#gronickchristmas

as i sit here today - munching on a ham and cheese croissant watching the snow flakes fall and listening to the boys playing on the xbox - i am reflecting on our christmas this year and how it was NOTHING like how i had pictured it. this year i felt like we were in such a rush. other commitments came first and the real traditions of the holidays got pushed aside.
there was no baking.
there was no blogging.
there was no skating.
there were no gingerbread houses.
there was NO SANTA. {we never got to see him and get a photo. :( }

there were, however, snowstorms, work and colds/flu. lots of all three and they consumed all of our time. work took over our time. snow took away our visit with santa. the flu commanded it's presence on christmas day. we did still do some christmasey things this season but it was nothing like in years past.

i just hope we can navigate this new rhythm of our life, master the beat and dance our way through 2014 effortlessly.
together.

that's my resolution.
what's yours?

all the best in 2014 - HAPPY NEW YEARS!!

these are all photo's from instagram. are you on instagram? i'm @jengronick if you want to follow along on our adventures!!

we had a time.

a few weeks ago aydan and me attended the brownies mother/daughter sleepover and to quote angela chase "we had a time."

such a blast.
love these moments with my girl.

our week.

this week seemed to have flown by but yet it was jam packed with goodness.

i'm going to start talking about a week ago friday cause that's just how it is.
around these parts that day is known as Terry Fox day. We all help in finishing his dream and running to find a cure for cancer. and run these kids did! they had to go around and around the field collecting stamps along the way to track their progress. it was supposed to be a stamp a lap but then it became about how many stamps you could get in a lap and then it was just fun. they got sweaty and exhausted and had a grasp on the cause and that's all that matters! what a fun day and it was the first day that i have EVER been able to volunteer at my kids school and they were so excited about that.

last weekend tony had to work all weekend so the kids and me decided it was high time to go apple picking. after that day i will only ever go on week days thank you very much!

holy smokes there were a lot of people there!!! wowzers! we were planning to meet friends rom the city there but that never happened. they got caught in the traffic coming out and decided to head deeper into the country than where we were and since i don't have a cell phone...yes i know, just call me mrs. brady!...we missed hooking up with them there. the place was a zoo! since i don't get the montreal paper i was not privy to the fact that this was the big weekend for that particular ochard and they had been advertizing like gangbusters. after the THIRD tour bus showed up i started to clue in.
and then the sun came out - boy did it come out! it was unbelievably hot! like july hot.
after finally giving up waiting - and after the kids exhausted the fun the playground could offer -  we went and picked our apples.

it took all of 15 minutes. really?
thursday's after school now sound like a good idea to me......we left a little grumpy and miserable but we had our 20lbs of apples that no one is going to eat and we did get to stop by a favorite veggie stand on the way home so not all was lost...just look at those pumpkins!

then we had picture day on monday - which of course i forgot to take a picture of - and we were late so i drove them to school and took them in for some strange reason...which i never do....and was accosted by the other mother volunteers to help out. so i did. so fun!

i took time this week to work on our week in the life album as well which i will be sharing shortly. i am so excited that i got right down to it and completed the picture part all thanks to our new printer and the fact that i was trying out a new photo filter program that i have heard great things about, Rad Lab - free 14 day trial - and am hooked and hopefully i can get it.
loved how it lightened and sharpened the photo's with just a click.

also i am trying to make more of an effort for play dates. i remember going over to friends houses during the week and loving it. since i am home for right now {not for long i hope!} i have decided to embrace that. they both had a friend over last week and loved it...again void of any photo!! aarrgghh.

but...

i did download my camera and find these gems in there. these, my friends, are hidden treasures.

aydan took these and her explanation for it was - well this is an outside set so i had to take her pictures outside.
of course.

friday afternoon we went to target to go birthday party shopping and treat ourselves to a starbucks - that will put a smile on anyones face!

this weekend was full of swimming lessons {they are doing so well.}, running into friends at the pool, walks, bike rides, yard work, another birthday party {number 3 in our 6 rotation. two more this coming weekend and one more the following week....then who knows!}, groceries, friday night home movie - Castle in the Sky, so good!, new fish for the tank, a water hose fight between tony and me {yes we are twelve - i walked outside and all i heard was "WET T-SHIRT CONTEST!! and the next thing i knew i was soaked. then i got him good.}, he tried to instigate a tomato fight - a couple went whizzing by my head - but i didn't bite on that one. finally getting to painting the upstairs two-story stairwell - it's a two man job and we have to make one more pass at it but what an unbelievable difference! plus one of the best chicken chili's i have ever made...well the ONLY chicken chili i have ever made!
all in all a great week and an even better weekend to get me out of my friday morning funk.

oh and we are ready for halloween.....

and i am so glad my mom convinced me to plant dahlia's - we have vases of these all over the house!

favorite quotes of the week:

"what are little boys made of? trash packs, skylanders and video games. that's what little boys are made of." ~aydan

"me and my kids, we are going to chase rainbows when we see them." ~cooper after seeing a rainbow in the sky last night on the way to aydan's irish dance.

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Also i came across this post by one of my favorite bloggers, Ashley Ann, and i think i am going to play along. It's called Embrace the Camera and it's to get you, whether you are a mom or not, out from behind the camera. monday's prompt was Smiles and tuesday's was Making Memories and today's is Everyday Moment.
i will post mine here throughout this week.
{i will be using my big camera and not the iphone as i don't have my own and will want weekday shots.}

are you going to play along?
are you guilty of being behind the camera too much?

the out-of-towners.

last weekend we stole away and went to one of our favorite places. it is a wonderful place filled with good friends and always a great time. this time was a little different. we went for a surprise party for one of the main people we see on these trips. mike & the boys house {that's what we lovingly call it.} is usually the first stop when we get there and we always stay there as they do when they come to our house.
this time, though, it was a little different.

this weekend we were part of the surprise!

this excited and confused the kids a little. there were a couple "when are we getting to mike's? when do we get to see finn and eamon?" and after the millionth time explaining we got the big, "WE ARE STAYING AT A HOTEL?? With a pool?! YIPEE!!!"
when we finally got there, i never saw them again......

we arrived friday and had to somewhat lay low till saturday at 4. now the town that this is in is a big town but a small town. you know those kinds? we had some funny escape plans if in fact we did see them - being in a town 7 hours away from home you wouldn't just bump into each other - their shopping isn't THAT great.

the kids and me went to check out the new-to-canada target and had three plans in mind should we bump into them - plan 1) stuff our selves in the doll/stuffy display and hope they don't notice, plan 2) pretend we are mannequins and plan 3) RUN!! Tony had come with a more exceptable one that we were there to support our friend at the children's book author fair going on in toronto on sunday....yeah that was a good one - i had forgotten that one......

anyways when it came right down to it he was surprised & mortified {hates being the center of attention}, brian & marsha's has the best pool ever so the kids were busy {plus there were a ton of other kids there!}, we partied all night long and had fun.

taking a minute out of the busy pool schedule to say surprise and hello.

her too.

giving mike his gift.

the luxurious robe from us to him.

custom lego set from his sister-in-law...there is actually a mike guy there as the announcer! so cool and perfect for the lego obsessed family!

aydan with aunt kelly and the card the kids picked out for mike.

all the guys together - they have been close friends since high school!!

the downside was that we were leaving the next day and we didn't get our full 48 hours worth of visiting in. we stuffed some in on sunday and then headed off.
short and sweet.

until the snow starts to fly.....

playing along. {ali edward's week in the life.}

this week i decided to play along with ali's edwards and her week in the life project.
i love a project like this. i have been playing along with project life for three years now but it doesn't get as in depth as this. doesn't get down to the nitty gritty. well at least not mine.

in the past years i have played along with her - this was not the first of it's kind - but it always involved a vacation.
this year i thought we were ready to take charge of an ordinary week. {and do it the same time as the group.}
to really focus on what it is we do day to day rather than what we plan for special family time.
to really see how we live.

it was awesome.

it really made me realize how on the go we are but also how relaxed we are. we had some pretty busy days and some not so busy ones. we had lots of together time and precious quiet time.

i was definetly more gung-ho at the beginning of the week and let only a few pictures tell the story by the end. it seemed the same with ali as well {maybe part of the process? who knows.} all i know is that this was the last time of september 9th to 15th where our kids are 6 and a half and 8 and we were glad to witness it all.

it was a week of firsts - first irish dance class of the season, first ever pumpkin spice latte {and last}.
it was a week of seconds - cooper's second swimming lesson ever! he's doing really well.
it was a week of lasts - last baseball practice/get together of the season.

monday:

tuesday:

wednesday :

thursday:

friday:

saturday:

sunday:

all in all i took 277 photo's.

it was a good week.

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summer bucket list.

like so many of you out there we tend to make a summer list. a wonderful shiny list of all the things we wish to accomplish this summer. i wish the list could be filled with things such as clean your rooms everyday, vacuum, wash windows, load dishwasher;

but alas this is not such a list.
this is supposed to be a fun list! remember those?

aydan and me sat down one day in late may at the ball field and thought up our summer to-do's. i tried to sneak one of the above mentioned items on the list but was quickly caught. i was told quite sternly that "this was not that kind of list, mom!" and had to take it at that.

as i was surfing the net - as one does in this day  and age - i came across some rather lovely lists. there was this one:

by the talented and crafty emily

and this:

found on pinterest.

and this one is pretty awesome:

from the incredibly talented megan duerksen

these people obviously have nothing to do with their time. these people are miraculous. they have no worries in the world and everything they touch turns to gold.
{i hate these people......}

with these images i my mind i was determined that ours was going to look as good. we are creative people, no? we could totally pull this off.

this was ours:

sad, i know. the original scrap paper. the original list from that night at baseball simply taped up in the glasses cupboard. no markers. no poster board. no hoopla or fanfare.

there was a plan to do all that....we were just too busy crossing things off the list!

{when making the list we knew we were going on vacation so we added a few things specific to that time as well.}

here's our list!

1) swimming

2) go to the zoo
3) go to the aquarium

4) spend the day at the beach

5) go to vancouver

6) go to kelowna

7) make our own popsicles
8) bike riding

9) carnival
10) waterslides

11) go to the movies
12) tye-dye t-shirts
13) do nothing

14) go to the states to go shopping
15) 5k run
16) Granville Island waterpark

17) firepit

18) La Ronde
19) Bio-dome
20) Mont Tremblant
21) Ottawa
22) Antiquiing
23) Paint a canvas
24) redo basement
25) hang pictures
26) blow bubbles

27) Port Elgin
28) fix up the backyard

as you can see it was an ambitious list. some things we did. some we didn't. most of the things we didn't do actually were not summer specific, putting them on the list was just a little push to get them done so......maybe we should turn this into a "do before next summer" bucket list and knock the rest off.

sounds like a plan.

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i also wanted to share this picture with y'all...we are all friends here right? we got rid of our old area rug...look how much better this room looks now! beautiful!
{the dog crate is also gone...}

see ya later alligators!!