Loose tooth...

I don't know why it bugs me so much when my child is about to lose a tooth.   Maybe it is because of this....

She did lose this tooth that she had been wiggling all week.  It is now no big deal when a tooth comes out, thank goodness.  The tooth fairy did eventually find her.  Can I just say that with inflation the tooth fairy might need some other financial backing to continue to do her job for all the other little boys coming up.  

Saint or Sinner....

Don't judge us...

 On Sunday our kids were feeling sick, so I stayed home with them.  It was such a beautiful day that we did need to get out.....can I help it that the city of Edmonton wanted to thank all those who use and enjoy the city recreation facilities/venues.  So we decided to go the the Muttart Conservatory.  It is a nice place to visit.  It was just recently re-done and what they added makes it a nice place to sit and enjoy.  We visited each of the four pyramids and enjoyed each "zone": tropical, moderate, temperate and a show pyramid that was filled with all shades of pink flowers in honor of breast cancer awareness.
 

Here we are in the tropical zone. 

There were a few nice little water features, this one was a little water fall behind us. They had some fish ponds as well. 

In the atrium there was an art display and the calligraphy group from the city that was printing names.  So the kids each had their names done fancy. 

Afterwards we headed outside and the kids loved running up and down the hills and finding the apples that they had on the trees outside.  There were a few more wonderful flower beds outside that I wandered around to enjoy. 

We enjoyed ourselves and all of Heavenly Fathers creations that we don't usually get to see most of all we enjoyed being together as a family...sick or not.

Celebrating 11 years....

That's right 11 years has come and gone since I married my sweetheart.  I always like to look back at all the things that have happened to us from whence we started up until now...we have experienced a lot and we keep going...
Our anniversary falls on a long weekend and it is right around school, so we usually stay close to home.  I was preparing a wonderful evening of enjoying the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra under the Sky concert, when Spencer told me to hold on...he might have other plans for us.  Sure enough he did.  We went to the Josh Groban concert instead.  It was a really good time.  We have actually never gone to a concert like this together before.  Josh puts on a good show.  Spencer bought me 12 roses: 11 red and one white (for good luck).  I love having fresh flowers.  I cooked a steak dinner with baked potatoes and salad and a vegetable along with some sparkling apple juice and a few candles lit.  We shared this fabulous dinner with our little bumpkins.  Then cleaned up and picked up the babysitter and were off. 

Here I am at the entrance of Rexall Place.  This is actually the first time that I've been here.  

Here is Josh singing on a mini stage in the middle of the floor, so we got a really good view of him from this point.  So did all those who have floor seats they were all turned around and out of their seats for this part. 

We checked out some of the souvenirs, but I couldn't bring  myself to spend that kind of money and I don't think that I would actually wear a shirt with a huge picture of Josh Groban on it.  I'll just stick to listening to his music.  I did however buy a book about this tour that is just filled with pictures; this will go in  my memory box along with the newspaper clipping about his concert and our ticket stubs. 

These are the flowers that I got and my keepsake book of this experience. 

Thanks Spencer for a wonderful anniversary celebration and for 11 wonderful years of marriage. 

Back to School

We survived our back to school....(notice how we are wearing sweaters and rain boots in these pictures...yes, it was cool)

Megan started on the first of September.  Here she is all decked out and ready to go.  She started grade 4 this year.  This will be a good and challenging school year for her I hope.  Something to keep her busy and occupied and to stretch her mind.  She is starting to learn French this year. 

Here is my Kindergartener.  He was so ready and waiting to go to school.  There was a staggered entry, so half of his class went on the first and the other half including him went on the second.   I walked up to the doors with him, and waited until the bell rang.  Then helped him into his class room and hanging up his coat, getting his indoor shoes on and dropping off all the school supplies.
His class is rather large with approximately 30 kids, they have a teacher and a teacher's aid and have 2 classrooms to work in.  So I think that they often split the class to do various activities.  He loves recess and playing at the park. 

The first full week of classes I stood with Evan outside and Aaron actually started crying when Evan left.  He finally knew that Evan was going to be away for a while.  We have since adjusted more to the routine.  But I never have to walk Evan to the doors anymore.  Megan is a huge help in walking with Evan and then picking him up after school from his room and walking with him to the van.  Secretly I think that she likes having Evan attend her school.  She has been encouraging and helpful for him. 

Only one time last week did Evan cry after I picked him up.  I asked what was wrong and he said that he didn't want to leave cause he would miss his class.  I told him not to worry he would be back tomorrow.  He has been tired at the end of every day, often taking a short nap on the couch while watching some after school tv. 

Two down one to go...

The rest of our summer part 2

So one nice day I decided to take the kids to Jurassic Forest that just opened up a year or so ago just outside of Edmonton.  This was going to be a real fun outing, I packed some snacks and thought that I would buy some lunch there.  I kinda knew where it was but didn't really get directions, I figured that there would be some road signs that would guide me along the way.  I was almost there, but didn't want to be lost on the highways so I phoned Spencer to give  me directions.  Which he did.  In less than 5 minutes I found the place. 

It was fairly busy, which is a good sign. There they have a little indoor part with a few dinosaurs that you can see and learn about.  Then you go outside and go on a little hike.  In amongst the trees and plants you will come across some dinosaurs that are motion sensored and they move a little and make a noise.  It was alright.  I would have loved to see the updated Dinosaur part of the Calgary zoo, since Megan said it was very much like that.  So at Jurassic Forest you can go on two different not terribly long loops to see the dinosaurs, they have a few dinosaurs to play on in the middle of the complex and you can also play in the sand to uncover some dinosaur bones.  We did one loop and then decided to eat some lunch, so I went to the concession stand to order some hot dogs for $4 each (yikes) and it was cash only.  So I went to find a bank machine, but to my dismay the bank machine wasn't working, I was the girl at the cash register if I could use my bank card there and that was a no go and she said sorry the bank machine wasn't working.  I was a little bit miffed that I had no options for lunch.  Luckily I had packed some snacks that we sat down and ate.  Then off to discover the loop.  There were actually a lot of repeat dinosaurs and due the the lack of a real playground and my lunch mishap and poor road way signage and the cost of the experience I give it 2 thumbs down.  We did it once and that was enough. 

Here we are on one of the loops

This is the dinosaur dig part of the playground.  In the back you can see a little dinosaur slide. 

 Here is one of the dinosaurs up close. 

On a happier experience note we also made it to Calaway park this summer and to the zoo.  We made a weekend trip out of our trip down to see our new neices be blessed on Sunday in Calgary.  We love Calaway park.  There are a lot of good rides for all ages to go on.  The big one we made it to this year was the log ride.  We wound our way through the line.  The kids were so bored.  But we finally made it to the front of the line and the gal said that Aaron was too short.  Boy I was mad.  I waited in line holding him for the past 45 minutes.  What a waste of time.  So we left and went on a little boat ride while Spencer, Evan and Megan enjoyed the log ride. 

After that we ate our picnic lunch that we purchased at Safeway.  We was really good.  The food at Calaway park, is all the same, deep fried, hot dogs, hamburgers....and pricey.  This was a good suggestion that we got from my sister in law. 

The day before we visited the Calgary zoo with my brother and some of his kids.  That was fun. The kids enjoyed that and my brother was a good tour guide.  We stayed with my brother and sister in law.  They were great hostesses and our kids love to play with their cousins.  Not to mention being able to play with and walk their dog chip.  Evan was crying when we went to Calaway park because he was going to miss the dog.  He didn't realize that we were staying another night and would see the dog again. 

It was a full weekend that kept us busy and we en

The rest of our Summer Part 1

I've located our camera so now I can have a fun update on the rest of our summer....

Before Spencer started up again into his schooling for another intensive 8 weeks we thought we would take our final weekend to go camping.  So we picked a place that we had never been before and just went for the night.  We packed up our car and off we went to Elk Island National Park.  We loved it.  It is close and we all enjoyed camping.  Despite the name of the park we didn't actually see any Elk, but the park is home to a great herd of Buffalo that stopped us a few times on the road and we also saw some coyotes.  We did get a few showers but that didn't last long. 

Our campsite was smaller than we were use to but it had everything that we needed in close proximity.  We even did this while Aaron was learning to potty train.  You can pretty much go and do anything with pull ups!

Here we are enjoying our popcorn.  We didn't have a camp stove it died last year and since we were only going camping for one night we decided to just cook over a fire.  This was a little tricky....our fire building skills were a bit rusty and it took longer than we wanted to get going, then if we were really good campfire cooks, we would have waited until the fire died down.  But the kids were hungry so we had most of our meals with the campfire kiss to them. 

The kids loved chasing the dragon flies around since they were pleantiful due to the large number of misquitoes that we experienced this year.  The kids had fun just hang out and being outside.  We checked out the beach that was pretty close, but it was a bit cooler and windy and acutally more rocky.  You can't swim in the water there but they did have a park to play on, some hikes to go on,  some interpretive programs and a living boardwalk. 

 We hiked around the boardwalk that takes you around the shore of one of the lakes there and in the water you could see all sorts of little bugs and water critters.  Evan made me promise that the next day before we left that we would come back and bring our net and a container to scoop up some water life to enjoy.  So that is exactly what we did.  The kids loved being there and trying to scoop up everything that moved.  They learned about sharing and enjoyed watching all the bugs float and swim, just when they had a container full of things, Aaron would try their patience by dumping it all back into the lake....not to worry though they were more than happy to capture all the bugs again. 

There is a snail, tadpole and a leech along with some smaller insects that you can't really see in this picture. 

This was actually at the park, it is a ukrainian house from some of the first settlers in that area.  It is traditional in design.  We couldn't go inside this one, but after we packed up we drove to Ukrainian Heritage Village that was like 2 minutes away.  This is an interpretive site and it was really good and interesting to go to.  Megan actually studied about Ukraine in school this past year.  So she actually got to see houses, schools, farms, churches etc, from the Ukraine Stettlers in Alberta.  The guides and actors were really good.  You could go inside the various buildings and ask questions and they would answer like they were back in the day.  It is a fantistic place to visit. 

It is quite a bit of walking but Spencer happened to get us on a wagon ride that took us to some of the parts that were further away in the park.  So here are the kids in a school.  They loved sitting in the desks and using the chalk boards. 

Here we are in front of the grain elevator and a train. The early settlers worked hard to make a life for themselves and to be able to provide a better life for thier families.