Thanksgiving

Thank you to Joanne for hosting Thanksgiving lunch on Monday. After a busy weekend with the birthday party and visiting family in town, it was a perfect way to end the long weekend. The kids had a great time Rainbow Looming and we all enjoyed a yummy meal. So much to be thankful for this weekend!

Cousin Time

With the somewhat dry weather on Sunday and Auntie Kim, Uncle Pascal and Kaes being in town for the weekend, we decided to go to Terra Nova Park. Turns out it was a great place to get some shots of the kids. Gotta love cousin time!

Maddy's Birthday

We celebrated Maddy's 7th birthday with a 'friends' party at GardenWorks this year. I call it a 'friends party' because every other year we opt for a 'family only' party. Maddy was excited to send out invitations and very carefully chose who her 7 guests would be. GardenWorks has a variety of activities to choose from and Maddy wanted to do the Fairy Gardens workshop.  She was a very happy girl and had an awesome time. Happy Birthday Maddy, we love you so much! xoxo

Fall Fun

Gotta love this Fall weather. It's funny because I never thought that I liked the Fall. I think it's because I always associated it with the 'going back to school/work' thing for me. September and October at work were always such busy times of year, and then after the kids were born, with both their birthdays falling in there as well, it became madness. This year, I think I've been able to stop and enjoy the cooler, yet not too cool weather and I love it!

Last week the weather was funny, but on the days it wasn't raining we took full advantage. The first time we went to the new Terra Nova Park in Richmond, it was packed. There were 15 min. line ups just to get to climb up the giant structure. We didn't even attempt to line up for the zip line. We left after a short play with the promise that we'd go back when all the kids were in school. Anytime the sun peaked out, the kids would ask if we could go, so we finally did on Wednesday. With the exception of a few preschoolers, the playground was pretty much ours. Fun times!! The best was that the kids could get on the zip line on their own AND pull each other, so I didn't have to run back and forth the whole time. :) Awesome.

On Thursday the weather was STILL nice, so I told the kids that if we were really good with the school work, we could go out to the basketball courts before the big kids got back from school and Ethan could try to ride the two wheeler. So excited to report that he pretty much figured out how to ride the bike in about 20 minutes. The run bikes to start are just awesome. It really is about figuring out how the balance works and once they have that, the pedaling part is not too hard. The funny thing about Ethan is that once he learned how to ride the two wheeler, I watched him and something just seemed 'off'. After a short while it dawned on me that he looked like a grown-up clown trying to ride a teeny-weeny bike. We switched to Maddy's bike and it was much better. Haha, I still get a chuckle when I see the first picture. Yay! We are now into new territory. Next summer? Biking excursions, yahoo! Oh, the places we could go!

 Here's the mini bike the poor kid tried to ride until mom finally clued in.

 Kisses from Jeh Jeh for the bike rider!

So much better, except now we need another bike.

Ethan-5 years old

 It's quite fun to sit down and write these yearly updates. It's always a good confirmation for me personally as to why I take the time to write this blog. I do it because I know that one day I'll forget these snippets and details about the kids and today was no different. I always go back to the last update before I start the new one. Again, I was hit with how much has changed in the last year and also how many of the 'little details' I'd already forgotten.

As I read the beginning of Ethan's post from last year , I feel as though I could copy and paste the first paragraph from his 4 year old update except that he's even more confident. This year Ethan has started two new adventures on his own. He's joined a Beaver Scouts group and started a cooking class at Killarney CC. He totally rocked them both! No tears, no anxiety and even excitement about going. After the first night of Beavers, we were informed that the following Sunday was a canoeing day. He went and stayed for 4 hours completely on his own! It's so great to see his confidence in this area grow. The first two weeks of Chinese school went off without a hitch. He's in a new level and he transitioned well. The third week felt like we were going backwards a bit because there were tears again, but as with most things for Ethan, it all boils down to his confidence. I think the lessons are getting a bit harder and he had some anxiety about not being able to 'do it properly'.

Last year the term Ethan kept using was 'achilly' and this year it seems his new catch-phrase is 'I believe'. He'll often start his sentences off with it, something like, "Mama, I believe today gon' be sunny, so dat why I wear my shorts." Another phrase that he uses a lot is "Oh m'gosh..." I just love the way he says this one because it really does capture the innocence and surprise at whatever he's referring to. One speech pattern that he's lost is that last year he would have said, "So dat why I wear me shorts." Ugh, just tiny details, but definitely signs that time is passing faster than I'd like.

Ethan LOVES to play games. We have a game called Gobblet Gobblers, which is basically like Tic Tac Toe with a twist and he's quite the expert. He also started playing chess at the park this summer and for his birthday he got a chess set. I have to admit that I have no clue how to play chess and that I may or may not be a little intimidated of the idea of playing with him. I really should bite the bullet and just learn now while they are both still 'learning' too! (Update: I did play once with him. It was pretty fun!) Checkers is one that we both really like and also we've graduated from Uno Moo (Thank goodness!) to regular Uno. The biggest growth with Ethan in the playing games area is that he is much better at fair play and at losing now. Now when I play with him, he can even take a little banter back and forth about how I'm going to win and he'll just laugh it off when I do win. It's definitely a lot of fun to play games with him now.

Another love that developed in the last year is Lego. He's really good at the Lego City sets and can sit with the booklet and build it on his own. He loves to build and rebuild sets over and over again. The Lego building has really helped to lengthen his attention span. I don't know that it's because of the Lego, but I have definitely noticed that he concentration and attention to detail has improved from last year. With Ethan, the is biggest hurdle is just to get the confidence to do something. Once he has that, he will definitely take the activity and just fly with it.

I'll end this 5 year post with a memory that I'd like to keep. Last night I needed to run an errand and pick something up at the mall. I asked if Ethan would like to join me because then we could shop for a gift that he could get for Maddy's birthday. He was happy to go. We started calling it a "Mama and Ethan date". So while on our date I thought I'd take the opportunity to introduce to him some date etiquette.

1.) Be sure to open the doors for your date. So cute to see him struggle and push with all his might on those heavy doors. But, he did it.
2.) Always let your date go first. So this was funny because he forgot and jumped right onto the escalator first. We laugh as I stood at the bottom waiting for him to clue in. Then on the next opportunity, he proceeded to push me onto the escalator to let me go first. I told him that he could say something like, "Ladies first" or "After you..." to let the person know instead of pushing them on.
3.) It's nice to treat your date to a little something to eat. Since he doesn't have any money, I treated him. We were at Sweet Factory running our errand so I thought I'd let him choose 1 candy to add to the bag. How bad could that be right? It's just one candy. Well, obviously I didn't scan the selection widely enough as Ethan found a froggy gummie as his 1 candy. (It was the size of his hand. No. Joke.)

Anyway, today we were at the mall (Yes, again, but we were waiting for Maddy to get out of choir). It was time to go and we were at the top of the escalator and I hear a little, "After yooouuuu!" I look down at Ethan and I see him standing there with the happiest, cutest smile on his face. Ahhhhhh, my sweet, sweet little boy. xoxo