pictures coming!
Whew! What was that? November flew by way too quickly.
I'm sitting here in my living room with snow on the trees outside and my two little monsters running around with blankets hanging out the back of their pants (their tails), trying to remember what made November interesting. There was lots of driving early in the month, as we finished up swimming and craft circus and all that, then things sort of settled down. Aaron and I had about 59 "discussions" about a visit down to Utah to visit Grandma Ruthie, involving about 4 different scenarios, and ultimately decided on a visit over the holidays for all of us (initially I lobbied for a shorter excursion with just me and the younger two kids). We're looking forward to escaping the sub-zero temperatures (who goes to Utah in the winter to warm up?), a round or two of decent Mexican food (refried beans are stocked in the "Ethnic foods" aisle at the grocery stores here), and most importantly, a bit of time with the people we love. We're not looking forward to a 16-18 hour drive in the freezing cold of winter, or the hit our bank account will take. Still, we haven't spent many Christmases with family, so we're pretty excited!
We had a chance to visit with the kids' teachers at school this month for parent-teacher conferences, and I couldn't help going away feeling pretty good. Theo's teacher this year is a smart cookie. She caught on pretty quick that Theo does well on his schoolwork, but that his organizational skills are somewhat lacking. Together they've made goals to improve his organization, including staying in from recess once a week to clean out his desk, and checking in both at school and at home for his daily agenda. Amazingly, she's pulled this off in such a way that Theo is excited about it! I'm so grateful for a teacher who takes the time to teach what kids really need, not just what the provincial curriculum tells them to teach.
Speaking of which, let's have another round of applause for M. Dube, Addy's teacher this year. He was a fantastic teacher for Theo two years ago, and we're lucky to have him watching over Addy this year. Although I have a feeling he flatters all the parents (he regularly told us that he'd never seen a student pick up French as quickly as Theo), he expressed great admiration for Addy's gorgeous journal entries. How could he not? Her illustrations at the top of every page are filled with such careful detail. I need to have her bring her journal home so I can scan and post some pages. Until then, I can say that I've seen a good many picture books with illustrations not quite up to the artistry Addy invests in hers. Both her French and reading are coming along, and his only complaint was that Addy is too nice. She is! She came home a little sad and frustrated a few days ago because everyone keeps asking to use her markers and she lets them, even though she's kept such good care of them and other people have lost theirs, and she's worried that hers will run out of ink. I told her she doesn't have to always say yes, but she insisted that she does, because she doesn't want to be mean. I often wonder how she came out so sweet with a mother like me!
Joy School this year has turned into a bit of a zoo. What do you expect with boys boys boys, three of them just barely three? I think every week is a bit of a struggle for all the moms, but I'm glad we're soldiering forward (for now) all the same. Joy School has some really great lessons for kids, and I'm especially loving the little "helper elves" I've had in Emerson and Sera lately. We end up skipping and cutting a lot of stuff in the lessons, and sometimes I worry that I'm not giving Emerson a fair shake both in that, and by not spending more time reading with him. He can read short words with nudging now, but I haven't taken the time to really get him reading books yet. That means I have him nearly a year behind my other kids, literarily speaking. I can't decide if that makes me a bad third-time mom, or if my excess ambition is just wearing off. Either way, it doesn't seem good.
Piano lessons soldier on as well, though I have self-doubts more frequently these days. I think Theo might be ready to have a teacher who is not his mom, although I plan to finish out this year. He doesn't seem as interested in playing piano, other than transposing various Crazy Frog songs up and down the keyboard. I feel like I'm always badgering him to practice (and do his chores; thankfully he still finishes most of his homework at school, which the school strongly encourages). After a while it becomes exhausting and I just think to myself "too bad for him, he's going to be sad when he grows up and can't play piano." Which of course makes me feel guilty, so then I yell down to the basement and tell him to turn off the Crazy Frog CD, put on some clothes (not counting his red Blazers jersey and blue nylon shorts that are going to adhere to his flesh before long), and finish up his practicing first. Not the world's most attractive parenting, I admit. Addy is having fun sight-reading through Christmas duets with me, and is pretty steady about her practicing (though Theo was at six too, so my hopes are limited). I've started Emerson on a different piano course than I've done with the older two, using the Faber and Faber My First Piano Adventure series that I use in my piano classes. There's a music CD that he practices with, and he honestly can't get enough of practicing. Maybe if I'd started the older kids the same way. . .
So, Christmas letters are almost done, Christmas concerts are nearly upon us, and Christmas itself is coming way too fast. Though the shopping is mostly done, the wrapping isn't, and blast if there isn't enough time to bake ginger-snaps for eating with egg-nog often enough! There's never enough time during the holidays, I find. Our fake tree went up this year (since we're going out of town), and though I had delusions of grandeur regarding actually putting matching ornaments and garlands and ribbons on it, the kids attacked it with their foam and popsicle stick ornaments already, and I don't have the heart to change it. For at least for one more year, the Mitchells will have the tackiest tree on the block. Singing Christmas carols to the kids at bedtime has always been one of my favorite holiday rituals, but I find that I'm only getting to it a time or two a week, and the kids don't have the songs memorized to sing in church. I want to read more Christmas stories, bake batches upon batches of holiday treats, make a gingerbread house, and blast holiday music through the house all day long. But the days disappear so fast, that I only get to do a handful of the things I want to. Hopefully I can get things under control soon!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Fall in Saskatchewan
Waiting for the bus on a fall morning
These two come up with the funniest games for themselves
After a Joy School field trip
After swimming lessons
Happy Birthday, Britt!
East Side Mario's
So, there aren't really any pumpkin patches around here . . . the pumpkins would die in the September frost. Instead, this is the indoor pumpkin maze we visited--Not quite the same, but still pretty fun.
Jack-o-lanterns
Ode to playgroup: this is where we've spend Wednesday mornings all winter long for the last two years. Recently the Catholic church where it was held encountered financial difficulties, and the playgroup was a casualty. I don't know how we'll make it through those cold months without our playgroup!
Emer and Sera with some of their favorite play-group buddies 
Darth Vader
Cleopatra
. . . and a butterfly (meh, a girl can dress up more than one way, can't she?)
Happy Halloween!!
Buzzy Bee
. . . and a butterfly (meh, a girl can dress up more than one way, can't she?) A Halloween Party at the Regina Floral Conservatory
Oh look--green stuff . . . growing!
Trunk or Treat!
Happy Halloween!!All the Little Things
There are so many funny, silly, happy, sad, exciting, crazy things that happen every day that I never get to mention here. So October's post is dedicated to capturing at least a few of those.
October brought us a bit of snow, a bit of sun, and a fair amount of wind. After a snowstorm early in the month, the still mostly green leaves turned brown and started falling off the trees. It's sort of sad how we seem to just skip over fall here, because it's always been my favorite season.
We enjoyed Canadian Thanksgiving on October 3 with some wonderful friends, the Tondevolds. Our four kids nearly match their four kids in age, and Coralie and I have become good friends over the last two years. Since we can't completely embrace Canadian Thanksgiving as our own, spending it with friends makes it more acceptable.
After that, life fell into a happy rhythm of school, lessons, practicing, and clapping at the fruit flies that seem to nearly die off every week or so before mysteriously reviving and re-haunting our kitchen.
BEST OF OCTOBER:
Addy got an award at school--she works so hard and her teacher loves her. She also brings home 3 or 4 fantastic drawings every day, most of them covered with "I love you mommy love mom I love you from Addy" or some variation. I so do not deserve her as a daughter!
I dragged myself to the school and taught a lesson on Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition to Theo's class. It was really fun, but also a fair amount of work. I need to follow up with a day in Addy's classroom. Really, I do.
Wednesday has been the favorite day around our house. On Wednesday nights we head up to the pool for swimming lessons--I somehow managed to schedule all the kids at the same time. I think I mentioned that before, but some things bear repeating. 4 KIDS AT THE SAME TIME!! Since Sera is still in the baby class, that means even I am in the pool. After swimming, we spend about 20 minutes showering and washing hair (one less bath every week!), then head to the "hot room" (sauna). Eventually we all get ourselves dressed, and if everyone has had a good lesson, we make a stop at Dairy Queen for a banana split or a blizzard. After terrible behavior by everyone the first time, we started playing "Kings and Queens of Dairy Queen." After each visit I hand out titles to everyone, from serf to butler or lady-in-waiting to prince or princess (I know, so politically incorrect). Ever week we have more royals and less paupers. Progress! The best part is Emerson, who now always opens the door and says "ladies first!" The worst part is Sera, who pushes people out of the way and says "no! Ladies first! I a prinshush!" So yeah, another lesson or two might not be a bad thing.
My birthday! As I requested, all the kids hooked me up with a picture (well, seven or eight in Addy's case), and we had a great time at East-Side Mario's in celebration. Aaron also got me a super-fancy black forest bakery cake (NOT the norm for us) that was so delicious.
Halloween and trick or treating: Aaron had to be out of town until late Saturday night. He came with us to the trunk or treat earlier in the week, but for Halloween night it was just me and four kids . . . until Theo's friend's mom invited Theo and Addy to go with them! Ah, relief. So she took the big kids and they covered lots of ground, while I took just Emerson and Sera, who knocked everyone's socks off with their Winnie-the-Pooh and Honeybee thing. I got a great dose of laughter following them around as they trooped up and down stairs, endlessly amazed at all the treats they scored. Everybody handed out loads of candy, so we only had to go half-way up one street to fill up their bags!
HUMOROUS HAPPENINGS:
Sera stopped calling her blanket a "diddit," and now calls it her "crank-it."
Emerson and Sera think they're hilarious when they sing "This is the rule at Joy-garbage, this is the rule at Joy-garbage, this is the rule at Joy-garbage, to help us all to be happy!"
During family council we give each other compliments. A favorite from Sera: "Daddy is really good at sleeping." Which if you know our family, you know is way way true.
October brought us a bit of snow, a bit of sun, and a fair amount of wind. After a snowstorm early in the month, the still mostly green leaves turned brown and started falling off the trees. It's sort of sad how we seem to just skip over fall here, because it's always been my favorite season.
We enjoyed Canadian Thanksgiving on October 3 with some wonderful friends, the Tondevolds. Our four kids nearly match their four kids in age, and Coralie and I have become good friends over the last two years. Since we can't completely embrace Canadian Thanksgiving as our own, spending it with friends makes it more acceptable.
After that, life fell into a happy rhythm of school, lessons, practicing, and clapping at the fruit flies that seem to nearly die off every week or so before mysteriously reviving and re-haunting our kitchen.
BEST OF OCTOBER:
Addy got an award at school--she works so hard and her teacher loves her. She also brings home 3 or 4 fantastic drawings every day, most of them covered with "I love you mommy love mom I love you from Addy" or some variation. I so do not deserve her as a daughter!
I dragged myself to the school and taught a lesson on Moussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition to Theo's class. It was really fun, but also a fair amount of work. I need to follow up with a day in Addy's classroom. Really, I do.
Wednesday has been the favorite day around our house. On Wednesday nights we head up to the pool for swimming lessons--I somehow managed to schedule all the kids at the same time. I think I mentioned that before, but some things bear repeating. 4 KIDS AT THE SAME TIME!! Since Sera is still in the baby class, that means even I am in the pool. After swimming, we spend about 20 minutes showering and washing hair (one less bath every week!), then head to the "hot room" (sauna). Eventually we all get ourselves dressed, and if everyone has had a good lesson, we make a stop at Dairy Queen for a banana split or a blizzard. After terrible behavior by everyone the first time, we started playing "Kings and Queens of Dairy Queen." After each visit I hand out titles to everyone, from serf to butler or lady-in-waiting to prince or princess (I know, so politically incorrect). Ever week we have more royals and less paupers. Progress! The best part is Emerson, who now always opens the door and says "ladies first!" The worst part is Sera, who pushes people out of the way and says "no! Ladies first! I a prinshush!" So yeah, another lesson or two might not be a bad thing.
My birthday! As I requested, all the kids hooked me up with a picture (well, seven or eight in Addy's case), and we had a great time at East-Side Mario's in celebration. Aaron also got me a super-fancy black forest bakery cake (NOT the norm for us) that was so delicious.
Halloween and trick or treating: Aaron had to be out of town until late Saturday night. He came with us to the trunk or treat earlier in the week, but for Halloween night it was just me and four kids . . . until Theo's friend's mom invited Theo and Addy to go with them! Ah, relief. So she took the big kids and they covered lots of ground, while I took just Emerson and Sera, who knocked everyone's socks off with their Winnie-the-Pooh and Honeybee thing. I got a great dose of laughter following them around as they trooped up and down stairs, endlessly amazed at all the treats they scored. Everybody handed out loads of candy, so we only had to go half-way up one street to fill up their bags!
HUMOROUS HAPPENINGS:
Sera stopped calling her blanket a "diddit," and now calls it her "crank-it."
Emerson and Sera think they're hilarious when they sing "This is the rule at Joy-garbage, this is the rule at Joy-garbage, this is the rule at Joy-garbage, to help us all to be happy!"
During family council we give each other compliments. A favorite from Sera: "Daddy is really good at sleeping." Which if you know our family, you know is way way true.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
More Summer?
September was the hottest month this year in Regina. You're not going to catch me complaining about that, because I don't know if I'm going to actually get to the stage where I crave hot chocolate and sweaters and such this year--last winter was too brutal. But I will confess a teensy bit of annoyance that the big kids were already back in school and couldn't fully enjoy all the sunshine this month (except at recess, I guess).
We did our best to drop everything and go to the park as often as was reasonable, but there's a lot going on in September! I learned my lesson last year and signed the kids up for all kinds of stuff this fall. Yes, we're probably a little overloaded for the next couple of months, but driving all over the place between November and March is not at all fun, besides being dangerous, so we're squeezing in as much as we can now. Which means I am officially a mini-van mama. There are craft classes, cubs, ballet classes and swimming lessons (I managed to get ALL FOUR KIDS signed up at THE SAME TIME, and yes I think I deserve some kind of award for this). Toss in a little family home evening and some movie nights, and I'm awed by how fast the time disappears.
Of course, one of the best things that happens in September is the celebration of Addy's birthday. I can hardly believe it has been six years since I first held her, a tiny little angel, in my arms. I remember her birth the most vividly, I think, of all my kids. She was born with the most beautiful golden halo of hair, and I remember just thinking over and over what a peaceful spirit she had. I'm sure that her ability to sleep through the night from early on undoubtedly contributed to my retaining a few extra memories! That peaceful spirit has stayed with her over the last six years. She's the first to jump in and help when anyone is sad or needs help, and she's amazing with babies.
On her birthday we celebrated with a trip to A&W for hamburgers, and frosty mugs of root beer. Her party (the following weekend) was so much fun too! She decided on a Fairy Tale Adventure, so her friends all dressed up as fairy tale characters and joined us for the Victorian Tea that's put on once a month at the Saskatchewan Government House. The kids made crowns and played in the "Once Upon a Time . . ." room before a fancy tea party, complete with cucumber sandwiches, mint tea with sugar cubes and cream from a tiny pitcher, and perfect little cupcakes in little jam jars. The treat bags were my favorite so far, with Jack's magic (jelly) beans, Rumpelstiltskin's (chocolate) gold coins, Rapunzel's hair band, and Cinderella's (candy) necklace. We had so much fun that we decided to go back again with some friends for a girls' afternoon soon.
So yes, aside from the innundation of fruit flies in our kitchen (the dark side of cutting up and freezing a bazillion crab-apples from our tree), and the craziness of Aaron starting a new semester (a new FANTASTIC semester--his audition slots completely filled up and now his choirs are well-stocked with good voices), September was completely delightful. We still need to get our family pictures done before it freezes over, and one of these days I'll be able to get our storage room organized again, but there really is a little more time in each day, so I'm optimistic!
We did our best to drop everything and go to the park as often as was reasonable, but there's a lot going on in September! I learned my lesson last year and signed the kids up for all kinds of stuff this fall. Yes, we're probably a little overloaded for the next couple of months, but driving all over the place between November and March is not at all fun, besides being dangerous, so we're squeezing in as much as we can now. Which means I am officially a mini-van mama. There are craft classes, cubs, ballet classes and swimming lessons (I managed to get ALL FOUR KIDS signed up at THE SAME TIME, and yes I think I deserve some kind of award for this). Toss in a little family home evening and some movie nights, and I'm awed by how fast the time disappears.
Of course, one of the best things that happens in September is the celebration of Addy's birthday. I can hardly believe it has been six years since I first held her, a tiny little angel, in my arms. I remember her birth the most vividly, I think, of all my kids. She was born with the most beautiful golden halo of hair, and I remember just thinking over and over what a peaceful spirit she had. I'm sure that her ability to sleep through the night from early on undoubtedly contributed to my retaining a few extra memories! That peaceful spirit has stayed with her over the last six years. She's the first to jump in and help when anyone is sad or needs help, and she's amazing with babies.
On her birthday we celebrated with a trip to A&W for hamburgers, and frosty mugs of root beer. Her party (the following weekend) was so much fun too! She decided on a Fairy Tale Adventure, so her friends all dressed up as fairy tale characters and joined us for the Victorian Tea that's put on once a month at the Saskatchewan Government House. The kids made crowns and played in the "Once Upon a Time . . ." room before a fancy tea party, complete with cucumber sandwiches, mint tea with sugar cubes and cream from a tiny pitcher, and perfect little cupcakes in little jam jars. The treat bags were my favorite so far, with Jack's magic (jelly) beans, Rumpelstiltskin's (chocolate) gold coins, Rapunzel's hair band, and Cinderella's (candy) necklace. We had so much fun that we decided to go back again with some friends for a girls' afternoon soon.
So yes, aside from the innundation of fruit flies in our kitchen (the dark side of cutting up and freezing a bazillion crab-apples from our tree), and the craziness of Aaron starting a new semester (a new FANTASTIC semester--his audition slots completely filled up and now his choirs are well-stocked with good voices), September was completely delightful. We still need to get our family pictures done before it freezes over, and one of these days I'll be able to get our storage room organized again, but there really is a little more time in each day, so I'm optimistic!
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