Uncategorized – Page 7 – wee little lovelys

Halloween 2017

October 31, 2017

Halloween is one of our favorite events of the school year!

This year Claire went as Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter and Rhys went as a Garden Gnome. Jimmy & I dressed up as 80’s rockers. To celebrate we carved pumpkins, made special treats for the school dance party, went to a work party, the kids school hosted a Halloween party that we had fun at and of course trick-or-treating is always a good time 🙂

Carving pumpkins:

Claire & Rhys Pumpkins for literature (make a pumpkin based on a book):

Work Halloween party:

Halloween Party Treats:

School Halloween Party:

Trick or Treating:

Thrifty Kids Fun Run

October 13, 2017

As a member of our school’s Parent Advisory Board (PAC) I helped organize Claire & Rhys’ school joining the Thrifty Kids Fun Run at the Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon held every year in October. The kids run is 1.5km and parents can run too. It was fun to organize and have a good group of families join us from the kids school. We ran as a family & we all did great 🙂 Looking forward to doing it again next year!

celebratory cupcakes and apple cider

New Van!

September 28, 2017

Our old minivan bit the dust…we had to get a new vehicle in September as our old one needed way too much work. It had extremely high mileage and was pretty old. My parents had given the blue van to us and we are forever grateful. Claire & Rhys were sad to say goodbye to it.

Our new-to-us van is pretty great…power doors! DVD players! GPS! leather interior! but mostly it is comfy and safe and the heating works 😉

Oak Bay Tea Party

June 5, 2017

Every year in early June the municipality of Oak Bay hosts a fun parade, community party and fireworks- The Oak Bay Tea Party. They bring in a mini amusement park which is always fun except it will bankrupt you!

We normally avoid this event because Claire & Rhys don’t do too well with rides. Actually, let’s clarify that… Rhys does not do well with rides. He is always eager to get on but then he gets scared and sick feeling when it starts to run. We thought we would test the waters this year and give it a whirl. It went okay until the end when Rhys sat in a bumper car with Claire. She is a crazy race car driver in those things and Rhys was super bummed. Made for some funny photos though! Post-amusement park cuddles with Dad made it all better ♥.

Happy times before the rise started:

Once the ride started- poor Rhys! He has to ride it out until it was over:

Cuddles with Dad ♥:

Claire ♥ American Girl dolls

January 22, 2017

Claire received her very first 18″ doll for Christmas 2016. She has since acquired two more dolls. Her American Girl doll was from Nana & Papa for her 7th birthday. Rhys has a doll too and it is really quite fun to set up a play area for the dolls and to watch as their imaginations unfold.

Her dolls: Claire (blonde hair), Clarabel (brown hair), Deanna (black hair) and Rhys’ doll is named Jim 😉

Claire ♥’s to set her dolls up in a scene. Here is the dolls having a dance party:

Jimmy got an award!

October 20, 2016

Jimmy was nominated by his Camosun college professors for the Andrea Van Rheenan award:

To honour graduates who show dedication and leadership in supporting people who have significant challenges, and through his/her actions, inspires others to see the “person within.” The successful recipients will demonstrate creativity, compassion and a sense of humour with people with significant challenges. If possible, these recipients will have the ability to ‘sign’ (sign language).

Jimmy suspects that it is the sense of humor part that tipped the scales as he was the consummate class clown in addition to spearheading lively conversations in class,

We attended the awards ceremony in October and it was a very special day. We are super proud of Jimmy & all his accomplishments!

Our latest move…

September 1, 2016

We moved within Victoria on September 1st.

Moving is SO much work and one of my least favorite activities. The owners of our rental house were moving back from Japan so we had to find a new home during the busiest time of year for house rentals… students moving back into town. We also had a crazy house sale boom so many rental homes were being sold so owners could profit which meant there was not a very big rental supply.

A long story short…we found a nice place to move to (huge yard, heat!, a pond with goldfish, fruit trees, a view!, loads of wildlife coming and going in our yard) and with a lot of effort our move was successful.

Jimmy’s clever key organization

old house

new house

Celebrating the end of school… in Tofino!

July 1, 2016

Every Canada Day there is a skateboard contest in Tofino. Jimmy has been meaning to attend it for years. We opted to combine his desire with a family vacation as a way to celebrate the end of the school year. Additionally, we were married in Ucluelet so this area of the island remains very special to us.

We stayed at Pacific Sands Beach Resort which was amazing and very family friendly. Being right on Cox Bay beach, the kids loved the easy-access to early beach walks and exploring. In fact, we visited several times during each day. We would spot new sea creatures, hike the adjoining trails, go slug hunting (where we would count the number of slugs along the way), and even venture into the chilly waters. It was so much fun! There was even a nature camp for 1.5 hours per day the kids could attend and nightly S’mores making.

One of our best trips ever. I think we will make it an annual event.