Busy, busy, busy in Canada!

With about 18 hours before we needed to leave, Megan and I decided to head up to Canada to visit my nieces, nephew and Tracie. They had a weekend full of events and Tracie had a to-do list just waiting for us to shorten. We made it to their house Thursday afternoon and as soon as we walked in the door we entered the chaos. Within an hour the kids ate dinner, 2 kids were off to dress rehearsal for their dance recital another was off to soccer practice and another was off to gymnastics. Tracie casually mentioned to watch our step in the garage because she hadn't had a chance to clean it. So with an empty house and with energy to burn, thanks to the long drive, Grandma Papa and I started to clean the garage (or at least make a path to walk)
The next day Conary, Caila and Kelsey were at school and Crystal wanted to take full advantage of having Megan all to herself. Here she is showing Megan how to play and dancing Twister game.

Megan wasn't really the best student, so this game didn't last too long.

On Fridays, Tracie helps pass out pizzas at the school. Crystal has afternoon kindergarten so she volunteers and is in charge of salad dressing. After her job was done, Megan and Crystal enjoyed some VERY greasy pizza. But Megan knew to blot the grease off, she used her shirt, but there was less grease so that's all that matters right!?!

Oh and for the record, I was scared when the bell rang and hundreds of kids came in a mob trying to get their pizza first. They get pizza once a week but they acted as if they had never had pizza before, scary!

Saturday started with Crystal's soccer game. The "game" starts with 30 minutes of practice followed by a 30 minute game. As you can see from the picture, Crystal was practicing laying on the ground. But during the game, you could tell she was used to playing with her older brother and sisters, she wasn't the least bit intimidated with lots of little legs all trying to kick the ball. She did great!

Megan however was more interested in the play ground. I don't even know how many times she went down the slide. She had fun and Kelsey and Caila had fun helping her up and ground the playground.

Apparently she already knew how to climb things because multiple times a day she would climb Caila's ladder to get into her bed. She would have spent every minute with Caila with she could, but Caila needed to do homework and the other kids wanted to play with Megan. It was fun to see Caila and Megan together, Caila is like the mother hen and Megan would do almost anything Caila did. Too cute. Thank you Caila for letting Megan play with you.

My beautiful Kelsey Bells, or Felsey as I like to call her. She was on her way to her dance recital to do a jazz number to "Mary Had a Little Lamb" I had to help with the make-up assembly line and had to do her eyes and lips...very odd putting heavy stage make-up on a naturally beautiful 8 year old!

Here's Crystal in a typical Crystal pose, sweet with just a hint of mischievousness. She was getting ready to do a ballet and a tap number. So cute! But again, there was something odd about helping with her make-up. Let's just say it took 2 days to get it all off!

They were so excited to go to the recital and we were very excited to watch them on stage.

I love this picture!

For some odd reason I don't have any pictures of Conary or Caila. I don't know why because they were always playing with Megan. Poor Conary had to put up with Megan's not so nice "NO!" every time he asked her a question. I wish I had pictures of him trying to convince Megan to wear this yellow dress. He tried to put it on, they put it on a doggie stuffed animal and asked her numerous times to "please put it on" Finally I used the mom standby...bribery! Maybe she was just boycotting Conary because she knew he wasn't a Red Wings fan! (see Conary another reason to like the Red Wings, Megan won't scream NO at you!)

Look at all of those flowers for a job well done! Felsey's number was so cute and she did such a great job. Megan watched the whole 3 hour recital perfectly and when Kelsey was on she would point to the stage and say "Kelsey?" over and over again. She loves her Kelsey Bells.

More flowers for another great dancer! Between Crystal's 2 dances and Kelsey's dance they were spaced out far enough that when Megan did get antsy, all I had to do was say "Crystal is coming up soon" and she would settle back down.

Megan LOVED watching all of the different dances. Between the bright costumes, upbeat music and quick dances Megan couldn't get enough. When the lights went down (about every 3-4 dances) she would give the "more" sign and wiggle her butt back and forth and say "Dance" Then when the lights came back on she would act so surprised make a shocking sighing noise that got louder and louder each time, to the point that the people around started to laugh every time she did it. It was so cute! I knew she would enjoy it and sit for a little bit, but I NEVER would have guessed she would have been entertained for a 3 hour dance recital, that made me very happy (in more ways then one)

"Friendship Bread" anyone??? Tracie needed to get her Friendship Bread going so she had Megan help measure and "stir" the mix up. Megan liked being able to squish everything around.

Because the Friendship Bread takes days to make, we needed homemade bread for dinner. Megan and her Aunt Tracie decided to make some rolls from Aunt Ellen's recipe (so unbelievably yummy I can't even begin to describe how good they are!) Megan did a great job pouring the ingredients in the bowl and in storage bags for future loaves.

Very carefully coating the rolls with butter.

Anytime you ask her to smile, this is what you'll get...cheese ball! She had a blast making the rolls. But LOVED eating them. We made a double batch of rolls and there was 1 left after dinner...so good!

The trip was great! All of the kids were very helpful with Megan, we got lots of things on the to-do list accomplished and we had tons of fun while doing it all! I can't even begin to describe how much I love these kids and how amazing they are. I wished we lived closer to them, but until that can happen I will soak up every minute I spend with them. I love you all and hope you you have more fun and laughter each and every day!