Library Program

Our library has a free kid's program every Tuesday and Thursday morning. They sings songs, read stories, do a craft and then have toys for the kids to play with. Kepler and I have gone a lot this year since it's at the perfect time while Jayna's at preschool.
They always have really good craft ideas, and Kepler loves bringing his craft home to show Jayna.

This week they had the library program on Saturday and a Firefighter was there. He talked to the kids about fire safety, put on all his gear, read a couple stories and then gave out pens, erasers and stickers. It was the perfect way to spend a Saturday morning while Gibb was working.

Kepler spent at least 10 minutes watching the firetruck outside. He really loves trucks, planes, boats, train, etc., anything that goes!

I think that Kepler, me and the baby will be spending quite a few mornings here next year too while Jayna's at Kindergarten.

Jayna's Haircut

It's taken me a few days to be emotionally stable enough to write this post, but I think I'm ready to do it without crying now. ;)

A few months ago I cut my hair short. I asked Jayna if she wanted to cut her hair too, not really thinking anything of it because I knew she would say no. At the time she still loved her long hair and never wanted to cut it.

Then a few weeks ago I got my hair trimmed again, and all of a sudden Jayna wanted to cut her hair too. I had been asking Jayna on and off for a while if she wanted to get her hair cut, thinking that life would be so much easier. But as soon as she said she wanted to do it, I was devastated, and realized I was just as attached to her long hair as she was.

So of course I tried to sneakily talk her out of it and convince her that she wanted to keep her hair long. But in true Jayna style she would not be persuaded once she made up her mind. I tried to just put off making an appointment hoping she would forget, but she kept bringing it up and really wanted to get it cut.

One of my friends asked Jayna why she wanted to get her hair cut, and if she had seen someone with cute short hair that she liked. Her answer: my mom! Which of course made me melt...but I still wanted her to keep her long hair. I even tried to put it off until the next time we go to Edmonton in June, but she wanted to get it done right away. So I finally gave in and made an appointment and immediately felt sick and wanted to call back and cancel.

I was still trying to convince her not to cut it too short on the way to the salon. But Jayna's getting too smart for me and had some pretty good arguments. She said "It's my hair and so it's my responsibility. I want to look like you mom, I want to be just like you! Hair grows, it will grow back long again." How could I argue with that?

BEFORE:

I still get a little sad looking at how long and pretty it was

DURING:

This part was not pretty. Pretty much as soon as she sat in the chair I started crying. We went to a friend of ours to get it cut and so it was a little embarrassing. Jayna was loving it and he kept asking me why I was crying, didn't she want to get her hair cut? I tried to just blame it on crazy hormones, but I was pretty sad. I must have been a mess, since that night he emailed me asking if everything was okay with Jayna's haircut and saying that he felt so bad that I was crying. Maybe I am a little too sentimental.

AFTER:

She got 13 inches cut off! We're going to donate it to Locks of Love.

I do think she looks really cute with her short hair, and about 5 years older too.

I've been trying to be happy about it so that she doesn't regret doing it or think I don't like it. That afternoon I was brushing her hair and she asked me "Are you trying to brush it so it will grow back again really fast? Don't worry Mommy, my hair will grow back."
And combing out her hair in about 1 minute with no tears after the bath has definitely helped to bring me around too.

In case this post is getting too depressing I will end by saying how much Jayna LOVES her short hair. She can't stop shaking her head to feel it on her shoulders. She also loves that we're twins now and keeps asking if we can take a picture of our short hair together. We were at the park the day she got it cut and she told my friends that she saw her shadow and it looked so cute! :)

The baby is getting big!

Pictures from our ultrasound at almost 24 weeks. The baby was as long as corn on the cob.

These didn't scan very well, but it was so fun to see the baby again, now that it's getting bigger. We brought Jayna with us to the ultrasound and she loved it. We didn't find out what we're having, which is a first for us. I thought I would be dying during the ultrasound to know if was a boy or girl, but I wasn't. I'm really excited to have a surprise this time!

20 weeks

I popped this month!
25 weeks

9 months...

and his baby was already born, it was a girl of course.

Jayna is still sure that it's a girl, and so Kepler is too. Her top 3 names right now are Sparkle, Silver and Mary, in no particular order.
The kids are constantly inspecting my belly to see how big the baby is, and they're a little more excited than I am that the baby is getting bigger. ;) Most nights after we eat dinner they tell me that the baby grew!
This baby has been way more active than Jayna and Kepler were. Last week they both felt the baby moving and kicking, they loved it! I love seeing them get so excited about this baby.

Happy Easter!

Gibb had a 4 day week-end for Easter, and it was such a nice break.

On Friday we took the kids to see Rio. It was cute, Jayna and Kepler loved it, and were SO excited to go to the movie theatre and get popcorn!

Saturday morning we went to Dunvegan Gardens for an Easter egg hunt.
There were tons of people there, it was crazy. And the big kids pretty much just ran in and went crazy finding all the eggs. By the time we got in our kids were lucky to find one egg each, and not too happy about it either...

Luckily there were some people who worked there handing out more eggs to kids who didn't find any.

On the way home from the egg hunt Kepler was crying and saying his tummy hurt. We were just thinking that he ate too much chocolate, until he threw up all over as we were turning onto our street.

Poor little guy spent the rest of the week-end like this. It was so sad, but cute at the same time.
And we definitely took advantage of all the extra snuggles.

We had planned on having some friends over for Easter dinner on Sunday, but when Kepler got sick we had to change our plans.
We're so glad that Brother Entrikin still came over for dinner. We needed some help eating all that food, and of course he's one of Jayna's favourite people. He even put on a puppet show for us!

Monday Kepler was finally feeling a little better so we did our own egg hunt.

We made bird's nests.

And it was nice enough to play outside!!
Jayna asked me to make her a "list" of the order of the rainbow so she could draw it. Starting to take after her mama, I make a lot of lists.

I don't think I've seen my kids smile this big since last September, we are SO happy that it's finally starting to get nice outside!

Easter Party

Jayna's preschool had their Easter Party a week early since this week is Spring Break.
They got to dye Easter eggs and Jayna took the hands on approach. Haha, her whole hand was purple for the day, but it actually washed off pretty easily.
One of her favourite centres is always the playdoh table. And this day it did not disappoint her, it was white playdoh with sprinkles in it and bunny cookie cutters.
This big easel with Mr. Sketch markers was another favourite that day. Jayna is in a drawing phase, and will sometimes draw and colour pictures for over an hour! It's amazing how many times she can draw flowers, rainbows, the sun and sky, our family and all her "best friends" and not get bored of it! :)

They also got to decorate bunny cupcakes at snack time.

I can't believe Jayna's going to be taking the bus to kindergarten next year! I'm actually really excited about it because she is so ready and excited for it. She's going to French Immersion and can't wait to start learning french (thank you Fancy Nancy!). She loves telling people that her favourite colours are rose and fuschia (not plain old pink and purple) and likes to make up words and then tell me that's how you say something in French.
I'm glad I got to spend a morning alone with my big girl, she was so happy that I came in to preschool with her, and said that was her favourite part of the day! :)

Field Trip

Jayna's preschool had a field trip to Dunvegan Gardens, which is a big indoor greenhouse and gardening store. The theme for this month is Spring and gardens. It was fun to bring Kepler along, since their is a no siblings allowed policy in the classroom, he liked feeling like he was a big kid and part of preschool.

They took us on a mini tour to show us the birds, bunnies and fish in a pond. I think my kids' favourite was the bunnies, since they told them one of them was the Easter Bunny!

They also got to see all the flowers and plants and smell the herbs.
Then they each for to plant a seed to take home.

Playful Pups

For the past 5 weeks Kepler's been in this program called Playful Pups. It's twice a week while Jayna is at preschool, so the timing works out perfectly. And it's been so nice to have some one on one time with Kepler doing something he loves. When we first started doing it back in September he would call it Puppet Show, and he was so proud to have something that he went to without Jayna. Every time Jayna talked about her teachers at school he would pipe up with something about his teacher from "puppet show". Unfortunately all the sessions throughout the rest of the year until now were cancelled. So it has been such a treat for Kepler to finish off the year with Playful Pups.

It's run by students from Keyano College and they basically have the gym set up with every kind of sports equipment, a little boys dream! Well any 2 year old's dream really. For the first 30 minutes the teacher does a semi structured activity involving all the equipment. Each day they make up some theme like a Jungle Adventure, going to all the planets in Space, the Olympics, the Zoo, or a road trip across Canada. And then the last part is free play where they have mats set up in a big obstacle course and a bouncy castle.

This day was the Olympics and Kepler is carrying his torch.

The parachute is always one of Kepler's favourite activities, and whenever we go under the parachute he always asks me to hold onto his handle so he can run to the middle. I think he's afraid the whole thing will collapse if he lets go.

His pants are all too big now that he has a tiny little underwear bum :)

Today was the last day of Playful Pups for the year. Hopefully soon we can start spending that time outside at the park!

Teddy Bear Picnic

Lindsay and I have been doing preschool for our kids once a week this year. We were just talking about how this is something we do all the time, but never take pictures of or blog about. So I pulled out the camera today, to document something that is part of our every day life (or every week).
All the kids love preschool, and I love it too because it gives me something to do and forces me to plan some fun activities for my kids. Today Kepler surprised me by knowing and writing some letters! I realized how much he's been learning (and how much I underestimate him).

Today we had a Teddy Bear Picnic as the theme. I remember doing this same thing when I was a kid and I loved it. They were all so proud of their Teddy Bears and couldn't stop talking about them, and giving them hugs and kisses.
It looks like they're wearing some sort of weird crowns, but they're supposed to be teddy bear ears.

For a snack we had honey on toast, blueberries and strawberries, goldfish and teddy grahams.

We ended off the morning by going on a Bear Hunt for the teddy bears. This was a favourite, especially with the 2 boys. But we had to end it the third time around when Ivy turned into the bear they were hunting for and Kepler found/caught her by tackling her to the ground.
Preschool is always a fun way to pass the morning, and I know that the kids had fun doing something when they remember and are still excited to tell Gibb about it when he gets home.