Highland Games 2012

Happy 5th Birthday Heather

This year for Heather's party I decided to scale it down from last year, however still ended up with 11 children, but they all had a great time
Hula party it was this year with grass skirts, leis, sombreros,sun glasses and all things Hawaiian. The party games were pin the parrot in the nest, pass the parcel and musical bumps. We had some dancing, lots of food including cake pops , frosted strawberries and of course a beautiful pink princess castle cake. James entertained the kids with his animal balloons.
The weather was fabulous and the sun shone all day ( just what we could have done with last year!!!)

Pin the parrot in the nest

sombrero boys.

Hula girls.

Yeah for cake pops, just can't see it!!!

A cake fit for a princess.

 

Happy Birthday Heather!

September and school begins

 After a slow start to our summer weather September has continued to bless us with warm sunny days to enjoy, however there were 2 days recently when it rained all day and I must admit I did enjoy the 2 days of down time at home playing and drinking tea!!!
When we woke up the following morning the snow had covered the tops of the mountains, reminding us that although it is still warm, fall is just round the corner and after our short fall it will soon be winter. Morning temps are in single digits but by noon it is 20 and above. With the change in the air comes change to our routine, we are now leaving a care free unscheduled summer and entering routines of school and activities.

We eventually decided to enroll Heather into our local public school which offers French immersion from Kindergarten. For those of you that know us, know that we have struggled back and forth with the decision, but we are taking the leap of faith and I have a feeling Heather is going to love it. This program is still just half days and this year we were slotted into afternoons, this may be a nice change from last year where every morning was a rush. With just being a half day Heather can still enjoy her activities ,swimming and dance,without becoming too tired and will still be able to spend time playing and interacting with Finlay.

Heather's first day at kindergarten.

Finlay will start a little Waldorf play school one morning a week and a little gymnastics class once a week

Busy active kids

 On our short weekends we enjoy a quick morning of gentle canoe trips.

 short local hikes,

 spending time with friends outdoors.

 Choosing what to do and where to go!!!

and enjoying time in the mountains.

and there is always time for ice cream at the ice cream school bus.

dancing,

dancing

more dancing

You would think my kids would be exhausted and happy to go to bed at night...but that is another story.

Heather loves lots of stories and songs and chats about the best part of the day. Then when we are about to leave the room she asks to read a book to me. She has little 8 page one sentence books which she likes to look at and read, and knows that if she asks to read then I am more than happy to encourage it. I then have to leave her light on while she flicks through books herself. I am not quite sure what goes on up in her room after I leave as sometimes there is a lot of banging and stomping and there are times when she doesn't settle til 10pm.

Finlay on the other hand does not need as much singing and reading, but loves you just to be with him in his own room. Believe it or not that is a step forward as he used to go to sleep in our bed. He goes to sleep in his own bed, but inevitably ends up in our room. This has been going on and off for two years now and we have tried various strategies to get him to stay in his room, they all work for a while and eventually reverts to the same old situation. This is what he seems to need and we have accepted that this is what life will be like for a while.

I wasn't quite prepared for what James would tell me one day ,while I had been a work, James had put Finlay to bed and around 11pm just before I get home from work, James had heard Finlay calling for him. James went into his room, but no Finlay to be found, not in the bathroom or on the landing...James found him after walking down the stairs, through the living room, through the kitchen and in the boot room at the back door!! He had been sleep walking. We have a stair gate and had just been thinking of removing it as we have never really needed it for that purpose, but now that might have to change.

Banff Heritage Weekend

James has been in a training officers post for a few months now and works a four day week. Every second weekend we have four days off together, as this coincides with my weekend off and the other weekend he has the two days off and I work in the evenings. So when we have the long weekend we have enjoyed camping trips with the kids just locally. One of the recent ones was to Two Jacks Lakes in Banff 20 minutes away. That particular weekend was Banff heritage weekend so there were lots of events happening in Banff.

Heather and Finlay enjoyed the celebration of the Indian days, and took part in Sweet grass race and tug of war and later that evening we attended a Pow wow with drumming ,dancing  and story telling. As usual Heather and Finlay got up to participate in the music.

In Banff they were able to learn about different animals, hunting and making bread on an open fire. Had fun watching a performance from Parks Canada theatre group.

Two wheelin'

From the beginning of summer Heather had been getting more confident on her bike until one day she was showing off to her friend and crashed into our neighbours car, since then she has been a little bit reluctant to ride her bike, meanwhile Finlay quickly got used to his run bike and loves to go over little ramps, whoop-de dupes. The run bike has to come everywhere with us.
Meanwhile we kept asking if Heather would like to go on her bike and often she would decline, and often we would take full advantage of when she was confident enough to get back on the saddle and I must say she is doing really well. One of our recent trips was from Banff to Cascade ponds which is about 1 1/2 miles along a bike path and they both managed to bike all the way there and all the way back.

While they were at Cascade ponds they enjoyed a picnic,flying kites and playing in water.