I Love Photoshop!

Of course we left taking pictures together until right before hopping in the van to drive to the airport. My poor brother Luke was out there with the camera while we scrambled around putting people here and there, prodding kids to smile, to look at the camera and just sit still until we finally got all the pictures taken that we wanted.

Most of them turned out really really great, except for this picture of me and the kids:

In this one they're smiling really cute-ly and I'm the one with my eyes closed ....

.... now I'm looking, but they're not looking nearly as cute as they were in the previous picture.

But now, thanks to Photoshop, we're all looking great and smiling at the camera!

I love Photoshop!!

Recent Pictures

Our camera is broken (AGAIN!!) so if the pictures are fuzzy it's because I can't hold my hand still enough to get a good quality picture with the camcorder. *sigh* Also, moving the pictures around is more difficult than it used to be, so I'm just going to leave them in the order they uploaded.

I got this material from my mom's fabric 'store' and made Keira some leggings. While I was making the leggings I thought I'd quickly make a tank top for a sweet little outfit. Turned out great!!

This picture is a little better than the last one ... and of course Aidan needed to be in there too :) All in all I made Keira 5 pairs of leggings - pink, gray, flowered, brown and blue - except I cut the blue ones out with the stretch the wrong way and that didn't work out so well. She was SO excited about her 'new pants' which was very gratifying for me :) I finished 2 pairs one night and she got to wear one of them to bed and since she would not let go of the other pair we tucked her in holding her 'new pants'. So sweet!

Last Sunday/Family Day we went to the park and then to DQ for a peanut buster parfait. Why I felt the kids needed to be wearing long pants and sleeves I'm not sure ... it was really nice out that day! (Keira's wearing her gray leggings I made her here :)

I like this picture of Aidan

Don't tell Michael I posted this!!!

I didn't have everything together enough to get a picture on the very first day of school, so this is the 3rd or 4th day. Also, Aidan needed a haircut really bad - another thing that didn't get done before school started - so we took the pictures after his haircut.

Last year when he was in Kindergarten I made a deal with him: he got to pick what he wore one day and I got to pick the next. So generally he would look like a ragamuffin, then a little preppy school kid, then a ragamuffin etc. Finally I decided he could wear what he wanted to wear and I would stop interfering and trying to make him look good so that I would look good. And the end result is that this is what he normally looks like when he goes to school! It's not a bad thing, and I do wish he would look a little more put together, but oh well :) I reserve my right to pick clothes for picture day and Sunday mornings!

The obligatory 'crazy face' picture

The little monkey who copies EVERYTHING her brother does.

School

I was never very familiar with the office staff at my elementary school. When I was in Gr 6 or 7 I got to be part of a program where we 'babysat' the phoneline while the secretary had her lunch break, but that was about it. I was never really singled out, except to be a helper during picture day or other things that you got to do because you were a well behaved student. I do remember being part of a special math class. I'm not sure what grade I was in or how long it ran, I just remember one session in particular where we discussed different types of triangles - isoceles etc. It must have been great because I can't even remember the other 2 types right now!

My son, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of me. We are now finishing up the third week of school and already I am on a first name basis with the principal. What makes this even more remarkable is that this is her first year here, she's brand new! The very first day of school I was walking with Aidan down the hall to his class and the music teacher saw him and said 'Hi Aidan!'. This is his first year with her, he didn't even have her last year and even she knows his name!! The very first day of school I went to pick him up and walk him home and he started screaming at me in the playground. I don't know how many children he punched at recess before we finally got it through his head that this is not an acceptable response! And last week I had to be called to the school to come pick him up because he was misbehaving. Ahhh...the joys of being a mother of an infamous first grader.

I am very thankful that Aidan attends the smallest school in the district. Last year his class had 13 children (including him) and this year there are 14 children (including him) in his class. That allows for a lot of one-on-one time that is so so so great. His principal, Mrs. Kruse, has been very hands on with his whole situation. She is a very straightforward, no nonsense person and although she is very nice, I still did not enjoy sitting in her office discussing my child's lack of appropriate behaviour! She and his teacher are going to come up with a behaviour plan for Aidan so that no matter who he deals with in the school, he always gets the same response to bad behaviour. I think this is terrific!

Michael and I have our own behaviour plan: Smarten up for next week or there will be NO BIRTHDAY PARTY! Hopefully it will work. Then we will have to come up with another plan for the next week!!!

County Fair Weekend

Last weekend was the County Fair down at Evergreen Park and they had some pretty cool things going on. On Friday and Saturday night they had a free outdoor screening of UP! (Fri) and Remember the Titans (Sat). Aidan and I hadn't seen UP! yet, so we went on Friday and had a great time. Next time I think I'd bring some pillows - those grandstands aren't very comfy! - but we had some blankets, rice chips, candy and pop and a great time! The show was sponsered by Servus Credit Union and put on by FreshAir Cinema. They used a projector and showed the movie on an inflatable screen set out on the track. Of course I forgot to take pictures so I don't have any to post here.

The next day was the County Fair, at Evergreen Park again. I took the kids in the morning but probably should have waited until the afternoon when I could have gotten Michael to come with me to help deal with our sleep deprived children.

Keira was extremely excited about all the 'ah-mohs' she saw

The traveling carnival showed up and had $1 rides. I bought 10 tickets thinking they were going to get used up super fast with the kids wanting more rides. In the end I had 4 tickets left that I was almost considering selling to people in the ticket line up! There's so little to do in GP that when something does happen, the whole town turns out. There were 6-8 rides/activities in a very small parking lot with all of GP lined up in long twisty lines. It was definitely an experience.
Aidan picked this to go on first. He also used his last ticket on it and went in and just laid down for almost 10 minutes because I had told him it was his last thing to do. The guy taking tickets was just letting kids in without counting or monitoring it at all so I think we'll pass this one up next time. It's a good thing nothing happened and all the kids had to come out right away cuz that would have been more than a little scary!

Keira sat patiently eating apples while Aidan did his first activity

In the massive crowd we met up with Aidan's good frirend Shaun and his family. Shaun was lined up for this ride and Aidan went on with him. Aidan only lasted for about 10 seconds - then he had his head buried in Shaun's armpit and was wailing loudly. I had to go up and ask the guy to stop the ride so that Aidan could get off ... I guess I'll have to think of that next time I think he's growing up too quickly :)

This year is GP's 100th anniversary - or something like that. There was this HUGE cake, like 5ft long so of course the kids got in on the free cake action!

This seemed to be more Aidan's style. He and Keira had a blast riding the little train :)

Sitting and waiting while Keira jumped in the bouncy castle. I think he was playing fighter guys with his hands.

This was Keira's favourite. She went on it 3 times and had such a good time. She was laughing and grinning ear to ear the whole time :)

Saskatoon Island

This year I'm making more of an effort to explore GP and the surrounding areas. One of the places I wanted to go was Saskatoon Island Provincial Park, about 15 minutes out of town towards Dawson Creek. I had hopes of finding some water that the kids could play in, but when we got there we saw signs posted by the local health unit advising people not to swim. If the appearance of stagnant water with bright green algae wasn't enough to deter you then the signs warning of bacteria in the water that caused illness in humans probably would have. It was pretty gross and also a little disappointing for the kids - until they discovered a tap near the playground. They were sopping wet in no time - who needs a lake when you've got a tap?

There was an awesome playground near the parking lot and it had this cool 'safe' merry go round.

If I was a betting person, I would bet that it was built so that it slowed down as soon as you let go!! That thing was SO heavy and had zero momentum!

Apparently now it's cool to make plastic tree 'stumps' and rocks instead of using the real thing. Is this considered environmentally friendly or does the plastic cancel that out? I'm confused.

My two troublemakers looking all cute

Although the playground was cool, I don't think we'll be going back out there - the water was just too gross and there are enough nice playgrounds in town.