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.
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!)
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.
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.
We just go home from visiting my brother’s family in Glencoe. It was my nephew, Charles’, family birthday celebration as well as their local fair. (My neice, Virginia, took two first place ribbons for an old-tool creature and beaded bracelet, We are so proud of her. The creature was really cool.) My nephew’s favourite part of the fair is the Demolition Derby so in honour of his birthday we had to stay for that. I thought it was awesome. At one point a car managed to drive on top of another competitor’s car. Really cool…just goes to prove that I am my brother’s sister. Katrine however was scared to go to sleep tonight because she might dream of the smash-up cars. It seems like it will be a while until we go back to the fair or at least the derby. Sigh! A fun weekend with a freshly tramatized child. What’s a mother to do?
Let me begin by finishing the story of our garden which Glenn began to blog about in the early spring. Most of it has been harvested. In fact, this afternoon we dug up all dozen potatoes and the handful of red onions. Our corn didn’t grow tall and only produced fist-sized cobs, but the kernels were juicy. Besides, we got to eat them before the local urban wildlife so it was not a complete failure. Our harvest of cucumbers has been much better than in past years. In fact, we couldn’t pull out the plant because it has one last lonely bud. Got to wait and see if anything grows from it especially as the weather seems to be staying warm. The biggest success of this year’s garden are the tomatoe plants. We have already made countless batches of salsa and two pots of the freshest, most delicious tomatoe sauce. Glenn will post photos of the corn later.
It was a busy summer. Katrine enjoyed visiting her aunt’s cottage(that is where the swiming photo is from…it seems that the swimming lessons are paying off), playing endless rounds of Barbie and searching for mushrooms. This summer was a roaring success in terms of mushroom hunting. We have photographed twice as many types as last year so now it is up to mom to figure out what type they are. The funny thing about looking for mushrooms is that once you begin to notice that there is such a variety of sizes, colours and shapes you can’t help but see them when you go out walking. While visiting my parents in Victoria Harbour, we had the chance to attend Tug Fest. Yes a festival for tug boats. I know that it sounds a bit unusual but it was actually pretty fascinating. I really never stopped to think about how many different types of tug boats there are. Katrine’s favourite part was the nightime parade of lit-up tugboats because the largest one set off fireworks.
The highlight of August for Katrine was definetely Culture Camp at the Chinese Canadian Culture Center in Scarborough. She is fascinated with all things China right now because “it is the best! I was born there!” so camp was right up her alley. She got to sing in Mandarin, do some kungfu, dance and do crafts. Plus, two of her cousins and two of her Yongning sisters were there with her. They put on a performance on the last day of camp, which was absolutely adorable, and we saw her in make-up for the first time. Oh my goodness, that was a bit of a surprise.
So that brings us to September and back to school. Katrine is now in Senior Kindergarten and I am currently teaching an SK-Grade 1. Katrine has a new teacher this year but she seems to be liking her and is excited about going to school in the morning so what more can I ask for. Last night I waited almost two hours to enroll her in Mandarin language classes which begin next week. Plus, she will be starting back up with Highland dance and figure skating classes. Yes, the carpool of mom will be busy.
That pretty much brings you up-to-date. Enjoy the photos.
It appears that Katrine has developed a new interest…inventions. In this video, she can be seen beside her frozen treat machine. It is a pretty straightforward machine; put stuff in one end and the treat comes out the other. What makes this video special is that it is mostly a safety training video for those who would like to work her machine. Enjoy!
