Barbie in Rock 'N Royals

Growing up I had one Barbie who had one outfit--a red and white checkered jump suit.  I loved playing with her, but wow, I would have LOVED the options that kids have nowadays! We were sent a Barbie package to plan a Barbie in Rock 'N Royals movie viewing party and it was quite the package.

The biggest hit for Miss Nya was getting Princess Courtney.  When you move her arm, her dress rotates from rocker to royal.  She also sings which Nya loves and we hear Princess Courtney singing ALL.DAY.LONG.

Nya got her very own matching outfit.  Seriously--so awesome.  She came into our room at 6 am with her Barbie dress, climbed into bed next to me, and said she couldn't wait to "rock out"?!  How does she even know that term?  This little girl LOVES to dress up!

My sister has four girls so we invited them to come over to watch the movie.  Nya and I had never seen a Barbie movie but they have.  In the package were some pink hair extensions--perfect for the bigger kids!

The movie is a musical where Princess Courtney and rock superstar Erica switch places and end up in rival camps.  Here they learn about making friends with people who are different from them and having fun while doing so.  There is quite a bit of dialogue so that is why my older nieces liked it.  The younger girls enjoyed the singing and dancing...oh, and checking out the outfits of course!

Not sure where Nya got her dance moves from but it's a musical so there was definitely some dancing going on!

It was fun making it into a party because we could paint the kids' nails while we were watching too.

After watching all the rock star Barbies, I'm feeling a bit tempted to get some fun highlights in my hair!

Even Koen watched most of the movie...in his Barbie sunglasses.

I would say that the Barbies (Princess Courtney and Rock Star Erica) are so awesome and geared for ages two to five and then the movie Barbie in Rock 'N Royals is good for ages six to nine.  Did you have a Barbie growing up? I bet if you did, yours had more than one outfit ;) 

Have a great week, friends!

Love, 

Louise

{Disclaimer: we were provided with the Barbies and Barbie in Rock 'N Royals DVD to facilitate this review.  Opinions are mine (and Nya's).}

Run For The Cure 2015

I love the tradition of doing Run For The Cure with my extended family.  I know there is controversy around how much money actually goes towards detection and finding a cure, but some money is better than none and the main reason we do it is to honour my mom.  It's a time to think about her, appreciate our own health, and pray that it doesn't touch our own lives.  I've been doing the run for 14 years and have done several with my mom where she walked it.

I decided to run with Kai and then Gary pushed Nya and our Little One in the stroller while running with Koen.  Well...I kind of ran with Kai for the first kilometer and then he left me in his dust.  He finished the 5 km's in 26 minutes.  To me, that's pretty awesome.  I finished around 32 minutes.  Another HUGE surprise is that I turned and saw my niece Izzy running in and who was beside her?  Our Koey!  At 35 minutes.  His first 5 km race and he did it in 35 minutes :) I was so proud of him for not giving up and doing his best.  I don't think there's any way I could have run 5 km's at their age!

Kai was actually one of the first 30 people in...crazy, right?

I do love that this is one way my kids can honour and feel connected to my mom.  It's a time for family. And pop--they like that part.

My sister Jan and her family were away this weekend but everyone else was able to make it!

Afterwards we went to my dad and Joanne's for lunch. We had a feast and it was lovely :) So nice to just show up and eat!  Excuse Koen's eating.  

In just one year, I will have my first mammogram.  If you have an immediate family member who has had it, you get your mammogram 10 years before the age they were upon diagnosis.  I truly appreciate my health and hope that it continues.  I really, really, really want to meet my grandchildren!

I hope you had a great weekend.

Love, 

Louise

A Bit About Me

This might be a bit nerdy but I wanted to do one of the OneDay videos about me.  Many of you know me personally, but there are a lot that don't.  I find that whenever I meet an online friend in real life, they sound so different than I thought!  The questions that come up are random but this gives you a sense of who I am...and yes, I do come close to tears because, well, that's who I am (and I'm tired!)  By the way, these videos are so easy to put together and can be used for things like birthdays, Mother's Day, Christmas etc.  So, here I am, on "my spot" on the couch during a rare quiet moment, sharing...

{You need to click on the photo and then press "play" when it takes you to the OneDay page.  It sounds like a lot of work but it's not!}

If you watched, thank you. If you didn't, that's fine too.  It's kind of weird.

PS I had no idea I put my hand on my chin to think.  Oh ya, and when I say "no job at all" that doesn't mean I don't want to be a mom ;)

Love,
Louise

The Travel Bug

One thing our family loves is travelling.  Both Gary and I grew up doing a lot of travel--usually in the form of camping and road trips.  I don't necessarily need to camp (I'd prefer not to at my age) but I do love to see the world.  Now that we will have our summers free (teachers who are no longer doing wedding photography), we might as well use them to our advantage!  Travelling can be expensive so we usually take do it via road trips.

Some of our favourite trips as a family to date have been:

Drumheller, Alberta. Seriously, it's fun!

Nehalem Bay State Park, Oregon. We've gone twice.

{You can stop by Mount St. Helens along the way}

Thailand. Yes we all got some form of food poisoning (and Kai got Dengue Fever!) but it was worth it:)

{So hot that we had mango smoothies every day!}

The Philippines. Gorgeous. So great to visit friends there.

{How did we do it with three young kids? Not sure}

Mexico.  We rented a bus with about 6 other families that we are good friends with and traveled through Mexico! Not sure I would do it now but it was fun in 2007 :)

Disney World.  How did that even happen?  It's so surreal that we won that trip earlier this year!

Yearly trips to Ucluelet and Tofino.  We love it there; it is our happy place.

Our bucket list of trips (I LOVE having trips to look forward to!):

1.  Road trip up to Alaska (just doing the Panhandle as Gary and I have traveled through Alaska before), up to Whitehorse, and then back going through Liard Hotsprings.  We have been to Liard Hotsprings before but, ahem, have no photos from this trip. This will hopefully happen summer of 2016 dependent on whether our Little One is with us or not.

2.  Cross Canada trip.  We are trying to figure out how we will travel across as I don't want to tent all the way.  Maybe stay with people we know, cabins, and hotels.  The plan would be to do this in 2018.  I have been across twice before--once with my family (all the way to the tip of Newfoundland) and once with a friend on the train.  Canada is incredibly gorgeous.

3. Iceland.  Probably just Gary and I.  Maybe for our 15th wedding anniversary in 5 years? 2020?

4.  Road trip to Disneyland.  We will definitely do Disneyland one more time with the kids and hope to make it a larger trip going to places like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone National Park.

I had always wanted to take our family to Kenya for a year but I'm not feeling as confident about it now.  I'm thinking we will revisit this when they are older.  We also have friends in India right now so that is another trip to consider!

What about you?  Do you have a list?  Where would you love to go?

Have a great weekend.

Love,
Louise

Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for:

1.  Fall leaves. Autumn is gorgeous. I love the light, colours, temperature and clothing!  Time to get out my boots!

2. Movie nights. We had to do it Saturday night instead of our usual Friday because Koen was at a birthday party.  This week was Lilo & Stitch.  

3. Family walks.  The great outdoors is a great place to be with our kids...until they try to see who can find the biggest stick (aka giant tree branch).

4. Pinterest.  We bought perogies on sale at Costco and usually we are kind of bored by them.  Put them in a waffle maker and ta da!

5. Koen's hard work. We get our kids to make birthday cards for the birthdays that they attend to personalize it and save $$.  Koen spent almost an hour trying to colour it nicely and write neatly. I was so surprised because he really, really does not enjoy it but he wanted it to be nice for his friend.

6.  Finally having a matching gate.  We didn't get it put in 9.5 years ago when we moved in because every single option cost so much money.  We got a great price and they installed it this past week.  It only took us taking care of someone else's child to get to this point ;)

7.   BIG WIN!!! Gary has been filling in each receipt's customer service satisfaction surveys and each month Loblaws does a draw for a $5,000 cash prize and a $1,000 one (in the form of 1,000,000 points).  Gary won the points one!! So great.  This will pay for food for a few months!

8. A free bike!  I had bought Nya a second hand bike last year but it's still a bit too big.  This one was being given away for free in our alley: a perfect fit for Nya.  She's so proud of herself.

9.  Beauty in the skies.  The supermoon has been gorgeous and throw in an eclipse....beauty!

10.  Sisters and friends.  I got together with my sisters and two different friends this week. I'm exhausted but I know it's important for me to see adult people :) 

11. Gary donating blood.  I was supposed to but I failed the past two times and knew my iron would be too low again. I sent Gary (who was due to go anyway) in my place.  Time to start taking iron pills and getting more vitamin C in my life!

I hope you are having a good day!  Have you ever received/found something for free that was super helpful?

Louise