celebrating dads

We went into Toronto for Father's Day weekend to catch a Blue Jay game with a few of the Dad's we know. The weather, the game, the ball park food - all of it, awesome! We had a great day celebrating, and to top it all off, the Blossom Express has returned to our neighbourhood, one of our favourite places to visit. This train is completely covered in plants, and the City has done a fantastic job making the plants look like steam and different parts of a train - one of our first of many trips to see it.

guelph: one year later

One year ago today we took a huge leap of faith and moved our family over 3500km from Calgary to Guelph. 

To celebrate this one year milestone, I wanted to share a few of the decisions we made that helped us not only love our new house and neighbourhood, but have felt so at home and happy with our decision.

1) Enrolling Anna in a small (around 180 kids) community public school within walking distance from our house – this has helped us meet lots of people in our neighbourhood, but allow her to not only go to school with friends, but live near them, and continue to grow up with them throughout her public school career and beyond. Anna started school here in SK, with no formal JK program in Alberta, she was essentially skipping a grade, and she has done very well.

2) Buying a house centrally located and within walking distance to Stew's work – we have embraced walking and biking to the library, the grocery store and park, we are going to be downsizing to one car again and have gained having Stew be able to walk Anna to school, a huge quality of life bonus that I never thought was possible.

3) Despite the moving costs, the Government of Canada does reimburse you when you move for employment, and it’s very generous.

4) We joined our local YWCA – this has been incredibly helpful for me as a new Mom of 3 kids all under 5, putting them in daycare while I have a shower is possible

5) Doing a lot of research and planning before we moved. Yes, we researched this move for almost two years, we did our homework on real-estate, schools, proximity to family, volunteer opportunities, airports and crunched the numbers, a lot.

So, anyone out there that is contemplating a cross country move, job change, and having a baby all in one year, it is possible!

park parties and 10 months old

 

We finally got to attend the Sunny Acres park party this weekend - its been talked about a lot, and it was awesome. Lots of kids, great food, a pinata, babies to paint and wash, the builder blocks were back again and lots of acts on the stage. We loved it, and while on a bike ride today, we stopped at the Exhibition park party and took in some mud muffins. The weather was wet, but the warm mist didn't stop us from going on the trails, our first time with Anna, and she did great. She is practicing every day so that her training wheels can come off, she's close.

Henry is standing all the time now, he's got 6 teeth, he's very fast on his bum scoot and gets into anything he can find. We are watching him like crazy - he's eating lots of finger food, loves it all, with an exception to broccoli. We are thinking he will walk sooner than the others, he is very determined to keep up and play with the other kids.

this week

Was really good - Henry discovered the pot drawer, he's into it every chance he can get, including pulling himself up, he's the perfect height to climb right in. He also pulled the fireplace poker over on himself, no major injury, just his confidence. We went to Anna's end of school family BBQ, and it was really fun. Lots of great food, a cool wood block castle building set, face painting and freezies. Our neighbours Ben and Josee have an awesome tree over their driveway and it smells amazing every time we walk by. It rained a few times this week, and we enjoyed our first few tomato's, parsley, basil and kale from our garden. I got the basement all ready for summer vacation, cleaned, restocked and sorted games, puzzles and dress-up clothes. We also listened to a few records - The Care Bears are a new favourite of Anna's. We are getting closer, only 9 more days of school left, wow, summer vacation is almost here!

on route to: quin-mo-lac

Camp Quin-Mo-Lac, the camp that myself, my sisters, cousins, and many of our friends attended as kids and staff celebrated their 65th anniversary on the weekend. As a member of their Alumni Board, we decided to have an open house and invite alumni to come to camp for the day, bring your kids, friends, family and see the updates and how camp has grown over the years. It's also a way for camp to raise extra money to help keep camp registration low for all kinds of kids to attend. Upon our arrival we were greeted with a map, and toured Zufelt Lodge, the new pool area, Kanata House, all the camper cabins, the new bathrooms, and renovated craft hut (which was the old bathrooms), we saw the dinning hall, got to see all the old memorabilia and purchase items from the Tuck Shop. Anna and Sam and I went on a canoe ride to the island, and got a family picture taken in front of the tepee. We finished the day with speeches, watermelon and cake. A great day to meet up with old friends, introduce our kids to camp, and Anna has already said she'd like to go next year, we are so happy for her, and are hoping it will be a great experience for her.