Nursery Days

I am currently blogging from work and because all my babies left me for the day, I was left to cleaning and laundry for the afternoon. I was alittle nervous about starting at the nursery for my first few days because I really have no experience with kids under 2, but I picked up quickly and find that I quite naturally am good with them. I guess it's a good sign that they take to me, so that's what I am going by. I really do miss my 2-5 year olds though, I miss the social aspect of it and being able to communicate with the kids. Babies aren't that great at conversing haha but I really wanted the job in the nursery so that I would be prepared for my own kids when I decide I want them. Working in the nursery has definitely lessened my baby fever because I take care of so many at work. I'm not ready to give up everything that I want just yet.

Just wanted to quickly post something about work :)

Oh and 13 days until I move into my house!

-Robyn

Photoshoots, Facepainting and Favorite Friends

I've been spending the past couple of days with my main squeeze girl, Cassidy, who has been home for a visit, hopefully next weekend I will be making the trip up to her place to spend a much needed weekend in the city with her. I've also been working ALOT between photoshoots and the boys and girls club. I also volunteered to help out with Cassidy at the Family Fun Day they had today. I am extremely tired and could have passed out hours ago, but I wanted to get all my blog posts and page updates done. So here's some of what I have been up to.

I went to get my hair touched up and freshed and thought my life needed some spontaneity so I got my second holes pierced and then a random third ball that you can see, but I am going to get in done the same place on my other ear, just wanted to make sure I liked it haha and it hurts. I also had a "blonde" moment and put nail polish remover on my ears instead of peroxide...THAT hurt. 

Spent some time at Kim's practicing face painting and playing with Keely.

Then we came back to my place and watched the L word. 

My awesome YOLO-pillar that Cassidy made me. 

At the booth

Turning our english teach from highschool into a pirate. 

The finished product! We miss this guy so much! 

My Hello Kitty mask 

I make a stunning Ariel!

And to top the day off Cassidy was thrown in Jail, where she said wasn't very comforting. 

Stay Happy!! and I have noticed what a complete mess this post is. The photos were just not working with me and after loading them all up just to hit a link and having to RE-load them, I was not impressed and too tired to fix everything :P Have a great weekend!!!

and here are some photos from a "Trash the Dress" shoot I did recently

Happy Canada Day!

I am definitely proud to be a Canadian and this weekend we did lots of celebrating as it wasn't only canada's birthday but my cousin was also celebrating her 17th birthday this weekend with the whole family. It was an awesome get together and for once we were all present for most of it. My family is pretty close and what I mean by family is my grandparents, mother and her two sisters and all the grand kids. I also had a BIG yardsale that I went to, I mentioned in another post that I had been to a yardsale not too long ago and bought some really nice glass bottles and some other items, I may not have mention and meant to. I am a huge yardsale fanatic and would seriously buy everything I needed from a yardsale rather than new from the store, most things anyway. I'll post some recent yardsale finds in this entry. 

So appreciative that a few parents have given me permission to use photos of the  kids for work!
They are all sooo adorable. The art work is something the kids put together for summer
 this past week, some pretty flowers and busy bees! 

Friday night a bunch of family and some friends got together to celebrate Megan's
birthday! Top: My aunts and I, Tonia- or as I refer to her as BioDad, Claudine
and then Myself.  Bottom: a few of old friends and family with a
couple of new friends. 

Top - Bottom, Right to Left. Matt building us a fire, Papa enjoying a s'more, Megan and Abbie, Papa setting off roman candles,
everyone sitting around the fire, again - we did this for the past three nights. Everyone out for a family walk at sunset, and today
we moved couches in the heat and BioDad was a bit crunched up in the back. 

Fireworks in the yard! :P don't worry we had a fire fighter in the family haha

There was alot of food involved this weekend.

We like to do a lot of things together as a family, including walks, lamp lit grass basketball and
shaving heads. Megan and I took it upon ourselves to shave Jackson's head, neither of us have
done it before. How hard can it be? It's not like we could mess up haha

My Dog T-Bear shed's awful! He's a ShepardxHusky and the hair just falls off him all year. He looks
much better after the brushing! 

A neighbor and friend has a ton of kittens at their house that are just tooooo cute. I wish I could take them
all or even one but I have too many animals. The little white one is the runt and she is so dainty and cute,
 then this guy on the right is a little fluffy thing but has a rat tail :P I'm excited to see how it looks
as he grows up. 

Mayor is a bit of an escape artist so when he got out again we decided his
new cage NEEDED to get built, so my mothers boyfriend was so nice as
to build out. Right as it was finished we got a tip of where Mayor had been
spending the afternoon and were able to catch him. 

Tinka is re-united with her bestie in his new pen! He likes it and hates it
at the same time, at first he thought he could go right through it, but has
given up on that now. In the bottom picture you can really tell where
his ear was broken, probably from being picked up by his ears as a baby

The first photos is the bird feeder that I bought at the yardsale for $2. I brought
it home as a project and wanted to do it right away. So I painted it up and
hung it outside of the house :) 

Bought a bunch of old camera equipment :) I collect this stuff if anyone has things they don't want!
Just hinting :P 

I love colored glass and I couldn't resist these beautiful bottles.

The photo doesn't do the plates justice. They're from Egypt but I don't know anything else about them. 

Those are some of my yardsale finds, but there are LOTS more that I've collected over the past couple of weeks. This weekend I also bought two cushioned chairs and an antique baby crib. I have a bit of a problem when it comes to buying things at yardsales. Some stuff I buy to fix up and sell, now to later. 

Overall I had a great weekend of festivities and spending money. 

Stay Happy! 

Lets Just Say I'm Loving Life

So compared to how dreary I was considering life to be back in February, life right now is pretty freaking awesome! I have been working with kids at the boys and girls club for a little over a week, and it's going to pain me if I have to leave. Those little guys are the cutest, they say/do the cutest and funniest things you could hear.
I've been working with an autistic child who happens to be the most interesting and cutest kid. I have a real respect for autistic children/people, I had never really known anyone or spent a large amount of time with an autistic child until I started dating my boyfriend 4 years ago. His little brother has autism and down syndrome, but is high functioning. He really took to me and he's been my little buddy since, more then than now, because believe it or not he's a whooping 11 years old! Definitely not the little cuddly 8/9 year old who used to sit in my lap.
The little boy who I have been working with is 4, and I can't help but watch him throughout the day and wonder what he's thinking. He loves to repeat words that I say, and when I repeat his noises that he makes he loves it even more. Maybe I look or sound funny, but it's been a real breakthrough in our relationship! Today we mostly made zebra noises at each other and he really liked how I pronounced tent, because I annunciated my "t" on the end, so we repeated back and forth for a couple of hours, while we played a board game and played in the costume bin. I also taught him to say "AR YE' MATEY," he liked that, another worker also flipped a large coffee can over and made him a drum, not sure if that was a good  or a bad thing, but I think he enjoyed it alittle more than the workers ears did haha.
It's days like today that I love working with autistic kids, it's the breakthroughs in relationships and connecting that really make me love it. Connecting with kids in general is an awesome feeling, but connecting with special needs kids is a whole new level of fantastical warm feelings. I actually got a kiss before I got off work!! Now THAT was my best end of the day gift.
It's been a complete learning experience the past week. Justin's little brother doesn't do much therapy for his autism, but the kids I have been working with and around have all these cool routines and therapies to help them throughout the day,l ike the brush down, vests, diets, and stretch bags, even languages. It's been alot to learn, but I think I did quite well for myself in the short amount of time that I've been there. I'm the youngest of the workers so I've really been the most playful and energetic person around.
I think the kids have really taken a liking to me, because I'm not afraid to get down and dirty, or let them hang off me or be alittle rough with me. Today I was doctors patient, a massage client, a bongo drum, a victim of pouncing and jumping children, I was half buried in pea-gravel and I came out of it alive and smiling.
I really have a new appreciation for children and I hope to work with them alot more in my future :)

Ps. look forward to new photos from my photo shoot. I'll be posting one or two on here, but more on my photography blog, the image owl!

Stay Happy!
-Robyn

Rock Massage

I am currently laying on the playground while 3, 4 year olds are puttting rocks and sand on my back and "massaging" me and scratching my head, while playing "bongos" on my butt. Haha This is what I call work.

Working With Kids

I've recently been spending some time at a local boys and girls club and I've been enjoying it completely! Today we had a lot of free play time, but we also went on a couple walks to collect things in the field that a bird would use to build a nest. We then sat down for craft time to build our own individual birds nests. We spent quite a bit of time playing on the playground and in the sand box. 2 - 5 year olds can definitely ware you out quickly, but it's been a blast despite the boogers, cries and "runners". Lets just say I recently moved a treadmill into my house, but I'm beginning to wonder when I'll ever have the extra energy to use it after chasing after escaped kids from the fenced in yard haha

While on our adventure to collect bird nest supplies, a little girl happened upon a worm. This was a major breakthrough and it immediately became the new coolest thing in the classroom. Her new found pet was always at her "side", wrapped in a kleenex. I dare say the poor thing didn't last too long on the playground, it was lost once, but eventually both "pieces" were recovered and placed back in the tissue.

For a girl that was always uninterested and some what intimidated by children, I sure have changed over the past year and hope to spend alot more times with these little cuties.