New Winds...

A new season has arrived and thus, a fitting time to announce that I'm taking a hiatus from blogging. Since 2011, I have shared my life: the ordinary and the special. I truly enjoyed reading your comments and sharing my stories and pictures with you. I feel like at this time in my life, I need to take a break.
Instead of keeping you (and myself) in limbo, I have chosen to say goodbye for now. Rest assured that it will not be forever. I will reappear on the Blogsphere someday…

Now, for the EXCITING news: Simon has decided to create a part deux of his blog. I invite and encourage you to read his weekly postings. I'm sure they'll be entertaining and quirky at times. I will probably be a guest contributor :)
His new blog is titled: Tough Cookies Hintonburg: http://toughcookieshintonburg.blogspot.ca
His blog will reflect our "new" urban lifetsyle and I'm sure there'll be lots of Margot stories and pictures of our experiences.

See you on Tough Cookies!
Jen xox

Guest Post: First Day of New School

Jen asked me to step in and write a guest post as we've been extremely busy, having just moved into our new house. The house is in good shape but it needs a bit of work to make it exactly the way we want it. That means painting, buying new furniture and even...buying a new cat!  With all this brew-ha-ha its hard to find time for the little things.

This weekend is probably the first in awhile where we have some semblance of routine so I thought I would take a few minutes out of my day to fill you in on another recent monumental event: Margot's first day at her new school!

She goes to École Élémentaire Catholique Saint-François-D'Assise, which is a 5-minute walk away from our house. The close proximity of the school is one of the great things we love about this house and the plan is that I (dada) walk her to school half the time in the morning and Jen walk her the other half. Its a nice start to the day and much more enjoyable than when we were living at our old house and I would often leave before Margot woke up in the morning.

Margot's first day was emotional, which probably isn't surprising. It started out with some tears and angry words. Margot did not want to go.

But as we got closer to school her natural good cheer shone through. We got her laughing and by the time we entered the school yard she was curious to meet her teacher.

To her shock her teacher is a MAN! (She's used to women teachers). But she likes him already. He seems happy-go-lucky.

By the way, if you haven't guessed, Margot's school is French-only so I'm going to need to brush up on the langue de Molière. Margot also wears a uniform. At first I thought that was an advantage (no fuss in the morning) but Margot seems to have developed the knack of  staining every shirt permanently after every day. It's going to be a long year!

(longer for that kid photo-bomb-yawning in the background - it's just the first day dude!)

Popsicle Weather

Welcome to July! It's hot. It's sunny. It's flip-flop and bathing suit weather. It's time to eat freezies and play in the water!

Blue and white are Margot's fave flavours.
That's great news for me, since mine are red and purple.

It's also time for late afternoon bike strolls. Destination: the park.
Nothing says "summer" like a child biking to the park with her bathing suit and crocs.
Margot can now ride a bike without training wheels. Yeah! There were a few slow falls and elbow scrapes (and I'm sure there's more to come!); but otherwise, she's been gaining confidence and enjoys biking. She loudly encourages herself:  "You can do it, Margot!"  and sometimes sings while she carefully maneuvers her bike.

This picture was taken 3 weeks ago.
Notice the training wheels.

Summer is also the time to get outside and move!

Margot received the "most improved player of the week" award at her tennis camp.

She really enjoys tennis!

A demonstration

Make sure you eat freezies this summer! Sure, it's only sugary water, but this is the only time of year where you can justify enjoying them!  :)

A Long Weekend in Northern Ontario

We packed our car and headed 6 hours North West to the land of Sudbury. Our primary reason for visiting this part of Ontario was a friend's wedding, but we also decided to take full advantage of the area.

The highlight was our hike on the Chikanishing trail ("Chicka") in Killarney Park.

A rocky, moderate-rating terrain. Luckily, there were red arrows
painted on the rocks indicating where to go.

Margot loved hopping from rock to rock.
She nicknamed this move"the bunny hop"

Almost scrambling

Tree pose with a view of Georgian Bay.

An eagle and a tree balancing in the windswept terrain
(more breezy than windy)

What made this hike fun was the uneven terrain and the company

It wasn't all rock, there were a few forest interludes.
Simon and Margot finding raspberries.
Simon is using his sense of smell to check it they are
poisonous… doesn't smell like it ;)

We went off-course to get closer to the water.
The clear water was quite chilly!
I guess we won't be swimming there today.

The view

In the town of Killarney (population 500), about 10 minutes
outside of the park, there is the world famous "Herbert's Fish & Chips"
There is always a line up (this was at 2:00pm) and we waited
for about 30 minutes.

Margot enjoying the fish and chips.
It was good, but "world famous"? Really? Hum…
Maybe it's because everyone is so hungry after their day in the park
and it's the only place to eat...

We also played tourist in Sudbury and visited the top two attractions:

# 1 - The Big Nickle:

That's the small nickel and the long-gone penny

#2 - Science North Museum 

This museum exceeded my expectations! The layout, interactive displays and enthusiastic staff members made this a fun-filled Saturday.

Margot in the free-flying tropical butterfly gallery
This one who landed on her was a "Queen Butterfly" (related to the Monarch)

She wore an orange vest so it would attract the butterflies.
Behind her is the eclosion cabinet filled with chrysalis.
Most of the butterflies were from South-East Asia and Central America
(there was even a row of chrysalis from El Salvador!)

This is "Plain Tiger" (from Singapore)
Margot loved the butterflies

Margot LOVED touching insects.
This is a true katydids (i think)

A watersnake

Turtle

Petting a tarantula

Walking up the ramp. Fun and sunny!

We went to see a demonstration about air.
That's us in the theatre.

And this is a nice picture of Simon and I at the wedding:

Summer has begun!

RIP Luna

 May was a month of moving, packing and organizing. It was a month of wrapping things up and saying goodbyes.

Boxes and furniture lined up in our garage: ready for the big move

The kids were great helpers!

At the storage unit

Lending a spade

For a week, we ate our meals on our laps.
We're practising for summer camping :)

Empty living room. Just the necessities: the laptop, a few pillows
and a yoga mat

Saying goodbye to Marcel-Chaput.
7 years of great memories!

On May 31, Luna joined Animal Heaven where cats get served unlimited butter, tuna, salmon and cream cheese everyday .

Going with the flow...

An explorer of the outdoors!

She will be crowned Queen of the Cats 

She was loved and Margot was never shy in
expressing her love. 

In her early adoption days, Luna joined me on the yoga mat.
She mostly lounged on the mat next to mine and sometimes
snuck under me while I was in my downward dog.

Such a pleasant, quiet, chill cat.

June has been a month of transitions. Living in rental accommodations, we (I) are feeling rather antsy and ready to move into 103 Sherbrooke Ave! We still have a month and a half to go … arghh!

The condo we were living in for a month

The view of our street from our current house in urban New Edinburgh

Margot has been incredible during this whole year-long process. She has kept my spirits up and has demonstrated such resilience and adaptability. That's my girl!

Splash pad season is in full force!

Margot finished kindergarden with a big smile on her face. By moving to Ottawa, we are saying goodbye to Montessori.  This school was absolutely fantastic. I console myself in knowing that, in her three preschool years, she gained a strong foundation and learned life-long skills.

These days, Margot loves:

-Caterpillars and all insects.

-Riding her 2-wheel bike (finally!)

-Running.

Running a 2km on the Ottawa Race Weekend.
Sweltering temperature 

Simon also recently ran a race: The Perth Kilt Run

There he is, in all his beauty ;)

a few meters before reaching the finish line
(please ignore the lack of cropping of this pic)

No June would be complete without our annual Strawberry picking day:

I wish you all a lovely summer! It's a short season (except in the South of France!) so take advantage of it and spend lots of time outdoors.

Our awesome trio!