As soon as I even move a pan from the cupboard or hint at getting out the Mixer, Gabi is right up here on the counter ready to help out! Here she is placing 3 chocolate chips on each of the muffins - still classifying them as Banana Oat Bran Chocolate Chip Muffins - but cutting back on the chocolate a bit!
And the following photo I would have used as my new header photo - another one in which the kids asked me to take their picture - not sure what is in Sam's mouth, otherwise it's a cute one!

snow

Going back a few week or even a month already, we had a snow day in January... Jason told the kids how snow can taste so good (sometimes)... so he got each of the kids a bowl of snow and a sucker and away they ate... it wasn't nearly as good as snow in other areas, but the kids still enjoyed it!

Happy New Year!

I received an email from Dayspring this week and it had this little bit on it... 12 Things God wants you to Remember in 2011:
God is for you.
God loves you.
God will guide you.
God will not fail you.
God will be with you.
God will provide for you.
God will bless you.
God will give you rest.
God will strengthen you.
God will answer you.
God will uphold you.
God will keep you.

September Seventh

Also known as the "first day of school" around our parts... it was a good morning and everyone is psyched! Elijah started grade 2. Samuel and Gabriella were both starting their Music Class that morning so they were excited and thinking it was time to go too and even packed a snack to have while the other was in their class...
It's hard to believe Elijah is in Grade 2 already - wow. This was the first year I didn't cry or even tear up letting him go into the School Year!
Samuel is excited to get back to his second year of Orff Music - ready with his Binder and playing the Tick Tock Block
And Gabi started her first year in Orff. I knew it might be sketchy as whether or not she'd stay on her own, though mentally she was very prepared. And yes, as it was I wasn't able to leave her so Sam joined Gabi's class since he of course, was with me with no where to go...Erin is in Gabi's class too, but that didn't make a difference for herWhen the second class came (they each go 1/week for 50min.) Gabi was going to be brave (all in her head again) - but in reality started to freak out when it was time to go in... I knew she was capable, so I had to say 'you're going in or else' and she did... now she's been to about 5 classes and she is so brave and wants me to go home during the class not just for a walk with Sam. Very cute. And I am thankful!

High Power

Elijah had the privelege of attending VBS this summer - this time I sent him to a soccer camp/VBS. It was fantastic! He was on a team with 5 other boys from his school and Alise!photo is compliments of soccer camp photographer

drip drip drop

On June 25 Elijah had Fun Day - and thankfully the weather turned out great for it.
All the grades started by trying to break a guiness world record (unless the PE Teacher was just saying that) to have the most people doing the (whatever this dance is called) at the same time:The first game Elijah's class played was 'drip drip drop' like 'duck duck goose' but with a cup of water - Hailey just got a drip from Elijah:Elijah's last day of school was Monday June 28th.

hot wheels

and here's Elijah's new bike - very proud too to be able to ride on two wheels and be confident in doing so... great job buddy!(yes, he's soaking wet. our neighbour was washing her car and let the kids come and help)

year end party

{end of June}
For all the three classes of Elijah's grade, they had a combined year end party at ML. I was a driver and supervisor during the fieldtrip. We first walked around the lake and then stopped at the water park (or splash park for you Saskers) -then we had a picnic for lunch and games for the kids after that - one of the games was to dress up in all this fishing gear and race to the other side... hard to do with rubber boots up to or past the knees on some of these kids!it was a great day!

reader's theatre

Back to the beginning of June, I went to Eljiah's class to listen to "readers theatre" that they've been working on for the last month or so. Elijah's was "the gingerbread man" and he was the cow. It was really adorable - and I had the honor of practicing with his group and other groups when I would go in to help out on Mondays.

Heart 2 Heart

In May our elementary school does an annual fundraising for Heart to Heart in Haiti. I set Elijah up with his first Lemonade Stand - he made $39 (not including the cost of the juice/cookies) in honor of Heart to Heart, which we thought was great!

dancing with the stars

In May, Parent's were invited to watch and participate in PE Class at the end of the dancing unit. It was a lot of fun learning this dance with the kids...

first loose tooth

Now I am back to blogging April! Don't know what happened in there that I got so behind with February events.
Elijah's tooth became very wiggly so I thought I better take a pic of his first loose toothgood thing, cause an hour or so later he had got it out!Tuesday, April 13th

mascots

February: We picked up a pack of the 4 mascots and let our kids each have one - one is being saved with some other Olympic merch Jason is displaying in his office.
Elijah likes Quatchi:GAbi loved Miga:And Sammy liked MukMuk:

aw, spring temperatures

On Friday February 19th - Elijah did not have school, so we went to MLake to ride around it. This was Elijah's first time doing such. Due to our housing locations and such - Elijah is fairly new to bike riding. When he was young we had bought him the bike that Sam now rides - thinking we'd skip the tricycle stage and just train him on a 2-wheeled-training-wheels bike - BUT that came back to bite us because when learning to ride, he'd get too frustrated to continue for more than a few minutes at a time since he was inclined to push the peddles back (which on a 2 wheeler, is the brakes). Frustrating. Now that we have a cul-de-sac to ride in - he has had more opportunity and has since aged, so he can better remember not to peddle backwards. He's getting there!
We actually went around the following day too - and since I am blogging about this 3 weeks later, I have taken Sam around it a few more times since this. Sam would be happy to go every day - and some days that is possible - others, not so possible. :)

Red and White Day

Elijah's school had a Spirit Day on the 12th of February, the day of the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics! Of course, it was Red and White dress-up day!! Yea, Canada!!! Here's my boy with lots of school spirit and Canadian Patriotism! (I altered this Burger King crown so he became the King of Canada; and his teddy bear accompanied him to school too because it had a Canada sweater on!)
He's with his good friend T from his class -and to their chapel that day they had two Dads of Student's come in for a quick hello with their torches which they carried - one of which I graduated with - that was neat!
While Elijah had this at school, Sam and Gabi had swim lessons and then we stayed at the Rec Center to watch the Russian Figure Skaters practice - they were here for 2 weeks prior to the Olympics praticing! Very cool -and here's Gabi taking photos too! If you remember years ago now, when we last visited Disneyland my little 12month old Samuel pulled my camera into the hot tub on our first day in Anaheim - well, this has since been a play camera and Gabi likes it as her own -

sick, sick, sick

School was back in session too soon this month! It was sooo hard to get back into the groove quickly on the Fourth of January! But we managed.

One week later Elijah's class went skating for 50minutes. I had the privelege of joining him there to help tie skates...etc. I ended up getting some skates myself and getting out on the ice with him - since this is all new to him. He was able to use this bar thing the whole time, but even with it, he wasn't able to motor too quickly. I got behind him and then we got motoring. It was quite fun!

Since I am doing some posts here to more or less get the blog updated, I may as well mention that Elijah missed this whole past week of school. He started out with some spots on his cheek and around his mouth that I was unsure of and so was the Doctor at the Walk-in Clinic I took him too on Friday (Jan 22) - by Monday Elijah's ear hurt soooo bad, but the spots had mainly faded on his face - I took him to our Family Doctor. He called it a 'staff infection?" I think - and that was caused by his runny nose... never seen anything like it! His ear was actually discharging liquid - and by the next day at one point his ear was discharging green snot like mucous. It was unreal. He had to keep using a tissue to wipe his ear, not his nose! We got him some antibiotics (even though we are otherwise against them), a saline flusher thing for his nose and ear, and eardrops. After five days missing from Class, I sent him back on Friday (29th). Poor guy.

Samuel started all this sickness in a different form on Tuesday (19th) - which ended up being Strep Throat in combination with scarlet fever! Yikes! And not to mention myself - I ended up heading into the Clinic too for some meds for my painfully sore throat - which I'm calling strep throat even though we didn't do a swab for it. Sick, sick, sick. Everyone seems on the mend now!

spirit day

Last week the kids had Book Character Dress Up day! We were thankful for this opportunity when it came to Kelly and Lily being able to dress up since their group heads back for home (Beijing) on Halloween Day morning! How lame!! So at least they go to get a costume and dress up last week a bit!
From left to right: Anna (Alexa's student) is Queen Esther; Lily is Anne of Green Gables; Kelly is an Angel from the Bible and Elijah is a Lion, since we had that costume for him for this year... so he could have been Alex from Madagascar or Aslan (though he doesn't know about Narnia yet) or Lion King...

fieldtrip

I joined Elijah on a fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch with all the Grade 1's last week. This is a different patch than we visit annually (this one costs money to get in, hence we never go there! LOL) It was nice to visit with other Moms (and a Dad) and see Elijah interact with his classmates.
Isn't this cool?!

Build a Bear

Those 4 days off (2 no school and then regular weekend) were jam packed for us! With Chuck E Cheese and a bit of shopping that one day... and Friday Night Basketball... and then a trip to Build a Bear for the girl's pleasure! (Elijah was going the next day with Uncle Matt for his long-awaited birthday present)

I really wanted to go along and get in on the experience too! So much fun! Oh, to be a kid!

So it's quite the workshop and series of things that you do when you go to B-A-B...
Here they are already stuffed and ready to insert the special little heart that you wish upon first! (Elijah looking on - he did SO well coming along with us, knowing he was going to come again the next day for his turn)
hmmm, what to choose for my new stuffie? Underwear, shoes, Halloween costumes, shirts, pants, socks, sunglasses, guitars - you name it!so cute, hey?!Since bears/animals range from $12 to $30, I got Elijah to pick a bear ahead of time so that Matt wouldn't be stuck with a little boy wanting the $30 bear and be able to have enough extra to get an accessory or so - he chose the "velvet puppy"$150 later spent per girl and we were ready to go!(don't worry, it doesn't have to cost that much but these girls have money and are almost on their way home to China so we didn't stop them from going crazy! And they did!

C.E.C.

On Elijah's actual birthday he had a day off from school due to Christian Teacher's Conference - so we went and did our 'tradition' of going to Chuck E Cheese! I brought along a little cake and some candles and we celebrated Elijah together! We had Elijah's good friend from school with us since he wasn't able to make it to Elijah's party. Alexa and Erin also joined us - she had her Students of course as well as Angel and Helen for the day since there was no school for them either.Gabi is right in there at CEC - I give her a few tokens at a time and she carries them from ride to ride inserting them herself and sitting on the little rides. Too cute! Such a big girl already!
This machine prints out 1 of 4 Girl or Boy "credit" cards with a picture of the child on it - Elijah's face is getting printed onto a card - a big hit always... and for one token (less than a quarter), why not!?!