NINE.

The last single digit number. He's 9. For some reason Kai's birthdays are always a bit emotional for me. Maybe because he is baby #1. And he's growing up far too fast for my liking. I know he's a tall skinny kid with a bunch of adult teeth but I swear he hasn't changed a bit from the platinum blonde toddler who loved 'unnies.

This guy....

has become this guy...

Kai had a 3 part birthday celebration this year. After we explained that I did not plan for his birthday to be on a school day, he was okay with celebrating on a different day. Months earlier he had requested a gymnastics birthday party so we were already booked and ready to go. It was actually pretty low maintenance for me as far as birthday parties go: order some pizza, buy some fruit and veggie trays, sit back and let the gymnastics teachers run the party. That is, until the actual eating the food part. We've reached the age where parents sometimes drop their kids at parties so we were pitifully outnumbered when it came to serving up the food. Thank goodness for kind friends/fellow parents who stuck around to help to mitigate the chaos. 

This year marked the first since Kai's 2nd birthday (when he had a bunny on his cake) that he wanted a cake that was not vehicular. 

This beautiful cake disappeared rather quickly into the mouths of 8 to 9 year old boys! There are two Kais at school: our's and one who spells his name with a C. So they've been know as "K Kai" and "C Cai." When it came time to sing happy birthday, the kids stared chanting "K Kai, K Kai, K Kai." Our little buddy was all smiles (yes, he desperately needs a haircut). 

There is a great custom in Victoria of having "toonie parties" for kids' birthdays. This means instead of a ton of wrapping paper and gifts, the birthday child receives a bunch of (often homemade) cards and some toonies. I can't think of a better idea. Its environmentally friendly, is a huge time and stress saver when you're attending a birthday party, the kiddo can choose something meaningful to them to do with the money, and they can practice their math skills (always looking for a way to slide that in - skip counting anyone?) Kai clearly has generous classmates and friends as he walked away from his toonie party nearly $70 richer!!!! Since he is not a spender, we can all go to the bank of Kai if we need some spending money :-). 

Birthday part #2 happened a few days later when we visited the SPCA to donate some money. We decided not to spend money on goodie bags at Kai's party and instead to give the friends a little note saying we'd donate that money to the SPCA to help dogs, in keeping with Kai's dog-themed party. We were lucky in that one of the substitute teachers at the kids' school works at the SPCA and arranged a special tour for K & T. So they got to visit rats, bunnies, dogs and cats and get their photo taken with a great big cheque which was then posted on the SPCA FB page. They were little celebrities! 

T fell hopelessly in love with a fat black and white cat named Moo whom she drew pictures and wrote books about for a few days afterwards. Kai decided that he will be getting his new dog from the SPCA. Let's hope they can find a female, yellow lab puppy to fit his specifications. 

Then finally the "real" day arrived and Kai reveled in it. He does love birthdays. We set out some presents in the morning and let him decide when he wanted to open them. He opened a few before breakfast. He had been waiting for a special gift and he knew the big yellow box contained it.

 In a display of self-control, he decided he'd wait until dinnertime to open that box, so Daddy could be home. 

He was very pleased with all of his gifts. But he was particularly pleased to finally receive his Easy Bake Oven. The 2016 version looks nothing like the 1970s version I had - no doors to open, no visible lightbulb. No, this version is safe. There is nowhere that little hands can reach in and get burnt. Its kind of an oven-like capsule: slide the tiny tray in one side and 15 minutes later (after cooling down in a "cooling chamber" - for extra safety), slightly cooked gooey miniature cookies come out.  But Kai looked very stylin' while he baked in his snazzy, personalized apron courtesy of Auntie Aynsley and Uncle Meeko. 

For his birthday dinner, he chose baked salmon. The boy is growing up! Maybe next year he'll add a vegetable. We can hope. This was followed by birthday cupcakes, made lovingly by the sweetest Daddy a boy could ask for. My plan was to stop by a cupcake store but Kai made it clear - he wanted his birthday cupcakes to be homemade. (These baker types have high standards). Since they had still not materialized by 8 pm the night before, I was preparing to go to the store to buy an add water mix and a can of icing - artificial chemicals galore! But that is how wiped I was by all of these birthday celebrations. Then Greg came to the rescue and whipped up homemade chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache icing. The birthday boy was not disappointed, as you can see from his smile. 

We've got big plans for celebrating #10 next year........ In the meantime, we'll enjoy our 9 year old sweet boy. He's grown into an incredible protective, loving big brother and he's inquisitive and funny and amazing. Happy Birthday Buds....you've got mommy all misty-eyed now....

Snowy Adventure

We finally took Teia to the snow. Poor kid has been hopefully looking up at the sky all winter. Living in Victoria is a bit tricky that way. It isn't a sure thing that it won't snow, but no guarantee that it will either. With all this ambiguity, our little optimist has been regularly letting us know when she thinks it will snow. But she's been wrong every time. No snow in Vic this year.

We were a bit hopeful over the Christmas holidays when it was really chilly. But it seems that temperature and precipitation have an inverse relationship here, at least during this El Nino influenced winter. So the colder it got, the more the sun shone. The warmer it got, the more it rained.

So we planned a last minute weekend away to Mt. Washington. The kids were excited, their traveling itch about to be scratched by an adventure somewhere new (and snowy). We arrived in the dark on Friday night and had to hike/tow our supplies into the little townhouse we rented. The original Alpine village at Mt. W is a no car zone in the winter. This is actually really great except when you are schlepping stuff in and out.

The kids could not, no actually, would not, wait to play in the snow. Now the temps had been hovering around zero or a little above and the precip had been mixed all week so you can imagine this wasn't the light fluffy stuff of their daydreams. And it was nearing (or past) their bedtime. But there was no telling them and they just had to get out there and play. All was well until Teia lost a boot. The snow was deep and we were thankful it was just her boot and not her whole self. This snowbank could have easily consumed a 6 year old child. This boot was being held under by the cement-like stuff and I had to dig and dig...while Greg held our wailing child up so her foot would stay relatively dry. This gave me renewed respect for the power of an avalanche, particularly in spring skiing conditions. Yikes.

Her enthusiasm for snow returned in the morning. She got up early, threw open the curtains and launched into verse "its snowed, it snowed, it snowed last night...." even though it clearly hadn't. Forever our little optimist.

Saturday morning arrived as a "bluebird day" (in the words of our favorite Kiwi), which was perfect for the littles' first ever ski lesson. We actually laid down the money for a stranger to attempt to teach our kids to ski for two hours so we could ski ourselves. Risky. We weren't sure how this would go; they were excited and maybe a little nervous so we dropped them off and hopped on the chairlift and away we went for 2 hours of ski hill freedom.

I think the excitement of skiing with Greg sans kids in the sunshine with spectacular views went to my head b/c I did, like, the stupidest thing ever. Greg explains it with some kind of physics equation about mass =ing speed and weight ya da, ya da. Whatever, it was stupid. You see Greg snowboards and snowboards ain't so easy to get up hills. We were trying to get from one run to another via some kind of alley run. Greg figured he'd spotted it and scooted in, only to find himself going up hill and then....stopping....b/c that is what snowboards do. I was skiing behind him and thought that I'd help him out with a little push, after all, its easier to ski/skate/pole up a hill than crawl up pathetically and slowly as snowboarders do, or even worse, have to clip out completely and then walk. And we were pressed for time. That kids' ski lesson clock was ticking.

So I smacked right into the back of him. It didn't go as a I envisioned. He didn't proceed to smoothly coast up the hill while I stopped and then gracefully pole/skated up behind him (as skiers can do). Nope. I smacked into the back of him. And he didn't move. Except maybe to lose his balance with surprise at being hit from behind and sorta fall on me. So now we're both sliding back down the hill except that my legs are bent at angles that legs aren't supposed to bend at, straddled on either side of him. So I start screaming and he somehow gets up and I keep sliding for a bit, fetal-position now, hoping that that parts of my knees are still attached. I didn't feel any ripping, just a lot of stretching in parts that probably weren't supposed to stretch that way or that far. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. It could have been bad.

Oh, and my bindings didn't release. Maybe that is what I get for skiing on gear that is 17 years old. My poles, however, those babies are pushing 30 years old and they worked just fine. My boots were dropping bits of black plastic everywhere I went. Nasty.

(One of my fav things about Mt. W is that you can look down on the ocean and green valley while up on a snow covered mountain top).

I managed to ski the rest of the time that we had. A little cautiously and gingerly maybe, but I skied. This kid-free ski time was too precious to give up just b/c I nearly tore both of my MCLs, right? This was the 3rd half day of skiing since 2008, we just had to do it.

So then it was pick up the kids time. They were laid out on the snow like little wet socks. Thank goodness it was warm. They claimed that they had fun and the instructor said they reached level "bear." Apparently this equates to - got down the bunny hill and used crashing as their preferred method of stopping. We were really proud of them :-) Teia decided that it was really fun to be a penguin and slide down all the hills in the busy lodge area on her belly. She seemed to have more enthusiasm for this than for skiing itself. We ate some sticky beavertails and packed it in. I limped home to ibuprofen and ice packs.

The kids spent the afternoon playing "snowy foxes" in the ice/snow/slush/cement around our townhouse. Greg headed back to the slopes for an evening of night snowboarding. Leaving his wife who makes bad decisions, home to take care of kids and nurse knees.

Sunday we decided the safest activity for my knees would be snowshoeing. The kids weren't impressed, wanting nothing more than to play "snowy foxes" outside the townhouse again. We convinced them that snowshoes would make them even more snowy fox-like. Once we forked out the 70$ or whatever it was to rent snowshoes and get trail passes, T stood with a less than impressed look on her face. "Mom, these do NOT look like snowy fox feet." Clearly, she felt betrayed. But once she was traipsing through the forest on her foxy snow feet she was all smiles. Until she wasn't, about 15 minutes later, tired and whining to go back. Kai was keen to keep on truckin' but little sis's complaints were loud so we abandoned our 2.5K ambitions and headed back to the lodge for hot chocolate. Then back to the townhouse where the kids could play snowy fox and eat snow (b/c apparently this is highly enjoyable), to their hearts' content until it was time to go. And they added a character named "stone grinder" to their snowy games who sounded rather scary. Kai drew it for me later and it looked strangely like a wood stove, while Teia's version looked like something from Where the Wild Things Are, going poop.

To top off a really fabulous weekend (despite the elements of misadventure) was a real snowfall for the last hour or so while they played and tobogganed outside. Huge smiles, rosy cheeks, wet hair. Sheer happiness. So worth it.

Merry Christmas!

I think we've just come through the busiest year of our life (she writes optimistically....thinking next year can't possibly be so busy, nor the next.....). But we made it to Christmas, in our new home. And although we still sit amid unpacked boxes and some degree of chaos, it feels good to be home, to know we're not unpacking only to pack up again in another 3-4 years.

We've had lots of help along the way with Grandma and Poppa Mike here to help us settle in and now Granddad here for the Christmas season, almost single handedly installing our new wooden floor. This house we bought had a room we affectionately nicknamed the "stinky room." And as such, high priority flooring change out was the first order of business.

Victoria offers a fair number of festive activities and we haven't managed to take them all in given our current level of busyness. But we did manage a few fun activities, and squeezed in our annual kids' cookie decorating party at the last minute.

Decorating the house, or at least the main room, was also a priority even though we're not really unpacked. The kids did an excellent job of decorating our 7+ foot tree and we fancied up our fireplace  which was made to be festive.

The kids worked on their Christmas spirit by carrying out little assignments doled out each morning by Dasher, the giving deer, who visits daily from the North Pole during the Advent. They enjoyed buying some stocking stuffers and delivering them to the ladies at the wishing tree at the local mall but I think their favorite was being candy cane bandits on Christmas Eve and "caning" as many cars as they could. A man who saw Teia placing candy canes declared "Oh look! Just like a little Christmas Elf!" 

Despite colds, we made it out for an evening horse drawn trolley ride around Victoria which was quite magical, if not chilly, despite our blankets brought from home. 

Christmas Eve started early for me. Up and out to join up with a group ride a few minutes after 6 am where I got to appreciate the almost full moon. 100ish km down by 9 am meant I could indulge in Christmas goodies without guilt. This might have to become another one of our Christmas Eve traditions. 

Much later in the day, we braved the crowds once again at Butchart Gardens to enjoy the spectacular lights and some skating. Teia discovered she could skate on her own which was her Christmas Eve highlight. Then we headed home for dinner and our yearly chocolate fondue. The kids opened a few early gifts and were thrilled with their footed pjs, which I think they wore for about the next 36 hours. 

Teia was quite concerned that Santa not forget Snuggles so was busy writing notes for Santa and making sure Snuggles had a stocking too. 

Her first stop in the morning was to check that Santa did not forget and came bounding into our room, willow balls dangling from her hands "Mama! Look what Snuggles got!!!" Imagine her delight when she discovered a bunny tunnel under the tree. That lucky Snuggles! 

Santa didn't forget the rest of us either. 

He even left a Christmas train set. 

My Christmas day photos are pretty lean this year. I'd had a nagging feeling of not being quite right for a few days but by Christmas morning it was clear that I was good and sick. Spent most of the day chilled and feverish but managed to drag myself out of bed for all the important gift opening and eating stuff but wasn't quite what I had in mind. The kids didn't mind too much. They had Granddad and Daddy to keep them occupied and a few new toys as well. 

Kudos to my wonderful hubs who managed all of the hard Christmas labor and cooked an entire turkey dinner, complete with dessert, by himself. 

Hopefully next year we'll be well settled in our new home and our new rhythm and will approach Christmas from a calm and peaceful frame of mind. But despite the chaos and sickness, I think we'd all agree that it was a wonderful Christmas. It doesn't really matter where you are, or how many boxes surround you, so long as you have loved ones near. And you get that smelly carpet up. 

Spooky......

Halloween in Victoria arrived rainy, windy and cold. While Greg was out battling the elements on his bike in the morning, the kids and I spooked up our house a little by making cotton ball and tissue ghosts. The kids were excited, Teia in particular, as she declared Halloween her favorite holiday. Truth be told, any holiday is her favorite holiday.

Our kids have always enjoyed dressing up, and the candy part, but they've never been much into the spooky part of Halloween. They have yet to dress up as zombies or wear vampire teeth or fake blood. Our neighbors really spooked up their front yard and the kids had been peeking out the window at it all week. They had excitedly declared it would be their first stop on Trick or Treat eve. So I thought maybe this year, they'd get into the spooky a little bit.

They donned their costumes: Teia, a ferocious lion and Kai, a white school bus (yep, another box costume). As promised they did hit our neighbor's house first and were quite brave about the whole thing (it wasn't dark yet). Teia zoomed from house to house while Kai lagged behind a bit cautiously. We were a bit surprised by how well she did with some of the spooky yard displays but it seems chocolate is a great motivator. Sometimes Kai would wait to make sure nothing was going to jump out of the door and once he was reassured by a plain clothes adult and a bowl of candy, he'd scoot up to join his sis.

Trick or Treating in Fairfield where all the houses are old means steep, wet, slippy staircases at just about every house. This definitely got old. We held our breath each time Kai came down wearing the bus box that obscured his view of his feet. Eventually, the scary houses, (and people in some cases), and the steep stairs wore our little lion and bus out and they were ready to go home. But they made nearly an hour this year which is quite an improvement on previous years.

By the time we made it back to our house, fog from the ocean had rolled in and our house looked impressively spooky.

Once we got back home the kids examined their loot while Teia enthusiastically answered the door, doled out candy and wished everyone a happy Halloween. Bigger kids kept telling her how adorable she was; I'm sure that added to her fun. When we were running low, she topped up our supply from her own stash of candy. We were happy to see her getting rid of all the candy with artificial dyes but stopped her once she started adding the mini-chocolate bars. They weren't going anywhere but our tummies if she didn't want them.

When we ran out, she thoughtfully made a sign.

Kai was contemplative about the evening in his usual style, pondering why kids who were younger than him, didn't find all this Halloween stuff so spooky, like he did.

I'm not sure why they weren't scared of this guy.....I thought he looked pretty creepy.