Delinquent

Well, I'm feeling like I've neglected the blog a bit lately. Go figure. You'd think it was Christmas time or something! We had a busy weekend, but that seems to be par for the course lately (I'm looking forward to this friday....NO PLANS!!!). Friday night we went to my Remax party. Quite the ta-do. Open bar, free dinner, live band, about 420 people! Crazy! It was nice to visit with people but once the band got going that was pretty much cut short. We had to resort to yelling in people's ear from a distance that invades the norms for personal space. Overall, it was pretty fun though. Saturday was Grandma J's annual Christmas Tea Party. The girls had a BLAST! Basically it's an afternoon where we get to drop all the kids off at Grandma's and the kids get Grandma and Grandpa all to themselves with NO PARENTS!! Recipe for disaster really, except that Grandpa J is there to chaperone Grandma J! No, really, it's a wonderful tradition and the girls look forward to it all year. They drink tea, decorate cookies, trash Grandma's basement and of course open presents!

I got a ton of baking done....with no helpers around! And Dave got most of the trim up in the dining room. A productive afternoon.

Then because apparently Nicole (Dave's 14 yr old niece) wasn't quite sick of our kids yet so she came over and babysat for the evening and stayed overnight. The girls LOVED it!!! It's always a special treat when Nicole can come babysit! Dave and I went of to Trish and Marty's to enjoy some Christmas treats, fellowship with friends, and the pool table!!! Thanks Trish and Marty, you are WONDERFUL hosts!!!

Sunday was a bit of a disaster day with the girls. I think they fell hard from their sugar high from the weekend and then with the late nights with babysitters it finally hit them on Sunday. I stayed home from church with Madelyn to give her some 'thinking' time in her room after a rough morning. Then I took Madelyn to a gymnastics audition at the club she has class at. They had asked us to bring Madelyn in to audition (in a group) for the owners. Knowing Madelyn, Dave and I knew this was going to be a tough thing for her. She's not particularly driven at gymnastics, although quite good at it. And she doesn't often like situations where she's not sure what's expected of her and she doesn't like to be the centre of attention. Dave and I thought this might be a good opportunity to go through something tough....a good opportunity to build her character. The audition started at noon. Madelyn didn't want to do it. 12:10 Madelyn finally got into her gymnastics stuff but didn't want to go in. 12:20 Madelyn edged her way to the viewing window to check things out. 12:30 She made her way into the gym but standing just inside the door. 12:40.....she's in!! And she's managed to find a group to sit in with.
Needless to say I highly doubt she's going to be the next Mary Lou Retton. (besides the competitive girls do 27 1/2 hrs of training....a WEEK!!!! -That's insane!!!!). But the experience was a good one for her. She tried something different, something where she had to 'perform' and in the end it wasn't nearly as scary as she thought it would be. Sigh.....man, parenting takes a lot of work!!

Sunday afternoon we headed over to Brad and Derrien's for a delicious dinner (YUM....gotta try that recipe) and our traditional game of Cities and Knights. It's so nice now that the kids are older and we can play with them up. We started out 8 years ago playing this game only after the kids were in bed! At one point we would have Madelyn in with Evan, Lauren in Brad and Derrien's bed because she and megan would get too giddy sleeping in the same room, and...because we had run out of bedrooms and because it was big enough....Rachel in the master bedroom walk in closet! Hey, whatever works! Great times.

Monday was a day of errands for me. Costco, which by the way shouldn't open at 10am, especially when I only have until 11:15 before I have to leave to get Rachel!....and then off to the mall to finish up some shopping. I'm not quite done, but I'm definitely getting closer!

Natalie, Luke, and Hannah joined us for supper and then we had an early night getting the kids down to bed. Phew.

Today was a catch up day.....laundry, tidying, arranging babysitters...
Then it was off to the school tonight to meet with the teachers. All good reports (of course!!!).
The girls are doing very well at school. Both excelling at their reading. Madelyn at math as well, and Lauren doing a great job working independently (important in a split class). We're very proud of them!

Maddie's teacher did ask if everything was ok with Maddie, since she has to have so many BATHROOM BREAKS!!! Hmmm, really? Apparently our little Madelyn who doesn't drink much and has the bladder the size of Newfoundland has been taking 6 or 7 bathroom breaks A DAY! Too funny! After a bit of a chuckle we informed her teacher that we had NO problem if she wanted to put a stop to that. She's quite capable of waiting until lunch and and recess to go to the bathroom. I half wonder if she's meeting her pals Nicole and Anna who are in the other Gr. 3 class!! Too funny.

Well, that's it....that's all. I have more to tell....like Uncle Doug's visit to Lauren's classroom but I thought maybe Jennifer would write a few words about that.....
at this point I feel like I should sign off like Hammy Hamster......but that's a story for another day. (or something like that....I think!)