Middlest is 8

Facebook notifies me almost daily of my 'memories' - posts that I've made years ago on this day.  Today I received a notification that on this day last year I finally got around to blogging about Middlest's birthday.  I guess I should get at this year's now before the month is over.

On March 7, Middlest turned 8.  I know it's cliche, but time really does fly.  She wanted to have her party at the gymnastic club that she had it at last year and also the same place Littlest had her party last month.  Simple enough.  As you recall, we almost had to cancel Littlest's party because of sickness.  Well, we did have to cancel/postpone this one for real.  The morning of the party, Middlest woke up early with a stomach ache.  Being the understanding guy that I am at 4 in the morning, I told her to go back to sleep.  Shortly thereafter, the puking started.  (Note to self:  pay attention when they say their stomachs are upset.)  We were able to get a hold of everyone and postpone the party for one week.  We didn't even lose our deposit.

Here she is on her actual birthday with the carrot cake and cream cheese icing that didn't make it to the party.

Here we are, one week later than planned, but still having fun.  There was an extra foam pit that recently opened.  The kids had a blast jumping into it.

Walk like a crab.

Littlest attempting to crawl out of the foam blocks.

I chatted with the guy in charge and found out the pit was six feet deep and made for all sizes.  That was all the encouragement I needed.  I got in line with the kids and had my turn.  Julie later told me that when I was getting ready to go that the gymnast in charge started piling up the blocks where I would land 'to make it soft for the big guy.'  He did a good job, because it was a soft landing.

My expression may say otherwise, but it really was soft.

Victory!  

It was quite hard to get out of though.  The kids seemed to have a much easier time with that part of things.

So instead of two days early, we celebrated our middle child 5 days late.  But I would say it was worth the wait.  

Middlest is still as much of a bookworm as she was a year ago.  She is playing piano and busy getting ready for the festival next month.  She is nearing the end of grade 2 and excelling at everything.  She marches to the beat of her own drum and definitely has her own sense of self.  Her fashion sense is loud and animal printed.  The more patterns worn together, the better.  She loves unicorns and often tells stories of how they live on the moon with their friends, the fire dragons.  Did I mention her imagination is fairly healthy?  She is crafty and creative.  She's a good sister and looks out for her little sister when we're not around.  When we are around, there is some normal sibling bickering and her displeasure is easily heard from anywhere in the house.  She continues to love and follow Jesus and enjoys church on Sunday and doing her 'God time' sheet that she brings home from Sunday school.  She received a bible for her birthday and has been reading it.  

There are many times when the girls make we want to pull out what little hair I have left.  But there are more many more times that they fill me with pride or that they just make me laugh.  They are all pretty great kiddos.  Later.

I don't like balls...and other stories

I'm not sure how I still get surprised by some of the questions or comments that come out of the girls' mouths, but occasionally I do.  It just so happens that over the past week or so, each girl has caught me pretty much speechless.  Let's go in order:

Littlest received a mermaid doll to play with in the bathtub for her birthday.  She was busy playing away in there one night before bed when the usual call came: 'Daaaaaddd!'  You would swear it was a life threatening problem judging by her persistence.  'DDDAAAADDD!!'  Okay, okay, I'm coming.  When I got to the door, she asked me, 'How do mermaids pee?' Hmm.  That's something I don't think I had ever pondered before.  I said that I guessed they just went in the water the way fish do.  'No, how do they pee?  Where does it come out?'  Now I have definitely never pondered the exact anatomical make-up of a mermaid.  She was holding up her Barbie-sized doll, slowly turning it and looking for some sort of clue.  Finally I said that they must have holes in there somewhere, you just can't see them on the doll.  She seemed satisfied with that.  I call that a win for dad.

Middlest is going to go to camp for the first time this summer.  It usually fills up, so we had her registered already and she received her letter in the mail this week saying she was accepted and what to bring.  I was making supper and she was reading me the list.  Swim suit, towels, shoes, flashlight, Bible, sleeping bag...etc...personal hygiene items.  She stopped, looked up and asked, 'Dad, what are personal hygiene products?'  I told her they were things like a tooth brush, hair brush, deodorant.  She got a relieved look on her face and then started to giggle uncontrollably.  She said, 'That's good.  I thought that meant tampons!'  Then we both started to laugh.  'That's what the box says!' she said.  Julie later pointed out that the box says feminine hygiene products.  She was close.

Biggest brought home a note from school about an after school baseball camp they were offering.  Knowing she had no interest in this, I told her that I signed her up.  That's when she said, 'Dad, you know I don't like balls!'  I almost blew my mouthful of milk right out my nose.  Balls.  She had to say more than one.  Couldn't have said, 'I don't like ball.'  I then asked her if she didn't like any balls.  She replied, 'Nope.  Soccer balls, basket balls, dodge balls, baseballs.  I hate them all!'  All right then.  Later on that evening, she was talking about a friend of hers who is in figure skating and was previously in gymnastics.  I asked her if she felt her life was lacking because she wasn't in any organised sports.  Then she said, 'Dad, you know I hate sports!'

So there you have it.  Know where your mermaids pee.  I mean really know where they pee.  Leave your hygiene products at home (for now).  And just say no to balls and sports. Later.

Littlest turns six!

Let me start off by saying that I know I have a lot of stories to tell from the past six months.  But maybe I need to just start writing about the here and now and go back and fill in the holes.  Today I am writing about the birthday party that almost wasn't.

Let's go back to last Sunday.  Biggest was feeling quite under the weather,  She was hot and cold, had a fever and chills, would wake up in the night covered in sweat and then icicles later on.  Needless to say, she spent a couple of days at home.  Julie had the sick kid duty for those first two days.  Middlest was next to fall victim to the Kroeker plague of 2016.  Littlest held on the longest, but she missed some school too.  But by Friday, everyone was feeling pretty much back up to snuff.  The youngest two still had a cough, but nothing too serious.  That is why I was surprised when my cell phone rang just after lunch on Friday.  There was no one on the other end, but I recognized the school number.  I called back and talked to the school secretary and she said that I had a very sick little girl there - just threw up as a matter of fact.  Oh no!  My first thought was Littlest.  She has been known to cough so hard that she pukes.  I asked if it was her and the secretary said she thought so.  So as I was leaving work and heading to the school, I was talking with Julie and we decided to call of Littlest's birthday party for today (Saturday).  Julie texted all the parents that had replied and told them we would reschedule.  Then I pulled up to the school and saw biggest sitting there.  I couldn't believe it.  It turns out that she had a migraine and threw up.  So Julie did some quick damage control and the party was back on.  Whew.

We rented a local gymnastic place here in town and let the kids rip around and go nuts for an hour.  As it turns out, the plague wasn't specific to just our house a a few kids cancelled because they were sick.  In the end, it was our three girls, three boys and one girl from Littlest's class and one boy's older sister who stayed and hung out with our older girls.

Here is Littlest on the rings.

And just looking like her adorable self.  The hand in the background belongs to a boy who refused to be in the same picture as a girl.  

Here is Middlest building a fort.  Take note of the blue cylinder she's holding and the red one at the front of the picture.  I've got a story to tell about them.

I thought I would get in on the aerial act too.  That balance beam is at least a couple feet off the ground. 

I decided to help build a fort with walls and a roof.

Still building...before the mayhem ensued.

Get ready to roll your sister.

Rolling...

Littlest's turn.

Having three girls, I forget how crazy boys can be.  Eventually I started chasing them around and they liked being caught.  Then they decided to fight back.  That's when I would fall down and be bludgeoned with the big foam cylinders I pointed out earlier.  To be honest, the physical beating was expected.  The verbal barrage of names hurled at me was not.  It started with 'you can't catch me old man' and then when I was laying down taking a break, 'hey big butt!'  Later one boy grabbed my cheek and called me chubby cheeks.  Then came a stream of food-based names:  taco face, cucumber, banana and chicken finger.  Can't say I've ever been called any of those things before.  Lastly, came 'big baby.'  I was worn out and my self esteem was knocked down a notch or two by the time it was time for cake.  (Not to mention I am kind of an old man and was reminded of that when I needed to take some Robaxacet when we got home.)

Here is Littlest and her cake (made by Julie):

And the whole crew minus two boys that wouldn't come out from under that table for a picture.

I'm partied out, but her actual birthday is tomorrow.  It should be a bit more subdued though.

It's still hard to believe that our youngest is six.  I know I am biased, but she's a pretty neat kid.  She has an incredible sense of humour and is always coming up with a good one-liner.  She is kind and considerate, is a good friend and loves her sisters.  She loves her puppy and is often on the floor with Rosie hanging out, or holding hands with her having 'paw time.'  She loves Jesus and comes up with some pretty insightful things while we're praying.  I guess that's why Jesus says we need the faith of a child.  She still talks about her Papa in heaven and how she will see him some day.  Our girls all go to a Catholic school, so lately she has been ending her prayers with 'Lord hear our prayer.'  Then she tells me to say that too.  All in all, she's pretty awesome.  Happy birthday Littlest.  We love you.  Later.

Catching up...June-July

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.