We started out  at Colasanti’s for a day of family fun.

PIG MAN!!!!!

I’m starting to come out of the new mom slump. You know, combing my hair, washing my face, and sometimes even showering before I leave the house.

The first stop we made was the petting zoo, at Hanna’s request of course. “OH MUM! Lookit the deer! He has spots like bambi!

These goats were so sweet.

There were lots of things to see and do. We had a lovely time.

After Colasanti’s, we headed back to Nanna and Poppa’s for a little birthday cake.

Even Armenie got in on the cake action. If it had’ve been anyone but Oma they would’ve been in so much shit!

This photo pretty much sums up the mood of the whole day.

And this one.

NEXT UP: PINK PINATA!

Hanna is loving all the attention from her great aunties and great grandma.

And her older cousins.

We had such a special day.

Next up, a 40th wedding anniversary, Mother’s Day and Syx’s birthday. Hang tight, more updates to come.

I always chuckle when I see how sweet these big scary guys are with my daughters. I’m totally ruining their street cred with this post.

Check out some more photos of these guys over on Syx’s blog.

Happy birthday big guy. It seems like just yesterday I was holding your tiny newborn self in the hospital, time it goes by real fast.

We had previously filled the bottom of our barrel with a few handfuls of rocks for drainage and then filled ‘er up with potting soil. It took about 2 20lbs bags to fill it and we left a good 5 or 6 inches of room from the top so little hands had room to play. We gave the dirt a good soak before we were ready to plant our forest.

Hanna pointed to each spot she thought the plants should go and was QUITE specific about which one go where. The star shaped dish (a buck at the dollar store) made a perfect pond which had to be right in the middle.

After we got our landscaping down, we had to bring in the fairies and animals to check things out.

I’m so excited about how cute this turned out and how excited Hanna has been to water it and move all the little animals and fairies around SO carefully and fill the little bathtub and pond for them. Liz came back from their Easter adventure with even more treasures for our little garden and Hanna and I may have ended up at Dilly Dally today and picked up a racoon and skunk to join the clan. It’s going to be fun watching this little garden change and grow.

I dreamed about these days spent in a yard with our hands in the dirt, planting magic and just dancing. I can tell you that there is nothing like these sunny days, nothing.

Sunday
After our Easter egg hunt we went to Uncle Dodge’s for a potluck brunch with friends that I was too busy whipping up my favorite pancakes at to document and then we were off to my parents for a turkey dinner.

I love that she does a fancy table for the holidays even though it’s just us. Liz keeping telling me that I’m a crazy holiday lady, I think I come by it honestly.

Monday
I wanted to give Syx a day to work and get the kids out of the house for awhile so I had Science World planned so when Phanie called and wanted to come by and I had to reluctantly decline. After hanging up I had a lapse in sanity when I looked outside and saw the sun shining again and decided that we would take a transit adventure out to tsawwassen and hang out at their place instead for once. I knew it was going to be a long one but like I said, I was drunk on sunshine and was up for the challenge. We started out strong, getting ourselves fed, dressed and out of the house with SNACKS PACKED in record time.

And I have to say, the journey was mostly without incident. By the time we finally reached the last leg of our journey, everyone was getting tired but we were still safe from meltdown. We had been on the bus for about 20 minutes so I was anticipating our stop coming up when I heard some explosive poo noises coming from Armenie’s general direction. Upon inhalation, my fears were confirmed- this was definitely going to be bad. Armenie started to cry. Trying to plan my next move I looked over at Hanna who is now sprawled out asleep across the seats. Armenie is still fussing in her stroller so I pull her out hoping I have a few minutes before our stop. She’s super sweaty because the bus is so hot so I pull her top half out of her pajama style onsie and check out the poo damage at the same time- it. was. everywhere. HOW DO BABIES DO THIS?

Just then I looked up and saw a McDonald’s. Funny how Phanie had said the stop we want is in front of the McDonald’s..I had asked the bus driver to let me know when it was my stop since I definitely don’t know the area well. I guess he had forgot. So now I have a shitty half naked baby under one arm and I’m trying to gently wake Hanna and get her on her feet with the other arm. Hanna’s eyes are rolling back in her head and people on the bus start laughing. ARE YOU KIDDING? How about “Wow lady, you look like you have your hands full, CAN I HELP YOU and NOT EFFING LAUGH?” I somehow managed to get Hanna into the stroller even though now she’s screaming and then the bus driver asks me if I need him to use the wheelchair lift to get us down? I couldn’t help but laugh AT HIM and ask him how else I was going to get off the bus.

I ended up stripping Armenie down at the side of the road while Hanna looked on, stunned from the stroller. I was so so so lucky I had a little chocolate egg in the stroller I bribed her to stay calm with while I changed Arms. What was even more ridiculous than the sight of us by the side of the road, was the fact that I had to take pictures of it.

After we made it to Phanie’s, the afternoon was wonderful – the kids played pretty much without incident and I was pleasantly surprised by Hanna’s interaction with Chloe. She’s not always the gentlest with ‘big babies’ like Arlo and the past few times we’ve all hung it out it seemed as if she had Chloe in the ‘baby’ category. I’m not sure what detail changed her mind but I think they bonded a bit over their mutal love of bunnies and kitties. I can see them in a few years leaving Moses behind being all “Go play with your cars Momo, we’re playing kitties right now, NO BOYS!”

I can also see Moses and Hanna getting into a lot of trouble together…… feet on the floor kids, feet on the floor.

Kevin made us an amazing butter chicken dinner complete with chai. It was so nice to have both of our families all spend time together, it’s such a rare treat!

Also this stroller has had to come everywhere with us as of late, usually with Mama Cat (the stuffy in the picture), who is the flavor of this week.

Speaking of our week, we went over to Bowen Island earlier this week for a much needed catch up with our friends, the Segals. Since the last time we saw them, not only had our family grown, so had theirs. The story of their adoption is a pretty amazing one. Whenever I have day to day challenges with motherhood and feel like I want to throw in the towel, I think of Andrea trekking across West Africa with three kids in tow. Damn, right? Gives the term supermom a whole new meaning.

The boys are nothing short of amazing, all three of them. I know I can’t stop talking about how kids are growing and changing in the blink of an eye but seriously – Finn was just a little boy the last time I saw him – now he’s almost 8. Look at those soulful eyes of his. He reminds me of The Little Prince.

We couldn’t get them to all sit still for a decent photo, try and try as we might. We thought we might have a few good ones until we dumped the card and they were all hazy. We then realized there was something sticky on the lense. Ironic, no?

Hanna and the twins got along famously but it was painfully clear that she only had eyes for Finn. She followed him and his friend Arlo from next door all over the place and was heartbroken when she wasn’t allowed to retreat with them to Arlo’s to play Xbox.

Spending time with this family makes me want to be a better parent, wife, person. It was incredible to catch up and be able to hug and kiss the kids.

Tongiht I’m last minute getting ready for the Easter bunny’s arrival and feeling weird about making my own family traditions. It’s all so very grown up and weird when you think about how magical these moments were when you were a kid and now know it was your parents the whole time. It just feels really big to be responsible for that much magic.

It’s also weird a little because I can’t help but recognize that Easter is a religious holiday. A holiday of a religion that I adamantly don’t practice. Growing up Roman Catholic, Easter was obviously a big deal. I don’t know, it’s not that I don’t believe in a higher power and am an unspiritual lump! Organized religion just doesn’t have a place in my life. I fully support my children making their own decisions about their spirituality when I feel they’re old enough to truly grasp the concepts, but I was not about to baptize them and link them forever to something that I don’t believe in, something that they might not either. It’s strange because I never thought this would be hard to talk about but it surprisingly is. /endthought. I might have to come back to this topic another day. We all just do what we think is the best thing for our kids but it makes me feel guilty sometimes, especially while I am still celebrating a catholic holiday with them.

Tomorrow, we’ll wake up and have a little egg hunt here and then head over to Dodge’s for a potluck breakfast and then out to my parent’s for a turkey dinner om nom nom. I’m tired already thinking of everything I have to do tonight. GO TO SLEEP HANNA, JUST GO TO SLEEP!!!!!

We had a few days of NO JACKETS before the usual rain came rolling back in.

So we had this holy amazing sunny sunny weekend with tee shirt weather and all, except it was a little bit tainted by Hanna’s hand-foot-mouth disease. Doesn’t that sound horrifying? It’s not as bad as you think, it just sounds worse. It’s actually a lot like the chicken pox except on your (you guessed it!) hands, feet and mouth. It started mid week with Hanna being super tired and running a strangely high fever of 103. It easily responded to Tylenol and she was acting pretty normal considering, a little tired but not grumpy and she didn’t have any other symptoms. I figured her body was fighting something off and we took it easy. By the time Friday rolled around there was no more sign of fever and the sun was shining full force so we went to the park with friends. It wasn’t until we stopped for lunch that I noticed the spots. Whomp whomp.

Spots and all, she played all day- it was too late to quarantine her. We spent the rest of the afternoon in our sunshiney front yard.

I’m glad she’s on the mend. She took the whole ordeal pretty well even though her hands and feet were OBVIOUSLY uncomfortable and swollen. She was lucky and hardly got any sores around her mouth. She ended up giving it to Yonas who bit her on her rashy hand. Ohhhhhhh kids.

Her rash didn’t stop her from spending a sunny Saturday outdoors either. Although she wouldn’t get out of her pajamas, she WOULD go outside and play.

We went out to my parents on Sunday and spent another afternoon just soaking up every single drop of vitamin D we could. One lesson we’ve learned over the past few sunny days is that Armenie is not like Hanna when it comes to the sun. Hanna seems to have some of my mom’s side’s native blood in her, she tans like you wouldn’t believe whereas Armenie, who was in direct sunlight for all of 3.5 minutes managed to get her face burned. And again the next day even wearing a hat. We’re talking a very minor burn but still, I’m going to have to keep this kid COVERED.

In LOLHanna news, I got this little gem today. She very casually says to me, over her bowl of blackberries:
“Mom I’m going to get married on Halloween to Marmalade…” pause “….but sometimes cats don’t like fireworks!” pause “….but we can trick or treat too because candy is good.”

As she’s starting to express the things she’s thinking our conversations get more and more amazing.

And Armenie is also amazing. Obviously. She’s growing every single second. I wake up next to a new baby every morning.

I couldn’t just post one of those.

These girls of mine. Geez.

How did I get this lucky?

The other day I made this amazing sausage bake with italian pork sausages that I splurged on from Pasture to Plate. I need to come up with some sort of recipe card situation for my favorite recipes because I’ve had some seriously good luck with some delicious new EASY PEASY CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP gluten free recipes lately. Another of the latest and GREATEST:

NO GRAIN PANCAKES aka heaven in my mouth

1 egg
2 ripe bananas
1 heaping tbsp almond butter

THAT’S IT. Liz upstairs puts vanilla and a scoop of coconut flour in hers, my friend Jody adds cinnamon. Myself made them this morning subbing peanut butter, adding vanilla and a scoop of almond meal but they are good just using the original. Make em smaller than regular pancakes, they’re a bit tricky to flip but not when you make them small. They are INCREDIBLY light and taste like banana bread. FIVE STARS across the board.

I also made this cauliflower fried ‘rice’ which is amazing. I didn’t have any of the fresh herbs or fish sauce that this recipe called for and I subbed gluten free soy sauce for coconut aminos because I’m not on a paleo diet. AND DOUBLED THE BACON BECAUSE BACON IS DELICIOUS. You can barely tell this isn’t a real fried rice dish and I think it has enough protein in it that you could serve it as a meal by itself but I made it last night for a potluck and it served as an amazing side dish.

Also worth mentioning is this delicious GLUTEN FREE crumble. I halved this recipe at my friend Jody’s suggestion because it makes plenty. I dumped it over some raspberries and cut up strawberries and baked for 45 minutes and it was DELICIOUS- like seriously amazing get-in-my-belly delicious. Like never make regular crumble with oats again delicious.

ONE MORE— I made this Chicken and Sweet Potato Stew for dinner tonight. It was easy, DELICIOUS and with a few modifications, gluten free. I was seriously amazed by this because at 4 hours in, it still looked like a pile of veggies with chicken thighs on top, but by 5 hours I took the chicken out, and off the bone and threw it back into a lovely steamy thick broth full of chunky mushrooms. The texture was amazing from the mushy sweet potatoes and made the base thick and sweet. The chicken was cooked to perfection and the mushrooms were chewy and juicy. ANOTHER winner!

I’ve been trying to be super thrifty with groceries because it was really upsetting to see so many things getting thrown out. I’ve been making more of an effort to meal plan, and base my meals around ingredients that are on sale. So far it’s been working. I never ever bothered with looking at flyers before but it’s really proved to be a great way to save money. Sometimes we go to two different grocery stores to get a better deal on bacon but SERIOUSLY WHY PAY $3 more for bacon?! It’s been working out really well.

I wish I had pictures of some of these amazing meals we’ve been eating but they seriously got gobbled up too fast to even think about it, plus my plating skills suck and the lighting in my kitchen is bad. I know some of you must be wondering how I manage to put a hot meal on the table with two little people in the way. Well, wonder no more, I give you:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Anyway, I’ll be excited to see how much we yield. We spent about $70 in seeds so hopefully we make it back in veggies. I think that’s a pretty realistic goal, right? And I’m hoping that next year we’ll be old pros at this and be able to plant a few more things. How amazing is it going to be to be able eat from our backyard! I am particularly excited about the pumpkins and the herb patch.

WE ALREADY HAVE SPROUTS!!!!

AND AND AND I have been looking for a half barrel to build a fairy garden for the kids in the backyard and my searches have ended up fruitless. UNTIL YESTERDAY WHEN LIZ CAME UP THE SIDEWALK PUSHING A WHEELBARROW WITH THIS:

LIZ IS THE BEST! Only cost a cool $15.

Armenie is doing this new thing where she sticks out her tongue and curls it up to touch the tip of her nose. It’s hilarious. Her coos and goos are growing so much more expressive and Hanna is the only one who’s made her laugh. She’ll bleat out the beginning of a laugh for anything else that she finds funny but hasn’t full out giggled yet for anyone but Hanna yet. In my round of cleaning yesterday I managed to find some of Hanna’s old more babyish toys and was able to lay A down on her tummy to explore them. EXPLORE THEM? Are you kidding me? She’s growing way way way too fast and I am completely marvelling in her sunshiney baby rays every single day. She is the most pleasant, sweet, adoring creature.

Hanna is attitude. She both amazes me and enfuriates me, often at the same time. I see so much of myself in her that it’s scary and every time I think of her being a teenager I want to apologize profusely to my parents.
She makes this face sometimes and looks 16.

Her vocab is growing by the second. I am constantly surprised by the sentences she puts together and the conversations we have. I try my best to pick thoughtful topics and sometimes I’m met with the quirkiest anecdotes. I keep a notebook filled with LOLHannas and notable sayings. Among my most recent favorites:

“Mom, my poo is brown and my pee is yellow, right?”

“I am fluffy like a pink cat.” (on the subject of her pink jacket)

“Mom, did you notice all the flowers that are coming out of the ground?” (I SHIT YOU NOT, she said this complete sentence as quoted)

She was right, the flowers are coming out of the ground in full force as Spring seems to finally be showing us what she’s got. Syx said he saw cherry blossoms downtown yesterday. I think we might have to take a walk tomorrow to find some!

We’ve been enjoying a lot of sunshine in our own front yard. We couldn’t keep the kids inside if we tried.

Does anyone else remember this book?

This was another of my favorites that I had forgotten about until I saw the cover. I was REALLY excited to bring this home and read it to Hanna tonight as it’s about her two favorite things PAINTING and CATS. I had to read it twice before she went to bed.

“And they dreamed that
A green cat danced
With a little pink dog

Till they all disappeared in a soft gray fog

And suddenly Brush woke up and Hush woke up. It was morning. They crawled out of bed into a big bright world. The sky was wild with sunshine.”

I love her singsongy sentences. They sound like lullabies.

We also came home with a new friend (I KNOW, I KNOW- I have NO self control)…

This is just the foal, her $21 mama was too high up on the shelf for Hanna to see (thank goodness). I think I’ll pick it up for her for her birthday though. I think she’ll be pretty stoked about it. I know I will be!