Soaking Up The Last Rays of Summer

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Here are some of our last summery moments in August and September of 2011! I love summer and was not really looking forward to the structure of the school year, so here we were, taking in as much summer fun as we could! We went to the Edmonton Corn Maze, the lake near Mark and Tonya's house, bike rides up to the coffee shop, walks near the river and to the library, swimming at our friends', the Atwoods, back yard pool. We took Makeba to her first movie in the theatre for her birthday, the Smurfs in 3-D. Annand's dad taught Makeba how to ride a two-wheeler... she never used training wheels! It was a busy time for us as we prepared for the Big Change...Kindergarten!!!

I think Makeba has been ready for school since she could say "school." She was so excited that this was the year for her. I, on the other hand, was not as excited. I was sad that my baby has grown up so fast, I was nervous about how she would integrate into this strange new group of people all the exact same age as her, I was nervous about how I would integrate into the parent community, I was unsure of whether or not we made the right choice of school...it kind of went on and on. I realize now that I was maybe taking everything a bit too seriously and that life is good. We learn from every moment, whether things fall into place the way we want them to or not. The most important thing is that we are happy. My baby has matured so quickly in the first couple of months of school and she really and truly loves it. My other baby also loves school! She loves to colour at the art centre every morning as we help Makeba settle in. Makeba has started saying, "okay, you guys can leave now!" but Althea wants to be just like the big kids and do a little something in kindergarten too.

Annand is flourishing in his new job as a Program Director for Volunteer Alberta. He is very professional! He really enjoys using his critical thinking skills in this type of environment and is really good at his job. It's also nice that we have more flexibility for family time, and are afforded things like vacation time, long weekends and sick days! It's been a good change for our little family and we are very happy!