end of school days

I went on a school trip with Samara to Edmonton to the museum and I-max. I was responsible for 5 girls and it was a tough job to keep track of them in the museum. As you can imagine, after 3.5 hours of sitting on the bus, none of the kids were really wanting to take their time going through the museum in an orderly manner! And then ... the gift shop! It was all fun though but I'm not sure I'd want to go with Keithan's class and try and keep track of 5 boys! The I-max was great ... would highly recommend "Born to Be Wild". On Friday (the last day for our kids since we were skipping 2 days to go to Vancouver) the Rootbear visited the kids classes with Rootbeer suckers and Rootbeer floats! It was Phil's first time to wear the bear ... and it is a rather warm and fuzzy experience!!! I tried the costume on the night before but I'm too short so it wouldn't have worked well for me to wear it with the head balancing precariously on the shoulders! I'm not that sad about it though :O) Can you tell?!

forgotten soccer pics

Oops ... this is one of the photos I was talking about for Grady ... swim gear and cowboy boots!

soccer monsters

Here are a few pics from the 2 times I remembered to take my camera. As you can see, Grady likes to wear his swim shirt and swim trunks all the time ... and usually with his cowboy boots and sometimes with his bike helmet even though we walked there. He makes quite a style statement as a soccer spectator. I never saw Keithan play a game - just practice with his team, so the pics of him are not as great (was also visiting with another mom and likely missed a 100 opportunities for better shots!). Rhett and Keithan both had a fun first season, but I must admit I`m glad it is over, for now. I am sure we will be doing it again but I need a break from this crazy schedule. I AM SO LOOKING FORWARD TO SUMMER VACATION!!!! Today is the last day of school for our kids. Yahoo!

fabulous few minutes

The kids and I felt so lucky that we were able to take a quick trip down to Lloydminster to see Uncle Keith, even if it was only for a couple hours. He looked pretty good, sounded good and his hugs still felt the same!! Was also very special to see Grandma O again! As you can see we tried very hard to get a group shot with Grandma, Uncle Keith and the great grand-kids. It was entertaining! While Wendy tried to get all the kids to cooperate and look at the camera I enjoyed snapping a few close-ups. I was so happy for how they turned out ... for me and my lowly photography skills and point and shoot camera!! Hope you enjoy them too! Sometime soon I'd like to experiment with photo editing - but for now what you see is what you get!

Colby - the cutest brown eyed boy who always seemed to have a snack or two in his hands

Brennan - the cute, camera shy boy

Amy - or maybe a clone of Samara

Ella - just a little hair-styling gone terribly wrong underneath that cute headscarf

Samara - she enjoys speaking for herself :-) p.s. hope she always finds all the videos of herself singing and dancing and performing funny and not embarrassing.

Keithan - who seems to get taller every time I turn around

Rhett - the soon to be school boy, who makes sure you know about it

Grady - my "no more baby" boy (FYI - now fully out of diapers and NO accidents on this trip - can you hear me cheer from where you are?)

grandma and 2 of her girls

performing arts crew (and peas in a pod)

having a little fun

may update

I hardly know where to start, so I'll just fill you in on whatever comes to mind! This month has disappeared somewhere between 11 other months. Seems like it was May 1st yesterday and now it is May 31st tomorrow! We started soccer two nights a week - which I have no pictures of yet - so that eats up extra time we didn't have to start with! On Tuesdays Keithan had music from 5-6 and soccer from 5:45-6:45! We compromised by leaving music early and getting to soccer late! However, we are done with that hectic schedule as last week was his last music lesson, THANKFULLY! Rhett plays soccer at the same time - on a different field! So, Samara walks with Keithan to soccer and Grady and I watch Rhett "play". For Rhett it is more of a social activity than exercise. I asked him why he doesn't run for the ball, to which he replied "I need to save my energy"! I'm just not sure what he's saving it for! Keithan on the other hand runs hard for the whole hour and comes back red as a beet! Another mom and I are trading weeks now so we can see the big kids and the little kids play. Oh, I forgot to mention the weather has been amazing! I'm positive we have had more hot days than we had all last summer. I was a little slow getting into the sunscreen routine - resulting in Grady blistering his ears :(

Phil has been away 99% of the month with seeding. He says he's coming back tomorrow so that is good news. Now we just need some rain. I've been trying to convince my family in Saskatchewan to share some of theirs ... but they just aren't co-operating!

Speaking of family, Mom and dad came for the long weekend, in fact, I think it was their longest stay ever - 4 nights!! Dad cleaned out the garage and loaded up the new shed so now we can park 2 vehicles in the garage. It was one of those overwhelming jobs I had on my list for the last 2 months since we got our shed! Thanks dad! On the same weekend we had Tenielle and her husband Shane stop over for a few hours ... with their babies - Poco and Vita (I think)! If you have been keeping up with local news, their town of Slave Lake was evacuated on very short notice because of out of control fires which ended up burning 30-40% of their town. Their house and neighborhood was spared, but still a scary experience.

The kids have found a new sport of interest - rollerblading! I was surprised how quickly they could do it! I was prepared with a few boxes of band-aides but we haven't needed them yet! Rhett finally agreed to have his training wheels taken off his bike since they've been riding up in the air all spring! Notice Rhett's poor fitting helmet - honestly not my fault! He's mister independent (in some things) and I guess I'm just glad he'll wear one at all!

I guess I've rambled on quite a bit! Until next time ...

birthday bash

Turning 7 is very exciting ... or it must be, because I can't remember Keithan being this excited about his birthday party before. He's been asking for the last 2 months how many days until his birthday. Well, it finally came and went ... and he'll be building Lego until this time next year! Everyone said they had fun: scavenger hunt, freeze tag, duck duck goose, guessing game, some snacks and a Lego cake I attempted to make.