April

April has been a month filled with new things, fun and sun.

Attired in his own bathing suit, Tyran had his first swimming lesson!

The smile on his face never waned as his played games, kicked, floated and blew bubbles.

Meanwhile, Nahla is attacking Pre-school 6 for the 5th time! She can swim a full length doing back stroke, and can do a length doing front stroke, but she is still struggling to do a proper side glide.

Regardless, both kids love to swim and that is what is most important.

This year, Easter was more fun than ever before. The kids were beyond excited, and it was fascinating to watch as Nahla made sure that they both had equal chocolate eggs all along their hunt.

For the first time ever, the kids had a chocolate breakfast, and the results were quite hilarious, as Tyran literally ran circles around the house!

It's all part of being a kid right?

And, perhaps the most exciting new adventure is our new trampoline.

Last weekend, Adam and I decided that we were going to invest in a trampoline for the kids. They love playing outside but our backyard is not ideal for playing and we cannot always be out in the front yard. 

 Nahla was more interested in the box while Adam set it up...

 ...but with or without her help, Adam set up the trampoline, and we haven't seen the kids since!!!

And finally,  Nahla has been begging for us to let her have bangs for the past year and a half. F|inally, yesterday we gave in and cut her hair to give her bangs. Here is our happy little girls!

Tyran is 3!!!

I cannot believe that my little baby is 3 years old! It seems like yesterday that he met his big sister for the first time:

He seems so much closer in age to Nahla now, as they play together and play pretend.

When Nahla was given a new stuffed toy by her teacher, she chose an elephant for Ty's birthday. She rushed upstairs wrapped it up and managed to keep it a secret from him for a while week! On the morning of his birthday, she was more excited to give it to him than he could ever be receiving it! Though he does sleep with "Tyran the Ellie" every night!

We spent the day of Ty's birthday at the zoo with Grandma. 

For his birthday, Grandma bought a season's pass to the zoo so that we can go all through the summer. 

Once Adam got home from work, we went on our traditional family birthday sushi dinner!

Tyran wanted a green pirate ship for his birthday, so I made green cupcakes for the day of his birthday...

...and a pirate ship cake for his party!

He was a happy little boy to be able to celebrate with his family and friends.

And, as always, he received some very special gifts.

Recently, Ty became very attached to the NY Yankees hat that Papa bought for his last year. It is too small for him, but he wanted to wear it all of the time. So, Papa found his own very first Yankees hat and gave it to Ty for his birthday! I don't think that Ty truly understands the significance, but he will one day. Right now, he is just happy to have a "Papa hat" that doesn't leave a bruise on his head.

Uncle Brian brought over an incredibly fun remote control fire truck that sprays water and everything! It was a huge hit...

After we got it put to together and running!

Overall, Ty's birthday was very special, and now, because he is three, he can go to swimming lessons, "just like Nahla"!

Perhaps I should have been more clear in my explanation of just what this means!

A quick blast from the past:

Ty's First birthday...

And his second birthday...

Time is flying far too quickly. 

Nahla can finally ride a two Wheeler!

Nahla had spent the past year and a half took frightened of falling to learn to ride a two wheeled bike.

After buying knee and elbow pads for her Rollerblades, I realized that they would help her gain confidence. Today, we went up to the park and tried riding on the grass. It is tough riding on wet grass, but it helped her gain the confidence to try it on her own.

Within about fifteen minutes and lots of praise, she was riding on her own!

Here she is...

Dad's away, so the kids will play!

Adam flew to Calgary this weekend to visit his friends Chris and Monica, who just moved there in January. So, while he was away, I decided to do a few things with the kids that I don't always find the time to do.

Nahla loves to "science experiments" AKA putting a whole  bunch of stuff in a bowl to see what will happen. Today she discovered (without prompting) that baking soda and vinegar make a grand explosion! As you can see, she thought it was great, but Ty was a wee bit uncertain of what to think.

While at Rona picking up some new light bulbs, we say the beginning of the gardening stuff. We decided that it was time to plant our seeds. The kids each chose their favourites, and we started planting when we got home. They chose carrots, cucumber, spinach, green beans and we got a free thing of squash.

First, they poured the water on the pellets...

Apparently, Tyran got thirsty half way through!

Then we planted the seeds, marked them with coloured popsicle sticks, and covered them up to germinate in the window. I wonder how many will take? Hopefully not too many because we really don't have that much garden space!

Then, in the name of valentines, we made some gluten free pink heart cookies (coloured with beet powder). The kids love mixing, rolling, cutting and cooking.

We put little marshmallows in the center to give them a little extra pizazze!!

And, what is a weekend of fun without a romp at the dog park. Nahla pushed her doll in the doll stroller, while Tyran whined about not wanting to ride his strider, but also not wanting Nahla to ride it! Lexy ran and played, and was lucky enough to meet a husky friend to run with. Lucky her, she also got a play date with another husky friend later in the day.

Then, of course, I had to do some cleaning, cooking and re-organizing. This is my newest project! I am ever so proud of my spice rack. Last weekend I took the kids to IKEA to buy a whole lot of spice jars, and I slowly organized through the week. Today, we went ot RONA and bought some 2x4's to stagger them so that I can easily read the beautiful labels!!! Can you tell that I am excited?

It has been a great weekend, but I am so glad to be going to the airport to pick up Adam tomorrow morning so that we can finish off the family day long weekend with some true family fun...hopefully we will have some snow to play in!

It has been far too long...sorry!

I realize that it has been far too long since I have posted any updates. 

Not a lot has happened in the past month, but we have had a few fun times!

When Adam and Tyran went away for the weekend, Nahla and I had a girly weekend. One of the highlights of this was  tea party at Tracycakes in Abboltsford with Nan and Grandma.

Nahla loved pouring her own tea,

 Saying cheers with Grandma and Nan,

 And having free reign of the tower of tea party treats!

 I would absolutely recommend this outing for any moms of little girls!

Recently, Nahla also started karate. She was  proud little girl when she got her first Gi. Once I manage to get some decent photos of her in class, that don't have other children in them, I will post!

 Finally, I managed to find a second hand strider for Ty so that he can go for bike rides with us. He was a happy little boy riding his bike on our "discovery walk". Nahla brought her note book and write down everything she saw, and Tyran strode along with a grin on his face!

 We rode all of the way to the park...twice! We got there the first time and Ty had to go to the bathroom, so we had to come home before heading back for a second time!

The kids took a ride on the airplane, ran around a bit, then adventured back home.

I am loving this weather, and the outdoor opportunities it allows for.

I will try to post again soon!

Christmas Day!!

5 and 2 1/2 is absolutely the PERFECT age for Christmas!

Excitement, belief, wonder and joy filled every moment of our day yesterday.

Our morning began at 7, when the kids ran to our room to wake us up.

We went downstairs to open up stocking.

Then to the gifts!

With each child getting a large gift, our living room was FILLED with paper, boxes and general Christmas debris!

After opening up our gifts, we began setting up Nahla's dollhouse and Tyran's fire station and Pirate set while waiting for Grandma and Papa to arrive.

When Grandma and Papa arrived, Christmas began all over again!!! 

Look at the kids in their adorable NY Yankees backpacks! 

They were definitely a huge hit!

We had some quiet play time, nap time and clean-up, then it was off to Grandma and Papa's house for Christmas dinner with our extended family.

Fireman Ty had some help from his big cousins, Richard and Stephen, in opening up his new Airport!

Then the four cousins shared a cuddle on the big boys\ new "gaming chairs"

After a fantastic Mommy-made traditional Christmas dinner, Tyran spend some time entertaining Grandad and trying to convince him to open up a candy for him!

This morning, I awoke feeling blessed to be part of such a loving, giving family. Though we were not fortunate enough to be able to spend time with both sides of the family, we will get that chance a little later in the season, to spread out the love!

Tyran was feeling especially loved this morning as he and Elmo had a cuddle on the couch while he watched his new Toopy and Binoo movie.

 Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!