Silly Statues

While we were in Grand Forks, we went to a restaurant called Paradisio. The restaurant is filled with statues and we had camera so the silliness and posing ensued.
The kids mimicked the statues...














At one point my neice Brooke started pretending she was trying to take the ball from the statue.
Very funny.
She gets it from her dad!














I think the kids had fun being silly. And I did too!

Weekend Get-A-Way

We had a quick get-a-way trip to ANOTHER COUNTRY!!! It was very exciting for my girls and my niece and nephew. We went all the way to another country. My little nephew asked if they spoke English in this strange country!
Cute!
Grandma spoiled them rotten, taking them shopping, swimming and letting them stay up late!

She takes this spoiling grandkids things seriously!






It was fun.
We went shopping. Grandma MADE them eat ice-cream for supper!
No vegetables allowed!
They swam and hot-tubbed their way to happiness.
They played play-doh in their new pajamas!


They ate donuts, pop-tarts, and candy. Grandma took them shopping for new shoes and boots and took them lunch.

As the driver, I did my best not to make too many comments about the menu choices!
The kids had a wonderful time and now think Grandma is a female version of Santa Claus.

Slide Personality Test

At Rebecca's birthday party, we had a bouncer slide. You can tell alot about a kid's personality by the way they approach a slide.

You've got your kids that do it the way their mom would want them to... sitting down, hands on lap and facing forward. Excellent form.


Then you've got you're "oops! What happened?" kids...they sort of fall into it...


You've got your party animals that let 'er rip! Yee-haw! Let's get some air!


And then there is that kid that is cautiously avoiding collision with any other kids.
Squeezing into the edge of the slide seems the safest bet....

And finally, there's always the "Look Ma! No hands!" kids in every crowd.

Rebecca's Birthday

Rebecca is SIX years old now!

We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. She had breakfast (pancakes with whipped cream and sprinkles) with Grandma Seales and Gigi.


The grandmas presented her with a new bike!
Here she was seeing it for the first time....





Later on Saturday evening, we had her party with many of her little friends. The kids had a blast on the big blow-up bouncer slide...






After the slide came the food, cake and games.
We played Pin the Flower on Tinkerbell, Toilet Tag and Telephone.

She received many beautiful gifts and has been busy playing with all her new toys (and jewellery...of course she got jewellery!!) ever since.

I have one happy six year old living with me now!

Power to the Pears!

This summer promises to be very rewarding for me... fashion-wise.

What's in style for the upcoming season is kimono tops, draw-string tops, and baby-doll tops.

All good if you are shaped like a pear or you got some booty you'd like to hide.
Very exciting. I say let's hide the booty and celebrate the cleavage.
(pronounced clee-v-aaaaa-je)

Now all I need to do is find some slimming capris and I'm set!

One More Sleep

This morning Isabella asked once again, "Is THIS the morning we pick up Grandma Mama?"
I told her that its not today but tomorrow morning we'll get Grandma Mama.
She shrieked, "You mean tomorrow in only ONE more sleep? Oh my Gosh! I'm so excited I could jump off my head!"
Then she got all excited and started hugging and kissing me. She's rather like a puppy in many ways.
I was not ready for this excitment so early in the morning, as I wasn't ready to open my eyes.
I asked her what time the clock said, and she told me very loudly, "its six-four-five!!!"

Question:
After Grandma arrives will she sleep past six-four-five again?"

ps I hope that she doesn't actually "jump off her head" cause I bet Grandma Mama is going to want to kiss that little face!

Four Year Old Wisdom

I had an insightful conversation with Isabella while driving in the van the other day. She had just been naughty after pre-school and I told her that needed to stop very quickly or she would have a consequence. The conversation below is what followed...

Here is a transcript of our conversation:

I: Mommy, what if God gave you a naughty daughter who disobeyed all the time, would you give her away?
E: No, I would teach her how to behave and not be naughty all the time.
I: Yes, but what if you couldn't teach her? What if she was just bad?
E: Children are not bad, children get taught by their parents, so if a child is naughty, it is the parent's job to teach that child how to be kind and obedient.
I: What if you just couldn't teach her, then would you give her away?
E: No, because the children God gives me are mine, and I would love them anyway. Even if she was naughty all the time, I would keep her. I would just keep trying to love her.
I: Oh!
E: Do you think that you need to be good for mommy to love you?
I: Noooo....but its hard to be obedient... but its easy to be loving, you love me lots because I'm really loving and you love cuddling me.
E: What's the difference between being good and being loving?
I: Good is just being obedient but loving is good with kindness, and obedience can be good without kindness so loving is much better. I'm good at being loving.

After this, she got bored of that topic and moved on to talking about "loud Michael" at pre-school who never obeys the Panis (teachers) and yadda yadda yadda...

I was stuck on her last sentence. "You can be good without kindness but loving is good with kindness." That's it right there. That is difference between being religious and being a godly person. My four year old gets it.

Just being good doesn't cut it. You can obey all the rules, and get everything looking right from the outside and still be cruel (without kindness). But if you are loving then the kindness is built in automatically and the good will be there too! With the correct motivation and intentions in the heart. Loving is good with kindness.

Maybe this is why Jesus said, "Love another as I have loved you" and not "Obey all the rules and be good all the time." When we act out of love and we are motivated out of a right heart.
If we are loving, we will get the whole picture.

I learn so much from my kids.

Grass is Always Greener...

The other day Isabella heard some kids at pre-school talking about day-care.
She came home and asked me what day-care was.

I explained that is it something like when I drop her off at babysitting at the Y while I go get some exercise. The difference is that instead of staying with the other kids for one hour, she would stay with them for a whole day.

Both her and Rebecca immediately start whining, "Awwwww....why can't WE go to day-care? We want to play with other kids all day! Can we go to day-care, puuuullllleeeeezzzeee?"

Man-oh-man! You stay home to raise the kids, and take a hit financially and they want to be in day-care. I'm sure if they were in day-care, they would wish I was home to take of them.
The grass is always greener on the other side.

On the other hand, they are both very social little creatures, perhaps it is time for some part-time day-care. I think I will experiment with this over the summer, try a day-camp here and there and see what they think.

That's a good word. Experiment. Isn't that what parenting is? Trial and error.
My poor little Rebecca, well, all first children for that matter. They are the guinea pigs.

Camera Phone

We spend alot of time in the van just going place to place. While I ran into a store, DJ and the girls were just hanging out in the car. They got bored so they started to play with the camera on the cell phone...

Anatomy of the Worry Wart Brain (4am)

Its almost 4:45am and my mind is alive with random thoughts. At 4:00am Isabella Puddle Bed had an accident which required that I get up, change her sheets and clothes. Since then I've been trying (without success) to get back to sleep. My brain thinks I turned the switch "on". Clearly, this is a miscommunication as I would never choose to be awake at this hour.

I thought, well, I'm up anyway and lately I haven't had much to blog about, maybe I should blog the random things I think about before the sun is up....

• Why did I let Isabella have liquids after 6pm? That was really dumb. Note to self: don't do that again.
• I wonder if Rebecca S.K. cried or smiled or squealed when she saw her grandbaby again. (this makes me smile) Its hard for grandmas who live far away, and the idea of her being reunited with Eithnee makes me happy for all involved. *happy thought*
  
• I am looking forward to my mom's plans to be here with us again in the spring, I've been missing her lately and I love watching how the girls "FREAK-OUT" when they see her.
• I wonder how my cousin Lara is doing, and hoping she can make a life for herself where she is healthy and happy. If she moves here, I hope I can help her without taking over, and making either of us crazy.
• I pray for my nephew's cut on his head to heal quickly, and that it doesn't hurt too much to get his stitches out today. I pray for strength and patience for my sister-in-law as she makes another trip to the doctor with her 3 boys.
• I pray that mother-in-law is okay. I hate when she is sick, it worries me. I'm never quite sure that is going to be okay. I hope she liked her videos.
  
• I am sad that my sister-in-law did not have a great birthday last week, and think about what I could do to make it better.
• Oh, birthdays! Must remember to buy birthday gift for Bella's friend's party this Sunday.
• Must get Rebecca's birthday party invitations ready tomorrow.
• Hmmmmm....tomorrow...what do I need to do? Return videos, give Bella a bath, get ready for two meetings...oh yes that 10:30am meeting...what am I going to say?
• That reminds me, I need to start planning the summer programming for the youth. Need to get a plan in place for recruitment by 10:30am tomorrow morning. Oh Lord, Help!
• I wonder if I'll have enough time to get in a work-out tomorrow?
• I think I ate too much yesterday, perhaps I should eat a little less tomorrow. Stop thinking about food! I'm getting hungry.
  
• Oh crap! I forgot to buy laundry detergent yesterday.
• I wonder how much day camp costs at the YMCA in the summertime? I wonder if Isabella is old enough to go, and if she isn't, will she be upset if Rebecca gets to go?
• How soon are we going to have to replace the power steering pump on the van and how much is it going to cost?
• I really need to get some drapes for the girl's rooms.
• I wonder how D.J.'s volleyball game went. Did he play well? Will he happy in the morning? Did they win? Will he be happy in the morning?
  
• I should call Cheryl and see if she wants to go for lunch tomorrow. I should not call her right now as she is probably sleeping. She might not like that.
  
• I want to be like King David of the Bible. I want to be someone without ambition except to be a friend of God, that's cool. Besides, I don't think being a king would be all its cracked up to be anyway. I don't think I'd have enjoyed being responsible for that many people. Responsible for what thousands of people, that they are safe from raiders, that they have enough food and shelter, to set up a justice system, and keep all the coup d'etats at bay, dealing with traitors in the royal court. That sounds like alot of work. I'm not sure that its even worth a palace. I think David had the right idea, making friendship with God the ultimate reward. That sounds much more rewarding than a life of royalty. He was a pretty wise king.
  
• I think the Ali G Show is stupid. (just rented it tonight) It didn't really make me laugh at all. I don't think I will watch the Borat movie, I just find him offensive, and I end up feeling sorry for him. Its not funny to me.
• I wonder how Vanessa is doing, if she is still busy with work and if she's happy. I hope she is happy. I wonder if she will ever have a baby.
• Ewww...my hands still smell like pee. I should get up and wash them, since I'm awake anyway I might as well go blog. What will I blog about? Hmmmm...how about just all these random thoughts I've been having? Who would actually read that?
  

Manitoba Gives...

When I was away at a seminar for work, the welcoming comments were given by a Manitoba politician. He said that Manitoba was one of the most generous provinces in Canada.

When he said that, it really stuck with me...Manitoba is not a "have" province. We have a higher proportion of people living here on social assistance and disablility because of the lower cost of living and yet we are one of the most generous.

Then I thought - how is he measuring that? What is his definition of generous?
So being curious in nature, I phoned his office and asked what he was basing that statement on, and they put me through to the person in his office who wrote his speech for him.

Here is the proof according to Stats Canada and the Frasier Institute:

1. Manitoba has the second highest distribution of volunteers. Only Saskatchewan is higher.
Which means that Manitobans are more likely to volunteer than in other provinces.
2. When it comes to giving donations to charities Manitoba has the second highest average in the country (second only to Ontario). The national average for giving is $259 per person per year. And in Manitoba it is $383 per Manitoban.

Those are pretty impressive statements about Manitoba. Manitobans are more likely to volunteer our time and give our money than other places in Canada even though financially it would seem we have less to give in the first place.

That makes me proud to be from Manitoba. Even if I am freezing my ass off. I have friendly neighbours and a government who appears to care about those who are in need.
Yay!

Time Flies

I can not believe that the time has gone by so quickly.

This Monday the time has come for me to register my
baby girl for kindergarten!

I knew it was coming but as the day approaches, it seems so much
more real and she is really going to kindergarten this fall.
For real.

Too fast.
Much much too fast.