We’ve almost reached the one-year mark here in Regina. That’s an important milestone because after many moves, I’ve come to the conclusion that no matter how hard we try to rush it, it takes a full year to feel fully settled in a new place. And we finally do! We know our city pretty well, and have an assortment of wonderful new friends. We’re also about half-way through the unenviable job of painting our house, which all by itself makes life a little better—wait until you see the before and afters! Aside from all that, June officially marks the longest we’ve gone without a new baby or pregnancy. It’s strange (but really quite wonderful) to be out of that whole loop for the first time in a long while.
June got off to a rollicking start with Theo’s seventh birthday. He woke up to a pancake breakfast and lots of hugs before he darted off to school with a big fat bag of rice-krispie treats with sprinkles for his class. That evening he got some pretty cool science books and the “real” Buzz Lightyear for presents, and we finished the night off with a cookies-and-cream planet Mars cake and ice cream. The next weekend, he had a Space party at the park, which escaped being rained out by only the thinnest margin. Although we had to squeeze in good friend’s birthday party in the morning and two of his friends came down with chicken pox at the last minute, all in all he had a great time with his buddies, and came away with presents galore (he’s glad he finally talked me out of writing “gifts optional” on the invites).
Fathers’ Day followed, and to Aaron’s delight I actually made a lasagna for dinner—the first in quite a while (lasagna ingredients are more expensive here), with key lime pie for dessert. The kids (Addy especially) showered him with gifts and drawings and hugs and more, and I had the chance to appreciate once again what I fabulous man I am married to. Aaron and I have had our share of ups and downs during our marriage, but through it all he has been my best friend and the person I admire most in the world. He is always putting forth his best at whatever he undertakes, be it a concert or a calling or a chat with one of the kids. He demands excellence of himself (and okay, the rest of us too), and really puts his full effort into improving our life, his parenting skills, our marriage, his career—whatever. I love him more now than ever and feel so lucky to have such a partner!
The rest of the month didn’t feel especially like summer. For one thing, Theo only got out of school on June 25—far later than any school in the states—and for another, it rained a lot. We managed to squeeze in a couple of Toonie Tuesday movies (yay for no more YW calling), and we enjoyed some park play-dates and library visits as well.
I also got to accompany Theo’s class on a couple of end-of-year field trips to the Science Center and the Natural History Museum. Although it was a little hard to manage logistically (having Aaron home with the other kids), it was awesome to have Theo so excited to have me there. Seeing his teacher, M. Dube interact with the kids was fun too. He is hilarious and the kids adore him—we’re so glad he was Theo’s teacher this year.
At home, our kids have come up with some pretty cool games to play with each other, from “Ruff-ruff Doggie” (involves eating pretzels and goldfish from bowls without hands) and “Come here Squishy” (which I don’t quite get, but my kids tell me comes from Finding Nemo). Addy and Emerson have also gotten into “Mr. Nobody”—so much so that we had to invent “Sister Nobody” to prevent arguments about who he would sleep with.
Now that Theo is finally out of school, we are looking forward to finishing up our house-painting, then heading down to Utah for a visit with family and a super-cool, adults only trip to Denmark. THANK YOU to those watching the kids! We can’t wait to see you!
Space Aliens at Theo's party
Sera dressed up as . . . something--she did this herself
Growling back at the animatronic dinosaur
