Good Ol' Friends

After a long couple of weeks struggling with the transition to kindergarten and missing her preschool buddies, Sam finally got to see them at a birthday party today. Here she is SO HAPPY to be back with her good ol' friends, just like the days of yore.

   

The two Sammies

Perhaps a couple of friends are getting tired of the two Sams

 

Brooklyn helps Sam at the drinking hole.

Sam with the birthday girl Ashlyn.

                     

Even I missed my preschool mom friends!

                            

Super Harvest Moon

Samantha and I were walking home from a movie at the school gym when we saw this big and beautifully bright moon in the clear night sky. I didn't know it was a Super Harvest Moon until I read it today, but this is exactly what we saw....we were in awe! (not my pic by the way but it's taken in our area).

Piano Lessons

Sam has always taken interest in music, since I can remember. When we moved to Vancouver 3.5 yrs ago, we bought a piano off our neighbor hoping to put Sam into lessons eventually. I remember her being so excited when that piano was hauled up that huge flight of front stairs and into the living room. She's been plunking on the keys ever since and even sounded out a couple of little songs like Twinkle Twinkle.

A little over a year ago I saw a sign down the street in someone's front yard advertising Piano Lessons. I thought how convenient it was to be so close to home. It only took me a year to inquire but we thought Sam would be in dance or some kind of martial arts. She'll always be in swim lessons so we asked her what else she'd like to take and she yelled 'PIANO!' So I picked up the phone and arranged for her first lesson today. I was afraid she wouldn't be focused for 30 min. straight, but that's all that mattered to her when we got there. The teacher was quite impressed and I'm excited she's so eager!

First Day of Kindergarten

Well the day has finally come and I took Sam to her first day of kindergarten. As a preschool mom friend of mine said, I don't think it's sunk in yet. It seems a bit surreal to me too. I was really nervous yesterday, but I wouldn't let Sam know it. She was pretty nervous too before we left, so I gave her a little pep talk. Our first day only was a half hour long, basically a meet and greet. Once she knew I wasn't going to leave she was fine. We're lucky to only be a block away and when we got there I started to choked up...I thought "Oh no don't start now!" lol Sam made friends right away while we waited to go in. She seemed to make herself right at home. Today we have off and she's back tomorrow with the rest of the half of the class. They're asking us to stay for the first 10 minutes for a couple more days. The real test is when I let her go on her own all day next week! Here are some crazy typical Sammy shots I took before we left.

It's All About Dinosaurs!

Over the last couple of weeks we have tried to squeeze in a couple of more summer activities before the start of school. We had the privilege of taking Sam to Walking With Dinosaurs at the end of August, thanks very much to Mom and Rick! We had an extra ticket and invited Sam's neighbor friend, who's always wanted to see it and was very excited to join us. It was quite an amazing experience even for the adults!


Over the Labor Day weekend we headed for Dinotown, formerly known years ago as Flintstone Park. The last time I was there I was Sam's age. I remember driving down the Trans-Canada Hwy from Chilliwack and what to our wondering little eyes should appear .... the "forty-foot Fred" billboard on the side of the road! I remember the boat ride, dino-cranes with tails to slide down, just like Fred Flintstone did and all of the little rock houses with the character statues inside. In the early 90's after Hanna-Barbera was sold to Warner Brothers, the owners of the Flinstones canceled the contract and that is how Dinotown came to be. A few things were added that we never had as kids such as bouncy castles, and the pedal cars were no longer the old stone Flintstone cars, but replaced with pedal-type go-carts. Sadly it was our first and last chance to visit, as they decided to close down permanently. We were literally there on the last day. All in all we had a great time and Sam's favorite activities were (besides the slide of course) mini golf and the boat ride. For me, I loved it all but I really liked going into all of the little houses again.

End of Summer?

Where did the summer go? I can't believe it's already September 1st, it's that time when I stop fertilizing everything and prepare the bananas and palms for winter with lots of Potassium. I've been watering like crazy due to the lack of rain all summer, until yesterday when we broke the record rainfall for the month of August of 15mm in one day! Much needed for all of our forests! According to accuweather.com, we can basically "put a fork in summer 2010 for much of western Canada" and see a unusually cold midwinter. While no one here likes to hear such depressing news, it's good forewarning to myself to plan my overwinter methods for the palms.
Here are before and after pics of my and Sam's nannas...planted July 12th and taken again Aug. 30th.