Atticus is 5!

We have had lots of fun celebrating around here this weekend. Celebrating because this little man turned 5! Oh, I know it's cliche, but how did that happen!? How did he go from an eager-to-learn little baby to this super thoughtful 5-year-old?

We sure do love having Atticus in our family. He is such a hard worker, great helper and so thoughtful of those around him. He is so determined to always be helping that he gets a little down when there isn't any way for him to help. And he thinks verrrrry far into the future. He really thinks things through; even thinking about how many children he would like to have when he is married and what vehicle would be best to drive. Yep, that's our 5-year-old. And he is a fierce friend.

The most recent accomplishment that we have been celebrating around here is that Atticus is full-on reading. I'll post more about that another time, for now, I will just say that he thoroughly enjoyed getting to read all his birthday cards himself. And he has been practicing away at the piano; knows the names of the keys and can play both Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hot Cross Buns. He's been asking about learning the violin next so we will hopefully be able to get that going soon as well.

Atticus declared this morning that it feels pretty good to be 5. More details about his birthday celebration soon. The birthday outing was an all around success and the birthday boy announced at the end of the day that every part of the day was his favorite. Above all, I just hope that he felt an outpouring of love, regardless of all the extras. We showered him with even more hugs and kisses than usual and just had fun celebrating him! We sure do love Atticus!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ATTICUS!!!

More photos to come soon!

Matching

The kids think it's pretty spectacular when we match around here. Same color shirts, same color pants, all wearing shorts, all wearing socks etc - any patterns or similarities are simply awesome to them. It's cute. So when I suggested that I take a few photos of my matching kidlets they were pretty stoked about the idea. Atticus even brushed Milayla's hair out of her face for the picture. So sweet. 

Reunited - Back on the Bakfiets

This week we got to go for the first little trip in the bakfiets of the season. I seriously cannot begin to explain how nice that felt. It was definitely not sweater weather as Atticus' attire would suggest. But the snow and ice were gone, it wasn't raining, and the bakfiets had been properly adjusted so we set sail. 

I'm sure there is something to be said for my affection for this bike, but we all just love it. As soon as I turned onto the street and we were on our way, the kids were smiling and laughing and saying how much fun it was. Pretty sure it helped that we were headed to the park, but they would be happy heading out in the bakfiets even if it was just to run errands. Now if only we didn't need to dodge so many potholes; that's an adventure I could do without. 

Regardless of potholes though, it feels good to be back on bicycle and out of the winter freeze. I'm on the lookout for manageable bike rides to go explore this big 'ol city. But first, we need to get a second bike because as funny as I'm sure it would look, I'm not too keen on letting Jason sit in (or on the back of) the bakfiets while I pedal around. Nor would I particularly care to do that either! 

Love these faces of happiness!

When Jason got home that night and we all sat down for dinner he asked us what we did that afternoon and the kids oozed about our trip in the bakfiets to which Jason remarked, "I thought you all seemed a little more chipper than usual". We sure were!

It's been a day since we last took out the bike and the kids are already asking why it has been so long! Ha!! Oh the magic of a little bit of fresh air and exercise. :)

This is now

I've been meaning to write about the books that we have been reading for a while. It was a few months ago now that Atticus pulled a chapter book off our shelf for evening book and the kids begun to feel the thrill of getting lost in the words of a fully woven story that knits together another world for you to explore in your mind.

We love books. We go to the library and take home stacks and stacks of books, then pull them all out on the floor and read through every single one - multiple times. Advancing into early chapter books seems to have opened even more doors for those wonderful imaginations of theirs. Not to mention, it is so much fun to see them anticipate what is going to happen next.

With us living in Quebec, where maple trees abound, I thought that reading the first book in the Little House series would be very fitting seeing that they go maple sugaring in the book. 

I must admit, I recall reading this book in the early school years and very vividly remember some parts of it (like the maple sugaring and Christmas) but I never really took to it. Reading it through with the kids gave me a new sense for the comfort of the words in this book. The words are thick, descriptive and oh, so, comfortable. I'm not sure that I could explain it any other way. 

As we read we really did feel like we were gently pulled into and guided around another time. It was soothing and peaceful. We loved it so much. 

And as we read the final words of the book I felt the need to snuggle those little kiddos a little bit closer to me. Because while "this is now", now is always changing and the only time to truly appreciate it is to breath in deeply and enjoy all it's many dimensions and sweetnesses. 

I love a good book, but I love so much more being able to share special moments now with this special family of mine to help lay the foundation for many more lovely moments to treasure and breath in deeply. 

Swim Lessons

The kids finished up their swim lessons and we are so proud of the progress that they made. Both are anxious to get started on the next level but Milayla won't be old enough until after her birthday (it's the big transition class to going solo in the pool) so we are holding off most likely until the fall. 

These kiddos worked hard on that kicking though. Atticus is swimming across the pool with just a noodle and Milayla is jumping into the pool and kicking with lots of oomph. 

It's been fun to see the kids tackle this! They both said that they thought it was hard and after the classes were all done they remarked at how much fun hard things can be. Yay for fun times and good lessons. 

I love the array of smiles that they give me.

The kids requested ice cream cones to celebrate. Coconut ice cream for Atticus and home made chocolate banana for Milayla.

So proud of them!

Game time with Atticus

Because things seem to have been more hectic than I would like around here, scheduling time with each of the kiddos seems to be a struggle. We are able to get in some family time, which is great, but it helps big time for Jason and I each to get some one to one time with each of the kids. To serve this purpose we have found it useful to split some duties up. For example, when one of us needs to head out for some errands we take one of the kids with us to get some quality chat time with them while the other one of us stays home with the other child for a little activity. It's been working pretty well. That time with each of the kids really does let us see who they are just a little bit clearer and they always seem to enjoy their Mommy/Daddy time a lot. 

The last time Atticus and I chilled at home we opted for some games after we finished tidying up. After this toy story game that we have it was on to Candy Land (which Atticus won, of course. Never fails) and then Atticus let me start teaching him Checkers. 

I wasn't too sure how well checkers would go, but Atticus did a great job learning the basics and being patient with his self as he made mistakes in the learning process. The result - he loves it.

Atticus definitely still has some learning and practice to go to learn to play the full game but he is excited to learn which makes the process a little bit easier and smoother. That time with just the two of us definitely allowed us a moment to explore something new just for him. It was nice.

I'm glad we get this time with the kiddos. They're still pretty young, but we sure love who they are and the new developments that they make each and every day. It's a pretty awesome part of parenting.

Sauerkraut

With us now being in Canada I feel the need now, more than ever, to document these photos. 

These are blurry pictures of the kids LOVING Sauerkraut. 

See the portion on Milayla's plate? They both had a portion that size and then asked more more. 

Jason and I were completely surprised not only by the fact that they like it but that they LOVE it. They even request it.

So, in the event this is just a tastebud phase for them, I am documenting that there was once a day, when we lived in the land of Sauerkraut that they unabashedly loved sauerkraut. 

Go figure.

Focke Museum

The Focke Museum in Bremen has been on my list of places to take the kids for some time so the kids were pretty excited when it came time for us to go to a new museum (as we tend to frequent other, more familiar ones). And while I am glad we went, and we all enjoyed our time there, our timing was not the greatest. Between a large portion being close due to renovations and the feature exhibit being a bit too heavy for young children, there wasn't too much left to see. That didn't seem to matter for the kiddos though. Between the doll house sized renditions of traditional Bremer homes, a full size wooden car, a rescue cruiser boat and discovering treasures in the plethora of archives, we were definitely had a nice fill of things to learn about and discover.

Our favorite parts of our visit to the museum?

Milayla definitely gravitated to the cars and the Bremer House scale models.

 I loved seeing the details of all the furnishings. So beautiful!

 And Atticus' jaw dropped in complete amazement when he saw the rescue boat (see picture below, right). All the model boats were also a pretty well-liked item.

I love seeing Milayla and Atticus' faces light up as they discover the world around them. 

Atticus is 4 - Official photos

You can sure tell that I take a lot of photos around here. Atticus knew just what he needed to do. I had so much fun taking pictures of our little 4-year-old. So handsome, sweet and funny and growing up so fast! I love how the pictures turned out, he has some great expressions and smiles. You can really tell how much older he looks in these photos; can't believe it! 

Enjoy the photos!

Photography

Waaaaay back in April I did a little photography class in an attempt to get me using my big camera more often (and being less dependent on my iPhone). It certainly did the trick, at least at the time. The class itself was mostly review for me, but it did help me to remember some lovely tricks that I had long forgotten. Not to mention, it really made me aware of how lazy I have been with some of my photo taking when I know I can do much better (like just turning up my ISO and having grainy pictures instead of making other adjustments that would give me better photo quality). It also helped me to shoot more efficiently so there are less lighting adjustments on the computer afterwards (eg., white balance).

Since then I have been making slow and steady improvements, though I still seem to get a little too dependent on my iPhone for photos but I'm working on it :). Anyhow, I thought I would post up some of the photos that I took for my class. I'm pretty lucky to have some very patient children and Hubby because they were so helpful in letting me snap photos of them all the time. Like the 'day in the life' photos I did of Atticus. Or the lighting experiment pictures I did with Milayla and Jason. It was fun though, and they seemed to enjoy it also. It was also quite nice to remember how photogenic this little city of Bremen is - even when it's ridiculously cold.

Here are some of the photos:

Please note::: the lighting in these are not perfect. there was no post-editing allowed for this class. So, although I would have liked to have made some lighting adjustments, this is how they come off the camera. I'm hoping to keep working at this so I can improve my shot quality straight out of the camera so that things need to be adjusted afterward far less :).