January to the End of Grade Six

We rang in 2013 with a nice big meal and relaxing day at home.

 

January saw us all in Edmonton to see the Tragically Hip in concert. It was a great show! Gord did not disappoint BrownieJ at her first concert. The addition of some ear plugs for the LittleJ’s made it an enjoyably loud experience.

February saw us enjoy a week long break from school. We took the time to once again go to Edmonton to visit the Star Wars exhibit at the Telus World of Science. We went with SusanR which was a wonderful chance to visit after not seeing each other for far too long.

At this exhibit we were able to learn all about how the characters were developed, the influences of events in their life, their places of origin and interactions with others on who they have become in the movies. Obviously, the real point of the exhibit is to show how all of this information can be applied to the world around us. It was a great way for anyone who visited to develop more empathy and to become a better global citizen. Who knew, that Star Wars had such value?

Each person received a little bracelet that tracked your visit to 11 stations. At these stations, you developed your own character with unique traits. It was interesting to see how our choices shaped our characters outcome. Most entertainingly was that the kids worked hard keep SusanR from accidently choosing all Dark Side traits as she is not familiar with the movies.

While in Edmonton, we visited our favourite Macaron bakery outside of France, Duchess Bake Shop for lunch and some amazing baked delights. If you are ever in the area, we can not highly recommend this bakery enough:  http://duchessbakeshop.com/ For our other two lunches while in town we visited two other “You Gotta Eat Here” destinations in Edmonton which were also fantastically scrumptious:

Tres Carnales Taquirea where we enjoyed chips and salsa, beef, chicken and fish tacos. It is a hopping place at lunchtime in downtown Edmonton so go for a later lunch or get your food to go. The food arrived quickly, was fresh and very flavourful. This is not your Taco Time Mexican food nor is it Tex-Mex. The tortillas for tacos are fresh and soft. The meat is a little bit spicy in a tasty enjoyable way not an eye watering way.  http://trescarnales.com/

 

The Sugar Bowl, a long time Edmonton establishment is place that I have not been to since I was child living in Edmonton. The kids greatly enjoyed their meal and I loved taking them somewhere I had not been to since I was their age. ScoutJ had their famous Chicken and Waffles which he brilliantly made into a sandwich for easy eating.  This menu item really is all that the hype makes it out to be and more. Flavourful pan-fried chicken, crispy yet tender Belgian style waffles and a maple sauce that is finger licking good. I had their daily special, a chicken Po-Boy which was over the top since it includes their pan-fried chicken. For those of you from Calgary, think “Chicken on the Way” lightly battered flavourful chicken! http://www.thesugarbowl.org/about.html

 

So if you find yourself in Edmonton, we give six thumbs up to any of these places.

Valentine’s Day 2013 saw us out for lunch with our friends and enjoying Boston Pizza’s heart shaped pizzas. It was a great way to enjoy lunch and gaming/chatting with friends.  

April saw the very exciting for DaddyJ, hair cut for ScoutJ. While the growing it long experience has been fun, he was ready for a change.

 

May brought us the milestone of ScoutJ’s grade six celebration! It is hard to believe that he is already going into junior High, after all we were just touring the school while he was 18 months old yesterday! There have some bumpy spots along the way where getting to this point seemed unlikely to arrive, like the point where I was not sure he would let go of my leg to stay at pre-school ...... LOL and here we are nice years later with a tween not a toddler! At this rate I will be blogging about Grad in the blink of an eye.

May and the nice weather also saw the addition of long-boards to the kids collection of outdoor activity items. One of my favourite moments was seeing DaddyJ adjusting BrownieJ’s bike for her!

In June I set off to the Formula 1 Montreal Grand Prix on a MommyJ adventure. It is the first time in several years that I have attended the race and it was exactly as exciting as I remember. This year’s weather was far cooler than past years which allowed for some fantastic racing which included race speed records, the highest number of cars finishing and some outstanding driving. It is not many years that you are afforded so many positional battles while the pole position car leads from start to podium.

 

 

 

Thanks for a great Mother’s Day present family, I sure enjoyed it!  

Father’s Day saw us out for a MASSIVE Elk burger and equally massive schooner of beer in Canmore at the Grizzly Paw. Although, we renamed the day “Daddy’s Bud Light Day” in celebration of the present we secured him:

 

 

The end of school was quickly upon us with both kids writing provincial exams. Exams went well for both as they were more focused on our fast approaching annual road trip which would see us heading out east to lake country for two week.

Unfortunately, for many families here in southern Alberta what most kids will remember about the end of school this year was the devastating flooding! While we were okay here on the hill, our hearts go out to all of those who have experienced loss, property damage etc with this dramatic weather. It was an end to the school year that we will all remember for the cancelation of school from flooding.