Ah! Speech time again!

Once again! Speech time at Maelie's school! Maelie worked hard for weeks on her speech. Once she got going there was no stopping her! Initially, she had written enough to make her speech over 6 minutes! So we had to cut some parts out :) She read it to me over and over and over! This is one project that is both a student and parent homework! Yes the student has to memorize, but the parent has to listen and make suggestions along the way! I think I heard her speech over 200 times!! but I wouldn't change it for the world!

Maelie did a great performance at school. The speech was in French and you would easily believe French was her first language. She won 2nd place, and I was extremely proud of her! Even if she hadn't won anything, I would have been more than proud. She has a great, expressive stage presence!

On another note, I discovered why I don't post on my blog as often anymore. I notice that every time we change Windows, things change, all the programs change... and I discovered that when you change my usual way of doing things, I don't always adapt easily. So I end up disliking the uploading of photos and then the viewing, editing and loading of the pictures! UGH!  I wish that nothing changed with the programs ! once it works.... don't change it!!

So I will try and post more. Maelie actually is the one who commented on me not posting much. I did tell her though that the fact that she doesn't want her picture taken, or that she says "this better not go on your blog" affects my decisions too!! I will try and post more often, for the simple fact that she enjoys reading the blog when she gets older. I wouldn't want her to miss out on this season of her life simply because I hate windows 8! LOL

March not-so-break

The March break started off with Maelie going for a sleepover at a friend's house. She came home and wasn't feeling that well. Her friend's sister had the stomach flu... so that's what happened to Maelie Sunday night! I am really afraid of puking. I hate it with a passion!! SO out came the cleaning products. I bleached the washroom SO many times for the next 2 days. I used hertel with bleach to wash the toilet after every single use. I sprayed Lysol to kill germs and Javexed the toilet and floors. I was determined to NOT get the stomach bug!!

By the time the germs were all out of the house,  realised that perhaps I should have worn gloves... I washed my hands SO often and of course had all kinds of harsh chemicals on them... so I literally burnt my hands!! I ended up with stinging skin, and the got a crusty layer on both hands. The picture doesn't do it justice! It was horrible. Hopefully I didn't permanently harm myself!!

We babysat Peluche at the end of the break. He is a fun distraction to have around, though he keeps us close to home. He seemed to take a liking to one of Maelie's fish! He didn't want to give it back!

I took Maelie shopping on the weekend since that is what she is into right now. It also compensated for the days where she did nothing during the break!! We managed to find some good sales and she was extremely happy :)

The March Break came and went and now we are just starting to think of Maelie bday in April... and the grad plans for June!!

Fun times with friends

After Destination Imagination, Kierah came over for a sleepover. The next day, we went to Clip N Climb for a fun activity. The poor girls had no energy whatsoever! THey ended up being so exhausted, we left 5 minutes early.

They climbed face to face... this one was a hard one so this is as high as they got!!

They did climb side by side and that was a bit easier!

I love seeing them have such a good time together. It's so much more fun to do an activity with a friend now!

Maelie is growing up into a wonderful young woman. I sense the teenager growing inside of her! As much as she is growing into her own person, I still sense the need for mom :) I love that feeling. I hope we grow together , survive the teenage years, and end up with a close relationship like the relationship I have with my mom. I also hope that she can have the relationship I had with my moms mom.

As this blog keeps on going, there are some events that may or may not end up on here. Maelie has her say now in what she wants published or not. I love seeing her read older posts though and she finds herself so cute! or she asks me "did I really do that mom? did I really SAY that?" Everything on here is true! So yes Maelie, you ARE that adorable and sweet!! and I love you more than anything in the world!

DI once again!

Maelie participated in Destination Imagination again this year. Her and her team presented a short play in front of judges from the school board. Her team placed 3rd, and they got an extra Award called the DaVinci award which basically congratulates them for thinking outside the box and for being so creative.

The kids slet at school on the Thursday and we picked them up Friday. They had a great time!! Maelie slept much better this year. It helped that I brought her Subway instead of eating the pizza provided there. Last year the pizza made her a bit sick, so she didn't want to risk it!!

Getting all of their luggage to go home!! There's a LOT to pack for one night away!

It was a bit bitter sweet for the kids without realizing it. A few of them participate in EVERYTHING. 3 of those kids that participate in everything are going to different schools next year, so this is one of the last big events that they will do together. Grade 6 is almost over! May as well enjoy it to the max!

February full of appreciation

The week around Valentine's Day is always Staff appreciation week at school. Maelie wanted to bring a little token of out appreciation every day this week. Some days had 2 treats since it was a 4 day week.

All ideas were found online, mainly after searching Pinterest, so I am not taking credit for any of them.

Here are the Teacher-savers. We took the wrapping off Lifesavers and replaced them with Teachersavers.

These were little bubble gums, with a tag saying "you always blow us away, thanks for everything"

This one, Thanks for your commit-MINT. It was a small pack of mints.

You are o-fish-ally the best teachers and staff! So cute! I put pretzel fishies in the bags.

These were for Valentine's Day itself, Have a Rockin' Valentine!

I also made some teacher chocolate suckers, as well as the whole alphabet made of chocolate. The chocolate racks came back empty! :)

We also worked on Candy-grams at work. We delivered over 600 this year. It seems we have more and more every year to deliver. People like to send out a treat for their colleagues, and they get some in return!

These projects have been keeping me pretty busy in February hence the lack of blogging.

We also got Windows 8, and it seems since we got it, I dislike everything! It's harder to navigate, harder to get the photo program to work, harder to upload anything... so I tend to get discouraged. I like things plain and simple on the computer and it's been hard to get used to.

Sunday at Skyzone

Sunday we ended up taking it easy in the morning, and then heading out to Skyzone in the afternoon. I love that they now have socks there instead of getting everyone to wear the jumping boots! It's so much easier to get the sizing right and to get on and off.

 

The girls waited patiently for they jump time. They sat facing the basketball area. They really enjoyed watching people trying to get the ball in the baskets, then ending up in awkward positions! Some landed on their heads, some tried to impress others but ended up flipping out and landing on their backs.. .I have to say it was like watching the funniest videos!

I managed to get ONE action shot that was not blurry! LOL

2 Thumbs up!!

They spent most of the hour playing dodgeball. Maelie puts a lot of her weight on her right foot. When it is suggested that trampoline is not the ideal physical activity for her foot and back, she responds that she just can't put her life on hold because of that! So I am glad that she is working through it all, and having fun!!

I loved people watching! It's amazing how children are just made to move and jump and play! They are not made to be competing in organized sports ALL the time, they are made to just hang out and move! Have fun, and just BE KIDS! :)

Saturday at Lac Beauchamp

This weekend was REALLY cold.. but that did not stop Naomie's school program ... they set up at Lac Beauchamp and built some outdoor sleeping grounds. I am not quite sure of all the real names, but they call them "tombeau" in French. She had volunteered on Saturday to go talk to all the par visitors about it. People would simply drop by and ask questions.

Here they are in one of the larger enclosures.

They were going from bigger to smaller!

This is the one where I would have had a panic attack in!! Way too tight spaced for me!!

Of course, why not go for a little sliding while we were there?

They ended up backwards as this random guy behind me gave them a huge push! :) I didn't want to push them as I probably would have ended up on my bootie!! I preferred taking the picture hehe

The sliding didn't last too long as it was quite windy and cold. We went home, had supper, and the girls took it easy all evening. Naomie was sleeping over so it was a fun time.