Ladies night out!!

I had the best time at the Dixie Chicks concert on September 29th with some of my Bishop Savaryn besties!!  I'm so grateful for this wonderful group of women :) And bonus, our kids enjoy eachother's company!  But this night was all about the mom's - we hit Rogers Place for dinner and the 'chicks!  It was my first time inside Rogers Place and I was slightly disappointed.  It was nice and all but I just found it to be somewhat bare - monotone, grey, as though they're not quite finished??  It is definitely easier to get around and not as crowded, which is really nice.  The line ups for drinks were no shorter than at Rexall Place but the bathroom line ups were a much shorter, so that's great!  We had dinner at Curve, which was a cool experience.  To access the restaurant, you need to be escorted to the elevators.  Needless to say, the six of us felt 'special' as we walked past the line ups of people waiting for the concert doors to open and zipped right in, escorted by a burly security guard, lol!!  The food and drinks at Curve were delicious although slightly over-priced. The Dixie Chicks were great but I felt they put on a better show in Vancouver.  Loved seeing them again, though :)

Reese

Last but certainly not least is Miss Reese Petyon Anne!!  aka, Reesey, Goose and Reester.  And apparently some of her friends call her Reese's Pieces!

Reesey is doing so great in Grade 1!  I really expected her to complain about being at school all day but she hasn't uttered one complaint!  She's enjoying herself and I am already seeing growth in her learning.  I spoke to her teacher last week and Mme. Khair said she is participating a lot in class, which is awesome as last year she didn't really participate.  She loves Mme. Khair and I think she may have needed a bit more structure in her day, which grade one offers.  So here's hoping for a fantastic grade 1 experience for Reese :)  We're off to a good start!!

Reese had her hair cut before school began and her new and shorter 'do just suits her so much!!  She sure has her own sense of style ... she likes to do her hair in various styles but her favorite is a ponytail on one side of her head, some hair hanging in her face and her hair in the back is down.  It's an interesting and unique look for an interesting and unique girl :)

All summer long Reese has said she didn't want to play ringette.  But guess who's changed her mind?!  As soon as we started talking about Em playing ringette, Reese changed her mind!  And now she is super excited to start her ringette season!  She will be in Active Start 2 this year, which is every Sunday and on Thursdays every second week.  She starts on October 2nd. We have to by her a new pair of skates before she starts, her skates from last year are 3 sizes too small!

Reese began piano lessons at the beginning of September.  We enrolled her in group piano lessons at a local music school, called Dominelli's. Reese has had two lessons and is enjoying herself so far!  She needs a keyboard to practice at home but a little birdie told me she may be getting one for her birthday in November ;)

Reese is a social butterfly at school, she seems to know everyone in grade 1!  She loves to stay at the park after school and play with her friends, especially her bestie, Alexa!  She's been to 3 birthday parties this month and has another one on October 1st.  I have a feeling this busy social calendar is not going to slow down for her!!

Reese is a cuddly, sweet, sometimes quiet, goofy, risk-taking, funny girl and we just love her so much!!

Emerson

Next up is the middle child in our family, Miss Emerson Marie or Em the gem, Em or Emmy!!

Emerson is LOVING school!  She has an awesome teacher, someone who I just knew would click with Em!  Her classroom is nature based and Em loves every minute :) We love seeing her so happy at school.  She has a great group of friends, although a new 'BFF' everyday.  I guess it's a girl thing but I am just so happy she has a nice group of friends. She's had quite a few playdates at her friend Faith's house and Faith has come to our house :) 

Emerson is becoming more and more cognizant of what she's wearing and how her hair is done and I love her sense of fashion :)  It's so much fun to shop with her!!  She's always been particular about her clothes but she's now really into pairing items together, along with accessories.  Not just throwing a pink dress with pink leggings because they're both pink ;) It's fun for both of us!!

Emerson's ringette team was just announced tonight and she is so excited to be playing with a few of her friends from last year's team and a fellow hockey sister!!  We're really happy to be spending the ringette season with the Chorney's :)  Emerson skated hard during evaluations and had a blast!  I think she's going to have a great ringette season! This year she moved up to U10 ringette.  There are 3 steps - step 3, 2, 1.  Em's on a step 3 team this year.  She'll likely have 2 practices and 1 game per week.  We can't wait to cheer her on!!

Em is back at Ukrainian dance this season and says it will be a will a really great year because there's 2 boys in her group!  And I agree, adding males to the group will make a much more dynamic dance.  I can't wait to see them perform!! She moved up a level this year and is now practicing for an hour and fifteen minutes per week.

Em is a sweet, spunky, loving, beautiful and sometimes emotional, little girl who has the brightest smile :) Love you so much, Em!!

Blake

I thought I'd write a little update on all of the Cameron kiddo's!

I'll go in order of oldest to youngest, so first up is Mr. Blake Smith:

Back to school has been a smooth transition for Blake; although he is a little bit more tired than usual!  Blake was excited to be able to join the Cross Country Running Club this year, as grades 4-6 can participate.  He has running club every Monday and Wednesday from 3 -4 pm.  Today he was so excited that he ran in the 'fast' group and ran 5 laps around the school property!  They have a run on the 20th at Laurier Park, which he's looking forward to!  Blake's enjoying having a male teacher in grade 4 this year and getting back into the swing of school aka hanging out with his besties again ;)

Blake started rep conditioning camp back on August 18th.  Conditioning camp rolled into evaluations and finally, teams were made this past Sunday.  It felt like a very long process ;)  Cal coached during conditioning camp and evaluations.  He was interviewed and chosen as a tier 2 coach, way back in the spring.  Of course his coaching job was dependant on Blake making a team.  Blake skated hard and made the KC Crusaders - Atom minor AA (playing tier 2 in EMHA)!  I'm so proud of him and we're all looking forward to another great hockey season!  Go Crusaders Go!!!

Blake is really into a series of books called 39 Clues.  He started reading them this summer, after a recommendation from an employee at Chapter's.  He was very excited when my Mom found a large set of the books at a used book store in Spruce Grove!  Of course she bought them for him, I mean who can say no to a child who has a love for reading!!  He's making his way through them and it warms my book-loving heart to see him enjoying reading :)

So many nights I look in at Blake before I go to bed and I see this long, gangly kid who takes up nearly all of his single bed.  But then I look up at his face and see my sweet 9 year old, often cuddled up with his blanket and special teddy bear and my eyes well up because man, time flies.  I don't want him to grow up so fast but on the other hand, this age is really awesome. I love his insights, his personality, his questions and just spending time with him. Jazz sleeps with Blake every night which seems to have brought them closer!  During the day Blake is always very concerned with where Jazz is.  He's worried Jazz has escaped outside, it's very sweet.

We love our kind, intelligent, funny, handsome, strong, loving boy!

Wrapping up Summer 2016!

We're well on our way to Fall 2016, so I will wrap up the summer updates ;)  It was such a jam-packed, fun-filled summer and I want to remember every moment ... 

On the 27th of July we celebrated a good friends birthday with a surprise backyard BBQ at the Parenteau's!  Many of our mutual friends gathered for Eric's BBQ and it was great to see everyone.  This group of friends is so much fun and we always have a lot of laughs together ;) 

We had a great Edmonton Valley Zoo date with the Stony Plain Cameron's on August 15th!  Our zoo may be small and many areas need updating but we always enjoy our visits!  It's the perfect place to spend a warm, summer day :)

Reese, Blake, Emerson, Colby, Jenna and LUCY!!

I was so excited to hear that the Hrdlicka's were in town and free for a play date!!  We met up with them on August 16th - It was HOT that week, so we met the crew at a new spray park in Sherwood Park.  As always, we had a fabulous time!  The kids always pick up where they left off, just like bff's do ;)  The park was awesome, a new fave for sure!

Thanks for the ice-cream, Uncle Brandon!  This was such a hot day, it was awesome spray park weather :)

On the 29th of August we checked off a summer bucket list item, when we met our friends the Capicio's and the Stecyk's at the Kinsmen Park!  This is such a gorgeous park, nestled in the River Valley and we really wanted to spend some time there this summer!  Glad we fit that in ;)  And as always, it's great to hang with Lindsay, Connor and Mason and we were excited to visit with Melissa, Daeton and Domingo, who we don't get to see very often.

Beautiful, Kinsmen park in the middle of #yeg!

Annnd to finish off these wicked summer updates, I bring you - LAZY DAYS at HOME!!!  From all I've wrote and if you follow me on Instagram (meetthecamerons5), you may think we were go, go, go all summer.  But that's not true!  We had plenty of care-free, unscheduled, LAZY days at home ;)  On most of those days I did not get out of bed until 9/9:30 ish and on a lot of those days I didn't change out of my pj's until after noon (kids included!!)

And few other awesome summer memories ... in photo's :)

Another fabulous day at Summerside Beach Club!!  So grateful to my sister for inviting us to join them!!

Back to school 'do's!  Reese had quite a few inches cut off and it suits her so much!  Em had her ends cleaned up and a beautiful heart braid, just gorgeous :)

Back to school/work mani's for the girls!

A fun night at the Lupul's house, here the girls are playing 'makeover' :)

 Thank you for all the memories, summer 2016!! I've enjoyed sharing them with you all and especially can't wait to look back on them, one day down the road :)

xo
Tracy

Flight School!

 On August 27th Blake participated in the COPA for kids flight school program at Villeneuve Airport.  I found out about this amazing opportunity from the Raising Edmonton blog.  He had such a great time!  It was an amazing experience, I can't believe this program is offered free of charge.  A HUGE thank you to all the volunteers!!  Participants must be 8 years old, so next year Emerson looks forward to attending!  Check out these photo's from Blake's COPA experience:

Ground school complete!  Boarding pass in hand :)

A close up of the boarding pass :)

Blake brought my phone and took some photo's from the air!

A bird's eye view of Rogers Place!

Back from his 45 min flight, with his first entry in his log book!  Such a cool experience!!

Reese and Em, with Blake in the plane behind them (returning from his flight)!

Summer Camps

The week of August 22 to 26th all the kids were in summer camps!  Cal had most of the week off because we were headed in two separate directions - Cal and Blake to Callingwood arena for the Jason Strudwick Defencemen camp and the girls and I to Servus Place for their day camp called Kool Kidz.  It was a good week for the kids to be in camp, as I was feeling very under the weather :(  I actually had a hard time driving the girls to camp a couple of mornings.  I had a sinus/sore throat/cough/cold thing going on and it hung on for what felt like forever.  I'm finally feeling better - just in time for back to work/school ;)  Towards the end of the week Cal and Blake actually caught it as well and I had to take Blake to his asthma doctor as his cough and shortness of breath was getting worse and worse.  I'm glad I took him in as the dr. explained that asthma patients suffer much worse with the common cold as compared to us 'regular' folk.  So he upped his asthma meds and within a week Blake was doing a lot better!  Anyways, back to camp!  The kids all LOVED their camps.  Blake was SO extremely happy to be in a defencemen camp, as all they did was defense drills :)  He made some new friends at camp and had a great week!  He was also pretty happy to be coached by a former Oiler and fellow defenceman ;)  The girls had a blast at their camp!  They did so many fun activities - swimming, art, science experiments, water games, indoor sports and games, etc, etc.  They loved their leaders and also made some new friends!  Here are some photo's from their week:

All ready for Day 1 of summer camp: Kool Kidz at Servus Place!!  Monday to Friday, 9 am to 2 pm

Back from Day 1 of Jason Strudwick defencemen camp - alllll smiles ;)

A sign of a great day at camp - wet hair from swimming and paint all over from multiple art projects :)

Beautiful art work and wet hair from swimming all morning = super fun day at camp!!

Celebrating a great week at camp with brunch and a Shirley Temple!

And these girls celebrated their awesome week with a Booster Juice :)