Soccer, Soccer, Soccer!!

Our time has been filled with soccer!!  We've had a few rain outs but not many!  Blake and Emerson are really enjoying playing soccer this Spring, we are glad we registered them.  BUT ... Cal coaching both teams and soccer 4 nights a weeks is a bit much for these parents!!!!  We've had our, "OMG, is the season over yet?!" moments, that is for sure!  But all in all, it has been great, certainly a learning experience, but tons of fun and some really great moments for all!!  We've loved bike riding to games, spending the nice-weather evenings outside with friends and the best part of all is seeing how much the kids are enjoying it!  Emerson absolutely loves soccer and I think if she had to choose between dance and soccer, soccer would win hands down :)  We are wondering if we should register her in indoor soccer.  She smiles the entire time she is on the field, it is so awesome to watch!!  Running with a huge grin, it's just the best :)  Emerson and Reese can play on the same team next year, which would be really fun!  We'll see if Reese wants to play!  Blake's loving it as well and has improved so much during the short season!

Since we're in the middle of June already and I don't feel like typing out a novel, here's a quick point-by-point rundown of our May:

-Linds, my Mom and I had a big cook at Lindsay's house!  Super successful, we will be planning more of these in the future :)
- I attended a Mother's Day tea at Emerson's preschool.  I was brought to tears when she ran out of the classroom to bring me into the tea - she was so unbelievably excited, handing me a flower and leading me by my hand to a table.  She served me iced tea and a cookie, we potted a sunflower seed, played games, etc.  It was a wonderful morning :)
- I accompanied Blake and his class on a field trip to the Winnspear.  It was a beautiful production, I really really enjoyed the music and so did Blake!
- Emerson participated in her first ever dance competition!  It was a crazy busy morning doing her hair and makeup and trying to find a parking spot at McEwan!!  And the boys were rushing over to the competition from ball hockey!!  But we made it (thanks Mom for parking my van!!!) and it was all worth it to see her huge grin on stage :)
- Mother's Day was great!  After Church we had my parents over for brunch and then spent the day playing board games and hanging out.  I chose to have taco's for supper ;)
- My Mom treated Lindsay and I to the Luke Bryan concert for Mother's Day!!!  It was AMAZING!  The best concert I have ever been too.  SOOOOOO good, that man can perform (and shake it ;))  Thank you so much Mom, best Mother's Day present ever!
- We had our first camping trip of 2014 on May long weekend!  The annual Cross Lake event!!  Tons of fun, great weather, great friends and family, couldn't ask for more :)  Still in love with our trailer, can't wait for the next trip on July long weekend!
- I went to Fort Edmonton Park with Emerson's preschool.  We had fun and learned a lot about Edmonton's history!  Unfortunately it rained the majority of the field trip, but it sure didn't bother the kids ;)
- We celebrated Emerson's preschool graduation with a fun party and ceremony!  The kids loved the bouncy houses and face painting!  Emerson will certainly miss Lago Lindo Preschool and Mrs. York and Mrs. Chong, who are absolutely fabulous.  She is jealous that Reese will be in Preschool next year!  She's had an awesome 2 years at Lago Lindo and I am glad we aren't saying goodbye quite yet ;)  1 more year for Reese!
- Cal and I attended Emerson's kindergarten orientation with her.  It was nice to see her classroom and meet the new Kindergarten teacher.  Emerson was excited and enjoyed every minute!  She is going to do so well in Kindergarten and is very ready for a new challenge!!
- Cal and Blake put a team together and participated in the CBC Play On street hockey tournament at WEM.  They played 4 games and had a lot of fun.  It was a fantastic event, tons of games going on at once, music, fun and sun!!  Thank goodness for the good weather!  Being the first year we've entered this tournament, it was a learning experience!  But everyone looks forward to putting another team together next year (we'll just make sure we have an actual goalie!!)!
- And last but not least, we celebrated my sister's 30th birthday at the end of May (which also happened to be my parents 34th wedding anniversary!)!!  Jeremy, my Mom and I planned a catered party at Jeremy and Lindsay's.  We had a lot of fun and most importantly, so did the birthday girl :)  I can't believe my baby sister is 30!!  I clearly remember visiting her in the hospital in St. Paul.  Admittedly, my memory is kind of poor, but I do have so many great memories of Lindsay as a baby and little girl!  I look back on photo's and can't believe how adorable she was, with her pinchable cheeks and always with a cute hair cut/style!!  I'm sure there were days, months and even years where we did not get along or weren't the best of friends, but now as adults, she is one of my best friends and I don't know what I would do with out her!!  Thanks Mom and Dad, for giving me a sister :)  One of God's greatest gifts!  Love ya' Linds!

And so that wrap's up May!  Now June is almost 1/2 over and it's already been a very eventful month!!  Looking forward to many more exciting times in June and then ... SUMMER BREAK!!  I can.not.wait.  Seriously, bring on July :)  But we'll update you on June first ... in a few days!

Talk to you soon!

~Tracy

Celebrating Blake's 7th birthday!

Blake had a wonderful birthday - a full 3 day event ;)  Saturday May 3rd was his birthday party at the ACT center.  We rented the gymnasium for an hour and a half of floor hockey fun and then moved in to the Atrium room for an hour of air hockey, late lunch, cake, tattoo's and mini-stick decorating!  Blake had a blast and was so happy to celebrate with many of his classmates and friends and family :)  The kids were certainly tuckered out and hungry after all that floor hockey, I was glad I brought more food than I had originally planned!!  And Blake was excited for the ice cream cake!  He requested an ice cream cake this year, the first one we've ever purchased!  This year we decided to try something different for Blake's birthday party gifts.  We talked about a charity we would like to donate to, in lieu of large birthday gifts.  It worked quite well, we welcomed small gifts and asked for a donation to KidSport as well.  Blake raised $150 for Kidsport!  We're very excited to meet with the folks at KidSport Edmonton and pass over the donation!

On Sunday May 4th we celebrated Blake's birthday with my parents and sister and her family. Everyone came over for dinner and Grandma's home made carrot cake (also requested by Blake!)!!  We had a great dinner and visit :)

And that brings us to Monday May 5th - Blake's actual birth day!!!  Blake brought cupcakes to school for his classmates.  He was also on BBC Kids in the a.m. - Bishop Savaryn's student-ran broadcasting channel!  When it is your birthday you have the option of being on BBC.  I was a bit surprised when Blake told me he was going to go on BBC the morning of his birthday.  Surprised because in the past he has been to shy to go on BBC and was also quite worried a few months ago when he had to say the morning prayer on BBC.  So I was glad he made the decision to go on BBC :)  And he was too!  They gave him a cool 'Happy Birthday' bracelet, which he loved! Monday evening Emerson had dance followed by her first soccer game, so my Mom came in and visited with Blake for awhile and came to dance and soccer with us :)  Blake enjoyed visiting with one of his besties at soccer, while their siblings played :)

Can't wait to see what Blake's 7th year brings!!  Love you buddy!

~Tracy

Blake is 7!

Happy 7th birthday to our baby boy!!  He will forever be our baby boy, irregardless of how old or tall he is ;)  As it is, I feel like he is almost as tall as me :s  He grew up so fast ... literally!!  Such a tall boy for his age.  But I still cuddle him up in my lap and he still enjoys sitting in my lap from time to time.  I'm soaking it up every opportunity I get.

Blake, you bring so much joy to our lives, we love you to pieces!!  You are an awesome big brother to your little sisters and an amazing son, grandson, nephew, classmate and friend :)

You are doing so well in school, making us so very proud!  You are doing fabulous with reading in French and have recently started reading in English!  You've picked up English all on your own and have surprised not only your Dad and I but also yourself.  We often praise you in one thing or another and you shrug it off or act embarrassed and want us to stop but when you read your first English book, we could tell you were really proud of yourself.  As you should be!  You thought that because you were learning French, you would not be able to read in English until it was actually taught to you, but low and behold (and as any French Immersion educator will tell you happens), you picked up on English!  You love math and science and art and DPA (daily physical activity - I believe this is what we old folks called 'Gym'!!).  You enjoy school and love all your friends!  Your love for sports continues - hockey, soccer, baseball, basketball, ball hockey, etc, etc!  You're playing organized soccer for the first time this year and loving every minute!

Thank you so much Blake for bring a smile to our faces and a putting a song in our heart, each and every day.  Every minute is a blessing with you and every day we thank our lucky stars for bringing YOU to us.

xoxo
Mom and Dad

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful 4 day weekend!  It started with a very low-key Friday, standing at the window, watching that icky white stuff fall from sky :s  lol!  We had a nice day at home, despite the weather.  Sometimes these days are greatly needed and most often, greatly appreciated.  We did go out Friday evening, as we planned an impromptu dinner date with the Stony Plain Cameron's!  We had a nice visit and enjoyed catching up.

Saturday afternoon I dropped Blake off a school friends house for a play date with his best buds, Max and James.  And then I headed to Sculpt Barre in Sherwood Park to meet my sister for a fundraiser, "Sculpt for Sight."  A college friend invited me to the event, which was a fundraiser for the CNIB.  Her youngest daughter was born with albinism.  A common affect of albinism is eye sight problems and her family has used many resources at the CNIB and wanted to give back.  It was an awesome class, when they say a 1 lb weight can feel like a 10 lb weight, they aren't kidding! Their tag line is, "Pulse, Shake, Sculpt!" and did I ever shake!!  I loved the class and would like to try it again.  Our class was featured on CTV Edmonton 6 pm news a few days after the event!  I'm not too keen on being on camera, but the editing was excellent ;)  After the class Lindsay and I decided to go for a quick bite to eat and discovered an amazing sushi restaurant that we can't wait to get back too!!

I zipped home to shower and change and pick up Cal and the girls.  We picked up Blake from his play date and went back to Sherwood Park, this time to the Streadwick's house for Easter dinner.  We had a fun evening, as we always do!  We love getting together with them but it doesn't happen often enough with all our busy schedules.  Can't wait to camp with them on May long weekend :)

Saturday night was a very late night for our kiddo's and they sure were tired on Sunday!  They slept in a little bit, but were excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought them when they did rise!!  Sunday morning we attended Church and then came home for the day.  I made a small turkey dinner (turkey roast), which was delicious and it was early to bed for the kid's (trying to make up for the late Saturday night!!)!

Monday we met Christa, Berlyn, Lindsay, Connor and Mason at Prairie Gardens.  Considering it was snowing on Friday, it is almost hard to believe that it was +16 on Monday!!!  I say almost hard to believe because who are we kidding, it's northern AB ... anything is possible when it comes to our weather!  It was a gorgeous day outside and we all had a great time!  There was a petting zoo, egg hunt, puppet show, magic show, train ride, crafts, and more!  I was very glad the weather cooperated and we were able to go :)

We hope you had a great Easter too!!

xo 

Tracy

Dessert Sunday ...

Sunday is always 'dessert Sunday' in our house, which means supper is followed by dessert.  But now we might be adding 'Joke Sunday' to our Sunday tradition ;)

I'm still laughing at Blake, Em and Reese's joke telling!!  The kids have really been into telling jokes lately and tonight at dinner they started in on it!  They went around the table telling jokes.  It was hilarious!!!!  Cal had a great idea, for every joke they told, they had to take 'x' number of bites of supper.  By the end they we were all laughing the hardest we'd laughed in awhile and Blake, Em and Reese's plates were almost empty!  They were all soooo funny!! Their facial expressions, hand gestures and how funny they thought they were, it was awesome!  And a fabulous way to end the weekend, everyone laughing so hard and having a great time :)

Reese and Emerson started swimming lessons on Friday afternoon.  They were extremely excited and spent the afternoon trying on swimsuits and packing their swimming bags!  Blake was disappointed he wasn't in lessons but he'll be quite busy with soccer 3 times a week and ball hockey once a week!  Reese did amazing in her first ever unparented lesson, we're so proud of her!!  She's a little fish and was doing bob's, and trying out assisted-front and back floats with no problem at all :)  During the game "Chop, chop, timber" the instructor asked Reese what kind of tree she was, to which she replied, "A Princess tree."  lol!  Em was unbelievably happy to start again.  When Emerson is happy, you have never seen a happier child in all your life!!  It is amazing.  Of course when she is angry, you've never seen an angrier child in all your life.  When she is sad, you've never seen a sadder child.  Etc, etc, etc.  That's our Em, nothing is half-assed!!!  But back to swimming, she was so, so happy about swimming lessons.  We didn't know who her instructor was but once we got Reese in the right meeting spot, we went in search of Em's group.  I spotted Deanna who has taught all the kids at one point in the past.  I said to Em, "I think Deanna is your instructor, Em!  She's right there."  Em piped up, "OH!  Yeah, I hope she is!  There she is!  She's the best, I love her.  I had her in Bobbers and probably when I was with Dad."  And on and on and on until we reached Deanna and found out that yes, Em is in her class!!  Em was smiling the entire time, like huge ear to ear grin!  And every time we made eye contact, she'd give us the thumb's up!  So sweet :)  We also caught her trying to say hi to Reese from across the pool!

Saturday morning brought Blake's first ball hockey game.  And guess what ... Cal is helping Coach.  Surprise, surprise.  Not enough volunteer's!  Of course we are not surprised, as we come across this EVERYWHERE!!!  Sports, Parent Council, Preschool Board, there are never enough volunteers!  But Cal is glad to help out as secretly, I know he wanted to :)  Blake had a blast and it looks like it will be a fun season!  2 of his school mates are also on his team, which he is excited about!

After ball hockey, we were off to the Edge's 24 hr charity challenge.  Blake was slotted to play in the pre-novice age division from 12 to 1.  We went a bit earlier to register, drop off Blake's pledge's, check out the silent auction and participate in the airplane toss (closest paper airplane to centre ice wins a prize).  This was an excellent event, very well organized and 100% of the donations went to the Matt Cook Foundation.  You can read more about the foundation here: http://www.mattcookfoundation.com/.  Thank you so much to everyone who sponsored Blake.  He had a very hard time speaking to some of his family members but we hope he is learning a valuable lesson about fundraising for charity and the difference he can make in the community.

After Blake's game, we went to BP's for pizza and then home to relax after a pretty busy day :)

Today was Church, yard clean-up and playing outside.  The weather has been okay, a bit on the windy side, but nice enough to be out in hoodies!

Hope you had a great weekend :)

Tracy

Spring Break!

Spring Break 2014 started out with a lot of hard work and ended with a lot of play :)

But I will back peddle to the Saturday before Spring Break and Blake's hockey wind-up party.  Our team manager planned an afternoon of floor hockey, cake and celebration at the ACT Centre.  The kids had a blast playing floor hockey and soccer in the gym!  After spending a few hours together, every weekend over the past 7 months, we will miss this group of people.  Blake has formed some awesome friendships with his teammates.  We'll keep up the play dates and a few of them are going to play in a street hockey tournament together!  Cal received a nice card and gift card from the team and enjoyed handing out certificates and pins to all the players.  Another great hockey season is in the books!

Our new carpet was installed the Tuesday of Spring Break, so Cal and I spent all day Monday moving our family room and 3 bedrooms into the front room and basement.  The kids were so good, thank goodness for iPad's!  Sometimes an abundance of screen time is just necessary!!!  And since they don't get a whole lot, when they get free reign, they are very occupied!!  Monday afternoon we headed to my parents house to spend a few nights.  The kids were super excited to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's, although disappointed that G&G weren't home!  Cal and I laughed that 2 nights in Stony Plain was their Spring Break vacation and found it quite cute (& hilarious) that they were so excited to pack their suitcases and stay only 45 minutes away from home!!  I often say, and I'm not joking, with our kids it really is the little things ... and I love that!

Cal drove back to the house to let the carpet installers in on Tuesday morning.  He worked most of Tuesday and monitored the workers.  They were done around 9 pm.

Lindsay and the boys came to visit the kids and I on Tuesday and after witnessing the abundance of energy amongst the four oldest children, we made a quick decision to take them to the Tri Leisure Centre in Spruce Grove to hopefully burn off some of that energy!!  They had fun in the gymnasium and in the play gym and were all excited to get a Booster Juice ;)  Before supper we went on a nice walk and let them burn off some more energy!  Supper was followed by bath's!  It was a great day!

Wednesday morning we packed up, cleaned up (note to Mom & Dad: I really tried to leave the house as we found it!!!) and headed home to check out our new carpet.  I was so excited to see it and I was not disappointed!  It looks so good (although a touch darker than I had anticipated)!  No more yucky, old carpet.  Now the challenge is to keep this carpet in good condition ... and that will involve protecting it from Heidi and Jazz' snags and scratches and accidents more than policing the kids!!!  We promptly trimmed Jazz' nails as soon as we got home!   Wednesday was a long day, trying to get the beds back together (bunk bed assembly = a royal PITA!!!) and the house somewhat back together.  The play room is still a mess and needs to be better organized, but we've closed that door and will get to it one day!!  It was great to get everything somewhat organized and dusted and back to normal before our bedtime!  We were completely wiped out!

Thursday was another date with Lindsay and the boys (LOVING being able to see them so often!!)!  1st lunch at Olive Garden (which was delicious but busy as we juggled 5 busy kids (3 which kept us busier than the other 2)!!), 2nd stop was Build-A-Bear!!  It was Connor's turn to build a bear for his 2nd birthday present from Cal, the kids and I :)  At first Connor seemed smitten with a sparkly, sort of 'girlie' bunny so we showed him another more gender neutral bunny and he grabbed it!  Not that a boy can't have a sparkly, pretty teddy bear but as I explained to Blake when he asked why we didn't get him the sparkly bunny, we'd like Connor to continue to enjoy his stuffie even when he's a bit older and maybe when he's older he wouldn't like the sparkles!!  Blake was satisfied with that answer!  Connor's bunny, a.k.a. Tommy, is sporting a hoodie and is pretty cute!  Lindsay says Tommy has slept with Connor and been drug around the house!  We're happy to know Tommy is being properly loved :)  I told the kids they could pick something out for their bears once Connor had finished making his bear, but of course they couldn't wait and were piling the items up as Connor and I built his bear!!  In the end Sam (Blake's bear) got a new t-shirt and a hockey stick and puck, Honey Bear (Emerson's bear) got a new sleeping bag and a brush and Rosie (Reese's bear) got a tutu-type dress!

Friday brought a lot of excitement, as we had a long-standing play date scheduled at a school friend's house!  The kids could not wait to go to Max and Ava's!!  When we got to the house, all the kids were screaming and jumping up and down and hugging.  So funny!!  The other Mom's and I always joke that every time they see each other, it's as if they haven't seen each other in 6 months and every time they say goodbye to each other, it's as if they won't see each other for another 6 months!  Too cute!  We had a great time, they all play so well together :)  We were there for 5 hours and it felt like 1.

Saturday was BLANK on our calendar.  This is very, very rare.  Never happens!  I don't know the last time we had absolutely no obligations or plans made!  It was soooo nice!  We made a Costco run, had lunch out and played outside for hours.  Some of the neighbourhood kids were out and they all rode bikes together and played street hockey in our driveway.  It was very nice :)

Sunday was fairly low-key with Church and a visit in the afternoon from the Stecyk's.  Blake passed on his train table to Connor.  He was hesitant but I did not tell him he was giving the table to Connor, I said he was lending it to Connor and I also mentioned that although he loves his trains, he does not play with the train table but that I thought that he and Connor would really love playing trains at Connor's house when we visit :)  Blake took that in, processed it and agreed :) 

All in all it was a busy Spring Break but we had a wonderful time and found it too short!

May and June are shaping up to be insanely busy (and I will likely be insane by the end of June!)! This is why (other than school of course):

Monday - Emerson has dance and soccer

Tuesday - Blake has soccer

Wednesday - Emerson has soccer

Thursday - Blake has soccer

Friday - Reese and Emerson have swimming lesson's

Saturday - Blake has ball hockey and soccer practice

Sunday - Church and hopefully nothing else!!

Our kids are always in bed by 7 and with soccer from 6 to 7, they will be in bed later.  I am praying they will adjust to this but know that they do not do well with late bedtimes :(  Which is normally a-okay with us, in fact we prefer them to get a solid 11-12 hrs of sleep nightly, but Blake and Emerson realllllly wanted to play soccer!  So ... we will see how it goes!  Maybe they'll start sleeping in a little later?!  Although we need to be out the door at 8 so they really can't sleep in too much later!!

Throw in a dance competition, a dance recital, 2 soccer tournament's and 1 street hockey tournament into the weekend time and that is our May and June in a nutshell!  I am realllly looking forward to camping and relaxing on May long weekend and I have a feeling I will be happy to see the end of June!

Joking aside, I do look forward to enjoying Blake and Em's enthusiasm for soccer.  I can not wait for Em's dance comp and recital and both Em and Reese are extremely excited for swimming! Blake is pumped for ball hockey, the more hockey the better for that boy and the Play On street hockey tournament at WEM is going to be awesome.  We have scheduled ourselves to be this busy, so I will not complain ... ;)  Cal is broadening his horizon's and adding to his coaching resume ... yes, he's coaching BOTH Blake and Emerson's soccer teams!  What a guy, we're so lucky :) :)  He's enrolled in a coaches clinic at the end of April and is going to ask a friend of his who is from El Salvador and is a fantastic soccer player, to come show the kids a thing or two!  Cal's coaching both teams with a friend (Dad of one of Blake's classmates) and I know the two of them will have a great time, as will both teams!

It looks as though my short Spring Break post has turned into a long rambling post, so I will sign off ;)  We hope you also enjoyed your Spring Break and are getting back into the swing of 'routine'!

xo

Tracy

Playing catch up ...

I feel like a dog chasing my tail most days ... not a visual I like but a fitting analogy none-the-less!!

March is nearly over and it's been a great month!  Actually, I'll go back to the end of February and teacher's convention.  Blake and I hit Sundridge on the Thursday for a day of skiing/snowboarding with friends.  Blake sure loves snowboarding and I enjoy having an excuse to ski ;)  The morning started out quite warm but it soon took a turn for the worse!  The wind was soooo cold.  It was a good thing Blake and I both had balaclava's on!  Blake didn't want to go in to warm up, no matter what!  He rode that bunny hill until the second we had to leave!!!  I'm glad we got out on teacher's convention, as his school trip that was planned for March 19th was cancelled due to warm weather (which I'm chuckling about now, as we are once again below zero and there's a fresh layer of snow on the ground!!  Good 'ol AB weather!!).  On Friday I had a Cameron's Closet meet, so the 3 kids got to come along for the ride!  They really don't mind and it is a lot easier to bring them along now vs. 3 years ago when I began this venture!  After the meets we went to the Tamminga's house for a play date.  Blake and Bradley are best of friends but rarely get to see each other, so it was great for them to spend the afternoon together.  

March has brought many other exciting events:

- all 3 kids had another sleepover at G&G D's, while Cal and I celebrated a friends 40th birthday.  They had a blast, as did we!

- we registered Reese for preschool, starting in September!  M/W/F a.m.  She's excited and more than ready!

- my sister and family moved to Edmonton (so, so, so exciting, I can't even put into words how happy I am about this move!!)

- we finally got to meet our new nephew Mason and the kids got to meet their new cousin!  They were very, very excited to meet Mason and hold him :)

- my parents headed south with their 5th wheel for their annual spring vacation, we miss them already!

- Blake and the Bobcats participated in the Timbits tournament on the 15th and 16th.  It was a fun weekend, spent at the rink with teammates and friends.  We all enjoyed a team lunch at BP's and 3 well-played games!  I'm very proud of all the kids on the team, everyone has improved immensely!  I'm most especially proud of my boys.  I'm really looking forward to Novice next year!  Bring on the competition ;)  Not keeping score was okay for a bit but I'm ready to get into full-on hockey Mom mode ... where's my cow bell?!  Ha ha ha!

- I accompanied Em and her preschool to the Muttart for a field trip.  It was a fantastic morning!  The most exciting part was when the kids all got to release a ladybug!  Such a fun field trip and very educational :)

- Blake's second report card of the year was fabulous and his Demo of Learning even more fabulous!!  We're so proud of Blake and his eagerness for learning.  He is a great student and classmate.

- and last, but not least, WE'RE GETTING NEW CARPET!!  Okay, I'm just a little bit excited ... but seriously, get this old, gross carpet outta my house.  Can't wait to see the new carpet in and breathe a sigh of relief ;)

We're looking forward to the remainder of March and patiently waiting for the Spring-like weather to return ... 

xo

Tracy