A New Chapter Begins

Well summer is almost over (in a couple of days) and with a new season, also comes a whole new stage of my life. Both of my kids are now in full time school! My daughter started kindergarten and my son is in grade two, now both of my kids are no longer at home during the weekdays, and it feels so weird. They are growing up! I get a little verklempt every time I think about it. I got especially emotional on my daughter's first day of school last week. They had the gradual entry system for the kindergartners, so the first day was only an hour, but I still got all choked up (I had to put my sunglasses on so no one would see my tears, luckily my husband was with me, so he could drive us home). Her new school is so big, and she is still so little, and full, six hour days seem so long for a five year old. My son had half day kindergarten when he first started school and I though that was perfect, but now the whole district has switched over to full days. I know she'll get used to it and she's getting bigger everyday, but it's still hard to think about. Certainly I will enjoy the time off and am looking forward to getting a lot done around my house, but hearing my daughter tell me in the morning that she misses me when she's at school, is hard.

I feel like so much has happened over the summer and I was just too busy to write about it. I felt burnt out and couldn't bring myself to post anything. I needed a break and I also wanted to focus my attention on my kids and not the computer. But now that I have some free time, while the kids are at school, I am going to try writing again. I do miss it and it's a good outlet for me to have some creativity in my life and have something that is all my own.

So I'll play a little catch up here and tell you about what's been going on with me and my family. My daughter finished preschool in June and my son finished his program at a special school for kids with behavioral difficulties. It was bittersweet having them both leave their schools. The preschool that my daughter went to was so great, and we had been taking our kids there for four years (my son for the first two and then my daughter for the second two). We will deeply miss the teachers that nurtured and cared for our children, they so were amazing! I can't say enough good things about them, and I feel like my kids went to the best preschool in Vancouver, that's how great they were! And then my son's school, they really helped him a lot. He was in a one year program to help him with his behavior and though some people might not understand what it's like having a child with behavioral issues, and might judge him (or me), I have seen so much improvement over the last year and I'm so happy about that. It's like night and day really, and though I know he's not perfect and certainly still has some things to work on, he's on the right path to success in his life, and I owe it all to that school.

After school finished we spent the summer at beaches and lakes and spray parks and outdoor pools and playing with friends and family, it was so much fun. We went canoeing, and peddle boating; we went camping and to Playland (my son was tall enough to go on all of the big rides this year and he loved it, he even went on the big wooden roller coaster and exclaimed when he got off "That... Was... AWESOME!!!"). My husband started a new job, my kids had both of their birthdays (now my daughter is five and my son is seven), and we got a new kitten. My son learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels and fully dunk his head underwater, and my daughter learned how to swing on the swings with no one pushing her and to climb to the very top of the climbing web at our local park. There has been so much growth and change this summer it's almost unbelievable to my husband and I, and we both welcome it.

Now my kids are at a new school together and it seems like a good fit for both of them. My daughter's kindergarten teacher seems really nice and my son's new special program seems really great too. I'm happy with the new changes life is bringing and I feel like things are heading in the right direction.

Here's a bunch of pictures from some of our fun, summer adventures.

These are from our annual camping trip at Manning Park, when we got to go canoeing for a few hours, it's one of our favorite things to do as a family.

These are from Playland, the kids always have a blast there!

These are from our day at the beach with the cousins.

This is when we went to Alouette Lake with friends, we got to go peddle boating and the kids loved it.

Here is my daughter on her birthday and she was very happy with her present!

A new kitten!!!

And here we are at a birthday party in the park, gotta love face painting!

So how was your summer? Did you get to do all of the fun things you wanted to do? Feel free to share, I'd love to hear about it : )

Rockin' The Baby

First there was Rockin' The Bump and now there's Rockin' The Baby, which is another great link-up by Shell at Things I Can't Say. Thanks Shell for having such a cool link up. I always love having a chance to show off my cuties, and it was also great taking a walk down memory lane and looking at all my monkeys' old baby pics. I miss the days of tiny fingers and tiny toes, and boy does time ever fly by fast!

Here is my son at five weeks

Here he is at six months

And here he is at ten months

Here is my daughter at eight weeks

Here she is at eight months

I couldn't decide on which one of these to have here, so I put them both.

Here they are together at two and a half years and nine months

And again at about three years and fourteen months

And here they are just a few months ago at six and a half years old and four and a half years old, wow have they ever grown!

So thanks again to Shell for doing this fun link-up, I really enjoyed it. Go on over and check out all the other beautiful babies at Things I Can't Say and even join up if you want. You'll be happy if you do, I know I am!

SNL - Ford Hybrid Commercial

As my hubby was checking out hybrid car leases online, I asked him if he would consider a Toyota after all of the trouble they were having last year, with recalls and mechanical problems. He said he might, and then I remembered this SNL commercial parody. It's super funny, check it out.

If you are not in the US and can't watch this video (like me), you can also watch it here. The audio is a little off but the video quality is good. Enjoy  : )

How Many Times Will I Have To Do This In My Life?

Having children means that you have to do a lot of cleaning. I mean A LOT! Actually, CONSTANT is a better word. Because if you want your house to be as clean as those pre-kid days, you'd have to be cleaning day and night. Or maybe it's just me. I clean up a room and it's like the children have clean room radar. I can almost hear the little dee-dee-dee-dee sound of said radar going off in their heads. "Room is clean... Room is clean... Must rectify" *said in a robot voice, of course* and they immediately go right behind me and mess it up again. So sometimes I ask myself (about specific cleaning tasks), how many times will I have to do this in my life?

It first started out with questions like:
- How many times will I have to clean baby poop (or pee) off of the carpet, my clothes, the car seats or any place where poop can leak, squirt, or ooze onto?
- How many times will I have to clean spit up, or barf, or drool off of those same things?

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Then it became:
- How many times will I have to clean up spilled or thrown baby foods off the floors and walls?
- How many times will I have to clean mushed up bananas, avocado, carrots, peas, pasta, etc. out of this d@mn high chair (because it had so many weird, little crevices that made it so hard to get clean)?

Mind you, I didn't mind cleaning up this cute face of course, it was just the darned high chair that bugged me.

And a little later it was (and still is):
- How many times will I have to vacuum up crushed crackers and cookies from the backseat of our car?
- How many times will I have to get on my freakin' hands and knees and clean up spilled juice (that you have to go over a bunch of times, otherwise it's sticky for days)?

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And now it's:
- How many times will I have to put back the couch cushions, and pillows, and blankets after the monkeys have made forts, or beds for their stuffies, or have just decided to throw everything everywhere just for the fun of it?
- How many times will I sweep up crumbs that get tracked to every corner of the house, because my kids do not understand the meaning of "please eat that at the table, don't walk around the house eating food!"?
- How many times in my life will I have to pick up little game pieces, or Polly Pocket doll clothes, or other teeny tiny toy parts (that toy companies seem to love to include in toys these days), that are scattered all over the house? Does every little girl toy for ages 3-8 have to include beads, or sequins, or tiny shoes, or tiny combs and brushes, or small elastics, or teensy barrettes? Why so many freakin' accessories? Does my daughter really need all of this kind of crap?

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Anyways, I am not trying to whine over here, I just want to legitimately know, how many times? A hundred? A thousand? A hundred thousand? Inquiring minds want to know. Then maybe I can steel myself for that number and say every once in a while, only fifty more times to go, and I'll never have to do this again. Though I'm betting that when that day happens I'll be crying about how my kids are all grown up, and where did the time go, and oh they grow up so fast! Because really I don't want to speed up time and I don't want them to grow up yet. I guess I just wish had a magic wand or that special nose twitch from Bewitched, to magically make it all clean. That would be just perfect.

Which kid messes are you tired of cleaning up? Do you wonder any of these very same questions? Or do you have different ones, perhaps?

Oh, and here is one mess I never thought I'd have to clean up. Thankfully, I only ever had to deal with it once. My son had gotten a hold of a crayon and decided to chew on it and turn it into a crayon paste while I was making dinner. He wasn't even two at the time. I didn't know crayon could be turned into a paste, but now I know. It can!

I Am Guest Blogging!

Photo Credit

I am a Blogger Buddy! A dear friend of mine, Kyra (you may remember her from this post, or this post), of The Scribe's Desk, has asked me to be a guest blogger for her "Blogger Buddy Thursdays" today. I am so excited! I have never guest blogged before, so this is a first for me. Please go on over to her site and have a look around. She is an excellent writer and a fantastic blogger, she's been at it for years (and she even has her own children's book out, called Tale of the Lost Swan Egg, which is wonderful). I love her blog and her writing and I bet you will too. I am very honored to have my post up on her site today. I hope you enjoy it  : )

Bring On The Summer!

Spring and summer are my favorite time of year. A whole six months (sometimes a little less, in this climate) of warm weather and being outside and really, just not having to stay in, makes for wonderful days. These are the days that memories are made of. I even love the smell. The fresh, sweet, spring night air is intoxicating to me. I breath it in deep and just feel better about life. I hate being stuck inside, but during the winter it rains a lot, so I find myself to be a bit of a hermit for half the year. I know lots of people still get outside in the winter here, and we do to some degree, but the rain makes it so hard (for me) to get out and be active. Also the short winter days just make me feel a little depressed, and if it's constantly raining (which sometimes it is) and grey, than it can feel a bit like perpetual dusk.

I am not trying to bad mouth Vancouver, or our climate, because if you can get through the winters, the spring and summer certainly make up for it. Vancouver is gorgeous in the summer, everything is green and people are out everywhere enjoying life. It's like the city wakes up. There are so many more things to do and it brings on a level of excitement that you just don't feel in the wintertime.

So, with that being said, bring on the summer! Bring on beach days, and carnivals, and barbeques and the water slides. Bring on camping, and birthday parties (both my kids have summer birthdays), and weddings and water parks. Bring on days at the lake, and car-free street festivals, and Playland and spending time with friends and family. I want to do it all!

This weekend finally felt like summer, it was hot (not too hot) and we got out and really enjoyed it! We went to Jericho Beach, with family, on Saturday and a carnival for my daughter's school on Sunday. It was a great, full weekend.

Here are some pictures of our beach day with the cousins. The weather couldn't have been more perfect.

 My daughter and niece are the same age, and will be starting Kindergarten in the fall. How are they that old already? Where did the babies of the family go?

I love how my son's eyes are peaking out behind his sunglasses here. It's almost like he saying I am wise beyond my years, and I know things you don't.

What beach day would be complete without a child trying to bury themselves in the sand?

 The sky seemed extra blue that day.

 My nephew was excited to show me this crab leg he found.

My daughter was saying "come on mom, hurry up, lets go down to the water."

But then, as soon as she realized I was taking pictures, she started posing. I wonder where she learned that from?

I found this teeny, tiny, little pink shell on the beach and gave it to my daughter. She was so happy, she loves pink and she loves teeny, tiny, too. 

 I told my nephew to start flexing for the shot, and he did a superb job I think.

I had to take a picture of this tree, the way it looked in the light, it was just glowing. It was begging for me to take it's picture.

So what kinds of things are you excited to do this summer?