Fun-Filled Friendships

A fabulously fun friend weekend in Toronto! ♥

800th Post

This post is my 800th published post. What a big number!

Have you been following my blog since the beginning?

Are you a new reader?

How did we meet? Through blogging? In real life?

Do I even know you?

Leave me a comment, or question, or introduction.

Let me know what you like, what you're thinking, who you are.

Let's celebrate 800 posts together!

And to many more!

Sisterhood - 34 Months In

It's hard to believe we're almost at the 3-year mark of having two kids. What an incredible journey it has been! Here is a quick summary of what their relationship is like right now.

- Emily and Jessica continue to love each other, enjoy each other's company, and play really well together.

- Lately they are also disagreeing a bit more. Jessica is finally starting to show more assertiveness and sometimes says "no" to Emily, which often creates a spat that needs to be resolved.

- Emily can be pretty persistent sometimes, even when Jessica says no. Conversations often sound like this:
Emily: Jessi, can I have that dog?
Jessica: No, I'm playing with it.
E: Maybe you could pretend that this (show her random toy) is a dog.
J: OK! (and happily hands over the dog)

Emily uses the "pretend" card often when she really wants something.

Another example:
Mommy: Do you girls want to have a bath or a shower?
E: Shower!
J: Bath!
E: Jessi, maybe you could just pretend that the shower is a bath?
J: OK! (and happily walks into the shower)

- The girls feed off each other's sadness. Any time Jessica cries, Emily starts to cry. Then Jessica will claim she's only crying because Emily is crying. It can get pretty messy over here! Emily also has a tendency to stress out or be on the verge of tears whenever Jessica disobeys.
 
- They still want to sleep in same room. The plan is to get big girl beds (twin beds) for Jessica's third birthday, with the option for making them into bunk beds. The girls are very excited! Emily's already decided that Jessica will get the bottom bunk and she will get the top.

- Nothing compares to watching these two grow together. 

Work In Progress

Sarah and I had a blast yesterday installing, messing up, learning and laughing about wallpaper. At the end we both stared in awe of what we'd accomplished. It is neither perfect nor complete, but I love it! We have three more strips and some detailing to do before the job is done. Wallpapering definitely took longer than we were expecting, but it's surely the kind of thing you get better at with practice.

About to install the first strip!

Two strips done

Team work

Strip #3 was a challenging one 

Still smiling

Our toughest spot was around the window, trying to get a thin strip of wallpaper to fit snugly around the trim/sill. We ended up having to scrap an entire length of paper from messing up, and now I'm a bit short on paper for the final 4-5". We'll just need a bit of effort and creativity to make it work.

Yikes! Serious issues here.

That pesky window sill

So here is what we have now, to be completed on Wednesday. The pictures really don't do the wallpaper justice -- it looks fantastic in person!

We still need to tackle the laundry room (which has two windows -- eek), but that's a project for another day.

Adventures in Wallpapering

Not much blogging this week as I've been tackling a decorating project! Since I love my bicycle wallpaper so much, I decided it was time to add wallpaper to more spaces: a single wall in the laundry room and a single wall in the office/craft room. The only difference is that this time I'm installing it! It turns out that this is a multi-step process, each step taking up a good chunk of my free time. Here's an overview of what I've been up to.

Step 1. Sourcing and Ordering Wallpaper. I did a bit of searching on the internet before heading to our local decorating store (The Decorating Warehouse). That way I had a slight idea of what I was looking for. I was interested in birds/birdcages for the laundry room and something with turquoise and yellow for the office (to coordinate with my green/yellow cutting mat and blue/yellow floors). After one trip to the store, I found a couple of options that I liked. I brought samples home to review, then went back and ordered my wallpaper. They both arrived in about 2-3 weeks.

Norwall KE29945

York BR6224

Step 2. Purchasing Necessary Equipment. To install the wallpaper I needed to purchase: a wallpaper primer, a water tray, a wallpaper smoother, and a blade cutter. Other tools needed include painting supplies, a step ladder, a tape measure, a level, a pencil, scissors, and possibly a sponge.

Step 3. Painting Wall at Seams. Since the wallpaper I chose for the office/craft room is much darker than the current white walls, I decided to paint a matching colour where the seams will be. That way if the installation is not perfect, it won't be as noticeable.

Step 4. Watching YouTube Videos. I found this video particularly useful and informational.



Step 5. Applying the Primer/Sealer. Yesterday evening I applied a wallpaper primer to the walls. According to the packaging, the primer "improve adhesion, adds slip for positioning, and allows the adhesive to bond uniformly to the wall surface." The staff at the decorating store also mentioned that the primer will help when it's time to remove the wallpaper (years from now, right?).

Step 6. Cutting Strips of Wallpaper. This evening I cut my strips of wallpaper to size, adding 4" at the top and bottom of each strip.

Step 7 is happening tomorrow! I've invited my friend Sarah to come and help me with the wallpaper installation. Fingers crossed that it goes smoothly. Before and after pictures will definitely be shared!

Not Much of a (March) Break

Last week was March Break for both Emily and Steve. Although we didn't have any major plans, we were definitely looking forward to some quality family time together. But as I mentioned before, the reality was that both girls were sick during almost the entire break. These two have never had such a nasty, long-lasting cough-cold like this! Emily was miserable with her constant runny nose, fatigue, and persistent phlegmy cough (which is still hanging around). Jessica caught the same cold a few days later and is also still suffering through it.

So while we had a couple of outings and a few birthday celebrations over the break, the happiness was always short lived and the exhaustion was always present.

Falling asleep while watching TV

Yesterday Emily had her first day back at school. She seemed fine in the morning and during the day, but by the time we got home she was dead tired and grumpy all evening. She passed out before 7pm only to wake up 30 minutes later crying about ear pain! She's never had an ear infection before, but after 1.5 hours of crying, we figured it must be it. The thing about our sensitive girl is that she despises medicine. She hates/dreads the taste of it so much that she would rather suffer through the pain than take Tylenol!

Steve and I were shocked by her strong desire to avoid taking a pain killer. In our final attempt, I went to the store and bought chewable Advil tablets (grape flavour). I crushed a tablet and stuffed it inside a Lindor chocolate ball. She still refused it and eventually fell asleep drug free. Surprisingly, she woke up this morning without pain and was fine all day... So I guess it wasn't an infection after all!

 
Poor girls could really use a break from being sick! We'll gladly take our health and sleep back, please. And here's hoping for some fun March Breaks in the years to come.

Making meatballs

Happy 1st Birthday Lorelei!

Last year I was given the best gift of all on my birthday: a new niece! Lorelei turned one this year and I look forward to celebrating many more birthdays with her. Today was her official party -- a fantastic celebration of her first year.

The only unfortunate part was that Emily and Jessica had to stay home with Daddy because they were both feeling miserable from their colds (Emily's cold still lingering and Jessica's cold just starting). They sure missed being there, especially for the cake and gift opening!

Evidence of Lorelei's icing testing

(She really liked it!)

Time for some gifts, Lorelei!

We love you Lorelei!