Below is a pic of Max's soccer practice. I have always thought Max was a natural athlete and could certainly excel in soccer, but I am worried that his development is staggering. His coaches and teammates are great, they just aren't particularly good at soccer. Max gets bored now and just messes around during practices, so his skills are actually diminishing instead of progressing. Well, next year there are the 'Selects' teams and I just hope that Max hasn't declined in skill level so he could actually play with other kids that challenge him and coaches that push him. Or maybe I'm just being a crazy soccer Mom and should chill.
(Side-note: I apologize for the poor-quality photos in this whole post and probably for all posts to come. I've come to realize that I will never blog if I want to spend time editing my photos to look good - they get posted as-is or not at all).
It seems like there is a Pro-D day or early dismissal from school at least every month now. Luckily, there is always a hike to do. This one we brought some school buddies to Capitano fish hatchery.
So, ya, you may notice something interesting about Callum's hair - he dyed it purple. Jeff and I decided to let him do what he wants with his hair - he spent his own money on it. It appears to be a bit of a trend for the boys at their school. His buddy Liam dyed his hair too, but his Mom wasn't quite as committed. The dye box said Callum's hair colour would wash out in approximately 28 washes, which for him is over a year!
Callum and Max finished their last session of skating lessons and I am happy to not have to tie their skates up anymore! Simon, however, continued with more lessons and will still need more lessons, but at least he enjoys it now.
Of course, there was Halloween. Callum got a Canucks jersey for memorizing all 13 Articles of Faith, so that made his costume easy. Max came up with the idea all by himself to be Albert Einstein - he was awesome! And Simon was happy to wear the Knight costume we've had for years. Callum and Max went trick or treating with our friends/neighbours Liam and Jody, while Simon went with our other friends/neighbours Luke and Nichole, though Simon only lasted about 5 houses then came home.
We managed to get a little family hike in to the Canyon on a Sunday afternoon. The kids were so happy that day.
So, apparently we didn't really do anything in November since my photo album that month is just filled with images of design inspiration instead of anything I might have done with the kids. I spent every waking moment either working or thinking about our house design and drawings. I was supposed to get the building permit drawings submitted sometime in November and I just couldn't seem to get it all done.
When December came around, it was a kick-in-the-pants that Christmas was around the corner and I had to get the drawings done. We got the advent calendars to start the countdown and I was also suddenly distracted by the incredible dumping of snow on all the ski hills and our family was going to take advantage of it this year. We bought Mt.Seymour passes again this year and registered Max and Simon in more ski lessons.
And not only was it snowing in the mountains, we got plenty of it at home too. Simon said "my wish came true!" when he saw all the snow. The boys never tire of playing in the stuff. They take their sleds to school to play on the dinky "hill" on their school grounds.
For family home evening one Monday, we went to 4 Cats Art studio to make ceramic christmas ornaments to give as gifts to friends (which I'm still waiting to be fired!).
We actually got our tree pretty early this year, December 7th, since it was the only evening that wasn't booked up until the winter break.
Jeff and I passed the kids off to my family for a weekend (Mom had them Thursday night, Kim Friday night and Kami Saturday night) so we skied Whistler for a few days. We managed to find some seriously decent snow and I had a grin on my face for plenty of runs.
Callum had a concert for his Strings group - I'm not sure if I ever mentioned that Callum and Max started music lessons last February: Callum violin and Max piano. They are both pretty enthusiastic if not a bit lazy at practicing (no surprises there).
Thursday, December 15th I took my drawings into the District of North Vancouver and submitted for building permit - WOHOO!! And, all architectural requirements were met, so I was elated! They still have to review all Environmental and Engineer aspects, but I felt pretty good to finally get the drawings in. Phew.
Since I handed in the drawings to the DNV, I literally haven't even turned on my laptop (where I do all my AutoCAD work). Now, I'm all about getting ready for Christmas and enjoying the snow!
We took a few of Callum's Cub Scout group sledding and had a blast.
School break started the 19th and we've pretty much been up to Mt.Seymour everyday. Max is actually enjoying his lessons (now that he's with an older group of kids and he doesn't have to always wait for them, and his teacher is pretty cool). Jeff took the boys up to Grouse too, and apparently it is quite the winter wonderland right now.
The boys were bugging me about not doing many Christmas traditions this year (which I would agree with, since I kept putting off due to work on the house), so I appeased them one night by making sugar cookies and just tonight we (finally) decorated gingerbread houses (but doing them late makes them real cheap at the store - only $6 each!).
So now there is only 3 days left until Christmas. Wow. Crazy. And I can see 2017 being even crazier as we will move again, tear down our house and build the new house, (and do something particularly special with the kids, but shhh, that a Christmas surprise!)...
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