End of Summer

I love the summer.  I love the sunny days that mean endless hours of playgrounds and bike rides and sprinklers and the sun kissed cheeks of my happy, exhausted children at the end of them.  I love the hours spent playing house and super heroes and princesses with the neighbor kids and cousins and the pleas for "just five more minutes" when I tell them it's bed time.  But after two months of these days I also love the days that tell me fall is on its way.  The wind that suddenly turns more biting and forces my kids to put on their fleecy, squeeze me sweaters.  The cold rain that makes us curl up under blankets on the couch or snuggle deep under our quilts in bed and never want to leave.  The nervous anticipation of the kids as they count down the days until school begins again.  Those days have arrived!  

On Thursday as we stepped outside to take our usual morning bike ride the kids raced back in to grab sweaters and socks and marveled at the way the cool air turned Bridgett's breath frosty.

The cooler temperatures didn't stop them from playing bare foot in the playground of course.

 Ever since Walker learned to ride his bike this summer the only pictures I can ever get of him look like this.

As much as I love these blustery days it was nice when it warmed up enough that the kids could still spend some time outside and fit their very last tea party of the summer in.

Tonight, as the house reached a chilly 18 degrees the kids begged Allan to build a fire but we both agreed that it's a little premature for that yet.  I did, however, pull out Violet's toasty Christmas pjs to keep her cozy.

(She's learning that the big camera often comes with a flash which is the reason for the goofy faces)

I just love how squeezable she is in her fleecy pjs. 

Two more sleeps until school starts!  Mixed emotions at our house.

 

Violet Turns One!

Our pretty Violet turned one yesterday.  Allan and I can't believe how quickly this last year has raced by and that our sweet new born is already so big, or rather, so grown up.  She certainly isn't very big. At her year old check up last week she weighed a whopping 17 lbs and was just shy of 27 inches tall, that puts her in the 5th percentile.  She gets prettier every day and has such a sweet and cheerful disposition.  Everyone who meets her adores her and it's hard not to with her infectious smile and easy giggles.  I think her siblings were more excited for Violet's birthday than they have ever been for any of their own.  They spent all morning yesterday decorating a cake for her with Violets on it.  Then they counted down the hours until her big birthday BBQ with all our nearby family.  

It's always difficult to open gifts with a one year old.  She was far more interested in crawling around and trying to get her hands on this baseball than in looking at her presents.

Before church yesterday I got some pretty birthday pictures of her.

We sure love this sweet baby! Happy Birthday Viley!!

Sunny Days

Shortly after our snowman melted we had a week of gorgeously sunny, hot weather.  For four days straight the kids spent every possible moment out in the sprinkler soaking up every ray of sunshine they could. 

Even Lillian braved the sprinkler for the first time ever this year and got a little damp.

In hopes of saving a few hundred dollars in annual flowers this year I decided to divide our huge backyard flowerbed in two different smaller gardens for the kids.  The girls' side is a fairy garden and Walker's is a dinosaur garden.  They did all the planting all by themselves and my hope is that the cute little fairy houses and dinosaur toys will fill in the bare spots.  I'll post lots of pictures of both gardens once they've filled in a little bit.  That will include an insanely adorable Grandma and Grandpa Fairy house that my parents made for the girls.

They cooperated so well together as they planned out and planted their gardens.  

We were all so exhausted by the end of this day.  By the time we were done preparing all of the flower beds, planting and watering them and the kids had their fill of playing in the sprinklers I think we spent a total of 5 hours outside.

A couple of Sundays ago Lillian insisted that both she and Violet wear their "Belle" dresses.  It was a photo opportunity that was too perfect to pass up.

Frosty

It seems that only in Edmonton could you have a blog post about the playground and just a couple of weeks later one about building a snowman but, here we are.  Last week we got our very predictable but nonetheless annoying annual spring snow storm.  Funny enough, these snow storms always are the most exciting for children born and raised in Edmonton where it is too cold for sticky snowman snow in the real winter months.  Luckily my Mom had purchased a fun snow man kit right as the season was ending so I zipped over there in the hopes that it would keep the kids entertained outside.  I was not disappointed when they spent a couple of hours outside building their beloved "Frosty"

Then they spent the next hour coloring the rest of the yard.

Poor little Violet was stuck inside watching all the fun but it didn't seem to bother her too much.  

On a sentimental side note, as I was busy making dinner I stopped to watch Violet squeal and bang her little hands on the glass as she watched her older siblings.  It made my heart ache a little bit to think that this will be our last little baby to stand on chubby little legs and make messy little fingerprints all over the windows.  Before long she'll be out running and playing with the rest of them.

The next morning when the sun woke us all up, shining full force, it was evident that Frosty would not last the day.  Lillian got all of her snow gear on before 7:30 and went out to say her goodbyes.  

It's kind of hard to tell, but in this picture she is shaking his "hand"

and in this one she's giving him a kiss.

Then she dismantled him.

Here's hoping my next pictures will be of newly planted flowers that won't be destroyed by another spring snow storm.

Playground Visit

Last week we had our very first visit to the playground since Spring has sprung.  The kids were so excited to swing on the swings and slide on the slides and run in the sand and sunshine.  We stayed until Violet wouldn't put up with it for a minute longer and wailed her insistence to go home.

I love the first Spring for a baby.  Not the first Spring as a newborn but the first one where they can be in the sun and play on the grass and swing and slide and explore.  It's even more exciting when said baby's siblings are more excited about it than she is.  Emma, Walker and Lillian spent every second watching Violet's reaction to every new experience.