Lil' Lulu

I'm looking over the blog and noticing there is quite a bit about Josh, but not as much about Lucy.

Lucy is the delightful three year old that lives in our home. She is full of fun, and can be fiesty at times. She loves to read and draw, dance and sing. This digital drawing is one that Lucy and I drew of us together on MS paint.

A few months ago, I was washing dishes and Lucy was sitting at the counter nearby and sighed, "I wish I could be the mom, then I could wash the dishes and do the vacuuming..." Lucy made these "chores" sound like very glamourous activities! We do need to work on empathy though. Today Lucy's friend Emily B. came over for a playdate. We stopped at the park after dropping Josh off at school to play on the swings, and Emily fell off her swing and began to cry. Lucy also started crying, but not out of fear or sympathy for her friend... She was upset because I stopped pushing her. Uh-oh.

Favourite colour? pink, purple and purplish pink

Favourite movie? Cinderella (and boy, does Lucy ever sing a lovely medley of every song from the movie!)

Favourite request for breakfast? CANDY!!! (not that I would ever let her!)

Favourite song? "Twinkle, twinkle" and "Away in a Manger"

What does Lucy want to be when she grows up? "I want to be a teacher like you, Mommy. Or a ballerina. What I really want to be is: a Princess!"

Joshua has been overheard to say, "Sometimes I wish I was as cute as Lucy!" She is pretty cute, but she is also blessed with an amazing big "brudder", who devotes much of his attention to his sister. Almost every night you can hear Joshua and Lucy say "You're the best brother", and "you're the best sister". It is a nice way to end our day.

Gymnastic Birthday Party

We had Joshua's birthday party this past Saturday at a local gymnastics club. The kids got to swing like monkeys on a trapeze, jump on trampolines and dive into pits of foam. A highlight for Josh was having his cousins, Gracie and Griffin, up from Seattle for the party. Lucy liked that she had someone to play with.



After bouncing around, the kids had pizza and cake (it was a bit of a knights theme...) and Joshua opened his presents. He was thrilled to receive more board games, among his nice gifts. With Christmas and birthday games, our family is spending more time around the table playing Clue Jr., Yahtzee, Uno and Dutch Blitz. Now, Mark and I can be a wee bit competitive, and Joshua seems to have picked up this trait in abundance. We are now having lessons on cheering on others' good fortune and being a gracious loser. Aaaahhh, gotta love this parenting gig!

The Day After Tomorrow?

I have lived on the west coast for almost my whole life (minus university-years). I can not remember a year with so much crazy winter-weather. On the news last night they said we have had 14 storms so far this season. And it's only mid-January! Rains, floods, winds, snow, one after the other, in continuous cycles.

Last week's windstorms had us so nervous, we camped out in the construction zone of our basement - just in case a tree hit our house. The kids thought it was an adventure to wake up in sleeping bags, on air mattresses in the basement.
Then 2 days ago, winds knocked down a tree that brought down hydro wires a block from our home. We went without power for 28 hours! It was very cold as the temperatures dropped (furnace is gas, but the fans are electric) and it started to snow the next day! It seems that every week we have at least 3 different extreme weather systems coming through. As I write now, we are looking out at a beautiful 10 inches of snow, but the roads are pretty icy. How about a sunshine storm passing through? Systems of blue skies?

My grade 7 students love the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". Mark and I saw it a few weeks ago, and it is scary! A wee bit far-fetched, it shows extremes in weather conditions due to global warming hitting the USA. I have thought often of that movie in the last 5 weeks. I have yet to see the Al Gore movie about climate change, but I'm becoming a believer.

The Joy of Renovating

This winter, Mark has undertaken a reno of our basement: complete destruction of our family room, guest room and icky bathroom. In the process, Mark discovered a 2'x8' strip of dry rot and a crack in our foundation. We also discovered why our family room is so cold - it was only insulated on the top half!

Josh is Daddy's little helper - he loves to be right in the thick of things. On Sunday, the two took turns knocking down the ceiling of the family room. Mark hopes to take a load to the dump this weekend, but that's all dependent on the weather. With our unusually cold weather, it's been difficult to live without a room for the kids to play in - but it will be worth it in the end. We are putting in a full bath, storage closet, and remodelled guest room and family room - with a functional gas fireplace!

Joshua is six!

Today, Joshua is celebrating his sixth birthday. Everyone says that kids grow so quickly, and it's true! It doesn't seem so long ago that we were rocking Josh in our arms, and amazed by his every new-born smile. We used to wonder what he was thinking about, and what he would talk about when he could put words to those thoughts. We wonder no more, as our son is a motor-mouth, who starts talking as soon as he sees us each morning! He's pretty fun, and we are blessed to have him as our son.

Joshua was serenaded with a family version of "Happy Birthday" first thing this morning, which includes the part about smelling like a monkey. He laughed. He will have his party with a few friends and cousins on Saturday.

After school today, the kids and I decided to do a little sledding. Lucy and I brought some toboggans when we went to pick Joshua up from school. Here are some pics; we were still on the school grounds.

Lucy came down and hit a tree, which emptied it's load of snow on her - all in slow motion. She looks pretty cute covered in snow.

Joshua enjoyed many birthday wishes by phone, opened a few presents and had his favourite dinner: spaghetti, and chocolate milk. Ahhh... (contented sighs).

Bikes for Tykes!

Joshua and Lucy got new bikes for Christmas. I don't know if Josh can still be considered a "tyke", but I like rhyming! We have had a few sunny days since Christmas, but today was the first day we actually went riding. We also (this is so embarrassing) couldn't figure out how to get the kickstand up on Joshua's bike. I called the bike shop today and confessed I may be "a dumb blonde"! Anyways, Josh and I got it figured out... and headed for Settler's Park, a nice park near our house with a pond.

Joshua, once he finally got used to the large size of his new bike, had a great time! He tried out his new hand brakes, and shifted gears, finally making a round of the pond all by himself!

Lucy also had fun on her new, purple, "Little Daisy" bike. She quickly figured out how to brake, as she's always been on a trike or in the back seat of our bikes yelling "Stop!". Lulu had many smiles at the beginning, but the cold wind soon wore her down, and we left the park in tears because she was c-c-c-c-cold!

Joshua's Art

Joshua has been enjoying drawing for a long time. In recent weeks he has discovered MS Paint on the computer, and takes great pleasure in doing digital paintings. He has done quite a few.

He has been writing love notes...

The next one is: "The mouse who just ate a sandwich". It's more of an abstract picture. Apparently the mouse is lying on a pillow after eating. The third one is called "Princess" that Joshua drew for Lucy.

This one is called "Rudolph". You can see him standing beside Santa's sleigh.

This one is titled "Jesus". Joshua says it's a gift from the wise men for baby Jesus. This golden container with a diamond has myrrh inside.

This is just a sampling. He is also interested in painting along a "Space" theme, and pictures about knights and dragons.