Autumn is the most beautiful season

I love fall. I can remember driving downtown Edmonton a little over 6 years ago and picking our daughters name based on the beauty we saw in the river valley.
Other topic:
Right before Matt & I went to Seattle this summer, there was a huge storm and our basement flooded. Water from our neighbours drain pipe flowed right into our basement bathroom window well filling it and flooding in. It soaked the walls & insulation, flowed across the floors and soaked the carpet.

 At least it was rain water and not sewage, right? I keep telling myself that. We dried it out with fans as well as we could, and went on vacation anyway. When we got home, there was a huge mess (and mould) to deal with. We hauled drywall and insulation to the dump. Of course, our insurance wouldn't cover it, so we had to do it ourselves. What good is insurance anyway?

 Mr. Q has been a great 'helper' following daddy around with his drill. Daddy's drill that is. I'm grateful to have a husband who is willing to give it a try, even if he isn't an expert. You can learn how to do pretty much anything on YouTube.
My little sweetie, Miss C started pre-school in the middle of September. She attends at the same school that Miss A attends and she loves her teachers. There was a week, that she cried every time I dropped her off (and she nearly broke my heart in the process...) but she is back to happily running in to her classroom when I drop her off.

 After her first day of school, she came home saying, "Mom, I looove Miss Kim!" That made me feel great to know that my daughter felt comfortable with her teachers. There are 17 four year old kids in her class and 3 teachers. The teachers are all wonderful. Two of them even came to our home the week before school started to meet Miss C and get to know me a little. It made me a lot happier to send her off on the first day, knowing who she was spending the day with.

We walk past Miss A's classroom after we drop Miss C off at pre-school. I couldn't help snapping a pic of her one day as we passed by. What a cute little student she is!

My Zumba classes also started back up again in the fall. I had taken the summer off to spend more time with my family, but I was really excited to get back into the swing of things. I bought some signs to help advertise my classes. I think they are working too! In addition to my lovely ladies who have been with me from the beginning, we have had a huge boost in the number of people coming out. I really do count myself lucky to have such awesome students, who have become friends to me over the last year.


I read a quote once that said: "There is no such thing as gratitude unexpressed. If it is unexpressed, it is plain, old-fashioned ingratitude." -Robert Brault

As this is Thanksgiving weekend, I really wanted to list some of the things I am thankful for.

 I have a totally wonderful husband to adventure with. I'm thankful for his love and patience. He's a good man and I love him.

I've got 3 fantastic kids who make me laugh. They are great kids who are friends with each other. I love them and am truly thankful to have each of them in our family.

I'm thankful for tickle time in mommy & daddy's bed.

I'm thankful for the toothless smile the Tooth Fairy gave my daughter with her tiny note.

I'm thankful for a warm home, for good food, for parents & siblings who care, for great in-laws who are always willing to help out, for great music & for good friends to enjoy myself with. For the beautiful tree across the street that was glowing one morning when I got up (picture up top).... and so much more!

I am truly blessed. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!



-More about Miss A's fantastic pirate party to come.

School Time Stings

Last week, while walking to our car near Miss A's school, the kids and I were swarmed by wasps and Miss C and I were stung. She, on her finger and I on my forearm, the back of my thigh above my knee, my ankle and my neck. All on the left side of my body. Those little suckers hurt. Miss C was stung first, so I ran to her rescue. They were all over her, on her head, all over her clothes. She was, understandably, freaking out. I had no idea what you're supposed to do in a situation like that, so I yelled to the other kids to run to the car, and I started swatting them off Miss C. I didn't know what else to do. Of course, they got mad and started stinging me too. I quickly gave up on trying to get them off her and told her to run too. I was being swarmed and stinging like crazy at this point, so I just told Miss C to RUN!!! We ran towards the car, which was parked at the other side of the school. When we got to the car, the kids all hopped in but I couldn't get into the car, because I was still covered in wasps. My rolled up capris had wasps in the folds, I could still hear wasps that were stuck in my hair. It was pretty awful. I used a map from the car to swat wasps that were still attached to my pants and shoes. All while listening to my little sweetie screaming in pain. I wouldn't wish that on anyone.

 

When we got home, we coated her sting in a baking soda paste and gave her some Advil. The poor girl fell asleep from sheer exhaustion from crying so hard. It was sad.

 Miss A was very sweet and wanted to do something to make her feel better when she woke up. We decided to make her a Barbie car. Miss A painted hers silver and we spray painted the one for Miss C with some leftover spray paint we had sitting around. The cars are lacking wheels, so we just called them boats. I love how Miss A wanted to have feathers sticking out the back of hers. All I did was spray paint the red one, hot glue them together and cut out the holes, the girls did the rest when Miss C woke up.

 They are still playing with those cars now, though some of the jewels have fallen off.

 On another topic, today was Miss A's first day of Grade 1. She has been looking forward to it. I have been looking forward to having a routine again, though I have loved having the kids all home for the summer. Now that Miss A is in school M-F all day long, I will miss her, so will the other kiddos. Miss C was very excited to see that Miss A's pre-school classroom is directly across the hall from Miss A's classroom. She was so excited this morning. I hope she continues to love learning through her life.

 Have a great school year Miss A!

Sum-Sum-Summatime!!

I've been looking forward to summer for the last few weeks. This is how Miss C, Mr. Q and I decorated the front door before Miss A got home from her last day of school on Thursday. It was great because Matt got home early from work that day, so we were all able to start off summer together, Creamsicle style.

I taught my last Zumba class of the session Thursday night and was up until 1am doing laundry & packing. Friday morning, the kids and I hopped in the car and headed off to Saskatchewan for a camping/family reunion fun. Matt stayed behind to work. Hopefully next time, he'll be able to come along as well.

The reunion was held at a tiny lake, between Duck Lake and Prince Albert called Chanté Lake. It was lovely. As soon as I stepped out of the car, the first thing I noticed was the smell of prairie sage, poplar trees and a hint of lake. It reminded me of the smell at my grandparents farm, just across the South Saskatchewan River from where we were camping.
I will post more about our trip later. I'm so happy that summer is here!

One year down, Fifteen to go

 I was trying to figure out why I have hardly any pictures of Miss C and I realized why... I've been deleting all the strange face pictures, and that's all she does. In honour of her, I decided to post a bunch of her typical pictures, which I went back and restored from my recycle bin. Haha! She definitely loves to laugh and goof around, and she is not one to be still & pose nicely for pictures.

Matt has been working really long hours the last few months, but whenever he gets home while the kids are still up, they have been sneaking out the front door to go sit with daddy while he finishes up his paperwork in the truck. I snapped a pic of Mr. Q sitting with daddy one day last week. I love that they look forward to him getting home everyday. I do too.

Last Thursday was Miss A's graduation from Maternelle (kindergarten). It was adorable! This past month, they have been learning about the ocean.One of the songs they sang at the graduation party was about a pettit poisson (a little fish) swimming around who gets eaten by a barracuda, who swims around and is then eaten by a shark, who is then eaten by a whale. Their actions for the song were really cute, as were the fishy hats the kids were all wearing. The kids all took turns counting in French. After the little ceremony, they brought us each a package with the work the scrapbooks & work they have completed this year. Then, we had planned on going on a picnic together, but since Matt had to get back to work (or risk being at work till dark...) we just ate our picnic together in the car while driving Matt back to work. Miss A showed off her school work & sang songs she's learned. It was a fun day. We are so proud of our big girl! She has done such a great job learning this past year and we couldn't be happier with her progress! Her French is really coming along and she has been spelling out short words on her own. Great job, sweetie!!

St. Albert International Children's Festival

Thursday of this week, I got to help out with Miss A's kindergarten class field trip to the St. Albert International Children's Festival. My sister was nice enough to keep Mr. Q and Miss C for the day, so Miss A and I got to spend some quality time together, along with 16 other kids from her class.

They made these cute t-shirts to make it easier to keep track of all the kids. Each of the kids drew a self portrait and then someone must have Photoshopped them together. The back said, "En maternelle j'ai aimé.... (In kindergarten, I liked...) and each child wrote what they liked best. Miss A's shirt said, "Les chansons" (the songs). The shirts were cute, but they should have been neon green!  My favorite was one little boys that said he liked recess the best.
 I met the kindergarten class at their first activity at 9:30am at the booth for the St. Albert Art Gallery. It was called TransFORMation & it was really fun. They divided her class into three groups and they had 3 tables set up, which the groups rotated through.

The first was a table where the kids made these sculptures out of recycled bottles, toilet paper tubes, wire, packing bubbles, paper cups, etc. It was amazing what creative minds the kids had! The second table they were able to paper maché the sculptures that previous classes had made. The third table was set up to paint paper maché-ed sculptures from the day before that had already dried. It was a great project that the kids all seemed to really like.

The next activity was a trip to the Dinosaur Petting Zoo. It was a little scary for some of the kindergarten kids, but Miss A was okay. I think if she had been in the front row, it might have been a different story! The pic above right shows Miss A with her kindergarten teacher, Mme. Christiane.
It was a great (and tiring) day! They got to jump in bouncy castles, had a picnic lunch, Miss A got to sit in a firetruck & she had her face painted. Finally, at the end of the day we got some cotton candy and headed home.
 We had so much fun that I didn't want my other munchkins to miss out. The next day, when Miss A was at school, back I went with Miss C and Mr. Q in tow! My sister and her boys came along too. We hadn't bought tickets for the same activities that the kindergarten class had, so we just did some exploring on our own.

Mr. Q enjoyed sitting in the army jeep, though he didn't want to wear the headphones. Maybe when he's big enough to see over the dash! The combat engineers from the army base built a foot bridge across the Sturgeon River, I guess it might have been a training exercise, but it made it much more convenient to get to our car!

They also did some face painting while they were there. Miss C wasn't too interested in camo paint, so we headed over to the 'girl face paint' tent so she could get a flower, a ladybug and a butterfly. I'd have to say the line was much shorter for the camo.

We found a tent my the Education Station that had a great big sand table filled with plastic beads. The kids loved it. I won't even entertain the thought of getting one, though I know they would enjoy it. What a crazy mess! They also had this moon dough and these Magformers that the boys really liked.

One of the other things the kids were able to do was to paint with MONK. She starts a painting and then people add to her paintings, stroke by stroke. There was a painting she was working on that was really stunning. The kids, especially Mr. Q really enjoyed it. I had to physically pick him up and drag him away.

The kids also got to jump in the bouncy castle and went to a music making tent where they got to play with all sorts of different instruments and explore the sounds they made. It was quite a noisy venue, but fun. I'm just glad I didn't have to sit there all day! Before we left the kids got to have their first snow cones ever. They were very appealing to them, but when I tasted a bit, I realized that Slurpee's are much better.

When we got home, I was exhausted! Two days straight was probably too much for me. I'll probably take them again next year, but maybe spread it out a few days. I love summer!

Little Miss Kindergarten!!

My baby is growing up. I don't know where the time has gone, but here I find my little girl starting kindergarten. I've had mixed emotions about her starting school, but I know she's ready and I needed to step back and let her take a leap.
I wanted it to be a special day for her, so I got up early and made a special breakfast of OJ, sausages and pancakes with peaches and whipped cream. Not the healthiest breakfast, but you only have your first day of school once, right?
Miss A has been really looking forward to taking the bus. I've been a bit hesitant to send her on the bus because all the kids in town ride a bus from home to a transfer station, where they have to get off the bus and get on another one which takes them to their school. After being assured by the transportation people that there were plenty of helpers at the transfer station, I decided to let her take it. Just before midnight on Monday night, I drove to the transfer station with my pail of sidewalk chalk and drew a big flower in front of the bus stop for the bus that takes her to the transfer station. Then, I drew a dashed line all the way to the bus stop for the bus that takes her to school, with another big flower in front of that bus stop. It was my attempt to help her get from one bus to the next without having to remember the bus numbers.
[I seem to remember a comic strip in the newspaper when I was a kid (probably in the late 80's or early 90's) that showed the path a little boy followed on his adventures. Does anyone remember that comic? Was it Dennis the Menace?]

Yesterday morning, I packed up the kids in the car so that I could follow the bus to school. I told Miss A about the flower path. I knew it would make her (or maybe it's just me...) feel more confident in that adventure if she knew I was nearby. As Miss A and I waited for the bus she seemed a little nervous, but when the bus actually arrived, she hugged and kissed me goodbye and hopped on the bus like she had been doing it forever. I was glad she was so excited.

 I hopped in the car and followed the bus along its route until it arrived at the transfer station. There were so many buses there that I couldn't even see her bus, let alone my little girl. I sat in the car across the street with tears in my eyes and prayed she wouldn't have any troubles getting on the right bus. We went to her school, to wait for her to arrive. By the time I got the other two munchkins and all of Miss A's school supplies into the stroller, she had already arrived at school and was standing outside the bus with her teacher, and a great big smile on her face. She did it! I was so relieved that everything went so well!

 We went to her classroom, where we got all her supplies organized, her stuff in her cubby and her new Barbie shoes on. She gave me a quick hug and ran to join her class for a song. Miss C really wanted to give her a hug, so she ran in and hugged her and then we were off. There were no tears at school, for any of us. The bus transfer was much more traumatic for me than leaving her at school. I knew she would be ok there.
Miss C and Mr. Q and I had a fun day at home together. Miss C kept asking when her sister would get home. I think she missed her. We read stories and baked cookies together. It was nice to have more one-on-one time with the younger two.

 After school we waited for Miss A at the bus stop. She had a fun ride home where she met a new friend who shared a candy with her. She was so excited to tell us about school. She unpacked her backpack right at the bus stop to show us a picture she drew, and couldn't wait to share. She told us about the butterfly in her lunch. I had packed her fruit pieces in a baggie, then wrapped the middle of the bag with a pipe cleaner and wrapped the pipe cleaner around a pen to make antennae. Miss A read stories at school and she got to paint a picture of her hand and a heart. She learned to say bonjour as she is attending a French school.
All in all, it was a fabulous day! I love seeing my kids grow and learn and try new things so courageously. I'm sure this new adventure will be a great one!

NOTE: I can't find the charger for my camera battery. If anyone knows where I've left it, please let me know. I'm getting sick of all my pictures being blurry from forgetting to wipe off the lens on my phone...