Her first Tiffany's

Today was a special day. We wanted to treat our mom to a day of shopping and dinner to celebrate her birthday. It's been a rough year for all of us, especially for her. We met our mom and Auntie Sara at Yorkdale this afternoon and browsed at a few stores before we headed for dinner at Seoul House. It's been so long since we had a day of shopping together. With our dad being sick and Auntie Jess and I taking care of kids, it was really hard to make time to do something fun for us. Although I did have to take you with me, you were really good (besides eating like a pig!).

Us sisters pitched in to get our mom her first Tiffany's piece. You can see from your grandma's face that 
she was so excited and happy. Just seeing that expression made it all worth it :-)

Isn't the necklace beautiful? It's the mini double heart tag pendant. She absolutely loved it!

Your outfit of the night. You looked like an angel from above today.

"Mommy, there's a mini grape growing out of our tree…"

Classic. 

This morning, before heading off to school, I was setting up the stroller on our driveway and you happened to be looking at our tree. The buds are starting to come out now and you kept picking at the tree. You called me over and said in a matter-of-fact voice that there were little grapes growing out of our tree. I told you they were tree buds, but you insisted that they were grapes. Haha. 

You are also beginning to demand more play dates with your classmates. Today, I picked you and your best friend,
Mateo up from school for a play date. It's actually pretty nice having your friends over because you guys play
very civilized and it gives mommy a breather. I noticed that having play dates with your school friends are
much less crazy than having play dates with your non school friends. I guess it's because you guys have a certain
way of playing at school with rules and boundaries so it's very interesting to watch.

Life of a mom

If you are a mom, then you will know that nap time is king. You basically have to arrange your day around it. Also, if you're like me where your toddler is no longer taking daily naps, but when they do, you basically honour that time. 

I usually take you out first thing after I drop Aidan off at school because that's when you're in the best mood- you're fed and you're not cranky. Today, I took you to the park because the weather was nice and then we went to Michael's to pick up a few craft items for a scrapbook project that I'm working on for missionaries- Bryan and Christina. Since Michael's is close to Auntie Jessica's house, we stopped by for a play date. By the time we left Auntie Jess' house, it was time to pick up Aidan from school. Lo and behold, you fell asleep on the way home. I had to chill out in the car for a good 15-20 minutes in order for me to let you sleep a little longer. 

And look how happy you are after your nap. That makes it all worth it!

Field trip + play date

I have a pretty well-established routine every day. It goes something like this:

6:30am -7:00am

Wake up and do quiet time with the LORD

7:00am-7:30am

Get ready

7:30am-8:30am

Wake up kids (if they aren't awake already), brush them up and feed them breakfast

8:30am-8:50am

Head out the door and walk Aidan to school

8:50am-9:00am

Walk back home

During this time to 3pm, I sometimes go grocery shopping, run errands, take Kendall to the park, meet friends.

3:00pm-3:20pm

Pick Aidan up from school and walk home

3:20pm-4:00pm

Give kids a bath and give them free time to read/play

4:00pm-5:20pm

Prep dinner, feed kids

5:20pm-6:00pm

Eat dinner with Dennis

6:00pm-7:15pm

Play in the basement

7:15pm-7:45pm

Get kids ready for bed, read them books, sing, tuck them in bed

7:45pm-11:00pm

PARTY TIME!

This was taken during the 8:30am-8:50am mark- on our way to drop off Aidan at school. Today, Aidan's class
went on a field trip to Kortright Centre. 

Aidan was supposed to have a play date with his friend, Maddy from school, but she was sick and didn't come to school for a whole week. You were so upset with me that Maddy couldn't make it to the play date so I scrambled to organize another play date with your friend Mateo. Luckily, Mateo's mom had asked me earlier that week to do a play date with you, so I called her up and it all worked out in the end. Daddy and I had a little mini date at our local mall and had dinner with Kendall at the food court. How exciting.

Kendall at the food court.

Twins- Daddy and Kendall.

Reflections

It's been a hard 2 months since our dad, your halbi passed. It still feels like a dream. It's been so hard for me to post anything relating to him. Every time I think about him, my heart hurts. Yes, we did know that his illness was incurable and that he was lucky to have lived a year, but still… I miss him every day. And more so my mom. Every time I think about my mom, my heart is heavy. I know how much she misses him and how much she wishes he was still here on this earth. We know that he is in heaven with God and no longer in pain and suffering, but we can't help but to miss him. 

Since my mom can't drive, she is basically holed up in the house all day. I decided to meet her this chilly Saturday morning to go to a trail to get a breath of fresh air and to exercise. Since Aidan didn't have his soccer practice this morning, I took both you and Aidan to meet grandma in the morning. We went to a trail that is by the East Don River. My mom had talked about the trail while my dad was still alive. They used to go every day to walk for 2 hours. My mom would say how up until October of last year, he was very mobile and could walk faster than her. It was just sad to walk the paths that my dad had walked. 

It was very chilly even though it is Spring. The little puddles had formed beautiful ice forms on the surface.

Aidan looking at the ice with his grandma.

My mom said that in the summertime, the river has salmon swimming in it.

Aidan posing by a tree.

You decided to come out of the stroller to walk on the trail. 

We miss you halbi~

Brown E

You said you made me a brownie for me at school when I picked you up from school today. Then you pulled out a brown 'E' from your backpack. I was confused at first, but then you said, "Get it mom? Brown "E", brownie? April Fools! Haha!"

I was not impressed…

Last supper

We had our last meal with our great aunt that was visiting from Korea today at Milestones. I'm glad she was here because she kept my mom company while she was still fresh from the loss of losing her husband.

Missing in photo are Emma, Aidan, Uncle Wayne, Daddy (they were sitting in the opposite table).