Beautiful weather for a beach day and forced kids to nap on the drive which they needed since they didn’t sleep in after going to bed at 11pm last night!!! Aaaah!
Lots of time was spent in the water but didn’t get any shots of that as we were trading time in water/time with Neve between us and the camera doesn’t zoom that far.
Well we had a great Canada Day again this year. It started out with a twist…Edzea didn’t like the shirt I had gotten her. It was too big so we went searching for last year’s shirt. It was too small. So I had a sleeveless white tank for her that she thought we could design a maple leaf on. I said, no problem, after breakfast we will work on it. She took the shirt and ran out of the spare room where I had all of her old clothes stored. I was just putting away some of the clothes when I proceeded to her room where she was at her desk drawing a RED maple leaf on her shirt in red marker…needless to say…she was in trouble! for not listening BUT I was impressed with her confidence and ability to try and do a maple leaf. The issue was that I told her she was NOT to do it until after breakfast with ME. So we had some drama, some time out, some BIG tears until we later painted over her design with fabric paint and she was happy as a clam with her homemade t-shirt.
We stayed at home for the morning as the festivities in Stittsville don’t begin until 3pm. We let the kids have later, longer naps so that we could attempt to keep them up for the fireworks this year (Neve dependent). Anyways, we headed out at 5pm with our picnic dinner, our lawn chairs and Canada Day outfits. We found a great place in the shade in front of the stage and were met by Allan & Katherine who had already been at the big festivities downtown on Parliament Hill.
Later on, Amanda, Paul & kids joined us. It was almost like being in Yellowknife except that we all agreed…the BUGS were WAY better here!
The kids had a great time and Neve fell asleep at about 7pm and was passed around from person to person throughout the evening. She woke up when the fireworks began!
An Asian lady was fascinated with Neve. She couldn’t really speak english and we could tell she was itching to take photos of the Canada Day baby…who was in a red/white striped onesie. She finally just started snapping away (without asking…cultural difference!! ha ha). Of course, we had no problem with it but it was so funny that she had NO idea that you don’t do that here.
Kids had lots of fun and so did we.
Will write more about the rest of our weekend when I’m not so pooped.
It’s stinking hot here. I can’t wait to go to Vancouver tomorrow. Brief updates, Neve is rolling from front to back at 3 mos. Also turns herself in a circle and inched forward on her tummy yesterday yikes!
Edzea passed to the next level in swimming. I have her signed up for swimming and gymnastics for July. Plus Rohan and I are going to do Parent & Tot swimming together,
End of year for gymnastics. Daddy and Rohan in Mini Moons and Edzea in the Komet Kids Plus class with coach, Pink. Edzea will be doing one more session of this program and then she moves to the 1 1/2 hour timeslot of Advanced Superstarrs for 5,6 year olds in January. It’s the next advanced class. They are having her skip the other class. She still loves gymnastics so we’ll see where it takes us. Rohan loves it too! I have streams of video of this day-the photos are terrible as I took mostly video but I’m having problems editing due to the memory it’s taking up on the computer. I will post it when I get it resolved!
Father’s day was spent leaving the house at 6am and heading to Amanda’s place. We had a strange gas smell throughout the house and we were told by the fire dept to evacuate. So, Tim stayed and met with the fire department and they couldn’t find anything. We came home and gave Daddy all of his cards, gifts (ones made from preschool, daycare and at home). Then we headed to Saunders Farm for a few hours. We have a Season Pass for the year so we can afford to go for a few hours at a time now and it’s SOOOO close for us. Really happy about this.
Daddy set up the crib in our room for Neve. Edzea understands that she has to prove that she can be quiet when she wakes up in the morning and any middle of the night shenanigans won’t be tolerated if she wants Neve to move into her room…which she does of course! We’ve given her a week to prove herself before we move Neve into her room. For now, she’s still with us.
Also, Rohan drank blue Tide yesterday…called Poison Control… and everything turned out to be ok but it was fairly scary and stressful at the time! We figure he thought it looked like blue freezie juice. Yikes! Gave me a heart attack!
Friday we went to Edzea’s preschool year end Family Picnic. Somehow all of those photos are missing from my camera. Hope to get my techie husband to figure out what happened. They were there yesterday???!!!
Quick post. Amanda worked my duty day for me at the preschool-last day for Edzea because I wasn’t allowed to bring Neve for insurance reasons. So annoying. Anyways, Edzea was ok with Amanda as my replacement. Luckily for me, Amanda took pics for her last day:
Today was STINKIN’ hot and humid. I had the air conditioner on inside but this afternoon after naps…the kids headed outside for sprinkler/pool time and so did Mommy! You can see our latest addition to our garden too…our bird bath that Rohan picked. He says it’s “Happy” the dwarf from Snow White. The boy still loves gnomes!
Afterwards…they played inside as it was cool and you can see that they were playing Edzea as “Mommy” and Rohan as “baby aka little one”. Edzea was “feeding” him like I feed Neve and he did exactly what she told him! Then we had a picnic dinner in the basement where it was cool. Daddy goes to soccer on Monday nights so I just made pizza bagels,fruit/ veggies and ice cream cones for dessert!
Now that my computer is letting me do video again, here is an old one from May 5th. The day before Edzea’s 4th birthday party. Rohan was very excited about the day to come.
Didn’t do much this weekend other than gardening and spring cleaning in the house. Amanda babysat for us on Saturday night so Tim and I could go out. We went to the Ashton Mill Pub about 5 min. away from our house in the sleepy ghost town of Ashton. It was really good! Great food and neat atmosphere. We decided to go to a movie after dinner as Amanda wasn’t having any problems with Neve…the other two acted up for her but Neve slept through it all! I fell asleep during the movie!
I potted a few planter pots this weekend. Amanda and I went to a Farmer’s Market in Kanata for some plants and then today we went to the Herb Garden near our place. The Herb Garden is a beautiful little spot. Nothing but herbs to sell but really great atmosphere although I’m not sure if the owner likes kids at all. She was a little rude and cool to the kids when we were there although they have a playground there too.
Took Edzea to public swim by herself during nap time today. She is continuing to improve her swimming. She jumped into the mid-deep (over her head) water today with me there in front of her and swam to me and we practiced going from me to the edge swimming from there. She has a lot of swimming ahead of her as I’ve signed her up for every day swimming lessons again this summer, with Rohan and I concurrently taking Parent & Tot and Neve to childminding.
Tim said Rohan did really well at his swimming lessons with Tim today too. He swam on his own, kicking and blowing his bubbles with a noodle wrapped around him. So, three times for him this week is helping too.
The weather is so stinking humid and hot that the pool is appealing so we’ll be spending a fair bit of time there before we leave for the west.
I injured my back after gardening yesterday so Tim looked after the kids later this afternoon. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to complete our lawn due to me needing him while I rested my back with Neve. Eventually, our lawn will get seeded!
Also, the mini van had an emergency trip to the Dodge dealership yesterday on the way back from gymnastics. The brakes were shot. They replaced them yesterday and we were able to get the car back last night. We have found out that we can fit all three kids in the back of the Xtrail now that Edzea is in a booster seat. She fits snugly in the middle.
Last week of preschool for Edzea before summer holidays. On Friday we will have a Family picnic with the school for the whole family. Tim has taken the day off to join us too. We are planning to go the the Canadian Golf & Country Club restaurant for Father’s Day brunch next weekend to check it out.
These are pictures from our day today. Edzea wears her new wooden shoes from Bumpa to do all of her gardening. Kids and I spent some time in the garden as usual although I didn’t get anything accomplished today. I have lots of planting to do. Chippy has now eaten our sunflower shoots too so we really have to cage our kids garden patch somehow.
Rohan and Neve both ended up in my bed during nap time today and Rohan wanted to hold hands with Neve and fell asleep doing so. So cute!
A big toad hopped through our garden today. The kids were thrilled of course! We also found a goldmine of wild strawberries at the edge of our property today…Edzea was so excited she sprinted into the house to get us a container to pick them in. About 2 minutes after we started picking, the thunder shower that had been threatening unleashed upon us so we decided to pick up on our picking again tomorrow!
We did something special tonight. We went out to the late night public swim (late for the kids!) from 7-8:30 pm. I wanted to reinforce Edzea’s latest swimming accomplishment. Sure enough, she had a fantastic time and is just getting better and better. I was in the water with her and Rohan for the first part until Neve started fussing and Rohan cut his foot on the hot tub???!!! so then Tim took over and swam with Edzea while I took the other two into the change room. I’ve signed us all up for about 3 weeks of daily swimming lessons in July before we head west. Edzea will have her lessons at the same time as Rohan and I go into lessons and I’ll have Neve in childminding at the pool. So, hopefully Rohan gets more and more comfortable in the water too.
Edzèa is FINALLY swimming! She now kicks and glides on her front and kicks and swims on her back without assistance. She’s had MANY MANY occasions where she has floated on her own for brief periods but ALL of the pool time we’ve put in with swimming lessons has finally come together! I took her and Rohan to the pool today and Neve into childminding (they love her, she coos and smiles all the time-they were walking her around the facility and the staff were all holding her etc.). Finally, for me, she swims. We’ll see how she does this afternoon at swimming lessons.
I have tried really hard not to get frustrated with her reticence about taking her feet off the bottom and doing it on her own. She floats on her front and back in the bath without issue…BUT IT HAS BEEN SO FRUSTRATING FOR ME!!! I have been way too emotionally attached to the outcome of her swimming. I JUST wanted her to get over it, take her feet off the bottom and swim. Rohan is worse. He loves sprinklers, he loves baths, he blows bubbles, puts his face in, gets soaked etc. but doesn’t like the pool much. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!! Please let Neve be a water baby! I need one!
Ok that’s it, that’s my rant. Edzèa is finally on her way. Thank goodness or I was going to have a nervous breakdown at each swimming lesson! I can move on now!
*** Update she really swam at her swimming lessons today we are finally there!!! She moved her arms, blew bubbles properly under water and swam and swam and swam! YAY Edzea. She is really proud of herself and so are we!! It was parents day today so I had Keira come with us and watch Neve, Amanda took Rohan so I could go in the pool (third time today!!)