Category: Glenn

Happy Halloween!

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We had a fun Halloween. Three costumes for Katrine and one each for Glenn and I…and WAY to much left over candy(guess that I should have listened to Glenn and not bought that second bag of chocolate bars).  The fun started on Thursday when “The Christmas Fairy” appeared in her Kindergarten class to enjoy the festivities.  The next day “The Ladybug Fairy” enjoyed some fun at Daycare.  Yesterday morning, “The Snowflake Fairy” appeared at skating where she actually won a little teddy bear for her costume.(More importantly, she actually bent her knees while skating!)

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Then we went to the zoo where Glenn and “The Christmas Fairy” took part in a costume parade.  I missed it because I had managed to lock the keys in the trunk of the car and had to wait for CAA.  She was tickled because they gave each of the children in costume a little stuffed toy at the end of the parade.  Then they had a musician perform who was wonderful.  He handed out insturments to all of the kids and had then play along.  One of the songs that he sang was Down By The Bay, which just happens to be her favourite song at the moment.  He let her come up to the microphone and she belted it out as proud as can be.  It was too cute.

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Trick or treating got off to a rocky start because she was “afraid to go to the strangers houses” but then she saw the candy and we were off and running.  Now the question is, what do we do with all of the candy?  Can one little girl eat all of the haul?  I suppose that we will see.

I will finish by answering the oft asked question:  No.  There is no news from China.  Yes. We are still waiting.  And no. We don’t know when our referral will come.  Rest assured that we will pass on any news as soon as we have some.  Enjoy the photos.

April – What a month

April has been an emotional month thus far. As you know, Glenn’s dad passed away at the beginning of the month. It wasn’t completely unexpected but hard nevertheless.
Since then we have been busy with previously made commitments for Katrine. She passed the First Steps level of her Highland Dancing exams (Actually, my mom and dad took her to her exam while Glenn and I went back to work).
This past weekend was her fifth birthday. In spite of everything we decided to go ahead with her party because she had been so looking forward to it. Thank goodness Glenn had convinced me not to have the party at home this year. We went to the local community center and used their gym and party room. Thirteen little kidlets running around in pirate hats and fairy wings. It was a fun day for Katrine. My favourite part was dinner out with my parents and Glenn’s mom. Spending time with family builds the sweetest memories.
Sunday was her actual birthday. We made pizza at Glenn’s mom’s and ate cupcakes while enjoying eachother’s company and her HUGE collection of teddies. Katrine loves arranging them into a school or piling them up to make a store. I prefer using a bunch of them as a pillow. Quite sqoushy and comfy. The morning was spent at her second skating competition. She skated against five other skaters this time and had to do five moves as compared to last competition’s three. I was really nervous as she has been quite up and down coping with her recent loss but she was on. She even managed to get her two footed turn (although she had a pretty nice spill on her first attempt). The best part was watching her do her gliding jump. Man she got some air. She was so proud of herself for trying her best and then she got a medal.
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Look at that air!
Look at that air!

Oops!
Oops!

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Embro Highland Games on Canada Day

After Katrine did so well and had so much fun at the Georgetown Highland Games, and after much pleading by her to “go to another competition” we looked around and found the Embro Highland Games. A very early morning ensued fueled by a quick stop at Tim Horton’s for donuts, followed by a 2 hour drive.

We arrived and got setup, since Katrine was dancing in the Primary A category she was dancing at about 9:40am. First up were the Pas de Basque 516 followed by Pas de Basque and Highcuts 513.

After that we took a break 510 and let Katrine play on the playground for a time and then found our way to a lemonade stand for a fresh squeezed refresher (for the non-North American readers, that was un-carbonated lemonade). Katrine really liked watching the tug-of-war competition 507and Glenn appreciated the massed pipes.501

Finally the dance results were in. Katrine recieved a 6th place in the Pas de Basque, and did not place in the Pas de Basque and Highcuts. She did however receive a collapsible lawn chair as a participation award, a medal for her 6th place showing, and a stick of candy for turning in her bib number.
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All in all it was a good day and a really enjoyable Highland Games. If Katrine is still interested in Dancing next year, it will definitely be on our calendar.

Finally here are 2 videos of Katrine dancing.

first the Pas de Basques

then the Pas de Basque and Highcuts.

Update #3

Okay, I am going to try and get us caught up with this post.

The highlight of March was our annual visit to the Wye Marsh Sweetwater Festival in Victoria Harbour. Katrine just loves seeing my dad making maple sirop. This year we were joined by my brother and his kids so it was extra special for Katrine because she also got to play with her cousins. My dad got the bright idea of getting a cardboard box out of his garage and letting the kids use it to slide down the huge snowbank beside the driveway…until it split open. I guess that all good things must come to an end.

The highlight of April was Katrine’s 4th birthday. This year her party was on her actual birthday which was kind of neat. The party had a Backyardigans theme. She had a blast playing pin the tie on Pablo and using a Backyardigans playdough set. I think that aside from the cake(which was based on her favourite surfing episode) she loved the pinata best. Glenn set it up so that instead of whacking it, the kids could just pull strings to open it. The first time they pulled it and the string broke but it didn’t open. Then Glenn held it and it opened up. What a frenzy! We got her a new purple bike which she is delighted with. She has since announced that she wants to learn to ride without training wheels so you will probably hear about that in a future post.

May was Mother’s Day, Glenn’s birthday and renewing our paperwork with the Ministry for our second adoption(which is moving along at a snail’s pace!). If things continue to move at this rate, Elspeth will not be home until late 2010 or even into 2011. We are keeping our fingers crossed. Thank you to everyone for your continued support. There are days when it is really difficult to be patient. Katrine has taken to drawing family pictures with three people and then a fourth way off to the side because her Meimei is still far away in China. I guess somethings just don’t turn out as you plan.

June has been a bit of a sunnier month. Katrine had her first Highland competition. We thought that she might get overwhelmed and cry or really mess up but she was all business on stage. She walked on, bowed(totally serious face), did 15 of the 16 pas de basques, bowed, walked off calmly before breaking into a huge smile. She was ever so proud of herself. Well, when they did the prizes we were surprised too. We knew that she would get a ribbon simply for being there BUT she also won a sixth!! She left the stage with a medal as well. She wanted to know when her next competition would be and when she would be old enough to win a trophy. I also dance(yes, I know it is amazing that I still can). I managed to double sprain an ankle but somehow won a 7th out of 21 dancers for one dance. Now that was a shock.

The only other exciting thing that we have been doing is working on our garden. It is doing really well due to all of the rain that we have had. If this keeps up we will get a really nice crop. Especially of potatoes.

That is us up-to-date. I will try to not let it get as far behind again.

Catch-up post #2: February

At the beginning of February, we celebrated Chinese New Year and the arrival of the year of the Rat. We found a company that makes gluten-free dumpling skins and made sui mai and beef pot sticks from scratch. The sui mai were really quite good, although they looked like simple dumplings and not actual sui mai. We have found a recipe for vegetable dumplings which we will try the next time we feel like standing by a steamer for a while. Anyways, we attending the FCC new years banquet with some friends and had a fabulous time as usual. It is always nice to see Katrine experiencing Chinese culture while also having fun playing with friends. Aside from her friends and ample supplies of Chinese food, Katrine loved the candied fruits (particularly the carrots and winter melon) and hong bao (especially those with chocolate money).
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Katrine has a very mean mommy who made her cut out and decorate valentines for her whole class. Mommy wanted to do them in batchs – cut now, decorate later, print names still later. Katrine however felt that it was necessary to do it all at once, so it turned into an hour of solid work. They looked quite cute at the end of it all. She had a great time at daycare and carried her heart full of valentines around the house for the next two weeks.

Katrine took Preschool C swimming this winter. Unfortunately we will be repeating this level because she is still not comfortable floating on her back. It was not a waste though because she is now confident enough to swim underwater for short lenghts.
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Another highlight of our month was our trip to Ottawa for Winterlude. We went over the Family Day weekend and had a great time. The ice and snow sculptures were beautiful. It was fun watching Katrine and Glenn ride the huge ice slides. We all had fun skating on the Rideau. Katrine skated with us the first day but on the second we rented a push sled and skated while she rode. Our trip also provided us with the chance to catch-up with some of Katrine’s orphanage sisters which is always welcome.
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The high point of our month though, was celebrating Katrine’s third Forever Family Day. Sometimes it is hard to believe that it has been three years since we became a family in Nanning.

Catch-up post #1, January 2008

Well we are quite far behind on our family updates. I’ll try to get a couple of updates out so you can see what we’ve been up to. Well it probably boils down to being sick a lot. Heather’s dust allergy has kicked up with a vengeance, I got quite sick in February, and Katrine has been happy to share in the bountiful joys of illnesses from daycare, including a bout of “hand, foot, and mouth” that she also shared with her father.

January started off with Heather’s birthday and a gluten free cake. Katrine was quite distressed that this was a store bought cake and not home made. However she was mollified when given the opportunity to enhance the decorations on said cake.

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We pick up later with Heather and Katrine at the Robbie Burns Supper (ah The Bard) where Heather danced and managed to have a really bad bout of asthma.  Katrine looked cute, and managed to find a playmate for the evening named Catherine… just to get everyone confused.  Glenn and Grandma T. were the only ones from the family to eat the Haggis, a big loss to everyone else in my opinion.

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Finally, when not sick, we managed to take some time out to go skating at our local outdoor skating rink.  Katrine always seems to enjoy herself, and is getting quite good with out the help of any formal lessons.  She has asked about hockey on occasion, but we’ll wait and see if that is a real interest before making any decisions.

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Look for a couple more posts up coming over the next couple of days.

Happy New Year!

I am finally taking a moment to wish everyone all the best in 2008!

The holidays were busy for the Attwood clan. The highlight for Katrine was the pink digital camera that Santa brought her. Some of her pictures are actually quite good. For us it was new years eve at the zoo. It gave us the chance to see the nocturnal animals moving all around. Plus, the had a really good kid friendly show on as well. Even better, it got us out and moving after all of that turkey. We have also had alot of fun playing in the snow. I mean, you never know when it will melt away. Today, Katrine had particular fun building a snowman which she named Frosty.
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Making a Pumpkin Pie

For most people, making pumpkin pie means opening up a tin and going from there. Well this time around, it was a bit different. Between Katrine’s 1 trip to the farm and my 2 we ended up with three pie pumpkins that needed a purpose. What do you do with pie pumpkins? Make pie of course. Glenn dug up a recipe on the internet and we dug in – literally. Here is the story of this adventure…

Dig out those gutts. We then nuked them and whizzed them in the blender but no photos of that. Glenn did manage to knock a pot lid off the counter onto his foot during that process and was hobbling around for most of the week.
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Pour stuff into a big bowl and mix.
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Bake.
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Lastly, enjoy.
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Glenn found it too fluffy but Katrine seemed to like it. She did object to the lack of whip cream and the fact that they were eating pumpkin pies when it was not Thanksgiving.
We put the tree up today(I know but I LOVE Christmas) and she was simply trembling with anticipation. When we put out the nativity she started to sing Jesus loves me(…”and you do too”) and announced that we couldn’t forget Baby Jesus’ birthday cake. Then she wrote her first letter to Santa asking for a camera: “I w a c” and a wobbly rectangle. We are hoping that Santa can read preschooler. Tomorrow we are heading out to the local Santa Claus parade(not Glenn though because of football playoffs).

Happy Thanksgiving

The fall has been full of changes…some pleasant and others not. Glenn began a new job the first full week of September. It has been a good move and he is enjoying the new challenges. The second week of September, my Nana passed away at 95. Her funeral was lovely and the support of family and friends was overwhelming. September also saw Katrine return to gymnastics, me to dance and Glenn to hockey (he has already scored a goal this time around!!), Katrine also started to take Highland dance lessons. Thus far she has mastered most of the basic positions and highcuts. We are worked on bowing. Most important though, she is having fun and burning off steam. October has dawned with unseasonably high temperatures and beautiful sunshine.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

The summer draws to a close

August has been a very busy but fun month for all of us.
We traveled to Ottawa over the long weekend for the Children’s Bridge Picnic. While there we visited a few museums. Our favourite was the display of Chinese artifacts at the Museum of Civilization. It was extremely interesting. Katrine however, was not impressed. She much prefered the children’s section of the museum and had to be pried away at naptime. We also explored the Museum of Technology. We actually had a wee ride on a steam engine which was pretty cool. During our visit we were lucky enough to be able to meet up with one of the families who adopted from the same orphanage. The girls had a wonderful time playing together.
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A calligraphy brush. This was displayed alongside some scrolls. It was really interesting to look at the product capable of being produced with such a utensil.
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We were also lucky enough to be invited to spend a weekend at Glenn’s sister’s cottage which was super relaxing. Katrine actually went in the lake this year, thanks to her floaty bathing suit. (It is a swimsuit that has pockets that hold blocks of foam which allow the child to float. It gave Katrine enough confidence to risk the lake and she ended up having a great time.) She also went fishing with her cousins. Both of them caught fish while Katrine enjoyed going through the motions.
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This month has also seen us journey to the Lantern Festival, attend soccer games, picnic with friends and generally have a wonderful time. Katrine passed Preschool B swimming and was super proud of herself. She has also learned how to ride a two wheeler with training wheels. I guess that next year will see her with a few more scrapped knees as she works on not using training wheels…I think we will just enjoy this phase.
Katrine starts preschool tomorrow. She is both excited and nervous. I am setting up my classroom starting tomorrow and Glenn starts a new job next week!!!! Katrine will also have her first Highland Dance class in two weeks time (we will see how that goes, keep your fingers crossed) and will go back to Chinese and gymnastics. Hopefully it will help her sleep to be so active.