Parties, Rome, Baseball, Tennis and Piano

Navia was invited to her friend Brooke's birthday party and she was soooo excited! Brooke is a little princess, just like Navia, so for a gift I ran out and bought a tank top with sparkles on the straps and then a women's pink t-shirt (I didn't have time to run to the fabric store). From that I took the women's t-shirt and cut off the bottom part, using the bottom seam as the bottom seam for the skirt, added an elastic for the waistband and then cut up an old pink shirt to make the ruffle on the bottom. I used the extra t-shirt material to applique a 'B' on the front. Then we topped it off with pink sparkly nail-polish and pink sunglasses with "diamonds". It was fun doing a quick project like this that was easy to do and the cost was great.

Brooke's party was held at the upstairs of the grocery store where the kids made their own pizza, fruit salad and decorated cupcakes. They had a blast!

Navia in her chef's hat

Navia and Brooke cutting up the fruit for the salad

Braden had a new experience this past month too - a trip to Rome and back that took 4 days!!! He left on Tuesday and was back on Friday! He's been working on a McDonald's job for Europe McDonald's and they had a conference in Rome in which he showed them what they'd done and pitched another job as well. He came home exhausted, but it sounds like he had fun! His hotel was only a 20 minute walk from the Coliseum so he had fun site-seeing on foot. He came home with hats for the kids and they LOVED them . . . well . . .

Navia loved hers after a little bit, her first reaction was disbelief, not wanting to touch it, cuddling into me and crying because daddy didn't by her any princess things (on the phone she had asked him to bring back a princess dress, diamond earrings, diamond necklace and glass slippers). Poor Braden didn't know what to do! She warmed up though and soon wouldn't let anyone else touch it.

Baseball season has begun in our neck of the woods. Emma is on the Gloucester Youth Girl's Mite team and at the first practice the coach couldn't believe that she hadn't been on a team before or had never pitched in her life. I guess she's kinda a natural and after hitting a home run and getting 3 girls home with it her coach called her "home-run girl"! Yep - she loves it and has been coming home dirty as anything because she believes in sliding too!

Just after Emma hit the ball

Emma running the bases - black outfit, red batters helmet

Emma all ready in the outfield

Emma pitching

Emma's not the only one in baseball though - Kaleb is too! He's on the ROMSA 5-Pitch Co-Ed team and although he's only had 1 game so far he's loving it too! His league is non-competitive and more for learning the sport so they don't keep score and the pitcher is actually the other team's coach while a boy stands at the mound to catch anything that might be hit that way. I guess Kaleb was really getting into the pitching with "STRIIIIIIIIIIIKE ONE", "STRIIIIIIIIIIIKE TWO", "STRIIIIIIIIIIIKE THREE - YOOU'RE OOOOOUUUUUUT" - sounds like he was so much into it that the coach had to ask him to not be so enthusiastic about it! LOL!

"Striiiiiike Two!"

Kaleb ready at first base

Kaleb getting the ball before the runner - "You're Ouuuuut!"

Kaleb at bat

Now baseball isn't the only sport that we're doing right now - we enrolled the kids in TENNIS!!! The only thing - when we got there on Saturday we realized that we enrolled them in 'family' tennis, which meant that one of us had to join as well - so I ran back to the house and picked up Brade's shoes and shorts for him so that he could play along. The three of them had a lot of fun learning how to serve, backhand, and other tennis things that I just don't have a clue about.

Notice the ball flying after Emma backhanded it

Kaleb's got this one too!

And Daddy, well, he hit it right out of my shot!

And what were Navia and I doing during this time??? Sitting in the van watching {sigh}. Yep, Navia had a cough and wet hair (as we had just come back from swimming lessons) and had to stay in the van instead of go to the playground that was right beside the tennis court. Next time though!

Posing with HER tennis racket

The last half of the game was spent putting what they learned into action - with a real game - the instructor and Emma vs. Daddy and Kaleb - no keeping score though! They did really great and can't wait until next weekend to learn more. I'm thinking that this just might be the new 'family' sport that we can do - the courts are just a couple blocks away and the kids are enjoying it . . . so maybe?!?!

This afternoon was my MYC Spring Recital . . . which means that after today I only have my Monday classes to teach for 2 more weeks and then I'm off for the summer!!! Although Kaleb and Emma are quite excited that they are officially done right now!!! I taught 48 students this year so had to break my recital into 2 recitals and had them at the Riverside United Church. The kids all did great and I only had 5 who couldn't make it!

Emma playing 'Shortenin' Bread" - notice the hand crossing over - yep - she's good!!!

My 2:00 recital crew . . . ages 4 - 9 (Emma's in this one)

Kaleb playing 'Joyful Times', a fiddling tune which he rocked!!!

My 3:30 recital crew (Kaleb's in this one - back row)

So, that's what we've been up to lately. Now that teaching is done (or almost done) I can concentrate more on the gardening, making sure the kids get to all their baseball games and just hanging out with my family and friends. I've already booked a trip to the nursery with a friend to shop for my new front garden!!! Can't wait!!!

Oh, and can you believe that we have the kids in swimming, baseball AND tennis all at the same time?!?!?! I don't think that will be happening again, but it does make it so that we're never bored!!!

hmmm . . .

this post is a bit different that others, so you'll just have to bear with me, but sometimes i have thots in my head that are just wanting to come out and this is one of those times. every family is different and everyone parents differently, but tonight this is what's running through my head and my heart . . .

there is a struggle that so many parents face - work and family. you need to work in order to provide for your family, but then there are those times that because of work you miss what is important to someone in your family. how does that make sense?

right now braden is in italy for work and today was the day of making sure that i went to all the kids' things - but i missed one. I've spent over 9 years making sure that i was always at my children's activities and special events and this past year i haven't been able to make it to anything that was in the evening due to my work. i met emma's teacher for the first time today - and it's may! what's with that?!?!? today i made it to emma's student led conference at 10am, then to kaleb's at 1pm, but then at 5:30 i needed to go to work and the kids went to awana. i thought that i did good.

Kaleb's project on the Canada Goose

Emma's project on bridges - its a retractable one!

when the kids came home and went to bed i was putting away navia's bag when out dropped a paper. it was an invitation to the cubbies awards ceremonies - may 6 - tonite! i guess last week i just put her bag away without looking inside and then we just grabbed it today for awana. i sent her without even knowing that tonight was her awards night. i guess there a program with presentations and awards and navia even came home with a little cubbie award badge for me to sew onto her cubbie vest. each family even brought refreshments to share with everyone afterwards. i can just picture navia as the only little girl there without parents there. she didn't get to sit or eat with her parents or show them what she's been doing all year. i know she's only 4 and won't really remember this, but i will. when the note fell out i came upstairs and asked emma if there were a lot of families there tonight and she told me that there were tons of parents in navia's class and if i could please come next week because it's her's and kaleb's awards ceremony. hmmm. i think emma doesn't want to be like navia was tonight.

i know that this isn't the first time that work has interfered with family, but it is the first time it has with navia - she's the only one that i've always been there for - and now i guess the time has come that she's going to realize that i can't be there for her all the time either. it just sucks! i know that this is going to happen more, especially because i'm going to be teaching more next year, but it doesn't make it any easier.

out of this i've also realized that i couldn't be a single parent or have a husband that is away a lot. brade is only gone for 4 days - really not long at all - and emma and kaleb have both missed their first baseball games and navia had no one to watch her get her very first awana badge. and that's just in 4 days . . . how in the world would it be like if i didn't have the supportive husband and father that is around all the time and will come home just to take a sick kid to the doctors if i'm working and can't. God really blessed us with him and although i'm sure that i take him for granted often, i really need to watch it, because we're pretty lucky - he is our gift - and an amazing one!

so, maybe i make sure to look in my kids' bags so that i don't miss important things, maybe i spend more time with them doing what they want and not what i want, maybe i spend time just talking with them as individuals, maybe i spend more time praying with them and for them, and maybe i accept the fact that work is something that needs to be done, but there is a lot of time in the day that i can take out for my children - and sometimes i'll miss something that is important to them, but they know that i love them - fully and completely . . . . . (and they'll take lots of pictures for me so they can show me what happened!)

This video below is Kaleb showing telling us the story of The Three Little Pigs in French. It looks like he's reading something, but he really isn't - he did amazing and I had no idea that my little boy could talk this well in another language - especially one that I don't understand!