Last Year's Loose Ends

I've been missing in action on the blog-front the last while, so by way of a quick catch-up, here's how we finished off the year 2011...

We celebrated.

With Keziah's Rainbow Party behind me and the Christmas season in full force, I was all about simplicity when it came to celebrating Micah's birthday this year. In the end, we were able to do a joint party with one of his friends from school who was also turning 7 in December. And renting the ARC gym for 2 hours was the perfect way to entertain 20 kids (most of which were boys!)

The birthday boys:

There was face painting:


(Can't remember what Micah was supposed to be - all I know is that even after washing his face, it was slightly tinged-green and jaundiced-looking for church the next morning...)

The bouncy house (cousin Caleb can barely contain his excitement!):


And double-presents :)

The other mom and I agreed that we might have to make this December double-birthday party an annual thing!

We danced.

Well, one of us danced. Keziah did awesome at her ballet recital. The beach-ball-themed dance wasn't quite as heart-melting as last year's performance but still very, very cute. It was her maturity level and ability to cope with the chaos that was significantly improved from last year (imagine a hundred girls backstage all coming and going - me leaving her in the midst of the chaos {in the care of a stranger} so I can sit with Erik and watch the recital...) She did have a break-down right at the end when she couldn't find me right away, but all in all, a positive experience!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the actual performance. I'm still trying to figure out the capabilities of my new (to me) camera and whether taking pictures of moving targets in dark spaces is even possible...??

We worked.

Erik "took 2 weeks off" over the holidays, but the quotations imply that he still mostly worked during those 2 weeks. But at least he was working on things at our house instead of someone else's :) Him and his dad spent several days replacing all the old windows in our house.

Micah helped a little bit too.

It's nice to know they're more energy-efficient, plus we now have opening windows in places where we didn't before - like these 2 smaller windows on either side of our big picture window in the living room.

Erik also replaced all our old electric baseboard heaters. The advantages? They're white instead of dingy beige, more energy efficient, and also a lot smaller than the old ones (which means one baseboard doesn't have to take up an entire wall and limit furniture placement options).

We hiked.

We took a day trip to the Othello tunnels...

Sporting her new scarf and Hello Kitty earmuffs that she got for Christmas...



This kid can't get enough of his "di-wego" boots even though they're about 3 sizes too big...


2 thumbs up!

Silas could've thrown rocks into this river for h-o-u-r-s. His fingers were almost frozen solid and we still had to tear him away from those rocks.

We skated.

Skating with 3 wobbly kids is no easy task. Even with the help of those push-bars, Erik and I got a pretty good work-out helping our kids around the rink for an hour.

We upgraded.

Another project Erik did over the holidays was build a bottom bunk for Silas. We took Silas out of his crib a few weeks ago and it was time to give him a big boy bed of his very own.

Loft bed/crib combo before:

Bunk bed after:

When we eventually have more bedrooms for these kids, the boys will probably be together in one room with the bunk beds and Keziah will get her own room with a loft bed. For now, Keziah and Silas are sharing the bunks, as the bedtime routine seems to work best if those 2 don't have any direct visual sight-lines to each other...

Phew, now that I've tied up those loose ends, it's time to fully embrace 2012.

Happy New Year everybody!

On The Road Again

It's that time of year again. The van and trailer are loaded up and we will be setting the alarm for somewhere in the 5 o'clok hour for tomorrow morning. In less than 24 hours we hope to be settling in with our friends in High River, AB and then the following night with Erik's grandparents in Saskatchewan. If all goes well, we should be in Boissevain by Saturday evening!

This past week brought last days of school for the kids, including a Vancouver Aquarium field trip for Micah. Unfortunately, he'll miss the last 3 weeks of Kindergarten, and Keziah will miss her preschool graduation next week. She'll also miss her spring ballet recital, but thankfully Erik and I were able to watch her dress rehearsal this past week and snag a video of another adorable little routine - which, of course, I couldn't resist sharing :)

(Unfortunately one or two of the other girls were having a tough time during the performance :P)

Time to hit the hay...

Manitoba - here we come!

Little Performers

I'm on a blogging roll! So many new things to post and I finally have the time to post them :)

Last week was full of Christmas events. I was able to watch Micah's school Christmas concert two afternoons in a row. Micah seemed to know all the words, and if there was an award for the most serious performer, I'm sure he would've won. Someone's gotta tell this kid that it's OK to smile...



Then Friday was Keziah's ballet recital. I didn't quite grasp what an ordeal this was going to be. We had to be at the Abbey Arts Centre at 3 pm and, other than a very quick supper pick-up at McDonald's, we did not leave that place until almost 9! The dance studio has TONS of performers. I'm bad with numbers of people, but there had to be about 40 preschool girls alone. Plus all the older dancers and even some adult students. So, that makes for a long dress rehearsal, a long recital, and a lot of chaos backstage! They put all of the younger girls into a holding room together and expected them to stay there (quietly?) while they waited for their performances. Most of the girls did quite well, but it was crowded and loud and the ratio of adults to kids did not seem like enough. Keziah was doing great right up until the point when I told her it was time for me to go. She clung to me SO tight and cried silent tears into my shoulder. It was so heart-breaking and I decided to stay for a bit to get her settled. I tried leaving one more time, and was even half-way down the hall to the auditorium when I stopped and realized there was no way I would be able to enjoy the recital from my seat if I thought she might be upset backstage (and I knew she would be too shy to let anyone see how upset she really was). So, I quickly got over the fact that I would miss the rest of the recital and decided to stay backstage (with a couple of other moms who also had the same idea). We ended up consoling a few other teary-eyed preschoolers as well, so it was probably a good thing that we were there to help!

Anyway, when it was time for her to perform she did SO good. It really melts my heart to watch her dance.

The first video is of the dress rehearsal:



This was a portion of the actual performance which I filmed from just off-stage. I loved how she smiled so sweetly as she danced.

(I lost track of her near the end of the video because I wasn't really watching my camera screen.)

So cute! Keziah is such a shy little girl, and it's good to see that she's not afraid to perform. Her and Micah also sang some Christmas songs with their Sunday School classes in church on Sunday. Her Sunday School teachers tell me that she barely says a word in class, but when it's singing time, she sings all the words!

Keziah-Bear

I have documented a few moments of girly 3-year-old cuteness in recent days...

Keziah is one very proud big-girl cousin. She can't get seem to get close enough to her newest little-girl cousin, Emerson Lily.

There is a definite tendency to smother things that she loves (i.e. Lazarus the cat and Charlie the dog this past summer) but it really is all well-intentioned.

Keziah also started ballet this year. We decided against preschool for now, but I knew she needed a little something that was just for her. She's been talking about ballet all summer and counting down the sleeps. We had to quickly go out shopping to track down all the requirements for her class - pink tights, pink body suit, pink ballet slippers and the optional pink tutu. But who wouldn't spring for the tutu when you see how cute it looks with everything else...

With her friend Taeya after her first class (you can tell who's done ballet before :)

And my favourite thing about Keziah - something that reminds me so much of myself as a kid - is how much she loves to sing! I'm always hearing her making up new songs or belting out familiar ones. I wanted to capture her singing one of her favourites on video - and I did, but a much more timid version: