We are all set for Christmas and if the weather forecasts are right, we should actually have some snow by this time tomorrow!! Yippee! The last few years we shovelled all of the snow into a big pile beside our driveway so that Katrine had her own personal mini-tobogganing hill. Can’t wait to get started on this year’s hill. (Thank goodness she is still short and young. Soon we will need to take her to an actually hill for tobogganing). I am also hoping to get both her and Glenn out onto cross-country skiis this winter. It has been way to long since I skiied.
As usual we are skating. Today we got out and enjoyed the skate trail at Richmond Green. We will be there often this winter. Keeping our fingers crossed that by next winter we will be teaching a new little one to skate.
I picked Katrine up at After School Care today and was told that school was AWESOME!! She thinks that her teacher is great, which always helps. What did she learn? “A few words in French, that I can’t remember. How to have respect for our school and we used clay…and I played with A***y at the park.”
I was pretty proud of her this morning. An older girl was waiting at the bus stop with her. The girl said, “You look adopted.” (Granted Glenn and I were waiting with her) Katrine responds, “I’m not adopted. I was born in China and then adopted. Are you adopted?” Girl, “Um, no. These are my real parents.” The meaning of the last remark seems to have escaped her but that could be because she noticed the school bus coming down the road. Sigh, I hope that we have prepared her well for the questions that seem to be croping up already.
To end on a happier note, I hope that you enjoy the photo.
You can tell that the summer is coming to a close because Katrine is in culture camp, I am back in to school getting everything ready and we went to Bracebridge this weekend. There is a really nice, small competition in Bracebridge and it is one of Katrine’s favourites. This year she even had a friend from her dance class there. The pair had a lot of fun reading a Pokemon book and practicing.
Anyways, all of Katrine’s practicing this summer and her hard work at dance camp this past week paid off. She won in each of her dances. She got a first in her fling and a second in pas de basque and high cuts as well as a fourth and sixth. As you can see in the photo, she is super proud of herself which is why I thought that I would share.
Now for a pumpkin update. You might remember that we planted pumpkins in our garden this summer. Well our one pumpking met with an unfortunate fate. It was eaten by the local wildlife. I suppose that means we will be buying our pie and Halloween pumpkins again this year.
Yesterday Katrine came back from a few days at her grandparents. We took the training wheels off of her bike and have been working with her on learning to ride it. Well, doesn’t she come back from their house riding it. Now, she can only go a few driveways by herself before she has to stop but still that is riding. Yippee! We promised her that when she could ride well enough to go to our local gas station we would buy her a slushie and a treat. It looks like she might just reach that goal by the time school starts up again.
We also have pumpkins. They are small. They are yellow. BUT they are pumpkins and we are delighted.
Well, school is finished for the year and we celebrated by having some fun…mostly. On Canada Day we headed off to Embro for a dance competition. Us go to a dance competition again? I know, its schocking. Embro really is a great competition. On top of the dancing they have sheep hurding, bands, tug-of-war and fresh squeezed lemonade (Glenn and Katrine’s favourite). There were two highlights for us this year: 1. There was a surprise fly-by during the awards ceremony which was fun to watch and 2. I did not break anything this year so no visit to the ER for us on Canada Day. I will admit that alone helped to make this year’s Canada Day better than last year. Katrine also danced really well which was an added bonus. She was thrilled with her new medals and is continuing to work hard at practising her dancing. Our next competition is actually next weekend and then it will be a nice long break until our final competition of the season in August.
The day after Embro, Katrine and I piled into the car and headed to Ottawa to visit with friends. The trip was a bit of a breakthrough for Katrine as both families have large and friendly dogs. This time she didn’t whine and try to run away. She actually stayed calm. Maybe, just maybe, we are turning a corner in terms of her being super afraid of dogs Anyways, Katrine had a blast watching the hand-crank locks being worked in Merrickville. She also found the glass blower pretty interesting. There was some really nice shopping at the glass blowers which was good for mommy. We had the most delicious meal, gluten free of course, at a local restaurant in Kemptville called the Branches. I can’t thank Catherine and Gary enough for suggesting that we eat there. I can sum it up in one word as YUM!
We also had the joy of visiting with one of the Yongning families; the very one that we went to Disney with. A delicious barbeque on Friday night and a whole fun filled day at Suanders Farm on Sunday. I had a great visit, as well as some much needed relaxation, and Katrine had an absolute blast with her friend. It was fabulous watching the girls play together and bond. On Sunday night they hauled the hose around to the backyard and turned it on. The two of them made a glorious mud puddle and then they proceeded to jump, splash and roll in it too their hearts content. They had pure, uncomplicated fun.
What else are we up to? Glenn has started to take swimming lessons. He has sore arms but is enjoying it. Katrine is also taking swimming lessons. She actually swam a while using her arms. She still has to work on her back strock though because she sinks quite well. Me? I am taking skating lessons at the same time as Katrine. The teacher was showing on of the other students a simple waltz jump. It looked sooo cool but I have promised Glenn and Katrine that I wouldn’t jump just in case we had a repeat of last year’s Canada Day adventure. Instead, I am sticking to working on cross-overs and backwards skating.
Yes, another competition post but this one is a bit different than last weekends for one main reason….we didn’t get rained on!! That alone is exciting. The icing on the cake was that Katrine danced really well and won a medal in each of the dances (4th, 2 5ths and a 6th) and did the mass fling (the girls stand in a circle in a field and dance together to multiple pipers while everyone claps)!! Plus, my parents drove in from Victoria Harbour so I even got a break from craft duty. Just a short post today as we, the grown ups, are off to the movies to see The A Team. Can’t wait. I use to watch it every weekend as a kid.
Okay, we have been pretty bad at updating our blog thus far this year but I am here now so prepare to be updated!
Let’s see. In March we went to Disney for a week. One of the families from our adoption travel group was there at the same time. It was a fabulous vacation! Katrine and her “sister” had a blast running around and playing together and it was nice for us grown-ups to have someone to chat with. Plus, our friend Jennifer T. knows Disney like the back of her hand and really went out of her way to make the experience special for us.(Thank you 😀 )
April was eventful for a number of reasons…some good and others not so great. Let’s start with the good shall we. Katrine skated in another figure skating competition this month. She worked really hard, had fun and won two medals – a first and third. She also celebrated her 6th birthday with a China themed birthday party (her idea).  We worked for about two weeks before the party to create a dragon so that the girls could do a dragon dance. Unfortunately it was a windy day and the dragon was unusable once they had finished with it. That said, they had a lot of fun parading around the driveway with it. Oh yes, and chasing me around with it. Katrine actually got two cakes for her birthday this year (as you can see below). The first was for a family get together so it was gluten free while the cupcakes were for her friend party. They actually say her name in Chinese characters, which I am quite proud of.
The dragon before the dance.
The not so good part of April was a trip to the ER for me. A slight-ish, epipen treated allergic reaction that started on the way to school and involved an ambulance ride as well as a stay in the ER for a wee while. Lots of fun. It also resulted in a very restricted diet. I never expected my allergies to get to quite this level but here I am. It has forced me to cute a lot of foods and has increased our grocery bill substantially but sometimes you just have to suck it up. The funny part of the story though is that I discovered my “happy place”. When I had a minor trip to the ER at the end of January which resulted in my acquiring the epipen, the doctor told me that I should always stay calm if I ever had another reaction. So, when my reaction started to intensify I mentally went to my happy place -a field of yellow flowers. Yes, the girl who is allergic to everything that grows has a happy place full of yellow flowers and green grass. Odd isn’t it? I always expected it to be full of glistening snow. Boy was I wrong.
May saw Katrine pulling a ligament in her ankle by simply walking. This caused us to miss Scott’s 40th birthday part (yes, my big brother is the big 4 – 0) much to our dismay. She was pretty miserable though because she had to sit still with her foot raised for three days; aka torture. We watched about two seasons of Kim Possible that weekend.
May also marked the 5th anniversary reunion of our adoption travel group. Half of us met in Niagara and the other half in Ottawa. We are planning to head out Ottawa way at the beginning of the summer to try and see some of the Ottawa faction. Anyways, we all had a fabulous time at Great Wolf Lodge. We even managed to get Katrine to go on some of the slides with us. More important though, she got to spend time with her “sisters” and build a stronger bond with them while we relaxed and got caught up with this extended family of ours. It is hard to believe that five years ago in February we held these girls for the very first time and here they were splashing about and running around the halls of the hotel with their rainbow ribbons. It was a wonderful start to the long weekend.
We also planted our garden. Trying to grow some pumpkins this year.
This weekend has been busy. It was the AGM of the RHFSC this afternoon and they also had an awards ceremony/pizza party for the skaters. Well, we thought that that Katrine would get the pizza and play with friends while we got the information. We were in for a surprise though. She got an award for being the most congenial Canskate skater. It is quite a nice award. I mean, it is framed and everything. She was pretty excited. That is her coach with her. She also got an award which doesn’t surprise me because she is a fabulous coach and Katrine adores her.
Plus, right now we are in the midst of Katrine’s very first sleepover. She has been looking forward to this all week. Right now the girls are wide awake in bed. I know they are still awake because I can just hear their whispering. Ahh, the days of sleepovers…I remember them fondly. I wonder when she will feel brave enough to sleep over at someone else’s house and drive those parents batty.
Glenn has been working hard this month to replace the deck on the back of our house. All of us managed to get splinters last summer and at least one was bad enough to require medical attention (try to avoid getting a splinter under your nail). Anyways, we decided that a new deck was a necessity before school was out. Well, it is looking good so far. Glenn thinks that he might get the better part of it finished tomorrow. I am so excited. Not only will we not be looking at more splinters this summer but also a beautiful deck!
All the deck boards are on and the stairs go in tomorrow.
I think that has brought you more or less up to date. It is report card season, so I should really sign off and try to get some of them done. I will try really hard to get around to updating this more often.
Today we were at the Winter Glitters competition here in Richmond Hill. It was a really nice arena and it wasn’t too cold inside either. All the Grandparents were there so it was a real family outing.
Katrine skated in the Orange group and had to do five different moves. She tied for third in her group. She skated really well and we are proud of her. She however sighs when she looks at her medal and says, “The other colours are nicer.” I suppose that we have something to work for.
I know that I will not get another chance to up date the blog before the whole season takes over so I thought that I should take this moment of down-time and do it right away. Now I know that you are all shaking your heads and wondering what Heather could possibly have left to do. Baking! Tomorrow is the day to bake a batch of Christmas shaped rice krispy treats, a batch of cookies and a birthday cake for Baby Jesus (just us trying to put the religion front and center on the holiday….that and it is an excuse to have gluten-free cake).
The most exciting thing to happen this month was when the Olympic torch came through our humble town. None of us had the chance to see it but Katrine did skate in the torch celebration that night. It was too cute for words. It was great. Here are some photos for you. I hope that it gives you a sense of how cute the whole thing was.
