We are counting down the days here until my little baby (ok, my almost 4 year old) starts attending school aka Junior Kindergarten. She is very very excited. She now has a drawer-full of school-friendly pants although finding this child pants without buttons & zippers that don’t also fall off of her tiny waist was a HUGE challenge! I think she’ll be wearing a lot of tights! But I managed to find enough pairs that fit her right.

We also have her backpack ready. Water-bottle with a straw ready. Dora lunchbox ready (although she spotted a Thomas one at Zellers yesterday and went nuts!). Plastic sandwich baggies ready. New Velcro shoes ready. So far, so good. We’re meeting her teacher on Sept 8th so hopefully I can get my hundreds of other questions answered. Talk about stress. Talk about excitement. My wittle wittle baby is growing up. :(

Natasha is obsessed with her Magnadoodle! Actually, both girls are and now that they have two, it eliminates a lot of fighting! But Natasha has been drawing some impressive things on hers and I love her little 3.5 year old drawing skills!

January 2010 – Chickens

May 2010 – Thomas the train (this was on paper)

July 2010 – Snail

And today – August 2010 – my favourite, a giraffe!

Both girls are very excited to start/return to their sports classes this fall. Veronika will be starting her first year of gymnastics, and Natasha will start her 3rd! Natasha is also starting her 2nd year of jazz/ballet/acro but in a different dance school so it’s a new experience for her. Both are looking forward to it!

Today I took Natasha to buy her new uniform – bodysuit, tights, and shoes, and she really enjoyed trying everything on and then modeling at home for her daddy. Veronika got quite jealous of the attention her sister was getting, so Natasha (being the sweetheart that she is) asked me to dress her baby sister in her older pink bodysuit and that immediately lifted Veronika’s spirits!

We bought the girls tickets to watch their very first movie in the theatre! And what’s better to to see than their favourite character – Thomas the tank engine! The movie is called Thomas & Friends: Misty Island Rescue, and is offered through Toons for Toddlers. I really love this whole service, even though they are only offering one movie right now, but it’s ideal for toddlers – it’s for kids ages 2-5, screening length under 60 minutes, reduced sound, and the theatre is not fully dark so parents can exit if necessary.

I am not a fan of people bringing young kids to ‘regular’ movies and have them cry, talk, and disturb everyone, so for us this is ideal. I am hoping the girls like it! Of course, it isn’t a first movie without popcorn and pop!

Last Monday was Veronika's 1st and Natasha's 3rd trip to the zoo! The girls had a fun day, and I think Veronika was pretty impressed with all the different animals, as well as the kids-zone climbing area and the huge splash pad. And Natasha... Natasha loved the splash pad! She is not huge on the zoo itself, as we learned for the 3rd time this year! She just wasn't impressed with any of the animals, except maybe the turtles. She was more fascinated with the merry-go-round at the entrance, and I guess she's more like me in that sense, as I'd much rather visit a theme park than a zoo. But she still had a ton of fun!

The splash pad was her favourite and she even attempted going on some of the water slides. Veronika took a while to warm up, but soon enough was loving the water as well. At the end, they each picked out a stuffed turtle from the zoo shop!

Zoo entrance

Checking out the turtles

Looking at… something! Can’t remember :)

Splash pad fun!

Spider webs!