I've been meaning to capture the moments that make motherhood so special and although there are many videos and photos which will account for the first 15 months of Tavish's life there are no journals or scrapbooks. So, this blog will document the tid-bits and tales of the moments that make a mother proud, happy and generally enthused about this ride that is motherhood. This has been created for me but I invite you to read, share and enjoy this collection of moments too.
'Tis the Christmas season and it wouldn't be complete without decking the halls of our home, having a celebration with Grandpa Mike, and making a voyage to somewhere. This year - it was back to Fort Frances! This is Tavish's second Christmas there (he was 9 months old the last time) and a first for Keva. It was lovely...despite the near-covid crisis as Mommy's Teacher Candidate tested positive for covid less than a week before we left! Ack! All were negative ... a Christmas miracle!
Urban Tree "farm"
Dear Santa...
Covid Tried to Cancel Christmas - NEGATIVE!
Journey Begins
Keva trims the tree with Grandma
Ready for Santa
Hope Santa and the Reindeer are Hungry!
Good books and a first CELLPHONE?!?
Family Christmas
Wintery Wonderland
Christmas Cheer
MOMENTS: Looking Like Christmas and Feeling Festive
Getting the tree from an urban walk is a tradition that continues! Even covid couldn't wreck the journey to Fort Frances, though it tried. (sigh) It was snowy and cold-cold-cold but that just made it feel oh-so-Christmasy! Auntie Colleen and Grandma greeted us and we got lots of time with Uncle Kevin and Logan, a frigid (but, again, fun) Christmas day outing in the snow with Logan, some connected time with the Bedfords in Ottawa, lots of memories, and a few new gifts. Some gift highlights this year included: homemade wooden boxes from Uncle Kevin; matching white glowing hearts for the window for Grandma, Colleen, and us; google home mini for Keva, a first cellphone for Tavish; and Santa's gifts awaiting our return in Toronto for the kids (hockey net for Tav and a Barbie campervan for Keevs). Memories. Memories. Memories.
Celebrating Uncle Kevin turning 51 together in Fort Frances is fun and brought out a few memorable zingers too...
Background story: Grandma has been known to offer food that is... well... it's beyond being expired. It's well intentioned and entertaining, if not a little, um... icky.
Grandma: They tease me a lot about all of my old things Mom: Mostly about you, Kevin
ZING!
Tavish and Logan sharing a game on Logan's phone. Each wore one wireless ear bud and took turns trying to beat the score of the other. Meanwhile, Uncle Kevin, Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Auntie Colleen were trying out a new game called Ticket to Ride. While Tavish was on his turn, Logan came to the kitchen for some soda, still wearing one ear bud to hear Tavish playing....
Meanwhile, at the table, the board game shenannigans are heating up as someone explains to Grandma what she can do to secure more points on her train route.
Grandma: I like the sound of that... (without missing a beat, from the other side of the room) Logan: Know what else sounds nice? The sound of Tavish failing.
Traveling through the snow to Fort Frances after our flight to Thunder Bay, kids are working to find ways to cohesively pass the time. "Eye Spy" - a classic.
Tavish: I spy something that is green
(a few incorrect guesses later)
Keva: Are your braces green?
Tavish: No, they're blue.
Keva; Oh, they look green to me.
Tavish asks for my phone to look at them in selfie mode and declares they are, in fact - blue
This year we added a witch and stick-person to our costume history and kept the creepiness up on our haunted home!
MOMENTS: Witch, Stick-Person, Pumpkins, and Sugar
Even on-going Covid cannot quash Halloween traditions! Our house looked spook-tacular, with a special nod going to Keva's creative touches of homemade signs and creepy notes! Our pumpkins were unique and fantastically carved once their guts were gutted - a pumpkin witch and a pumpkin jail! Cookie decorating is always a sweet perk and much looked forward to. An outdoor alley party with our peeps - even the rain couldn't stop us! Trick-or-Treating with our local friends was, as always a blast. Witch Keva made a side stop at her teacher's and to Isabel's candy chute, then hit up Coady to trick-or-treat with Adele. Tavish loaded up the candy with his motely crew of Coady costume-ers Charlie, James and Riley. Oh, and there was sugar. Ample yummy sugar gathered, sorted, enjoyed and some was swapped out with the Switch Witch too. Halloween and happiness do go together as a repeat-worthy tradition!
We made the trek up to Ottawa for the long weekend. It was lovely family time with some football tossing, dog walking, and general chit chat. As always, thanks to Michele and the boys for hosting this Toronto-based clan! Nice looking crew, if I do say so myself!
It's not often we splurge and send us all to the big league ball game, but when we do, we really love it!
MOMENT: Take Us Out to the Ball Game
Tom and Tavish went early to watch warm up and batting practice. Keva and Kath took the TTC, the first is a long, long while. It added to the adventure. Add a hot dog, some ice cream, some quality baseball, and cheery fans - you've got yourself some great memories... <3
It's official, at the age of 12 - we have a baseball umpire in the house!
MOMENT: Safe! Out!
Tavish took the required first course to be able to umpire baseball. With all of our travels this summer, and a delay in finishing the course, he was only able to umpire one game - but game on - this kid is a natural! SAFE! OUT! TIME! He is already looking forward to the 2022 baseball season to get back out there and call the game as he sees it.
In our family, children have chores to do. After a meal, they need to clear dishes and load the dishwasher. When we dine outside, the chore can seem somehow a touch more daunting and the distractions are ample with all that distance to travel...
Mommy: if there aren't any dishes brought to the kitchen yet, I'm going to be furious
Daddy: Keva, Tavish cleared everything from the porch AND emptied the whole dishwasher
Mommy: Keva, you haven't done anything tonight!
Keva: No! That's not true! I've played!
She is a truth teller. Though our place fails frequently to be spic and span, there is a lot of playing ... which won't buy you visually appealing spaces, but does bring joy and happiness ... or something. So ... yay?
This fall marks the first first-day-of-school not at Morse since September 2014. Also marks the first time our children aren't attending the same school!
Keva - Grade 4, Tavish - Grade 7
MOMENT: New Grade, New Schools
Tavish is joining the masses, continuing with the french immersion stream, for grade 7 at Duke of Connaught. He and a few of his Morse chums adventured over on their own a few days ahead of school starting to check out the walk time and the school. Covid interfered with the option of tours and also with the ability to have rotary subjects, access to the school pool, sports, and the use of lockers. They made the most of their adventure by responsibly taking in a movie - making sure not to eat or drink inside, donned their masks, and kept their distance from one another. Tavish and his Coady Crew (Charlie and Riley) have plans to meet in the morning to walk / TTC to school. A whole new adventure begins for him on day one with an extended crew for the inaugural voyage...
Grade 7
First day walking brigade (Cooper, Zach, Riley, Charlie, Tav)
Keva is also off to a new school that's not too far away, but in the complete opposite direction as her brother. This will be her first year at school without Tavish and his buddies. She is starting grade 4 at Montcrest in a class of 13 students! This new school comes with the added responsibility of dressing in uniform too. With all of the covid limitations, Keva was only able to have an outdoor tour in the summer and bravely biked up the hill on her first day to see the inside for the first time!
Summer is not simply super-duper big scale adventures ... well, it is a pretty big part of summer, but we managed to squeeze in even more summer fun in the sun closer to home.
Rollerblader!
Alpacas!
Ferrying to the Toronto Island
My Favourite Son
Patio!
Adele - Keva's Bestie
Let's Play Ball
MOMENTS: A Little Bit of Everything
The home-highlights of this summer included, but weren't limited to the following categories: - Baseball: another season of watching our favourite player and his pals play ball - Babies: our friendly neighbourhood Casey and some time with Torie's Dawson at the cottage - Swimming: at Laura & Quinn's with Maggie & the girls, the new pool at Agapi & George's (Foti, Hali, Maria), Mississauga at cousin Kerry's, Lake Ontario with Riley & Melissa at the Island, and Kingston with Jen & Julian ... swim! swim! swim! - Sweets: bountiful fresh fruit and vegetables, ice cream, and some other treats thrown in - Friends: friends fun for all... Adele, Lucy, Pippa & Cleo; Adina, Jana, Maggie, Alyssa, Laura and more! - Fun: so much fun everywhere - Adventures: Kingston, Niagara, Torie's Cottage, Toronto Island, Mississauga & everywhere in between - Animals: alpacas, dogs, and cats, oh my!
We rested our legs from the cycling trip just long enough to drive further east to Prince Edward Island! We rented the matching cottage next door to Michele and the boys. They were scheduled for 2 weeks, we were in for 1 week. Their booking was cancelled unexpectedly and we still managed to all be together and near-ish enough for one another. Grandpa was able to join too. It was a maritime-good-time!
Whole fam-damily!
Grandpa and Tom hit the trails
Mountain bikers
As evening with the Fiddling Fisherman
A family that clam digs together...
Digging low tide
Splash!
Lighthouse and Us
MOMENTS: Beach, Adventure, Family Time - Repeat
Each and every beach offers it's own whole experience and we enjoyed every one of them. We got back on our bikes; paddled tandem seakayaks to dig for clams then cooked them in a yummy soup; enjoyed some live fiddle music on a fishing boat whilst playing the spoons; we ate; there was golfing; we saw the sites; we completed a puzzle; and best of all, we did it safely surrounded by family.
We added a whole new adventure to our summer this year - a family cycling trip! It was something we have looked forward to doing as a family after Tom and I fell in love with cycle tripping in Kenya and Tanzania (honeymoon) and through Slovenia before we had kids. Doing it as a family was wonderful. We were gifted wonderful weather (thank you 'heat dome'), refreshing pools/lakes/rivers, and keen kids who were all in. Only thing left to do is think about where we can go to cycle trip together next!
A Shuttle to Start
Peddling Foursome
Day wear
Splash
Flat
Family
MOMENTS: Peddling, Splashing, Hills
The journey started in Saint-Jerome on a shuttle bus that delivered us to our starting spot in Tremblant. We had a short and sweet (okay, fine, it was hilly) cycle up to Mont Tremblant where we spent the day exploring: hiking, gondola riding, swimming, mini putting. What followed were 4 days of riding together and making refreshing stops (read: ice cream, rivers, and lakes) and creative side stops along the way ... like at a puzzle store and a chocolate factory! Perhaps the most memorable part of the journey was the off-the-path route that was required to get to our accommodation in Saint-Adele... we had to go up. Way up. On our bicycles. We conquered it and all, but the experience may well be legendary for our family forever. The good news is that what-goes-up must come-down so that was fun ... for about 3 minutes. Sigh. Ah well, the memories will last a lifetime! The ceremonial last 10km back to Saint-Jerome saw Keva and Mommy getting a head start while Tavish and Daddy packed up from our grocery store lunch. We were on a mission to stay ahead and get as far as we could before they caught us, only to learn that Daddy had a flat tire that was not easily repairable. Boo. We backtracked a bit to wait for the independent (and super speedy!) Tavish to meet us, and the three of us did the final 5km together. Daddy and his bike were rescued after a quick cool down in the community spray park and we hit the road. No rest for the weary! Next stop on our summer adventure - Prince Edward Island!
