I am so happy for Easter I got lots of chocolate and everything mermaid!
He said
The central focus around this house (mostly thanks to me) was hockey playoffs. And whaddya know… it still is this week! Last week we got to see the Knights dispatch Windsor in a Game 7 thriller. This week we saw the Knights in tough up against their second round opponent Erie Otters in game 3 tied at 1 game a piece. They lost that game and the next one to put them in a must win situation tonight to force yet, another game 7. We were invited over to our friends (one of the daycare families we’ve become close with) and Danielle’s response to Norma was, “John says we will come if we can have the Knights game on“. As a Knights fan with a son Reece who feels the same it was a no brainer.
We had a super fun time, Norma even had a Easter Egg hunt for the kids and a grownup Easter Egg hunt that had beer and ciders to be found for us. Emelia ran with the kids and we barely saw her except when she checked in with the food table for nibblers. When it came down to game time Reese and I followed along with the Knights app and occasionally on the TV inside. The weather was so beautiful, I was okay with not seeing every minute of the game. But once the third period came around, with London’s season on the line and the teams tied 1-1, Reese and I settled in to watch in earnest. However the third period didn’t give us a winner. With everyone else starting to prepare to head home, we packed up and bolted home so we could catch the overtime. And good thing we did, cause a few minutes after getting home and settled in, the Knights scored the winner and forced game 7.
The rest of this week was focused on jockeying the one vehicle we’re down to, to get Emelia to her gymnastics, and calling the mechanic to track the progress of the repair on the Mini to see if we could get it back any time soon. When we left it with them, they had told us they were severely backlogged and that it was going to take time. Well, as that time went on, we also learned it would cost money. Being a Mini owner has taught us two realities: 1) having a terribly fun car to drive; and, 2) having an expensive car to maintenance or repair. Finally on Thursday, ahead of the long weekend, we found out the car was going to be hopefully fixed and ready by Monday. The bad news however, was that it was a time consuming repair and would not be cheap. As of picking up the car on Monday, our bottom line will be about $1400 less. (Ouch!)
That expensive repair put the brakes on a special trip I was going to take out to Vancouver to see my friend Grant Lawrence play a reunion show with his old band The Smugglers as well as launch his latest book, Dirty Windshields. A CBC Radio 3 friend had offered to put me up for the days I would be out there, and even help with the flight if needed. With the free bed to sleep on, and only the flight to pickup, it was pretty much set I was going to sneak out to Vancouver for the weekend surprise Grant and all my other CBC Radio 3 friends for the weekend. That all changed however when we found out that we had a repair bill for the car that was going to more than double what I was finding a cheap return flight for. As much as it sucks that I will miss out on this weekend, given the last year and the challenging life situations friends and family around us have been coping through, I’d rather have a failed trip than something more serious happening. And the silver lining in all of this is now we will use that weekend to go camping as a family. Plus, The Smugglers have since announced a show in Toronto where I will be able to go see Grant there!
This weekend being Easter, we finally were able to get the whole family together — the first time since Christmas on Friday. With Linda having her last chemo session in January, she was still pretty tired and not feeling the greatest the last time we were together. This time she’s getting a head of hair back and had a lot more energy. It was so great see her with this energy level and spring fever like all of us. We had a super visit, filled with laughter and all of us trying to get snuggling time with Zoe – now seven months old and a lot more aware of the crazy and loud family she was born into.
With all this hockey to watch, beautiful weather we’re having, and—most importantly—the fantastic time we’re spending together as a family it is heard to get down about anything. When I reflect on the week that we had, it certainly could have been easy to be in the dumps about the car repair bill and the trip I can’t take, but the reality is, I couldn’t be happier. Those are just things, and the real matter in my life – the people around me – is what is making this such a great week. Well that, and the amazing fresh spring breeze coming through the window as I type this.
I’d love to tell you more about this week, but there is more Stanley Cup Playoffs to watch! And that makes me happy too.
She said
This week was one busy one. Emelia was wrapping things up with school and extra activities and in that the daycare kids were full of mis-directed energy so the countdown to my first break since Christmas was more than ready for the extra long weekend.
A few years ago I built into my contract the Easter Monday as an extra paid day off, it was the best decision I made for myself, my family and my sanity to have that extra break at the end of a long winter. Well we couldn’t have asked for better weather for this first long weekend for the spring season! The sun has been shining, the weather as been far above seasonal and it has been glorious.
One of the advantages of home daycare is the secure connections that you make with the families in care, well this weekend was the best example how the daycare families become an extension of our little family. One of my daycare families and neighbour have become our very good friends, we adore their little ones and the parents have become close friends. Well they have just bought a cottage close to Lake Huron and invited us up for Saturday for a visit. John had to work so only Emelia and I could make the trek up. Once Emelia was done swim class we packed up and headed out of town for the hour drive. Now to call this a cottage is a bit of a giggle, it is a full family home bigger than our home. Now they are a family of 6 so this is a perfect match for a big and active family. The home is beautiful, the property is stunning and it is a short 5 minute walk to the beach. The kids had a blast and the afternoon flew by. As much as Emelia wanted to stay we really had to get back to town to pick up John from work.
The next highlight of the weekend was of course this morning. Emelia has been excited about Easter morning with the hope of lots of goodies. We have told Emelia a few years ago that the bunny brings the chocolate but mommy and daddy are the ones that bring the little presents. Emelia is mermaid obsessed, she wanted this Fin Fun Mermaid tail but it was far too much and we are having her save for it so we opted for a fun little mermaid themed gift – we got her a new shirt for the summer, a necklace, beach bag, and earrings all mermaid themed. She loved it all!
The egg hunt was barely over and she was out the door playing all over the neighbourhood with her friends enjoying all the sunshine. The girls played for hours and had a blast. What did John and I do? Well it wouldn’t be a long weekend in daycare life if it wasn’t about the daycare kiddos. We are in the hopeful process this year of being able to finally tackle the backyard, in doing this I wanted to naturalize the daycare toys and the space so we don’t feel like we are forever living in plastic toys. A friend of mine was purging her kids toys and this gave us the chance to move from the plastic playhouse to a wooden house. John and I spent the better part of the day reassembling the house and replacing all the screws with new to assure the structure was strong.
It took forever and I could not be more grateful to John for building it for the kids.
This took up most of the day so we only had a few minutes we could pop over and visit with Greg, Testza and Zoe who had offered Emelia her cousin Vaughan’s old bike as a size up from the bike she has now outgrown. We rushed off and then off we went to our next daycare family event.
Earlier in the day I got a text from Norma to see if we were available for a Easter bbq and Easter egg hunt at their place. Again they have become a total extension of our family and we just love their entire family. We were so touched for the invite and were so happy to spend the evening with their family.
This weekend was exactly what we needed, time with family and friends. Now back to reality partly tomorrow when we pay the insane bill for the car. One more day off for Miss E and I and I hope to make the most of it enjoying time with my favourite girl.
Happy Easter everyone, hope it was as amazing for your family as it was for us.