Life As it is Today

Time to share a few photos of life around here - just because :D These are the little moments I don't want to forget - the every day crazy wonderful moments with my family!
I'll start with a fun game of peek-a-boo:

Peek-a-boo is not really her intention - rather, she's looking for something to suck ... a tag, perhaps?? Either way, seeing her hiding in the mat like this is a very common sight around here!

When tag / blanket sucking is done, why not find a chair to gnaw on??

Suppers around here are just not normal:

Quite the hat! Pants on the head ... this, unfortunately, is also a very common sight.

And, if we don't have pants on our head, we eat like a dog :)

Here comes trouble - getting into her brother and sister's toys already!

And, of course, we spend some sleeping :)

A little glimpse into life as it is today :)

My Little Man

I realize this is a little late (okay, so over a month late!) but I figure it should still be done. My little man turned four and I want to jot down a few notes so I always remember what life was like at this point in time. I know that all too soon he'll be turning five ... then ten ... and this wonderfully busy, crazy and hectic time in my life will be only a memory. I want to make sure that memory is preserved :)
So, Seth ... so much to say about him! He is quite the character! He is very affectionate, especially toward his family members. He cannot stand to see someone upset or hurting. If I get Maddy in trouble, Seth is there in an instant to dry her tears and offer her a special toy. If I seem sad Seth is there with a hug. Along the same lines, he is a people pleaser. He wants everyone to be happy. He tries very hard to behave and obey so that we will be happy with him. He makes it easy to parent :)
He is (unlike his first months of life) a very happy child. He seems to be in love with life. He greets each day with a smile (soooo not my child!) and is eager to get the day going (often a little too early for me!) Thankfully, he will quietly read books or play with a few cars while I catch my last few zzzz's. He loves to play, especially all things pretend. Animals are at the top of his list of favourite things; dinosaurs, lemurs, bears of all sorts, tigers, and the list goes on. He is rarely plain old Seth. He also loves to run, hop, skip, leap, jump, roll, climb, and move in any possible way ... except walk. He is a bundle of energy that needs to be released. However, he is at the same time a very calm child. He is able to sit and read, play, or craft for extended amounts of time. He loves to have someone (aka mom) play with him, and really enjoys playing games. A few of his favourites are Candyland, Thomas Pop-Up, Berenstein Bears, Squirrel Game, and Lucky Ducks. He is still a picky eater, but does force down most food with a smiley grimace (remember: aims to please :P). He enjoys breakfast and snack time, tolerates lunch, and detests supper (unless pizza, grilled cheese or chicken nuggets are being served). Fruit, cookies, crackers and yogurt are all at the top of his list of "good" things.
He feels that he is very big and grown up. He shows me every day how tall he is (in comparison to the couch and the table) and is quite sure that he has grown over night. He is also impressed with the amount of stuff he can do - hang off the table, run really fast, stand upside down while leaning against the couch - you know, all the important things in life :P He enjoys doing "school". He knows all the capital letters, half the lower case, can read a few CVC words, can count to 39 (but always misses 15), recognizes numerals up to 10, and can do basic addition. He is not a sports-nut (son of his father), but does enjoy kicking around a ball.
It is very difficult to capture the essence of who Seth is at this point in time, but I think that is a nice overview ... I may think of more to add. I guess the most important thing is that he is the best oldest kid I could have ever asked for ... and am so thankful that God gave him to Greg and me. I cannot wait to spend many more years getting to know who he is :D

Spring is in the Air!

 

 

 

 We took advantage of the warmer (ish) weather last Sunday and went for an afternoon walk. I had picked up some splash pants for Seth from Value Village the previous week, and he was itching to get some use out of them. It was very puddly, so they were put to the test! He loves to splash!

Walking down our *beautiful* road.

Princess Maddy smiling at the camera :)

Seth, not so much!

Yay! for spring! 

Oh, wait! There's a smile hiding in there ....

 
There was still lots of snow, but it was hard and easy to walk on :)

More puddle splashing ...

Standing under the melting snow drips - he got very wet!

The warmer (ish) weather sure got me itching for spring! Katie came over the other day to share some of her seeds with me ... I have been pinning gardening ideas, playground ideas, and other random "outdoorsy" ideas like crazy ... Come on, warm weather!

We Have the Cutest Neighbour!

Don't you agree??!?
I think these two will be the best of friends! (So far all they manage to do is steal each other's toys!) 

Letter J

Last week we learned the letter J.
We covered our capital and lower case Jj's with jelly bean pictures. Of course, we had to eat a few jelly beans, too! Yum!
We also sponge painted a Jj:

We used the template from Confessions of a Homeschooler to do pom pom and jewel Jj's:

We made some jelly fish:

and jaguar masks:

I bought the AlphaTales books on an online auction (yay!) so we read Jeremy Jaguar's Jungleberry Jamboree several times. Seth and Maddy loved it!

We also drank juice (very rare around here), enjoyed jelly beans (also very rare around here!) and had jam on toast.
We had lots of fun learning about Jj!

ROARRRR!

There's a dinosaur in the house ....

Beware ,.. Enter with care :)

Things I Never Thought I'd Say

As a mother to three young children, I am often saying things then thinking, "Hmmm. Never thought I'd have to say that!" It's inevitable. Kids do strange things. Today's :
Don't lick the window.

Letter I

We've been doing some letter of the week activities for the past little while. Seth already knows most of his letter names and sounds, but it is a fun review for him. Maddy is learning as we go. I bought the Letter of the Week curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler, and we use a few things from that. I also do a lot of internet searching (pinterest "shopping") for ideas - I try to stick mostly to crafts or hands on activities. We aren't quite ready for paper / pencil stuff yet!
Here are a few pictures from the letter Ii:
Finger painting:

Seth cutting out a capital and lower case I from his finger painted paper:

We also used the finger painted paper to make some interesting insects:

We read a few books about insects and learned that they have three body parts and six legs (3 on each side ... Seth learned some math facts too ;) )

We made an igloo picture with white paper "snow blocks":   
 

And, the highlight of the week, another igloo with sugar cube "snow blocks":

Of course, the snow blocks had to be tasted before they were glued down ... yum!!

We did some other activities as well - we just don't have pictures to show off :) We always start the week by filling in the capital and lower case letter with something that begins with that letter - this week we did finger print insects and inch worms. We also visited a friend who happened to have a snow igloo built in their backyard, so we got to play in that.
Lots of fun!

Soother City

Soothers are important business around here. And apparently you can never have too many:

 

Of course, once Maddy got a few laughs Seth had to participate too :

Sure is a nut house around here.
On another note, it is almost time to get rid of the soother for Miss Madisyn. NOT looking forward to it at all! She is so content right now -- she'll sit in bed contentedly for a long time after her nap and before she falls asleep  ... and I know that'll stop as soon as the soother disappears. I know because it happened with her brother. Oh well, life goes on ...   

The Fun Way

When you are a four year old boy, nothing can be done the easy way. Why go down the stairs on your feet like an average person? How boring!! This is how it ought to be done:

Like Mother Like Son

It's kind of neat to see some of your own character traits and quirks coming out in your children. This one, however, not so much! I burst out laughing when I saw him doing this ... the poor guy has a lifetime of mockery to look forward to :D I know. I've been there. Gotta get that tongue under control, bud!!

Although, I have to admit - it's rather cute :)

My Two Girlies

How I love these two! I am so thankful that God has blessed me with them. I hope and pray that they will be close friends forever :D

Melt My Heart

The other day I was out shopping and Greg texted me the following "conversation":
Daddy: "Mommy's coming home soon. Guess what we're going to do?"
Maddy: "Hug mommy!"
And that is what she did :D

Party!

We had Seth's birthday party the Thursday after his birthday. I think I'll do it right on his birthday next year, since he was a little disappointed that no kids came on the actual date. Of course, every I hold out a little hope that perhaps Greg will be home on his birthday because the Family Day holiday is so close ... might as well take an extra day, right?? Wrong. Ah, well :D Lesson learned!

We had lots of fun decorating for this party. We went with a snowman theme - because it is easy, not because Seth has any sort of special feelings about snowmen :P We spent some time at the beginning of February doing snowmany crafts, so most of the decorations were vintage Seth and vintage Maddy :D

Banner:

Drinking boxes:

Snowball Toss:

Pin the carrot on the snowman. Seth was so excited for this game until I put the blindfold on ... then it was all panic. I did convince him to give a try, though, and he loved it!

 Goody Bags:

 Food:

I had some snowball cookies (snowballs), mini oreos and blueberries (coal), carrots and orange peppers (noses), and pretzels (arms):

Cupcakes!

Seth had lots of fun with his friends. Since Mark and Vicki were gone, we borrowed a room from downstairs for all the toys - to try and keep some of the noise "contained". It worked quite well - made me even more excited to have our basement finished :)

Happy Birthday!

February 19th was a much anticipated day around here! Seth has been waiting to turn four since last August when his friend Ethan turned four - it was a long wait!! We started a paper chain count down at the end of January - and he could hardly wait to take down the last chain. I love decorating the house the night before - it's so exciting to see the kid's faces when they wake up to balloons and streamers. Here is a picture of the table:

  

 And his door .... I have seen the pictures on pinterest when people put streamers across their child's bedroom door and their son or daughter has to "burst" through it in the morning. I really wanted to do that, but was kind of leary - we still make the occassional bathroom trip in the middle of the night. Sure enough, Seth was up at 4 AM to visit the toilet ... good thing I went with my instincts! I don't think the streamers even fizzed on him :P

 Birthday boy!!

 

 Present time!

 He suffers from a disease called "My mom takes too many pictures". (Long name, I know!) He would open a present and right away hold it up so I could take a picture. Oops! Perhaps I should enjoy life without having a camera in front of my face all the time!

For snack we ate mud (chocolate pudding and worms):

 That night Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Katie, Aunt Kara and Uncle Tsjibbe came over to help celebrate. More presents!

 Maddy got a present from grandma and grandpa too!

 Aunt Katie and Aunt Kara brought these balloons. They were definitely a highlight. He didn't let go of them all night.

 Cupcake time :)

 Are you 1? Are you 2? Are you 3? Are you 4? STOP! He's been practising this for a while!

 And blow ....

He had a good birthday, but was a little disappointed that no "kids" came. Guess he's getting older!

So, now we have a four year old in the house. It's been a fun couple of weeks. He is so proud to be four, and tells everyone. He is also convinced he is bigger - he is always showing me how tall he is in comparison to furniture or other objects. He's also been very polite and obedient - because he's four. How handy :)