a full family day {before Mr. P starts shutdown}

We have really been cherishing our family time!  Since winning the Telus World of Science Year Family Pass we have gone to see every new IMAX, Amelia actually saw the Humpback Whale one twice.  The TWOS just rocks!!!!  

Each time we go there is something new to discover and enjoy. 

Moms and Dads play differently around our house, we are different people and therefore engage differently with our children and since I am feeling all sentimental....I will say watching Mr. P with our girls is beautiful. 

(selfie stick to the rescue for a family picture)

 There are soooo many unique and fun things for children at the TWOS! This time Amelia really LOVED the climbing wall and did awesome on it.   Stella tackled and built this word wall with the styrofoam bricks, LOVING every minute and beaming with pride.

 Later in the afternoon we attended a joint birthday party for our friends little folk and it was darn fun!!!! They had rented a huge bouncy house and the gym was full of hula hoops, scooters and giggles.   Stella needed to take a break from her busy day and was looking so darling hahaha. Sure love this girl!

 

Amelia took a bunch of hoops are made a 'creation' and wanted to show me.  She took my hand in hers and we slid behind the bouncy house where she had squirreled away these hoops to make a design. Sure love this girl!

 Mr. P continues to love and support the Oilers (sometimes I wonder why ;) but we finished off a great day with a date at Rexall.  We actually had snuck away the night before too to hit up the temple together, so we had two back to back nights of great couple time. It was military appreciation night and wow what a feeling of pride and gratitude for the Canadian forces as the military band played 'O Canada' and service men and women skated on the ice unveiling the flag.  It was a great night together.

I sure love this guy!

 ~ Mrs. P

Womanhood ~ our DIVINE NATURE

The above quote was all over Facebook for International Women's Day and it made me smile, I think it is awesome! Recently preparing to share a spiritual thought on Divine Nature for my girls at church I came across a few things that also made me smile and resonated with my soul.

The Family: A Proclamation to the World states:

"All human beings - male and female are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny.  Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."

Glenn L. Pace says "...our divine nature(s) is a necessary element in bringing about perfection, we must guard against any deterioration of those natures. Sisters, keep in mind anything that detracts from your divine nature should be avoided. You live in a time when you have more opportunities and options available to you than any other women have had throughout the history of mankind. Some of these options will complement your God-given natures. Others will chip away at it. Some things will make you strong. Others will make you hard. Some will increase your spiritual sensitivity. Others will separate you from the Spirit. 

...when you stand in front of your heavenly parents in those royal courts on high and look into Her eyes and behold Her countenance, any question you ever had about the role of women in the kingdom will evaporate into the rich celestial air, because at that moment you will see standing directly in front of you, your divine nature and destiny."

When things give me cause to worry for the future, there is always hope. I am grateful for strong women in my family who are role models to me and remind me by their words and actions what is important in life. I hope that I can be an example to my ladies of what really matters most.  Growing up I felt like I had tremendous opportunity before me and my girls have even more.  They are lucky to live in a place where almost everything is within their grasp to achieve, there are no barriers or limitations.  I hope that they also cling to their divine natures as women, remember their divine potentials and rise to achieve those too!

~ Momma P

dancing QUEENS

I wish I had a better picture and had caught Jacey busting moves because she was in on the dancing too. The Birds were over for dinner and the little ladies requested a dance party after dessert.  It was wonderful, especially because our Amelia has had some performance anxiety. Amelia put on her wings and really took the lead, teaching everyone the moves from her ballet class. 

It was pretty darling!

~ Mrs. P

crazy hair, don't care

These are some pretty crazy morning hair dos!

Amelia is absolutely a morning person who wakes up 'bright eyed an bushy tailed'. It is a great attribute to have.  The ladies pretty much have two breakfasts each morning; the first is when everyone first gets up and I have my shower and the second is after they get dressed, while I do their hair.  Sometimes Stella sleeps in a bit, she isn't woken by the alarm or the quiet whisper talking that the rest of us do.  Today the girls were both awake, both were so cheery and were being little goofballs!!!!  These are pictures of them between first and second breakfast. I snapped these while sitting in the washroom reading the news (my morning ritual, perhaps TMI) they just kept popping around the corner making me laugh and their hair was wild and I just had such gratitude that they are my daughters, I get to be their mother.....what a great privilege!

~ Momma P

splashing & sliding

We had a few minutes before violin lessons, we LOVE when this happens!!!! The park beside where our teacher lives is super fun and it was gorgeous outside so we snuck in some park play.  The happy faces tell the tale.....it was fun!

It is always nice to enjoy the sunshine.

During Amelia's violin lesson it was the most darling thing ever to have Stella 'read' to me :) We recently took out some Beatrix Potter books from the library and they fit perfectly in my purse so we have been reading them together, she suggested she 'read' the story.  This little lady is so ready for kindergarten, it makes my heart both happy and sad that my baby is growing up. 

~ Mrs. P

celebrate good books

It has been a special week,

In lots of his books the girls took a peak.

In honour of a tremendous man,

Who wrote many books, always said "you can"!!

Mostly silly but his books held a lesson.

Time to celebrate this author 'cause his work is a blessin.

  Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

This week the primary grades at Amelia's school honoured Dr. Seuss and each day there was something special and different;

 'Cat in the HAT day', 

'Silly Sock Day'

 'Wacky (hair) Wednesday'

We created fun little goldfish snacks for the class and really tried to read more of his books here at home this week. I love the rhyming and the rhythm, most new readers love Dr. Seuss because of those two things.  I clearly remember Alyson learning to read and reading 'Hop on Pop'.  Yeah for fun, good literature.

I just had to gather a few of my favourites...

this

because of this

 

Lots of gems.

~ Mrs. P

rock painting

 We have a couple of great art books with ideas either based on different artist styles or fun techniques.  Needless to say we have a great selection of things we could do, so we picked one and got busy, gotta love Saturday mornings.  They were both so excited and proud of their final results, a dot painted snake and salamander. They thought it was cool to be using the other end of the paint brushes to make the dots, such focus on their faces.

~ Mrs. P