Dinner, Movie, Skating, Beavertails - A Great V-day Wknd

This past week Navia has been sick for 7 out of 8 days - ug! So with her still not feeling 100% Daddy took on Valentine weekend with the kids. He got home early on Friday night and took Emma and Kaleb out for supper and a movie - The Tooth Fairy.

The kids LOVED it and when Kaleb came home from the night the first thing he said when he walked through the door was, "tonight was so great!". Yep - they had fun!

Then on Saturday Daddy took Emma and Kaleb out to the canal to skate, eat BeaverTails and have hot chocolate. Yum! Navia and I hung out at home and Daddy actually came home with pictures :)

Beavertails - My favorite is the cinnamon and sugar - you just HAVE to have one when you come down!!!

Then on Sunday - actual Valentine's Day - we played for ReChurch so had to take off early and then after church we went to a friend's house for Valentine's Brunch. The kids had fun because they have a ravine type area at the back of their house so could spend all afternoon playing outside!!!

For the last 9 years Braden and I have had the same tradition for Valentine's Day - it started when Emma wasn't even a month old and we didn't want to get a babysitter - Brade made us a picnic in the living room and ordered in Chinese food. This year we changed it just a bit and used the coffee table instead of the floor :)

It's kinda cool to be able to have a date at home by putting the kids to bed early . . . but . . . I am looking forward to this week when Braden's Dad comes and he's offered to watch the kids while we go out on a real date!!! Yay!!!

Gramma's Robes

This post is a long time coming - way tooooo long in coming. But - they're all done now!!!

Gramma Bailey had started sewing robes - but she just didn't start one - nope - she took on the project of sewing EIGHT!!! Yep - one for each grandchild and then seeing the material for the girls' she just had to sew one for her little girl too. Life happened and Gramma wasn't able to finish them, but they were all cut and Navia's was mostly completed. While I was still in Saskatchewan I finished Navia's, Emma's and Auntie Jenna's (with my mom's help) and then I took the pieces of Kaleb's back to Ottawa with the intention of finishing it right away. Rhonda had taken the pieces for her boys' and she finished them for this past Christmas. Well - it took me longer than I had planned, but when Daddy took off for the wknd at the end of January I decided to finally get the last robe together. The girls' robes were kinda hard just because of the type of material, but the boy robe - it was sooo nice to finally work with easy, non-falling apart material.

So - here are all the final projects (yep - I kinda "borrowed" a photo from Duff and Rhon' s blog,http://5men1lady.blogspot.com/2009/12/grandma-robes.html) I figured this way we could see them all together - like Mom would have wanted.)

Auntie Jenna, Emma and Navia in Regina

Navia, Kaleb and Emma in Ottawa

Thad, Ezra, Solomon and Eli in St. Louis

They all love their robes and I guess the St Louis boys call them their "Gramma Robes", just like our kids do. They are just another physical way of remembering how much their Gramma loved them.

We miss Gramma very much and can't believe that it's coming up to eight months that she's been gone, but Braden and I hear so many "do you remember when Gramma..." stories from all three of our kids - and this is cool! She left her grandbabies (as she would say) with amazing memories of their times together and no doubt in their minds that they were really, truly loved by a very special woman.

Emma and Gramma - August 2008 in Hamilton, ON

Kaleb and Gramma - April 2007 in Airdrie, AB

Navia and Gramma - July 2008 in Regina

Gramma McGifford's Visit

Gramma McGifford came down from February 3 - 9th - just missing my birthday, but for the first time we had a grandparent down for a grandchild's birthday - I guess that's what happens when you live provinces away :)

As soon as she came she we put her straight to work - first babysitting the kids because I was working when she came and then the next day watching Navia while I did lesson planning. I know that Navia appreciated that!!! Then on Thursday night she was able to go to the Awana Car Rally that Emma and Kaleb entered their cars into.

For Emma's birthday she received a scrapbooking album from Gramma and Grampa McGifford and she was wanting to work on it with Gramma, so each night she would stay up a bit later than the other kids and the two would work on it together.

Gramma also spent way too much time working on the cake for Kaleb's party, but it was so worth it!!! I remember when I could choose whatever cake I would like and it would magically appear on my birthday. It was cool that Kaleb could do that this time!!!

Navia got to spend a lot of time with Gramma while the kids were in school as I was getting things ready for Kaleb's party and lesson planning.

The day that Gramma left though, 2 kids were home sick and I was doing it all by myself . . . oh well . . . it was good that they were able to be healthier while she was down - for the most part anyways . . . I guess there was a bit of coughing and a fever which kept us from Winterlude, and Kaleb from a birthday party, but overall it was good.

There was a bad part to the visit though - it was too short and I couldn't find my camera lots of the time so there aren't enough pictures. I guess I'm just going to have to learn how to use Gramma's camera . . .

Happy 7th Birthday Kaleb!

A good day . . . on February 8, 2003 Kaleb was born in Ottawa, weighing 9 lbs 13 oz. He turned our family into a "millionaire's family" - one girl, one boy - and we felt soooo lucky to have him. He was a great baby, although he gave us many scares as his breathing would stop while he was sleeping, thus many trips to CHEO (Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario), and sleepless nights just making sure that we could just hear him breath.

He's grown up so much - went from the curly-haired boy to the short cute hair cut that made him look so grown up! He adds hugs and cuddles to our day and will do anything for his sisters - even play Polly Pockets or dress up. He is a light to everyone around him and your day will be better just by hanging around him.

For his 7th Birthday he wanted a SPY party - so a SPY party we did! Gramma McGifford had come down a couple days before so she was enlisted in the plans - number one job though - make a cake that looks like a bomb - but not a scary bomb!

Check this out!!! It was made to look like a Mario Brothers Bomb and the kids LOVED it!

There were ID Badges that we made for each child with their fingerprints and photos...

Check out the smile on this one :)

Top Secret Notebooks for all...

Check out these guys - are you scared yet???

During the party they assemble marshmallow shooters (out of PVC pipe that Brade had precut) and then they personalized them with stickers, etc.

Emma is helping Kaleb find the stickers he was looking for

The kids had target practice - first with special targets and then . . .

they got to shoot Kaleb's Daddy!!! That was a blast for each of them and our floor turned from brown to covered with marshmallow white - and sticky, stepped on marshmallows at that!!!

Then the doorbell rang and there was a package at the door. They took turns unwrapping it and inside was a voice recorder saying that there was a secret mission that they needed to go on - and the message then exploded. This started the treasure hunt for the boys - and they were pretty fast!!! The treasure hunt ended in them disarming the "bomb" cake :)

The funniest part was watching the boys when the sparkler was lit. You heard "duck for cover", "blow it out" and Kaleb yelling "I'm trying . . . I can't" and then a few boys ran as fast as they could away from the table, one up the stairs as they were hiding from the exploding bomb!!!

Needless to say, it didn't explode and they were laughing and laughing as they came back to eat the bomb.

While we waited for the last parents to pick up the boys they trying their hands at keeping the balloons in the air and Daddy and Emma were right there helping out.

Check out the two SpyMasters - aren't they adorable :)

Kaleb refused to take off his suit afterwards and so we just sat and played with some of the presents that he received from the boys. It was a great party and I don't really know what we will end up doing next year to top it!

A special thanks to Gramma McGifford for making the cake and taking all the pictures - I'm sure that I wouldn't have very many to share if she didn't take them - and it was fun having a Grandparent at a birthday party!

Awana Grand Prix

The kids attend Awana Club at a local church every Thursday night while I teach. It works out great because they get to go and have fun instead of having 4 nights of babysitting in each week. This week it was the Awana Grand Prix. Each child was given a piece of pine wood and needed to carve and paint it into their own car.

The kids designed the cars on Monday night - Emma wanting a batman styled car and Kaleb wanting one shaped like a baseball cap with Frankenstein in jail on it. After they went to bed on Monday Brade got out his tools and went to work making them what the kids had requested. We then drilled in a few holes in the back and inserted some fishing weights to help have the cars go faster. The kids puttied in the holes and then painted the cars how they envisioned . . . with Daddy's help :)

Then on Thursday night they went to Awana club with Gramma McGifford (who was visiting for the week) and Daddy to race the cars. There were 4 heats and the kids had a blast racing them.

Kaleb's car coming in 2nd

Emma's car coming in first

Emma with her ribbon

The kids both received ribbons for competing and they are already talking about what their designs are going to be next year and how they're going to make the cars even faster.