Easter April 2009

Easter weekend turned out completely different than what I had initially anticipated. I thought that we would have a quiet weekend at home, just me & the kids. (Bryce was away, working in Alberta, of course!) Then I got a call on the Wednesday night before the weekend. My mom called at about 9:30pm & said that she & my dad were thinking about driving out to see us... THE NEXT DAY! So I was excited & decided not to tell the kids, I thought it would be a good surprise for the kids. So I sent the kids off to school the next day and then I spilled the beans to one of the kids... I told Madi!! Hehehe... I couldn't keep it a complete secret, so I told the child who doesn't know how to talk!! Anyways, my parents came & brought Liam (my sister Lindsay's son) with them. We had such a fun weekend with them! It was great to have them come & visit, even if it was only for 3 days. :)

The first day we decided to go to the Sportsplex in Brandon. We had heard that there was a good pool there. It was awesome! The pool had a really fun water slide & a floating climbing mountain & lots of really cool pool toys. We spent a couple hours there & afterwards we went out to dinner together. It was a fun day together. :)

On our second day together we decided to go to Play Time so the kids could burn off some of their energy. The kids did just that! They ran and played and jumped for a good couple hours. In the last 20 minutes, Madi hurt her foot and couldn't stand on it. I thought maybe she was just tired & hungry initially, but then I realized that wasn't the case, she had actually hurt herself. So off to the hospital we went... all 8 of us! Grandma & Grandpa, Liam, my 4 kids & myself. Kinda a gong show. We soon realized that sitting in the ER with those numbers wasn't the most practical idea. My Dad was a good, good man... he took all the uninjured kids back home & put them to bed, while my mom & I did the hospital visit with Miss Madi. It turned out that Madi had a 'buckle fracture' on one of her bones in her left foot. Poor little muffin! Here's Madi, very overtired & unhappy with her temporary cast.



Since it was a Saturday night, Madi was only able to have a temporary cast. We went back to the cast room in the hospital the following Tuesday. She did really well... and she got a very cute hot pink cast! So cute! Well, at least at the end of this all, she looks adorable in her cast. :)




Here's a picture of Madi getting ready for her bath. I wrap her cast in towel & then double bag it and seal it with an elastic. She doesn't mind doing all of that... she just loves getting in the tub & will do whatever it takes to get in!!



See, Madi just couldn't wait any longer... apparently she was more interested in getting into the tub than having her picture taken! That's Madi for you! :)



Here's a video clip of Madi getting around in her cast. The doctors told me the first night that I would likely have to carry her everywhere & that she wouldn't walk much. They don't know our Madi. It didn't take her long to figure out how to maneuver herself & now after almost 2 weeks of her being in a cast, she's almost as fast in her cast as she is without it. She's so cute as she hobbles along. We love our little Madi! (If you want to hear the video clip without the music that plays on my blog, go to the sidebar and press the pause button on the music playlist!)





Sunday was Easter and we had a yummy turkey dinner. Mom, Dad & I decided that it was easy to do a turkey dinner when there are 3 people making it! We enjoyed our visit with Grandma & Grandpa & Liam! So glad they came & can't wait to see them again!

Spring Break March 2009

We had a nice surprise for Spring Break... Bryce was home! Bryce has been away in Suffield, Alberta since about mid March. (He has been working, doing military stuff.) He initially wasn't supposed to be home until mid May, but we all got lucky, Daddy came home for about 13 days! And thank heavens the 13 days went over the kids Spring Break! I thought I had died and gone to heaven! The kids were home & so was Bryce ~ wonderful timing! We sat down as a family & did some brainstorming as to how to spend our time together. The list was long & the kids had MANY ideas. (no surprise there!) Some ideas involved us going away & spending lots of $$ and others were more simple & much less expensive. Bryce & I thought about our options & made up an itinerary. We decided to stay closer to home & do more things (& spend less $$!)... we wanted the kids to feel like they had a fun week of activities & that they were put first. So here's what we did!

Monday we took the kids swimming. They had a blast & Madi went for her first swim. She hated it at first but after about 1/2 an hour or so, she warmed up to the idea of being in a huge 'bath tub' & by the end was actually enjoying herself. Good times! Noah, June & Adam virtually had the pool to themselves & thought that they had died and gone to heaven. The waterslide was a big hit too... Mommy & Daddy had a good time on it too!



Tuesday we took the kids to Ruckers. Ruckers is kinda like a small version of Chucky Cheese. Yes, it is noisy & is easily the last place I would like to spend my morning, but the kids LOVED it there! They played just about every game there & collected as many tickets as they possibly could. One machine gave out so many tickets to Adam, I thought that maybe it was broken!







After our morning in Ruckers, we treated the kids to lunch at Applebees. The kids had never eaten there before so we thought we would switch things up a bit and try somewhere different. They didn't want to go there at first but it didn't take much for them to change their minds... once they were seated, they were happy campers. :)





Wednesday we had a play day at home. I had laundry & things to catch up on so we stayed close to home.

Thursday we took the kids to Play Time. That is another place the kids love to go to and I can only stand to be there for a limited time. The kids ran & played basically until Bryce & I couldn't stand to be there anymore! ;)










Afterwards, we went to Grandma Rogers house for lunch. (Grandma Rogers is Bryce's grandma... we just love her to pieces! And she loves her great- grandbabies even more!!) We had a yummy lunch, as always, and a very nice visit too.





Friday night we had a Fun Friday with the kids. Daddy went to the Canex & bought a ton of treats for the kids & over to the movie store and rented 'Spiderwick Cronicles' for the kids. Grandpa Rollins invited Adam to go to the Winter Fair in Brandon & also for a sleep over. So he went out with Grandpa & had a fun time, while the rest of us stayed back & ate pizza in the living room & watched our movie.

Bryce was a little sad that he wasn't going to home over Easter & really wanted to see the kids do the Easter egg hunt & have their treats. So we decided that on Saturday we would celebrate Easter. The kids were ALL OVER that idea! So Saturday morning we got up & the kids did their egg hunt. So much fun! This was the first year that Madi kinda had a clue about what was going on. She would find an egg and then would pop it into her mouth, package and all (gross!) and then would move on to find another one. I was really impressed with June. She would lead Madi to the eggs & put them in her little bag & June often would take eggs from her own bag & put them into Madi's. I thought that was so nice of her to do that! Sweet moment for June & Madi! (They sure are good friends, I hope that always lasts.) At the end of the egg hunt, we combined what everyone found & split it up evenly. Then we gave them their bigger Easter treat. They were ready to eat!

And that was our Spring Break for 2009! We all had a good week! :)