Yesterday and today were both such good and different days. I mean, wait. Yesterday wasn’t good with Brady shooting a nail into his finger yesterday. No, that wasn’t the best. But there were some good moments. And then today has been completely different and also SO nice!

Yesterday, I decided to take the kids out for groceries after school. I have to say, WOW, shopping with the kids solo is SO MUCH EASIER when the weather is nice!! Plus, the kids have been very accepting that things are a bit different when its just me and them. Usually, the big kids ride on the end of the cart when Brady pushes it, but I have a harder time pushing that much weight, and they know it, so when I push, the big kids just hang on to the cart by the handle and “help me push,” which is cute. They were stoked to go out in the sunny afternoon, too! Well, most of them…

We did Costco, and the kids did AMAZINGLY well! The big kids offered to put the bigger boxes of things on the bottom level of the cart, no one fought or needed any intervention like that, and no one cried about the lack of cookies! (Seriously though, Costco, how much could you possibly be losing on giving cookies to kids??) An employee approached us while we were at the till and was gushing over our kids. She commented, as many do, that I was a busy mom. I said I absolutely was, but that they made it easy, and they were just SUCH good kids. Thats so often how the conversation goes, and I’m totally happy with that, but she took it a leg up and very warmly said to me “That says a lot about their parents, you know?” It was just above and beyond what she needed to say, and was very humbling in the moment. I thanked her, and we headed out to the van. I unloaded everything into the back and we went to meet Brady nearby. From there we went and picked up a baby item that I’ll tell you about on Monday! I’m SO excited for it!

We grabbed a quick supper and hit another couple of stores, just to run in for a thing or two, and then came home. When we got home, I realized it was pretty much RIGHT at bedtime, and Dekker hadn’t done any homework yet! The curse of the early bedtime :/ So I suggested a different option and the kids jumped at it!

Brady and I began unloading groceries, and Dekker read his book for the day to his siblings, asking occasionally for help with certain words. I’m AMAZED at how well he reads! I found them all like this one their own, too!

Today was entirely different. I stayed in most of the day, and had a beautiful, low key day with my mom and the kids. It feels like FOREVER since I’ve seen her, though its maybe only been two weeks? But thats LONG! We sipped our hot drinks and visited about all that we had missed. There was so much ground to cover! We also talked a bit about the baby party and even came up with a few more ideas! We spent the whole morning together and a bit of the afternoon before she had to actually be somewhere else, and I had to go get Dekker.

Brady is home at a good time today (YAY!) and the kids are pretty low key. Today is warm enough, but its windy and grey, which somehow makes it feel more quiet and relaxed.

Home date night tonight for Brady and I! Tomorrow I leave on my annual road trip with Jerilee, and Brady has the kids to himself for the weekend. Hopefully they’re as peachy for him as they were in Costco yesterday!

If its true that things come in threes, then we should be done, right? This fun streak should be over, right? Because I’m ready, and I know Brady is for sure ready!

Monday, we got a flat that proved to be quite a hassle and will actually involve us taking our van in to get everything checked and balanced. We’ll also have to purchase a new tire.

Tuesday morning, Brady wrenched his back hard at work. It spasmed most of the morning, and couldn’t get in to see our chiropractor until 1:30 that afternoon. He compared the spasms to me and my braxton hicks contractions, where it seems that simply just having a thought brings them on. He would think about drinking coffee, and his back would go into spasm. Perfect.

Now, its Wednesday. I had a pretty crummy night, and I know Brady slept pretty restlessly, too. But off to work he went. I was hoping to get up a bit earlier this morning, but I was SO tired after my two hour “break” from sleep from 3:30-5:30 that I woke up a bit later, panicking about getting the morning started in time to get Dekker to school. It wasn’t the best start to a morning, but it was ok. As I was scrambling around, getting dressed and such, Brady and I were texting our usual “good mornings” when he called me. It was 7:30, which is unusually early for a call for us. I obviously answered.

Brady shot a nail into his hand. Again. This time, the whole darn thing went in. 🙄 Sigh.

See that teeny tiny hole right in his finger crease? Yup. Thats where it went in. But in true Brady style, he didn’t notice that he had actually shot himself with a nail at first, so when he did find the point of entry, he wasn’t sure which direction it would be in, or anything like that. So he took the safe road, thank goodness, stopped moving his hand right away, and drove to the nearest walk-in clinic.

He was there before it even opened, but as per usual, there was already a line up. So he waited for his turn, sat in the waiting room for maybe one minute before he was taken back to a procedure room. He texted me where he was, I texted back, and he didn’t respond, because the doctor was already in there. It was a relief to me that they were taking him so seriously!

As Brady and I predicted, he was shuffled next door to wait for the x-ray clinic to open. They had to know where the nail was specifically before trying to remove it. And I say “trying” because it was aaaaall the way in there. In the past, when he’s shot himself bad enough to need to see a doctor about it (this was not his first rodeo) there has been a chunk of it sticking out. This time, not so much. The x-ray clinic wasn’t scheduled to open until 8:30, but they opened a little early and he was the only one waiting. Win! They took some quick shots and sent him right back over to the clinic. He texted me from the waiting room saying the “90 minute wait” sign was already up! We hoped he’d get bumped up a little.

Which he was. He was back in the procedure room three minutes later.

I heard from Brady next a solid half hour later. I wish he were the one writing this post but I’ll do my best to get the details as accurate as possible.

The doctor showed Brady one of the x-ray photos on his phone, confirming where the nail was. Unlike Brady’s usual incidents with shooting brad nails into his hands, this sucker can gone STRAIGHT in. Like through his finger. There was literally nail sticking out on either side of the bone. But, Brady and the doctor were both game to give it a whirl. He froze Brady up and cut in a little bit to try to grab the nail. For the record, according to Brady, the nail was 13/16″ long, and pretty skinny. He compares it to a short hunk of copper wire. With no head on it to grab, either. Through a bone. Good luck, doctor! He tried maybe six or seven times to pull it out, chair pushed as far back as possible, holding Bradys hand against the counter, the rest of his body backed up for leverage, and just reefing on the thing, and his pliers just kept slipping. He’d freeze Brady a little more, cut a little deeper in, and go again, over and over, to no avail.

He finally told Brady he would only try one more time, but Brady would likely have to head to the hospital to have it pulled out. That last try is so often when it works 😉 And it did! He used the rest of his syringe and froze him up good and proper, hacked in, and gave ‘er beans.

And he got it out!!!!

Brady exclaimed “Hey! You got it!” The doctor stared at the stupid little nail in his pliers and told it “You were VERY frustrating!”

A couple little stitches and a bandage to cover them, and boom! It was done!

Then, in TRUE boy form, the doctor invited Brady back to his office to look at the x-ray pictures on his computer so Brady could take pictures of them. Because, bragging rights among friends. And blogging rights, because those x-ray pictures are bananas!

Do you see it? At the base of his index finger. Like its SO evenly across his finger that it seems like something thats supposed to be there. Buuuuut its not.

And yes, Brady left his ring on for the x-rays because his hand was swollen. I know, don’t wear rings at work. I know, you don’t even have to say it.

BIZARRE pictures though, right? Just picture them trying to get that sucker free!!

I can say, with confidence, that Brady is totally fine, thank the Lord! He called me on his way back to work to tell me everything, and his voice got higher and higher as he talked, he was SO thrilled with his new war wound story. Like borderline giddy. So he’s ok 😉 Don’t worry about him. Because of how the nail went into him, he hit NO nerves or veins or anything important. Just the bone, lol! Thats not important, is it?

So! All this being said, things that come in threes – we’re done now, right? That HAS to be it! My goodness, what a week!

I promised you guys a story today, and while I’m a bit further from it today and it probably isn’t as dramatic as it felt yesterday, I’d still call it noteworthy at least 😉 Really, it probably would’ve been somewhat normal if not for the morning.

***

I loaded the kids into the van to take Dekker to school like every other morning. I buckled two kids, and the other two buckled themselves. I turned the music on and off we went. School is a short drive away. Two or three minutes. I was about halfway there when I realized the sound I was hearing wasn’t the music. It was worse. I paused the music, and sure enough, it was a sound from the van. We had our winter tires off not too long ago, so I wondered if maybe the lug nuts were loose. Was it a rattling sound? It was kind of flappy…

You guys already know what it was…

We had a flaaaaat!! 😩 Like a VERY flat flat!

I took a picture and sent it to Brady. I could’ve limped the van home and let Brady fix it this evening, but I had a nails/wax appointment that afternoon. I could have rescheduled, but I’d get dinged financially for that, so I figured I’d see what Brady said. When we talked, he said right away that he would come home and help me. The thing is, I’m capable of changing a tire. I haven’t done it in a while, but I’ve done it before. I’ve never done it with the bus, though! I’d likely have Brady on the phone talking me through it the whole time anyway, except that he also has never had to change a flat on the van, so there were some unanswered questions. How to detach the spare, could I loosen the lug nuts myself, etc.

The kids and I waited in the van while he drove to us. I had an offer from a friend to drive us home, but I figured we could stick it out. I considered taking them over to the playground and just killing some time there while we waited, but my little miss independent insisted on coming out this morning in only a little sleeveless nightie that was small on her last year. 🙄 So we were stuck in the van. Thankfully, the good tunes were rolling and everyone was content.

Brady came like a night in shining armour, full of smiles and ready to help. He made this inconvenience a lovely visit, with no angst or frustration. He just rolled with it, and peeked playfully at the kids through the van windows. Laela found a rainbow, which was not only a really sweet little moment for her, but made for some beautiful pictures! 

Man, she’s gorgeous!! 😍

Thankfully, our spare tire was a real tire, and in perfect condition. He jacked the van up and got the tire switched out in no time! Easy peasy.

He took the other one back to the city with him in hopes that our tire shop could salvage it. (Spoiler alert: They could not. Its shot, and we’ll have to buy a new one.) He left it there and headed back to work.

I killed about 1.5 hours with the kids at home before we headed back to the city to inconvenience Brady once again. This one had been planned in advance, at least, but I felt like a TOTAL jerk doing this to him twice in one day!

We switched spots in the van, and he hung with the kids during lunch while I went to my pampering appointment. Guilt, much? None from Brady, but ALL kinds on my end! I got all refreshed while his time ticked away. But he was wonderful about it, and I truly enjoyed my time. And I love my fresh new nails!

Pretty, right? Spring! Sunshine! Also, peaches, according to Dekker. No, you’re not crazy. They’re not peach. Not at all. (Also, forgive my gouged out thumb. Ouch!)

I swapped Brady out to take the kids home, and he reminded me to grab myself some late lunch on the drive home. I said I would, for sure, and decided to get soup and a bagel at the Tim Hortons on the outskirts of the city. Then my soup would have the least amount of time to cool off before I could eat it. Upon arriving there, I was less than thrilled to see the drive-thru closed! I don’t mean to be lazy and not go in just because the drive-thru was closed, but I didn’t want to drag my three children inside (one of which was fast asleep already) for food. So, we drove home instead. Or, rather, we drove back to our town. It was too close to the end of the school day to go home, so my rockstar children waited in their seats, again, for school to let out. They were SO patient! We finally made it home and those kids rocketed out of the van. Solly usually waits to be lifted out of his seat but the moment his buckles were open, he slid out of his seat like a wet noodle. He was READY.

With the way the day had gone, it was obvious that Brady would be working late. Which was a TOTAL bummer because I was going to have to be out this evening at a meeting. While I had seen Brady at unusual times in the day, I felt like we’d spend NO time together! Getting home, however, it was plain to see how many daily things I usually do to keep our home running, and even plainer (yup, plainer) to see that I hadn’t accomplished a single one of those things ALL DAY. So I let the right people know I wouldn’t be at the meeting, and that way I can get my house back in order without bailing on my husband a third time in just one day. And maybe actually see him for a bit. 

My biggest takeaway from today is how important our demeanours are, and how our attitudes affect those of others. Today could have been SO much worse if my husband decided to fault me for the flat, or guilt me about my frivolous appointment, but he didn’t. I’m so thankful for that, and for him.

I could brag about you (and your cookie shirt) aaaaall day, Brady <3

***

Full disclosure, I wrote a lot of this out yesterday so it would be fresh in my memory. It felt so trivial as I was writing it out. Like, c’mon Hailey, roll with the punches a little! But literally, after putting the kids down to bed yesterday, I slept from 7:30-8:00 while Brady lovingly put together some supper for us. And then he and I were both cashed out asleep by 10:00. Sooooo apparently it was a legitimately exhausting day, not just in my head! Wow! What a Monday! 10/10 do NOT recommend! 👎 But we lived!!

I don’t know why 30 weeks feels SO much more significant than 29 but WOW. Thirty. Somehow this feels a bit more like things are coming up soon! Maybe because I literally have roughly nine more weeks to go. And those nine weeks are FULL! Just off the top of my head, I have a road trip, a mothers day date with my mom, Solly’s birthday, a music gig and lots of practices leading up to it, worship leading, some church meetings, lots of prenatal appointments, my bestie’s birthday, wrapping up school and preschool, getting my hair and nails done shortly before baby comes, and the planning of our summer trip and the baby party. Sooooo those nine weeks are going to WHIP by, and I’m SO thankful, for all of it! It is the last day of April, which leaves roughly two months of pregnancy. Wasn’t it three months JUST the other day??? CRAZY!!!

Size Comparison: I mentioned last week that the baby’s size comparison was super odd and didn’t make a bunch of sense, and it would make even less sense this week. And I’m right! This week the baby is roughly the size of a cantaloupe AS WELL AS a motorcycle helmet. What cantaloups are you eating?? Mine are not the size of a motorcycle helmet. I wish! Also, I can’t get on board with her being shaped like a ball. I just don’t buy it. The other comparison I’ll mention from the same app is the platypus, which I could be fine with if I knew literally anything about platyp… platypy? Platypussies? Platypuses? Thank you, autocorrect. Platypuses. Googles suggests my baby is around 15.5” long and almost 3 lbs. *whispers* I think no one actually knows how big she is, which is why aaaaall the guesswork and bizarre comparisons. But I still enjoy it 🙂

Appointments: Nope. None recently. That’ll pick up again soon. My next one is in two weeks, barring any unforeseen changes. And then every two weeks for a while.

How am I feeling emotionally: My emotions are amped recently. I think just with her impending birth, and this whole long scary process finally being over, my heart is afraid and anxious and exhausted. I had an incredibly vivid dream the other day where the kids and I got in a vehicle accident. It was a current dream, so I was around 30 weeks, and in the dream, I took the biggest hit in the accident. Bambina had to be born very early because I needed many surgeries. The other kids had some breaks and concussions but were fine. Brady was at work, so he was unharmed. In my dream, I suffered enough internal damage that I wouldn’t be able to have any more children. And I beat myself up through the entire dream because I was SO thankful that my children were all alive and ok, but completely devastated at the thought of never having more. Sigh. I’m not trying to suggest this means anything deep, but it does show me that my anxiety is high.

How am I feeling physically: I think the most notable thing about my physical health is the amount of braxton hicks contractions I’ve been having! I’ve obviously had them for quite some time already, and I know they’re not strange or a problem, but I get them constantly. If I get up, and then sit back down, I have a contraction. Stairs are a sure fire way to have them. Brady rubbing lotion on my belly brings them on. If I’m stressed or overwhelmed, which is often enough, I have them. And they don’t hurt, per se, but to put it in a very practical way, my belly grows as my uterus grows, and my uterus turns rock hard when I have a contraction. So the bigger I get, the more uncomfortable these are, because the rock weighing me down is bigger and bigger. But I can hack it. I can’t explain just how open I am to all of the pregnancy discomforts this time around. I will take them all!

Wish Lish/Purchases: Jerilee and I have our annual girls trip this coming weekend, FINALLY! I’m looking forward to satisfying a few of my purchasing aches there 🙂 I did recently put in an order online, but of course, its not here yet. It included a few little things for Bambina that I’ll show you once it comes. I may do a bit of a haul for her after our road trip so you can see all of her new goodies!

Pictures: Behold, the bumpity bump!

“Bumpity bump” sounds small, and what I have going on over here is NOT small. But honestly, I super love it <3 I love being pregnant, even considering the discomforts, and the fear factor this time around. It is SUCH a privilege to be able to carry and grow a baby within my body, and I don’t take it for granted. I’m pretty happy with the whole thing, big belly and all!

How are the kids feeling: As I predicted, when we went to the lake the other day, the question came up about the baby. Wasn’t she supposed to come to the lake with us? I explained that she would come on our big lake vacay when the time came, but she wasn’t ready to come out just yet. Once that was cleared up, the kids all started excitedly about all the things they loved about the lake, and speculating whether or not she will like them too. I was instructed to tell her about certain parts of the playground, what we could build out of the sand, where we’d walk, and what would be yummy to eat. They are SO eager for her to join our family! As am I. She received many hugs and kisses as the kids ran from thing to thing on the playground. She is never out of their minds, it seems.

Getting to know the baby: I had a dream (better than the other one!) that took place a ways down the road, once our sweet girl was born and safe home. In the dream, I called her by a nickname that I hadn’t previous thought of outside of the dream, which was SO exciting for me to wake up to! Once again, not to completely dangle the name in front of you, but I can’t share the nickname on here because it involves her name, but eeeeek!! I just can’t wait. I know her name is going to come so naturally the moment we have her in our arms! Its already far too natural. I almost slip and give it away on a regular basis.

The BEST part of being pregnant: This is a weird one this week, haha! The best part of being this pregnant and this large is finally fitting the items I have that only fit me when I’m big and pregnant. I’m one of those weirdos that kind of only grows in my belly, so the pairs of maternity jeans that fit my legs and bum nicely are worn all year round, especially since discovering the Gap ones with the inset panels that just fit like regular jeans. Shirts are another story, however. Some of them are strong and great quality and shrink back when I don’t have a belly to fill them with. Basically, many are just nice long shirt with gathers down the sides. However, many of the tank tops I own have been worn pretty much to death. They’re stretched out and have been a bit saggy, until now!! All of my soft maternity tank tops from Thyme and the Gap finally fit my belly and boobs nicely again, and I can feel less like a frump and more just like a pregnant woman. So I kind of like that part of being pregnant right now 😉

Favourite thing: Guys!! My brush is probably my FAVORITE thing these days!! I had heard magical things about the “Wet” brush, but consistently forgot to pick one up when I was getting my hair done. Apparently they just don’t pull. Ever. Being that I make two of my children cry almost every day when I brush their hair, we could’ve really used this thing sooner. I discovered they not only sold them in salons, but some Walmart locations, recently, and I bought one for the kids. And guys. WHAT a difference!! It still pulls a bit, because there are still tangles, but somehow it barely hurts them! What is this witchcraft?? In the last few weeks, I’ve been finding myself neglecting to brush my hair until I get down to the kids, and then I just use theirs. Every. Morning. So I finally gave in and bought myself one, and I’m SO glad I did!! You know when you’re brushing your hair and you can see the loose, broken ones hitting the floor after they’re unceremoniously ripped from your head? I have almost NONE of that! I know, because I’m pregnant, I shed WAY less, but even now, when I use my old brush, I lose WAY more! This is THE BRUSH to get, for kids and adults alike! Brady even uses it to brush his beard.

Yes, I like purple. Don’t question it. Or the fact that I didn’t clean out either brush before photographing it.

So in between trying to get this post up, today has actually been a TOTAL gong show! I’m so tired, hahaha! But it’ll make for a good story, so tune in for that tomorrow!

Sooooo I have about 200 pictures to weed through from yesterday! Lol! I LOVE a good photo post, and I think a lot of you guys do, too. They used to be a bit of an easy way out, but now, its SO hard to sift through and decide how many is too many, which were my favorites, etc. I love doing it, though 🙂 Yesterday was such a great day, and I’m so glad we have so many memories to look back on! I hope you enjoy them, too!

We drove to Waskesiu right after breakfast. We forgot to take a family van selfie like we usually try to do, but I snapped a couple of cute shots of the classy kids sitting closest to me in the van 🙂

Aaaaand some less cute pictures…

Ok, he’s still cute. Just a tad on the icky side.

We got to Waskesiu, bought our park pass and took a family bathroom break before heading to the beach!

We thought it was hilarious, lol! Hopefully no one is offended by this picture!

Our little lake town was SO much snowier than we expected! I had a suspicion that it would be a bit more wintery than home, considering how far north it is, and the wind coming off the water. Yet, the sun was out, and it was nice and warm! The lake itself was still fairly iced over, though in places it was obviously melted off with moving water. I saw far too many people walking on the ice for how warm it was!! The waves had pushed sand up to also look like waves, which was pretty cool, and something I hadn’t seen before.

There were quite a few drifts still in the shaded parts of the park, which limited where we could trek, but we rolled with it.

We found a useable path to the playground and thats pretty much where we stayed put!

The swings were a BIG deal, even when Ro took a spill off one 🙁 He bravely got right back on! Woot!

The seesaw was probably Laela’s favorite thing about the playground. I’m not using all of the pictures I have, obviously, but our kids would often just wander over to the teeter totter and wait patiently for someone to join them. They made all kinds of new friends!

Dekker is less inclined to stop and pose for a picture, but he enjoyed himself thoroughly, climbing and sliding and climbing and sliding!

We finally took a break from the wind and had lunch in the van. We brought all kinds of fruit, veggies, and pb&j sandwiches.

We gave everyone a chocolate chip cookie afterwards and headed out for a walk! Some liked the cookie more than others…

Dekker and Laela asked to push the stroller, which they actually did a pretty great job of, minus a few brief off roading adventures. Brady and I actually had the opportunity to walk and hold hands!

On our first lap around town, we were surprised to see the little grocery store was open! Almost everything was closed, as expected, but the grocery store is also the location of the bakery. Brady ducked his head in, and sure enough, they were working on a small batch of treats! They said to give them a half hour, which we happily agreed to. We meandered around town and got back just as the first treats of the season were coming out of the oven!!!

The kids shared a sticky bun between them, which seems stingy, but we had JUST eaten lunch and no one was especially hungry. So it was just a little treat 🙂

Brady had a bite or two of their stick bun, and then shared a piping hot mini pizza with me and Bambina. He’s lucky we love him, because she and I could’ve eaten twelve of those things. 🤤

We headed back to the playground for the rest of the afternoon. My body was quite achy at this point so I tucked away on a bench and watched my family play. It was actually really, really nice. Everyone came to join me from time to time. Dekker and Laela in particular came over to bring rocks to show me, and speculate whether or not Bambina will like collecting rocks.

The kids were all just SO gorgeous and happy in the sun! ☀

Just a few glamour shots. I couldn’t resist!! There were WAY more!!! Literally, this is the absolute minimum I could post!

The drive home looked a lot like this. All the boys had a shorty nap between Waskesiu and Prince Albert, where we stopped for supper.

It was pretty perfect, actually. Minus the time Solly went for a round #2 of shoe tasting and kicked himself in the face, causing a pretty nasty nosebleed! (I admit, I laughed a bit. Natural consequences.) They all stayed awake the rest of the way home and came home in good spirits. It seems we truly hit the sweet spot, where everyone was still in good shape when we left the lake and was happy when we got home, yet very understanding that it was bedtime. It actually took a little while for them all to wind down, but I’d rather that than have the entire group overtired and wailing.

Brady and I, on the other hand, were wiped right out and SO ready for bed! In the BEST way! I was nodding off by 9:45. We were ready to call it quits for the day when our smoke alarms started chirping. And chirping. And chirping. We could NOT get them quiet, no matter what.

So around 12:30 we finally admitting defeat, popped the one off of our bedroom ceiling, cranked the fan on high so we couldn’t hear the others near our room, and hit the hay. My. Gosh.

Our exhausted bodies didn’t have it in them to wake everyone up this morning in time to bathe them, shower ourselves, and make it to church on time, knowing that we’d have to race home and fight with the smoke alarms before napping the kids. I just knew we’d be scrambling and raising our voices and getting all worked up, and it just wasn’t what this morning was for.

So, instead, we stayed home and had breakfast in bed. I’ve been working hard on this blog for about hours now, Brady has worked with the smoke alarms and we think the problem is solved? Until you hear otherwise, anyway. Stay tuned for that. Now, laundry is running, thanks to beach clothes, Solly’s nosebleed in the van, and Laela’s morning nosebleed. The kids are colouring and happy. Baths will happen sooner or later. We have no schedule today. Its wrapping up to be a pretty good weekend, if you ask me!

We took our sweet little troupe to the lake for the first trip of the season today! They were thrilled the moment they found out. Yet, true to form, they ate breakfast forever, which bought us some time in the morning to get things packed up. Being that is still April and its been a totally bizarre, unending winter, we knew it would still be “wintery” to a degree, so we didn’t bother with a LOT of the usual beach stuff. We mostly brought a full diaper bag, snacks and lunch, a double stroller, comfy clothes to travel home in, and their wind jackets. Not a whole lot else would be needed.

They were a pretty patient group on the drive up. The first thing we had to do upon arrival was to actually buy our park pass. I had looked online a while back at prices, and the regular pass was listed at the same place as the early bird pass, so I felt no rush. I should have, though, as that proved to have been in error and when I looked again recently, the pass cost quite a bit more. So we had put off buying it until today, and FUN FACT! If you buy the pass actually AT the park info building, you can buy it just for Prince Albert National Park for a much lower price!! We were told that we could just upgrade to the online price if we ever decided to hit up a different park, but for now, this works beautifully! Thank you, park info guy!

I’ll go into more stories tomorrow when I post pictures, but as a quick summary, I’ll say that we played on the playground for most of our day, ate lunch, did a lap or two around the town, enjoyed our first tastes of Waskesiu sticky buns, and got wind burn. It. Was. Awesome. We left before it turned disastrous and picked up supper in Prince Albert on our way home. The kids managed to stay awake the entire last leg of the trip, so I have hope for them to actually sleep tonight, and I know that Brady and I will sleep tonight!!!

It was a big day, but a BEAUTIFUL day!! I’m SO glad we got out there to show the kids all of the familiar places they loved so much last year. And for us too. Just think of how much better it will be this year when our hearts aren’t so freshly grieving, and we have new blessings to celebrate!!

Pictures will come soon 🙂 Hopefully tomorrow. We took SO MANY!

I discovered yesterday, a bit late in the game, that Dekker had this Friday off! It popped up as a reminder on my laptop when I opened it late Thursday morning, double checked it to a school schedule I have, and it was later confirmed by a reminder email sent to the parents. So, Friday off! Woot!

I’m definitely not complaining about having a day off of school, because sleeping in is amaaazing. But Fridays off always feel like Saturdays, and its always a bit weird when Brady is at work when he should be home with us.

After sleeping in this morning, Solly especially, we decided to go visit Brady at work. In case you hadn’t noticed, he and I kind of super like each other, so if it was socially acceptable for me to drop in on him every day of the week, I would! More than social acceptability, its about fuel costs. Don’t get me started. So, once in a blue moon, the kids and I drive to Bradys work with coffees or a treat or something along those lines.

Today was just a coffee and a visit. Being that we got a later start at it, we got there right around his lunch, so it didn’t disrupt his day too much time wise. He ate his lunch and drank his coffee and we all chatted for a bit. It was such a nice way to break the day up. The kids gave their daddy their sweetest, biggest smiles, and were very content to hang in the van for a bit, speculating about each and every hard hat clad guy who walked near our van.

Eventually, Brady had finished his lunch and we released him back into the wild (or just back to work) and I found my way out of the unfamiliar neighbourhood. The kids and I pumped the tunes and arrived home with everyone awake!!! YAY! This is a great success when you’re still hoping to rock nap time!

We lunched all together, and 3/4 are now down for naps and Dekker is quietly playing Lego. Its a nice afternoon. A Saturday afternoon, really, but I’ll take it a day early. Especially since we might do something out of the box tomorrow! We shall seeeee!

I walk Dekker from the van to school every morning. He can definitely get there on his own, but each morning he requests that we walk together, and I’m not going to shut him down, because I know eventually, he’ll want that freedom. So I’ll take it as long as I can possibly get it!

A couple of times in the last week or so, we’ve run into a classmate of Dekker’s along the way, and they’ve noted that they have the same rubber boots. You know the boots. The black boots with the green bottoms that everyone has. Or at least it sure feels that way!

The first day he wore his rubber boots, he and a friend noticed they had the same ones! I realized in that moment that I hadn’t labelled Dekker’s boots. Whoops! They are VERY clearly marked with the initials “RV,” thanks to the family who donated them to Value Village, so I figured at least I knew that. I’d label them after school that day.

But I didn’t.

A couple of days ago, another friend noted that he and Dekker had the same boots. He did indeed! I realized I still hadn’t labelled Dekker’s boots! I said something to the boys about writing Dekkers name in his boots, and the other kid laughed and said his name wasn’t in his either, but rather his brothers name. I had to get on that.

Buuuuut I didn’t.

This morning, I was walking Dekker towards the school and he mentioned that one of his boots felt funny. I looked down at his boots and they looked exactly the same. Too much the same. Sure enough, he had two right boots. We headed into the boot room to slip them off, and as you’d expect, one boot said RV and the other boot said the name of that other students older brother inside of it. Ugh!

That kid was nowhere to be found, so I sheepishly emailed their teacher and asked her for help sorting out whose was whose, at least, and promised I would actually be an adult and label my kids stuff after school.

So, we’ll call this a mom fail and move on, I suppose. But seriously, guys, its worth it to check who is beside your kid on the shoe shelf in the boot room, or who shares a locker with your kid. Makes life a LOT easier when you inevitably miss stuff. I am just not the sharpest I’ve ever been!

Its been so fun to watch Dekker and Laela learn through this school year. Dekker is learning SO MUCH in school, making very real strides. Just recently, his reading levels were tested, and he was thrilled to have skipped another level altogether, bumping him up TWO levels in one shot! We congratulated him and celebrated, and then had a casual chat about how, as tends to happen, his next level might be a bit tricky, and we’ll help him through it so he won’t be discouraged. That whole thing where it has to get more difficult can really get him down. But then he just read the book. Like WAY smoother than I expected! He finished it off with “Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.” Win! So Dekker is doing AWESOME!

Laela is in preschool this year, which she has loved! Its been great for her, to stretch her social skills, as well as taught her some new games, some basic skills like cutting with scissors, and the general “school” vibe of lining up, putting her hand up to speak, etc. I’m SO glad to have the opportunity to have her in preschool! But she also watches Dekker do his homework when he comes home and I can tell she’s ready for more.

As I’ve said on here plenty of times, Laela has work books that she likes to do. She practices printing letters, and identifies the items on the paper that start with the letter she’s working on. Stuff like that. She LOVES it.

Today, after our morning got off to a rough start, Laela settled herself down on a couch and announced that she was going to do some homework. She had a few books with her, and started going through them. She easily identified all the letters in the alphabet books, and figured out what on the page started with the letters. If she got stuck, she’d ask me and I’d definitely help her, but the majority, she figured out on her own. Easily. She moved on to a numbers book after that where I learned that she can easily count to 50, and I assume she could get up to 100 easily, but this book only went to 50. She understands the concept of how the numbers kind of repeat, and she can count by 10s to 100, so I think thats already done.

I’m not trying to suggest that she’s some child genius, but I am SO thrilled that she already knows so much before kindergarten has even started! She will know her basic stuff, and have a nice solid head start. Because of preschool, she’ll already be familiar with many of her classmates, so she won’t likely be very nervous at all to stay at school for the day. I think she’ll be a quick sell on school. She is SO ready.

We have just a couple of things to achieve before the fall, so I’m in no rush 😉 Let’s do summer first and fall can figure itself out down the line. Its just nice anticipating that transition ahead as a smooth one.

We pulled the kids bikes down this weekend for the first time this season! They were SO excited! Well, I should say, some were more excited than others 😉 We’ll get to that.

Being that all of our kids are little, we have a variety of weird bikes over here, haha! Dekker has a lightening McQueen bike that he got for his birthday a couple of years ago. It still works for him. He’s still rocking training wheels, but hopefully not for too much longer. Laela has a bike we got for free off of a local buy and sell last year. Its a bit tall for her still, but it works. We took the pedals off of it so she could rock it as a balance bike. We got Rowan a legit balance bike for Christmas from, once again, a local buy and sell page. I’ve started to see the merit in balance bikes, though I didn’t always, but they are SO expensive! This one was $15. Boom! That leaves Solly on the trike. So it should all work out. That was the idea, anyway.

Come to find out, the whole crew isn’t in full agreement. Surprised? Nope.

Dekker still likes his bike very much, and is eager to lose the training wheels, but as isn’t surprising, he is quite nervous about the learning process. Its still pretty muddy out but soon we’ll probably take him out on the grass at the playground so he can feel a bit safer. Brady ran him up and down the street a few times, and he’s working on gliding his bike, like a balance bike.

Laela is still pretty nervous of her bike, even as a balance bike, but she understands the concept pretty well. She would, however, far rather use Rowan’s balance bike, I assume because its lower to the ground.

This wasn’t a bad plan because Rowan was NOT interested in his bike. He wanted the trike. And conveniently, his helmet doesn’t fit anymore, so he couldn’t really bike anyway! He happily ran up and down the side of the road, waving a pinwheel around. Success.

Solly got the coveted trike, and he actually did WAY better than I expected! He isn’t strong enough to propel it himself yet, but he was completely happy to be on it! He held the handlebars and let us push him around. If we’d remind him, he’d put his feet not he pedals. He was FULL of smiles, even in the crazy wind. And luckily, Rowan’s helmet fit him! So, boom! He’s a pretty cute R2D2 if you ask me!

Biking ended when a couple of the kids started breaking down.

Learning to ride a two wheeler is tough stuff.

With that, my ears have been bugging me through most of this pregnancy (a weird new symptom this time around) and the wind did NOT help, so I came inside, expecting a least a few to follow. But nope. They’re all hanging out in the garage doing who knows what with Brady, and I’m getting some planning and blogging on!

Our system out here is far from perfect, but its just day one 🙂 There will be MANY more days to bike and play outside. Hopefully less windy days. This was a pretty cute start, if you ask me! Now if only we could acquire an extra trike or something, to please the masses. I suppose no one can please everyone, right??