We went to Clovermead yesterday with Reece & Presley (and Mommy & Norma too). I had so much fun.

He said

With a shortened week and having Sunday and Monday off this week, the whole routine was hard to follow along with. I think it was Friday (my other day off this week) before I was actually certain what day it was. And even then I wasn’t too sure. The only thing I was certain of was that with my recent weekend days off over the last few, I had finally arrived at the weekend I worked all through. I managed to have a couple of busy but equally good days at work and here we are at the other side of the weekend.

Tuesday while we all were busy with our day-to-days the most encouraging message came through from our sister-in-law Linda. She was due for her fourth round of chemo and during the treatment had found out from the wonderful people treating her that a CT scan showed the treatment was working – that there were no new tumours and the Dr was very happy with the results. It was absolutely great news for Linda, David & family and we were all delighted with the encouraging news. It was easily the highlight of our week, after having such a great time together celebrating Thanksgiving.

This week I was finally able to get the iPhone 7 Plus I have been trying to for weeks. We finally had stock of the 128gb Black model I was looking for and I was able to get one reserved like everyone else had ahead of me. After a disappointing experience with Rogers trying to do the upgrade through them, I decided to give Telus a try after having half of our family switch over to them in the last couple of years, and then hearing such great things about their customer support. The contract process was super easy as I was able to do the whole upgrade on my lunch break on Thursday. And I already have had all sorts of proactive customer support from them after I got the contract set up and the phone line ported over. I am really delighted with the iPhone and am so excited we got it all done in time that I would have the amazing dual cameras for Emelia’s cross country finals this week.

The way that my schedule fell this week it afforded me the ability to be home in the evenings with Danielle & Emelia which was a welcome change. Tuesday night I was able to go with Danielle to get the groceries at Costco done and then to go pick up Emelia and the twins from their evening activities at the school. On Tuesday’s, Emelia has volleyball and then art class – both from Spectrum put on at lucky for us, at her school. And typically Danielle will use the time while she’s there to get some of the groceries done. Typically my work schedule doesn’t always let me help out with that, but this week I could and it was great to be able to help out.

Friday, I did need to sneak into work in order to get a couple lingering things squared away and after that was done, it was a day off with Danielle which included being able to go with Danielle and all the daycare kids to pickup Emelia from school—another thing I don’t always get to help out with and it was great. We had a nice family dinner together and then able to all go off together to get Emelia to her gymnastics. It was another night where I was less aware of the fact that I work in retail hours as I able to get in plenty of family time like this. Danielle & I even got the second half of the grocery run done while Emelia honed her gymnastic skills.

The weekend, aside from being able to see Emelia have her swim class at the Y, was all about work. I closed the store Saturday night and followed that with a shift today. While this week was a little bit of blur that flew by, I am also delighted with all the time I got this week with my two girls too. Tuesday this week we have Emelia’s Cross Country Finals which I am both excited for and nervous about. The good news is Danielle has adjusted her daycare week so that she is able to go with me to be able to cheer Emelia on with me and Poppa. And then this upcoming weekend, we have Danielle’s birthday and our trip back to Toronto to Massey Hall to see Hayden’s Dream Serenade which will feature one of her all-time favourite musicians Dan Mangan along with a litany of other musicians we love — most notably Hayden!

So as far as weeks go, this one was pretty great. And the next one looks pretty great too.

She said

As it seems with most weeks lately this week went by in a flash. The daycare is settling in again to a regular routine settling in some new little ones. A little boy who is three and a little girl who is two. Both are very sweet little ones and have blended in so well. The week was filled with lots of fun activities, crafts, playgroups, nature walks and lots of fun.

There are lots of positives and some negatives of having daycare as a profession. The biggest positive for me is the amount of time this lets me have with Emelia and how many things I am able to be part of. With John’s work schedule this career gives us the necessary flexibility we need to assure that our lives run as smoothly as they can being parents of a very active child and a house full of toddlers each day.

This week for Emelia was all about prepping for her upcoming cross-country race. She had lots of practices this week including one at a local park so they could practice running up and down hills. I cannot say how happy I am that she has taken so well to sports and loves trying everything. She told me this week although she is so excited for her upcoming race she is sad that cross country season is almost over. I told her that this doesn’t need to end our running together and she loved that idea of us still running. I love that she loves to be so active.

As the week went along I had to shift to making weekend plans as John had to work all weekend. Well while we were at Emelia’s swim class Saturday morning I got a very welcomed text from Norma (one of my long term clients and friend) wanting to know if we wanted to join her and the kids at Clovermead Adventure Farm for the afternoon. The weather was amazing and it was a quick yes. We got home had lunch and then packed our bag to head over to Norma and Tom’s place to pick up the kids and Norma. Clovermead is an amazing family owned bee farm outside the city near Alymer. It is a massive adventure farm for kids and parents alike. This weekend was their annual pumpkin festival and they had an entire day of activities planned for everyone.

The kids ran from activity to activity from feeding animals, zip-lines, bouncy pillows, mazes, tractor rides, climbing structures, go-carts, and so much more it really kept the kids busy and super happy all day. Norma and I had a chance to really catch up which is a rare thing these days since our days are rushed and involve quick pick up and drop offs of Presley in our busy lives. The kids just had so much fun, Presley (who turns 3 in a week) did everything she could to keep up with Reece (7) and Emelia. By the time we left they were closing up the place and we packed the kids up and headed back to London. Presley crashed hard in the car and the two older ones watched a movie. Emelia and I got home and she helped me make a homemade soup and settled in for the night.

Today we had another full day. After I woke after a bit of a sleep in Emelia and I got ready to head over to Fanshawe Conservation Area with her friend Hayden to walk through the race path for next weeks final race. The girls happily ran through a couple times and later in the morning we met with Anna and Grace and the girls did the race path again. The rainy weather started to come in so we packed up and headed home to go on with the rest of our day. With nothing really planned Emelia and I came up with the idea of going to try and find some more decorations to decorate for Halloween. We went to the big halloween store in town then to the dollar store and Walmart. We came home with a few more decorations and she and I started working on transforming outside for halloween. We still have to find some more things to finish decorating but she’s happy with what we have done so far.

As I write this we are just about to tuck Emelia in for the night so I am going to give her her good-night kiss and veg out with John for the night.