Attwood Family

One of the things that Elspeth has done for fun last month was go to climbing camp.  Yup, she likes to climb and is actually rather good at it.  Five half days of climbing a happy girl made.

Elspeth and I had a lot of fun baking this week.  She made GF wild blueberry scones and banana chocochip muffins and helped me to ice the GF rainbow chip cake that we whipped up.  Where was Katrine?  Skating, where else.

I was so lucky this month because I got to try two new resturants.  The first was Canyon Creek downtown.  Mmmm.  The food was yummy.  The second was The Burgers Priest.  Man was that a burger.  Yes gluten free and also declicious!

What a way to start off with a BANG!  Here is the skinny:

Glenn has been using time to build Katrine a box for her off ice.  It still needs to be painted so that it reaches peak coolness but they have already had fun making it.

This past weekend we went to a birthday part for extended family member.  Glenn got to get back into baseball and even had the chance to show Katrine the ropes.  She really did pretty well considering that she has only played catch not swung a bat!  Elspeth enjoyed her round of mini putt with Baba…as you can see.  Me?  I got to catch up.  My favourite kind of party.

With Katrine off at skating, Elspeth and I have been filling the time with swimming, the park and rainbow looming.  We have made bracelets, necklaces, octopi, bees and a penguin.  I say “we” because she has done some and me others. (Thank goodness my new glasses came in, those elastics are hard to see sometimes.)

Yesterday we went to the beach with other extended family and both girls had a blast.  After we came home, we broke out the henna.  Here is some practical advice: don’t let your kids draw on your feet with henna.  The results can be …. interesting.

A rainy Canada Day saw us at our community celebration with Elspeth’s band.  The rain stopped while they were playing and the opening ceremonies conducted.  After we had finished lunch, the skies opened up.  Thank goodness she was done.  We spent the rest of the day enjoying each other’s company and relaxing at home.

Yes, a rare post about me!!  I decided to take a moment for myself with two friends and do a painting afternoon.  It was alot of fun and I will let you judge the finished product.  What else have I been up to besides finishing school?  Why getting ready for a summer course.  It should be great.

Either last year or the year before, Elspeth got a skateboard for Christmas.  The warm days of summer have prompted her to get it back out and work on improving her speed and balance.  In other news, she has begun to experiment with different places to sleep.  One of her most recent options can be found below.

Okay, I have been slow to post updates with it being the end of the school year so you are going to get four in succession so that I am beginning summer break feeling calm and collected.  Katrine is the first post; and it is about skating of course.  (As an aside, she is really pleased with her report card , as are we, because she has worked really hard this year to try and balance school work, friends and skating.).  Anyways, she passed her most recent skills and ice dance test and is in process of learning her new solo.  A new solo brings with it a new dress which she is super excited about.  I won’t tell you too much about it yet but I think that she and her coaches did an excellent job of combining some drama with youthfulness.

Yup, that was this past weekend and it was fun!!  Friday night was the after school care carnival.  The girls had a blast.  We got there early enough that they were able to get onto the inflatables without having to wait for a line.   There was also friends, popcorn and balloon creations (the first set popped but they were able to go back and get new ones).  I think their favourite part was the face painting station.  Now, these were some seriously talented ladies and the girls were sad to have to wash it off in the morning.  The first time they got their faces done but then they went back up to get their arms done.  The results were gorgeous.

Saturday brought with it the arrival of most of the Tomlinson clan.  The fact that one of my dad’s cousins and her crew were visiting from Florida provided the perfect excuse for the get together.  As usual, we were a lively and spirited group and it was a lot of fun.  It was great to reconnect with everyone and see how much the kids had grown.  We missed a few cousins but they were there in spirit.

Of course, Sunday was Father’s Day.  We celebrated with a visit to Glenn’s mom, lunch out, a trip to the park and then steak, baked and beer.  Throw in two new water bottles (just in time for the super hot day) and you had a happy Glenn.

Our journey began on Monday evening (thank you Kris, the cones worked perfectly) in the kitchen.  It was time to craft our unicorn horns.  Okay, maybe not Monday exactly.  I mean, we made the decision to do the Colour Run last month as a fun thing to do with the girls but then the count down started on Monday.  Katrine and Elspeth thought it would be fun to go as unicorns so that we could become rainbow unicorns and who was I to disagree?  I mean, I had told them that the whole purpose of this 5K was to have fun being active and practise not taking things too seriously.  How could I turn around and tell them that I did not want to wear a unicorn horn for 5K?  So we broke out the glue gun and headbands to make our horns.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night I picked the girls up and we headed out to pick up our race packages.  Boy were they excited.  They instead that we should visit their Grammy so that they could tell her about their days at school (Beach Day & Track and Field respectively) and show her their loot.  Of course, we couldn’t arrive empty handed and picked up some Cinnabons.  They looked so yummy.

After checking the weather forecast all week, we woke to sunny skies!!! (yeah!)  Off we drove in our white, cleanness.  It was a big crowd but the music and bubbles got us going.  Surprisingly, I didn’t feel out of place with my head attire.  Perhaps, the men in tutus, multi coloured wigs and compliments had something to do with it. More important, the girls were proud of their horns and eager to get them coloured.  Unfortunately, the colour didn’t stick to well to the cardboard so they are still basically white.  They were selling rainbow unicorn plushies at the finish line so they did come home with one of those and got their rainbowness.

I am not sure what a “good” time for a 5K is but I figure that we did pretty good by finishing in just under an hour.  We traveled at Elspeth pace so it was mostly walking with a few bursts of jogging near the start which, if I am honest, was fine with me because I doubt that I could have jogged much past 2K.  Katrine was gracious enough to travel with us and encourage Elspeth along the whole way.  Perhaps, another 5K is in her future if we can find one for kids so that she can see what it is like to travel at her own pace….I just hope that she doesn’t ask me to run with her.

With the sunshine and the walking and the colours, a good time was had.  I had “forgotten” to mention to the girls that they would get a finishers’ medal at the end so you can imagine their surprise and delight when the were handed a medal after coming out of the final colour cloud.  First thing they did was show their father.  Overall, a successful, fun outing.