Five Years Ago

Five years ago, this is what I looked like, the evening of May 30th.

I could not really see my feet, and definitely not the tops of my legs.  

The morning of May 31st, 2007, Eli and I drove to the IWK to meet our littlest Little Girl for the first time while our 11 month old baby girl, Miss G slept in at our home in Hammonds Plains with Nanny and Papa. 

This is the last picture of me pregnant... I had been pregnant for almost 19 months straight at this point!

(The girls are 11 and a half months apart in case you are scratching your head.) 

Happy birthday, Miss A! 

We are as joyful to see you every morning as we were on that special morning five years ago. 

Our family became a family of four that day, and it was pretty awesome.

Watch out!

My baby girl is five today, and will be for a whole year!

Aaarr, Matey!

It's almost summer.

It means that fun school days are popping up, and last Friday was one of them.

We had PBS Day at our school.  PBS stands for Positive Behaviour Support, and this was a way to celebrate the students' focus and work around important values, like respect, patience, tolerance, service and forgiveness.

This year, the PBS committee (all made up of teachers and staff), worked really hard to pull together a pirate-themed fun day.

The girls went bananas over these cool pirate t-shirts,

with our school mascot, Chip Chip, dressed as a pirate with two dog bones to mark the X

(Chip is a Husky, in case you were wondering). 

It was designed by a teacher at our school.

All the students all started out in their own classrooms, and teachers wrote a number (from 1 to 18) on each student's hand.

As classes arrived in the gym, each student joined their group number.

Older kids were able to sign up to be an activity leader or a team leader. 

Some wanted to help with the meals.

(Two snacks and a hot dog lunch were provided for everyone!  Courtesy of the Parent Association.)

Once everyone arrived in the gym, the celebration began, and the pirate theme was revealed to the students when a band on nasty Value-Thieving Pirates came and stole all the values the students learned and earned all school year long!

I helped Team 17, also known as the Swash Bucklers, wind their way through a variety of activities being run by other teachers all over the school and school yard, to earn gold coins to pay the pirate bounty and get our values back.

Miss G was on Team 9, the Jolly Rogers, and Miss A was with the special Preschool team. 

(Above, Miss A is making a hook for a pirate, and Miss G is singing a pirate tune.)

At one point during the day, I found Miss A, and came up behind her with my matching pirate t-shirt, Chip Chip (our school mascot) tattoo on my cheek, and a yellow eye patch on, and said, "Aaarr Matey!"

She whipped around, and said, "Mommy!  You just joking, right?  I a little bit scared of pirates."

She's a cutie pi-pirate! 

That same day, I took Miss G to the dentist for a very rushed appointment, as one of her beautiful Princess Teeth (a cap) fell off one of her molars (she has four, in total). 

The dentist just cemented it back on, and Miss G hardly even noticed.

She was a brave little pirate, taking care of her teeth. 

EVERYONE got into the spirit of pirate day.

"Mommy!  Joseph is wearing an eye patch like a pirate.  That's funny." 

Miss G and I thought that was pretty clever...

What fun celebratory school days are happening where you are?

Mid-May Updates

It's May. 

This is a wonderful thing, because the snow left this month.

Fare-freakin'-well!

You know, when I got here I heard a great many... shall we say? "Northern Myths."

For example:

"It gets cold in the winter, but there really isn't that much snow."

Riiiight.

"The darkness is really short-lived.  It's kind of nice.  You'll like it."

Hmmm.

"Spring happens, and poof!  The snow just evaporates and disappears.  It hardly rains in the spring."

Let's just say that I think the arctic temperatures may affect Northerners' memories of Northern winters a tad...

We can call it survival.

Maybe it will happen to my memory!

It sure is nice to be back outside playing without layers and layers. 

Admittedly, we are still in favour of winter hats and wool socks on many days. 

And, boots.  We love boots. 

It's been rainy, lately, which reminds me of Halifax, except that Yellowknife has a very COLD rain, not the humid, foggy rain of Halifax.

Wait?  Do I miss the foggy fog?

Daddy has been diligently observing the ice melt in the lakes. 

He's a wee bit anxious to take the boat out on the water! 

Not much longer... but, not yet. 

He has been tempted to take the boat to the boat launch just to launch it and take a picture of it in the lake with the ice around!

He saw this fellow in the Canadian Tire parking lot...

Ah!  Yes, Canadian Tire... the universally accepted location for Canadian men to bond, grunt, and talk about ways to trick big fish with teeny tiny brains into biting onto bait... a multi-billion dollar industry.

I think Eli felt some hopefulness when he snapped this picture.

Yes, life is good in May when you can play on the equipment with no mittens on. 

No mittens makes scaling the big rocks in the playground much easier, too. 

We hope you are having a great spring, where you are!

Northern Kids Are Tough

Well, we've survived a solid seven months of snow.

We are currently surviving well-lit nights.

Which, admittedly, does not bother the girls,

but is messing with Mommy's sleep patterns.

The sun setting at 10:29 pm and rising again at 4:38 am is a little freaky...

and the longest day of the year is still ahead in June!

(It's kind of cool, though.)

The North makes us tough.

Now, Environment Canada thought it was really funny yesterday, and put snow in the forecast for this coming Thursday.

I think they got hate mail, because the current weather forecast is a mix of sun and clouds.

We're tough.  But, we know when we've paid our dues and should be shown some spring lovin'.

Last week...

Well, Thursday, actually, not that I was keeping track...

the snow FINALLY completely melted from our property.

There is still ice on the lakes... the lake ice is not walkable, but is also not boatable, either, much to Eli's dismay.

With the snow OFFICIALLY gone from our yard, Eli took my snow tires off for me on Mother's Day.  Ah! Love!

He took his snow tires off last week, on the Thursday marking the final "don't let the door kick you in the a** on your way out of my life for a full four months, if I'm lucky" farewell to the snow.

The girls helped out, and Eli got this awesome set of action shots showing just how tough our girls are!

(Miss G on the left, Miss A on the right)

Tough... 

... as... 

... Northern... 

... Ptarmigan?

They were so terribly cute working together to jack up the car. 

And strong! 

What's going to work? 

Team work! 

I love how they didn't even bother taking off their bike helmets before jumping in to help their Daddy. 

Both girls spun the tire to confirm that they did, in fact, raise the car off the ground enough for Daddy to change the tire.

They did it!

And, the smart girls that they are, they left the other three tires for Daddy to change while they rode their bikes... because WE HAVE NO SNOW!

My Mommy's Day

I got to sleep in on Sunday.

It was wonderful.

I made it to 8:30 am.

On Friday, Miss G came home from school with a pink parcel for me.

She was so excited!

She hid it under the couch, just like an eggie hunt.

She really really really couldn't wait for me to open it on Sunday.

"Please Mommy??

Open it on the Friday of Mother's Day!" 

The card was this cute little tea pot with a tea bag carefully placed inside.

So simple.  So sweet.

I had the tea on Mother's Day morning for breakfast. 

I could have picked Miss G's teapot out of hundreds displayed for me.

Her artistic style and attention to detail is just so "Miss G!"

"Look, Mommy, I made you a pattern with the hearts, circles and flowers around the big flower."

I know.  So cute.

And, look at the rainbow tea spout, and the flower planted on the handle, not to mention the top handle with all its detail.

She also made this card for me in Art class, and can proudly write LOVE on her own all the time. 

"Love" came right after "like," "unicorn," "Kid Doggie," and "puppy."

And, of course, all of those words came after the family names, including her last name. 

Mrs. F also had the students make this super cute hot holder with each Kinder's hand print.

Miss G's name is printed beautifully on it.

She made sure I hung it up right away in the kitchen. 

I think she loves giving gifts as much as getting them!

Miss A, on the other hand...

Well, she's so freakin' cute...

At preschool, the kids made mini cinnamon rolls for the Mommies.

She had carefully selected mine, and put them in a baggie to bring home.

I had to stay late at school on Friday to coach the sprinters on our Cross Country team.

By the time I got home, she had eaten them all!  Ha ha ha... 

This morning, Miss G woke up in tears when I announced the beginning of a new school week, with my "It's Monday!" sing song voice.

"Monday!!  Mommy, that means it isn't Mother's Day anymore!  I need Daddy!!  I need to talk to Daddy!"

She would not budge from the top bunk until Daddy was done his shower and could negotiate with her.

Apparently, she wanted to buy me something specific for Mother's Day, and Daddy had said that he would take her to the store to get said specific something.

But, yesterday passed, and we were lazy, and Daddy... forgot.

So, after school, Daddy and Miss G went to the store to buy me flowers!! 

And... a loot bag full of candy!

"Mommy, you need flowers and candy for Mother's Day. 

Happy Mother's Day that was yesterday!"

Mrs. F trains these kids well!! 

I think Daddy had some influence over the candy choice, with the Lindt chocolate balls and Swedish berries. 

Happy Mother's Day to all my awesome lady friends and family...

Mommy, Nanny, Auntie, Cousin Aunties, and Mommys-to-Be, and Mommy?-Not-Yets!...

Happy Mother's Day!

PS:  Since beginning this blog post, Miss G has enhanced the flowers with a drawing to place on the vase.

Kindly disregard how I carelessly left my wallet and glasses on the fishy table, and the rogue hair elastic. 

Oh, and that orange thing is Swiper's tail (yes, from Dora)... keepin' it real, just in case you wanted a little more proof that I'm a mom.