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Last Saturday was a beautiful day so we ate some breakfeast, packed up some lunch and biked to the pool. Joel has been apprehensive about the water so we thought a family trip to the pool might help. We went to Second Beach Outdoor Pool which has an amazing view as it is next to the ocean. Leah really enjoys the water slides and I enjoyed some time swimming laps on my own.

After swimming, we ate our picnic lunch and headed off to see a friend play at his art jam. We hung out for a bit, colouring with sidewalk chalk and letting Leah get her face painted. After that, Morgan took us to the world’s best gelato. It was delicious.

On Sunday Leah went swimming in the ocean with her friends and had a blast. There is so much to do with so much beauty so close to our house. I’m looking forward to an awesome summer with time spent home and away on vacation.

This is out of order as I’m going through our pictures and slowly updating my neglected blog.

Shortly before Christmas we sold our van. It was good to us but feels nice not to own this beast anymore.

Painting! Joel would much rather paint with a brush than finger paint.

Leah, however, is not afraid to get her hands dirty. She’s making a hand print wreath, our yearly tradition going strong.

Another yearly tradition – Operation Christmas Child.

Our living space is rather small and although I would love a real tree, it just isn’t practical (and I don’t think it is allowed in our building either). So I spread out our big newspaper roll down our hallway, added some paint and cut it out and voila, a Christmas tree.

We helped bless some local seniors. These are the gift cards all prettied up so they can go into a stocking.

We also went to Canada Place and saw the old Woodward’s window’s Christmas displays of old. There were crafts, lights and general festivities. Then we walked over to a hotel which had massive gingerbread house displays. They were amazing.

Me with my awesome kids.

I’ve been quite active lately and this scenery is an amazing reward for getting up early or going out in the evening after the kids are in bed.

Leah is now 7! We held a small party for her at our apartment and walked all the kids over to the school at the end so the girls could play outside. It was a beautiful day with some great girls. Leah wanted a special cake that her teacher had brought in to the class so I got the recipe and made it.

I love this girl so much. She is kind, compassionate, thoughtful, full of ideas and smart.

We were waiting with friends for a bus in front of a hotel. Here are my kids imitating a friend pretending to be the statue of liberty, even though my kids have never seen or heard of the statue before. I’m thankful for their great friends and parents who let me take their kids on adventures with us.

In the past we have gone up to Oroville for the May long weekend which has been super fun. Now that we are in Vancouver, I was concerned about the long car ride as well as heavy traffic coming home on Monday. (Our kids rarely are in a vehicle so trips to my parents seem so long with lots of ‘are we there yet’ type questions.) Though I was disappointed, I shouldn’t have been. This weekend was full of fun times.

Leah had a pro d day on Friday. We met up with friends and hung out on the playground and at Second beach for a few hours before biking off to Science World to meet up with friends from White Rock. Joel generally does not like his picture taken these days. He has such a vivid imagination these days and was playing intensely, jumping on and off this fire truck, pulling off hoses and ladders to put out the fires before jumping back on and driving off in a rush. He also is now confident enough to include other kids who he just met in his imaginative play. Here he is avoiding the picture.

Leah’s top tooth finally fell out. It was barely hanging on for awhile now.

On Saturday, friends of ours watched our kids so we could hike the Grouse Grind. It was a lot of fun to hike and just have some time together on an adventure. We took car2go there which was super convenient. The hike was a lot steeper than I thought it would be with lots of stairs.

On Monday we went to Bowen Island with a friend of mine and her family. We had a lot of fun exploring, walking through the forest and treasuring the small town, quiet atmosphere. It was a beautiful day to take the ferry and walk about the island.

The start of school this year was delayed due to a teacher’s strike which left more time for adventures. Usually I would plan one day where we would be out all day and then a home day with a trip to a playground and an errand or two thrown in. We spent a lot of time at the aquarium.

We also had a lot of fun at Science World.

We would play at the Lego block parties at the library after school once school began.

We took our bikes on the skytrain and bus to go visit our friends in White Rock. I am now very comfortable on public transit. I don’t ride it a lot as most places we go are in easy walking distance. We bike to visit the aquarium and Science World and take transit or rent a car to visit our families.

One day we were exploring Stanley Park and we came upon these pay phones. I’m not sure how much longer these phones will be around so we stopped and took a picture.

Morgan has been working in Vancouver for a few years now which lead to talk from moving from our south Surrey home to closer to his work. One day last October after another long commute home, Morgan had had enough and the decision was made. We were going to move. We talked and discussed amid excitement and some anxiousness. I said we could move anywhere but downtown. Housing prices were really high everywhere that seemed decent to live.

After a few scouting trips, we had a date day where we biked around the seawall and saw a bit of the West End. I was sold. My criteria was that there was a park and a grocery store near by. Of course there were grocery stores all over in a place with such high density as well as an elementary school and some parks. Finding an apartment to rent was a bit of a challenge and eventually after many trips out to Vancouver, we selected one that met most of our criteria.

We spent months purging, cleaning, selling, purging again and packing so we could move to a drastically smaller space. I started reading minimalist blogs so I could start embracing a mindset conducive to what would be our new living space. We still need to purge more and we also switched out some furniture for lots of new Ikea furniture that would fit our space and needs much better.

I’m loving downtown. We always said we could move back if we didn’t like it and somewhat ironically now I say I never want to move. We sold our van and don’t feel any need to buy a vehicle. We walk and bike everywhere and have so many amenities so close to our house. The first few months were lonely but once I made a good friend who I connected with well, she introduced me to her friends which really expanded my social circle. When I was lonely, we would visit my family and my friend in White Rock often on the weekends. This was such a blessing having them so close by.

The kids loved Vancouver immediately as we were going on all sorts of exciting outings such as the aquarium and Science World. Our kids adjusted so well which was such a blessing. Leah has made many great friends at school quickly. Joel wasn’t so excited about starting preschool as he didn’t want to be away from me but he adjusted quickly and soon started enjoying preschool.

I love how much our kids love each other. They know how to make each other laugh and sing obnoxiously loud to the same songs over and over again.

Joel loves…
-line-ups. He saw a line up at a drive thru and was a bit sad we didn’t go in the line up just because it was a line up.
-vehicles of all kinds.
-riding his strider.
-little babies.
-wearing two shirts at a time (just like his best buddy).
-pears, bananas, oranges and grapes.

Leah loves…
-hot chocolate and treats with Daddy.
-playing Super Mario and watching others play on Daddy’s old Nintendo.
-going to Kindergarten.
-her teacher and her friends.
-being a leader.

Joel is sporadically napping these days as nap time is much earlier with Leah in school. He can ‘balance’ on his strider and can keep up a good pace. He will walk to and from Leah’s school (1.5 km) without complaint. Joel loves to help set the table and get things from the fridge. Joel loves circle time but is not really into painting or the other art projects we do. He adores his grandparents and especially playing with cars with Grandpa. Joel is now fully toilet trained though he prefers the potty still.

Leah is learning to read and can read sentences such as Sam can hit the bat. She has to sound out almost every word but isn’t crazy about reading. She rides her bike to school almost everyday. Leah doesn’t like when I change things around the house and treasures every art project she does.

I’ve enjoyed fall so much more now that I have kids. There are so many large trees in our neighbourhood that change into amazing colour and then fall to the ground.

There is no lack of leaves to throw up in the air or run throw and kick and the park close to us.

I miss getting pictures of Leah in the leaves and on the playground.

Joel loves hanging us with his buddies all day.

Peek a boo.

Off to the pumpkin patch with our care group friends.

Family pic.

Another one.

Joel with the pumpkin he picked out.

Leah and Joel.

Joel loved the tractor.

Big pumpkin.

We also grew two pumpkins in our garden this year. Since we don’t celebrate Hallowe’en, we kept Leah at home from school and Morgan took the day off. Morgan and Leah spent most of the day, preparing the pumpkin to make pumpkin puree and then making pumpkin pie. They made three pies together.

On Hallowe’en night, we went out to dinner with my parents and kept everything really low-key. Leah was totally okay with not celebrating, though Grandpa bringing her some candy was a big hit.

This September Leah entered kindergarten. I was a little bit nervous about full-day (8:30-2:30) but she has done well. Her teacher is very friendly, caring and warm which makes such a difference. Leah is a leader in her classroom and is very encouraging to others in her class.

Her favourite station at school is ‘make it and take it’ where you make your own creation on paper using felts, glue and scissors. Leah regularly comes home with artwork from her friends for a book she is compiling from this station.

After school the first few weeks, Leah would come home pretty tired but she seems to have adjusted now. We do have to be pretty strict about a seven o’clock bedtime on school nights so she isn’t tired and grumpy the next day. She generally wakes up at seven in the morning or shortly thereafter and we are off to school a little after eight. Leah has been riding her bike most days while I push a stroller.

Just before I dropped her off on the first day, I tried to get a picture of Leah. This is what I got;

Spring days at the park.

Leah loved the carnival rides at the fun night at the school she goes to in September.

Setting up the tent in the backyard as a trial run before camping on July long weekend.

Crazy hair day at preschool, with clothing to match.

Goop!

Graduation from preschool

Leah painting my nails on the deck.

Leah building Coit tower in excitement for San Fran out of dish scrubbers.

Very neat looking lake that we found on the way down to San Fran.

We went to White Rock beach.

Cousins.

Leah has a new found love for the baby swing.

We took the trolley down to a festival at the beach.

Joel loves all types of vehicles so I blew up some pictures to put on his room.

Going to visit the ducks and picking blackberries for them. I enjoyed the simple times spent with the kids this summer.

Leah went to a birthday party and got to ride a pony for the first time. She was so thrilled.