Shaylah's birthday party

I have been entering a few contests lately and I actually won a birthday party that was perfect for my nine year old "Pop Star Wannabe".  We were able to go to Creativ Music Studio in North Vancouver and make a music video.  What a great experience for the girls!  They choreographed a little routine, got some eye make-up put on and then filmed their scenes in front of a green screen.  There were 8 girls total and they all had a great time.  The song of choice was Taylor Swift's "Shake it Off", but we chose to use the Mini-Pops version to get rid of a few questionable words in the song.

After working hard at their video, we were able to rent a room at the studio for some snacks.  We had cucumber sushi, chips and owl cupcakes that Shaylah and I made together.


 Each girl got to take a copy of the video home as a keepsake, so it will be fun to re-watch it in the future.

I couldn't upload a final copy of their finished product, but here are a couple of short videos I took with my phone while they were filming.  So fun!

 

 

 

 

All about Shaylah

Shaylah turned 9 last week, so it is a great time to do an update on my pre-adolescent.  She is quickly becoming a young lady and I am cherishing this time before she becomes more independent.

Shaylah is my most enthusiastic child.  If there is an activity offered at school, she wants to be involved.  She is a member of student counsel, she played Mrs. Claus in the school Christmas play and she is part of an enrichment program.  She can't wait until she is older and can join the school sports teams and be a leader in the Student Credit Union.  This girl loves school and all it has to offer.  School comes very easy to her, especially language arts.  She tells me her favorite subject is gym, but she also loves math and music.  Shaylah is the type of person who is friends with everyone.  She has a couple of close friends, but not a "best" friend.  She is friendly, out-going and tries to make sure everyone is included (except her brother!).

Outside of school, Shaylah's favorite activity is basketball.  She is involved with 2 teams, one of them  is with girls that are 2-3 years older than her.  She is learning so much from this older team and we have noticed a huge change in her skill level over the year.  I wish I had training like that when I was her age!  One of the highlights for her last Fall was getting to play with the Toronto Raptors who were in town for an Exibition game.  She was one of 40 kids chosen for this experience ...unfortunately parents weren't allowed to watch or take pictures!  She definitely has a height advantage compared to kids her age and her ball handling skills are getting better.  Her Dad thinks this amazing, since he loves playing this sport.  😄

Day 1 - practicing with the coaching staff, Raptor mascot and meeting Alvin Williams.

Day 2 - Practicing with current players, including Kyle Lowry.  Notice Shaylah sitting in the front row, 4th from the right.

Shaylah continues to take piano lessons.  She will be taking her grade 2 exam in June and has signed up to compete in the BCCM festival in May.  She has no fear of playing in front of people, something I could never get over as a child.  She also sings in out church's children's choir, with the hope of getting a solo one day!  She finished soccer in March, where she has been training to be a goalie and has just started baseball for the spring season.  There are no dull moments in her life!  She is continually asking me if she can join more activities, but I have to stop her somewhere.  She would have every moment scheduled if she could.

Shaylah's career goals change frequently, but she is pretty sure she wants to be a teacher when she grows up.  She has had the most amazing teacher this past year at school and he has inspired her to be just like him.  We feel very fortunate for a teacher that encourages her and seems to know exactly what she is all about.  Thank you Mr. Coffin!

Well. it's either a teacher or a rock star.  :)

Shaylah is very particular about her clothing.  There are only 2 pairs of pants she would wear all year and one pair officially has too many holes to fix.  She has a drawer full of other pants, but refuses to wear them.  She will also only wear knee-high socks....and those are preferably with colorful stripes.  These are hard to find at certain times of the year!  She has officially moved into adult size clothes (xs) and wears youth 5/6 shoes.  It won't be long before we are sharing clothes!

 

We are so grateful for this girl in our lives.  She keeps us busy and we can't wait to see what her future holds!

March 16th

Don't forget it's free ice-cream cone day at Dairy Queen today.  They are celebrating their 75th Anniversary with a free small cone for every customer!  I love that Dairy Queen supports the Children's Miracle Network, so make a donation while you are there.



 Oh, and Happy a Birthday to my sister too.  Great way to celebrate!  Yum...

Spring Break...so far

I can't believe I haven't blogged since August!  Oops!  I have had several blog posts go through my mind, but time keeps disappearing on me.  With Spring Break upon us and the kids activities in hiatus, I feel like we have just had a big vacation.  It is nice when life slows down a little bit.

Week one of spring break has been very low key.  The kids have participated in a basketball camp each day, have continued with their piano lessons, had play dates with friends, saw the movie Cinderella in the theatre, and went to Van Dusen Gardens (more on that in a little bit!).  Johnny had knee surgery to repair his torn meniscus last Wednesday, so we wanted to keep the activities at a minimum until we knew how he would respond.  He has done so well!  He hobbled around on crutches for a day and worked from home on Thursday and Friday, but he is feeling really good.  He only has about 100 degrees of knee flexion today, but it is getting better each day.  Hooray for an amazing health care system here in Canada!

Van Dusen Gardens has a special on where kids are free for the month of March.  I have never actually been to these gardens before and jumped at the opportunity to take the kids.  Being that it is only March, there wasn't much in bloom, but it was still a very beautiful place and the kids enjoyed checking out the trees, ferns and animals.  

We thought this turtle was a statue at first, until we saw the eyes blinking.  :)

The cherry blossoms are pretty amazing at this time of year.

Leaf skeletons.

Micah's highlight...an old tractor.

The kids spent at least half an hour going in and out of this cedar hedge maze.

The kids thought this bush looked like fire.

I really enjoyed the garden and would love to see it in full bloom.  I was also amazed that it had free parking.

Next week is another slow week for us, with a few added activities.  Basketball camp and piano lessons continue, baseball practices begin, Daddy is back at work and Shaylah turns 9!  Shaylah has a pretty cool party planned, which I will update on next week!  I am really hoping to get back into the regular blogging, but am fully aware that life will probably get in the way again.

Micah is TWO!!

It felt like the blink of an eye, but our little man is now officially two years old!.  We did not have a party for him this year, but we did have a lot of fun to celebrate his special day.  No presents or cake, just a day with his family.  :)

We were camping at Golden Ears Provincial Park leading up to his birthday.  We had beautiful weather our whole trip, but woke up that morning to quite a bit of rain.  We packed everything up and headed home to get dry.  We tried singing "Happy Birthday" to him, but each time he would rapidly shake his head, say "no!" and try to push us away.  I don't think he realizes how FUN birthdays are yet.

August 13th just happened to be Pirate Pack Day at Whitespot, so the kids decided this would be the best place to celebrate.  A portion of each Pirate Pack sold goes to help a kid with a disability or life-threatening illness get to experience summer camp at Zajac Ranch.  Awesome!  Even us parents got to order a Pirate Pack.  Micah was pretty thrilled and he ate everything in the boat...except the ice-cream.

 

I cannot believe what a sweet little guy that Micah is.  He has definitely started acting like an independent little man and I can see that the baby of last year is officially gone.  He is starting to talk more and is putting a couple of 2-word sentences together.  He is still animal obsessed....mostly with dogs.  We have to stop and say "hi" to every dog we see.  He has dropped his afternoon nap almost completely now, but sleeps well at night.  He has discovered stuffed animals and won't go to sleep without them.  He knows each of them by name. 

When we pray together as a family, he covers his eyes with his hands and waits for the "amen".  So cute!  You can see him peeking through his fingers and watching what everyone else is doing.

His favorite outfit is his basketball tank and shorts.  If it is available, he chooses to wear this always. 

 

He has discovered movies.  He LOVES Finding Nemo ("Meemo") and would watch it everyday if I let him.  He has also discovered hitting, which I am not too proud of.  It doesn't help that his brother and sisters laugh at him when he does it.  :(  He hates getting dirty, prefers not to wear shoes and has finally found one meat he likes to eat (ham)! 

 

 

I look forward to the next year of development for Micah.  He is a joy to be around and we love him so much!

Shaylah's 8 year old update

Shaylah turned 8 years old in March, so this is a little late.  She is helping me with this post.

Favorite color:  turquoise (green/blue)
Favorite food:  any junk food, but especially ice cream cake.  She also loves fruit of any kind, vanilla yogurt and cereal.  Breakfast is her best meal of the day.  She struggles to eat at dinner time.
Favorite song:  Let it Go (from the movie Frozen).  This is an improvement from "You Don't Know You're  Beautiful" by One Direction.
Favorite item to wear:  stretchy headbands (and her black pants)
Favorite school subject:  PE
Favorite sport:  She says soccer, but she complains about playing it for most of the season.  :)  She has a mean swing in softball too and loves to play either catcher or first base.  So sad the season just finished!
Favorite pastime:  She says play on the laptop, but truthfully she reads any spare moment she has.  She goes through a chapter book every day.  I have recently turned her to some longer books.  She is currently reading Anne of Green Gables and is loving it as much as I did as a kid.
Size:  wears 12 or 14, depending on the brand for clothes;  shoes size 4.5. She weighed in at 77 pounds this week and is as tall as my shoulder.  This kid grows like crazy!  She is taller than any of the grade 3 boys that were in her 2/3 split this year.
Worst habit:  sucking on her hair.  She does this constantly.  I have started making her shower every morning, just so that I don't have to comb through the sticky, knotted sections that she creates each day.
Marsalie's favorite trait:  a tie between her laugh and her freckles.  She is the only kid with freckles (which I adore!) and she is constantly giggling (much like her mother).
Dislikes:brushing her hair, wearing socks and shoes, tomato sauce, her brother Caelan (most annoying sibling, according to her)
Favorite electronic gadget: LAPTOP!!!!!  (Apparently she really likes the computer). :)
Favorite print: LEOPARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!             (I guess she really likes this too) :)

Shaylah is full of joy (most of the time).  She is a night owl, preferring to stay up late and sleep in.  She wants to be a famous pop star when she grows up and loves animals.  She likes to stay busy and is always asking to join more sports and/or classes.  This past year she took part in soccer, piano lessons, swimming lessons, softball, clay class, cross country running, and GEMS (Girls Everywhere Meeting the Saviour).  I have had to say "no" to ballet, karate, singing lessons and every other whim that crosses her mind.

She was in a grade 2/3 split this year and had the bonus of an enrichment teacher once a week at school.  She had a much better year emotionally this year, after separating her from a "friend" who gave her a really hard time last year.  I have made the same request for next year as well.  She is definitely a Mama's girl and we have a really close relationship, which I treasure.  This girl is one of the greatest joys of my life and I am so grateful that I get to be her Mom!

22 months

Micah is almost 2 (and totally acting like it!).  He has learned a few things this past month that I wish he hadn't.

1.  He has learned how to climb out of his crib.  The first time it happened I was totally confused.  I had placed him in his crib only to find him crawling down the stairs a few minutes later.  I put him back in his crib, waited outside his room and then heard him knocking on the door.  Such a munchkin!
2.  He has learned to hit people if they don't give him what he wants.  Not cool!
3.  He is peeing in the potty.  Yes, this is NOT something I want to happen!  Once he is out of diapers, he is no longer my baby and I am not ready to accept that just yet.  It is only once or twice a day and totally at his insistence.  I am sure if I encouraged it more, it would happen quite quickly.  Did I mention that I am not ready for this yet?  One thing to note is that he can only pee once he is totally naked.  Even the socks have to be removed.  :)
4.  He is dropping his daily nap.  Oh, how I dreaded this time of life, but knew it was coming.  None of the other kids napped past age 2.

I hate this growing up stuff.  I just want to bottle him up and keep him this age forever.  He is such a joy and so sweet.  I am so grateful for this little man in our family.