Every Girl Wants to Be a Dancer

Grace has just begun her second season of dance competitions.  Her first year, at the age of 7, was just a little "taste" of what being part of a competitive team was all about.  She is now at the ripe old age of 8 1/2 and is learning what being part of a team is really all about and how hard work pays off.  This year has not been as easy but she has enjoyed it even more.  The expectations are fairly high, sometimes she needs to practice on her own and it can be very tiring.  She has had weeks where she has spent quite a bit of time at the dance school and I heard her say, only once, that she is getting tired of dance... that was a tough week.
Last week she participated in her first competition of the year and there was no doubt that she had FUN.  We had a very full day including three dances with three make-up, hair and costume changes but it was so fulfilling.  As much as Grace has a team, I feel that I now have a team as well - our team of dance moms!  Despite the reputation that precedes us, we are a supportive, proud and happy team of moms all ready to do anything for our girls (and boys)!  I have found a little group of ladies that share some commonalities with me and we can support eachother and our children as they step out on the stage, in the bright lights, in front of harsh judges and we can cheer together and cry tears of joy together.  It makes this whole experience even richer. 
After this first competition, Grace's dance team has qualified for Nationals in July.  We have 2 more local events, a dance recital and a community performance and then it is off to the Muskokas for the National Competition.  No words can describe the pride I feel when I watch Grace dance and I know that it is all worth while.

There is no mistaking that Jean wants to be a dancer to - she's got the moves and the atitude, that's for sure!

That Comforting Feeling of Being Content

Sometimes I forget what it feels like to "feel" content.  Sometimes in my crazy busy life I am running around without a sense of comfort and happiness.  I know I'm living a great life with a family I am proud of but there are many, many times when I have a sense of uneasiness.  I guess that comes with the territory of new endeavors, completing big projects and feeling just plain stressed out.  I am just beginning to feel content again - it has been a little while.  I felt absolutely content on our winter holiday, where our regular life was put on hold for two weeks, but before that, it was a while.  I'm not saying it is a bad thing though - during the past few months I had the feeling of excitement and following our dreams but I have realized lately that I missed our regular, plain-jane, daily routine.  Now I'm feeling on track again.  I had to make peace with a few things in my life and I had to take stock.  Moving forward I'm going to take things in stride (or at least try, right?) and give myself a break.  I'm going to get back to my creative side, which I have been missing so much, and get myself into some projects I can sink my teeth into (or fingers...).  It doesn't mean I'm going to abandon all the areas of my life that are new and exciting but I'm going to put them off to the side more often.  This feels like a good decision.  I spent my evening on Pinterest and looked around for some creative inspiration... and it wasn't too difficult to find.  Now if only I can duplicate myself so one of me can be crafty and the other can do life's usual jobs...

I just love this picture... editted by Aunt Janie

Now don't they look content... so sweet.  Alex with his cousin, Ross.

Feeling the Love From Our Support System

Do you have any support systems?  I hope you do.  I know we certainly do and are thankful every day for them.  My support systems come in many forms: my amazing husband, my oldest daughter, my two youngest (in their own little way), my mom and step-dad, my mother and father-in-law, my siblings, my friends... the list goes on. 
We are exceptionally lucky to have some very special ones that many people may not be lucky enough to have so close by and so supportive.  My husband's "McGregor Aunts", I so affectionately call them, are a support system that I feel extremely lucky to have in my life.  Ian's dad is the oldest of seven children.  He has six sisters and they have been in my life since the day Ian brought me home to meet the "family"!  The story is actually very funny as it is not my fondest memory of our past together.  We travelled from Guelph to Ian's family home to be at his Grandparent's 50th wedding anniversary way back in 1999.  Yikes!  That would be the first time I was meeting his extended family and there was no doubt I was nervous.  We arrived at the event and he proceeded to leave me standing beside his brother and sister to go visiting with all of his neighbours and family members.  I couldn't believe he left me standing there.  I met each of his aunts (in a blur as there seemed to be a never-ending amount of them) who were so very nice to me but I certainly couldn't remember them all.  The evening continued on and I left in not very happy spirits about this new love of my life (or was he?).  As time went on, we made it through that first little issue (he thought I was fine on my own since I am always so friendly to people... hmmmm... trying to butter me up!) and we obviously got married and here we are well over 10 years later.  He still leaves me alone at family functions but I can manage because now I do know everyone very well!
Those many aunts that I met that day are in our lives on a regular basis.  They support us in so many ways such looking after our children, they treat our children as their very own grandchildren, they swoop in when we need them, they participate in our family business and they are extremely supportive of me in my own small business.  I cannot count how many times they have looked after our children and we never worry about their care.  Our kids absolutely love them so much and have a connection to them on so many levels.  One being that they share a heritage of being fortunate to grow up in the same home. 
My circle of support is so large that there isn't words to explain how blessed I feel.  Every day we feel their kindness shine down on us and it is so nice to know that they will be there for us.  My hope is that we can repay them someday.  There is nothing like having a strong support system and they come in many forms.  We are lucky... they are like our very own Fairy Godmothers!

Disney Vacation - 2013

This vacation was a little dream of mine so Ian and I began planning it in the early Fall.  I had a lot of fun doing research as to where to stay, how long to go and what our young family shouldn't miss while there.  I am writing this to record our trip just as it was.  This is exactly what my blog is for - to record our memories, special times and to celebrate us.  I hope you enjoy my blog post... and maybe it will inspire you to make some special memories with the ones you love.  I will cherish every single moment we spent on our trip; the good, the bad and the craziness of it all! 

We just got home from our annual vacation to Florida and this year was extra-special as we took our children to Walt Disney World for 5 days.  It was magical.  We filled our days with all things Disney and had so much fun making memories.

On Saturday January 26, we left the cold winter weather and drove over 2 days (staying 2 nights in hotels) to Orlando, Florida.  Packing for our trip is always a challenge but this year we were pleasantly surprised by how organized our van was when we packed it all in.  It doesn't take long for the kid's seats to get cluttered though.  Their backpacks were full of activities, books and toys and I had a special bag under the passenger seat that had surprises inside.  We pack a lot of food for the first two lunches and then go out to a restaurant for supper.  I think we have almost perfected the drive as we have done this 6 times already and plan on doing it for many more years.

Once we arrived at Walt Disney World we surprised the kids with our resort.  We stayed at the Art of Animation Resort in the "Cars" movie-themed area.  Our room was all things "Cars" which is one of our favourtie movies.  Life-sized versions of the characters were all over the resort area - above is "Mater the Tow Truck" and all of us.

Yahoo - we arrived!  We were following one of the many Disney buses.

 The Art of Animation Resort was amazing.  We were very happy with our choice as there are so many to choose from around the Walt Disney World Resort area.  This resort reflected the animation part of making movies and there were huge sketches and life-sized and larger replicas of characters from some of their best animated movies.  Our suite had one bedroom, 2 bathrooms, a dining area, kitchenette and living room - perfect for our family of five.  It had enough room to sleep 6 people comfortably and even another spot for a small child to sleep, so those of you with 5 kids, you would be happy in this room!





This was Alex's own space... a Mater-bed. 
During the day it was our table and at night it came down and became Alex's bed.  Very cool!

 

 

 We spent our first evening at Disney with Mickey and his friends. 
This was the first of our experience with
"character dining".  We had supper at "Chef Mickey's" buffet restaurant and these characters
walked around and greeted all of the guests.  It was a lot of fun! 
After supper we went on the monorail and then
watched the fireworks outside of the Magic Kingdon. 
This is when we discovered that Jean is petrified of fireworks.
It was a beautiful show but we didn't enjoy it as much as we would have liked - poor Jean.

Magic Kingdom:

We had a four day pass to Walt Disney World.  Of course day one had to be at the Magic Kingdom. 

 

 

The Magic Kingdom is truly a magical place.  After we walked in we just had to stare for a bit and then we wandered to the newest part called Fantasy Land.  Once there, we went to visit Ariel, the Little Mermaid.  I will never forget Jean's reaction to one of her favourite princesses.  As so many 4 year old girls are, Jean is a big fan of the Disney Princesses.  We stood in a very short line to meet Ariel and were so excited... myself in particular!  Once we got inside her "grotto" Jean completely freaked out.  She refused to sit near Ariel, who was so sweet to us, so Alex and Grace had their picture taken with her and Jean stood with us in the background.  I felt really sad for Jean but I guess she was just so "star-struck" that she didn't know what to do!

The afternoon parade was so awesome.  We saw so many Disney characters and the music was spectacular.

 

Magic Kingdom is quite busy place, as you can see in one of the pictures above, but Disney has perfected the art of "people-moving" and despite the crowds at MK, we experienced it all and even enjoyed a break to swim in the middle of the day.  We went on new rides, such as the Toy Story ride and going through the Little Mermaid movie and also went on the older rides such as A Small World and the Jungle Cruise.  Jean's favourite part of the day was the Parade in the afternoon before we left to go swimming.  The parades at Disney are absolutely amazing - musical and entertaining.

 

 

Epcot:

Our second day was spent at Epcot.  At first I wasn't sure if we wanted to go to this park with the age of our children.  I remembered Epcot from when I was a child though and wanted to go there anyways.  One of my friends also recommended that is is a great place to visit with small kids children.  It also had a great restaurant that hosted character meals with the Princesses so I made reservations and we planned on going.  It was much less busy than MK so we felt we could just wander a bit more.  It was a great day!  Epcot has a nice area with the movie "Finding Nemo" as the theme.  "The Land" was an area we really enjoyed with a great ride through the history of food production (as farmers, we just had to go and we all really liked it), a movie about the environment with the "Lion King" characters and my FAVOURITE ride called "Soarin".  This ride was absolutely amazing where we felt like we were flying.... it was awesome.  We were not able to get on a race car ride due a problem with the ride, which was a shame.  We went back to our resort for a swim and came back to Epcot for supper with the Princesses.  After supper we toured "Around the World".  The kids were really tired by then so we were thankful for our double stroller.

 

 

 

 Animal Kingdom:

Our 3rd day was spent at Animal Kingdom.  When we arrived we headed straight to the Safari ride, which was really great - an African safari ride.  We had fun in Dinosaur Land... until the ride, which we didn't realize was so dark and scary, really scared Alex and Jean.  They were done with rides after that one!  We toured around some more - Animal Kingdom is a beautiful park.

 

 

 

Downtown Disney:

 

 

 

Downtown Disney is filled with great restaurants and many, many stores full of Disney and other things.  Our favourite store was the Lego store, which Alex was very excited to visit.  All around the store there are huge lego statues (see above).  We went to Downtown Disney twice for supper - once at Wolfgang Puck's restuarant and the next time at Portobellos Italian restaurant.  Both were really great dinners!  Strolling through Downtown was another magical part of Disney.

 

 

Hollywood Studios:

 

This picture was taken for Grandma Ann... who loves watching American Idol and we were so happy to take the photo when Carrie Underwood was talking on the big screen!  Grace and I are big fans of hers! 

 

By day four we were slowing down a bit.  We slept in and had brunch and then went to Hollywood Studios.  This park doesn't have as many rides for our young family and we missed getting on the Toy Story ride but it was a great place, nonetheless.  We watched a few shows, another amazing parade, played in the "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" area (which our kids know nothing about that movie - it is from our childhood) and toured around the animation area.  As with all of the parks, there is so much to see so we wandered around and took it all in.  Since the kids were getting very tired though, we didn't do as much in Hollywood Studios as we would have liked.  We'll come back there another day - another year! 

 

 

 Our Disney vacation came to an end but we still had more time in Florida.  We left on Saturday February 2 for Ian's parent's Florida home in Port Charlotte (2.5 hours south west of Disney).  We absolutely love it there - the kids really enjoy their time with Grandma and Grandpa, spending time playing mini-golf and swimming and Ian and I really love the atmosphere of the community where they stay.  The weather remained just wonderful with perfect Florida temperatures.  All we did was play games, swim, played a few rounds of mini-golf, eat, drink, sleep and walk.  It was heavenly.

 

 All good things must come to an end and that was true to our vacation as well.  On Friday February 8, we left the Florida sun and started our trek home.  The driving conditions were perfect (despite a nasty weather system heading through the northeast) and we arrived home in the afternoon of February 10. The kids were so excited to get back to school but the next day the buses were cancelled.  We drove them to school anyways because they did not want to stay home (and the roads were fine).

I am so thankful to be able to spend this time with our family, travelling to a magical place.  Not every moment went according to plan and not everything lived up to my expectations but there were so many things that exceeded my expectations.  We made memories that will last us a lifetime and that is irreplaceable.  Our world could change in an instance - our children are growing way too fast and the days fly by so I want to make sure I don't take anything for granted.  Memories like these will live on in us and our children will remember their first trip to Walt Disney World but more importantly they will remember that we did it as a family - a very close family. 

I look forward to many, many more family vacations.





Shifting Focus

I'm feeling a little side-tracked theses days.  I'm focussing on one thing too much and forgetting how important other things are in my life. 

We just got home from our annual winter vacation to Florida.  It was heavenly; sad to have to get back to "normal" but once we got home, it was good to be home.  I haven't written in my blog in a while and I am missing it - missing my creative outlets so much.  I find myself letting the creative part of me go when I am busy and right now I need to get back to that part of me. 

Despite the "crazy-weather" winter we are having, we always enjoy being outdoors.
We have had some fun already on Ian's family pond.

Grace's First Quilt - January 2013

I am so happy to teach my daughter, Grace, how to sew.
She began her first quilt in early January and took to sewing like she was meant  for it.

I have a sewing desk and table set up in the back of our living room - a convenient spot to work.

I put some masking tape on my machine so she could follow the line easily for sewing.
Grace is a quick learner so her quilt came together quite smoothly.

About half-way through... it is so cozy.

Here she is holding up her quilt... almost finished!  She did ALL of the
sewing up to this point.  We ran out of flannel so the plan is to add strips of
fleece along the sides.  She did a fantastic job!

Here it is - all finished and ready for our drive to Florida!  Grace will have
this nice, cozy quilt to cuddle with on our vacation.  I am so proud of her - and
so excited to plan her next quilt.  I love to sew and want to teach my girls a
love of sewing as well.  I have always been creative and crafty and now I can
share my love of homemade/handmade with her.
Watch out Joanne's Fabric Store, here we come!!!

Being Real For Myself

 

Tis the season for making New Year's resolutions... and then having them go by the wayside.  I feel like my 35 things for my 35th birthday (previous blog post) was my way of making resolutions so as we begin another year, I am focussing on just a few things:  the first thing is my health.  I do want to lose a few pounds but more importantly, I want to gain some body health.  I love to be active, especially with my kids.  Winter time is perfect for us as a family to enjoy some outdoor fun together (whether it is in the snow or the sunny south) and I love to be able to keep up with them easily.  In the past I have enjoyed running on my road.  It gives me peace and the feeling of accomplishment.  I just feel good when I run. 

 

Not only am I trying to be more active but I need to focus on some of my eating habits.  Usually when I try to lose some weight, I step on that darn scale and become even more frustrated.  THIS TIME I AM GOING TO AVOID MY SCALE.  A friend of mine explains that a weigh scale only measures the gravity's pull on our bodies... it has nothing to do with us as a person - how great we really are; how strong we are; how resilient we are; if we are a good friend, parent, daughter, or how creative we are, how smart we are, how loving we are!  So right now I have decided to focus on BEING REAL and freeing my body and mind from my own negative thoughts.  I will focus on becoming healthier, more active and loving myself!