Dennys

We were all spoiled to go to Denny's today. I met a friend at Mill Lake to do a kid swap,( and to play in the beautiful spring weather) the girls had a sleepover at her house and her son stayed the night at our house. And since I still had three free meals and desserts for Denny's that had to be used by the end of the month, we went there for lunch. I love these pictures, you can just see how much the kids are enjoying their dessert, something that we very seldom order, OK, like never.

Love that tongue sticking out. The best part for me was that TWO people came up to me and said what a lovely family I had, and that they were so well-behaved. WOW, that is not going to be our claim to fame so it was nice that they could put on a good show for others. lol

It was a very "successful time". When I am by myself I always try to think things out to make it flow as well as possible. The first thing we did was everyone went to the bathroom, and then I made sure we got a booth near the bathroom, so I could let them go by themselves. ( they must have to go so much b/c of the empty water cups, I LOVE that there are lids on the cups, as the cups got dumped a couple times) Of course, Breanne needed to be held most of the time so it really ties up my hands, so I really just try to take things slow and stay calm...even when I get covered in spit-up and then a milkshake...I try to keep smiling, hopefully no one will notice how dirty I am all the time. SMILE.

Friday Gerard took the day off work and we went to the Vancouver Aquarium. I really wanted to go to the art gallery to see Emily Carr's paintings (I read the book "The Forest Lover" and that got me interested). But Gerard said the kids would not have that much fun there, so off we went to see some fish. (nope no bitterness)

There were lots of beautiful fish, it is always amazing to see God's beautiful creation. Peek-a-boo...wow isn't that cool.
Timothy is always a very eager volunteer. Here we are learning about global warming. Today Timothy got his clothes wet outside so I told him to throw them in the dyer, but he said "Mom, I don't want to warm up the baby beluga's habitat more" (one of the ways to stop global warming was to reduce energy consumption, and using your dryer less was one of the ways to reduce energy consumption). So he was listening, gotta love that.

The dolphin show is my favorite. I think it is so amazing how someone can train a dolphin to do all these tricks with a hand wave or whistle and by giving them some little dead fish. I need to learn from the trainers, I could use it for my kids. lol.

There was a new 4D show that we got to watch, which was quite something. Niessa was the most scarred and as long as I kept Breanne nursing she was OK. I took her out to burp her at one point but she got sprayed with water and started crying...so back to nursing, and then she was fine.

The nice thing about all of them being close together in age is they all like doing the same things, and all want to stay and play. And of course only if there is enough stuff to go around.

Gerard loves these Jellyfish and would love to have some in our house.

Then we went to a wet lab, that was very interesting and hands-on, something that most of the kids like to do.

Here we are being shown how to tell the difference between and male and female crab.

Wed.

So Wednesday it was off to "Go Bananas" with some more stay-at moms who wanted to "get out" with the kids during Spring Break. My kids were super excited, mostly to play with all the other kids. Total social kids that they are. The girls had my camera for a bit and had some fun taking pictures of each other. Good thing for digital.



And then I dashed home for speech therapy, which I could hardly stay awake for. It was brutal...She (Carolyn) was talking to me and it took all my effort just to try and keep my eyes open. If it wasn't totally rude to fall asleep when someone is talking to you, it would have been funny.
I wish I could have been these two, all that fun made them tired...and this is how they fell asleep. I woke them up fairly quick or they would have been up all night. Aww sisters.

Museum

It's Monday and spring Break is starting. Yeh! I think...it was off to the museum. Ever since we had movie night with the family and watched "A Night at the Museum" the kids have been wanting to go to a museum. So it was off to the Chilliwack museum, and boy were they disappointed and so was I. Nothing like the stuff that they had in the museum in the movie that's for sure. But we still spent the morning there and they learned some things.

ummm... I don't think you are supposed to touch the displays. There were some interactive boxes that the kids and I went through, that had old things in, that they were allowed to touch. The building that the museum is in is just absolutely a beautiful building. Gerard and I were supposed to have our wedding pictures taken there, but the weather turned out to be so bad that we couldn't.

It was a good morning at the museum and then off we went to the library to get some books and videos. We maxed out my library card...hopefully, they(the books) all find their way back to the library.

Family Ice Skate

Gerard went off to Deroche last week Saturday during the day for a work bee with the two oldest, I told him we could have a work bee around here ( there certainly are enough things to get done around here) and I would even throw in couple perks that he wouldn't get up there (wink...but in the end I actually encouraged him to go...to have some good fun doing some volunteer work, council's just not that "fun" right now, and I have always found (for me)that it's so important to volunteer your time with something you enjoy doing...and he had a really good day with the kids and helping out. Then in the evening, we went ice skating.

A fuzzy picture of me...but a picture never less, and this is how I ice skate. It felt so good to get out and use my leg muscles as I seem to spend so much time around the house or sitting down nursing. And Breanne really enjoyed ice skating too. Funny thing, I actually have twins, but my nontwins I dress the same.

Daddy helping out some of his girls.

Dear mom. I hope that you are getting lots of sleep. and that you are not going to get sick and I hope you love me. From: Timothy
Awww.. funny how all his g are backward, someone said it sometimes takes a bit longer with kids who are left-handed, as it makes more sense in their brain to make them backward.

And him with his little sister. He loves her to bit but just does not have the confidence that Niessa has with babies. Funny how that is...the whole boy/girl thing.

Happy 7th Birthday

Happy 7th Birthday to Niessa and Timothy!!
may God bless you with many more.

They wanted a pinata so bad, but I didn't want to buy them, so we made them. Timothy wanted a globe as they are learning about that at school and Niessa wanted pink and red/girly. I put sparkles all over it so it looked really good.

They both agreed right away on this cake (I thought it was a bit too babyish, but Gerard said who cares, they agree on something!) Gerard ended up decorating most/all of it. I was in and out of the kitchen as Breanne needed me. He did a really good job, and they thought it looked great. There were 13 extra kids over and then my five so it was a house full of kids. But it went really well. I asked my sister (thank you Auntie Theresa) to come over to help out with the zoo, and Gerard went to school to pick up all the boys and took the rest of the afternoon off to help out, which was great as we needed all the adult hands, especially with a needy baby.

a little tip that I always do for the pinatas...I put all the candy in little bags with the kids' names on them, and it worked great, that way the more timed child gets the same amount as the more eager child, and when I find bags all over the house with candy still in, I know who's it is and can send it home with them. The girls playing hot potato.