The end of a lot

A good friend pointed out that I have neglected my blogger duties recently, so here is an update. I must admit that the photos are 100% Adam's, as I have been useless with my camera this past month, but with summer only days away, I plan on bombarding you with all of the fun I will be having with the kids!

As of Friday, I finish my career as a high school teacher, and prepare for my new journey as a Grade 5 teacher. Nahla finished daycare/preschool as she prepared to start Kindergarten at the same school that I will be teaching at. Tyran has his last day on the baby side, as he will be venturing over to the preschool side of daycare come September! All of these changes come with a great deal of excitement, nervousness, sadness and feelings of nostalgia. Personally, I have loved my time at Sullivan Heights, but need a new professional challenge. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to take on that challenge in a school where I will also be able to watch my kids grow and develop. I am lucky mommy!

But enough gibber-jabber! I have a few photos from June to show you the craziness that is my life! There should be plenty more to follow when we return from Oregon, and more as we spend the summer playing, exploring and learning together. I only wish Adam could spend the days with us too.

My little man with all of his amazing personality!

My dramatic little girl, in all of her princess glamour!

My active little monkeys on our neighbour's trampoline

 The 3 most important people in my life on father's day

Always the cool dude!

Forever contemplative!

May Long Weekend Camping

We do not typically go away on the long weekend, but this year, we decided to join my parents up at the Vedder river for the long weekend. The kids were looking forward to camping with Grandma and Papa, but were even more excited when we arrived to find a kid-sized atv for each kid.

Many hours were passed riding around the field, down the dirt road, and any where else we could find to explore! 

 Ty was Papa's little shadow, following him everywhere he went. Here, they are eating apples together.

 Nahla is going to be quite the fisherman one day. She spend hour practicing her casting both on the grass, and into the river. It is amazing how far she can cast with her little Barbie fishing rod

 When not shadowing Papa, Ty shadowed Nahla. As much as she liked this at first, she got tired of it pretty quickly. She kept moving her chair, and he would run after her with his!

 And of course, he wouldn't let her cast without having a turn also.

 They found a happy medium when they decided to build a sand castle with Grandma.

Despite the rain, we had a great time. Camping with kids it great!

Easter Weekend

A week late, I know, but I wanted to post a few photos from our absolutely beautiful Easter weekend. With temperatures nearing 20 degrees, we spent virtually the entire weekend outside playing.

Nahla even decided that she wanted to learn how to ride her bike without training wheels. Adam hasn't let go yet, but she is starting to get the concept of balancing. 

How many scraped knees will it take before she is riding solo?

 And of course, what would Easter be without a little chocolate?!

We set up a small Easter egg hunt in the kids' play room, and they happily hunted around for the eggs.

Nahla was more than a little surprised to find an entire Chocolate pony hiding!

And Tyran was surprised that Nahla could actually eat it! 

But he wasn't being outdone by his big sister, so he dug in to his Chocolate car pretty quickly! 

Then, it was off to my parents' house for another Easter egg hunt, and Easter brunch.  

The Easter bunny was a little bit more generous at Grandma and Papa's house though. 

Here, he left some baseball equipment, which the kids had a great time playing with in the front yard.

Tyran is 2!!!!!

March has been a month filled with excitement. For the first 3 weeks of the month, Uncle Kobus was here from South Africa for a visit, which made for lots of fun and new experiences.

Then came Tyran's 2nd birthday, along with Ouma's birthday and Grandma's birthday coming up tomorrow.

So many special things to celebrate!

First of all, though, here are a few daily moments:

Nahla eating her lunch

Playing with / attacking poor Lexy!

 Riding on daddy's new motorbike! 

 Having quiet time!

 

 Playing dress up...the kids' absolute favourite pass time. 

 And of course, what is life without a little bit of paint!

It has become a family tradition to take the kids swimming on their birthday, so on Ty's big day that is exactly what we did. He had a great time splashing, playing and jumping in the water!

And it was made even more special because Uncle Kobus was able to join us. The kids could not have been happier to spend time with him whenever they had the chance.

After swimming, the tired kids caught a ride on daddy and uncle.

To celebrate Ty's birthday, along with Ouma's and Grandma's, we had dinner at our place. Tyran opened up his new basketball net.

Nahla helped him put it together

Then Oupa took over and finished the job.

Now, there is one more week of spring break before it is back to work and daycare until summer time.

We have said a sad goodbye to Uncle Kobus, and are now enjoying some sunshine and lot of play time.

A visit with Uncle Kobus

On Adam's birthday, he received the best gift that he could have asked for: a visit from his South African brother Kobus, who he has met only once before for 3 days!

 The kids have fallen in love with their Uncle, and want nothing more than to play with him at every opportunity.

 On Sunday, when the sun shone, we decided to take him up to Burnaby Mountain to see the view, and let the kids and the dog play.

Nahla was more than happy to let her uncle help her to climb the rope climber.

 While Ty preferred to climb with Daddy!

 After a good play, we took a walk around the park, with the kids riding in style!

 And enjoyed the amazing view of Vancouver

It has only been a few days, but I am sure that there will be many more photos in the days to come, not to mention a whole lot of memories for all of us!

Outside Play Time

It is not as though the weather has been fantastic, but we have managed to find enough rain-free times to enjoy some outside play time, usually with Lexy.

Nahla loves to climb trees right now, and our little tree in the backyard is a perfect size for a little monkey.

 What a good puppy shaking a paw!

 We even found a sunny morning to pull out all of the summer play toys and spend a couple of hours outside. It wasn't warm, but the sun felt glorious!

 And Lexy was able to join us, thanks to her new 30 foot lead. I would love for her to be able to be off leash, but apparently Husky's are on-leash only dogs unless fully enclose...they really like to run!

 Tyran being his usual happy self!

 Nahla with her sticks, ready to make a dam

 Us  building the dam

 And the completed dam!

 Then, out came the gold clubs and we destroyed it!

Outside play time is always my favourite with the kids. I am always amazed by what they find to do. Nahla spent about 10 minutes watching a worm move through the grass, then burrow into the dirt. This was only minutes after the creation on the dam, which she decided we had to build when she found a bunch of random sticks lying around from when our neighbours trimmed their little willow tree. I love the imagination that comes from a morning outside, and cannot wait until summer when I can spend every day out exploring with my kids.

New Year but nothing much new

It may be a new year, but quite honestly, there is not too much to share EXCEPT, that we have a new addition to the family!

No, I am not pregnant, nor have we adopted a baby, but we did adopt a 5 year old Husky named Lexy!

From the day we moved into our new house, Adam and the kids have been asking for a pet, and I have repeatedly said no, we don't have the time. But, when Lexy the husky was rescued by our neighbours, and was looking for a good home, we could not say no. She is fully trained, very affectionate, and amazing with the kids. The kids LOVE her, and we are enjoying life with 2 kids and a dog!

I don't have a lot of photos yet, as getting photos of 2 kids is hard enough, but add a dog to that, and it become next to impossible. Here is the best that I could do!

This evening, when Nahla gave her a treat, Tyran immediately took it from her. Amazingly, Lexy waited patiently until he was ready to give it back. After chewing it up, the kids then took each individual piece and fed it to her. This amazed me, as most dogs would have taken their treat and run, knowing that kids could get a hold of it. Not Lexy, she enjoyed the attention!

We then attempted to get a partial family photo, and this was the best of the 12!