Month: June 2024

As I sit here backing up photos before heading North for a few weeks I am thinking about how the school year has went.

For Sierra, we saw her quite bored at the beginning of the school year.  “We are redoing things I learned in Grade 1”.  I asked her today if she felt the same way throughout the year and she said “No.  I learned a lot of stuff.  My favourite things to do were the spirales.”  The spirales were a combination of learning french language and math I believe?

Sierra made an incredible leap forward in reading.  She can easily read a book on her now and we’re not talking those 20 page books…we’re talking Charlie and the Chocolate Factory size!  I enjoy seeing her enjoy reading.

If anything, she has a lot of energy and has the need to learn more and more and more.  I need to work harder on finding things outside of school to keep her interested.

For Ezra, he has made a remarkable improvement.  From the kid who didn’t want to leave my side when walking into the school, to the kid who now carries his own backpack the whole walk to school and sometimes doesn’t say goodbye as he’s running off to school along with Conor, Scarlet and Sierra.

We are excited by this change in him…sure, he has a temper when he wants to but it’s nowhere near as bad as the first half of the year.  I think he’s starting to understand how things work like interactions with others.  His teachers once told us that Ezra is very calm and follow instructions well and I suppose that’s the ideal student to have!  Haha.

Our kids are still happy to be around their parents and we look forward to another summer off with them.

The first weekend of June brought a PD day at school so it was a long weekend for us.  Here are a few things that kept us entertained.

Sierra trying out her birthday rollerblades for the first time.

Enjoying an evening milkshake

Having fun waiting for some birthday cake at the neighbours

Haven’t seen Carrie in…maybe a decade?  Close to it?  She was in town from Germany so we had a few people over for a campfire.  It was a great night for those laughs that make you lose your breath.

We went to the big Vars garage sale on the Sunday but we should have went on the Saturday.  Only a few tables remained when we got there.  We managed to find a few good things including a couple of Wii games that excited the kids.  I say that but they never even tried them a week later!  Ezra was bummed he couldn’t buy a scooter for $1,500.  He asked me: “Do you have money on that plastic card you use to buy things?”  Certainly not!  But we appreciated his effort in trying to figure out way to buy it.

Dipping into the cotton candy

Hanging out with some friends on a warm Sunday afternoon.  The girls were preparing their dance routine for this year’s talent show at school.

Setting up the tent for another summer of fun

Always fun to have some family drop by even if it’s for a quick visit

Ezra had to present “What he wanted to be when he grew up.” at school.  He was struggling with it at first because he thought he had to actually CHOOSE it at this point in his life but we explained that it’s just to present ideas of what he’s interested in.  Maman introduced him to a camera and he took a few photos over the week.  He will talk about how he wants to be a photographer when he grows up.

 

My pal Mike has a great surf rock instrumental band.  However, as I have got older, I can’t really say I’m enthused when I hear the words “Hey, we start at midnight, you should come down and check us out!”  (Actually I don’t think Mike has actively ever asked anyone to come to a show like that, I just imagine his voice calling to me.)

So when I saw that there was an afternoon of tunes I figured “This is my chance!”

I invited a few pals from work and we hit the road but in different modes of transportation.  Mina took his bicycle and started from my house and managed to get to Cornwall in four hours!  Clive took his motorbike.  I took my car and strapped Mina’s bike on for the ride home.

It was a perfect June afternoon.  A bit of clouds, some good heat…a day on the patio with some good friends and tunes is perfect.

The band with their groupie learning how to guitar

I’ve never really been to Cornwall.  Lola’s had a pretty great patio to hang out on for the afternoon.  Clive correctly ascertained that it was an old A&Ws and we were sitting in the area where the staff would come up and deliver your food to your car!

Good times on the patio

The band played three sets with some good time between the sets to chat.  We even got to hear a few new tunes which is always welcome.

Some dancing going on

Mina wondering why he never learned to play guitar

Reverb Syndicate at Lola’s was a proper good time and I would definitely go again.  Great start to the summer.