No mom -I'm not tired

After two days of almost solid jumping on the trampoline, sleep got the best of Ethan. Although he clearly told me he was not tired, I think the pictures suggest otherwise!! Poor guy- he fell asleep right at the table in the middle of a birthday party for my friend Kim. Luckily he managed to eat his cake first! He was very tired though as he slept for 12 1/2 hours straight!

"No mom I'm awake!"


It's really hard to hold my head up



Slipping-- ZZZZZZZZZ



Hmmm- I guess I am tired. I seem to have fallen asleep in my chair and am going to fall out if someone doesn't hold me up.

Trampoline

Well after tripping over the boxes at the front door for almost a week (they were to heavy to move anywhere else), Saturday morning finally came and it was time to set up the TRAMPOLINE !!!

Before Megan and I were even up, Sarah had her dad ouside getting started. Ethan didn't even have breakfast or make it out of his pj's. After the base had been put together she proudly announced "Yeah it's almost done!" -- Not quite.

Wanting to help too, Ethan hauled out the trampopline mat from the box. As you can see he was quite distraught when he was informed that it would be a little while before the mat was needed and he could jump.

He soon recovered from his overwhelming sadness and decided to help daddy out. The set up was fairly quick. After we go the base level we put the white pressure loaded bars all the way around and attached the mat. Since this is a springfree trampoline you will notice it has no springs. Instead the bars that go underneath act as the springs. It makes for a much safer trampoline.

Next came the net enclosure that goes all around.

Although it looks like a lot it only took 2 hours to set up. (Might have been faster if I had helped more and took less pictures but hey that would be no fun for the blog!)



The first inaugeral jump went to none other than our favorite jumper --Ethan. In Bateman jammies he jumped and jumped to his heart's delight. Following Ethan came Sarah who also seemed to love it. Last but not least was Megan who with the "help" of her big sister also got to have a turn jumping. If today is any sign of how fun this is going to be we are going to have a great summer.

Have you ever been nose to nose with an Alligator?

The kids have now! This week at that mall Safari Jeff and his wife Shannon were there. I am not sure where they are from but I think I heard Winnipeg. They travel around and teach kids about animals. This week from Thursday to Saturday they were at Northgate mall with reptiles.

On Thursday I took an excited Ethan to the mall to see them. He didn't know what to expect but was excited none the less.

They give a little show explaining about the reptiles they brought which included a tortoise, a baby alligator, some snakes, a small crocodile and some larger lizards.









The real fun however is after the show when they walk around with some of the animals.

The next day I took Sarah back as she and her friend Grace both wanted to go. While I sat in the van with Ethan and Grace's brother Ben, Grace's mom took the girls to see the show. I didn't think that Ethan would sit through the educational part again so we just showed up at the end to see the animals. It was a great experience for all the kids. Even Megan got to get close (but not to close - she could have been a potential meal - well maybe just a snack!!)

Just hanging around

What do you do when your sister is getting changed at the pool -- hang out in the chair provided, lean back, swing your feet and laugh !

A day at Preschool

On Tuesday I got to be the parent helper at Sarah's school and unlike the time that they were all painting an adult size cardboard house with rollers, today was a nice easy day thus allowing me to get a few pictures along the way.

The afternoon starts with free play at the center of their choice. Sarah choose to play at the ice cream shop with her friend Grace and then craft a picture.

As practise for Kindergarten (which seems way to close) the kids got to go outside and practise playing recess. Climbing, sliding, maneuvering wobbly disk bridges were all on the list of activities. As well Sarah also mastered hanging by her feet and arms on the monkey bars. While I would include the picture it unfortunately is not very flattering. Since Sarah is adamant that skirts are the only option these days the picture is alot of underwear and not alot of Sarah.

Here is a picture of Mrs. Dueck - the whole reason we choose this school. Picture your favorite teacher ever and multiply that by 1000. She is awesome.

Following outside play was circle time, snack and books.

Before going home it was science time. Sadly I have to confess that I think I failed the science experiment. It was a simple lesson on sink and float however on more than one occasion the guess in my head was incorrect. You may laugh but before you do tell me what you think each of the following things would do --
a) pencil
b) paperclip
c) domino
d) pen

Girls night out

Saturday night Sarah and I along with my friend Marnel and her daughter Presley decided to have a girls night out. It is a long time in comin' as we had decided last fall that since Sarah's birthday was October 6th, Presely and mine is the 8th and Marnel's is October 11 we should have a girls celebration. Unfortunately that weekend is always Thanksgiving and soon time escaped us and we forgot all about it. Until now.

Our evening started out with supper at Houston's. Presley generously let Sarah try her chocolate milk which ended up turning into a cute picture!

While they waited for their pizza they colored and listened to Presley's music player.

Sarah wanted to take a picture of Marnel and I and although it is a bit close for my liking she did get us both in the frame!

After supper we picked up another one of Sarah's friends, Annika and we all attended The Rock Slinger and His Greatest Hit. It was a play put on at our church about David and Goliath. The girls loved it.

Mom Mom

A rare find indeed -- a picture of me. As I am usually the one taking the photos I don't often have to be in them. Trevor was kind enough to take this one of Megan and I the other day. As it happens this was taken right around the time that Megan distinctly started saying Mom Mom when she saw me!

Safety before Fashion

When it comes to working around the house Sarah is always a willing participant so when Trevor began installing a new front door Sarah was right there beside him to help out. The first lesson on the job was safety first. Since Trevor had to cut the door tracks to fit they had to put on the SAFETY GOGGLES ! Although not attractive SAFETY does need to come before FASHION. Of course while this rule might explain the goofy goggles it doesn't explain the red sweatshirt, floral skirt and black winter boats Sarah has on. As usual Sarah makes up all her own fashion rules- you gotta love her spirit and originality!

Siblings

I recently dug out baby pictures of Sarah and Ethan to compare and I have to say I don't think our kids will ever doubt they are related. While they all have their own look there are many similarities.

( I just changed the pictures as I think these show more of the girls' similarities)

The many uses for a knock knock joke

All of a sudden Ethan and Sarah have become obsessed with knock knock jokes and as a result I realized that a knock knock joke is a useful tool. Let me demonstrate.

Knock Knock?
Who's there?
E
E who?
Eat your supper or no dessert.

-- while finding this funny they ate their supper - hmm let's try another

Knock Knock?
Who's there?
Ima
Ima who?
Ima going to leave with out you if you don't hurry up.

-- seemed to prompt them to accelerate from snail to dawdle mode.

Knock knock
Who's there
howie
Howie who?
How wie have a bath and get our jammies on.

Wow- a fun way to get them to do things. I wondered how long it would be before they caught on to my little secret. Sadly it wasn't long. So ended my plan to use knock knock jokes for every request from now until they were 18.

Of course this leads us back to the real purpose of a knock knock joke -- getting laughs. This happens when Sarah and Ethan attempt their own versions that go something like this:

Sarah's joke

Knock Knock
Who's there?
baby
baby who?
baby - Megan she's a baby and she's my sister and she's cute. ha ha ha

- side busting laughter from her brother follows

Ethan's joke

Knock Knock
Who's there?
ick
ick who?
ick a my a shimy blah blah. ( any nonsense noise will fit here)

- side busting laughter from Ethan again followed by the same from us (don't tell him we are laughing AT him not with him!!!). Once our laughter dies down he does this over and over and over again until

Mom's final joke

Knock Knock
Whose there?
E
E who?
enough knock knock jokes -- you are driving us crazy.

Queen for a Day

Well if you have a party for your mother in law I guess you best have one for your own mom too. As it happened a week after Grandma Val's birthday party was my mom's birthday. Since Sarah was gone until the day before the party was thrown together but nonetheless was a fun time.

Once again we started with a theme. Sarah choose a princess theme so we decided that Grandma Judy would be a Queen for the Day. Advised only to dress regally and expect royal treatment she had no idea what was in store for her.

The preparations began with the creation of crowns for all who attended. A family affair -- we all helped to make crowns for Gramps and Grandma, Uncle Trevor and Auntie Stephanie as well as one for each of us.

On the day of the party the queen's princes and princesses gathered at our home to await the queen's arrival.

Waiting proved to be a bit difficult for the younger royals so changing outfits was used to pass the time.

Upon Queen Grandma Judy's arrival on the red carpet those waiting curtsied and bowed to welcome her. She was delighted by their manners. She was escorted in, presented her crown and shown to her special decorated thrown.

Following a medieval meal of BBQ ribs the Queen was presented with her cake. While the castle looked a little worse for the wear it tasted awfully good. The Queen was heard to say that her favorite was the whip cream mote around the castle.

All in all the party was a huge success. Following some dancing by the prince and princess the evening wrapped up with some story time and puzzles. Hopefully the Queen enjoyed her special day as much as her royal subjects did!