Wednesday, May 20, 2009

May Long Weekend


So this past weekend was May Long Weekend which is celebrating Victoria Day. Loosely translated it means 'the first weekend that people can go camping in 8+ months but it must snow and be cold and miserable'. Well this year May long did not dissapoint! Saturday was gorgeous, a lovely 20 something degrees and Sunday started off really nice but went own hill quickly. Monday morning we awoke to a whole bunch of snow. All I can say is I am sure glad we didn't go camping.!


Here are the pictures, the first was taken on Monday the 18th and the 2nd one was taken today, Wednesday the 20th.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Taylor Shane Blackmore

On Thursday the 14th May my little nephew Taylor made his appearance into the world. He arrived weighing 7lbs 7oz and 21in long. It was a planned c-section and everything went well. As an interested by-stander I'm not sure what I think about the 'planned' birth. I was on tenderhooks all morning and afternoon not knowing but hoping everything was OK. They were originally booked in for 12:30 and once I hadn't heard anything by 2:30 my imagine began to get the better of me. As it turned out I got a phone call about 4:30 from Emily letting me know the news and that both Mum and baby were great!

The following day Myself, Anna, Orrin, Adam, Aunty Pam and Aunty Janette made the trek into the Royal Alec in Edmonton have a peak at the latest addition to the Blackmore/Thomas family. I took my fancy camera in with me and managed to capture these little gems!
























Orrin is growing up!

On May 13th my baby (Orrin who is actually almost 4) had his first 'play date'. One of Orrin's friends Mum offered to take Orrin to soccer on Thursday for me. Soccer ended up being cancelled so they both just played at Curtis's house. Before he went there I was explaining what was going to happen and that when he was there it was very important to remember his manners. Just to make sure he remembered his manners I asked him what they were and he answered with this little gem..."I don't say 'turd'..." Hmm well that's right Orrin!









Mothers Day & Other Delights

May 10th was Mothers Day. I love to have a smoothie for my breakfast so Orrin (with the help of Dad) mad me a very yummy one. Later that day we went to Edmonton and had lunch at Red Robin (a really yummy burger place). It can be stressful going to public places with Jakey and restaurants are no exception. Usually we will avoid them like the plague and opt for simply doing the drive-thru eating experience instead. However we were both feeling brave and so decided to try our luck. Our gamble paid off and it was a very pleasant experience!

After lunch we went to get my Mothers Day present. So far my mothers day gifts have comprised of things that the kids make themselves and usually some flowers from Jesse. I love this and think that is what Mothers Day gifts should be. This year, however, I lost my camera. Because I use my camera CONSTANTLY I was quite distraught about not having one and felt as though my right arm had gotten lost with it! So this year I got a camera, so even though I got the camera on Mothers Day, it is also my birthday, christmas, next birthday (you get the idea) gift. I LOVE it (it's an Olympus SLR) and have been having a great time playing with it.!

The Dorothy the Dinosaur Show

May 6th was The Dorothy the Dinosaur Show. To be honest I got tickets (for the 5 of us) for Orrin's benefit. He is a HUGE Wiggles fan and I thought that he would love it. So I sent Jake to school that morning (Anna is home schooling right now...more about that later) with the intent to pick him up at noon, go to Wetaskiwin where Jesse is working right now to pick him up and then into Edmonton for the 4pm show. Well I got into the car to get Jake and my battery was as dead as a door nail! So I called Jesse in a panic and he suggested I boost it (ME???) with our portable car battery charger. Well I was convinced I would blow all of us up, but he assured me everything would be just fine. Finally I got the car started and off we went. Despite our rocky begining we actually made it to the show with 10 minutes to spare. Our friends Jacky and Ryan Layton and their two girls Claire and Madeline were also going to the concert. The plan was to meet Dorothy before the show. She ( and The Wiggles) do meet and greets for kids with disabilities so Jacky and I had organised to be able to do this with someone from The Wiggles staff, but it all fell through. Oh well, we thought, we and the kids will still have a great time.

'Dodgy', would be the word I would use to describe The Dorothy the Dinosaur Show but Jake had an absolute blast and I am sure he would have been able to sit through another show back-to-back. It was very small. Captain Feathersword (well not the real one, but he did good), Don the Postman, Wags, Henry, 2 fairies and of course Dorothy were it for the cast, so as you can imagine it was pretty small-time (but so were the Wiggles when they first began). Orrin really could have slept through the whole thing for the enthusiasm he had for it. He just kept waiting for The Big Red Car and Murray to make their appearance so I suppose he is a true Wiggles fan and really doesn't care for any of their supporting cast! So even though my intent was for Orrin's benefit, the reaction of Jake was well worth the trip.After the show Jacky and Ryan invited us to their place for supper. It was a really fun night. It is nice to have friends to socialize with that also have a special needs child. Even though our kids problems are different, we have an unspoken understanding of each others situations.



Monday, May 18, 2009

All about Love & Hate

I have discovered I have a love/hate relationship with May. I love it because the weather is finally warm, the flowers have started to bloom and the grass is turning green. I apreciate so many things about nature that when living in Australia I didn't really notice (or care for), for that matter. I absoloutely love May because I don't have to bundle the kids up before they step out the door and generally they don't even need gum-boots, they are actually able to wear shoes for the first time in 8 months!!

I hate May because it is such a crazy busy month. Anna and I are both in dance and April and May is when competitions begin. This year we had her first in Airdie on the 25th of April which is about a 3 hour drive south. Thankfully the schedule was such that even though she was in two dances there, they were both all over and done with in just a few hours. Their tap routine got a silver with 'Best Choreography' and their ballet recieved a high silver. As luck would have it Airdrie had a little 'post winter' storm that weekend so we decided to pack some pj's in case we got stuck, but we made it home just fine.

Because that festival was on our anniversary weekend we celebrated a week early. We organised for Jake to be in respite and Ray and Emily very kindly looked after Anna and Orrin. Because having the house to ourselves never happens and I mean NEVER, we decided to stay home. As you can imagine it was a very relaxing weekend.

The first weekend in May was the 2nd dance festival at Grant Mcewan in Edmonton. Because Anna's dances were spread out over 2 days we decided to make a weekend out of it. I had enough airmiles to book a hotel 5 minutes from the festival for 2 nights. We drove up on the Friday night as her first dance was at 9 Saturday morning. We had the rest of the day free so we watched some of the dances and then went shopping. Her Ballet was on Sunday afternoon so we were able to take it easy in the morning and then watch some dances during our free time. They recieved 2 silvers and a 'Most Promising' plaque for tap. It was lovely to be able to have a 'girls weekend'.

In the midst of all of this hun-bub Anna and Orrin started soccer. For some reason I felt I still didn't have enough to do so I put the kids in soccer. Anna has been wanting to do it for a few years, but I have always said no as it clashes with the last month of dance. At the end of May the kids do their final performance for all their friends and family that weren't able to make it to any of the festivals and for the younger kids that just take dance for recreational purposes. So instead of having practices at the studio we are required to go practice on the stage that is about 15 minutes from Breton. However Orrin was old enough to play soccer this year and he really wanted to do it and since I was taking him, I might aswell take her. Anna has dance on Monday's, Tuesday's and Thursday's, so of course soccer would be on Tuesday's and Thursdays! So far it has been a bit of a gong show, but they are both really enjoying it.

The weekend just gone (15th & 16th May) was at Sherwood Park the last Dance festival for our dance year. Anna had three dances and I had my Musical Theatre. She got a high silver for tap and 'most promising', high silver for Ballet and 'most promising' and Jazz they got a high silver. Our performance got a high gold.