Bees are Buzzing

A week ago Lucy brought a notice home about a JE Horton spelling bee coming up at her school. She was so excited to show it to me that I signed her up for it right away.  That girl is an awesome reader and she can spell pretty good too, so no worries.  The next day I told her I had signed her up and she tells me she didn't actually want to do it.  Well, too late!  I reassured her that it would be fun and not too hard, and no big deal if she didn't win, that wasn't the point.  So Friday morning, Tyler, Logan and I packed up to head to the school and watch.  Logan insisted on bringing his Dora backpack because he was going to school.  He so can't wait!  

All the little grade ones lined up and took turns spelling words.  They started off easy with 3-letter words like, "Dog, Sat, Mat" and then progressively got harder.  Lucy made to round 4 and tripped up on the the word "White".  By that point it had been widdled down to about 12 kids and they went strong for a while.  Misspelling a word wasn't a huge heart-ache anyway, since they were giving out GIANT freezies to everyone when they finished.  Lucy's best friend Jessica made it all the way to 3rd place and then got the word "Shoal" and misspelled it.  I thought she was cheated.  What kid in grade 1 can spell shoal!  Who's even heard of that!  Oh well.  It was fun.  We were so proud of our little Lucy.  So brave!

It has been cool and rainy all week and it's driving me crazy because my yard looks like a hobo has been living it and I just want to attack those weeds.  So Saturday was the day...rain or shine.  Fortunately it wasn't raining...but it was dang cold!  We got rid of all the pesky weeds and cleaned up the yard, and then I headed to Canadian Tire (solo!  Hallelujah what a nice break!) to pick out some planters and flowers for the front doorstep.  Lucy didn't want to make the effort to come with me, but really wanted to Daisies.  I told her if she didn't come then she didn't get a say in the flowers I got.  I ended up getting lots of daisies.  What a sucker.  Plus some Gladiolas and Pansies.  Beautiful!  I also got each of the kids a garden decoration that they got to put in the planters.  A pink butterfly for Lucy, a Humming Bird for Max and a Dragon Fly for Logan.  Now I have 3 beautiful planters that make my house look ready for spring.  We've been pulling them into the house every night because it's still a little cool.  Come on Ontario!  It's the end of April!  I was promised some pretty fantastic weather by this time.  

Can't wait for visitors to come and see my beautiful yard!  Hint Hint!  

the rest of this week is devoted to getting ready for Lucy's birthday party on Saturday.  To say I'm excited is a bit of an understatement.  It's going to be monumental!  Plus the kids have a spring concert on Thursday (Lucy's birthday) that they're nervous/excited for.  I love spring.

Hearts a-flutter and other bird-like things

The other day, Lucy kept chatting away and singing, like she usually does.  She was chatting about needing to write her song, and I didn't pay much attention to it, because she's usually chatting about writing something, or drawing something that she's got in her imagination, and she usually takes to it pretty quickly.  She gets paper out of the printer and set to drawing pictures or writing stories of fairies or family or cats.  And she hems and haws over it, trying to get it just right.  And after she goes to bed I usually find such drawings or stories lying around the house in random places where she has deemed to drop them for the evening. But they are precious, not garbage or recycling...so we end up with piles of these little papers all over, until months later I can file them in the big blue bin and she won't notice.

On this particular night, after she went to bed, I discovered her latest creation on her craft table and stopped to take a look.  The writing is so neat for grade one, but it was the subject that caused me to smile.  Lucy's first song.  I quickly posted it on Facebook because I knew Dad and Grandma's would love to see it.  Someone asked me who the song was about, and suddenly I was shaken and realized that this song could ACTUALLY be about SOMEONE.  Oh, not my little 6-year-old.

The next day I asked her about it, and she gave a shy smile and said, 'No, it's not about anyone.  Just a song I wrote." and she left it at that.  So I left it at that...and I hope it stays like that for a long time.  At least 12 more years.

This morning, the boys and I headed to the library to return some things and get new things.  I love the library.  I love that we can read and play games and watch movies for free.  Love it.  Plus, my kids love it too and that's awesome.  Our movie night last week was watching Treasure Planet, which we got. from the library.  for free.  That and some Hot N Ready pizzas and it was a pretty cheap and fun night.

Today we were 5 minutes early to the library and had to stand around waiting for it to open.  So we decided to walk instead of stand around.  The library by our house is just off a dog walk and some paths that lead down to the lake.  So we went.

The lake-shore was swarming with little bugs which are driving me crazy this time of year, but there was also some Canada Geese and ducks and this beautiful gem.

Yup, that's a Blue Heron!  Amazing!  There was actually two of them, but this is a close as I could get with the zoom on my camera phone without scaring them away.  Amazing!

We also found a giant replica of Eeyore's house, and so of course the boys had to venture inside.  All this, plus a trip to the library, a bike ride, and playing at the park and it was a pretty awesome morning.  Go mom!

Do you think Logan loves his dad?  I'd say from the look on his face, the answer would be yes.  

Back to Life

Well, after having pictures to post and things to talk about everyday for 2 weeks, being home seems like a bit of a let down.  It really has been a hard adjustment getting back into life again after vacation.  My kids were kinda grumpy for a few days...and I"m not gonna lie, so was I.  I missed the heat and the sun and nothing to do except have fun.  Laundry, dishes, cooking...it's all pretty boring.  But, we've been home for 2 weeks now, and we're getting back in the swing.

We decided to take a break from Taekwondo for this semester, signing our kids up for soccer at the end of May instead.  We're also hoping to do swimming lessons if I can get my butt in gear and figure out the details, and Lucy started piano lessons (with me) last week.  I figured that was enough on our plates for now.

So, we've been spending most of our after-school time at the park, or in the backyard with friends.  The weather is cold and lousy this week - we actually had SNOW on the ground this morning! yuck.  Feels more like Alberta than Ontario!  So we'll have to find some indoor things to do with all this rain.

We went out last week to get Lucy her new bike because she just couldn't wait...and who can blame her.  Every day, Max and Logan would ride their bikes to the park, and then Lucy would hop on to Max's bike as soon as we got there and barely left it in time for him to ride it home.

Being the older sister of two brothers, we tried to convince her that a generic bike would be best, so she could pass it down.  It stinks that she has to do that so often and when she saw a beautiful purple bike I almost caved and said, what the heck...But then we found this silver bike with yellow trim and stars on it and figured it was a happy compromise.  She still got the hot pink helmet and her brothers are getting her some tassels and a bell for her birthday to make it extra girlie.

Max is loving his bike too, and is gaining more confidence.  He's loving making skid-marks on the pavement.  This is his first one, so we had to take a picture.

Tyler has been away twice in the two weeks we've been home...Winnepeg last week and now to Halifax. I'm getting pretty used to this 'wife of a business-traveller' role and don't really miss a beat anymore.  It's just lonely at night after the kids go to sleep to have no one to talk to.  So I watch my PVR'd programs that he has no interest in.

I have got the reading bug back with a vengeance.  I finished the Hunger Games Trilogy, and the boys and I headed to the library last week to get some more books, Wii games and a DVD for movie night.  Now I'm reading a book called Prince Ravenscar and am really enjoying it.  I also signed out The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo...so we'll see how that one goes.  I forgot how much I love to read.  Vacations are awesome that way.

Well, that's enough blogging.  Need to get back to my book and American Idol.

Mexico Day 14 - Dolphinaris

Well, we had promised Lucy a chance to swim with the dolphins while we were in Mexico, and she thought about it, talked about it, dreamed about it, and waited for it EVERY SINGLE DAY...since today was our last day, we HAD to make it happen.

Originally our plan was to go back to Puerto Aventuras and do a basic package with them. Dancing. Kissing. Hugging. About 45 minutes of time. But we decided to check out a place called Dolphinaris before we headed to Puerto Aventuras just to see what they had to offer too. Well, for only a bit (it was a good bit, but a bit) more money, the kids had the opportunity to spend up to 5 hours in the water with the dolphins, participating in many different activities, as well as watching videos on Dolphin mating, and conservation. It was a no-brainer. I opted to stay out of the water with Logan (since he was too young to participate) and take pictures.

It was utterly fantastic. There aren't a lot of face shots, because they're always facing the cameras that they have in the pools (you can buy the pictures afterwards), but I took over 200 pictures today. Here's a large highlight:

The idea was for Logan to take a nap at some point through this...but that just didn't happen. He was so disappointed that he didn't get to participate. He kept saying, "Mommy, my turn!" and then he'd ask me to put a life-jacket on him too.

One of the activities that we didn't participate in was the Dolphin painting. They strap a paintbrush to the dolphin's nose and they paint on a white t-shirt for you. We weren't prepared and didn't bring any t-shirts with us and chose to not spend the extra $20/person to do it. Lucy was disappointed and has already told me that next time we go, she's going to save her money so she can do the painting.

As we left, we went to check out the photos that they took and planned to buy them. Turns out they were $23 per photo or $350 for all of them. It was a LOT pricier than we thought it would be, so we opted to just get three. They're fantastic photos, so it's really too bad they were so expensive, but here they are.

Tyler doing the foot-push with the large male dolphin named Ricky

Lucy hugging Ricardo. Everyone was joking about how much Ricky Ricardo loved Lucy...he's even smiling in the photo. The feeling was definitely mutual.

Max hugging Ricardo too. Max was all about the adventure of the day and LOVED swimming with the dolphins.

Max ended the trip with a nap in the van...and in the house when he got home. He woke up with a fever and a headache, so while the rest of us headed to Chemuyil for pizza one last time, he stayed home with Grandma and played cards. He was happy to have a few slices of pizza when we got back though. We need to kick these fevers!

It's travel day tomorrow, so now we're packing everything up and getting organized to go home. So sad that our trip is over. We've had such a great time. When we were in the mix of all the sickness and throwing up, I definitely was feeling like I was ready to go home and sleep in my own bed...but now that that's happening, I don't want to leave. The only perk to going home is picking up the Hunger Games trilogy so I can finish reading!