"Going for Goodness"

Hannah had 'Party Day' today at school... the first half hour of class the kids were allowed to have their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles etc. join them for a little performance. Hannah invited Buggy and Papa to come... I think she was pretty happy that they came to see her :-) The kids all sang and did the actions to the new songs they learned this month. One song was called "Going for Goodness" and Hannah has been singing this one at home for a few weeks now... it was nice to hear the whole song and not just bits and pieces of it! Here is a little video of Hannah's class singing.... (Hannah is 7th from the left wearing a jean skirt and black boots)







At the end of the performance the class celebrated all the birthdays for the month of September (and August since school wasn't in yet). They sang Happy Birthday to Hannah and she got a special cupcake from her teachers :-) Hannah and I made 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies yesterday afternoon and we made little goodie bags for the whole class to take home. Dave was disappointed that out of 4 dozen cookies he only got to eat one... I think he was hinting that he wanted me to make some more!

Swimming Lessons...

This morning Hannah and Victoria's swimming lessons began again. Hannah is in 'Sea Urchins' which is the second pre-school level (she skipped the first level) and Victoria is in 'Puddle Jumpers' which is the second baby level.

This was Hannah's first time going to lessons on her own with just the instructor and 3 other kids. Hannah knows 2 of the other kids in her class... I haven't decided yet if that is a good thing or a bad thing! I am sure that knowing a couple of the kids made her feel more comfortable but it also made her fool around alot more too. The instructor mentioned to me after the class that Hannah really needs to work on her listening skills and that she was having trouble focusing on what she was being asked to do. Tell me something I don't know!! After Hannah got dried off and changed from her lesson I made her sit and wait until her instructor was free again and then I made her apologise to the instructor for not listening during the lesson. Hannah was a bit upset that she got into trouble so hopefully next week will go better listening wise. She has no problems doing the swimming part it is the listening to the instructor's directions and waiting her turn that is the problem for her.




Dave took Victoria in for her lesson... it was a nice way for them to spend some time together :-) Victoria always seems to thrive when she is alone and gets some one on one attention. I guess it is hard to be the second child when your older sibling is bossy and controlling... (Is that true Brad???) Anyways Victoria did well at her lesson unlike Hannah she listened well and she did all the things she was asked to do like blowing bubbles, putting her face in the water and jumping / sliding into the water :-)

Ewwww!

While I was getting Hannah ready for bed tonight Victoria wandered down the hallway. A couple minutes later I went to go and get Victoria... I found her standing in the toilet while dipping her toothbrush in the toilet water and trying to brush her teeth!!! Gross!!

I have no picture to post of it because I was so grossed out that she was brushing her teeth with toilet water I couldn't even bring myself to let her stand there for an extra few seconds while I grabbed the camera! Her sleepers were soaked up to her ankles from standing in the toilet... I had to strip her, bath her again, brush her teeth again (with lots of toothpaste!) and then get her ready for bed all over again! Ugh!

I am still shaking my head... I can't believe she did that!

Yee Haw!

Tonight we went to our Church's Annual 'Hoe-Down' at Alder Acres Farm. The weather was terrible... it poured rain the whole time :-( But most of the stuff was set up inside the barn so we managed to keep dry.

Hannah and Victoria had fun petting all the farm animals.... goats, cows, horses, donkeys, bunnies etc. The kids went on a hay ride which was covered so they kept dry.

Hannah and I learned how to do a bit of simple square dancing... she was quite serious about it. She was concentrating really hard to remember all the steps.

Last night a bunch of the guys from our Church got together and made 49 Apple Pies from scratch in 3 hours!! Apparently they had quite the assembly line going. Dave had to work last night so he couldn't test out his baking skills :-( Maybe next year!

Tonight they served the Apple Pies and Ice Cream... the pie was actually pretty good! The left over pies were given away as door prizes. Hannah won a pie and my Mom and Dad each got one too! We gave one pie away to another family and then my parents took one home and we took one home. Hannah was pretty happy when they called her name and she got to go up and get her pie... she had a big smile on her face :-) She must have thought she hit the jackpot and was going to get to eat the whole pie herself!

Zoo Trip With Our Friends

Hannah, Victoria and I met up with some friends at the zoo today. I like taking the kids to the zoo... it is lots of walking for Hannah which is a great way to burn of some of her endless energy!

A couple highlights (and low lights for some) from our day at the zoo....

* One of the male lions backed himself up to the fence and sprayed urine all over some poor man who happened to be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. Kind of a highlight for me because it was funny but totally a low light for the poor guy who had to go home smelling like lion pee! (Unfortunately I did not have my camera ready so I did not get a picture... and I couldn't bring myself to ask the guy if I could take his picture after he got sprayed!)

* Some guy telling his kids to look at the little kangaroos only to have a know-it-all 3 year old named Hannah interrupt him and inform him that they were wallabies not kangaroos. Sheesh! What was the guy thinking not knowing his Australian outback mammals?!?! Hannah made sure to enlighten him. This was a highlight for Hannah who felt really smart and I'm sure a low light for the guy who had to be corrected by a 3 year old!

* A big low light of the day for little Tyler when he dropped his 'Bunny Bear' out of the train and the train ran 'Bunny Bear' over! Apparently 'Bunny Bear' needed a few stitches and a good wash but he is going to recover although he may never look quite the same again.



* And of course the biggest highlight of the day for me..... Hannah took a 3 hour nap when we got home! She woke up in such a good mood... I definitely like happy Hannah better than cranky Hannah :-)

Victoria loves being an only child!

Hannah had school this morning and after I dropped her off Victoria and I came home to hang out. I must say that Victoria was quite enjoying all the attention being on her. She was being all cute and playful... it was fun to spend time with just her.

Photos

Hannah's pre-school is making a class photo album. Each child has a page to fill with pictures of themselves with special people that they love. Then each child gets to take a turn bringing the class album home so that they can look through all of the pictures of their classmates and their classmate's families. Cute idea :-)

Today I went over to the scrapbook store and bought some cute paper and some lettering for Hannah's name. Tonight I took some pictures that I will develop this week so I can get her page ready to take to school.

Here are the pictures I took....


Hannah with Victoria

Hannah with Pistol

Hannah with Stallone

I still need to take a picture of Hannah with Buggy and Papa plus one of Hannah with Uncle Brad and Kara. And I have to get someone to take one of Hannah with Dave and I too. Hannah is really looking forward to taking her pictures to school to show her teachers :-)

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Victoria said her first real word tonight!! Other than 'Dada' and other baby babble she really hasn't clearly said a word. My mom claims that she said 'kitty' when she was babysitting her but we have not heard her say 'kitty' so it could be a figment of my mom's imagination ;-) But tonight Victoria pointed to her highchair and clearly said 'chair'!

We have been trying to teach her some baby sign language for a while now and today she signed 'please' every time she wanted more to eat. She also signed 'milk' too when she wanted some milk but she isn't as consistent with the 'milk' sign as she is with 'please'. She's getting there though :-)

Victoria's First Visit to the Dentist

Victoria had her first check-up with the dentist this morning. She let him count her teeth and have a look in her mouth. Dr. Rai is brave...I wouldn't put my fingers in Victoria's mouth... she bites!

The dentist and I discussed the thumb sucking issue since both Hannah and Victoria suck their thumbs. Hannah has a dentist appointment next month and Dr. Rai is going to talk to her about it... maybe she will listen to him? I doubt it! I told him that I am totally for having the metal prongs put in the roof of her mouth to stop her from sucking her thumb. He said that Hannah has to wait until she is about 5 years old before she can have that done. So she's got two years to quit or else I am going to take some drastic measures!

Of course Victoria doesn't care to stop sucking her thumb either and she does it right in front of the dentist. She's such a rebel....

PS - Christy - this is what the metal prongs look like. It is called a 'habit reminder' and I am sure it is better than the alternative which is cutting her thumb off! Just kidding... I wouldn't cut her thumb off. But I will get the 'habit reminder' put in if she doesn't quit!

Hannah's First Day of School...

Today was the day that Hannah has been waiting for... her first day of pre-school :-) Hannah was so excited... she came and woke me up at 6am asking if she could get ready for school yet!

Hannah picked out a new Princess backpack for school and she helped me pack it last night with all her stuff. This morning she was chomping at the bit to put her backpack on and get out the door!



Hannah's school is right in our sub-division so we are able to walk there which is nice. We got to her class a couple minutes early and she was hopping with excitement for the door to open. When the teacher opened the door she ran right in and got right down to playing! It was hard for me to get her to stand still for a picture :-)





She has 2 teachers... Teacher Vanessa and Teacher Kim who both seem very nice. Hannah was very comfortable there and she had no problem with me leaving.

When I went back to pick her up she wanted to stay longer... I guess that is a good sign that she is liking it so far. When I asked her what she did at school she was very quick to tell me a story about a boy named Derek that hit her in the face with his shoe! Then she said that the teacher made him say sorry to her. Then she went on to tell me that they are learning about apples and they coloured some pictures of apples and read a story about apples.

She will be going to school twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays... so far so good :-)

Toopy and Binoo

We met up with Tanya, Tysen and Joshua this morning at Guildford Mall for the 'Toopy and Binoo' show. Hannah and Victoria both enjoyed it. Victoria was pointing and laughing at the big stuffed characters. The show was partly sponsored by Play Doh and Hannah was pretty happy to get a Play Doh sample :-)

Somersaults

Hannah has been doing lop sided somersaults for a while now... today she finally mastered it. She was so excited she would do somersaults one after the other until she hit the door or a wall. I don't know how she doesn't get dizzy!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUGGY!

Today is my Mom's birthday :-) Hannah baked Buggy cupcakes for her birthday... she did everything herself except I cracked the eggs and put them in the oven for her. They might not have looked pretty but they tasted alright.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUGGY!

You can officially get a Senior's Discount at Ricky's now!