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Tag: Lights

Lots of running around today…

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Doing odd jobs and picking up things for the house. For instance, I always cheap out and get plastic snow shovels which usually break on me part way into the season. So today I laid out some cash for a proper metal one. We needed more matches for candles and such, so picked those up from the store. I bought eye hooks for hanging toy hammocks in the kids rooms to get all those stuffies off the bed/floor. I bought more baby wipes, as they come in handy for more than cleaning dirty baby bums. I grabbed a proper light up wreath for the front door, which the kids will flip their shit for. And for myself I grabbed an extra 300 lights for our Christmas tree, because the white and blue motif we’ve used for going on 13 years is a bit cold and drab. These kids are vibrant, and deserve a little colour. Let me tell you, if our house wasn’t so cluttered with kids stuff, I’d have light up garlands every where, and I’d hang streamers, and put up a whole lot more festive stuff. But that’s too much while all of the kids things are still everywhere. I imagine that once they get into double digit ages, we can pass much of the toy clutter on to younger families, and we’ll still have enough clothes to dress a football team four times over. Once the kid stuff begins to recede I will reclaim the dining room table, and build a nice candle centric display in a glass bowl with left over holiday ornaments and such. A fancy table runner. Oh… it will be very nice in here! Ho ho ho…

So I added the new decorations in to our current line-up, and then powered up the trusty old stud finder to assemble the toy hammocks, and then I will need to fill out the flu shot forms for the three of us going after school today for even more jabs. Such fun! Better than a raggedy ass hospital visit at this point.

I was also paying my bills, as a few invoices have come in, and I can get flush with the mechanic, and the medical stuff I bought for my youngest. A new humidifier and a large Hepa filter set me back nearly $400.00 bucks, but the kid is on the mend (fingers crossed) for more than just a week or two before the next illness comes around. There were some Kickstarter items I backed, and promptly forgot about, so that was a couple more bucks to make up for. I had bought a lot of airbrush paint, thinners, washes, and cleaners last month, so the Amazon bill came home to roost. Plus our Great Wolf Lodge trip had some bills attached to it with Falls Parking, dinner on the town, the Sky wheel ride, and a stop at the arcade & on site store at GWL. It all adds up. Plus gas for both vehicles, and groceries, & oil changes. Bad month. Not a good look. But I don’t have to buy that stuff again, so investments in the house are a good thing. Investments in general health & well being is great too. We don’t vacation much at all (Covid times or otherwise). So I splurged, and now I had to come to terms with that. Bought and now paid for. Next!

It also seems like a lot, on the old Visa bill, because I stopped using my debit card, and now I track ALL purchases on the one card, and pay it off every single month. More secure too. That new tap feature can make you pretty reckless though, holy shit. Tap, tap, tap. I suppose they designed it that way to get you to be more free with the wave of a hand.

It’s funny, I was going to do a couple of movie reviews today for Top Gun Maverick, and Jurassic World Dominion. But I’ll save that for another say. I just had something else to say today. Mainly because I was excited about the new lights for the tree and a proper wreath for the door! I’m positively giddy. That’s all she wrote today though. Ciao Bella!

Breaking long held rules…

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Broke down after years of holding the line, and let the kids put up our Christmas tree before Remeberance Day. I figure with the looming CUPE strike, and then the possible teacher strike this holiday season could go sideways pretty quickly, so why not let them have it just this once. It took us a while to do it, and we listened to Michael Buble croon some holiday songs in the back ground, and a few of us have settled in to watch “Elf” with the tree lit up. I generally feel pretty strongly that we should give the Vets their due by waiting to observe Nov 11th prior to starting in on the holiday season. But we’ve had such unseasonably warm weather these last few weeks, so I put up the lights in warm sunshine, instead of freezing rain & high winds. And given that the kids are off school 2 days minimum (Friday & Monday) with the CUPE strike action, the thought of them being home 24/7 whining and asking me constantly to put up the tree was going to get on my nerves, so I nipped that in the bud, and we have it up for two months, instead of six weeks. Ha. The big red Christmas bow is on the front door, and there are a few other items still left to go, but that can wait. The tree was the big ticket item. And with the time change the kids were up ‘early’ jumping in place to get started.

Funnily enough we went to a big indoor park yesterday, full of trampolines, foam fits, dodgeball court and climbing equipment. And within 30bseconds of getting out into the park my eldest hurt her foot by landing half on a trampoline, and half on a line green padded surface. The very first thing the safety video tells you precisely not to do. So today she is limping a bit. No bruise, no swelling, no numb toes, but a limp and some tenderness. I could have called that happening to one or both of my kids. I just knew it. Glad it doesn’t seem to be permanent damage. Could have been much, much worse. Glad it wasn’t a neck, head or spinal injury. Not with how hospitals are as of late. The birthday party we attended was otherwise a good deal of fun. Both kids tried the leap of faith onto an air bag, and tried the trapeze over a foam pit. So I think they had fun regardless of the initial foot injury.

So a lovely four day weekend, unexpected, but nice nonetheless. I have one more bout with the leaves left to go, and then we can think about putting up the second half of the Christmas lights, ornaments and displays on the lawn, trees. Who knows how long any of this will last. So best to take advantage of the dryness and warmth to get those pesky chores out of the way before the weather eventually turns, and we get that icy rain and snow. Ciao Bella!

Quick trip to the water park.

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Where we later discovered that my eldest has a threshold for how high she is comfortable being. We found out while seated in a glass bubble about two hundred feet in the air above Niagara Falls while on their giant ferris wheel named the “Sky Wheel” on Clifton Hill. It didn’t cost too much to ride, and how often are we in Niagara in October with mild walking around weather? Never. That’s the truth. So I took a chance and we did it. Lovely views from up high. It was night, so the falls themselves were lit up. I wish the kids would have been more inclined to walk around a little more, but we saw lots, and tried to keep it fun, with as few meltdowns between the two kids as possible. So – one each essentially. We had our own cabin on the ferris wheel, which was nice. I think you could have fit eight adults in one car and still have room for arms & legs. Not bad for less than $50.00 CND.

The youngest took her turn at wigging out during dinner. I thought it would be fun to eat at the Rainforest Cafe, as it’s interesting to look around, the food is decent, and I know what the pricing vs. Portion size is going to be. My meal of “spicy” shrimp & sausage & chicken was delicious. After all the cheap spicy ramen I have consumed lately, the meal was no issue what so ever. Tasty and filling. I even opted to get a tall Daiquiri. Oh wee, look at me, living life on the edge. The kids loved it initially, but I think they should have snacked earlier as they were too hungry to wait for our meals, and the youngest went full auditory overload at the faux thunder, and kina, sorta, lost her mind for about fifteen minutes. But they did enjoy the animatronic elephants & gorillas. Loved the giant fish tanks. And my youngest has a fondness for frogs and toads, so she fawned over the mascot a lot.

The purpose of our family trip was Great Wolf Lodge. We managed a fun filled three days in the water park. This year my eldest and I rode every single ride available too us, excluding the three childrens rides in the toddler play area. A lot of standing and waiting on the stairs. But both kids did it without too much complaint. We lazy rivered it many times. Tackled the obstacle courses a few hundred times, used the slides, wave pool and the regular pool. Hell, we even found a moment to spare to go sit in the hot tub together. It was very pleasant. Some of our friends had an overlapping stay, so the kids got to play with them, and we got to chat as adults. Brief, but lots of fun. We even plucked up the courage to ride the single rider, no innertube, Wolf’s Tail. Where you climb inside a giant clear cylindrical coffin, and the floor gives way so you fall one story straight down into a gentle curve and speed your way via tunnel to the water trough at the end where you stop. It was brief, terrifying, but fun. Glad we both went once. My daughter desperately wanted to try, but I know her and her fickle ways, so I said once we got all the way to the top of the stairs, if she goes, I’ll go too, directly behind her. Otherwise we can both walk back down. I didn’t want to go first, just to have to walk all the way back up the tower to collect her, and walk immediately back down all those stairs. And she went for it. Fuck me! I didn’t actually think she’d do it. So I went too. Once. Phew! Glad that’s done with for now.

We went to the gift shop to buy pajamas for both girls, but they don’t carry them anymore. The kids were bummed about that, but still managed to find $100.00 worth of trinkets to take their minds off of their despair. Ha. Right.

We’ve done the story time, dance party elements, so we skipped those in favour of more time in the actual water park itself. We ordered pizza, and had the second half of it for dinner, and it was excellent. Not sure if, or what they changed, but it was really good this time around. We didn’t have time for bowling or laser tag, or the MagicQuest stuff, but the kids were fine playing in the water for longer anyway.

So that was our Monday to Wednesday. Came home in the afternoon, and I sent out a number of projects or tweaks that were requested while I was away. Now we’re all caught up. The kids are masked (as per usual) and back in school for Thursday/Friday. A little peace & quiet just for me. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!