Halloween 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

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!

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celebratory cupcakes and apple cider

New Van!

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 😉

 

 

Summer in Sooke

Towards the end of our summer vacation we organized a trip to Sooke. Every summer we spend a weekend with Wendy, Chris & Senna out at their home in Sooke. There is so much to do and see. Jimmy wasn’t with us this year as he had a skate board event in Port Alberni. While he had his fun we had some as well.

So the kids & I packed up and went on a mini adventure! We had such a fun time in Sooke…making delicious homemade ice cream, playing with Senna’s old toys, visiting the Sheringham lighthouse, camping out on the back porch, hitting a fun playground, walking Whiffen Spit. I cannot forget our epic movie marathon once Claire & Rhys went to sleep… the cheesiest but oh so good vampire movies–> The Twilight Saga. Getting called out by my niece for using my phone was pretty funny too!

We did SO much in just two days. I am so grateful to have such a great sister-in-law, brother-in-law and niece so close by. We always have a good time.

Ice cream- Yum!:

Sheringham Lighthouse:

 

 

Playmobil/ Lego & playground fun:

 

Camping out:

 

Whiffen Spit:

Another successful Pedalheads summer camp!

Claire & Rhys have been doing Pedalheads summer camps for the past three summers & they always have a great time! Their biking skills improve so much over one week.

Claire was in level 4 this year and she was able to bike on the road with her group- Wow! Jimmy drove to pick up the kids and passed Claire with her group. She sure is growing up & is so independent.

Rhys was in level 3 and did awesome. He no longer jumps off his bike to stop 😉 He learned all his hand signals and is so confident on his bike.

On the last day they have a bike rodeo where they get to dress up like princess’ or pirates. Parents get to come watch them bike a circuit. Always a fun time and we love seeing how proud they are of their own successes.

 

Click on links to watch:

Claire rodeo!

Rhys rodeo!

Art camp with Sandi

Several years ago when we first moved back to Victoria from South Africa we had registered the kids in a children’s art class  at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The kids had a wonderful instructor who they adored. Her name was Sandi Henrich and she is a wonderful art teacher.

Claire & Rhys love art and this summer we enrolled them into a summer art camp at Poppet Creative. The week long class was taught by Sandi 🙂 The kids were so excited and they had a great week!

Learn to Fish at Elk Lake

I enjoyed fishing when I was a kid (I even won a trophy for a fishing derby in Sooke that my Dad’s work put on) so when I saw that there was a free learn-to-fish night for kids I signed us up!

The Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC runs free two hour sessions throughout BC. They stock lakes throughout the province with fish for fishing purposes so teaching children & adults the rules and how to properly handle fish makes sense.

On a sunny evening at Elk Lake we gathered with several other families to learn to fish. We learned about different types of fish, how to hold a fish, types of bait, fishing rules and then we had over an hour to use fishing rods to test out our new skills. The rods were pretty large so Rhys struggled a bit. There were so many kids in a row at the lakes edge that fishing lines were getting tangled etc. The bait was worms which was a gross factor for the kids. Rhys went for a walk with Jimmy to the nearby dock to take a break. Claire had her sights set on catching a fish. Those who were positioned nearby the reeds kept catching fish so Claire walked over and somehow found a spot there as well 🙂 The instructor called out last fish of the night and Claire caught a fish on her very last try! She caught a Bass fry.

Not sure if we will fish again anytime soon but we had fun on the lake that evening!

 

Can you spot the little fish?