on the road again

Over the weekend, we had to make a trip to the big city up north for various reasons: 1) shots for abby, 2) meetings that josh had and 3) renewing of emma and samantha's passports (because we want all three of their passports to expire in the same year to avoid future globetrotting for renewal!)

It was a quick trip, but there were several notable events...

On the Train:

Here's the girls on the train - for an extra $5 per person we were able to upgrade to first class seats.  Well worth the expense, in my opinion...

Trains in our neck of the woods are very nice, especially this train.  It's based on the european trains that are modern, fast, and very comfortable.  This mode of travel is WAY better than a plane!

While we were on the train, Emma and I were doing her reading lesson for the day (more on that in another post).  As I was correcting a sound she was making, I noticed something white and irregular on the inside of her mouth.  Not good.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease has been working its way through the country and our area has been particularly hard-hit.  Several preschools in our city have closed because of outbreaks.  If you've caught the news headlines on the topic, you'll know that the HFM virus has mutated or something and has been fatal.  I think so far over 30 or 40 children have died in our province alone.

I saw the white things and I freaked.  It was a calm, inward, very controlled freak, but it was still a freak-out.  

We made some calls (thanks again john!) and made plans for josh to take emma to the international hospital as soon as the train pulled into the station.  I wasn't worried about emma.  She's a big girl, and even if she got the disease, the fatalities have come in very young children.  In infants.  Cute, little snugly infants that probably look and feel very much like little abby.  That was the stream of thoughts in my head...abby...abby...abby...

Fortunately, we found out from very reliable doctors that even though her mouth was filled with strange white looking sore things, it wasn't HFM but some other virus of the mouth.  Hmmm.  

So the trip continues on.

Later that evening, we're all heading out to go to a meeting with josh.  We debate riding the subway or taking a taxi, and end up deciding the subway is probably quicker.

That was before Samantha dropped her shoe into the crack between the subway in the platform.  This is not the first time this purple croc has been stranded in mass transportation lanes.  Remember last year when her shoe fell off in the middle of the road?!

This subway episode caused lots of tears, lots of panic, but lots of relief when finally some attendants were summoned with a little grabber thing.  It took several cycles of the subway coming in and leaving (with a concerned Samantha each time!) before the shoe was reunited with its rightful owner.  The "grabber"-dude got lots of gratitude from samantha.  

The morning after the subway-shoe incident, we decided to spend the morning at a nearby park since the weather was so super sunny and nice. NOT!  It was rainy and cool, but we were free for the morning, so it was a good way to spend the time.

At the park, you could rent these little flying UFO things.  Eight bucks bought you an hour, so we spent the next hour chasing this little guy all around the park.  Fun times, and a lot of exercise for the girls!

Josh was showing off in the beginning, trying to bounce it off his head:

It was actually quite big, and took most of samantha's body to get it thrown:
Josh in the middle, trying to throw it to the girls:
Emma loved it!  She was our main chaser, and always loved catching it!


I loved this picture:
ok, and this one too...(except for emma who has a weird look on her face):
and truly, the daddy's girl and her daddy:
Abby's appointment went well at the hospital also.  We learned that she's 5.5 kilos, which I think is 12pounds.  We've officially packed away all the 0-3 month clothes and are fully functioning in the 3-6 month range.   Her acne is gradually going away, so maybe I'll start taking more pictures soon...

And that was pretty much it. 

easter egg hunt pics

The big hunt this year was at my friend Rach's apartment complex.  It's full of nice paths, grass, a winding river and good hiding places for eggs.   The kids used all their baskets from last year, because I had no new ideas for baskets. Emma was excited to get started:

Samantha too:
Yay! She got so many!
The only picture of them together...
there were lots of kiddos, but it was fun times:
Redeeming prizes - this picture is included because it's the only proof that abby "participated" in the event:
Proof that mommies will go to great lengths to get pictures of their kids... way to go, rach!
When it came time to eat the flower cakes, samantha was a little weirded out. Even after we took off the flower, she was unconvinced:
...but the other kids had no problem!
It was a great day for an easter egg hunt!  It was warm (obviously you can tell that by the clothes!), we had a nice picnic and lots of time to play and hang out together. We're so thankful for our friends!

easter party preps

Even though our easter egg hunt was two weeks ago, I am still trying to get caught up on previous activities.  Because I'm weird like that.  Because I'm chronologically wired.  So I can't post what we did yesterday because I haven't posted two weeks ago.  

And plus, if my computer ever crashes again (though I have learned my back-up lesson) and the world ever comes to an end and all my pictures are gone, I know that blogger will save them for me.  Forever.  To infinity and beyond.  So I shall continue to post my previous pictures.  You know, in case the world comes to an end.  

I was excited about our 2nd big easter egg party, in large part because last year's was so fun.  Like last year, we planned it this year to be several days before easter, so there was no mixing of ideas...you know, the whole easter egg vs. resurrection competition for the hearts of young kids...or something like that.  Plus, logistically, it's much easier to have party time seperate from w.rship time.

Anyway, this year in keeping with easter egg traditions from josh's side of the family, I decided to have prize eggs - plastic eggs that had numbers inside them, which corresponded to prizes that could be redeemed after the hunt was over.  I also added special name eggs this year: if a child found their name egg, they could get a special prize.  (This was motivated to make sure that each child got a prize - mixing big kids and little kids sometimes results in unequal prize distribution!)

Here are the name eggs:

(these were so easy to decorate!  I poured glitter into a small bowl and put those round double sided scrapbook stickers on the eggs.  Then I rolled them in the glitter and they turned out really cute!)

The prizes:
The day before our easter party there was a slight mishap with the easter cake I was making.  I'll save you all the details, but it was irrepairable.  I thought and thought about what to do...and I remembered an idea from The Pioneer Woman's website.

I sent my house helper to run to the flower market and buy 20 small flower pots.  We washed them, washed them again, and then washed them again.  Then I lined them with foil because I still wasn't convinced of their cleanliness.
Then I crumbled up the few parts of cake that weren't already crumbled and put them in the flower pots.
I took green straws - because every mom of preschoolers has multi-colored straws in the pantry, right?! haha - and cut them in half:
...then stuck them in the pots.
In another bowl, I mixed cream cheese, whipping cream, sugar, and fresh sliced strawberries:
I spread that over the crumbled cake, then sprinkled graham cracker crumbs on top.  A fresh bouquet of flowers got trimmed and divided between the flower pots.  The end result looked like this:
They all turned out really cute.  They were springy.  They were fun.  But they were supremely time consuming and I will never do it again!  The Pioneer Woman conveniently left that part out of her description...

Actual easter egg hunt pictures to come...and much more...

cloudy with a chance of...

meatballs?  No, probably not where we live.  But now, thanks to aunt kristen, Emma and Samantha are prepared for rainy season!

I'm totally digging these lady-bug and polka dot raincoats.  Don't you think they are way cute?  

They surely brightened the landscape when we went outside!

Rainboots: check.

Super cute raincoat: check.

Rain:  Not yet...

20 down...

Progress in the reading department is going well, especially after I added a bit of "motivation": a progress bookmark.  After every lesson, emma gets to add a red star, showing that we completed that lesson.   When we get to certain predesignated numbers on her bookmark, she gets to have a special something.  

The first little treat was taking the whole fam to McD's for ice cream.  I was delighted to see that she felt like SHE was treating the whole family to ice cream - and in a way, she was totally right.  So we gave her the money, she ordered it for us all, and we all made sure to thank her for reading her 20 lessons so we could eat ice cream.  She loved all the gratitude going around!  I didn't so much love the coffee ice cream we ended up with, but hey...I can make some sacrifices for my first-born.  

Here's Em with her bookmark: 20 lessons down...80 more to go!

...and yes, that big pile of napkins belongs to us.  All of them.

rainbow days

Since Emma goes to preschool three days a week (M, W, F) I try to do some "special" activities with the girls on the days where she is home.  Thursday is usually playday with the bff's (clara anne and chloe) so that leaves tuesday for mama!

Last week, most of our activities were about rainbows (and they were all done inside a tent - made up of dining room tables and a big black sheet).  The crowing glory of activity day was making rainbow cupcakes.  *Note- this is not a "rachel-rocks-at-thinking-of-cool-activities" idea.  This is the result of an image search on Flickr for "rainbow".  These really rockin' rainbow cupcakes popped up.

So...rainbow cupcakes it was.  The girls were excited, in a sort of blind way. What exactly are rainbow cupcakes?  Well, they weren't sure...but it had something to do with cupcakes, so that counted for a lot.  

First step - make a batch of yellow cake mix.  Seperate it into four bowls.  Add desired colors of food coloring to each bowl.

We were going for pink, yellow (not adding any color, since the mix was already yellow), green, and blue (with a purple icing finale).

Slave labor, I tell you...

Once the colors were all mixed and lined up, the girls put in the muffin cups for me.  I even dug some stuff out of our "special" box...because if you don't ever use your "special" stuff, what's the point of having it??  We used Cars and Dora cupcake liners to add a little extra touch:
Then, one by one, add globs of cake mix into the muffin cups, being careful not to show favoritism to one color.  Then you'd end up with a cupcake with unequal rainbow proportions. We can't be having any of that.
Then, after they're done baking and cooling, add that final rainbow color and sprinkle on some extra sprinkles...just for that extra touch.  
My kids totally thought this rocked, and they were excited about rainbows for days.  

baby sweetness

These pictures are a reflection of all the abby cuteness that has been saturating our house recently.  I'm amazed, shocked, and quite honestly - saddened - at how quickly it seems she's growing up.  She's smiling a lot (keep reading for pics!), cooing, at holding herself up like she doesn't need help from anyone.  How can I savor the moments when she's growing so fast? 

Anyway...

What is it with baby toys and options?  I mean, these baby toys give your 5-week old like fifteen different choices of things to play with.  I think this little bear playgym is mild compared to an exersaucer, which has so many toy-choices even I get overwhelmed looking at it.  When I put abby in her little hand-me-down bear gym, she immediately looked over at me and was like "Which one do I play with?"

Ok, maybe she didn't say that.  But she certainly didn't know, so she looked at me instead.  

aaah...a sleeping baby.  Nothing makes you more willing to have another baby than watching one sleep. They look so peaceful and innocent, so soft and snugly...just inviting you to curl up next to them and take a nap yourself...


But then, when they wake up, there's even more reasons to love them!  Especially when the smiles start coming.

Last night - at the very inconvenient bedtime hour - I called josh away from teethbrushing supervision to take some pictures of abby.  (It's a lot harder to find the time taking pictures of child #3!)  She was being so friendly during her diaper change that I was convinced pictures MUST be taken.  I'm glad I insisted...

I love her buildup to a smile.  It starts with "big eyes"...then moves on to a coo or two...then a very intent stare (don't give up at this point, you're almost there!) and then bam! A face-spreading grin.  

I love it. 


oops...a sneeze...
These are the first actual pictures of me and abby together (naked birth pics don't count).

Really? I said no more kids?

goings on

What have we been up to recently?  Well I, for one, have been happy to be getting back into a routine.  Here's a brief rundown on what's happening in our family:

Abby - good heavens, that girl is growing so fast!  She's been giving away her special coos to her little bear mobile above her bed, and to mommy and daddy and our house helper.  In fact, our house helper got a real smile from Abby before I did --- but I'm convinced it's just because there's such a big contrast in our looks that it evoked a quicker response...or something like that...   Anyway, she's surprising me with her little milestones - holding up her head, smiling at her toys, watching me intently whenever I leave her room  =)  Last night I went in her room to wake her up so I could feed her before I went to bed, and I found her (wide awake) staring in wonder at the white christmas lights that are tucked into the greenery on the top shelf of her closet.  Just staring away...

Samantha - She's been going back and forth on whether or not she really wants to be a big sister.  She told me the other day that she didn't want to be Abby's big sister anymore, she really just wanted to be a puppy (role-play taken to the extreme happens in our house frequently)...but then, she'll surprise me and I'll see her sneak away to go sit by Abby and sing her songs or read her books.  She's been loving our mornings where Emma goes to preschool and she has mommy and abby all to herself...

Emma - She has resumed going to preschool three mornings a week, where she dodges the mean looks of a certain boy and sings songs and makes weird origami things with her best friend (who has been sick since we've returned home).  In the afternoons, Emma has started learning how to read!  We're 16 lessons through a 100-lesson course and she is doing really good.  She was really surprised when she discovered she could read the sentences - see me eat, mad at me, read it!  We're using the "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lessons" book, and so far it seems to be working well for us and our time. 

She is also working on writing her letters, and sometimes if she messes up, she puts an x through it to show that it's not right.  One evening she was showing josh her letters, and she pointed to an "e" that she had x-ed out.  She said, "Daddy, don't look at that one.  It's x-rated!" 

 Now that she is four years old, she is old enough to start some sort of extra-curricular activity here, like rollerblading or ballet lessons.  She told us this weekend that she thought rollerblading looked boring (a blow to her mama's heart! I loved rollerblading!) and that she'd rather go to ballet class with her friend clara anne.  We'll see how all that works out.  

Hubs - has been busy since coming home...he's found newfound motivation to eat healthy and exercise (a motivation that seldom visits my door!) and also has started studying language a bit more (as if it wasn't good enough already...)  He's still been meeting with his deaf friend a couple times each week and has seen really fruit from that.  

Me - me, me...I'm pretty much the same.  Still drinking coke, still eating chocolate, still loving to sleep late.  I've recently read the book "the mission of motherhood" and I found it supremely convicting.  Sure, I'm good at meeting my kids' needs, I'm good at planning stuff for them, but how often do I sit and play with them?  doing something they want to do?  or how often do I put them on hold so I can run and do the dishes or tidy up or write that email?  Too often!  So my motto this week (I had to choose only one area to work on after reading her book...because I became aware of way too many areas to work on!) is " I have time".  I really do. I have time to read a book one extra time for them.  I have time to stop what I'm doing to watch samantha slide for the six billionth time.  I have time.  The dishes can wait.  Email can surely wait.  Whatever I'm doing is not that important, but my kids are. 

Anyway, here are some pictures from this week:

One extra picture from after the wedding last week (and one of the times when they agree about who gets to ride the bike!):

reading books with our house helper:
dress up continues, but this time they found MY clothes on the floor and decided that was a great change!  Those girls are so silly!
Even though the lighting on this picture is wierd, it was actually the first picture I snapped and I  was afraid the moment would be gone.  I loved how emma grabbed samantha's shoulder and samantha leaned in - they really like each other!  =)
This week, our house helper taught emma how to "wash" the dishes, and since then, Emma can't get enough!  She brings her little stool in, puts on an apron, and washes away.  It's so funny.  She asks after every meal if she can wash the dishes, and gets a little irritated if I say no.  Now, if I can just channel that energy long enough to last until she's in her teenage years...


Ahhh, friends...one of my favorite things about my life.  We love playdates, we love surprise visits, we love having friends.  Here are two of emma and mantha's playgroup posse:
That's all for now...now you all know what's been up with us...