The BIG 4-0

Kevin's turned 40!

After the super surprise he threw for my 40th, I wanted to do something fun for him so I tried MY hand at a surprise party. Somehow I managed to keep it a secret from both Kevin and Aanika (don't ever tell her secrets!) for several weeks and we had a lovely evening with a bunch of our friends.

(The little girl in the picture is our friend's daughter, Madeline....she loves Kevin)

I made a chocolate cupcake-cake for my chocoholic sweetie, we had food delivered in and many of us overdosed on Mousse Au Chocolat that Hendrick made especially for the occasion (it's soooo good).

All in all, a great night!

Sweet Faced Girls

These are Aanika's best buddies, Joy and Kendahl. They all flew off the bus on Wednesday and managed to wrangle a playdate out of us moms. Since it was such a pretty day, they came over for some fun out in the 70 degree weather to play hopscotch and to jump rope together. I just couldn't resist getting a shot of them with their sweet little faces. They always have such a good time together!

I'm so thankful that we found this neighborhood.......

Happy 6th Birthday Aanika!

Aanika's 6 years old already - how the time flies!

Watch her grow with us....

One year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old ..... going on 16!

The first baby tooth is gone!

Aanika was cutting her eighth tooth when she was nine months old and she's finally lost her first tooth just before her 6th birthday!
After more than a month of having a very loose tooth, her new one came in behind her baby tooth instead of underneath it. By the looks of her dental x-rays that were taken the other day we think that three others on the bottom might do the same thing. Not a big deal but it draws out the process of actually losing the tooth. Fun fun.

Snow Day & Sledding

I got in my exercise AND my fun today! I was out shovelling at 6:15 a.m. and 50 minutes later I was finally finished. We got about 5 inches of fluffy stuff last night on top of about 2-3 inches of sleet that fell yesterday. Two whole days off of school and only one of them was good for sledding.

We were out on the neighborhood hill this morning by 10:00 a.m with some friends and other kids from the neighborhood. After about an hour or so we headed back in for lunch, a bit of a rest for Aanika and then back out on the BIG hill with our little friend Kylie (we have to drive to that one). 1.5 hours later we're at McDonalds for French Fries and milk (bleah!) then home to play some more in the yard. I finally got them in the house around 5 pm for a hot bath! Sheesh, I'm pooped.....

Three Sickies

Ever have one of those days? This is what I woke up to a couple weekends ago - my three sickies....Hubby, daughter AND the cat. It's been almost two weeks now and they're still fighting it - except for Smudge, he was only sick for about a day. Good time to be a cat I guess!

He's got the blonde girl thinking

Many of you know that I'm a true blonde and often poke fun at myself for being flighty but I gotta tell you about a blog that I follow that kicks me out of my "not a thought in my head" kind of mode. I'm not a muller of thoughts or a deep thinker in any way but I soooo look forward to his posts because I know that I'm going to get a new perspective on things and love the challenge of being more in this world than who I am and of doing more for it than I ever thought I could.

Ryan's blog today is powerful - be sure to click the link and check it out. This is Reverb