Christmas 2013 was amazing. With the kids being 2.5, 3.5 and 5.5, they were totally into it this year. They were an adorable combination of understanding the bigger meaning of Christmas while still being totally fascinated by the magic of the season.
Gumdrop returned (for a much shorter visit - Mommy was smarter this year) and we had lots of fun finding him every morning.
We visited Santa - Ruby ran right up and crawled in his lap, Declan cautiously stayed back by my side until he figured out he needed to speak directly to the big guy to put in his order for a new sled. And Talia surprised everyone by not asking for the Furby that already had her name on it; but for a yo-yo.
We had a fun pre-Christmas celebration with Rainer's sister & and her family. They live waaaaaaaaaay to far away and we were so happy they were able to come for Christmas this year!
We had McQueen Christmas with Christmas Eve at Uncle Kent & Auntie Chantal's house and Christmas Day at our house. McQueen Christmas was bittersweet for us; we were so thankful to see all the kids together and having so much fun - but Rylan was on our minds and in our hearts. We all really missed him. So unfair, I wished that we could have bought him a big, noisy, annoying gift for his first Christmas, instead of making a donation in his name. :( Sigh.
However, we still
had 3 little darlings who helped us have a wonderful Christmas in the
end. Can't wait to do it all again next year!
September 2013 meant 2 firsts on the same day - Talia started full-time Maternelle (which is the fancy-pants french-immersion word for kindergarten) and Declan started Nursery School at RKNS. As luck would have it, both of these firsts occurred on the same day in 2 different locations - but we made it work. :)
Our first introduction to Ecole St. Adolphe School was actually a few days before school started. The school had a "meet the teacher" night where we went to drop off her school supplies, said a quick hello to Mme. Clifford, and then had a BBQ in the school yard. It was a great start to the school year, and made the actual first morning a lot quicker, which was perfect for our double-first-day problem.
Talia was very excited to go to school. She was pretty sure she was going to come home on the first day completely fluent in french, which was hilarious. She knew all the kids except for 2 or 3. Thanks to her awesome nursery school, she was totally ready for school and really excited to be a big kid. She had a great first day and was so proud to wear her school shirt home.
Declan was also thrilled to start RKNS. He'd been going to RKNS for drop-off/pick-up of the big girls as long as he could remember - Talia started when he was 18 months so literally, half his life - so he was totally comfortable. He strolled right in like he owned the place, found his name, reluctantly posed for some pictures, looked at the kids who were crying like they were nuts, and got down to business.
And yes, this blog post is ridiculously late, but the benefit of that is that I can tell you this: their enthusiasm for school has continued. Declan loves his almost all-male school and is learning how to be a rough & tumble boy. Talia is like a little sponge and amazes us everyday with the extent of her french vocabulary. So far school has been fun and easy for them - hope it stays that way in the years to come!
