See Jane Run

I was sooooo proud of Amelia and Evelyn tonight.

But lets start at the beginning...

Back in June the girls' school participated in a 5K run. Very non-competitive, more of a fun-run/walk for French schools in the area. This year Amelia came home kind of down. She said that she wished she could run it, that she had the ability to actually run a decent chunk of it. I told her that for sure she could do it if she was willing to put in a little bit of work. She really wanted to so we sat down and made some goals. We looked up learn-to-run programs for young girls and committed to running 3 times a week. We found a calendar we could track her distances and time in so she could see her progress and found a Halloween run in October to work toward.

The last 4 1/2 months have not been easy and it's been a learning curve for me too. The hardest part was finding the time to run. Early mornings are out because they're too early with Rene having to leave for work by 6:30am. Evenings are too unpredictable.  So we finally settled into a habit of running as soon as Rene gets home from work. I try to have dinner half ready or at least prepped so he can finish up and we can come home to a hot meal on the table.

Next hurdle, how do you keep a 9-year-old and nonathletic mother motivated? Add an energetic 7-year-old to the mix. It didn't take too long before Evelyn wanted to join in on the runs. Also add a crazy 2-year-old dog who really needs to get out and work off some energy. We also found a favourite place to run. A nice flat trail that has km markings every 1/2 km.

We didn't always want to get out but with the addition of the Halloween run looming in the background it was usually enough motivation to get us all running.

Thankfully on Thanksgiving weekend a treasure box of old dance costumes were discovered which sealed the deal. Add yet another reason Aunt Becca rocks!

The week before the run was the first time we ever ran 4kms so I wasn't sure how 5 was going to go on the day off but figured we'd get to the end no matter what. The day of the girls were pretty pumped. They were in their costumes as soon as they got home from school. Flashlights were found and readied (the run was at night) and water was stocked. We got to the run with plenty of time to enjoy face painting and balloon animals. I made the girls hold off on the free pizza, hot chocolate and gobs of candy being handed out and told them they could have their heart's desire AFTER the run.

I forgot how energizing participating in a run like this is. I've only done a couple in my life and this was by far the most fun. Probably because I was doing it with my girls but something about being behind a space-ship stroller, surrounded by minions, monsters, farm animals and grapes made the night a little more magical.

When the starting bell rang, the girls were off. And when I mean off, they were OFF. I kept asking if the needed a break and got an unequivocal no every time. We ran for over 10 minutes before one of them finally needed to stop, and even then they were ready to get back at it after 30 seconds. The furthest we'd got in our training was 3.5 minutes before breaking for 1.

We crossed  the finish line at just over 40 minutes to find a surprise personalized cheering section of Grandma and Aunt Erica.

What a fun night. Santa Shuffle, here we come.

A Whole Lot of Hair

First day of school tomorrow for Audrée...very exciting!!! I thought we'd start off on the right foot and send her in clean. As she was finishing up her bath she said, "Mom, I want my hair to be beautiful tomorrow, can you put it in buns so it's very curly?"

I think she may end up with a complex about those golden locks of hers, but only time will tell. I've already caught her asking a family friend if he thought her hair was beautiful. As a father of three boys and a one year old girl (who is working on growing a beautiful mane) he dutifully nodded. She then proceeded to demonstrate how she brushes it to keep it shiny and smooth.

Of course, if Audrée has buns, then her protegé must have them too. Luci was surprisingly still as I put them in and didn't complain about it hurting. Audrée tells me that it hurts but is worth it. Lucienne loves having her hair done and will often ask for a ponytail.

And Evelyn followed suit. With her we tried an experimental cornrow attempt.

I wondered how long Lucienne would keep them in but as of bedtime they were still there. However, she's a hair twirler, especially to soothe herself to sleep, so as I nursed her she had no idea what to do with her hands and fingers. They were all over the place looking for something to twirl or fiddle. I have a feeling those buns aren't all going to be there in the morning!

A friend posted on Facebook, "I don't know how you do it with 4 girls...I have a hard enough time with just doing Kenzie's hair!" To which I responded, "This happens once every 4-5 months. I'm lucky if a brush runs through everyone's hair on a normal day". Erica seconded that.


Postscript: Audree woke me up at 2 in the morning to let me know she had taken out her buns so that her hair wouldn't be too poufy in the morning. And since she was already there...she snuggled in for the rest of the night. When Lucienne crawled in around 4 hers were still holding on. She'd pulled them a bit but at least the bottom half of her hair should be curly.

With a Twist and a Tumble

Today's it's official...Evelyn has registered for gymnastics. We've been counting down the days until registration was open. She would be DEVESTATED if the class was full so we decided that it would be best to drive over before school so she could hand over her (somewhat) hard-earned cash. We had a deal, if she could save for half the course we would pay the other half. Turns out she saved enough for two halves so if she chooses she can sign up again once this session runs through.

She was dressed with bed made, hair done and ready to go at about 6:30am this morning with her money clutched tightly in her hand and a smile that never left her face. She walked seriously up to the lady behind the registration desk and said, "I'd like to take gymnastics". She carefully counted out her money then practically floated out of the gym.

The bad news...it doesn't start until March 28th. I thought she was going to cry when she realized how far away that was. It was hard enough to wait until the registration date itself and now there's another month until it officially begins. The poor girl. We dutifully marked the calendar with a big star and now (not-so) patiently wait until the big day comes.

After dropping them off at school and returning home I went to grab her envelop with her extra money in it (about $100) and couldn't find it in the car. I know she carried it out of the rec centre and thought that perhaps she had left it in her coat pocket. I debated about just leaving it but I know how upset she would be if something happened to it so I loaded the girls back in the van and drove back to the school. She was called out of her classroom...I love the look on her face when she has no idea if she should be smiling or worried!! She was sure it was in the van and promised it wasn't in her coat or bag (I thought there was a chance she wanted to show off her riches to her friends) so back into the car I went. Turns out it had fallen under the back seat. I have got to open up bank accounts for the girls so we don't have all this cash around the house just waiting to be played with and lost.

32 days and counting. This is going to be a long month.

Knit One, Purl One

In true second-child form, Evelyn wanted to learn how to knit...because Amelia learned. I wasn't sure that a 6-year-old had the necessary coordination of fingers so I kept putting it off. However, in Christmas shopping we found a Learn How to Knit kit that had Evelyn written all over it. I then proceeded to forgot to give it to her for Christmas, then I forgot to give it to her for her birthday. I came across it a couple days ago and decided to just give it to her. In a way I think it was a good thing. She was sooooo excited to be getting a random gift for a non-celebratory occasion that she declared it was the BEST present ever (a learn-to-knit book...really?) She painstakingly went through the whole book and picked out her first project (the book contains instructions for various animals and their accessories). I squashed her grand plans by suggesting we work on knitting a square first so she could get that hang of it.

So, we started out with casting on. Once she got the hand of that she declared that she would like to make something by just casting on because it was so much fun. Again I squashed her grand plans by saying there's nothing you can make with only cast-on stitches becasue once you take them off the needle it will just unravel. Next step, learn how to knit. We settled on making a wrist sweat band for when she's dancing (with the matching pair and headband to follow). She picked it up surprisingly quickly, but not without some ups and downs. This is something of her roller coaster emotions with each stitch:

"I love knitting, I think I'll make a sweater next!"

"I can't do this, it's too hard." followed by
 throwing the project across the table.

"Look at how fast I'm going, I'll have this
finished by the end of the night!"

""AHHHHHHHHHHHH...I'll never learn
how to knit, I can't see what I'm doing."

"Do you think I'm as good as Grandmama yet?"

And next row...

It's a slow process but she's coming along.

Seven. I Can't Believe She's Seven!

 

Evelyn is 7. FINALLY!! It's been a hard couple of weeks waiting through her sisters' birthdays. But it's finally here. February 6th - the day we welcomed our Evelyn into our family. She barely waited for the midwife to come and Grandma missed it by minutes...and she's been on the go ever since.

My top seven favourite things about my seven-year-old:

1. Her smile. She smiles all the time (except when she's grumpy of course but even then, if I work hard enough, I can get her to crack). She even has the cutest I'm-trying-not-to-smile smile which she can only hold for a bit before her "real" smile breaks through. She smiles when she's playing soccer and running her heart out, she smiles as she's playing piano in a recital, she smiles when she catches me watching her dance. Smile, smile, smile...I love it! Especially now that it's a toothless smile, even cuter!

2. Anyone who's in the same room with Evelyn for more than five minutes can tell she has energy to spare. She bounces and runs and tumbles. She loves cartwheeling and will spontaneously do one while walking through the livingroom. When practicing the piano she's all over the chair but her fingers keep finding the right notes even though her bum can't stay still. She'll dance even when there's no music and when there is music, watch out.

3. Evelyn loves being with people. The greatest punishment she could be given is to be sent to her room to be on her own. She's such a social butterfly. She plays with everyone at school and is liked by all. I think she'll grow into one of those people that can find something in common with anyone and make you feel like you've known her forever.

4. In the dictionary under the word snuggle is a picture of Evelyn. I love that at 7 (just) she will still crawl onto a lap if given half a chance. Finding her snuggling in our bed is becoming rarer and rarer these days but every now and then I wake up to find myself unable to move to the right because of Audree and the left because of Evelyn. She's guaranteed to be snuggled up close to either me or Rene for Friday night movie nights...or anytime we're watching anything as a family. Considering she lived the first 6 months of her life in a sling (many people didn't even know what she looked like as a baby) it's not hard to believe she still loves to get in close.

5. Evelyn has always had a sense of style...all on her own. She's been picking out her own clothing since before she could walk. She loves doing hair and make-up and matching shoes with accessories. She loves her dresses and skirts and loves to model her outfits...often with a twirl and a pose.

6. She wears her heart on her sleeve. There's never any second guessing on what she's feeling. When she's happy, she's beaming. When she's sad, the world has ended. When she's proud she could conquer the world. She's very sensitive to other's feelings as well and is usually the first to come to Lucienne's rescue or comfort a sister (as long as she wasn't the cause of the tears). Watching a sad movie will evoke sobs (especially when sad things happen to animals) and she's always the first one up to dance and jump around to the closing credits.

7. I love that Evelyn is up for anything. She'll always try something new. She loves to go out...no matter where "out" is. If it looks fun, Evelyn is for sure there right in the middle. She's the life of the party.

We sure do love our Evelyn. She's one of kind, and she's one of ours.

Glamming it up for her Zumba birthday party.

Blowing out her candles...big breath!

Best buds...though not sure what's up with Audree's smile here.

Final two...

Showing off the new boots.

New Glasses

Evelyn FINALLY (her word) got new glasses. I was thinking her old pair was about 2 years old. Turns out they were only 1 1/2 years...but by that point I'd already promised she could have some and there was no way to wiggle out of that one without serious consequences. What's 6 months anyway?

It all started with a check-up visit to the optometrist. I said if he said she needed a new pair then she could certainly get one. I had dropped Lucienne and Audree off at a good friend's place because the optometrist is probably the WORST place to bring young kids. Think dark room for about an hour exam, no toys and super expensive equipment. I've done it once, never again.

As usual they were running way behind. We ended up getting a student about 3 months shy of graduation. I'm not sure if it was because that was the plan all along or if our doctor saw my exaggerated eye roll and heard my heaving sigh when he came out to get a different patient (we had already been waiting about an 1/2 hour). I'm hoping he either didn't see it or thought I was exasperated at something in the magazine I was reading. Either way, we ended up with this student who was very good with Evelyn. But she's a pretty eager patient when it comes to eye exams.

Turns out her prescription didn't change...ie, no need for new glasses. He did make an offhand comment about how scratched her lenses were though and her eyes lit up with a huge smile and she looked at him and asked, "Does that mean I need new glasses?" with a ever hopeful glance in my direction. I don't think I'm much of a pushover parent. Rene and I definitely don't get the girls anything they want but there was no way I could say no to her right then.

We had already spent our waiting time trying on over-priced glasses at the office and she had her heart set on ones with a clip-on shade. I didn't like them at all (she wasn't going for overall look, she was sold on the sunglasses part).

We did a quick jaunt into Walmart once Amelia came home from school and settled on a purple pair. Poor thing didn't realize that they aren't ready to take home, that it was going to take a couple weeks. She went from over-the-moon excited to devastated in about 3 seconds. However, last night we got a phone call they were ready (luckily only 4 business days compared to the 10 they originally told us). I think she would have walked to Walmart in this -25C weather we're having right now to get them but I told her she'd have to wait until Daddy came home the following day.

I don't even think he got a hello from her today. He pulled in and she was pulling on her boots saying, "Come on Mom, lets go get my glasses." So off we went with Rene left to finish dinner.

She got home from school today and thankfully friends of hers had noticed the new look (including some boys which I think made her blush although she could have just had rosy cheeks from the frosty weather).

Lets hope now that she's a bit older these ones don't take as much abuse as the others and we can get more than a year out of them. So far so good.

Evelyn's Talk

Evelyn gave a talk today at church. She's actually been assigned the last 2 weeks but the first we forgot and the second she stayed home because Lucienne was sick (and, cough-cough, so was she). Luckily we remembered an hour before church this morning that she needed to write something.

Evelyn is at the stage that whatever question you ask her about something churchy she asks back "Jesus?". Or gives some funny, round about answer that kind of answers the question but not so much.

All the girls are really into writing things on the computer right now so of course, we had to write her talk on the computer. So, here's her talk, just as she wanted it. The rainbow coloured text needs no explanation if you know Evelyn at all.

The theme this month is: I Am a child of God, and He Has a Plan for Me.

Before we were born we lived with Jesus while we waited for our turn on earth. I think I was feeling nervous and excited, kind of like when I had to wait for my turn to play the piano in a recital.

We are all born into a family to show us love and give hugs and kisses. We have parents to protect us and teach us. We can read the scriptures to learn about the commandments and what we need to do to live with Jesus again.

We are free to choose if we’re bad or good. I want to be good on earth so I can live with Jesus and be happy. I also want my family to be there. I can be a good example to my sisters and my Mom and Dad to help them choose the right.

I know that Jesus is real. I believe the commandments that he tells me will help me learn how to be good. I’m glad I came to earth.

I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Evelyn's Piano Recital

Evelyn was invited by a good friend of mine to be in a piano recital. She's a teacher and holds a small recital for all her students. When she found out I was teaching Evelyn on my own she said she would love if Evelyn played with her students. When I asked Evelyn what she thought she got sooooooo excited. I love when Evelyn gets excited about something. Even as a baby she was so expressive, she wears her emotions on her sleeve, her body barely able to contain what she's feeling. So, we picked a Christmas song, Carol of the Bells and went to work. It is 2 levels above where she's at so I was a bit worried about her being able to play it but she was determined that was the song she wanted to do.

She did fantastic tonight. I know I'm biased but when a couple of 13 year-old boys rank her as second best of the night (there was a 10 year-old girl who played beautifully) I know she really did do well. There were about 12 students playing and she was probably the 3 youngest. I was so proud of her.

Another thing (of many) I love about Evelyn is her smile. She smiles the whole time she's going something she loves. And it's not just a little closed mouth half-smile, it's a full-open-mouth-toothy grin (or in her case, toothless). She smiled the whole night, she was beaming.

If I can get better at being consistent with her practicing I think she has some real piano talent. I'm learning with her that she's better to have 3 or 4 ten minute practice sessions through the day rather than a 30-40 minute sit down. At this stage though she wants me sitting beside her the whole time to help her out. But where I am, Lucienne is, and she's not the most helpful when my attention is on someone other than her.

She loves playing and I hope we can keep that love alive. It's hard to know how much to push and when to back-off. Some days she really doesn't want to practice but I know it's the only way she's going to get better. And as she gets better I think she'll love it even more.

Where did I put that Evelyn Instruction Manual?

Anything is Possible at Erica's House

I love how much the girls love their extended family. A trip to Addison's is like a trip to Disney World (only a lot closer and a lot cheaper). And those parents of hers are pretty fun too. Grandma's house has Treehouse, need I say more? A trip to Montreal means I'll only see them appear at dinner and Grandmama and Grandpapa's house has their favourite flowers named after each of them.

Every now and then I can talk Erica into taking one or more of the girls for a sleepover. A day at Erica's often means a trip to McDonald's and time to be spoiled on their own. They get their own room, pick what they want to watch on t.v. and walk a dog that won't pull them off their feet (although that little Georgia is stronger than she looks).

Tonight was Evelyn's turn. Over dinner, once I realized Erica wasn't working tomorrow, I discreetly asked if she wanted to take Evelyn for the night. Amelia was off at a birthday party and Audree had already had a turn (she hasn't offered to take Lucienne yet, not sure why). When Erica asked Evelyn if she'd like to sleep over she got the cutest grin, hopped down from the dinner table, gave me a kiss and said "bye Mom". She wasn't leaving any room for us to change our minds. She had her bag packed in record time (I wish I could figure out how to get that to happen for school mornings) and was pulling Erica out the door.

Erica had a Scentsy party to go which made Evelyn feel very grown up and special to attend. There was a neighbour garage sale to help out with in the morning and who knows what other adventures. I did get a hopeful phone call Evelyn late morning asking if she could get bangs cut into her hair (something she's been asking for weeks but I just haven't had the time to do anything about).

Perhaps Erica will write a blog about their fun-filled day? (hint, hint)

Back to School

You know you're getting old when you frequently say: look how tall you're getting, I can't believe how time flies, what was I coming up for?, where did the summer go?, etc, etc.

But seriously, where did the summer go? It's the first day of school and I feel like we didn't do anything this summer. I was thinking of going on lots of day trips to the beach and splash pads and zoos and cousin visits and parks and hikes. Mind you, this was when I thought I would have the car six of the eight weeks of summer which turned out to be about one week. One of Rene's coworkers was kicked out of the carpool for being constantly late and then overtime happened which his other carpooling buddy has no interest in doing. So, I was left to searching out things to do by foot.

Anyway, back to the first day of school. It's not a very exciting morning here, which I'm going to take as a compliment and that my girls love spending time with me at home. Evelyn was in tears most of the morning.  I think we over prepared her for grade one. I just remember the transition being really hard for Amelia. The room isn't full of toys anymore and there's way more desk work. We totally under prepared Amelia and so went too far the other way with Evelyn.

Amelia isn't great with change to begin with so her not looking forward to going back to school is a given. Last year it took her a couple weeks to get into the swing of things but she was hugely disappointed that her grade had been split and she wasn't in her BFF, Charlotte's, class. This year I contacted the school to request they not be split but came away with a decision to make. Turns out we'd have to decide if she would have the same teacher for three years in a row or be in Charlotte's class. Since this has more to do with her than with me I let her make the decision. I'm so glad I did. It means that she went to school today already knowing what to expect. She choose to have a different teacher and that we would make an extra effort to have Charlotte over for more play dates. They are two peas in a pod though so it's going to take more than being in separate classes to tear these two apart.

The other day we were talking about heaven and how we probably knew each other before we came here. We talked about how the people we meet are placed in our path for a reason. When I asked her if she thought she and Charlotte were friends before and that there's a reason why they gravitated to each other in JK she got a cute smile on her face and I could see a lightbulb go off in her head. I hope they have the type of friendship that lasts a lifetime.

Anyway...away they went. I'm happy that we have the same bus driver as the last two years and it picks up and drops off in front of our house (I really try to not take that for granted because I know how lucky we are).

I must say that although I missed them it was a much more pleasant day. No fighting. I had some downtime on my own while Lucienne napped and Audree watched a movie. Audree and I baked some chocolate chip cookies for the girls when they got home (might as well start off on the right foot).

The girls came off the bus happy and excited. They both have great teachers this year that should be a lot of fun. It's weird not knowing what they do for the bulk of their day now. Soon they'll be all grown up with their own lives and I'll be sitting at home wondering where my babies went. How time flies.

And we're done our Birthday marathon...yay!!!!

What a wonderful 2 weeks of being reminded of the amazing children I birthed 8, 6 and 3 years ago.

So, I had a mother-of-the-year moment this morning. I kind of forgot it was Evelyn's birthday. I came down, the girls were already up watching some t.v. (so that I can get a little extra sleep!!) and I started right into the morning routine - change Lucienne's diaper, get breakfast on the table, make lunches...when Evelyn asks very politely if she could please open one of her birthday gifts. Ahhhhhhhh!!! It's her birthday TODAY!!! Right, I actually did know that but looking back at the past three days that held three birthday parties for her I kind of forgot. I hope the next 5 minutes of complete exuberance and hugs and kisses and birthday dancing made up for my foggy morning forgetfulness.

So, this kid had 4 birthday parties and I'm not sure how to change that in years to come. It sure is handy when their birthday is actually on a weekend but when it's not it's hard to co-ordinate. On Friday she had a couple of friends over for "theatre a la Lalonde". We borrowed a projector from Mom's work and after collaborating with Uncle Adam finally managed to get a cinema sized movie projected onto a bedsheet hung from the ceiling. Amelia and her friends (invited because the "theatre a la Lalonde" from her birthday party the weekend before was a bust due to increment weather preventing Aunt Erica from bringing the projector up to Orangeville) made tickets and signs, coordinated seating and helped arrange the theatre. After my hours of frustration setting the movie part up (couldn't get anything to play on our laptop) it sure was nice having them here to take care of fun little details. We had pizza, chips, popcorn and juice...only one cup spilled which is a pretty amazing feat considering the audience.

I must say, I loved having parties for the girls this year that involved them only inviting 2 friends. In the past we've done the invite-all-the-girls-in-your-class kind of parties and it's 2 hours of stress and mayhem. It's over in a blur, nobody got to play with the presents (of which there are way too many) and I'm exhausted at the end. Two friends meant two presents (reasonable), they stayed for 4 hours, opened the gifts first so they could play with them and ran around having fun, entertaining themselves. I loved it! Originally we were going to take them to the movies but nothing is playing for kids right now except a re-release of Beauty and the Beast in 3D which neither of the girls had any interest in going. I'm kind of glad we did it at home anyway. It was more relaxed, we could pause the movie for pee breaks and they could move around to stay comfortable.

Next came the King family birthday party on Saturday and the Lalonde Sr birthday party on Sunday. Then, her real birthday party on Monday. If forgetting in the morning wasn't bad enough, apparently the dinner I made in the evening was worse. I thought she liked ham and yams but she does not. Usually I let them pick their birthday meal but she had already picked Friday's and Saturday's so I just did something that I like and thought she liked. Strawberry shortcake for dessert because we're all a bit caked out and she only ate the strawberries because she doesn't like whipped cream (crazy, I know!) or sponge cake. So, in summary, she had bread with butter and strawberries for her birthday dinner. I can't force a kid to eat the "good" stuff on her birthday!!

And her gift...Rene took the initiative this year and bought the girls' gifts. For Amelia it was a remote control helicopter which she LOVED! Audree was a Barbie and doll stroller which she also LOVED! And Evelyn was a remote control car that could go up to speeds of 30km/hr and was for ages 12+. I didn't realize this until wrapping the gifts Monday afternoon so when Rene got home I suggested he quickly go to WalMart before dinner and pick up a more age appropriate car (the gift idea itself was great, just not the actual gift) with the goal of going to the gym at the chapel after dinner and everyone could play with their toy (the 12+ car now being Rene's...which might have been his plan in the first place). He was going to take Amelia with him (to buy a replacement helicopter with her birthday money as she devastatingly flew hers into the woodstove and melted off a propeller), then Evelyn wanted to go, then Audree wanted to go. He decided that if Evelyn came she could pick what car she wanted and what's one more so Audree went too. Evelyn came back with a stuffed horse, Audree came back with a remote control car and I've now added WalMart to the list of places Rene should not go unsupervised (Home Depot and Canadian Tire already being on the list).

After dinner they went to have a blast at the chapel and I stayed home to put Lucienne to bed. I was upstairs when they came home and could hear the girls chatting excitingly while taking off their coats when Audree says "Oh no, Mommy's going to kill Daddy". She was genuinely worried. In my mind I'm thinking fender bender, speeding ticket or injury. She comes slowing into my room and asks with her sweet little Audree voice and big blinking eyes, "Are you going to kill Daddy?". I told her I didn't think so but needed to clarify with Amelia and Evelyn who were coming up the stairs. Bracing for the worst I asked how the night was and they ask, "Are you mad for us being so late?" (it was only 8:45ish). Apparently Rene didn't realize it was so late until they were in the car and said something like "I can't believe it's so late, Mommy's going to kill me." Note to self, three-year-olds take things very literally. I'm glad they had fun!! And I'm glad Rene didn't get a speeding ticket racing back home.

So, we're done until May (March if you count Grandma but I don't have to do too much planning for that!). I might re-wrap the car for Rene...or maybe just let him keep it for being such a great Dad to four beautiful girls!!