NEVER shop with kids!

When you can’t ski… shop!

Black Friday shopping…

… Mommy-style!

Well they were doing tax free groceries it was rude not to.

Happy weekend 😃

Poor hubby…

He always takes vacation the week of his birthday (usually because I’m going to Vegas with the girls, but not this year sadly). This morning we did presents & cards before he did the school run & walked the dog. I had to go into school for 11 to finish the Gala projects, then I was going to take him out for a birthday lunch. The first thing to go wrong was the coffeemaker, & you know how I am about my coffee. Sure we could make Keurig’s or Nespresso’s but we use our drip coffeemaker every morning for breakfast & it’s set on a timer so it’s always ready. No auto drip coffee would be a right pain.

So I had the thought that we could luncheon on Granville street & pop in Williams & Sonoma to purchase a new one. First we went to the little Bistro I had been wanting to try for a while, but they were closed on Monday’s (oops, should have checked that!). Instead I suggested a restaurant across the street we hadn’t been to in years. Williams & Sonoma was on our way. We browse the coffeemakers & make our selection but ask if they can keep it for us until we’ve had lunch – by this time we were both starving.

On our way to lunch I realize that I’d missed a couple of calls from school. There was also a message from younger child, which is a first. Poor thing had not felt well in the later part of the morning, had eaten lunch & promptly threw up. Hubby was clearly not allowed to have his birthday lunch on his birthday. We headed straight to school to pick up our sick 7 year old. He did look a bit peeky but by the time we got home he was keen to do his homework & help me set up the new coffeemaker. Needless to say the little ‘fraud’ then watched a movie & drank plenty with no signs of any vomiting. He then complained of hunger at dinner time but I refused to allow him to have the casserole, just in case. Soup & dry bread for you mate!

After all that I’m happy to say he’s fine, & will definitely be going back to school tomorrow in the hope that at some point in this week off I can try again to take hubby for lunch, & this time it will be to the bistro I intended togo to in the first place.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful, understanding hubby!

It’s a long weekend!

Spending this Canadian Thanksgiving in Whistler.

Bring on the turkey sale! (Bargain pre-season ski wear)

Serious shopping, stop growing!

Oh, once again elder child has grown out of clothing that was only bought at beginning of this year. After the great ‘try on’ he only had sweatpants & one pair of jeans that fit. Thankfully the top half was fine as he wears t-shirts all year round. So it was off to the outlet stores this afternoon & oh my, & did we shop!! We even went to the Lindt outlet & did quite a lot of damage on chocolate alone. I am a serious bargain hunter. I always try to buy in sales & outlets if I can, it’s very rare for me to pay full price, if I do it’s usually because I think it’s worth it. In the end we all had bags & bargains. We also treated ourselves to dinner out, & the boys let off some steam in the playground. I all made up for the wet & miserable start to the day, but of course when you decide to go shopping because there’s not much else you can do… the sun comes out!!

When you’re…

… too tired to type so here’s a summary of why…

School run, quick dog walk then dropped her at the pet salon for a bath. Straight to my 9.50 appointment with my surgeon. All good, but I need to work at strengthening my knee. She discharges me then spends the rest of the appointment asking about my boy’s school because she is unhappy with the public system. I then go to the mall to see if I can get better swimming bags for the boys, I buy scented candles instead. Then to Costco because believe it or not there is very little food left. After a MONSTER shop I head home. I walk through the door at 12.45.

I am wasting away so I eat leftover Kale & Quinoa salad & it tastes amazing because I’m so hungry. I check my email & find out that the swimming club will be selling club wear on Monday at the pool – I need not have gone for bags. I set to & put everything away. I stack all the meat in the fridge because I haven’t got time to put it all through the food saver. I finish up with everything else at 2.20. I make a cup of tea & strum my guitar for 15 minutes before going out again to pick everyone up. I am so glad that elder child has a lot of homework so he doesn’t want to play in the playground. We pick up Tessy on our way home. She sits in the back of the Mini with the roof down pretending to be a canine Loreal advert.

Home, drink, snack & homework. I put all the meat through the food saver while younger child moans & groans sat at the kitchen island at how mean I am making him do all his writing practice when it doesn’t have to be in until Thursday. I point out that it is club swimming tomorrow after school so there will be no time. He is not convinced. After the meat I have to start & make dinner. I discover that despite all the food I have purchased I don’t have enough fusilli or penne so it’s Mac & cheese. Hubby is very late…

We finally eat & the boys shower. After cleaning all the bits of kitchen hubby forgot to do when he washed up, I make lunches for tomorrow. I then discover that the boys have no clean polo shirts for school – GRRRRR!!! I put a white load in the washing machine & declare I am done, done, DONE!!!

I run a bath & start a new book. When I get out hubby asks if I’m interested in wine – Really dear, you have to ask?

And that was just a summary!

Proud Fondo widows…

A busy day yesterday, but fun. I picked up one of my closest friends, & her family, from the airport & surprised her by arranging for are other partner in crime (my BFF) to meet us too. It’s Grand Fondo weekend here, when thousands of crazy cyclists ride from Vancouver to Whistler. This year we are a group of Fondo widows & kids so are riders had quite the welcome when they crossed the finish line. They all did amazing but I have to say I am extremely proud of my hubby. He had the ride of his life. Over a hundred kilometres of rolling hills, in just over four & a half hours – without stopping once!!

While our tired hubbies soaked in the hot tub, & supposedly supervising all our children, us wives poured large G&T’s before treating ourselves to some well earned retail therapy as a reward for supporting our mad spouses. Then, this evening, we are abandoning all 8 kids with 2 nannies so we can enjoy drinks & a celebratory dinner.

 

It’s official!!

My 9 year-olds feet are bigger than mine. It’s only 2 weeks until school starts & today was the first chance we’ve had to get the boys new runners. They need 2 pairs – one for indoor PE & one pair for outdoor PE. Not only that but both also needed cleats for soccer. It was always going to be an expensive outing so I wanted to try the outlet first in the hope of saving a few cents – & I am a prize bargain hunter!

I expected maybe to buy bigger than their current runners (which were last years school runners), it’s a standing joke with my elder son that I never buy him anything that fits. His current runners are a size smaller than me & he hasn’t complained about them being too small yet. So you can imagine my surprise when he began trying on two sizes bigger. It’s ridiculous, either it’s something to do with the style he’s chosen or his toes are crammed into the current shoes. I suppose one freak pair you can allow with style theory, but all his shoes were two sizes bigger. At least we managed to tick off all the shoes we needed in one trip & for a lot less than we would have paid in the regular stores. However I will have to go back soon & replace the home runners because now I feel guilty that they are probably too small!

 

The box…

You know when very young kids, babies or toddlers prefer to play with the box rather than the toy that was in it? Well my 2 boys at 7&9 still like to do that – especially the elder one. I swear than one of these days you will see him on hoarding buried alive the amount of junk he insists on keeping, usually boxes. I remember once when hubby sent him out to put the paper recycling in the bag outside, he came back with more than he went with! Anyway, today I took delivery of one of those fancy cold water filter machines because I’m fed up of filling the little Britta jug filter, the fridge doesn’t have it’s water dispenser, & the ice maker is broken (I hate that fridge!). So thanks to Costco online I was able to go all out & purchase something that not only does hot & cold water on tap, but it also self cleans & filters tap water through a Britta filter so I don’t even have to buy those gigantic drums of water that sit on top. Unfortunately the meanies don’t supply a bottle so I will have to purchase at least one.

As you can imagine the box was tall (about 4ft) & square (about 16ins square), & of course it had all sorts of additional packaging inside. No sooner was the box empty when it was whisked away by the boys & carted upstairs. Hubby questioned them as to what on earth they were going to do with it, ‘make cat playstation dad!’ Actually quite a good idea until I saw my hot glue gun disappearing up there a short time later, along with my really good kitchen scissors. In no time at all the floor was littered with cardboard bits, hot glue was running down the side of the shelves & my meter ruler from my craft had also found its way up there at some point.

To be fair I can see how fun it will be for our cats as they love to use cardboard to scratch on, but I’m not sure the holes the boys have cut will be big enough for a squirrel let alone our two porkers!

Still, it’s a nice idea & hopefully the cats will try it out at least once just to keep the boys happy & all their time & effort won’t be wasted. I bet it’s out in the recycling this time next week so watch this space…