I feel like Brynlea is getting the shaft when it comes to my blog these days. We are so busy in the summer that she spends most of her time in her carseat! (Whether it is in the van, or the stroller)...
But she is growing like a weed (almost up to 14lbs) and will be 5mths on the 20th. Even at her young age, she is quickly developing a real affinity for her Daddy (can't say that I blame her! :))
She definitely gives him the lion's share of smiles & gets very excited when he is talking to her. She follows him around the room with her eyes when he's around & like our other children, I have no doubt that her first word will be "Da-da".
He has a variety of nick names for her, including "Bryn-bryns" & "Brynigers" but it doesn't seem to matter to her what he calls her - so far...
Here's some Daddy-Daughter time I caught in pictures:
For the last 3 years , we have had a joint birthday party for both our children at Cultus Lake. I do really offer to do other things, but it's always what they WANT to do...
A BEACH PARTY!
Last year we had a hiatus on account of weather, but we more than made up for it this year!! It was an AMAZING day! So hot you either had to be at the lake or in air conditioning! :)
I, however, committed the cardinal sin "trifecta" of being mother, blogger AND PHOTOGRAPHER... and got so frazzled & swept up in hostessing the party events I took almost NO pictures!
My hubby was manning the video camera, so we have video but I took almost NO stills! I was SOOO mad at myself when I got home! I have decided from now on to "assign" someone else to do photography when I am playing hostess... it's a multi-task I just can't handle...
So, we had some great friends up to the lake to have a few games, break a couple pinatas (one for Evan's littler friends & one for Averie's bigger friends), have some cupcakes & enjoy some swimming & fun in the sun!
The invites - beautifully hand-crafted by my very talented friend, Marcy B. (Thank you, Marcy!)
The only 2 pictures I got of my kids... both before party friends arrived :)
The best I can do for the rest, is this video clip of my kids getting freaked out by sparklers & having "Happy Birthday" sung to them... watch Averie run away from, & both my kids attempt to blow out, the sparklers! Too funny!! Please note the homemade cupcakes - topped by beach party themed tinted chocolates - lovingly molded by ME!! I AM a good mom, I swear...
We traveled out to Bridal Falls today to visit Dinotown. I hadn't been there in... oh... twenty years or so but thought the kids might get a kick out of it.
Because of how long it has been, I'm not sure if my memory of it (seeing as I was probably under 10 years old) is distorted from a child's perspective (I remember it being AWESOME), or if the park has, well... been really "mis-managed" is the most diplomatic way of saying it, I suppose...
"Gone down the toilet" - was more what I was thinking.
I believe my children had fun in the TWO hours it took us to do EVERYTHING interesting there was to do at the park, (not hardly worth the admission) but I was sufficiently "underwhelmed" by the whole thing.
Let me give you a run down so you can decide if you would actually want to spend your money there:
First, I remember bumper cars very fondly...
Averie's face pretty much says it all... there were only THREE cars in working order... not a whole lot of "bumping" going on. No staff on hand - you just got in one & left when you got tired of it (for my kids that was about 3 minutes). Pretty disappointing...
Then there was the pedal cars... when I was a child, they were great! Flintstone themed - like a cartoon you could sit in :) Something like this...
Two people could sit side-by-side in them (each had a set of pedals) & you went around a track... loads of fun! The pedal cars today??? ...uh... yaaaaa.... that's basically a 4 wheeled bicycle that I drove with Evan on my knee (while pedaling)... and has a HAND brake... lame, to say the least.
There's a train ride which is pretty much how I remembered it & Evan LOVED...
A little playground with a dinosaur slide... the rest of the playground is sun-faded Little Tikes play structures... small ones.
A show with Dinotown characters... My little "monsters" hammed it up on stage before the show started :)
The show itself, left much to be desired. It ALMOST kept my kids' attention, but I think one of the characters was covering for the usual guy & had NO idea what he was doing. Half the time he was being led around by the arm by one of the other characters!!
And, the dinosaur statues are pretty much the same as I remembered:
There is a waterpark, which for us was less than fun, since even though there were large signs stating "ADULT SUPERVISION IS MANDATORY" - of course, the worse behaved children had no one supervising them & I literally had to pull my children out of there for their safety (Pushing & shoving on wet pavement has repercussions I wasn't willing to accept).
There's also paddle boats which were fairly fun (no picture since paddling & holding my 4 month old was as coordinated as it gets for me! lol)
For the most part, the staff were either rude, or looked like they were so bored, they bordered on catatonic.
All in all... if we hadn't taken advantage of a reduced admission rate, I would have been VERY upset. Feel free to experience it yourself, but we won't be going back.
We spent time together as a family which is always enjoyable, but would have had the same amount of fun (or more!) at a free neighborhood playground.
It actually made me quite sad since it is a childhood memory that I wanted to share with my children & poor/CHEAP management has really ruined it. It has not been adequately maintained & you just get this feeling of overall "junkiness" because of it.
In just a few short weeks, Averie will begin her "official" education :) She will be attending a school that requires uniforms so we have been doing some shopping in recent weeks (Thank you, Nannie & Grandpa for your contribution!)
Here are some of the resulting options she will have in the fall... White polo shirt with navy pants (the shoes she's wearing in all of these pictures will be her "indoor shoes") Not sure what's up with the "leg pose" here - she insisted it was what she wanted to do in the picture... :)
White polo shirt with navy shorts
Navy "jumper" with white blouse (& white knee socks)
Mommy's favorite :) White blouse with blackwatch plaid kilt & knee socks (That's a REAL wool kilt by the way) SOOOOO cute!
We managed to find her a pair of navy "spanx" or spandex shorts that she will be able to wear under skirts & dresses to be "playground friendly". If I told you how we got this kilt, you wouldn't even believe me... suffice it to say, it came in a bag of hand-me-downs we got from a stranger about 2-3 years ago. Just so happens, it is the same pattern/style as her uniform allows. Crazy!!
She was SOOOO excited to try these on & was rather disappointed when it was time to put her PJs on.
Let's see how she feels about them when she's 15 :)
Happy Birthday, Averie!! Yay! I am SO excited for my little girl. This is the first year she has REALLY "gotten" the concept of "birthday" - and has been on pins & needles waiting to be 5. She is ecstatic to go to kindergarten & I am excited for her... really!... I am...
Days like today are strange for me. I'm not sad... sad is not the right word. I have LOVED getting to know my sweet girl these past five years & I love each stage more than the next. I loved her as a baby, but I love her more now... so I don't wish she was still a baby... but...
My mind has been flooded all day with memories... my pregnancy with her, labor (my ONLY labor, I might add :)) & delivery, adjusting to motherhood, all her "firsts" - smiles, giggles, food, teeth, illnesses, owies...
Because she's my first, she has taught me a lot about myself, too. How to trust my instincts - my "mom gut" I like to call it, how to be the mom I really want to be...
On days like today I feel emotional. Like tears are always close to the surface, but it's not because I'm sad... I feel a little fearful I think... I have this feeling like I'm running to catch up with time & all life's distractions are making me lag behind. It's so hard to be living "in the moment" when I'm lagging behind...
Days like today make me feel a little frustrated. I wish I was able to spend all day everyday playing, making memories with, being happy with & ENJOYING my children... what could possibly be more important, right? Yet there are so many distractions... house keeping, earning money, tiredness... none of which really matter in the long run. I know eventually my house will be easier to maintain & I'll get full nights sleep most nights... but it's so easy to lose that time.
On days like today I feel the briefness of it all. I can close my eyes & be transported back in time 5 years, like it was yesterday - and here she is... a big girl... ready to make her own friends & begin her own life... It feels like I blinked my eyes & here we are...
On days like today, I fear I'm missing it. Too distracted & not enjoying her enough. Not taking the time to be in HER world enough. I need to get on the floor more. Color more, play Barbies more, play on the playground more...
On days like today, I fear regret. I fear looking back when my children are grown & regretting that I didn't take the time to enjoy it.
Today is the time. My babies are growing... & I don't want to miss a MINUTE of it!
On days like today, I am excited for the future! For the young woman my daughter will become & for all the fun we will have together.
On days like to today, I am grateful for the reminder that time passes quickly & we have to fight the distractions &... JUST BREATHE... take it all in and enjoy every minute of it!
As I am here recovering from what feels like an ever-so-slight overdose of sun, I just have to make a note about what a FUN family day we had today. Ever since Nannie & Grandpa (Graham's parents) made the big move across the water (from Richmond to Ladner) & happened to let it slip that near there new house is BIG waterslides... Averie & Evan have been DYING to check it out! Averie literally brings it up just about every time we go to their house... well, today was THE day...
To celebrate Grandpa's upcoming birthday, the Forchuk's all met at Splashdown Park & had a MOST excellent time!
It started off a little cool in the morning; especially in the shade... so the kids would usually have a "dunk" in the hot tub between slides to warm up... Averie & Grandpa on one of their many trips to the hot tub
Averie & Evan warmin' up
Brynlea bundled up to stay warm
But it did get warmer, in fact quite a few of us got a little sunburned (not the kids though). The kids were SO brave & attempted pretty much all the slides they were allowed to. Evan had to warm up a bit to the whole idea & his first few slides, we were sure by his expression as he came down that he would be crying at the bottom, but he would immediately say, "I wanna go aGAIN!".
Here is Grandpa, Averie & Evan going down the "Ramp Slide" - Daddy's at the bottom to catch Evan. If you can't make out Evan's face... here's a close-up... HAHAHA! It was too funny!!
Averie was quite disappointed that she wasn't able to ride the "Black Hole" tube ride because she's not tall enough yet - ya, I rode it (twice) with Graham; it's a "double" tube ride (one tube-2 holes) & she would have been AIRBORNE for sure! :)
You know you've had a good day when you are as exhausted at the end of it as I am right now *YAWN* So... enough witty commentary... now just pictures for your viewing pleasure :
pretty itty bitties :) What can I say? Mommy got a pedicure... Averie decided she needed her toes painted... and we COULDN'T leave out the teensy, weensy, cutesy, wittle... ahem... aren't they CUTE?!
Cutie patootie nephew John & his chipmunk cheeks (he can also make a sound remarkably like a chipmunk!)
Nannie & Brynlea - thanks for "baby wrangling", Nannie!
When Graham & I decided to have children, we quickly realized that of the usual predictions that some people can make about what "dominant" features their children would get... we had MUCH too large a bucket - a "pool" - if you will - of recessive genes that made the guessing game almost impossible.
I obviously am a carrier of my native roots - my great-great grandmother being full blooded Native American from good old Nebraska. I, thank her for my somewhat almond shaped eyes (I have been mistaken for Asian a time or two in my life :)), dark & straight hair (and I mean STRAIGHT - I have to SCALD this stuff into submission for a little bit of wave, which usually falls out in a few hours anyway!), olive complexion & ability to tan, & rarely burn (thank you, Grandma!), lack of freckles & my inability to digest/process sugar (thanks a LOT, Grandma!)...
BUT, my father is blond, & was into adulthood. He also has naturally curly hair (missed out on THAT one!). I have 2 blond sisters; one with curly, one with straight. My youngest sister bares a striking resemblance to me with many of the same traits (though I believe her hair has some wave to it) - in fact at about 2, you couldn't tell our photographs apart if it weren't for the 70's clothes I was privileged to be subjected to :) We even were the only two "thumb-suckers" in our family - genetic predisposition?? Maybe...
My husband was also blond as a child (darkened in his early teens) & has a blond sister - who is still blond as an adult... but dark is dominant, right?
Well... 2 of my children were born with dark hair, which then fell out & grew back blond... my son was born with blond hair. Yet somehow, in this giant pool of genes to choose from, I am looking at photos of my sweet girls & they seem to have found a lot of similarities to one another amongst all of the "options".
Now, I know they aren't identical, but I am still amazed how similar they are. Sometimes when Brynlea is wearing an outfit that Averie wore, I almost feel transported back in time.
As a Mom, I can be a little harder on my eldest daughter, simply because I need her help. She will always have a "position" in our family that makes my expectations of her a little heavier than my other children. We are approaching Averie's birthday on August 9th & it is easy for me to remember how much we anticipated her arrival. How excited we were for her to make us a "real family"!
As a person who doesn't believe much in coincidences, and looking at all the options there were for our newest wonderful addition... I thank Heavenly Father for the "reminder" that Averie came to us just a short 5 years ago & though she is an amazing help & blessing to me... these moments are for reminding me that Averie is, and will always be my Baby Girl.
A 30-something married to my greatest love, Graham. Mother of 3 - Averie, Evan & Brynlea - stay-at-home mom & self employed portrait photographer... don't ask how I can be both... I haven't totally figured out that balancing act myself yet :)
