First Day of School, etc.

5th grade, 2nd grade & Senior Kindergarten...

 V was excited to see her friends from last year and went around introducing herself to everyone in the Kinder yard and hugging the JKs who were crying about leaving their parents.
P and I went for bike ride to conservation area, ran the trails, bike ride home, and went out for Thai food for lunch to celebrate.

 We have Jr. Kindergarten for 4 year olds and Sr. Kindergarten for 5 year olds-the class is mixed however, 1/2 the students are JK, the other 1/2 are SK. It's only in Ontario and Quebec, the rest of Canada operates like US Kindergarten. So this will be V's 2nd year of Kinder-she turned 5 this summer- next year she'll go on to Grade 1.

P quote: "I'm really enjoying getting older and having Netflix-I'm old enough that I don't remember watching most of the shows the first time I saw them when they were on TV."


Labour Day weekend we enjoyed the 90 degree weather the best way we knew how...

Heard around the house:

V screams.
H comes downstairs for a consult, "C, V says she is a wizard elf. That's not possible right?"
C: "V, you can't be a wizard elf, you can be a wizard that shoots arrows out of hand wand, though."
V: "OK"

When little girls have big brothers: V is playing Minecraft and has 5 dogs. They are named Joy, Anger, Disgust, Sadness (the 5th is named 123456) and all have the appropriate color of collar on (from the movie Inside Out). She's using bones to lure them into the Sunroom she crafted this morning.

H: I think to make a Picachu (an electric pokemon that looks mouselike) you give a mouse a drug that makes it hump electricity, then it becomes electric.
H: "when my friend was here we played boy/girl-a character who is 1/2 like a boy 1/2 like a girl. "
Me: "um, hum, like how?"
H: "For instance, he actually looks behind stuff like a girl and plays fighting games like a boy."

V: "Tennis shoes is Spanish for Running shoes"

P has been holding down the fort while I'm at work a few days this week. After work today we stop by the grocery store with all the kids in tow. He says, "each of you can pick something out to buy." (mom hint: always give children a dollar limit) H says, "I want lobster." V says, "Woohoo! I'm getting a pony!"

Things you do not want to hear from the 5 yo birthday girl at 8pm: "look! I painted my fingers and toes with the nailpolish I got at my party!"

Heard on the way home from fireworks in the park:
H: why do most people have more kids than adults in their family?
C: Because it takes 2 adults to make a baby and they can do it as many times as they want to.

In other news:

I ran 13.6 miles when in WA on hills and concrete from my parent's boat to a friend's house.  My IT band has been in pain ever since. The first two days after, it was like an ice pick in my side, then I just limped around.  I tried two more 5 mile runs-one on my own, one with my dad on his bike and their dog in the basket and both ended very painfully and with more limping the next day. Dejected, I returned back to Ontario and tried resting and this week did do two 6k runs down the dirt (ie: cushioned path) and they felt sore, but the sharp pain seems to be moving to soreness and from side to front.  This weekend I went away to a scrapbook retreat and the massage therapist did Thai massage, yoga, etc. with me and now only my thighs hurt for my first hilly runs in 3 weeks (there's a lake at the conference centre that is about 4 miles around)  but the sharp pain is gone and I'm looking forward to getting back to my regular running schedule (about 125-150 miles a month-25 miles or so a week) when I get back. Very thankful-I MAY have to go one more time for massage, we'll see how it goes after a day of rest, a flatter run and a long run trial (not sure how long I'll try for this week).

I was a guest designer at the beginning of August for the Inspired to Scrap website-this website offers sketch classes for a very reasonable price for scrapbookers. I was able to get the class for free in exchange for providing about 9 samples of pages based on the sketches provided by the website owner. It was so much fun!  The theme this time was water colouring so I also got to do something fun and the best part was the other designer was my very talented friend from WA, Heather who runs Heather's Blessings 

H finally reached 40 pounds (he's 6 years and 7 months).

Summer trip to WA

We took our annual pilgrimage to WA for the last two weeks of August. Thankfully the very, very hot weather was mostly over by that point (normally those are the hottest two weeks of the summer) and we wore sweatshirts most mornings.

H taught my parents how to properly use the bar in their salon...

My nephew was up staying with us on my parents' boat.  He hung out with C while I took the younger kids to visit some friends from MOPs that are the same age.

We had a few days we got to visit our good friends, including a day where I got to visit with my scrapbooking friends I'd missed at the annual retreat in July and between us we had 11 boys and 2 token girls (V's age). The boys all played video games and we got to catch up.

I signed up my nephew and the kids and I and another friend for the Bubble Run.  The bubble run is a 5k run through Everett that has huge stations with bubbles every KM with colored bubbles.   We were very wet when we were done, but everyone finished and had lots of fun.

Funds raised went to Providence Hospital, so Dad was a Bubbleteer...

 

 

 

Another friend loaned us her minivan which was a huge blessing as with 3 kids, it's hard to be able to go with my parents in one vehicle-we were able to use it to take my nephew back down to his mom's tiny house on a lake and explore it.  The kids are obsessed with programs on TV about tiny houses and enjoyed seeing one in person. 

We were able to attend our old church and visit some more friends on Sunday and pick plums with them.  On Monday we drove down to see my cousin and grandparents and took my grandparents to Target with the kids and then out for dinner and play Bingo and see grandma's garden at their home.

Tuesday we went out to our other grandmother's for lunch and the kids could play with more cousins and my aunt was very generous to take the kids all horseback riding-they all enjoy it but I figured with V's obsession with My Little Pony that it would be a great age to do it.

 

We then had a playdate at a park in the morning with another MOPs friend who sent me home with some cross-country skiis that she hadn't been making use of ("you live in Canada now, you should cross-country ski now" she told me.  I promised to send a picture this winter of me on the skiis with a Tim Horton's coffee in hand.) 

We met my high school Spanish teacher and her boyfriend for brunch and kite-flying at Gasworks.  This trip it would be the closest we made it to Seattle.  

'We then met other friends for a playtime at the Everett Children's museum.

 

The second weekend had been set aside for a trip out on the boat out to Fort Flagler, but huge windstorms were predicted (many friends lost power for more than 48 hours) so we opted to stay close to home.

We headed up to Washington park to find some tide pools and my parents took the kids out to Fort Casey to explore the bunkers and beach. 

 

We also headed to Snoqualmie hoping to do a train ride, but didn't head up on the right day, so we checked out the trains on display and Snoqualmie falls.

 

Monday we packed up most of our stuff and had dinner with friends near our old house and Tuesday we relaxed on our last full day of vacation and I was able to meet a former coworker and friend for an amazing dinner while I got to hear more about her new job.

We flew home trying a new method-we usually go through Chicago on Southwest.  This allows us 2 bags per person to bring things home from the US and Seattle that we can't find in our new home and Southwest in Chicago is all at the end of one terminal making it easy to switch planes with 3 kids in tow.  However, for our return flight the option was either prohibitively expensive or at a bad time, so we flew through Phoenix and stayed on the plane-it actually worked out fine, the kids played ipad or slept (V) most of the time and it was only an extra 30 minutes than the travel time out to Seattle.

Summer fun

We had some fun this summer before heading out to WA state. 

We went with the grandparents to Fantasy Island in NY.  They offer a special on Wednesdays for Canadian residents $59.99 Canadian for 4 people. They have a waterpark and a part with regular amusement park rides.  It's on the smaller, older side, but very fun. Not the huge roller coasters of Canada's Wonderland or Darrien  Lake, but perfect for our size family.  

 

 

We did go to Darrien Lake with friends the following week.  The rides are bigger, but it also meant there were more rides the little kids weren't tall enough for.

 

 

 

P took the boys to Great Wolf to play the Magic Quest game as their aunt & uncle had given them a certificate to play at Christmas.

A friend of E's from scrapbooking has moved from BC to Ontario and was doing a reenactment for The Seige of Old Fort Erie and invited us to come out and walk around with us during the weekend.

 

After 2 years of finally being in Ontario we made it to Long Beach on Lake Erie.  The sand was great to play in, it was shallow for a long way out and the water temperature was great to cool off in, but not freezing.

 

I'm still running and it's paying off ;)  I am up to about 16 miles for my long runs and am training for the Niagara Falls International full marathon in October.

 

 

 

 

We also visited the Strong Museum in Rochester NY. It was very fun, but I forgot the battery for my camera :( so no pictures except this one I could e-mail myself...