anticipation

the sun has been shining for a few weeks now.

do i dare say that this spring, the weather seems to be more normal?!

in the past few years, we've had a few super nice days....then the weather starts to act like fall....with strong cold winds and dark clouds. sadly the weather just couldn't turn back to sunshine and get some good, long-standing warmth back! making us endure some long and yucky summers.






i've been looking at some summer photos from years past the last few weeks. talk about entering nostalgia....oh. my. realizing how much our kids have grown in the past few years. given the number of outgrown clothes....bags of new and bigger sizes coming into the house...this is no surprise. the surprise is in looking back at great memories.

i am so thankful for the number of photos we have. there are still other memories that don't have a photo to go with it. i love looking at the kids expressions. the smiles. the grumpy frowns. the ecstatic grins.

we are coming up to our 2 year anniversary of our "big move". i see it as a major landmark for the kids. Aidan's move from preschool to kindergarten. Kiara's move from being just a toddler to a preschool kid. at the time THREE years old seemed like such an old age.....now it just seems so young! one of our new neighbours had just had a baby when we moved in. she is now 25 months old. it is still shocking to all of us that Kiara was only 8 months older when we moved here.

i am a completely visual person. i really have to see it myself in order to understand. {one of the reasons i stayed far away from any scientific field!!}

to see this little girl and think of her as a baby....then to look at my big girl and think of her as a little girl. and to realize how little she was when we moved. comparing what our wee neighbour is doing and what Kiara was doing that summer. then to think of the changes in the next few years. this "baby" will be out on the walking trail with the rest of the girls and playing together happily. {well....as happy as kids can be for periods of time!} at that time it won't be as obvious of the age gap between them.

it makes me thankful for the different activities we all did together. especially when i think back to how busy the days were!

randomness

this poor blog gets so neglected these days. sigh.

there were TWO hills of snow in our backyard for the last {and final!} part of winter. hills? hmmm.... no. MOUNTAINS!

it was the best part about the winter. it's doubtful {i hope!} that we will have sled-worthy hills in our backyard again.

but then the snow melted.

the worst part about winter in the prairies....i've always said...is the kids get all excited thinking about snowmen. however the snow is so dry that putting a snowman together takes patience at the best of times. other times it is not even possible.




initially i had no idea why they had scattered the snowman hat and buttons on the pile of melting snow. then i actually looked at it from the right angle. my kids are hilarious!! this is so definitely going in their scrapbooks. {when i have the courage to scrapbook winter again.}

don't you love how there is a bike in the photo as well? only in Edmonton.



the kids are outgrowing bikes like pants these days. Kiara took a trial run to see how she would do without training wheels. if she could have focused, that would have helped. it also didn't help that she hit the brakes whenever Kris let go of her!

it is kind of interesting. Aidan totally breathes cycling. Kiara enjoys it. just not to the same level. in this way, the kids are the mirror images of their parents.



this was the nasty surprise of the season. note that we did put on a plastic bark protector. never would we have guessed that the snow level would be so high and cause some issues.

the culprit? Killer Bunny!



they didn't just rip off part of the bark. they ripped the trunk to shreds!

bunnies are no longer considered cute and funny in our home. they now get yelled at and run off the property. ha!

what is with the bunnies down here? we always found a bunny in our central city yard....never did they do any damage. it was the squirrels who caused the problems. maybe we need more squirrels?

so much for getting a few apples this year. i told Kristian that it would probably bear terrible and sour apples anyway. that stopped his tears for a few hours.

since this is just a random post. here is a total change in topic...



2 months ago i spent a day putting a scrapbook class kit together. Kiara was home. she wanted to help. actually she was a great help. i had bingo numbers and pins and brads for her to sort, then put into bags. it was awesome! for both of us. she got to practice counting. and sorting. then she had the fun to put it all into bags for me. she must have worked for an hour on it. i could have done it in less time, but i was beside her working on other parts of the kit. in reality she totally saved me some time.

it was a massive kit to assemble. Kristian and Aidan - and Kiara again - helped me a few days later with the rest of it. apparently they enjoyed it. Kristian and Kiara enjoyed it enough to help me last month. you can see the pile of filmstrip ribbon that was waiting to be cut and added.



this time around, the work for Kiara was much less. i think she knew it.



i do think she loves this embellishment as much as i do!

i thought i had created a simpler kit to assemble. sigh. so far from the truth. but it was fun to have help. it's fun to chat and let my family share in my work.


i am FINALLY taking time for myself to exercise. i find it hard to believe that i once had the strength and endurance to run a half-marathon. complete short triathlons. never fast {right, Carol!} but at least i could complete them...and manage to improve a bit. i have joined up in a Core Strength and Balance class. i should have been doing this long ago. better late than never! now to add in the running.

i was pretty good when Aidan was younger. it was Kiara who hated being squished inside the running stroller. it came to a point that i dreaded taking them out....it was not a matter of "if" there were tears....it was always "when".

my last run with the two of them had me at a poorly planned night race at Hawrelak Park. Aidan wanting to run, but totally slow. Kiara screaming. then Aidan screaming when i told him he had to be a passenger. i ran half the distance, with several runners lapping me. then discovered that all 3 tires were out of air. how i missed that earlier, i'll never know. surprising how i found that discouraging?! it was a course that involved 2 laps around the lake. i stopped halfway. i was nearly out of energy and completely out of patience!

in all the irony...it is Kiara who will point out my jiggles.

overdue

i can't believe my last post was over a month ago! i find the days seem to be speeding up as the kids are getting older. when i started this blog, the days were on the long side. Kiara had just turned one and Aidan was three years old. Aidan was in playschool two mornings a week and Kiara was not walking. Aidan was at the age where he was more independent, but still it was not a good idea for us to turn our back on him for too long! Kiara still relied on us for her entertainment during her short awake hours. many people told me how quickly those days pass, and i took their advice to enjoy them as much as i could (even those super long days).

here we are in another phase. so nice to have more time for myself with Aidan in school all day and Kiara in playschool three mornings a week. i have time to run errands without having to factor in bribes for the short attention spans of my fan crew. cleaning and laundry can sometimes get done more quickly without anyone taking advantage of mom's lack of eyesight....yes, all the big messes seemed to happen on laundry day! phone calls get made without having to be interrupted by screams or "mommy-can-i's". not to mention an hour of uninterrupted time for me to actually put more than a thought or two together!!

March had the kids busy finishing up their racing cars for the AWANA Grand Prix. a huge thrill for them. i had the incredible thrill of attending the local scrapbook retailers event. i'm still in disbelief of how amazing that weekend was. taking classes from very talented people. my idol being one of them! enjoying supper and then having them visit the store where i work. seriously had so much fun that i could barely sleep! one of those events in my life that seemed to good to be true. i find myself having to remind myself it all really happened....not just a happy dream.

we also finalized the details for a trip to heat and sunshine! which meant passports and other traveling preparations. which is a story in itself.

the bad timing of computer issues and breakdowns. which gained me a brand new computer that i really hope does not give me issues.

it was not possible for us to conveniently leave town to coordinate with the school spring break. that last week was spent packing and keeping the kids active and happy. they are good for entertaining themselves. however a week solid of mom also busy doing "boring stuff" was not on their top ten list. to keep a balance we spent a few days on the town. the local science centre was fun for a day, and the kids got to try wall climbing too. {you could say the kids are experts at wall climbing....or so i expected. apparently they were a little nervous climbing past a certain point even when they were harnessed. or perhaps it was their fear of me dropping them?! ha! not all days with them were peaceful and relaxing that week.}

then off we flew to Maui....



other beach holidays Kris and i have taken mean clear blue skies. our holiday started out on the overcast side. high clouds, but still not clear blue. despite the appearance each day was very hot! flip flops every day. sunglasses were a necessity. bathing suits rotated each day because they took a few days to dry in the humidity. we also learned that sunscreen was needed even with the clouds! i think the clouds added to the humidity levels.

there is not a bad beach to be found on Maui. each one was different and had something unique to offer.

the one outside our condo was great for finding seashells and coral.

the one in the above picture would have been fun for exploring if the tide were lower.

we found several sandy beaches. some small and with few crowds. others large and busy. some had lava rocks to explore at some point.

some were calmer for the kids, while others had waves strong enough to take Kris and i off our feet!



we realized that we should have stayed longer. Kiara was asking to go home every few days, but it was hard to know if she was serious. she seemed to have fun and enjoyed the trip. Kristian figured the island could benefit from another engineer and decided that he wanted us to move immediately. one of the flyers advertised a local scrapbook store, and he wasted no time in driving me to it. you know what he was thinking!! it was nothing like Urban Scrapbook. i don't honestly know how this store has stayed in business. if Pat and Lori ever want to start a new store.... well..... i think Maui needs them. desperately. i told Aidan one morning that when we retired, we would move here....and he and Kiara can bring their families here for vacations. he looked stunned and wasted no time to say that he would also be moving with us!!! he cried when we got home because he already missed Maui.

it was a perfect vacation. we did a few touristy and fun trips. we relaxed by the pool and the beach every day. we drove up to the volcanic crater one day. i have a fear of heights that has improved, but still lingers. the drive to the crater was tough for me....the passenger! i know for fact that i could never have safely driven myself....not when i had to close my eyes from time to time! for Aidan and Kristian it was a highlight. it is a shock to myself that i am already thinking ahead to the next trip up the crater...apparently the sunrise is spectacular {as well as the night view.} with the four hour time change, all 4 of us were awake at 4am the first morning. the exact time we would need to leave the condo to catch the sunrise. {there's a travel tip i did not read...but it should be published!}

the kids traveled well. even with the exhausting return trip. having movies and tv shows at their fingertips helped all of us. i told Kiara that she was not allowed to act "silly" on the airplane. and left it at that. there have been enough times both of the kids have been goofy while we're driving. this time i let the "i wonder what they would do if i acted silly" question get answered without my ideas. this time my strategy worked. phew! turns out they were both a delight.

the fact that truly surprised all of us was the size of the island. in a matter of 30 minutes drive, you go from beach to desert to mountain.

every day was hot. as the week progressed the clouds disappeared.

now we are home. tired from the trip home. and jet-lagged. basically we each had 2 hours of sleep last night. sleep in airports and on planes is not in our genes. it was not fun to look around at other lucky people who were happily sound asleep! a long afternoon nap and late bedtime is our present plan. fortunately we all slept the afternoon away...now if we can get a solid 8 hours sleep tonight but be awake by 9am.