Th Peak at Grouse Mountain

The last time we went to The Peak at Grouse Mountain, Ethan was still napping and we had to cut the visit short. This year we went up again with the Tulks and it was an awesome night. What a difference a few years makes. We lucked out and were blessed with awesome weather. We opted to go in the afternoon and try to stay into the evening because I wanted to make sure to hit the Night Walk while it was dark out. The kids and Philip all took advantage of the outdoor skating rink. It was so funny to watch Ethan first get his skating legs back. Just like Bambi on ice. While they were skating we line up for the sleigh ride. They even served hot chocolate while you wait in line. After the sleigh ride it was time to head inside to get some dinner and warm up. Plus delicious french fries were calling our name. (Seriously, the fries were so yummy! Not Joanne's, but everyone else's were delicious.) By the time we came back out, the sky was dark enough for the light walk. It was so beautiful and worth the wait. The kids both say this was their favourite part. They had a great time tromping off trail and sliding down the powdery snow. After the Night Walk, the kids still wanted to try the sliding centre. We rented two carpets and while we walked to the hill, someone came and gave us their slides to use as well. Once the sliding was done, it was cold enough for us to head back into the chalet to watch a movie. They had short Christmas films playing in the theatre along with a coloring station and a place to write a letter to Santa. Before heading home, we stopped for hot chocolate and a stroll through the gingerbread lane. We all had a blast and hope that perhaps this will become a Christmas tradition for years to come!

 

Santa Picture 2015

The big day is coming up. We've been slowly crossing off some of the items on our seasonal things-to-do list. We went to the Christmas Wish Breakfast, the Christmas party with Josh's work at Grouse Mountain, Canyon Lights (Yay, we got two seasons worth with our year passes!), decorated the tree, year end parties for Beavers and Brownies and bought our Christmas ornaments of the year. The kids an I also got to see a performance of Arts Umbrella's Dance show called Mixed Nuts. It was an awesome surprise as I had no idea what we were signing up for back in the fall. Still a few things left on the wish list, but they are somewhat weather dependent. (Trinity Street light, Burnaby Village Museum and The Peak at Grouse Mountain.) We'll have to see.

2 days left of school and counting. Let's do this!!

P.S. Really more for myself than anyone else. I can't seem to find the list of ornaments from previous years. So here is just a reminder for myself: Maddy's ornament this year was a Black Capped Chickadee in honor of her study of birds in school. Ethan's is a penguin, again because he learned all about penguins this fall. (Though the penguins we learned about did not have blush on their cheeks and sport rainbow toques and scarves)

Ethan's First Loose Tooth

This happened close to a month ago, but I feel like I must remember the moment for my future self. The tooth had been wiggly for a while and the adult tooth was already poking through a fair bit. The poor kid was dealing with chomping down on the loose tooth for a while. The dentist suggested that for Ethan, we keep his baby teeth in as long as possible in order to guide the adult teeth in properly. Because of this, we didn't really do anything to try and help the loose tooth out earlier. For the boy who loves to eat, I have to stay that there were many meals with tears when he'd chomp down on the tooth because it was in an unfamiliar spot. Finally one night the tooth was so loose that Ethan had had enough. He did very well and just kept wiggling, and wiggling it until it came out. Unfortunately, he doesn't have that super cute gap tooth smile because the adult one is already in it's place. Ethan doesn't really care though. All he was excited about was the thought of the tooth fairy coming to visit.

Halloween

Wow, as I type this, I'm thanking the Weather Gods because it's about 11:30pm on Halloween night and it is JUST POURING with rain outside. The weather forecast all week long called for a wet Halloween, but lucky for us it didn't start to rain until well after the kids were home from Trick or Treating. I'd even go as far to say that we dodged another bullet. I was not looking forward to this "Saturday night" Halloween because the older kids are often hanging around the park all night long. Now with the rain and wind out there...all is quiet at the park.

God, I feel old. Let's just get to the Halloween pictures and call it a night.

 The kids both carved their own pumpkins this year. They even pulled the guts out all by themselves.

Ethan was happy to put his Dog costume back on again this year. I'm not sure that we'll be able to use it again next year. It has served us well. I joked with Josh that Ethan doesn't really care much about what he's going to be for Halloween. I think in his mind, he'll wear anything if it means he can get candy. Maddy's costume is Nefertiti, an ancient Egyptian Queen. Maddy's been studying Ancient Egypt for school and she decided to make her own costume as part of a school project.

How could we miss the chance to snap a photo of an Egyptian Queen eating a Mummy wrap!

 Apologies for this grainy photo, but in my mind the side profile of Ethan's costume is what MAKES the whole costume.

I had to get one last photo of it before we are forced to pass the costume on to someone who will cherish it as much as we did. 

We hope you all had a wonderful Halloween night.

Maddy, 8 years old

Maddy continues to be a very inquisitive girl. She is eager to learn about new topics and is beginning to take on more and more responsibility for her school work. This year Maddy decided to try a new activity instead of choir. She has decided to give gymnastics a try and is loving it so far. She is in the the Homelearners group at Arenex, so it is a mixed abilities group. I was proud of how she kept on trying during those first few lessons when she couldn't do, or felt awkward  doing many of the things the other girls could do.

Maddy is still very much into crafts and is now adding cross-stitch and sewing doll clothes to her list of things she likes to do. She often has a whole bunch of different projects on the go and will spend quite a bit of time on each one, leaving it for a long time and then revisiting it again later on.

One sign that she is not a little girl anymore is she is beginning to choose her own clothes and has even opted to get a new stylish shirt instead of a toy or other kind of fun gift. Is it really starting already? Most of her clothes are hand-me-downs and she LOVES going through the bags at the beginning of each season. Perhaps because the fact that she doesn't have much choice over most of her clothes, it was a novel idea to choose something completely on her own? I'm going to continue to comfort myself with this idea instead of the fact that she is just growing up. (At least for a little while longer).

At times, the attitude is beginning to show and we have many conversations about finding a better way to voice her displeasure at something. It's definitely a work in progress, and I have to say that Mama is also working really hard to hold her tongue at the appropriate moments and concentrate on the big picture. Fun times are just around the corner!

When Maddy was a young as 6 months old, she always used her 'Binkie' as a comfort item. I suppose she just loves the feel of it. She still has her Binkie for sleep and her cousins have even introduced her to the Binkie Hoodie but for the longest time she has dreamed of a Binkie Blanket! She spotted the material at a fabric store while on an errand with me, and always talked about how she'd save her money to buy enough material for a whole blanket. This birthday Po Po and Gong Gong gave her some money and her Binkie Blanket dream has come true. Seeing how happy and thrilled she was the very first time she wrapped it around herself was like being transported into the past about 7.5 years.

Are the 'Tweens' just around the corner? Or do we still have some time left before all that? It's hard to say. We'll just have to take each step as it comes. If all else fails and we find ourselves in the middle of a huge Tween drama, I guess we do have a massive Binkie Blanket that could be used as a swaddle. Heh, heh just kidding of course.

Happy Birthday Maddy

 Can you guess what her cake design was all about?

Wow, eight years old. I must be in denial because I was looking for a number 7 candle at the grocery store and opted for simple candles when they didn't have the higher digits. It wasn't until sticking the 8 candles into the cupcake did I realize the mistake I almost made.

Oma and Opa gave her some money to buy anything she wanted for her birthday. She chose this plaid shirt.

It's the first time she's chosen and article of clothing over a toy or something. All grown up!

This year we had a very quiet birthday because both sets of grandparents were not in town. Oma and Opa celebrated a few weeks earlier when they were in town after returning from a European holiday. Gong Gong and Po Po were out of town on a cruise to the Panama Canal. We had the Tulks over to celebrate with Maddy and then to top it off, we celebrated Thanksgiving as well. As you can see, we had one very happy 8 year old girl.

She was very surprise and happy with her very own sewing kit.

Happy 8th birthday Maddy. We love you so much and are so proud of you.

xoxo
Love Mama, Papa and Ethan

Ethan, 6 years old

My little boy is not so little anymore. This year Ethan has shot up in height! Over the summer I pulled out all of his pants to see what his clothing situation looked like going into the fall. We had to get rid of every single pair of pants that he had. They all made him look like he was waiting for the big flood to come. Strangers will look at his feet and comment about how big his shoes are, and on our height chart, he is measuring the same height that Maddy was just last year.

Emotionally, Ethan has also grown over the past year. We've seen his level of self confidence steadily rise. He's recently started to take Karate classes and he went in like a champ. Big smile on his face, just trying to keep up with the other kids. He had no clue what he was doing but the 'new Ethan' just followed the mantra of 'fake it til you make it'. The 'old Ethan' would have been too apprehensive to join in until he had a chance to observe thoroughly.

For his whole life, Ethan has compared himself to his sister and often felt down because he couldn't do something that she could. Things such as run as fast, monkey bars, ride a bike or swim on his own. I think the tides are beginning to change. The scales may not completely tip over, but Ethan is definitely catching up. He can pretty much keep up with her on the playground now and a couple weeks ago, he was the first of the two to blow up a balloon all on his own.

Some things that haven't changed yet (and I'm secretly hoping that they won't for a little while longer) are his love for his stuffed doggies and his love for family time. This year Ethan added a new dog to the mix with the introduction of 'Ryo'. He bought Ryo with some money that was given to him by Oma and Opa. Bless his little heart. He still calls out to them after we return home from being out. He'll talk to them and reprimand them as though they are real. He can often been seen out and about with either Ryo or 'Little Dog' (aka: Woa Woa) zipped up in his hoodie with the head sticking out. Ethan still counts the weekdays down until the next family day. He is his happiest at the beginning of any extended family holiday or long weekend. I love this about him and hope we'll still have a while longer before it fades.

Although he still loves Lego, Ethan added a new favourite to his play arsenal. He's really gotten into Perler Beads. They are these little plastic beads that you arrange on a base. Once you iron them, they melt and form a picture. At first I thought it would be a phase that would quickly pass, but he loves to look up patterns on the internet, count out the rows and colour combos and recreate the picture on his own. Recently he's also been into coming up with his own designs and together, he and Maddy are exploring how to make the creations stand up.

Another favourite of Ethan's are still the board games. Most recently he's been into Monopoly, the regular version. Man, we play way more advanced than I've ever played in my life. Both kids understand what it means to mortgage properties if you don't have enough money. As a kid we used to just circle the board, waiting to land on the good ones before buying. We never got as far as buying houses, never mind hotels or the need to mortgage property. Up until my early 30s, I had no idea that if you didn't buy everything in sight, you'd be dead. Ethan is such the property management king, that he's buying houses and hotels like they're going out of style. He wins every time. Perhaps he'll be a landlord when he's older! I have to say that when it comes to board games, that kid was born with horseshoes in his bum.

Apple Picking

Over the weekend we went to Taves Apple Farm  in Abbotsford to visit the farm and go apple picking. They had an awesome set up and I'm now officially converted to an apple farm trip in the fall instead of a pumpkin patch trip. Here are some pictures from the day. The weather was perfect and we had a fun time with the DIDO gang.

This is the giant 'pumpkin pillow'. Super fun for both adults and kids. 

We had a picnic lunch (you can bring your own food, or they have simple concession stand with hot dogs, roasted corn or potatoes) before heading on the hay ride to pick some apples. Afterwards we spent time in the corn maze. The kids were all up ahead of us and yes, we did get a bit lost/turned around. Thankfully we made it out and even stopped for the best apple cider slurpee. Really, if you go out there, get the slurpee. Happy 'almost fall' everyone.

Happy 6th Birthday Ethan!

We celebrated Ethan's birthday with family over the weekend. With Oma and Opa away on their European adventure, it was just a small party with the Tulks and my mom and dad. Now that the kids are older, I tell them that I will decide on the theme of the cake that I'll make. It started to get to complicated when they began asking for excavator cakes and so now I make their cakes a surprise. I decided to go with Doggie cupcakes for Ethan and cherish how he exclaimed, "Oooh Mama, I love them!" when he saw the finished product for the first time. Happy birthday to mt sweet, dog loving boy. We love you so much Ethan. I'll be back later on with a six year old update on Ethan. Stay tuned!

First Day of School

The very next day after getting back from Lake Wenatchee, we were back to school. Self Design, our Distribued Learning School, started a week earlier than most schools because the school is undergoing an audit in late September. They'd like to be more settled in the school year before the time of the audit. For us, I think that we were ready for school to start. The lazy, carefree days of summer were awesome, but I think that all of us were craving a little more structure as well. We did end the first week back to school with a 'field trip' to Burnaby Village Museum. We met up with our Self Design teacher and her two daughters and had a great time. Not a bad way to get back into school.

Happy back to school everyone!

Lake Wenatchee Camping

For our last camping trip of the summer we went with the DIDO group back to Lake Wenatchee State Park. This will be our 3rd year in a row there and I'm still happy with the location and all that it has to offer. As the trip drew closer, it became apparent that we'd be spending another camping trip this season in the rain. Funny how in the summer of water restrictions due to low rainfall, we chose the two wet weekends to go camping together. Luckily, we were well prepared again with the EZ-Up tents and  canopies. In hindsight it was a great weekend to be away from YVR. We heard from friends and family how crazy/scary the weather was at home while we were away. We had rain on and off while camping, but we definitely didn't have the wind storms that cause so much damage in the Lower Mainland.

Like I said, this was the third year we've been to this camp ground. Last year, due to wonderfully hot weather we were able to make great use of the lake. This year we didn't even go to the lake but did get to go horseback riding. It was a 45 minute ride in the trails and the kids did great. I was super impressed with how calm Maddy was as she rode her own horse by herself. Ethan wasn't old enough to go on his own, so I doubled with him. Quite an experience! I don't think that I'll go horseback riding again ;) I guess horses can get PMS too.

The kids also all had a great time playing on a makeshift seesaw that someone made with some fallen logs, playing twister and general exploring. The adults enjoyed catching up and even had a few nights of playing Cards Of Humanity. One day we went into the town of Leavenworth. The kids loves this part of the trip because it involves a trip to the salt water taffy shop. I was looking forward to going back to a tea shop and it did not disappoint. My only regret was not getting more of a new tea I found. Turns out, I love it. If anyone has plans to visit Leavenworth, let me know if you can pick up an order of tea for me!! :)

This year was a great one for camping. I'm happy that we went on 4 trips and that we were able to use the Westy more now that the kids are older. The Vanagon

is now all cleaned and pack away for the winter season. Rest up Bessy, we look forward to more trips with you again next year!

Camping at Alice Lake

We went to Alice Lake for camping trips another two times this summer. The first trip was a two nighter with the Brown Johns joining us for one night and Kais joining all of us for the day. The weather was nice and hot and we were able to enjoy the lake for two full days.

The final time we went to Alice Lake  was also a two nighter. This trip was a 'just in case' trip that was planned because we worried that our annual Wenatchee trip may not happen. Turnes out we were able to secure both weekends, so we still have one more trip left! The nice thing about Alice Lake is that it is so close to Vancouver that we were able to leave in the afternoon on Friday and be home Sunday evening. The whole DIDO group plus Vangie were able to go and we had a great time despite the rain.

By the way, Ethan and Sophia really hit it off on this trip. I think they bonded over their love for their stuffed dogs Bobbi, Woa Woa and Ryo. In any case, I had to include these pictures. How cute are they?!?!

I also love this shot. Even though they love their stuffies, it looks like they may a little apprehensive when to comes to the real things.

Cousin Time

This summer we had a great time hanging out with the cousins again. Unfortunately the Harpers were unable to join us. We did pack as much as we could into the week before Calvin and his family went to the Island for some beach fun.

The Blommesteins are biking!

This has been a dream in the making for a few years. With both kids being able to bike now, it was time for Mama to get a bike. It took a lot to get us here. So many headaches with bike racks and hitches to get over, not to mention the troubles of using a bike rack with smaller kid-bike frames. I'm getting better at the jigsaw puzzle that is involved in loading our three bikes onto the bike rack and we've since had some fun trying to find our "go-to" location for biking.

Here are some of our findings on a few different biking routes in the Lower Mainland.

Seymour Conservation Forest

The pathway here is paved and smooth making for a nice comfortable ride. The tall trees are also great for avoiding the heat, not to mention it's a beautiful place to ride. The downfall is that it is hilly. When we first took Ethan here in the spring, we learned the hard way that learning to go down hills is one of those skills that also need to be explicitly taught. Good thing Josh can run REALLY fast. Even though both kids are now able to go down hills safely, their bikes do not have any gears so going up hills are still hard and we find ourselves having to dismount and walk up.

Barnston Island (Surrey)

My friend Yvette told me about this ride and I also found it on this website. It's a fun little out trip because it involves a short ferry ride to the island. The ferry ride took no longer than 5 mins, but it was still a fun little adventure. To bike the around the whole island is about 10km. (I'd say that right now, we are about 1.5hrs/10km). You can also get off the ferry and head to the left and from there it's about a 1.8km to a little lookout/place to picnic. This island is great for biking with kids because it is completely flat and the roadway is nice and wide. There are very few cars because only people who live there bring their cars. (There is no public parking available anywhere on the island) It was serene and quiet. Unfortunately for us, it was super hot the day we went out. Due to getting lost in the morning, we were biking in the noon day sun. I had to promise a certain biker to "never-ever take her to this place again" in order to make it back to the ferry. Did I say it was 1.5 hours? Felt like 3 hours. (We've since talked it over and agreed to keep the option open but only for overcast days)

Richmond Dyke

This might be our golden ticket. (At least for now) We started at the parking lot by Terra Nova Park. From there it is a 5 km bike to Steveston/ Garry Point Park. I liked this ride because it was flat, being close to the water, there was a nice breeze the whole time and it didn't feel as secluded as Barnston Island. (There were a few times that I felt a little too alone on the island, but that's just my brain working overtime.) The pathway is rocky, so it's a bumpier ride, but nothing that would stop you from going. For new bikers who still swerve all over the place, this ride could be a good middle ground from Stanley Park/Seawall congestion to Barnston Island.

Central Park

Closer to home, we are lucky to have a great easy park to go biking in. Usually when I take the kids here, I run because it's also a great shady place to beat the heat. There are different play areas/playgrounds to bike to along the way. If you are looking for a longer ride, I suppose you could also head out of the park and along the path way under the skytrain. 

That's it for now. I hope to go to a few more locations around the Lower Mainland and I'd love to hear of more if anyone has any suggestions.

Summer Date Day

Here are some pictures from our Summer Date Day with the kids.

Ethan chose to go bowling, which worked out really well because of the Kids Bowl Free program. We had a great time bowling and he insisted that we go ten pin. Ethan got the one and only strike of the afternoon and what a thrill that was for him. After bowling he wanted to head to the mall to get an ice cream. He was dead set on going to Purdy's to get the dipped with sprinkles cone. He had plenty of money left from his pot, so I let him go hog wild with the add-ons. One happy boy.

Maddy decided that she wanted to do a wood working project with Josh. She had been planning this for a while. She found some plans from a book at the library and a while back she copied the plans along with a list of all the pieces she'd need. Unfortunately, the paper was lost in the house somewhere as the date day loomed closer. A few days before the actual day, we went to the library and she was able to locate the same book. My god the joy!! She was thrilled to be able to do the project after all. When the project was done, she had a last little bit of money left, so she and Josh headed off to share a bubble tea from a restaurant nearby. I laughed so hard when I saw the picture. Josh said that the picture made it look bigger than it was. Josh still talks about how good this was. Some kind of strawberry/banana smoothie.

Revelstoke

We had an awesome trip to Revelstoke this year. The kids were so excited to get going that they woke us at about 6am and we on the road by close to 7am. We pulled into Mom and Dad's place at noon!

This year Josh and I noticed a lot of change in the the kids' abilities. We attempted our first long hike. I've been on this hike once before on my first trip to Revelstoke, but since then then we hadn't tried again. We hiked Mt. Revelstoke to Eva and Miller lake and the views were just as beautiful as I remembered. I'm talking, "break out into the theme song from the Sound Of Music" kind of beautiful.  In total we hike about 14km that day and it took about 7 hours. The kids did really well and it definitely helped to have Oma and Auntie Lyn there to play distracting riddle games with the kids.

Another day we went to Giant Cedars and Skunk Cabbage trails. A nice break into the forest to get away from the hot, hot temperatures we had most of the week.

The rest of the week was filled with evenings in the Plaza listening to the music, swimming/fishing at Williamson Lake, mini golf, time in Oma's garden and eating all the cherries from her tree, swimming at the pool, and a day trip to Nakusp.  Below are bullets from highlights of the week. They follow the pictures from left to right, top to bottom.

• Each year the kids ask to visit the Revelstoke Bears close to the Plaza. Here's is this year's picture.
• Williamson Lake is stocked with fish every Father's Day. The $1.50 spent on each of the fishing nets were more than worth it!
• Ethan was AMAZED to see Oma's book for sale at the local bookstore.
• Eating cherries straight from the tree. 
• Waiting for the ferry to Nakusp.
• Oma taught the kids to use her sewing machine. They each made blankets for their stuffies.
• Meet 'Ryo'. Oma and Opa gave them each $20 to buy something with. We went to SO many stores and as soon as Ethan spotted him, we all knew it was the right choice.
• Waiting for the ferry back to Revelstoke. It was cool to see all the inukshuks from people waiting for the ferries.
• Family mini golf night. Williamson Lake has it all! Ethan's excitement as the first few balls were sunk was priceless.

We had a fantastic week, jam packed with so many activities. It was especially fun because Auntie Lyn was also in town visiting from Nova Scotia, so we had plenty of bonding time. A great way to start the summer!

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day a week earlier with Josh this year because next weekend the kids will be at my parents house while Josh and I celebrate my birthday. We went hiking at Mt. Seymour on the Dog Mountain Trail. It's about a 2 hour return trip, but we took about 2.5 hours to hike it instead, along with a nice lunch break at the view point. The trail is harder with many roots, rocks and hills to climb over, but the trail ventures up and down at points so it's easier on the body than the Grouse Grind that goes straight up. At the top you are rewarded with a spectacular view of the city. After the hike we came back into town and had a nice break at home before heading out to dinner with my family at Phenom Penh. As if the chicken wings weren't good enough, we topped off the evening with a trip to La Casa Gelato. Good thing we went on that hike. As we pulled up, Ethan shouts, "Oh, I see it. I know here. I love here."

Happy Father's day, babe. You are an awesome father and husband. We love you so much.

Photo credit to this one goes to Ethan. Actually, I found a burst of about 27 copies on Josh's phone!

First Camping Trip of the Season

The weekend spots at Alice Lake are pretty hard to book, but in an effort to still get a trip in at the beginning of June, we did a quick Sunday night trip. We left town early on Sunday even though the camp sites don't open up until 2pm. We spent he day at the lake and the Brown-Johns even came up for the day. The weather was fantastic (30 degrees, but a nice wind kept us cool) and it felt great. By about 4:30 most of the weekend campers had gone home for the weekend and the campsite was nice  quiet. The one night stay turned out to be a great way to start the season because it allowed us to test out the van and restock it with basics. Hopefully the next time we go in mid-July the pack will be even easier!

On the Monday we spent another whole day at the lake. It was super quiet and we had fun going in and out of the lake, relaxing and watching the kids play in the sand. Looking forward to our other 3 trips planned later on this summer!

 

This is the pirate ship the kids built. They'd both sit on the rocks at the front. Maddy steers and looks out of pirates.

When she spots one, she calls out to Ethan and he throws the cannonballs (the other rocks beside him) over board. 

Priceless, since they'd only land with a thunk 2ft in front of him.  They kept this up for quite a while.  

 All that guiding and scouting might be paying off. Maddy made fire starters and we tested them out. 

Ethan insisted that he'd learned how to build the fire and he did.

 Seems they can build a fire all by themselves.

 Chippies and family game of 'Go Fish". Ethan is in heaven.

 You have to try this on your next camping trip. Fill a waffle cone with with strawberries, banana, choc chips and marshmellows. 

Wrap in foil and set over fire. Better than s'mores!

Scouts Camping Trip

Ethan's Beaver group had a camping trip at Alice Lake this year. The whole family is invited to attend but Maddy's choir concert was the same weekend, so the boys had some great bonding time. Ethan LOVED. EVERY. MINUTE. I feel like he came home a different boy. So grown, confident and sure of himself. It was so fun to hear him tell about all the different things he got to do. This year has been such a big one for Ethan and I attribute a lot of it to his experience in Beavers. I love that he has his own 'thing' to go to and that he enjoys it so much. The Scouts Canada organization is run purely by volunteers and they are definitely gunning for Josh to sign up. Yikes!

 

 

 So the first night back home from the camping trip, we found Ethan sleeping like this at night.

 I think someone had such a good time and missed it when he got back.