Back to School and Other Stuff

Shae started her first day of Grade Six. She had a good start to the year: her best friend is in her class, she got the "nice" teacher and she gets to be in the oldest grade at her school. Personally, I have a hard time wrapping my head around the idea that this is her last year before Junior High (a time in my life that I am so glad to be done and am not looking forward to for her). At least I'm learning to really savour and enjoy every minute with the younger kids because time passes so quickly...
Jess walked her to school like he always does but this year, as they got to school, she saw her friends and asked him, very nicely, if he could please go now, she would rather go on her own. Sure, no problem, (sniff, sniff).

She's a crossing guard this year and she's taking art classes where she's learning to paint with water colours and she is absolutely loving it.

Connor had a rockier start to his school year. I expected kindergarten to be easy since he did playschool the last two years in the same building, just a different room and teacher. And he knew 4 or 5 of the kids in his class already. But I forgot that he doesn't like transition. He was very nervous the first day but went happily enough...until it was time to say goodbye and follow his teacher into class - his lower lip started to quiver and he tried really hard to be brave but he did cry a little as he turned away (it broke my heart!). But then the next day, he woke up and started crying, saying he hates school and didn't want to go. And it was the same every day that week. The next week, he protested more and more mildly each day and once he got there, he happily went to play with his friends so I think the transition is almost done. I just hope he doesn't get stuck in the mindset that he "hates" school...
And Maira and I have been playing school in the basement each morning after the older two go to school. She gets her backpack, packs her snack, and then sits in a chair in front of the chalkboard in the basement. She absolutely loves that and it has helped her transition to being more alone in the mornings now.

Here's a picture of Hudson, just because:
I think my kids look the most alike when they smile. This picture could be any one of my babies, he looks so much like the others at this age.

And here's a picture from this morning: Maira and Connor watching Veggie Tales while pretending they are robots.

Maira's New Twirly Dress

I bought the pattern for this dress a year ago and I finally got it out and gave it a go. It was even more complicated than I expected but all the details were worth it - it was so fun to make something different than the usual little girl's dress. The pattern is the Analise by Sandi Henderson, a fabric designer. I forget the name of the fabric line I used but of course I bought it at The Fabric Addict!

Here's Maira modelling her new outfit:

And then Connor and Hudson joined in the photo shoot as well:
Until Hudson had enough and crawled away...

Jayna and Travis' wedding

Jayna and Travis are married! Maira was their flower girl and Shae was one of the junior bridesmaids (the other one was Bailey, Travis' little sister). Here are some pictures from the beautiful wedding:

Apron for Jayna

Here's my latest edition of my favourite pattern, the Emmeline apron:
This is one of Jayna and Travis's wedding gifts (well, this one's more for Jayna, obviously)! The apron is reversible and it looks cute tied in the front as well:
Isn't Shae a cute model!

I just noticed the stripe of green grass in the background - isn't our lawn pathetic! We just re-sodded that green patch and now the rest of our lawn looks terrible...

Blog Makeover and I finished my 10k

I've wasted way too much time this evening doing a blog makeover - but it was so fun! Maybe my blog will get a makeover more often...

I ran my first 10k yesterday since Hudson was born. Jess and the kids and my Mom were there at Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton to cheer me on. The weather was perfect and the route was nice and flat. There were 750 other runners and the atmosphere was great. I'd been having a really painful stitch in my side the last few days of running and I was worried that would happen again. But I had heard that eating bananas helps and I realized we'd run out of bananas a week ago so I bought a whole bunch and ate 5 the day before the race...and no stitch at all through the entire race. My knees also didn't hurt, it was basically a pain-free race - I was so happy!

I've found it really hard to find time to run with 4 young kids so I didn't except to do better than 1:10 but about 2 km before the finish line I realized I was slightly ahead of the 65 minute pace bunny - I couldn't believe it! And I decided then that I wanted to stay ahead of him. That was so hard. If he hadn't been there, I'm sure I would have slowed down quite a bit but I kept hearing him getting closer and closer so I kept pushing harder and harder. Here I am just less than a minute from the finish line and there he is on my right, in the blue:
And here I am, sprinting for the finish line with him behind me:
And I did it! I crossed the finish line in just over 1:05, just ahead of the pace bunny (you can see his shadow behind me!)
Before we left for the race, Connor gave me a hug and said he hoped I won my race. Succeeding at running faster than I thought I would even though my legs felt too weak to take another step felt like winning the race to me.

I think Connor was impressed with my medal (received by which everyone who finished) :

While I was running, there were jumpy castles and a jumpy slide for the kids:

One reason I liked having my whole family there was for the support but the biggest reason is because I want my kids to have memories of me running races so that they know they can do hard things too. At the end of the race, Shae said she wants to do the 5k next year and my Mom said she'd like to too so that makes me happiest of all.

Storytime with Hudson

Tonight at bedtime, I decided to try reading a story to Hudson, I thought he might be old enough now. And he loved it; apparently the story I chose has some pretty funny baby jokes in it because he laughed at every page. So cute!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Baby Quilt

While I was in Raymond a few weeks ago, of course I had to check out the local quilt shop: Sugar Town Quilts. And while there, I came across a new idea for a way of making a quilt that I hadn't tried yet. And I really wanted to try it! So, I called my sister to see if maybe her new little 19-month old foster daughter might be in need of a quilt (I couldn't think of anyone else at the moment who might need a baby quilt and I really wanted to make it!) Luckily, my sister said that yes, she could use a quilt for her bed so I happily bought the supplies needed and here is the finished product:

(Click to embiggen)

And here's Maira happily modelling it for me to give an idea of the scale:


The technique involves using one large piece for the background and then cutting out a bunch of small squares (mine were 3x3, I believe) with pinking shears. Then you use a glue stick to glue them in place (after marking out your grid with a disappearing marker) and then sew up and down the quilt in a grid pattern to sew the squares on. The zigzag edges keep the unfinished edges of the squares from fraying too much but they still fray enough to look really cute. It was a quick project that I'll definitely make again sometime.