Season's Greetings 2012
Season's Greetings 2012!!
We have a new hypothesis in this house - that the older the kids get, the faster time flies. When we look at Nick and Sophie today, a year ago really feels like forever. We have to look over our photos from each month to remind us of what actually happened in the last 12 months. We also had a momentary thought of discontinuing these annual updates but eventually decided they'll be good for our memory in years to come so, hopefully, enjoy! Unfortunately Blogger has decided it only will allow uploading of pics from Google Docs, so we've had to put together a Smile Box of photos from the year, attached here. Hope you enjoy those too.
Last January we started the year with a visit to friends Paul & Chris in the Eastern Townships. Lots of snow allowed for great sledding, witnessed by the gash in Nick's forehead. The kids loved Echo the dog.
February we resumed visits to Winterlude in Ottawa, visiting friends Danny & Amal, while Paul & Chris visited too. The skating on the canal didn't happen, too warm and mushy, but we still had lots of fun sledding & tubing and Nick & Sophie loved staying over at Danny & Amal's playing pool & ping pong. They want to g back this year and "stay two nights". Mummy and Daddy are not arguing, thinking two nights in a hotel sans kids will be just fine, thank you Danny & Amal!
March found Nicolas' grade 5 class putting on a class-written play about the Trojan War. This is how we discovered that Nick loves history. Karen volunteered to sew Trojan soldier costumes for the play which is how we confirmed that Karen hates sewing (used magic iron-on sewing tape) but that Nick enjoys sewing and ended up sewing the seams of his own costume. A real renaissance man.
April of course is simply about Easter and chocolate.
May brings Spring and flowers and for us a visit to Suzanne & Chris in Connecticut, always fun for the kids.
Jean turned 49 in June and apparently we are not saying any more about that. Cannot wait for next year! Nicolas' class went to the Pointe Claire canoe club and the kids got lessons kayaking and dragon boat racing.
In July we took two trips - one to visit Leslie & Charles on Grand Manan, taking Grandma Daigle along again. Sophie and Mummy took in an afternoon tea on a veranda overlooking the Bay of Fundy. Sophie enjoyed it so much she asked to have a tea party for her birthday this year. The second trip was to Cape Cod for a week, renting a house with Tracy & Lloyd so the kids got to hang out with cousins Will & Lleyton. We had absolutely beautiful weather for both trips, luckily. Also in July, the kids and Karen took in a local Shakespeare in the Park production of the Taming of the Shrew. Turns out the kids really like Shakespeare so they spent a few weeks reading kids' adaptations of a few of his better-known plays. We're really looking forward to the 2013 production of a Midsummer Night's Dream.
We stayed local in August but the kids wrapped up their summer 2012 soccer season, Sophie playing for Zambia and Nicolas for Poland. Nicolas' team won gold in their age division.
September is back to school, of course, as Sophie entered grade 2 and Nicolas grade 5. Seems surreal that Nick will start high school in two years! Sophie also moved up to Brownies and attended an all-day camp up in Morin Heights. Nicolas, a Cub until he moves to Scouts this January, participated in the Great Canadian Shore Cleanup where groups from coast to coast clean up garbage from their local shore lines. Nick's troop cleaned up the shore of Lac St-Louis here in Dorval and collected a huge pile of garbage including car tires, car batteries, clothes & furniture. No idea who, in this day and age, dumps such things into our lakes and rivers. Sad. Also in September, we headed back down to Connecticut for Labour Day weekend, hitting Six Flags New England and visiting some more with Suzanne and Chris. Unfortunately, we also discovering that Nicolas has developed an allergy to cats. Finally, wow is September busy, Sophie turned 7 on September 20th. She is super smart, LOVES school and her amazing teacher. She's into Lego, only because they finally started marketing to girls with Lego Friends, and because Nick is too, so there's someone to help her build. Sophie wanted to repeat the fun of afternoon tea on Grand Manan for her birthday so she invited her friends to partake in "tea" (fruit punch) and cakes. They each got to select a delicate china teacup to drink from. It seemed a hit.
October is all about Hallowe'en and Nick got into the spirit by recycling his school play costume and going out as a Trojan soldier. Sophie morphed into a beautiful butterfly for the occasion. We were quite happy that they finally got away, for this year at least, from asking us to buy horrible, plastic, overpriced character costumes. Fingers crossed for next year.
November is Movember month and, for the first time, Jean joined a group at CAE to raise funds. It was his first mustache, ever, and we have all determined it to be his last (except for Movembers) as it really did not suit. He agreed. Nicolas turned 11 on November 7th. No mustache. He's heavy into Lego, especially Star Wars sets, and Pokemon and anything you can play on a DS or Wii. He's very good at school, which is all the more impressive as he tells us at least weekly that he hates it. We found out last year that both kids are academically gifted so we have tried to find interesting, stimulating activities for them but Nicolas is uninterested in being further stimulated, preferring to spend his downtime doing the things he enjoys.
Finally, December. Christmas of course, but also Grandma Daigle's 81st birthday. We usually have Christmas dinner at Grandma's too but Leslie & Charles decided to bring their cats up for the holidays and with 3 of 4 Bleakley-Daigles being allergic to cats, and both kids having asthma and colds, that meant a quiet Christmas turkey for 4 chez nous. Friends were visiting from Scotland so there was lots of fun with friends and cousins Alessandra & Amanda, too. We went to a New Year's Eve party and made it back in time to celebrate the stroke of midnight back home. Some good champagne (or apple juice & Perrier for kids) saw 2013 in nicely.
Thus ends the year-in-review for 2012. We think it went well and are looking forward to an equally happy, healthy and fun 2013 and wish the same for all family and friends.
Karen, Jean, Nicolas & Sophie
February we resumed visits to Winterlude in Ottawa, visiting friends Danny & Amal, while Paul & Chris visited too. The skating on the canal didn't happen, too warm and mushy, but we still had lots of fun sledding & tubing and Nick & Sophie loved staying over at Danny & Amal's playing pool & ping pong. They want to g back this year and "stay two nights". Mummy and Daddy are not arguing, thinking two nights in a hotel sans kids will be just fine, thank you Danny & Amal!
March found Nicolas' grade 5 class putting on a class-written play about the Trojan War. This is how we discovered that Nick loves history. Karen volunteered to sew Trojan soldier costumes for the play which is how we confirmed that Karen hates sewing (used magic iron-on sewing tape) but that Nick enjoys sewing and ended up sewing the seams of his own costume. A real renaissance man.
April of course is simply about Easter and chocolate.
May brings Spring and flowers and for us a visit to Suzanne & Chris in Connecticut, always fun for the kids.
Jean turned 49 in June and apparently we are not saying any more about that. Cannot wait for next year! Nicolas' class went to the Pointe Claire canoe club and the kids got lessons kayaking and dragon boat racing.
In July we took two trips - one to visit Leslie & Charles on Grand Manan, taking Grandma Daigle along again. Sophie and Mummy took in an afternoon tea on a veranda overlooking the Bay of Fundy. Sophie enjoyed it so much she asked to have a tea party for her birthday this year. The second trip was to Cape Cod for a week, renting a house with Tracy & Lloyd so the kids got to hang out with cousins Will & Lleyton. We had absolutely beautiful weather for both trips, luckily. Also in July, the kids and Karen took in a local Shakespeare in the Park production of the Taming of the Shrew. Turns out the kids really like Shakespeare so they spent a few weeks reading kids' adaptations of a few of his better-known plays. We're really looking forward to the 2013 production of a Midsummer Night's Dream.
We stayed local in August but the kids wrapped up their summer 2012 soccer season, Sophie playing for Zambia and Nicolas for Poland. Nicolas' team won gold in their age division.
September is back to school, of course, as Sophie entered grade 2 and Nicolas grade 5. Seems surreal that Nick will start high school in two years! Sophie also moved up to Brownies and attended an all-day camp up in Morin Heights. Nicolas, a Cub until he moves to Scouts this January, participated in the Great Canadian Shore Cleanup where groups from coast to coast clean up garbage from their local shore lines. Nick's troop cleaned up the shore of Lac St-Louis here in Dorval and collected a huge pile of garbage including car tires, car batteries, clothes & furniture. No idea who, in this day and age, dumps such things into our lakes and rivers. Sad. Also in September, we headed back down to Connecticut for Labour Day weekend, hitting Six Flags New England and visiting some more with Suzanne and Chris. Unfortunately, we also discovering that Nicolas has developed an allergy to cats. Finally, wow is September busy, Sophie turned 7 on September 20th. She is super smart, LOVES school and her amazing teacher. She's into Lego, only because they finally started marketing to girls with Lego Friends, and because Nick is too, so there's someone to help her build. Sophie wanted to repeat the fun of afternoon tea on Grand Manan for her birthday so she invited her friends to partake in "tea" (fruit punch) and cakes. They each got to select a delicate china teacup to drink from. It seemed a hit.
October is all about Hallowe'en and Nick got into the spirit by recycling his school play costume and going out as a Trojan soldier. Sophie morphed into a beautiful butterfly for the occasion. We were quite happy that they finally got away, for this year at least, from asking us to buy horrible, plastic, overpriced character costumes. Fingers crossed for next year.
November is Movember month and, for the first time, Jean joined a group at CAE to raise funds. It was his first mustache, ever, and we have all determined it to be his last (except for Movembers) as it really did not suit. He agreed. Nicolas turned 11 on November 7th. No mustache. He's heavy into Lego, especially Star Wars sets, and Pokemon and anything you can play on a DS or Wii. He's very good at school, which is all the more impressive as he tells us at least weekly that he hates it. We found out last year that both kids are academically gifted so we have tried to find interesting, stimulating activities for them but Nicolas is uninterested in being further stimulated, preferring to spend his downtime doing the things he enjoys.
Finally, December. Christmas of course, but also Grandma Daigle's 81st birthday. We usually have Christmas dinner at Grandma's too but Leslie & Charles decided to bring their cats up for the holidays and with 3 of 4 Bleakley-Daigles being allergic to cats, and both kids having asthma and colds, that meant a quiet Christmas turkey for 4 chez nous. Friends were visiting from Scotland so there was lots of fun with friends and cousins Alessandra & Amanda, too. We went to a New Year's Eve party and made it back in time to celebrate the stroke of midnight back home. Some good champagne (or apple juice & Perrier for kids) saw 2013 in nicely.
Thus ends the year-in-review for 2012. We think it went well and are looking forward to an equally happy, healthy and fun 2013 and wish the same for all family and friends.
Karen, Jean, Nicolas & Sophie
posted by KarenB @ 2:03 PM
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