Swimming at the Waterpark

A couple of weeks ago, I took the kids to the waterpark at West Edmonton Mall.  Shae insisted on bringing along the waterproof camera and I'm glad she did because we had a lot of fun taking pictures in the wave pool.

Playing Around

This post is just a random collection of the kids playing over the last few months.

 One day, I poured piles of baking soda onto cookie sheets and gave the kids coloured vinegar and eye droppers.  It was so fun, even Shae wanted to join in.

 

 

 

...And a Winter Post

Oops, I was jumping ahead of myself in my last post, talking all about spring, I forgot about a few winter photos I wanted to post!

First, my birthday.  I turned 35 and had a lovely celebration with my family.

A month later, Jess had his birthday.  For some reason, I don't have any pictures of him (probably because he had the camera, as usual).  But this is a slice of the pie I baked for him, and a picture of his presents from the kids.

They each made a pinata for him. and then Maira made some presents for him that she wrapped up in blankets and fastened with pretty much every hairbow she owns.

We barely got any snow this winter but right when spring was around the corner, we got one last snow storm.  The fun thing about spring snow storms is that the snow is usually pretty sticky so the kids could go out and build snowmen.

Spring is here!

Even though we enjoyed a mild winter, it was still just as long as usual and we are all so excited that spring is finally here.

In April, we celebrated Easter with an Easter egg hunt on Saturday and church on Sunday.

 Right around Easter, we got out the trampoline from winter storage and it's always so much fun for the kids when we put up the trampoline, it's like a brand new toy for them.

Another fun thing about spring is finding ladybugs in the yard.

And going to the playground is another spring tradition.

And this last picture has nothing to do with spring, it just makes me laugh.  I put Hudson down for a nap one afternoon and instead of sleeping, he spent two entire hours very quietly coating every inch of his available skin, as well as the top of his dresser with thick and creamy diaper cream.  It was quite a surprise when I went up to wake him from his "nap"!!

Skating Lessons

I often say that there are 3 activities I think it's important for my children to learn how to do.  Not that they need to excel in these things, just be able to do them:  swimming, skiing and skating.  When they were about 4 or 5, I put Connor and Shae in skating lessons and they both learned how to skate without falling down.  It's not that I want them to be figure skaters or hockey players, I just want them to be able to skate.  So now that Maira's 5, I registered her for skating lessons as well.  She was very reluctant, she's only been skating a couple of times and she remembered a lot of falling.  But I insisted and I was delighted that within the first 5 minutes of her first lesson, she was having a fabulous time.  Not that she didn't fall but the first thing they teach you is how to get up once you fall and the teacher was really nice and they played some fun games and she actually got the hang of it really easily.  Now she loves going to skating, it's the highlight of her week!

Cheerleading

 Well, cheer season is finally done (it lasted most of the school year) and I thought I'd add in a few more pictures of Shae's cheer stuff.

Jess went to one of her practices at the school gym and got some pictures of the team practising.  They had 2-3 hour practices after school twice a week from September through to the end of March.

At their final competition, they got second place in their category.  The first place team was much bigger and more experienced and there was really no competing with them so getting second place was like getting first place among the teams at their level so it was a very satisfying outcome and a wonderful accomplishment, I was so proud of her and her team.