December 2010

Then, the year was quickly drawing to a close! Another year gone in a blink of an eye. Wow, what an exciting month.

The month of December began with the opening of the Lego Advent Calender. What a fun way to celebrate each day with a little Lego toy to build a festive holiday scene. It was a nice addition to our old faithful candy calendar.

Then there was a playdate with a friend for SparkJ before he left for Peru for a month. What a good time everyone had eating pizza, playing outside in the snow and just hanging out. CubJ was a tobogganing superstar making a train so all three of them could go super quickly down the little hill beside the house.



This year for my birthday, we went for Afternoon Tea at the Banff Springs hotel. This is such an indulgence. I love everything about afternoon tea from the tiny sandwiches to warm scones. We had a wonderful server who was a tea sommelier, meaning he is actually educated about tea. He was a riot, having joined the world of high end hotels after blowing out his knee playing football on a scholarship to the University of Hawaii! That is correct, the ex-football playing, tea knowledgeable formal dinning server. He was utterly professional, engaging and entertaining all at once. It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday, thank you family.

Next was the beginning of the really fun activities:

The Christmas concert for grades one through four. The grade four's including CubJ played Ode to Joy from memory on their recorders in a round! It was impressive to say the least. Every year I am so amazed by all of the work that the two music teachers put into teaching the children such a variety of music. They really do shine a light on the very best of what teachers can achieve.

Then we celebrated our community Christmas party with some craft making and tasty little snacks at the club house.

SparkJ's class play, where she was a talking Christmas tree:

The Bowling League Christmas Party and Bowling twosome:

Then it was the last morning of school before Winter Break and time to visit with the cousins! Oh what a happy day, you get to go to school in your pj's, have lunch with your Auntie, Uncle and Cousins at Denny's, show them the framing progress on the basement and then have your own mini bowling tournament to be capped off with a trip to Starbucks. Happy days indeed.

Next it was Christmas Eve! In a nod to French Canadians, many of whom we know and love from the school, we had Tourtier Pie for our Christmas Eve meal. We decorated mini sugar cookies for Santa and his reindeer and left everything ready for his visit. After opening our traditional one present, we were all off to bed.

Christmas morning began at a pleasant 8am! There were presents to be opened, snow to play in and a turkey dinner to be made. Once again, CubJ was very helpful by preparing the Green Bean Casserole. It is funny, but even for the kids now, it is not a festive meal without that special side dish. SparkJ, had seen the brussel sprouts while we were picking up the Tourtier pie and pronounced that they were the cutest vegetable ever, which we must have at Christmas dinner. Who could say no to that, so it was onto the Internet to find out how to cook them and presto magico they arrived at the table dressed in maple syrup with bacon bits. I must say, they have greatly improved since my childhood. In fact, they taste a lot like broccoli. Who knew....

The turkey, it was moist, tasty and HUGE. Both DaddyJ and I burst out laughing at one point when it became obvious that my "smallest turkey in the bin" was enough turkey for 10 adults who have finished fasting. Oh well, it was wonderful on sandwiches the next day.



Don't you just love DaddyJ's coworker's Christmas present to him, a Canuk's stocking!



The day after Christmas (Boxing Day) was SparkJ's 6th birthday. Where or where does the time go? Here is a look back at her Birth day to now:


Starting at the top working left to right: birth, 1st, 2nd, 3rd,
4th (large bottom right in yellow), 5th with balloons and now 6th with button!

We decided that SparkJ could pick all of our activities for her special day. This included the application of her new Barbie makeup set and fancy curled and sprayed hair. (Visions of 16 year old SparkJ had Daddy hyperventilating) We began with lunch at Earl's, then we went to Yogi Bear at the theater, had McDonald's and ate cake! By that point we had all eaten enough in the past 24hrs to last a week and had an earlier evening after playing with some of the new birthday toys.


After a busy several days, it was New Year's Eve. This year we had a nice quite evening at home, watching the ball drop from 10pm onto 12pm eating a variety of little bites. The little bites were a great representation of the year we were ringing out, little bits of our favourite things spread out over the course of time. 2010 has been a great year to all of us. We have come a long way, all done our parts to make it a wonderful year and spent it together. All four of us are very lucky to have been blessed with this life and each other. To our friends and family, best wishes for 2011, may it bring you and your loved ones an amazing year!

With our cracker crowns and our very best wishes for you and yours to have a year of good health, happiness and more laughter than you can imagine,

The 4J's

November 2010

November, well it was a busy month of getting ready for Christmas, cleaning out the basement to start on our renovation project and lots of fun activities. In the beginning of the month, Picou the Grade One class pet came home for a visit. Picou is a hedgehog and a very pleasant house guest.

On Remembrance Day, after we had finished watching the parades and ceremonies it was time to break out he EasyBake oven for the first time! SparkJ baked a wonderful chocolate cake. Remarkably, using the EasyBake oven is just as much fun now as it was when I was little. Not to mention that it still amazes me that a light bulb can bake something.

I confess, we were all so excited to see the completed cake that it was devoured before I thought to take a picture! LOL

Our next exciting thing was to use our first November PD day to do our first and tastiest Christmas preparation work, decorating our gingerbread trees. This has become one of my favourite traditions over the past three years. It really signals that Christmas is around the corner. We can play the carols non-stop, break out all of the decorations and our cousins will be visiting soon! Let the fun begin.I think that this has also become one of the kids new favourite traditions as they very much so enjoy decorating the trees while eating preforming quality control checks on the candy.

This year, since we were not going to be in Cayman for Christmas, we broke out a little bit of the islands to snack on while we laboured on our creations. There is nothing like hot chocolate and the original rum cake to transform an afternoon into a party. While I will miss not being on the beach this year, I know that the renovation will be well worth it and that all of us will enjoy our next trip even more after having had a break.

Two weeks later, it was time for our second PD day of the month and our next tasty project. Given that everyone has greater fine motor skills, we decorated Gingerbread houses to go with our trees and snowmen. I would like to clarify, in the end, these were candy houses with a hint of gingerbread!

November was a wonderful month. We accomplished a great deal, made some wonderful memories by embracing our family traditions and tried out some new things!

Thursday, March 30, 2006


Julia and Jen's Adventure at the Village

Three Cousins, Two Sisters, One Ancestral Home and priceless memories

March 4th 2006, Julia and I went to see our ancestral village in south China! It was a slow drive of more than six hours total due to traffic but well worth it. It was amazing to me to see where my father’s family comes from.

Now that I am a mother, I understand what it is to want to give your children everything in the world. To wish for them; a better life than that which you yourself had, to fulfill their dreams and aspire to give them every opportunity possible. Or at least I thought I understood that until I went to the village.

Going to the village was eye opening. It is nearly impossible for me to imagine what is was like for my family to leave their home to move across the world to a place that they had not gone on a visit to, which could not be researched on the internet, and where they would be unfamiliar with so many aspects of the culture. I could clearly see how much easier it is for my sister and her family who have (and continue to) move around the world when you can research a culture, learn the norms before you arrive, buy language books/lessons, or easily visit. I felt awe and true appreciation for the love and hope that my grandparents must have had for what was only the hope of me and my family when they left China. Certinally if they had not left China before the Cultural Revolution, famines and other interesting parts of China’s recent history, this would be a very different story….

I did also wonder, just how different was Moose Jaw Saskatchewan in the 1940’s and 1950’s from this village? Obviously the language, food, and weather were in stark contrast, but I had to wonder if going to a small town was easier.

I will never forget the magic of this day. It is amazing to visit something you never dreamed you would. I truly believe that only divine intervention could have made so many things come together to make this day possible. I am so thankful that: my Uncle Bill was able to share so much important information, super brother-in-law took a job in China, that my sister persevered and learned to read and speak Chinese that she never gave up trying to find the village and for my dear husband who made my trip back to China for the third time possible.

May you enjoy the pictures.

With so much thanks to you all,

Jen


Our Rest Stop lunch in Kaiping

 Our wonderful food which did not meet the minimum of $2/person so we got free bottles of water!

Ordering Queen enjoying the fruit of her labour



The Big House built with the money made in Canada



Walking up to the house



At three stories, it is much taller than I expected!

 

The Front Yard ~


~ The backyard where Uncle Bill liked to lay as a boy in the massive bamboo

On the steps of my family's home ~

The pictures within that forever cement my belief that life is full of miracles if you look!

~ a picture I have looked at 100 times that I see again for the first time in a new light


~ Pictures remembered from my Grandparents home


Discussing the who's who of the family ~


~Who are these three men, and how are we related to them?


All of the little details in the structure of the house that I found astonishing, and the source of some of the things I love....


The not so safe wiring ~


Learning that my love of ceiling medallions comes to me naturally ~


The circular main room on the second floor


The bedrooms, store rooms, and furniture stored within.



Nothing could prepare me for the locked bedrooms which still had their desks set up, clocks and all of the things you would expect. It was as if they had gone to get the mail..... I wish that I could have captured pictures through the keyholes.


~apparently we needed many barrels and planters

Up on the Roof
































Views of the yard from the roof ~























~Grandpa's childhood home (extreme roof makeover needed!)



Grandpa’s Childhood Home











The entrance~





View from the old house to the new house~





The remains of an impressive fireplace~





The loft~





A scary looking machine~





The Geese being raised in the corner of the room that were very loud and Julia wanted to touch along with the wild dogs! ~





Wood really does last even with some large holes in the roof ~

The hay loft adventure begins! ~















The Village











Our trusty van which brought us ~









Discussing just how cleaver it is to have arrived here once again! ~









Villagers playing a quiet and pleasant game of Mah Jong ~









Village street ~









The pond where Uncle Bill would catch frogs for Uncle Len ~









Village farming fields ~





Avain flu anyone?









Village dogs or “puh “ as Julia squeaked in an impossibly high voice every time she saw them ~









The place of ancestor worship which has fallen into disrepair. The villagers are collecting money as detailed by family and amount on the red paper on the wall for repairs. ~





















The village meeting place/tower in case of a Japanese attack ~

















General village shots ~

















The village gates ~





















The neighbouring villagers ~









Walking the village ~









The villagers enjoying our gift of the oily stick ~

DaddyJ's Birthday

For DaddyJ’s birthday this year, the kids and I headed out to Kelowna to surprise him! He was very surprised to have us arrive more than 12 hours early as the kids got to miss school. The drive started out with quite a bit of snow and ice and then became picture perfect. Remarkably, the 600km went seemingly quickly.

We all enjoyed a relaxing weekend of water sliding, stewing in the hot tub and visiting a few wineries. CubJ particularly enjoys trying to create tidal waves as big as DaddyJ when he exits the water slide. He is a keen waterslider!

As we continue to return to the same area, we are finding that the little J’s are developing their own favourite wineries to visit. The creation of tiny coinsures! Some of their favourites include Mission Hill and Quail’s Gate for their fantastic views, interesting architecture and most likely the sparkling juice they have as samples!

SparkJ was working on a project at school looking at how plants get ready for the winter and CubJ on recycling/composting. While we were visiting our favourite winery Summer Hill, we noticed that there were two workers busy with a screen over some large grape bins. We asked if we could come closer to see what they were doing, assuming that this must be an important part of the wine making process which was in full tilt. It turns out that both kids were about to see their science units in action. The two workers were separating the grape seeds from the skins after pressing. The seeds are saved for a variety of purposes including new growth, to be ground into an extremely healthy flour and for composting. The same holds true for the grape skins which help to create extraordinarily nutritious compost. SparkJ being the cutie she is managed to get bagful of organic grape seeds to show her class how grape vines prepare for the winter! It turns out that she received them from one of the owners sons, for whom our favourite sparkling wine is named! That girl, she is a lucky one .....

DaddyJ enjoyed his birthday. We all enjoyed being together and laughing a great deal all weekend. What a wonderful way to start another year with DaddyJ. Happy "saving one more second not pressing the down arrow so many times on the elliptical machine age button" 2010!

CubJ's 9th Birthday

CubJ’s 9th Birthday in California

Can you believe it, my CubJ is nine years old! I can not believe how quickly the years are going by, imagine half way to when he could be leaving the nest to go to University! ACKkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

To celebrate the halfway mark of his childhood, we headed down to Southern California! Two days were spent in Anaheim at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. It is always to nice to get to see Mickey and his gang, ride Space Mountain and all of our other favourites.

SparkJ enjoyed riding many more rides this visit now that she is both older and much taller. CubJ especially enjoyed watching Daddy and me turn green on a few of the rides. When we did Matterhorn back to back, due to a slight mechanical issue upon disembarking, we were all clear on why the back four bobsledders tuck their heads inside of the sled! Who knows, maybe we will all try the Olympic bobsled track next.

After enjoying our time in the California Adventure being soaked, spun, flung and wowed we made the short drive to San Diego to visit Legoland. We have always adored going to San Diego.  We have so many fun memories starting from the time that CubJ was a little baby in that part of the world. It is hard to believe how quickly the time is going. Sniff Sniff

We spent our first day in Legoland taking in their new water park. While it is not a giant water park to the likes of Disneyworld, it is a great way to spend the day basking in the sun of southern California. It is a small addition to the park which is extremely enjoyable! We loved floating in the lazy river complete with add your own foam Lego blocks. The kids loved riding the slides as fast as they could get back up the stairs to do it all again!

Our second day, CubJ’s actual birthday we enjoyed riding all of the rides in the park, munching ice cream and shopping for as much Lego as we could fit in his suitcase. It was a special day for our special guy. CubJ had mentioned that he would like to have dinner at Chuck-e-Cheese so he could game and eat pizza to cap off his ideal birthday. Accordingly, we located a nearby C-e-C and spent the last of his day watching his happiness.

We all returned home the next day pleasantly tired from all of the fun, weighted down with Lego, thankful for how lucky we are to have these opportunities and for our CubJ!

Week Ten of Summer Vacation

Well, it is official..... Week ten is only half a week of summer vacation with school retuning on Thursday!

Wow....


The beginning of the week saw us visiting our eye doctor for the all important check up. Interestingly this has led to the most handsome development of the summer! It turns out that CubJ is in need of some glasses for seeing distances. Not at all surprising considering that everyone in my family has some sort of corrective lenses. Also not surprising is that CubJ looks quite nice in glasses (much like his cousins!) and is enjoying how bright/clear the world is looking to him. It is funny how you have no idea how your vision has changed until they show you option 1 & 2, A & B and you realize how much you have been missing. Here is our handsome and much older looking CubJ with his new specks:

The all seeing CubJ

Tuesday saw us enjoying a picnic and park time with one of CubJ’s friends. Conveniently, the boys will be in the same class this year so it was a great way to get them ready for the school year. The weather was outstanding. Sunny, a light breeze and just right hot. All three kids ran, jumped, climbed, swung and walkie-talkied to their hearts content. What a great way to spend a day.

Playing at the park

Wednesday we were doing a bit of last minute running around before school started. The kids got in a little bit of time enjoying the sunshine and +30 weather. While no one enjoyed the prosect of it being the last day of summer vacation or the reality of another school year, the best was made of the day.

It has been an excellent summer. I can not believe how quickly 9 ½ weeks has gone. We have enjoyed so many adventures, such wonderful time with our friends and family and made memories I hope will last a lifetime. We are inspired to keep traveling around North America, enjoying all of the sights and lovely weather we can in our summers. Who knows, maybe this year’s campfire talk will come to fruition just like last years? Thank you SparkJ, CubJ and DaddyJ for all of the fun we have had together. I love you all and look forward to many school year adventures along the path to next summer.
So it begins! May I present to you our First Grader SparkJ and Fourth Grader CubJ. They look forward to a year of learning to read in French and starting Spanish respectively. Here hoping for a wonderful year for both.

Thank you, to all of you who have been keeping up with our summer with these weekly instalments. We hope your summer has/continues to be a wonderful time filled with laughter, adventure and wonderful memories for all of you.

Best Wishes for a fantastic fall,

MommyJ

Week Nine of Summer Vacation

Week Nine of summer vacation was spent with both CubJ and SparkJ in swimming lessons.

CubJ did not initially take to swimming lessons when he was a small boy. He did not enjoy learning to swim. It was incredibly hard for me to relate to his trepidation at being in the water without me. I grew up with a pool in the back yard, doing synchronized swimming and loving my lessons. For me, I could not relate to not loving the water, not wanting to be in it swimming and fooling around. The only time I do not enjoy being in the water is when it is murky, there are leaches or anything creepy like that. Since I feel that swimming is a life skill, we have kept on with the lessons. Each year things have improved, he has learned to enjoy the water, and bit by bit is starting to see the joy in being in the water. Thank goodness! Well, this year, he was a fish! He loved the lessons, can tread water for what seems like hours and enjoys the act of swimming, which made for a very pleasant week for him. His hard work and perseverance was rewarded with his silver "Swim to Survive" pin. Congratulations CubJ!

SparkJ is still working to find her inner swimmer. While she loves being in the ocean, was able to snorkel with us in Cayman, the pool still seems to put her off a bit. In the end, she did well, worked hard and seemed to enjoy her week of lessons. Most surprisingly she was able to overcome he fear and jump into the dive tank! Yeah SparkJ! I now hold out hope that she will learn to love the pool as he big brother has.

Ahh, the cool weather and the smoke!

With some odd weather including cold rain, heavy smoke and then few nice hot days, it was a low key week. We enjoying playing at a two different parks, a trip to Bragg Creek for ice cream and some delightful lunches. It was a nice relaxing way to spend our last full week before summer vacation is over.

Completing the ice cream trinity of Lic's, MacKay's and Bragg Creek!

Finally, a nice HOT day!

As with each week, Saturday morning was spent at Cricket practice. The kids all received their 2010 shirts, my favourite part is the back with all of the action characters. Sadly, there is only one more week of cricket left for the season. It has been a great year where CubJ’s skill has improved greatly, he has enjoyed his time there and will end the season feeling positively about returning next year!

A summer relived through CubJ's T-Shirts

We hope that you to have enjoyed a lovely week and that this post finds you all well. May you enjoy the last of your summer ...

Best Wishes,

MommyJ