Hanging out at the cabin

Well, it's the Easter holidays and we've been up at the cabin since Saturday. Both the hubby and I are working from here until Wednesday, as well as enjoying a little R&R. The only problem now is that I am sick, Keira is sick and now Per is getting sick. That is no fun...especially when we're expecting two families on Thursday. Come Thursday, this house will be 12 people full! Can you believe it? I'm just stressing out thinking about the amount of food that has to be made.

We went shopping today to stock up, but two cart fulls of food and we're still not done. So, we'll go at it again tomorrow!

Per really wants me to make this yummy lamb tagine dish, but one of the key ingredients is sweet potatoes. Hmmm...that will be really easy to find up here in the mountains.

Now how does this chair work again?

Camping out on the floor

Keira "helping" me make dinner

After dinner fun

Nothing like a little light reading after dinner

Saturday morning art fun

Fun activites at 7:00am on a Saturday morning...Good thing they're Crayola washable pens or I'd be having a heart attack!

Exhaustion is setting in

And it's only 7:30am! I am tiiiiiiiiiiired. Shall I say it again? I am tiiiiiiiiirrred!

Keira has been acting up the past couple of days again. It started with not wanting to go upstairs for her bathtime, to wanting to sit on the potty when she doesn't really need to, wanting me to sit with her during TV time, etc. I guess she seems to need some mamma attention...but, last night? Whew!

She didn't sleep well. Lots of squirming around in the middle of the night. At 2:00am, It was so bad that we had to turn on the lights to wake her up. She cried and cried and cried. I couldn't seem to console her. If I tried to hug her or kiss her, she pushed me away. But, then if I left her alone then she would get even more upset at me. I think she's mad at me for some reason.

She ended up sitting on my lap (not letting me hug her) for a while and crying. Then the crying subsided and she just sat there, but I wasn't allowed to touch her. It progressed to laying her head on my chest and then I was allowed to touch her and give her a kiss.

This is so frustrating. I don't know what's wrong. It seems that she wants me, but she doesn't want me. That's she's mad at me, but then I'm forgiven.

We didn't get to sleep again until 3:00am. I had to get up at 5:30am. Sigh! It'll be a long day today.

Veggies, Mmmmm.....

Have you ever seen a kid who loves her veggies as much as this one? She's eating choi sum (a chinese vegetable) which has been stir fried in garlic. We almost ate up a whole package just the two of us. We sneaked a couple from Per's plate too.

Hop, Hop, Hop to Hoppeland

Here we are at Hoppeland with a couple of friends and their son, Martin. The kids enjoyed themselves immensely while the parents got to sit, enjoy a cup of coffee and some nice conversation.

Ms. Keira tried a bunch of hew things today which she hadn't tried before. She was so much more brave when it came to the new stuff...trampoline jumping, slides, climbing over things. There were no arguments going to bed tonight! She was snoring before the lights went out! :)

Climbing, climbing, climbing

Success!

Martin making sure that Keira is ok crossing The Divide

Going through the tunnel with Martin

Crossing the Big Divide alone

How does this trampoline thing work anyway?


Bumping into a new friend on the trampoline

Here's Martin, isn't he a cutie?

Giddy yap, horsie!

Saturdays

What a challenging day Saturdays can be.

It all starts off with the fact that I am still tired from the week and would love to sleep in. Ha! Ha! What does that word mean anymore? Keira wakes up bright and early at 6:30am and she is a big grumpo, to boot. She cries and acts up and nothing seems to make her happy. She wants to dress herself. She doesn't want to dress herself. She wants to pee. She doesn't want to pee. She wants to read. She doesn't want to read. It takes most of the morning to calm her down. I think I get payback on Saturdays for not being around during the week.

Then, there's the errands that have to be run..all the things that I am unable to do during the week. And to top it off, stores are not open late here and so I rush out like a maniac in the morning, with grocery list and 'to-do' list in hand trying to get everything as done as fast as I can so that I can get home and spend some time with my family.

When you're in a rush, you just like things to go like clockwork. No hesitation. No interruptions. Just go go go.

Well, I'm not the only one who rushes out early in the morning to do the shopping. It seems that all the elderly folk in the city have the same idea. They are at the shopping center bright and early at 9:50am, ten minutes before everything opens, hovering in front of the stores waiting for the doors to open. Everthing is so SLOOOOW with them. They drive slow. They park slow. They walk slow. And, when they're in line to pay, it's painful to watch them slowly take their items out of their cart and place each item carefully on the conveyor belt like they have all the time in the world. Meanwhile, I am the one behind them, tapping my foot impatiently, making loud sighing sounds which in secret sighing language meanss, "hurry up! what's your problem?" It's all to no avail, though. They obviously don't get my psychic messages and probably don't care if I'm in a rush anyway.

Urg.