a big night

It was the biggest night yet for our little Maelle.  A chance to showcase her time in kindergarten by having all of us attend her "Garden Party Sharing Night & Gallery Tour".  Excitement?  Well, yes!  Absolutely!  She had been looking forward to this day for weeks, and last night was her chance to shine!

After a fantastic performance, we had the chance to grab a snack and wander through the "gallery" the kids and teachers had created.  These galleries displayed all of the artwork and art studies that the kids had been doing over the past few months.  Representations of Dali, VanGogh, Picasso, and Warhol.  Unbelievable! And to see it through the eyes of 5 year olds, even better.

One of the other projects the kids have been working on, is a lesson on "growing".  They had planted a seed a few months back, and kept a journal of their observations as well as research notes about the life cycle of plants.  One of our projects as parents, was to write our child a secret letter about how they themselves have grown during their time in kindergarten. The teachers then put it on the last page of their book as a little surprise for the kids.  Awesome!  We were to read this letter to them after the sharing night, and here is Maelle's letter below:

Dear Maelle,

I can’t believe how time flies!  Here we are already in April.  You are almost finished kindergarten and I can’t believe how much fun you have had this year.    Every day you are excited about going to school.  You can’t wait to see all of your new friends and Mrs. Barge. 

You have grown up so much!  You have shown a great level of confidence, especially social, and will speak to anyone – even Mr. Hutton!  You are always very eager to share a story (or two or three!) with your teachers and your friends.

I love how when you learn a new song at school, you immediately want to share it with the family and are very eager to teach it to your sisters and brother.  I am always amazed how well you remember all of the words.

You have also shown an enjoyment of numbers and are always asking Dad for a math question before bed and always want to “play with the calculator”. 

You seem to love the art centre, it’s one of your favourites, and you always bring us something from your day, or you tell us who you made a special piece of art for at school.  We have many walls in our home that are covered with your artwork and the details in your drawings are improving every day.  We also love how you write a short story about each picture.  Most of the words you sound out on your own and write them down.   

You can read so well, and we are so proud of you when you pick up a book and sit down on your own and start reading.  You are doing so well with this!   Despite how much you like to read on your own, you also still love to curl up and listen to a story that is read to you. 

One of our favourite times is at supper, when you like to tell us all about your day.  We can see the excitement in your eyes when you tell us what you did, what you played, who you played with, or even who you sat beside during snack time.   

Maelle, you have made us so very proud during your time in kindergarten.  We love you so much!

Love Always,

Mom and Dad

And no, I didn't make it through the entire letter without getting a little choked up.  I think our little girl really is growing up! 

Mr. Hutton (our school principal) said it all in his closing remarks.  "From this day forward you will no longer be referred to as kindergarten students.  From now on you will be called almost grade one'ers". 

And I couldn't agree more.

earth day

Glorious!  That pretty much sums up the weather we had today, and there was no better way to spend Earth Day, then spending it outside!  We explored Bragg Creek Provincial Park today....a little hiking, some geocaching, a picnic, and a lot of time spent just hanging out by the river's edge and throwing rocks, soaking up those rays of sunshine.  Perfect!

Bree has a go with the GPS....














The trails in the park were gorgeous, and we will be heading back as many of them were still covered in snow.  Quite a bit I might add, and ice too.   Jusk ask Maelle.  Ouch!

Aidan and Maelle locate the first of two geocaches quite easily, and then spend longer making their trades. 

Brent finds me a treasure to add to my ever expanding collection....nice one too! 

A quiet spot for a little rock poking and "fishing".

Bree and Jenna helped find their "first" cache today and made their own trades.  Way to go girls and welcome to geocaching!  They too are now addicted!

In honour of Earth Day, we planted our first round of peas today in the new veggie garden that we dug last year.  Hopefully this garden will be a little more protected and avoid getting hit by those infamous summer hail storms!  

We have a lot more to plant and getting a jump on the planting has me itching to get the rest of the garden in!  Patience however.  We still could get that dreaded "s" word! 

So all in all, a very busy weekend.  We are heading into the final months of school (always the longest and the hardest), and are so looking forward - already - to the summer break.  There is talk and excitement of this year's camping line up, the possibility of (fingers crossed) purchasing a canoe, and so many more exciting things to do and see that I myself can barely sit still.  Yet another lesson in patience I guess.  Something, sometimes, I am just not good at!  Happy Earth Day friends!

hop to it

I think Easter gets more and more crazy every year!  Holy moly!  From colour coding the eggs (there are four kids don't forget so the Easter Bunny needs to be organized), to having said four children running every which way in the house and me trying my best, camera in hand, to keep up, and then two of said four children escaping to start eating found easter eggs, to controlling the other two from stealing each others.....well, you get the picture.  That may be why when I sat down to take a look at the pictures I did have, most of them were blurry action shots of the kids running, baskets in hands, to search out the prized eggs.  Phew.  I am exhausted just re-telling the story!
Nonetheless, Easter was fun, eventful, and crazy all at the same time.   A good holiday for sure!

The baskets are ready for the morning hunt.

The "two" escapees digging in to their baskets unbeknownst to the others...including myself.

After the early (yes, early!) morning hunt indoors, the Easter Bunny was up to his old tricks and set up another hunt outside for the kids.  Thank goodness all the snow melted.  Earlier in the week, it wasn't looking so good. 

"Quick" was the name of the game outside....each kid had to only find four eggs, but they were tricky! 

Maelle scored a new hoola-hoop and desperately tried all day to master it. 

The little ladies each got new soccer balls.

And, yes....that is a skateboard.   That was Aidan's gift this year and I may have had one or two of those "what was I thinking?" moments, but all in all, he loved it!  And you know what?  After some amazing instruction from teacher extraordinaire (aka Brent) he actually got pretty good!  Now, it's off to the store to pick up some knee pads and elbow pads for my little skater dude! 

All in all a fun, but busy day that was rounded out with a nice dinner with Auntie Ky, Uncle Lindsay and cousin Rory.   Perfect!

look out...

...there's a new biker gang in town!