Frosty Morning Snuggles & Birthday Wishes

Happiest of birthdays to our sweet Ada who officially became a teenager today — 13! Hard to believe. She spent the weekend soaking up some one-on-one time with her mom at a baseball tournament in Red Deer, which honestly sounds like the perfect birthday weekend for her. Hope she had the very best day!

Back at the ranch, little miss made her way upstairs right at midnight. I went down to grab her water and realized she had stopped to use the bathroom all by herself on the way up — even if she did leave the light on behind her. Such a big girl moment. She snuggled in tight beside me and drifted right back to sleep until stirring again shortly after 6. Thankfully, extra cuddles bought us all a little more sleep until nearly 7:30.

The second Renn realized Aislyn was awake too, the excitement level in the house instantly jumped to full volume.

I quickly tossed the bran muffins in the oven while S inhaled his cereal before racing out the door just after 8 with coffee in a travel mug. The muffins were worth the wait though, especially according to Renn who proudly polished off three mini muffins herself.

primary color sorting muffins

Aislyn decided she absolutely was not ready for the playdate to end and happily stayed here instead of heading into the city with her dad before 9:30 for baseball. We worked out a later ride with Nathan when he came to pick up Renn, which felt like a major win for the girls.

Outside, it felt more like fall than spring. It was literally freezing (0 degrees) when I woke up and despite the sun trying its best, the temperature only crawled its way to 9 degrees. The girls, however, were completely unbothered by the weather and fully committed to play mode all morning.

Check out Renn's dinosaur teeth and her marker grip :)

At one point they even ventured outside to retrieve poor Mr. Jenkins.

Honestly, Jenkins may be the most patient cat alive. Today he endured a full “vet spa day” complete with endless carrying around, pretend checkups, haircuts and brushing. Renn also decided to channel her inner Auntie Manda and opened up a hair salon somewhere in the middle of all the kitchen chaos.

B stopped by around noon to drop Cooper off, say a quick hello, and grab a few muffins before heading into the city for an appointment with Kaylin who is back to work today. Too bad we didn’t have an extra car seat here because the girls could easily have caught a ride into the city with either Auntie B or earlier with Craig.

Before Nathan arrived, I loaded the girls up with noodles and watermelon. He pulled in just before 1, and within minutes the excited duo had packed themselves up and disappeared down the driveway, leaving behind sudden and very noticeable silence.

<3 Thank you Boysis family for this lovely Mother's Day gift, all things I love!! <3

With the house quiet again, I settled into catch-up mode. Blogs, photos, videos — all uploaded and organized — and Friday’s post finally went live before I tackled the rest.

Later, I squeezed in a 30-minute Pilates/Tai Chi workout before taking the dogs for a walk. The weather remained completely unfriendly with cold wind and a high of only 11. Once back home, I set up the soaker hoses for both the raised beds and the in-ground garden, hand-watered the pots and seedlings, did a quick poop loop with the dogs, and then headed back inside to feed them.

I was in the middle of tidying up and setting the robot vacuum loose when B arrived again just before 5 after feeding her ponies. She headed home with Cooper around 5:30, and not long after that Sheldon rolled in, finished with his rodeo volunteer weekend and picking up Chinese food for supper — definitely appreciated timing.

After supper we climbed into the hot tub where the sun finally decided to appear… for approximately six whole minutes before disappearing again.

We ended the night curled up on the couch with bowls of ice cream while finishing season one of The Madison. Definitely recommend this one — especially for the gorgeous scenery alone.