This MerryGoRound we call "Life"

Wow, a lot of water has gone under the bridge (as they say) since I last wrote. Life continues to be busy, with the upcoming wedding and all. Mom and Dad got here last night, and now it feels like "for real" that this is all happening.

AC started school, as I mentioned. She is doing well, for the most part. She has had 2 mornings where she cried and didn't want to go, but I think that was mostly due to being tired. At the end of the day she has had a blast, and is excited about the new friends she is making. She has music and gym every day, and they are studying Creation right now. She says she doesn't like gym because "there's too much running". Hmmm.
The other day I was trying to explain in simple terms the shootings that happened in Montreal recently, since she overheard us talking about it. When I said that one person died at the school, she - apparently trying to find the good in every situation - said, "Well, I guess there's an extra desk now". We got a good laugh out of that one.

O is thoroughly enjoying the one-on-one we have on school days. We are working through a preschool book and she just seems so big all of a sudden. She does very well at playing by herself, and she's so easy to take places when there's no big sister to fight with!

A is pulling herself up in her crib now, and on furniture too! Crazy turkey. I couldn't believe when I went into her room and she's standing up, grinning from ear to ear. She thinks she's pretty big stuff and it's pretty cute. She's trying to crawl, but not wholeheartedly. It will be soon though, I think. No teeth yet.

Tomorrow night another sister and family will arrive, and then the rest of the family on Friday. Then we are headed up to a lodge for a quiet weekend with no cooking, no cleaning and no work. Just down time with family! YES!!!

I will post pictures soon of Daryl's latest hobby. :-)

The Sunday School Picnic and Candy Scrambles

Well, my camera battery was dying so I didn't get any pictures of our church picnic yesterday. It was a beatiful day and we had a lot of fun. It was great to sit in the cool breeze and warm sunshine and visit with friends, watch the kids play crazy games, and just enjoy fall.

The last game they played was a candy scramble. Of course when I was a kid, I thought these were great. But when they handed each kid a bag, and said, "1...2...3...GO!", something just went against my grain. Talk about undoing everything we've tried to teach them about generousity and sharing with their friends. Yeah, just run and see how much stuff you can pick up before someone else gets it! Hmmm, something just seems wrong. But all said and done, each kid got their share, and I was happy to see my kids timidly picking things up and slowly looking them over before placing them in their bag. Next time they might not be so grateful...

In other news, AC started school today! First day of kindergarten. Wow. I thought I might cry, but I didn't. :-) I was happy to see her settling into her new classroom, colouring with brand new crayons and sitting beside a very friendly little girl. Needless to say, it was very quiet here today. Olivia and I worked on some "schoolwork", which we both really enjoyed. I was telling her how nice her circles were and she said, "I'm smart.", like it had just occured to her.

Just Call Me Martha

For those of you who don't read Kim's blog, here is a picture of the salsa we made on Saturday. We got the "recipe" from her future in-laws, who just know about salsa! It's not quite hot enough, but that's okay. We were so happy to have all the jars seal properly, this being the first time either of us has canned something. If I get more tomatoes given to me, I think I'll make another batch. It's Yummmmmmmy...

On our hike at LaBarriere...

Chicken Little, or "The Sky is Falling Down!"

Today Adrienne got hit on the head with an acorn. Yep, right out of the blue. We were sitting in the park, under the beautiful oak trees, having a nice little snack of muffins and juice when I turned to talk to her in the stroller. She was smiling happily and enjoying being outside when an acorn just fell and hit her, quite hard, on the head. So hard that it bounced off pretty high. Her lip immediately puckered out and she burst into heartbreaking sobs. I took her out to console her, but it was a little difficult when I was laughing that hard. What are the odds of that? And what if I had been looking the other way? We'd still be wondering if the sky was falling down.

Kids' Day

Daryl invented a new holiday for our family - Kids' Day! I hope it becomes a tradition, since it was a lot of fun! The girls got to pick everything we did and ate (from options given to them by their wise parents, of course!). We had crepes with cream cheese and strawberry sauce for breakfast. Then we went to church, and afterwards, we invited some friends to join us at LaBarriere Park for lunch and a hike. We picked up Subway for O, and Burger King for AC (they couldn't believe they each got to pick their own lunch!). So after a hot hike, in which we all ran out of water, we headed home for the roast Daryl had put in the crock pot (good thinking, hubby!). We chowed down and rushed out the door to the dollar theatre to watch Cars (excellent movie, by the way). The girls lost interest in the movie, but we convinced them to sit through the rest of it. Yep, 2 hours of sitting still is a big feat for these girls. Oh yeah, O was climbing all over the place, she wasn't sitting. It was a fun day, and I think it will become a tradition.

Sabrina, This One's For You

Here you go, Sabrina. A picture of me doing what I did a lot of this summer (bingo arms and all)! I do enjoy hanging out laundry, and look - it's even sheets. Ahhh, the feeling of climbing into sheets that are fresh smelling and feeling from being hung outside.

Bedroom Makeover

We finally did it! It looks so much better in AC's room. We pulled the carpet out (and thankfully, with a little scrubbing, the hardwood floor is great!), got new comforters and put up the canopy Grandma N gave her for her birthday. Now all we need to do is get a small rug and change the curtains. It finally looks like a fun girl's bedroom instead of a disaster area!

Creative Singing

Anna-Christina was making up a song while she was in the bath tonight.
It had a great tune, too!
"When I am an adult, I'm not gonna take a bath
I'm gonna take a shower
And shave my legs with power!"