Costa Rica Bound

Have I got your attention?! Yep, it's about that time of year. The time to travel to Costa Rica. We've been 5 times in the past 6 years. It's difficult to imagine NOT receiving our typical dose of vitamin D. But in small ways ... the comforts of the season have been presented to us this past week.
So, in the past, I've spoken about forging streams and ...

Here's a picture of the exit ramp from 22X to Northbound Deerfoot. I thought it was a result of the chinook and spring runoff. We found out later in the week that it was mostly due to a water main break. Northbound Deerfoot Trail was shut down to 1 lane and the exit ramp only had the choice to forge the stream. Good times.
Here's a picture I missed posting last week. You know, it's only reasonable that Sadie is more advanced, at a younger age, in the skill of the sport.

On St. Patty's Day we invited Great Grandma to join us for dinner at Montana's. The kids sat down and immediately started coloring on the table. Grandma was a little shocked until she realized the table was covered in brown paper. I will continue to state that we rarely eat out at sit down restaurants. BUT when we do, it's always Montana's because they are so welcoming to children...which works well for the couple we have.

But that's not the end of an eventful St. Patricks Evening celebration. We also continued on to our School Concert. We were unable to book the facility for a Christmas Concert so.... our Christmas Concert was exchanged for a Spring Concert titled: "The Bear Went Over the Mountain."

Dare I write some quirky details that I always want to remember?

Sorry if this does not interst my readers BUT:

Ryan was given hockey tickets for Christmas .... yes, they happened to be for the same night. Darn!

I asked my Sis Amanda (an overly energetic Flames Fan), if she was interested in attending the boys concert this year. Of course, being the supportive lady that she is said, "Yes."

My response was, okay, well, I guess I'm going to have to find another taker for this pair of Flames tickets Ryan's trying to give away.

Once Quinten and Colby realized that Auntie was going to miss their concert ... they provided her with an in-house performance.

And it goes:

"The bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain, the bear went over the mountain to see what he could see.

And all that he could see, and all that he could see, was ....

the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain, the other side of the mountain was all that he could see. "

Pretty funny. Especially when Auntie killed herself laughing. I think that made up for her absense.

The facility is amazing equipped with spotlights which kept Quinten from spotting his parents. It was so cute, I waved to him, but he looked right through me. This year was a proud moment as all 4 boys were in attendance AND performing.

Another cute fact is that Quinten and Colby's class was in the front row (of a total of 4 Kindergarten classes on stage).

Each of our boys stood as book-ends for their class. Quinten is the book end on the right.

And Colby is the book end on the left. I love the little details.

For the third year in a row ....

Will has been positioned in the back row, at the very corner. I thought it was just bad luck the first two years, but for the third year running; I've decided he's part of a consistent strategy that I will likely never understand.

None the less, we still had a good view of him.

And then there's Logan. In a school that spans from Kindergarten to Grade 4...he is in his Senior year. It's a special time for the Grade 4 students as they have the opportunity to serve as a 'Leadership Student.' They have to write a speech and present it to the Vice Principal and Support Staff in order to be accepted. Once accepted they can work with children in younger Grades (eg. by reading to them, or helping with a craft day), they pick the 'theme' for Casual Days once a month and they can also audition for extra special roles in the School Concert.

Logan is a Leadership Student and chose to audition for a special role in the Concert. He is a Moose and had specific lines rehearsed in specific scenes through-out the evening. I'm supportive of his enthusiasm for participating. He said he was a little nervous until he got on stage and then it was "easy."

Finally, Saturday was a fun/busy day for us. We tackled 3 birthday parties, 1 oil change on the vehicle, cleaning of 4 bathrooms AND .... a moment to sit back and paint Sadie's nails. She's only been asking for about 2 weeks.

It seems every time I'm prepping for the day, she's visiting with me and looking through the color options for nail polish. On Saturday, I was cleaning the bathroom....while 3 boys were at a birthday party and Ryan was out in Dad's garage changing the oil on our vehicle and teaching Logan the trade (just to make Grandpa proud). So....the house was quiet, I had been productive and was thus, tired AND Sadie had picked her color.

The result: A little girl who dressed herself and would have sat in this position for the rest of the day until her nails were confirmed to be dry.

Her color of choice was Red.