last day of school

After today my kids are heading into SK, Grade 4 & Grade 7.  They've all had a great year but here are some of their highlights:

Leah

It's your first year of school and you did a great job.  You went to school each morning with a smile on your face, you loved spending time with your friends and learning new things.  You learned how to sound out words and read simple books, you are counting to 59 and doing simple math.  In September you also started doing pre-competetive gymnastics, working hard all year, 4 hours a week...it's amazing how much your flexibility and strength have improved.  On the days you didn't have school you happily came with me to Kyle & Jillian's school while we volunteered, always happy to sit nicely while Mommy did other things.  On other days we had some nice relaxing pj mornings just hanging out, enjoying library storytime and playdates with your friends.  Overall you had a fantastic year!

Jillian
This year you worked so hard and it showed at school.  An excellent report card full of A's and B's, along with excellent marked off for all of your working and learning skills.  You've worked hard on your school projects, you earned an award for the best work habits, you made new friends and you excelled in the classroom in every way.  You also regularly came home with phoenix feathers you earned in gym class for working extra hard and running longer.  Outside of school this year you continued with gymnastics (you can climb to the top of the rope!), joined Brownies and you discovered a passion for horseback riding.  Watching you look after the horses and get on there learning to ride without any fear has been amazing.  You have been a busy girl this year and I'm amazed at how well you do in everything you try!

Kyle
This has been an amazing year for you Kyle.  A report card full of A's and B's!  You've always had the academic skill to excel in school but this year you've worked hard improve your independent work habits and it really shows.  You joined the math club this year and participated in 3 math competitions...coming in second overall for all of York Region in one of them, and coming first in your grade in the school for another.  This year you continued with tennis lessons, you learned some cool flips on the trampoline and participated in the 30 hour famine with your youth group at church.  I look forward to seeing what you accomplish in the year ahead!

Here they all are on their first day of school in September

I'm so proud of these three kids, now it's onto summer vacation...family camping, vacation bible school with our church, daycamp and visiting family in Montreal...possibly a fun family roadtrip in there somewhere too.  Let the summer fun begin! 

flips and jumps

Kyle started doing gymnastcs a few years ago.  He was watching a group of boys doing gymnastics while Jillian was in her lesson and decided it wasn't just for girls after all.  Last year he decided he was done with doing gymnastics, he was bored of doing the usual circuits around the gym but at that same time a new young trampoline coach joined the gym and Kyle decided a trampoline class would be fun.  He's been working hard all year (okay, sometimes working hard, sometimes goofing around).  But he finally has a back flip and a front tuck jump mastered.  I'm proud of him, I wouldn't be able to try these moves he's able to do!

But this was his last class and he's decided not to continue, he wants to focus on tennis which starts up again in July.

personalized artwork

How cool is this? 

You can get your own done here: https://www.facebook.com/#!/Tanyagleadallartist

Happy Father's Day

                     

                                   2001.                        2004.                         2008.

2013

Happy Father's Day to the Dad who makes each day fun

fun fair

Every year on Father's Day weekend our local town has a fair.  It's a fun family tradition to spend $25 on 3 short cheesy midway rides and eat junk food...childhood memories in the making.

Leah braved the front seat on the gator coaster

The gravitron!

I remember riding this when I was little.  And by that I mean this exact one, it looks just about that old, doesn't it?  In any case Jeff, Kyle & Jillian went on it and had fun.  Just the thought of it makes me nauseous now.

riding the ferris wheel with my 2 favourite girls, they loved the view from the top

cotton candy mustaches

All Kyle wanted was to ride the Gravitron (check) and eat a Beaver Tail (check!)

field trip and grade 6 math

I love field trips with the older kids.  Sure I like the kindergarden trips too, I've been on more than my fair share of little kid farm trips.  But the field trips get more interesting as the kids get bigger.

A field trip that combined math, playground and splashing in a fountain...Kyle loved it

 

Today was a trip with Kyle's grade 6 class, a math trail outside.  That sounded right up my alley, I took plenty of math courses at university, surely I could handle grade 6 math (you can see where this is going, right?).

We started out on the trail with a few bits of information, easy enough.  Then onto a plaque and the calculating of what day of the week July 1 fell on in 1984.  Not too bad, calculate the years, add in a few extra days for the leap years, divide by 7 to get the remainder, easy peasy.  We had a few other easy ones with a chessboard and the angles on the roof of the gazebo.  Then we got to the playground and the questions got tougher like calculate the different combinations in one row of the tic tac toe game.  Do you know what's worse than not knowing the answer?  Thinking you do know the answer and having your son point out it is actually 2 to the power 3 which is 8 (i.e. pointing out you are wrong).  Wow, do they take away your degree if you lose too much of your education?  Because I really should have had that one off the top of my head, I'll blame it on the constant keeping track of 6 wandering boys.

After that things got interesting.  Do you know there are 362,880 possible combinations of x's and o's on the tic tac toe board?  Of course not all of them are possible game solutions (phfft, of course not, I knew that).  How many are possible game solutions?  How many are winning game solutions?  I HAVE NO IDEA!  Moving on...next up was calculating the volume of the oddly shaped garbage can, I was happy to hand the clipboard, measuring tape and calculator off to the kids for that one (by this point I wasn't fooling anyone, the kids knew I had no idea). 

We ended with a little scavenger hunt for specific types of numbers and shapes (you know easy things like prime numbers and shapes with 8 symmetrical axes), estimating how many cars will fit into a parking lot, measuring a railing to see if it's up to code and plotting bicycle racks on a cartesian plane.  I gotta tell you, I don't think I could pass grade 6 math. 

It was a great morning though, despite some light rain the kids had a blast being outside and it was great seeing them all run around the playground having fun and later splashing in the fountain.  I'll end this with the most interesting tidbit I learned today...an emirp is a prime that gives a different prime when you reverse its digits, for example 13 & 31.  Today I may have discovered I'm not nearly the math geek I used to be, but I still find it interesting.

bye bye babyhood

Leah's disappearing babyhood is what prompted the name of this blog.  I started it when Leah was 2 years old, we were in the middle of potty training and getting rid of the crib and it seemed babyhood was in the rear view mirror.  Over the past 3 years there have been plenty of new milestones as Leah has grown.  I haven't done a babyhood related post lately because it has almost completely disappeared.  And I have been enjoying being a family of 2 adults and 3 kids without a baby in there to schedule around.  That being said we have had a few babyhood related changes recently. 

Notice anything about this picture?  (other than the fact that my girls have decided the 8th seat of the new van is perfect for their AG dolls).  That's right, no more 5 point harness.  We are done with 5 point harness on the carseats.  Done, done, done!!  Leah has finally transitioned to using the seatbelt (her carseat convered to a booster) and she is so good at getting herself done up.  Do you know what this means?  When we are going somewhere I only have to hit the sliding door button on my keychain, tell the kids to get buckled up and then get into the driver's seat.  That's it.  No more backbreaking 5 point harness.  I have to say it's quite liberating.

Second thing is we are handing down some more remnants of toddlerhood to my niece...the jogging stroller, the preschooler sized climber, the wagon and this car (I admit, I will kind of miss it).  The sandbox is also on its way out, but after 10 good years of service it is heading to the garbage pile (I will not miss it at all, especially that my kids and every neighbour kid who comes into the backyard thinks it is a good idea to dump the sand everywhere else besides the sandbox).

And third is a conversation I had with Leah last night.  She was in bed and pointing to her sore heel saying it hurts.  I offered to kiss it better and her exact words to me were "nah, that won't do anything".  Sigh.  Mommy kisses no longer fix boo-boos.  That one is a hard pill to swallow.  Thankfully hugs and cuddles with me are still high on Leah's to-do list each day, not sure I could let those go.