Weekend Passed

This Monday marked the passing of another year for me. Our camera is broken so I don't have any pictures to show the fun. But, fun there was!
We has sushi and cake with tons of friends and I heard one of the most beautiful renditions of Happy Birthday in my life. We have a number of friends who sing/sang in professional choirs such that they have the ability to take the mundane birthday song and pump it out in a manner that transplants me from my living room in Winnipeg to a fabulous auditorium, in France, where I am privy to a choral experience tailored for one!
I made them sing it twice, too. Once in the restaurant at their choosing, just to ensure public embarassment (but how could I be embarrased by such a harmonious sound!), and once at home for cake so that Corrina could have the full Mommy's-birthday experience! I marvelled at watching her sing along with them, swaying back and forth, locking eyes with me in joy! She, as a friend put it, has the ability to enjoy other people's happiness perhaps even more than she enjoys her own. At three, she has a truly empathic heart.
She caught me singing along at one point and said "no mommy, you don't sing!"

Dave gave me tickets to see Moulin Rouge performed by the Winnipeg Ballet for my present! I've been to the ballet once, courtesy of Dave. I am thrilled to have a second opportunity to experience the art of dance and music.

With the passing of my birthday often comes cooler weather. Growing up in BC I am familiar with blowing out the candles in the rain! Monday, my actual birthday, was a chilly day following a 25 degree Sunday, but I was okay with that because my favorite season remains Autumn.

I always find that I am much more inspired to do fall cleaning than spring cleaning because I get into a mood to nest for the winter. So, because it's been floating around my mind all week long, here is my list of autumn nesting activities that I hope to get to in at least the next month (these may be really boring for some, and interesting for others, but I just have to get them out of my head):

- relocate shelf from kitchen into dinning room for "family hobby activities"
- Raid freezer for frozen soup stuff from the summer and make soups on weekends (huck stuff over a year old, at least! Sadly I might not have much souping stuff left if I follow this rule!)
- Summer items down to basement/ Winter items up (in rubber maid bins)
- Buy more rubbermaid bins! Tackle the stinky basement so I don't put off doing laundry all winter long and spend the rest of my saturdays catching up!
- Switch toys from basement to play shelf and vise versa
- More hooks in entryway
- Hang closet cubby organizer or Frog in entry way for mitts/hats, etc... (i'm done with baskets. Too deep, too messy)

-Put Duffy on a diet (he's a cat)

-Hang photos EVERYWHERE!

- Windows: clean, cover in plastic, cover in plastic again

-shove vacum cleaner down ducts and turn on until I hear horrible clunking sounds coming from house or vacum.

-learn to spell vacuum

-find the shiny, metallic tape and double tape holes in ducts

- drape tarp over hole in roof, especially over Corrina's room

- buy slippers recommended by co-worker from MEC

-make/find more rugs that will inevitably become filled with kitty hair and thus maintain their softness all year round

- finally replace my one and only pair of runner/casual shoes/sneakers that are older than Corrina (now that I'm a professional!) consider the shoes of others in the household for replacement as well

- go un-shopping (return all the crap I bought, got home, and freaked out about over BPAs, and synthetic crap fabrics, made by children for children clothing. I'm not sure if this will induce the opposite effect of retail therapy, or double the effect of retail therapy. It will be like I'm the corporation and they are paying me for stuff I know is crap but they want to pretend is good to have!)

- Make more monogrammed art, from Corrina's art and other pretty paper

- sew a table runner

- sew some pillow covers from vintage scarves

- Read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

- read and create crafts around any book by Pheobe Gilman (jillian...)

I hope that our camera kicks in for the many fall adventures we have coming up!

Summer Holidays

We had an amazing summer vacation in British Columbia with our families! We visited with Grandma Judy and Martin on the farm, eating tons of fresh fruit and vegetables all day long! We fed apples to cows, ate figs, splashed in the pool (bathing suit photos not included!), had tractor rides, and played with the cricket doll from my childhood!

What's better than having one great grandparent to visit in BC? Having TWO set of grandparents to visit! Dave's parent's just moved out to good ol' BC and now the grandparents live 5 minutes away from each other. It was phenomenal to visit one place and see everyone we love. We stayed with Chris and Mary in their new place and moved between the two grandparent houses daily!
Our vacation was complete with river walks, late nights, fancy cookie making with Claire, Vancouver visits, games, swimming at lakes, mini golf, walks down memory lane with old friends, delicious meals, family bbq's, hanging out with good friends, and of course an ikea trip!
I often feel that September presents as more of a New Year than January. At home we are finally seeing sunny summer days bringing with them extended family fun times. This New Fall I am working with families at a great agency, Dave is heading up some exciting projects at our church, and Corrina has had a growth spurt. Well, at least I've deduced that she must have had a growth spurt because everyone we see says "wow, she's grown tallllleerrr..." Yup, kids do that, especially ones with tall parents! Anyway, Corrina told me her perspective on this after dinner today:
"Mom, when I was a baby you put baby food in my mouth and it made me grow very tall into a big girl!" And as she was going to bed last night: "Mommy, my tummy has a little bit of room left and I need to fill it a little bit more so the food can make me grow tall so I can be 5 and 18 and go to school!" Mommy: "going to sleep helps with that too!"
I think that our fall will hold a lot of growing like weeds for all of us in a way! Now that we are home and settled I hope to keep posting/keep you posted on the things we are doing.