Spring Break 2013

We have been enjoying our break, the weather was a little late on the notice but its improving this week, yay. Last week we were busy with swimming lessons for both kids, at the same time (score!) and a few other fun activities. This was Xander's first time in lessons and so far so good. In fact, I was expecting some resistance, and for the most part there hasn't been much, except him not wanting to blow bubbles. Now I know the kid blows bubbles, he makes a mess in my bathroom nightly from it, so I told him and the teacher that he knows and he is just holding out. So we went to the pool today while Ariel was in gymnastics and did some practice. So we will see how this week goes. He doesn't care if he passes or not, its been a winning experience for the most part, no crying or screaming, haha.

Ariel is holding her own in swim kids 5. The class is 45minutes now and new strokes introduced and overall she is doing great. I think she will need to repeat it again unless she totally nails the whip kick this week. Her teacher said she is doing quite well, and has them doing more endurance drills since he notices she gets sloppy when she gets tired. So she is doing the full length of the pool 3 TIMES! Seriously!!! I think that is amazing in itself, especially when you see how tiny she is compared to her classmates. Part mermaid indeed!

Last week I had some intense orders that kept me busy, Friday was full day of doing 3 really fancy ones, including these, the Tiffany box...

...and The Cat in the Hat. This was pretty exciting to finish, and fun to look at... sometimes its amazing how they come together, I really should do photos making them some time, as they aren't so pretty in the middle stages, haha.

I took the kids to the mall one of the rainy days and we picked up a new swim suit for Ariel who was still squeezing in to size 4s but really needed something a bit more her age. She picked a cute tankini and loves it.

Then we got each kid a spring outfit, hoping to encourage Spring to show up.

We celebrated Palm Sunday and boy was it exciting to have more than 3 kids wave branches this year. The kids were totally pumped and ran around the sanctuary and then led the congregation in a song. Looking forward to Easter and we even invited friends this year who aren't church goers so that is cool!

After the service we got invited to join some of the other young families to a park playdate, and had a fantastic time hanging out for several hours in Steveston. The kids had a ball and got a good workout while we visited. I am so happy to have more people our age at church, its a huge blessing. We have been lonely for a long time, so on the way home we were both content and eager for next time.

Puppy update, 2 new puppies born, but we are second in line and if the family before us decides to pass we will have a BOY puppy! They other dog is due in another 3 weeks so if we don't get this boy we get a puppy for sure from this next group. The breeder has been sending photos and they are so special and make it hard to wait at the same time. Hoping the next time we share we have a photo of our new furry baby!!!'

A few other tidbits. Ariel and I went to the fabric store one day to pick out some material to make Marie Grace a new dress because that poor girl has no clothes. It turned out lovely and I see lots of doll clothes making in my future. Possibly for birthday girls for Ariel's friends who have dolls like hers. How cool would that be!

One rainy night I felt like comfort food, so we did home made macaroni and cheese, yum. I added some wiener octopus, because I can. I remember seeing these at Disneyland and thought it be cute. Xander ate his head and decided that was enough, haha.

We are going to our new dentist tomorrow, so that is exciting. We have several playdates planned and then its EASTER! Woot! Its been nice having the kids around... it will be sad to see them go back to school next week... and yet I look forward to the silence... just a bit. Hee.

Oh and big news for our little girl... she is going to CAMP this summer!!! After her asking lots of questions after reading about camp, and not finding one that fit our schedule, a friend from church mentioned Camp Squeah has a jr camp program which was 2 nights and its in August which works for us! She was so so so excited when we told her and I am excited for her since I LOVED going to camp. It will be so amazing for her and her spiritual life. So we may decide to do a little 2 night trip near by the camp, just to have a little vacation too, since we never get away in the summer, so we will see... but eek!

March is flying by...

I still am in shock that Spring Break starts next week, well its starting sooner for us since I am keeping Ariel home the last 2 days. I can't tell if the girl is actually sick, but she threw up on the play ground today, not a lot but she was jumping around being silly but she isn't showing any other signs of illness. Eating well, perky, no fever, the only thing that was odd was she was a tad tired, but we had time change so I don't know. Either way, I am playing it safe so she can get some rest before swimming starts next week.

In other news, Ariel ALMOST got to be in photo shoot with Clive Owens and Juliette Binoche for a movie being filmed here. They were looking for a blond 5-7girl who did pageants, and the director of the pageants we do (she is also an agent) gave them Ariel's name and photo. She was one of 4 girls they looked at, but in the end picked our friend Marley, who is much more blond than Ariel, and a tad younger, so like they say in show business, we weren't what they were looking for, haha. It was fun being up for a chance, and its a story to tell, plus we love it went to a friend. In the end Ariel was sick today when the photo shoot happened so probably for the best. I never told her about it in case it didn't go her way, figured that was safer... not that she knows who those people are anyways, haha. She is still my star.

I've been having lots of meetings lately helping plan the upcoming Easter season services with the worship team. Its been great to be a part of the group again. I was a part back in the days before kids, so its great to spread some creativity as well as connecting the children's ministry which is my primary reason for joining.
If you are in the area I invite you to come join us! Its going to be a party... literally!

I got the opportunity to help out this week in Xander's class. After dropping him off I got home to a phone call from Pia saying Debbie was sick, so I came to take over and man the 'craft station'. It was lots of fun and see Xander's class in action. He did act a bit funny at first but then forgot I was there and acted in his normal Xander ways.

I took time this weekend after my work to paint. I haven't had that chance in ages and it felt really awesome. Its just nice sitting with a brush and not thinking too much about anything else, which is why I don't paint that much haha.

Guess who went to the eye doctor for the first time and Mommy didn't leave embarassed, Xander! Yes we have come a long way my friends. Just hoping the dentist in the next few weeks is just as good. It was interesting to watch the doctor since when Ariel did her first test she was very confident in letters and Xander isn't... well he is, but he won't say them on comand. Ha! So he got to do the picture chart, and that was cool, and the final results, no glasses. We will go back next year but at least we know this exam we can handle.

Puppy watch update - its been awhile since I said anything about our waiting on our furry family member, as there wasn't much to tell after the last litter resulted in us not getting a dog when the puppy died. Sad face. We got the update that they are expecting 2 litters of puppies, so we should hopefully be getting our dog this spring! The first litter is to be born is any day now, so its exciting again to be waiting for news. They did the ultrasound and are expecting 3 puppies. The second group is to be born in another 4-5 weeks. The kids talk about the dog a lot these days, especially when we see people out with their dogs. There are names rolling around but until we see our puppy its our secret for now.

Finally, Ken will be leaving soon for Australia... I want a dingo.

Spring Break is coming... SOON!

Its amazing how fast things are flying by these days. Lots of work, projects and stuff to keep my feet racing but I got to be lazy today... I sat on the couch with my cross stitch and watched episodes of Parenthood I taped ages ago and hadn't watched. It was heaven... and after a rough weekend I needed it.

I don't want to go into too much on here, but long story short I had a 'unhappy' customer who no matter what I did was going to be happy. It made for a sad Saturday with tears and confusion. Come Sunday and a wonderful message from Pastor Lee (did I say how blessed we are to have him!) I felt much better. We had Lee and his family over following the service for lunch and a visit. We really hit it off well with them, and the kids have a great time together.

The big news in the house is Ariel has FINALLY got a loose tooth! It is one of her top front ones and its getting quite wiggly. I was asking some of the other moms what the going rate for teeth was with the 'tooth fairy' - these kids get it far too good. However, the first one is going to be special, especially with the fact she has waited so long... at least for her. I am looking for a pattern to make a tooth pillow, so I need to get that together asap the way that tooth is shaking.

We went to an Oscar party downtown, enjoyed ourselves with yummy food and won some fun prizes - a $50 gift certificate for dinner at the Stonegrill and a hotel stay downtown Vancouver. Hoping we can use it when we go to our concert... if we can convince someone to take the kids over night. They are both toilet trained haha, so that should help right?

Spring break is around the corner and we are set with swimming lessons for both kids and I let Ariel do some special things at gymnastics. They were offering cheap special classes in learning to perfect cartwheels, rhythmic gymnastics, trampoline etc. We are also hosting Ariel's classmates, the 3 other gals, over for a 'late over' - basically the fun things about a sleepover, pjs, making pizza, ice cream and a movie, only they get picked up by their parents to go home to bed. Needless to say they are all thrilled and its something fun to look forward to.

Well I am done, ready for bed. Zzzzz