First Day of School

Mother's Day Tea

Today, I was invited to the school, twice, for Mother's Day Tea. We were treated to some iced tea and cake, and then a song (or two). The first sitting was from the Grade 2's. They sang 2 songs. The first one was "Over the Rainbow" and the second one was "Mom, You're the Best." The sound is very quiet so you will probably need to turn up your volume.







Here is a picture of Isabella and me:




The second sitting was from the Grade 4's. They sang one song and it was "Mom, You're the Best." They were a bit more confident so the sound is a little better.




Here is a picture of me and the twins:

O Canada!

The kids, with their theatre group, sang the national anthem at a hockey game tonight. The game was a junior (WHL) game between the Edmonton Oil Kings and the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Oil Kings won in a shootout!

Their group is in the middle dressed in white. The minor hockey teams on the ice with them are there as "honour guards". The hockey teams didn't sing. I couldn't get any close-ups pictures.

Happy 7th Birthday, Isabella!

Today was the big day. Isabella turned 7 years old today. We had her party at a movie theatre. The movie we went and saw was Gnomeo and Juliet. All the kids loved it, and Joel and I did too. We had cake and pop in the party room. The kids played pin the tail on the donkey, the girls chased the boys, and Isabella opened her presents. Afterward, we saw the movie. It was a nice and easy party.

Here are the kids with fake, ugly teeth in their mouths. I did take a group shot with those teeth in, but when I resized it for the blog you couldn't see the teeth.




Group Hug:




Opening presents:




Cake:




Blowing out the candles:

Twas the Night Before Christmas . . .

. . . when all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

Well, maybe a mouse, and a teddy bear too:





The last few days, the girls were in the Edmonton Festival Ballet production of Twas the Night Before Christmas. Even though they were the ones dancing multiple performances, I am the one that is exhausted.

First Day of School

New school year. A brand new school. The same pose as last year. lol

This year:




Last year:

Isabella's new fashion accessory

She was very excited to get these. My little fashionista initially picked out the most expensive frames, but we settled on a moderately priced pair. She really likes these, too.

Cake Wreck

Gosh! It's dusty in here! It's been 6 months since my last post. Eek. Well, here it goes.

Cake Wrecks is a blog dedicated to 'interesting' professional cakes. We had our own experience recently. Isabella's 6th birthday was last month. Normally, I order my cakes from Save-On-Foods just down the street from us. I've always had great cakes. Not so this time. The cake we ordered looked like the icing exploded all over it. The manager did give us the cake for half off and the cake did taste good.

Here is what we ordered:




Here is what we received. Notice how "Isabella" is spelled "Isalella" and the "6th" is written as "th6":




Even with the Cake Wreck the party was a success. Here are few pictures from that day:

Back to school

Today is the day! Joshua and Katerina start Grade 3 and Isabella is starting Grade 1. She's a big kid now!

Summer ballet wrap-up

The girls had their summer recital and it was a blast! Isabella was in girly glory because her costume had a tutu.



Katerina had two performances, jazz and ballet. This was her first time taking a jazz class and she loved it. I only have a picture of her jazz costume, though.




She liked jazz so much she wanted to take a jazz class. Unfortunately, her school only offers the classes on the weekends, which conflict with hockey. However, I was able to find some classes that fit in our schedule at another school. She will be taking a jazz class (no performance) and a lyrical class (performance).

With the addition of these classes, she will be dancing almost 3 hours per week. Plus, Isabella and Katerina had auditioned and been accepted to dance in the Edmonton Festival Ballet company. They put on a Christmas show every year for the public. The production is "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and they will rehearse 1 hour per week from the middle of September to the end of November. The show will run December 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. So, for a couple of months, Katerina will be dancing 4 hours per week. She really wants to do this, though.

All three kids are in their final week of day camp at the YMCA, this week. They are having an enormous amount of fun this summer and that's what makes it all worth it. The next two weeks, the twins will have hockey skills camp, 1.5 hours per day, but the rest of the time they will have a bit of down time before school starts (September 2).

A day of rugby

We had a wonderful day today. It started out this morning with the kids playing their regular game. However, the World Cup made an appearance and all the teams had their pictures taken with it. I managed to get a picture of it, too.



After the kids' games in the morning, we went home for a quick lunch before heading off to the "big game." This was the Canada vs. USA World Cup qualifier, game 2. Game one was held last weekend in North Carolina and Canada lost 12-6. Canada needed to win this game with a minimum of 7 points over USA today to qualify for the 2011 World Cup in New Zealand. They not only won today, they were great! The final score today was 41-18!

The whole family had a fantastic time. The weather was perfect and the crowds were really good.

During half-time, the kids' teams entertained the crowds with a little bit of their kind of rugby. The older kids were at the ends of the field but our crew were right in the middle. The footage is a bit shaky as I was in a really awkward position during filming and I was zoomed in as far as I could.

The first video is of Isabella's group of 4 & 5 year olds. The 2nd and 3rd videos are of the 6 & 7 year olds. In the second video, Joshua is kicking in the ball. In the third video, Katerina is kicking the ball.








Here are some pictures from the day:













James Pritchard


Justin Mensah-Coker


Chauncey O'Toole

Short hair

The girls got their hair cut short today. Katerina's hair was long enough that she was able to donate her hair to Locks of Love.




Isabella's hair was straightened with a flat iron so it could be cut properly. I've never seen my baby with straight hair before!

Isabella's Kindergarten concert

Last night was her kindergarten concert. Here are a couple of pictures of her:






The gym was decorated with body art of all the kindergarten kids. Here was Isabella's body:




The kids sang 5 songs. In order, "Welcome", "Three Little Muffins", "Country Dancing", "Down by the Bay", and "Colours". The second video gets a little shaky at one point because I tried to zoom in. Sorry about that. So, without further ado, here is the little songbird:

First rugby game of the season

Here is some rugby action:

Katerina




Isabella's group:



Joshua and Katerina's group:

Rugby Shorts for Isabella

The ready-to-wear (RTW) rugby shorts are expensive and they really don't make them small enough for Isabella. I used black twill for these as that is what the twins' shorts seem to be made from. The pattern used is Kwik Sew 2132, view B, size 5, however the pattern is now out-of-print. I used a larger elastic than called for. I used 1 1/2" elastic. I also topstitched down the inseams and the centre seams for added strength. I did not install a pocket.

Ballet warmup wrap

I actually made two of these but different sizes. The one shown here is size 128 (size 7-8) but I also made a size 110 (size 6-6x). I used Ottobre Issue 4/2006, Design #19. I modified the front crossover so it would be a straight line down, plus I did not add the bottom ruffle. I eliminated the side slit for the tying string, too, as the string now sits at the bottom.

I also used binding, first binding the front and neckline. Then, I did a continuous binding on the bottom so as to incorporate the binding as the tying strings.

The fit turned out to be a bit loose. I don't think I will use this pattern again without some major fit alterations.

Some Spring Show performance pictures

Isabella is a bee in The Fairy Wedding.







Katerina is a squirrel in The Fairy Wedding.

Parent Watch Week at Ballet #2

It was parent watch week at ballet this week and here are a couple of pictures each of the girls. Katerina, unfortunately, forgot her leotard and tights so I had to do a quick purchase of school clothing, in other words $$$. Oh well, she now has a nice souvenir.