It's been another busy-ish week here.  I'm not really sure if I'll get used to the shorter school days!  Getting boys to school, going for a longer walk with the girls in the double stroller (it's so cute when they both fall asleep!), tidying, groceries, laundry, the list doesn't stop, but I think we're getting into a groove.  But there is another curve starting this week.  Girlie starts preschool!

Thursday was a parent orientation for the preschool for her.  It made me smile, listening to the reasons for procedures, child to teacher ratios, first aid, child release protocol.  Brought me back to my ECE days :)  Crazy that the time has flown by!

The boys are getting used to school.  Sergeant was very happy that we weren't missing naps this weekend!  Pretty funny since all during the summer he'd put up a nit of a fight if we insisted on naps.  So I got him to sleep at nap times the last couple of days.  Not for long, but he's sleeping and charging his batteries.

Monkey is a monkey.  She is able to communicate, even though there aren't really any words yet.  She has "dad" "mom".  But she understands everything!  Should we get your shoes?  Where's your fleecy?  Want a num and a snuggie?  She gets it!  She goes and grabs or looks for whatever it is.  Such a clever monkey!

Smarty is starting to make a few friends.  After the first couple of days, he seemed very lonesome during the playtime before school.  After school was fine.  Lots of kids, lots of games.  But the teacher loves having him in class.  And I enjoy watching them play with others and talking with the parents and grandparents who pick them up.

I have been very grateful for a couple of things this fall.  That I'm able to text and message friends and family back west.  That I can (sometimes) have a text conversation with Hubby (he can't have his phone in him and the time zones are sometimes difficult to work with).  That the spouse of another chaplain (I'll call her Marie) is willing and able to watch the kids when I run out to the preschool parent orientation night, or to get my roots touched up and a haircut.  Our children love playing with hers, she does face painting, she is trained in ECE as well, so we get along very well.  We also have a friend from a long time ago who is here for an internship for her MDiv, but with the United Church.  I met her about ten years ago, she was in her undergrad with Hubby and we hadn't seen her since I was pregnant with Smarty.  So it's been really fun reconnecting with her.  We spent the afternoon together with her at the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm Museum.  Lot's of fun!  I think I'll call her Coastal Transplant.  She grew up in the High River Area, but moved from BC to here.  So Coastal Transplant. :)

But we went to the Cole Harbour Heritage Farm this afternoon.  Lots of fun.  Hope you enjoy these pictures!

Love the eyebrows!

Cows!

Smiley Girlie!

Coastal Transplant and Girlie bonding with the cows

Kinda family photo

Smarty watching

Playing with Stilts

Chickens!

Big Smiles!

Rocking horse

Too small for him!

It's harder than it looks.  I tried!

Watching Ducks

House Built in 1901

Inside the house

Prefab house :)

First day of school and fun pics

Okay first off, I'm changing the names that I call the kids.  Girl2 is now Monkey, the Girl is Girlie, Boy2 is Sergeant, and the Boy is Smarty.  Now that that is out of the way...

School has started!  Hard to believe that the boys are now both in class all day every day.  Classes begin at 8:30 and the younger grades are out at 1:50  It's a much shorter day than I am used to, so it is difficult to adjust to, with naps and snacks.  I've been having to wake up Girlie to get her out the door on time to get them.  But she is loving playing at the playground with her brothers.  Yesterday was day 1 and we walked to the school.  When making up the lunch bags, I "had" to make some for the girls too.  So we put juice boxes and snacks into a lunch bag that Girlie walked around with.  Today was the same.  She was so disappointed that it wasn't her first day, but I have her enrolled at a young preschool at the Shearwater base starting in a couple of weeks.

The boys' teachers are happy to have them in their classes.  They seem to be quickly making friends.  It was heartwarming watching a little girl from Smarty's class start walking along with us for the last little bit of the walk to school and start talking and seeing them run off and play together before the bell rang.  When Sergeant came out at the end of school today he was yelling "Mom!  I made a friend!" Best part?  He remembered the name!

Tuesday was Hubby and my anniversary.  Eight years!  We went out on a date before he left as an early celerbration, but Hubby had 2 dozen roses delivered here.  Almost made me cry and really surprised me.  The kids thought we needed to go out for supper, but with emotional and whiny children, we decided to get into our jammies and make pancakes for supper instead.  

Yesterday was Girlie's birthday.  Hard to believe she's 3!  Since Hubby is away for it, we celebrated it with Smarty's birthday last Monday (do I really have a 7 year old son?).  But we went out for supper yesterday, since we didn't get to the night before, to celebrate both the birthday and a successful first day of school.  Went to one place and discovered it was closed because they had no water, so we went across the street to another place.  10 minutes after we were seated we were told that they were closing because they now had no water.  They were serving the people there already but were starting to turn people away.  I was very glad we got there when we did!  

Today Girlie and I made a cake.  She requested a chocolate apple cake that I make in a bundt pan.  She calls it the doughnut cake :)  So when we got back from our walk this morning (I have started walking the loop around Colby Village after dropping the boys off) we got busy putting dishes away, cleaning counters, and getting the mixer out to make it up.  After a friend stopped by for a visit I asked them to come over after her kids got out of school to share in the cake.  So they did.  We had cake and ice cream.  Very tasty!

Monkey really is a monkey.  She is loud, she is determined, and she is mischievous.  I love her expressions!  She does everything she can to keep up and be involved with the others.  They unrolled the yoga mats and were "exercising" yesterday and today.  Between the push ups (so cute watching Smarty try to do one) and the jumping jacks (which he does a really good job on) it gets loud and funny to watch.  But that little monkey takes the cake!  When I bring her downstairs to change laundry, she insists on me lifting her up so she can pull on Daddy's pull up bar.  Goofy girl.

Tonight marks the end of the first week Hubby has been gone.  One week down, seven to go!  I've texted a bit with him, but with the time difference and the long days he's doing, there isn't much time to talk.  We tried Skype once, the connection was very poor.  We've had a bedtime phone call that was very nice.  The kids did a bit of painting to send him.  I printed off some photos.  I showed the boys when Daddy will be home on the calendar.  They were very happy that he'd be home by Halloween.  He'll be home for the important one :)

Helping me make broccoli soup

Silly, goofy children!

There's those smiley eyes!

Funny Faces

Trip to the beach to stick our toes in the ocean

Daddy snuggies the night before he flew out to Quebec

Maybe they come by their goofy-ness honestly?

New normal

Well, Hubby has made it safely to St Jean for the beginning of his training.  The kids and I are starting to form our routine slowly.  The first night the Boy couldn't sleep and wanted to stay up with me until I went to bed.  He didn't want me lonely, and thought that since Daddy helps out with dishes and such, he wanted to do that for me.  He is such a Sweetheart!

The Girl went down quickly once she settled.  Starting around 6 she starting yelling and crying.  She was wanting "snuggie" and I couldn't give them to her right then.  She climbed into bed with me around 5:30 in the morning, though, and snuggled into Hubby's pillow.  And she put herself down for a nap yesterday too.  That's a very tired girl!

The boys are getting super excited for school to start on Wednesday.  They keep asking how many sleeps are left.  Just about all of their supplies are here.  There are a couple of things I just can't seem to find, but I'm sure I'll figure it out.

I washed and ironed some fabric the other night for curtains in the living room.  Last night I got them cut, pinned, and sewn.  Bright yellow with little pink spots.  Very happy curtains.  Not sure if the living room is the place for them, but I'll keep them up here and see if I get used to them.  They may get put in the play room downstairs and I'll try something else for the living room.

There is fog and overcast now.  Yesterday started grey and ended up being very warm and sunny.  We are forecast for rain for the rest of the long weekend too.  But we had a very warm August, so I'm not complaining.  Even when it rains here it doesn't get all that cold.  At least through this last month it didn't.  I'm looking forward to watching the season turn and seeing all of the colours!

The house is full of tantalizing smells right now.  Made broccoli soup for supper and I tried a new recipe for bread today too.  A molasses quick bread, so no yeast.  Like I said, it smells delicious in here!  Looks tasty too.  And I promised the kids we could have ice cream for dessert.  Almost 4:30 and they want to eat already!  And since everyone is tired and emotional, we'll do a relatively early bedtime.

Last night we played some Wii Sports.  Golfing, of all things.  So this rainy afternoon we did some drawing and played Wii bowling.  Then I let the boys play tennis and baseball while the Girl came back upstairs with me because she wanted to help make the bread and soup.  She even helped wash dishes!  Such a cutie!  But with all of the screen time the boys are getting squirrely.  Boy2 hit the Boy when he lost the game, even though he won a couple too.  We had a talk about sportsmanship.  That'll be a long road.

Back to school

It's fun trying to make the time to write.  I don't really get a chance when the kids are up and I don't think to when they go down for the night, but somewhere in the middle it'll get done.

Got the boys registered for school today.  Forms filled out and birth certificates photo copied.  The Boy turned 7 yesterday (where does the time go?!) and we had fun.  Since Hubby leaves on Friday for 2 months, we combined the Boy and the Girl's birthdays.  And because we threw a party for the Boy before the move we kept things pretty low key.  Did some school shopping, played at a park, had some kids from up the street over, mac and cheese for supper for the kids (what child doesn't want that for their birthday dinner?) then an ice cream cake.  Back to the park, this time with Daddy, before baths and bed.

The Girl will be 3 next Wednesday (again, where does the time fly to?).  Crazy.  And she is feeling left out with this back to school shopping.  So she got new runners and a backpack.  Getting things together to register her for preschool through Shearwater.  It'll sure be different this year.  Both boys in school Monday through Friday (no part day or two day program option for Boy2) and the Girl in Tuesday and Thursday mornings for a couple of hours.  And school for the boys is from 8:30 -1:50.  Odd times.  But just because it isn't what I'm used to.  I'm sure it'll feel normal after a month or two.

Right now I'm procrastinating.  I started doing up my meal plan for September, but got distracted and now I don't really feel like finishing it.  I will though.  And relatively soon.

We made out second trip to the library today.  The kids are really enjoying the experience.  The boys are able to self check out themselves (I watch to make sure they are doing it correctly), and they are thrilled to pick out their own books.  It's a bigger library than the one we left, and the children's section has lego and toy dinosaurs, as well as the computers.

It's really neat, sitting in the house with the windows open.  There is almost constant birdsong.  I can remember when we moved to Calgary after living in the apartment, listening to the rain on the roof because it was no longer a familiar sound.  Now we have rain and singing!  And I hope we never get used to it.

I'm putting some pictures of Hubby into frames and putting them around the house.  As well as updating some of the photo collages we have around the house.  Picked up some fabric for curtains for the living room as well.  It'll be a busy couple of months!

Race Day

Yesterday, Hubby ran in the Navy 10k run.  It was his first race here in Halifax, and out of the 400 or so runners, he placed 89th!  Way to go Daddy!

Getting ready for the race!

The sun was shining wonderfully warm, there were snacks and juice for everyone.  And not just the timbits and cookies either.  There was yogurt, grapes, bananas, apples, oranges, granola bars, chocolate milk, apple and orange juice boxes, coffee and tea.  There was a kids race that was already finished by the time we got there.  It was lots of fun!

Lining up and getting ready!

Just before we told them not to climb

Two feet on the ground was the rule

The Boy was upset that we wouldn't let him climb the monuments

It was an experience, although not an altogether new one, that we found ourselves having different rules than the parents around us.  There were kids climbing all over the cannons and anchor that are on display.

But it was still fun.  There was a husband and wife who ran the 5k and they finished still holding hands. There was a mom, dad, and a double stroller that did the 10k.  It was a big family affair and I am looking forward to next year's.  Maybe I'll do the 5k!  In the last six months or so I've taken up running.  Not that far, only 3 days a week, but it's something to keep me a bit more active aside from chasing kids.  And I feel better for doing it.  When I went out on my birthday more than 2 months ago, I decided that I would like to do a race with Hubby next year.  I think this might be the one we'll do.  He'll do the 10 again, since 5k is a nice warm up for him, and I'll stick with the shorter distance.

Chickadee in our birdfeeder

Woodpecker in one of the trees

Pictures from last weekend

Getting ready to go on the Harbour Hopper

Waiting at the ferry terminal

The Harbour Hopper going back on land

HMCS Sackville

Basking in the sunshine

HMCS Shawinigan

Harbour Hopper.  "Ribbit, ribbit"

Watching Theodore Too

Watching the water on the ferry

Walking towards the ferry terminal

Sunny day

She has a carrot!

the first week

Well, the move is complete.  Our little/big family is now settled into a beautiful home in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.  Where a foghorn can be heard and Seahawk helicopters fly overhead occasionally.  We have a much bigger space than the one we left in Spruce Grove, AB.  There are four bedrooms, hard floors, 2 3/4 bathrooms.  And an absolutely massive back yard!  We've been keeping the windows open alot and I just LOVE hearing the birds singing.  They go at it all the time.  Yesterday I sat on the deck in the sun, coffee cup in hand, the boys and the Girl playing catch on the grass, Girl2 being busy at my feet, and just sat and listened.  Soaked in some sunshine.

There is so much natural light, lots of windows.  It's a pretty quiet street too, as far as traffic goes.  There are a bunch of kids, though, both across the street and up a bit.  And pretty close in age with ours, so that is very nice.  It helps that these children get along with almost anyone!

We have had a couple of road bumps in the transition so far.  Everyone has shorter tempers, whining and poor diet from when we lived in a hotel for the week before our furniture arrived.  But the flight was uneventful, all on time and no incidents from the kids.

It's very neat seeing the fog coming off of the harbour.  We can't see it from the house, but driving up to and across the bridges, seeing white and then the tops of the bridge, the water disappeared until you get closer.  The shear size of the ships!  The kids and I drove to the Shearwater MFRC (Military Family Resource Centre) and saw an empty container ship making it's way into the harbour.  Very awesome!

The time difference has been a bit of an adjustment.  We are getting used to new sleeping patterns in our bigger space.  Today is the first day that Girl2 hasn't cried whenever I put her down!  I think the crying was because she isn't used to the bigger floor space.

It doesn't get as cold at night, so it doesn't take long to warm up during the day.  Last night as I was tidying up after the kids were down for the night, I noticed that it was getting darker earlier.  A lower latitude will do that.

But the kids are missing their friends already too.  They have written some letters that I have to send off.  And we will likely write more.  Trying to figure out Skype scheduling too, so we can chat with relatives and friends.  All in all, it's been a great first week.  I'm pretty excited to get to know some of these people through the MFRC and colleagues of Hubby's.  There are a bunch of resources in place for support for me while Hubby is away in St Jean for BMOQ (Basic Military Officer Qualifications) and then in Borden for the Chaplain training school.  He is enjoying his first few days, learning the lingo, getting kitted out, planning a baptism already.  As always, jumping in with both feet :)