Santa 2012

Santa arrived on Friday, December 1st this year.

Our tradition is for the kids to put their wish list letter to Santa in their stocking a few days before Santa actually arrives, which we usually aim for a weekend around December 5th.  This year Matthew still believed in Santa and didn’t really seem to have any doubts about him, except to ask once or twice if Santa was for real.  When we asked him where he thought his presents came from he was content again to think it was Santa that brought them. 

The Wednesday before our gift exchange Matthew put his letter in his stocking and the next morning … tada, Santa had picked up the letter and left a few presents.  Kids made sure they were up on time that morning to check out their stockings.  Since I really rather not put too much candy in their stockings I try to get a little gift instead.

 

 

 

 

Matthew got a round baler for with his tractors

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebecca received a bracelet; Marietta receive a razor and shaving cream (she’s dressed in her school gym clothes for the Volleyball Tournament which was that day)

On Saturday, December 1st we decided to go see the Santa Claus Parade.  Since the summer when Rebecca was on the 4H float in the parade (see here) the kids have had an interest in parades.  So off we went to see the local parade and gather a collection of candy canes.

Just before we left while the kids were waiting in the van Rob and I quickly put the presents in the living room and so when we arrived home Matthew discovered that Santa had stopped by our place on his way to the Parade and left some gifts.

We did a $5-10 gift exchange again this year (we all buy something for Matthew also but he’s oblivious to where they come from).  This year us girls pooled together and made a basket of items for Rob …some cologne, dutch stuff, work gloves.

As the girls get older and already have an over abundance of craft items and can be a bit complicate to decide what to get them, although each year we end up finding more then enough in the end.  Books is something that we give more regularly now and this year we gave the girls each some books that they can use for their nighttime devotions.  They aren’t necessarily devotions books, but church history books written for them to understand and so they can slowly work through these at night reading a page or two at a time.

Rebecca received 3 books written by Sinclair B. Ferguson about Irenaeus of Lyons, Polycarp of Smyrna and Ignatius of Antioch.  Marietta received the book This Was John Calvin by Thea B. Van Halsema and Faithfulness under Fire by William Boekestein

Together the kids received the book Amazing Stories from Times Past, Devotions for Children and Families by Christine Farenhorst.  We have actually not read any of these books yet as we are currently working our way through the book A Message for You .  We would love to find more time to read but since the kids like to read them all together it doesn’t always work out to read a lot at a time and we find the current devotion has provided good discussions so there’s no hurry to work through it.

Rebecca received a new watch, waterproof this time so in the summer they aren’t constantly looking for or without it because they always have to take it off.  Matthew’s glee about receiving a whoopee cushion from Marietta … one the inflates on it’s own so no more slobbery gobber all over the thing … the last one only lasted a day, lucky us this one has already done just fine for two months.

A snow tube …this quickly became the new favourite once we actually received some snow.

Contigo Travel mugs and Water Bottles.  Rob gave me one of these for my birthday last year (okay, the package had two, but really he wanted one and figured I might like the other one).  Love, love, love these!!!  This is THE travel mug.  You want hot you got it.  My tea stays HOT (as in too hot to drink) for a good hour, warm (drinkable) for 2-3 hours, but 4 hours it’s might still have some heat … but it never lasts that long so I’m not sure.  And the better part … these things DO NOT spill!  Love it … just throw it in the purse right side up, upside down, whatever … no leaking AT ALL.  I just went to their website, I had no idea they had so many different options because I haven’t seen them all .. the ones the kids got is the only kind I ever see for travel mugs.  The prices on the website are interesting too since the other thing I was going to say about this product is that it is such a reasonable price.  You can get these at Costco, the travel mug comes in sets of 2 for $19 and the water bottles in sets of 3 for $19.  So there’s my sales pitch in case you haven’t heard of them (in this area they are very common)

So the kids each got their own travel mug.  I found that they were often using mine in the past year when they were sick as they were so handy for keeping their drink warm and not spilling.  I figured they would put them to good use for more reasons then just sickness (although the number of colds we’ve had this winter means they’ve been well used just with sickness … great for taking tea to school for a cough or sore throat)   Everyone in the family also got waterbottles … these are very well used for lunches and at home.

The kids open their gift

The mugs were Rob’s gift exchange item.  I put my gift exchange items inside the mugs … but they didn’t notice that the mugs were a bit heavy, so I finally had to suggest they check the inside of their mugs.  The

Matthew found dutch candies inside his mug … and this is his message to dad to say “they’re all mine, don’t touch”

The big gift did not arrive on time … even though it had said it would arrive a week already before we had gift exchange.  I was not too impressed about this since I would have waited for a sale if I knew they weren’t going to make it on time.  So instead the kids received a letter.

Dear Van Middelkoop Family I regret to inform you that one of your “biggest” presents was not prepared on time and will not arrive for a couple weeks. After much thought and consideration about what present would be well suited for the entire family I came to the conclusion that instead of a trip away for a few days, or a special event, it would be nice to have a present that can be used to remember events and enjoy the past. The present was something that my elves could not prepare in my workshop and so I had to ask someone else to put it together. They were unable to have it completed by today but I knew you would love to have your other presents so I have delivered the other gifts for you to enjoy in the meantime. Since it is a very busy time of year for me I thought the quickest way to get the present to you would be to have it delivered by mail and so you should receive another present in a couple weeks time. Hopefully you will enjoy the memories that it brings. Much love, Santa

Marietta quickly guessed what the gift was … the blog put into print/books. This has been a well enjoyed gift and while Matthew didn’t seem much interested at the time of the letter he is quite often found surfin’ through the books and looking at the pictures … in a couple years he’ll actually be able to read it.

4-H and Fair Season

Big long post about Rebecca’s first year 4H experience.

It’s probably best I start off by explaining what 4H is.  You can read about it here.  The 4 H’s in 4H is for head, heart, hands, health.

I pledge my Head to clearer thinking,
my Heart to greater loyalty,
my Hands to larger service and
my Health to better living
for my club, my community and my country.

 

Our Vision — To share the value of a clear Head,
loyal Heart, serving Hands and better Health
with youth, volunteers and communities across Ontario.

 

This year 4H celebrates 100 years in Canada.  It began in the agricultural field but has expanded to a wide variety of interests.  Local counties or townships set up their 4H region.  Each region runs a variety of clubs, depending on the volunteers they have.  For example, this year our girls signed up for Scrapbooking and the Rabbit club in the Niagara region and Miniature Horse and Music in the Haldimand region.  Because we live near both regions it is easy for us to hop borders and participate in both regions.  The Haldimand region did not offer Scrapbooking and the Niagara Region did not offer Music, so we made use of both regions.

The nice thing about 4H is there is one fee per year and then you can participate in as many clubs as you would like.  A base amount of that fee goes to 4H Ontario and then part of it stays in the local 4H region, this is why it is possible for us to use different regions and not pay very much extra, just the local fee.  So this year we paid $65 to the Niagara region and $15 to the Haldimand region to hop to their region.  For a total of $80 the kids can participate in as many clubs as they would like (or they and their mom can handle).  Some clubs may have some additional fees, like last year Rebecca did the sewing club so she needed material (in her case it was free as we have several boxes of material downstairs that we collected off of freecycle). Rebecca also pays an additional fee to use one of the leaders horses in her miniature horse club … to me $30 is a whole lot cheaper and less hassle then having her own horse.

Animal clubs partake in the local fairs as well as complete an Achievement Day, which is at a local fair with all the 4H members of different animal clubs.  If it’s not an animal club the kids are encouraged to place the things that they made in the local fair, for example Rebecca had the pillowcase she made in Sewing Club in the fair and received 3rd place.

For 2012 we placed Rebecca in 4H. Our two girls are as opposite as day and night.  Both girls had been taking Voice Lessons but it became apparent to us that Marietta was a natural and Rebecca was struggling and being at different levels meant that there was conflict and a lot of pressure on Rebecca who enjoys singing but was not able to use her voice the same as her sister.  So we suggested she let Voice Lessons go, to sing her hearts content out but not worry about having to keep up with her sister and just enjoy singing.  This was met by much relief from Rebecca.  In exchange we suggested she give 4H a try and maybe she could find something that works for her.  Part of 4H is teaching kids how to be leaders, how to take confidence in what they are doing, but to see beyond themselves and focus on how their actions affect others.  While Rebecca has no problem thinking about others she is often shy and scared to take a step forward and we hope that through 4H she can develop herself instead of being in her sisters shadow.  It is easy to feel you are like have to keep up to your sister when you are the younger one and at the same time it’s easy to depend on that sister to speak up for you or do something for you when afraid.  Being on her own means Rebecca has to speak up for herself and it gives her a chance to develop who she is.

After much hum-hawing Rebecca chose the Sewing Club and Miniature Horse club for her first year in 4H.  She enjoyed the Sewing Club but it was the Miniature Horse club that really became her thing.  She had a wonderful leader and a wonderful horse.  Prince has a special spot in Rebecca’s heart now and the two did really well together.

Rather then break it into all individual posts I’m just going to do one long post with lots of pictures of Rebecca and Prince to follow.

At the Barn

During the summer months Rebecca would go to the barn about once a week to spend a couple hours working with Prince and learning how to care for Prince, prepare him for shows and what is required when showing.

The Practice Show – August 11, 2012

In August they had a practice show at one of the leaders farm.  This was a good opportunity for the kids to understand exactly what they were suppose to do and gain some pointers from the Judge.  This was especially good for the first year kids like Rebecca who had no idea what to expect.   Unfortunately it rained.  We needed rain so it wasn’t that unfortunate, but the time was unfortunate.  They managed to make an area in one of the sheds to do the showing, but this meant that it was closed in and there was not much room so the kids were not able to watch each show group and see what was going on or gain pointers from what the others did.

Dale and Rebecca getting Prince all ready to show

Rebecca in show line, looking rather nervous and unsure

Being judged … Rebecca got third in her division

After the showman judging they gave the kids a chance to do the obstacle horse.  None of them were trained for this but those higher up in showman ship can opt to do this with their horse.  This was just a fun exercise for the kids.  The kids came into the barn one at a time as there was no additional room after the obstacle was set up.  This meant Rebecca had no idea what the others had done before her and when it came to her turn she left very discouraged and upset as she could not get Prince to put his back legs in the hoop.  Little did she know she had done an excellent job and not one of the horses put their feet in it.   Dale (Prince’s owner) couldn’t believe that Rebecca got him to actually step through the hop as he has a fear of hops after stepping on one and having it come flying up at his butt. 

Smithville Fair – September 1, 2012

Rebecca’s first real competition was the Smithville Fair.  We were warned that Fair Season = Rainy Season.  But we were fortunate to only have rain on the practice show, no rain for any of the other fairs we partook in.

Preparing (aka beautifying) Prince.

There are several different division of judging.  In the Miniature Horse club Rebecca is taught how to show a horse, which is the Showmanship Division.  In this division she is judged on her appearance, how she dresses, that her hair is neat and out of her face, pants are right length, gloves are neat and proper length, etc.  She is judged on how she acts and presents.  Having a horse that listens to your commands, is under your control, but if the horse decides to do it’s own thing that she remains calm and collected, and properly brings the horse back into line.  They are taught various show patterns that they must learn.  The judge sets the pattern at the beginning and they must know what is expected of them when they show (eg walk then trot, stand, turn, trot, stop, walk, etc).  They are judged on how they stand in line when they wait their turn, that their horse is square (feet are lined up … as you can see on the picture below) and that they are facing and looking at the judge at all times.  The Showmanship Division is the one that Rebecca came to the fairs to do what she learned.

Waiting in line, Prince nicely squared, for her turn before the judge

Being judged.

Back in line waiting while the others are being judged … love the difference on her face, from tense, nervous to relaxed and smiled.  The horse beside Rebecca is also Dale’s horse and Dale’s granddaughter Emma trains with this horse.

For her first fair Rebecca came home with 2nd place in the Showmanship category. 

As well as entering in the Showmanship Division the girls  also entered in a few other divisions, in these divisions the judge is looking specifically at the horse and it is the horse that is being judged.  How you care for the horse is going to reflect here, but a lot of time this is just simply on the preference on what the judge likes to see in a horse.  Apparently greys (as Prince is, altho he looks white) don’t do well in this division and so Rebecca was warned Prince wouldn’t do so well in this area … but she knew that these were just extra divisions that get her and Prince warmed up (they come before the Showmanship Division) for the real thing.  Rebecca (or should I say Prince) came home with a 5th place in the Gelding Division.

 

Binbrook Fair – September 15, 2012

Binbrook Fair was the next one that Rebecca went to.  She had been warned that Smithville Fair has been very small and not well attended (they said that was the fastest they had ever done the showing as there were so few horses there) so the competition at Binbrook would be a bit more and harder.

Once again the girls did a few divisions before hand where the judging was on horse (e.g. gelding, solid colours, etc) before they did the Showmanship Division. 

Showing their numbers.  After everyone has gone the judge asks them to show their numbers again so he can tally up and register the winnings.

Next in line for the Showmanship judging

Judging

This time there were two girls there from school that Rebecca knows … lined up together here.

The best part of the day was that these three girls took First, Second and Third.  Big smiles from Rebecca … she took first and we overheard that the judge was really impressed with how she did.  Great job Rebecca!!

Rebecca – 1st; Kendra – 2nd; Emma – 3rd

 

 

Achievement Day at Caledonia Fair

September 29, 2012

Next was Achievement Day.  This is similar to the Fairs but meant for only 4H members … so only those signed up in the local 4H clubs, no others and no adults.

In the “ring”, the judge chatting to them

Rebecca had some trouble with Prince losing his lead rope twice.  Thankfully she was the last one who had to go and so she could get it fixed up before it was her turn

Rebecca, Kendra and Emma … they like to stick together

Emma – 1st; Rebecca – 2nd. 

Both Dale’s horses, both girls lead/taught by Dale.  Dale did a wonderful job with the girls and they really enjoyed their barn time.  Dale also said the girls could continue to come to the barn whenever they wanted.  It hasn’t been as often as Rebecca had hoped as winter set in and things got busy with other things, but once the weather warms up I’m sure she’ll be out there more often again.

Rebecca’s first year of 4H went well and she decided she wanted to do Miniature Horses again this coming year.  She will no longer be a novice and that means she’ll be allowed to learn how to do jumping (she started learning a little of that in the fall after Acheivement Day) as well as driving a cart. 

A New School Year

Just like they grow up way too fast … summer also goes by way too fast.  On September 4th a new school year began again.  This was the year I was suppose to have a picture of all members of the household (except myself) heading off to school.  I would have been the only one not attending school (trust me I wasn’t feeling left out, but quite happy to send them off to do the school work).  But alas, Rob decided in the spring he was done with school and so that day never came … but regardless September 4th seen my baby head off to school

I know I’m suppose to be emotional and sad about my last one heading off to school, but to be honest I was quite happy for him.  He was getting bored at home, not stimulated enough (my fault, I really should have taken more time, but he would have gladly had me spend all day entertaining and teaching him) and was quite excited to be able to get out of the house a couple days a week.  I was also looking forward to a couple days a week to myself to be a little bit more productive on those days and accomplish some of those “extras”  It works nice when I still get to spend three days a week with just him.

In the end it didn’t quite work out the way I had imagined (shouldn’t try plan/imagine ahead, things don’t tend to go they way you figure anyways).  On my end I decided to volunteer one day every other week to help out at Kindergarten.  I am also babysitting a little 2 year old (now 3) on Tuesdays.  So that leaves me with two Thursdays a month all to myself … if nothing else comes up those days, as has happened several times.  Not that it really matters since Matthew has gotten better at entertaining himself at home again and so when he is home he’s pretty much busy on his own the majority of the time. 

Matthew came back from his first day of school and immediately declared “I had an awful day”.  Apparently school was not his idea of fun.  Sitting in a desk and keeping his mind on something was a bit of a challenge, one I expected as he’s always had a bit of a short attention span.  Well he loves to learn and is bright he tends to jump from one thing to the next.  Colouring is not one of his favourite pass times and it takes him several days to colour a picture.  He colours a bit and goes to play, comes back does a bit more, off to do others things again … sitting and colouring an entire picture in one day is way to much for him … let alone several pictures in one day.  He also likes to be confident he can do something before he tries it, when he’s ready to try something then he can usually accomplish it … if it’s a challenge he gives up.  So, having to do things when told and not when he chose was a concept he didn’t really like.  All these things were things we expected … I just didn’t expect him to come back on the first day already to declare he didn’t like school.

After the opening assembly parents are able to stop by their kids class for a few minutes.  Since Matthew has school in the church I stopped there first. 

Sitting at his desk … which was one of his disappointments for the day.  On the Kindergarten Day he had in May he sat at a desk with Thomas.  I’m sure in his head he thought he would be sitting with Thomas again, so he was not impressed that not only did he not get to sit with Thomas but he had to sit with TWO girls.

Another thing that left him upset was the fact that I sent crayons to school when it was suppose to be pencil crayons.  I had not read the paper correctly and just assumed in kindergarten they would still be using crayons.  I guess this mistake was quite traumatizing as he felt centered out or something of that assort that he had the wrong ones.

Going on a Gingerbread Man hunt

Eating the gingerbread man cookies

I will add that Matthew was quite excited that the next school day his seating was changed to sit beside Thomas.  Seating arrangements have changed several times since then and he’s gotten over the issue of sitting beside a girl … I think it was more the fact that things were different then he imagined and it was all too much for one day.

Unfortunately Matthew still does not like school.  After a month in school he seemed to be happier with it, having gotten used to the routine and what was expected of him.  He went through a stage of just scribbling his pictures quickly as he seen other kids that didn’t colour quite as well as he could getting away with that.  So , not wanting to be last done, he would just quickly scribble it in and be done with it.  So we also had to chat about doing your best and that there was nothing wrong with taking your time or being last.  Helping out in the class every other week gives me some insight into how he’s doing … altho I’m sure he does behave different when mom is there.  It’s not for lack of knowledge that he doesn’t like school, I am quite hoping it’s the opposite and that it’s boredom that creates a lack of interest in completing the tasks and that eventually this will settle when he’s more challenged.  He is excelling and is already reading basic stuff (Dick and Jane books which Rob and I learned to read from in Grade 1) as well as putting together basic sentence on his own (eg The cat is in the car).  Guess we’re just going to have to wait and see how the next 13 years go.

After visitng Matthew’s class I popped by the school to see Rebecca and Marietta.

Rebecca in Grade 5 … no kids in the lower level this year …. and has transitioned well into it … as far as we know, she never tells us boo or baa so we really have no idea what’s going on in her class.  Thankfully Marietta does a good job on keeping us up-to-date on the goings on at school.

Marietta in Grade 7.

Grade 7 has definitely been a change for Marietta.  Right from the beginning she was drowning in homework and struggling to keep up.   She started September off taking Voice Lessons and Piano Lessons but was finding no time for either and so she dropped Voice Lessons, even then she couldn’t keep up with Piano but we insisted she had to focus on her piano and relax on the homework end.  This was easier said then done as she still stressed about her homework and continued to let her piano slide.   It was a rough first four months with a lot of stress and more tears then we liked.  We are thankful that this has recently changed and things are more manageable now and we hope that it will stay this way as we sure like our less stressed Marietta much better!

Swimming Lessons

The girls had not had swimming lessons for a couple years, not since the spring of 2010 when they did their last lessons in Hamilton before we lost our ability to get the low-income rates because we were no longer Hamilton residents.  So this summer it was time to break down, pay the normal rate and get them back at it.  Matthew was also old enough to start the Swimmer 1 level so he started his first year of lessons.  I find it a waste of money to put them in before they start the Swimmer 1 level as they usually get enough water exposure on their own and none of my kids have had a problem with not being able to keep up once they started the true swimming lessons.  Matthew was scared of water for a little bit and just splashed along the edges, as did Rebecca when she was younger, but by time they are old enough to start the actual lessons they are plenty good at swimming and I didn’t waste my $45-$50 for the ABC level for them to learn to splash in water or to fight to get them in water because they’re scared of it.

The kids took lessons at the local outdoor pool and we were very impressed with the lessons they got.  Much better then what we got in the city where the classes were so big that they spent more then half the time just hanging on the edge waiting for a turn.  The ratio of teacher to kids here is pretty much 1 teacher for 2-3 kids in the first levels and it’s not until the older levels that they get up to 6 kids.  In Hamilton most of the classes had closer to 10 kids.

Matthew did really well with his lessons and it was good that the other child in the class was an excellent little swimmer that gave him incentive to work hard and keep up.  During the second week of lessons she started them on Swimmer 2 items since they were both ready to progress.

The girls also did well with their lessons and enjoyed their teacher and how she got in the water with them and worked with them … the last couple levels they had in Hamilton the teacher mostly just stood on the side and yelled at them what to do.

The biggest challenge for both the girls was learning to dive … Rebecca needed a bit more work on this but with some extra practice (staying for public swimming) she got the hang of this and both girls were able to progress to Level 5 next year.

Diving through the rings (there are actually two, the one she’s holding up and one laying on the water) really helped the girls to figure out where to dive and how to jump out a bit before they go down.

I wasn’t looking forward to the two weeks of going to lessons as I find it ties you down part of the summer, but I guess I gotta just accept that and learn to work with it now that we live in the country and the indoor pools are too far away to do weekly lessons.  Thankfully I booked soon enough that all the kids could go at the same time and we mostly had good weather except the last few lessons it cooled down and rained (much needed rain) and then Matthew wasn’t so interested in going anymore.