I can't believe I haven't written about the first day of school yet! We've made it through the first two weeks, and everyone is much happier and much more at ease... day one was a little rough! Well, week one was rough. It was an adjustment for me with earlier mornings and making lunches (those lunches!), and for the kids too. Hendrik is in a grade 4/5 split with a few of his friends, and he seems to be loving school (though he won't admit it); getting a two-inch binder was exciting, as was getting a recorder - bah! It isn't driving us crazy (yet), but we have had to kibosh some of the 7:30 a.m. practice sessions. Day one for Alana was hard, despite a very sunny start. She is in a grade 2/3 split and none of her close friends are with her, so she was quite upset and very reluctant to accept her fate. We know her teacher and love her - she had Hendrik for both grades 2 and 3 - so we knew it would be a good place for her (even though we do wish she was with some other girls she knows!). Day two was a little better, and now she seems to be in the swing of things, hurray. Jordan started preschool last Thursday and was sad and teary to say goodbye to Steve, but has improved with the dropoff and now seems to be loving it. I got home from school on Wednesday and told the kids that their swim couldn't be too long as there were thunderstorms in the forecast, and without missing a beat Jordan said "when there's hot air and then when there's cold air and they go together there's thunder and it goes BOOM!" I was amazed! I'm mostly in the swing of things as a core French teacher helping teach grades 4 through 8 at a school in Old South - which isn't too far away from where we live. I'm learning a lot and am having a great experience, so here's to hoping my last practicum is as good as this one!
Other big news is our girl's birthday! We had a double celebration - a birthday end-of-the-summer barbecue on her actual birthday, and then a pool party with her friends a week later. There were amazing treats, great presents and of course, fabulous company! She has a great group of friends, and we celebrated summer with an amazing group of families ... maybe we can make it an annual tradition? Yes!
And it seems as though putting in 12 hours at Canada's Wonderland is becoming an annual summer tradition - we did it again! Towards the end of the summer we took a break from unpacking and renos and spent a solid day at the amusement park. Hendrik was so excited to go on the newest and biggest coaster, the Yukon Striker - and since Steve is too tall and Gramps wasn't interested, I got to go on it with him! It was pretty intense, especially the part where the coaster pauses at the top of a huge incline right before it takes a 90 degree turn and plummets straight down. Hendrik wanted to sit in the front seat but we were in row two which was fine by me... though next year he says we have to get there even earlier, so we can walk right on and be at the front of the line to have our pick. We'll see!
Jordan's Run the Runway is another annual tradition, and we did the 5km race last weekend at the London Airport. This year all three kids ran too, and Hendrik and Alana did pretty well overall. Jordan ran and got a medal, and he is very proud (he calls it his necklace still... cute!). I bid on tickets to the London Airshow, so that's what we're doing tomorrow afternoon after a morning volleyball practice for me and an engineering club program for Hendrik. As always, there's more to write about but I'll leave it at that. Happy Friday!!
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| at the airshow... HUGE plane! |
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| we didn't take any after pics without the furniture! the top two are the same room and the bottom two are the same room. wallpaper remains in both closets... as a reminder of what once was! |
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| with wallpaper and old carpet (R) and without (L) |
