Claire & Rhys school organizes students to attend opera events throughout the school year. Claire was super keen to attend so I volunteered to go with her and keep an eye on all the kids who would be attending.
We have never been to an opera before and La bohème was a great one to start with. It was funny and sad and wonderful. Claire really enjoyed it and so did I. It was fun to dress up with my girl 🙂
We really enjoy making valentines day cards in our house!
As an extra valentines day bonus some Moms in the kids class organized cupcake decorating as a fun activity at school.
Claire really wanted to take ice skating lessons. Rhys has zero interest in it…in fact his worst birthday memory is when the kids turned 6 and we organized an ice skating party for them… We all thought the party was awesome!
Claire is a really great skater and she loves it!
We have been wanting to sign Claire & Rhys up for piano lessons for quite a while. Jimmy happened upon a beautiful old piano that a lady was wanting to give away for free. After a lot of research we realized how expensive it is to move a piano and that old pianos may look pretty but are not a sound investment.
We went for it and so far the piano sounds great, looks pretty and Claire & Rhys are doing great with lessons!
On January 28th I turned 40! WOW! It seems like yesterday I was in high school or living it up at University at the age of 17.
I don’t normally do a lot on my birthday. My close friends all live in different cities and we are kept pretty busy with family life. Claire & Rhys really enjoy celebrating with us so I decided to have a stay-cation in a swanky local hotel. Jimmy made all the arrangements while I just enjoyed everything 🙂
Two of my girlfriends had flowers sent to me which was an amazing way to start my birthday celebrations- thanks Faye & Anna! Jimmy and the kids bought me some gorgeous new artwork that I had been coveting for quite sometime by a local artist- Michelle Heslop. We stayed at the Ocean Pointe Hotel with a room that had an amazing view of the inner harbour. We ate, we swam and we had loads of fun. Jimmy even brought along some of my favorite ice cream- tiger! The next day we met my parents at Spinnakers for brunch which was wonderful and to end…we had delicious allergy friendly cake from my favorite bakery- Patisserie Danielle.
If this is 40 then I am totally okay 🙂
After the Christmas holidays we needed a little get-away. New Years seemed like a great time to celebrate with friends.
We headed up island to Parksville to celebrate with our friend Corry & Shannon and their families. It was a quick one night trip. To make the drive a bit more fun we took a ferry from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay to avoid the Malahat. We visited the Coombs old country market and visited the famous goats there. Lucky us we visited on the last day the market was open for the season! We ventured into Parksille and had a fun and rambunctious late night with the kids and our friends.
Christmas break was so fun and busy this year. We went for our annual boxing day breakwater walk- it was so cold! We made it to Butchart Gardens for the annual Christmas light display. We went to a hockey game for our friends sons birthday party which was great but too loud for Nana & Papa 😉 Nana, Claire & I joined Auntie Debbie for a Nutcracker performance which was a good time.
Breakwater:
Butchart Gardens:
Royals Hockey Game:
Nutcracker:
We had a very early start on Christmas morning! Rhys wakes up early every day and this morning was before 5am! ugh. It was so dark out but with some coffee and the kids excitement we all woke up and had fun un-wrapping gifts and playing with the kids.
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It snowed overnight so once the day got started and we had more daylight we ventured outside for some playtime! and of course snowman building & sledding.
Another one of our annual traditions is having Auntie Debbie over for a Christmas day brunch. We eat, exchange gifts, chat, drink warm drinks and watch a movie- fun times!
