Jessica is here!

On Friday morning around 2:00am, Gerben and Emma took off on a 14 hour drive to North Carolina to pick up Aunt Jess for the week. Emma loves going on these special trips with Daddy. She gets spoiled rotten with goodies and she also gets his undivided attention. For me it's also a break because I get to spend some time with just Natalia. There is no fighting and no screaming amongst the kids. Unfortunately, Natalia starting coming down with the same illness that Emma had last week and she wasn't feeling the greatest. Luckily, all I needed was a dose of Advil and she perked right back up. Gerben, Emma and Jessica arrived back in Brantford around 3:30 on Sunday. Their drive when very well and we have settled down for a nice week of torturing Jess with Barbie, Barbie and more Barbie. Of course we also have to throw in some Dora for good measure. The famous mini-golf match between Jess and Emma hasn't happened yet but I will be sure to post the results when it does.

Hopefully, I will have to photos to post soon. We haven't had Jess in the pool yet because of all the rain but hopefully tomorrow. We are all looking forward to our visit from Kenneth, Mariska and the girls on Friday. You know I will have the camera out then.

It's been a busy summer so far

I cannot believe that we are creeping up on the last week of July so soon. It's not going to be long and Emma will be back at school. Last week, Emma went to a paint and play day camp. She had a blast. They did some cool paint projects in the morning and then went to a gym and a bakery on the afternoons. Emma was just beaming each day when I picked her up. She told me that she wishes she could go everyday. Unfortunetly, she did miss one day because she was quite sick and fevered. She seems to have perked up now which is good.

On Saturday, Amy and her family came for a swim and a BBQ. Everyone had a great time. The pool was a balmy 27 degrees so we all stayed in for a long, long time. I cannot believe how much the solar blanket helps with warming the pool and keeping it that way. I will post some photos at the bottom of this post.

On Friday, Gerben and Emma are taking off on the long drive to North Carolina to pick up Aunt Jessica for a week. Emma is so excited. I think she has Jess' week totally planned out. I hope Jess is good at mini-golf 'cause Emma plans on taking her.

Baby it's hot!

Oh man, for a house with air conditioning it sure doesn't feel like it tonight. I had trouble getting both kids to bed. They were complaining of being too hot and honestly I am too. They both now have fans in their rooms and a cool sheet so I hope I won't hear from them again until morning. Emma had her dance festival this past weekend and she did wonderful. I cannot believe how much fun Ukrainian Dance is. I watched almost all of the 15 performances throughout the weekend and I found it really exciting each and everytime. The little kids did great for a bunch of 3-6 year olds. It's actually quite comical watching them. It's a bit of cute chaos. I am attaching a video. I apologize for the crappy quality but I don't have a real video camera. This was done on my small digital camera. Emma is mostly to the far right of the screen as you are watching. Enjoy the show!

Ukrainian Dance

Yesturday was Emma's dress rehearsal for her Ukrainian Dance group. She looked so cute in her costume. To be honest, at first I didn't like them at all. I thought the shirts were gorgeous but the skirts were pretty goofy. Now that I see them all together they look cute. It looks even better when you see an entire group of boys and girls all up on stage dancing away in these outfits.

Emma will be sad to see the end of Ukrainian dance for the year but she is already looking forward to next year. I asked her if she wants to join again and she was very quick to say "Yes!"

This is going to be an extremely busy week for Emma. She is dancing everyday from Tuesday to Saturday because it's the villages festival and Brantford and that is what they train and practise all year for. I can't wait to see Emma on stage.

Sometimes a break is all you need!

Finally, after being cooped up with anywhere between 2 and 4 kids for the past week or more I got a break tonight. Kelly invited me out to a movie, with her and Barb, and boy was it nice. I don't think people realize just how tough it is looking after kids day after day. The constant fighting and yelling begins to wear on your nerves very quickly. Natalia is bad these days for hitting and of course Emma is really quick to tattle. It seems to be the never ending scenario around here and I have no idea what to do about it. It seems like the kids can play nicely for about 15 minutes and then someone gets mad and there is tears and yelling. I'm really not sure how I am going to survive the summer but I know that I am really looking forward to having Emma go to school all day every day next year. I only hope I can get Natalia potty trained so that she can start some sort of preschool program that will hopefully keep her busy. As much as Emma loved the quiet comfort of home at this age, I think it drives Natalia crazy. She needs to be running and playing. She needs more social interaction with other kids. She is definetly more high-energy than Emma. We will see what the fall will bring but the idea of sending her to daycare and going back to work is sounding very appealling.

Too much whinning!

Please, Please, tell me how someone so cute can do so much whinning! Natalia is exhausting me these days with her whinning and screaming over EVERYTHING! It doesn't seem to matter what it is she will whine and cry about it. Today she wanted a drink so she went to the fridge and pulled out a full milk bag even though there was still some in the jug. Because I used the jug and not the bag she screamed, cried and through a tantrum and refused to drink the milk in her cup. Urg! What do I do with this kid!! She also HAS to pick out her own clothes these days. If I try to do it for her she won't let me put them on, or if I do, she strips them back off as soon as I am not looking. She insists on pulling off her diaper yet refuses to use the potty. Today she pulled the chocolate spread off the counter and a butter knife and helped herself to a few scoops of that. It seems like I cannot turn my eyes away from her for a second or she is getting into something or hitting Emma because Emma won't let her have what she is playing with. I really need a kid holiday. I need to find her some activities like a preschool for the fall just to keep her busy or I am going to lose what little sanity I have left.

On to Grade ONE

I can't believe my baby is moving on to grade one next year. I am so very, very proud of everything she has accomplished in the past year. She is absolutely excelling at school and piano and her social skills have really come along too. She is no longer the shy, timid child that she was in the past. She has definetly come out of her shell and her more vibrant side is emerging.

Emma has been such a trooper since returning home from Iceland and Holland. Between her teacher, the special education teacher, Gerben and I we decided to persue placement in grade one for Emma next year. I had absolutely no idea the hurdles we would have to jump through to get her there. I guess it is extremely rare for a child of Emma's age to be accelerated. They say that a child under 7 cannot be accurately assessed for giftedness and therefore is not a good candidate for classroom acceleration (skipping a grade.) Needless to say, Emma has gone through test after test after test so that the teachers could document just how bright Emma is. In the end she is tested at an early grade 2 level. A full 2 years and a bit ahead of her age. Finally, she was given a test called at CCAT (Canadian Cognitive abilities Test.) I believe she is the first student to ever take this test because this version is brand new. It's a standardized test for children in Senior Kindergarten or Grade 1 to assess their learning levels. When the results came in Emma's scores were high enough to identify her as gifted by Ontario Standards and therefore gifted in the eyes of our school board. It turns out she scored amazing on it and that in itself is very cool because this test is actually meant for a child 1 to 2 years older than Emma. All I can say is...Way to go Emma! After weeks and weeks of tests we managed to get Emma the placement that she needs for next year. Emma is considered a exceptional student and will be attending grade 1 in the fall.

Friday was her Kindergarten Graduation. It was so cute to see all the little kids up singing and doing the chicken dance. Emma will miss some of her fellow JK friends but she is super excited about going on to grade 1 with some of her other friends.

Here's a few pictures of that wonderful day.