SPRINKLED WITH LOVE!

This year, the most genuine couple was recruited to work at our school.  Their names are Zach and Sarah, and we bonded quickly over parenting, Survivor fandom, and jigsaw puzzles.  Their first baby (ahhh!!!!!!) is due the first week of May (YIPPEE!!!!!) and Emily and I called dibs on planning their baby shower :)  #partyplanningcentral   

When we had our pre-shower planning session, Sarah said she is a fan of two things:  COLOUR and SPRINKLES.  With Pinterest being only a click away, a "Sprinkled With Love" theme was born almost instantly.  Em arranged for a massive Bulk Barn bag of sprinkles to be picked up in Amsterdam over Spring Break and the rest was.................HISTORICALLY DELICIOUS :)

Here are some pictures from the party!  In retrospect, we should have called Guinness to set a new "MOST SPRINKLES CONSUMED AT A PARTY" title.  Oh well.  Next baby ;) 

 ^^^  You have no idea how many circles sprinkles are STILL taped to the wall.  Juliet took care of removing the lower ones.  I did the mid-section.  And I think I need to recruit all of the tall people in the building to remove the rest ;)

 

^^^  Water bottle labels are part of our signature party package.  This party was no exception :) 

 

^^^  Sprinkle center pieces.  Because....it was a SPRINKLES PAR-TAYYYYYY :)

^^^  Shower favours.  I wonder which day we will be lighting these candles.....

^^^  There were also sprinkles inside the batter, just in case you were curious. 

^^^  Gluten free, chocolate chip cookies dipped in white chocolate and sprinkles :)

^^^  Sprinkle popcorn!  Drizzled with melted white chocolate and.....SPRINKLES!!!!!!!  Vigorous shaking was required, but worth it :)

^^^  Lastly, a sprinkled table top.  Because.....IT WAS A SPRINKLE PARTY, you guys! :)  #WhereWasGuinness? 

And because I'm a total nerd and I can't find a picture of Emily and I with the Mama-To-Be (WHAT?!!!), this post-shower picture of Juliet being obsessed with me (in Phil's absence, of course) will have to do.....

^^^  I love the very rare moments when I get to be the FAVOURITE! :)

Thank you, Zach and Sarah, for giving us the JOY of planning your baby shower!  We can't wait to welcome Baby Timothy into this world.  He or She is so loved already and.....although we are far away from the place we call "home"....remember that there is such a thing as a "Kuwait Family" and you THREE will always be apart of ours.

XOXO

NARRATING the CAMERA ROLL...

 ^^^  There is this random place in the corner of our courtyard where the kids love to run and hide.  Given the bugs back there, it's really weird how it appeals to them.  Alas, I have yet to see a child NOT enjoy this hiding spot. 

 ^^^  Last week, I surprised Phil by going from a bazillion, overlapping icons on my desktop to SIX!  I figured this called for an impressive desktop background too and I found the perfect "BOOM SHAKA LAKA" on this lady's blog.

 ^^^  This wild one will run around until she's literally dripping with sweat and red in the face.  And even then, there's effort required on our part to insist on water breaks and down time.  She loves keeping up with the older kids :)

 ^^^  If you need an activity that keeps kids (of all ages!) engaged and quiet, this is the activity you need!  I saw it on Pinterest and decided to try it out on Spring Break.  You simply freeze some plastic figures in a block of ice, give the kids some "tools", salt, and water, and let them go to town on trying to "rescue" the trapped characters.  They loved it! :)

 ^^^  If you look closely, you'll see the pink sparkle on Winka's cheek.  There is still glitter EVERYWHERE around the house.  I don't think I will be living this one down anytime soon....

^^^  Our quiet explorer :)  This little one is easily drawn into the simplest of things.

^^^  Wearing freebie flip-flops through the mall, post-pedicure.  Thank you COCO for wearing them alongside me.  I give you a GOLD STAR for supporting me through my "AHHH, I AM WEARING FLATS!!!" crisis ;) 

^^^  Emily sent this to me and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!

 ^^^  Left Side:  Nory playing the guitar.  She started up a FAMILY BAND / DANCE CREW that same evening.  Right Side:  Jettie goes straight to Daddy when she sees him come home from work.  They are inseparable, those two :)

^^^  What to do?  You can either spend the whole time keeping your child away from the random stream of water in the courtyard OR embrace the fact that it's there.  And, given that she rarely gets to experience puddles, we said YES!!!!!! :) 

 ^^^  National McDonald's Day happened recently and two of us decided to celebrate.   The two of us that didn't celebrate shopped the mall with Auntie Gem :)

 ^^^  Sometimes you bake a heart cake JUST CUZ and invite your friends over to help :)

 ^^^  Quiet mornings are my favourite.  Having coffee and playing alongside these two is something I look forward to every single weekend! 

The cost of bragging about a spectacular Sunday, Monday and Tuesday on the interweb?

A "fairy house", you guys.  A BLEEPING FAIRY HOUSE!!!!!!

Sigh. 

I SCREWED UP.

Nory and I were making some artwork on Tuesday night using everyone's ultimate craft supply: GLITTER!!!!!!!  Now, as it is with this type of crafting material, I AM USED TO a little glitter here and there around the flat.  It's not uncommon for me to have glitter specks on my face at work or to see Parkinson Glitter in the elevators of our building because......there's just always A LITTLE GLITTER wherever we go.  But the thing is, I'm not so used to glitter being ALL OVER THE FLAT.  Like, ALL-ALL OVER THE FLAT.  Like, OH MY GOSH THERE IS SO MUCH GLITTER, IT'S AS THOUGH YOU LIVE IN A "FAIRY HOUSE", as a colleague phrased it. 

Turns out I left the glitter container open on the kitchen table that evening.  Turns out our two cats also like crafting.....

You can imagine how displeased Phil was when he went to make us coffee early Wednesday morning.

WHOOOOOOPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A heartfelt apology to Phil for being so....understanding (LOVE YOU!).....and the world's BIGGEST THANK YOU to Kumari Poppins for getting rid of glitter like I've never seen before :)

In other news, Nory is starting to make faces on her artwork and sometimes she has me write little notes that go along with her pictures:

Cute, right?

Wishing you all the energy required to put away the glitter when bedtime finally strikes! 
XOXO

A SUNDAY to TUESDAY HIGHLIGHT REEL

A highlight reel doesn't typically coincide with the work week, but I think this week might be the exception of 2016 for the most unexpected reasons.....

1)  On Sunday, a student delivered AN ENTIRE POUND of Reese's peanut butter cups to my classroom.  AN ENTIRE POUND.  (Dana, how jealous are you?!)

2)  Our apartment has been having water issues for about a year now.  We always have water in our kitchen, but the other side of the flat has no such luck.  It's been a serious cause for frustration and, in addition to crying approximately every other day about being unable to shower, I've been using dry-shampoo as though I'm an official spokesperson for Batiste.  The GOOD NEWS is that after THREE DAYS of replacing pipes and other expensive parts, WE FINALLY GOT WATER YESTERDAY!!!!!!  THE EVEN BETTER NEWS is that we finally have water at a time when THIS ARTICLE ABOUT BATISTE was released.  PHEWFFF!

3)  Today there was a sandstorm and I was so excited!  Normally, they give me a headache.  BUT TODAY, I didn't even think about my headache because the dusty weather reinforced the importance of cilia and mucus in our science lesson!  It was the perfect day for learning about the respiratory system :)

4)  Nory made me a picture while I was at work yesterday!  She showed it to me as soon as we got home and my heart melted.  Times a billion.

5)   Today Phil bought me FIVE (5!!!!) AMERICAN, APRIL 2016 magazines from a magical place in the desert.  FIVE!  AMERICAN!  APRIL 2016!  MAGAZINES!  For my Canadian friends, it's as though I have a mini-Chapters in my very own living room!!!  Eeeee!!!!!!!!!  Thank you, Phil! xo

In addition to all of this, Juliet is going through a dress-up phase (EXTRA FUN!) and Nory is saying words like "mysterious" and "diagnosis".

These. are. the. days.  

XOXO

NARRATING the CAMERA ROLL....(the "OTHER THINGS we did while Daddy was in Thailand" edition)...

I told Phil I would try to blog every day while he was at the conference.  He wanted to know what we got up to as a trio and, with the time change and his busy schedule (and the fact that Nory and Jet scream over who gets to talk to Daddy on FaceTime), reading about it on the blog made it so much easier. 

Well.

The documentation online says I gave a valiant effort in the first couple of days, but clearly dropped the ball thereafter.  WHOOPS!!!!!!  It's just that binge-watching Degrassi on Netflix was much more appealing than writing and uploading photos.  Sorry, Babe!

What's MORE WEIRD is that this week was a blur as well.  I didn't see Phil until Tuesday night and with parent-teacher conferences, along with a baby shower hosted at our place, we haven't had much together time to chat.  So, Dearest Phillip, here is the information you've been waiting for........

 ^^^  Uncle Steve came to see us on Friday and Saturday.  One of the first things we did was arts and crafts.  Jettie made a MARKER MASTERPIECE (and didn't even eat the markers this time!) and Nory made some spring flowers :)  They aren't hung up in the house because the girls gave their pictures to Uncle Steve!

^^^  Then we did this thing that you would have REALLY HATED because it was messy.  We put dish soap, water, and food colouring into the blender.  Repeatedly.  So we could fill up the green tub.  The girls had a blast!

^^^  We also made some SNOW outside in the sunshine.  I told Nory it was our April Fool's joke because we were playing a trick on people :)  

 ^^^  We made pizza for dinner and Nory decided to put both tomatoes and onions on hers.  If only you were home, Daddy, to have a piece....ha!!!  While the pizza was in the oven, Nory was acting LOUD and WILD and Juliet thought my hip was the perfect place to be :)

^^^  We did lots of playing outside with friends.  The weather was beautiful and Nory loved being with kids of all ages.  In this picture she is showing off her cone/sidewalk house :)

 ^^^  Em got home from Amsterdam on Saturday and she surprised us with multiple souvenirs!  The girls were happy to snuggle with Auntie and also to resume their Snap Chat game.  I refuse to get Snap Chat, so it's a real novelty whenever Auntie is over :)

^^^  There was also time for Nory to play quietly on her own.  She loves having her dollhouse in the living room and, now, I'm convinced it's the ABSOLUTE BEST PURCHASE we've ever made.  After the Ergo.....

 ^^^  We played in the sandbox lots, too.  Juliet no longer eats the sand and actually refuses to get out when it's time to go.  The girl could stay in this piece of heaven forever!  Nory served me multiple cups of sand tea and I only had a few small fits about sand in our sheets in the middle of the night.  

^^^  It appears as though someone used my phone to take pictures of Mickey Mouse too.  But I'm not sure when that happened.  Or who did it.  

Overall, we had a great time together.  The days were busy, but fun, and the meltdowns were kept down to an age-appropriate amount (a value I made up in my own head).

Glad you're home, Daddy!!!!  We missed you!!!!!!!!!!!! XOXO 

CONVERSATIONS with NORY....

While wandering the streets in search of the new souq....

Nory:  (confused) Are we going to America?  Like they do in the movies?
 

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During pretend play with princesses......

Nory:  Mommy where's Prince Trauma?

Me:  Who's Prince Trauma?

Nory:  From Cinderella.

Me:  Ohhhhh.....you mean Prince Charming!!!!

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While washing her hands...

Me:  Nory, you only get ONE MORE PUMP of soap.

Nory:  Ohhh, but I want lots of soap!

Me:  You have lots of soap!  Only ONE more pump.

Nory:  Okay, Mama.  But I'm going to need some privacy..........

Haaaaa!!!!!!  I wonder why ;)

CAMP UPDATE ;)

We're ALIVE and I didn't cry today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We did it!  Another successful day (ah-hem, approximately more smiles than screams) in the MOM vs TWO CHILDREN arena.  Coco didn't come to attend the day's events (claiming her life was "in shambles"), but we survived anyhow and had a wonderful time exploring two new activities.  Oh, and Coco, I'm KIDDING!  If one of my good friends had a NORNADO, my life would be in shambles CONSTANTLY ;)  (Kidding again.  LOVE YOU!)

So besides the usual (toys/tubby/courtyard), we decided to do a couple of things that are MESSIER and WAY MORE EXCITING than our norm.  These MESSY and WAY MORE EXCITING things are a good choice for when Daddy isn't home.  Reason being?  Phil finds these sorts of activities MESSY and WAY MORE EXCITING.

1)  First up, we did "SCIENCE"!!!!!!  All that was required was a big container of baking soda, some colored vinegar, and an enthusiastic "GO!!!!!!!!"  Nory was amazed at all the bubbles she was able to make as she dropped spoonfuls of vinegar into the container of baking soda.  However, being the BIGGER/STRONGER/FASTER child that she is, she eventually learned it was EVEN MORE FUN to move spoonfuls of baking soda into the vinegar bowls because the reaction was THAT MUCH BETTER :)  Once the bubble-making was finished, she got some of her small characters to come and play in the "rainbow playground".   

2)  Later on we tackled some "Spin Art" for the very first time.  This activity is also super simple and one that Juliet could enjoy too.  Into a salad spinner you place a piece of paper and some globs of paint, then you SPINNNNNNNNNN until your heart is content.  We all took turns spinning and then I elected myself to be the paper-remover :)  We had so much fun that we made nine tiny pieces of artwork!  We also had so much fun that we needed to have a tubby immediately afterwards :)

They turned out really fun, right?!

A big thank you to PINTEREST for helping to plan our camp activities and a big thank you to KUMARI POPPINS who is the kindest soul you'll ever meet and, not only took the girls when I needed a moment of sanity, but also BOUGHT ME DINNER LAST NIGHT.  She is so, so thoughtful and sweet.

Today, we're looking forward to a fun-filled day with Uncle Steve!!!

P.S.  I'm slowly learning how to be selective with my Pinteresting.  I'm learning to see past the "ANYONE CAN DO IT!" claims and choose to replicate the pins that can't possibly lead to FAILURE.  Once I reached this level of realization, my Pinterest game has gotten SO MUCH STRONGER :)  If y'all remember my Grinch cookies from Christmas, you know it's true!!!