Bathtime Mischief by Ben Anderson

So this post has no pictures, because I was too busy cleaning up the mess to capture it for posterity. The other night, Sandi was out shootin' hoops with all her baller friends, and, being the super-dad I am I decided to give the girls baths while she was out (that way they go to bed earlier, and I get Sandra all to myself). Isabelle has recently decided she no longer wants to bathe with the little kids, so I filled the tub with bubbles, and put Chloe and Lily in together. Isabelle wanted me to read her library book from school, so she and I were in my bedroom reading, with the doors open so we could listen for the laughter and splashing. In an instant the shrieks of glee turned to shrieks of despair. Rushing to the aid of my little ones I round the corner to see Chloe and Lily sitting in the empty tub, covered in a sudsy lather. Lily was crying as she rubbed even more of it into her eyes, while Chloe squealed with delight as she emptied the last of the shampoo bottle (purchased earlier in the week) onto her sister's head. After 5 minutes of rinsing per child they were finally ready to get out of the tub. Sorry Sandra, but I have decided I will not be doing any of the bathing from now on. I guess it serves me right for being a somewhat less "Super" version of Super-Dad.

Sprouts

The other day in Church, a man came up to me while I was holding Chloe and said, "It should be illegal for someone that cute to have those sprouts coming off her head like that! I couldn't take my eyes off her the whole meeting!" She is cute indeed! Especially when you get to know her personality that comes with it.

We are really enjoying this beautiful fall weather we are having.

The girls are really enjoying their swimming lessons too. We are really seeing progress in them, especially in Isabelle and Lily. Lily actually goes right under the water now, several times. Before she would hardly put her face near the water. Isabelle can swim a whole pool length with a lifejacket. Before she would not let go of you in the deep end. Good job girls! Too bad there are no pictures of them in actual swim lessons, but both Ben and I have to be in the pool for Chloe and Lily's class. So here is a before shot:

So now all 4 of my wisdom teeth are finally out! Yay! The second time around, it seemed to go a lot faster and easier even; maybe because I knew what to expect. So now all I have to do is heal, which should only take about two weeks. Thankfully my wonderful husband took some time off work to help me out with the girls. Thank you Ben! I love you!

Student of the Month

So Isabelle was chosen as "Student of the Month" in her Kindergarten class. The school called us last night, inviting us to attend the assembly and watch her get her certificate. Luckily, Ben was off work for the day and got to come. We are so proud! The teachers pick students who are the most responsible, who listen well, and "se portan bien", are well behaved. She was so excited too.

Here are some pictures.

This is her after they called her name. We were sitting way at the back, and so the picture is not very great.

Here she is with her teacher, Senorita Fatima. She is such a nice lady. This is her first year teaching in Canada. She just came in the summer from Spain.

Time for An Update!

Picking Izzy up from school.



Playing at the playground after.






Having a picnic lunch after.



The girls are happy to be together again after school!



I am such a terrible blogger! I have not written anything for a very long time, so I will catch up on some recent events. A few weeks ago was the girls first day of school. Can you believe it!!! Isabelle still seems so little to me, I can not believe she is in kindergarten already. She is absolutely loving it. I thought she might have a hard time going everyday as opposed to a couple of times a week, but to my surprise, she loves and wants to go every day. She has already made some good friends at school. Her "best" one is named Chloe, and it gets confusing, what with having a sister named Chloe too. Everyday when I drop her off, and pick her up, there are kids waving at her saying, "Hi Isabelle! Do you want to come play with me?!" She is such a friendly girl, most kids can't help but love her. Lily and Chloe (her sister) miss her a lot when she is gone, but love to pick her up, play at the playground after and have a picnic lunch. She is glad to see them too.



So we also decided to put Lily in the Playschool they have at the same school. We originally weren't going to, mainly because Isabelle was going to take the bus to and from school, and I wasn't going to put Izzy on the bus, and then drive to the school right after. However, we found out that Izzy's bus ride was going to be 1hour and 25 minutes long!!! It is a 7 min car ride, yet the bus, because of all the other stops, was going to be 1 and a half hours. So, to Isabelle's big disappointment, we withdrew her from the bus schedule, and I thought, since I am driving to the school anyway, and since Lily really wants to go, I'll enroll her in the playschool. To say she really likes it is an understatement! Last year, everytime we dropped Isabelle off at Playschool, she always wanted to stay and play too, so this year, when she can actually do that, is like a dream come true for her! She was so excited the first day, she walked right in and started playing, and went up to another little girl, and said, "Hi I'm Lily, what's your name? Do you go to playschool too?" Some of the other kids that day were quite sad and clingy to their parents, and I thought, maybe Lily would feel a little like that too. So I stayed a little longer, like all of the other parents were doing. Lily eventually came up to me and said, "Mom can you PLEEASE go now?" She knows what she wants and how everything is supposed to work! It makes me happy knowing she wants to be there, and she is enjoying herself.


So Mondays and Tuesdays, Chloe has me all to herself, in the morning anyway. She really likes the one on one time, but at the same time, is really happy to have her sisters back when they come home. I am going to join a Library group called "Fun for Ones" that run Mondays during the school time. It is like a playtime and storytime for 1 year olds and their parents. It should be fun for her.

I'm back now. I had to take a 3 hour break there to take care of the girls! I apologize that this is such a long post, but there is a lot to catch up on.

So the girls are in the swing of the school routine. Isabelle is also in Gymnastics once a week, as well as Lily and Chloe; although their class doesn't start until the end of October. She is loving it as much as she did last year. Lily can't wait to start up again, and this will be Chloe's first time. I am excited to take her. All three of them also have swimming lessons every Saturday at noon, which they seem to be enjoying. I was really lucky to find a time that had a class for each of them. It is at the Bonnie Doon pool, which seems like a pretty good one. I have also just enrolled Isabelle in a Dance class that her school is running, for free, Thursdays. It is a Spanish Dance class, and focusses on Hispanic culture. I think she will have a lot of fun with it, especially if she is there with friends from school. If I am finding it is too much, or she doesn't like it, I will just pull her out. I don't want to be too over scheduled here.

This all probably sounds like a lot for the girls, but trust me, it really isn't! They enjoy being active and learning new skills.

So I had joined the Edmonton Rowing Club, which they always refer to as the ERC. I have been wanting to join this club for like 6 years now, when a co-worker of mine said I would be good at it because I am tall. It only runs through the summer, and so, over these past six years, I have always either been pregnant and too sick, or have just had a baby and too busy. So this summer, I wasn't either and thought, now's my chance! So I signed up, way back in June, and was told all of the sessions were full except the last one, which is in Sept. It fills up fast! So I joined the Learn to Row class, which were 8 classes in 4 weeks. I was so excited to go, and I really enjoyed the first two classes, one of which I got to actually go on the river. They then told us that the class was cancelled because of lack of instructors. Bummer eh? I was so disappointed. They said if I sign up now for next year, I would be first on the list. We'll see. While I was there, one of the long time rowers came up to me and said, "What a shame, you certainly have the build for rowing." There were a lot of really tall rowers there. One guy must have been at least 7 feet tall! I guess the taller you are, the longer your stroke is, so the faster your boat will go. So, I was very disappointed. Oh well, maybe next year. Taking the girls to and fro places, loving them, and being their mom, is keeping me busy enough at the moment!

Well, it has taken me so much time to write this post. I didn't do it all in one sitting though. I've been mostly up taking care of the girls, so I apologize if it seems a little scattered. I geuss that is why I am not good at keeping up my blog, it takes so much time to do it! I will try to write more, short updates in the future. Until then!

Izzy Rides a Bike

She can finally ride a two wheeler! She has been wanting to for a long time, but has been too afraid of falling. So we got her to try on the grass where it wouldn't hurt as much if she fell, and she learned very quickly! A bit more practise and she'll be riding on the sidewalk before we know it. GOOD JOB IZZY!!!!!!!!!

Lily is always quick to follow in her sister's footsteps, maybe she'll be riding a two wheeler at the end of summer too!

Isabelle la futbolista by Ben Anderson

On Wednesday I was lucky enough to take Izzy to her fun soccer. I had a blast, and was hugely impressed with how well she played.



Getting ready to go



For the first bit Izzy just stood there, and watched the boys play. After about 15 minutes she walked off the field, and hugged my leg, telling me that she didn't want to play soccer anymore, and that she wanted to go home. Being the super-dad that I am, I gave her a hug and asked why. She didn't think she was fast enough to play with the boys. I gave her a little pep-talk, and told her that if she wanted the ball to go and take it.

Izzy post pep-talk, taking the ball from the boys.



This is part 1 of making a sweet change of direction while dribbling

Part 2 of the jaw dropping move

As a big time lover of the beautiful game, I naturally want my children to enjoy, and excel at it, but I was most proud of how Isabelle tried her hardest to take the ball, and to move it to where she wanted to go. She played her little heart out, and had the grass-stains on her knee to prove it. I love soccer, and cheering for my kids, but more than that I love being their dad, and giving the hug or pep-talk they need to have a good time. I hope that never changes, even if she does decide she doesn't want to play soccer anymore.

O Canada!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!!!!!!!




We had a great Canada Day. Ben was working because it is paid triple time, but he got off at noon, so it felt like he didn't work at all. Our lovely community Riverdale had an explosion of activities for the family to do. First, was their annual Bike Parade. All of the participants decorated their bikes and helmets, and starting on the corner of The Tree Frog Press, the whole neighbourhood rode their bikes to the community hall. It started off with us all singing, O Canada, which, everytime I sing, makes me incredibly grateful to live in such a wonderful nation. We then all rode to the community hall where there was treats, face painting, games, live music, potluck BBQ, and of course, the Spray Park. Although we left quite a bit early, and really only participated in the parade and some of the games, we still had a lot of fun letting the children play and getting to know our neighbours even more.


Lily on the way to the starting line.

Here is Isabelle in front of the car that lead the parade. These are her favorite cars. Everytime we see one she says, "they're so cute."







We then met up with Ben's family at Rundle Park, and then headed to Gwenn and Dennis' for a potluck. It was great fun as always. The kids always have fun playing with their cousins, and it was a bonus to have Ben's sisters and their families, the Johnstons and the Eklunds, in from out of town. (Utah and Rocky Mountain House.) The Johnston's announced the great news that they are moving back to Edmonton! Sara told us, at one point it was just her and Lily sitting at the table outside eating a cookie while all the other kids were running around playing. She said that Lily then put her cookie down and said, "May I be excused please?" We have been trying to teach our kids to ask that before leaving the dinner table and it seems to be working!







After that, Ben and I decided to pack the kids up and take them to the fireworks, which did not start until 11:00 pm. It was very late for the girls, quite the change from their usual 7:30-8:00 bedtime, but they were troopers and stayed up the whole time to watch the fireworks. The girls absolutely loved them! Especially Lily and Isabelle. It took a little while for Chloe to not be afraid of them, but eventually she liked them too. It sure made for a late morning; Lily did not wake up today until 11:30, a record for even her. Chloe got up at 10:30, and Isabelle, our early riser, didn't even even wake up until 9:30. Just in time for her soccer! When Lily got up she said, "I think the fireworks are still sleeping." All in all it was a great Canada Day.



Every year they do this Great Waterfall from the High Level bridge. You can actually run under it and get all wet.





The girls watching the fireworks. This was their first time seeing them in real life.