The 100th Day of Kindergarten

It seems unreal that we have now had 100 days of class since the first day of Kindergarten!  The kids have been counting the days of school since that first day, and they were over-the-moon excited for today, the 100th day, to arrive!

The day started off much the same as the previous 99... the boys and girls began working on writing their letters by writing their names in their daily name book.  Reagan was deep in concentration with this task...

Until I called her name for her to pose for her camera happy Mommy of course!

The real excitement didn't occur until it was time for the special helper of the day, Adam, to begin the morning routine of counting the days.  You could feel the buzz in the air as he began the count...

It didn't take long before the kids were counting louder and louder as the big moment was about to arrive...  94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99...

100 DAYS OF SCHOOL!

Each of the boys and girls had brought a small big filled with 100 items to school today, and I was able to convince them to pose for a quick class picture, holding their items.

We had debated for over a week as to what 100 items Reagan was going to take.  She insisted on taking something that none of the other kids would bring, and she also wanted it to be something that she could share with all of her friends.  After much deliberation, we decided on SILLY BANDZ!  After all, thanks to Reagan's cousins and Auntie Anna and Pops & Momsey back in Carolina, we have probably close to 500 silly bands!

The kids spent a good portion of the afternoon sorting each of their 100 things into groups.  They could choose how they wanted to sort them... size, colour, shape, etc.  After all of Reagan's silly bandz had been sorted numerous different ways, they then sorted them into 20 random piles of 5 so that each of her classmates could take home a few for themselves.

It was a super fun day, and a great way to practice counting and sorting as well!

Happy 100th Day Everyone!

I just did a quick count, and we now have 74 days of school remaining until Summer Vacation!

Adventures in Ice Skating

We went to a birthday party for a family friend back in early December that was an ice skating party.  It was the first time that Reagan had been on the ice in over a year, and it was the first time ever on the ice for Myers.  (If you can count riding around in the jogging stroller as being on the ice!)

Reagan did great that day, and experimented with letting go of the bar a few times to skate on her own.  So when we received an invitation to another ice skating party for today, Reagan became determined to be able to skate by herself.

She and Ryan had practiced on three different occasions leading up to today's birthday party so that she would feel confident on the ice and be able to skate with some of her other Kindergarten classmates that have been taking lessons for awhile.

I was nervous today because I knew that I would not have Ryan there to be her instructor, and I was going to be having to look after the little man as well!  I got Reagan's skates laced up first, and then I proceeded to get mine on so that I could head out onto the ice with her while again pushing Myers in the stroller.

By the time I got my skates all laced up, I realized that Reagan was already out on the ice.  My heart dropped to my toes as I realized that she was out there on her own, without the bar, and without her Daddy skating closely behind her to catch her if she fell.

But I was worried for nothing.  She handled herself like a pro!  As I skated up to where she was slowly making her way around the rink, I pulled out my phone to make a quick video clip for Ryan to see.  After all, if was from him helping Reagan learn to skate that she could be as comfortable on the ice as she was today.

The lessons with Daddy certainly payed off!  By the end of the party, she was starting to glide a bit more rather than the choppy walking that she was doing when she first stepped onto the ice today.  Either way, she's now officially skating on her own!

The Valentine's Disaster... SAVED!

There was approximately an eighteen hour window of time this week that I was beginning to think that I was going to have to keep Reagan home from school on Valentine's Day.  

No, she hasn't been sick.

I was worried that if she did go to school, that she would forever remember this day as the most horrible day possible.  Why, because her mother (that would be me) is an utter and complete failure when it comes to baking.

Seriously, I'm awful.

And I know this.  So why in the world I volunteered to make over 50 cupcakes for her Valentine's Day party is beyond me.

I managed to ruin over 4 dozen cupcakes in an attempt to bake heart shaped cupcakes using heart shaped baking trays.  I had purchased the trays last week, and I was quite proud of myself for finding them and for my plans to make beautiful heart shaped pink lemonade flavoured cupcakes for Reagan and her classmates.  And these were not cheap baking trays that I was using.

I think for the first time in my life, I have found something that does not fall under the category of "you get what you pay for" because all I ended up with was a big pile of crumbled cake pieces over and over and over again.

I scrubbed and washed and rinsed those trays until they looked brand new again, and then I promptly returned them to the store to get my money back!

After doing a little research on Pinterest (I love you Pinterest) I came up with a better idea that barely added up to a total of $5...  Cupcake liners and marbles!  Considering that my husband was beginning to think that I was losing my marbles in this task, this was the perfect solution for me!

And guess what... IT WORKED!  Heart shaped cupcakes, just like that!  And as a dear friend pointed out, had I not chosen to create pink lemonade cupcakes, they could have easily passed as Pac-Man cupcakes!

Crisis averted, Reagan was able to go to school today for her classroom Valentine's Day party.  She took just over 50 cupcakes for the party, as her Kindergarten class was hosting a party for their Grade 4 & 5 buddies as well. She also took a handmade card, that she made herself, attached to a heart shaped twisty-straw for each of her own classmates.

The cupcakes were a hit, as all of the kids quickly gobbled them up during the party!  HALLELUJAH!

I think the highlight of the party, other than the cupcakes of course, may have been Reagan's hair.  All of her classmates and buddies and all of the teachers were very impressed that we had gone through such trouble to really keep with the Valentine's Day theme.  Truthfully, it wasn't that hard of a look to achieve! I have a feeling that we will be sporting this awesome hairdo for multiple occasions in the future...

Reagan came home from school today, super excited to show off all of her Valentine's Day loot.  I have to say, I was very impressed with the idea that her teachers came up with for saving/storing all of the cards that she received from her classmates.  Instead of coming home with twenty cards loose in her backpack, all of the cards had been carefully placed into a memory book! AWESOME idea!

After a quick snack at home, we were off for a very special delivery.  Reagan needed to take her boyfriend Matthew his Valentine's day cupcake and heart shaped twisty-straw!  The two of them were absolutely too stinkin' cute when they made their exchanges...  Matthew gave Reagan a cute little card and a sucker.  And my future son-in-law is already earning brownie points with me as he had a special card and chocolate for me as well.  SO SWEET!

Ryan took us all out for a fancy dinner tonight, (any dinner that I don't have to cook that is served to me at a restaurant is considered to be fancy in my book) and the waitresses were all oohing and aahing over Reagan's hair!  I think I may just have to create and post a video tutorial for how to do it yourself very soon.

Now that both of the kids are in bed, I plan to see how big of a dent I can put into the two pound box of chocolate that Ryan gave me today.  I'll start my weight loss routine next month...

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYONE!

Can Birth Control Cause Depression?

Not long after we returned home from our summer vacation to the family beach house in North Carolina last year, I made the decision to start taking birth control again.  This was during the same time that we were in the middle of dealing with the King of Cranky, aka Myers, and his infant sleep problems. Who in their right mind wouldn't want to prevent a possible pregnancy while trying to cope through all of that mess!  Our family physician wrote me a prescription for Ortho Tri-Cyclen, and I didn't give a second thought to taking them as this was the same pill that I had taken for years before we decided to start a family.

What I didn't realize was that this time, the pill was going to make me feel even worse than I already was.  

At first, I didn't notice it because we were finally successful with our efforts in sleep training with Myers.  While I had been worried about depression once again attacking me during our battles with sleep, I began to feel light years better once I was able to actually get a full night's sleep on a continual basis.

After a couple of months had passed, I noticed that I was beginning to feel weepy a lot.  And by weepy, I mean that I would cry from watching a commercial for laundry detergent.  I didn't have as much energy, and I realized that I was becoming the Queen of Cranky!  Recognizing the symptoms that I was feeling, I upped my intake of B vitamins and figured that would do the trick.  For about a month, it helped.  Or, maybe what helped was the fact that I was on a high from the best Christmas ever during the same month that I upped my vitamins!

As soon as Christmas was over, I spiralled into a massive funk.  I was miserable. And usually when I get down in the dumps after having to say goodbye to my family, I am able to snap out of it within a couple of days.  But not this time.  At least two weeks had gone by before I realized that I just was NOT feeling right.  

I started thinking about it, and I began to quickly realize that I had been getting this awful feeling for at least 2 weeks of every month since I had gone back on the pill.  I debated the issue in my head, and then I turned to my trusty friend, the internet!  Heavens to Betsy... I was not alone.  It seems that everybody and their grandma had at some time or another questioned if their birth control could cause depression.  

I scheduled an appointment with our family doctor, and he confirmed what I had already figured out.  Yes the pill can contribute to (not cause) depression, especially if you are already subject to suffering from depression in the past.  I came home from my appointment and, after discussing it with Ryan, I tossed the pills in the garbage!  Ryan and I are not 100% sure that we are done having kids anyway, so it wasn't that hard of a decision to make!

And now, it's been almost a month and I am feeling like myself once again.  It has been such a relief to no longer have to worry that I am turning into some sort of manic crazy person.  I'll be honest, for a minute there, I really thought I was going off the deep end!  It's amazing what those synthetic hormones can do.

I mean, really... the natural hormones that we have to deal with are enough all on their own.  Don't you agree!?!

The Abbotsford RV Show

We've been talking about buying a travel trailer for quite some time now.

But in case you haven't figured it out already from all of our talk about moving, we have a habit of doing more talking than acting around here!

This weekend, we decided to at least take action in terms of taking a look.  We ventured out to the 2012 Abbotsford RV Show at the Tradex to see for ourselves just want we may need ahem... want if we were to actually purchase something.

The kids had a blast touring through and playing in dozens of different tent trailers, travel trailers, and full size motor homes.  Ryan and I had fun looking at all of the different layouts, and of course dreaming of things that we can not afford!

We finally decided that we think that we like this layout, but truthfully, we have no idea!  It was a bit overwhelming as it was the first time that we have looked at anything.  So to suddenly go from looking at nothing to looking at everything that there is out there was a little much!

We like this layout because both of the bunk beds are full size beds.  However, we also liked a couple of plans that had three to four bunk beds.  The only thing with that is that the bunk beds are all slightly smaller than even a twin bed.  What if our kids hit a huge growth spurt?

Of course, these are our kids that we are talking about here.  It's not really in their genes for them to grow too much over 5.5 feet tall!!!

Regardless, it was a fun afternoon, and we do feel a bit more educated now. Do I anticipate us going out and buying a trailer anytime in the near future? NOPE!  But should we ever win the lottery, you now know one of the purchases that we would make!