Year End

We finished our school year with Self Design back in May but it felt like the real end to the year only happened recently because many of our extra curricular activities didn't end until now. In June we had two major 'graduations' to celebrate. The first was Ethan's preschool graduation. Really we should have just renamed the day to, "The day you get to have ice cream sundaes" because that is really all that Ethan was looking forward to. Every time we'd mention his graduation day, Ethan would be sure to double check that we meant the day he was going to get ice cream at school. Well luckily the teacher did not disappoint. She brought ice cream, cookies, candies, gummies, whipped cream...the works! We had a very happy little graduate on our hands. No amount of reminders about 'listening to his body' were going to stop him from enjoying his treat. He ate the whole thing!

 Teacher Gurminder

The second graduation we celebrated was Maddy's "Flying Up" ceremony to Brownies. I was never a Girl Guide as a kid so this is all new to us. The girls are in each level for 2 years and this was Maddy's last year as a Spark. It was really fun to watch the ceremony and see the current Brownies welcome the new batch into the group. After the ceremony, they sang a ton of camp songs that brought back SO many memories of my YMCA day camp days. Maddy leaves for camp at the end of this week and seeing all the girls in a big circle belting out camp songs made me so excited for her to experience all this at camp. Don't get me wrong, I'm also a nervous wreck about her being away and on her own for 2 nights and 3 days, but I'm putting on a brave face. (Did I mention that the camp is also an entire ferry ride away?!?! Deep breaths, deep, deep breaths...)

Anne, Michelle and Isobel

We had a fantastic first full year of homeschooling. Maddy loves school and I love being able to share in her excitement of learning. Ethan also did really well in preschool. It was amazing to see the transformation in him as he became more confident and sure of himself. Next year he will join us full time and though it may be a bit different juggling both of them at the same time, I'm looking forward to it. But first, let's get this summer started!!

Mt. Seymour

Bear Bells......$2.75
Bear Banger Kit......$27.00
Bear Spray........$28.50

Hearing Maddy and Ethan excitedly talk about what they'd do if they actually saw a real bear.....Priceless

Last weekend the weather was finally nice enough on a 'family day' for us to go hiking. In the past we usually go to Lynn Valley headwaters, but on a chance trip at the beginning of Fall last year, we found that Mt. Seymour has lots of great hiking trails. The night before Maddy told Josh that she was really excited to go hiking, but that she was hoping to do something "with a little more challenges". (The trails at Mt. Seymour are less obvious and secluded so Josh decided to take the precaution of getting some bear safety gear. We stopped at MEC and picked up all those items, but let me explain that we plan to do more hiking this year in Revelstoke and it's definitely more a necessity there.)

So the pictures will show that Maddy did get the 'challenges' she was hoping for. Lots of muddy patches, steep terrain, loose rock and in some places completely covered with snow. Ethan really loved it and wanted desperately to be the leader. In some areas the trails were covered in mud or snow, and Ethan would start to veer off. Josh would stop him and ask, "Which way do you think we should go?" Ethan would then point in the direction he was headed (which was the WRONG way), so we had to gently tell him to look for a different way. At one point he turned his body toward what looked like a major drop off, and so again we asked him, "Are you sure that's the way everybody would have gone, does that make sense?"

"Ya, I'm sure" he'd reply. Definitely no solo hikes for you little boy!!

It was a great day and hopefully the start to a great season of hiking.

May and then some

Back in the middle of May I started adding a few pictures that I wanted to include in the blog on to my desk top. Well seems that I now have quite a few pictures and I'd better get them up before I ditch them altogether. So sorry for the mish-mash blog you are about to read. I had all good intentions to blog about each event, but now there are too many to try.

Ethan's last preschool field trip for the year was at Maplewood Farms. It was unfortunate that it poured with rain so everyone just scattered off on their own. We quickly fed the different animals and left as well, but not before Ethan's finger was pecked by a hungry chicken. Oh the DRAMA!! The Tears!!

Maddy's choir had their final Spring Concert and it was a great event. Gong Gong, Po Po, Opa and Oma all came out to watch. Maddy loved it. Poor Ethan was so tired from all the excitement of Oma and Opa in town that he slept through the entire part of Maddy's choir singing.

The Wednesday following the concert, the choir had it's final rehearsal at the Kerrisdale Play Palace as a celebration the year end. Siblings were also invited to play and join for the pizza party. The choir rented the entire arena so it was really nice and quiet.

At the end of May I participated in the Women2Warrior Race to support the Easter Seal camps for children with special needs.  My friend Cherie did an awesome job getting us to take part in the first place, and then by outfitting us and the kids in our "Keep Calm and Warrior On" team shirts. The actual race was lots of fun and the best part of the day was right after we made it through the dreaded monkey bars challenge.

This May my dad celebrated his 75th (can you believe that?) birthday! We took Gong Gong out to Steveston Park for a picnic and to play in the sand and fly kites. Gong Gong is an expert in flying kites (as a kid he used to make and fly his own kites). He was able to get the kids to fly their kites. Who knew you didn't have to spend the whole time running! :) The kids had a blast. Happy Birthday dad!!

 The beginning of June brought another change for our family. After 10 years with my Mazda Protege 5, it was time to get a new car. Josh has always fixed and done all the maintenance on our cars and we tend to drive them until they are no longer driveable. Unfortunately, this time the repair needed was a much bigger job and one that we weren't sure was worth the time that he would have to put into it. I'll always have a special place in my heart for "MacQueen" (the kids named the red car after Disney's Cars) because it was the first car I ever bought all on my own. At the time it was my dream car! :)

A funny story I want to remember: On the evening before Josh was thinking of going into a dealership to possibly buy a new car, he spent a lot of time cleaning "MacQueen" up. He took out the car seats, washed, vacuumed, took the sun shade stickers off etc. The next morning, the kids looked out the window and Maddy shouted, "Mama, Papa got the new car last night except he got a red one!!" (We were debating on the color we wanted and had settled on grey) I have to admit, the red car did look great for a 10 year old car that went through 2 kids.

I love the new car. It's a TDI Golf Wagon. Yup, we are officially a strictly VW family now. I love the extra storage space we get in the back and I'm looking forward to seeing how the diesel gas prices compare to our old car.