Party On!...

The partying continued at our house in July with Aaron turning 3!  I can hardly believe it; time is flying buy.  He wishes it could go faster as he has increased his independence a ton over the last few months.  He is quite the chatter box and can carry on a conversation that most days I can follow.  He is heavily involved in everything that his older siblings are doing, either as a slower participant or as an audience member for them. 

We celebrated his special day with a trip to the Edmonton Zoo with the family.  They have quite the fun little petting zoo that we enjoyed.

 

We also took one of the paddle boats out for a little paddle on the small pond there.  We were all able to fit in the boat.  Spen and I peddled and megan sat in the middle and tried her best to figure out the boats steering and the two boys in the back enjoyed a backwards view. 

 This is in the new part of the zoo next to the seals and sea lions new center that they have.  Here Aaron in showing that he is still my little baby.  I bought the kids these cry baby sour soothers.  They were pretty sour and the kids loved them. 

After having a look at some of the other animals our last stop was for the train ride.  All Aboard!  We filled up the caboose. 

YTV happened to be at the zoo with the traveling beyblades station.  So the kids were able to play to their hearts content with hundreds of different beys and to try out some new ones.  They really enjoyed that and they even gave each of the kids a new beyblade.  Awesome!

Here is Evan in front of one of the beyblade stadiums.  They were impressed at Aarons beyblade abilities.  The only things bothering us here were the mosquitoes. 

We had monster cupcakes for his cake and each child got to decorate a few cupcakes with various treats that I picked up.   They turned out pretty silly and the kids loved to gobble them up. 

 

 

Here is Aaron opening a few presents.  He received a few service coupons from his siblings and a wall track hot wheels set, another new beyblade and a game and a I spy book. 

 

Another successful birthday finished! 

 

Aaron at 3 is very independent.  He loves to dress himself, spell his name and others in the family, going to nursery, playing at the park, helping mom bake, getting books at the library and playing the Wii and playing with dad in all forms. 

 

We love you Aaron.  Happy Birthday to my "little big guy"!

Megan's Birthday

On to the third birthday of the family -- Megan.  She turned 10! YIKES!

 She started out the day with a sweet cereal. 

 We tried our hand at a movie theme birthday. So we had plenty of popcorn, drinks and a few treats and watched Hugo. I didn't stay downstairs with the girls and my two boys.

  They did fine for awhile but then started to get bored and the girls I find anyways would rather hang out instead.  So I had a few party games that we played and we quickly thought up a few more that we all played and won a few prizes. 

 We opened presents and I made this super hero cape for Megan.  Now she matches her brothers.  She got some books, hair accessories, mario figurines, snap bracelets, bath and body works, a hand drawn picture from Evan and a coupon for a slurpee. 

This is Aaron's reaction to the whole present opening.  He wasn't impressed that it still wasn't his turn to celebrate a birthday.  Poor guy.  He is waiting so patiently for his big day.

Here is Megan's cupcakes in the shape of the number 10.  They were chocolate cupcakes with oreo cookies crushed into the icing and and oreo piece put on top.  Yummy.  Of course we also had cookie and cream ice cream. 

This is Megan trying out the crackle nail polish that I bought for her.  It was pretty fun. 

Megan at 10 years old is quite the student at school.  She loves to read and often shares funny facts that she has learned.  She plays the piano, swims, is involved in gymnastics, activity days, has a flyer route with 239 papers (Evan helps with delivery).  She is sometimes girly-girl and often times tom boyish.  She loves to play the Wii and saved up enough money to buy a nintendo 3DS with her brother.  She is my babysitter in training and a great help around the house.  Her favorite color is blue or teal.  She is maturing more and more every year.  We are so luck that she belongs with our family. 

Happy Birthday Megan! We love you!

Canada Day

Since Canada Day was on a Sunday we took it kinda easy.  I decided to skip the usual pancake breakfast at the Legislature (they only serve pancakes, watermelon and juice anyways).  I instead made french toast with the Maple bread that I bought from Costco.  That was yummy!
We just played at home and then went to church I had to teach the RS lesson. 

Then we had a fabulous BBQ and continued to hang out at home until 9pm.  At which time we packed some things up and braved the fireworks at the legislature grounds.  We tossed the frisbee and enjoyed being outside on such a beautiful day.  Then we found the best spot so far to enjoy the fireworks as we had a front row seat (right behind the fence that they put up).  We enjoyed the fireworks at 11pm and struggled our way back to our vehicle and waited our turn to leave the downtown core. 

Here some of us are in front of the water feature at the Legislature. 

Here is the other half.  Aaron fell asleep in the van ride over.  Remember is was after 9pm and he had a full day already. 

 Here we are waiting for the fireworks to start.  Aaron is still asleep and I bought some glow necklaces for the kids to wear; next year I'll buy way more and pack some card games to play.  Evan was done watching the fireworks after about 10 minutes but they continued on for another 5 minutes.  We woke Aaron up so he could enjoy them; although I think they may have been a bit too loud for his liking. 

Happy Canada Day. 

Happy Birthday!

Evan turned 6 this year.  I can't believe that my little boy is already 6! yikes!We had a party right on his birthday with a few friends.  His theme was Lego. 

 Evan started his day with the latest addition to the corn pop family -- cinnamon corn pops.  They tasted pretty good. 

Here the boys are playing the open the present game.  We also played a balloon stomp game where the was a piece of paper inside the balloon that said "winner".  I think the boys had fun popping balloons.

 Here are the cakes that I made.  Lego in theme.  They looked fantastic with the candles on them and they tasted yummy!

Here is a gift that Megan made for Evan.  It is a homemade Wii game, I think this one is a Kirby game that Evan likes.  He got some games, lots of different kinds of Lego, beyblades, money, cards, Nerf gun.  He had a really great birthday and what made it so fun was that he got to celebrate with friends. 

Evan at 6 years old is my special boy, with as we say, platinum blond hair.  He is a great student and is an excellent reader already.  He loves to play Wii and computer.   He loves to participate in swimming and gymnastics and anything outside and anything that that keeps him moving.  He does great with his chores and responsibilities and is a great brother.  We are so blessed to have him in our family.  Happy Birthday!

End of School

The last part of June is always busy with the wind down of all our activities and the last fun days of school.  Evan had a field trip to the zoo that I was able to go on with Aaron.

Here is our little but had my-hands-full group.  The zoo was packed that day since a few other schools also had the great idea of visiting too.  I think I counted 9 other school buses there when we arrived.  This is one of the first hot days that we experienced.  The kids were tired after all the walking around and excitement. 

 Here is the famous Lucy the elephant.  She is old and all alone and lots of animal rights people want her to be moved to an elephant sanctuary.

After we stopped walking around and looking at some of the animals we had lunch and then played with the parachut.  Aaron was even able to join in.  He had a blast and so did Evan as you can see.

On Sunday Megan had her final piano recital for the year. 

 Here's our group outside Concordia University where the recital was held.  We got some rain earlier in the day but then it turned out quite nice. 

Here is Megan waiting in the correct seating position before the recital began.  She kept saying that she was extremely nervous and she just might have been.  But as usual she did a fantastic job.  The students had to say thier name and what they were playing.  The old ladies finally couldn't complain because they couldn't hear anyone.  Megan spoke slow and clear and loud. 

Here's my boys trying to sit still and behave. They choose to sit on the bleachers while I sat in a chair on the floor. 

Here is Megan playing the Bear Necessities. She took her music up just in case but I don't think that she used it.  This is her second year of piano.   Great Job! Megan. 

Next up was getting the teacher gifts ready for the last day of school along with birthday party invitations.  Busy, busy, busy. 

 Here is Evan's Lego Party invitation.

 Megan's popcorn invitation -- we'll be watching the movie Hugo.

These are some gifts for the teachers.  Cute clip boards and a thank you note. 

Sorry for the sideways picture but these are some gifts for the teacher helpers in Evan's class; some key/ID tags holders (the fabric was cute ladybug and flowers) along with some apple hand sanitizer. 

On the last day of school the kids/teachers helped to organize and put on a talent show.  Of course Megan participated and was pretty good.  She sang a song called Girls Can Too.  Sorry I can seem to upload the video. 

Some of the other talent included a puppet show, magician, dancing, singing and Kung Fu routine.  It was really entertaining.  Spencer took some time off work for an hour in the morning to watch Megan perform.  We hope it continues for next year as we are already helping to plan Megan's routine. 

The last day of school here are the kids teachers/helpers.
 

This is the famous Mrs. Casali.  She is a wonderful Kindergarten teacher.  She kept 28 kids organized and learning all year long.  She also saw that she could challenge Evan a little more and did so through out the school year in order to help him keep focused and out of trouble. 

This is Miss B a teacher assistant and below is Mrs. M another teacher Assistant.  I don't actually know what their last names are since Evan always referred to them in this way.  They were great ladies as well. 

 This is Mrs. Thompson, she was Evan's teacher for the last 3 or 4 months.  They divided the kinders into two classes for some extra teaching focus and to better help prepare the kids for grade 1.  She also taught Megan in grade 2.  She would teach Evan's class in the morning and then go and teacher her regular grade 2 class in the afternoons.  

 This is one of Megan's teachers Mrs. Rygus.  She is also the assistant principle.  She is a great lady who has been at the school for 20 years. 

This is Megan's other teacher, Mrs. Reklow, she is also the Music teacher for the school. 
After being a mother I think that being a teacher is the toughest job.  These are people who are  educating our children, spending 6 hours a day 5 days a week with them and who have such an important impact on our children that I believe they should be compensated accordingly.  I think that our sports heros that make millions for a few years of effort at playing a sport don't really deserve that and that society just may have their priorities mixed up. 

These teachers did a wonderful job this year and my children have loved this school year and learned many new things.  Thank you.  Good luck in the fall.  Everyone of them is leaving to pursue new opportunities, except for Evan's kindergarten teacher (i'm not sure about the teacher assistants). 

Father's Day

Father's Day came and went.  It was pretty good. 

We gave Spencer some coupons,a couple of new ties, Megan made him a beatiful card and a enjoyed delicious dinner after church. The ward gave him dad's rootbeer and a pepperoni stick.

Of course we had to have a little time outside before our church started so I packed up a little lunch some of our old bread to feed to the ducks and we headed out to enjoy the sunshine. 

Happy Father's Day Spencer.  We love you.  Thank you for being an awesome dad. 

Fancy Megan

For some strange reason to me of which I don't actually know.  Megan wanted her hair curled for school one day.  I suggested we use rags to roll her hair since those curls stay in so nice and you can sleep on the rags.  I remember my sister ragging my hair but couldn't quite get it right from her style so of course I googled it and came up with a different version. 

It only took me about 20 minutes to roll/wrap her hair.  The next day she was a little shocked about the poofyness of her hair but I convinced her to just let is soften through out the day (and I used the blow dryer).  And she did. 

She loved it in the end and had fun with it.  A good friend at school has naturally curly hair and they looked cute walking into the school together .  I think the grass is always greener on the other side.

Aaron was a little confused about having curly hair on Megan and didn't really like it at first.   Also.....these are Megan's new glasses...again.