St. Albert Part 2

Pictures from a trip to the Keenoshayo park.  Completely redone from my childhood days, but fun to be outside the old school.  A beautiful day temperature wise.  Blue Alberta sky.  Ah bliss.  Afterwards we headed to a toy store and got the girls a toy each.

St. Albert Part 1

Eating breakfast together the first morning.  Lizzy was so happy to have her cousins at her house:

Real Abby took stuffie Abby for a ride:

Girls in the tub. Paige, Lizzy, and the Puerto Rican:

Cousins about the same size:

Much to our dismay, St. Albert was really mosquito-y, and quite hot.  Our visions of lots of outside time were kind of thwarted.  No one wanted 100 bites, and it was actually uncharacteristically humid.   But we still kept pretty busy.  More about the trip later. ...

Off to St. Albert

Well, at least that's over. 

Our flight left at 6:30pm out of Hamilton airport.  We swung by dinosaur camp to get Paige, had an easy check in for our flight and enjoyed some Tim Horton's smoothies and other random sandwiches. (Hamilton airport basically has no food at all). 

Things started out ok, with Rose happily watching the TV in front of her.

Paige was playing with some surprise paper dogs that I had tucked away in the carry on.

As the flight went on and Rose got restless and tired, things went down hill.  She didn't have a nap (of course she didn't), so by 8:00pm or so, she started to get a little nuts.  Now that we occupy 4 full seats, Mike was across the aisle.  Rose kept asking for "Daddy!", and sitting with him for 5 minutes, and then "Mommy!" and sitting with me for 5 minutes.  We were telling her she could sleep, but the sun was pretty bright as our plane flew west.  We were telling Paige to sleep to, but she didn't want to either.  At least Paige was just rubbing her eyes and yawning, but essentially acting normal.

Finally she sat with me at 10:00ish EST and closed her eyes and fell asleep face down on my nap mere minutes before the seatbelt sign would go on for landing:

She was so fast asleep at this point, that my moving her didn't cause any problems and I was able to put her in her seat with her seatbelt on.  She just lay there like this for the entire descent, landing, and while all of the other passengers got off:

As we didn't bring a stroller (we never use it anymore), we had no where to put her as we lugged our stuff along. At first I held her and then Mike took a turn.  She woke up at first and was screaming and trying to lie down horizontally.  She perked up when we went outside to load up our rental car and install the car seat, but promptly fell asleep as we drove off.  Paige still was awake at this point, pretty alert actually, but fell asleep after I told her the ride to Auntie Booze's house was long and boring (so basically Paige went to bed at 11:00pm.

Both girls were asleep when we arrived.  As we opened the car doors, Abby even jumped in my side and went into the back to sniff them.  Neither of them woke up.  We put Rose straight into her bed, and managed to take Paige to the bathroom and bring her upstairs to say good night to Jen, James, and Abby.

Obedience School graduation

Pleased to announce that Scout graduated from obedience school with honours: 94%.  Although Mike thinks she should have had 98% as she did 2 things perfectly, but was only graded 9 out of 10 on them.

The next step will be level 2 obedience when she is a bit older and more mature and less of a toddler.

Scout's stuffy montage...

These are all from different days.  She likes to fall asleep with her stuffy in her mouth.

Library book casualty...

What Rose was doing instead of napping a couple of weeks ago....
Basically she went from yelling and screaming to being nice and quiet, but it was too good to be true.

I actually taped it all back together so we could still read it, but obviously the library would NOT take it back and we had to buy it.  We always get Franklin books from the airport as Rose loves them. 

Dinosaur camp

I signed Paige up for dinosaur camp at the RBG (royal botanical gardens).  It is in the Burlington/Hamilton area.  Every day she goes from 9-4.  Each day includes dinosaur themed activities, canoeing, hikes, games, crafts, and generally lots of time outside.  They offered lots of different themed camps, but she chose dinosaur camp.  It also works really well as it is right in the middle of summer, breaking things up a bit. Also, it is the week before our Edmonton trip, so when Rose napped (2 days only), I got lots of things done around the house.

So far Page is liking the camp, but mentioned she wished it wasn't every day.  She definitely isn't used to going somewhere every day as her school was part time, and sometimes only 2 days a week.  She likes the camp, but would like days at home in the middle.  I am proud of her though-- day after day and not being crazy in the evening.  In the morning she's getting up on time and getting ready and out the door with no problems.  I'm not sure if she has made tons of friends in the camp as she is always playing by herself when I pick her up, but she has lots of stories to tell and seems to be having fun.

Every day she has to wear her camp shirt, pants or shorts, lots of sunscreen and bug spray.  Of course she brings her hat and she has some awesome Teva sandals that have a closed toe, which are perfect camp shoes.  On Wednesday it was costume day so she wore her dinosaur/dragon costume. Tomorrow (Friday) is pizza day.

Paige and Rose definitely love their play time at home.  Paige hasn't been at home very much this week so I hope she doesn't get too homesick going off to St. Albert tomorrow for 10 days.  Ever since Paige has been at camp Rose has been out of sorts.  She's sick with a cold, but also really misses Paige.  The first day we dropped Paige off, Rose just kept saying "I want Paige" over and over again in the car.  The first 2 days she only wanted to stay at home.  On the third day she agreed to go to Amazing Adventures and then when I mentioned that we were on our way she said "I want to stay home!".  "Ok", I said, "we'll go home".  "No want to go home!" she huffs.  "Ok, do you want to go to Amazing Adventures, or go home", I ask.  "Mazing ventures", she pouts. Then at Amazing Adventures she was not her usual self.  Lots of the things she usually does she deemed "too scary" this time.  Without her big sister she lost a lot of confidence.  I was trying to do everything with her, but she just wasn't the same.  What a difference it made without Paige this week for Rose.  It makes me so grateful that Paige is still part time in Kindergarten this year.

I'll make sure to take a picture of Paige in her camp shirt on her last day.  Here is one of her in her dinosaur costume at the front door, although she was mad that we wanted to take her picture.

St. Albert time

We're going to St. Albert August 3-13. This year is gearing up to be a great time.  As much as we like weddings, we don't have any this year and that'll be nice.  Just a relaxing laid back time.  Without Scout around things will seem pretty easy.  Sorry Scout.  The people who do the dog training also do boarding in their homes, so she's going to stay with Aaron, the person who teaches at obedience school.  During the day he will take her to the doggie daycare that he owns, which will tire her out beyond belief.  He also has collies at his house. Scout won't even want to leave. I feel sad to leave her behind.  I hope she wants to come back to our house when we get home! The really convenient thing about her boarding with the training people is that they pick her up and drop her off.  This is beyond convenient when we have to worry about bringing Paige to her camp, packing, etc.

Our flight leaves in the evening from Hamilton airport, which is conveniently in the same direction as Paige's camp.  We'll pick her up at 4:00 and continue on to the airport.  We'll probably have a lot of time to kill and the airport is pretty dull, but hopefully we'll have some dinner.  Hoping the girls have a sleep on the plane...they will technically need it.  Rose actually had a nap today which definitely means no nap tomorrow and our flight will go until at least 10:30pm Toronto time.  And after 5 days of straight dino camp, Paige is tired.  And all 4 of us have a cold. Oh well...West Jet has TV's at least, and I have bought them some new crafts for the plane. Planning on bringing pillows and pyjamas so they can get cozy too. 

10 things about Paige at 5...

1. I have noticed recently that Paige is getting physically bigger. She has outgrown some clothes, shoes, and her bike.  When we go for walks, she is no longer lagging behind.  She has more endurance as she gets taller. At the park, she is still hesitant to tackle climbing anything that is too high up. But...her swimming is getting awesome.  The 14 days in Orlando really helped, and since then Mike has taken her swimming a lot on the weekends to practice.  She can jump off the diving board and everything.  Being in an unfamiliar pool, or at the cottage sets her back a bit though.  In these settings she prefers water wings, or to stay where it's shallow. 
2. That leads me to another point.  Something I love about Paige is that she's not a show off.  She doesn't brag about how she can swim, or how good she did at her dance recital, or how many toys she got at her party.  I'm not sure if it's because she lacks confidence, or if she's just not a show off in general, but I really like that she is modest.  She has started to tell people that she's 5. Usually it happens if someone comments on something that Rose is doing.  Paige will say, "her name is Rose and she's 2, I'm Paige and I'm 5".  She's really happy to be 5. 
3. Paige is still super into the iPad.  Rosie is majorly into the iPad too.  The both of them watch Max and Ruby every day while I prepare dinner.  I'm not sure why that particular show but they can't get enough of it. Paige is also really good at agreeing to watch a show that both girls want to watch.  
4. Paige's favourite toys to play with are still animals.  She can play with her dollhouse, but never with people, only animals.  She has been given a couple of barbie sets that come with animals, and the barbie's are never played with--only the animals.  As she loves the movie Rio, I bought one of those "Toobs" that you see at the toy store for her at the cottage.  This one was all birds, and she loved it. 
5. Paige really likes to do crafts.  I find though that she would rather do lots of quick ones then spend a long time on one particular one.  You'll never find that her colouring, for instance, is perfectly done.   She likes to just go fast, and move onto the next colour. 
6. Her reading is going fine.  I don't know what she is supposed to be doing now to be honest, but she is starting to sound things out.  I tell her to just sound things out and write them down, without worrying if it is correct.  She isn't that interested to write and read yet, but she does get super excited if she figures a word out.  I think she'll do well in school next year.  For the summer I'm trying to do small reading and writing things with her but nothing major. I don't want to over do it.  
7. She likes to "train" Scout by copying what she sees us doing.  Poor thing though, Scout doesn't always listen, or Paige holds the treats up high and Scout jumps up on her.  I think when you're 5 it's easy to get scared of a puppy who is the same size as you, and definitely hard to control one!
8. The one thing we are working on is tidying.  She will make a huge mess in her room and then be unable to clean it up.  I try to tell her that she should not make a mess she is unwilling to tidy, but things just seem to get out of hand.  She gets overwhelmed and doesn't know where to begin and gets distracted and starts playing.  I think part of my issue is that if she actually cleans it everything goes in such random locations and I find it so so hard to see things in the wrong spot! I have cleared out a ton of stuff from her room to add in the giant dump that happens, but it is hard when you get Rose in there, friends, etc. 
9. The thing she remembers to do the most is wash her hands.  Every time we return home from being out, she heads straight into the bathroom to wash her hands. 
10. I would say she is more of a follower than a leader.  I don't mean that in a negative sense at all.  Rather, she is just happy to go along with whatever is fun.  She isn't the one to start the game, or get mad if someone wants to play something different.  If there is running and laughing, pretending to be an animal, hiding, etc, she's in. Her personality is very fun loving.  She's rarely ever pouty or negative, or in a bad mood.  She never cries when she doesn't get her own way.  She's really reasonable and understanding for the most part. 

Missed birthday photos!

Happy very very belated birthday Rose!!

I cannot believe that I forgot these photos! Sooo much guilt over here.  Blogging hasn't been a top priority over the past few months, so lots of things have been forgotten, but I can't believe I forgot this! To be fair to myself, I did post the photos of her birthday party. When I saw these photos on the computer the other day I realized then that I had never loaded them up!

Rose's birthday (back on April 24!), was also on a school day, so we ate a pancake breakfast and opened presents before dropping Paige off at school.

Rose excited to open the gifts.



A fairy costume from Mommy, Daddy, and Paige:

A pirate costume from Grandma Val:

A doll Daddy got 2 years ago...Paige has the same one as they are "twins".  He waited till Rose was 2 to give it to her.

On Rose's birthday I took her to the swimming pool and library.  I believe we went out for ice cream after dinner.  It goes to show how invaluable the blog has become--it helps me remember things when I actually remember to write them down!