They all left me!!!

This morning there is a first in this house - a never before in the history of this family first . . . all my babies left for school and now it's just me in a big empty house - blogging about it because what else am I supposed to do?!?!?

Navia is now going to the playschool at the community centre (just 2 blocks away - yep - convenient!!!) on Monday mornings from 9:15 - 11:15. This morning when I was getting Navia dressed she just looked at me, gave me a big hug and kiss and then said, "Mommy, good-bye, I go to school now." Awww - she was already to go and now it was just me who is going to have to adjust to this. When we got to the school she couldn't wait to get into the class and ran up to Miss Susan and shook her hand and then set her lunch on the table and then Mommy did the unthinkable . . . she had to take pictures - hehehe! Yep, I took her and told her that she couldn't go into the circle until I had taken some pictures and you can tell by them that she was a little impatient with me - oh well - pictures are worth a thousand words!

I peeked in after a few minutes and my little girl was singing and doing actions with a huge smile on her face! Yep - this is what she needed!

So, this means that on Mondays I have an entirely new schedule . . .

* 8:40am - bus stop to drop off Kaleb

* 9:00am - drop Emma off at school (usually biking)

* 9:15am - drop Navia off at the community centre (biking again)

* 9:16am - wait at the centre so that Navia doesn't see me, but I can hear if she is alright or not

* 9:17am - still waiting

* 9:20am - yep, still waiting

* 9:21am - admitting that she's alright and heading home to work on MYC lesson planning stuff

* 11:15am - pick up Navia from centre

* 11:40am - pick up Kaleb from bus stop

* 3:30pm - pick up Emma from school

We're kinda needing to do this so that when Navia goes to Junior Kindergarten next year (yep, you heard me right - NEXT YEAR!!!) she'll be ready for a more formal setting than Sunday School. Yikes - I can't believe I admitted that - I guess they're all growing up!

Now to my empty nest . . . it's soooo quiet!!!


Well - I just picked up Navia from her first day at school and before we left on our bike back home she wanted to send Daddy a video to tell him about her day (she was VERY excited!!!) so this is it - the first day of school in Navia's words . . .

Daddy's Fish Story

On Saturday morning Braden took Emma and Kaleb out fishing again - just for a couple hours (or at least that's what he said). It was a cool morning, but the day turned out to be a nice one, although jackets were still needed.

I called him around noon, expecting him to be on his way home, but nope, they were having too much fun. Kaleb had caught a fish and Emma and Daddy were wanting to finally catch one too so that they could be like Kaleb (hehehe!) Daddy said that in a short bit they'd be home . . . well . . . that didn't happen!

I called again around 2:30pm and found out that they'd found a new fishing spot that was amazing (at least that's what Brade said) I guess Kaleb had caught about 5 fish, Emma finally caught her first fish (which she was ecstatic about) . . .

... and while I was on the phone with Braden he caught a fish - or at least that's what he says. You see - I saw a picture of Kaleb and his fish. I saw a picture of Emma and her fish. But . . . where was the picture of Daddy and his fish???

He said that Emma took one and must have forgotten to save it because it was on the phone camera . . . really??? Hmmm - I think that they might have concocted a story to make Daddy sound that he can keep up with the real fishermen, Kaleb and Emma! But . . . well . . . maybe, just maybe . . . he might have caught his very first fish at age 34!!! I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks - hehehe! Sorry Brade!!! I do love you, I do!!!

Road Trip!!!

Mother, Son and kidlets . . .

This weekend Braden took Friday off of work and we headed down to Stoney Creek, Ontario. We got to cut the trip up a little bit by stopping in Belleville to pick up a keyboard for my studio that I had found on www.kijiji.ca (awesome site!!!).

Grampa Ralph has been in the hospital with a broken hip and Gramma Ralph is still recovering from a broken leg so we were planning on getting down there to see them and then we got an email from Mom (Brade's mom) that she was going to be down there for a Ralph Family Reunion. With Mom only being a few hours away we couldn't pass this up so we decided this was the wknd for a road trip!

We got down there on Friday night and got in too late to see Grampa at the hospital, so we just went out to McDonald's for supper (because the kids say that we always do that with Gramma and Grampa Bailey) and then had a quick stop at Dollarama (because Emma says that this is the tradition - hehehe!). When we got back to Gramma's apartment Uncle Phil was there so we had a visit and the kids got to stay up later than usual - which they LOVED!

Main Street Unionville, OntarioThe pond that was behind the house we were at -
Emma and a newly met cousin dragged Uncle Dan around the entire thing - exploring each little cove.

On Saturday morning we got up bright and early and Uncle Dan met us at the apartment and we took off to the Reunion in Unionville. If you've never been there you absolutely have to!!! It is so cute and the shops - well - let's just say that I'd love to spend a wknd at a B&B there!!!

There was a tree swing in the backyard that occupied the kids for a LONG time!

We were kinda nervous that there weren't going to be any kids for our kids but to our surprize there were!!! There were 2 11 year old girls that Emma had a blast playing with and a 4 year old boy, Zac, that could have been another Kaleb. And then there was even a little boy younger than Navia, Sage, that Navia had so much fun playing stickers and monsters with.

Navia and Sage

It was great for Mom and Braden to reconnect with people that they haven't seen in years - and neat to hear all the old stories of when they were younger. I even found out a secret that I didn't know about my husband. . . When Brade and I were dating and singing with Higher Calling we had sung at the Stoney Creek church where Doug, Beth and Lois and Aunt Madeline came to hear us. I guess he took Beth and Lois aside and told them that I was the girl! Yep - I had him hooked from the beginning!!! Hee Hee!!!

Mom and Beth

Aunt Madeline, Mom, Winna & Brade

We got back from the reunion around supper time and stopped in at the hospital to see Grampa and the kids loved the fact that Uncle Dan brought them chips and pop for supper there - he won their hearts before, but now it was a forever thing!

Great-Grampa and Great-Gramma Ralph with Braden and the kids

On Sunday we visited with Uncle Phil and Aunt Janey at the apartment and then went for lunch with Gramma Margaret at Wimpy's - which the kids loved! We then got back to the apartment, picked up Gramma Ralph and went to the hospital to give Grampa the pictures that the kids had drawn for him and say good-bye.

Grampa, Mom & Gramma

Great-Gramma Margaret, Mom, Braden and the kidlets

We got back late on Sunday night and the kids were yawning like crazy this morning as they were going to school - but it was a really good trip and definitely worth the few yawns of today!

Each child took turns telling Gramma a story - it was really cute!

yep - even Braden got into it - hehehe!

(no stories for me - b said it looked to cheezy - spoil-sport!)

My Princess - National Wide Commercial - COOL!!!

Cynthia putting on the finishing touches on the little princess

So . . . we have a photographer friend who needed a cute little girl for a photo shoot and, of course, thought of Navia (no, I'm not biased - she's just cute - hehehe!) Therefore Navia had to be wide-awake and cooperative for 3pm this afternoon for her photo shot. There could have been a problem with that because last night we (the entire family) went to a friend's house for a BBQ and we didn't get back until 11:00pm - oops!!! But, in all fairness, the photographer friend was there too so he knew that she was getting to bed late.

This morning she slept in (YAY!) and then after church she had a 1 hour nap, so that apparently was all she needed - THANK GOODNESS!!! I woke her up from her nap and spend 2 Dora's (for those non-parent types the translation is 1 hour) curling her hair in ringlets (I guess the client requested that her hair like this).

"Just a little candy now, please. . . "

So the shoot was for 3pm and at about 2:45pm it started raining - rain and ringlets DO NOT mix!!! But she was all smiles and that probably is because of the type of photo shoot it was. It was for the Children's Wish Foundation and the company that makes Skittles, Mars Bars, M&M's, etc. Thus all the kids were dressed in Halloween costumes and trick-or-treating for candy - yummy!!!

Being coached by Ella on how to hold her dress and smile at the same time - cute!

After escaping to the playground Navia is being escorted back to the shoot

Navia did an amazing job - she looked quite the part. It's pretty amazing because there were 3 kids from a model agency, a neighbor kid of Cynthia's and Navia - and I think that Navia was pretty good for not being a "professional", although she did do a Canada Post shoot in January for the same photographer - he gets some really good shots!


So . . . there will be an National Ad Campaign being run before Halloween this year (15 sec and 30 sec spots) that will have still photography made into a video. It will be for the Children's Wish Foundation saying that a portion of all candy sales from this company will go towards the C.W.F. Watch and see if you can spot the pretty purple princess. I don't know if her pictures will make it or not - but hopefully they do and then you can see it all over Canada - YAY!!!

The best thing about all of this is that Navia just loves dressing up and had a lot of fun playing with the cat, duck, pirate and vampire!

Almost there!!!

Yesterday I got the last coat of paint on the last couple of wall and we scraped all the drywall mud off the floor, sanded the trim in the stairwell and gave the stairwell trim the first coat at around 11pm and then I gave it another coat when my alarm clock woke me up at 2:30. (YUCK!)

(first thing the kids did when the carpet guy left was fall all over the floor - it was really cute!)

This morning the carpet guys came and "ta-da" the carpet is installed and we're at the finish line!!! YAY!!! Tonight we will paint the trim and this wknd Braden will trim up the 4 doors and do the baseboards (inbetween a BBQ and a photo shoot that Kaleb and Navia have for the Children's Wish Foundation - yep, we make our kids work for their school clothes - hehehe!) So it's almost over - which is a good thing because my first class is on Tuesday @ 4:15pm and I've been so busy doing the basement with Braden (okay, so painting - B's been doing everything else) that I haven't gotten to any lesson plans yet - oops!

First Day of School for Kaleb

Well - today was the day that Kaleb has been counting down . . . his first day of Senior Kindergarten! We went yesterday to meet his teacher and see his new class - Room 124 with Mrs. Leguard. Because it was just a staggered entry today (only half the class comes so that they can get familiar with the new surroundings before all 20 of the kids are there) he won't go tomorrow, but come Monday morning he'll be going full-time again - or at least full-time mornings!

Out of the 10 kids in his new class, only 1 was from his old Junior Kindergarten class, but the girl from 2 doors down is in his class, which is kinda cool. We're hoping that on Monday we'll find out that a few more kids from his old class are in his new one, but we're not holding our breath. We've registered Kaleb for English SK and it looks like most parents have their kids in the French SK. Oh well - it means that he'll meet even more kids and make even more friends!

So, now it's just going to be Navia and I in the mornings, at least until she starts playschool on Monday mornings (then I'll be all alone!!! YAY!!!)

First Day of School for Emma

Emma woke up early this morning - excited for her first day of school! She still didn't know who her teacher was or even if she was going to be in the same class as Victoria (her friend from church and was in her class last year), but that didn't change her excitement.

She's not on the bus right now - I need to apply on October 1 for her to ride it with Kaleb, so we thought that we'd have enough time just to walk to school this morning. Well - the thought was nice but the reality was that after I had to take the "annual first day of school" pictures, found her runners for school, etc we needed to drive. It was a good thing that I had the van today.

With her new haircut she's a very happy girl doing her hair - even used the straightener to make it curl a bit under this morning and when a choice of shorts or skirt came up my not-so-little girl decided on the skirt. She's growing up way too fast!!!

So here is my 7 year old girl before she went to school this morning. (It would have embarrased her to much to take pictures at the school so they had to be done in the back yard.)

Oh, and the good news is that we found out who her teacher is, Mrs. Morissette-Ly, and she is in the same class as Victoria!!! YAY for both!!!