Stella Bella is THREE

 This sweet babe has become a lovely little lady!

In our family we start birthday mornings with a party hat and singing 'Happy Birthday' over breakfast.  This year our Miss Stella has been into Minne so she woke up to balloons and we made the pancakes with mouse ears.   It was so special and she loved it!!!  It was fun to watch our little woman be the center of attention, she totally ate it up.

Stella is a gem and brings so much joy to our family! Her sweet and sassy personality ensures there is never a dull moment.  A few things I don't want to forget about our girl at three:

*Stella LOVES panda bears

*she LOVES snuggles and still says she is my "baby Stella"

*often tells us she is "funny"

*does a fake cry and honestly a pretty good real cry too!!

*she is passionate and determined when she wants something or doesn't want something - a fabulous character trait but a challenge at times

*notices her letter 'S' everywhere; Safeway, Shoppers and in books

*will flip through her favourite books and 'reads' them

*Stella really likes to do crafts and is a big fan of cutting, getting good at tracing her name and is darn good at colouring

*is fabulous in Nursery at church, tells me that she won't cry anymore...indicative of her growth 

*has a stone cold Polischuk stare where her blue eyes will pierce your soul hahaha

*Stella likes to sing and sometimes will sing herself to bed at night

*is a good helper, dishes in sink and making beds woot woot

*plays pretend and often asks us to be different characters from FROZEN or different members of our family

*loves doing 'Ring-Around-The-Rosie' for Family Home Evening, especially the all fall down part

*tells us she misses Amelia when Amelia is off to Joy School or Swimming, it makes me a little sad for Kindergarten next year BUT it will be special for my Stella and I to have time alone together :)

*Sister is her Best Friend

*LOVES her cousins!

*LOVES playing Gorilla with her dad

Happy Birthday our Stella Bella!!!
~ Momma P

raising butterflies

 

 Raising butterflies has been a spectacular experience!  

There was a teacher across the hall from me at Timberlea School who raised and released them with her class every year.  She would make it a cross curricular experience, talking butterflies in poetry, math, art and of course science.  When I got the email advertising a kit from Education Station and for a reasonable price I was pumped, ordered it immediately.

These 'Painted Lady Butterflies' were darn cool!

The whole family has enjoyed watching each stage happen. We began by naming them, which was pretty funny.  We tried to go alphabetical.  I pulled the story books I had on caterpillars/butterflies, bought a really good non-fiction and found some great stuff online.  We sadly didn't make it to the library to pull more books.  Having this experience broadened my ladies' interests and we even went looking for Frog Life Cycle, Chicken Life Cycle and a few other life cycle videos on youtube.  They were fascinated and it has been fun to feed that interest and watch the girls enjoy!!!!!!

 Everyday the ladiess would stop by to check on their development.  They were quick to notice changes and movement.  It was also pretty awesome to hear them explain to people the different stages.  Best ever hearing Stella tell people that "our caterpillars are now in their chrysalises"!!!! We were pretty lucky and caught one of our butterflies just after it had emerged, like missed the real deal emergence within seconds... sigh...but it's wings were still bent and antenna rolled up.  Although we didn't see any actually emerge, watching it pump it's wings and unroll the antenna, we were all enthralled. Before going out camping for May Long Weekend we did the transfer to the enclosure and prepared the sugar water. They started emerging Monday - yeah!  It worked out perfectly to do the release at Joy School on Thursday. I kind of hijacked Emma's house and we made it all about the butterflies. It was super rad!!!!!  I think the pictures are evidence of the coolness of the whole experience.

 Of course we had to make a rad craft and talk about symmetry and patterns.

Seriously captivating!!!

 Love that some of the butterflies stuck around!  Spencer's shorts were apparently super attractive to the one butterfly.  After one flew out and landed on a flower the kids ran over and put their hands down beside it, much like what you would do for a lady bug and it actually walked onto Nathaniel. Of the 14 caterpillars 13 formed chrysalises and of those only 4 emerged as butterflies. From the 4 we had one with wings that never did open properly. Another 2 attempted to emerge but didn't make it for whatever reasons.  It was all a great/sad learning experience.  The little one with the irregular wings we opted to put beside a flower with a piece of orange from their enclosure and when we went to check before we went home it was no longer there, that made us hopeful.  

We wish them all the best.

 The coolness!

 The afternoon was so fun! 

 It was totally worth the $60 ($30 of which was the enclosure that we can use again). The faces of the kids.  For real, does not get much better then watching them have fantastic experiences.

 Totally again next year!

~ Mrs. P

this happened at T-ball

 T-ball was pretty awesome the other night because this happened....

 Jacey got to bat and wheeled the bases. It was seriously soooooo awesome! Super big smiles and excitement from the Bird girl.  Amelia also did a great job and is starting to get the hang of what to do. I had no idea T-ball would be this fun. Yeah!

Of course we needed a group shot.

~ Mrs. P

May Long Weekend Camping

 Had our first weekend out camping for 2014 and once we left the driveway I would say it is awesome!!!! The prep work is not so much fun, for the mom or the dad...as we drove away Graham said "let's wipe the preparation from our memory". True that!!  The driving was even great, I finished a book this weekend.  Once we arrived at Lac La Nonne it got pretty great.  Scott (Graham's Best Man n Long Time Friend) and Marcie were super gracious and so good with our ladies.  The weather ended up being fantastic, which is always a great.  A few other friends and some of their family came out, it was just super fun. The girls played all day long, it was awesome to watch them play outside!

Food has also been fun!  We tried a few new things and I am getting into the fun of camp cooking. We tried pizza pockets in the sandwich press and then pie filling in the press...so yummy!  Also fun were waffle cones filled with marsh mellows and chocolate chips then melted over the fire, super good!!!

A ton of outside goodness!!!

 A lot of hugs/pets/kisses for Dixie the dog!

Love this picture of our ladies!  They rock and totally make all the work to go camping worth it.
(I know that I use the words 'fun' and 'awesome' a lot but the weekend was just that...fun and awesome),

~ Mrs. P

T-Ball Lady

Our big girl started playing T-ball this spring and it is darn cute!!! I found a pink glove and bought a t-ball set from Walmart for her to practice.  The first night and a few since have been super cold but we have been soooo impressed with how persistent she is.  She stays till the end, goes out there even when her little hands and face are freezing, total trooper. Amelia is lucky to be on the same team as her friends Austin and Finley. The first night was a basic orientation for parents and the littles got their team shirts but they were so hard core they stayed to practice batting and running around the bases.  We are so proud of her and will support her as long as it still fun.  Graham has been super pumped up and LOVES getting to practice with his little ladies.

It has been awesome to be a spectator and encourage from the sidelines. 

Love when she wears her sneakers and team shirt. 

Love that Amelia has her baseball cap (just like Dad she says).

Love when she bats (everyone gets to bat then the innings switch).

Love watching her run into home (every one gets to run the bases).

Love when the teams high five!

Love that little sister Stella and I get to cuddle.

~ Momma P

Vancouver for Arland & Naomi

We just returned from a wonderful weekend away in Vancouver, celebrating cousin Arland marrying his sweetheart Naomi. There was some family time, fun time, romantic time, sleeping time and quiet time ha!  I will totally admit that as the weekend approached I was excited to get away and have Mr. P all to my self  but I was feeling a bit of sadness that we weren't bringing the girls along. We have never left both before, or for that length of time.  As we left there were tears....from only me!!!! Our trusted babysitter Elyse gave me a big hug but the tears kept rolling until we hit the highway.  The girls were absolutely fine with us leaving, they had fun weekend plans it was just their sappy mom. 

We flew into Vancouver and caught a late dinner at a fantastic Greek Restaurant and really that meal started our weekend off right, AWESOME.  The third floor of the hotel was full of our family and we visited, showed cell family pictures and laughed....love family...tons of joy in family!!! 

The rain that was predicted for the weekend subsided and Friday was a beautiful day. We celebrated with Arland & Naomi as they begin their married days together :) they are a lovely couple and looked stunning as they walked out of the Langley Temple.

We did our own little photo shoot of sorts ha!

 We also went for a drive and found our way to the Fraser River, had some chill, quiet time together enjoying the beauty.

 The weather really did end up being spectacular and the grounds were beautiful, spring flowers and such lush green gardens.

We opted to extend the weekend and take an extra night in Vancouver, so we stayed down at Grandville Island. Hit the Vancouver Flea Market and had some gelato.  I seriously LOVE the dude that I roll with.  Even though I did cry leaving our kids, he is the funnest to be with.  He is my #1 and it was awesome to be able to spend timewith just him AND it doesn't hurt that Grandville Island rocks!!!!

We returned home to happy girls! I was greeted with cards and lots of Mother's Day LOVE.  It was a great weekend!!!!

~ Mrs. P