First Day of School

I know..I know...we are almost a month into the school year and I am just posting this. What can I say, I have not uploaded pics from my camera in a long time and frankly, without the pictures it would be a pretty boring post.

Owen was not keen on going back to school after the summer holidays. He asked me all sorts of heart-wrenching questions:
"Why are you sending me away?"
"Are you and Isabelle going to have fun all day without me?"
"Don't you want to spend time with me?"
None of the parenting books I have read prepare you for these questions. It made me so sad, and yet I cannot pretend that I was not excited about having some more time on my hands to get home projects done and spend a little one-on-one time with Isabelle before going back to work.

Anyway, after helping make his own lunch, choosing his own clothes and walking across the parking lot himself...he decided that school was not too bad after all. He has the same teacher as last year (in Montessori schools, students remain with the same teacher and class for 3 years) and all his best friends are in his class. There were no tears as we left, not from him or me. It was a good morning.
He took a keychain photograph of himself on the trampoline in London to show his friends (we thought it might be a good icebreaker) and before we even left the parking lot he had pulled it out of his pocket and was showing it around.

We are so proud of our little boy!

~mommy & daddy~

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ADRIAN

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Adrian

Happy Birthday to you

~jennifer, owen & isabelle~

Weekend Adventures

We are enjoying being back at home and playing outside in the warmth of the sum. Owen has re-discovered his roller blades and is thoroughly enjoying rolling around on them. He loves putting on all the protective gear; helmet, elbow pads and knee pads. After playing around the house we ventured out into the town for our first family bike ride with Isabelle. We have been on the hunt for an infant helmet, so if anyone knows where to get one please let us know. We rode to the park and the kids had a blast on the swings and slide. It was a big day of firsts for little Izzy..first bikeride…first slide…luckily she survived both ok and we did not end up with her first trip to emerg or anything more alarming.




Sadly the warm days are getting fewer and shorter , I am glad that we are taking advantage of the warm weather while we have it.
~jen~

We're baaaaack...

We have been back from England for over two weeks now and our lives are slowly returning to normal. It took Isabelle and Owen several days to get their body clocks back on schedule, the wee girl was getting us up at 4am for almost a week…but that is all sorted now. We had a really fantastic trip, a little sight seeing, a few “football” matches for Adrian and lots of time with family.
Here are some shots from the airplane. The kids were great on the plane both ways. On the way home they were unable to accommodate us all together, the airline actually had Owen seated on his own and Adrian, Isabelle and I together. This would have been fine with us but I am not sure the people around Owen would have been happy. So the boys sat together and Isabelle and I sat a few rows ahead.







Here are some of our favourite shots of the family that we visited:

Daphne and George have both had health concerns recently and we were so pleased to find them looking so well. Daphne is a wonderful host and made us a beautiful lunch.

We spent 5 days with Adrian’s Aunt Stella and she is just a delight. She loves to play with the children and of course the kids just love that! She always welcomes us into her home when we are there and make us so comfortable.



We spent most of our time with Alison, Nigel and Maisie. They are fantastic friends as well as being Adrian’s family. Maisie was a wonderful playmate to Owen and a big helper with Isabelle. They have a sweet dog Sniff who delighted the kids and provided us with lots of entertainment.




Maisie had a birthday during our visit. We had a great day in London and went to Rain Forest Cafe, it was a perfect birthday for a perfect little girl.
HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY MAISIE!!!




Maisie is an avid horserider and Owen and I got the opportunity to watch her ride one day. She is amazing and it was really a thrill to get to experience this.




Worthing is a costal town close to Brighton where Adrian's grandmother lived, it holds many special memories for him. We visit every time we are in England but this visit had to be the best we have ever had. The weather was fantastic, the kids played in the water and on the pebble beach, we had an amazing walk along the pier...the perfect day for making new special memories.





While sightseeing in London we happened upon this setup of large trampolines where people were harnessed in and jumping to huge heights. Owen was not interested at first glance, but after watching Maisie go he had to have a turn. Our big brave boy!!!



Just a few shots of us:

Adrian at the Star Wars exhibit in London:



Before I close this post off I want to send our love out to Iris and Dave. Uncle Dave is in hospital and although he is making improvements, his overall health is not great. Please know that you are never far from our thoughts or our hearts. XO

And we are off...

...to England tomorrow with much apprehension and excitement. It will be the first time we have travelled with both children and we are hoping that we use enough drugs to knock them out without doing any permanent damage. Wish us luck!

See you when we return.

~the gill family~

He Sleeps

Thank you all for your thoughts and best wishes for Owen, he seems to be on the mend. He has now gone over 30 hours without hurling and his appetite is coming back. Last night he fell asleep on the couch and Adrian carried him to bed. When we went to bed and checked on him, this is the position he fell asleep in:





I love his little toes, the way he has his face burried in his hands as if he is hiding and just how tiny he looks in his big bed. I am so filled with love for this little guy; watching him be so brave over these past 2 weeks of illness makes me proud to be his mama.

Love you Owen!
~mama~

Chipmunks eat fruit

While on vacation at the cottage a curious little chippy started eating my peach. Here are a few of the 85 shots I took of him:





Gotta love these little creatures. The will eat peanuts out of our hands, they chase each other around the grass, they dart in and out of their holes in the ground...so much fun to watch.

That is one of the things we love about the cottage, taking the time to appreciate nature.
~jen~

Poor Owen

Our sweet boy has been quite ill for over a week. Without getting into the gory and messy details he has a "bad" belly. The doctors at emerg last night think he might have some kind of parasite causing giardia. Whatever it is we are hoping and praying that he is all better before we leave for England on Thursday.

Please keep our sweet boy in your thoughts.

Wild Turkeys

A photo of us trying to get the birds to eat out of our hands. Check out the nature pee taking place in the background...these are the "money shots" Owen will one day be very embarrased about I am sure...for now he loves them!


The highlight of my brother's stay with us had to be our trip to Lynde Creek. It is always wonderful there...birds eating out of our hands, chipmunks and squirrels running around and eating all our peanuts, Canadian Geese and ducks, and a path filled with beautiful trees, ferns and flowers. This time however there was something even more amazing...wild turkeys. My brother almost had them eating out of his hand and had there not been 5 noisy children running around I am sure he would have succeeded...what a thrill.

So glad to be back here...hope to get a bunch of posts in before we depart for England on Thursday. ~jen~

Trouble with photos

We are having some problems with blogger and the ability to upload photos...not sure when this will be resolved and will likely not post much until we get the photos back.

Hope to see you soon.

~jen, adrian, owen & isabelle~