Friday, July 29, 2011

Haircuts

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I took the girls for haircuts this morning.  This has always been Julie's area up until now, but with her working Fridays and me off, I thought I would give it a whirl.  Except for trying to wrangle CeCe the entire time, it went pretty good.  The girls both decided that they wanted bangs.  Jorja has never had bangs, so we weren't sure what to expect, but they both look really cute.  Jorja went first and opted for braids rather than curls.  As Ginny was in the chair, Jorja was standing in front of the mirror admiring her no do.  I said to her that she could probably look at herself all day.  She looked over at me and said, "I could!"  I know Jorja, I know.

Here is how they turned out.  Ginny didn't want her picture taken, so all I got was her braids: 


CeCe didn't get her haircut, but I thought she should have a picture too.  Here she it in her favourite spot:  inside the toy box.  Usually she empties one bin completely out, pulls it into the middle of the floor and just sits in it.  It's the small things in life I guess...

Later.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Jorja's birthday party

We had Jorja's birthday party yesterday.  We went out this year, which is definitely the way to go.  No set-up, no clean-up, no worries.  All we had to do was bring the cake, and Ariel from 'Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo' did the rest.  The girls all had a blast.  Jorja got to pick which princess would lead the party, and Ariel was the choice.  CeCe and I showed up about half way through in time for cake and a little bit of chaos wreaking.  Here are some shots of all the action.
The cake


Ariel leading some parachute games.

Time for a pop break.

Limbo like and elephant.

Jorja and her fancy shoes.

All the party princesses (Ginny looked away of course).

Time to eat the cake.

Jorja blindfolded while everyone hides presents.


Opening presents.
Later.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Jorja turns six!

Today was Jorja's sixth birthday.  The actual party is tomorrow, so today was more of a low-key family day.  It's hard to believe how time flies.  I remember the day she was born like it was yesterday.  Julie got induced in the morning...labour started almost immediately...I don't want a needle in my back...intense contractions...let's do this epidural up...nap...9 cm, time to push...Jorja.  That's the Reader's Digest version of it anyway.

It has been quite the year for her: 
1.  Last year for her birthday, Julie was still off work sick and I was home on parental leave.  This year we're both back at work. 
2.  She finished Kindergarten with flying colours.  She reads like crazy (a beginner grade 3 level). 
3.  She asked Jesus to live in her heart (the thing I am most proud of her for.) 
4.  She is a big help watching CeCe (well, until CeCe learned to climb and she yelled up to the kitchen as I was making supper one day 'Dad, we have an emergency!  CeCe is on the computer desk!) 
5.  She is a great sharer.  Being in school and having more friends, she gets invited to more birthday parties than Ginny.  That means more loot bags.  She will never have anything without sharing with Ginny (and me if I ask).
6.  She has a great heart, and is just a really nice person.  Since Julie and I have been back to work, Ginny has had some troubles.  She never used to cry at Sunday School, but always does when she gets dropped off now.  Since Sunday School is over for the summer, our church puts on a program in the gym for the 3-5 year olds.  This means Jorja and Ginny can go together.  The last time I dropped them off, Ginny cried again, and tried to hug my leg.  Jorja took her by the hand and led her to where the other kids were playing and never left her side for the whole morning.  I was so proud of her.

Happy birthday Jorja.  Your Mom and I love you more than you can imagine.  Later.
 

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Modesty

It's hard to believe another week has flown by already.  Mind you, it didn't really feel like that at work.  Maybe just the weekend is flying by.

I spent most of the afternoon in the backyard today trying to tame it a bit.  Let's just say the weeds were no match for the rototiller and the unruly grass no match for the whipper-snipper.  After I was done with the rototiller, Jorja and Ginny came out to keep me company.  They jumped on the trampoline, swung, went down the slide and commented on how it was soooo hot.  After a while we stopped for a Popsicle break.  "This sure is a good thing on such a hot day," Jorja said.  It did taste pretty good.  When I was done all my stuff I turned the sprinklers on for them to run through.  Then it was almost impossible to get them to come in.  It was getting close to supper time anyway, so I told them they were going to go straight to the tub when they got in.  They were all dirty and soaking wet anyway.  I brought some towels to the door and told them to take their wet clothes off before heading to the bathroom.  They were standing inside on the floor mat and Jorja says, "Take our clothes off and stand here in our panties!  Right by the door?  Who does that?!" 

Speaking of modesty, Ginny had spilled some spaghetti sauce on her dress at supper time, so I told her to just go put her pajamas on since she had a tub already anyway.  I asked if she needed some help getting her dress off and she replied, "No, I'm going to go take it off in my room so no one sees my boobs."  No sooner had she said that than she walked back through the kitchen butt naked with her pajamas tucked under her arm.  She's a funny one.

Yesterday afternoon I was playing with Ginny and she was cooking for me.  "Cake is in the oven," she proudly announced.  "It has cake and Goodie Rings and Velveeta."  Ahh, she knows me well.  Later.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Holidays are over

Our week of holidays is pretty much over now.  All that's left is getting stuff ready for work tomorrow.  I'm not ready to go back yet - 5:15 may come kind of early.  Not like I ever get to sleep in, but compared to that, 6:30 is sleeping in.

We spent the last few days here at home doing some fun stuff around the city.  We went to the spray park one day when it was hot out.  Julie took the older two girls to a matinee movie at the cheap theatre.  Jorja was a bit put out they weren't going to Cars 2, but warmed to the idea anyway.  Today we went swimming at the Shaw Centre.  The pool has been there quite a while now, but this is the first time we actually went.  It was awesome and the girls had a blast.  Jorja is getting so brave in the water now that she went down the full size water slide all by herself.  It's nice because you don't fall into the pool at the end.  It just ends in a separate chute that has about six inches of water in it.  It's pretty cool. 

The past two nights, Ginny has decided that she is ready to go without a pull-up on.  We're pretty proud of her.  Of course she had to have an accident the first night, but she was good last night.  We told her that she has to be pull-up free for a while and then she can get a big girl bed, so that's what she's working towards.  She has decided that she would like Hello Kitty bedding for the new bed when the time comes.  That's a little more rare than the princesses so it's good we have some time to find it.

We were getting Jorja's birthday party invites ready to send out today, so we were discussing who would be invited.  Since it is a princess party, I said she probably didn't want to invite any boys.  She said no she didn't and then said there were these three boys in her class that wouldn't let anyone play with them because they had a 'club.'  I said that boys were funny that way sometimes.  She then asked if I was funny like that when I was a kid.  Once I got over the shock and awe that she would even consider such a thing, I replied no.  Then she said, "You weren't funny, you just smoked."  What field did that come out of?!  She has seen people smoking and we have told her that it's no good and that I used to smoke as well, but I'm not sure what made her think of that now.  I replied, "Yes, I used to smoke, but I did NOT smoke when I was in Kindergarten."  Sheesh.

CeCe is starting to say more words now.  It seemed to take her longer than the other two, but it's coming.  She's such a little stinker though.  She will almost never say Mommy to Julie.  She can say it and does say it, just not when Julie wants her to.  She also doesn't like to imitate new words if you just say them in a normal tone of voice.  You have to give it some gusto.  We say 'dude' a lot in our house.  I'm not sure why it's just one of those things.  We use it in a gender-neutral way.  Anyone can be 'dude.'  I was getting CeCe to say this the other day, but I had to give it some feeling.  "Duuuude!" I would say.  "Dooooooooooo!"  She would say back.  It was pretty cute.  Today she was walking around the living room saying, "Dooooooo!"  My work here is done.  Later.

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Family vaction...recap

I thought that there would be more installments to chronicle the vacation, but time got away from me.  So now we're back in Saskatoon and I'll have to attempt the remember some of the highlights.  Here goes...

There was a fair bit of driving involved (1600 km altogether) and my theme song proved to be a hit to help pass the time.  We have a DVD player for the kids, but it's really only Jorja who uses it.  Ginny watches for a bit, but then her attention wanes.  So at every departure point, I plugged in the ipod and cranked up our theme song (or as Ginny liked to say, 'play the bean song.')  Everyone got into the action - even CeCe was singing along.  Check it out here.  It was a lot of fun.

After we left Hanna, we headed to Canmore.  It was the girls' first look at the mountains and they were impressed.  We took Highway 1A from Cochrane to Canmore, which was a nice, scenic drive.  I wouldn't want to do it at night or in the winter, but it was a good introduction to the mountains for the girls.  As we ascended, the trees got thicker and I said that we were in the forest now.  Jorja sat up and said with great excitement, "A REAL forest!"  Yes Jorja, a real forest.  And yes, we are from Saskatchewan.  There was then some discussion between Jorja and Ginny as to whether it was an enchanted forest or a spooky forest.  I guess when you grow up in central Saskatchewan, your only exposure to forests is in fairy tales.

We spent three nights in Canmore and had lots of fun.  My sister turned 40 this year, so we all celebrated with her.  We stayed in a really nice condo, which is definitely the way to go - two bedrooms, two bathrooms (an en suite!), full kitchen, dishwasher, clothes washer, flat screen TV and DVD player, wireless Internet, balcony with a BBQ.  It was great.  We checked out all sorts of neat shops in Canmore, including a glass blowing place.  That was really cool.  The older girls and Julie enjoyed spending time in the pool (CeCe and I were more into the hot tub).  We had lots of good times visiting and seeing all my family.

From Canmore we headed to Calgary to spend two nights with Julie's brother and his wife.  We all went to Calaway Park for a day, and the girls had a blast.  I think we all did actually.  After one initial incident, Ginny warmed up to the rides and became quite the daredevil.  I think Jorja was cramping her style a bit.  It's a good thing she had her aunt and uncle there to go with her, because I tend to get a bit squeamish at any sort of spinning ride.  The weather was gorgeous, and even CeCe stayed fairly happy all day with only a 20 minute power nap in the stroller.  We had some more good visiting and then headed home.

The drive home was the longest stretch in a row, and by the time we were home, we were all ready to be done the holiday road.  It was a great time, but we were happy to be home.  Here are some pictures from our fun:

CeCe on Canada Day.

Jorja showing her patriotic spirit.

Everyone posing except for Ginny.

I had to get her when she wasn't looking.

The view from our condo.

In the beginning, it was all about the merry-go-round.

It was all they could talk about.

Later on, Ginny got a bit more intense.

This was the favourite ride - the mini roller coaster.

CeCe was a good cheerleader (but she went on some stuff too.)
    Later.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Family Vacation...part 1

We are on our way to Canmore for a few days to see my family and then Calgary for a couple more to visit Julie's brother and his wife.  Rather than driving the whole way in one shot, we decided to break things up and come as far as Hanna last night.  That is a four hour drive - roughly half way.  Julie had to work yesterday, so we left around 6:00 pm.  As we were leaving Saskatoon, I set the trip odometer.  At exactly 14.3 km into the trip, Jorja asked if we were almost there.  Yes, it was a looonnnggg trip.

We got here to Hanna around 10 and then everyone was awake for a bit.  Too long.  CeCe didn't settle until after midnight.  You would think that just maybe once they could sleep in?  Nope.  6:00 Jorja was up, Ginny at 6:30, and they had CeCe woke up by 7:00.  Let the good times roll.

Our theme song for the trip is Lindsey Buckingham's 'Holiday Road.'  I bought it from itunes before we left and played it as we were leaving.  I'll play it again this morning.  Here come the Griswolds!  Later