THE GOODS BLOG: Erika's Precious Little Life ~ May Edition

This blog entry is several days late because I literally haven't had a spare moment lately! I've been constantly running from one thing to the next. It's good in a way, because I do prefer to feel like I have things going on. But breaks are nice as well! Anyway, I'm here now and ready to get my blog on. Not much to report on the pandemic front. We've gotten pretty comfortable with no longer wearing masks and I don't tend to wear one anymore (unless required). I am now feeling somewhat convinced that Archie had Covid back in mid-March (between his two vaccine doses). All of his symptoms matched up with what other people have said their kids were like with Covid. The only thing is that we never tested him because he would kick and scream if we attempted a rapid test. Instead, we just kept him at home until he was better (it was a few days). Both Tim and I never tested positive. So who knows!! If anything, I hope that it was Covid and that it went through our house and now we all have even greater immunity. The first thing that happened in April is that we went to Vancouver! We spent five nights there and it was so much fun to actually take a family vacation and to fly on a plane and to feel pretty unconcerned about all of the pandemic BS. It was pretty rainy while we were there but the cherry blossoms were gorgeous. We were just happy to be there! We crammed in tons of activities, ate at all of our favourite places, and generally had the most fun! We had missed Vancouver a lot. It was emotional being there with Archie as a five year old because he was so much smaller when we lived there.

If you're wondering if I can squish myself into very compact spaces, the answer is yes.

I very much loved getting to see both Krystie and Carrie while I was in town! I missed both of you ladies very much and it was wonderful to connect! <3 Sadly, I did not get to see Kristen or Erin. I had plans to see both of them and they BOTH caught Covid while I was visiting. So that sucked!!!

I returned home and held a lamb!

Then Amy, Nicole and I left for Vancouver AGAIN! This time the trip was three nights and it was super fun to take a girls trip! We had a blast and enjoyed BOATS BOATS BOATS! Spending so much quality time in Vancouver was wonderful.

Pouncing on Amy on the morning of her birthday!

After we got home we clearly weren't done with each other because we officially celebrated my birthday, girls night edition. I chose the restaurant Dorinku, which is a Japanese place that I really like. Now my birthday has been thoroughly celebrated and it can be put to rest!

Next was Easter! We spent a really nice Easter long weekend at home, which was great after not being at home so much. Archie loved that the Easter Bunny came, I loved buying all of our favourite Easter treats and we all enjoyed great food all weekend long. It was a super nice family time.

Also! I WON a dozen beautiful sugar cookies from a bakery called Milk & Cookies Bakeshop! I was allowed to choose any custom design that I wanted so I picked my three favourite animals. They were so perfect! (And delicious.)

We also celebrated Amy's birthday, girls night edition. She chose the restaurant Habaneros Mexican Grill, which was a fun Mexican place. We are now finally all caught up on birthdays!!

We had our last double date night with our friends Mary and Jonny. We had been doing a monthly date night with them and it has been so much fun! They are moving back to England at the end of May so our fun hangouts are unfortunately coming to an end. We'll miss them!

And finally, the BEST NEWS we got this month is that Archie was accepted into the elementary school that we want him to go to for kindergarten in the fall!

We want Archie to be in French Immersion and we really like the program at Lendrum. The only problem is that this school is outside of our designated school area so we were told that he would only get in if there was space. I registered him immediately on the first day of registration (February 1st) and I also emailed the principle asking him to please accept Archie into the school, ha ha. We also attended the school's virtual kindergarten open house in March. We had basically put all of our eggs into this one basket because we didn't really like any of the other school options. Our designated school (Parkallen School, which is actually where Archie goes to preschool) doesn't have French Immersion. And I don't like the designated French Immersion school (Queen Alexandra School) because 76% of the school is Christian programming. I'm not really into the idea of Archie attending a school that has a predominant religious focus. SO! Enter Lendrum School! This school is almost a 50/50 French Immersion and Regular Program split and it's a K-6 school. Then I learned that Lendrum focuses on an arts-enriched educational experience. They make extensive use of the performing and visual arts to stimulate imagination and reinforce learning. Students participate in and enjoy a wide variety of artistic events to foster creativity in further support of academic growth and achievement. Lendrum hosts varied performances in music, drama, opera, dance and puppetry, in addition to Artists in Residence programs. Needless to say, I was sold. You can imagine how trilled we were to find out that Archie did in fact get in!!!

Archie is very, very excited to go to his new school in the fall and he's really looking forward to starting French Immersion. I can't wait for this new chapter to begin for him! Lendrum is also nice and close to our house, only a five minute drive away!

It was a busy month and it was super fun! I am enjoying living our life so much right now! Life with Archie: Archie had a fun and busy month too, which included him taking his 28th and 29th flights.

Archie seemed to really enjoy our trip to Vancouver and all of the activities that we did. It was awesome for him to see Scuba Bunny at the Vancouver Aquarium and for him to visit TumbleTown once again (he used to be a member there). I can't wait to keep showing him other places!

Archie also had a great month for meeting animals! His preschool classroom hatched baby chicks out of eggs and they had seven of them! The chicks loved piling onto Archie's lap and he became a "chick farm guy." SEE VIDEO!

Archie's class also had an Easter Party at preschool which we were ready for!

This spring Archie has joined a super cool music class called Little Beats. It's at a place called Backbeat and it's basically like 'School of Rock.' The kids form a rock band and try playing all sorts of instruments and they even put on a gig and hold an autograph session at the end! It's freakin' adorable. Archie says that his favourite instrument so far is the keyboard.

On Earth Day Archie's class became a tiny cleanup crew and picked up trash around their schoolyard.

And finally they also had PURPLE DAY at preschool as well. (And yes, this shirt is different from the Easter shirt.)

He's crushing it as a five year old pretty hard. May is coming in hot!!! I am finally going to my first concert since January 2020! Somehow, it's Josh Ramsay. (This is what happens when we get impulsive and giggly at girls night and have access to credit cards.) It should be a ton of fun though. Tim is returning to Vancouver for a work trip. Lots of Vancouver happening with us lately. My favourite Royal Bison Art & Craft Fair is happening and they're FINALLY going to be giving away swag bags to the first 10 people through the door again, and mark my words, I WILL GET ONE. And then it's Mother's Day! This year we are going to be going to a Mother's Day Afternoon Tea at Brew + Bloom. (We tried to do this last year but it got cancelled because of the pandemic. I'm looking forward to the re-do.) I'm also getting a facial called The Masterpiece (which sounds incredible) as a gift. I'm going to another concert; Future Islands. Because I am returning to concerts with a vengeance! We don't have any plans to go anywhere for Victoria Day long weekend. I am SO enjoying being back to our normal life! Wishing you all a fresh, renewing spring! THIS MONTH’S SHOUT-OUTS!:

May 14th is Heather Petrychyn’s 40th birthday!

Happy super special milestone birthday! I hope that you feel celebrated on your day because you truly deserve it. I am so happy that we are in touch regularly and I love staying in the loop of your life. I cannot wait to go to Mexico with you where we will have the greatest time being 40 together! Love you! <3

May 18th is Nicole Thibault’s 40th birthday!

We are going to celebrate the SHIT out of this milestone if it's the last thing that I do! You are so precious to me and I am so grateful to be back in the fold with you. I love our nonsense and I love everything that we have shared. Let's be the old 40 year olds together! I love you very much! <3 May 27th is Krystie Shirlaw’s 36th birthday!

You are such a beautiful person inside and out. I know that you will be very spoiled on your special day and you deserve every bit of it! I love that we still have such a wonderful connection whenever we're together and I can't wait for you to pay a visit to Edmonton one of these days! I love you always! <3 May 28th is Heather Petrychyn's 11th wedding anniversary!

11 years, 3 kids, same husband. I'm pretty sure that's a feat in itself! ;) I hope that you and Curtis have a chance to celebrate! May 31st is Susan Murphy's 9th wedding anniversary!

9 years, 2 kids, same husband. I'm pretty sure that's a feat in itself! ;) I hope that you and Matt have a chance to celebrate!