Ripples and Tornadoes

Well we survived our first recital craziness weekend! Yay! It was fantastic and it was so much fun to be part of such an exciting time for the kids involved. I helped out as a class mom during the Friday night show. Generally the shows are a Sat & Sun, but there was a mix up this year when booking, I believe due to the leap year. Anyhoo, I was in charge of Ariel's jazz class. Its a well oiled machine back stage, check in boards for each group, where your kids are coming from, quick changes for those doing multiple dances, where to send them afterwards if they dance again etc! I tell you the adrenaline from the night alone had me wide awake for quite a while once I got home. Haha.

The perk of helping is we get to stand in the wings and watch the girls dance, which is a really cool experience. I was so proud watching her, I can't wait to help again, love it!!!

Ariel and buddy Sarah - they have been dancing together since kinderdance

Stella came to see Ariel on the Friday show, which Ariel was thrilled about, can you tell?!

Ariel LOVED her first recital experience as well. She actually does really well in these waiting around situations with only having some snacks and coloring available. We had the tv set up so we could view the show as it played out. The ballet is always a huge story and ties in all the classes. This year it was about an mean queen who was turned into an eagle until she realized how her actions had ripple effects one the people and world around her. Oooh deep eh? It was really stunning, the costumes beautiful and just amazing to see the work the kids put into it! 

When we got to watch Ariel from the audience on the Saturday performance, I saw again her ease on stage. She was in her element, huge smile (unless acting surprised as she told me when the cat surprises them when she is a mouse, haha) The Bell Performance Centre prefers no pictures and video during the show, so we respected that. I ordered a DVD of the show, so I will upload a clip when I can. 

Then her jazz number was so great, bopping away. Plus those costumes are too cute! Daddy and I brought our girl some flowers and a ballet lamb stuffed toy to mark her big day. She has her flowers in her room, she loves them. 

Xander didn't come to the recital, but hung out with his buddy K. They had fun by the sounds of things, they are too cute!

On top of the recital, I had 5 orders this weekend! It nearly killed me... just not having the same time to work was hard, and one night I just went to bed instead and figured it be ok, but I ended up working till 2am to catch up, oh well. I have another 5 orders this weekend, so it will be a tad crazy but less going on so it shouldn't be a problem. 

Ariel also had a small pageant (yes we are crazy!) on the Sunday afternoon. She won Queen of her age group, which she was super excited about. Her buddy won queen in her age group so they were thrilled to be 'queens' together. She blew away the people with her on stage interview and introduction, which was great since that is one of the main reasons for doing these is learning public speaking skills. 

We have another pageant coming up which has a rock and roll theme. Ariel has been practicing her routine to 'Rockin' Robin' in her poodle skirt. Its so adorable! We also are now counting down till the end of school, which is weird. She will be going to grade one next year!!! Wow. Xander goes to pre-school and Mommy gets her first taste of what it will be like with no kids home...crazy.

Not like I won't have anything to keep me busy eh? Speaking of busy, like I said the cakes are fast and furious these days. I am full for June, today I posted to book early for summer, and I got 8 bookings in one afternoon! Seriously!!! I nearly died from the phone calls and emails. My head was spinning but its such an amazing blessing to have this business. My goal for the month was to have enough earned to pay Ariel's dance tuition for 3 classes next year (ballet, jazz and jazz competition) paid in full to get the discount, and I think I will make it! Which is fantastic! Next is paying Xander's year tuition for pre-school, and then on to savings for possible things to come down the road like renos and trips... we are itching to go to Disneyland at some point again... and I will totally need the vacation haha. 

Ok, speaking of vacation, I am going to bed, as I have a full week ahead. Good night!

Dance vs Cake!

Oh give me strength to make it through this week, haha. Its RECITAL week!!!  Yes, after a long year of work, Ariel is going on the big stage at the Bell Performing Arts Centre! We had our tech run last week and she is so ready to go. When Ariel came out after her practices, I didn't get to see yet (they keep everything a surprise for the big show) she was grinning from ear to ear. Such a big moment for my little dancer girly. I remember when she was barely able to stand, and she was bopping already to the music.

 

When she was finally 2 she could take the ballet classes at the community center... oh she was so sweet!

Then came kinderdance at her current dance school. 

Finally this year she was in the studio with the performing classes, oh it was a big exciting day when we signed up. I remember how excited she was seeing the big kids in costumes getting their picture taken when we came to sign up. Now next weekend that will be her, having her first photos with her classes, awe. 

This year has gone by quickly and with closed door classes you never know what they are doing until the big show. Ariel is one for secrets when it comes to a show, she likes to play along making me wait, but she did show me her jazz routine, and I was amazing how good she got in a few months from that parent's viewing I saw. Today she brought home her first costume for the show... I couldn't be more proud or excited. We practiced her make up, thankfully she enjoys that sort of thing. Its the cutest thing ever... and we still have the ballet one to get later this week. She is a white mouse for that part of the show, eek!

Over the weekend we were in the parade for the May Days, and I got to chat with one of the dance teachers. She wanted to invite Ariel to be part of her junior competitive class they are wanting to start. She would go to 2 events next spring, and basically get the training early to what its like to do that sort of thing. Its a big step and something we are thrilled to encourage, mainly because we respect the dance school's stance on competition - it being a team building, experience and fun. Its not about winning, its about dance and learning to do your best on stage. Its pretty overwhelming since Ariel's official invite came tonight via email, and they only asked 4 girls. So I guess we are jumping in and we shall see where this new adventure leads us. Stay tuned!

So in the midst of last week of classes and extra practice, I am handling 4 orders. Thankfully they are all pretty easy (in my mind anyways) and I think it should go smoothly. Last week I had a somewhat lazy week with only doing a wedding cake for our friends Dan and Amy. It was so much fun and I loved the result!

The wedding was so much fun, and we all had a fantastic time. Couldn't be happier for them, love is grand!

I will post about the show next week... until then, have a great week!

Say Hello to 'Sparky'

At least that is what Ariel has named it, so let it be proclaimed, haha. Here it is, our Kia Soul 2012. Wow, I still am in shock we have a new car... like new new, like no one has ever driven this car but us!! The manual this sucker came with is huge too, gack! A bit change from the 20 year old car we had been driving.

Yesterday was the big day for picking it up. I got Ariel off to school and headed to the insurance place to transfer the ownership with the stuff the car lot gave me. However, upon arriving and looking at them, the lot had accidentally put Ken's name on instead of mine. We both own the car on the deed, but for insurance since the volvo was in my name only it makes sense to do the same with the new one since I have the time to do renewals, air care etc.

Sooo, we took the old car into the ICBC claim center to get the plates removed. It was sad saying goodbye to the car. My parents taught me to drive on that car, we brought both our kids home from the hospital in it and had so many adventures... breaking down in Montana maybe not a highlight but a memory for sure. I felt like I was leaving a piece of me, it was a good car to us, gave us lots of grief at times but kept our family safe. I looked at 'Tank's' big boo boo and sighed. Goodbye Volvo... we will miss you.

It took awhile for them to get organized, the guy doing our case was in a meeting so finally someone else took over, we got our cheque and signed the car away. Sniff. I am thinking the money we got was more than the car is probably worth... oh well.

Then we headed to the Kia lot in the sunshine. It was lunch time and I guess busy too. We waited quite awhile as I now had to do my insurance at the lot because of the mix up, and the guy had to be called in, sooo lame, but what can ya do?! Thankfully Xander was happy playing with my phone and Dad eventually left since he needed to eat before his blood sugar dropped, and to get Ariel who had early dismissal. Finally after he left the insurance guy arrived, got everything done and then we got the key! ACK!!!

Ariel is only a tad excited!

Our sales guy had everything set up, even installing the kids seats. We got in and I soon learned our car had some fun 'features'. He hooked up my phone via bluetooth, something I have no clue about haha. Next thing I knew we were calling Ken at work via voice commands in the car! If that wasn't cool enough, he showed me how to play our music from my iphone through the car stereo. Oooh. Its got a button for gas saving when in traffic, the seats fold down in the back if I need to transport stuff that is big, the trunk is perfect for cakes delivery and so much more. My favorite thing to discover was no aircare for 7 years! Yay... everyone knows how much I hate that place, ha!!!

Then it was ours... said our goodbyes to the sale guy, and I was sitting in the drivers seat with Xander buckled up in the back. Then I freaked out. I slowly started it, and inched out of the driveway, I think I was afraid to drive it in fear of breaking it. The driving is so smooth compared to our old car I had to get use to the easy control of the wheel, no more cranking it. The brakes too, very sensitive... just different. The first few lights I was looking like a new driver no doubt but by the time I was back home I felt good... really good. In fact, it was the first time I ever felt good driving. I never could see well in the other car, this one I was up high and not straining my neck. The seat was comfy and it just fit my short frame well. Hello new car, welcome to the family. Haha.

When Ariel saw it after school she squealed, just a tad excited. I dropped the kids off at Stella's and showed her our new toy. Then quickly picked up Ken from the loop to head over for to meet with Ariel's teacher. We couldn't be more proud of our smart and sweet girl. Her teacher said so many lovely things that my heart burst. She is writing and reading like a grade one student. She showed us her printing book and how her writing skills since the beginning have been ahead of the normal kindergarten level. Her art was amazing, lots of thought and detail, she plays with both boys and girls in the class, and just is a pleasure to teach. She is ready for grade one, and that makes me so happy. Oh and her hula hooping in gym has been making her teacher very amused, as she just doesn't stop, of course we see that here all the time, she has some crazy skills!

We came home for a faijta dinner, all giddy about the day, and so very thankful. Ken prayed for our safety in the new car, and we just finally relaxed! All those big things are done, we are moved, the car has been dealt with and now we can just do everyday life stuff! Following dinner, we went out and we applied our new family sticker to the car.... pretty darn perfect, hee. Ken with his books, me and my cake, dancing girl Ariel and rock star Xander. The family truckster, haha.

Its far too early to be up...

Xander woke up at 430am this morning, came to our bed and fell back asleep... but for me I just couldn't get back to sleep, so here I am. Just finished some work stuff I had sitting here, trying to stay caught up as much as I can. Seems like there is something everyday, so its hard when I feel like things slip, bah!

So, we had Mother's Day since I last checked in. Sadly we were all a tad on the congested side, so we stayed home from church nursing our coughs and noses. Mother's Day service is still hard for me, some years I am ok but this year I was a tad off guard and feeling sad. Thankfully I have some wonderful friends and we got invited out to their home for dinner. It was nice and my heart felt good by the day's end.

Ariel had made me a wonderful sunshine pillow in my favorite blue color at school. It came with her singing 'You are my sunshine' which was hard not to cry at when I watched her grin as she eagerly sang it for me. Xander not missing a beat, walked into my room, 'Hi Mommy... I want hugs!' it was perfect!

Ken made me breakfast in bed, his first time making scratch pancakes... pretty good, maybe a touch too much salt, but for my sweet man who doesn't cook it was lovely for him to try. I got a lovely 'mother and children' necklace, something I have seen for years and hoped to have one day.

This week started the slow progression of our activities winding down. We had our last Sparks meeting, and said goodbye to the girls who were moving up to Brownies. They also said 'hello' to me, one of the new leaders, yay!  During the night when the girls were going up front, I was snapping pictures when my camera literary started sounding super slow and then bam, its done. UGH! My heart sank, I texted Ken, feeling like crud. Photographers know the feeling I speak of... that moment when you feel like your right hand has been chopped off.

Thankfully it was a 2 hour Glee night and it took my mind off of my broken baby. It was a great episode, some great dramatic stuff, fantastic performances and I keep watching them on youtube. Even though Ariel doesn't watch the show for obvious reasons, I let her see the dance numbers. She loved this one with the cool flips at the end...



...and seriously, this is a goosebumps song! Move over Celine, haha.



... but this one Ken and I just loved. Just a great version of the song. Yes, I am a Gleek and proud of it.



After talking with some friends and family, some research and then calling the Nikon people, we decided it was finally time to upgrade, something we had been discussing for a while, but I was happy with my camera and didn't crave anything more. Seemed like the D7000 was the next step, so after checking the funds, I walked to the store the next morning with Xander and bought the last D7000 body on sale. Whee. With having my lens compatible, I could just get the body, which was awesome. I brought it home and waited for the battery to charge up so I could play. In the meantime, I have a huge manual to read now, gack.

Tonight also was the big car night! We were scheduled to go in and talk 'turkey'. I was nervous all day, which is funny since I was never this nervous when we bought our home, maybe because someone did all the work and I just signed stuff. Haha. Either way, we had a FANTASTIC experience at Kia. They were not pushy (something I hate with sales people). We had the kids with us, and they had them set up with balloons, candy and playing with the show room cars. Since it was getting quite late, I opted to return for the car in the morning so we could get the kids home to bed. I never thought we buy a new car ever, but it was the right decision for us right now. I am excited to pick it up now, eek. Pictures soon :)

Soooo, today I am driving our 'tank' Volvo for one more ride to the ICBC claim center. Its kinda sad... its the only car I have really driven. I learned to drive behind that wheel, as painful as that was I think for both me and my parents - I didn't learn till I was 19. We had another volvo that was our college car, but this one was really my first car. So ends an era... and we welcome the hamster car to the family, lol. Yes, we have a Kia Soul, its cute and silver (I won the color debate finally!) If you don't know why I call it the hamster car, this is why... Ariel loves this commercial.



Well the sun is starting to pour into the living room through the trees. Gosh its pretty... I feel very blessed, thankful and overwhelmed as I sit here in the light. Ok... time for breakfast before I have to get people off to work and school, yay me.

Yeah, I Know...

Sorry, I am slacking off again. What can I say, lots of cake, lots of craziness and just realizing we are in MAY! Crazy!!!!

Where to start, ok cake. The business has been a tad overwhelming at times. Some weeks having 5-6 orders, which can be at times fun and the money is always a blessing, but with so much happening with other activties its a bit much. I decided after 2 very full weeks being filled in May, and the following 2 being each with an order or 2 that I would say 'FULL'. I just need that to feel like I can breathe. Ahhh. I will say its hard to say no, since I love what I do and every order is exciting. Lots of fun things coming up, yay. This is one of my latest cakes, so cute!!!

The house! Things are really looking nice around here. Today Dad came and put our spindles in on our stairs. Wow, what a change it makes to the room and so much more like a home, love it!  Our closets were done, we have bars and shelves now, always exciting to hang clothes up instead of random piles on the floor haha. I am planning on using my birthday money for getting some closet doors for our room, and a new one for the laundry area. We are hoping to find a patio set soon for the upcoming summer months so we can eat outside. We have a little BBQ we got as a wedding gift we have never used so we are going to try that out this summer too. Whee!

They had a huge gardening party at our complex, and although Ariel and I were away, Ken and Xander helped out, and met some more neighbours. Xander liked the digging and we have a little spot that is going to be ours for taking care of which we are excited about. 

Ariel and I were away overnight at Spark camp this past weekend! It was her first camp experience and she LOVED IT! We were only an hour away in a cute camp with cabins and nice play areas for the girls. It was a fairy theme so there were lots of crafts and games right up her alley. She was sad when it was time to come home but we look forward to next year! Oh, and I am becoming an leader, taking my papers in so it will be official. Excited! The girls are wonderful. 

Tomorrow we start car shopping. Trying not to be overwhelmed, but since I am not one who knows much about cars its a tad nerve wracking. Our car had a bit of a run in, or back in rather to a pick up truck who was also backing up. A 50/50 thing, and I am thankful Ken and Ariel were ok, but it was a total bummer. We can still drive the car, but are lacking a left turn signal and our trunk is tied shut since its a tad squished. We are thinking about a Kia, after some good feedback from Uncle Blair, so going to start there and see what we think. Hoping its not a huge drawn out process, as I would like to just take our car in and get the cheque and move on. The kids hate seeing the damage, and are dreaming of a red car, haha. Not sure that will happen, but who knows!

Speaking of cheques, we had a full week of cleaning our old apartment only to have to fight for part of our deposit! Rita had carpet cleaned the whole place and the manager didn't feel they were cleaned, or cleaned well. Well, I came home and wrote a letter as 'angry Ken' haha, and after 2 letters and being polite but firm that we felt they were cleaned, and the wear and tear on them was 8 years of living on them with a family of 4. We finally won after I said take pictures of the them after you clean them and sure enough, oh you were right, they can't be cleaned, hahah, WINNING! I am thankful, especially with how much we spent on getting the curtains cleaned! Ack!

Ariel got her first report card, which was exciting, since we are in a teacher job action situation still, it was an exciting day. She is meeting expectations and a pleasure to teach, aw, I am a proud Mommy. She also was recognized at the lastest assembly at school for her hard work in learning to read. Its amazing how we are out and she will go, that says 'this and that'. Very cool!

We participated and helped out at Ariel's school spring fair. They raised $7000 which is fantastic, and we all had a great time and ate FAR too much sugar. We all painted fish for the school's stream of dreams mural, which I need to get pictures of now that its installed, so cool!

I celebrated my 33rd birthday with a small dinner with family at Dad and Rita's. Including a coconut cream pie, woot!!! I got a cupcake charm for my bracelet and some fun goodies from friends and family. I am very blessed and even though it was the first year I almost forgot it was my birthday, haha, it was nice. 

What else... oh we have recitals coming up! Our first one!!!!!!! I am helping as a backstage Mom during the Friday show, and watching on Saturday. Ariel is excited about her costumes, and I am eager to see them!  Her jazz outfit is sorta like a cowgirl, and I am told its red. Then for ballet she is a white mouse. Ken bought our tickets this past Sunday, only a few weeks to go. 

Ken is busy animating and finishing up this latest film with Galen. Then he starts right away on the next one, so that will keep him busy until mid summer most likely. I am starting to register for summer camps, Ariel is already in for dance camp again, Imagine That doing sketching and painting and just waiting on VBS to open up. Its weird to think summer is coming so fast, wacky! Ken is doing some travelling for work on several weekends, so to be prepared with activities is good to distract the kids when Daddy is gone... and help Mommy get a break too, haha. 

Wow... lots to report

If anyone is still out there... I am alive, barely. We MOVED! Ack!!! From the moment we got our keys it has been crazy! As you remember, our place wasn't in the nicest condition when we got it, so with only 2 weeks till the movers would haul our stuff over, we had to work like dogs!

However, before all the work, we celebrated Easter, remembered Mom and celebrated Dad's birthday. Its hard to think its been 12 years but for the first time in a very long time, I woke up that morning with a happy heart. I feel like our new home is filled with the love of the people who are gone, those that are here and filled with all the possibilities of dreams to come. We took Mom some roses and went off to church.

Later we had a yummy steak dinner with the family to celebrate Dad. Xander is a true man and loves meat, nearly eating a whole steak himself.

Easter was simple as we were lacking much as it was all packed. Won't miss the boxes in the back of all our pictures haha.

The Easter bunny did manage to leave a few things for the kids...

...we celebrated our risen Lord...

...and enjoyed a dinner and some time down in Point Roberts.

Then the work began...

Basically Dad, Xander and I would show up and work on things daily. Lots of painting, fixing stuff that wasn't good.... oh I have so many things I could say here - like they used drier duct for the range hood cover, yeah that didn't work out well. The electrical was really bad in spots, unsafe and sometimes scary to find. Every spot water came out pretty much leaked, thank you Mr Plummer for fixing stuff.

Appliances all started arriving, kinda like Christmas! Its so funny what makes us excited as adults eh? The kitchen is one of my favorite rooms, which is good since I am in there a lot. I really love the main living space paint color. I was worried at first since its something I wouldn't have originally gone with, but I love it.

Ariel's room is bright... very bright, but she loves it. In fact I think she nearly burst when seeing it the first time.

Xander's room was bright but very fun.

Our room... one word, relaxation! I love the calmness of it, and every time I see it I smile.

As the moving day approached, I freaked. I was excited but scared, and totally nervous how it would go. The local movers we hired were AWESOME! They were fun and fast, and I gave them all some Girl Guide cookies along with their pay, haha. They did ask if the boxes they moved actually had cookies in them, haha
.

As we settled in our first evening in the new home we had a stressful surprise, the computer wouldn't turn on. ACK! Only a tad stressful. Eep. Turns out it was the power supply, and after Ken managed to find a place to get it fixed over the weekend made it all work out.

-Dining room starting to come together-

We kept bringing small loads of stuff over, not much left now at the old place, I get to clean it this week, boo!  Of course this week I went back to work, and had 6 orders! Ack, a tad crazy but I am finishing the last one tonight then taking another week off to finish the stuff off at the house without stressing, glad I did.

-Our Kitchen... love it!!!-

Things around here are slowing down, Dad will be needing to take a break soon, I think we all need one. I really want to finish unpacking, and purging more stuff before the church garage sale next weekend. It that wasn't enough we have to go car shopping soon... very soon. Sooner than we hoped but sometimes stuff happens...that is all I can say about that at the moment.

-Xander's Room-

I can also say what my mysterious thing was now, since we didn't get picked, super glad now we didn't, haha. I was selected to try and win the chance to be a mom blogger document a trip to Disney World for Astral Media! We had to send a video of our family, of course not telling the kids in case we were picked for the trip, and answer some questions about if we had been before etc. They were doing a campaign for Canadians and they would have sent us for 4 days, with free airfare, food, accommodations etc. but the catch, we would have left NEXT WEEK! The moment I sent the info I panicked, how could we do that?! We were going to MOVE!!!

-The Pink Palace aka Ariel's Room-

Anyhoo, we didn't get picked, thank heavens, but they sent the kids some special Mickey toys regardless, which was worth it. They were happy and I look forward to the time we travel together to Disneyland, I rather go there first for Xander anyways, haha.

Now this week we are cleaning up the old apartment, gosh I will be glad when that is done! I am very thankful for Dad and Rita's help. In one day we nearly cleaned a lot more had it just been me alone. One more day and it should be good to go. Eager to hand the keys back and only have one place to deal with, haha.

-Our room, we have never had been able to freely walk around the end of the bed! Its amazing... loving the space!-

The kids are loving the new home. Some of the neighbors gave them a cool wagon their kids outgrew, its been a hit as you can see. I had a crazy week of 6 orders, took on a few extras to make up for the time off I was taking for moving and cleaning. Its been fun telling people where to come to pick up their cakes now, a tad easier to find us, yay!

Next week we make our first mortgage payment, haha, first of many, but its exciting not being a rent payment. We are home, it feels good. More pictures to come as we continue to decorate and fix things up. The bathroom still has some work to go, some closets need to be done and small things here and there, but life goes on and many things coming up to keep us busy! Whee!