Imagine yourself in a house full of 3, 4, and 5 year olds (and their moms), sprawled out on the floor with their sleeping bags and pillows!  Popcorn, every single flavour of Goldfish crackers available to mankind, fruit and veggie platters decorated like fish, a coral reef and starfish and  multi-coloured gummy frogs and turtles swimming in a sea of blue Jello?!  What mom would willingly open up her house to a dozen junior kindergarten kids for a fun movie matinee? Me! That's who!

The Plot

What the moms thought

What the kids thought

Disclosure: I am participating in A Turtle’s Tale 2 – Sammy Escapes From Paradise Blogger Campaign by Mom Central Canada. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.

Maybe not, but one lucky Mama gets a free pedicure! :)

My friends and I had a friendly contest going. We were complaining about how we're all in desperate need of a spa day/manicure/pedicure/massage.  We jokingly came up with a little contest, but put it into effect that night! Whoever came up with the best Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" quote would be declared the winner.

You guys chose the winner (Booooo! It wasn't me!).  The winning Ryan Gosling "Hey Girl" photo is...
Congrats to my friend, CleanEatingMama! Looks like we have a pedi date! Too bad Ryan Gosling wasn't included in the prize! ;)

Is it sad that a thirty-something year old woman has a school girl crush on a movie star?  The last time I was crushing on someone like this was when I was in my twenties, watching Dawson's Creek. My girl friend and I would watch Dawson's Creek religiously. We'd meet up at her condo, pop some popcorn, and laugh, cry, and get mad at the whole Joey and Dawson thing.  I always wanted Joey and Dawson to end up together. To this day, we joke about how funny it was that women in their twenties would love a show about a bunch of high school kids. Then again, I love the original 90210, Degrassi Junior High, and Glee!

Latest crushes?
Alexander Skarsgard, Joe Manganiello, and Ryan Gosling.

While at a girls' night with some friends on the weekend, one of our friends said, "Have you guys seen those Ryan Gosling 'Hey girl' posts? They're hilarious!"

None of us had seen them before, so we whipped out the iPhone and BlackBerry to Google the pics.
HI-LA-RI-OUS!

Some of my favourites:



A night of the girls getting together (our once a month break from work, house, kids, and other responsibilities), turned into a night of full on Zumba workout on Kinect and lots of laughter. You know that this is our only time to fully relax and decompress.

I joked about how I could really use a pedi since my feet are horrible even though I had them prepped to be beach ready last month! Dry skin, nail polish needing to be redone. Okay, I also confessed that my husband told me that I've got talons when my foot touched him in bed the other night. Totally not sexy! I agree, manis and pedis are a good thing. I also agree that I shouldn't use the "I'm soooooooo busy" excuse and just get it done. This said, if you live in the countryside and people see a beautifully manicured hand or pretty polished toe nails, they think you don't do any house work or work in the garden.

Anyway, the girls and I came up with an idea. Since we all said we were all in dire need of a mani and pedi, we decided to have a little friendly contest between us. We'd all make our own Ryan Gosling "Hey girl" pic and the person with the best one would get a free mani/pedi! There are three of us taking part in this friendly contest, so the two who don't win will split the cost of the winner's manicure and pedicure.

To be fair, we will not disclose the names of the contestants. Please leave a comment here and tell us which one you think is the best!

Little One loves her doggy, Chance.  They're buddies.  They go for walks on the farm together. They bug each other. They play together. They're just like any other human sister and canine brother.

Since Little One absolutely loves anything dog related, she was ecstatic to receive the Walt Disney Diamond Edition Blu-Ray Combo Pack. I wish I had taken a video of her jumping up and down with delight when I handed her the DVD!



I could go on to describe the classic tale of romance between a lovely, pampered, pedigreed cocker spaniel, named Lady and a good-natured, street smart, homeless dog named Tramp.  However, my three year old wanted to be the one to "review" this Disney animation for you.


Review by Little One
" I yike Lady and the Twamp. Twamp is so sweet and a good doggy. Lady is a lovely dog. They're lovin' each other. The Si-ma-mese cats are veh-wee, veh-wee bad! They always get Lady in trouble. I don't like them. Some parts are scary. I don't like the rat. He's scary. I don't like the other dogs fighting with Twamp. Dogs fightin' is scary. I cried when dogs were fightin' with Twamp. I love Lady and the Twamp."


There you go. A movie review by a three year old!

Disney's Lady and the Tramp Diamond Edition is  available on Blu-Ray Combo Pack on February 7th.  This is one of my favourite Disney movies and one I'll be giving my nieces and nephews for their next birthdays. There are lots of "extras" included in the Diamond Edition Blu-Ray Combo Pack!

Many of us are familiar with the story of Rapunzel.  You  know the fairytale.  Young girl is trapped in tower, hidden from the world outside her.  Dashing young man comes and rescues her. Blah, blah, blah.

Disney has put a twist on the fairytale of the young girl stuck in her tower and striving to find independence. Though the story is simple and all the classic Disney components are present (beautiful young girl, strapping young lad, animal sidekick, evil older person, magical elements, romantic interest, obstacles, adventure, catchy music and lyrics, and a happy ending), I'd have to say that Tangled is not just your ordinary run of the mill love story.

The story opens with the king and queen and their happy kingdom. There's mention of a selfish old woman (Mother Gothel) who tries to hide a flower with magical powers so that she can stay young forever. The queen falls ill and drinks from the magic flower and thereby receives its magical healing qualities. The magical healing powers get transferred to Baby Rapunzel and Mother Gothel kidnaps her.

Fast forward 18 years later, and Rapunzel (Mandy Moore) has grown up knowing only the life Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) has taught her. Sheltered from the outside world, Rapunzel seeks something greater. She wants to see and learn what life is like beyond the confines of her tower walls.

Mother Gothel uses the magical powers from Rapunzel's hair to maintain her youthful looks. Meanwhile, Flynn Ryder (Zachary Levi), a wanted bandit happens to find Rapunzel's tower and hides out there. To his surprise, he encounters a long-haired, frying pan toting Rapunzel.

What I loved about Tangled is that this this wasn't simply an in-your-face-girl-power-love-sucks-I-don't-need-a-man-to-rectify-my existence story, but more about Rapunzel's journey to finding her own independence, and her new self-awareness. She just happens to find love in the process of discovering this.

Though Mother Gothel's character gives the presence of a slightly evil, selfish older person and one who tries to keep Rapunzel to herself, there is something almost likable about her character. She's the kind of lady people love to hate. Rapunzel's and Mother Gothel's relationship is a reminder of many relationships where young adults try to assert their independence under the watchful eye of their parents. There's the idea of the parent trying to protect and shield their young ones (though Mother Gothel's motives are for her own benefit).

My friend, Artsy Teacher Mom and I took our three girls to see Tangled on the weekend. We were in awe of the animation and seeing the movie in 3-D was a treat for young viewers. It was really sweet to see my toddler reaching out to touch the flying lanterns. The chase scenes were spectacular.  I had to remind myself a few times that I was watching animated characters and not actual actors.

I can't wait for Tangled to come out on DVD so I can get it for Little One!

I've been pretty fortunate to have a baby who is generally happy, good tempered, and easy going. I have been lucky that I'm able to take her everywhere I go. It is also my belief (probably my very naive belief!) that if I teach Little One that we go out to movies, plays, concerts and church, she'll learn that this is what we do and she'll learn how to act in those kinds of social settings. Maybe I'm a fool to believe that it's sort of like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I think or stress out about her freaking out in public, then she will. If I calmly show her that this is what we do and this is natural and normal for us, she will sit there calmly on my lap and enjoy the sights and sounds. Of course, she's a baby and I know she will not always sit quietly or have the patience and fortitude to sit through an entire church service without "talking" (or singing). I know she may not always want to sit in one place when we're at the movies or a play.

When my friend Gadget Girl and I took my two older nieces and Little One to see Harry Potter last summer, Little One slept through the entire movie. I was thinking that she would do the same with New Moon. HA! The joke was on me!

I do realize that Little One was still a "baby" baby when we saw Harry Potter. She's now twelve months old and is ALWAYS awake! She was awake for the entire movie. Good thing she's a good girlie, because it could have been ugly.

One of the movie attendants/ushers came up to me during the previews and knelt beside me. I was sitting at the end row in an aisle seat so that if Little One did happen to fuss, I could make a quick exit. Anyway, this is what happened:

Movie Attendant: (very politely) Mam, if your daughter fusses, would it be possible for you to just take her out of the theater until she stops fussing?

Me: Sure! Of course!

Movie Attendant: It's just that in the past we have had complaints about babies crying and making noise in the movie theater.

Me: Oh, yes. I understand completely. Not a problem.

We both exchanged smiles and the feature presentation began.

First things first. I'm not an idiot. I wouldn't ever bring my baby to a place where she would disrupt the enjoyment of a film, play, or concert. If in event she did get cranky, obviously I would quietly step out with her. I'm not inconsiderate. If I were a patron paying for a show, I'd expect the same courtesy from others.

Anyway, Little One was fine. I did miss one part of the movie when I had to step out to change her diaper. To answer some questions, no she wasn't quiet the entire movie. She did giggle and talk to the big screen. She was also bouncing on my knee for the entire two hours. I should point out that practically every woman, teenage girl or tween in the theater gasped, giggled, laughed, sighed or made some kind of comment (ummm...when Jacob had his shirt off!) throughout the movie. There was one guy sitting next to Gadget Girl who kind of seemed annoyed that there was a baby sitting four seats away from him. This said, he also didn't seem to want to be there in the first place. I'm thinking he just went because his girlfriend dragged him.

Oh, one weird thing happened when I was changing Little One's diaper in the washroom. There were no change tables. Big clue that this movie theater wasn't very baby-friendly. Anyway, I had to change Little One on the counter where the sinks were. She was happily looking around and smiling. There was a woman who came out of one of the stalls and said, "Oh! Can I take a photo of your baby?!"

Ummm. WEIRD! Ummm. No, you can't take a photo of my baby being changed! I didn't tell her that, but I was thinking it. Then she pointed at Little One's shirt that read: TEAM EDWARD.Lady in the Bathroom: She's probably the youngest New Moon fan in the entire theater! I need to take a photo of her! She's so cute!

No, she didn't get a photo of Little One. I very quickly changed Little One's diaper and politely excused myself. I said something about not wanting to miss any more of the movie.

While I was on hospital bed rest for the last bit of my very brief pregnancy last year, my friends were thoughtful enough to not only recommend, but send me the Twilight books. I devoured each and every book in the series in less than a week!

Little One was in the NICU for the first 2 months of her life. I spent most of my days and nights at the hospital with my baby girl. I didn't even think of "taking a night off". I wanted to be with my daughter all the time. I cried every time I had to leave the hospital so I could go to my aunt's house to sleep. I needed to be with my little preemie.

When Twilight (the movie for the first book) came out, one of my gal pals told me I needed to get out for the evening. She humoured me and agreed to see it with me. It was my first time doing something for me and breaking my routine of wake up-pump-commute-hospital-baby-pump-lunch-baby-pump-baby-commute-supper-sleep-do everything all over again.

In but a few short days, New Moon will be coming out and we already have our tickets!!! I can't wait!

In between bites of Shepherd's Pie and swigs of Crystal Light (yes, I appear to have been lulled in by the Crystal Light ads on the sidebar of my blog! Thanks, BlogHer ads! LOL!), Hubby, The Student and I discussed some of life's ever so important topics.

Do You Want a Vamp or a Scamp? Your Result: You Are A Vamp Girl   You are a vampire kind of girl who digs stony skin, and loves to see it sparkle in the sun. You are probably a cat lover, and may not like the smell of sexy fur rippling over muscle. You long to hear the Cullen boys go bump in the night.
You Are A Wolf Girl
Do You Want a Vamp or a Scamp? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

Can't say that this surprised me! I luuuuuuuuv Edward Cullen! Okay, and I luv RobPattz too! Thanks for the quiz, Jeanna! You're the best...even if you prefer werewolves over vampires. That's a flaw I can live with. ; )

I must warn you that I am about to reveal just how big of a nerd I really am. The Pirates of Penzance is going to be performed at Burns Wharf Theater! I am soooooooooooo excited!!! Not only is it one of my favourite operettas, but my lovely and talented friend, E is playing the role of Mabel! Okay, I'm so excited about seeing Pirates that I've been singing songs from the musical for the past two weeks!



I had my first taste of Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas at the tender age of seven. Well, sort of. I was in highschool when I first fell in love with HMS Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance, and The Mikado, but I was seven when I saw The Pirate Movie.

The Pirate Movie was loosely based on G&S's Pirates of Penzance. Okay, it was a zany adaptation of the operetta! With a tagline like "Buckle Your Swash and Jolly Your Roger for the Funniest Rock 'N Rollickin' Adventure Ever!", how could you not laugh?

The 1982 film starred Kristy McNichol as Mabel and Christopher Atkins as Frederic. The movie has Atkins in a pirate actor role and during one of his performances, he meets a group of girls. McNichol is a rather shy girl and not as confident as the rest of the girls in the group. Frederic (Atkins) invites Mabel (McNichol) for a ride on his boat, but her "friends" go with the stud muffin of an actor and leave without her. She tries to catch up with the group but falls into the water and ends up unconscious. She begins to dream about the attractive young lad she met. This is where the movie follows the storyline of Pirates of Penzance. Well, not quite the same storyline, but I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen the operetta.

It's a witty, charming, funny musical. I had a huge crush on Christopher Atkins when I was a kid. You probably know him more as Richard, Brooke Shields' love interest in the 1980s movie The Blue Lagoon. Isn't he dreamy? ;) Oh! I just noticed that in both The Blue Lagoon and The Pirate Movie he is shirtless and super tanned! Coincidence? I think not!

If I had to liken the depth of my infatuation with Christopher Atkins when I was a kid to anyone I currently have a crush on (errrmmm...besides my husband!), I'd say I liked Christopher Atkins as much as I like Robert Pattinson! ;p

*sigh* My husband is shaking his head and laughing as I type. I believe he thinks I'm insane.

Yes, many of you may think I am a happily married woman and doting mother of a three month old baby girl. The truth is that not many of you know of the secret I've been hiding for the past few months.

It's been painfully embarrassing because I never thought I'd ever have these feelings. I mean, I'm married! I'm not supposed to have a crush on any other man.

Want to meet my boyfriend? Well, here he is...I blame my new love interest on my friend Canine Cologne. She was the one who introduced me to Edward Cullen/Robert Pattinson. She was the enabler of this whole interest in another man ;)During my hospital bed rest when I was pregnant, I read the Twilight Saga because Canine was raving about it. Fancy Pantsy and Deb also talked about the books so much that I wanted to see what the hype was all about. It's a gripping tale of a teenage girl who falls in love with a vampire. He's not your ordinary vampire though. He and his 'family' are 'vegetarian' vampires. They don't consume the blood of humans. It's not fantastic literature in the way that it is written, but it is the type of book that you don't want to put down.

While I was in Toronto, most of my time was spent at the hospital with the baby. I spent my entire days in the NICU. My wonderful friend, J finally told me that I needed a night out. We went to a pub for dinner and then we saw Twilight!

To be honest, it wasn't at all what I expected it to be. The movie was pretty true to the book, with the exception of many little things that were omitted. I know that parts of books are always left out in movies, but I was surprised at what was left out. The little details were somewhat crucial to character development though. Anyway, I was just really excited to finally see the movie...and to see my Edward!

Getting back to the pub and movie thing. Going out with a great gal pal isn't like how it was when we were single and younger! J and I met up at Yonge and Eglinton. A true hot spot for dining and going out with friends with I was still living in Toronto and before we both got married and had babies.

We got to the pub and felt like cougars!!! Everyone looked so young! The cute waiter looked young enough to be our son (if we had him when we were like 13 years old or something)! I mean, he was very attentive, cheeky yet suave, but he was just soooo young! I think he was in his very early 20's!

Then came the movie. Twilight wasn't playing at Silver City, but it was playing at Famous Players. Silver City is much newer and bigger. The seats are more comfortable and the sound is a lot better. I don't think anyone even goes to that Famous Players anymore! When we got there, the place was deserted. It was empty! There weren't even any employees at the ticket booth! There were two girls working at the concession stand and we had to purchase our tickets there. We probably could have just walked in and watched the movie without paying because there wasn't even a guy to collect the ticket stubs before you go in to see the movie! Of course we wouldn't do that though, because that's just not right. Right?

It honestly felt like we were in a horror movie. I was almost expecting Freddy Krueger to jump out and slash us. The entire movie theater was dead silent and not a person was in sight. We had our pick of any seat in the house since we were the only ones there. J was laughing at me because I had goosebumps on my arms from being so scared. I must have a very active imagination because the only thing I could think of was that we could be murdered, attacked, mugged or raped there because there was no one around. C'mon...it was totally possible, right?

Creepy!!!

The lights dimmed and the commercials and previews were about to begin, when all of a sudden there was this noise. I screamed bloody murder (as I practically jumped out of my skin and onto J's lap!), and J started laughing her butt off. It was just the cleaning person collecting the garbage in the hall. I have never been so scared in my life. J said, "And you want to watch a scary vampire movie?!?"

Gotta love a night out with a gal pal! :)

...other than be a couch bed potato. Get it? Mmmmkay, so I'm not that funny after all.

It's hard to believe that it's been one week since I was air lifted to Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. One week already! It's even harder to believe that it's been three weeks since my bed rest began. I am 27 weeks and 2 days pregnant. That's another week that Junior has stayed "inside". The doctors and nurses keep reminding encouraging me that every week day inside helps significantly. I really, really hope and pray that Junior doesn't arrive too early.

Your Movie Buff Quotient: 92%

You are a movie buff of the most obsessive variety. If a movie exists, chances are that you've seen it. You're an expert on movie facts and trivia. It's hard to stump you with a question about film.

There are a few things I miss from my life in Toronto. I miss my friends, the school I taught at, the restaurants, the shopping, the nightlife, the multiculturalism, and the International Film Festival.


with my students at Second Cup after work and find Robin Williams sitting at the next table. He chatted with my students and seemed quite interested that they were studying English as a second language in Toronto.

In September, Toronto has its fill of stars. It isn't shocking to see A listers (and even D listers!) in the entertainment district or even just going shopping. My Mexican students went gaga over Dean Cain (from the Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman TV series).

The Olson twins, on the other hand, went pretty much unnoticed. They were in Chapters surrounded by bodyguards, yet no one was really paying any attention to them. My students asked me, "Are they famous or something?".

Much to the dismay of many readers out there, I am not too much of a huge blockbuster fan. In truth, I prefer independent films. I love, love, love foreign films. Among my all time favourites will always be Betty Blue (aka: 37°2 le matin), Amores Perros, Il Postino, and Como Agua Para Chocolate.

One of the things I miss about Toronto is being able to view so many incredible films whenever I feel like it. With Star Choice (satellite TV) and DVDs it's not impossible to see great films. It's just not the same as being able to sit back in those big, plush movie theater chairs and get lost in the moment.

The Movie Of Your Life Is Film Noir

So what if you're a little nihilistic at times? Life with meaning is highly over-rated. Your best movie matches: Sin City, L. A. Confidential, Blade Runner

Okay, that was a bit of a surprise! I would have thought I'd be more of a romantic movie kinda gal!

It's not even 5:30 in the morning and I'm wide awake...and blogging! My sleep was disturbed by a very odd dream. Ever since I got pregnant (and this has been happening more consistently for the past week), I have been having really weird dreams!

A few nights ago, I had a dream that Momisodes, Babysodes and I went shopping. It was raining heavily, but the three of us refused to use an umbrella. We wanted to play in the rain and get wet. I have no idea why I had a dream of Momisodes. Perhaps it's because we were Tweeting back and forth earlier that night? I have no idea!

Yesterday, I had a dream that my friend (let's call him Mr. HappyGoLucky) who has got to be the nicest guy in the world ended up being a total jerk! In my dream, he was boasting about having five girlfriends (err...make that "friends", if you know what I mean!) at the same time. In real life, he is dating someone and seems really happy with this person. Weird!

Earlier this week, I had a dream that I was in my 20's and off jet setting again. I was traveling with this Euro Boy that I had never ever seen before in my life. I think he was Swiss and we were traveling to Greece. Weird. All I can remember is that he had a very keen eye for fashion!

Now, it gets even stranger. This morning, I woke up from a crazy (yet seemingly realistic) dream. In my dream, I was working at Seattle Grace Hospital (Any Grey's Anatomy fans out there?) and there was some sort of explosion. Many people were injured or killed. For some reason, my job was to write letters and e-mail to the families of the victims. Whaaaat? Weird, right? The only reason I can think of that I had a dream where I worked in a hospital is because of a post I read recently that Momisodes wrote. It was a post about her very first day as a registered nurse. Maybe that post had an impact on me and somehow filtered into my dreams?

In my dream, the hospital had its own mail carrier/mail delivery person and he stayed late to wait for me to finish all of my letters. This mailman started off being Gio from the TV show, Ugly Betty. Odd, because I haven't watched the show much and I'm not much of a Freddy Rodriguez fan.

Wait! It gets even stranger! The mailman all of a sudden turned into that really skinny scrawny guy who was high the entire time in the movie Knocked Up. You know, the one who had that Canadian maple leaf tattooed on his chest. That guy. I just IMDb'd him, and was surprised to see that he is Canadian...and from Ottawa (now residing in Montreal)!

Back to the dream. I was writing hundreds of letters to the families of the victims of the explosion and the mail guy was patiently waiting for me. In fact, he even tried assisting me in finishing the letters. Then it got weirder! Somewhere along the way, we were dating! Gah! Creepy, skinny guy was my boyfriend!

Funny, because neither he nor Gio are my "type" in terms of looks. Why couldn't I dream that Brad Pitt or Patrick Dempsey was my boyfriend? ;)My hand started cramping up from writing all those letters and in real life, I woke up because my hands were cramped. I think I slept on them last night, because they were all numb this morning. I woke up massaging my hands and crying, "My hands are numb! Am I going to drop the baby????"

Hubby opened one eye and said, "No"...and then he was asleep again in two seconds.

Holy Neurosis, Batman! I told you I've been having weird dreams!

Yesterday, I took the nieces on a day trip. We went to the movies, had lunch and went shopping. Since we were having a "girls' day", we decided to see The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Who knew that America Ferrera looked so beautiful beneath all that Ugly Betty make-up and those crazy unibrows!?!? Anyway, the girls were anxious to see the movie since they had read the books.

At the movie theater, as always, endless previews and ads were shown before the feature presentation. One of the previews was for High School Musical 3 and the girls went nuts! To say that they love HSM is a huge understatement. They lovvvvvve High School Musical and they looooooooove Zac Efron.Niece 1: (Squeals with delight) I can't wait to see High School Musical 3! Zac Efron is soooo hot!
Me: I've never even seen High School Musical 1!
Both nieces give a look of either shock or disgust! LOL!
Me: Who is Zac Efron anway?
Both nieces: (in total shock) You don't know who Zac Efron is???

Okay, I haven't been hiding under a rock for that long. I do know who he is. Niece 1 has posters of him plastered all over her bedroom walls.

Before the movie, there was an interview with The Jonas Brothers. Blood curdling squeals again.
Niece 1 and Niece 2: Ahhhhhhhhh!!! The Jonas Brothers!!!!
Me: Who???
Niece 2: OMG! You don't know who the Jonas Brothers are??
Me: Nope.
Niece 1: They're like the coolest band!
Me: Never heard of them.
Another look of disbelief from N1 and N2!
Niece 2: They're a band made of three brothers.
Niece 1: Yeah. Kevin, Joe and Nick. I can't believe you don't know who they are! Nick is sooooo dreamy!

Just to further how uncool I am, on the drive home, Retro 80's played on the radio and I was the one squealing with delight. Excited, I blasted the tunes and began singing along with Billy Idol, Glass Tiger, Men Without Hats, Mr. Mister, Robert Palmer, Stevie Nicks with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stray Cats, Styx, Supertramp, etc.

Me: (as soon as Don't Forget Me When I'm Gone began to play) Ahhhh! Glass Tiger!!! I was in love with Alan Frew when I was your age!
No comment from either niece.
Did I really say "When I was your age"??? Gah! That was twenty (yes, TWENTY!) years ago!

Redemption came when Video Killed the Radio Star played on the radio. To my surprise, the girls knew the lyrics. Niece 1, Niece 2, and I were all singing and head bopping along the long and winding highway road as people in passing vehicles looked over and smiled when they looked into our vehicle and saw us being all goofy and thoroughly enjoying ourselves.