It's Snot My Problem

Since I blogged about puke, I decided I might as well blog about snot. No in case you are wondering I'm not going to write about p--p. That would be really gross.

My best friend is a germaphobe. I am anxious about too many other things, so I haven't jumped on that band wagon. Besides, having germs around helps kids build up healthy immune systems. Right?

I sent Ashley over to sleep over at her house last night, before Hayley arrived home early from camp with her barf bag. I had been waiting all night for a call to come and pick her up. It never came.

In the morning I received a call. I asked sheepishly if everything was okay. "Yeah, why?"

I told her why.

That's when snot came up, we had a little walk down memory lane and a good belly laugh.

Snot was the issue when the kids were smaller. Little kids always have snotty noses, sometimes it's allergies, sometimes it's a raging virus and sometimes it's just... snot.

You can't send a snotty kid to a germaphobe's house. It's not kosher, but that's when Ashley learned the "What colour is your snot?" game. You see, green, yellow and brown snot is not okay, but clear snot is acceptable.

When Ashley wanted to go over to play, but had a leaky nose, I would feel guilty just sending her without having a snot discussion because you can't hide snot from a germaphobe. Snot has a habit of revealing itself. "Um, Ashley has a runny nose, but she's not really sick. Can she still come over, would it be okay with you?"

"Well what colour is the snot?"

"Um yellowish?"

"No, she must not come!"

"Oh, sorry"

The next day Ashley would ask to make the phone call for me.

"Can I please come over today? My snot has no colour!"

"Ashley, if it's clear, then that's okay because it means you're not contageous."

Hooray, she passed!

Which makes me want to ask you, "What colour is YOUR snot?"

Ashley's Birthday Party

As I said previously about Hayley's party, Ashley was still reminding me six months after the fact that she didn't have a birthday party. I've already defended my reasons, but Ashley just did not want to be birthday-party-less. I decided on something fun and easy for her.

Ashley's dance schedule made it really difficult to schedule something for her, so we decided to do a late night Friday party. We started at 6:00 after ballet. Ashley invited just four friends so that they would all fit in the van. First of all we went to the swimming pool where the girls had a great time swimming. They had such a great time swimming that I couldn't get them out of the pool. Suffice it to say, we got to our next part of the evening very late! After swimming we went to the Old Spaghetti Factory where the girls had a "grown-up" dinner followed by spumoni icecream and cupcakes. Ashley was very particular about the way the cupcakes were to look.

Ashley and all the girls had a great time and we dropped off the children very late at their houses. We now have to live down a reputation with the neighbors of being late night partiers with eight year old children.

Unfortunately I cannot post any photos of the night's festivities. Our house was broken into in the wee hours of the morning and the camera was one of the things stolen :(.

My Canadian Daughter and My American Son

holding hands across the border

We like to go and watch the Fourth of July fireworks each year from Peace Arch Park. The park straddles the border between the US and Canada. Paul took this cute picture of Spencer standing in the States and Ashley standing in Canada. For the record, she is the only native Canadian in the family.

Dance 2009/2010

Hayley and Ashley are in their heaviest year of dance yet. Not as busy as some dance families, but busy for us! Hayley continued in Lyrical, Jazz and Ballet and added a twice a week conditioning class. Ashley participated in Jazz, Tap and Ballet. We found ourselves running back and forth to the dance studio just about every day in the week. It's a good thing that we live so close. These pictures are of Hayley's jazz routine, Space Mountain.

Originally, the silver mask was painted on with a make-up brush but that was a bit tricky as the makeup did not spread very well. They then switched to an air brush technique which was less work for me.

 

After the teased hair, french braids and silver spray paint, I had to wisk her home, let her shower, dry her hair and put her hair in ringlets. Almost mission impossible considering that her hair does not curl easily. It's hard to see, but her hair is now in ringlets.

This little red costume is Ashley's jazz routine called "Where's the Fire".



Ashley's tap number was called "Rock n' Roll Cuties".

Cute little sailor ballerina.





Ashley's Baptism

Ashley was baptized on Wednesday, May 5, 2010. This was just three days after the dedication of the Vancouver temple which you can see behind David and Spencer in the photo below.

 Ashley was baptized in the dress that her Nanny made for my baptism.

A Date with Grandpa Dave - Spring Break 2009

in Grandpa Dave and Julie's kitchen in Pennsylvania

Appalachian Trail

Hayley

this picture doesn't do the beautiful sunset justice

All about Ashley - by Ashley

Hi my name is Ashley.

This is me and my Grandma Kay. We went to Grandma's on Spring Break and it was very, very fun. We drove to Seattle and I was sitting in the back seat and then we flew on an airplane to get to Newark Airport, then we flew on another airplane to get to my Grandma's house. On Monday I got my ears pierced.

We stayed at my Grandma's house to sleep. Me and Grandma slept in the same bed. We went to the mall and we ate lunch there and we saw really cute puppies that we wanted.

We got to see our new cousin Penelope and her brothers John and Adam were really hyper. We got to have crabs, I like those.

That's it for now.