snow fun

We've had a very strange winter. No snow until late December, then some days with rain/slush and other days with lots of snow but so very cold. Too cold to play outside.  Last Friday things just seemed to fall into place...nice day weather wise and lots of sticky snow which makes for good fort and snowman building. Also, being Friday, the kids had no homework or activities so after school was the perfect time to hang around outside to catch the last few hours of sunlight.

everyone working hard...the girls built the snowman and Kyle worked on a fort

although Leah did take some time to make a snow angel

Leah using the snowball maker

Overall a fun afternoon.  Too bad it had to end in tears from Jillian.  She had built a smaller snowman but it broke apart as she was putting in the carrot nose, c'est la vie.

Random points

I don't have anything worthy of an entire blog post so I'm just going to do some random points from the past few days...

1. This morning Jillian was up bright and early and had already eaten and was dressed by the time I came downstairs.  Kyle on the other hand was still in bed! Cue the Twilight Zone music...

2. Jillian was sick last week and missed a day of school.  She was disappointed to miss Scientists in the school so I promised her some science at home.  I was going to break out the zillion half used science kits in my hall closet, but instead Jillian found this in an old Chirp magazine so we went ahead and made it (although more crafty than science).  The girls had fun following the recipe and mixing it up and all 3 enjoyed making their shapes.  The handprint, bunny, rainbows, beyblades and little person are all cooking in the oven as I type.

Jillian made a detailed bunny while Leah is more of an abstract art type of girl

3. Leah and I went to the school today where she will start JK in the fall to pick up the registration form.  I thought I'd be sad about my littlest baby starting JK but instead I am quite excited about having 2 days of the week all to myself.  That may change on the first day of school when it all really hits me that my youngest is officially in school.

4. The special needs teacher at Kyle's school called today to book me for an appointment.  Not just with her...it will be her and I along with the principal, Kyle's teachers and the school board psychologist who did Kyle's gifted testing.  A review of his IEP will happen along with any other things we need to do to help Kyle be successful this year...there are some concerns.  As frustrating as this whole process can be at times, I am forever grateful for this amazing school and all the people who have taken such a personal interest in helping Kyle be successful.  And I love that every meeting starts out with "we love Kyle, he's such a great kid". 

5. Kyle was invited (by amazing special needs teacher above) to be part of a group of 12 students in a lego/k'nex bridge building competition.  He is very excited about this and was already working in the basement tonight on lego and k'nex.

6. I have worn reading/computer glasses for many years so I assumed moving to wearing glasses fulltime would not be much of an adjustment.  I was oh so very wrong.  Wearing glasses all the time just plain sucks in many situations...in the rain, in cold weather, when I open the oven and many other times I can't even think of right now.  I definately took for granted before that eyes do not fog up!

7. I moved the couches today to vacum/sweep underneath and I don't know why, but every time I'm still amazed at the amount of stuff we find under there.

snow, skiing and snowboarding

What to do on a winter PA day from school when we finally have snow?  Head to the ski hill of course!  First though Leah had her morning gymnastics class.  I was quite annoyed at both Kyle and Jillian and thisclose to cancelling their ski and snowboard lessons this afternoon.  When I told them to get dressed to head out for Leah's gymnastics both of them whined and complained...why do we have to go...not fair...WHAT?  Leah spends every Thursday night at the gym waiting while they do gymnastics class.  Plus we were about to go to a ski hill where Leah would be waiting around, in the cold, for hours while they had fun on the ski hill.  After a little talk both changed their attitudes very quickly, thank goodness.  Normally I find my kids are quite good about doing things for each other and waiting for each others activities.  But we all have our days when we are annoyed and shouldn't be, it happens to me more often than I'd like to admit.

Once we had the van packed up with all our cold weather gear and a lot of snacks we were on the road.  Snow Valley is just over an hour away, we got there in plenty of time to get Kyle and Jillian registered for their lessons and get all their ski and snowboard gear. 

Both did amazing, I didn't get a chance to watch Kyle's class but he finished the lesson very excited to go back up on the lift.  That last run however did him in...he had quite a tumble which included somersaulting with the snowboard and it hurt.  Now he's insistent he'll do a skiing lesson next time and wait until next year to try the snowboard again.

I was able to watch the last bit of Jillian's lesson and I was very impressed with how great she did, lots of control coming down the hill, no hesitation.  And the one time I saw her fall she managed to get up all by herself without getting frustrated (it takes a while to get up on skiis!).

Leah and I played outside in the snow for a little while before heading inside to warm up.  Leah's goal when we arrived was to find a patch of untouched snow and make a snow angel...mission accomplished. 

Inside Leah and I hung out by the nice warm fireplace and had hot chocolate and snacks.  I'm excited to get Leah out on the hill next year. 

I haven't been skiing in years and would love to get out this year with Kyle and Jillian. Although I'm not sure if my ski equipment is still usable since it was bought in 1994. Hopefully we can make this a regular family activity, it would be fun in a few years to be able to get out there all together. For now we'll be split between regular hills, bunny hill and a preschooler playing in the snow. But I've already promised Leah I'll get her out on the hill next winter when she is 4!

insanity or perseverance?

I know kids tend to have selective hearing and need to be told over and over to do things.  Kyle takes it to a whole new level.  Every single night I go into Kyle's room to turn out his light after reading time.  Every single time I look down only to see his pile of dirty clothes from that day in the middle of the room.  Every.single.time.  And every time I say "Kyle - please put your dirty clothes into the laundry hamper".  Yes, I know, I'm being completely unreasonable making him walk 5 feet to the bathroom but let's be truthful, us moms are here to make our kids lives miserable.

Then there's the walk to and from the bus stop.  First I need to admit I have become lazy with the bus stop...it's at the end of our street in clear view from the porch so I rarely walk the kids to or from the bus stop, but rather watch from the porch.  This means I don't have to get Leah bundled up on cold and rainy days.  Plus Kyle and Jillian are now 10 and 7 so I think the bit of responsibility that comes with walking to the end of the street and back is good for them (alright...the truth is I like to stay in my pjs in the morning and simply watch them while drinking my tea on the porch or at the front window instead of walking to the end of the street...moving on).

My point is Kyle doesn't seem to realize the sidewalk is for walking.  Almost every day as I send the kids to the bus stop I ask Kyle to walk on the sidewalk and not the snow/slush/grass/curb.  Instead he climbs over the mountains of snow at the end of the driveways, he finds each and every puddle, he throws his gloves up into the tree branches until one gets stuck on an unreachable branch (why you may ask?  I don't have an answer, and neither does Kyle...part of being Kyle's mom is just accepting "I don't know" as an answer to some of these questions).

Which brings me to the question of insanity vs. perseverance.  Mine that is.  I have often heard the quote "the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results".  I mean if I've already told him 1000 times to do something and he doesn't change his behaviour, why do I think telling him the 1001st time will make a difference?

On the flip side of this argument is perseverance...steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.

While insanity does seem to fit in this case (I continue to tell him these things over and over...1004 times and counting), I like the perseverance angle much better.  I'm determined to get Kyle to the point where he can move dirty clothes from his bedroom floor allllll the way to the bathroom without being prompted.  Either that or I'll go to the store this week to buy an additional hamper and put it in his room. 

In any case, I love this kid to bits...dirty clothes, muddy boots, missing gloves and everything else that comes along with being his mom.

gymnastics part 2 - Leah's turn

Leah waits patiently for Kyle and Jillian to do gymnastics because she knows the following morning she has gymnastics herself.  When Leah starts JK in the fall she will be in school every other day rather than all 5 days.  I am very happy to have some days with Leah at home.  Mainly because I love my time with her and she's my shopping buddy.  But also because it gives me 2 more years of enjoying activities during the day rather than cramming them into the evenings/weekends along with Kyle and Jillian's. 

Leah does gymnastics with her 2 buddies Emily and Eric (twins)...the 3 of them are good friends and get along very well.  While Kyle and Jillian do gymnastics in a full gym with many classes going on at the same time, Leah, Emily and Eric have the whole gym all to themselves.  Their coach even plays Disney princess music so the girls enjoy dancing along in their cute leotards in between gymnastic activities...adorable!

They all love coach Christina

Leah loves to jump as high as she can!

Emily practicing star jumps

I love Emily's confidence on the beam

One of the best parts according to the kids...the sticker!

My favourite part about our Friday morning gymnastics is hanging out with Eric and Emily's mom.  We usually get together afterwards with the kids for playtime and lunch which makes for a very nice Friday morning.

gymnastics

As much as my three children are all very unique and different from each other, they do have some things in common and one of them is gymnastics.  All three do recreational level gymnastics and love doing it every week.  They each do a 1 hour class, and we try to attend the open family night once a week as well which means they can work on whatever equipment they want.  And as bonus on family night I get to join in and play too...I've done the trampoline a few times to do seat-drop wars with Kyle.  I made a mistake one time and tried to climb the rope...not going to try that again (I only got up a smidge, but even then sliding down gave me rope burn on my hands...a gymnast I am not!).

Over the past couple of years I've seen quite an improvement in all of their skill and coordination with the gymnastics classes.  I think gymnastics is a great overall activity for the kids...strength, balance, coordination...it has it all.

I took the camera to lessons this week to capture about 200 a few pictures (hey - it takes a lot of action pictures to get just a few decent ones).

Their groups work through different equipment each week...this week Jillian's group did trampoline, balance beam and vault circuit.  Kyle did the vault circuit, rings, beam and bars.

Jillian always has a smile on her face while doing trampoline

front roll on the beam

Kyle can clear the vault now

Kyle doing his pike on the high rings

Leah and I often hang out in the office with the owner during Kyle and Jillian's lessons.  I love this gym, the coaches are great with the kids and Lisa (the owner) is amazing.

Leah even gets to spend a few minutes with her buddy because Keira's gymnastics class is just after Kyle and Jillian's so we have a 5 minute overlap in the hallway for a quick visit.

Next up is Leah's gymnastics class!