SPRING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I took Ethan for a walk this afternoon.












We saw growing things!



















REAL growing things!












I saw a flower that was not a dandilion!


















We even saw ants!












I was bitten by mosquitoes! I never thought I'd be happy about that, but it means

SPRING IS HERE!

Spring is here!
Spring is here!
Spring is here!
Spring is here!
Spring is here!
Spring is here!

(Do I sound a tad excited?)

So long, winter. I will not miss you.

A new memory verse: Col 3:12

Overall, last months verse was not as well recieved by the kids as the fruit of the spirit was. I think the 'armor of God' ideas were too abstract.

So, we are starting June a tad early and will be working on this verse. If they remember it quickly, I may squeeze in another before summer holiday starts.

Here's a new Knock Knock joke I just heard. I thought D and B might enjoy this one:

Knock, Knock! Who's there? Dishes. Dishes who? Dishes the RCMP, open up!

An Attempted Sleepover

Evelyn had her friend Ashton over on Saturday for what was intended to be a sleepover. They enjoyed playing from about 3 pm till bedtime, but, when lights-out came at around 8pm, Ashton decided he wanted to go home.

It was a good attempt anyway. We'll try again in a month or two.





Our nextdoor neighbors invited us over for their sons 1st birthday, so we made an appearance. The kids helped by opening little Wyatt's presents for him, then presenting the gift to him so he could inspect it. It worked out well. The kids were occupied, Wyatt got to see his gifts, and it was very efficient.

I enjoyed listening to Evelyn and Ashton play make believe animal doctors. They each built off each others ideas to form and grow the game. I took a video clip because I thought 'they will probably never remember playing like this'. So, now it's documented!

Kids Clips and Frogs Song

A few random clips of the kids and a sampling of the noise the frogs showered us with on our walk a couple weeks ago.

Evelyn's Dance Recital

Evelyn's 'Intro to Jazz' dance class did a routine to a song from 'The Lion King' as their contribution to the Boyle dance recital.

The girls had to wear lipstick and blush, and have their hair curled. It felt bizarre putting makeup on my 4 yr old.

Evelyn and her classmates have been working hard at this routine since September. As you can see in the video, each child's personality shines through during the routine.

I missed filming the very end of the routine, when everyone was clapping. The other 3 kids in Evelyn's class filed off stage quite quickly after the music ended. Evelyn, however, stood and looked out at everyone clapping, then took a bow before she left the stage! Her flair for drama did not abandon her that night!




After all the routines were over, all the dancers took the stage for a bow. Evelyn looked like she was not in a very good mood. As soon as she joined us in the gym, she burst into tears and continued to cry most of the way home.

She HAD to go and hug her teacher (Miss.Morgan) and kept asking how many weeks until dance started again. I think the finality of the recital, and the end of something she had been doing for so long was too much for her.


She was fine the next day, and hasn't mentioned dance class since. I think she liked it!

Cinco de Mayo and a visit to the RCMP

On Tuesday (May 5th) I got to be the parent helper at Evelyn's playschool. The kids all went on a little field trip to the Boyle RCMP station, then celebrated the Mexican holiday 'Cinco de Mayo' with some traditional Mexican children's games and a Taco lunch.

(I wrote a very detailed and - I thought - amusing description of the field trip, but it was lost when I had to reboot my computer due to Internet connection issues. Grrrr. I just don't feel like writing it all again!)

Let's see... Here are the highlights.


The usually very chatty group of 12 preschoolers became suddenly mute as soon as they entered the detachment. I think they felt a tad intimidated by the officers in uniform. They know several of the officers at the detachment, but as 'Daddy's' of their friends. Those familiar faces were not there that day.




They were all placed in a holding cell, and had the door closed. All of them thought that was pretty neat. Those cells are the epitome of 'minimalism'. concrete all around, with a raised concrete ledge for...sitting? Trying to sleep? One thing for the design is that it looks very easy to hose down. Later, they tried on a constables hat, then they were handcuffed. Most of their hands were so small, they managed to easily slip them out of the cuff.






They got to explore a police cruiser. This was a 1970's 'Cherry Top' styled contemporary cruiser that the RCMP has distributed to a handful of detachments throughout the province. I am not sure why they created this small fleet. I assume it was a PR or promotional campaign of some sort. The main differences between it and a regular cruiser is that it is mostly black with white doors and it has a single red 'cherry' light on top. The regular cruisers have an all white body. I was surprised by the very minimal amount of leg room in the back seat. I don't think creature comforts are a consideration in the design of police facilities and equipment. I guess it all adds to the punishment of breaking the law.

The kids enjoyed pressing the different siren buttons and watching the lights flash.

At the end, after receiving some goody bags with bicycle safety items, they were all bestowed the title of Honorary Constables. Their assignment as 'officers' was to tell the Sergeant if their parents drive without wearing a seat belt so the Sergeant can give the offending parent a ticket. The kids faces showed complete glee at the idea of having that sort of 'power' over their parents. I hope that none of them are ever in a situation where they need to use their 'authority'.

There are 4 things I just don't understand: Not wearing seat belts, not wearing helmets when riding a bike OR an ATV, improperly installing a car seat, and driving under any sort of influence. They are all ridiculously stupid risks to take. The increased risk of dying is one thing, but it's the increased risk of serious disability that really makes me cringe when I see those things happen. In the case of impaired driving, the reckless endangerment of others makes me furious.

I will get off my soap box now. Thank you for your attention. ;-)

On their return to class, the kids celebrated the Mexican holiday 'Cinco de Mayo'. They played some traditional Mexican children's games, ate taco's and had a pinata.

The idea behind the design of the pinata was that each child would pull on a string attached to the bottom flap. When they all pulled together, the flap was supposed to fall off, and the candy would fall. It's a great idea, especially when little kids swinging a bat is the alternative. I like that it promoted teamwork, and each of the kids would participate in breaking the pinata.

Should you decide to try this technique for your next pinata, here are a few tips I learned that day: tape the bottom flap on with the least amount of tape needed to keep the candy in. Also, make sure the pinata is very securely attached to a strong anchor.

What happened was that the kids pulled, and the whole thing fell down. The flap stayed on, and we ended up manually tearing off the taped flap and dumping the candy over the kids heads. It was still pretty fun anyway.

The last impression of the day that I have to share relates to teamwork. I recall having group work strongly encouraged when I was in school, and it always felt like a very intentional and stressful exercise to me. Who is the leader, what are our roles, are we all pulling our weight... I watched a very organic and natural example of group work when Evelyn and two of her friends completed 2 new floor puzzles. These 3 kids worked almost silently and independently, yet together they accomplished their goal. They made themselves aware of what each other was working on, and they each studied the picture of the completed puzzle in turn. None of them took a leadership role. When one had a suggestion for where to place a piece, they respectfully made their suggestion. It was a pleasure to watch them interact. Of the group, Evelyn probably had the most 'alpha' personality, but she is pretty willing to go along with others. So there was essentially 3 'followers' making their own way together. It was a very interesting and peaceful dynamic to watch.

Later that day, both Evelyn and Ethan had their first soccer practice. It went pretty well. I totally forgot to take pictures, though I had my camera in my hands for most of the practice. They are one the same team because they are born only 1 calendar year apart. (Early 2005, and late 2006). The rest of Evelyn's friends are in the older group because they were born in 2003/2004. When the team first assembled and the coach asked the kids to introduce themselves, Evelyn jumped up with her hand raised high and shouted "I'm Evelyn!". Ethan quickly followed suit with and equally enthusiastic response. Ryan and I just chuckled, shook our heads, and wondered 'where did these extroverts come from!?' (For the 1000th time...)

They worked on kicking the ball and taking turns. They also did a very healthy amount of running. It's a very, very young team, so I think the overall expectations are just to get them comfortable kicking the ball and learning a few basic team concepts like listening, following instruction, and taking turns. There are enough kids to make two teams, so they could play each other, which is nice too.

Next Tuesday, May 12th, at 7 pm, Evelyn will be having a dance recital. If anyone wants to come and watch, you are more than welcome. We will be in the Boyle school gym. A couple weeks later, on May 26th she will be having her playschool graduation ceremony and the kids will also be performing several songs. Again, you are all welcome to come and visit and attend.

One Very Nice Day

Yesterday, after I got home from work, we all went for a walk and enjoyed the very warm evening. Along the way, we enjoyed listening to the croaking frogs and quacking ducks, and chirping crickets. Life! After a long winter, the sounds filled our souls and captured our imaginations. The grass is starting to sprout, there are dandelions growing on the edges of some buildings, and tiny leaf buds are showing on the bushes and trees. By the time everything is finally green, we'll have about 6 weeks of spring left before summer starts! Even after all the years we've been in Alberta, I still am stunned by how short Spring is here.

We came across a frog sunning itself on the road. Evelyn was very interested in it. She crouched down and tried to coax it into hopping onto her hand. She refused to touch it on her own, so I think, if it had hopped on, she probably would have screamed and thrown it away. The Frog was wise, and stayed put.




Ethan stood about 3 feet behind Evelyn and continuously admonished her "Ella! Don't touch the Frog!" and "Ella don't touch it!". After a few minutes, the frog hopped into the grass and Ethan screeched and ran away.

Later in our walk, we came near a marsh at the side of the road. The cacophonous roar of many frogs was almost overwhelming. We saw a few hop into the water, but could not get a close look. Then, over about 3 seconds, they all stopped croaking. We had walked along the marsh a few feet and I guess we appeared to be a threat. The silence was stunning after so much noise. After we had gone a few more feet, and were not next to the water anymore, they all started again. I could imagine dozens of Froggie eyes carefully following our progress, then letting out a big sigh of relief before resuming their song.





Along the walk, the kids were very nice to each other and enjoyed holding hands with each other, and with Daddy. I love these pictures of their hands. I know that one day, I will look at their tiny size in wonder.





When we got home, the kids played on our swing set (newly freed from winters 2 ft high grip) and we enjoyed the warmth of the sun while Ryan made dinner.

A great shift at work, followed by a peaceful and entertaining walk made for one very nice day.

May Memory Verse

This month, we will work on memorizing Eph 6:10 : Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the Devil's schemes.

This website has some good resources: http://www.dltk-bible.com/jesus/armor_of_god-index.htm

Here is a song that we will be learning to help us remember the parts of the armor. Ephesians 6:10-18. It goes to the tune of "The Farmer in the Dell". I like that it has actions for each thing.

I'm puttin on my armor
I'm puttin on my armor
I'm gettin ready for the day
I'm puttin on my armor.

First comes my helmet (act like putting helmet on head)
First comes my helmet
The helmet of salvation
I'm puttin on my armor.

Second comes my breastplate (put hands on chest)
Second comes my breastplate
The breastplate of righteousness
I'm puttin on my armor.

Third comes my belt (put hands on waist)
Third comes my belt
The belt of truth
I'm puttin on my armor.

Fourth comes my shoes (bend over and touch feet)
Fourth comes my shoes
The shoes of peace
I'm puttin on my armor.

Fifth comes my shield (hold up left hand with 5 fingers)
Fifth comes my shield
The shield of faith
I'm puttin on my armor.

Sixth comes my sword (hold up right hand with 1 finger)
Sixth comes my sword
The sword of the Spirit
I'm puttin on my armor.

I've got my armor on (march around)
I've got my armor on
Now I'm ready for the day
I've got my armor on.