Monday 30 June 2008

Kayleigh Bug is 3!

The Bug turned 3 years old on Thursday. We didn't do a full birthday party since I just didn't feel up to it. She got a couple of presents on the day and we had cupcakes with the triplets from next door the following day. Her "real" gift from us, the new Leapster2, doesn't release until July 1. Hopefully it'll get here before our road trip over 4th of July and she can have her own "Gameboy" like the older siblings.

June has been moderately busy, though I've found a lot of time for naps. Abigail went to CYT (Christian Youth Theater) day camp for a week and enjoyed it a great deal. They had a little show the evening of the last day and it was pretty good considering they'd only had a week to learn it all. The following week, Alex and Tartan went to boy scout camp and Kyrie went to girl scout camp. Alex really enjoyed the environmental science class and he ended up helping out a lot in teaching the Weather merit badge. He and Tartan also survived the Death March, a grueling evening hike. Tartan got roped into taking over the archery range- so much for his being able to just sit around and do nothing! Kyrie enjoyed her first week long camp away from home, though she admits to suffering some homesickness. She enjoyed swimming, archery and drama class.

The big activity for last week and this is swimming lessons at the Y for the middle three children. Today I took everyone and Kayleigh got to splash around in the kiddie pool which she seemed to enjoy immensely. Alex looked extremely bored, but that happens sometimes.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers

Wednesday 4 June 2008

Got a heartbeat!

We have already told a few people, but now we want to make our big announcement. I'm eight weeks pregnant! I saw an ob today and the ultrasound showed one baby and a nice fast heartbeat. The baby's size is right on target for the number of weeks. This was the same ob who saw me during the miscarriage, so he was really pleased to be able to give me such good news this time.

I'm feeling green and a bit tired, but really excited. And, Tartan is too- well, excited not green or tired. I also got a prescription for some anti-nausea medication so I'm optimistic. The worst part of pregnancy for me is the nausea- not the increasing size or the tiredness or even delivery.

Now we're going to be thinking and praying about whether to continue with the ob, go with a birth center, or stick with home birth like we've done with the other five children.

Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi

Tuesday 3 June 2008

What about Bug?


In case anyone thinks we've forgotten all about Bug and she's been tucked away in a corner all month- here's a picture of our almost 3 year old. Her verbal skills continue to grow and she's pretty much potty trained. I don't know if she and Abi were just easier than the others to train or whether I've gotten better at the process. Likely it all has to do with the girls themselves. She still wears a pull-up at night though last night her sisters forgot to put her in one- and she managed to stay dry! This is a picture her dad took while she was watching her brothers dissect a frog.

Where did May go?

It was a busy month, I guess. I knew I'd gotten behind on blogging, but I hadn't realized how far! So, here's some of the things we've been doing....

Tartan was away in Europe for a week and a half at the beginning of the month, so I got to be single mom. Not really that hard since the kids are used to doing as much as possible on their own. I even have Kyrie get Bug ready for bed most evenings (and sometimes even Abigail does it!). We had a movie night (The Water Horse) and the girls had a couple of sleepovers with Mom.

The boys had their piano recital, which went very well. Family members had the opportunity to see their performances on Youtube. To Alex's great relief, I placed them on there privately so he doesn't feel like the whole world could tune-in. This was our first foray into posting on Youtube.
















Alex, Kyrie, Aidan, and Abigail all got back into AWANA after Christmas break. Abigail got to finish her book that she started in Scotland, and Aidan and Kyrie made good progress in their new books. Kyrie made it through nearly 5 of the the 8 achievements in that short time! Alex's Trek group was more of a study group than the memorizing and doing activities for points that the younger ones do. He enjoyed it as well as volunteering with both the Sparks and the T&T boys. Next year, Kayleigh will be old enough to start Cubbies- so all the kids will be able to be involved with AWANA!

Aidan graduated from Bears to Webelos in Cub Scouts. It's hard to believe that he's so close to being done with Cubs. Webelos is a two year transition period that prepares him for becoming a Boy Scout. In the first picture he's got his new neckerchief on and is having his face painted as a symbol of his having completed one step and moving on to the next in Cubs.



What have the girls been doing? Well, they had ballet exams so they could move up to the next level in the fall. Abigail goes from Pre-Primary to Primary and Kyrie moves from Grade 2 to Grade 3. Below are pictures of the girls with their post-exam roses. A friend took Abigail's picture with her exam group and I took the picture of Kyrie at home right after her exam.


Kyrie also rejoined Girl Scouts this spring. We were bicycling home from church one Sunday and decided to go through Imperial Oaks park where Tartan spied a bunch of girls who looked about Kyrie's age pulling camping gear out of a car. He knew Kyrie missed scouts so they went over and found out they were a 5th grade troop who had just returned from an overnight trip. There were only a few meetings left in the year, but Kyrie attended almost all of them and also went on a weekend trip to Camp Agnes Arnold. This summer will be her first time to go to summer camp for a week and it'll be at Camp Agnes Arnold, so I'm glad she got a chance to experience it for a shorter period of time.


And, Kyrie managed another achievement through the homeschool PE class at the YMCA. She earned the Presidential Fitness Award which means she achieved at least the 85th percentile in 5 different physical activities.

Finally, the last week of May was really tiring. The girls had dress rehearsal for the Excelsior Ballet production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on Tuesday. Kyrie was there at 4 and Abigail from 6 until 11pm. On Friday was the performance they were both in which lasted until nearly 11, and Kyrie had to perform again on Saturday night. I'm not sure we've fully caught back up on sleep yet, but the production was marvelous. Abigail's class portrayed the flowers of spring after the White Witch's power begins to wane. Kyrie's class were the mice who remove Aslan's ropes after his sacrifice.







And now it's June and we're pretty much finished with school. Alex has a few things to wrap up and Kyrie is not quite finished with her math book, but otherwise we're ready for a break.

Have a wonderful summer, everyone!
Trusting in the Lord,
Naomi for the Colliers