31 Weeks

31 weeks, and.............now I feel like time is going quickly.  So quickly, in fact, that Matthew, Kayla, and I pulled out my boxes of newborn/0-3 month girls clothes and took a look at it all before I dumped it into the washing machine to freshen it up.  I had forgotten about so many of the outfits/onesies I had!  I'm suspecting that Miss Baby Struik will not be small, so I'm skeptical that she will even get to wear any of the newborn size clothing.  I made my first new purchases for Miss Baby Struik and bought a new diaper bag (my current one is completely falling apart from being so well loved) and a new pack of pink receiving blankets.

I'm starting to feel quite pregnant.  The past few days my stomach has felt super tight/stretched by the evening and it feels quite heavy.  The days that I'm at work seem to be the most difficult, because I'm sitting all day.  I come home with swollen ankles and a sore belly from being squished between my legs and ribs while I sit at my computer.  Today was a busy day: I worked from 8:15 to 4:30, came home and cleaned up all the kids' bags from being at my mom's all day, ate dinner, played with the kids, washed and folded three loads of laundry, made dinner for tomorrow, and worked for the greenhouses for 40 minutes.  I'm glad I'm done working for the week, so it will be nice to get my feet up a bit more (hopefully!).

I have a doctor's appointment early tomorrow morning (8:20am!), but I have to stop by the hospital first to pick up my Rhogam shot so the doctor can give it to me (we forgot/postponed it last week).

Miss Baby Struik still scares me every day.  The combination of me being quite busy and her not being active 24-7 definitely makes me push my belly around when I realize I haven't felt her a while.  And then she kicks me, and I'm content again :)  She definitely has become stronger, and I'm starting to "play" with her when she is quite active, trying to figure out which part of her body is pushing out at me.  Like Nathan, most of the movement is felt under my belly button and on my right side.

In spite of the things mentioned above, this pregnancy continues to go really well!  I may sound like I'm complaining, but I'm not...I'm just trying to be thorough in documenting every couple week how I'm feeling.

Ladner May Days

We headed out to Ladner today (or the boonies, as I like to call it) to visit with good friends of ours, Nicole and Colin (who we've been friends with since our dating days!).  It just so happened to be the weekend of Ladner May Days - yay!  I've never been, but any time there is an event that has no admission cost that offers free activities for the kids, I'm usually game to go!

Ladner May Days are AWESOME.  It was so much fun.  The kids had a blast getting their face painted...

 

...riding paddle boats...

...petting the animals at the petting zoo...

 

...riding a pony...

...bouncing on the gymnastics trampolines...

...and trying out curling, all for free!  

(Jon and Colin had to try too!)

We did buy some mini donuts and cotton candy (how can you not, when you're at a fair?!?) and we did let the kids play one carnival game (pick a duck and win a prize), but the rest was free.  

Matthew and Kayla did ask to go on some of the rides, but we didn't let them.  We let them watch others do the rides though!

A Day Out With Thomas

When I saw a posting on one of my facebook groups about 'A Day Out With Thomas' in Squamish, I immediately started looking into it.  Matthew is right in the thick of being IN LOVE with anything Thomas (and Kayla, too), so it was a "do it now or never" sort of thing for us.  The only thing holding me back was the cost.  The tickets were just over $25 each, so it was going to cost us over $100 to go as a family (Nathan is under two, so free luckily!).  I'm typically quite frugal/stingy, but I knew the kids would love it...so we did it.  We booked tickets for the 10:30 Thomas ride, so we had to be there around 9:30am.  We left the house at 8:00am and started the over-hour-long drive to Squamish.  At the one-hour mark Kayla complained of her stomach not feeling good (she struggles with getting carsick on long trips) and I wasn't feeling to great either (I was getting carsick, too), so we made a quick stop at Murrin Provincial Park so we could breathe some fresh air.

We ended up arriving at the West Coast Railway Heritage Park around 9:40am.  As we were unloading out of the car in the parking lot, we heard a train whistle and saw the train bars starting to come down.  We looked down the track, and saw the 9:30am Thomas ride coming right toward us.  Matthew's face lit up - Thomas!  He immediately unzipped his hoodie to show Thomas his Thomas t-shirt, and they all waved to the conductor.  It was the best moment of the day, for me.  They were all so happy.

We enjoyed hearing a Thomas story, had the kids' picture taken in front of Thomas, and went on our 25-minute ride in a passenger car being pulled by Thomas.

After that, we had some snacks, and then Jon hung out with Nathan while I took Matthew and Kayla to write a letter to a train of their choosing (Matthew chose Thomas, Kayla chose Rosie).  We then delivered the letter to the mail car, in the appropriate train's mail slot.  Apparently the kids will get a letter back!

We then headed to line up for the bouncy castle and browsed the gift shop.  All of the Thomas stuff was so tempting...but so overpriced.  We (I) actually resisted buying anything.  Although, truth be told, if the kids had actually asked/whined for something I probably would have caved.  They are so good with being told that something costs too much  money :).

Our last stop was the 'Imagination Station'.  The kids met Sir Topham Hatt (Nathan cried as soon as we even got close to him!), played on train tables, coloured a picture, and got a (temporary) tattoo.  By that time it was 12:45pm, so we decided to call it a day and pick up some lunch on our way home.  Within a minute of being in the car, Nathan was fast asleep, so we scrapped the idea of eating in a fast-food place and picked up some muffins from Tim Horton's to eat in the car while driving.

We did have to deal with some end-of-the-long-weekend traffic, but were home (at my parents') by 2:45pm so it wasn't too bad.  All in all, it was a good day.