SAHM

My life as a Stay at Home mom is so not glamorous. There is lots of crying involved. (Nice new lower molar, eh? The other side is trying to come out. It's lovely) Lots of tears and runny noses to wipe. Lots of meals to prepare (some get eaten - most not), lots of dishes to clean up. Repeat.

Lot of food to clean up around the house. Like this cheese that I thought Sophia had eaten for her snack was found stuck on the wine fridge. She was quite proud of her 'artwork'.

This is the smile she gave me when I asked her why she put the cheese there. I don't know why this picture won't rotate, ugh.

And when I say endless amount of laundry, it is not an understatement.

So I indulge myself in sweets. It's like my pick me up. Yummy. TWO oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with caramel ice cream packed in between them to make the yummiest self soothing snack EVER!
But in all this chaos the kids make me laugh. When I downloaded these pics today look what I found on my memory card. Alex and Rachel must have taken some pics of themselves. They are too hilarious. They look like they were POSING!!

The girls are learning more and more french everyday. It's really incredible. They love going to school. I'm not as much of a mess when they are gone and the end of their school day seems to be creeping up on me faster and faster.

Alex started ballet and loves it. This is the first activity that she is doing on her own and she is doing great. She is making her own friends while she gallops around the dance studio.

Rachel started her skating program solo too. They girls no longer want to do every activity together. It's great and hard at the same time. More driving around like mad. She's doing great but I think the best part for her is to look up in the stands and see her whole family watching and cheering her on.

Sophia is still a handful. She thinks that she is 6 years old and imitates everything that her sisters do. She understands, "let's put on our shoes and go wait for your sisters and the schoolbus". She quickly complies and runs to the front door.

And it definitely feels like fall is in the air. All of a sudden it's cold and we need to wear a sweater or a jacket. It's my favorite time of year.

Man, I know this is NOT normal but I miss my kids like CRAZY when they are off to school. I don't know what to do with myself and this quiet house. I keep looking at the clock and wondering what they are doing. Oh...school must have just started...oh....it's recess time, etc...Today is worse than other days.
I'm trying to organize this house while the kids are gone. And I'm going through all this PAPER that keeps piling up on my desk. It breaks my heart to recycle all this artwork/notes/letters that the girls make. I do keep a lot of it but it would be impossible to keep it all. What do you guys do with all the paper that your kids produce?

Does the enthusiasm just kill ya? The girls went fishing a couple of weeks ago with Papa and some family friends. They didn't catch anything though. So one of the adults found a dead fish and somehow made it hook onto each one of the girls' lines at different times throughout the day. So they each thought they had actually caught a fish. I don't know the exact details but I guess when it is your first time fishing you can fool the kids since they didn't know what to expect.

On a totally different note, the 2nd day of school went well. The girls still have not complained that everything is in french and want to go back again tomorrow. So all is good. They told me that they had different names at school. When I finally figured out what they were talking about I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. They didn't realize that their names spoken in french was still their same name. It was that foreign to them that they didn't realize with a french accent that the name was the same. I guess Rachel in french sounds more like Rachelle. And Alex is called Alexandra with a french accent at school. Another funny thing is that they thought their teacher's name was Madame. They kept hearing all the kids call her Madame....and didn't realize that she was being called Madame Lisa. So they don't know their own names or their teacher's name and things are still good. haha. And it's only day 2 but Rachel lost her white Olympics sweatshirt. Oh boy.

First Day of Grade 1

Let's just say that today has been a very emotional day. I'm exhausted.

I've been a stress case about the girls going to 'real' school. But I have to say that the girls did sooo well. They were excited to ride on a real school bus. I followed them to school in my car and made sure that they got settled in OK. The long and short of it is that they know almost no french. They are only a handful of kids that don't understand what the teacher is saying. It breaks my heart. The teachers speak to them in french, repeating themselves many times, until it sinks in. For instance in their classroom the teach asked everyone to come sit in a circle on the carpet. The girls didn't realize this until everyone else was sitting there for a couple of minutes. Then once they got there, the teacher realized that the girls didn't tuck in their chairs at their desks. So she asked them to do this. Which they just stared at here blankly. She repeated herself along with hand motions to tuck in their chairs and return to the circle. After 3 times they finally got it and got up and did as was told. All the while I'm standing on the side of the classroom saying, "Oh dear Lord...". First day is done and it went so much better than I thought. There were no tears shed by the girls (same can not be said about the mama) and they want to go back again tomorrow. I'm so proud of them.

Sistas

We were at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago and Sophia loved sitting in her own mini chair. We used to have 2 red ones when Alex and Rachel were younger. One was Elmo and the other was Caillou. I don't know why we got those characters since they didn't especially like them all that much. Anyhow it reminded me that we should get one for Sophia. (Don't worry Kaili....I wouldn't have wanted to take away the chair from Jaia!) Well she loves the chair BUT she loves sitting on the couch more. Go figure...she wants to be just like her older sisters. So she sits on the couch and gives me a heart attack worried that she will fall right off while her sisters fight to see you squeezes themselves into the little pink Princess chair.

I Love watching the older girls take care of Sophia. They are such GREAT big sisters.

Alex feeds Sophia as well but today she was busy getting her puppy dressed all fancy.

Sophia is walking

Sophia walking on her own.

Sophia walking with her sisters.

Weekend Recap

We laid low this past weekend. Spending as much time with the twins before they start school next week. I'm having a hard time with this. It's so silly, I know. But I'm freaking out that they are going to go to school full time. First off because they will be gone all day long. Secondly because they are going to an All French school (not french immersion) and they don't understand any french. And lastly because I'm worried that some mean kid will tease Alex about her hair and break her heart. So I'm a bundle of nerves. Breathe in ....Exhale.....repeat.

I'm happy that they have each other by their side with all these new experiences though. Taking the school bus together and looking at each other in class and asking 'what is going on here, what did the teacher say? We don't understand a thing!"

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. The big race was on Sunday and there was so many activities around town. We went out one evening to take in some of the festivities and of course had to do some sand art...the girls' favorite thing to do.

Some face painting of course.

And some more pictures of the girls goofing around at home.

Bestest of Friends. Notice how Alex is still wearing her medal? She wore it all weekend long.

On a very sad note...my dog, Tobi passed away on the weekend. I'm really going to miss this guy. He was such a character. So smart. Thought he was human. Was my shadow and was so loyal. It's been over a year now that he hasn't lived with us. I had gone to visit him about a month ago at his new family's home on the vineyard. Tobi was all skin and bones. He had developed diabetes and needed 2 insulin shots daily. He still was a happy dog but had almost gone completely blind. We said our goodbyes that day. I knew that it wasn't long before he would pass but it was still hard to hear. He was such a good dog. We used to say that he was Bobilicious.