games

When I read through my blog I realize I tend to focus on Leah's current stage, and what we are leaving behind.  Which is natural I suppose, she is my last baby and it is bittersweet to leave those precious baby and toddler years behind.  However, there are also lots of amazing things about having older kids, and playing games is one of them for me.

There are many board and card games I love to play, but scrabble tops the list.  And I especially love playing now with my new deluxe scrabble I received for Christmas from Kyle.  I'm overboard a tad bit on the crazy side when it comes to keeping the tiles all perfectly lined up.  On our old board I would spend way too much time straightening out tiles.  Now with the deluxe version everything stays in place which is oh so nice.  Yes, these are the things that make me happy.

One of my favourite things about Kyle getting older is being able to play a full game with him.  Real games like scrabble, backgammon and chess.  Don't get me wrong, I've played my fair share of candyland and hi-ho-cherryo.  Although I will admit Leah gets much less game time than Kyle and Jillian at the same age - it's fun to be the third kid with parents who have already played candyland too many times to count.  I do enjoy playing games with Jillian, and she's great at Uno which is another good game to play.  But playing a real game of scrabble with a worthy opponent is definately a perk of having an older kid (too bad it comes along with a tween attitude!).  It's interesting to see the vast difference between Kyle and Leah's ages, the 7 year age gap will be nothing once they are adults but right now it's huge.  I do love the age spread of my children and getting to parent these different stages at the same time.

When we play scrabble it's a toss up as to who wins, Kyle is quite good at using those extra point squares.  Recently we even had a game where all the tiles were used which was rare, we often have 1 or 2 leftover at the end. 

* all words on this board have been verified in the official scrabble players dictionary...no real scrabble player plays without the official dictionary!

monday, monday

Right now Mondays are one of my favourite days of the week.  I know, I'm in the minority.  For starters it's pizza lunch day at school for Kyle and Jillian, which means no lunches to pack.  As for Leah and I, Mondays are the only completely free day we have together.  As of next week Leah has a preschool dance class on Wednesday mornings and Friday mornings it's gymnastics.  While it's great to be able to enjoy the activities with Leah during the week when things aren't busy and hectic, there's something about having nothing to do which is nice.

Soon the weather will be nicer outside to enjoy and I'm sure Leah and I will spend many Mondays going to the playground.  But for now it's still quite chilly, so this Monday we hung out in pjs all morning, and shared tea.  This is lemon green tea with some sugar added.  Both of my girls love having tea and will drink any kind I give them.

Then we did some cleaning and tidying.  Leah loves to swiffer, and I love I can shorten the pole so no walls are damanged in the process!

I wonder how much longer Leah will be helping me clean with a smile on her face.  Kyle and Jillian already moan and groan when it's time to do chores for their allowance.

March Break

Since I'm at home now and the kids were off school for the week, the 4 of us took off to Montreal for March Break.  The main reason was to meet and spend time with Alicia. 

But it was also nice to hang out and have fun.  Especially since it was not a school holiday in Montreal, so everything was quite empty (unlike doing march break activities in the GTA!).  My sister lives right beside a beautiful park with tons of snow so the kids had fun sliding around in the park since some good sized snow hills combined with a slight thaw, rain and re-freeze provided cool ice slides.  We also hit the Biodome, the kids loved exploring every bit.  There is a neat area with tons of things for hands on touching which kept the big kids entertained for ages...

We enjoyed the view in all the different ecosystems of the Americas, here they are in the Laurentian Maple Forest...

My favourite was the Labrador Coast, I think I'll need to take a trip there and see it in real life one day.

Penguins in the Sub-Antarctic Islands

Of course any outing with my kids would be incomplete without the goofiness...Jillian getting eaten by an alligator in the Tropical Rainforest, Kyle transformed into a bat and my 3 little hatchlings

My amazing 9 year old holding up the whole world, it's a tough job but someone's gotta do it!

It was a lovely, relaxing week.  Spending time with my sister, brother-in-law and Alicia was amazing.  I also loved the nice selection of french books available at the book store for Kyle and Jillian.  Even in the dollar store, a french book for a dollar (!)...I pay a small fortune for them here.  The drive to and from Montreal was smooth both ways, now that I'm travelling with 3 kids and no baby life is definately easier.  They can keep themselves occupied and fewer stops are required.  I've already warned my sister we will likely be back next year!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

We have a new member of the family to celebrate with us this year!!

introducing Alicia

My first niece (I have 4 teenage nephews!).  My sister and her husband are very content in parenthood for the first time.  After a slight delay due to Jillian's ear infection, I finally got on the road to Montreal with all 3 kids.  The drive went quite smoothly, the dvd player and DSi were highly in use.  But we also did some innukshuk hunting on the big rocks alongside the highway.

Once we arrived the kids literally could not wait to get their hands on their new cousin...

And neither could I!

The kids took turns holding Alicia, they were all so gentle and good with her.  I gave Leah the first turn as she's never held a baby before.  I can't even describe how excited she was to meet and hold Alicia, but I think this picture shows it a little bit at least.

Kyle and Jillian were excited to have their turns.  As happy as I am the kids are enjoying their new niece, they do take away from my own holding time!

And here are the proud new parents, my sister and brother-in-law (who has been treating us to some very yummy food since we have been here).

Today we went to the local park in the morning, and then to the mall in the afternoon where Jillian spent her allowance and Kyle had earned a new book (he's currently making his way through the Silverwing series).  Tomorrow we will go to the Biodome.

last day of work!

It's official, I'm unemployed. 

I'm looking forward to...
- spending more time with my little Leah while she is still a preschooler (judging by how fast my other 2 have grown up I'm going to blink and she will be in grade 1!)
- spending more time on myself, getting into shape and being healthy
- not being on my laptop at 2:00am doing work

pile-up

The kids LOVE when Jeff gets home from work...

Where's Kyle?  I almost didn't notice him the first time I glanced at this picture

(you can see here by Jeff's face what he considers to be the important things in life)

my 9 year old makes me smile

Kyle enjoys changing our screen saver regularly.  Here's the lastest one he chose...

snow fun

Nothing beats these good ol' Canadian winters...the kids all love playing in the snow.  Kyle and Jillian built quite an elaborate fort in the front yard.  And they all love to get their shovels out to help with the driveway (and then proceed to lose interest in actually clearing the snow within a few minutes). 

The fort taking shape

wraps

I had bought a kids hair book on clearance a little while ago, it has instructions for different kinds of braids and hair wraps along with some cute accessories like beads.  Tonight we finally pulled it out and I made my first attempt at hair wraps.  The girls both sat so nicely for the whole process and I think they turned out quite cute!

Here's Leah saying "one more picture and then Dora?"

I'm struck so many moments these days by how grown up Jillian is looking.  Where did my tiny baby girl go?

These pictures also show the gorgeous celtic cross necklaces my Aunt Jean bought each of the girls for their baptism.  I've had them put away for years and recently took them out of the boxes for the girls to enjoy.  I love theirs so much I bought myself a sterling silver version.

Big change

After much debate and discussion in our house, I have decided to leave work and stay at home.  This is a big step for me, to let go of the only career I've had since graduating from university.  The fact is I haven't been focused on my career for quite some time.  I've been working part-time, thinking I could have the best of both worlds but with the career I was in that is very difficult to manage, at least for me it was. 

For Kyle and Jillian not too much will change day-to-day.  I'm already home after school with them, although hopefully now I will be more patient and not snapping at them to leave me alone while I work on the computer (I was able to do a lot of work from home in my job). 

For Leah there will be quite a change.  Currently she is in preschool 5 days/week.  Now she will be in preschool 2 days/week and spend the other 3 with me.  I've already signed her up for a preschool dance class on Wednesday mornings.  When Kyle and Jillian were around this age I was maternity leave with a baby so I was able to do lots of fun programs with them, library story times, cooking classes at the grocery store, and just general hanging out during the day.  I admit I was sad I would not get the same opportunity with Leah, so I am very happy with how things have turned out now.

For Jeff, I know the change he's hoping for is a happy and healthy wife.  He fully supports this decision and says this is my time to do what I need to do, what I want to do.

For the house hopefully there are changes on the horizon.  I'm hoping to have some time to do some serious organization.  I also want to clear out and restock my baking cupboard and try some new recipes.

For me, well that's the biggest change.  I'm still processing the fact that after next week I'm unemployed.  I'm planning to take advantage of this time to make some personal changes.  I need to get in shape.  I've already signed myself up for a pilates class one of the mornings Leah is at preschool (love that I have 2 days to myself to get things done while she is playing with her friends).  I'm happy I'll have more time to do things I enjoy like volunteer at the school.  I'm also trying hard not to focus on the anxiety I have about how will I ever re-join the workforce in 3 years when Leah is in school fulltime.  I need to just focus on enjoying and making the most out of this opportunity.