Fantastic Symphony: June 2011

6/26/11

Can you guess?

Can you guess what this is?:

If you said, Jesse's new pet SWAN, then you are correct, and yes, he came up with this on his own and out of the blue.

And this, my friends, is what his pet swan does when it is mad:

Last night I was reading a book to the kids about 2 girls in a refugee camp in Pakistan who become friends and one of them gets chosen to go to America. Well, I'm reading this book and I started crying. Lame I know, but I couldn't help it! So I said to the kids, "Sorry guys, I'm not sad, I'm just grateful that we have freedom and it's sad that some kids don't..." but I couldn't stop crying! Poor Breanna just stared at me with these big blue eyes the whole time. She looked so concerned as I blubbered on. Then suddenly she broke her silence and with those seriously big blue eyes still looking so concerned she said,

"Knock-knock".

I laughed so hard.

Also the other day the kids were in the back yard playing with the water. They had been out there in their swimsuits for a long time so when Breanna came in I said, do you want to get dressed? She looked at me solemnly and said, "No. I want to stay in my swimsuit....forever."

Today we were walking with the kids at Fish Creek Park and we'd been walking for a long time when Jesse said "I'm so tired of walking!" Breanna, who's leisurely sitting on Brad's shoulders says, "If you're tired of walking, why don't you run?"

So we were at the lake the other day and there's all these teenage girls walking around in bikinis. Breanna's looking at them for a while when she says "When I get bigger I'm going to wear an unmodest swimsuit." Haha. AH! I tried to explain to her why we always dress modest and then said, "See? Mommy's wearing a modest swimsuit." She sort of nodded but gave me this look like "yah but I don't want to look like you, I want to look like them." Oh dear! :)

6/24/11

I wish I had the time to blog every day because there's been so much stuff I want to remember lately! Like that the kids finished swimming lessons and Jesse's report card said "Amazing job, Jesse!" Breanna didn't pass and could barely do any of the skills for her level. I didn't tell her of course. But it broke my heart when we got home and she made me get tape and display it on the wall. Most of the things on the wall are Jesse's because of preschool. Poor little girl just wanted something to be proud of!

Being a stay at home mom in summer time is pure bliss. Today we went outside with sidewalk chalk and no shoes while Afton was napping and drew hopscotch and looked for spiders. The day before that I packed a picnic and we were at the lake all day. The kids never wanted to leave and I wouldn't have if it wasn't for Afton. The day before that we went for a walk to find lilacs and pick some for our table. I'm treasuring this time because summer is so short here!

First a little video of Jesse's grad song, Breanna's music lessons and Afton on the swing. Warning: Very boring for anyone not related to these children :)

Jesse has the best entry to his preschool grad if I do say so myself! He's such a goof! His preschool teacher had to "have a little chat" (she's English) with Jesse and then me a few times for being too silly and not listening. I wasn't too concerned but it is SO embarrassing to get the chat in front of the other parents in the lineup! Though I know it's not necessarily good, I adore his lisp every time he says "slippery." Watching Breanna's little hands in the you and me song gives me that tinge of-I don't know how to describe the feeling-it's like, love and happiness but also sadness that she won't be this little forever.

Here's a few pictures I like from our lake day. I didn't make them brown and white to be artistic-it was an accident :)

I felt bad because I told Breanna to go play with these girls and they looked at her and said "we're building our own castles." And Breanna looked pretty rejected!

Good Ol' Indy

Some interesting facts about Afton: She loves balls, she seems pretty nimble and likes to throw and bang things and roll balls. Also, she likes to crawl on the grass, and most babies hate it! Makes things easier for me!

Then I figured out how to turn off the brown and white and I was sad because I didn't know how to get it back and I kinda liked it.

Yes, I only ever do Breanna's hair in a ponytail. I'll figure out the fancy stuff sometime!

That's all for now!

6/19/11

Some stuff has been happening lately. Jesse "graduated" from preschool.

Brad took this picture with Jesse's teacher Ms. Su and when I looked at it my first thought was 'if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.'

Breanna with her best friend Brooklyn at Jesse's preschool grad. Breanna and I went and got pedicures this week together. She is so fun to take to stuff like that because she just sits and causes no trouble at all.

This girl is basically my life right now. I'm pretty sure I could spend my whole day just taking care of her. She loves me, and I love her, and she has learned that when she cries, I pick her up! So she's doing a lot of crying these days. And she only wants ME! She is very smart and busy. Her personality and looks remind me SO MUCH of me, (only cuter)! Breanna is all Brad, so it's funny looking at Afton and thinking, yep!, that's my genes!

Also, Father's Day happened! I was already super tired so I was kind of dreading it, but I just wanted Brad to feel special and to have kind of a day off because he works so hard and is an amazing Dad, husband and such a good person. He's so supportive of everything I do and I didn't want him to be put to the side just because I'm busy. So I made him Blueberry Breakfast brunch and bacon for breakfast, and spaghetti and fried pork chops for lunch. With pop. This is NOT normal eating for our house so it was a big treat. I also got the kids all ready for church and let him nap for 2 hours after church while I made lunch. Okay, so I'm kind of spending father's day giving myself a pat on the back for doing such a good job of father's day, but hey, kids are in bed and father's day is OVER!! HAHA! :) P.S. He got a new job with the company he works for and we're so excited. Congratulations Brad!

This is a useless blob. This is how I feel, and that's because I am burnt right out, which means I'm not useless because I've been so busy and that's why I'm burnt out, but I still feel like a useless blob. And add to that a lot of crappy eating this week and an extra 5 pounds. This is how I feel today but I'm going to do whatever I can this week so that next week I feel like THIS!!:

And finally, I love this picture Jesse took of his Lego Indiana Jones hanging from the lamp. Jesse's just plain awesome :)

6/11/11

Moments

Having three kids is exhausting. Favorite stress moments of the week:

1. Superstore, grocery shopping with the kids. We're at the back of the store when Jesse says he has to pee. Washrooms are at the front of the store.

2. Trying on a sports bra at the mall while Afton crawls out of the change room.

3. Driving to my sister's house to watch her kids when I turn a corner too sharp and completely demolish the tire, at which point I get the kids out of the van and start the hour-long trek home.

4. Performing the heimlich maneuver on Afton. When that was done I was shaking and crying and didn't stop crying for the rest of the night.

5. Swimming lessons, followed by an afternoon at the lake with Jesse's preschool and a crying, tired 6-month-old.

The funny thing is, probably my favorite moment of the week was looking at and smelling a lilac tree on the way home after ruining the tire on the van.

Oh, no! Nevermind. My favorite moment of the week was this:

After a long run today I was supposed to meet Brad and the kids at the river down in Fish Creek park. As I turned the corner and saw the bridge where we were meeting it started to rain. I was disappointed to see they weren't there to greet me but thought they must have turned around when it started to rain. So I kept on jogging. After a while I could see the hill to get home when I heard Brad call out in the distance: "Sarah!" I couldn't see him but I was sooo glad to hear I wasn't alone down there in that cold wet valley. A few minutes later, I saw these kids running down the hill yelling "Mommy!":

Such a happy moment!

And at the top of the hill this little one:

Preciousness.

I'm glad to be running again but I'm relearning some forgotten skills. One of them? Always cut your toenails before a run. Halfway through I could feel one of my toenails falling off and it hurt. Now it's all black and blue and getting ready to fall off. So worth it though :)