Five!

The tradition continues! Tavish's party was at a sugarbush north of Toronto. His party was a day before his actual birthday and his party-mates were: Jacob (classmate), Riley (classmate and friend from our street), Isabel (friend from school), Jasper (family friend), Maksym and Seb (family friends from the neighbourhood). Tavish asked for gifts this year (a first), but was happy to share his gift with a charity called "Kids Up Front" where 1/2 of the money collected goes to a child in Toronto so they can go to a sport game, museum or concert. The other 1/2 went toward building up some superhero loot!

Birthday Boy

MOMENT: Party, Party, Party!

Tavish put together mini-greenhouses for his friends to grow basil complete with gardening gloves, tools, seeds, soil, a kneeling pad and some sweetness in the form of a maple sugar candy. He and his friends played in the sugarbush, went on a wagon ride, saw some animals, checked out the sugar shack, shared lunch and enjoyed some banjo tunes with Mommy's friend, Clare. A great birthday party. Oh there was also cake. Very yummy cake. On his actual birthday, Tavish requested sushi for dinner... there's never a bad excuse for sushi - so off we went! 

Wagon Riders

Old-school Sap Collecting

Banjo Sing-a-long

Party Napper

March 24th Sushi Dinner

Bedtime for the Birthday Boy

Vermont

Five days into work, I took five days off (March Break)! We made the best of the never-ending winter by heading on a family ski vacation to Vermont with a detour to Ottawa...

Tavish's ready to hit the slopes!

Keva's ready for a snow-cation!

MOMENT: Ski-cation

This place had it all: great downhill skiing, an indoor water park, nordic skiing, skating, childcare... This was Tavish's first time on skis and it quickly led to his first ride up the chairlift and a green run. Mommy cross-country skied with Keva. Daddy downhill skied with Tavish. We all played together in the water park. A success. This family will be back!

Oh, there was snow...

...so much snow!

And the highlight... the chairlift!

Limited Time Offer

Five years flew past so quickly. Guess it was time to return that call and head back...

(Kathleen circa 2009)

MOMENT: Stay at Home Mom

I knew I couldn't stay home forever and feel very fortunate to have the time at home that I had. March 3rd, 2014 - I went back to work. Tavish was 3 weeks from being 5 years old and Keva was 21 months. It's been amazing and although my title is changing from 'Stay-at-home-Mom' to 'Working Mom', parenting remains a wonderful and rewarding full-time gig. I love every minute of it. Mommy looks forward to seeing you full-time again in the summer!

The best two parts of my job...
(last day at after school pick up for Mommy)

Keva the Walker

It was a long and tough road to independent walking, but Keva did it just shy of turning 21 months old. Her determination to move around worked and came with a supportive cast of encouragers from family to acquaintances, and professionals to friends. It seemed to just happen all of a sudden but looking back, it was a real undertaking for her...

MOMENT: It Just Happened

Before February 25th, 2014, Keva had only walked to nothing a handful of times and only for a short distance. On the 25th though, she officially walked off. She made her way down a hallway, changed directions, played with a ball and felt so very, very accomplished. You did it, Keva! Let the new adventures begin!

When Winter Goes on Forever...

... pull friends around in a sled or build a fort to make the best of it...

Lots of bundling

Plenty of sled pulling

...especially for Mommy

Fort building fun

Playing with a friend and decorating the space make it homey

Three cozy kids

Tavish and Riley build a snow contraption for hockey

MOMENT: Snow, snow and more snow

Making the snowst of it!

Siblings in the snowfort

It was one of the coldest and snowiest winters in decades. There was a lot more snow than we expected from moving back to the tropics of TO. However, the kids kept it together in spite of the boots, snowpants, toques and mittens required. Heck, they even (mostly) enjoyed it with each other and a few friends...

Skater Boy

Tavish has always been keen to skate and has consistently skated well for his age, but this winter h's interest level and ability improved noticeably. He really skated up to the ice and glided off.

Tavish dons his skates

Keva catches a nap

MOMENT: Evolution of Skate

It was a process. He started more tentative than we remembered him being last year. Then we realized that he was not only much bigger (further to fall), but he was also on rink ice rather than the more roughed up canal ice he was on back in Ottawa. He and Tom took lessons together, we occasionally went to the neighbourhood rink and voila - our boy became a skater!

Baking Bonus

Now instead of just one set of small hands to help with the baking around here, I've acquired another. Several small hands make light (and tasty) work.

My baking buddies

MOMENT: Baking Beauties

Tavish organizing the ingredients

Tavish measures them carefully

Keva 'helps' to stir with her wooden spoon

Keva in charge of the taste test ... I think she likes it

You get the idea ... there was one helper who paid attention to detail and another who helped themselves. Mmm, muffins.