Petunia.

It has been so windy lately.  The wind is blowing all kinds of allergens into my nose and all kinds of dirt and dust around our house.  We're sweaty and crusty feeling all the time.  Today we decided to pack a lunch and actually take advantage of the wind and go fly our kites.

Zeke is our tried and true kite.  Pretty much he'll get up any time and is a no brainer to keep him up.  Chloe is getting so much better at moving the string around and gaging when she needs to move closer or farther away.  She is also getting more brave at letting out the string. 

Our new kite is Petunia.  Petunia is much prettier with Zeke but she also more difficult to keep up.  She likes to twirl  and race around--which is very thrilling for the kids to watch--but she is also very likely to loop around and slam right to the ground.  So Tati is really stepping up her game at knowing how to launch.  We say:  1-2-3-LAUNCH!  Then the person holding the kite throws it up into the air.  So Tati was good at both launching and commanding the launch.

Gavin was just happy to run around between kites and get to hold some of the string.

His biggest struggle was keeping his pants up while he ran.  Ha, ha.


He also really enjoyed looking for bugs.  He is so cute and growing up so fast.  He studies the bug and tries to softly touch it and hold it and then you look away and the bug is dead, smashed and he's either asking for a kleenex to wipe the guts or has already wiped the guts on his clothes.  Gross.

Bullseye Baby!

We've been counting down Target opening ever since we found out that Target bought out all the Zellars stores and was finally crossing the border here to Canada.  We had heard rumors of the buy out when we first moved here and just always assumed that in the 5 years that were projected for the stores to arrive, we'd already be gone.  Ha, ha on us. 

Greg said that since we waited so long for it to happen, both he and Chloe would ditch school so we could be there right when it opened at 8.  It was super fun to go together on the big day! There was a funny old lady that was talking to her friend a bit disappointed: "I thought I would get a present at the door." I was hoping for a free gift too.

I'm not saying that it wasn't awesome, because it was.  It just was a bit of a disappointment too.  Our store is really small and has a very limited stock of things.  I was all jazzed to hit up the maternity section, for example, and there were 2 t-shirts, two dress choices, 2 pants choices and one skirt.  And none of the styles worked on me or were what I needed.  I guess we also expected that all the things we haven't been able to get from the US would magically appear but mostly, they didn't.  We've heard rumors that some of the other stores in town are much bigger--one of them even 2 story--so I guess we just need to make a special trip to check it out.  

The best part of this store opening is that it is literally just walking distance away and in one trip we can ride the escalator at Sears, go to $Dollarama, go to Target and then finish up our walk home by stopping by the library.  What more can we ask for?  Well, I guess I can ask for a larger maternity section.  ;-)

Science Center

Once upon a time when I was a teenager, our family went to San Francisco.  I can't remember the reason for our trip or where all we went on that trip, but I do remember going to the Science Center there, the Exploratorium.  The thing that always stood out in my mind from that trip was watching somebody cutting open a cow's eye.  At the time I remember it being both disgusting and cool to see.

This Christmas, some of our nice friends bought us a trip to the Science Center here.   We just never seemed to find a time when we could all go together.  We were starting to feel like we were never going to make it there and the kids kept asking so we finally planned our trip.  We chose this particular day because one of the activities listed was watching the dissection of an animal eye.  I knew the kids would both love it and never forget it.

There were so many fun things to see and do there.  It was awesome.

I had fun showing Gavin some fish. It dawned on me by his excitement that he's never really seen salt water fish before--except for on t.v. Kind of sad. He loved the anemone and the clown fish--of course.

Gavin went crazy in the kid section because there was a whole airline display. He could fly the plane and push a bunch of buttons that made a bunch of noises and made lights flash. You could also push around luggage carts and put things through a pretend x-ray conveyer belt. He was pretty cute there.  After a while he even shared the driving duties with Tati.  That just proves how much he loves his big sis.

Chloe and Tati loved the water table section. There were balls and water and fountains and mazes for the balls to flow into. There was even a ball whirlpool. It was every kids splashy dream come true.

Tati enjoyed played with all the static and magnetic stations. She also really loved charging a rocket and launching it.

Chloe loved the astronaut display and pretending she was in space. And I love the way Tati was holding her hand while she was on the moon.

We went outside and had a super fun picnic and it was sunny and bright and beautiful outside. Then it was time for the main event, the eye.

(Warning Marnie, you might want to skip the following pictures)

Since Gavin wasn't into any of it, I took him back to the airplane section and the girls stayed back with Greg and saw a cow brain, a kidney and some slides of other internal organs.
This would be a great place to buy a season pass to but it is quite pricey. Hopefully wherever we end up will have a Science Center and we can buy a membership there. The kids would love to go and even just play with the water table and balls again.

At the end of the day, we asked the kids what their favorite part was. Gavin loved the airplane, Chloe said she loved watching the eyeball and Tati said her favorite part was seeing the cow brain. So I was glad we went on that demo day.

Earwax is Yucky.

 I have some problems with a bit of OCD.  Not in everything and not enough to validate medication or anything but I HATE long nails.  And I HATE ear wax.  Now my kids have just learned that a part of their life is getting their nails trimmed every Saturday night (And now Chloe trims her own nails since I gave her and her friend a little nail class as part of their birthday presents!  Woo-hoo!) and they also know that every so often, I have to do an ear check and if I see ear wax, I will be grabbing a Q-tip and taking care of it.

Now let's be clear, I understand that there is a lot of contraversy surrounding the removal of ear wax.  In fact, my childrens' pediatrician likes to tell the kids that nothing smaller than an elbow is ever allowed to be stuck in their ears.  And while I know he's trying to be funny and is trying to teach me to be safe,  I also know that I completely am going to disregard him.

• I've been cleaning ears for years.  Mostly my own and I know how to stay shallow and be safe.
• Nobody wants yellow wax dripping out of their ears.
• I never do it unless they have just showered or bathed and have the wax be all soft.
• I only do it if it is visible from the side.

So recently Gavin's turn was up.  He's a bit more squirrely so I do need to be more careful and more shallow.  I had Greg help hold his head this time a bit.  I went in with the q-tip and took a quick and shallow swipe and just as I was about to move onto the next ear, he started gagging and coughing.  I was so confused.  Greg then says to me,

"That is what happens to me when something goes in my ear too far too."

I just sat there both feeling super confused and on the verge of hysterical laughter.  I said, "What?!"  That is THE weirdest thing I've ever heard before.  Have you ever heard of something so bizarre?

So I guess Gavin inherited a weird gagging function from Greg.  Also, that picture is from one of my kids' favorite books:  Yummy Yucky, by Leslie Petricelli

Sparkle Girl

There aren't very many things Tatiana does quietly. One of them is watching tv and another is getting into trouble. Really, it is a handy feature she came equipped with. When she quiets down and Julie and I don't know where she is, it generally means a crime is in progress. Well today Tati disappeared into the kitchen for a while. I began to get suspicious. So I sneaky peeked around the corner to see what she was up to. This is what I found:

There she was. Playing in/with the sunshine (she gets that from her mother). She was wearing one of her favorite shirts that has a number of pink sequin rows. The dazzling show it produced in the sunlight mesmerized her for some time - hence the quiet - and who can blame her? It was pretty cool to watch. She kept turning slowly from left to right making the dots dance and move along the wall/door. I'm not very good at capturing human subjects with the camera, but this has to be one of my all time favorites. I just wish I knew what she was thinking. . .

Snow Picnic

There's nothing like having a post in the "Edit" folder for weeks.  But here is a bit from Spring Break.  I'll be doing some more catch ups soon.

We are enjoying Spring Break up here in the Arctic.  It has been mostly cold but warming up.  It is funny how excited we all get when we see water in the street.  "The snow is melting!!!"

We even turned the melting into a family affair.  Greg busted out his rock hammer and we worked on clearing the storm drains so the water had a place to go.  (I have to say a rock hammer has proved to be a very handy tool many a time in our family.)  Otherwise, the streets just keep melting and freezing every night.  It probably doesn't affect everybody on our block, but the bottom left picture is where we cross the street to go to church and all that wet and slippery ice isn't good for the kids nor their big Mama!

It was amazing how much fun it was.  The kids splashed the puddles and excitedly watched the water rushing down the drain.  It was like we had our own homemade river.

With all the melting, I thought we had better get out and enjoy the snow before it was gone.  Ha, ha, on us because it has since snowed several more times.  I decided we wanted to go out sledding.   I invited as many people who wanted to come along and we had a pretty good turn out.  Take a look! 



Well technically I didn't do too much sledding and not just because I'm pregnant (because honestly the hill was pretty wimpy) but Tati has decided she hates sledding and would much rather "roll" down the hill and while Gavin enjoys going down the hill initially, he hates having to walk up (who doesn't?) and he turns pretty needy with walking in the snow. So after I snuck in a few slow runs down the bump of a hill, I just basically helped him eat and go back and forth playing in the car.

After we ate our snacks, we just chilled with our friends and let the sun warm our faces.  It felt great to get out and do something fun with the kids and some of our friends.

Also, since the snow was finally melting, it transformed into perfect snowman snow.  The girls had tried several other times this Winter but the snow was always really too powdery and the balls would disintegrate.  So here they are as proud builders.  To everybody's shock, they didn't name the snow ladies or snow girls.  Since we don't know if we'll be living where there even is snow next Winter, I'm glad they had a chance to get the snow man making thrill this year.

9 is just FINE!

Chloe is 9!  She had a great day.  The kids gave her so much attention and affection.  The kids layed in our bed together and lingered in the morning.  Then Chloe dressed up fancy for school and excitedly put on the traditional birthday hat for breakfast and opened a few presents.  She got a few books and other random gifts--nothing big--but she was stoked.

Chloe was excited to have a friend party this year.  She invited some girls from church and from school.  We even got a babysitter for the little kids so the big girls could have their own time.  We started out with a lego activity.  Greg put a bunch of random pieces in a bucket and then we had a contest to see who make the most creative, the craziest and the best use of the blocks.  Greg even had certificates for them.   After that we made book marks because at this age, it is all about the reading.  My big highlight was going outside to do some jump roping.  My big plan was to show them some moves and teach them some jump songs but then I remembered that I was pregnant and not such a good jumper.  Good ole Greg took on the roll as the teacher after I gave him a quick crash course.  He's such a great Dad and such a team player and boy can that guy jump!  We taught them how to jump in and expected to teach them all kinds of other tricks but honestly time just flew by.

If we were to do it all over, we'd probably have just jump roped the whole time.  They loved it.

Then we had lunch and cake and it was already time to go.  (BTW,  the cake looks a bit ghetto, but it was delicious.  I got it from this blog.)  Chloe has made such nice friends here.  We will really miss these kids when we move.

• Chloe loves to read.  She is especially into the Geronimo and Thea Stilton books right now.  We often find her tucked away reading and sometimes sneaking a flashlight and book into bed to read.
• One of Chloe's major chores is clearing the table after dinner.  She stores all the leftovers and clears the dishes.  When she is feeling extra nice, she even washes the dishes.
• Chloe loves to wear head bands.  It is pretty much her signature look.
• She can finally change her own earrings without any hesitation or fear.  She has a widely growing earring collection.
• She LOVES going to Activity Days at church.  She loves all the friendships she has made there and also loves doing something away from home.
• She loves playing with Gavin and Gavin absolutely adores her.  She reads to him, plays cars with him and helps get him to bed and change his diaper.  When we have a babysitter, Chloe really does most of the work.

Her favorite color is:  turquoise and lime green
Her favorite food is: strawberry pie
Her favorite movie is:  Brave
Her favorite thing to do is:  travel or go on trips with my family
Her favorite song is:  Trouble (Taylor Swift)