money, money, money

The Girls have discovered a new interest in money.  I should probably say a renewed interest as this is something that recently seems to come and go.  They're often all talk about money but not so good at putting it into action.  There's been talk of selling all sorts of crafts, lemonade and cookies on the street, but let's face it, we don't live in a very high traffic area and you can only encourage pestering the neighbours so much.  I've offered Darcy $1 for each of her stuffies but she looks at me like I have three purple and green heads so I guess she didn't like that idea to raise money.

We've discussed an allowance and as much as I don't believe children should be paid to do chores, I do think they need to be helpful around the house if they want an allowance.  I know, I know I'm not making sense, but I don't want to just hand them over money, nor do I want to encourage an attitude where they won't help if they don't get paid for it.  Last thing I want is to ask them to do something and have them turn around and ask me how much I'm going to pay them for it!

There are certain chores or life responsibilities that are non negotiable.  Unfortunately some of these are often not enforced (our bad) and end up becoming arguments for that very reason, however, others are very much a non issue anymore.

My most recent solution was to post a list on the fridge of different chores and their corresponding values.  This has resulted in them being much more helpful around the house which has been really nice... at least until I have to pay up.  It's up to the girls to keep a running list of what they've done and present me with the 'invoice' on Thursdays, I'll pay up on Friday.  I don't ask them to do any of the items on the list, there's no nagging or harrassing, it's just there if they want to earn a little extra money.

The first week this was in effect both girls managed to invoice me around $10...  It was a bit of a shock, since I wasn't sure how successful this would be.  At ten dollars a week for each of them I was wondering if I'd be able to keep up my financial end of the arrangement for very long.  The following week was closer to $5 each and I have to admit I was almost a little relieved that the novelty had warn off... The third week it dropped by almost 50% again and this week we were down to 50 cents each!!

Any ideas or suggestions on motivating children to help out around the house are more than welcome.

Start of Soccer Season

Ryland decided that she'd like to play soccer this summer.  She'll be playing every Monday and Wednesday evening until the end of July.  I'm curious to see how she likes it. 

She seems to be most interested in sports that neither Damian or I have ever participated in.  Last summer it was horseback riding which she'd like to do again this summer for camp, then over the winter she started curling, she's asked about fencing often and now soccer. 

Damian, who's played sports his entire life has never played a game of soccer.  Actually, he's never even sat through an entire game.  Now, however, because of his beautiful first born, he'll not only be watching soccer regularly, he's also decided that he'll help out in the role of assistant coach.  He's already told Ry that she can just call him Grand Mugwump while they're there.  Should be interesting...

Luckily, there was a break in the pouring rain last night... just long enough for them to have their first practice and game.  Score 0-0.  I'm told it was really pre-season, so it doesn't count in the standings.

do you think my tractor's sexy?

These are my guys out cruisin' the neighbourhood before nine in the morning on Saturday.

Not the best quality of picture but they were on the move!

fifteen years

Happy Anniversary!

Take MY picture Mom!!

CHEESE!

Thoughtful Thursday

NINE!!

Darcy, my baby girl... always. 
Where does the time go??

Here are nine things that I love about you today on your ninth birthday.

1. Your freckles, especially at this time of year.  They seem to multiply in front of my eyes as the sun kisses your cheeks.
2. The fact that you seem to have finally accepted that you were genetically predisposed to enjoy reading like your Mom, Dad and Sister.
3. Your imagination.  I love that you still spend hours playing and haven't been sucked into the world of electronics yet.  You have so much love for your stuffies and show so much concern for their well being.  It gives me a glimpse into your future and makes me think you're going to be an amazing mother one day.
4. Your mischievious little smile and the sparkle in your eye that tells me there's more trouble to come. 
5. Your ability to make me laugh.  I don't know where you come up with half of it, but you really crack me up!
6. Your tastebuds.  Without you there wouldn't be anyone in the house to share an avocado, broccoli or tomato with.  I love that you enjoy your vegetables and will choose a salad over just about anything.  I used to be like that too.  It's nice that we can stand together against the meatatarians we live with.
7. Your love of desserts, chocolate and everything sweet.  It makes me happy that you ask for dessert every night because it saves me from bringing it up.  I love that on special occasions you'll ask for dessert for/after breakfast because I'm all for that too!!
8. When you have fun playing with your brother and sister.   Watching and listening to the three of you play are some of the best moments of my life. 
9. Your determination, consistency and endless energy.  You're a girl who knows what she wants and I think you're going to get it.  You don't give up.  All such good qualities to have in life, although I have to admit that sometimes these can also be some of my least favourite of your characteristics. 





I love you Darcy,
xox

Mother's Day and all the rest...

Hope all the amazing Moms had a great Mother's Day!  What a beautiful weekend we had, but oh it was a busy one. 

We had a couple little ladies over to help Darcy celebrate her birthday on Friday night through to Saturday morning.   I think they all had a good time at the slumber party.  I planted myself in their doorway around midnight and shushed them to sleep.  It's my understanding they were up around seven in the morning though.  Not really enough sleep but we've experienced much more sleepless slumber parties before!

Darcy's party wrapped up just in time for us to deliver Ryland to a birthday party sleepover of her own.  We packaged up the whole family and after dropping Ryland off the rest of us headed into town to do some errands.

Mother's day was lovely.   I was able to sleep in and do the things that I wanted to do before going to pick up Ry and an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen.  For dinner, we had family over to celebrate Mother's Day and Darcy's birthday at the same time.  It was nice to have everyone together.  Great company, fabulous food (that I didn't have to cook) and I even enjoyed a beverage out on the deck in the beautiful warm sunshine!

more bubbles

This picture brightens my day!

bubbles

Caelan can't blow. 

Well I guess he can, just the air comes out his trache. 

This makes blowing bubbles quite a challenge. 

Luckily, they have these cool bubble guns out on the market that are perfect! 

I was never really a fan of having toy guns for my kids to play with.  I just didn't think it was appropriate play to pretend to shoot and/or kill each other.  However, somewhere over the past 4 years I've come to the conclusion that shooting bubbles at each other is just great! 

Bring on the bubble guns and let the games begin!

blossoms

We are the proud owners of two brand new apple trees!

Silly

Ry wondered why I didn't post a picture of all of them from our trip to the park yesterday...

It's because whenever I manage to get a picture of all three of them, they're being super silly!

Beautiful day

After a week of fog, rain and grey skies the sun is shining today and calling everyone to come outside and play.  By ten o'clock we were on our way to the park.   I asked Caelan if he wanted to walk and he replied with an enthusiastic "yeah!"

He walked all the way there!!    I thought for sure that I'd end up pushing the walker for a bit while carrying him, but no, he was determined!  We took a couple of pauses but he did fantastic.  He was so proud of himself motoring along and listened really well whenever cars passed by.  He even managed a wave for some of them!  He was all smiles when we got to the park.

So proud of my little man!

... and he even made it all the way home!!

Speech Language

Caelan completed a speech language assessment at OCTC today and we're so happy with the results.  We have yet to receive the official report but Damian was there today for the final portion of testing.  It seems that Caelan is pretty much right on track with his development, hitting somewhere in the 3 year old range.  In fact, in some areas of his comprehension he's actually closer to the 4 year old level!!  Such a proud parent day!  Makes my heart swell.

What we need to work on are some more of the positional signs. This is something that as I type it, I'm thinking that maybe we've been told this before?!  Anyway, we're talking about signs for "beside", "behind", "in front", "on top"...  We also have to work on the concepts of "most or least" and "longest and shortest".

On the topic of homework we've started our list of signs Caelan knows and uses and we're well over 100... I think those teachers are going to have a lot to learn over the summer!

Oh, and more good news.  There doesn't seem to be any issue with Caelan continuing on with OCTC for his speech language therapy.  Near the end of June when preschool is finishing up, his therapist will forward his file over to the general OCTC Speech Therapist who will continue to follow him until he's 5 years old and the school board picks him up.  This was a huge relief because after our meeting I had the impression that this might end up being a bit of a battle.  It will work like it did before he started preschool in that he'll be seen weekly for ten visits and then have 10 weeks off and it will repeat like that for the year.