Taste of Montreal

A few weeks ago while shopping at Trader Joe's, I came across this...

I had to give it a try. Poutine is one of my guilty pleasures and one of the food items that I grew to love while we lived in Montreal. It didn't matter if you were in a diner or a high end restaurant, more often than not Poutine was on the menu. The even sell the cheese curds in Wal-Mart by the caissier! Jay was a bit leery of how good they would be and I was on the fence. I mean after all we were spoiled with the good stuff. I have to say they were half way decent...and they filled a void that we have had. Thanks Trader Joe's for making us feel like we are at home again!

Auntie Rocks

Auntie Lori surprised Arabella and Max earlier this week. Arabella had fun helping Max unwrap his gift - an adorable Little People dump truck that he loves!

But the best part, was seeing the look on her face when she opened the Princess Palace Pets she had been wanting. Can you tell she was excited...

She loves her new Princess Palace Pets and she has made them at home with the others that she has. Thanks Auntie for the surprise!!!

Max On The Move

Now that Max has totally gotten the hang of walking, he is all over the place. He loves to pull a helicopter, that was Arabella's when she was little, all over the house. Most of the time he also takes a blanket with him - he is like a mini-Linus from the Peanuts. He moves so quick that it is hard to catch him in the act.

And look where I caught the little stinker. He was standing on a chair in Arabella's closet. He proceeded to empty out her sock bin of every pair of socks - he threw them into a pile on her bedroom floor!

Go Canada!!!

Last Sunday, we watched the Canadian men's hockey team in the gold medal match of the Olympics. It was much easier for Arabella to cheer for Canada during this game. (When the US women played to Canadian women, she was torn...while she was super exited that Canada won, she was sad to see the Americans crying when they lost.) It was fun to watch the game. And I loved seeing her cheer them on. She was jumping up and down and Max even got in on it. He had to cheer for his birth country!

Upscale Wee Sale - Take 2

Back in October, I pull together a bunch of fall/winter clothes that Arabella and Max had outgrown. It was a lot of work to do so, but totally worth it. And I just dropped off my second round of clothes for spring/summer. Again, I waited until the last minute to get things in order...I am such a procrastinator...but I got it done. Everything was hung, pressed, tagged and ready for me to drop off last Saturday. It makes me sad to see some of these clothes go, Jay on the other hand, loves that I am cleaning out. I am trying to not be attached to them, after all they are just clothing. I think it is hard because it really hits you that they are going up so very fast. Anyway, I hope that I make a decent amount of money again. With my volunteering that I am doing at the sale, I get to shop the pre-sale - which will be fun...I am looking to score some great deals on some boutique pieces (I want to do family photos this spring, and I'd like Max and Arabella to have something that matches!) Anyway, here are some pics of everything that will hopefully be sold and make me some money! I figure if I break even between what I sell and what I buy, then I am good.

Is All This Sugar Necessary?!?!?!

I get that one of the main ingredients of Valentine's Day is candy, which is loaded with sugar. But what ever happened to just exchanging Valentine's Day cards? Is it really necessary to add all this junk and sugar to them?? I think almost every card that Arabella received at school this year had some sort of candy or chocolate attached to it...and to think, we still have a few pieces of Halloween candy stashed in the back of the pantry. I guess we will just add this to it...

Arabella's Sweet Valentine

It has taken me a few days to figure out how to write this post without crying. I still am amazed at how much Montreal is a part of us. The time we spent there flew and in the grand scheme of things, 3 1/2 years is not that long, but it will always be a part of us. The friendships we made will last a lifetime and I miss them so much. I know that Arabella does too. Every so often, she will get quiet and I know what will come next..."Mommy I miss Montreal, I miss (_________) (which is fills in with the name of whomever she is missing at the moment. One friend that has truly captured a part of her heart was Jack, and vice versa. The went to preschool together for 2 years and the bond they created is quite evident, at least to me. She still talks about him like she was playing on the playground with him yesterday. In the beginning she gravitated towards him, they had never met before preschool and in the beginning he was so shy and would hide behind his mom, Nat. But over the course of 2 years, they became fast friends. After school, they would play on the playground together, they played at the pool together over the Summer, they sat next to each other during snack and when they had lunch at school. She just loved him. And on her last day of school, you could see how much they were going to miss each other. They hugged the door and I am so happy I was able to snap a picture of it. He also gave her a framed picture that Nat had taken of them the Spring of their 1st preschool year. She has proudly put it on her book shelf, front and center.

Over the past 10 months, they have written each other notes, cards and exchanged birthday gifts. She asked me recently if we could FaceTime and I need to get on that...she would love to see him. And this Summer when we visit, seeing Jack (and Nat) is on the top of our list. But most recently, she received a small padded envelope from Jack. She was excited to open it and it melted her heart. Inside was a Valentine's Day card and a cute Hello Kitty beaded necklace (which she has worn everyday since receiving it!).

I have to say, this is the sweetest note/card that she has received. She couldn't believe that he remembered her on Valentine's Day. Thanks Jack (and Nat) for making her month. We miss you both so very much.

School Happenings

February has just flown by and school has been busy for Arabella. With the snow days jamming things up, it seems like they have been trying to cram in as much of the missed activities as possible.

I volunteered in her class room one day last week. I love being able to go with her and she loves having me there. I usually work for a little bit with a few kids that need some extra help and then I do various jobs in the classroom that the teachers don't have time to do...copying, cutting, bulletin boards. I enjoy seeing how the lessons are taught and how Arabella works. I am so proud of her and the great job she is doing in Kindergarten, she is one smart cookie. While I was there, all of the 100th Day projects were still up. It was fun to see the other ideas that her classmates came up with...

It was also nice to see some of the other projects and work she has been doing.  They put most of it on bulletin boards in the hallway before it comes home.

Last week she also had the Boosterthon Fun Run. This is her school's biggest fundraiser of the year. Most of the money raised stays in her school for books, supplies, etc. I have to say that the company that partners with the school does a really great job of getting the kids excited about participating. For 5 days, they learned lessons about not bullying, being supportive, etc. and she would get in the car each afternoon and tell me what she learned. So the premise is they run laps and for each lap they run, sponsors will pledged money to them. She decided she was going to run the maximum amount of laps she could which was 35 and then she started hitting up family to sponsor her. She raised $145 and not only did she run what she said she was going to, but she ran 3 extra! Max and I went and cheered her and her classmates on as they ran the laps. She barely broke a sweat (no clue where she gets her ability to run from...I am not a runner and Jay really isn't either) and had a blast at the same time. Way to go Arabella!!

Before running they pumped the kids up (these are only the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes) and said the Pledge of Allegiance. And then they were off!

Giving hi-5's as they ran around!

They marked off the laps on the back of their t-shirts...so proud to have met her goal!

Max was excited to cheer on Arabella and her friends!

And talk about cramming things in, today was Spirit Wear Friday so they had pajama day, crazy sock day, crazy hair day and bring small stuffed animal to school day, ALL AT ONCE!

She sure went all out for the crazy hair. She wanted me to put braids all over her head and then this morning, she decided to add bows! If there was an award for craziest, I am sure she would win!

Let's Build It!

Arabella has been starting to get into Lego's. Over Christmas break Grampie bought her a airplane Lego type kit when we went to Carolina's Aviation Museum. We just finished putting it together last weekend. I find myself getting frustrated when we do projects like this...she just wants to jump in and then gets frustrated when she can't put it together or it isn't turning out correctly. I feel like I end up doing the project for her and that really isn't the point. She doesn't have many Lego's yet, but has started asking for them...hopefully we can stall her a bit longer on them. For one, Max puts everything in his mouth. Arabella isn't the greatest at picking up small pieces of her toys - I found him clutching 2 very sparkly Barbie stilettos yesterday. And I want her to enjoy doing the Lego's...not get annoyed and frustrated. Maybe over the Summer she will be more patient for them. Anyway, she finished the plane and was pretty proud of it.

Last Saturday, she and Jay also went to Lowes for another Build & Grow project.  She built a "claw game" and has been playing with it off and on since.  It is actually a cute project.  Way to go Arabella!  Great job and you earned another patch for your apron...which is starting to fill up!

A French Bakery

One of the things we loved most about Montreal, were the bakeries. Jay has a sweet tooth (even though he might not admit it) and during our time there, he indulged in many a dessert. Arabella fell in love with French Macarons. One afternoon on our early days in Montreal, she and I went out to explore Pointe-Claire Village...there was still snow on the ground, but it was a bright, sunny day (funny how you remember details...) and we stopped in a ice cream store, Cafe Bilboquet. It was too cold for ice cream, it was after all just March, so we had macarons instead. She loved them. I can't say that I blame her and now every time were are out in a bakery, if they have them, that is what she wants.

Here she is, her first taste of a macaron...

One of the things I have tried to do since moving here was to find things were were used to. It hasn't been easy, but I did find a true French bakery...go figure. Amelie's French Bakery, has 3 locations, and they have most of the pastries and sweet treats we are used to and enjoy. I had planned on getting her macarons for Valentine's Day, but the crazy weather put a wrench in that idea. One of the locations is in Rock Hill, South Carolina...seemed a bit odd to me...but I was in the area the day after Valentine's so I stopped and picked up a few treats as a surprise. The menu was authentic, but the staff, not so much. It is hard for me to pronounce French words correctly (and I lived around that for 3 1/2 years), let alone someone with a Southern accent...I almost lost it when the girl tried to pronounce "croque monsier"! I would like to take everyone back at some point, or at least check out the Charlotte location that is open 24 hours (crazy!!). I picked up a tea cake, a strawberry and pistachio croissant and 6 macarons for my favorite girl. She was over the moon! And I think we have another macaron fan in the house...Max!

Wordless Wednesday

And So It Begins...

For the most part, Arabella and Max get along great. Every so often she gets mad at him or he doesn't want to be carried around by him and then crying ensues. I can't remember exactly what he did, but I think it had something to do with destroying her Princess Palace Pets set up, but she was furious! I mean really mad. She wanted Max to go in a time out and she didn't want anything to do with him. Even after he tried to hug her and apologize in his own way, she wasn't having it. She she wrote this note and put it on his door:

It says "apology not accepted, Arabella is mad". 

I got a huge kick out of it because this is something that Michael and I used to do.  I remember coming home from school and finding notes like this on my bedroom door.  I think I even have a few that I have kept. 

I am glad she took her anger out on a piece of paper and I know she felt better after getting her feelings out. I can only imagine what future notes are going to say.

Frost Art

Arabella loved to draw with chalk outside. One day she colored the sidewalk beautifully and that night we had frost. The next day I went to get the mail and found this on the sidewalk. I think it is beautiful and very unique. Amazing what Mother Nature can do.