Sorry, i've got nothing today. I'm super tired. Wednesday the kids had a snow day, and today Daynah woke up puking. I sent the other three off to their respective schools only to be called at 10:30 because Melyssa had thrown up. So far its just the two of them, but i hold out little hope that the other two will be spared. Tomorrow is looking like it might be a snow day as well...they are calling for anywhere between 10-20 cm of snow. That damn groundhog better be telling me spring is around the corner on Saturday. Seriously i've had more then enough winter....

Today has been a really great day. This morning after Peter left to take the girls to the bustop, i headed out to their school. It was time for their monthly awards ceremony, and while Juleigha didn't know it she was receiving an award. It's called a Dragon Power Award. Its given to students who show that they are kind to others, set a good example for others, are responsible students and cooperate well. None of the three girls knew i was going to be there, so when Daynah came in with her class and she spotted me she was excited. After a few short presentations, the Kindergarten was the first grade to receive their awards. Juleigha looked so happy and proud when she heard her name called. Seeing her smile just warmed my heart. After the awards assembly was over i was able to pull her aside for a few pictures. I wanted to get her picture done with the principal, but she is such a shy sweetie that she she was having none of that.

I was so thrilled when bedtime rolled around tonight. It wasn't even like it was a terribly busy or awful day. But right around 5 o'clock the kids just seemed to go completely nuts and fight and get on each others nerves. If i was a drinking woman, tonight i would surely have been pounding them back lol.

Okay so i really don't have anything exciting to post about tonight. My eyes are tired from working on the new layout (isn't it pretty??!!). I'm totally in love with it. I really loved my old layout, but just felt like a change...i'm feeling like a new me, and so the blog needed to reflect that.

Tomorrow morning the girls have dance class bright and early. I can't believe their recital is only 7 weeks away tomorrow. They are dancing to the song "Cabin Fever" from The Muppets Treasure Island. They are too cute when they are practicing.

And i'm going to write it down here too, so maybe one of you can hold me accountable. I seriously need to get back to scrapbooking, i'm so incredibly far behind. So if you want to ask me every once in awhile if i've done any, that would be great.

Okay off to bed...the girls dance is at 9am...i was so not thinking that thru when i signed them up LOL.

~Just call me Betty Playdoh~

I spent this morning at school with Juleigha and Melyssa. They will be receiving their very first report cards next week, and today was my day to come in and observe them in class and then get a chance to ask any questions i had of the teacher. The girls were thrilled to have me there with them, I got to see a sampling of their work, and from the sentences written about Melyssa's pictures it just confirms that she has QUITE the imagination lol. It was so great to see how much Juleigha was participating in circle time, i think every time her teacher asked a question her hand shot up. Her teacher let me know that she has come such a long way since school began, and that even one day Juleigha was in the block centre and she acted out a whole fairy tale (she couldn't remember which one) and said that seeing her do that just blew here away because the Juleigha that started K this fall would never do that in a million years lol. We were told that Juleigha has such a strength in drawing and letters which we already knew, and we were told that on Tuesday she is being awarded a Dragon Power award!! A Dragon Power award is given to students that are respectful to others, set a good example for others and just in essence try their hardest. I can not wait to see her face on Tuesday when her name is called at the assembly...she is going to be so happy. We talked about how the teacher was coming along with picking up Juleigha-ease and she said she gets it most of the time, has her repeat a bunch and if not calls in the translator (Melyssa lol). Melyssa is doing great as well...no concerns there. She's a bit of a goof at times and loves to be the centre of attention...which is so very true. Where Juleigha excels in letters, her strength lies in numbers, which their teacher finds fascinating lol (as if because they are twins they are supposed to be exactly alike). End result the girls are doing fabulously and there are no concerns with either of them.

By now you are probably wondering about the title lol. While there we got to see them play as well as do activities. Both girls were playing at the playdoh centre for quite some time. All that was there was some pink playdoh, and it had been well loved. The stuff was hard and crumbly and quite difficult to roll flat. So this afternoon after lunch, the kids helped me make playdoh for their class. We made purple playdoh with grape kool-aid. We made orange and green playdoh colored with food colouring. And the best of all, we made chocolate playdoh with cocoa in it (seriously smells delish!). We worked on making the playdoh all afternoon and the girls are so proud to be taking it into class tomorrow.

So ya...just call me Betty Playdoh :)

I got the best mail today!!

I've lived here in Canada for almost 10 yrs now, and the past two presidential elections I've wanted to vote, but didn't know exactly how to go about it. Back in December i was cruising around the US consulate site for information on the documents i needed to finally get around to getting the kids US birth certificates, when i came across a vote from abroad link. I eagerly clicked on it and read over the site with a huge smile on my face. I filled out the form online, printed it up and mailed it off.

Today in the mail i got my updated voter registration card!! This card confirms I'm a registered voter for the state of Maryland and it has my married name on it. I called the voter office this afternoon to check to see when i would receive my absentee ballot in the mail, and they are expecting them in the mail any day now and will mail them out to those absentee voters as soon as they arrive. I'm beyond stoked!! I can not wait to cast my vote in the primary election, as well as the presidential election.

So i've been going thru a bunch of stuff lately, trying to shut the door on some things that happened awhile ago. I'm trying to reconnect with some people that have previously hurt me, because I feel like if i don't I might always walk around with this jaded outlook on life, and i just don't want to feel that way anymore. Moving on though....the last time i posted i promised i would come back the next day and talk about Disney and share some pictures. Well life got away from me lol, so here i am today to keep that promise (and hopefully take the first step to getting back on the daily blogging horse lol).

So we left for my parents house in Maryland on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We hit the road around 830 am, which meant if all went well we'd arrive at my parents place about 830 that night. All was going well, we were making good time, the kids were in great moods, we were just about to stop for lunch. We were a mile away from the rest stop, when Peter accelerated to pass a tractor trailer, as soon as he did that something broke in the car. We stopped for lunch and then when we got back in the car preceeded to spend the next hour searching for somewhere to get the car checked and fixed. The first exit we got off at was just a small town where all the garages couldn't even look at us because they were either at lunch or it was too close to thanksgiving for them to even bother with us. So we got back on the highway and got off at the second exit and lucked into a Chevy Dealership. This is where we spent the next three hours of our lives as they repaired the car. Thankgod this place had a few toys, free drinks and all the popcorn you could eat. The kids were angels i tell ya, seriously they have never been better behaved in their lives. Got back on the road and finally arrived at my parents house around 1 am Thanksgiving Day.
We spent Thanksgiving and Friday with my parents,and then Saturday we loaded everyone back into the car for the surprise portion of our trip. Thats right we had not told the kids about heading to Disney up until this point. The kids were stoked. They all wanted to see Mickey and Minnie. We left around 8 am that morning and drove till about 9 or 930 that night. We got as far as Georgia, and decided to stop for the night. We finished up the drive (5 more hours) the next morning arriving at the Old Folks Trailer park around 230 that afternoon.
We had tickets to go to Mickey's Xmas Party that night, so after a little relaxing and a stop for dinner we headed out to the Magic Kingdom for our first Disney experience. Lucas who is obsessed with trains was head over heels in love once we set foot on the monorail. We entered the Magic Kingdom at the perfect time that night, right after we got there we got to witness the fireworks over Cinderella's castle. Seeing the looks of awe on my children's faces, and feeling the excitement in my own heart, literally made tears spring to my eyes. All my life i have wanted to go to Disney, and finally here i was...and i was getting to share my first time with my children, nothing could have made me happier at that point. After the fireworks we headed out thru the park. We rode the teacups and Cinderella's caresoul, the kids met Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts (who made Juleigha cry). Then it was time to head back to the castle to take in the xmas show and then the xmas parade. We were seated right up front for the parade, and the girls played in the parade route with the disney helpers until the parade started. Just before the start of the parade Lucas crashed on my lap, and he stayed that way until the next morning. The poor boy was carried sleeping out of the park, and even stayed asleep as i changed him into his jammies that night.


The next day we tackled Magic Kingdom again. This time the kids got to meet Mickey, Minnie, Pluto and Goofy. They rode the flying dumbo's and the carousel again. Again Lucas' favorite part was taking the steam train out to Mickey's toontown. The girls really enjoyed taking in Mickey and Minnie's houses...and Daynah rode her first rollercoaster.


The second day we spent at Animal Kingdom. We literally walked every inch of this park,and this was my least favorite day. The kids got to meet Raifiki, Baloo, King Louie and Pocahontas. Meeting Pocahontas IS my disney memory from the whole trip though. When we got to where she was, there was no line. So the girls got her autograph and we got a picture with her. Afterwards since there still wasn't a line, Pocahontas played peek-a-boo with Melyssa. Seeing the look of pure, unadulterated glee on her face...seriously it was the best thing about the whole entire day and is what i think back on the most when i think of our trip to Disney. Of course we had to ride yet another train to get out to Raifiki's area, which Lucas again loved lol. We also took in the safari ride, which was amazing, seeing the animals that close up, but again i could go to the zoo to see animals and the kids weren't all together interested.


Our last day i convinced Peter to go to MGM studios, which was seriously the best decision we made the entire trip. Peter thought they wouldn't have fun here, and honestly they enjoyed it the most. Daynah loved the high school musical show. They all loved running around the Honey I Shrunk the Kids area. Lucas had a blast at Playhouse Disney, Daynah even got called up to be on stage. The kids got to see Lightening McQueen and Mater. They met Woody and Buzz. We got front curb seats for the parade, which seriously was THE best parade in my book. All the walking characters came up and shook the kids hands, gave them hi-fives, really interacted with them. At one point right before Ariel drove up, one of the Santa girls walking in front came up to Juleigha (who was wearing an Ariel shirt) and told her how much she liked her shirt and that Ariel was coming up next. And when Ariel drove by, she too waved and pointed out Juleigha's shirt. Just the best day...loved every minute of this park.


The next day we started our drive home, stopping for the night in West Virginia and then arriving back at our house Friday night. We had a great vacation, but i was never happier to be in my own bed (we had slept on a very uncomfortable sofa bed the whole time we were gone, while the kids had very cozy beds). And for those who didn't know, we spent the trip with my inlaws, and we survived. And while they were totally annoying at times, i wanted to strangle them at others, there was no way we would have been able to do the trip without them. They were a huge help with carrying the kids, riding the rides and being another set of eyes. So there you have it...our disney vacation. We had a blast, but i don't want to go back anytime soon lol. We took almost 600 pictures, and its only been recently that i've made it thru looking at them all. The ones i posted are a few of my favorites, not because they are all great photography, but because they spark a memory.