I Want It Perfect!

 Sigh....epic fail on beautiful apple perishky.  They look nothing like MGCC nor anything like my Oma's perishky either.  You'll have to trust me when I tell you they taste much better than they look!

Chad's Passion

Chad is always coming down after rummaging in his Lego bins to show us his latest creations.  If it's a space ship or robot I'm not super interested but this one really caught my attention.  Snoopy!  Who doesn't love Snoopy?
Chad aspires to be a Lego designer and when I saw he plays with it every day I am not kidding you.  I've never known a lad to be SO into Lego!

Brass Section

This is a photo of my uber keen middle school beginning band student watching a Youtube clip on how to make a proper 'embourchure' for the trombone.  He is very excited to learn an instrument and it's nice that Keith's trombone from his band days is still in good enough shape for Chad to use.  Okay, it just needed one small ($100 eeekkk!) repair but the music shop said it was a high quality trombone so I guess we're keeping it!  In band 6 at MEI middle the kids will learn three instruments and then in grade 7 will chose just one instrument to focus on.  After term one Chad will go on to learn the clarinet and trumpet.  I loved playing in band back in the day and I do hope that Chad will enjoy his experience and excel at which ever instrument he ends up choosing. 

Pee-Pee

Ever had to toilet train a 15 year old?
Yeah, it's about as much fun as you can imagine.

Punked!

 

Let me start off by saying that we are very fond of our neighbors directly to the north of us.  They are the ones that gave us the tip when this home went up for sale.  They are the ones that used to be my Sunday School teachers many moons ago at Highland Comm. Church.   They are the ones that I work with at MEI.  They are caring, friendly and we really couldn't ask for better neighbors.  Now, our neighbor whom I will call 'P' LOVES his grass.  He even re-sodded his entire front lawn this spring by himself.  He mows it faithfully, fertilizes it, trims it, edges it and waters it.  He waters it A LOT.  And even though he only waters it during the prescribed times by the city he doesn't follow his watering days.  Everyone on the street has a brown and crispy lawn but his is lush and green.  A certain someone and I decided it would be very fun to pull a prank on the lawn-lover.   

We wrote up a fake by-law warning ticket and put it on his front step on a Friday night.  Keith and I thought for sure he'd tell us about it because we often chat over the fence but all was silent over the weekend.  Since we were having the block party on Sunday we knew we'd have to 'tell all' before Monday so he wouldn't phone the city or anything like that.  Well to make a long story short, he thought it was an actual ticket and was all set to PAY it!  He even called the city over the weekend and left them a voicemail asking why he was being singled out for a ticket.  When we told him at the block party he simply could not believe we would do such a thing to him and he laughed and laughed!  He was happy to be out of the doghouse with his wife.  The neighbors all had a big laugh as well as 'P' is well known up and down the street for the love of his lawn.  We got him so good and now he warns us to watch our backs!  Bring it on...we dare ya!

 

 

Love Thy Neighborhood!

Boy, oh boy do I love the street we live on.  We experienced our first ever block party yesterday.  There is really no better way to connect with people than over food.  It's one thing to wave at your neighbors in passing but to really chat with them and have a laugh bonds you in a different way.  I know now that I will be more quick to pop across the street for a chat. 

Ever thought of organzing a street BBQ in your neighborhood?  I highly recommend!

And Off He Goes

We made it to preschool!  Ever since we registered back in January we have been pumping Liam up for this big event.  The day finally arrived and we were all super excited!  First day was with a parent and since I was working, Keith got the privilege of going along.  Keith told me afterwards that Liam had the death grip on his finger most of the hour he was there.  It seems he had a fine time and he came to the middle school office to visit me after his session.  Next week he goes solo...what a brave boy!

 

Walking Nowhere

This is my new friend.  We are still getting used to each other.
Keith's mom kindly loaned me her treadmill for a while as I want to see if I am a treadmill kind of girl.  It's nice to have the option of not walking in the rain as fall approaches.
I've been using it for two weeks now and I do like it.  The design could be improved upon with long handles since one trips up on the front of the treadmill with the handles so short. I like to watch TV as I am huffing and puffing but it seems that nothing of interest is ever on while I am working out.  Grrrr!
But I have found my perfect pre-programmed setting and I hope that I see some results!  It's a sweaty, hot work doing the treadmill.  Or perhaps I'm just that badly out of shape?!

2012 Edition: First Day of School

Chad was so anxious/nervous/excited for middle school he was up pretty and was ready to go long before the rest of us!  I'm happy to report that he's super happy with how everything is going so far.  He's got a great teacher and even though his buddies are not in his class (no, I don't 'rig' things even though I work in the office) he's gonna be alright!

 

 Nathan was calm, cool and collected for his first day of high school.  Not much phases this kid!  He's a rock.  After a lengthy interrogation from me I found out that he too, had a great day and is very happy with his new school.

 And even though Liam doesn't begin preschool until this week Friday, he had to have his photo taken as well!  He is really excited for Friday and wants to go 'by myself' even though it's a parent/child time on the first day.

China Meets Canada

It's been a while since I've posted but not for lack of blogging material but simply the time and desire to do it.

Our fourth child William joined us this past weekend from Inner Mongolia, China.

I hate this part of the homestay program.  Getting him settled and comfortable is awkward, challenging and nerve-wracking.  Really not my forte.  Keith is much better at this part and I'm glad he's stepped up to the plate to take over.  Food is definitely going to be the main challenge as his English is fair.  So far we have found out that he never drinks cold beverages or eats cold foods and he doesn't like sweets.  Hmmmm.  I do hope we can find something he can eat for breakfast.

William's parents personally brought him to Canada (apparently a rare thing) and so we've had to meet mom and dad.  We've endured many conversations via a translator which can be lacking.  All I know is that 'dad' keeps insisting that we will come to China next July to visit their  home. He calls Keith his 'older brother' once he found out that Keith is a few months older than him!  Now, they seem to be quite wealthy and boy, were they ever generous in their gifts to us.  Keith and I both got wool items from a famous manufacturer, Liam got a remote control car that he is loving and the older boys each got an Ipod Touch! 

This is going to be quite an adventure and I hope and pray that William can feel comfortable here and enjoy his year in Canada with us.

Preserving Memories

Do you have a stack of these in a closet somewhere?  I finally took my 8mm tapes to Costco and had them put on DVD this summer.  They had a coupon in their summer flyer so I decided that now was a good a time as any.  It's something I had been putting off for years. They messed up the DVD imaging a bit so I got a few of them for free which was pretty sweet since it's not particulary cheap to have this done. It's not a lot of video really and we were pretty selective about when we took out the video camera when the kids were young (yes...I realize using the term 'video camera' dates myself).  We all look forward to watching these DVDs over the next few evenings.  Nate and Chad enjoy seeing themselves as 'enfants'.  Of course, once we got a digital camera all the video went digital.  Does anyone know if there is a service or program that would put all my video clips onto one DVD in a continuous fashion.  I could burn them clip by clip onto a disc but I'd like to be able to play a DVD of them all continuously.  Does that make sense?

Well, perserving memories takes time and money but it's certainly worth it.  We've come a long way from slides!

The Boys

Exciting times are a-coming!
Grade 6 for Chad ~ Middle School
Grade 9 for Nate ~ High School
Preschool for Liam

Yippee!  I'm so excited for them all.
No tears from this mama.

Too Soon

Klassen Resort

This was the first year EVER that we had spent at Oroville without my parents.  It was time for a change and boy oh boy did we have fun!  Not that it wasn't fun with my parents but it was a bit more sedate.  We were so happy that the Unrau family could join us for the week.  So fun to show them around and play with them and share experience!

There were in excess of 1700 photos taken over the week so here are a very few highlights!

 

 

 

 Oh yes, this is my favorite thing to do.  Screaming, laughing and panic all rolled into one wild ride!

 

 

 

 Since there is no longer a dock at our beach I was happy to be water taxi for Kori.

 

 

The boys went tubing upteen million times.

 

 Blake learned how to kneeboard!

 We ate dinner with the best view ever.

 We played lots of games.

 We ate more donuts than is good for a person.

 The weather was perfect.  Hot, HOT and sunny everyday with only one windy afternoon/evening.

 

 Keith gave water-skiing lessons.  Blake was a champ, Karli didn't quite make it up, Kori popped up on her first go and I bombed.  Just didn't happen for me!

 Liam desperately wanted to be included in the water sports but aside from tubing there wasn't much else he's old enough to do.  Kori was kind enough to take him 'surfing'.

I was SO proud of Chad who overcame his fears and tried kneeboarding and guess what?  He loved it!  Only two years ago this child wouldn't even swim in the lake.  He's come a long ways!

 

Maybe I'll post again with more highlights.  I think you can see by now that it was a wonderful week.

Salt Spring Visitors

We don't get to see our friends from Salt Spring too often so I was tickled pink when my friend Jenn called up to say she was dropping by last week.  Her husband works for Randy Bachman so was working close by in Mission at the River Music Festival.  She and the kids tagged along on the road trip and they were able to make a stop at our house for a quick visit.  She's one of those delightful friends who remains dear to me even though the times we see each other are few and far between. 

Long Lost Cousins

These sisters are my second cousins!  Kerry on the right lives in Guatemala with her husband and five (!!) kids.  They run an orphange down there.  I hadn't seen her in years and years!  Someone kindly sponsored her family to fly up here so she could visit her siblings and parents.  I was so happy to be able to visit and catch up.  Allison lives in town but we don't really see one another.  I think we'll have to change that!  Her brother actually JUST left with his family for a two year stint in Indonesia to teach at an international school so they missed each other by mere weeks.  What a shame!
Thanks to Aunt Judy for taking the picture for us.  See you all on FB!

Downtown - Day 3

After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we checked out and headed towards downtown Seattle.  We always like wandering around the Seattle Centre, piers, markets and big stores.  Having kids with us does put a damper on things and we tried to keep the 'boring shopping' to a minimum! 

 We always park near Seattle Center and take the monorail into downtown.  Liam's first ride on a sky train and he was very pleased about it.

 There is a new attraction down on Pier 57.  At $15 per person it was not in our budget to ride but it was fun to watch for a while.

The downtown stores are full of excellent bargains.  As good or better than the outlets in same cases.  Multi-story Target, Forever 21, Old Navy, American Eagle, Nordstrom Rack and H&M are among some of our favorite places to check out. 

After walking around for several hours and finding some great deals we headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.  The boys have a very favorite sandwich here that they love to share.  The chicken parmesan.  They are wise enough to know to save room for dessert!  I had a delicious BBQ Ranch Chicken salad that I will definitely be ordering again.

 The boys were able to come to an agreement on the Oreo cheesecake.  Keith and I shared the Chocolate Raspberry Truffle.  Oh my...SO good, SO rich, SO filling. 

 At this point Liam was nearing melt down stage so we headed back to Seattle Center on the monorail.  We took them to the spray park area so they could enjoy playing here.

 And you can't go to Seattle without taking a picture of the Space Needle!  Again...I'd love to go up but at $19 a person it was just too much.  Next time we'll budget for it.

 There is a new glass sculpture garden beside the needle that is quite amazing.  You have to pay to get in but for now the shrubbery is  small enough to peek in from outside.

 Chad is currently on a purple kick and loves anything purple so he wanted to get a picture in front of the EMP building.  Liam is looking a tad worn out here!

 It was one melt down after another at this point.  Half embarrassing and half entertaining.  I'm sure people felt sorry for us as they passed by.  I sure hope they did anyhow!!!

 Now back in the old days we simply did not take our children along on holidays like this because it wasn't worth the pain of the fall out from distruptued routines.  Now, we have no choice but to drag this wee lad around in order to have the older two boys still enjoy trips and whatnot.  By day three the lack of naps, late nights and new surroundings had caught up with Liam and he was a mess.  It was a very trying day and I was so frustrated!    Here's a little clip of what it was like as we were heading back to the car to head home.

 And about two seconds after he announced he was NOT TIRED he fell asleep and stayed that way for a good hour.  He was very sweet and in good humor when he awoke...back to the boy we know!

And that was our Seattle get-away.

Yet Another Home Project

This time the issue was my stall shower in the ensuite.  It's a small space and a bit dark so I didn't notice that the caulking had pulled away from the tile on the corners.  Keith used my shower a few weeks ago and told me that it was leaking into the wall and it needed some attention...STAT!  So I gave up showers for a few days so it could completely dry out.  No, I used the main bathroom shower!

Keith set to work sanding off many layers of caulking so he could apply a new coating properly.  Of course this took a long time because Keith is a perfectionist and when he does something it's done RIGHT!  So now it's done and have my girl shower back.  One day we'll just rip it out and replace the whole thing but that's a long term dream.