Samara's 18 month picture

33 weeks pregnant!

Here we are on Thursday... 33 weeks pregnant and feeling great! Don't get too worried... we just took it down the street and back. Our next doctors appointment is on Tuesday but things are going really well. I know that July is going to go by quickly... "Summer" will be before we know it.

One & a 1/2

June 8th Samara hit the 18 month mark. She certainly is less baby and more toddler with each day that goes by. I know this will change even more when Summer is born and she becomes a big sister!
At the moment she is happy trying to be like her big sister. She likes to wear Angeline's shoes and tries to put on her clothes. If Angeline is getting her hair done or her nails painted Samara is next in line... at least until she realizes that it actually requires her to sit still for a moment. I love to watch the special bond she shares with her brother and sister. She calls for them when she wakes up in the morning and tags along with them throughout the day. She especially likes playing "mommy" and can often be found with a doll in her arms.
As for vocabulary she definitely gets the point across when she wants or needs something but she is not using many words yet. She can say mom, dad, david, cracker, nana, more, no, ya, go... but can usually get what she wants by just pointing and saying "EIHN!"... Angeline talked sooner and David later so it seems that she is right in the middle.
She's becoming a bit of a fussy eater but she does drink really well out of a cup and I am happy not to be washing sippy cups all the time. She goes CRAZY for peanut butter so I can always give her that in a pinch.
She likes to sing and be sung to. She LOVES to have a bath. She really likes it when you play tickle rhymes with her like "Round and round the garden" and "this little piggy went to the market."
I would have updated this milestone earlier but I was hoping to include some recent pictures. She had a nasty bruise on her forehead which has delayed a photo shoot of any sort. Will post a separate entry of 18 month pictures soon!

32 Weeks

 I am 32 weeks pregnant today... which means we have about 6 or 7 weeks to go. I have realized more this week that soon I won't be feeling Summer's kicks in my belly... I will be holding her in my arms! She is nearly ready to be born, weighing almost 4 pounds and measuring almost 19 inches tall!

It has been a nice summer to be pregnant in... not too hot so far so I haven't had to worry about swollen ankles, although I'm sure I will face some of that in the next 6 weeks. I have hardly had any heartburn lately so I guess Summer is nestled into a comfortable spot for both me and her. My hips are getting a bit sore in the evenings but I have been going for regular massage appointments so that has been helping a lot. So far it isn't my most uncomfortable pregnancy... at least at this stage.

Still lots to do to get ready which will keep the weeks going by fast. Today I am attempting to tackle my overgrown garden before the rain starts again. Also trying to come up with a design for Summer's Birth Announcements... I think I have settled on a colour at least. We will be setting up the Toddler Bed soon to transition Samara and I would like to finish the girls Christmas Stockings before Summer is born but that might be a long shot. Once July hits I will start bringing out the baby clothes to organize Summer's dresser... and pack our hospital bag.

Needless to say we are all very excited... my next doctors appointment is July 3rd so I will likely try to post again after then.

David's 6th Birthday Party...

 David wanted an "Angry Birds" party this year. Grammy Traced out the decorations for me to paint and I was happy how they turned out.

 I also made the goodie bags and the kids all made their own angry bird craft (wish I would have taken a group picture... I always forget!)... here is David with his Angry Bird.

 From 5 years old to 6 has seemed like quite a jump! We are loving our little man and finding it hard to believe that our oldest is turning 6! 

 Thank you for everyone who was able to celebrate with us. Thank you for the thoughtful cards and fun gifts. David had a wonderful day and we hope you did too! Thank you everyone who helped and especially Grammy and Grandpa who had the party cleaned up before it was even over... we really appreciated not having to worry about the mess.

David and Tyler were dressed for the theme!

New Stampin Up Catalogue

Just wanted to update with a link to the new 2012-2013 Stampin Up Catalogue. This Catalogue runs from June 1, 2012 - May 31, 2013. It is the only Catalogue that an order can be placed with at the moment. There will be 2 Seasonal Catalogues coming out this year (not the usual 4). The first one is available in August. 

I can take your orders from this Catalogue during the month of June and will likely be placing an order at the end of this week. However I may not be continuing as a Demonstrator come July. 

Summer - 29 weeks

Today marks the beginning of my 29th week of pregnancy with Summer. (I am counting by our original due date of August 16th because I feel it is the most accurate and I tend to deliver 2 weeks early anyway). We had a doctors appointment yesterday and everything is continuing to go well. I feel great... with it being pregnancy #5 I am making sure I take care of myself (Jonathan is taking good care of me too). 29 weeks pregnant with Summer brings me to a total of 181 weeks being pregnant (or 3 years and 25 weeks).
It is likely that Summer will be born around 38 weeks which brings us to August 2nd (or 11th)... and I am really starting to feel like she is almost here! June is a very busy month for us so there is not a lot of time left in between to prepare bed rooms, sort baby clothes, make birth announcements, pack hospital bag, make and freeze meals, and prepare emergency phone contact list... that's just the stuff I want to get done for baby never mind the other stuff that I know I won't have time for once she arrives! Thankfully Jonathan is taking 6 weeks parental leave this time so I am anticipating a much smoother transition then usual.
At 29 weeks Summer weighs about 2 3/4 pounds and is about 16 3/4 inches tall. We are no longer worrying about what to name our little girl... we've been able to come up with about 5 girl names we both like, including the same favourite name so it shouldn't be too much of a problem and we have already chose her 2 middle names. We will continue calling her "Summer" until she arrives as we want to see which name suits her best when she gets here. And as always we are keeping our names a secret so you will just have to wait and see.
I went for a blood test today and will see the doctor again in 2 weeks. Will try to post a belly picture soon.

School Sports Day

 Tyler & David

 Yummy Popsicles!

 I want to be on the red team! (Do you think I can pass for kindergarten?)

 Relay Fun!

May 2012 - David completes Kindergarten!

 Last week David prepared a Wormery for his first school Science Fair on Friday. Here are a few pictures of him building the Wormery last Tuesday...

 ... and receiving his Certificate of Participation last Friday. The black cylinder in the background is David's wormery with the black cover he made (because worms like to be where it's dark). He enjoyed making the wormery but after seeing the kids from older grades present their projects he asked why he didn't do a big project (everyone in kindergarten made a wormery)... my little keener!

 Unitl 27 and 28 in David's Math Curriculum covered learning how to tell time. First he learned how to read the minute hand, then the hour hand and then how to put them together. He wizzed through this months math lessons and now has fun looking at the clock and telling us what time it is. He is proud of himself and we are proud of him too!

 Unit 29 and 30 introduced subtraction which he also is a natural at.

Our Top 10 Favourites...

(from 100 Books to Read in Kindergarten)

1. Rhyming Dust Bunnies by Jan Thomas

2. Bark George by Jules Feiffer

3. Sylvester and the magic pebble by William Steig

4. Bread and jam for Francis by Russel Hoban

5. Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis

6. Mail Harry to the moon byRobbie H. Harris

7. Llama llama red pajama by Anna Dewdney

8. The Pout-pout fish by Deborah Diesen

9. How do Dinosaurs say good night by Jane Yolen

10. Love you forever by Robert Munsch

Since we finished our Language Arts Curriculum last month, this month we focus on finishing our 

"100 Books to Read in Kindergarten" as well as reading readers and online readers (see above picture). David especially loves the online readers and the level he is currently at introduced a "quiz" after each story. He LOVES doing the quiz! For every online reader you get points for listening to, reading, and taking the quiz. He has over 6,000 points which has taught him a new math skill too. He now reads his numbers into thousands! After each task he completes he says "Mommy...  have_____ points!"

 Above is a picture of an arty project he completed at the Moms and Tots group we attend. And below us an example of one of his projects from his Friday Community Class. At community class they were learning about bugs, recycling and compost.

This concludes my reporting for David's Kindergarten progress. I am planning to post one last homeschool update before grade 1 begins which will include "Moms Report Card" and some Kindergarten Graduation Pictures.
I must say I have really enjoyed homeschooling this year. Going into it I was a bit unsure but we have had so much fun and David has learned so much! Next year will come with its own challenges but I am looking forward to homeschooling Grade 1 and David is eager to start. We have purchased a set of workbooks to "prepare for Grade 1" not because I think he need them but because he still wants to do school.

April 2012

The last day of April is here and with just over 3 weeks of school left I wanted to make sure I completed my April reporting before beginning David's last month of Kindergarten! The 1st picture shows one of the library books we borrowed recently. It is from the list of 100 books to read in kindergarten which we have nearly completed. David enjoyed "Rhyming dust bunnies" so much that he has been reading it to himself! His reading ability is growing in leaps and bounds and we are so proud of him!

This month we continued in and completed our Kindergarten curriculum "On Track" from "Sing, Spell, Read & Write." There are two types of readers that go along with this curriculum. The first type (above) David colours the pictures and then reads the story. The second type (below) is a more lengthy reader (approximately 32 pages). Both types are accompanied by work sheets to develop reading comprehension and writing.
Now that we have completed this curriculum we are continuing to read readers from this curriculum, the library and from an online program as well. We will continue to read during summer vacation.

We have nearly completed David's Math curriculum and are right on track for finishing our last unit during the last week of school. This month we completed Unit 23 which introduced tally marks, Unit 24 which covered Addition: Making 10 (1+9, 6+4, 5+5 etc), and Unit 25 Skip Count to Find Area (skip counting by 2, 5, and 10). Below are some examples of his work from these units.

I also wanted to include a picture of David's growing plants. We are hoping to get some of them planted into the garden soon and start some seeds in the garden as well. David has been helping us prepare the garden and tackle the dandelions in the yard. We have also been doing some bug exploration as we dig through the dirt. David has a bug house that he uses to catch bugs in and then he can have a closer look. Lots of fun to be had outside in the spring!

March Science World Field Trip

 Here are our pictures from our March trip to Science World. (It took a while because they were "stuck" on my camera hard drive and we discovered after we found our camera cord that it doesn't connect with our new computer.)
We spent 4 hours there and the kids did not want to go home. There was so much to do and we all had a blast. We spent a good amount of time at the Dinosaur exhibit since it was about to become extinct. We also spent a lot of time at the Lego exhibit which was a favourite. We played at the water tables, dressed up, watched a show about gravity and much more! We are looking forward to going back again soon... thanks again Grandpa and Grammy for the Year Pass.

 Searching for fossils.

 Look how big I am!

 In the Lego Castle.

 Dressing up as a Knight.

David enjoyed controlling the robot dinosaurs.