exploring

Sometimes the sweetest things come from the spontaneous, unplanned moments.

The Farmer's Market on Thursday rocks! It is something I love about our community, our sweet little Farmer's Market with something for everyone.  They have a few food trucks and always BBQ hot dogs as a fundraiser for different groups, so yeah we sometimes just go for dinner.  The night I took these shots with my phone, we drifted from the market into the park to eat our dinner.  The park adjacent to the market has big, beautiful trees perfect for climbing.  Luckily we had Auntie Al with us so she did some lifting. They just had such a fun time climbing and giggling, finding sticks that they called their magic wands. They have such imaginations and it is so fun to watch!  Stella is forever pretending to be an animal or baby and Amelia loves to orchestrate their play often acting out FROZEN (yes, they are still totally into that movie). They just rock and I love watching them, seriously feel so lucky to have them as my little ladies!

 

~ Mrs. P

sweet stella

 "Oh look it is a tiny baby flower" says sweet Stella.

Run some errands with this chick the other day. I have wanted to write a post about her, as I organized pictures tonight I just had to stop and write....

She has the best smile! Her molars haven't come in yet so she has an adorable toothy smile. When that smile appears it is beautiful.

She gives awesome cuddles and the song 'Four Hugs a Day' could be her theme song because this chick needs that touch.   I have to remember sometimes that she needs that, stopping, sitting and reading a book together does wonders for this woman.

Miss Stella loves to play pretend and is always a cat, baby or other animal.  She is adorable!  She has been telling me for a few months that she wants to be an elephant for Halloween, we shall see. The costumes are used almost daily with this lady.

She is a crazy mimic, copying whatever sister says.  A real echo, it is sweet!  Mia and I have talked about the role/responsibility she has with her little sister. There is a ton of mutual love going on there.

Stella's voice is this quiet, nasal little girl voice.....it is seriously adorable!  When she says "Neely" I can't help but smile, it is darling.

This lady is just awesome!  As we ran in and out stores knocking stuff off of our to-do list we chatted and held hands.  I want to hold their hands FOREVER (perhaps one of my favourite things)!!!!!!!  I just loved hanging with her. When we do dates it is always a reminder of how important they are, one on one time. Stella talks a ton when it is just her and I love it and I love her!

~ Momma P

escaping into the A/C

Chuck-E-Cheese
The weather has been spectacular and while we have been enjoying our bikes, the water table and spray parks we have been LOVING that some fun places have A/C.  I know once the snow flies I will be wishing for these hot summer days, but escaping indoors does have its place.  In our pre-kid days venues like Chuck-E-Cheese and even McDonald's play land would give me the heebie jeebies, but the kids LOVE going.  Mia and Stella squeal when Chuck-E-Cheese is mentioned, it is really quite adorable!!!!  This was an alternative to hitting the spray park again.....we even had a day where we went to the spray park twice...yup we sure did!

These images below are the reason I was previously disturbed by 'fun' places like this. 
They had a blast though!!!!

The Public Library
I have fond memories of the public library from my childhood.  I have vivid memories of story time at the library and the check out area. Our city recently had a library make-over and it is spectacular!  My girls are particularly fond of the computer games ha! Forget the books. It is a sweet little library and they even have a fun sensory area with unique flooring and seating, tons of fun stuff on the walls and a beautiful wall of windows letting in natural light.  It is lovely. I hope to help our women create childhood memories, even if we go to the library in the summer to enjoy the A/C.

The Bird girls loved it too and having an extra set of hands to help with Neely was great too!
We love Uncle Mikey.

So here is to beautiful warm summer weather and adventures into places with A/C.
~ Mrs. P

last parented....tear!

This kid cracks me up sometimes!!!! As of lately she is totally into doing a 'cheese' smile and pose for the camera.  This week marked the start of our last parented swimming class, tear.  When I registered way back in May I totally felt like we needed another parented class before she would be good to go solo.  Interesting though is how my little sweetheart has grown into being a three year old these last two months.  She has become so much more capable and independent and as we have had class this week I just can't believe how big she seems.  I am so impressed by her listening, turn taking, bravery and effort to please! Really she rocks.  She even jumps from the edge and her face is seriously sooooooo adorable, a scared yet excited expression but she does it, again and again as we sing about the little monkeys.  We keep talking it being a swimming date and playing up how it is just our special time together and even though I am personally NOT a fan of swimming I absolutely LOVE getting to do it with her.  Daddy has come and Auntie Al has also come to watch, she has had a little fan club and really doesn't that ROCKET up the self esteem!  We are blessed.

The most totally awesome toothy grin when she said 'cheese' for this picture after swimming.

~ Momma P

west edmonton mall WATERPARK

This cell phone pic was snapped as our extended Hinko family had a day at the waterpark.  It was a darn fun day!!!!  Life's busyness sometimes makes it hard to get everyone together (Mike Cartwright was at work and is missing from this picture).  When we do gather it is always so nice. These are the people that love you unconditionally, support you always and have your back forever....they are great! We each have our own challenges and gifts. We are all so different, yet still similar - if that makes sense?!  These are our people ya know, they are just my people!!!  It was fun, fun, fun as we chased each others kiddos, teased and laughed together. Love them all!

~ Jenny P formally Hinko ;)

smiling is contagious

Miss Jacey Bird is one of the greatest chicks I know!  To know her is to love her, simple as that...you just do.   I like to think we have a special little something, I am her 'Fantie' after all (fancy+auntie=fantie).  There are only a few of us who can get that girl's hair done without a fight, so I figure there is mutual adoration going on ;P  I had a bad day, well I was really just having a bad attitude the other day but getting to hang with this woman helped me shift my grumpy attitude around.  I snapped these pics because we had matching pants and who doesn't love when that happens?!?!?!  Then we did a little selfie to send to our dad's at work. Getting to play with her rocked me a bit, refocused me and I appreciate that.   Honestly, that smile is contagious!!!!  I almost need to have a bit of Jacey-ness bottled up to use when I need to change up my attitude. I actually could just hop in the car and drive 5 min if I needed.  I don't know if there ever was a happier woman, with a smile as endearing at Miss Bird's.  Truly, to know her is to love her and boy do I love her! ---Actually a lot of people love her!

~ Mrs. P

fabulous, free & fun

These ladies are wonderful!  Such cuties being all fabulous in their costumes.

 

 In our community the Families First Society (also facilitates Rhyme n Sotrytime and Roots of Empathy) runs a free camp each morning Mon-Thur during the summer.  This week we made it a priority to attend and it ROCKED!  What is better then free and fun?  The theme this day was 'Once Upon a Time' and of course our ladies picked costumes to match the theme. The instructors had stories, songs, crafts, a scavenger hunt, a few games, transitioning every 15min AND they provided snacks and lunch - funded by community sponsors.  We are hoping to get to attend again at some point this summer it was so awesome. The camp is at a park and they even had a ton of sand toys.  It was just a super great morning. I enjoy watching the girls make new friends. There were two brothers who were 6 and 7 years old and they were all over Jacey, like adored her.  They wanted to push her wheelchair and helped her with the activities.  The little dudes kept talking to Jace and were so awesome!  My ladies LOVED the crafts and Amelia sat colouring meticulously on the crowns they made.  Also pretty cool was that my Stella went off a few times playing, which is pretty big for her....she is growing up!

I love these lazy days of summer! Amelia has asked to do breakfast in our bed, so a few times a week I'll make up our eggs, oatmeal, waffles or whatever and bring them onto our big king bed.  I let them chill, eat and watch a show.  It is becoming a sweet little summer tradition.  Love how those special things just sometimes evolve :)

~ Mrs. P