Proud Mom of a Girl Scout

I was never a girl scout.  It's not a big thing in SA, well certainly not at my school.  My friend Jen was a girl scout when she grew up and she really wanted her little girl, Hannah's friend Mia, to be one.  She chatted to me about it.  I looked into troops in our area, but the only one was a bit inconvenient and so I left it until Jen called to say she was going to lead a new troop.  There are 8 little girls... kindergarteners and first graders... in their Daisy troop.  Most of them are from Vencil Brown Elementary, because that is where Mia is, but Hannah knows 2 of the little girls from church, and of course Mia, so she is very comfortable with the group.

I've mentioned before that Hannah is very shy and self-conscious and very slow to speak up for herself in a group.  What my hope is, is that Girl Scouts will be a forum for her to learn to do things for herself, be proud of her accomplishments, and an encouragement for her to build up her self-esteem.

She has had two meetings.  After the first meeting she got her uniform... a simple tunic.  I ironed on the badges that identify her as a Daisy Girl Scout and her troop information, and it's the cutest thing ever.  Right from the get-go she is busy with selling her girl scout cookies.  She wrote a beautiful note and we went to Glen's office in her tunic to start the sales (I knew ahead of time they would be a soft hit... they love her there).  The "rule" is that the moms don't do the selling, and she was sooo painfully shy I thought I would need to step in constantly.  People were great though, and came up to her and asked her what kinds of cookies she liked and before I knew it she was going into offices and making some sales.  She didn't say much, but with her note and her sweet smile it was good enough for her first stop.  Way to go, Hannah!  I hope to see her confidence grow even more as Girl Scouts continues.

Bursting with pride!

Daisy Girl Scout
Heart of Central California
Troop 1086

Hidden Falls Hike

I say it ALL THE TIME, but California is beautiful.  Right on our doorstep in Placer county there are so many beautiful places to explore.  And this family LOVES to explore.  About 15 minutes from our house there is a beautiful regional park...  Hidden Falls.  We have hiked here before in summer, but on Jan 9 our friend arranged a group of people to go hiking there, and we decided to join them.

It was VERY cold, but really beautiful, and the kids did really well, managing to walk almost the whole hike.  The last half mile is very steeply uphill, and by then they were tired.  I had to carry Oliver the last bit (Glen had the bags) and it was a SERIOUS work-out.  Great exercise, beautiful scenery, wonderful fresh air. 

One of the trails follows a creek

Oliver loved to be in the lead

The rest of our group got to that vista point ahead of us... this shows you the type of hills we had to climb back up at the end of the hike!!

Bailey and Georgia (Tom and Lisa's dogs), with the kids

New Year's Eve

We had such a great evening.  WOW, life sure has changed from the days of our youth.  Of course it is also easier to celebrate longer in South Africa because it is mid-summer and the sun doesn't go down at 4pm!  Anyway, of course with the kids we didn't plan to stay up late anyway....  we wanted to enjoy time together playing and laughing... what fun!!  We started off telling the kids we could have our favorite take-out... from wherever.  Then Glen (what a hero) went to 3 different places to collect it all:

Red Robin - 'macayoni' pizza

Red Robin - mac and cheese

Zakuro - sushi

Orchid Thai - curry

We had a picnic upstairs with our favorite foods and talked about our favorite things, and then... the games began.  We played wii, taking turns to boxing against each other (Hannah was the champ!), and enjoying Super Mario Bros.  We built Lincoln Logs, and just had lots of fun playing.  The kids asked if they could please go to bed at around 8:30 - they were pooped!  And Glen and I sat up til around midnight playing more wii and just enjoying a night in.

Hannah and Glen in action:

Color change

I've always been fairly adventurous with my hair.  As I kid I was not one of those kids who'd never had her hair cut.  I've done bobs, super-short pixies, long to below my shoulders, all kinds.  It was straighter than straight.  NOTHING would curl it.  It was blonde and straight just like Hannah's is now.  Then in high school it turned curly.  When I started earning money I spent money highlighting it and keeping it really blonde summer and winter.  After I had kids I'd go to the hairdresser too infrequently so I got them to blend highlights in more naturally, and before long my hair was left pretty much to it's normal color, blonder in summer than in winter.  And then.... this winter.... they appeared.  GREY HAIRS.   Aaaaaaaaaa!  I didn't think they were too noticable until I looked at pictures we had taken for our Christmas cards.  This one looks lovely:

But a couple of them I have my face looking down at the kids, or the camera is closer, and I panicked.  I saw grey.

So instead of keeping my calm and just making an appointment to have new highlights put in to blend them all away, I ran off and did this:

So now there's no grey.  But there is also no blonde.  Hmmm.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  I'm getting used to it. 
(Aside:  I don't straighten it every day.  Or even most days.  Cos it takes more time than I usually care to spend on my hair.  Most of the time it is now curly.  And reddish/brown.)

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas.  The whole lead up to Christmas was wonderful.  I think from Halloween I was so aware that this time last year we'd gotten the call to say we'd missed our chance and would need to leave the country; thankfully a week later we heard it did not need to be permanent.  But the holiday season last year really was a stressful time for us and although we had an unforgettable (and most likely unrepeatable) long time exploring and falling in love with Vancouver there really is NO place like home. 
Every little thing was thrilling.  Putting the lights up outside the house, moving furniture around so that the Christmas tree could be perfectly in the front window for everyone to see as they drove past, getting our ornaments out of the garage after not seeing them since the end of 2008.  It was all so much fun.
Our run up to Christmas was so fun too.  Being able to go to Glen's Office Christmas Party, having Hannah's Christmas party at school, enjoying holiday parties with friends... the general Christmas spirit.  It was so fun.  And of course the shopping and wrapping and build-up.  I truly felt so excited this year.

Because our church is so popular at Christmas time, they have 15 Christmas services.  The only one that worked for us (since we had the opportunity to be picky... I guess we could have made anything work) was Tuesday 23rd, so we got ourselves all dressed up and enjoyed a wonderful evening of carols and music and a great message.  It was WONDERFUL to be at our home church at Christmas time.  What a celebration of an amazing moment in history.  I was teary-eyed for sure.

Glen took some days off over the holidays too.  So we had some fun family days.  And then Christmas eve was our "big meal" of Christmas.  Mom outdid herself.  She decided to make cioppino.  If you want to taste San Francisco in a bowl... this would be it.  So delicious, so fresh and yummy, and so luxurious all at the same time.  It was the perfect Christmas Eve meal, especially after 2 Thanksgiving meals of turkey etc...  we just didn't want to do the turkey thing again.  :)  Thanks, Mom!

Christmas Day the kids were up fairly late, actually.  Ha!  But by 8am we were downstairs - what a sight!!!  It is always so fun watching the kids open Christmas presents when you know that you have found that perfect gift.  Before long batteries were in, and the noise level was up, and fun was being had by all!!  It was an at home day, and we had so much fun playing with new toys and just enjoying family time.

Favorite Things 2010

Similar to Oprah and Ellen, we like to talk about our favorite things at the end of each year.  Unlike them, these are the things that were mentioned (and I know that if we thought harder there would be a million more!)

Hannah - starting kindergarten, new friends, walking with Mommy to school, Tricks Gymnastics, snow days in California, Webkinz, birthday party, wii games, camping

Oliver - MOPS, new friends, soccer, Tricks Gymnastics, MOPS, bounce house, Super Mario Bros., camping, did he mention MOPS?

Glen - being home for Christmas, 4th of July weekend at Angels Camp, watching Hannah score her first goal at soccer, supporting the Giants!!

Donna - feeling more and more part of our community walking Hannah to and from school every morning, listening to Hannah read or chatter to herself and her animals, camping, weekend at Angels Camp, lazy days swimming at Kerry, hearing Oliver going from 2yr old speak to proper thoughtful talk, Oliver potty training, Hannah learning to swim, running more often and further and faster (and doing a half marathon) in this beautiful neighborhood, the Giants win the World Series!!

Looking back at the year it was not a particularly easy one.  But thinking about the highlights and hearing everyone talk about their favorite things I just get so sentimental.  I love being a mom and I love being a wife and I love my life.  Once again, I feel like we are where we're meant to be, and we are stronger than ever.  God has held us tight this year and counting our blessings was a wonderful way to end the year and a great way to start the new one.

Happy 2011 everyone!

SNOW DAY!

Glen took Monday 6th off work and so after Hannah finished school we decided we would bundle up and head up to some snow for a snow day!!

It was so fun!!  We love snow!!

The only one not dressed for getting covered in snow, and I kept sinking over my knees into the fresh snow.  Brr.

Playing

Glen did a lot of heavy hauling

She just lay there for a while looking up at the sky... it was such a beautiful day

What goes up.....

... comes flying down!

Our snow angel