs performed together paying homage to their shared sibling musical vernacular.

Once I was able to get my Thursday shift swapped around to give me the day off, all was set in place for the special night. It was definitely unfortunate that Danielle couldn’t navigate a way to make the day happen for her too, but we were just happy that we had the opportunity for Emelia to be able to sneak down to Toronto and The Ceeb to see this special night of music with a couple of musicians that have left a deep impression in our family.

The trip down started with its problems—we left perfectly on time at 3:00pm as planned and I got as far as Dorchester before I realized I managed to leave the house without my wallet! The trip back to the house took an hour out of our time and immediately impacted our ability to have a Daddy & Daughter dinner somewhere near the CBC before the show. Thankfully though, very quick planning and packing from Danielle and we had a meal in a lunch bag for Emelia to eat on the way down. And despite our hour later leave than I wanted, we made it to the CBC in perfect time for the show to get our tickets – with Emelia’s tummy full of supper that was eaten on the way.

The show itself was magical! There was so much I loved about the night. Most of it was directly related to my hope that this night would be a memory long engrained in structure of who Emelia grows up to be. But, also a lot of this evening was steeped in locking down this memory of springing her from school early, having her up late on a school night, and showing her – yet again – how important music is in our lives. I know that for as long as I am able to remember things, this night will be one of those moments I hold dearly with me.

The rest of the week was hard to top that, but we did arrive at Saturday both with me having the day off and Emelia with having her gymnastics and the birthday of her twin BFF’s: Anna & Grace. Saturday was perfectly loaded with enough activities for Emelia, and ended with us all going out for dinner at Toboggan Brewing Co. with the gift certificates one of Danielle’s daycare families lovingly gifted us at Christmas. The birthday party which included laser tag and an arcade was a huge hit for Emelia. And, the dinner and beer (for me) out was a hit for Danielle and I. It was the perfect way to punctuate a rather fantastic Saturday for us all!

Today I was back at work which made for a short end to our weekend. But the silver lining in that brief end to the weekend was that there is a lot of planning that is getting a lot closer for us. Number one we’ve started really finalizing the camping plans this summer for Wolfie! And then, number two is today marks officially 2 months until we fly down to Florida in prep for the Disney cruise! Add in that this week’s weather forecast includes double-digit temperatures and there is so much to be excited about! And so fitting that thread through this weekend was music!

She said

This week had a few focuses, much of it was on Emelia and her busy social calendar but it was also focused on working on the details and bookings for our trips.

As John had mentioned the big event for Emelia and John this week was a much anticipated trip to Toronto. Emelia has been a huge Jill Barber fan since she was a toddler and any chance she can she wants to see Jill perform. It pained me that I was not able to go but with the upcoming trip I have limited time off away from the daycare. I would have loved to be there but it was just possible as it would have meant the daycare being closed 2 hours early for the day. But what this did allow was for Emelia and John to have a very special night just the two of them. With John’s wonky work schedule it means that Emelia and I get lots of one on one time together but not as much for Emelia and John. This was a special night for the two of them.

The other big focus for me this week is that I was still trying to finalize our flights home after the cruise. We have had our flights down booked for quite a while using our air miles but we still needed our flight home. I had been checking the flight prices almost daily and they were fluctuating vastly. I had been told about 6-8 weeks out from your flight is the best time to book but as we were approaching the two month mark the flights were going up and up in price and I was really worried that they would be out of our reach. I had been looking at many options including at one time staying down an additional night to get a more affordable flight home.

On Friday I did another check of the flights that we had been hoping to book and there we were a massive seat sale on the flight home, it was cheaper by almost ½ the price I had been seeing all along. I grabbed them and with that we had our flights were $700 return for all three tickets. We couldn’t even drive down for that price! And if that wasn’t enough savings I was checking other options for our trip (airport trnsportation) and found a better price on the hotel we are staying at the night before our cruise, another $50 savings! With the cost of the trip any savings is a welcome find.

With the cruise travel mostly in place we are in a great place. We just need to look into extras we want to book on the trip and book a car rental through our air miles to get us around from the airport to the hotel and after the cruise from the ship back to the airport.

We are in great shape and it is becoming more and more real each day.

Before we knew it the weekend was here and we shifted focus 100% to birthday celebrations. It seems that the first week in March is a very popular time for little girls to be born in Emelia’s grade. In her grade there are 5 girls birthdays all within 3 days of each other. What this means that this weekend is always a busy one. Her first party was the birthday celebration of her best friends Anna and Grace. They were having their birthday at the Palasad doing laser tag. Emelia had an absolute blast and is already asking when we can go back as a family to do laser tag together. Today we shifted to her friend Aeon, they had a birthday celebration at the little girls house with many of the friends that were at the party the day before and from all accounts the kids had a great time. She had a weekend full of play with her friends and it was her idea of perfection.

Once she was done at the birthday party she and I changed gears and went out again to try and get a bit of clothes for the upcoming spring and summer season. With the trip coming up on us I need to start organizing and assuring she has enough clothes for the trip. She and I went to Talize this afternoon and as luck would have it there was a big sale on all the kids clothes – everything was 50% off. We have always had great luck there getting her clothes and today was no different. We managed to get 3 pair of denim shorts, one pair of denim capris and 7 tops for $20! She loves them and I love that we haven’t broken the bank to get her the clothes she needs. Win/win!

The next thing on my agenda is finalizing our camping sites for our August week, we are shifting our weeks off this year to have us start the week off at Wolfe Island as to avoid the nightmare of booking camping around the holiday weekend. To secure our week in August I need to get up tomorrow morning and book our sites. I have to sit down with John tonight and look at what is available for the Sunday we arrive and decide what sites are out top choice. Once we have that decided I will get up a bit earlier tomorrow morning to make sure I am logged in and have our site booked as soon as I can. It is insanity to me that this is such a process while there is snow on the ground but the popular campgrounds are booked this far out. We are really hoping to get back to Bon Echo this year and we will know tomorrow morning if we are able to secure a site.

That was basically the week that was, it was busy as always but I felt like we got a ton done this week…. we are just 2 months away from the trip and still Emelia has no idea. I am on pins and needles thinking of her reaction when we finally tell her. I just cannot wait!