I have not written anything since June. Why? There could be a lot of reasons or excuses, but I'll just leave it. Every year I print out all my blog posts in a book so we have them as a record/journal of our lives. So in an effort to get this year's up to date, I am going to attempt to get caught up. I looked back to some of the pictures that I took for inspiration.
Let's begin with Littlest. She 'graduated' from preschool last spring. They had a whole cap and gown ceremony and everything. Here she is with her teacher getting her diploma.
And here she is wondering what the heck she is getting herself into.
Her she was posing before the big ceremony. Yes, that was me doing her hair. I learned how to French braid from youtube. It turned out fairly well, but made the cap fit a little too snugly.
We had some crazy thunder storms and I happened to be looking out the window when this one rolled over our park. I grabbed my camera a snapped a few pics. After I put them on Facebook, a reporter from the local TV station contacted me and asked if he could use the pics on the newscast that night. Naturally I said yes! So here are the shots from my 5 minutes of fame. More like 30 seconds and not even really sure it was me. I told him they were taken over Wallacefield park, so the caption on TV said they were sent in by Dave Wallacefield. So close, yet so far.
On to Middlest. She had a track and field day at the end of Grade 1. So littlest and I went and hung out for the afternoon. The weather was good and the sporting events top-notch. Here is the photo finish of the sack race.
And an action shot of the long jump.
We were also able to head to Tofield for a weekend to celebrate Dad's 73rd birthday. All his kids and all his grandkids were there for one last celebration before he lost his battle with cancer. (There's a separate post for that as well as some good memories.)
Littlest went to 'real' school for a morning of kindergarten orientation. She made a craft, met the teachers and even got a ride on a school bus. (I got to go on the bus too. Good times.)
Biggest and two of her buddies took part in the local triathlon. They each did one leg, and our little cross country runner did the running leg. She had to run two kilometers, which is the same distance she ran in cross country. We did a fair bit of training and it took a bit to get some competitive spirit into her. She ran for a bit and walked for a bit and ran some more. I told her that it wasn't just her, but she had to try hard for the rest of her team. I told her that she had to really give'er at the end and finish hard. She wasn't convinced at first. By the time race day came, things changed. In the final stretch, there was a boy right behind her, hot on her heels. She buckled down and sprinted for all she was worth. She may have even put her elbow out to make sure she stayed in the lead. And she did! She finished in front of him. I'm not sure where they placed overall, but they all had fun and tried their hardest.
We went to Saskatoon for a weekend and had the super talented Sasha take their pictures (like she has for the past several years). The theme this year was s'mores and as their hairdresser coined it, 'campfire chic.'
I thought that is was time for Biggest to learn to mow the lawn. She was having no part of it however. So then I asked Middlest and she stepped up to the challenge. She did a decent job and caused her older sister to pout quite a bit. A double win for her.
This was a picture of breakfast at the island, one year after their first breakfast at the island. Yes, our one year anniversary of moving to Lloydminster came and went.
We made a trip out to Golden Prairie where the girls got to ride the quad that Papa had bought for them.
Then they had to pose while chewing on grass, because 'that's what farm girls do.' According to Middlest anyway.
Here they are snuggling with Papa and reading some old Childcraft books from when their mom was little.
This year Littlest learned to ride a two wheeler. She did pretty amazing. She is the only child that we bought a balance bike for first. She tore around on that thing for a long time and really had her balance down. It sure made the transition a lot easier. I basically gave her a little push and she was gone. The hardest part was just making her keep pedaling. She thought she should just be able to coast. But she figured it out and was tearing around the block for the rest of the summer.
Before our trip to Nashville, (yes, we went to Nashville! But that will be a post to itself too.) the girls got to pick raspberries with Papa one more time. They have really enjoyed doing this over the past several years.
I think Nanny even let them pick one or two of her flowers.
Biggest went to camp this summer all by herself (for a week!). It was a little strange only having two girls around, but everyone had fun. Biggest had an amazing experience and amid all the crazy camp shananigans, really seemed to mature in her faith. Here she is saying goodbye to her sisters before we left her.
Here is some of the fun the other had. We took a trip up Jaycee hill for the first time and ran down.
We had a little fashion show...naturally.
And checked out a new park in town. (I just love this pic.)
There was some crazy curly hair and their own shopping carts at the Co-op.
Our poor little Rosie sliced open the pad of one of her paws. It wasn't healing, so we took her to the vet. She was glued together, and wrapped in a pretty pink bandage. She was not a big fan though, so she was forced to wear the dreaded cone of shame. She was not a fan, and neither were her human sisters. Everyone felt pretty sorry for her.
When Biggest came home, we went to the spray park and had some slurpies at the concession there. Turns out there is a fair bit of color in the blue raspberry and the cherry. Probably all natural though.
Biggest celebrated her tenth birthday. Yup, double digits! It really is hard to believe how fast time goes by. I still remember it was like it was yesterday. She has grown into an amazing kid though. She loves school and her teachers, loves church and Sunday school, loves and really looks out for her sisters. She is strong willed (which can be great or not so great, depending on the day) and knows who she is and what she stands for. She is mature beyond her years, yet still has a goofy side so you know she's still a kid.
Our summer was kind of crazy though and we kind of missed the boat on organizing her a birthday party. So she ended up having a pedicure with her sisters in the end, which was fun too.
I think that sort of sums up a lot of what was happening for June and July. I'm sure writing about it five months after the fact has made me a little foggy on some of the detail. But there it is in a nutshell. Later.
