Start of Spring! Sunshine/Spring Break/Birthday Parties/

While official Spring has just started, we had a week of absolutely stunning weather. I have been out and about in a t-shirt! Absolutely glorious. 

The kids started Spring Break last Thursday as well, so I'm getting a little taste of life with the three kids at home again. A week in, and so far this is the easiest school break yet. The older two can go outside on their own, they can be independent and play board games and make art on their own, they can make their own breakfast, and now that Eva is older, they can include her in their play. Seeing them be more independent and having less energy pulled from me gives me so much more energy to invest into them when I need/want to. 

I was talking about registering for some Accounting/Bookkeeping courses starting in April, but I think I am putting that on hold. I do not need anything more on my plate right now. I am barely above water with all the hats I wear as it is. I will see when Eva is in preschool in September if I can imagine mustering up the time to take that on. I need to remind myself what a busy stage of life I'm in and how I don't have to overcomplicate it. I should just be enjoying it! Do the things that bring me joy and give me life. 

*This is so much easier to say and believe when the sun is out for some reason haha*

Since I've been trying (*TRYING*) to take more time for me, I actually opened and did a puzzle I've had sitting on the shelf for weeks just waiting. 

I'm trying to get out in the fresh air more, and Eva and I ventured out to walk the dog and go to the park. She doesn't often get to come on dog walks because she slows me down (obviously), but I tried because maybe that's just what I need sometimes. 

Emilia made a little calendar I found on the kitchen counter. 
Sunday: chrch

Monday: swiming lesis

Tuesday: hosbac riding

Wednesday: swiming lesis

Thursday: enefing (anything)

Friday: dzrt (dessert)

Saturday: wekind

Her reading and writing is improving rapidly and I am LOVING it. She reads us two pages from One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish each night right now, and it's cool to see the growth even just day to day. Also her drive. Awesome.

Eva practicing her pencil grip

Blue was already tacked and being ridden at horseback riding last week, so we just got to go watch for a bit. Obviously Emilia loved that. 

What is happening here? I have no idea. Where I found Dom after asking him to get his jammies on.

Emilia's teacher sent this picture. 
"I can create a self portrait using different shapes and objects."

Swimming lessons are done now, but we've been going much more often with all the kids. We got Dom & Emilia some goggles. Dom is learning to enjoy putting his face in the water, and Emilia just went for it. <3

Gramma and Grandpa came to hang out with the kids last Thursday on their first day of Spring Break. I worked for a while at the library and then took the dog for a nice long walk on my own. 

Hot dogs for dinner at Jesse & Kirstin's! The girls got to sit at their own table and actually ate for once (mostly) haha.

Gramma got the kids involved and made an apple crisp

Gramma's involvement with the kids for the apple crisp inspired me to mostly let Emilia and Eva make pita pizzas for dinner last Friday. 

I'm sort of curious how many layers of pepperoni and cheese Eva would have done had I not stopped her... :)

Enter sunshine! Dave took Dom to his last hockey of this set so I had my coffee outside with the girls. Need more days like this!
Speaking of hockey, Dom is signed up for another round the First Shift people were offering specifically geared towards those who need help more skating. It will be a group about half the size, and it was $65 for 6 skates. Cannot say no to that!

I have also never seen him this driven about something. With soccer, basketball, skating lessons, etc. it was a fight to get out the door almost every time. With hockey, he's the one pestering us to get out and go. He is practicing every day at home, and he is setting goals for himself when doing so. The other day he was shooting on our net with the shooter tutor. He told me "I'm going for 60 points." Each spot has a different point value and he shot and shot and shot and shot until he hit 61 points. This boy wants to go to the NHL so bad haha... Since he was 2 years old.

Eva wearing her Darth Vader housecoat and rubber boots with no socks. Sometimes I pick my battles.

Oh hi Nate!

Saturday afternoon we went out to Vancouver for Myles' third birthday party! They had so many fun things set up and it was the most beautiful day! Here is the craft station.

Myles has a chalkboard in his room, so Uncle Adam encouraged the kids to write/draw him something on the wall.

A construction cake <3

Of course. In the backyard. It's weird for me now having the "older" kids at the party. I remember just having young kids and feeling nervous about older kids playing around them because they can be rougher and overwhelming. I think Dom & Emilia did pretty well including the littles...

I love these three

Back up to the art station where Emilia belongs

And a cookie decorating station all set up from a tool kit with tool shaped cookies!

Eva chose a saw.

Bad picture, but D&E were cuddling/holding hands while watching M open his gifts

Beautiful chaos!

We zipped home from the party, got the kids to bed, and had guests start arriving for Dave's birthday party. He invited 20+ people over to our house. I was anxious about having such a crazy day. In the end, it all came together and was a beautiful and fun day spent with loved ones. I did not do a good job taking pictures at the party. I was too busy laughing until my cheeks hurt. 

I don't remember now why I rushed this selfie so much and decided not to retake it. Regrets. Matt looks great though haha.

On Sunday we had a quieter day at home. Compared to the previous day...
Jeff was over for a bit working on something and we took a break so he could play goalie for Dom. I think we need some bigger gear haha!

I took the big kids to the dollar store to get something for Dave's birthday (we didn't do anything at all on his actual birthday as we were busy all day and then he went to the Abbotsford Canucks game with his Dad). In the end they couldn't agree on something and each got to pick something out for themselves :) I can't pass up on all the adorable easter bunnies!
Emilia made herself a mask with the plastic from the packaging for Dom's Monster truck he picked out.

Her bunny (Luna) needed some ear accessories apparently.

Aunty Ashleigh & Uncle Scott and Phoebe came over for dinner and to play.

This is chaos. The big kids play in Dom's room every morning for a very long time before coming down. One day they started drawing monsters. They have a binder FULL of these different kinds of monsters. Now every day they pull them all out and lay them out on the floor to reorganize them and admire them.

The kids love to do workouts with Dad.

Happy Birthday Dad!! 

This was very very important to Emilia. She was super sad at bedtime on the Saturday because she thought that was the day we were celebrating Dave. We had a talk and it was clear to me that birthdays are very important to her and she feels people need to be really celebrated and made to feel special on their birthdays. Got it... Leftover cake with candles and singing Happy Birthday is something we can do!

On Tuesday we had an un-planned whole family day. In the morning our whole family went swimming with S&A&P! 

Then we all went for lunch at McDonald's. It's been years since I've taken the kids there. The last time none of them ate their food. This time both the big kids ate their whole happy meals (except Emilia didn't like her fries???), and Eva just ate fries.

This is SO Dom at the same age. I'll have to track down that picture.

Group shot!

Dom, Emilia and I did a puzzle during Eva's nap!

After a quick outdoor dinner of Tortellini soup the whole family decided to go to Emilia's horseback riding. The kids were excited to see her ride Blue. When we got there, we saw she had been assigned to a new to her horse named Picasso. This made me feel a little nervous for her because while we've seen Picasso before, he is MUCH bigger than Blue and Emilia has been super anxious about change in the past with this. 

She decided to be brave and go in to hang out with Picasso (who she calls King Caso). She went from feeling "very nervous" to feeling "medium" to saying, "I think I"m starting to like King Caso." 

She ended up being the only kid in the class and it was a different instructor than usual. We've had him before in Parent & Tot and I really liked him, so I figured she'd do okay. I guess with Spring Break there are less people around. With a private lesson it's just 30 minutes too, which was perfect for Dom & Eva who were watching upstairs after. 

Anyway, Emilia decided to go for it and give Picasso a try! I am SOOOOO proud of her. He's huge. His back is as high as my shoulders. I've seen him in action and knew he'd be a great fit for her, but I wasn't sure how she'd feel especially with people watching her. 

I kept waiting for her to look back at me with the "save me" look, but she didn't! She was calm and confident and I could not have been more proud. She's so little :)

I brought some horse toys for the kids to play upstairs. Genius :)

ThIs girl absolutely ROCKED it! Her and Picasso were totally vibing. They trotted well, he responded incredibly well to her subtle movements guiding him around the ring. Her balance was awesome, and she and the instructor worked on some more nuanced skills that are hard to practice in a bigger group. Dave and I both had a tear in our eye watching her. Also both had this sense of "shit... she is in this for the long haul."

Here she is with Blue. His head is up so he looks bigger. Picasso's head is way down in the above picture. Anyway... you get the idea. 

Dom is always very nervous about the horses, but with Emilia's help he actually came in and pet Picasso. Eva too. Emilia explained what was going on, showed them how to groom and feed him, and explained what it's like to ride him. 

Me trying to express how tall he is. Blue's back comes up to maybe my chest? 

Emilia was also so proud of herself. She was absolutely beaming. She said she had such a special day because we did so many things as a family. She is a different beast than I am with incredible levels of empathy, a huge heart worn right on her sleeve, a huge need for physical touch and words of affirmation, and more love to give than I can possibly receive. I'm learning you, little one! 

Still over a week to go in Spring Break! Plans include a couple nights in Agassiz, some big Gerber family events and hopefully some rest sprinkled in there!