End of the year activities and celebrations!

Finally!!! School is out! We have the longest school years in the history of school years, I swear. It's probably the same number of days as everyone else, but it just feels soooooo long. I told the kids that school starts up again 9 weeks from today. They weren't thrilled. Here's how everything has played out the last week with everything ending!

Soccer is officially over! If it were up to my kids, it would continue for much longer. They all loved it...to the point where I {almost} felt guilty about wishing for rain every Monday through Thursday evening from 6pm-8pm. Ivy loved running around with her friends and by the end of the season was even touching the ball once in awhile! Mya was on an all girls team and did very well. She loved her team and loved to score lots of goals! Max had a so-so team with a not so good coach, but still managed to make the most of the experience. He got way better and by the end was figuring out how to put himself in the best position possible. I wasn't at his last game because I was at Ivy's, but Chris told me that Max scored a goal and immediately told his teammate nice pass. He was pretty proud of him for that! Here are a few pictures and a video Chris got of Mya.

                                 (looks like Ivy has to go to the bathroom, but this is just her pose:)

Max finished up his first year of piano lessons last Thursday. He liked piano...didn't love it though. He's going to continue next year (because I'm making him) He got way better and I think it's just so good for him! He loved his teacher and the lessons, but just didn't care for practicing at home so much:) He got to pick out a song for his recital and he picked Lost Boy. It was a hard piece so his teacher cut it down and made it a little easier for him, but it was still pretty hard! He was practicing right up until the last minute and did really well. He stopped once, but managed to figure out where he was and kept on going. He almost had it memorized so sometimes he lost track of where he was on the music. We are really pleased with how well he did overall this year!

Last Sunday Mya had her awards banquet for gymnastics. We didn't quite make it home from the mountains in time, but I got a text from a friend saying Mya won a big award and there was still time to make it. So we jumped in the car and got down to the gym as quickly as we could. She won athlete of the year for the entire artistic gymnastics at the gym! They gave her a memory box and said some nice things about her.  She is very determined...won't stop practicing a skill until she gets it right. I don't know how much longer she'll continue with competitive gymnastics, but the experience has been unbelievable for her.

below is a video I took of the owner of the gym giving Mya her award. I didn't know what was happening so it's not the best quality, but if you want to listen, you can kind of get the idea. She basically says it was an award voted on by all of the women's coaches. She won because every time they looked over, she was working hard and doing skills over and over and over until she got them right. 

Max and Mya had field day at school last week that I helped with. I got to demonstrate the gunny sack races and a friend of mine walked by and took my picture:) It was a super fun day for the kids and I was glad I got to help out with it.

And finally...school is out for the summer! We hit the jackpot with teachers once again this year. Mr. Topping and Mrs. Dunford were fabulous. I told Max he should soak in every minute of getting to chew gum in class and wear a hat because I'm pretty sure that will be the last time he'll get to do that until college! Mya was genuinely sad to leave school because she knew she wouldn't have Mrs. Dunford next year:) She may be the sweetest person I've ever met. She has a no facebook friend policy with parents and we were counting down the minutes on the last day of school until I could friend request her:) We lucked out with schools when we came here for sure.

Anniversary and Father's Day!

I was feeling kind of bad for Chris that Father's Day landed on the same day as our 12th anniversary, but I don't think he minded! We had a great weekend celebrating!

Friday night we headed out on a date and got all dressed up! We went to some friends' vow renewal and it was such a great time!

Saturday night we had the neighbors over for a fire and pizza and then Chris and the kids slept in the tent. They made it all night despite it being pretty chilly and it rained for a bit!  Combine that with the fact that it's only dark for 4 1/2 hours a day around here now and I was pretty impressed they made it.

Max brought home a Father's Day present from school for Chris that included a pop, a lollipop and some popcorn. There was a sticker on it that said World's Best Pop:) Max had the great idea to make him bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers to end the night and go with his theme of "pop".  We also made him a #1 Dad cheesecake for dessert.  Mya's teacher helped her class make some blocks that were awesome too!

And our anniversary/Father's day ended on a high with my favorite basketball player, LeBron James, winning the championship! All in all, a great weekend!

What's up Sunday?

Time for a What's up post! I can't believe how fast time goes by...my last blog was May 17!

What I'm reading? I haven't been reading much lately, but Mya is getting into some of my favorite books when I was a kid! She just finished Ramona Quimby, age 8. I go into her classroom and read every morning with her for the first 15 minutes. It has been fun to read through these Beverly Cleary classics with her!

What I'm reminiscing about? We moved here two years ago on June 6th. I have all sorts of feelings about this. I miss everyone at home so much, but I'm also really happy here. It's really tough living in limbo and not knowing what is next for us. I have some great friends and am starting to get into my groove. Took me a little longer than I thought it would, but it's probably because I didn't put myself out there much the first year. I won't make that mistake again.

What I'm looking forward to: Chris's parents are coming to visit June 23! It should be a fun week with them here...a trip to the mountains, some end of the school year stuff and Canada Day celebrations!

What I'm loving: That my sister is home! Her sweet little family is back in the states for good. They're in Decorah for a month or so and then will be living in San Diego. I'll get to see them a couple of times this summer and I can't wait! I'm excited to meet the newest member of our family...sweet baby Shae. I haven't seen Tony in 2 years which is just unacceptable. It's so nice to talk to her on the phone (not on facetime) whenever I want! (pic below was taken after 4 flights, 27 total travel hours with a 22 month old...who slept a total of 3 hours... and a one month old! Tara and Tony are pretty much amazing)

What we've been up to: Soccer, soccer and more soccer. Max and Ivy play every Monday and Wednesday evenings and Mya is Tuesday/Thursday. All the kids are doing great. Ivy has a giant smile on her face the entire time and rarely touches the ball. Last week she was the goalie and was sitting down picking grass, turning around, doing ballet moves, etc. When it was her turn to come off she yelled across the field, "Mom, was I awesome?" She does not have any confidence issues. Mya is a beast on the field...scores most all of the goals for her team and is doing a much better job of being willing to play different positions. Max's team is playing well, but it's super unorganized. We're never sure if the coach will show up or not! He has gotten better and is a great teammate.

What I'm dreading: The fact that we still have 12 days of school left! That's 22 more school lunches for me to make. The last week they have a field day so I don't have to prepare a lunch that day! Nobody should be in school this long into June!! I'm turning into a horrible mom...we're not reading nearly as much as we should, I look at backpacks in the morning before school, etc.

What I'm working on: Running! I've been running on a treadmill at my gym for a year and a half, but haven't really done any outdoor running. I decided a couple of weeks ago that I'm going to get back at it! I did one 5K last Sunday and then yesterday I did an obstacle course race with a friend in a town close to Edmonton. The 5K was super fun, but the obstacle course race was tough! It was cold (50 degrees tops) and pouring rain! I don't know if I'll ever do one of those again. My upper body strength needs some work first:) I'm joining a 10k running club that starts tonight so hopefully that goes well.

What I'm excited about: Summer! I can't wait to have the kids home. We're working on making a list of things to do around here. They didn't want to do any camps this year (bad experiences last year) and that's fine with me! They want to do the free green shack programs, ride bikes, swim, check out new parks, etc. Summer is short around here. We'll be home for the first 4 weeks, then gone for 3 and then home for a week and a half and school starts again!

What I'm watching: With the days being so long right now, I feel like we are sitting down to watch TV later and later everyday! We are trying to get through House of Cards right now and I'm patiently waiting for Suits to get to Netflix. I'm not really watching the Bachelorette this season (gasp!) because I find it annoying. Something about this season is bugging me!

What is going on in Edmonton? The fires up north are under control...they're still burning and I guess there's a chance they will be burning until winter. We are feeling the effects of when the oil companies shut down production a few weeks ago. Petro Canada is comparable to Shell or BP's back home and they are shut down here and have been for the last week. We still can get gas at other stations, but it's really strange driving by all of the Petro Canada's and see them closed.

What I'm hoping for: A smooth last few weeks of school and a fun summer! Lots of logistical things to get worked out with regards to our traveling home, but it should be a great summer;)