Summer in a Nutshell

Well, it's been a very busy summer, and nothing got updated on here; then a very busy fall, and still nothing got updated...  though I'm hoping fall isn't entirely over yet and there will still be some snow free days this month!

I've uploaded all the photos from the summer into one giant post (YAY blogger for now making that so easy to do!!) and hope to get the photos of our trip to the coast on here asap as well.

First thing that happens in our summer:  Graye's birthday!  He turned 6 years old this year (I've had a kid for 6 years??!!??)  and was very happy about it.  There was a lot of "6 years old do this" and "6 years old don't have to do that"... things which included jumping on the couch and cleaning rooms... I think you can probably figure out which thing went with which response.  However, 6 year olds also get to go to Grade 1, which he was really excited about.

Birthday morning:

I don't know about yours, but our kids LOVE cards... especially ones that do things like have a Yoda that spins and plays Star Wars theme music!

Gifts included a new dragon bike helmet (which Tegan is so fashionably modeling... backwards) and Beyblades, with arena.

Cake!

More cake! Look familiar??  He wanted the exact same cake as last year.  This time I made it blue instead of green just to change things up a little.

We made Marshmallow Shooters (as in guns not shots).  Had I though about it, maybe I'd have had both types available so the adults could have some fun too!

Shooting balloon heads...

.... and tin cans!  Note:  if you make these yourself, don't get Dollarama marshmallows.  They are smaller and don't work as well as the "name brand" variety.

The girl party guests!  ;)

Family party!  Hugs for Farfar after getting a new scooter from him and Nana.

Superhero T-shirts need appropriately large chests to be properly displayed.  Apparently.

Who didn't do this when they were a kid!?

It's funny when kids are cranky and you make them look silly. Haha.

Much cuter with smiles though!

We went camping for a week and had a really great time!  The kids LOVED swimming in the lake, especially when Dida was there to throw them into the water:

Found a quicksand mudpit.  Hooray?

Graye also discovered his love of fishing.  Though he ended up being happier casting and reeling in without an actual hook on his line.

Doesn't everyone bring DJs on their camping trip?  No?  Just us?

Graye caught his very first fish!!!

For some reason he didn't like actually trying to reel the fish in when he caught one (I think because they kept getting off the hook and he thought he was doing something wrong) but he would hold them and look at them until we made him put them back in the water!  It definitely wasn't fear of the fish itself!

Going on a "Dangerous Adventure" - Graye lifted that tree off the path like a real superhero.

Camping Ryan.  Yep.

We pulled out the sparklers AFTER the kids went to bed.  ;)

Last day at the beach!

End of summer.... it really does go way too fast.

We still got in one last camping trip with the cousins though.  And went canoeing during the most beautiful sunset ever.  I had to limit the number of sunset photos I posted!  (Yes, there are still more...)

On to fall...

First Beach Day of the Summer

We have gone to the beach at least a couple more times already, but this was the first visit we made this year.  It was a beautiful day!  We had planned on staying for a hotdog roast following the beach, but were literally swarmed by mosquitoes as soon as we hit the BBQ area, so we canned that idea.  All this rain has meant we're going through a lot of bug spray on the sunny days now.  The weather has been nuts around here,  tornadoes and other "severe" weather constantly, with a few hot, hot days thrown in.  Fingers crossed, we have sun for Graye's birthday - I don't know what I'll do with all those 5 & 6 year old boys and girls in the house!

This pair of butterflies was flying around the whole afternoon.  Finally landed so I could get a couple pics!

Faceplant!! Ick.

I had just washed off all the sand from the above faceplant...

Driving home after an amazing day in the sun.

Soccer Stars

Graye and Tegan both joined a soccer team this year, and did such a great job. It was incredible to see how much they both improved over the course of the "season". Graye gained so much confidence! Tegan got a little tired of it and may need to follow her passion for dance in the future ;), but she still had a great time overall as well.

Great teammates!  Except for the tackling...

Waiting her turn on the field.

Thanks to my sis-in-law for the pro photos below! Glad she and the rest of the Andersen family came to cheer them on at the tournament!

At the tournament, doing the kick-in.

Getting advice from Coach.

Tegan's teammate may look little and cute, but she was a star player!  She put the big boys on the other teams to shame!

Tegan doing the kick-in!

SCORE!!!  Graye got an amazing goal during the game.  His first words following: "I am SO getting a medal!"

Team cheer at the end of the game.

They were sooooo proud! Their first ever medals!

They had such a great team and coach this year! I loved it as much as them!  Don't worry, I wasn't too soccer mom-ish.  ;)

Graye Graduates

Graye has finished kindergarten and will be moving into Grade 1! He is so excited about it, though he insists he'll have the same teacher again. Mme Fortier was amazing and I'm sure she'll be one of those teachers that he'll remember forever! Tegan will be with her in the fall though, so I'm sure Graye will still be seeing a lot of her.

Receiving his "diploma"!

Hugs from Mme Fortier

Best kindergarten teacher ever!

Graye looking at what he got with his "diploma" -

a photo they took of his class all making funny faces.

Graye requested a "fire breathing dragon" at the party following.  Pretty good!!

Easter, etc.

Time again for my monthly update! I think I have just come to terms with the fact that this is the frequency of my posting. I'm good with that. Here have a lollipop to celebrate.

I'm pretty sure the look seen on Tegan's face is somewhere between excitement, disbelief that she would be given such a thing and terror that this is all some sort of amazing dream that could end at any second.

Then we had Easter! (I had no good segue into this, so I just went with it head on.)

In an interesting turn of events, Graye spent ages dying his eggs, while Tegan dunked hers in the pink, stuck a few bunny stickers on them and declared them masterpieces. She is usually the one that can spend a lot of time on colouring and crafts, while Graye is often bored within minutes. Maybe it takes something a little "scientific" to keep his attention.

Note the cracks - I'm pretty sure this is the main reason you boil the eggs first.

Tegan spent more time with me making rainbow cupcakes. These were pretty fun and even tasted good! We coloured white cake batter with packages of jello powder, then poured a little of each colour into the cupcake cup. My favourite was the raspberry flavour. Yerm.

The Easter bunny came and hid eggs all over for the kids to find - I'm hoping the he didn't hide some so well that we find them melted into the carpet one day! ...it was pretty late when he showed up ... and dark...

Tegan and Graye got to visit with their cousins some more, and were able to get in their baby fix at the same time that I got mine. :)

And finally summer came! Along with the sun came all the ladybugs. I think this it the only bug Tegan will touch, but heaven help us all if it decides to fly away... especially if it's escape route is towards her. I'm surprised the neighbors didn't come running...

They've joined ranks and are making their escape!

So that was April! May will be just as exciting. Promise.

Catchup Post

Well it's been a little over forever since I've updated this blog, and I am quite tired of the Christmas photos always coming up! I know my sister is also, as I have been getting continuous reminders that I "still haven't updated the blog!" I should have been more diligent though, as TWO big things have happened since Christmas:

1. Levi Michael Youchezin was born!

My brother Neil and his wife Jackie had their second baby just after New Year's - their second boy! Now we have 2 nephews on my side of the family and 2 nieces on Ryan's side. We even things out. ;)

Graye and Tegan had to wait a couple of weeks before they could meet him as they both managed to get ridiculously sick right around New Year's. It's not a true Saskatchewan winter without at least one bout of the flu.



2. Tegan turned 4 years old! Ryan took her to Build-a-Bear to get one of her presents from us: making this cookie bear that she'd been eye-ing up for ages.

While she was out, I made her cake - a purple flower cake, by request. (YAY - no princesses!)

Then we all went to a school gym to hang out and run around with her cousins and friends. We made crowns (ok, there was some princess stuff), painted fingernails, played with the parachute, opened presents and read one of the books Tegan got as a gift.



I have to mention how different girl and boy parties are. This is the first party Tegan has had where she has invited school friends, but Graye has had a couple of these already. These girls sat so nicely in a circle while Tegan opened gifts - they didn't even move when they wanted to see something! They just asked politely if I could show them... "...and turn it the other way... oh, that's nice! Thanks." It was crazy!! But the very best kind of crazy.

Then we came home and had family over for more cake and a dance party with the Smurf's dancing game on the Wii.

And that is pretty much all we've done! I need to take the camera out and start taking some more pictures. It was my birthday recently as well and as a gift from my sis-in-law, we went to a intro photography course for an afternoon. I haven't even tried out my new "skillz" since then! Please don't expect too much though... I haven't brushed up on Photoshop yet - that knowledge is at least 10 years old. :) I'll get there!