Straight Up!: May

Busy month. 5 kids. Surprised? Didn't think so.

We started our month out with a quick visit from Juli and two of her kidlets, who were over visiting from England. Ethan enjoyed playing with Danny and Megan and Hannah were over the moon with the chance to cuddle their new cousin, baby Hollie. And Juli brought some yummy creme eggs for us to enjoy, mmmm! I love chocolate.

Ethan was not a happy camper as he really didn't want his picture taken. And Mary is completely absent as she was up playing with the neighbors.

The next event in our month was a drama filled time. Ethan desperately needed some dental work done. So we booked the surgery suite and waited patiently. The day of his appointment we were told to be there at 9:30, surgery at 10:30. Day before we get a message, an emergency came up, be there at 10:30. So we get there on time. And wait. Some nitwit came in early for his appointment. I heard the receptionist tell him his kids appointment was at 2:30, but since they were there and they had a cancellation she'd bump him to 11:00???!!! What the heck? So again we wait. And wait. And wait. Oh and he had not eaten or drank anything since supper the night before. By the time he has his turn it was 1:30. I was pretty angry, but what could I do? Poor baby was starving (me too. I hadn't eaten since 7:00 that morning) Any way he had his surgery - 3 teeth pulled, 4 silver caps and a smattering of fillings and sealants. And a follow up to have a spacer put in.

Then the drama really begins. 2 days after the surgery he started running a temperature of 104. So after 2 days of that I took him to the walk in clinic, where they think it's probably an infection. So they give him an antibiotic. It was so nasty I don' think I could have taken it. So after another 2 days of high fever we took him tho the Children's Hospital and they gave him a better antibiotic. He took it fever went away and all is well. Seriously glad it's all done.

Here is a picture of his spacer. Not at all what I expected. And I really don't know how he eats. He had the teeth directly in front of the caps pulled, and he's missing his two bottom front teeth. Poor kid.

On to the garden. Peter worked really hard to get his garden just so. We spent Victoria Day planting it. It's a small garden it didn't really take all day. Here is a shot of our rows. We planted from left to right - peas, peas, beans, carrots, lettuce, romaine lettuce and spinach. I'll let you know if anything grows!

Here is Peters baby. He and Ethan built it over the course of a couple days. We have it over our lettuce and spinach. We also use it to keep our tomato and pepper plants under cover, because yes, we are STILL having frosty nights, sigh.

And here are our potato 'barrels'. Not sure how they or if they will work out, but I'll try to document any progress. I think Peter planted these towards the beginning of the month and they are already up and growing.

And my baby turns 15. I am NOT old enough to have a 15 year old. At least that's what everyone tells me. Well actually they tell me I don't look old enough to have a 15 year old. So exactly how old do I look?

Here is the happy birthday girl.

And the rest of the pictures look like this. Her sitting cross-legged on the couch opening one present after the other. This present was a gift card to the mall. What teenage girl doesn't like to shop?

Blow out the candles! Look one boyfriend. Who is it Katey?

Next is Hannah's turn in our family who's who. Every month at the school they have an award ceremony where 1 child from every class is nominated by their teacher for a PRO award. PRO stands for People Respecting Others. These children are kind, helpful, friendly any number of reasons they can get this award. Generally an all round nice kid. And Hannah was this months recipient for her class! Way to go Hannah!

Showing off her award.

Her class was also raising butterflies from caterpillars. Since I was already at the school I stopped by her class and took a few pictures of the butterflies. Here is the net they lived in.

This is the food the kids brought in. The butterflies especially liked the orange slices.

And here are two of the butterflies after they came out of their chrysalises. It was hard to get a clear picture through the net, but you can kind of get the idea.

Megan's grade, grade 4, is participating in a service project of sorts. They are separated into groups and once a week a group goes to help at the Airdrie Food Bank. It's great for the kids to get to do. And to go along with that, all 3 Gr. 4 classes planted a HUGE garden to grow food for the food bank. A teacher at the school donated some of her farm so the kids can do this project. And I was lucky enough to get to help. We planted onions, carrots, beets, and potato's, lot and lots of potato's. Her teacher was telling me they expect to harvest 75,000 potato's in the fall. Lots of taters!

Here she is at school with 2 of her best friends, AW and B and of course Megan.

And last of all for this month is Mary. She needed to construct a boat for school, and Peter had the honour of helping her. They cut, glued, drilled and painted this little beauty. I think it looks great. Unfortunately it sank when she tested it at school. Oh well, it still looks good!

Here is a side view. They used a pop bottle, a chunk of wood for the keel and plastic piping to stabilize it. I contributed the card stock for the mast! Building things is not my forte, but I can sure help things look pretty!