Happy New life day!

I took the kids to an Easter literacy program at the library.  So proud of Ivan.  We walked in and right away he noticed that it was pretty much all preschool kids coloring at a table.  He was Mr Cool, found a Geronimo Stilton chapter book and read the whole thing.  Once the kids were done, they came to where Ivan was and the facilitator read stories to them.  By the time she was reading a Robert Munsch book, he had moved over into the group and gotten excited about the reading.  When she finished, she called all the kids over to the table to make another craft.  The kids were given cut out chicks and eggs to make a collage with.  Ivan's creation was full of action.  He wanted me to help him cut out bows, arrows, swords and a shield.  At first he called it "Angry Chicks", which I thought was totally hillarious.  Then he said they were Army chicks and one was Legalos and the other some other Lord of the Rings character.  That's my mister imagination.

So this Easter, Brian is home alone- enjoy the peace while you have it hon... hope it's not flooding.

There is much concern over flooding.  He's done a fair amount of prep and there will be crews in the week to fill and deliver sandbags.  It flooded last year and this year there is WAY more snow.  More than they've ever seen.  We love our basement windows, but not with water coming in them.  So he is in water duty and clean the bank duty and change the bed sheets, feed the pets, rescue our neighbors...

Speaking of our bank cleaning job.  The garbage is in the alley- the shortcut to reach the alley is down this icy gauntlet.  The ground is covered in a thick coat of uneaven, very slippery ice.  My strategy this night was to lean against the brick wall, and shuffle my feet forward as if skating.  My coat is now dirty, but I didn't fall or get impaled by a 6 foot icicle.

Our drains looks something like this too.  So far Brian has put de-icing salt in them and hot water to get them unclogged.

There's nothing like a Canadian winter to keep you on your toes!

Hope you are having a wonderful Easter and experiencing new inner life, peace, joy and transformation.  May it be a transforming, fulfilling, revitalizing year for us in Fort Qu'Appelle- may the resurrection power infuse us, color our days, stabilize us and move us through trials onto grace and strength, love and mercy.

Gymboree

They set up the humongous jumpy castle at Gymboree.  Emora thought it was great.

It has a section for jumping with a basketball hoop in it.

And a big slide to come down.

Some of our friends who also enjoyed the castle that day ;)

We also played a little with a hoop- catch mom!  As you read this, the kids and I will be in Saskatoon for a break and to see mom, dad, aunties, uncles and cousins!  So fun ;)

Karate boy

Guess who got his gi the other week?

He was so excited.  Can you tell?  He was showing me his kada,

and bow.

So glad he has found a little niche.

He struggles his way through school.  I think this year, he is having a hard time connecting well with the teacher... also he is HIGHLY distractable, especially if it's something he is not interested in.  But if it's something he likes... watch out world, this guy hooks in and rides it to the end.  The positive is that the teacher knows he's smart.  He just likes to apply those smarts in ways he likes... like one unit on fractions, for sure not on spelling, writing- no way, legos- oh yeah, for sure legos.  If they only had lego building in English class!  I did make up a lego game for him to practice his words, he wasn't fooled and told me it was still studying spelling.  Ah Ivan, you help us grow by leaps and bounds.  If life was all easy, we would not appreciate those moments when you really shine nearly as much!

Pre Easter before and after fun!

One of the fun things that our computer's photo program does is that it has a running log of photos from the last 12 months.  Which means that everyday the pics from 12months+1 day are hidden and you can immediately go to the front of the file and see what we looked like a year ago to the day.  So I pulled out some pics about this time last year and tried to find some about that time this year to do a Before and After post ;)

Last year this time, we were riding bikes outside.  This year we may be riding the surf of the biggest snow melt ever!  We are still covered in mounds and mounds of snow... but look what happened in the meantime, our little biker girl has become an accomplished grade ONE.  Yep, she's now self proclaimed teacher, principal, bossy, smarty pants, almost always gracious, loving to play school, write notes and study!

A year ago, the Wallaces got to come down and we went on nice spring walks...

Since we haven't gotten back to Stoon since Christmas, these are a few months old, picture more hair? taller?  and just as cute!

It's always fun to compare the littlest ones since they show the most change.

Cute bunny- chocolate eater last year AND
another brilliant emergent reader! ;)

I don't know if you could grow up in this MacLeod household and NOT like books.  I tried to dodge that bullet for quite a while in my life, but it caught up to me and got me good.  The librarians and I always joke about the loads of books I take out, I'm a bit of a reader addict now.

A year ago, these handsome guys were showing us their toothless grins.

They are still strutting their stuff!

And Ivan's still working away at those teeth!

Lannelle and Emora playing in the muddy creek bed at the park a year ago - such a delight.

Still using the sled this year, as Emora and Neve cutting down the hall to avoid the great outside.

Can't avoid the love growing strong year by year.  So thankful for COUSINS!

Miss saucy Emora and her new kitten Sunshine...

a year later, Sunshine has learned his lessons from miss saucy and went pro.

Easter loot finders...

Christmas loot finders...

the loot that keeps building for generation after generation...

Hoping to add to that photo pile with some new updates, new memory treasures and get togethers.

Decisions, decisions...

I knew I had taken more pictures from Andrew and Andrea's visit!  I found them buried in snow pictures.  So here is Andrew and Dominique hanging out their first night with us and auntie Andrea and Emora doing some initial bonding before their wild shopping spree.

Did I mention once upon a time that Emora read her first word while we were waiting in an optometrist office.  I remembered vividly how very excited I was when Ivan, then Dominique read their first words and I took their picture with their word, so I had to do the same with darling Emora!  She has good pre-reader skills.  We were in another office waiting and there was a huge word staring at us, so I asked her what it said and she answered correctly:  "CANADA".  So I asked her how she knew that's what it said and she said there was a Canada flag by it.  And there was a little Canada flag icon.  I hadn't even noticed it.  Watch out world, here comes Emora and I've got to warn you she's a fiesty one!

This was the storyteller that Dominique and I got to hear the weekend of Emora's birthday outings with auntie and uncle.  She wrote her own stories and made her own illustrations, and also incorporated singing and drumming.  It was so moving and beautiful.

So decisions... the kids are off for a week from school, but it looks like this weekend could be the big melt.  We had had so many amazing days where the frost on the trees was like intricate lace.  It would eventually melt off as the sun shone on it, but sometimes would last quite a while.  It would transform our town and street into a real winter wonderland.

The pine tree is in our yard.  Here I am pointed toward the hill as I stand in our driveway.

Last year, there was quite a bit of flooding.  We didn't get water in our basement, but we also shoveled ice and snow away from the basement windows as the melt occurred and the sump pump ran continuously.

To his credit, Brian has caught flooding into our basement about to happen a couple of times and just now found a drain spout broken with frozen ice, which was allowing the melt to seep towards Ivan's window.

He was up on the roof shoveling snow off today, then he had to shovel it off the back porch.

No one really knows what it will look like this year, it all depends how hot it gets and how fast and how much the soil can hold and lots of other ifs, ands, and buts.

These pictures were taken quite a while back, there is even more snow now.  They say this is the most snow we have ever gotten on record.  That was a lot of shoveling exercise we got!

And the back yard:  here is our snow fort/quinzee.  It's about 3 feet higher and filled with snow right now.

There are several feet of packed snow all in the yard and a huge mountain of snow beside Ivan's window.

Saba enjoying the sunshine.

bye bye ice globes- I'm totally making these again next year.

So we are trying to figure out our Easter plans.  Dominique is sick right now with fever, so my first hopes is that she is better, then we need to figure out if Brian should stay and be on snow melt duty, if so, that will affect the days I can go, since he could sub for me at the bank... lots of uncertainty right now, but I'm so looking forward to the break- and seeing family.  Not sure where the Easter egg hunt will happen though ;)