Thankful Friday - Preschool Events/Kindergarten Day/Lifestyle Videos/Family Time

Going to start this one off with a bunch of school stuff!

1. Mother's Day Tea. Emilia's class put on a Mother's Day Tea presentation for all the moms/mother-figures in the class. They sang 6 adorable songs, we drank lemon tea, and then got to hang out and have some cookies after. Emilia felt so special and sang beautifully <3.

Emilia 90% of the time. Most of the kids were looking at the teacher while singing. She looked me dead in the eyes haha. She's the sweetest. Also she seems to be holding hands with the boy beside her haha.

2. Preschool Field Trip Walk. Yesterday Emilia's class met at Godwin Park for a little walk. Emilia was timid and clingy as usual, but Eva was right in there. Off hugging trees, trudging through long grass, blowing dandelions, etc. It was super cute. She's ready for preschool (minus the potty-training)! Emilia just likes to watch, but not to be watched :). She'd much rather do things when it's just her comfortable people around. Fair enough, girl. I am much the same! 

They had a little BINGO scavenger hunt sheet. This was "hug a tree"

Toddlers. The whole group is ahead of me and Eva is booking it back the other direction.

Their social dynamic is interesting. Eva saw another girl playing in the rocks so walked over, knelt beside her and started doing it too. Emilia wandered in and apprehensively sat beside them poking at the rocks. 

Such a beautiful park!

3. Kindergarten Day. Okay... why are there only like 4 weeks left of school. Someone tell me this! We had Emilia's Kindergarten Day today. I brought her and I'm glad I had done this last year with Dom, because I was needed by her to stay at least in the same room or it was going to be a disaster. She was very nervous, got pretty overwhelmed at some points, but really enjoyed the scissors and coloring/drawing parts (of course). Now we've left and she just talks about how great it was haha. Her presentation does not equal her feelings apparently! She really hopes to get the same teacher as Dom has this year and I can't say I blame her. She's amazing. I love this school <3. 

4. Lifestyle Video! Speaking of Kimber Images, Dave and I went out with Amy & Brent and the boys to do a Lifestyle Video and photoshoot at Williams Park last weekend. We had fun :) I can't wait to see and send them the finished product! My role was mostly just to be a helper and hang out. Dave really doesn't need me there at all haha. I did take a few behind-the-scenes pics and video for Dave's business use though.

All three of their kids went through the forest preschool here, and Amy & Brent helped to build and set up much of it too. It's a super special place for them!

Commitment lol

5. Work flexibility. I'm doing my best to keep up with all my jobs. Things are picking up with Kimber Images, we have a Spartan Foundation event happening this weekend, and I'm trying to fit the household management, family and self in there somewhere! I'm very thankful for the flexibility to work from home when needed. 

7. Reasonable Temperatures. We've been able to actually play outside! We also just had another AC unit delivered today that will be very useful on our main floor during the next heat wave. However it came with a broken wheel. It was delivered from Costco, so it will be easy to exchange/return once they have AC stock in store, but still rather annoying.

I took all the kids and the dog for a walk one morning. All things considered it went very well!

We walked down to see the horses. Emilia has been very into horses since her horseback riding excursion a couple weeks ago.

Horseeeeeeeyyyyyyy!

$1 store find. He writes his "goals" for the week and his weekly plan. It then morphed into an ice rink for his hockey game he created with cars and a pompom. Everything becomes hockey. Every. Thing.

We went for a full family walk one day up to the liquor store to buy some beer. It was over 5km for the whole walk and everyone did SO well. I was very pleasantly surprised.

Wren helping Eva with her shoes <3
Wren calls us Mommy & Daddy haha. Eva calls Kirstin Mama, and Wren's Grandma Baba. I guess that's what they hear each other calling their parents so it just seems natural!

This beauty got a new dress in the mail from Uncle Adam & Aunty Aly for her birthday!

Crepes for dinner at Uncle Jeff & Aunty Marta's

These boys. Every day after school I get stuck there for an extra half hour playing hockey! Could be worse, but it definitely cuts into dinner-making time.

Someone in our household had been sick at points over the last two weeks so I didn't have any Nate snuggles for a while there! He's a month old now <3

Until next time!

Lately! JARS/Emilia Birthday/Horseback Riding/Heat Wave/F1/Eva Sick/Mother's Day!

Life got away from me again!

Alrighty. So a couple weekends ago Adam was in town, so we got together with the siblings and had some pizza for dinner, had a mini early birthday celebration for Emilia, and then the boys and I stayed for some Rockband, ping pong and catch-up time!

Making some cupcakes for her mini birthday

The next day was Race Day, and Desiree invited us over to watch the race at 12:30. We packed the kids along, put Eva down for a nap there, and then didn't see the big kids the rest of the time. Glorious haha!

May 9 was Emilia's 5th birthday! We started the morning "waking her up" (in reality I had to send her back to bed twice before that) by our tradition of throwing balloons at the birthday person and singing Happy Birthday :). She opened one present before school, had THE BEST day at school (I've never seen her so excited), and then we had dinner with Oma and opened her second present after school. We got her this little digital camera from Amazon. It's been so great. She's taken over a thousand photos and it's been really fun for them to play with. We got it on sale for like $35... WAY worth it! We bought Dom one as well we will surprise him with when we go to the cabin this summer. It also has a few games on it so the kids are now obsessed with playing Snake haha. Like THE snake game. 

That night Eva was up fussing and crying much of the night. I got up for spin and work, and Dave brought Eva into bed. She fell asleep and he woke her up around 9:10am. She was back in bed by 11:40. Bad news bears. She came down with some yucky bug with fever and cough that is still going on. She hasn't had a fever for a couple days and is back to sleeping through the night again, but the cough is pretty yucky and wet sounding. Guess it's going around! 

Thursday I spent the whole morning snuggling Eva, and then I got the privilege of taking Emilia on a preschool field trip to A&T Equestrian centre! They got to ride horses (or in her case a pony), groom horses, walk horses, and do a fairy hunt in the forest. She was super nervous and apprehensive at first, but once we got going she was loving it and is SO proud of herself haha. 

Caption this! Haha Eva trying to rest in bed and getting the mom treatment with everyone wanting to be around her at the worst possible time.

She brought her camera. I should go through those photos too haha

By the time I got home Eva had a high fever and was clearly feeling unwell. I snuggled her and took her for a walk. 

Friday was the start of a nasty little May heat wave. Temperatures were 30-35 for 4 days and it was a little triggering from that heat dome we had a couple years back when Eva was a newborn! While Dom was at school Emilia helped me prep her cake for her birthday party scheduled for the next day. Dom brought home and gave me his mother's day cards from school and I love them haha. 

My portrait haha. It's magical <3

For dinner I took Dom & Emilia to Bobo Moma's 92nd birthday party. We had pizza, cake, cookies, dropjes and chocolate milk haha! Perfect. It was also the best place for kids as it was all fenced in. There was a fountain and lots of little rock gardens. I wish Eva could have come, but she was still much too ill. 

Saturday morning Eva seemed to be doing better, so we all went to Dom's soccer. Then Dom had a dentist appointment for a random tooth he has growing in behind his top front teeth. As it turns out it's an extra tooth and it has to be removed. Dang it... While he was gone Emilia and I decorated her cake and got ready for her party! It was so hot, so we had it outside. 

Croquets for dinner courtesy of mom & dad, pool, water table, sprinkler, etc. All the things that make a hot summer party a good time! All that was important to me was that Emilia felt special. And she did :)

Sunday was Mother's Day! We had no plans and I had no expectations. I went in really relaxed about everything and it turned out to be my best mother's day yet! No crazy special gifts or anything, but I didn't have any newborns, no postpartum depression, no drowning in responsiblity... things are just getting easier! In the morning I said, "Let's go get Tim Hortons and have a picnic!" We got our breakfast and ate outside, and I sat outside in the shade all morning since it was going to be such a scorcher. I had kids with me, but Dave took care of all the snacks and lunch for them. That was the biggest game changer for me I think. The main difference for me on mother's day as opposed to any other day was that I 100% relinquished the mom/wife guilt. I shamelessly asked Dave to do all the food and that freed up SO much of my day. I haven't felt that relaxed in a very long time. 

Anyway we got an Uber Eats coupon and used it to order sushi for the two of us for lunch. Then during Eva's nap, Dom was downstairs playing video games with Dave and Emilia and I did some of her crafts from her birthday. Wish I could channel this energy on other days somehow! Definitely had some housework catch up to do the last couple days since then haha. I forgot to take pictures, but in the evening Mom took me to Cactus Club for dinner! It was so hot at home that Dave set up a movie in the girls' room where the AC is. Time for us to get some AC...

People across the street were getting rid of this desk. They said 15 years ago it was picked up in front of someone else's house in Ontario and it's travelled from there to here and is now ready to go onto a new home! It fits perfectly under Dom's desk and he feel so important <3

Monday was my first full day working at the school covering for their Admin Assistant! All things considered I think it went pretty well! I was SO exhausted by the end of the day, especially after standing outside to do the bus loading and attendance in the freakish heat in my long pants. Sweat factory. We got home and everyone was cranky and hot and I didn't have any dinner plans. We ended up going to Mom & Dad's and throwing together something for dinner there because their house was bearable. Ours... not so much. 

We hosted small groups in the evening and instead of baking indoors, we sat out in the green patch with chairs, the kiddie pool, picnic blankets and snacks. Turned out great!

Sent this to Dave before going out to do the bus haha. Stomach was in knots. It all worked out though :)

This morning both the big kids were at school and Eva is feeling much better, so I brought her to Tynehead with Sherlock. He hasn't had a proper walk in a few days because it was too hot.