september 2012

september 16

there was a change of preschool plans this week - the city called to say that zoe's one day preschool had been cancelled due to low numbers but, fortuitously, on the very same day, a parent at toby's school asked me if zoe was at the school's preschool. i had NO idea there was a preschool there. anyway, within 24 hours i had her registered and in her first day of preschool [which is 3 days a week]. she's happy and i'm very happy [7.5 hours to myself every week!].

while we were checking out zoe's original preschool earlier in the week, zoe spotted the swimming pool and begged to take a swim class. this was very strange news to me since i haven't been able to get her into a swimming pool for about 3 years. she would get as far as putting a toe in and then scream until someone took her away from the terrible place. needless to say i practically ran to the desk to book her in for lessons [although i did opt for the parent participation option thinking i might need to wrestle her into her first class!]. we took the first class on thursday and she did remarkably well despite the icy cold pool. she wasn't willing to put her face under water but at the end of the class asked to go down the slide and ended up under water. i'm not sure if she'll be asking to go on the slide again, but the whole thing definitely felt like a huge leap forward! we had already booked her into ballet classes once a week [which she loved] and i had aly starting pathfinders and toby in golf classes. it's all made for a hectic week and has broken my golden rule of no more than one class per child at any time in order to keep our lives somewhat sane, but so far so good.

last weekend we went to the salmon festival at mission creek park. unlike the richmond salmon festival, where the focus is very much on eating lots of salmon, at this one we got to see the kokanee salmon spawning. it's was surprisingly frustrating watching those little guys trying to swim upstream. just as you think one might be ready to leap up the next section of rocks, she would get washed back to where she was 5 minutes ago. anyway, i was very glad to finally see it and it was a very educational experience for everyone. zoe danced along to the preschool songs, aly, zoe and toby did a scavenger hunt, aly made slime at the science station, aly and i saw sun spots at the astronomy station [not quite sure why they were at the salmon spawning but it was interesting], and we all learnt a lot about salmon.

on the scavenger hunt

zoe and i salmon spotting

september 6

we had a great trip to seattle and victoria. the drive down through osoyoos was amazingly varied. desert to temperate rainforest in a few hours is always interesting!

the journey took 7 hours (7.5 with a stop) and we went straight up the space needle as soon as we got there since we knew we weren't going to get to spend much time with sascha in seattle. we decided to get the seattle citypass so we got to do a few things we had never done before while sascha was at work on thursday. the children and i we walked to the aquarium, had lunch at pike place market, took the monorail to the space needle again [at zoe's request who is now calling it the space needle instead of space nOOdle unfortunately!] and then spent the rest of the day at the lovely science center. we had all watched a program about the world's fair in seattle so it was great to see how all the buildings are being used 50 years on.

the view from the space needle

the seattle science center

friday we all went to the EMP [experience music project] before heading to anacortes to catch the ferry to victoria. emp was a strange museum but then i'm not very musically minded. we all really enjoyed the avatar exhibit through - some great futuristic interactive components.

when we arrived in victoria we drove straight to the saanich fair to deposit aly [an annual event for her] then toryn and dani kindly gave us their downtown apartment since they would be camping at the fair next to aly and her friend, maddy. the view of the 'blue' moon over the water from the apartment was amazing and looking out over victoria inspired us to take a bus tour of victoria even though we've been to victoria countless times [not to mention the fact that sascha once lived there]. the bus tour was great. we both learned some new things and it was fun to play tourist! we also spend a beautifully sunny day at the fair doing fairy-things [cotton candy, junk food, rides, looking at animals]. aly's short story won first prize at the fair and one of dani's photos won best overall picture in the whole fair. dani/toryn/aly spent a lot of the fair at their farm stand selling [soon-to-be-certified-organic] veggies, meat, applesauce etc. and also looked after their award winning chickens and ducks.

blue moon over victoria

all too soon it was time to leap into the car for a drive to the ferry, ferry ride [no whale sightings on this leg - only the one TOO victoria], then the 4.5 hour drive back to kelowna. it was a long day but through some fantastic scenery so we couldn't really complain - not to mention the fact that all 3 children were great there AND back. thank goodness for good travellers.

the week has involved first days at new schools. both seem happy and aly is getting to grips with middle school well - having a locker, changing rooms/teachers throughout the day etc. in fact her only complaint was that she was annoyed the first day was a short one! zoe starts a new preschool next week but only for one day a week.

toby got some new golf clubs for his birthday this week and is about to head out for a round of night golf at orchard greens with sascha. this last month of beautiful weather is very much appreciated in light of the fact that it will likely turn very cold very quickly! i spend the morning working on the balcony this morning and enjoyed visits from a chipmunk and some turtles [those guys usually prefer the opposite side of the pond for some reason].

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