First Day of Gymnastics

 

Here the three of them are!  They really loved their first day.  I could spot them a mile away with those long legs of theirs.  Olivia could do the balance beam really well, and Chloe was good at handstands against the wall.  Lily loved the trampolines.  They cant wait to go back next week.  All of them, Lily especially, has been waiting patiently for us to put her in a gymnastics class.  I am happy we finally did it!

 

Isabelle started Musical Theater and had her first class last week too.  It is just her type of thing, I am also glad we finally got her in that too.  She too has been waiting to join that class.  They are doing Matilda the Musical, and working on the song "Revolting Children."  I got a sneak peek tonight of what they have learned so far, and it was so good!  I cant wait to see the real thing!

Nice Compliments From Strangers

Can I first just say how much we are enjoying living close to the school our kids go to?  This is the first time we have ever experienced this in our family.  It is so nice to ride bikes or walk to the school, and they recently just opened a new road that leads to it, so it makes it even closer for us.  It is so refreshing to get exercise on the way home, instead of being crammed in the van and sit through 30 min of traffic.  If we do have to drive, it is 3 min.  So nice! 

On Friday, we stayed at the playground for a long time and just let the kids play and enjoy the hot, summer like weather we were having.  Then a lady who lives about a block away from me, came up to say hi.  She has a 4 year old like Olivia, and often my kids will go to this little courtyard that is in between our houses to play, and her daughter will come out to join them.  This "courtyard" is just that, a nice little yard with benches, trees, a patio, but no playground.  We have always wondered why they did not put a playground in it, but my kids still love to go there and they find games to play, and things to make believe.  She said to me that day, "I didn't think your kids went to public school, I thought they went to some special school.  They just play so different."  I thought, oh no, what does she mean!?  So I asked, "Different?" And she said, "Yes, they can play with twigs, and rocks, and dirt, and with no toys or equipment, and just seem so happy and content to do that for hours! I thought for sure they went to some school that teaches the Waldorf Method, where they learn to play with natural things.  They just have such creative imaginations."  Well, I was pleased with that!  They really do have creative minds and can keep themselves entertained for a long time.  I think the leader of that is always Lily.  If she is involved in making up a game or activity, all four of them will stay busy for literally hours.  They also always welcome in other children who are present and want to join in.

Then just as we were leaving, this elderly couple stopped us and the woman said, "You have such lovely girls.  They have been playing with our granddaughter here this whole time so nicely, they are just so gentle and kind to her.  We babysit her every Friday and try to take her out so she can play with other kids.  She is our one and only grandchild and so it is so nice for her to have found your girls.  Are they all yours?"  People are always so amazed that we have four children and that they are all girls!  The girls of course spouted out, "You only have one grandchild?  I have 46 cousins!"  The lady was so amazed at that too.  The girls kept talking and she just smiled and said to me, "I know you might not realize it, but they are just so fun to listen to.  You are around it all the time and might not notice, but I really do."  Anyway, it was just a nice thing for me to hear.  I am happy my daughters are kind to other kids and include them and treat them like one of their own.  It makes me very proud of them.

Olivia's First Day of Preschool

 

 

Olivia was so excited to start Preschool!  She has been counting down the days.  We had fun bike riding to her school. It was a lovely day.

 

Here she is posing for me with her backpack.  This is the same backpack Chloe used when she went to playschool.  It's in great shape and Olivia loved it, so why not, right?

 

Here she is with a new friend she made in literally the first 30 seconds we got there, haha.  She is so outgoing and friendly!  She made some funny joke and these two were instant friends. 



She was so happy to find her hook with her name on it.  There is a little boy (from church actually) whose name is Oliver and she accidentally thought that one was hers at first.  Their names are so similar looking, they both start with "O" and everything, it is no wonder. 

And here she is with her other friend from church, Vienna.  There are actually 4 of them from Sunbeams in this class...Olivia, Vienna, Oliver, and Kade.  It is nice for all of them to have some familiar faces.

 

 

And what's the first thing Olivia goes for?  The babies of course!  She spent most of her time there.  This week she starts going on her own.  She is very happy to be signed up for Preschool.  It will be a fun year for her. 

First Day of School 2013

They all chose to wear OWL shirts today!  Pretty cute.

 

They are so excited to be in Grades 1, 3, and 5!  And in a new school.  It is going to be strange having Chloe gone all day.

Breakfast of champions. 

New backpacks stuffed to the brim with STUFF.  So heavy!

Olivia is sure going to miss them!  She was happy to give them all big hugs.

 

It is SO fun that we get to ride bikes to school!  This is the first time EVER that they have got to ride bikes to school.  They were so happy.

Izzy didn't want me to take her picture in her class but was a good sport anyway, haha.  One of her friends from church said to the teacher, "I already know so many people in this class because we all go to the same church! I know her, and her, and him!"  Ha ha that was so nice for me to hear!

Here's Chloe about to go into Grade 1!  They staggered all of the entry times slightly, so I was able to go around and see each of them go in.  She is standing next to a friend from church here.

And here is Lily patiently waiting for grade 3 to start.  We discovered just today she has 4 friends from church in her class!  We originally thought it was only 1, and so we were pleasantly surprised!

Yesterday was the last official day of summer break.  We spent the day just enjoying it all!  We went to the beach in the morning/early afternoon.  It was a perfect, wind free day.  The beach was slowly getting more and more crowded, and when we left we came upon this HUGE line up to get in!  We were happy we got there when it wasn't so crazy!

Then for the afternoon some friends invited us to this massive Slip n Slide they set up in the field behind their house!  They invited so many people, and basically anyone in the entire neighbourhood could come.  It was so fun for all the kids...and adults too!  I guess this is the 3rd annual one they have done.  We are looking forward to next year.

Olivia loved going down with Daddy

Tender Mercies

On Tuesday, the girls will be starting their 2nd new school in just as many years.  Last year, changing schools (and cities, and wards, and houses) with such short notice was stressful.  They handled it really well, and I know they will be able to handle this change really well too.  But, I know that even though they handle change well and make friends easy, it is still hard on them and stressful and a little nerve wracking.  

When we moved into this house and ward 9 months ago, we knew we were going to switch them to this new school come September.  We knew a lot of the kids at church went to that school and we hoped that they would make friends with them, so that by the time September rolled around the adjusting wouldn't be as hard.  Sure enough, each of them have made friends with kids at church.

This new school is huge.  It is a K-9 (which I love) and there will be just under 1000 children.  Each grade has 4-6 classes, and so we knew our chances of having some church kids in their classes would be pretty slim.  But we still hoped and prayed for the best, that there would be some familiar faces in each of their classes. We were especially worried about Isabelle.  She seems to take big change the hardest.  She is also the one who has experienced the most change out of all the girls. She had Kindergarten here in Edmonton, then we moved to Calgary for grades 1-3, which was really hard on her. It took her about 6 months before she started sleeping properly again when she started grade 1. Then we moved again on really short notice for Grade 4, back up here to Edmonton. It was an unexpected change for everyone.  It was in the old school she went to in Kindergarten, but of course kids change, some had moved, and it really was different for her. I think she adjusted ok, but still, the poor girl has gone through a lot of change in her school life. I think the whole thing has just left a bad taste in her mouth, so to speak, about changing schools. I also think that the older you get, the harder it is to change schools and all that.  (She will be going into grade 5.)

We were able to see their classes and teachers online this past weekend, and we found out that each of them has at least one child from church in their class!  Isabelle somehow, miraculously, has each and every one of the kids in her church class, in her school class too!!! And, the teacher who is teaching Izzy's  class was Lily's teacher last year from their old school.  She transferred over, and so Izzy will not only know several of the kids in her class but the teacher as well.  We found out that my friend whose 3 younger kids are the same age as my 3 older kids, are all in the same classes!  It is too funny and just an amazing coincidence. 

We actually really feel like it is more than just a random coincidence.  I really feel like Heavenly Father had a hand in all of this, that he knows our kids and he knew that they could use that extra bit of encouragement and familiarity.  They are all playing community basketball together in the fall too.  Ben is going to coach the younger group. AND, on top of it all, we found out that Olivia got into the preschool close by and will be in a class with 2 other kids from Sunbeams at church as well!  Back in January, Ben went and stood in line for 3 hours to be told that the preschool was full and that we would have to put Olivia's name on a wait list.  Then they emailed us in early August to tell us she got in.  It seems like a great little preschool, and it was by far the cheapest one I've seen, plus we don't have to do any kind of fundraising or bingos, and they provide the snack!  We were praying and hoping she would get in there as well, and we feel like our prayers were answered. 

We are feeling really happy about where we chose to live and the amazing ward that we are a part of.  We hope that we can stay here for a long time.  We really feel like we are where we are supposed to be, and our kids are where they are supposed to be too. We are grateful for a Heavenly Father who loves and knows our children and their needs, and who has answered our prayers and looked out for them.