One month in...

We have successfully survived one month of school.  I must say, it was a bit of a rough start.  Maria managed to injure herself, not once, but twice her first week.  She then decided to come down with a kidney infection, effectively missing 3 days of her second full week of school.

Thankfully after that her attendance rate climbed and she has survived not one, but two of her first 5 day weeks.  Surprisingly, Maria is no longer exhausted at the end of the week.  In fact, she seems to have the opposite problem.  She comes home just WIRED!  The girl is practically bouncing off the walls.  I am assuming this is the result of our little one holding in all that energy in an effort to successfully achieve a PINK or BLUE day (i.e., exceptionally good behaviour at school), thus needing an outlet when she gets home.  This has been a bit exhausting for mom and dad, but we are managing.

Maria has also managed a month in her new, pink room (much thanks to Grandma Epler for helping me with the painting) without indicating that she is unhappy with the colour.  This is a good thing, since all she kept saying while we were painting it was "It sure is pink"and I was beginning to get a little worried (especially since I took a gamble and let her pick out the colour herself).  She is also the proud owner of a bunk bed and this past Thanksgiving marked her first "sleepover" in the new room (if you don't count the few times her brother has shared her room).   Her cousin, Benjamin, came for a visit and slept in her room and I'm thinking that the bunk bed is probably the best investment we have made so far.  So if any other family members want to come south for a visit, we do have some extra beds for the kids....just saying....

As for William, he just keeps on getting cuter and funnier with each passing day.  This Thanksgiving we were given the opportunity to meet my youngest brother's new girlfriend, and William, being the lady's man that he is, decided to get spruced up for the occasion.  The conversation, I hear, went something like this:

Aaron: "William you should have a shower"
William: "I no want a shower"
Aaron: "But we're going to Grandma's today and you should have a shower so your hair stops sticking up"
William: "No shower"
Aaron: "But Uncle DJ is going to be at Grandma's and he's bringing his new girlfriend"
William: "New girlfriend!  What's her name?"
Aaron: "Crystal"
William: "I need a shower!"

(Followed by combing his hair while holding a hand held mirror to make sure every strand was in place)....I think we may be in trouble with this one.  I'm pretty sure he successfully charmed Uncle DJs new girlfriend too... after all she did play princess to his knight that afternoon....

Survived Week One

Well we have survived our first week of full-time kindergarten.  Maria was excited to go everyday and equally excited to tell us all about the things she has learned this week.  She has shared "new" songs (songs which take me back and it is really cool to see her face when you can immediately sing along with her because it's a song "mommy" sang in school too).  She is a chip off the ole block too - falling off the monkey bars on Tuesday (so much like Daddy) and striving to be the ultimate "good" student (so type A, just like Mommy).

Her obsession this week has been the "colour" system that Mrs. Ball uses to rate each kid's day.  I'm not sure of the specifics (I plan to find out more on meet the teacher night or as the "friendly, neighbourhood SLP" for Westmount school) but the first thing Maria always reports on is the color of her day.  Basically the day is ranked from Red to Pink: Red: Bad Day, Yellow: Not great, Green: Good Day, Blue: Great Day, Pink: Outstanding.  Maria was super excited to hit "Blue" by the end of this week and is always assuring me she won't have a yellow or red day.  I really need to learn about this more...maybe it could be used at home to help a certain little boy in certain areas...or maybe as a warning to the kids: "Stay away from Mommy today, she is having a RED day".  Who knows?

Maria's new found love of school is rubbing off on William too.  Although, we all need to help William brush up on a few basic items...

First Day of School

The first day of school has always meant an increase in busyness for me.  For thirteen years it marked another 10 months of learning.  For 6 years it was the starting point of a jam packed university education.  For the last 8 years it has marked the time of year when things go from a little bit slow and relaxed to craziness at work (again tied to the school year).  This year...it was a little bit different.  When I started this blog 5 years ago I wasn't expecting to be posting this so soon.  Five years have simply flown by and today our little girl had her first day of kindergarten.  


She was extremely excited.  She is very happy with her new teacher, Mrs. Ball (mommy is thrilled too, although to be honest you couldn't go wrong with ANY of the kindergarten classrooms at Westmount school - I may be a bit biased having been the SLP for that school for 6 years, but that is my honest opinion). She had nothing but good things to report, was thrilled they made a craft on their first day, made a friend (Noelle) and has already memorized all the words and actions to one of the songs Mrs. Ball introduced them to today.  I have a feeling the apple may not fall far from the tree with this one.

To commemorate her first day of school I took a suggestion from my manicurist and welcomed Maria with a little surprise.  She was very excited to receive her very first flowers as part of the whole experience.  

We are very proud of our little girl....and a little sad that she is growing up so quickly.

P.S. Dad was a little upset by the fact that when Maria wasn't playing with her new friend she said she spent most of her time playing with the boys.  

Summer 2012 Updates

Since I haven't been on here in almost a year, I suppose it is time we made things a bit more current (likely need to send out emails to let people know that I am once again attempting this "blogging" thing too).

Anyway, here goes.  It has been quite the summer here in the Betke household.  Back in the cool of spring Aaron and I took the plunge and purchased a travel trailer.   It is a gently used, 26 ft. trailer with all the amenities this little "princess" (Aaron's term, not mine) needed (incidentally all I asked for was a fridge and a toilet - the slide out was someone else's (who shall not be named) requirement).  But I digress.  The purchase of said travel trailer led to a summer of camping, both weekend trips and longer stints.


Camping Trip #1: Kinbrook Provincial Park, Lake Newell, Brooks

First time out with the trailer: kids were happy, we were happy, memories we will NEVER forget.   This weekend camping trip (which was also the weekend of our 12th anniversary) will forever be known as the moth massacre of 2012.

Setting up the trailer, at home, we noticed a "few" moths on the outside of the trailer...particularly along the slide out.  We swept them off, stamped a few out and began the process of packing up.

We made it to Brooks (with a stop to buy runners for the kids - you always forget something) and set up for our first evening.  Things were going great, or so we thought.  As night fell upon us we noticed 2 or 3 more moths exiting the trailer each time we went in for something (there was also an exponential increase in the number of winged insects in the nearby bathroom facilities as the night went on).  Then came time to turn in...or at least that was the original plan.  By the time we thought it safe to get into bed we had helped nearly 40 moths to head "into the light" (pun intended) .  Surely that MUST be the end of it.  No sir, between midnight and 1 am we must have helped an additional 20.  By now you think I am exaggerating.  I tell you I am not.  We should have piled them up for a picture as proof...needless to say that is one night we will not forget anytime soon.


The next day we went on a short hike along the bird sanctuary.  If the night previous hadn't been macabre enough that walk was.  I had no idea there was an abundance of fresh water crab in this province, but the hiking path was littered with crab claws. Seems the waterfowl had a little "massacre" of their own along the walking path.

And to top off the weekend:  Aaron had the pleasure of pulling a 26 ft bumper pull trailer home in gale force cross winds for 2 hours.  Yes, the inaugural camping trip in the trailer was one we will not soon forget.  Moth update: day two - around a dozen moths killed, day three: a half dozen, remaining camping trips less than 6 total (I think we left them all in Brooks...my apologies to other campers there).

Camping Trip #2: Metalex golf tournament

This was a great weekend.  If you ever have to go to a company golf tournament with your family make sure one of the people going is a dayhome operator.  Who else thinks to bring their portable bouncy house with them??  The company is great too...can't say enough good things about Metalex.  They are very good to families and I am very happy to once again find myself involved with them (they were the company that took a chance on Aaron when we were in Stettler and really set him on the path to owning his own business in the industry).

Camping Trip #3: Manitoba

For our third outing of the summer and my first official two weeks of holidays we packed up the trailer and drove to Manitoba.  We had the honour of being with my great-grandmother as she celebrated her 100th birthday.  This is a great accomplishment and not many people get to celebrate this milestone, especially with 6 great-great grandchildren in attendance.

We had a great time catching up with family and the kids had an opportunity to get to know some of their second cousins just a bit better.  Oh, and Aaron learned that staying up until nearly 1am and having a 6 am tee time the next day does not make for the best round of golf.  Thank you to my Uncle Don for defending my honour while others compared Aaron's game to mine as if that were an insult.  Most people know that on many an occasion I can golf better than he did..at least the way he apparently did that day :)

Camping Trip #4: Revelstoke, BC (Williamson Lake Campground)

Our fourth trip (and it remains to be seen if this will be the last of the season) was to Williamson Lake Campground in Revelstoke, BC.  This was our third trip there and second as a family.  It is a smaller campground, but quiet and a great getaway if you just want to sit around and relax.  This week involved a lot of beach time, sun, and relaxation (well, as much as you can get with children 5 and under).  We took a day to drive out to Lumby to visit some of Aaron's family, spent 3 hours hiking the Meadows in the Sky Parkway (which was absolutely lovely this year - last summer we were attacked by masses of mosquitos), and Maria caught her first fish.  It was nice to get some time just our family and we all came back from this trip refreshed.

Of course our summer was not completely camping.  We also took weekend trips to do things around home.  We made the annual trip to the zoo, took the kids to Heritage Park, began painting the playhouse, and redecorated Maria's room.  All in all, I think you can say it was a pretty busy summer in the Betke household.