Claire – Page 7 – wee little lovelys

Claire & Rhys turn 5!!

December 17, 2014

Time really does fly. It’s hard to believe that Claire & Rhys are already 5 years old! These past five years have been very fulfilling and amazing for us and our family. We have had a lot of great adventures with these two amazing kids and it is a joy to see them grow and develop into caring, fun and awesome individuals.

This year Claire & Rhys wanted to celebrate their birthday with a dragon themed party. A local art studio, 4Cats, hosts children’s birthday parties and they had an art party which could get spun in such a way -perfect!

Many children were invited from their kindergarten class, their cousin Senna and several of our friends kids were invited as well. We had 15 kids in total and the party was so much fun. Each child made a dragon and painted a dragon watercolour picture. We had snacks and then sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to Claire & Rhys and then they blew out the candles on our homemade cupcakes which they helped me bake. It was a super fun celebration.

On the evening of their actual birthday (which was mid-week this year) we had Jimmy’s friend “Uncle” Doug and Aunt Debbie over to celebrate with some ice cream cake. Another fun celebration.

Claire & Rhys are now 5!

Hallowe’en

November 3, 2014

We love Hallowe’en! We had a lot of fun this year getting costumes together, carving pumpkins, school dance for the kids, doing hallowe’en crafts and going trick or treating.

Rhys went as a werewolf and Claire a witch. Jimmy was a punk rocker and I was a bat. Wendy, Chris and Senna (who went as Cleopatra) joined us as we ventured out on a cold night to a great neighborhood where almost every house was taking part in the hallowe’en fun. The kids received way too much candy and all-in-all had a great time.

Kindergarten!

September 29, 2014

Hard to believe we are at this stage but we are and it is going awesome.

Even though all good now, the start of school was delayed for everyone in BC due to a province-wide teachers strike. While we believed in the teachers’ stance, it was a source for frustration for all involved. In the end it actually worked in our favor though…

Being out of catchment due to living in a different area, our hope to attend a school where Claire & Rhys’ preschool friends were was low. Due to the time it took to dissolve, said strike pressured some families to delay enrollment, start home school or attend private school. Fortunately for us, this opened up spots for us to claim and we did so with fervor!

Our family’s transition into full-day kindergarten has gone well. The kids have adapted decently although they are pretty tired by day’s end. Jimmy’s time with the kids lent itself to spontaneity and flexibility both in mood and scheduling. Our new “9 to 5” life is still a work in progress but we all enjoy the fresh independence, growth, change and early start to the day -well maybe not Deanna (not a morning person).

The Historic Kinsol Trestle

August 5, 2014

Sunday seems to be our go-to day of the week to do some fun adventures. The kids are enrolled in a sports class on Saturday mornings and after a busy work week we like to relax on Saturdays.

This past Sunday we drove to Shawnigan Lake to visit the historic Kinsol Trestle. It is a wooden railway trestle located north of Shawnigan Lake which is about a 45 minute drive from our house. A description on the parks website is:

“The Kinsol Trestle is one of eight trestles along the Cowichan Valley Trail route and by far the largest and most spectacular. The Kinsol Trestle is one of the tallest free-standing and most spectacular timber rail trestle structures in the world. At 614 feet in length and standing 145 feet above the salmon bearing Koksilah River, the Kinsol is an incredible structure and was worth preserving.”

We had to walk along a trail for 1.5km to get to the trestle from the parking area and it was amazing! The views were really pretty with a river down below. There were hiking trails that led to the river and we could see some people swimming in the river. The kids had a tonne of energy and we ran races the whole way to the start of the trestle. We had packed a lunch and snacks and sat at one of the available picnic tables and enjoyed the beautiful day. This was a great spot to take kids.

Elk Lake

July 28, 2014

On a hot Sunday morning we decided to pack up our swimming gear and head to Elk Lake which is about a 15 minute drive from our house. Jimmy spent a lot of time at this Lake and the conjoining Beaver Lake in his youth. I ran the trails of this lake when I went to University. The trails are really nice and if you run the whole lake it is 10km. Elk Lake is the training area for Canada’s Olympic Rowing team and is a popular fishing area as they stock the lake with fish annually.

We arrived fairly early so there were not many people. We played in the sand and then quickly made our way into the warm lake water. Claire and Rhys love swimming. Particularly Claire who is a fish and once in the water does not want to come out. After a few hours we packed up and headed home to host our friends for an early evening BBQ. A great Sunday!

Claire being a ‘baby turtle’ on her daddy turtles back 🙂

Goldstream Park

July 23, 2014

We like to adventure and spend a lot of time outdoors with the kids which is great because Victoria is home to some amazing parks. Goldstream is one of those parks. It is 477 hectares and home to small Garry oak meadows, arbutus, and Douglas fir trees – some more than 600 years old.

On a nice Sunday when we had no other plans we decided to get suited up and go hiking. We packed a lunch and drove to the park which is about 17km from town. It was a hot day so finding refuge in the old growth temperate rain forest was perfect! This park is a popular place for viewing the annual fall chum salmon spawning runs in Goldstream river. It is also popular because there are numerous trails for hiking including a rugged and steep one called Mt. Finlayson trail that goes to the top of Mt. Finlayson. We choose to hike to Niagara falls which was really more of a walk with some minor rock climbing which is a recent favorite past-time of Claire & Rhys’.

Niagara falls is 47.5m high and to reach it you have to walk through a dried up stream bed. In the winter months the stream bed is full of water and the waterfall has so much more water volume. It was still very pretty when we visited. We spent some time there climbing through a rock tunnel and skipping rocks into the water basin at the bottom of the falls. After we had our fill of the falls we walked along some paths towards the nature visitor centre. We found plenty of slugs and other critters along the way that we had to stop and watch things where we had a little picnic lunch amongst the grass reeds at the end of the Saanich Inlet.

It was a great day 🙂

Canada Day – July 1, 2014

July 18, 2014

Canada just turned 147 years old on July 1st. To celebrate we hosted a BBQ at our new home with some of the Miller clan.

The weather in Victoria has been very sunny and hot lately; record setting temperatures in fact. Thankfully we have adequate backyard shade as well as two inflatable pools, so we all kept cool enough to enjoy ourselves.

Our recently purchased Weber barbeque proved its worth and it was a fun gathering with good food, laughs and splashes 🙂

McCaulay Point

July 16, 2014

Moving back to Victoria has proven fruitful in the realm of play and exploration. Some of my best childhood games of “hide and go seek” and “war” had McCaulay Point as the stage; a great day trip location for a boy.

In truth, McCaulay Point provided coastal defense to Victoria and Esquimalt harbors between 1870 and 1950, with the time around 1910 being the most active as the militia was being built then. Nowadays the park remains open to the public (adventurous families, bird watchers, dog walkers, etc.). With only a few areas fenced off to protect indigenous plants, the rest is free to roam.

It is certainly a neat place to take the kids as the (safe) gun turret are fully accessible/ climb-able.

– Jimmy

This is the tunnel which was built in 1895. It provided controlled (protected) access to supply sheds within the fortification. Nowadays is good for a spooky echo and a mild scare as it is just long enough to feel weary of your exit lies.

Here are the kids back in rainy January atop of the old battery command post/observation point.