MARCH IS ALMOST OVER?

What?? March is almost over?? I just I looked at my last post and it was in February!! Ooops!!! My excuse is that March is one heck of a crazy month for us, especially this year. It's a weak excuse, but it's all I got!
My maternity leave ends on the 31st of March. That is the end of my mat leave and my first day of work. We decided to put the kids in the Day Home for the month so that I could prepare for back to work. Prepare myself. Prepare the house. Prepare the kids for the routine. Prepare us all for being apart....but it didn't take long for Plan A to turn into Plan B. We ended up having to find a new day home a day and a half in due to the original Day Home suddenly announcing it was closing it's doors.  I spent the next few days doing nothing but researching and interviewing child care facilities until finally finding one we felt comfortable and happy with.  Both kids ended up getting awful colds and coughs, sleep eluded all of us, and it snowed, a lot, just when we all thought spring was here!

 Because it snowed so much, we took Ryder skiing across the road at the Olympic Park.

 We made leprechaun traps for St. Paddy's Day

 The Day Home had a fun St. Paddy's Day party!

 Payton really started loving books.

 She just started mastering her rubber boots when it snowed again...

 Is it Spring or Winter?? Just before it snowed I took the kids and Scout on a wagon/bike ride that turned ugly. Ryder made the poor decision to ride his bike through that huge icy puddle/run off lake. Ofcorse, I didn't stop him either, which seemed slightly risky and proved to be bad advice! ha ha ha! Yep, he fell in, right in the middle which meant I had to go in to knee deep, ice cold water to rescue him. While I was resucing him, Payton fell face first in the mud. By the time all was said and done, Ryder was naked and had to be wrapped in my sweater, my feet were freezing, Scout was tired of waiting and Payton was crying..I ended up calling the neighbour to come rescue us with his truck since Marty was away for the weekend. Quite the adventure! LOL

Our Family has four Birthdays in three weeks at the end of March, beginning of April and this year we had one BIG birthday, Payton's first!

 Ryder  2011 and 2014

 Payton 2013, 2014

Mom and Nic offered to make cakes for the kiddos. I was hoping for a "race cars and rubber boots" theme for Ryder's party. I wanted to have a bunch of mud and messy activities in the back yard. We'd all wear our rubber boots, get muddy and then come in for Race Car birthday cake.

 

It snowed though, so no mud party. Instead we went sledding, but we still had race car cake! Thank you Grammy and Auntie Dic for this awesome Francesco cake!


 For Payton, Pearls and Polka Dots was the theme. Something girlie and fun for her first birthday.

Because Mom and Nic were coming with awesome cakes, and because Payton's best friends are Ryder's buddies' sisters, we decided to have both parties on the same weekend, even though that would mean Payton's birthday would be celebrated a week early. With both parties on the same weekend, people only had to come to our house one weekend instead of two.

Both parties were a huge success and a huge deal because Nic, Mom and I love throwing big parites for the kiddos even though we know it's not necessary. It's fun!

I found this program that allowed me to make a really cute video montage of my favorite pics of Payton's party. Copy this link into your browser to check it out if you have time (it's short, I promise)

http://animoto.com/play/JyK09I43DSB95ARhEeIpGA

I am back to work Monday, but I promise to get back regularily Blogging because writing about these precious memories makes me happy and sharing our story with Family and friends far away makes me happy!

Kiss your babies, count your blessings and throw a big party every once in a while!