I got to go to my Daddy’s store to learn how to do jump cuts and make cool videos with my best friends!
He said
After the whirlwind last weekend that was Emelia’s birthday bonanza, this week seemed to race by in the blink of an eye. Monday we were slammed the Polar Vortex which was a mix of a bunch of new snow and then very cold temperatures that we’re not used to. In fact it was so intense that her gymnastics practice was called early as they closed the gym at 6pm. A good portion of Emelia’s team and the coaches come from north of the city and in boonies so they wanted to make sure everyone was safe.
At work this week the focus for me was the launch of 55 new Today at Apple sessions at our store on Thursday. And the real test of that was Sunday when Danielle, Emelia and her besties, the twins were coming to the store to take in one of the brand new sessions Small Screen Magic Co-created with Zach King which I was delighted at how excited they were to take part. It was pretty cool to have them so excited about coming to the store and something that Emelia said that she would do even if the twins weren’t available by virtue of the hockey tournament they were in. The stars aligned and they all came in and by all counts had a great time! It’s alright when your daughter thinks your job is cool!
The week otherwise is a blur which was dotted with the normal things like dance, and gymnastics practices but by the time the weekend rolled around we were all ready for a Saturday off that I had. Given that our niece Amy and Emelia have birthdays so close a few weeks ago we hatched plans to have the family gathering for the two girls Saturday as it worked for everyone. We spent most of the day taking it in at a slower pace as we had no where to be early on. We had some errands to do most namely getting Emelia some pyjamas as she continues to grow like a weed, which landed us at Talize where we all made some great finds.
But, once that was wrapped up it was time to collect over at Mom & Dad’s with the rest of the family to have fun with the joint family birthday party. It was so great to be together with everyone and quite frankly I was blown away that part of the party was to celebrate Amy’s 19th birthday! But then again, I guess the same could be said for Emelia who is in the last year before teenagerhood. We had a great time together with lots of laughs and even got to hear all about Amy’s first experience legally with booze the night before! It’s been a while since we were able to get everyone together, and this was the almost completist version of our family so that was really good.
Today at work with having Danielle, Emelia and the twins in the store flew by and before I knew it, it was time to head home and meet up with Danielle & Emelia returning home from Sunday gymnastics practice, and for us all to sit down and watch the Super Bowl and eat some wings. As much as I am not a big fan of football, it is a huge part of Danielle’s upbringing with her Mom so it feels like the most perfect way to close out a busy week doing something Danielle identifies so much of her youth with! Happy Super Bowl Sunday, and happy wings to me.
She said
This was the longest daycare week in a LONG time. We have had very wonky winter weather in January. We are used to snow, we are used to cold but the last two weeks has had just about everything. Over the last two weeks we have had freezing rain, heavy snow squalls and a cold snap come through that broke cold weather records all over the country into the US. What this means in my world in the day? It means in 2 weeks I was able to get the kids outside one day for an hour. The kids took things in stride and we filled our week with a variety of activities but kids need spaces to run, they need fresh air and we need to get out of the house! By the end of Friday I was more than ready to have a grown up drink and wait for the warmer weather that we got this weekend.
With crap weather it moved our focus to warmer weather. This week we booked our first week of summer camping, we are so happy that once again we will be heading to Arrowhead close to my sisters place and get to spend another amazing week with family (and it turns our friends as a friend of ours messaged me she is camping with her kids that week and just down the lane from us!). We look forward to this week all summer, the park is perfect, close to so many activities, large natural sites and the lake is beautiful for swimming and paddling. This year we are arriving the weekend prior to Canada Day so booking got tight so we will spend part of the weekend with my sister at her place before heading Canada Day to our site for the week. We love that Arrowhead has sites big enough that once again we can add my sister’s family tent to our site and we can spend lots of time together!
The second was booking a week of camp for Emelia. This year Emelia and her best friends wanted to go to their first sleepover camp. All the girls were nervous at the idea of going to a sleepaway camp but they would go if they could go together. Now the challenge started, we were trying to find a good camp that was close enough for the girls comfort that promoted a lot of outside time. The challenge I had was every camp within an hour radius of home were church run camps. We are not religious people at all so we were struggling to find a camp that matched our needs. We settled on a camp that is church run because of the amazing reviews we got from friends who have sent their kids. Yes there is a religious, more than I would have hoped but the quality of the other programming, the reviews made it the best choice for the girls and their families. Thinking of the summer really made this last week of extreme winter weather a whole lot more manageable.
Once we survived the longest weather week it was a welcome change when the massive warm up came this weekend. It made being outside much more enjoyable. Emelia was pretty excited about this weekend. This weekend her best friends were in a hockey tournament this weekend. It was a massive tournament, 200 teams, all girl hockey teams. It is amazing to see how much the sport has grown and it was great seeing the girls play. They have grown so much this year, they have really become amazing players and their team did amazing. In a large and competitive group they made it to the quarter finals, we were really proud of them.
Once we wrapped up at the tournament we made our way over to Helen and Doug’s for one last celebration for Emelia’s birthday. It was not only a celebration of Emelia’s birthday but a fun milestone birthday for our niece Amy. As hard as it is to believe our niece turned 19! Yes 19! I love that the girls are close and that we get to celebrate their birthdays together every year. This year was special because we got to be all together, time as a family is so precious and we love how much our family loves being together.
Today was another busy one, this morning the twins came over in the morning and I took the girls to John’s work so they could do a video editing session at John’s work. The girls loved it and I just loved watching them learn and then work together to create these great videos. It was a fun way to spend our morning. Once I rushed the girls back we had enough time to get Emelia dressed and off to gymnastics for the afternoon. I got a ton of things done while she was in training and then we came home in time to watch the Super Bowl.
As much as I do not watch football like I did as a kid it is a huge part of my childhood and I can’t not watch the Super Bowl. My family are huge football fans, my parents and I watched football every Sunday. Those moments are some of my most cherished moments with my parents. So I hold on to those positive memories and enjoy the game every year.
That was the week that was, this coming week should prove to be only our normal level of busy vs the last few weeks so looking forward to some normalcy for a few weeks. We are in the countdown to Emelia’s next competition so I am sure that will be her focus over the next few weeks.