sorry

Man, it's been a long time since I last blogged. No excuse either. We had a fairly low-key March Break with a visit to the zoo, a visit from the cousins and friends over to play. The kids really enjoyed their time with Connor and Kate. We even had a girlie day at the mall, the girls got their nails painted and shopped with Ann & me.
Then last week was back to school and everyone got back to their regular schedules and Brownies and Beavers started back up. By the weekend I think the kids were ready to relax. Gramps came for a visit and we really did just relax...out to dinner and playing at home.
We went to church with Jason's dad Sunday morning and I think it was pretty apparent that we don't go often...Hannah & Jack were very well behaved...it's not that Henry wasn't well behaved, everything was just so new to him and his voice really isn't quiet. When the choir started their second hymn, Henry called out, "we already heard this one!" Later when the priest was telling everyone that, "Jesus has no hands, but your hands." Henry shouted, "Why doesn't Jesus have hands, Daddy? Where are his hands?" Quite entertaining, really.

The Party's Over!

At last, the birthdays are over! We had my family over on Friday for a party that was sort of for Henry. It was really for all the kids, but since Hannah and Jack would be having a party with their friends and Henry wouldn't, we called it his party and he got to choose the theme - Hot Wheels!
Bennett got his own special Dora hat...
Hannah got all dolled up and wore her new purse for the occasion...
Nan & Grampa gave Hannah a "personal organizer" which she quickly figured out and typed in all sorts of secret messages "only for girls"...
Henry wore his new "Cuba" birthday shirt from Andrew and Ali...Jack spent much of the evening shooting Superman at the ceiling...another great gift idea!Erika made a beautiful Hot Wheels cake and very thoughtfully put 3 cars on top (one was even pink!)Henry thoroughly enjoyed blowing out his candles! Look at his lips!!Sunday we had Hannah & Jack's gymnastics party with 15 of their friends! It was the first time they had a party that wasn't at home and I loved it! I don't know what I was holding out for.On the trampoline they did a trick that all the kids loved which they called "popcorn". One at a time the kids would lie in front of the coach and he would gently bounce saying, "pop, pop, pop..." then he would do one bigger jump and shout, "popcorn" and catch the bouncing kid in his arms. Here's Henry enjoying the trick!


Afterwards we had cake & ice cream and the kids opened presents. Jack's friends were at one end of the table and Hannah's were at the other. You could hear the boys saying, "cool, yeah, all right" with each gift being opened and the girls saying, "awwww" with each gift.

The kids all had an amazing birthday week and to officially end it (and to get rid of some clutter) we had a balloon send off this afternoon.

The kids tied notes to the ends of their balloon strings and loved imagining who would find them.

Farewell!

Dana

Happy Women's Day and Happy Birthday, Hannah!

I love that both days are the same!

We've been busy celebrating like crazy around here. I'm glad tomorrow is a PA Day to kick off March Break a little early. I don't have a lot planned (besides more birthday celebrations) but frankly I'm looking forward to a little less structure to the day.

The kids' school starts earlier than any other school in the area at 8:20 and although I find it a little on the early side, I don't think I would be any less rushed if it started at 9:00...that just seems to be the way things go in the morning around here.

On Jack & Henry's birthday, Henry & I were able to accompany Jack's class to a Jack Grunsky concert. Hannah went to see him with the school 3 years ago and his cds have been played to death in our house ever since. So we knew all the songs and had a great time singing along.

The boys waited until Jason came home to open gifts from us and all the cards that came in the mail...thank you everyone!

That evening, Jack had Beavers and they had a special night planned...drive in movies. Now they didn't actually go anywhere but the school gym and they weren't actually in cars, but they had spent the week before building cars out of boxes and decorating them and so that night they watched movies on the gym wall in their cars. We brought cupcakes for Jack's birthday and of course there was popcorn too! What a GREAT idea!

The next day Jack's class celebrated his birthday since there hadn't been time following the concert so we brought more cupcakes for the class.

Then today for Hannah's birthday we all went to the school at lunch to join her in her multi-cultural club meeting. It was a special meeting where they were all to bring something to eat from their culture. Initially I was going to bring in cupcakes (for her birthday - I know, can I bake anything else?) but then I felt like I was cheating and started getting a little stressed trying to come up with something from our culture. I guess, 5 generations ago, my ancestors came from Scotland, but I don't eat (or make) anything that is particularly Scottish. Jason's family comes from France and Ireland, long ago, he suggested Irish stew or potatoes, but these were not going to go over well with a group of 7 & 8 year olds. So I settled on scones. At one point I had thoguht of bringing homemade apples sauce or something with maple syrup to represent Canadian food, but I didn't want to come across as thinking I was more Canadian than anyone else. But sure enough, there were a few maple syrup dishes there...why do I over think these things?

My favourite part of the meeting was when they shared a book with us that the girls had created. Each girl had been asked to draw a picture and write a sentence about a symbol of tradition to them...what is the definition of tradition, anyway? Everyone wrote about Christmas and Easter celebrations they partake in and Hannah wrote that going on the log ride at Centre Island every year reminds her of summer vacation!! Ha-ha! Is it a tradition if we've done it twice?! Sometimes I wonder where she's coming from! We really do celebrate Christmas and Easter, I promise!!

Today was also beach day at the school so everyone was to wear beach gear to school. Henry wanted to join in so he wore sunglasses all day. Unfortunately I forgot to explain the concept to him and he kept asking me when we were going to make a sandcastle. Poor kid!

After Jason came home from work, Hannah got to open her gifts from us and all her cards that came in the mail (yeah, I make them wait for their real birthday!) and then we had her birthday dinner before she was off to Brownies (with more cupcakes)!

Now believe it or not, that's just the beginning of the celebrations! My family comes over tomorrow for a birthday party. Uncle John comes the next day to take each kid individually to do whatever they want (Ontario Science Centre for Hannah & Jack & Tim Horton's for Henry). And then Sunday is their birthday party at a gymnastics club with Hannah & Jack's friends.

Sounds like way too much when I write it all down like this, but there are 3 of them. I keep thinking how nice it would be if their birthdays were spread out a little so that we could focus on each of them individually. Obviously I'm overcompensating!

Anyway, once that's all said & done, we got nothin! Looking forward to it!

~Dana

School Play

So Hannah had her school play called "Three of a Kind" on Wednesday night and I must say (although I am a little biased), it was really well rehearsed! I give the teachers a ton of credit, but those kids sure knew their lines and when it was their turn (multiple times each!) and it all went very smoothly and was very cute!
The story was about all the nursery rhymes that have 3 characters and Baby Bear from the three bears going missing. Hannah's costume was slightly recycled...she was a sheep in last year's play and a goat this year so we added horns to the head part. I think it looks more like a goat anyway.
We were very proud of her. Jack and Henry sat patiently through her play (which her class did with the grade ones) and the other grade two class's play which they did with the grade threes.
Hannah absolutely refused to wear a beard even though it may have made her look a little more goat-ish.And yes, Hannah is about a foot taller than everyone else! Mind you, the other goats are in grade one!