Reese's Kindergarten Orientation

Reese had her kindergarten orientation this morning ... yes, I'm serious.  I can.not.believe.it. In September our baby will be attending kindergarten!  She's kinda an old hand at kindergarten, seeing as she's been in the classroom numerous times, sees Mme. Sina 2-3x a day and is at the school 2x a day!!  It really was no big deal to her ;)  And kindergarten is only 1 more morning a week, as compared to preschool.  So, she'll do great!!  She is going to try riding the bus home on the afternoon kindergarten bus.  Hopefully it goes okay!  That way I will only have to go to the school two times a day vs three!!  Reese and I have been doing some school work.  All I can say is she is STUBBORN!!  Like, really.  I think we all say our children are stubborn and I think all children are stubborn to a certain degree ... Reese takes it up a notch ;)  Good thing is, she tends to follow direction and listen better to non-family members!!  I've already joked with Mme. Sina that she will have her hands full next year ;)  At home right now, we're mostly working on letters and numbers.  She's doing great but we have to work in very short spurts!!  I have no doubt, she is a smart cookie, she just has a different learning style from Blake and Em.  And that's okay, it's just not as 'easy' for Cal and I!!  Orientation didn't bring us any new info, seeing as this is our third time around ;)  But Reese enjoyed hanging out in the classroom and it was nice to see some of the faces who will be Reese's classmates next year!  So now Reese is successfully orientated and ready to start Kinder in September :)

Cuteness overload, heading to orientation!!

Listening intently!

Play On!

This past weekend was spent at the Hockey Night in Canada Play On street hockey tournament at WEM!!  Cal entered a team in this tournament last year but we were a little unprepared for the competitiveness ;)  So this year, we were ready!!!  The boys had a great tournament.  We didn't win but each game was very close and a few games we were up and lost in the last few minutes :(  The team we lost out to in the semi-finals, went on to take silver!  So although we lost, we were right in there and happy with our games!  The best part of all was spending the weekend with friends and making new friends!  Saturday night a few of the players and families got together for a BBQ and we had the BEST time.  We were up late that night and played at 8 am the next morning ... so needless to say, everyone was ready for a quite Sunday afternoon ;)  Here's a few pics from the weekend:

#4 ready to go!

The NorthSide Kings!

My boys

Blake, Emerson and Reese with Louie the Lion

Brag alert!!

When I picked Emerson up from school on Friday her teacher pulled me aside.  I thought I was in for another story of Emerson's imagination at work but she wanted to talk to me about Emerson's love of learning!  Mme. Sina told me that Emerson was a very smart girl!  A few months ago she asked me if we speak French at home.  I told her we didn't.  She then asked who Emerson's converses with in French.  Again, I said no one!  Mme Sina was very surprised, she said Em has picked up French so quickly and can understand everything she is saying.  Then on Friday she told me that Emerson is often the first one to answer her questions in class and often the only one to raise her hand to answer the question!  She said she has expressed a great interest in reading and Mme Sina has been working with her on both French and English reading, even though in FI Kindergarten, reading instruction is not part of the curriculum.  I was so, so happy to hear this and very proud of Em :)  I know she's a smart little cookie but it's great to hear this type of feedback from her teacher!  Everyday she comes home talking about everything she's learned in school that day - just this week she said to me, "Mom, did you know the whole world is made of molecules?  Tiny, little molecules.  All made of different things.  Even us, Mom!"  We will be keeping up with learning this summer and I can't wait for grade 1, she's more than ready for the challenge!!  

Signed,

1 proud Mom :) 

May wrap up

Oh May ... oh may, oh may.  You have been a whirlwind of fun and insanity!!  May's been very busy.  And I hate to always talk about how busy life is but yeah, it's busy.  And May was busier.  But all good :)  So there ya go, busy but good ... no complaints, just facts ... lol!

With the Preschool board elections happening for next year, School Council elections and wrap up, planning of the teacher's appreciation luncheon, Preschool graduation/year end party, power skating wrapping up, Cal away at the end of the month, a street hockey tournament, a quick road trip to SK with my parents and sister, finale week at the dance studio, recital day, a few birthday parties and lacrosse, we were on the go wayyyy more than usual!!

A huge thank you to my parents who helped us out here and there this month and allowed me to still attend all the events/meetings/whatever else was on the calendar, while Cal was in Calgary!  Life-savers as usual or maybe I should say sanity-savers?!  A few good friends were also a great help and at these times I am always extra thankful for our 'villiage'.

I had a great trip to SK with my parents and sister.  Lindsay and I rode in the back of the truck, like the good 'ol days!!  I thought I'd sleep more and maybe have time to write out thank you cards to the sponsors of the school spaghetti dinner and silent auction, but I did neither or those and the trip seemed to fly by!  It was great to see some of our Smith family and I'm glad we were able to celebrate Michelle and Austin's marriage! 

While I was in SK, Cal and the kids were at the Road Rage Street Hockey Tournament in St. Albert!  Blake and a few friends formed a team and participated in this tournament and will play in the upcoming Play On tournament at WEM.  Sounds like they had a blast, the weather was hot and the snow cones were cold!  Cal said the girls were great and thankfully Reese didn't get lost (she's prone to that.).  Our good friends the Weaver's have a fabulous Mom/MIL who lives with them and loves our girls and thankfully she (aka Nanna) had fun with the girls on the sidelines and said they were great!


June's calendar is looking blank compared to May's and I am looking forward to slowing down, just a bit ;)

~ Tracy

Powerhouse Dance Year End Recital!

Saturday morning was the girls dance recital at Myer Howeritz theater on the U of A campus.  This was Reese's first time performing on stage!  Em's an old pro ;)

The morning went well.  I have to admit, I am not the best person to apply makeup and do up do's, but we got an early start and the girls were actually the first ones to arrive at the theatre.  Very rare for our family ... at least these past few years!!  At one point in my life, I was always the early bird!!

Mom, Dad, Connor and Mason came to watch the recital and we were first in line and had great seats!  The girls did so well!!  This was Reese's first time on stage and she had no problem at all!  No stage fright ;)  Her dance was super cute and she had most of the moves down pat!  Their teacher does the dance from the side of the stage, so they have a lot of cuing ;)  Emerson's group did great, better than the competition in my opinion!  It was fun to watch the girls dance and the finale was also cute!  It was  a great year of dance :)  Here are a few photo's from recital day:

Proud big brother!

Flowers from Grandma and Grandpa D!

Family pic after the recital :)

Reese's 1st recital and 1st bouquet of flowers :)

Reese's Preschool Graduation

It has arrived.  Reese has graduated from preschool!  I'm sure she went from being 1 to 4 ... I'm sure she skipped a few years somewhere, somehow.  

Our baby will be going to Kindergarten in September.  We are all signed up for our Kindergarten Orientation in mid-June and she is excited!  I am not so excited, although in reality she will only be gone from home for 1 more morning a week!  So really, Kindergarten won't be much different than Preschool, in terms of hours away from home.  Grade 1 will be a different story and I'm just not prepared to even think about my baby being in Grade 1!!!

Preschool graduation went as it should - the kids sang a few cute songs, received their 'diplomas', gifts from their teachers, bounced in the bouncy house, had their faces painted, ate delicious snacks, ran around like animals, had a blast and took numerous cute photo's!!  

We're so proud of Reese and how well she has done at preschool.  She's loved her preschool class and teachers and has made some great friends, who we will try to keep in touch with! 

Here are a few photo's from her very last day at preschool:

Reese, ready for her preschool graduation :)

Quick pick with Blake and Em :)

Reese the graduate!

Big smile, while performing "I'm a Little Graduate!"

Reese with our awesome preschool teachers, Mrs. Chong and Mrs. York

Besties - Erin, Reese and Maya

Gorgeous face painting!

May Long Weekend

We're back from another great May long weekend camping trip to Cross Lake Provincial Park!!  This year our group consisted of the Cameron's, the Stecyk's, the Smith's, the Streadwick's, the Scott's and the Richter's!  The weather was good ... so long as it doesn't snow on May long weekend, I am happy ;)  But with that being said, snow is not uncommon on May long weekend!!  We had a bit of wind and the temps didn't get up high enough to tube/swim/water ski but no snow and no rain, so we'll take it!!  The kids had a blast, biking, running, playing and hanging out with friends and cousins!  The adults had a great time too, eating, drinking, visiting, walking, pushing the kids on the swings, joining in the baseball games, etc.  The kids got out on Grandma and Grandpa D's boat and even caught a fish or two!!  They were hoping to get in the water but it was too cold!  We have a weekend planned with my parents in August, so I'm sure they'll get lots of boat/water time in at that time!  I love May long weekend. It's like the official kickoff to summer for our family!  Here are a few photo's from our weekend:

Cal and Brad cook up a great breakfast that could feed a lot of the campground!!

Great games of baseball played this weekend.  Loved throwing the ball around and seeing my kids and family having as much fun as me :)  Sure miss this game!!!

Bike ride with Grandma!  Em mastering her new bike, with a lot of help from Grandpa :)

Heading out fishing!!