First Annual Thanksgiving Apple Picking Trip

We had to start the day with chopping wood. The novelty has worn off for our helpers. Hmmmm, that insinuates they were ever excited.  Rephrase: the task continues to be daunting for our helpers. But they are troopers! As an incentive to getting the job done we promised them an afternoon of apple picking.

Still monkey see, monkey do

Initially I had visions of visiting one of those farms that makes the apple picking a small portion of fun as kids can participate in wagon rides, petting zoos, hay jumps, corn mazes...you get the picture. As the day wore on though the hours quickly passed and after wood chopping, lunch, and a quick jaunt to help a friend with roofing we ended up leaving Orangeville around 4:15pm. We hastily arrived at a farm 15 minutes before they closed, jumped on the last tractor ride out to the orchard, speedily picked a bag of apples and ran to catch the last tractor ride back to the farm.

I felt bad. The girls had really worked hard all morning with the prize of apple picking, which ended up being a 30 minute frenzy of apples and tractors. There was a farm dog (petting zoo?) and we had to remember where we parked (maze?) and they did jump over a chain fence (hay jump?) so I suppose we did cover all our bases.

The neat thing about kids: they know how to have fun. They were thrilled to be allowed to climb a ladder to reach the high branches (where Rene insisted all the best apples grew).

The look of concentration...

The scrutiny that every apple went through,
only the best for our family.

Lucienne's squeals of delight with the tractor ride would make anyone think we were on the ride of her life.

Heading back.

I had to question why there were people there without kids. Because pick-your-own-apples is really just a clever way to disguise make-your-own-work and without the antics of children it's really not that much fun.

Stop, Drop, Roll

**sorry for the low quality of pictures...it was dark out and the camera flash didn't seem to want to cooperate all the time.

The local fire department had an open house so we thought we'd stop by.

They had a fire house going that they let the kids spray. I tried to convince them to hit families going back to their cars (lets put a bit of a challenge to it) but the firefighter didn't seem to think it was a good idea. Audree wanted nothing to do with it at first but later in the night decided to try (Rene had the camera though and I couldn't find him so it will only be documented in our memory).

They had all the trucks open so the kids and Dads could climb inside. One kid even managed to get the horn on one of them working. Those firemen really can move fast, I got the impression that it wasn't suppose to be operational.

They had all the gear out and kids could suit up and see how far they could walk. They even had them holding oxygen tanks and axes...not sure how safe that was but the kids' sure thought it was great (once again, Rene and camera were MIA).

They had a spin-the-wheel-answer-the-question-and-win-a-prize table. Apparently I need to brush up on my fire safety knowledge, most of the answers I fed the girls were embarrassingly wrong (once again, no Rene and thus no camera).

There was someone dressed up as a dalmatian dog that Lucienne thought was hilarious, until he took a step towards us. She would then yell "No, scary, scary" until he would take one step back which she would burst out laughing and think he was great. We played that game for a few minutes until it just seemed cruel. Audree was quite enamored with him and gave him lots of hugs and high fives (and of course, no Rene and camera).

For most of the night I couldn't find Rene (which really made me wish I had the camera).  Turns out he made a new volunteer fight-fighter friend who was talking up the profession. He now has the fire-fighting bug in his head. Volunteers need to be on-call from 6pm to 6am but don't necessarily get called every night. I wonder if he realizes there may be heights involved.

You Win Some, You Lose Some

Today was Family Day. We were all very excited. I had looked at all the free activities that Orangeville had to offer and we decided on the following itinerary:
Pancake breakfast at the chapel
Cross-country skiing
A swim or a skate
Dinner with friends
Soccer or floor hockey at the chapel

It was going to be a fun day!!!!!

First up...pancake breakfast! I don't think I've ranted about wheat yet on this blog. The short of it...we're not eating wheat right now, or processed sugar. It's a blog post all on its own. The girls are adjusting okay, relatively speaking (if you count desperately clutching a box of cereal and begging to have just one bowl as adjusting). Rene is being forced to come around because I'm not buying bread or cereal and we're pretty much out (he's still eating crackers though so we'll see how things pan out when those suckers are all gone). Anyway, I told them not to worry, I would be making our own potato pancakes that we would cook up and serve with sour cream instead of syrup. The girls' faces dropped (it is bad I thought their crestfallen faces were humorous?) and Rene said, "Are we turning into "that" kind of family?" Gosh, what kind of Mom do they think I am? They were so excited to gorge out on processed wheat based circles of deliciousness topped with a sugaring, syrupy touch of heaven. I made sure to stuff them with fruit and yogurt before we left so at least they wouldn't be filling up on a completely empty stomach.

Next stop, cross-country skiing. This was the most exciting part of the day. The local ski club was offering free trail access and free ski rentals. And when things just couldn't get any better for this already fantastic adventure we unexpectedly arrived at the same time as the family of Amelia's best friend from school. The sun was shining, there was no wind and it was the perfect temperature. We all got boots and skis and poles without having to wait and we were off. It only took them about 2 minutes to realize that it's not as easy as walking and Amelia was in tears in about 5. With Lucienne strapped to his back, Rene patiently tried to teach Amelia how to get up while I dealt with Audree. Evelyn, being the somewhat natural athlete that she is, managed to pick it up fairly quickly and was down the path in a jiffy.

After about 15 minutes, and 20 metres, Audree gave up. She wouldn't budge and there was nothing I could say to change her mind. She was done and in no mood to negotiate. Grudgingly (not one of my most notable parenting moments) I took her skis off, then mine, and trudged back to the chalet, only longingly glancing back once at the rest of my family as they disappeared around the bend of the trail. I guess Rene eventually realized I wasn't with the group and came back to hand off Lucienne. If I was going back what was the sense of him holding onto her? And away he went. I now had a load of a toddler, two sets of skis and poles, a hiking backpack carrier and a crying 4 year old.

We got back to the chalet (not a lovely picturesque chalet in the mountains of Switzerland...more like an overcrowded multipurpose room with a view of a ski rack). We situated ourselves by a window and I then sat for 2.5 hours while Audree napped on the floor and Lucienne napped on me. To say I wish I had a book would be an understatement. At one point I saw one person I knew and she chatted long enough to tell me that she had seen Rene and the girls eating some hotdogs at the outdoor fire pit they had along the trail and that she was sure they wouldn't be too much longer.

With nothing else to do other than feel sorry for myself, by the time they got back I was ready to explode with self pity and had little patience for their tales of frolicking in the snow with hot chocolate and roasted marshmallows and hotdogs. I was hungry, and tired, and had a numb butt and a numb arm and just wanted to get out of there.

I kind of ruined the rest of the afternoon. I wasn't in a mood for swimming or skating, instead I went grocery shipping while Rene watched a movie with the girls. I came home to make dinner for friends who showed up at four.

I got over myself and had a lovely dinner. We then went to the chapel to play a game. Her 4 and 9 year olds were super excited to play floor hockey, her 14 and 15 year olds had very important business to attend to on their phones, my girls were less than enthused to play but hit the ball every now and then. The game dissolved and I found myself out in the hallway nursing Lucienne with the teens and my girls lazing around on the couch. I told Amelia and Evelyn to go and slap Rene on the butt and tell him he was it. The most fun and energetic hour and a half game of tag ensued. We even managed to get the 14-year-old off the couch and that's saying a lot.

I realized something integral about Amelia today. She really doesn't like team sports. She has no desire to chase something that already has 5 people chasing it. When push comes to shove, she will walk away. She's all about individual sports though. She LOVED the skiing...once she got the hang of not falling, she loves playing tag, she loves swimming (when her class isn't filled with just boys), she loves tobogganing. She would probably love track and field if her school offered it. She loves biking and yoga and skating. These are the classes I need to be on the look out to sign her up for.

I love when I finally figure out a little piece of the puzzle of what makes up my children!

Random Day-to-Day Stuff

Starting to feel a little housebound here. It's been soooooo cold that I haven't ventured out anywhere. Add to  that little fact that I don't have a car this week and you have a recipe for disaster. We did have to walk to swimming lessons today (Rene picks us up once he's home so it's only one way) and I failed to do a wardrobe check. Halfway there Audree starts crying that her hands hurt...I look at them and she's wearing thin little dollar store gloves. It's -20C!!!! Poor thing. She wouldn't take my mitts so I held one hand and Amelia held the other to try and warm them up. I don't think we'll be enrolling again until the spring. Which is a shame because all the girls are finally enjoying it and I don't have to drag them there kicking and screaming (literally some days!).

Paris hasn't had any walks so she's going a little nutso, more so than her usual rambunctious self. She's had a couple of treadmill runs but it's not really the same. She's starting to chew toys again (she was doing really well there for awhile) and the cat is getting stalked on a regular basis. Oh, and the cat is in heat AGAIN. She was just in heat a couple weeks ago. She's walking around the house with her bum in the air caterwauling all day and night. No wonder Paris is taking and extra interest in this crazy cat right now.

Lucienne has been a bit under the weather (runny nose and cough we just can't seem to get rid of) and has been giving me a hard time with naps. She can go to sleep at night no problem - I'm even putting her into her crib awake and she's fine. But naps...she can be fast asleep on me and scream the second I lower her into the crib. I've also tried putting her in awake, following the same routine as nighttime and I still get the same result. There is no way this kid is giving up her naps. Especially since for the last month or so she's getting a head-start on her to-do list for the day by getting up at 5am. On the other hand, Audree has been taking naps almost every day this week and then not going to sleep at night until way-late. She usually comes downstairs asking when we're going to bed and saying "I think I need to try to go to sleep in your bed now, mine's not working." She's still in our bed at some point in the night probably about 90% of nights now. She's warm though so I don't mind at all.

Every morning Audree asks how many more days to her birthday while Evelyn gives a moan because she's the LAST, and life's NOT FAIR and why doesn't anybody LOVE her? Thank goodness her birthday is only a mere two weeks after Amelia's. I hope Lucienne doesn't have this same reaction when she has to wait 6 months after our birthday marathon.

Amelia is having trouble adjusting to iPod boundaries. It was brought to swimming lessons, and chiropractor (stayed in the car for that one) and she waited (naked I might add) in the bathroom for 30 minutes not having a bath but playing a game. In her defense she had apparently called for me to help with the shower curtains and I didn't hear. Rene is too. They were up together until 9pm one night playing "just one more game". We got her to bed and Rene slyly tried to get back on only to find Amelia had locked it with a passcode. Smart girl.

And that's a day in the life of the Lalondes.

Costumes and Candy Holiday

Halloween, my least favourite holiday of the year. Even as a child I don't remember loving it (although Mom might have different thoughts). I did love the candy aspect but don't remember loving the dressing up part. Now the thought of gathering and coordinating costumes for 3 (and next year 4) children makes me want to just go out and buy a couple boxes of candy and call it even. 

The only thing I do love about Halloween is that it's a quiet night in for me. My plan was to put Lucienne to bed a bit early, put in a chick flick and put my feet up while Rene and the girls collected candy I would eat for the next couple of weeks. We don't get too many kids knocking at our door so it really is a relaxing evening.

However, I married my perfect match and Rene is officially in charge of Halloween in our home. He LOVES it. This year I consented with the girls to purchase costumes for them...as long as they stuck to the 70% off rack in Zellers. I must say, we had a couple cute pirates (Evelyn and Audree) and a very realistic looking Merida from the movie Brave (Amelia). I told them that if I bought them something they were in no way going to change their minds. There would be no last minutes indecision.

It turns out Evelyn is a lot like me. She was a pirate for a party the weekend before, a gorilla for school and 5 minutes before we were set to go out the door proclaimed that she didn't know what she wanted to be so was going to stay home. Her gorilla suit was wet from it raining all day and she couldn't find the dagger she put in her boot for her pirate costume and said no one would know what she was without it (no comment). I really wanted to tell her fine, just stay home but I knew she wouldn't be happy so we quickly got some pjs that would fit over her winter coat and put some rosy cheeks on her, a cop out baby.

But, I should probably back up in the week. Sunday night, all three girls got sick within hours of each other. I spent the night up between the three of them and  cleaned two bathrooms from missed spewage. To Rene's credit he did get up around 4am during one of Amelias puking episodes and was ready for battle only to find a very tired me downstairs cleaning the floor of the bathroom for a second time.

Luckily, it was an 8 hour bug and they were all fine by the following afternoon. Not so lucky, I got it last night and Rene got it this afternoon. Just in time for Halloween. Since I could technically walk without running to the bathroom my quiet night in became a cold, wet night out.

It was a little more fun than I thought it would be. At one point we found the cutest little kitten outside a home and I made an offhand comment that perhaps we could have the kitten instead of candy. Evelyn's eyes went huge and with a huge smile said "Really??!!" Whoops. No, not really. But I would have.

But, now it's over for another year and I can deal with sugar high children for the next couple of weeks. I let them gorge on candy after school so that they'll get through the loot in about 2 weeks. I heard it's better for their teeth that way anyway and I don't have to deal with the sugar whines for months on end. Let the games begin.

General Conference Thoughts

Last Thursday I was finally able to go to my first Enrichment Meeting in years. In the past I've had La Leche League meetings that conflicted with the time. One day it dawned on me that as the leader I could change the time we met...so I did! That was months ago though and it seems like life quickly filled up my Thursday night with other commitments.

This one was on how to get our children interested in watching General Conference, or at least quietly occupied in the same room while it's running. There were so many great ideas presented that it made me realize that I need to be way more proactive to create teaching opportunities at home. This has been on my mind lately.

With only one day to really work on something I took a few ideas from those presented and worked out something for the girls. I bought them each a Conference Journal which would only come out during conferences. I photocopied pictures of the General Authorities, Seventies and Auxillary Presidencies along with some clip-art pictures of common themes. Their job was going to be to find who is speaking, cut out their picture and glue into their journal, write the person's name and listen for a keyword on what they're speaking about then glue in the corresponding picture or draw one of their own.  Friday night I told them they would find a special conference basket in their room the next morning that would hold treats and activities. It was like Christmas or Easter...okay, maybe not quite the same but they were pretty excited.

Can I just start by saying I love that I have girls? This kept their attention for 3 of the 4 sessions (the fourth was at a Thanksgiving bash with the cousin so they were excused to play). Sure there were lost scissors, stressful moments of not being able to find a picture and misplaced glue sticks (most of them ending up being in Evelyn's dress-up dress she choose to wear for the occasion that had about 50 layers of crinoline that hid things very well...she often just had to stand up and the missing item would fall from her dress). It was hard for them to listen for the topic of the talks but most of the time it's hard for me to sum up a conference talk in one word. It was funny when Rene and I couldn't even agree on the "correct" topic.

Rene and I also got new conference journals. So often we just write notes on whatever paper is lying around (if we even take notes) and they're lost as soon as they're written.

What a fantastic conference. There are so many talks I want to listen to again. What really resonated with me was how hard it is for youth these days. They're going to need very strong testimonies and self-confidence and knowledge of who they really are and recognition of their true potential to navigate the coming years. Makes me want to keep them small forever and never let them go. But it also reiterated what I've been feeling lately...I really need to increase the teaching moments I create in our home to strengthen their testimonies and capture those that come naturally. It's not enough to just go to church once a week. They need to be learning at home.

The questions is how to fit it in between the cleaning and cooking and swimming and cleaning and activities and friends and cleaning and homework and music lessons and baby and cleaning and dog and renovations and family and cleaning. We've been pretty good at holding Family Home Evenings every Monday but many times they are a story read from a Friend and a quick discussion over ice cream before sending them off to bed. Morning scripture study is often me screaming at them to hurry up getting ready for school so we can sit down to read a verse or two before sending them out the door to their bus, Rene already long gone to work. Prayers are often repetitive catch phrases with little thought.

It all goes back to proactive parenting. Creating opportunities to learn instead of waiting for them to show up (which usually get missed as life rushes on). Talking about things that are important at the dinner table. Doing things together as a family. Being examples of lives of service. At some point I'm going to have to stop thinking about this and put something into action. It's pretty easy to physically take care of these precious spirits but to help them grow spiritually is a completely different story.

Victoria Day Holiday

What a crazy, fun, productive day today. Here's the run-down...

Rene finally started on the summer kitchen project, thanks to Erica bringing up her mitre saw for us to borrow. Who would have thought we'd ever need to borrow a tool? Right when we were ready to begin (and by we I mean Rene) Rene's saw started acting up. Turns out it's a switch that's on backorder and it's been 4 weeks. Anyway, he has the framing of the walls done. I'm excited to add another "useful" room to the house. We have been using is as a dumping ground for stuff with a side of exercise equipment. Once we can put the treadmill in there it will clear up a room for Amelia to go in and I have two more rooms to decorate and move around furniture in. I'm kind of hoping to put the piano in there too but it will depend on how regular the temperature ends up being in there. I'd love it to be an exercise/music/mudroom...that's my goal. Rene's thinking more man-cave with a pool table and 50" screen. I'll let him think that until it's done but seriously, not going to happen.

Audree decided to play hairdresser and give herself some very trendy, very short bangs. It actually kind of works. It blends in with her hair (luckily it was a pretty little chunk) and it's keeping the hair off her face. She's on to something...her talent is already shining through.

I worked on the gardens all day. Yay for garden centres being open today!

The girls went to our neighbour's to run through their sprinkler. While there an ambulance pulled up. Their Mom, a paramedic for Peel, had just taken someone to Headwaters Hospital and dropped in to say hi to her girls before heading back to her shift. So, we all got an impromptu tour of an ambulance. Kind of neat but hope that's the only time I'll see the inside of one of those.

Paris jumped through our screen door. She just got tired of waiting for someone to let her in I guess. Although it means we have to replace the screen it's pretty amazing that she can jump that high. It's a top-half screen door so the bottom is wood and the screen is on the upper half. There's no room to have a running start so she would have jumped from a standing position. Maybe we have a future agility star! As long as there are no cats or squirrels in the area.

As an end of the day celebration Rene decided to take the girls to the fireworks. They were soooo excited (and by they I mean all three) and I was kind of looking forward to a peaceful evening on my own to read. Turns out there were no fireworks and a very disappointed crew returned home after 10 minutes. It was 9:45pm and the girls were too bummed to go to bed so I dug out some sparklers left over from birthdays and we sparklered in the front yard. I told them if they held them up to the sky and squinted they looked like fireworks. It was a little sad but what can you do. We heard lots of fireworks going off but couldn't see any of them. I guess we'll have to wait for Canada Day.

Camping With the Fam

We did a last minute camping trip Friday night. It all came about because Rene was asked to do some service work at the President Monson Camp. He agreed thinking it was a guy's weekend trip with some Brothers from church. They'd have a boy's night followed by a day of service together...turns out he was the only one going. Not so much fun. When he first asked if I wanted to go I said no way. Having 4 girls and a dog (who would most likely have to be on leash all the time) by myself while he was working did not sound fun. Seriously, sometimes I can be such a stick in the mud. I tried to talk Rene out of going at all but he's a much better person than I am. He had committed to go so he was going to go.

He then though he would take Amelia and Evelyn and they could help. Has he met our girls? They would be into it for about 10 minutes then get bored and want to go play and explore. Who could blame them? I discussed with him that he would have to be a parent and work at the same time. And that they would probably get cranky because they'd have to be around him all the time.

I woke up Friday morning and felt terrible. He'd left for work already and we still hadn't really decided what was going to happen. I decided to go. Rene was going anyway, the girls would have fun, the only person that it might be hard for would be me but sometimes you just have to suck it up!

So I spent all day Friday preparing for a one night camping trip. The amount of stuff that needs to be brought is staggering! Add a dog and a baby to the mix and it's even worse. I wish we had been able to go longer to make it worth the time it took to pack and drive (it's about 3.5 hours away with no traffic). But we made it.

It was a little awkward once there. It's not really set up for individual family camping. It's a camp geared toward large groups so each site can fit 50-80 tents. There were going to be lots of people doing service on the Saturday but not a ton were staying the night. They put us on the site we'd be working at (staining a picnic structure) however there were already families on it. To make things worse, they weren't there as part of the service project. They were having a long weekend camping trip with friends and family...and us. There's only one fire pit and one eating area. We pitched our tent as far away from them as we could but didn't hang around the fire because it was just weird. They were nice about it but I could tell a little ticked that we had been put there when there were so many other sites empty. We also had to move around their stuff as we (as in Rene) stained.

All in all it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. The girls mostly kept themselves entertained. We hung out at the beach and around the site. Truthfully, I don't know how we killed the 5 hours it took Rene to work!! When he was done he took the older three girls out for an hour canoe trip (which they LOVED) and I watched with Lucienne and Paris from the beach.

It's been a while since we camped as a family. I think Audree was a baby so that would be three years. I forgot how much I love it, especially when Rene is around. I'm thinking we'll have to make some long weekends for camping this summer. Closer to home, with our own site...

Recharging with the Fam

So, yesterday, you few readers may recall, we got together to celebrate some more of the MANY early-year birthdays in the family.  (It's going to feel like family famine now that we don't have anything to CELEBRATE in the next couple of weeks after all the fun and partying we've done the last couple of months! Yikes!)  And we got talking about my STILL being in school and my reservations about graduation and registration examinations and blah blah blah....

And I just have to tell you, that the automatic and complete assumption/belief that DUH this is going to be EASY for me to accomplish was just...well... fabulous. hahaha

And you're right - I DO have a degree. I DO have a leg up on other people trying to become an RMT.  I AM going to be awesome.  Even though the registration exam scares the bageezies out of me...I can totally do this.

So, thanks for that.  I came home last night and said to Adam, you know what, they're RIGHT.

Anyway, I'm at school now between writing a test and class starting so... that's it for now.  Thanks for believing in me and making me feel awesome.

Cheers!
Rebecca