Update Time

I was told I haven't been updating enough so here goes a little recap of summer activities thus far.

First off, I had a crazy Star Wars themed wedding cake for a friend from church. It was pretty funny to deliver something so 'different' to a fancy place like the Vancouver yacht club, haha. Anyhoo, they loved it and it was the start of the real start of wedding season. I have almost every weekend booked in August for weddings, crazy!

Ariel did swimming lessons at the pool for 2 weeks and passed swim kids 6!!! Wow, she is such a crazy strong swimmer for such a tiny thing. She was the only girl in a class of 5 big boys who towered over her. She worked hard and was excited when she found out she passed with flying colors. She is going to give swim kids 7 a try in August, she loves a challenge so it should be fun.

The Tour de Delta was in town again for another bike race filled evening of fun. We always enjoy going and this year Ariel was old enough to ride in the kids race. Some of her friends from school rode too so it was a great night out, and she got a free dinner at the end of the race including a cute medal. 

Then it was VBS time! This year Xander was able to go and was SOOOO excited. It was a wild west theme and there was lots of yee-haws around our place for the week. Both kids had friends from school in their classes so that was really nice. I must say I enjoyed the mornings off for a week. It was a small taste of what is coming in a short year once Xander starts kindergarten. Wow.

During that week we had a big of a scare. Meeko went in for his 3rd set of shots and everything seemed fine until late afternoon. While enjoying a visit from Maureen and Andrea, Meeko's face started swelling up. His eyes looked puffy and before I knew it, his eyes were so swollen they shut and his muzzle was 3 times the size it should be. Maureen stayed with the kids while I ran Meeko over to the vet. Seems like he was having an allergic reaction, most likely from the rabies shot. They gave him some benadryal and kept him for an hour to watch him. Thankfully it seemed to work and we got to take him home. He was groggy but good. He had to have a few more pills over the next few days and was finally back to normal.

Ariel had a big pageant coming up and she needed some new photos so I took her out for headshots but was having so much fun we did some shots down at the beach by the ferry terminal during sunset. This is one of my favs of the night.

In the end this was the shot we got and I was super happy with it.

Ariel had been raising money for Children's hospital for her pageant and in the end raised $1286.50 which was thrilling for her. When VBS ened on the Friday at noon, we picked her up with the suitcases already packed and Ken took us to our hotel. We checked in and Ariel met for a short meeting with her coach Megan for a quick run through of her routines. That evening was just the interview portion so the girls got into her shirts and whites and were ready to go. Ariel's white shoes were too small but we couldn't find any in her size so she wore flip flops until the last minute when she had to put them on. Thankfully she was a trooper and you couldn't tell, but its time to find new ones soon!

That night the girls all went swimming and had a wonderful time. The next morning was full day of competition, starting with beauty with personal intros. With natural pageants there is no make up and only simple hair so its pretty relaxed. Its more about public speaking and basic walks, so we just tend to get to enjoy the day more without running around. Ariel did great on her intro and it really started her off on a strong foot. 

She did casual wear, then on to commercial and speech arts. For commercial she did a cinnamon toast crunch ad, which was really cute. Speech arts was something we wrote together about her observations about coffee and parents. Well she had the room laughing pretty hard and then we just had to wait. 

The evening was the carnival and lots of fun for the girls. They had a recording booth and Ariel and pal Emma recorded a Taylor Swift song. She got lots of little trinkets and goodies from the games and ate lots of treats.  A fun time indeed!

The next morning we headed to crowning. First off Ariel was named Miss Congeniality by her peers which was really special. She also won best headshot for her age group too, woot for me! They started doing the age groups and finally got to hers and my stomach was in knots. It was a tight group and 3 of the girls were really fantastic and I couldn't pick who would win. The group got smaller and smaller then was down to those 3 girls, including Ariel. The announced the first runner up and then it was just 2... they announced the Petite Miss BC title which was the other girl and then it hit me, SHE WON! I started crying, I was so excited for her, and she was just smiling away totally thrilled. Then the director announced she had the highest score of the WHOLE PAGEANT! That is when my legs went to jelly, I don't remember much but coming up to help her off stage with her arm load of gifts and prizes. 

We had our own moment on the size of the stage and totally missed the next age crowning. Her friend Emma who won last year (Ariel was runner up to her) was so excited for her, now they were both in the royalty family. Ariel has her title for a year and then will crown the new girl next year. She gets to help at events, will have a uniform like Emma's to wear during the year, and gets a cute jacket with her title and name on it. She has to keep her sash and crown safe during the year so I am out looking for a special box to keep them in. 

Following the crowning the new royalty had to stay for photos and get into their whites. I am looking forward to the year ahead as we get to get to know the rest of the royalty moms of this new group, some of which we are already good friends with. We got our score sheets and saw that Ariel was almost getting perfect scores in every area, it was amazing, she has grown so much in a year. So proud of her and her hard work! Way to go baby!

The National Canadian Girl National Royalty 2013/2014

And then it was July!

Um whoa, when did that happen?!  Oh right we had end of school events, dance recitals, a crazy amount of cake orders and Ken was in New York.... yep that is what happened.

So back tracking, we saw the end of the school year for both kids. First up was Xander, who has not only grown so much in his personality and skills but height wise too... check out that picture!

His teachers were emotional talking of his progress this year and how he ended with a bang standing up with his friends and singing part of a song, which he "HATES" to do in front of people. I was so proud and he was too, I could tell.

We are sad one of his teachers won't be working in his class next year, so praying its a smooth transition for him meeting someone new.

Ariel's end of school first came with sports day with a super hero theme. She loved that and we painted a mask on her face for the fun day.

She was excited to be on the same team as her older friends from church. Ken took the day off to help with Xander so I could enjoy the time with her.

The last day of school we got her report card that she was on to grade 2 and exceeding expectations in several areas of study. So proud of her work ethic at such a young age. Excited to see who her teacher will be in the fall, and looking forward to registering Xander for Kindergarten for fall 2014 so we can have both kids at the same school finally!

Dance photo weekend was crazy as Ken was away in New York for a Pixar masterclass, so I was trying to balance cakes and kids. I am excited to see the photos, I saw the previews and they are gorgeous. I love Ariel's ballet costume, she was a bluebell and it was just so pretty and sweet.

That weekend also marked the arrival of a new family member, I now have a niece! Miss Natalie arrived weighing in at 10lb 9oz, born at home. We got to finally get over and see her amongst the crazy days so we could email pics to Ken who was eager to get home to meet her too. Ariel is very excited to have a girl cousin finally.

Dance recital this year was 3 days of crazy for me, as I wanted to help every night behind the scenes. It was such a great moment to meet some of the 'pro moms' who have been doing this for years. Ariel only danced 2 nights as they didn't have the little ones do the late night show. The days she did dance she was on fire. She loves an audience and I am so proud of her and her 3 performances. We also learned about some quicker changes this year with more routines come getting into other costumes and hair styles. Those new moms I met came and helped me so much as I was tending to herding the kids onto the stage, I got a clipboard, so you know its an important job, hahaha. I was surprised during the thank yous to get my own bouquet of flowers from the studio for a thank you for sewing some last minute tutus. Ariel presented me with them, which was super sweet!

Ariel and I had fun with the pile of fluff as you can see.

Following the last day of school was Ariel and I getting to go see Taylor Swift together!!!

Lots of our friends from church and the community were going to so we were able to ride down with friends, which was lots of fun for the girls.

We had an amazing time and it was special for the both of us. She loved the dancers she had on stage, including ballet dancers on pointe for 'Love Story'

Then Ken and I celebrated our 12th anniversary! Wow, time sure flies when you are having fun. We celebrated with a movie with the kids, Monster's University. It was a fun time together and we do look forward to a time this summer we can get away ourselves.

Now we are full steam ahead for Ariel's big National pageant. She has raised $800 thus far for Children's Hospital, I am so incredibly proud of her. She is practicing and we are excited to see how she does.  Then we are into Imagine That camp time, so the summer is flying and we are having fun!