Fairweather Friends

I am definitely blessed to be able to stay at home to take care of our girls. Some days are more challenging than others, but I know I would just miss them too much if I had to be away from them every day. I especially like days like this, when we're surprised with gorgeous weather like we had today. I had no idea it was supposed to be so warm today, since it was cloudy and snowing off and on all day yesterday.

So, as soon as we realized what a beautiful day it was, we decided to go out on the deck to eat our lunch. The girls love being outside, so any opportunity that we have, we take it.

Things were going quite well until Emma noticed a couple of flies buzzing around, curious about what we were doing. She jumped out of her chair and tried everything she could think of to get them to go away. She yelled at them, flailed her arms at them, she even tried growling at them (something my mom has told me that apparently I used to do when I was a child), but those things just wouldn't leave. Not that they were even being all that annoying, they just kept landing on our chairs. She raced into the house and closed the sliding door (not just the screen, the whole door) so they wouldn't "get her". I tried to explain to her that flies don't do anything besides fly around, but then she said that she was sure she saw some mosquitoes, too. There were no mosquitoes.

She was on alert even from inside the house, yelling, "Mom watch out! There's one on your chair!" every few minutes, and then pound on the door to try to scare them away, but I let her know that they are actually quite friendly and I didn't mind if they rested on my chair for a while. Even Ashley tried to get her to come out again, "It okay, Emma!" but Emma assured us she was fine being inside for a while. Anyways, after about 10 or 15 minutes, we finally convinced her to come back outside to play tag because they wouldn't be able to keep up with her as she ran. So, out she came for some more fun in the sun.

We ended up staying outside for a few hours playing tag, soccer, "coloured eggs" and any other games we could think of. We even brought our "Candyland" game outside for a while, until a gust of wind came out of nowhere and blew our cards all around.

I'm so glad we were able to take advantage of the warm weather for the girls to burn off some energy and enjoy some time together. This time of year, you never know, it could snow again tomorrow.

Big Weekend

Last weekend was a pretty big one for us. Over the course of a few days we celebrated Ashley's 2nd birthday, Valentines day, Family day, the anniversary of Tammy and I getting engaged, the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics, Chinese New Year, and the beginning of a new season of Survivor. In a fashion that has become true to our family, we all celebrated by getting sick with some bad colds and staying home. It really bummed us out and we're just now getting over our afflictions. The only symptoms still hanging on are some runny noses, some late night coughing, and a burning itch to PARTY!!

A Brand New Life Around The Bend!

We've come to a family decision that Emma is to be Dad's little helper, and Ashley is to be Mom's little helper. Emma loves to help me shovel snow, mow the lawn, wash the car, or take the recycling away, but at the same time she seldom has room in her life for helping Mom with the dishes or the laundry. That's where Ashley steps in. Ashley loves to tidy up and organize and she also loves to be right beside Mom at all times. She's not quite 2 years old, but she already knows what buttons to push on the washing machine and the dishwasher, and she's been called the next "Tony Danza" of vacuuming (See clip #1 or #2). Now live with that song in your head all day.

Emma and I were on an recycling depot/grocery store/car wash trip just yesterday when we started talking about how she's liking life out here in Airdrie and if she's making new friends. She's very happy with the amount of new friends she's made in her CTR 5 class as well as at Pre-School, but she does admit that she misses some of her old friends from Calgary. She misses her old Sunbeams class and the kids from her soccer team the most. We try and stay in touch and arrange play dates every once in while with some of her old friends, but that's getting to be pretty rare. Not long before we packed up and headed north, Emma attended her friends Birthday party at Chuck 'E' Cheese's and a Movie watching primary party at the Palmer's as evidenced by the following two photographs.

Ashley had a lot of fun at Chuck 'E' Cheese's too.

We all had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends in the 3rd Ward, but none so many as Emma did. She's a pretty fun loving girl and sees no reasons to not become friends with everyone she meets, regardless of age. She still has some cousins in the 3rd ward, so we make it back there for big events, but the nature of both Tammy's and My callings in our Branch make it hard to visit other wards recreationally.

Like I said before though, she's quite happy with all the friends she's made out here in Airdrie so far, and I'm sure she'll continue to make great friends. In fact, she's been called the next "Tony Danza" of friend making (no clip available).