Schools out for summer!

Here is a post I wrote last week but it takes more time to add the pics: so here it is, finally.

This is a very popular Guitar Hero song around here today! Yeah!

It has been a busy couple weeks, lots going on... no matter where you live, I think June is the craziest month of the year when you have kids in school. There is not a lot of schoolwork happening, just lots of fun stuff. We are not at the age yet where there is exam stress, but that will come soon enough.

It started off with a Track and Field meet in Sandspit. Only 4 lanes on the field, only 4 schools in the district. The boys won ribbons in a variety of colours. nice work.


Next was Sports Day and every class picked their own team colour. D's class was the pink team. There were a lot of girls in the class :)

We played baseball on nice evenings. Here is proof I was on the field and not sitting in the stands as a spectator huddled in a blanket. When the team was short on players the boys would be asked to play too. They were pretty pumped.

Last weekend we camped at the Hiellen River and caught a few crab. just delicious!

My mom flew in on Monday and has worked all week. She is a real trooper getting right back into the routine after being retired almost 5 years. I think she has met everyone on the hospital, has chatted up lots of patients, and is baking buns with the kitchen crew tomorrow morning. Have you met my mom yet?

Then we had Beach Day complete with a huge game of capture the flag, lots of tug-of-war challanges and hot dogs for lunch.

Yesterday was the awards assembly and both boys were on the stage for 'outstanding academic' awards and J got some math and athletic certificates too.

Today was the last day of class and with that comes report cards: they did great. And the grand finale of the day was a helicopter ride. My friend KM works at the airport and got us connected. It was a last minute arrangement so B was not able to make it but I took the boys and they each had a friend along for the ride. It was my first time in a chopper. J sat in the front and got to chat with the poilet.

There were 100's of sea loins along this sand bar.

I didn't know the end of Old Masset had this peninsula (I think that is what it is called?) We will hike out there and check it out sometime.

The boys had such a great year. School was fun, there was zero homework stress, J played every sport available (D will next year being in grade 6), D matured a lot this year (I think because I was working it forced him to 'stand on his own 2 feet' a bit more) and they made some good friends.

Happy to finally grow flowers and ride my bike

I was feeling a bit down last week... missing my flowers in the yard in PoCo... We were having beautiful sunshine, saw blossoms on the berry bushes, wild flowers were growing, the bird sanctuary had gone from brown to green... I missed my flowers; so I decided to do something about it :) With a shovel in hand I got some asters from B in the village, M gave me some hostas and astillbe, C across the street donated a few plants (I have to look it up the name. There are some plants growing here I have never seen before, weeds included!) and I dug up some lupins from the side of the road heading out of town. I've never been able to successfully transplant the ones brought home from our travels but there are so many here, they better grow! I brought come crococsmia, daises, black eye susan, sedum, and japanese anemone from back home. The only resident plants here are some cedar hedges, a HUGE poppy plant and a very nice shrub with little white flowers (I have no idea what it is called). I figured if we were still here next year, it would be nice to have a colourful front yard. However, I followed NO gardening rules I learned from my neighbour back in the 'hood because I had limited product to work. I did my best to take into account odd numbers of groupings, folliage colour/texture, height/spacing... and all that landscape design stuff. I just can't get over how big everything grows here. The berry bushes grow inches every day, buttercups that usually are low in the grass grow like flowers on a stem, there is a white wild flower that looks like yarrow but 10x taller and wider, some bigger lupins look almost 4 ft tall... this place has real garden potential. Enough about gardening.

So when I say next year, I do hope we are here another year... we have to see how work goes and then see if we can rent this place longer...? all very TBA but we are not ready to come back to the big city quite yet!

And I am very happy to be riding on two wheels again. My bike had been down and out for months but I got it fixed in Rupert last time we were off-island and it's good to go. Kinda silly to drive the truck 2 mins to work when a 4 min bike ride is the alternative. I even rode out to the baseball game in the village last weekend... when I got there I found out that they were waiting for me to start the game. Apparently I am on the team, as terrible a ball player that I am, but every game I have played we won; 'you are like a lucky pair of socks' they told me :)


Lots happening in the next few days: we are going crabbing tomorrow (a good excuse for B to buy a BIG crab net) and camp out at the beach for Saturday night, on Sunday there is a pole raising in the Village outside the Hall with a feast to follow, Monday is beach day for the school, Wed there is an awards assembly (J's teacher said we should be there) and Thursday is the last day of school! YEAH!


Next week my mom comes for a 'work' visit and then the boys will head to Rupert with B to visit family over there too. I'm looking forward to my quick trip south in July and then having lots of family relations come visit in August. It will be a FUN summer :)

I will get some pics on here soon to prove I am actually playing baseball (I usually play catcher, I can catch ok but I have a terrible throw back to the pitcher. don't laugh LF!), and show you the buckets full of crab we are going to catch this weekend!