Wednesday, June 29, 2011

5 AM

The girls and I woke up early. 5AM. It's partly my fault....Sam was so tired from our busy day yesterday, playing at the legislature grounds (again!) and playing at the playground after and then playing dressup and other games with a friend who came over that she fussed at dinner time and wouldn't eat much of anything and then fell asleep on sitting next to me while I read Thomas to calm her down. At 6pm. And the girls have lately been going to bed maybe around 7:30 or 8 by the time they sleep. So, much earlier than normal.

Luckily I went to bed early (8pm...shockingly early)... as the day was tiring for me too, and so now being awake at 5AM isn't killing me like it might otherwise.

The girls are colouring Sesame Street colouring pages, (in my hopes that we can win admission to the Science Center's new exhibit, hee hee) and having fun. while they are doing this, they are singing/chanting...

Sam: "I want a bike, I want a bike, I want a bike..."
Katie: "But it's not as big as mine!"

They are colouring with markers...do you remember some of the issues I was having with markers a while ago? Did I tell you a threw most of them out in a huff of anger one time? (sometime last winter) Well, we bought a new batch around Katie's birthday and I'm SO pleased to see how well they've been treated. Sam still needs a fair bit of reminding about putting caps back on, but we've all worked hard to put them back in their box when we're done. The only problem we have now is that they're do so much serious colouring that the markers are drying out from overuse. I think we'll surprise them with new markers when we head off on our summer trip this year (no details about that for blog privacy issues...you'll know when we come back whenever it is!).

Speaking of colouring...have I told you how much Sam has improved? She holds the marker in a proper pencil hold and can colour a solid patch in a picture...she colours within the lines, but not completely in the lines, if that makes sense. She can also draw a circle and fill it all in.

Anyway. Hope my newspaper comes soon...We've been up for over an hour and I'm getting bored. =)

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

More catchcup (not the red kind)

Some catching up...For some reason, I feel like parts of this batch of photos is out of order and I can't figure out which way they go and I'm not going to bother going through iPhoto again. Sorry! They are all taken mostly back in May.

Cheryl, reading to the girls.
Yay! Ben (who is a year OLDER as of yesterday! Happy Birthday!!) ran a half marathon at the end of May.
Sam and I went to ice cream instead of going to Katie's soccer one night...trying to avoid the mosquitoes. We discovered that the nearby pizza place no longer sells ice cream so we had to make do with big-ish tubs that Sunterra had. I won't tell you whether we ate it all or not. =)
The tulips that we planted at the beginning of the school year (given out by the preschool) grew! Look how much bigger everyone is! (the tulips and the girls!)
Sam, wearing one of our favorite dresses that Gram Cheryl brought back from Hawaii. It was really windy that day.
GG Mary helping us plant our garden...much has changed here...we have been eating green onions already! And we have a lot of weeding to do. We had a playdate with our friends C and her sister G (friends from strollercise).
We met at the playground in Hawerlack park but then it started pouring rain...
...and we ended up back at our friends house where the girls played dress up. Katie especially loves the shoes I think. Katie on the last day of preschool this year. Sam too.As well as Ben's birthday yesterday we celebrated Father's day on Sunday. We are lucky to have such great fathers and grandfathers around us and I'm grateful that our girls have these excellent men present in their lives. I see the joy in their eyes every time we hug Papa and Grandpa and every morning as they wish Ben a good day at work and when they welcome him home at the end of the day. Lucky us!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Yesterday

I have other photos to show you but I couldn't NOT post these from our wonderful day yesterday.

I've been working a tiny bit for the past week or so at the University...a little job for Auntie Andrea's office. Interesting to try work a bit and earn a bit of summer money. It's going well. Thanks to Gram and Papa for doing most of the childcare. Yesterday I didn't start work until after 4pm, so when Megan called saying "It's going to rain all week, let's take the kids outside!" I said sure.

We went to the Leg grounds, one of my favorite summer places. I don't think we went even once last year because I was nervous about watching two girls, Sam only being 1.5 and running all over the place. Yesterday, things were perfect and I was confident that the girls are old enough to handle the water and steps without me hovering beside them. (Mom likes to relax a bit you know!?)

Sam didn't want to wear a suit and Katie wore her new suit...we Finally found one that fits this long torso-ed girl! So beautiful, lots of trees and sunshine!
The four kids had a blast playing together. Walking up and down the steps, splashing in the water and playing pretend. Something about taking turns being the baby and mom/dad? They kept coming up to the sidewalk and lying down to go to bed.
On our way out (after our picnic lunch and more water time) we waded through the lower pool. I did end up going in with them, rolling up my long shorts in the water that went to my knees. (just to be close in case of a fall...Sam did trip at one point, but righted herself quickly...I was glad to be near anyway.)
Moms and kids had a super great time and I can't wait to come more often.
And today, it's pouring rain and gray. (shh...kind of refreshing and the garden will like it) That makes yesterday's adventure even better. =)

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Feels like summer

It's beginning to feel a lot more like summer around here.

The garden has been planted (with a little help from Ben, the girls and GG Mary). We play outside a fair bit...and suffer the mosquito bites to prove it! Both girls react alot but Sam especially...a bite under her eye last week made her look like she was in a fight...her eye swelled up a lot. And a bite on her hand this week has her hand still a bit swollen and hot. Upon Dr's advice, we're applying Benedryl cream to the spot and giving her Benedryl liquid oral stuff for general healing (and proactively if we know we're going to be outdoors).

We're blowing bubbles...loving this Gymboree set we got for Christmas...the combination of bubble stuff and the neat wand make lots of bubbles. (PS...I have quickly decided to edit this to point out the girls new hats...have I mentioned/shown them before? Both girls have the same hat in different sizes, the pattern is a reversible bucket hat pattern from the Oliver and S kids sewing book. (Thank you Library!) The fabric is purple Minnie Mouse on one side and blue Little Mermaid on the other. The girls mostly love. Katie's is a wee bit too small...such a big brain in that head!)

Gram and Papa went on holidays for a few weeks and while they were gone we snuck in a visit with Uncle Jerry...and the girls didn't freak out! They've both been strangely scared of him since...forever I think. Katie's improved a lot in the past year, especially since we've demonstrated Uncle Jerry's art skills (they have something in common!) but Sam still freaks out. Anyway...Uncle Jerry was smart and offered them rice krispee squares immediately and things were awesome. (Until I tried to force Katie to say thank you for her second square and then she got all upset at the attention on her...my bad!) here's the photographic proof. (Katie is turning away from the camera, nothing to do with Uncle Jerry!)
One not great photo from Katie's "Sharing Day" at school...a low pressure concert type event. I tried to pick a photo where most other kids were blurry, for privacy etc...but I do think she looks cute with her hair and dress slightly puffed out in mid hop. This dress we've worn for almost a year and I think it may be time to pack it up (or somehow let Sam wear it..I'm not sure if that'll happen without a fight!). School's now over for the summer...they end a bit earlier than most schools. Another reason to feel like summer! It was so hard saying goodbye...those teachers of hers are amazing and lovely and we can't wait to see them again in September.
While Gram and Papa were away we watered their plants and played with (and kind of broke) the umbrella. (No worries, Papa has fixed it now!)
And we also had a picnic at their park nearby...can you tell I was trying to keep busy and make things fun for the girls?
Our major event this weekend (besides freezing our noses off at the Children's Festival in St. Albert in 4C weather!) was getting Sam a big girl bed. It's exactly the same one as Katie's. We've been meaning to get it for ages and when photos from her getting out of her crib a year ago popped up in iPhoto, we knew we had to do it. She's settled in perfectly and seems very happy with the change.

Hopefully blog mojo comes back soon...I've been reading some good books lately and doing some sewing. I think also the change in schedule has thrown me off a bit. I'm not doing strollercize anymore because my foot was bothering me again so that and school ending has given us more freedom and surprisingly made us a bit busier in a way.

Other good things to note...I bought and correctly programmed a new garage door clicker...the other one fell and broke on Thursday and I am SO lazy that to avoid pushing the button by hand and walking the long way every time, I made a big point of getting a new one the very next day ( which I suppose isn't very lazy is it?) (a big yay for feeling like a handy mom!). AND I found some ants in the back landing (well, Katie and Sam saw them first) and dealt with them quickly on Friday too...not something you wait on, eh?! (I think I've gotten rid of them...cross fingers that they weren't just staying away from the weekend rain...a little Raid and a sprinkling of Equal sweetener seems to have done the trick for now.)

Yawn...I should have been in bed ages ago...Still recovering from the Awesomeness that was the U2 concert on Wednesday...Definitely a "never forget it" kind of event. If I get pictures I'll share.