Spring break

Today is the last day of Spring Break, we didn't do anything specifically this break but both kids played at friends and had friends over here.  

We did go to Swan Lake Nature House where they had a CSI activity discovering who had killed the duck in the truck, Liam really enjoyed this it was a little old for Madeline but she enjoyed some of it.  They tested a sbstance on the body, which they had to collect, they interviewed the neighbour, reviewed possible suspects and took their case to the judge.  There were also bins with compost and various bones which you exposed and identified. 

So tomorrow its back to school.   We got report cards before Spring break, there were no surprises, Liam is popular not great at focussing, could improve his writting, but otherwise is at grade level.

The same but different

It's a little deja'vu feeling to be back in the same house we moved into a year ago, in fact we moved back in on the same day. The house looks much as it did but we have more stuff so it's taking longer to put things in places.
This time of course I have an almost one year old crawling around the place, pulling up on things. She finds the front loading washer fascinating. Pulls up on the door and watches it going around.

Liam is going to the local school this year. He's in a composite grade 1/2 class with Mr Borich so far (day 5) he likes it. Mr B as they all call him plays the guitar and this seems to be the main feature of school so far. That and he likes coming home with his agenda book and instructions for us. We walk down and back and so far I've only picked him up in the car twice, once Madeline's dance starts tomorrow we'll need to pick up in the car on tuesdays, the timing could be better, I have to get across town in 15min, which will be tight.

Madeline will start Preschool tomorrow and unlike any of my other school choices I have done no research into their style in fact its run by ECE's and they have no parent participants, but she'll go two mornings a week and it's conveniently in the same building as Liam's class.

Madeline, Izabel and I went to a creative play morning last week at the James Bay Project. Madeline enjoyed it more than Izabel, thou she had a nice sleep and enjoyed the songs at the end. Izabel and I might go to a toddler drop in tomorrow, which will be quite a novelty.

Victoria is having a long balmy summer this year, I'm sure it was colder last year, thou the nights and mornings are getting cooler I find that halfway to school the extra layer I put on is no longer necessary.

We had a good trip around northern BC at the beginning of August. We took the ferry from Port Hardy to Prince Rupert then drove to Jasper National Park, along the Icefields Parkway and back. We spent a lot of time in the car which the kids got a bit sick of. I'll put some pictures up one I download the camera.

For the birds

La Casita had a field trip last time it was our turn to participate. We went to a cafe in the rural area around Sante Fe which had wonderful cinamon rolls and LOTS of birds, which is what Liam's class is looking at at the moment. This emu was especially keen on grapes.

Spring snow?

Friday was spent baking up a storm as Saturday was the school yard sale and Cinco de Mayo Feista. I forgot (again) that it's a bad idea to bake spongy type cakes. Still the Lime sponge loaves tasted OK, they were just concave on top. The millionaires slice worked a treat and my muffins worked well too.
Saturday was FREEEZING! We had rain and wind and snow. Still there was a steady stream of people and the sale made ~$700
Richard was jetting off too so we spent the afternoon in Albuquerque before his plane. I got to go to some scrapbooking shops I was curious about and Richard visited the model shop.
We arrived back in Santa Fe to more snow, which was quite steady for about 2 hours. Today there are some large clouds around but the sun is shining.