What a weekend! While I often wish I had (a few) extra days after a weekend; going back to work after a long weekend is really hard.

Especially, when the weekend was so amazing!

Flowers…

Saturday was Valentine’s day, and we spent most of it tackling the set-up of our new spare bedroom-slash-office, I also spent a part of it prepping for the Little Mouse’s birthday party. With loot bags done, salads made and Frozen decorations packed, we were ready to go.

D and the girls surprised me with some beautiful purple roses; six from each of them.

I love how when they came home, the Little Mouse (who is horrible at keeping a secret) blurt out, “we have a surprise for you mommy!” And the how Little Bird tried to hide it, “No, she’s joking. We don’t have anything. She doesn’t tell good jokes, mommy.”

I tried to keep a straight face when they finally brought the bouquets to me. They were adorable.

The night ended with some Greek take-in and some episodes of their favourite television show. It was a great day and I loved every minute of it.

Cake…

Sunday was the big day!

The Little Mouse was so excited, she could hardly wait. “Is my party now?”

“Is it now?”

“Are we leaving yet?”

You get the picture.

When it was finally time to go, we made our way to the indoor play place and she had a blast with her friends and cousins. The party went off without a hitch! All the kids had a blast playing together. We had the right amount of food, candy and of course an amazing cake for the birthday girl.

The real test of patience comes after the party. That’s when D and I have to bring everything inside, put away extra cake and pizza as the vultures circle the pile of presents.

“Can we open my presents now?”

We didn’t have much to clean up this time around, since the planning was pretty spot-on (ahem!), so it didn’t take too long and eventually she got to open her loot!

It was Frozen, Frozen and more Frozen!

Honestly, it’s not a surprise that Frozen fever lives on, with all the merchandise available now. She got her own Elsa dress, tiara, jewellery, microphone – complete with songs! She got a baby Elsa, a toddler Elsa and Frozen Monopoly. Frozen clothes and school supplies ready for September! It was crazy, but she seemed to really love it all.

I think it was safe to say that she went to bed with a huge smile on her face that night. And that’s all you can ask for as a parent.

Family…

Yesterday was Family Day in Ontario, and so we were all home. The girls played with all the Little Mouse’s new toys and made an orchestra with the singing microphone and the singing Barbie she got, so D and I retreated upstairs to wade through a dresser of their baby stuff.

Our goal was to empty the old nursery, including two dressers, and make that room into an office. The closet is already done and one dresser has been empty for a while now since the Little Mouse moved into her big girl room. But the last remaining dresser was something I was sort of stalling to get to. It was where I kept the baby books and cards from past birthdays, the school certificates, notes, report cards and pictures. I knew that it wasn’t going to be a matter of moving them out and into a new spot, I would look at everything.

I can’t help myself.

This is where every note I wrote from doctor’s appointments went, things the kids said were scrawled on a post-it note and put into a box. It is my dresser of memories, and I have been procrastinating actually getting it together and putting things in a better place for a while, but I couldn’t listen to another “Let it Go” synthesized through that mic again, so it was now or never.

D and I worked on organizing their stuff, finally separating those notes out and into each of their baby books. It’s not done, but it’s almost there. We did that for the whole morning and then we broke for lunch.

After lunch, we opened up the Frozen Monopoly and played together, as a family. The girls had a blast. Well, actually to be honest, they went back and forth between loving it and hating it, depending on if they were collecting money or paying money to the bank or other players.

The Little Mouse started out playing with D, as Elsa. The Little Bird was Ana and I was Olaf. The Little Bird would proclaim, “I love this game,” as she collected $2 (not $200) when she passed GO, or collected other money as per her Chance card. But by her next turn, she would be claiming, “I hate this game,” since she landed on my property and owed me $3, or at one point when she noticed she didn’t have a lot of money left.

D and I just laughed, as we tried to explain to her that it was just a game and we needed to try to have fun. It didn’t matter if you won or not.

The Little Mouse however just flipped sides. Suddenly she didn’t want to be Elsa anymore, so she joined team Olaf and rolled the dice for me. She paid out money we owed, collecting money owed to us. In the end we won, to the disappointment of the Little Bird.

And I got taught a lesson in gloating, which I apologized for.

(I’m competitive, I can’t help it!)

After dinner we had Family Movie Night, which my kids love. And chose Big Hero 6.

We all saw that in the theatre, so it was nice to snuggle up together on our bed and watch it. As usual, they claim which characters they want to be, and who D and I get to be. In the end, we fist-bumped (bah-a-la-la-la) and agreed that we all love Baymax and want to squish him.

Courage…

With teeth brushed and pajamas on, we snuggled up once more to read the Little Mouse’s new Frozen book, when the Little Bird started complaining that her tooth hurt.

Her bottom front tooth has been loose for a while now, and the actual adult tooth has started to grow in. That baby tooth has been almost horizontal for about two weeks, and I’m not really sure what was holding it there, but she wouldn’t let me touch it; too afraid I would make it bleed. But last night, in the middle of the story, she said it was hurting her.

I paused the story, took her to the bathroom and told her I’ll pull it out. I told her it would only take me a second and then the tooth fairy could come and visit her. While she didn’t really like the idea, she let me do it. I have to admit, I barely even touched it and it came out.

Yes, there was blood, but just a little. And yes, there were tears, but only a few. In that three minutes, her face had changed, her tooth was securely in her new “tooth fairy pillow”, she was smiling and we went back to the story.

As I tucked them into bed last night, I couldn’t help but think what an eventful weekend we had. Our little girls were growing up. I had scanned through pictures from both of their three month, six month, nine month photo shoots, while D and I exclaimed how little they were. We organized their annual pictures, found notes from daycare teachers and school, taking us through the past seven years in what felt like the blink of an eye. And here we are, kissing them goodnight and they are already four years old and almost seven. She’s lost her first tooth and already told me that the next one is loose.

I need to put some money away!

And I need to make time for more weekends like this. Family Day was amazing and I’m grateful for a day dedicated to this, but we need to remember to take some time out every day.

Because if I learned anything this weekend, it’s that time certainly does fly by.

Tania

P.S. The Little Bird sprang out of bed this morning to check her pillow and was super pleased to find $20 from the tooth fairy.

(I was super quick to tell her that the tooth fairy said only the first tooth gets $20 and all other teeth would be a lesser amount!)