With walking comes other privileges

Like Trick or Treating!!

Ashley loved walking down the street bumping into friends from class,  she was very happy to be out and about collecting candy too. 

Here's Ashley with her brothers all very excited to get going this evening.  

By the way we have way too much candy here right now. 

School here we come!

My first grader

Grade 6 and Grade 4 for these two.

We live close and thought we would walk - Ashley giggled. 

Both Ashley and I enjoyed having Grammy and Grampy here for the first day. 

She continued with that giggle in class too.

I hope the rest of the year will go as smoothly as the first day.

Does summer fun really have to end?

Last week Ashley attended her second session of Soccer camp it was fabulous even the second time around.  Special needs soccer camp was the summer highlight for Ashley.  It was top notch.  I blogged about this back in July when she attended the first session.  The august session was  just as wonderful. Up on her feet walking, running and scoring goals plus time with friends what could be better. 

These two high school girls  in green shirts were very sweet and received volunteer hours to help Ashley run and score goals.  YAY!!! 

 One of Ashley's new buddies...

 Ashley with all the boys .. there was a few girls but boys definitely out number the girls.  She does like boyfriends especially this little boy Sean in the chair next to her..

 Ashley has another medal and beautiful trophy. The girl needs a trophy shelf now! How great is that.

The boys even tagged along and enjoyed the beautiful park as well as cheering on their sister.

Getting ready for school with some haircuts all around, check out these new looks.

Too cool for school or what?  Miss Ashley is not a fan of hair cuts as you can see here.

 Our evening at the park was fabulous.  Even if we need to bundle up a bit now.

School starts in one week right after labour day and I'm so not ready for that.   Please tell me summer is going to go on for another month or so.   I  need to get into  that  daily routine of getting 3 of 4  kids up and off to school.  I'm trying to get the kids to bed early each evening which is easy for Ashley but her brothers would love to stay up all hours of the night.     Tell me are you ready for school?  What will Taylor and I do while Ashley and her brothers in School all day ever day?   Things are going to change around here oh my.  

What's happening around here... photo blog.

My boys can't seem to get enough of fishing lately

 Damon's here hoping to reel in something big.

James was pretty excited about this catch.  Which he believes to be a small mouth bass.

My amazing husband thought our dock needed to be leveled.. this was the perfect make work project for  a heat wave.  He is the best husband in the world always working so hard to look after us, our home and cottage.

Here's Ashley hanging out .. we really need some cushions for these chairs.

Taylor enjoys golfing especially if his brothers are going to retrieve his balls.  See how far he got on the dock. He will have this finished by the end of this weekend I'm sure.

Taylor is not a fan of the water despite the soaring temps. It's 100F / 38C in Canada today wow.

Moonsand was a hit.

These pictures are from  last week but I had to post them.  My girl with her trophy and medal she is a soccer super star!!!

Lastly one way to handle the heat a water table.   This pick taken when the grass was still green. Now after a week of extreme heat it's a nice shade of yellow. So lovely. 

How's your summer going?  Love to hear how your surviving the heat. 

What a day

Saturday afternoon I headed out with just 2 kids for a change Damon and Ashley. Two kids was a fun change of pace especially these two.  We headed over to the mall to exchange a duplicate Lego set Damon got for his birthday.   At the mall we were surprised to see that kids could decorate flower pots for easter.

It was fun to help Ashely and Damon make these ...

 It would have been nice to have her wheel chair for this activity.  But she sat on my lap and helped select her stickers.

Beautiful final product  and  so sweet that this was free of charge flowers and all!   Plants don't live long inside my house hopefully I can care for them long enough until they can be replanted outside.  Where they will do much better under my husbands green thumb. 

On the Move.

After the mall we headed out to a local community program for kids with disabilities called "On the move"  it was too much fun. Ashley actually laughed so hard she fell over backwards got back up and kept on laughing.  Just another sweet day for my girl who is truly too cute for words so you will have to just watch...

On the move! from Sherry C on Vimeo.
Love that the city offers gym time and activities for special needs kids so much fun was had.Hula Hoops, bubbles, stepping stones, balls and so much more.

Damon is 9!!

Damon's 9th birthday party from Sherry C on Vimeo.


I can barely believe another year  has  gone by for  Damon.  Damon  always puts a smile on my face each day.   He is  king of video games, sporty and fun. Yet the most caring gentle boy around. He is so good natured and reminds me of my Dad and if you know my Dad that's saying a lot.

With four kids it's hard  having parties for each so we take turns.. this year Ashley and Damon benefited however now I'm thinking perhaps James will get one too.  Okay it's hard for this Mom to say no.  I love celebrating birthday's (as long as it's not mine)

Damon's grade 3 pioneer log cabin

The past two weekends Damon has  been painting popsicle sticks and glueing away to come up with this project for his grade three social studies class.  It wasn't long ago that James made one of these..cabins and I blogged about it here too.  Can't wait to help Ashley and Taylor with their's too.. actually hopefully their brothers will be able to assist at that time.

Long awaited blog update.

It's been busy here with Taylor into absolutely everything but I had to find time to share some news on the kids.

I had an excellent meeting with the school this morning.  I managed to get everyone hyped about Ashley attending Grade 1 at her local school.  The special ed teacher was trying to write down a number of things  I was saying.Which I think is a good sign.  She attempted to sell me on the merits of a community classroom but she was speaking to the wrong mama.   In the end she said my case was very touching and hard to disagree with.  It helped that the Teacher, EA and school board PT where all cheering me on.  I've been preparing for this discussion for who knows how long which was lucky for me because we were suppose to meet on a new walker for Ashley not grade 1 planning. Luckily I was more then prepared.

Also  fabulous and almost unbelievable news  Ashley  gained  6 pounds in the last 7 months.  She is 27.9 pounds now.    It's amazing and I'm sure eating lunch with her peers has helped with this weight gain too.

Here's a few pictures  of the fun things Ashley gets to do at school - sledding at lunch recess. This was her lunch assistant idea too she thought this would be more fun for Ashley then the special needs stroller ride through the snow.  Boy was she right.

Reptila in the school. Scary but fun.

My boys have their first official job! Early days yet but they love it already.

Last on a bitter sweet note my girl was discharged from Early Intervention as she is turning 6 in march and now in SK.  It was bitter sweet but my girl is growing up and Dorothy the best Early Interventionist in the entire world is needed by other little ones that are just starting down this roller coaster of ups and downs.  Dorothy will always have a special place in my heart and I'm so thankful for all her kind words of encouragement and support over the past few years.  She was always available to listen and guide me in the right direction and will forever be a dear friend to me and Ashley.

Dorothy I know we will stay in-touch but I'll be missing all your wisdom, insight and your amazing presence at my side at all those school meetings.  Thank you for being one of Ashley biggest cheerleaders.  We love you!

Come back as I'll be posting video of Ashley walking unassisted with her walker very soon and she is going to trial a pretty pink wheel chair next month too.  I'll be sure to post some video clips.

An Award and a few other sweet mentions

It's been busy but here's a few things I had to share. My sweet girl received an agreement award from school this week.  Her brothers heard her name announced at the assembly and were proud. She was pretty pleased with it too.

 I've raised the scale now for future years with these. 

Our local supermarket only had Tinkerbell advent calendars which only worked for Ashley.   I hit Longos and found Kindersurprise and Lindt version for her brothers. Too good to be true. Yum!

Damon was impressed

No smile he tells me it's the formal look but note the thumbs up which means he likes the Lindt goodies!

My dad wasn't so well last week so I traveled to Ottawa for a few days to give him and Grammy some hugs.

I was brave and drove with the younger ones by myself and a day later the rest joined us traveling by train.  Here's my boys at the Ottawa train station.

Augmentative Communication and Homework  - having fun with it all.
Ashley homework this past weekend was fill in the blank on the 5 senses.  I had to figure out how to fill in the blanks with my non-verbal girl but with the help of Mr Potato Head and picture communication.  she did a great job.

This was taken when we where part way through.

 Ashley working on her senses with Sarah.

I couldn't leave out this pictures of my little guy looking too cute at physio.

and Sarah the best nurse