First Annual Ailish Angelia Easter Egg Hunt

Today we hosted the first of what I hope to be annual Ailish Angelia Easter Egg Hunt.  For how much I drove myself crazy about it I think it was a success and everyone seemed happy as they left.

I had wanted to have the Easter egg hunt the year Ailish died but I had something else in mind...something a bit more grand than what I put on today but with Easter falling only about a month after she died nothing panned out.  Last year was the one year anniversary and we escaped to Disneyland leaving little time and emotional reserve to plan anything.

True to form I decided late in the game this year to get the hunt up and running.  I decided starting small would be the way I would go and perhaps develop some organization skills over the next twelve months (a girl can dream) and have it grow next year.  The goal is to offer a fun accessible Easter activity for children with special needs and their families.  

Think good thoughts that I can get my lazy procrastinating butt to make the next hunt a bigger, better event worthy of carrying Ailish's name.

Unfortunately I did not get as many pictures of the kids as I would have liked but that is always the way with parties.  Some of my kids are not egg hunters or candy eaters so they stayed inside and had full access to the lunch on the table

Isn't his banner beautiful?  I love it and am grateful for the kindness, generosity and talent of the man who made it.

Attempts at decorating.  Not so Pinterest ready I don't think

half the table (I'm practicing with a new camera lens)

yes that is snow and the remnants of what was a cool (get it?  Cool? I kill myself!) snowman one of the neighbours made

Having sooo much fun!

Loves to hunt for eggs!

I love this picture!

Quite the haul for someone who eats zero candy

I told the kid that no matter what the calendar says and whether or not the odd ladybug can be spotted, in this province it is still winter!  But you go ahead there Sista and wear your little summer dress...

Shame on you!

It started with an unexpected noise coming from somewhere in the bed with me.  What happened next was shocking to say the least.  No sooner had I heard the noise then, for lack of a better word I was pounced on.  There he was, all his weight on top of me searching, probing.  I was overwhelmed with his eagerness.  He travelled from my head to my toes intent on reaching his goal.  The feel of his breath was both warm and heavy.  I held my hands over my face not so much from embarrassment but almost as means of protection.  This only seemed to encourage him.  He explored with his tongue, nipping me gently with his teeth, clawing at the bed clothes becoming more and more excited as I halfheartedly attempted to evade his advances.  It was fun.  It was exciting.  It was not anything I expected to happen that night.  It was becoming so wild that I worried that the we would awaken the children.

And then.  That moment when the excitement reaches its peak.  I know its all going to come to a glorious end.  I want it to but again I don't.  It's invigorating.  The sharing of time with someone where the only goal is enjoying in each other's company made more special when there have been many conflicts between you.  But end it must.  And it does.

Finally I relent.  I give him what he so desires.

I throw the dog the damn squeaky chicken that I rolled onto in my bed that I then hid from her to torment.

What did you think I was talking about?

Shame on you!

(for purposes of literary license the dogs gender was altered to fit the needs of the story)

Spring break day 3

Spring break day three was not nearly as 'fun' as the previous two obviously.  This bus is only two and a half years old and has been to the mechanic more times than some of my kids have been to the doctor.   I think it is a dud.  We shall see whether the family will be living on mac and cheese for the next three months when all is said and done with repairs.  Timing will be the issue too.  Most times when the shops bring in buses they are part of a fleet and there is another one to replace it.  They don't usually come in as the sole family vehicle.  For us it is necessary that they repair it as soon as possible as in the meantime I am renting a 15 passenger van which may have space for that many bodies however those bodies need to be able to squirm their way through a tight space to find a seat. Not an easy task for a lot of my kids.  The only thing these vans are good for is hauling people who have neither bags nor equipment that travel with.  Neither of the wheelchairs fold and even if they did there is no space to put them.  This is not the first time we have had this happen particularly with this particular bus (#3 for whoever is counting) and it will all work out but really, what a pain in the keister!

On the upside look at that lovely raked yard just waiting for the Easter Egg hunt we are hosting on Saturday.  I even tilled, if you could call it that, the little front garden.  Yes it was with the snow shovel but let's be realistic folks.  The calendar might say it is spring but you know darn well in this province we are far from over dumps of snow.

spring break day 2

Today's events....bench pressing the little kids

We are easily amused

Spring break day one

Today was our first official day of spring break.  The big 'kids' still have their day programs but the schools are out.  Seven of us then went bowling with friends.  It was a great time with only a few tears which is a million times better than some of our other excursions.

Bowling in this city and maybe all I don't know is not the most accessible pastime.  There is usually a giant staircase to navigate with nary an elevator in sight.  I thought it was doable though for us to still go and I would carry H down the stairs,  Phoenix could with support go down on her own steam and then I would carry the chairs down.  Imagine my excitement then to see a chair lift at the top of a three tiered staircase.  The added bonus was that the security guard that has to run it was all ready there so we had no wait.

Phoenix thought the chair lift was almost as fun as Disneyland.  She grinned and laughed the whole way up and down.

H did not find the ride nearly as exciting as his sister did.

Gratefully the bowling alleys have special rated the games so that instead of paying per hour you pay per game.  This is brilliant when you consider the games move much slower and an hour would be gone in no time.  The other bonus is FREE SHOES!  Who doesn't like free shoes?!  Sure they have been worn by thousands of other people and have their own unique odour but we will take the perks where we can get them!

 I would like it duly noted that the boys outfit is colour coordinated to his shoes which happened to have lime green stitching.  Unplanned but always welcomed by my need for things to matchy match.

Even though we had to fight accessibility issues at every turn ie getting the wheelchairs into the lane area, no special ball ramp designed for players in chairs etc it was a great time.  Best of all I think is that we finally found Donovan's 'sport'.  He doesn't enjoy anything specifically other than going to movies and shopping (he loves new clothes) so discovering his liking and talent for bowling is something we can maybe run with.

This is what Sheldon Cooper would look like when he bowled

H thought the day's activity was a pretty good one too.  He liked the feel of the ball and that almost everyone wanted a turn at bowling with him.

Phoenix has a riot no matter where she is and today was no exception.  She tolerated the in and out of her chair with patience which was great as Phoenix wandering a bowling alley would not end up  good for anyone.

Of course Dog had to have a turn too!  Puleease!

This was the first time that Malia has ever been bowling.  The activity is questionable for her as with her lack of vision once the ball left her hands she didn't know what was happening.  I had hoped that I could convince the alley staff to allow me to take Malia down on the carpeted area between lanes in order to show her the pins etc but there was no budging them.  Again, accessibility is not the game's middle name.  Between me and my friend we tried to find glow in the dark bowling but that seems only to occur on weekends.  I thought at least then the kid might stand a shot at seeing some of what was happening.  I gave my best play by play as to what was going on with her ball which she seemed ok with.  The child is definitely competitive.  Knocking down one pin was not her idea by an stretch of the imagination of being a good bowler.

ok so I'm NOT an action photographer!

 The teens did pretty good at bowling too however I don't mind bragging that I did kick both their butts!  Yes the bumpers were up but that is completely beside the point.  It was a completely even playing field.  I won't mention that Malia and H were each only about twenty points behind me.  I couldn't beat them by too much....  That would be discouraging.  And mean.  For the teens however I did a victory dance and song that I wrote on the spot.  It went something like "I wo.on.  I wo. on.  I kicked your bu.utt.  I kicked your bu.utt.  They lacked any response in aid of my ceasing my dance so we could leave.

Good times.