The Corn Maze

On Saturday we decided to take a trip to the Edmonton Corn Maze.  The last time I was there was when I was just a teenager.  There was a lot more to do than I remember, including a haunted house inside of an old abandoned barn that I'm trying to convince Allan is a great idea for a date night.  The kids had a great time despite the fact that they were desperate to get out of the corn maze halfway through it.  They were far more interested in the "Bouncy Pillow" and mountain of hay bales.

The question posts that would point you in the right direction...sort of.

 

 

 Our very own little farm animals.

 

 

 

It was so hilarious to watch these two on the bouncy pillow, particularly because Walker could not make it up to the top for the life of him and usually just ended up rolling into the sand at the bottom.

 

 

 

I think this is my favorite picture because Walker is helplessly sliding down toward the ground and Emma is laughing too hard to help him.

 

This is how Walker spent most of his time on the bouncy pillow.

 

Who's that hottie with those three gorgeous kids!!

 

Our little pumpkin in a pumpkin patch.

 

 

 

4:30 Feeding

I have to document Lillian's latest ritual before she stops doing it.  Every afternoon at 4:30 when Bridgett gets fed Lillian insists on sitting on the ground with Bridgett's feeding dish right between her little legs.  Then she waits until Bridgett has finished every last piece of food before she gets up and goes on about her business.  She does it religiously every day and every day I have to sit and watch her do it.  It is just so stinkin' cute!!  Bridgett, however, does not think that it is very cute.

 

Look at the poor dog.  Can't you just hear her saying "Seriously!! You're going to let her do this again today?!?"

 

Notice the Bernese Mountain Dog puppy guide on the floor.  She also carries that around the whole house with her.

 

 

Books for Babes

Today was our weekly library trip.  There are so many things that I love about the library.  I love the way it smells like the pages of both new and old books, the silence in the quiet corners where people read and study, and the chatter in the children's section where little ones excitedly search the shelves for new books and parents read them aloud.  As a teenager I would go to the library with the specific intent of finding the most beautifully illustrated and enchantingly written children's books that I could.  Later, in college, I took a children's literature class and loved every moment of it.  Now I look forward to our little library trips where I can watch my children carefully scan the shelves for the books that they love most.  For Emma it is fairy tales full of magic and romance and happy endings.  For Walker it is stories with silly pictures and outlandish plots, usually involving monsters or other beastly creatures.  I often add my own books to their bags that I know they will enjoy and that I know I will enjoy reading to them.  The other day I was purusing the board book section looking for a book to bring home for little Lillian when I came across one called The Very Best Daddy of All .  As I read through the little book tears stung my eyes and I quickly stuck it into my bag to read to the kids later that day.  These were the pages that I thought so touching.

 

You have to love those good Daddies!!

 

I love so much that children' s books can evoke emotion with their words and pictures and I love even more that my children are beginning to understand that.

 

We found an old nursery rhyme book that used old art from the 19th and 20th centuries as illustrations.  The kids were full of giggles as they looked at the old pictures and listened to the old nursery rhymes.  They found these to be particularly hilarious.

 

 

I love children's books!!

 

 



Just the Day to Day Stuff

We are continuing to adjust to our new schedule.  Walker is loving every second of his new found independence without Emma around all day.  While he does start to miss her around two o'clock and beg that we pick her up he is far more talkative and cooperative without Emma around to dominate every conversation and dictate every game he plays.  Not that Emma is a monster of a big sister but that's just how it is when you are the little brother.  His favorite past time lately is making monsters.  We made our third of the week today.  This time his "alien monster" came complete with six googly eyes, glittery red antennae, feathers and a plastic bag for a body.



I love his concentration pout

Emma has been enjoying every second of first grade and it is so exciting to see her come home each day with new words that she can spell and sentences that she can create.  Ideally I need to be able to spend 20 minutes a day with her reading, just she and I.  Most days we get started and are interrupted by a grumpy baby or a hungry 3 year old.  This afternoon I was lamenting to Allan during our lunch time phone call that I can never dedicate the amount of time that I need to to help Emma with her reading.  He came home from work with the brilliant idea that I take Emma to get a hot chocolate and read with her.  So I took her to Starbucks, ordered her a hot chocolate with whipped cream and caramel, and she read her beginner books to me after which I read Ramona the Brave to her.  It was wonderful!!  Children are so different when they can have one on one time with their parents.  She felt so grown up and special having a little cafe date with me.

Once it cooled down she downed it in about 3 minutes.

Walker fell asleep on the ottoman in the living room the other day and Lillian got some pay back for the countless times she has been awakened by his poking, yelling and screaming.

She kept blowing raspberries on his arm, it was pretty hilarious.

 This is Lillian's version of peek-a-boo.  Every time we say "where's Lillian?" she immediately covers her ears.

I had a chance to play around with my camera a little bit more today.  Bridgett is far more cooperative than any of my other models.

But even she gets tired of all the pictures after a while.

Then the kids decided they needed to play on the bed so I got some cute ones of them.

Late Night Visitor

Last night we got home after our date night and Allan took Kyla (our niece and sweet sitter) home and I let Bridgett out in the yard like I always do before we go to bed for the night.  Within a couple of minutes I heard her barking and running around frantically in the bark under our trees.  Not wanting her to upset our neighbors I yelled for her to come in, several minutes later I finally got her into the house by coaxing her with her treat bucket.  When Allan got home he decided he had better check things out and see why she was behaving so strangely.  So, armed with his flashlight he went out into the yard and, sure enough, Bridgett took off after something immediately.  I was watching from the window upstairs and heard Allan screaming at Bridgett to get in the house.  I raced downstairs to find Bridgett in the kitchen looking like this...

 

That's right!!  A porcupine found its way into our yard and Bridgett was unfortunate enough to think it was a play mate and got its spiky tail right in her face.  Allan pulled the two quills in her tongue out right away because they seemed pretty uncomfortable.  Luckily Allan was able to pull the quills came out pretty easily and then went in search of our little visitor. 

Eventually it made it's way 20 feet up our neighbor's tree and must have found a way out because it was nowhere to be found this morning.

 

When the kids woke us up this morning Allan showed them the pictures and told them the story of Bridgett and the porcupine.  Emma was amazed and was so excited to have a story to tell her grade one class on Monday.  Walker was mostly just horrified.

Back to School

 

 

Emma headed off to first grade today with her enormous back pack full of school supplies and indoor shoes.  Last night I lay in bed and worried about all of the details of her first day that she would never worry about.  I counted the hours that she would be in school and the hours that she would be home with me and cried because she will spend more hours away than she will awake at home. 

Then this morning I put on my bravest smile and tried to be as excited as she was.  And she was so excited!

 

She looks so grown up in her very own desk.

 

 My biggest worry was that Walker would miss his favorite playmate when Emma went back to school.  I feared that he would be lonely and sad without her constant companionship.  When I told Walker to say goodbye he grabbed Emma and gave her a long, tight hug.  I felt myself losing my composure and hurried the kids outside where I could fall apart in the privacy of my own vehicle.  As I made it to the van Walker rushed up behind me and grabbed my hand and said "Mommy, I love it when it's just me and you!"  All of my apprehensions disappeared in that sweet statement and I knew that Emma would love school and Walker would enjoy the added attention.

 

 I am going to need to work on our morning routine because by the time I made four breakfasts (Allan and the kids) and two lunches (Allan and Emma) and got everyone ready and out the door my kitchen looked like this.

 

I let Walker eat his lunch downstairs while he watched Iron Man as a reward for being so well behaved at the grocery store and so that I could help the kitchen recover from our whirlwind of a morning.  He thought that was pretty exciting, especially because that's usually only a luxury for the very ill in our home.

 

 

 Then we made chocolate chip cookies so that Emma could have a traditional after school snack of milk and cookies when she got home.  I like to think that Walker likes to bake with me because he loves my company but I'm pretty sure it's because he loves cookie dough.

 

 

Emma enjoyed her cookies almost as much as Walker enjoyed the dough.  She told us all about her "GREAT" first day of grade one over our cookies and milk.  Most of what she said revolved around the three recesses, but that's how it's supposed to be when you're in first grade I suppose.

 

 

I had mentioned to my parents a while back that I was interested in starting photography, mostly because I'd rather take great pictures of my kids than pay to have someone else take great pictures of my kids.  So yesterday they surprised me with a late birthday/early Christmas gift, a brand new beautiful Canon Rebel camera!!  I am so excited to learn how to really use it without having to have every single one of the auto settings on but in the meantime I've had fun shooting everyone and everything.  Here are a few of the pictures I took today, apart from the ones above.

 

 

 

Those are my pretty marigolds strewn all over the ground.

 

All in all our first day back to school was a good one.  It will be an adjustment but one I think we will all learn to enjoy!