We have a winner! {Clickinmoms Giveaway}

I used Random.org to determine the winner and it is number 9, Roz Lawson! Roz, please email me your full name and email address to queenbeegymboree(at)yahoo(dot)com and I will get you set up for your new Lifetime Membership to Clickinmoms! Congratulations!

Saturday

Adam was working today so I had to think up lots of things to keep us busy so we wouldn't miss him (we did miss him anyways). We went to a kids swap meet where (surprise, surprise) I bought some clothes and the girls bought some toys and books. Then we went out for muffins before we went for a long walk at our favourite nature park.

My pictures are fairly typical, but I don't love them any less...

Actually this one isn't all that typical... Mylie rarely gets to hand feed a chickadee... it is usually Laina that does it... but here is Mylie.

For this one, I laid on my tummy on the boardwalk to get down to the squirrel's level...my mom stage-whispered at me "Get up, someone is coming and you are making yourself ridiculous!"

And this one makes me melt a bit... Evie can't hold her bottle with her cast on, so she wanted to lay down in my arms and have me feed it to her, it was like she was a tiny baby again!

Oh and you can probably tell from that picture that I got my hair cut (8 whole inches off!)

Friday

Today signalled a first for me as a parent... the first time a child of mine has had to have a cast put on...

I mentioned last week that Evelyn fell off our swingset and I thought she had possibly sprained or hurt her arm. I waited to see if her arm swelled up or bruised and it didn't so I just assumed everything was going to be okay. But fast forward to this week and her arm seemed to be really bothering her. We took her for x-rays at the Children's Hospital and she has a mid ulna fracture and now a half-cast.

Unfortunately, it hasn't slowed her down a bit. I was hoping for a little bit of a break from DaredEvelyn, but she was trying to climb a tree already tonight!

And she wouldn't stand still for this picture either!

Thursday

It was Mylie's preschool sports day today and it was surprisingly cold. Like almost winter jacket cold, and the sports day was held at a water park! But they went ahead and played their games but just didn't go in the water.

Some pics from her races:

For the record.... 20 3 to 4 year olds equals one huge gong show!!

Playdate

The kids were buzzing with excitement all day because we had a playdate planned for afterschool with some friends that we haven't seen in awhile. Evelyn refused to take a nap and just kept repeating the friend's names over and over again; I think she was trying to tell me that she was afraid to go to sleep in case she missed their visit! I had to turn on some music and dance and rock her until she got sleepy enough to allow me to lay her down and then I had to get into bed with her and snuggle until she fell asleep. It sounds like I am complaining but really I enjoyed every moment of it! The playdate was a great success and we will try to make sure it doesn't go so long without a visit again!

Today's picture is the sea of cupcakes I am swimming in at the moment; Mylie's last day of 3-year old preschool is tomorrow and it is their "sports day". Sounds like it is supposed to rain though.... come on now!!! It is the third day of summer, it isn't still supposed to be raining!!

Tuesday....

What makes me happy today... I know, I know, I keep sharing pictures of Mylie holding Mittens and being all happy about how she finally likes and animal blah blah blah. But here she is again. Can I stress how much she LOVES Mittens? And Mittens loves her right back, look how relaxed she is (I stuck a sticker on the photo to preserve Mittens' modesty :)

Monday

I am a day late adding this post but my excuse is a sick husband last night. Oh, that and I was sewing... I finished these two off:

HUGE Clickinmoms Giveaway!!!

One of my lucky readers is going to win one of the coolest and most useful prizes that I can think of.... a lifetime membership to Clickinmoms (a $195 value)!! Let me tell you more about Clickinmoms if you aren't already familiar with it.

It is an online forum for photography enthusiasts that is loaded with awesome tutorials to learn everything from the basics of how to use your DSLR right up to more advanced stuff like post processing and starting your own photography business. In addition to the free tutorials, you can pay to join classes on a wide range of topics, and let me tell you, joining Clickinmoms was the best money I ever spent on photography (seriously!) You can also just hang around to chat about photography or to get tips on how to take better pictures. There are always pros and other hobbyists around to give constructive (and kind) criticism on how to improve your images. Even if you never intend on going into business or taking up photography as a serious hobby... Clickinmoms is an awesome place to just learn how to capture the moments in our lives that we never want to forget.




I joined Clickinmoms back in January I believe and in the 6 months I have been on there (and taken 3 of their courses) I have come so so far in my photography skills. I still have an infinite amount to learn as I think Clickinmoms has fostered a passion for photography in me, but here is a little look at some photographs that I have taken to submit for my courses at CMUniversity (and beyond).





















So here is the deal... If you want to become a follower of my blog, that would be awesome, I would be very happy to gain some new blog followers and then you can check back in to see if you won! This giveaway is only open to new members to Clickinmoms... but if you sign up for the first time this month through the Clickinmoms banner above, they will refund you your membership fees if you win ( Signing up is NOT a requirement of entering this giveaway.) I will leave this open until next Sunday, June 25th at 7:00pm Pacific when I will use random.org to chose a winning comment number to receive the free Lifetime Membership. Just post a comment to this blog post to enter, one entry per person please :) Feel free to share this with your friends!

I am so boring lately, I really have nothing better to say than "It was a busy day" And it was... again. But it was a fun and different than usual day that saw me alone with Evie for most of the day while the two big girls went to the aquarium with my in-laws and Adam worked. Once they all returned, I left to go to my friend Amy's house to paint party props! No pictures of those yet, but I promise, they will be coming soon!

Just a picture of Evie in kitty heaven today. She absolutely loved this. She was sitting on the ground in the kitchen while I washed dishes and I handed her the cat treats so that she could give a couple to Pearl. Well she started shaking the whole bag onto the floor and at the sound of the bag, Mittens came running too. She was squealing and giggling with both cats in such close promixity to her. So cute!

It was Laina's school's french family fun night tonight and we just got back. It was fun but after a full day that included a field trip for Laina and carting the other kids around shopping for father's day presents, we were all pretty beat.

Now Mylie has broken out into spots, still have no idea if Laina's were chicken pox or not, but now Mylie is covered in them! She is quite a bit more miserable too. She feels 100% fine, but the itchy makes her cranky.

Here is a couple from the fun night.

Pony rides!

Mylie Rocks

Mylie painting rocks today while Evie was sleeping and Laina was at school today. This was the best I could muster up! Really can't wait to get into bed tonight!

Wow

That is really all I can say is wow. What a day! I just have to say how disgusted I am with what is going on tonight as a result of the loss by the Vancouver Canucks of game 7 in the Stanley Cup. Of course it was disappointing... but seriously the rioting? Ridiculous! How humiliating for our beautiful city to be shown in this light in the media as a result of a bunch of idiots.

Closer to home today, we had a neighbor's dog bust loose from her pen several times and come over for a visit. Which would have been nice if I didn't have two kids who are frightened of dogs! So I had to carry Mylie and Evie whilst trying to capture the cavorting doggy. That was fun.

A little later, Evie fell off of our swingset and laid injured on the ground screaming. She is a tough little cookie and usually rebounds quickly for falls, but she was just not boucing back from this fall. She was clutching her arm and crying and if she tried to put weight on it she would screaming "owie". After driving around and trying unsuccessfully to find someone to take a look at her arm, she was seeming to be feeling better so I just left and brought her home. I am going to keep my eye on it, but it seems to just be injured but not too seriously, but still, a very stressful afternoon!

Then while we were eating dinner we had another animal visitor.

This was on our back step peeking in our sliding glass window:

It was an uneventful day.... really all I can say about it was that I took all three girls to the dance studio for registration and stood in line for almost 2 hours and spent an unmentionable amount of money signing them up for dance again next year. Other than that, I started two new dresses for two friend`s little girlies, cleaned up around here and just played with the girls! Sometimes uneventful can be good... especially in June when there is so many activities and school functions going on!

Mylie and Mittens... I can`t believe how much Mylie enjoys Mittens... this is really the first time she has ever enjoyed touching an animal and I am hoping she can become less frightened of animals as a result.

Mylie and a New Dress

Mylie asked me the other day why I never sew for her. She is on this kick right now where she acts really dramatic. Very "all-or-nothing" behaviour in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy speak. So if I tell her not to do something, she will pout and say, "Why don't you love me mommy?" Or if Adam tells her to go put her shoes away, she will wonder aloud, "Why do I have to do all the work and Laina doesn't have to do anything?" I hope it is just a short phase because she is acting like a 14 year old girl!

So anyways, back to the sewing neglect. I let her pick out a main fabric for a new dress and I picked some to go with it. I finished it this afternoon and we went out this evening for her to model it. In most of the pictures she looks bored but really we were having a great time! I think just none of the smiley ones really turned out. These came out very hazy.

Recital Day #2

Luckily I learned my lesson (see previous post) and organized everything I would need the night before recital day #2. Mylie's routine and her finale were on the second day and she was excited to be spending the day with just her dad and I while my mother-in-law watched Laina and Evie. Mylie's class was as adorable as always... as soon as they took to the stage (I was backstage as the helper mom) I could hear an audible "Awwwwww" out in the audience for the tinest members of the dance studio. There were some rough spots in their routine, but Mylie managed to perform most of the dance without too much trouble.

Backstage for the finale, the teachers suggested I hold hands with the four little girls and when the curtain went down, I should run them onto the stage and sit them in the middle of the stage while all of the older girls ran on to get in their places. I was told I would have about 8 seconds to do this and then run off the other side of the stage before the curtains opened. Well of course 2 of the girls let go of my hand at the critical moment and were left behind as I hurried the other two to their places. I tried to run back and get them but I could hear the teachers hissing "Get off the stage Julie" so I ran as fast as I could because there was no way I wanted to be standing there in the middle of the stage when the curtain opened!!!

When we got home, the girls wanted to play with our power wheels jeep that Adam had dug out of the shed and charged the battery for. I don't think it had been out of the shed in two years so it was like a new toy to them. Now I am probably going to get the "bad parent of the year" award here, but we hitched up the trailer and let them go for a little ride around the block (with both of us VERY close to the baby at all time, lol! Oh and Mylie still had some eye makeup on, that is why she looks weird)

Recital Day #1

Today was our busier day of end-of-the-year dance recitals. Laina danced in two routines plus the finale and while it was a fun and exciting day, it was also pretty exhausting (hence me playing catchup with the blog).

As per usual, I procrastinated and didn't get organized the night before. I thought to myself, "I should get everything Laina and the girls will need tomorrow all together so I am not rushed in the morning." But as the evening went on, I changed my thoughts to "Nah, I will get up at 6 am and get everything organized in the morning." The next morning rolled around and I awoke at 7:15 am and then bummed around on the computer for about half an hour. For the last 15 minutes before it was time to leave, I rushed around in a mad panic and barked out orders to my family while wildly throwing things into bags. I paid for my procrastination later.

We had to be there early to practice the finale, and once that was over we had some time to kill until the recital began. Since we were about a 45 minute drive from home, we decided to go to the mall for a bit. Once we returned to the theatre about half an hour before show time for my first reality check.... I had forgotten Laina's hair piece (her curly ponytail that she wears over her bun... looks similar to a small curly dead animal when in the package). So Adam drove home to get it while I slapped on Laina's eyelashes and makeup. Once he got back with it, the show had already started and we had about 15 minutes before she went on stage. That is when I had reality check #2. One of my barked out orders had been for Laina to pack her jazz shoes. Well she packed two shoes... unfortunately one of them was hers, and one of them was Mylie's.... and they were both for the right foot. Luckily, another mom whose daughter was in a different routine lent Laina her daughter's shoes.

So she performed and it was great, but then it was time for her to get ready for her ballet routine (which by the way is like my favourite routine for her ever!) and that is when I realized that I had completely forgotten her ballet shoes. Mooching around didn't work this time, we only came up with a pair of shoes that were way too small for her. So I whipped out my Iphone and googled dance stores and GPS'ed my way over there to buy a new pair of ballet shoes for her last performance of the year. Nice. But anyways, I bought them a bit big and hopefully she can wear them in the fall.

All in all though, it was a fun day and all of the students and teachers at the studio were fantastic!

The picture I took for the day was disgusting... I am not going to post it for the grossness factor... but it was of Evelyn and one of her misdeeds. While we were eating dinner, she got a hold of the parmaesan cheese and poured a big (think the size of a large bun) mountain of cheese onto her plate. I shrieked and grabbed the cheese container away from her, but as I was whisking it away, she decided to lean down and hoover some of the cheese into her mouth (and nose). It was funny and I took a picture, but I don't think I will punish you with it. Instead, here are some flowers.

TGIF

It has been a long day and a long week and I am sure it will be a long weekend.

Sometimes I just stop and question myself as a parent. Like when my kids make poor decisions, I just wonder if it is my fault? If I failed to teach them some important thing that would have helped them to make a better decision? As my kids get older, I am just confronted more often with their flaws... like when Laina was a baby and a toddler, it was all new to me, and I thought everything she did and said was adorable (even if she was being a stinker). But as I become more seasoned as a parent, their foibles are less "cute" to me and more of a concern. I don't love them any less, just get disappointed when they aren't all that I had hoped I would teach them to be.

For my pictures tonight, here is Evelyn watering some plants with me. She really enjoyed helping me :)









Tomorrow is Laina's dance recital day, should be a busy and stressful day, but hopefully an enjoyable one too.