My Kindergarten Baby

Well, this past week I was an emotional bean pole. It finally hit me that my baby girl was finishing Kindergarten and on to grade one next fall. Its strange I never cried over preschool and her starting school but finishing this first year, well that seemed to do it to me. I was looking at her workbooks she brought home and it hit me so fast that she was not my baby girl anymore.

We got ready for school quickly and drove back to our old place to do photos in front of the fence... had to do the compare shot since I couldn't do my typical 'door' shot since we don't have that door anymore. She has grown a lot... matured in her looks a bit more. Still my silly girl though.

Xander had to get in on the pictures too, they are too cute for words!

At the assemble this morning the kindergartens had a big job of walking the grade 7 graduates out of the gym, but first giving them a flower, and getting a pencil in return for continued learning.

After the assemble, the kids went to get their report cards. Ariel did fantastic, known as the 'hula hoop' queen and exceeding expectations at reading. Its been hard this week talking about school being over, Ariel tends to start crying. She loved her teacher this year, I hope she loves her teacher next year too.

I can't say how much we love our school. The people we have met, the friends made, and the many years ahead, its all so exciting. Good work baby girl, we are proud of you!

Now its on to summer fun... lots of camp stuff coming up, its going to be a blast!!!!

Its a Potty in here!

Oh boy, here we go! A few weeks ago on a trip to Walmart for baking supplies I spotted the McQueen potty chair. Well, as you know my son is a walking advertisement for Cars, so I pushed the buggy up and asked, 'do you think we need a potty?' One glance up at the box with Cars on it, Xander was sold. Yep! We put it into our buggy and picked out some Cars underwear and pull-ups. There was no turning back!

I sat the potty out for awhile, and we talked about it, read some books. Ariel was eager for Xander to learn and one night brought him downstairs and got him to pee on it! Whoa, that surprised me, but of course he wasn't going to do it for me. Bah!

My weeks were filled with orders and little time to devote to training properly. I remember with Ariel how I picked a week, and we stayed home and just did hardcore learning! It worked great with her and I figured I needed to do the same with him. So when the calendar showed my week break between orders, I jumped at the opportunity to finally do this. With him being closer to 3 I did worry since he started to have that 'defiant' attitude that seems to show up with that age. Terrible 2's have nothing on 3! Haha, at least with my kids.

Saturday morning it was raining and we were all home for a change. I pulled out a pile of underwear, filled Xander's Cars bottle with juice and we started... sort of. Like all first days, it was awful. I remember being the same way with Ariel. Pee everywhere, going through underpants like crazy. I also was painting the bathroom so Ken was watching him and having not gone through training Ariel, he was a bit in the dark on how things go with things like this... although it was funny hearing him yell. UGH, no Xander, not the couch! Ack, Ariel get the papertowel! Ok, its not that funny but he missed out on training Ariel so its only fair right? Hee.

I came down afterward and took charge, drink, play, sit, pee, yay, repeat! All evening we kept doing the same thing, drink some juice, run around and play for 10 minutes, sit on the potty and wait, pee comes, happy dance (Xander's favorite part) and do it again. Repetition is the key for us, no treats, charts or rewards. It never worked for Ariel, and I tried them all, but the happy dance they LOVE.

There was one set back that evening that led us to using pull ups during the training process for now at least... he had a diarrhea attack from eating something that didn't agree with him... while wearing only underwear... sitting on Ariel's bed... while we were skyping with Ken's mom. UGH!!!!!!! Ken could smell it first, then saw it, then I saw it and then poor Ariel saw it.... XANDER!!!!!!! My BED!!!!!!!!!!!! She was fighting back tears and I quickly stripped the bed into the washing machine (Thank you Lord for our own washing machine and drier!) I scooped up the stuffies that were hit, only 3 thank heavens and washed them in the sink while Ken dealt with Mr Poopy. Lets just say Ariel got to stay up a tad later reading since we had to wait on her bedding.

Sunday morning came and Xander had dry pants, big success! So we went to church, came home and started the process again. He now seemed to be more willing for me to sit him on the potty to wait as long as he had something to keep him busy.

Monday morning and day 3, again dry morning pants! With everyone gone it was just us 2 and that was great. He sat when I told him to and peed, and then surprised me at lunch while I was in the kitchen as he jumped off the couch and did it himself without being prompted! WOOHOO! I called Ken thrilled, its a big moment, trust me!

Tuesday morning, dry again, the day went well and he even got out of bed after I tucked him in to find his potty to pee (note to self, bring potty to his room for nights). He gets a huge grin whenever he pees, and is so proud of himself.

Now we are on day 5, and we are wearing pants today, working on pulling them down along with the pull up. I am going to be testing the underwear again this weekend, to see how it goes while at home. For it only being a less than a week into this, I am pleased! Xander has been doing great, he is such a special little guy who wants to do his best. I am proud of you big boy in your big boy pants!

BREAK!!!

As of noon today, I have a mini vacation... no orders until the following weekend, so I actually have a FREE weekend!!! The first one in... gosh, I can't tell you when! Its exciting.... I plan to paint our bathroom, yep, excitement eh? Well its been bugging me, and its time, so I shall finally take care of it and I will be happy!

So once the orders were picked up today, Xander and I went off to pick up our paint at Rona's. Xander was gifted with a painters hat, and now is convinced he will get to paint with me... hmmm. This could be interesting.

I am also referring to this break as a calm before the 'cake' storm. The last week of June I am booked, every day... seriously, I have a cake due almost daily... a few times 2 cakes, but its nuts... and it goes on for 3 heavy weeks in July until I break for teaching at the summer camp. I am looking forward to that, been sorting out my lesson plans, and most likely will be doing more of that while I break this week.

Dad and Rita just got back from a trip to China. The kids got a few trinkets and Ariel a pretty dress that she loves.

I got a nice knock off Louis Vuitton, ooh! Haha.

So we got word that Ariel's dance school would be travelling to Disney World next summer to take part in a program called 'Dance the World'. Basically the girls would get to go and dance in the Disney World parade and take part in other events. We were really excited until we saw, must be age 7 when the trip happens.... Ariel will be shy of 7 by less than 30 days... DOH! It was a sad time, and she was disappointed. She could have gone but not danced in the parade but that be hard for her to see her friends take part and not be in there.

Soooo after some talking, Ken and I finally decided that fall 2013 is our year, we are going back to DISNEYLAND as a family! It will be Xander's first visit, and we are excited 'Cars Land' is opening this summer, how perfect will that be?! We are going to start planning and saving, trying to pin down the dates still, but have a few ideas. The nice thing is we can all go, not just how Ariel and I would have gone on this dance trip, so we are excited. The kids don't really know yet, so we will decide if we surprise them or tell them at some point. It would have been nice to go this fall, but I am already booked with orders and a wedding so it can't happen then, and you know me, if we are going, I love to plan, haha. Its the best part, hee... and I need to sew some new princess gowns for Ariel. Oh yay, I am so excited... woot!

Looking forward to Father's Day this weekend, Ariel's been working on something at school, and I finally pulled out our little BBQ to set up and perhaps try out weather permitting on Sunday.

Well, I am gonna go relax and enjoy my night off... the first of several. Ahhhh.

Supreme Weekend

Time to check in again, as life as been rolling by. We are counting the days till the end of school... which is hard to believe is coming to an end soon. Its been nice to enjoy some down time from our regular schedule and Ariel is loving the extra play-dates. This past week besides the many orders for cakes, we had dance photos filling our weekend and a pageant.

On Friday, Ariel's school opened up the 'Stream of Dreams' of all the fish the kids and family had painted. It was a wonderful project and we enjoyed looking for our fish. We have found everyone's fish except Ariel's... who is having a small memory issue to what it looked like. She has a rough idea, and I found a few like it, but she isn't sure... I am sure it will come back to her at some point haha.

Then Saturday was photo day one. We had her ballet picture first thing in the morning, so we were in full mouse mode again. Such a cute costume, can't wait to see her photo. They get a group shot and a individual one. Yay! Ariel got a chance while waiting to get a picture with class helper, aka the 'Cat', hee.

During photos, we got to see the schedule and who is teaching what next year. The way it worked out is that Ariel will continue with her one jazz class during the week, and then 2 classes on the weekend after each other, which she is very excited about. Its also handy schedule wise, yay!

We left the photos and drove up for our pageant. Its always exciting to see our friends and pageant buddies. The girls are so fun and supportive of each other, its really a fun environment. This time it was a 'Rock of Eras' theme, and the girls got to pick a time period and do a theme outfit and routine. Ariel did 50's and a CUTE routine to 'Rockin' Robin'.  She BLEW the crowd away, they were cheering and she of course loves that. I felt like such a dork not taping it, but I was more nervous than she was. I don't know how she does this, I am not a stage person at all!

People kept coming up saying how great she did, and pretty much was the stand out in her age group that day. Come crowning we were excited when she WON! Yes, this time she got Supreme of her age group, and she was SOOOO excited. She got a large tiara, trophy, sash and giant guitar balloon (which I think she likes the best haha). Her friends were congratulating her and it was a special time. We probably won't be doing many pageants come the fall due to her dance schedule, so we will enjoy our time when we get a change to do one... we are going to miss everyone. I am so proud of what she has learnt about talking in front of an audience, confidence on stage and just having fun regardless if you win the big title or not. But today was our day, and she was pretty proud... yay sweetie!

We came home and after a quick dinner together I got back to work on cakes and cake pops. I have lots of big orders these days that include a cake, cupcakes, cookies and cake pops! Its great for me but sometimes the space in the fridge is tight. One of the orders was a cute safari themed cake with matching cake pops, so bright and fun!

These are popular these days!

This was my fav, I want this for my birthday... only in turquoise.... and the 19 would be nice too, haha.

Sunday morning we were back for our jazz pictures and I did Ariel's registration for next year. I also got to sign her up for the special acro workshop they are offering the 'competition' students this summer. Ariel is excited about that as she has a love of tumbling and wanting to learn more and Mommy can't afford both dance and gymnastics, so this is a good way to fill the void and its great for her coming year in competition class. Her ballet teacher was telling me how turned out she is, and a good dancer, and she has a good future ahead of her in dance. Proud Mommy moment, yay! 

Today I was a class driver for taking Ariel's friends for their field trip to gymnastics. It was such a gorgeous day, and fun to finally help as our new car meets those safety needs required. Haha. Ariel of course was pleased as punch to have a friend in the car. Xander was the only one upset.. that he didn't get to go play. I guess we will be doing a drop in class soon! 

Right now we are waiting on updates about Ken's grandmother. She isn't doing well and we are not sure how things will go, all depends on if she responds to treatment. We are praying for peace and strength for all of them as its such a stressful time. We love you Yaya!

Ripples and Tornadoes

Well we survived our first recital craziness weekend! Yay! It was fantastic and it was so much fun to be part of such an exciting time for the kids involved. I helped out as a class mom during the Friday night show. Generally the shows are a Sat & Sun, but there was a mix up this year when booking, I believe due to the leap year. Anyhoo, I was in charge of Ariel's jazz class. Its a well oiled machine back stage, check in boards for each group, where your kids are coming from, quick changes for those doing multiple dances, where to send them afterwards if they dance again etc! I tell you the adrenaline from the night alone had me wide awake for quite a while once I got home. Haha.

The perk of helping is we get to stand in the wings and watch the girls dance, which is a really cool experience. I was so proud watching her, I can't wait to help again, love it!!!

Ariel and buddy Sarah - they have been dancing together since kinderdance

Stella came to see Ariel on the Friday show, which Ariel was thrilled about, can you tell?!

Ariel LOVED her first recital experience as well. She actually does really well in these waiting around situations with only having some snacks and coloring available. We had the tv set up so we could view the show as it played out. The ballet is always a huge story and ties in all the classes. This year it was about an mean queen who was turned into an eagle until she realized how her actions had ripple effects one the people and world around her. Oooh deep eh? It was really stunning, the costumes beautiful and just amazing to see the work the kids put into it! 

When we got to watch Ariel from the audience on the Saturday performance, I saw again her ease on stage. She was in her element, huge smile (unless acting surprised as she told me when the cat surprises them when she is a mouse, haha) The Bell Performance Centre prefers no pictures and video during the show, so we respected that. I ordered a DVD of the show, so I will upload a clip when I can. 

Then her jazz number was so great, bopping away. Plus those costumes are too cute! Daddy and I brought our girl some flowers and a ballet lamb stuffed toy to mark her big day. She has her flowers in her room, she loves them. 

Xander didn't come to the recital, but hung out with his buddy K. They had fun by the sounds of things, they are too cute!

On top of the recital, I had 5 orders this weekend! It nearly killed me... just not having the same time to work was hard, and one night I just went to bed instead and figured it be ok, but I ended up working till 2am to catch up, oh well. I have another 5 orders this weekend, so it will be a tad crazy but less going on so it shouldn't be a problem. 

Ariel also had a small pageant (yes we are crazy!) on the Sunday afternoon. She won Queen of her age group, which she was super excited about. Her buddy won queen in her age group so they were thrilled to be 'queens' together. She blew away the people with her on stage interview and introduction, which was great since that is one of the main reasons for doing these is learning public speaking skills. 

We have another pageant coming up which has a rock and roll theme. Ariel has been practicing her routine to 'Rockin' Robin' in her poodle skirt. Its so adorable! We also are now counting down till the end of school, which is weird. She will be going to grade one next year!!! Wow. Xander goes to pre-school and Mommy gets her first taste of what it will be like with no kids home...crazy.

Not like I won't have anything to keep me busy eh? Speaking of busy, like I said the cakes are fast and furious these days. I am full for June, today I posted to book early for summer, and I got 8 bookings in one afternoon! Seriously!!! I nearly died from the phone calls and emails. My head was spinning but its such an amazing blessing to have this business. My goal for the month was to have enough earned to pay Ariel's dance tuition for 3 classes next year (ballet, jazz and jazz competition) paid in full to get the discount, and I think I will make it! Which is fantastic! Next is paying Xander's year tuition for pre-school, and then on to savings for possible things to come down the road like renos and trips... we are itching to go to Disneyland at some point again... and I will totally need the vacation haha. 

Ok, speaking of vacation, I am going to bed, as I have a full week ahead. Good night!