A Tough Day for Emma

Well, Emma has been in grade one for 2 months now and has really created a great bond with her teacher. Unfortunetly, yesturday, the school dropped on bomb on the poor kids in Emma's class. Mrs. McCall is transfering to a new school. The school is saying it's because of a space coming open in Burford due to a retirement but no one totally believes that story. It turns out that parents, students and her fellow teachers only found this out yesturday and she leaves today. It's pretty abrupt. They don't have a new teacher to replace her yet and we have been warned that there will be "guest" teachers for the next week or so. I hope this transition works out to be a smooth one. I feel horrible for the kids in Emma's class and especially Emma. They love Mrs. McCall. My understanding is that there was a ton of tears shed by the kids and I hope the new teacher is fantastic. They are coming into a tough, situation.

Halloween in Brantford

Another year, another spooky Halloween night!

Well, with the exception of one small hiccup involving a paintball and our front window on Devil's night, Halloween went great.

Natalia couldn't decide if she wanted to be a princess or a skunk so in the end she went as both. During the day, she dressed up as a skunk and for trick-or-treating she dressed up as Barbie from the movie Diamond Castle. Emma was a kitty cat and a very pretty one at that. Kelly was nice enough to do both of the kids makeup and Emma looked FANTASTIC.

Both kids had a blast trick-or-treating. The only issue that Natalia had was that she didn't like going up to houses with a dog barking. That didn't surprise me seeing as she is terrified of dogs. By the end of the day, both kids were totally exhausted and filled up on tons and tons of candy. I think we had about 60 or more kids visit our house which is a huge change from the 20 or so kids we had last year.

Pumpkin Carving

So, we finally got around to carving the pumpkins. It only took us until the 30th of October to do it but it's done. The kids had a lot of fun. As usual, Emma wanted nothing to do with the goop inside the pumpkin but had great fun drawing out her pattern on the pumpkin. She tried desperately to use a spoon but when that didn't work she spent the rest of the time begging the rest of us to clean out her pumpkin, so that she could carve it. Natalia, on the other hand, got quite a kick out of the goopy stuff in the middle. After an initial shock, she dug right in. She was covered in the slime and loving it. In the end the pumpkins turned out fabulous and I can't wait to see them lit up tomorrow night.

I'm back!

Oh my, I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have put anything on this blog. I feel terrible about it. Thanks to Aunt Karen for her email that reminded me that I have been neglecting this blog.

Lots has happened in the last few months. Unfortunetly, after a month, we had to pull Natalia out of her Montessori Preschool. I'm not sure why but she was not adjusting at all to the school. Instead of settling in, she was beginning to have panic attacks at the mention of preschool. Needless to say, she is only 2.5 years old so we decided to pull her out and now I take her to drop in programs a few times a week. She is much happier with this situation.

Emma is loving grade 1. She is still very advanced compared to her classmates but she seems happy and she absolutely LOVES her teacher. Lately in the car, we play question games with Emma like...How do you spell, "British"? or What is 6 x 5? She is doing really well with these and loves it when you play these games with her.

Oma was here for a few weeks this month and the kids loved it. How could they not enjoy all the extra attention? It also meant that Mommy and Daddy got to go on a date. We went to see Dirty Dancing on stage in Toronto. It was pretty good.

Anyways, I will leave you with a few pics of the girls from the past weeks and hopefully I will be posting here more often.

We survived the first day of school!

The first day of school was filled with lots of nerves and tears. Emma was pretty nervous as her and I headed towards the school and waited to meet her new teacher Mrs. McCall. Emma just sat quietly beside me waiting but refused to talk to anyone. After she met up with a few friends she started to warm up and once she met her teacher and lined up to head into the school she had perked up completely. It turns out she is in a class of about 16 boys and 4 girls. I quess she will have her pick of the boyfriends in the future! he he he

When I went to pick her up at 3:20 she was all smiles. She had a fabulous day and is very excited to continue on with grade 1. She had lots to tell me and was so excited to have her very own desk to sit at and one of the highlights was being given an organizer to write all the important things in.

Natalia also started school today. We have decided to enroll her in a Montessori preschool program 3 mornings a week. As you know, we weren't expecting to have Emma in school full time already and I know that Natalia is going to miss her like crazy so we thought this would be a good way to keep Natalia socialized and busy. Gerben got to take Natalia this morning and all went well as they were heading out the door but once Natalia realized she wasn't able to go to work with Gerben she was pretty upset. I guess she was pretty clingy with him at school and there were some tears when he left but the teachers assured me that she settled quickly and had a great day. The teachers told me that Natalia is very independant and that is a great thing. They showed her how to do some of the activities and after shown she told the teachers to "Go away! I can do it myself!" That sure sounds like the Natalia I know.

I you want to see any of these photos larger all you have to do is click on them.

Fabulous time in Strathroy

On Sunday we headed off to Strathroy to celebrate Mariska's birthday. We all had a fabulous time!! The kids got to jump and jump and jump so more on the trampoline. Then Mariska got the bright idea to start a water fight with Gerben. What a great time it was. Everyone, except me, was SOAKED!! The best part was when Al got out a 3rd hose and gave it to Kirsten. She snuck up behind Gerben and just let him have it! He was drenched!! It was the best!! I will be attaching lots and lots of photos to this post as it was an awesome time!!









Natalia ended up with about 50 mesquito bites all over her arms and legs because she spent the majority of her time near the pond trying to catch frogs. She never did catch one but she liked to pretend she did and seemed to get quite a kick out of the ones that Kirsten caught for her.





Here's a few of the trampoline pictures as well as a fabulous one of Kirsten. I only wished Miranda would be just as accommidating for me. One of these days I am sure she will give in for me.

Potty Training!

I don't know what I was thinking but while we were away we decided that it's about time we get Natalia toilet trained. She is so ready. She tells me when she goes, she is dry most of the day and she has a strong interest in using the potty. So out we went and let her choose her very own potty and underwear. She, of course, choose a Dora potty and princess underwear. As soon as we got home to the cottage she had a big poop on the potty and then nothing after that.

Starting Monday, I cut out the diapers all together except for naptime. For some reason she had a huge aversion to peeing on the potty but she went ballistic when she wet herself. She yelled at me that she doesn't wear underwear, she wears diapers. I was horrified that I had traumatized her but it was pretty funny too. Atleast we knew she didn't like being wet.

It's been a constant battle since. I am still sticking to the no diapers during that day and she continues to have accidents although she does have some success too. Finally today, she peed on my floor like 4 times in the space on about 2 hours and I lost it. I yelled at the poor kid and told her that we don't pee on mommy's floor. She was pretty upset but guess what...since then she has been great she has peed and pooped on the potty several times today with only one more mild accident. Thank God! I think we are finally getting somewhere!

Day 2 in Mars Hill North Carolina

The weather is absolutely gorgeous here in Mars Hill. There is a fabulous cool breeze coming off the mountains and the sun is shining brightly. We couldn't ask for anything better. All the girls wanted to do today was go swimming and really, I can't blame them. The water was fantastic and they both seemed to love going down the waterslide with daddy. I think Emma liked it more than Natalia. The girls are getting along so well. They are constantly laughing and playing together. It's really nice to see.

Here's a scrapbook layout that I worked on today. It shows several of the photos that I took of the girls at the pool. You can click on it to make it bigger if you wish.


These next photos are just random ones that I have taken throughout the day today. Most of them are off the views from our balcony.





And this last one is my favourite photo of Emma from today. I don't know why I love it but I do.

Beautiful Mars Hill North Carolina

We have arrived at our destination for the next 4 nights. It was a very long drive but quite uneventful. The girls did fantastic in the car. The both slept the majority of the way and there was no crying or fighting to speak of! To say that I was impressed would be an understatement. We dropped Jessica off at her apartment yesturday and then toured around doing some errands before we crashed for the night at her place.

Today we drove for another 4 hours to where we are now in Mars Hill. We are staying at an amazing place at the top of a ski hill. The views out our windows are absolutely spectacular. We even get a wonderful view of the sunseting into the mountains from each of our 2 balconies. The kids are all settled in and dying to go swimming tomorrow. Gerben and I are looking forward to relaxing on our balconies and enjoying the cool breeze and gorgeous views.

Here is two quick photos of the girls at one of the rest stops on our way.