another school year bites the dust

I always look forward to the last day of school when we start our summer break from routine and schedules. What I don't particularly love is the crazy schedule that happens in the weeks leading up to the last day. Oh, it's all fun stuff...selling yearbooks, awards assembly, 8th grade party to celebrate moving onto high school, 1st grade camping cookout in the classroom, meetings to make some decisions about next year's fall fundraiser, beach field trips (this year I had two, one with Kyle and one with Jillian...it turns out the beach is less relaxing with a hundred 5th graders...who knew?). The last day of school came and went, we got it all done and now the kids are officially on summer break, hooray!

This was my first year ever with all 3 kids in school full-time. Here they are, first day of the school year and last day of the school year...1st, 5th and 8th grade are now officially finished for these kiddos of mine.

September 2014

June 2015

Leah - she had a great year in first grade! Her teacher is incredibly sweet, and I was always impressed with her fun plans (seriously, a week long camping cookout theme for the last week of school including crafts, stories, hot dogs and s'mores!). Leah wrote the sweetest thank you note to her teacher and even decorated it in a Mariner's theme because that's her teacher's favorite team. Overall it was a great year for Leah - she consistently did well in all areas, her report cards were fantastic and she did some testing in the spring which means now she will be in a class next year that will be a great fit for her academically. Leah started piano lessons in the fall and has enjoyed learning many songs. And she still loves gymnastics as much as ever, she participated in 2 small level one competitions within our gym and will continue her lessons throughout the summer.

Jillian - I don't think this blog is big enough to list all of the cool things Jillian did this year but I will try. In addition to doing well in the classroom, Jillian joined quite a few fun clubs at school...running, circus arts (she learned how to ride a unicycle!), climbing, volleyball, yearbook, yoga, lego robotics and drama club. This year Jillian also decided she wanted to take up tennis like her big brother so she has started tennis lessons. In the fall Jillian started piano and has taken off like a flash, going through her books fast and doing a great job at the local music festival where she got 100% all of the testing. She also started violin in the 5th grade orchestra. It's a bit harder to get Jillian to practice violin than the piano, but she did learn quite a bit in orchestra class and it was fun to go to the 5th grade band and orchestra concert at the end of the school year. We've taken a break from her true love, horseback riding, in order to fit all the other fun things into her schedule.

Kyle - Kyle also had a great year academically. There were some ups and downs, study habits are still a work in progress but Kyle is smart and always kept his grades up high. His work habits have improved leaps and bounds when I think back just a few years so I'm happy to see he is working harder. Kyle was in the video game programming club at school, he still plays tennis at the local tennis club, but of course his favorite pastime is still playing on the computer. It has been a nice way for him to keep in touch with his friends in Toronto. Kyle earned the Presidential Academic Excellence Award which involves maintaining a high GPA and doing well on standardized state testing. He seems ready to start high school in the fall!

a glance at what's to come

With a ten year old daughter you start to get glimpses here and there of a teenager. Often it's in some emotional outburst - "*I* wanted to sit at that spot on the couch, but Leah is sitting there!!". Or throwing this gem at me on a regular basis - "YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND!". I'm sure I'll be hearing more of that one in years to come because as we all know, parents really don't know anything at all.

Then, there's the glimpses of the young woman she is becoming. Watching her patiently work on an intricate craft, seeing her sit down at the kitchen table to get homework finished as soon as she gets home from school (she is definitely my most responsible child in terms of schoolwork!), listening to her play piano. I can't help but be amazed at all the areas where Jillian excels...school, piano, participating in activities at school, drama club, robotics club, picking up sports quickly, art, crafts...the list goes on and on. Jillian is so creative and adept at picking up skills quickly, it's fascinating to watch her learn something new.

This past weekend Kyle was at a birthday party so Jeff and I took the girls to a local state park for a hike. Jillian was a bit upset at the beginning of our outing, a miscommunication that she took personally. We had a discussion about why there wasn't a need for her to be unpleasant to her sister.  For the first part of our hike Jillian opted to walk quietly, she went on ahead of us to have some peace and quiet. About halfway through the hike she started chatting with us again, being more playful and engaging. 

Then we took a short break on the rocks on the shore of Lake Washington and I finally caught this in a picture, Jillian's beautiful smile. As I looked at the picture after we got home I was struck by how grown up she looks, another glimpse into the future when Jillian will be 15 year old, 20 years old. For the most part I am excited to see what is ahead for my little over achiever, my child who is willing to join every club, make friends with everyone and is a quick study. But there is a small part of me that is finding it difficult to imagine her not being a little girl anymore. I'm happy for now to have a glance now and then, it reminds me to appreciate the here and now because I'm sure the next 5 years will go past in the blink of an eye.

I knew this day was coming

I knew it was coming, I denied it for weeks still claiming it wasn't true. Until this weekend when my husband made Kyle and I stand back to back to check for himself so I couldn't deny it any longer.  Kyle is taller than me.  This child of mine who was once so cute and tiny is now adult-sized.  He wears adult sized shoes.  He is rapidly outgrowing the very biggest clothes I can find in the children's department (although that's driven by economical reasons - kids clothes are cheaper).

We've had some new independence this school year with Kyle.  He has his own phone now, and on days he has clubs after school he takes the activities bus home which drops him off at a school near our house.  He walks home, gets himself a snack, gets started on homework - all while I'm out taking the girls to gymnastics and horseback riding.  It hasn't all been perfectly smooth - an incident of Kyle not texting me to let me know he arrived and then not paying attention to his phone so he wasn't responding to my texts.  But that only happened once (because I may have freaked out just a tad and told him he needs to let me know he got home okay!). Kyle's also been showing some great initiative at school this year - getting himself to the bus on time every day, resolving issues with his teachers directly (missed classwork, needing to make up a test).

When Kyle was in grades 1 through 5 I struggled with this kid, I'm not going to lie.  He was amazingly smart but struggled with many every day skills and I sometimes wondered what lay ahead.  I was lucky to have a great support system at Kyle's school - the principal, teachers, special education teacher - a whole team of people who would tell me regularly that Kyle is smart and nice and funny and they loved having him in their class and they were determined to help him be successful.  I really believe all of the work they did at school and we did at home has paid off now when I see this amazing teenager Kyle has turned into...independent, responsible, strong initiative at school...I did not see these traits coming out in Kyle's younger years but I knew they were in there, it's so nice to see them coming out now!

One year later

It's been a whole year since we picked up and moved to the other side of the continent.  A year since we had the entire house packed and loaded onto a truck.  A year since Kyle, Jillian, Leah and I got onto an airplane with a one-way ticket to Seattle to see Jeff and see this new city where we would be living.  A year since the kids walked into new schools not knowing anyone.

I was looking back at a blog post I wrote last October - it made me realize how far we've come in just one year.  Of course there are still some boxes around the house so not everything has changed. But for the most part things are very different around here now.

A year ago when we were making this move, there was a song that was playing on the radio often - Home by Phillip Phillips.  I remember listening to that song and the lyrics really spoke to me.

Hold on to me as we go

As we roll down this unfamiliar road

And although this wave is stringing us along

Just know you're not alone

'Cause I'm gonna make this place your home

Settle down, it'll all be clear

Don't pay no mind to the demons

They fill you with fear

The trouble - it might drag you down

If you get lost, you can always be found

Just know you're not along

'Cause I'm gonna make this place your home

This feels like home.  As much as we still miss many things on a regular basis...family, friends, schools, Tim Horton's...we have gained so much with this move.  I feel like instead of losing our home we gained a second home.  We have met amazing people here who have made us feel welcome and loved.  We have settled into life here with some similar elements like work, school and activities.  Plus there's all the new stuff!  Living near a beach where the girls collect seashells and we see ferries and cruise ships go by, enjoying some cool vacations to the mountains and along the west coast, being able to walk outside in January without spending 10 minutes bundling up in full snow gear.  I watched my kids make friends easily and walk right into a life here as if they've always lived in this place.  Yes, there are still tears and sadness about missing people back home in Toronto, but our visit home in the summer was incredible, and I know we will always keep those connections.  And as sad as we were to leave everyone at the end of our trip to Toronto, there were also smiles once we got back to Seattle and the kids were able to see their friends here.

It wasn't an easy decision for Jeff and I to uproot our family and move somewhere completely new where we didn't know anyone.  I can't explain it but I knew in my heart this was the right thing for our family at this time.  And now to see how well everything has gone in our first year and the friends we have made here, well I just feel like this is where we are meant to be right now.  I always tell people it's like a puzzle came together perfectly once we decided to make this move...this house, the schools, our church, the people we have met. 

I don't know what our future plans are, we don't know where we will be living in 2 years.  But I do know that no matter where we are, we will be fine.  And that's something this move has taught me.

courage...it comes in all sizes

I started to write this blog post to brag about how proud I am of my girls.  After only a few weeks of piano lessons, both Jillian and Leah performed at a piano recital to play what they had learned.  Jillian even played and sang a song she had composed herself.  My first thought was to talk about how they showed courage in getting up there to do this in front of a group of about 25 people, most of them strangers, and other students who would be playing with far more experience.

As I wrote about what they did I realized while it was pretty awesome, it pales in comparison to what so many other children face every day.  I have a friend who has a son fighting for his life against leukemia.  I think about Joey facing this horrible disease and the chemo treatments that go along with what must seem like endless hospital stays. Compared to my kids and their average day it seems incredibly unfair.  Then there's the courage of people around us who make a huge difference...police officers and firemen who put their lives on the line to save others, missionaries and doctors who travel to the other side of the world to make life better for others.  When I was talking about a piano recital, all of a sudden courage didn't seem like quite the right word to use in describing their accomplishment in comparison to others.

Then I realized it isn't a competition about who can be the most courageous or face the biggest obstacle.  We are all called to be courageous in our every day lives, whether the things we are up against are big or small.  I'm thankful my kids have an easy life, I appreciate that right now we don't have big things that we are up against.  But that doesn't diminish their day to day accomplishments.  The little acts of courage are important too.  I think it's important my kids are able to show courage in the face of these minor hurdles to prepare them for life when they may have big hurdles to jump.  That's our job as their parents, to eventually send them off into the world prepared with a full toolbox...faith, love, kindness, courage, smarts, honesty, persistence, happiness, gratefulness, tolerance.  Showing these traits in the face of day to day life now will  help them to go onto bigger things as adults, to show courage and kindness and faith in ways I can't even imagine.

Right now I see my kids showing these character traits on a daily basis.  Making new friends, trying new things, learning from their mistakes.  That's what makes me feel like we are doing some things right on this parenting journey.  So it turns out I am going to brag about my girls.  They started playing piano just a few weeks ago.  They've jumped into their lessons with joy and excitement.  And they got up at a recital in front of friends and strangers and played what they had learned so far.  Way to go Jillian and Leah, keep it up!

Leah played two short pieces at the recital

Jillian played a piece she composed herself titled "Thunder"

successful first week of school!

The first week of school is finished.  We started school here one day later than we would have in Ontario.  Which meant on facebook I got to see all of my favorite kids from back home on their first day before we started.  It's bittersweet seeing all of those pictures - great to see the smiling faces but sad to know we aren't starting school together.  Even though it was only for one month, it was great to start school last September back home and see everyone on the first day.  That being said, it's nice this year to be starting the school year here from the beginning, a lot of information comes home in the first few weeks of school so I felt like I was playing catch up when we started school Oct 1 last year.  Also last year I had some anxiety about the kids starting at new schools.  Much easier this year to send them off to school knowing they have friends and know their way around the schools.

Here are some highlights from the first few days of school...

*Jillian has two of her best friends in her class and is excited to start playing an instrument this year
* Kyle didn't start until 12:45pm on the first day so he had a relaxing morning then we went out for pizza and menchies as a pre-grade 8 lunch
* Leah loves her teacher and class although her two best friends are in different classes (but they see each other at recess)

this kid was super excited to start grade 1!

* I was worried Leah would feel a bit sad or left out because she knows in grade 1 both Kyle and Jillian started learning French...I was wrong - she's actually quite happy to not have to learn French, go figure.
* we had beautiful weather all week for walking to and from school
* I met a few new moms while hanging around at drop off and pickup - always great to meet some new people
* this year Kyle is taking the bus to school which makes my mornings much easier than last year (with the move last September he was stressed about taking the bus so I offered to drive him at first and that turned into me driving him for the whole school year...this year we decided to give the bus another try and it's working out so far)
* at the beginning of the school year I have much more energy for fun lunches so the girls lunches have been looking like this...yes, I sometimes am that annoying pinterest mom, but seriously it doesn't last long...by the third day I was already losing steam.  I figured I may as well take pictures now while the lunches look cute and color coordinated - no need to have photographic evidence later in the school year when I'm throwing them together last minute.

Here's to another successful school year for Kyle, Jillian and Leah!

last weekend of the summer

Jeff took a couple of vacation days around the long weekend so we could get away for a nice 5 day family vacation to enjoy the very last bit of summer vacation.  We took advantage of living here in the PNW (that's Pacific Northwest for all of you non-PNWers...), we visited the Columbia River Gorge, Mt St Helens and Mt Rainier.  There was plenty of driving but listening to the Frozen soundtrack and watching Harry Potter movies helped the kids pass the time.  At one point I turned off the dvd player in the van and made the kids look at the amazing scenery.  They all looked up, said "yeah that looks nice", and promptly asked when the movie would be starting up again.  Ah well, at least I tried.

The only thing I didn't enjoy about this trip was some of the driving in the mountains.  The curvy roads that lead up the mountains are narrow, and the sheer cliffs on one side with massive drop offs are terrifying (no guard rails, no large buffer zone, NOTHING).  I may have used the phrase "don't drive over the cliff and make us plunge to our deaths!" once or twice or twenty-five times to Jeff.  Having loud sing-a-longs to "Let it go" and "Love is an open door" over and over again did make things less stressful.


First up on our list of fun outdoor adventures was hiking around the Columbia River Gorge.  Day one was spent driving 3 hours south to Vancouver, WA (yes, there's another Vancouver - who knew?).  Then it was on to Multnomah Falls.  What a beautiful spot to visit - the falls are a big tourist attraction with a shop and food around the bottom.  The promise of ice cream after climbing to the top of the falls and back down again helped the kids with the steep hike of switchback after switchback to get to the top.

looking up at the falls

view from the top of the falls...if you look closely you can see the bridge and walking path on the right

    ice cream - they earned it!

The next day we stopped at a different set of waterfalls - Horsetail falls.  This was a much easier climb to the top and included a cool cavern where we walked behind the falls.  We also visited Bonneville Dam and drove into Mt Hood which has a beautiful waterfront park and we saw kite surfers out on the water.

    family picture at the foot of Horsetail Falls in Oregon

    cool cavern behind the falls

    taking a break on the hike

shadow puppets...this is what happens when we go in to watch the Bonneville Dam informational movie and we are the only people in the theater

we found a nice park near Bonneville Dam so we stopped for lunch and play

Next up was visiting Mt St. Helens.  After the 1980 eruption, the area around the volcano was designated as a national monument with several visitors centers and viewing points.  We stopped at two different visitors centers where we learned a lot about the days leading up to May 18, 1980 when the eruption occurred.  It's amazing to see exactly what happened, to see how the landscape changed and how much scientists learned about volcanic eruptions from this one.  Something I didn't know, Mt St Helens erupted in what they call a lateral blast.  That means the side blew off the volcano and stone was hurled sideways at tremendous speeds, destroying a large area of lakes and forests.  We weren't able to see the top of Mt St. Helens because of clouds, but they told us it's only visible about 100 days of the year.  Even without seeing the top of the volcano it's a spectacular view looking around at the valley and mountains.

    listening to the Park Ranger tell the story of eruption

    Mt St Helens...we couldn't see the summit but the rest of the view was still spectacular (when you get this high up the mountain, even at the end of August it's cold!)

    sitting on the edge of the world (just kidding - there was nice, big, safe ledge behind them)

what kind of playground did they have at the visitor center?  One with a big, grey volcano slide of course

We saved the best for last...Mt Rainier...14,410 feet high, an integral part of the Washington landscape.  We see it from a distance almost every day.  Jeff really wanted to see the summit, he had gone hiking here in July and wasn't able to see it then.  But after having a cloudy day for Mt St Helens we weren't getting our hopes up about seeing the summit.  We spent our first day hiking around the Sunrise visitors center and sure enough, clouds were covering most of Mt. Rainier.  The next day started out bight and clear so we took the gondola up to the top of Crystal Mountain.  This is what we saw when we arrived at the top.  Here we were at 6,856 ft elevation.  We learned they often have snow available for skiing here until late June and sometimes even early July.

our view of the summit when we reached the top of Crystal Mountain

riding down on the gondola to the bottom of the hill...the kids enjoyed waving at everyone going up past us

Junior Park Ranger Jillian at your service!  Jillian and Leah both enjoyed the Junior Ranger programs at the visitors centers, they each earned two different badges at Mt St Helens and another one in Sunrise at Mt Rainier.

pretty wildflowers at the top of Crystal Mountain

on our hike at Sunrise - Jillian did an excellent job of keeping track of everything we saw for the scavenger hunt part of earning their Junior Ranger badges

that's Mt Rainier off in the distance, the white snowy part is one of the biggest glaciers on Mt Rainer, Emmons Glacier

this hiking trail was nice and easy with an amazing view of the glaciers and valley

eating s'mores and playing games in the condo we rented on Crystal Mountain.  We were going to do a campfire but it was just too darn cold so I cheated and used the oven to make s'mores...they were just as gooey and delicious.  We did however go for a swim in the outdoor pool despite the chilly temps.  The pool was heated so being in there was very nice (getting out though was very, very cold!).

This was such a great family vacation - plenty of time spent together, lots of outdoor hiking and exercise, amazing views and we even learned a lot about volcanos (which is good since we now live near one!).  I'm thankful we are getting the opportunity to explore a new part of North America we had never seen before we moved here.