133rd Month

Mommy and the kids had a wonderful trip to NY, NJ, and PA for Spring Break this month. We got to Maw Maw’s house on Sunday and spent a couple days getting caught up on doctor’s appointments and shopping for things we can’t find in Canada. Rachael was spoiled with lots of new clothes. Then we went to East Windsor to visit our friends there. Rachael got to spend time with her friend Anna, and we even went to WCB for lunch. On the way from NJ to Manheim, we stopped at the King of Prussia Mall and had lunch with the Pickar family—it was really good to visit with them for a while. Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. We went to the Sturgis Pretzel House in Lititz (the oldest pretzel bakery in the US) and learned how to twist pretzels. It was wonderful to be in a place with no snow and warm sun. We came back through NY and spent one last night with Maw Maw before coming back across the border.

 Since Rachael’s birthday fell right at the beginning of Spring Break, we decided to wait until later in the month to have her party. She had two friends come and spend the night.

134th Month

Grandma Mel came for a visit for Easter this month. It was good to know that the Easter Bunny visits folks in Canada.

 

Mommy and the kids took another trip to the States this month—just a quick weekend trip to Maw Maw’s house. We also went to Ottawa one Saturday—saw the U.S. Embassy and went to the Canadian Aviation Museum—the kids loved it.

 

136th Month

Our first school year in Canada has ended. Wow, Rachael has finished 5^th grade. In the school she is in here, 6^th grade is still part of elementary school, so technically she can’t be called a middle-schooler here. Rachael really came along with her French by the end of the year. In fact, her teacher wants to put her in a regular French class for next year.

 We all took a weekend trip to Vermont this month. Went to an aquarium and to the Cabot Creamery and watched them make cheese. Took the ferry across Lake Champlain to NY to come home.

Summer is fixing to be busy with trips and camps.

 

137th Month

Mommy and the kids took another NY, NJ, and PA trip for the Fourth of July--only one week this time. After that trip, Rachael had two summer camps: Stagecoach, which is a theater camp—they prepared and performed several scenes from “Annie”—Rachael loved it. The second camp was a Glee camp at a dance studio. She enjoyed that one, too, but not as much as the Stagecoach camp. In fact, the school is going to have weekly classes during the school year, not far from our house. Rachael is very excited to be a part of that.

 

138th Month

Our big trip for the summer came at the end of July/beginning of August. We all drove to NJ (Daddy and Rachael went down on Friday, Mommy, Liam, and Susanna came on Saturday) and visited with friends for a couple days. Rachael got to see Anna, Nicole, and Maya—Anna and Maya came swimming in the hotel pool with us. Then on Monday, we flew from Trenton to New Orleans, rented a car and drove to Grandma Mel and PopPop’s house in Baton Rouge. Mommy and Daddy left on Wednesday to spend a few days on their own in New Orleans before flying back to NJ on Friday. Rachael, Liam, and Susanna stayed and had a great time with Grandma Mel and PopPop—they did a lot of swimming and made some new friends. They got to see the state capitol and a really cool Museum about Louisiana, and, of course, Mike the Tiger. The one thing we will all remember is that it was HOT!! PopPop flew back to NJ with the kids on Monday, where Mommy was waiting for them.

 We went back to the Canadian Aviation Museum for a special Star Wars exhibit. They had all kinds of props, models, and costumes on display that were actually used in the movies, along with stories of how the stories and characters were created. We also each wore a wristband that we could scan at 10 different stations, which allowed us to create our own Star Wars identity.

 We also went to the Exporail Canadian Railway Museum. We got to see lots of really neat trains.

 And, we found an English movie theater! We saw Despicable Me 2 and Planes in one weekend!

 School started two weeks after we got back from the States. Rachael is nervous about her French class, but really likes her teacher, Mr. Niiya. She was also put in the Advanced Math class.

 

139th Month

We all took a trip to NY to watch the first LSU game with Maw Maw and Pots. On the way back, we stopped in Pottersville and went to Natural Stone Bridge and Caves. Got to hike and climb on lots of rocks. The kids even got to do some mining for gems and picked out some geodes that were cut open for us there.

 Leadership Camp

 

140th Month

142nd Month