Merry Christmas

This year really seems to have flown by.  Definitely a sign of a busy year that's for sure.  Blog posts have been few and far between.  Hopefully I will catch up soon on an overall summary of our past few months. 

But in the meantime, hope everyone has a really wonderful Christmas this year.  The girls are super excited... hopefully they're asleep by now.  The carrots, cookies and milk are all set up and ready for Santa and his reindeers!

With Love,

Travis, Sharon, Nora & Lily!

Owlsome cupcakes!

Another quick add on to my Halloween post!  I finally d/loaded some pics off another camera and forgot about our "owlsome" cupcakes that the girls made and decorated!

Close up of Nora's homemade 'Elsa' braid!  

It's a Holly Jolly Halloween

Halloween with the kids is truly the best and it's getting better and better each year! :)

Mom and Dad came over with the Kai Jr's for dinner and then it was trick or treating time.  It's so awesome seeing them run from house to house and just watching their every reaction to each candy they got!  This time Lily really got into it too and lasted just as long as Nora so we were out there for quite a bit!  Tons of kids in the area - pretty cute now that Nora goes to school and recognizes all these kids walking around... especially all her lunch monitors!

Mom and Dad were kept busy at home in the meantime, greeting all the little trick or treaters.  I think we must've had about 120 kids come through!! 

Even our salad got into the Halloween spirit ;)

Love seeing everyone dress up and come up with their costumes.  What a great excuse for us to dress up and be someone else, even twice in a day!

Daytime Halloween: Cowgirl Mamma with her Flamenco Girl

Halloween at school: Flamenco Dancers

Trick or Treating with Mary Poppins, Bert the Chimney Sweeper, Queen Elsa and Flamenco Girl

Trick or Treating cuzzies!

Ahhhh yes, how can we not forget about all that loot we got!! YUM!!

Pumpkin Time!

Couldn't resist... and look at these three cuties!  They're growing up too fast!

Our little Biker Gang

Finally going through some of the pics captured on my iPhone or little camera and I can't forget about this biking day that we had earlier this summer.  Cherie and I took the kids to the Seymour Valley Trailway where they biked along the paved path up to Rice Lake.  The kids sure are getting faster on their bikes... Next year Cherie and I either have to put on rollerblades, get some bikes or just get ready for a good run!

Ahhhh the good ol' days when there was no school to get in our way! :)

School's In!

September is the start of the new school year...

Nora is in Grade 1 and Lily is in her last year of preschool!  

Last year, we homeschooled for Kindergarten and what an absolutely fabulous experience.  When I look back on my blog, I wish I had kept up with more posts on all the great learning experiences we had.  It truly was a significant year for all of us - just getting to know our learning styles, understanding what it takes (and the pressures) of being the one to 'teach', creating an even more beautiful bond for the girls and just embracing everything to the fullest.  

Over the Summer, we started talking more about school.  As much we love the whole idea of homeschooling, we knew it probably wouldn't be forever and eventually we'd need to put Nora into the regular public school system.  Various options came across our minds and so much to think about... but in the end, we chose public school and decided to register Nora into Brentwood Park Elementary. 

The school is a 10 minute walk away and I love it!  Lily's preschool is on the same grounds as the school so last year we kept walking by the classrooms and seeing all the kids on the playgrounds, so it is very familiar and comfortable for Nora.  Having Lily at the preschool nearby is also pretty awesome, especially in terms of afternoon pick up... it's all right there.  It also helps that quite a few siblings from Lily's class go to the school too.

Nora's had her first full day of Grade 1 today and I'm SO happy it went well!  It's been a very anxious time, with a little bit of worry about making the right decision.  She has handled it all really well and I'm so proud of her for talking her emotions through with us, asking us questions and what it was like for us to go to school!  In hindsight, I think she did WAY better than Trav or I ever did on our first day of school :)

I must admit, I did shed my fair share of (joyful) tears today of this pretty big moment in our lives.  I really and truly just LOVED having her at home with me and Lily and this is going to be a big change.  I learnt so much over this past year especially getting to know her more and what makes her tick.  This is also pretty exciting, I can't wait to hear about her day and to see her enthusiasm for her new experiences.  One thing from our year together is that you learn to open your eyes and take everything as a learning opportunity to share with them, even if you don't know too much about it, there's always a way to know more.

So, here we go Nora! Off to Grade 1 and a new journey begins!

And here's my free spirited Little Lily!  It's her last year at Brentwood Preschool and she has changed so much over the year.  Her transition to class went really well and she was just so looking forward to seeing her friends from the previous class and getting to hang out with Julie and Melanie.  They even comment at how awesome it is to hear Lily so chatty and full of life!

The one thing I treasured last year was our little walks to Preschool together.  There's just so much chit chat and it's a way to just be present with the girls.  So, for this year, I'm looking forward to walking Nora and Lily to and from school, something like a bit of a tradition to just 'check in' and not be distracted with the day to day stuff.

Lily goes three days a week to preschool... and with Nora in full day school every day... what am I going to do with my time?! :)

Roadtrip to the Mountain House

In August, we took a road trip to Inveremere to visit Grandpa Bear, Grandma Pat & Jayden up at the mountain house!  It has been two years since we were last there and it's been even many many more years since we were up there with Neesja and Naomi!

What a special time for everyone.  It was so nice to watch the girls bonding lots with Maya, Heath and Jayden.  One of the girls favourite moments was looking out for the horses, going out to feed and pat them.  But best best moments... having a campfire each night, roasting marshmallows, and just gazing up at the stars trying to find all the different constellations... just beautiful at night!

Cousins unite! 

The girls loved watching and patting the horses

Swimming in Lake Lillian - such fond memories for Trav when he used to hang out there during the summers!

Maya, Nome and Trav jumping off the dock!  Good times!

Helloooooo in there!

Yay, a family pic on the rock! (Smiles from everyone thanks to "If you're happy and you know it"!)

London with the Girls

London was a bit busier only because we had so much to see and do and so many people to catch up with!  We're fortunate enough to know a few friends and family that live in London or the surrounding areas, so it made it easier on the budget to have a place to stay! Plus the quality bonding time!

Horsham with the Du Grays

Carey and Trav used to work with one another at Radical and then again at Next Level until Carey married Hannah and started their home and family in Horsham, England.  Carey has two girls, Orla Bee and Niamh (pronounced, "Neeve", rhymes with "Steve").  It's really cute to see how the girls pick up friends so easily, it almost felt like, "Hey, you're 6? I'm 6!  Cool, lets go and play!"  Just so easy peasy and nice to see.

In and around Horsham townhall

While we were there, Horsham was having their Summer Fair / Carnival.  So, Nora and Orla absolutely LOVED the bumper cars and the Waltzer with their dads.

Nora super pumped after going on "The Waltzer" - a pretty crazy, intense spinny and dizzying ride

Kempshott Road, Horsham

After Horsham, we took an hour train ride into Victoria Station to start our week with Don and Annie.  We were so fortunate to have a home base in central London, easily accessible to the underground and red double decker buses!

Playing Crazy 8's on our train ride

Victoria Station... London, we have arrived!

Westmoreland Terrace - ready to take on London :)

There is just SO much to do in London but also so much that you can take on with a 4 and a 6 year old!  We didn't have too many high expectations, so it was fun just to have 1 goal in mind each day and the rest would be bonus :)

Here are some highlights...

Taking a normal red double decker bus around town.  We were on the #24 Pimlico bus route and it was perfect for going around Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, seeing the Big Ben and the Parliament buildings.  No need to pay for the special double decker tour buses when you can just hop on the red bus for I'm sure a way more economical fare.

Trafalgar Square with Big Ben in the background

Best part of our evening at Trafalgar Square was watching the girls... it wasn't about the history and where they were in the world, it was they were just living in the present.  Music was playing by a street guy and they danced.... then they played freeze tag around Trav.  It was so awesome watching them in their element.  Trav and I laugh that I'm sure when we both went to Trafalgar Square together for the first time, we would take our pic and move on to the next sight.  So, it's so nice to see a few out of the ordinary type of pictures from Trafalgar Square.

Freeze Tag

Just to show our carpe diem moment from that evening:

Some other sights we saw during the week included the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace.  There were a ton of people and we waited a long time.  Also, because we weren't quite up close to the gate we didn't see too much of what was happening inside of the gates, only when the new guards were coming in to replace the old guards.

Along Southbank, you can get a pretty good view of the Big Ben, and this is also where the Millenium Eye is.  We didn't go on the Eye but I can imagine the spectacular views from up there.  The girls really enjoyed this one street performer on a 7 foot unicyle while trying to get out of a tennis racquet around his body and over his head.

Victoria Station - the old cathedral (red brick) and new station / shopping centre (glass all over)

Beaconsfield
My aunty Marge lives out in Beaconsfield, about a 30-40 min train ride out of London.  Since Michelle and Kevin were still in London with their families, we went out for a visit.  It was the first time Trav and the girls had been to the house, and the last time I was there was when Haytham was just born... twelve years ago!  So, it was really great to visit and see all the new updates to the house and of course, more cousin bonding time for the girls.

We visited the Bekonskot Model Village - the kids had tons of fun walking through all the different areas and part of a typical village... so many details displayed.  Pretty fun stuff.

It was plenty big for the kids to roam around

I just love the creative names of the stores!

This is what the Horsham Fair looked like too, even had the Waltzer!

That evening, we went to the oldest pub in England, called the "Royal Standard" and it's been around for over 900 years!  It was really neat to see how 'small' the pubs were back in the day, it was filled with a LOT of stuff on the walls, and the food was really good!

Trav just making the height

Nora and Lily really enjoyed getting to know Jenna more 

Silly cousins having a great time together!

Loved meeting Maxwell!

Catching Up
The best part of our trip was catching up with so many friends and family.  It was great staying with Don and Annie.  We hadn't seen them since the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010, so they hadn't met Lily plus, they got married last year, so it was great to hear about their wedding and recent travels to Africa!

So good catching up with Don and Annie 

Next up was meeting Sebastian!  My cousin, Celeste and her hubby Zoltan both took a day off from work and hung out with us at Herne Hill in the afternoon.  They're currently going through some pretty major reno's on their house, but the plans sound awesome and can't wait to see the end.  Plus, I should mention she just had her second... a baby girl, Vivienne!  So, talk about busy busy with toddler, newborn and reno's!

Meeting Sebastian

Science Museum
We managed to take in one museum this trip.  There are so many to see but we enjoyed the Science Museum.  There are seven floors of pure awesomeness for every age.  It's also quite huge, but we managed to find the right spots for all the hands on learning for the girls.  Basically, just have buttons for kids to push to see what happens next is all you need!  Anyway, LOTS of cool stuff and I'd highly recommend it.  It was next door to the Natural History museum but the day was long enough for the kiddies.

Science Museum

Learning to play "Pong" for the first time

Learning about what it takes to build a bridge

Teamwork

Ta daaaa... enough to support us!

Well, there's London!  There definitely is SO much more to see and do... we'll just have to keep that for the next time.  

It's been one awesome experience travelling with the girls, so we look forward to saving up again to do another one of these amazing trips!

Thumbs Up from Lily :)