SIX Years Old!

Reagan's sixth birthday party was on Saturday morning, April 21st, and she was up before the birds because she was so excited!

Little did she know, her birthday party was not going to be the only excitement that she was in store for... her cousin Riley and his girlfriend Lindsay surprised her as soon as she came downstairs that morning with her very own REAL guitar!!! Now she can really work on becoming the next Taylor Swift!

The only way we were able to pry the guitar from her hands was by reminding her that she had a party to get to!

We arrived at the Alder Alley Lanes in time to get set up before FOURTY FOUR of her classmates, friends, and family came to join us.  Yes, you read correctly... including Reagan, there were 45 children in attendance at the birthday party! As chaotic as that may sound, the party was actually a great success! Everyone had tons of fun, and the kids loved glow-in-the-dark bowling.

Reagan's party was on her boyfriend Matthew's actual birthday, so we made sure that he was treated as the #1 guest of honour that morning.  Before bringing out Reagan's birthday cake, the entire group serenaded Matthew with his own birthday song and a special Spiderman cupcake.

Next, it was Reagan's turn.  Everyone sang Happy Birthday to our birthday girl, and then cheered her on as she blew out the SIX candles on her cake.  Of course, it was a Barbie cake!  And no, I did not make it myself.  Don't you remember the disaster I made of some simple cupcakes for Valentine's Day? No way was I going to attempt to bake a cake!

The kids enjoyed pizza, cake, and other goodies before returning back to bowling before it was time to go home.  Once we were home, it was time for Reagan to start opening her presents.  Oh my goodness, was our little girl ever spoiled this year!  We split up the presents and let her open them over the course of the weekend... a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped to make our princess feel like a queen!

Tuesday, April 24th, was Reagan's actual birthday, and we started off the day with what has become a tradition in our house... marking the growth wall. Each birthday, half birthday, and first day of school has been recorded on this wall for Reagan, and we have started the tradition for Myers as well.  Reagan's markings are in pink, and all of Myers's are in blue!

After school and then ballet practice, we took Reagan out to eat for dinner at her favourite local restaurant, Mr. Mike's.  Her favourite thing about Mr. Mike's is the ice cream dessert bar that is for kids only... no parents allowed!  

Once we arrived at home that evening, Reagan discovered once last birthday surprise... a new big girl bike from Mommy & Daddy!  Let the learning to ride without training wheels begin!

Yesterday, two of Reagan's friends from gymnastics came over for a tea party since they were not able to join us at the birthday party last weekend.  The girls had fruit cocktails in martini glasses, finger sandwiches, little cupcakes, and real tea from Reagan's porcelain tea set.  (Thank you again to Pops & Momsey for the Pottery Barn birthday present from last year!)  Of course they were all dressed in their fancy dresses... I mean, what's a tea party without a fancy dress?  Reagan agonized all morning over which dress she was going to wear!

If the picture above isn't proof enough, let me just tell you what an incredibly beautiful young lady our sweet Reagan is becoming.  She's growing up faster than I had ever imagined, and Ryan and I become more proud of her with each passing year.  She's an amazing big sister, a caring daughter, a bright student, a superstar gymnast, and a true beauty both inside and out.  From the day she was born, and for the rest of her life, she will always be our little princess!

So as the month of April comes to an end, so do all of the birthday celebrations.  Well, at least the birthday celebrations for Reagan.  After all, next month is MY birthday!

Bling! Bling!

Last year, for Reagan's birthday, she asked to get her ears pierced.  After much discussion with her on that subject, we agreed to let her have it done. However, when the day arrived, she decided that she didn't want to go through with it.

The subject was not mentioned again until just recently, and lately she has been talking about doing it more and more.  Ryan and I both told her that if she was ready, we would let her try again this year for her birthday.

Her birthday is coming up in just over a week, and her BIG birthday party is this coming weekend.  She woke up this past Saturday morning and announced to us that she wanted to get her ears pierced "RIGHT NOW!"  Seriously, the first words out of her mouth were asking us to take her to get her ears pierced.

We knew that we couldn't do it first thing in the morning as she had the final practice/mock exam for her RAD Ballet testing that morning.  (The real exam is in 3 weeks.)  But it worked well for us to go get her ears done after her ballet practice as her hair was all slicked back out of her face and in a bun... meaning her ears were perfectly exposed!

I phoned ahead to Merle Norman in the mall to make sure that two hygienists would be available so that we could get both ears done at once.   I was not taking the chance of her getting one done and then deciding that she wouldn't finish it off with the second!

We arrived at the mall, and Ryan and I could both tell that Reagan was anxious.  I quietly told her that the decision was completely up to her... Mommy and Daddy would be happy no matter what she did to her ears.  She turned on her heel, started walking with extreme purpose away from me, looked over her shoulder and said, "I am on a mission!"

GAME ON!

We walked into the salon, and within 5 minutes Reagan had chosen her earrings.  The girls got the instruments ready, and then asked Reagan to climb up onto the chair.  In less than a minute, it was done!  Reagan was so very brave, and so very proud of herself.  She never made a peep, much less shed a tear.

Here's a shot of her lovely lobes before...

And after!  Check out the new bling!

She was, and still is, so very excited!

Yesterday morning, on our way out the door to go to church, she asked me to take more pictures of her sparkling new earrings.  How could I resist?!

Check out the video below to see for yourself just how brave our big girl was. You will notice that I got choked up, but not Reagan!  My baby girl is now all grown up, it seems!

Easter Weekend 2012

Last weekend, to put it simply, was PERFECT!  We had so much fun this Easter weekend... I wish every weekend could be exactly the same!

Reagan had the day off from school on Friday, and Ryan had the day off from work, so we took advantage of having the entire family home together to finally dye and decorate our Easter eggs.

Unlike last year, Myers was not willing to sit still on the sidelines as the silent observer.  He wanted to be a part of the action!  Unfortunately, his idea of being a part of it all meant any of the following... drinking the dye, pouring the dye all over himself or the rest of the kitchen, smashing the eggs, etc.  So Ryan kept Myers distracted while Reagan created her masterpieces.

We invited some friends (Reagan's boyfriend Matthew's family) over for dinner that night, and we had a fun fondue extravaganza.  I kid you not, there had to be at least 10 pounds of food on the table that we dipped and dipped and dipped into our fondue feast!  I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the grown ups!

Saturday was a GORGEOUS day, and we spent the entire afternoon in our backyard.  Reagan is just like her momma... she loves the sun!  We decided to pretend that we were at the beach in North Carolina, so we cranked up the beach music on our iPhones, turned on the sprinklers, filled up the kiddie pool, took a few dips in the hot tub, worked on our tans, drank a few cold ones, and had an all out beachin' good time!

  

Myers fell in love with playing in the sprinklers, especially since big Sissy was there helping him to have fun!

Sunday morning, we discovered that the Easter bunny had indeed come to our house for a visit.  He left two baskets full of goodies for the kids, as well as he left a mess of carrot pieces on our front lawn.  He also took all of Reagan's beautifully decorated eggs and hid them throughout the house!

As you can tell from the pictures, Myers still likes to be at least half naked at all times!

After finding all of Reagan's eggs, we quickly got dressed to go to the Resurrection Sunday services at our church.  It was a beautiful service, and Reagan was excited to see a few of her friends in attendance as well.  After church, we came home to soak up the sun in our backyard once again while Myers had a nap.

Once Myers was awake, we drove over to visit with Ryan's family and enjoyed an impromptu game of baseball with all of Reagan's cousins.  It was a quick visit as we had been previously invited to enjoy a backyard bbq with friends. Reagan was thrilled to go to Matthew's house, and I think that had we not needed to get the kids home and in bed, Ryan and I would have stayed all night, enjoying the company and good times that were being had by all!

Monday, Ryan had to return to work, but Reagan had the day off from school. I'll give you three guesses as to how she, Myers and I spent the day... and the first two guesses don't count!

Yep, OUTSIDE in the back yard!

If there is one thing that I realized for certain this past weekend, it is that I am soooooo ready for summer to hurry up and get here!

The Christy Fraser Memorial Gymnastics Competition

Reagan's gymnastics centre hosted a memorial competition last weekend... The Christy Fraser Memorial.  Christy Fraser was an avid gymnast until her tragic death in August of 1992 at the young age of twelve years old. Upon her passing, a memorial fund was set up in her name, and each year the Langley Gymnastics Foundation hosts this memorial competition to continue to raise money and awareness for the Children's Hospital in Vancouver.  

The girls from Langley Gymnastics were proud to host this event, and they were very excited to have the "home ice" advantage.  And yes, there was ice...  The event was held in the main arena of the Langley Events Centre, with all of the equipment placed over the floor of the hockey rink!  This was by far the largest scale event that Reagan had ever competed in, and the girls were a bit in awe of their surroundings as they were competing.

As always, Reagan rocked it!  She told us on the way to the gym that morning that she was going for gold... and she did it!  GOLD on Vault, along with Silver on Bars, Beam, Floor and All-Around!

 

Throughout the competition, Ryan kept an eye on Myers up in the seating area of the arena while I snapped pictures from the "security-zone" down on the floor.  Ryan had worked a shift doing security at the competition the previous day, so he was able to get me the hook-up to be allowed to take pictures up close to all the action.  Thanks, honey!  Myers was watching his sister, but he was also making sure to still do his own favourite activity... EATING! I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of him multi-tasking, and then I couldn't resist taking a picture of him making faces up against the hockey glass a little while later!

Reagan was excited to receive more ribbons to add to her rapidly growing collection, but she and all of the other girls were just as excited over their new tote bags... these gyms girls are starting to collect some serious swag from all of their competitions!

We were thrilled that Reagan did as well as she did, but we were even more excited to see how much fun she and the rest of the girls on her team were having.  These girls truly do LOVE gymnastics!

Paging Doctor Mommy - My Own Domain!

I finally decided to create my own domain name!

All will still appear as normal here for you to see... the only change is that I now have my very own web address.  Be sure to bookmark your favourites and update your readers with the new address...

www.PagingDoctorMommy.net

WOOHOO!!!

Reagan IS Taylor Swift (with video to prove it!)

These days, there is nothing that Reagan loves more than Taylor Swift.  

She and I went to see "The Lorax" the other night, and the next morning she made this picture... for Taylor.

Those are Lorax style trees with Lorax style animals!

Taylor's music is all that she plays on her iPhone.  (It's my old phone that we disconnected service to when I upgraded to the new iPhone... so it's not really a phone so much anymore... it's more of an iPod I guess!)  She walks through the house singing Taylor's songs over and over, again and again!

She wants to wear her hair just like Taylor and she wants to use the same lipgloss as Taylor.  She calls her bathroom her dressing room, and her bedroom is now her tour bus... because of course Taylor must have a dressing room and a tour bus!

She allows us to still call her Reagan because we are her biggest fans, but she will answer faster if we refer to her as "Taylor".  

I will admit that I am guilty of using all of this to my advantage... it's easier to get her to eat all of her dinner if I tell her that she is eating some of Taylor's favourite foods!

But in all of the Taylor things that Reagan has done lately, NOTHING compares to this.  This is our little Reagan, as Taylor Swift, performing "Mean".

Reagan is now convinced that she needs a real guitar and that she needs to perform on a real stage!  Look out world, she's going to be a superstar!

The Ultimate Spring Break Staycation

In the past, Spring Break for me has meant anything from a quiet week spent at our family beach house while I was a young girl to a loud and crazy weekend during my University days spent at Panama City Beach trying desperately to end up on MTV.  

Nothing like either of those situations happened this year.  In fact, there was nothing "beachy" at all about this Spring Break... it actually snowed off and on briefly for three days during the first week of Reagan's vacation!  But I can honestly say that this year, enjoying Reagan's Spring Break, may have been the most fun that I've had in my Spring Break history.

We didn't go anywhere.  We decided to have a Stay-cation.

What's a Staycation you ask?  Well, it's when you stay.

We stayed at home.
We stayed in bed as long as we could each day.
We stayed in our pyjamas as much as possible.
We just stayed!

And we loved it!

Even though we didn't have any plans, and we never really left the house for longer than a trip to the park or to the bowling alley, we were constantly busy the past two weeks.

We built our own racetrack, The Knopper International Speedway, and we hosted our first big race, The Knopper 500.  Reagan, Myers and Ryan each had their own Hot Wheels car lined up at the start, (Reagan in the #88 car of course took the pole) and it was a hot race to say the least.  After the hairpin turns right after the start/finish line, the drivers had to deal with some serious banking over in turns two and three.   It came down to a green, white, checker finish after multiple cautions, and I still don't have a clue who won the race!

Reagan practiced her skills in make-up artistry, and her Daddy was the perfect model for her.  I think she chose just the right shade of blue to compliment his eyes.  And the lip gloss was the obvious finishing touch to her beautiful creation.  His scraggy beard just gave it all that extra special touch, don't ya think?!?

 

Reagan spent an afternoon making her very own puppets, and she wouldn't let me see them until she was completely finished.  I have to say, I was pretty impressed by her artwork.  As you can see from left to right below, she made a stage out of a cereal box, and for puppets she had a puppy dog, a crab, a flamingo, a butterfly, a koala bear, a penguin, a mouse with cheese, a lion, and a cat.  That night, she entertained Ryan and I for over half an hour with an amazing puppet performance!

 

The highlight of the entire Spring Break was easily THE TENT!  We literally pitched a tent in our office space a few days before Spring Break started, and Reagan slept downstairs in that tent EVERY SINGLE NIGHT until we took it down a few days ago.  I will be honest, she had tears in her eyes as we were taking it down!

She would camp out each night, and then she and Myers both would play in there for hours on end together during the day.

I have to admit, I really considered leaving the tent up for a while longer.  I mean, what's a few more days when it had already been up for almost three weeks?!  When we took it down on Wednesday it caused Reagan to have to sleep in her own bed upstairs for the first time in 19 sleeps!  But I needed her to get back on a regular schedule before going back to school tomorrow, and I was worried that it may take a few days/nights for her to get back into her normal routine after so many late nights downstairs during the break.  It was super fun while it lasted, and it brought back many memories of the first time that we decided to go camping inside!

As I just mentioned, Reagan returns to Kindergarten tomorrow.  I have to be very honest with you now... I don't want her to go!  I don't want Spring Break to end.  And no, it's not just because I am dreading having to go back to making her school lunches at the crack of dawn each morning... I am genuinely going to miss her!  And I don't even want to think about how much Myers is going to miss her.  He has LOVED having Sissy home all day every day to play play play!

But as they say, all good things must come to an end.  My only comfort is knowing that we now only have 65 more school days (95 days total including holidays and weekends) until Summer Vacation!  And you can bet your bottom dollar that we won't be "stay-cationing" during that entire break!!!

Myers - Naked Or Stuffed?

Holy Moly!  

Myers is all over the place these days and he is growing like a weed.  I'm beginning to think that I need to buy him some new pyjamas because he has started wearing them unzipped with his belly hanging out ALL THE TIME!  I'm not sure if he is trying to make a fashion statement, if it just feels good letting his belly get some air, or if his belly is in fact too big to be confined by the zipper of his pyjamas.  Regardless of the reason, this is how he looks 99% of the time when he has his pyjamas on.

Who am I kidding... he has his pyjamas on 99% of the time!   We have a habit in this family of staying in our pyjamas as much as possible!

On more than one occasion lately, he has unzipped to nothing more than his diaper.  And just the other morning I walked into the nursery to get him out of his crib and I found him 100% completely butt naked! Needless to say, I was very thankful that other than the wet diaper that had been flung out of the crib, everything else was still dry!

When he's not taking his clothes off, he's stuffing things down his pant legs.  A few days ago, I went to change his diaper and discovered a play microphone, two dice, and a measuring tablespoon all shoved down the left leg of his pyjamas!  Since then, I think that I have removed this, that, or the other from his pant legs on a daily basis.

As you can tell, there is never a dull moment around here these days!

And yes, as you can tell from the first picture above, he could probably use a haircut.  I just can't bring myself to have it done just yet!