Halloween Party Day

Today was Party Day at preschool... Hannah didn't have any of her entourage there since Brad and Kara are sick and Papa, Buggy and Dave were all working. So it was just me and Victoria there to watch. Of course since nobody was there this was the day that Hannah actually put up her hand and answered the questions and sang really loud. Oh well, next month!

This month for phonics they learned to write the letters c, d and e along with the sounds each of those letters makes. For science they learned about the rainforest and animals that live in the rainforest... Hannah can tell you all about the 4 layers of the rainforest... Forest Floor, Understory, Canopy and Emergent (I didn't even know that!) This month the artist that they studied was Emily Carr and Hannah has learned lots of interesting tidbits about her... for example she used to mix her paint with gasoline to stretch it out to last longer and that she liked to have First Nations people visit with her.

Hannah and Victoria have participated in "Operation Christmas Child" this year through our church and Samaritan's Purse. Each of them filled a shoebox with school supplies, toiletries and toys to be delivered at Christmas time to a girl the same age as them in an underdeveloped country. I gave each of them $20 and took them to the dollar store to choose items for the shoeboxes. It may seem like nothing to me and you but to a child living in a third world country who has nothing a box filled with these things is very exciting to them.

I took them to each section of the store (for example the stationary section) then asked each of them to pick out 3 or 4 things to put into their shoeboxes. They needed some direction or else the boxes could have been filled with 10 packs of crayons and no toothbrushes!

But I was really impressed with how much thought Hannah put into what she chose to fill her box... (Victoria pretty much just copied what Hannah chose). But you could really tell that Hannah had her heart in the right place... she kept saying things like "I think that my little girl would like to have a puzzle to play with because she probably doesn't have any puzzles."

Even more impressive was that neither one of them asked for anything at the store for themselves (this is VERY impressive!) They didn't ask for a toy or a colouring book not even for candy at the checkout. Both of them were very focused on filling their boxes with things to give another little girl in another part of the world. See they aren't always little monsters! It was very heartwarming :-)

Anyone who is interested in being part of "Operation Christmas Child" by filling a shoebox with simple gifts can let me know. I can get you a shoebox and you can return it to me before November 16th which is the cut off date for delivery by Christmas :-)

Halloween Sneak Peek

Hannah has started to want to do her own hair...



She likes to use ALOT of clips! I have compromised with her... she is allowed to do her own hair when we are staying home and not going out anywhere... if we are leaving the house I get to intervene. I think I counted 17 clips when I took them all out!



Victoria's Potty Update... She is doing all of her pees on the potty now regularly! She is still struggling with her 'number two's' but she has graduated to wearing panties full time at home now. I am still using pull-ups when we go out although I was brave enough to venture to the Dollar Store with her in panties the other day without any incidents :-)

Today the girls went to a Halloween Party with a bunch of their friends. I took a few pictures of Hannah and Victoria all dressed and ready to go to the party. I was planning on holding out on posting pictures of their costumes until Halloween but I am caving and putting these up now :-) They chose The Wizard of Oz for their theme this year (when I say 'they' I really mean Hannah!)... Hannah is 'Dorothy' and Victoria is 'Glinda - The Good Witch of the North'.





I will post more picture on Halloween... Buggy is dressing up as The Wicked Witch of the West so it should be interesting! I wonder if Victoria will freak out??

Back By Popular Demand

This is for you Christy... it just never gets old does it? The kids got another big scare from Dave and his Halloween mask again this year!

I know... it's mean and maybe even a little cruel. But you laughed didn't you???

Happy Birthday Dave!

Today is Dave's birthday :-) The girls and I made him his favourite dinner and a birthday cake. Hannah wrote 'daddy' on the cake all by herself. The girls enjoyed decorating the cake and enjoyed eating it even more!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!

(Don't forget mine is in 9 days... just sayin')

Potty Update...

Victoria is doing awesome with her peeing on the potty :-) No accidents in the last few days and she is starting to 'listen to her body' and go to the potty without having to be reminded. Pooping is a completely different story... we are still working on it!

Paint, Play and Potty Update!

I took Hannah and Victoria to 'Strongstart' this morning. It is community program for preschoolers where they do arts and crafts, play time, songs and stories etc. Both of the girls like going there and it is a good activity for them on days when it is cold and rainy out. The only thing is that because it is a drop in program and they only let a certain number of kids in you need to get there early or else the class is full. On rainy days it is always busy since everyone is looking for things indoors to do with their kids.

We arranged to meet Hannah's friend Emily there this morning :-) Emily is doing great by the way! Her latest test results are very positive news indicating that she is in remission :-) A huge answer to prayer!

It was hard to get the kids out of there when it ended at 11:30am... they wanted to stay and play longer! Hannah and Victoria especially liked painting at the art easels... I have to go back to pick up the paintings tomorrow because I left them there to dry overnight. They used ALOT of paint!

On the potty training front... Victoria is doing great! She is using the potty frequently with very few 'accidents'. I still have to remind her to go to the potty when she has been 'dry' for a period of time but she is starting to get it. She has a potty sticker chart and she is very excited each time she earns a new sticker. She is still insisting on only wearing the boy underwear too :-)

Potty Time??

We are getting serious about working on potty training Victoria. She has been going pee on the potty a few times over the last few days and is excited about it so maybe it is time?? I sure hope so because I am really done with changing diapers... I am ready to move on to the next phase of life!

I took Victoria to Wal-Mart this morning and bought her a little potty and let her choose some 'Big Girl' panties. She was very excited to choose her panties... and you will be able to tell that she chose them all on her own.

If you click on the picture above you can view it in a larger format and you will see that Victoria's underwear of choice are boys briefs with 'Cars' characters on them. There were all kinds of cute Princess, Strawberry Shortcake, My Little Pony etc. girlie panties to choose from and Victoria picked out the boy underwear. So as much as I wanted to convince her to pick something prettier I decided that if wearing boys underwear is going to motivate her to use the potty then I can learn to live with it :-)

So today was her first official day of potty training and she had 4 pees on the potty and 1 'accident'. Not bad for her first day wearing 'Big Boy' underwear ;-) I am still going to have her wear pull ups when we go out though... I am not that brave yet!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday we took the kids to "The Apple Barn" to choose some pumpkins. We took a hay ride out to the pumpkin patch and the girls each chose a pumpkin. They both said they wanted "huge" pumpkins although the pumpkins they ended up picking were more medium sized than "huge".

After we picked the pumpkins the kids went to the little petting farm where Victoria actually pet some sheep!!! This is a huge milestone for her since she has been terrified of petting farms up until now. She was very hesitant but she did manage to pet the sheep before she bolted back to safety :-)

We went to my Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving dinner after a pit stop at home to get changed out of our dirty farm clothes. The turkey was yummy as usual and we were all nice and full afterwards :-)

All those turkey endorphins kicked in overnight and we all slept in until 9am this morning! Hannah was up a bit earlier but just played quietly in her room until Victoria woke up just after 9am... I think that may be a record!

Hannah dressed herself today... I am glad we don't have plans to go anywhere ;-)

The Never Ending Birthday

Hannah had her 'Party Day' last week and she got her birthday cupcake... it seems like Hannah's birthday goes on forever! It starts with her birthday party at the end of July and ends with her birthday 'Party Day' at the end of September. Must be nice to keep your birthday going to 3 months!

Last night we looked after my friend Sarah's kids... we had a PJ party and they all watched 'Bolt' with bowls of popcorn. I am always amazed at how nicely kids will sit if you give them a bowl of popcorn. I kind of wish popcorn was a super healthy vegetable that you could just give them bowls of all day long!

Today Hannah's class had their first field trip of the year... a "Rainforest Walk". They are learning about the jungle and the rainforest this month and since there isn't a 'real' jungle or rainforest around here they made do with a hike at Tynehead Park. When I say hike I really mean hike. It was about 1 hour and 20 minutes to complete the entire loop. I borrowed a stroller from a friend to take with me since I was watching one of Hannah's classmates and her younger brother today. I'm glad I did since I think the walk would have taken twice as long if Victoria and this little guy had to walk it. The kids were all pretty tired afterwards and I worked up a bit of a sweat pushing the stroller up and down all those hills!

Hannah and her friend spent the rest of the afternoon painting a tea party set that Hannah got for her birthday. We have to bake it in the oven tomorrow to set the paint. Aren't you guys all impressed that I allowed kids to use PAINT inside my house??? I am making progress with my OCD about messy craft projects... baby steps!

Tonight Buggy gave Hannah her Halloween costume that she made her. Hannah is so excited about it that she wanted to wear it to bed! It is SO cute... I am not posting any pictures until Halloween so you all have to wait to see it :-P