Last call 2024

Well, the snow is all gone and so is 2024… almost. A few hours remain in the year, and it will be a memorable NYE for me as I'll likely be in bed long before the clock strikes 12. The holidays have been incredible so far (mostly), so I'll start with a run-down of that. The fall has been so busy with sports and coaching, so we were all really ready for some time in Bowmanville, where we could relax and hang out with family and get a break from all of the commitments. The Calgary crew came out this year, and the kids (Alana especially) were SO excited to see their cousins, even though it's only been a few months since our epic European trip to Holland with everyone (Hoogenboom logies!). There was definitely some reminiscing about the lodging and all that went with it (cows, smells), as well as the great day trips we had. Everyone enjoyed lots of down time during the first few days, and we were all spoiled with gifts on the Christmas Eve (or prior!). The kids opened presents here before we left, and some highlight gifts were vintage Archie’s and Crocs (for all), Uggs, Hedgehog toys, Roblox $ (Alana), Lego, an array of penguin merch - stuffies, PJs, slippers, socks, Roblox $ (Jordan), and clothes, a SIM card and golf lessons (Hendrik); Steve and I promised to only get each other drywall and the car fixed, and we both stuck to it. Jordan and Alana had hand-made gifts for everyone (crochet and sewing), and everyone loved them (will find and post pics!), and Hendrik very thoughtfully hid gifts for his siblings in the tree (Roblox $). Santa did bring us a few things in our stocking though, and we weren't the only ones (imagine?); even Jordan's stuffies with their last minute socks got something (!!). Everyone was happy and we were all spoiled.

Christmas dinner was an incredible affair, as usual, and the Brinkmans hosted 16 people for a feast! All of the fixings were there and it was delicious. We played the traditional post-Christmas dinner left-right-centre game, split into two tables this year and had a few victorious family members - Jordan won the quarters round on one table, and Hendrik won BOTH rounds (quarters and loonies) on the other table! Moneybags. It was a lovely evening of food, family fun, and friendly competition. 

Downtime has been the M.O. of most other days, but we have snuck in a few activities here and there: swimming, baseball (with Hughpops), skating, Crockadoodle (pottery painting), a few walks, and lots of playing at home. The kids made a hilarious video about mounting a protest to walks to the creek (there was also something about a murder), so "down with the creek" may be a theme or mantra of sorts to the holiday, which is hilarious. I'm still locked out of my Google account so hopefully this cut and paste works, and I can get some photos up too. All the best in 2025!!

Snowy days!

We have had a major dump of snow here in London over the last few days, and the kids have enjoyed lots of outdoor play time with school cancellations - yay snow days! I am so far behind in posting but am also somehow locked out of my Google accounts everywhere but my phone, and nothing is working to sign in… despite being already signed in here. Because I hate typing on my phone, I’ll just make this a photo-heavy post, and then get back outside to do some more shoveling. We have some neighbours to help, and the kids might try to make some money in the neighbourhood. Hopefully I can get back into my account and write a longer post soon! 

Back to school & routines recap 2024

first day of high school!

swimming pool fun

It's already the end of September, and I'm happy to say that the transition to back to school has been a relatively easy one (phew!). Hendrik started high school and is liking it so far; he loves the more independent style of daily student life and the more rigorous academic challenge that high school courses bring. We were wondering how the earlier start would go (he leaves to walk to school at 7:45), but he's been great at being mostly ready to get to school on time. He's walking with a friend that lives in the neighbourhood, has four classes every day (art, math, physical education and geography this term) and is finished at 2:30. He made the school volleyball team, so has a busy schedule with practices and games (and club volleyball)! He made the B team with Forest City, and has a great crew of coaches - and a good team too! - to grow and learn with this year. 

A and J on their first day : grade 7 and grade 3

It's hard to believe that Alana is in grade 7 this year - eek! She's had a great start to the year too, and we're very happy with her teacher and class (and a smooth day one of the school year). She played on the co-ed school soccer team, a season that has already come and gone! Basketball is the next school sport starting up, and we're trying to encourage her to rally the troops and find some other girls to play; hopefully there will be a coach that might come forward too. She's also playing club volleyball, and there's a great group of girls on the team (and coaches too, ha!). We're practicing three times a week this year, so balancing it all with the other kids' activities might be a challenge, but we're only double-booked on Thursdays, so it shouldn't be too bad. We did a team building evening on Thursday and the girls had a great time - great photos too!

Team Evergreen : Beach vball / team building!

new bike same colours! :)

riding!

And Jordan is off to a great start in grade 3... at least I think he is! We have meet the teacher next week so I'll get some more info then; the kids don't tell us too much about what they do during the day. We're very happy with his teacher and the class he's in, so that's positive, and his extra-curriculars are just getting rolling. He's playing hockey on Saturdays and Sundays (with the Ice Dawgs), and doing basketball with a few friends on Monday evenings. Baseball tryouts for next summer are this weekend, so he has his first session this afternoon. He's swimming a lot (still - the weather has been great!) and is following his big brother's footsteps with his love of Archie comics; I think he's going to be Jughead for Halloween - !! Love it. He also loves watching sports with Steve, which is the cutest.

fancy snack platter with one of Jordan's besties

What's new with me and Steve? Steve has been busy with neighbourhood odd jobs - building fences, doing minor repairs for friends, painting etc., so has been filling his days no problem-o. He's helping coach Hendrik's club team which is a different group this year, so I think despite having mixed feeling initially, he's excited to be involved and learn with and from a new group of coaches and kids. I haven't signed him up for anything, so he's not playing hockey or doing any extra-curriculars :). On the other hand, I signed myself up for women's league volleyball and a weekly basketball run, so I'm getting my fix, thank goodness! These two weekly activities also keep me motivated to exercise (otherwise I am not my best), and I want to be able to keep feeling at least moderately capable when on the court! My school schedule has been similar to last year - I'm teaching two grade 6 classes and 4 grade 7/8 classes daily, with a sprinkling of grade 1 gym here and there. I think overall things are going to be a bit easier this year; there are fewer challenging students behaviour-wise (I think), but the range of attitudes and abilities is so great and so all over the place that it will continue to be a fairly challenging endeavour (teaching core French - I'm the French teacher in an English public school). I'm coaching the girl's basketball team at school with another teacher who is great, so we'll have fun together for sure. And I'm coaching Alana's club team, so with three practices a week that will keep that schedule nice and full. I was definitely stretched a bit too thin during the first two weeks of school as it was back to school routines (overload) and club volleyball tryouts... ugh! That's all behind us thank goodness, and I'm already finding practice planning a lot easier than last year (last year I had to figure out how to keep 19 kids actively involved on one court). So there you go! Life is full and busy. Thank goodness for the weekend! ps. I haven't forgotten about Holland photos - I'll get them up here some time!

Europe: Adventures in Switzerland

We are back from an incredible trip to Europe, and I'm finally going to write about it! I was very motivated to share photos and an itinerary when we returned, but the days have been busy. I've been wondering how I do what I'm doing now - taking care of kids, the house, etc - with a full-time job... but there's at least a month left before I'm forced to remember, thank goodness! 

The view from our Airbnb in Grindelwald - incredible!

We piggybacked a trip to Switzerland on to the Brinkman family Holland holiday, and it was fantastic. We took an overnight flight from Toronto to Amsterdam and then connected to Basel, Switzerland where we picked up our rental car on the French side at the airport, which saved us a big chunk of money (as opposed to renting from the Swiss side). Next up was a two(ish)-hour drive to Grindelwald, and we were all ready to arrive after what felt like a long (but smooth) day of travel. The Airbnb we stayed in was great - the views were almost unreal, it was next to a beauty outdoor pool, and we were able to walk everywhere. The afternoon we arrived we walked up to the grocery store and stocked up on breakfast and lunch goods, and then picked up a roast chicken and some potatoes from a street stall on the way back. We were just talking about how good that meal was (yesterday maybe) - Steve thinks it might be his favourite of the whole trip! Thanks to the chicken vendor guy on the main street leading up to town. I did quite a bit of research on what activities we should do with two full days here, and I was definitely second-guessing myself after reading about how touristy and busy it is in Grindelwald, but this isn't what we experienced. Maybe it's because we didn't stay in a hotel, and we decided against some of the popular activities at Grindelwald First; we had a great experience here! On our first full day there we took to gondola up to Grindelwald First (no lineups) and some of us did the big thrill walk, while others were quite happy to stay on solid ground! The walk to Bachalpsee Lake was uphill and a bit busy (just a bit), so we had to deal with some complaining and grumpiness, but it all evaporated as we continued on with a walk towards the second station (Bort - I think). This walk was probably the highlight of the Swiss part of our trip - there were waterfalls, incredible views, wildflowers and no one complained. We walked down to one of the intermediate stations where the kids had a great time at the playground. I don't really remember the rest of the day, but we had great meals at the Airbnb and everyone was happy to put their feet up after a long-ish walk down the mountain. Our second full day was quite cloudy, so after some indecision we decided to proceed with plans to head up to Mannlichen where the views were completely obscured by thick clouds BUT the silver lining was another incredible playground that entertained all of our kids for close to 2 hours (and we had to pry them away). The playgrounds put our plastic and predictable structures to shame (there were even in-ground mini-trampolines... so fun!). We made it to a second playground with a fun flying fox and then got in another walk and another put-your-feet-up evening before our last night in Grindelwald. The next morning Alana and Jordan swam at the picturesque outdoor pool before we hit the road for Gruyeres. 

At the playground at Mannlichen

We took some secondary roads (route here) to get to Gruyeres and the views were spectacular. The kids fought like crazy, so that spoiled things a bit, but we made it! We checked into a hotel right in the centre of the old town and met up with Steve's cousin Anita and her son Samuel to check out the castle. We went to Moleson that evening where we devoured a cheese board and some salami before hitting up the mountain coaster for some non-stop fun. Everyone slept well that night in our top-floor family room, and we had a delicious breakfast at the hotel restaurant the next morning: fresh croissants and pain au chocolat, fresh bread, a selection of cheeses, fruit, yogurt... it was deLISH!! And then, the reason we went to Gruyeres - the cheese! We went to La Maison du Gruyeres where we watched the first parts of the cheesemaking process and learned all about one of our favourite cheeses! When we signed in they handed us a little tray of old, medium, and young cheese, so got to nibble away as we watched and then wandered through the museum. We enjoyed fondue on the patio after our tour, and then made our way back up to Basel for a visit to a very busy outdoor pool complex in the city before heading across the border to Germany for dinner. We relied heavily on Google Translate to help us with the menu, but nothing could help us with the stoic and borderline unfriendly (typical?) demeanor of our German server. She was defintely not impressed with me buying water from the gas station instead of ordering a fourth bottle of overpriced water (ha!). Anyways, we overnighted close to the airport in France and had a smooth flight back up to Amsterdam the next morning where we were greeted by Gramps at arrivals. Yay! Hoping I can get to a Holland post soon!

fondue at La Maison du Gruyeres - yum!

watching the cheesemaking process :)

on the walls of the old town in Gruyeres

arches into Gruyeres

views from the castle - so beautiful

eating at Moleson - we were so hungry!

in the castle - the kitchen :)

one of the only family photos of the trip

We went for a walk through a gorge on our way to Gruyeres - it was beautiful!

random stop on our way to Gruyeres

so many walking options and routes!

harmony & a break from driving