Lucas on his Seventh Birthday

Dear Lucas,

This week you turn 7 and I was reflecting on the year and what an amazing kid you are.


This year you finished grade one.  I've written about it many of times but it was a very challenging year.  You had a lot of anxiety about school and not understanding what was going on, but you picked everything up amazingly well.  You can read and speak so well in french.  And although it was a challenge to switch to french school, the good part is you can also read and speak English very well. The other day I asked you about "lundi" and you didn't understand me, I explained it to you in english and you had to correct my pronunciation to understand what I meant.  Or a couple of weeks ago we were headed to one of your friends houses and I just "Je regarde Elliot".  That made you laugh.  You said mom, what you just said was " I look Elliot".  You mean "Je vois Elliot".  What a smart cookie you are. 


Through all the tough times in grade one we made a deal that you would try it for one year and at the end of grade one, if you still really didn't like it you could go back to english school.  So it came down tot he end of the year and Tammy asked if I had talked to you about it.  I said I was nervous to, as I wasn't sure what you were going to say and I wanted you to continue in french.  But I figured we had made the deal and so I asked.  You said, yes you would like to go to english school next year and french school the year after that and english school the year after and then back to french.  You were very concerned about being fair to both kinds of school.  It was very sweet and when I explained you can't really come and go from french school, you decided to stay in french.


Six has been a really fun age for you and for us as your parents too.  You are able to try most things, you are still cautious, but seem to be more willing to try.  We took you skiing this winter and you loved it.  You also loved Phineas and Ferb this year and Pokemon.  You learned how to rollerblade and got better at skating and swimming and gymnastics and soccer.  You are much like your Dad in that you are quite good at most everything you try.  In gymnastics camp this year they asked you to be on their pre competitive team, but you like to do so many different sports you don't want to give all your time to one. You are also a really great swimmer and have had lots of practice here at the pools and in Kelowna too.


You do enjoy most things your Dad does too, you like computers and video games and have a great apptitude for them too.  But you still really enjoy music, like your mom too. 


You are also a remarkably nice kid.  When we met with your teacher later in the year (after you had adjusted and we stopped talking about that) she talked about what a helper you on.  That you had taken on that role in the classroom.  If people needed help with something you would always be there to help them.  We also saw it at gymnastics camp where you would help the younger kids.  You are also good at helping your little brother.  If he hurts himself you are always the first one to put on a comedy act to try to make him feel better. 


You are also a very funny kid.  You like to laugh and tell funny stories about yourself.  Like the time you slept walked into our room and said " Hey Folks I need a glass of water"  You really enjoying laughing and your giggle makes everyone around you laugh too. 


You are a night owl, you have trouble falling asleep quickly.  You are more prone to rolling around in bed and talking to me then really falling asleep.  Which means you also love to sleep in.  That is great this time of year when school is out and I get an hour to myself in the mornings, while you sleep and sleep.


You love to read, and if I say so myself you are pretty damn good at it.  Your favorite book is Harry Potter and now that you are seven Daddy will start to read the second one too you.  I bet Dad may be more excited about that then you as he's read the first one many many times. 



Today I came home and I was quite sad about something, all I wanted to do was hug my boys and be grateful I was your mother.  I picked you up (cause I can still do that) and you hugged me with your whole body It was so wonderful it made me start to cry.  You don't see me cry all that often so for the rest of the night, you brought me chocolate and gave me lots of hugs and tried to make sure I was feeling better but just being around you makes me feel better. 

I love you my big 7 year old!

love mommy

April, May and June: What We've Been Up To

Oh Blog, how I've missed you. 

May and June have been two pretty good months. 

My best friend and I saw lots of concerts including: John K Sampson, who walked right passed us as we were going into the venue to have an early dinner.  Where I lifted my in shock that we just walked passed one of the best songwriters EVER and I didn't even think to ask to have our picture taken with him.    We also got to see Coldplay.  If you ever get a chance to see them GO FOR IT!  They are amazing live.  Even Pat, who was not a big coldplay fan loved it. 

We also did the crazy thing of driving 12 hours to Vancouver to see Tammy's very favorite chanteur, Ingrid Michaelson.  It was a great trip, even with the delay for the cow carnage, and that Vancouver were out of the playoffs that night.  But Ingrid was great and funny and seeing her live made me like her even more. 

I also got to go to Toronto for a work conference.  Some of the highlights were being on an airplane all by myself, seeing a famous x-ray person, Euclid Seeram and networking with lots of great colleagues.  I love my kids and my family, but it's a nice treat to be able to do something on my own and to put me and my career first (but only for a weekend=))

Darryl and I also celebrated our 11 year wedding anniversary.  It was a nice dinner out (but don't worry I didn't wear my wedding dress to the restaurant).  I'm lucky to have such a wonderful husband, friend and partner to navigate life with.  He has been great this spring with all of my escapdes and running all over Canada.  Never once has he complained or had a problem with me.... being me. 

But I know why you are really here, it's not to hear about all the fun stuff I do, but all the fun stuff the kids are up to.  =)  Well in the spring time it's soccer season here.  So there is always quick meals, running around to find chin guards and scoring goals and kick the ball.  Unfortunately Nathans soccer got rained out a fair bit, and there was the one week he had the horrible tonsillitis.  But with Lucas playing twice a week we saw a real improvement in his skills and his abilities to get in there and be a more offensive player rather then always defensive. 

We also had a fun time at a drumming show at the Children's Festival here in Calgary.  Lucas has been doing lots of learning about instruments at school, so it was great to see all the different types of drums from around the world. There were also clowns all over and one taught me a lesson as I was texting and walking and jumped out and scared me half to death.  Pay attention Jenn!

Now we are onto summer vacation!!!  Yeah!!  "Grade One was hard in the beginning but easy at the end" Lucas Park.   And he's very true.  It was definitely one of those challenging times as a parent, but I think we made the right decision and kept with it.  He had a great teacher, which I've learned can make all the difference. 

I hope everyone else had a really nice spring as well. 

Till Next Time

Jenn

To Nathan On His 4th Birthday

Dear Nathan,

Today you turn 4 years old.  At the moment you are playing MineCraft with your brother while your dad is out getting you timbits for breakfast.  We explained to you this morning that your birthday is kind of like a book we have called "yes day", where you get to pick whatever you'd like to do and we will most likely say yes.  At first you asked for pizza for breakfast (because that's what the boys in the book asked for), but when I suggested timbits you were all over it.

This year has been a pretty fun one for all of us.  3 was a really good age.  You became old enough that you didn't need naps anymore and that gave us more time to do stuff.  Your attention span is longer now too, so again that gives us more options on stuff to do.  You are happy to go to the movie theatre now and will enjoy it.  Or we can take you to a hockey game.

You also have good friends now.  Your best friends are often the older brothers of Lucas's friends, or Cameron who is your best friend at Lesley's house.   But you are able to play with kids more, especially Lucas.  You guys get along really well.  You do have times that you fight, but it's usually over pretty quick and you are back to playing with him.

 You also really love to laugh and love to make us laugh.  You love it when people laugh when you are trying to be funny.  Although not so much when you are not trying to be funny. 

All of your skills continue to get better.   You are better drawer.  You are able to identify almost all your letters down, although K and V often trip you up.  Your speech also getting better, you've improved on your Dama and it mostly comes out Grandma.   Who is also one of your favorite people.  You love it when she comes over or if you ever get to spend a special day with her. 

love you Nathan, I hope you had a great birthday.  And I love to snuggle with your, just as much as you love to snuggle with me. 

love Mom

March RoundUp

March was a super fun month for us.  The boys are getting to that great stage where we can do all kinds of fun things together.   Really it's that Nathan is getting old enough that hockey games and movies can hold his attention and he doesn't need to nap. 

The boys were lucky enough to go to a couple of Hitmen hockey games.  We were given some tickets for Christmas as well as the boys were given some while standing in line for the show.  It was Nathan's first time going to the Saddledome and he loved it.  Darryl, Lucas and Elliot also went to a Roughnecks games, which is the lacrosse team here in the city.   So lots of weekends spent on the train and at the Saddledome. 

The last week of March we also had March break, so that provided us with lots of opportunities to do fun stuff, we went skiing and Lucas and I went to the pool at SAIT, where we spent an hour jumping off the diving board. 

 

We also went to the zoo and spent an hour in line waiting for the penguins, which were super cool, even though our toes were like ice.  I forgot how much I love the zoo.  I think my favorite (besides the gorillas) is sitting in the butterfly room.  It's warm and green and reminds me of summer.  

 

We also had the end of gymnastics which was lots of fun.  Lucas enjoyed taking a class with his best buddy Elliot.  Nathan also had a really good time with his gymnastics. 

This weekend we celebrated Earth Hour (which Nathan keeps calling Space day).  We lit candles and read books and then we laid in bed and told stories.  The boys laughed and laughed.  Nathan worked to make Nathan laugh and it worked, Lucas laughed till no sound was coming out. 

One of the other highlights of the month was Tammy and I went to see Steven Page.  We saw him at the Gateway, which is the bar at SAIT and it was so good.  So much better then I expected.   He sang all the best Steve Barenaked Ladies songs and some of his new ones.  His voice was great, just as great as I remember.  And although I'll always be sad that him and Ed don't make music together it was great to see him again and be in such a small venue.  It was definitely a highlight of the month.

Till Next Month (and many more concerts)

Jenn

Same Photo

2012...

And 2010...

 

  A family photo in 2012

And family photo in 2010...

They grow fast.... Until Next Time Jenn

Mexico 2012

We just got back from a relaxing and warm and fun trip to Mexico.  We took the kids to Puerta Vallarta and had a great time.  We stayed at a really nice resort, the Melia Puerta Vallarta and were lucky that no one got sick, it only rained for about an hour the whole time and we got to do some really awesome things. 

The flights were not ideal for the kids traveling, both of the flying very very late at night, but as usual they both did fantastic.  Even Lucas on our flight home was so excited that at 3am when we took off, he watched about an hour of Harry Potter, just because he was excited to be on a plane and have his own TV. 

The resort we stayed at was very nice.  They had a good big pool that wasn't too deep for the kids, but deep enough they could jump in and out.  The food was pretty good (although I always get sick of eating the same foods all week). And they had a smaller buffet table for the kids, which Lucas and Nathan really enjoyed being able to pick their own food.  They also had cereal on the the kids buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which the kids thought was great.  The resort also had lots of other things to do too, Lucas started to learn to pool and fuze-ball.



The shows that they had at the resort were spectacular, so we were sure to catch them all in the evenings.  Plus before the show they had a mini disco, which the kids really enjoyed. 


We did do a couple of little excursions, one day we went right into town, which I loved.  It's always nice to see how other people live.  In Mexico it often open your eyes to how lucky we are here (although they don't get snow....) 

We also went on a trip to Las Caletas.  We watched the whales on the boat ride over and then the boys had a really fun time at the kids adventure park there.  They both went zip lining, which I wasn't sure if they would like it or decide not to do it, but they were both very brave and did it.    We also got a chance to relase baby sea turtles into the ocean.




It was a really great vacation.  We all came back with a little sun in our skin and more relaxed and enjoyed some quality family time together. 




Until next time. Jenn

January Round Up

Well January had lots of ups and downs.  The downs were mostly with work and luckily I only work 3 days a week, so the good times still out weighed the bad times, although the bad work times, did often creep into my days off and the good times with the kids.  But we did do lots of REALLY fun things this month.

The one sad thing that happened that I can write about and want to write about because it's never happened in the 8 years as a teacher and I hope it never happens again is that we had a student die.  This is the saddest thing I've ever had happen to me as a teacher.  And his funeral was packed full of people.  He was young and going to be a great x-ray technologist.  It is such a waste that someone who was so vibrant died.



Okay on to happier things.  First was taking Lucas skiing.  It was his first time and it was really important to us that he liked it.  We didn't want to pressure him because we want him to love it as much as we do.  We didn't want it to be a bad first experience and him not want to do it again.  So we started off on the bunny hill.  Pop came with us and gave Lucas some great tips to start with.  Pizza and french fries and how to lean on each leg to turn.   After about two runs, he said he legs hurt and wanted to go in.  We made a deal that after 3 more runs we would go in and have a break.  Well of course on the next run he started to get use to the skiis and started to "get it" a bit.  So we didn't go in and skiied and skiied.  At lunch time he said he wanted to try the big hill.  So off we went onto the gold chair and went up the mountain.   The chair was pretty fast, so I was worried he may be scared or didn't like it, but he thought it was great.   Luckily Pop can ski backward so he helped Lucas down the first time.    Really that kid was hooked!  It was me who at the end of the day, said my legs were sore (as I hadn't been skiing in 7 years either) and wanted to be done for the day.    I forgot how much I loved skiing.  Being in the mountains, surronded by nature and friends brings a sense of peace and being humble.


It was also Mom and Dad's 30th wedding anniversary!!  Can you believe it, 30 years is a long time.   It was a great celebration at the Banff Springs hotel for brunch.   Delicious food, delicious company in a beautiful setting. 

 We also celebrated Dad's birthday!  Which was a fun evening of good food and friends.  Darryl also helped Dad work on finishing their basement.


Things continue to be good with Lucas and Nathan. Lucas is now excelling at school. He's going through the reading levels for french books really fast. He was "etoile de la semaine" and he presented in front of his whole class. He's answering questions in class and doesn't get upset if he makes a mistake. Mom noticed a big difference taking him to school. We got Nathan signed up for preschool for next year and he is very excited about it. We've been working hard at getting him learn recognize all his letters and know what they mean. Although I think lots of his brain is taking up with big boy stuff from hanging around with his brother. But they do get along really well so that great!



We are so lucky to have such great support and people around us to spend our time with.  We live a sweet life and are so lucky to have great people to spend time with.  We are also healthy and happy and lucky.  So even though work has been incredibly challenging this month, I get to come home to fun boys to play dodgeball and UNO with.  And spend my weekends with great family and friends.   

Till Next Time

Jenn