Farming

This past weekend we went to my parent's place to do our annual pumpkin planting. First off Papa brought out his latest toy, which he used (and put the first scratches on) for the very first time! Xander was first up for a ride with Papa on it...

Melissa & Lexi went for a ride together...

Melissa got to drive the excavator... which was a little bouncy for Lexi's liking!

Xander got a chance to maneuver around on it solo...

Papa even coached him to dig a hole!

Later we moved on to planting the garden. The kids didn't linger around the garden plot too long once they eyed up the long grass to play in beside it. This pic is Papa making all the pumpkin mounds while the kids played...

I went to round up the kiddos to come and do some planting...

The all got busy planting a variety of pumpkins which we will check in on their growth progress each time we come for a visit...

Looking forward to October when we get to harvest them... the exciting part for me is that we will have our little son by then! We will have to see if he or the pumpkins is bigger! Any predictions? Baby Thomas should be 2 months old by then.

Dentist

On Wednesday Melissa had a special visit to the dentist. This was for a regular cleaning and a "small" procedure called a frenectomy. Melissa was born with a lower frenula than is considered normal. It hasn't been a problem, but the dentist highly recommended fixing it as it is known to be a cause for creating a gap between your adult teeth when they come in. Seemed like a simple thing to do if that is the case. We didn't give much warning to Melissa, just told her the morning of as she is prone to serious worry, especially at night time. She took the news that morning quite well, and kept saying how excited she was that she was going to get prizes from the dentist (and we told her we would buy her a toy too). So at least she went in not kicking and screaming :)

First she got her teeth cleaned. She loves being in control of the "vacuum"...

Getting a brushing demonstration...

After the cleaning she got to pick one toy... (with the promise of two more toys after the procedure).

Getting the freezing put in. She wasn't a fan of the feeling of her lip frozen and feeling strangely huge!

The procedure itself wasn't worth taking pictures of, I was rather grossed out, and felt bad for her going through it. She looked so puffy after. (I had given her Gravol before hand to help sedate her, which it did, and she looks sleepy because of it).

After she got to pick out two more toys, and amazingly enough she was still up for a trip to the toy department at Walmart where she picked out a hotel / carrying case for her Zhu Zhu pets as a reward for being such a brave girl! So far she is healing quite well. Luckily the mouth heals quickly, so it shouldn't be long and this will all be a memory in the past.

Reading

Kindergarten has opened a door to a new world of reading for Melissa. Often you can't get her to stop reading books, over and over again! She'll even follow you around the house reading to you. In these pics she is doing just that to Daddy, reading "Hop on Pop".

Kim's Annual Egg Hunt

Neighbor Kim's Easter bunny was up to his regular egg hiding stunts again this year! When we came home from church, there was an Easter basket waiting for Melissa to fill on our front railing. Melissa got right to it, this time on our front lawn (as Kim's lawn had just had a little thatching work done on it the day before :)

Thanks Kim :)

Easter visit from Nana & Pop

Nana & Pop came by to drop off a "little" basket from the Easter bunny for Melissa. As usual there was more than enough candy for a classroom of children! Melissa did not complain though!

Nearly as much candy as collected at Halloween!

Hop on Pop time... poor Pop was given a work-out!

Melissa shared her enhanced reading skills. She has become so interested in reading simple books lately, it has been amazing to watch how quickly she is learning to read!

Some video footage of her reading "My Dog Buddy" to Nana & Pop...

Birthdays with the Klassen family

The day after Melissa's friend birthday party, we were ready to party all over again with my family. This time we also included celebrating Daddy (Ken's) birthday, which was earlier in April. The photos were all taken by Uncle Jason of Revival Arts Studio.

The party details...

Papa hugs...

Everyone gathers in the kitchen area to make their own pizzas...

My prego shirt debut... "I'm not fat, I'm pregnant"... I know it's tacky, but good for a little chuckle!

Present opening... a new Zhu Zhu pet puppy "Howser"...

A silly face... Daddy must have done something to provoke this response!

"Barbie A Fairy Secret" doll...

Playing "hot potato"...

Playing "pin the bow on Hello Kitty", Lexi's turn...

Melissa going a little off-course...

landing the bow on my belly!

Uncle Dan's turn. Somehow he went off course too and the bow landed in Xander's hair!

Cake time! Once again Daddy's up to his usual silly stunts!

Birthday Build-A-Bear

After her friends birthday party, Melissa opened presents from us, and then we told her our plans for the rest of the day. A trip to Build-a-Bear so she could make a new stuffie. (Something she has been asking for continuously for some time now!)

After choosing an empty shell of the stuffie she wanted, we proceeded to the stuffing machine where she stepped on the pedal to blow the stuffing into the shell...

She then selected a heart and filled it with happy thoughts, love, wishes & warmth...

All stuffed up... her new cat :)

Next she took her to the bathing station to clean off all the fluff & fuzz...

Then we brought her to life on the internet...

Lastly we selected some clothing for her new friend... which she fondly named "Rainbow" as the wings she wears have a rainbow on them! Rainbow has found a special place to sleep each night with Melissa in her bed :)

6th Birthday with Friends

Our little girl isn't so little anymore... on the 16th she had her 6th birthday! She chose to have her party at our house, and do a Hello Kitty theme. We started the planning about a month or so prior and made most of our own decor, which was a fun way to build anticipation!

Here is a sample of the invites we sent out to her friends:

Just before her friends arrived, I got Melissa to pose with the "Pin the bow on Hello Kitty" poster...

and the Hello Kitty homemade pinata... it was a lot more work than I had anticipated, but at least we were happy with the end results!

Melissa chose to have "make-your-own pizzas" for lunch. The girls took turns loading their pizza with their favorite toppings with the help of Melissa's Nana...

Making crafts...

We played a few rounds of Hello Kitty Bingo while Nana baked the pizzas...

Pizza time...

After a bit of free play, the girls played a game of "hot potato"...

Present time!

Playing "Pin the bow on Hello Kitty"...

Time for the pinata (pull-string style, Melissa didn't have any interest in beating it with a stick). It worked out great, each girl got a chance to pull a string, and then Melissa finished it off!

Gathering the loot...

Cup cake time...

And there's the party in a nut-shell :)