I'm Four and a Half

I hope you're well, and having a good late Fall. Let me remind you that Christmas is on the way - this will be my 5th, and Ollie's 2nd. I am very excited - even though I'm older. I can't imagine ever not being excited about Christmas.
We had our team pictures for Vancouver United last week - it was very organized, and so quick. I'll post the pictures when they get them out to us. Soccer is going well, although it's getting colder. It's been great having my Dad as an Asst Coach, although I've never played soccer anywhere without him giving advice and offering encouragement - I wonder if I'll ever get tired of that...

Also last week, I finally got my haircut at my Dad's barber - I'm not sure what the big deal was, it was easy. Travis did a great job - although he had an awful lot of Dublin hair to work with. He's a class act that gentleman.

I also went on my first Ferris Wheel this past weekend. It was an hour wait, but well worth it - it was so high! It was just awesome. I think it might have been my Dad's first as well - he didn't seem to enjoy it very much... 'too much swinging' he said. It was also my Mum's birthday this past weekend. We had a wonderful dinner for her, and I bought her some beautiful pink shoes. She loves them!

So far it's been a delightful Fall, with pretty good weather. I almost forgot!! After all that swimming, I have now passed my Sea Otter, and my Salamander levels - you're looking at a brand new SUNFISH!!

Our Fall Family

What a wonderful October we've had! The weather's been changing, the colours, the light, everything! It's now officially Halloween, and I've had my school concert, for which I was the legendary Batman! Here's Batman, sans mask, eating pizza, checking out the situation. Tonight, I'll be doing a number of Halloween excursions, and I threw my Mum a late curveball wanting now to be a BAT! She came through - pictures to come!

We went to Whidbey Island again with some friends. It's so great out there! Here's Liam and I on the trampoline. Then later we picked fruit in their orchard... who has an orchard?

My brother Ollie actually walked on his own for the first time earlier this month on Whidbey - he posted a video here. 

Later in the month I went to a good friend's birthday party at a swimming pool - it was all 7 and 8 year old girls - girls are CRAZY!

I also am doing tons of new things at school like French, Math and Printing - here's my wall.

We actually had some professional family photos taken for the first time ever this month too, but I'll show you some of those next time too. Until next time... Hooray!!

Flying into Fall

Well, it's been seven weeks since my last confession. As a courtesy I'll tell you that the most important update is that my brother Ollie turned one year old a couple of weeks ago. He's got multiple chicklets in his mouth and is getting to a size where we actually have a good time playing together. Put it this way, he laughs at all my jokes. 

I'm now a senior at my school, and have started swimming classes again (5th set). I've also joined a proper soccer team in the shape of Vancouver United... I'm kind of thinking it's where Wayne Rooney started. For real. Anyway, it's a new set up for me, but I have a pair of friends on my team and I score the odd goal (with either foot).

I've been to a couple more Whitecaps games with my Dad (and his friends) and now sing most of the songs, and we even went to Seattle to see the caps play. 'We're Blue! We're White! We're super dynamite!

I already know what I'm going as for Halloween, I'm trying to master my printing at school, and I have now entered the 'posters on my bedroom wall' phase. Lastly, we bought a new couch (but still no race car).

Summer in the City

Hi Everyone! I hope you're all having a terrific summer. We've certainly been getting the weather for it. After we got home from The Continent we had our end of year celebration at school (still commonly referred to as khool). Yep, I wore a bow tie again - it's kind of my thing now.

Days after, I managed to cross something off my bucket list... I got up close and personal with a tow truck! I even got to ride in it for about half an hour! Dad wasn't quite as thrilled by the experience, but it was all pretty ok in the end.

It's been the perfect weather for bike riding and one Saturday, my Dad and I rode down Arbutus - on the Street! - and down to the beach, and along the water to Go Fish for dinner with Nanna and Grandpa. It was pretty epic.

We're back full time into Saturday morning soccer classes with Coach Glyn, and I've been going later in the day to play with the older kids. A couple of weeks ago, I scored eight goals... For Real! Here's a picture of one now.

Early July, we went with the Robinson family to Chain Lake! It was the best, forever. No one seemed interested in taking pictures, but here's one that the paparazzi got of me kayaking... that's right. I take out single kayaks now.... For Real!

But one mustn't forget the simple, comfortable things in life. A couple of mornings ago I went and had a steamed milk with the boys after helping Grandpa install a new cabinet at my khool. It was cool.

"We're all going on a... Summer Holiday"

It's late at night to be writing and all I have access to is my Dad's iPhone pictures, but I didn't want you to wait any longer, so I'll make you a deal. I'll post some quick pictures from my awesome holiday in London, France, Venice and Tuscany now - and I'll promise to post some more later from our better camera.

We had three fun-filled days and nights in London to start the trip off right - the first of which we spent at Grandad and Judith's as they hosted a terrific open house. We then went to France to live in a Chateau for five nights with 35 other wonderful people for Mike and Danielle's wedding! Congrats and thanks again guys!

After that, we took an overnight train to Venice - the train itself being quite an experience! I got the top of three bunks and loved every minute of it - finally a hotel room built for people my size. In Venice I was officially captained, had multiple visits to Caffeteria Doria with my Dad, did loads of walking and looking with the family and even dressed up here and there. With no cars on the islands, we were free to run through the streets like runaways (watch out for Italian elbows though).

After Venice, we took another train to Tuscany where we met up with more and more family for a week of eating, swimming, relaxing and learning Italian. It was an amazing trip with languages, endless soccer games, and new foreign sweets as the highlights. You should come with us next time!

Finally Four!

Well, that seemed to take forever (a quarter of my entire life in fact) - but I was patient and I am now four years old! I officially turned four a week ago on May 10th, but my parties were last weekend, and boy did we party!

We had an expert face painter who turned us all into lions and snakes and bats. We had a stubborn soccer ball piñata filled with sweets, toys and Mexican jumping beans. And we ate an incredible Dragon Cake that my mum made.

Later on, more people came for round two which was a shared party with my Dad (who is like a hundred). That was also fun as I was able to practice some of my new four year old sophistication.

Thank you for all the birthday wishes, and if you came by, thanks for making it such a wonderful birthday and for all the super fun presents.

April Activities

April has been a busy month. Not because I had to do my taxes or start Spring cleaning, but for other reasons... but it's starting to dawn on me that life is busy, and if life is always busy, then it hardly seems worthy of mention. So not having to state it should cut down my writing time, and your reading time, allowing you to look at some pictures with short captions...

The Easter Hunt in Victoria was terrific!

This is me after having a quick dinner at Kits Beach with my Dad.

This is my grumpy look.

This is the opposite of my grumpy look. Slade let my Dad and I drive
the three wheeler on Whidbey Island!

This was our very recent Spring Concert at school - most of our songs
have fairly complex hand gestures.

This was at the New Stadium (BC Place) when they had an open house
a couple of days ago hosted by the Whitecaps and the BC Lions.

I hope this finds you all well, and I truly hope to see you very soon (especially you).

Spring has Sprung!

The seasons and weather have seemed a little confused around these parts as of late, but that hasn't slowed me down any. Saturday Soccer camp has taken a bit of a break so my Dad and I (sometimes with company) have taken to hitting the all weather fields at UBC on Saturday mornings - the ball bounces way more!

When the weather doesn't cooperate, we make the most of our time indoors: sometimes Ollie and I roughhouse and other times my mum multitasks.

We as a family are starting to see that steady routines might be the path to happiness: Soccer Saturdays, Swimming and Taqueria Tuesdays, Little Nest, Commercial and Whitespot Sundays etc.

Last weekend (beautiful weather) we went for a hike through Lighthouse park, followed by some PinkBerry - gorgeous! And sometimes I just ask my friend Jer if I can try on his Star Wars helmet.

First Time Snowshoeing!

So add Snowshoeing to my list of accomplishments! The Saturday before last, there was no soccer school (for no known reason), and my Dad and I decided to take that opportunity to drive up Cypress and try Snowshoeing!

It was the perfect day for it - there was so much new snow! We got all our gear on, learned how to put our new big shoes on, and went for it. We hiked all 950m of the Hollyburn Meadows trail to the Hollyburn Lodge. That was where I developed a new love of poutine. We rested for a bit, and visited with some people, and then headed back into the whiteout.

The woman who helped us with our snowshoes at the beginning told my Dad that kids very rarely make it back with their snowshoes still on, but I powered through and did the whole 950m back as well. We were gone so long that Mum had started to worry, but we still had time to stop for another new treat on the way home at a place called Pinkberry (we brought her some home)(but none for Ollie).

2012 in Full Swing

Well, we sure got back into the swing of things since our lazy days of Christmas. We're back with Coach Glyn for Saturday Soccer - after which I usually get a mini red velvet cupcake. (Dad gets one too, but Mum and Ollie are none the wiser... until we get home and I tell them... in a loud voice.) Dad and I are back at Tuesday night swimming, or what I like to call whhimming - after which we're back to La Taqueria.

I recently went with my friends The Three Amigo Sisters to a place where they let us build our own piggy banks, that looked nothing like pigs or banks, and rather like poorly lit houses. Think real nails, hammers, screws and wood... it was awesome.

On Sunday night I went to the Women's Final Soccer game at 'The New Stadium!' with my friends Jasper and Max which was very exciting. And I've already been sledding twice this month!

Hope to see you soon!

Victoria Christmas '11 - 'I didn't do anything'

We're getting ready to leave Victoria today - I think we've been here for about a month, or a year it's hard to tell for sure. I've had the best time! We had a great Christmas and saw lots of old friends and relatives. I've seen lots of wildlife, done some hikes, played some soccer games, eaten ribs, bought sneakers, played with my new chainsaw (thanks Grandpa), driven cars, and learned ping pong.

One thing I've picked up this week is a useful phrase... I didn't do anything. It comes in handy whether you've done anything or not, but can also be used in advance. The response I most commonly receive is Oh really? which makes me think I'm really on to something.

One thing I did do this week, was make my brother Ollie laugh like he's never done before. He probably told you that he's taught himself to roll over, but now he can really chuckle - I'm sure he'll be able to play soccer in about 3 days.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

_

The REAL Santa...

I've met the real Santa three times now: once at my school, once downtown and once at Oakridge. I'm pretty sure that makes us acquaintances now - we'll find out on the Big Day I suppose.

The weather has been amazing this Fall - sure it's been cold, but it has barely rained at all. That means loads of playing outside. I'm pretty sure the older I get the more energy I have - I can barely stop to take a breath (I hear my parents complain about it quite a bit, but they're coming around).

We're playing our original Saturday Soccer now, and Coach Glyn has always preferred outdoors, which is awesome. (I promise that there are other kids here off camera getting a drink - this is not a personal camp set up by my Dad.) There must be a million balls to choose from at Soccer, but I still get pretty clingy to whichever one I've chosen. My Dad insisted on me posting this particular picture as he's excited that I've kicked the ball so hard that I'm airborne. It's a good thing I like soccer...