HAPPY EASTER!!! // OUR BUNNY BRUNCH :)

Another holiday is here and it's one of the BIG ONES, you guys!  (As opposed to the ridiculously small ones that nobody knows or cares about because they don't follow the same Instagram accounts that I do.)  I'm so glad we're all on the same page for celebrations this holiday around ;) 

HOORAY.  FOR.  CELEBRATIONS!!!!!

In honour of Easter this year, we decided to host a Bunny Brunch with friends and family that happened to be stay-cationing for spring break or weekending from work.  The gathering was smaller than usual (with so many of our Kuwait friends out of country!), but it was special nonetheless and that is what we aim for with all of the traditional gatherings we miss out on back home.  Phil and I really want to make sure the girls feel the BIG DEAL that comes along with the MAJOR HOLIDAYS, regardless of how celebrated they are in the desert.  Basically, if our family in Canada is rushing to get showered, dressed, and into the car for a road trip to a Great Aunt's house, you can bet that we'll be scrambling to make a special day happen in Kuwait too :)

Saturday morning was the BIG DAY :)  We did our best to delay the egg hunt until all of our guests arrived, but clearly we're more optimistic than the average parent and you can only distract a three year old from EGGS EVERYWHERE for so long.  Luckily, Grandma Barb came early and she got to participate in the hype of a threenager's hunt :)  The Easter Bunny rocked it this year, leaving eggs in the cutest places.  In her dollhouse, her play kitchen, her bookshelf, etc.  WAY TO GO, E.B.!!!!

For breakfast, we had a yogurt and croissant bar along with some freshly baked goods from some of our guests.  It was DELICIOUS!  Also, I got to use my fancy new THERMOS which makes serving coffee SO MUCH EASIER.  No more of that making a pot of coffee and immediately putting on a new pot of coffee.  There's a pot of coffee in the thermos and one sitting in the coffee maker.  The rushing around scenario is GONE-ZO and I'm pretty sure I want to spend the rest of my week serving coffee to those that want to get caffeinated :) #dreamcometrue

Both of the girls were wearing bunny shirts for the occasion, but do you think I could slow either of them down long enough to sit side-by-side for a photo?  HA.  This is the only picture I have of them together.  And they aren't even looking.  And you can't even tell that they are both wearing adorable bunny shirts.  But.....at least they look like they are getting along!  You can't have EVERYTHING ;)

Half-way through our bunny brunch, Nory's mind was set on having a tubby, which meant Juliet's mind was set on having a tubby, which means Phil's mind told him it was easier to just HAVE A TUBBY.  So, I chilled with our guests while my entire family abandoned us for the bathtub :)  Oy.

This time of year, we also feel a little homesick.  It's SO CLOSE to being June, but also SO FAR AWAY.  And when your child is hyped up on chocolate it feels FOREVER and EVER away.  (So that last part is our fault, but whatever.)

We miss you, CANADA!  We can't to see you for other major holidays!  Like Father's Day!  And Nory's half-birthday!   Ha ;)

XOXO   

A Hunt of a Different Sort.

I think the universe is trying to tell me that at 28 years of age, eggs are a little boring at this point.  Vintage, even.  Why else would my work week (ah-hem, EASTER SUNDAY!) begin with three grown men using recycling boxes, rulers, and whatever else they can to save me from a seemingly fearless gecko in my classroom (who excels at hide-and-seek)? 

It's happened to me before.  In fact, it's ONLY HAPPENED TO ME BEFORE according to science department history.  And I'd like to tell you that this makes ZERO SENSE.  Because I'm the only gal in the department and I'm definitely the MOST AFRAID PERSON ON EARTH of things that are unpredictable.  Anyways....

The last time this happened was at parent-teacher night at the start of last year (a scary night to begin with, ha!).  This time, it was on Easter Sunday.  At 6:30 in the morning, when I was still half-sleeping and still fully-not-present because I just wished I was home with Nory....in Canada.  Alas, I sucked it up and went into work, walked up the three flights of stairs to my classroom, unlocked the door, switched on the lights and then BAMMMMMMM!!!!!!  (I sure as heck feel there was a BAMMMMMM).  A tiny, little yellow thing (but oh-so-ferocious!) was scurrying all over my teaching space, showing a particular passion for my desk area.  Ughhhhhh.  In that very moment, I felt it was the perfect reason to go home with a 'sudden illness', but the "adult/mother" inside of me decided I should at least ATTEMPT to solve the problem (which it indeed WAS) before calling it a day....

And so, I kindly asked Mr. Gecko (obviously he was a boy) to play around in another's class.  Or outside.  I even told him that there is chocolate in my fridge and I was sorry that the Easter Bunny might have missed him and that if he could just move closer to my door, rather than right beside my desk by the fridge, that I could get him a delicious piece of it......

He was unresponsive.  On top of everything else that he was. 

So then I proceeded to holler for help and I'm CERTAIN that - in retrospect - Mr. Gecko WOULD HAVE BEEN more cooperative with me in an effort to avoid the three grown men that made their way to my classroom.  The poor guy horrifying creature put up a good fight (extending the search by MINUTES with his speed and agility), but was eventually released to the great (and hot!) outdoors - tail-less and (I imagine) scared as all get out.  I, on the other hand, closed my door with relief and prayed that his friends didn't get word of the incident.....(and offered my once-denied chocolate to my science department heroes, of course!).   

Phewf.  What a hunt!  

Now that his busy season is over, I think I will write a letter to the E.B. and tell him that:

1)  I am STILL enthralled by the same-old "egg" hunt idea.  No need to switch it up just yet.

2)  Please do NOT forget about the gecko next year.  (Although if I were writing this letter to Santa, it would be a different story).

Time to get ready for another day on the battlefield.  Let's hope my 86 students are the only challenges I face :)  

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

Since we had to work today, the Easter Bunny visited our house yesterday morning.  He was such a thoughtful bunny, leaving Nory many goodies including two Easter-themed books (well, one was from Auntie Dana!), a stuffed little bunny, her very first markers, and some food-related things.  There were plastic eggs scattered around too, but Nory was much more focused on her colouful spoons and fluffy rabbit to really get into the searching aspect of Easter traditions.  (By the way, not to sound "ungrateful", but I think the Easter Bunny missed the "FLUFFY & FUZZY BAN" memo.  Let's just say that wee fluffy rabbit is not as fluffy as she used to be.....)

After work today, Nory used her flashy Crayola markers for the very first time.  I printed off some Easter-themed colouring pages from the Crayola website (ah-hem, best website of all-time), and she went to town on a couple of them :)  I have a few more ready to go for Earth Day too.  Can you tell I'm excited for her to embrace this "colouring" thing on a regular basis? 

She continues to be irritated by messy hands.  The girl DOES NOT like things stuck to her hands whatsoever.  Even if it's delicious cake.  Even if it's pretty stickers.  Even if it's colourful marker-made-marks that you can't even feel.  So after we coloured, we washed our hands immediately and Daddy took care of the tile floors that were accidentally mistaken as colouring pages.....

Anyways.  Thank you E.B. for all the Easter treats!  Thank you Crayola for being the greatest company on Earth.  And thank you to Phillip for deep-breathing his way through every messy activity we get into these days. 

Wishing all of you back home a happy, SNOW-FREE Easter!!! We love you! XO

FIVE for FRIDAY!

1)  I have been CRAVING lemon cupcakes for a couple of days now.  Any guesses as to what just came out of the oven?  Mmmmm.  The house smells incredible!

2)  This morning we saw the apartment we are moving into this June.  It was MASSIVE (in apartment terms) and lined with windows, making it bright and happy.  There are three bedrooms and three bathrooms (like our current one), but the living room area is much bigger and so is the kitchen!  The complex itself seems nice too.  There's a pool, fitness room, outdoor play area, BBQ's and tables to enjoy the outdoors.  A newly built sandbox also.  And kids running all over the place!  (I think Nory is really going to like it!)

3)  The season finale of Parenthood is downloaded and ready to go on my computer.  It's weird, I want to watch it but I don't want to watch it.  It's one of my FAVOURITE SHOWS OF ALL-TIME and I sense it might be ending for good this season........BOO.

4)  This afternoon I completed the craft that we've been working on throughout the week.  Here it is, IN HONOUR OF EASTER:

Happy Easter Everyone!!!!! XOXO

5)  Two months today until we're officially done at our current school.  Two months and two days until we're back in Canada!  I can't wait to see all of you and make some memories in that dollhouse of ours.  COME ON, JUNE!

Why HELLO to you too, My Inner Martha Stewart!

With it being spring break, I finally have time to do some of the things I've been LONGING to do for a while now.  One of which is crafts.  One of which is blogging.  Both of which have happened so far and I am THRILLED with the achievement :)

When Nory went to bed the other night, I brought all of my out-of-arms-reach crafting supplies to the living room and had a full-out hay day.  I showed pretty good crafting stamina too, considering how out of shape I am (I believe this is a thing, with blogging too).  Mmmm hmmmmm....I finished five Easter eggs, two carrots and one bunny before cleaning everything up, packing it all away, and waiting anxiously for Nory to wake up the next morning.  [Please notice that, YES, my inanimate bunny has a heart, and YES, it's one of my signature traits in the world of Arts and Crafts.  Ah-hem, such hearts have also been spotted on inanimate-inanimate objects made by me, such as teacups and spoons.]

What's a holiday-lover to do with a big box of felt, a glue gun, a sleeping baby and an upcoming H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.?  Begin to celebrate the next big event, OF COURSE!  EASTER!!!!

Nory's starting to get the hang of the felt boards a little more now.  If you recall, our last felt experience was at Christmas time and she was big into UN-decorating the tree after I took the time and care to decorate it.  Now, she realizes that these sorts of things STICK and actually contributes to the "putting up" portion of the activity.  Don't get me wrong, she still loves to clean sweep the boards, but she is DEFINITELY getting more interested in the putting up process.  And that to me is a WIN!

Seems she is drawn to the colour orange.....

Can spring break live on forever? We're really having too much fun for it to come to an end on Saturday....

HAPPY EASTER!!!!!

At school today I had one very frustrated boy ask me "Miss, what do EGGS have to do with BUNNIES?!!!!!" The truth is, I have no idea, but I do know that I LOVE this traditional combo.

Anyways, we hope the Easter Bunny gave you the joy of hunting for eggs this morning! And if there wasn't a hunt, we hope you had some SWEETS to indulge in with family. Here are some photos from a city-wide Easter egg hunt we embraced in London. The hunt was organized by Faberge to raise money for elephants and children (<---- awesome choices, right?!).






Sending you lots of love and CHOCOLATE!

XOXO

Pre-Easter Preparation.

This afternoon I came home to "egg hunt practice" - a really sweet activity created and organized by Phillip. While I was out, he hid post-it messages in all of my most-visited places around the house - the peanut butter cupboard, the iron pill place, under my computer, on my Kindle screen, in my wardrobe, and on the bathroom mirror! It was really fun to find them and he gave me little hints to help me out! (I wonder if he will be this nice during the official hunt....). My favourite find reads, "I'm so happy we're together!", although a close second says, "you're my gingersnap cookie!" (a new nickname, I suppose?). He's quite the charmer, eh?!

Hunnie, you get an A+ for originality! Thanks for making my day (yet again!).

LOVE YOU! xo