Sometimes Age is Ageless

Eli visiting Bro. Bill Little in the hospital

Many of us have learned a lot from these two wonderful people but what I'd say stands out the most is that sometimes age is ageless!

Christmas & Kittens

My poor, poor tree....the cats now just take a flying leap at it. No sense wasting time climbing up the centre I guess!!

Speechless & Tearful

I still can't say thank you without the tears showing up.  THANK YOU!!
Here's to Jen Haddad - BC Cancer Foundation (click on link and you'll understand)

RIP Freddie 2004 - 2012

In

Sylvester

Apparently being 'in' something is the thing to do! 

Elroy

A Summer of Flowers

Hard to believe fall is just around the corner when 

these are still in full bloom and going strong.......

School Has Started.......

It's a new school year! Going by the pose and facial expressions they were forced to do this.....

Adrianna - Grade 8
Officially a High School student - yikes!

Eli - Grade 6

Memories.... August

AUGUST started with the kids being out of school for about a week doing lots of fun activities when I was hit with one of the worst chest colds I've had in a long time.  Bronchitis in August - YUCK!  Well medicated with a horribly barky voice and cough we packed up and headed to Clearwater for a Smith Family Reunion (Les's mom's side of the family).  

We were the 'red' family!  Back row:  Les, Jen, Martie.  Front Row:  Adrianna, Russ, Eli

After that it was off to Salmon Arm to spend a couple days with Les's parents....

Adrianna & Eli at the water slide 

Revelstoke Railway Museum
Left to Right:  Russ, Jen, Eli, Adrianna & Les

Time to head back home where later in the month the kids and I with Auntie Trish headed to the PNE for a fun filled day....

Just before having to head back music camp was attended!!  This will be Eli's first year participating in the school band program so he attended a week long beginner music camp.  He had lots of fun and is ready to start classes!  Adrianna took part in a junior concert band camp but I guess pictures weren't taken??  

Sorry for such a dark picture....can you spot Eli and the instrument he's playing????

It seems September is just around the corner and we just might be ready for all the upcoming changes!!!

Oh To Be a Cat!

Elroy & Sylvester now 3 months old

When the weather gets abnormally warm what do kittens do?  Stretch out and sleep!!

Digging for Dinosaur Bones

At the age of 11 this boy still LOVES dinosaurs and still wants a career in working with dinosaurs, in what capacity exactly he doesn't know.

This particular kit he actually had to cast the dinosaur bones first and then he had to start digging (pictured above) to unearth it!!  

A Tie Dying Afternoon

Adrianna took advantage of the nice day but spending a bit of time out in the back yard with a box, plastic gloves, t-shirts, a bag and dye in the colours of red, yellow and blue.

Her outcome was as follows (we forget to get a picture of the 2nd shirt):

Biking the Golden Ears Bridge +

So summer holidays have officially started for us with school having ended just a couple days ago.  It's time to get out and enjoy the fresh air AND our bikes!!  After doing the Sylvan FamilyFondo we've been inspired to get on our bikes more often so the kids and I aimed high!

Last year Adrianna REALLY wanted to bike the Golden Ears Bridge as a family but we ran out of time and she dislocated her knee so that ended that activity.  First on the list this summer - our attempt to bike the bridge with no idea if we'd be able to do the whole thing or not but we decided we'd give it our best effort and see where that got us.

Heading towards the Golden Ears Bridge

The 1/2 way mark and needing a drink break

Guess we had the stamina to do it!  That first part was UPHILL but downhill of course was a piece of cake.  We were so full of energy that we decided to push ourselves a little further and bike through Walnut Grove to the Kenyon's home (in hopes that they'd actually be home).

Thankfully they were home!!  There's more uphill to their place then one would have expected.  After a quick one hour visit to rest up and fill up on more water we headed back.  EASY downhill all the way to the bridge but.......we knew uphill was coming.

Getting ready to head back to 'our side' of the bridge

Eli 

Adrianna

At the car hot and sweaty but we did it!!!  

We did it, we did it WAHOOOOO!!!!  Not sure how soon the kids will want to do that again?  I was trying to convince them that if we did that every week we'd be pros at it in no time!

Shines in the Talent Show!

Officially the last day of school which means attending a LONG talent show!  However, when Adrianna is performing I can endure ANYTHING to watch her shine!!

If you're not sure what she's playing it's the theme song to Harry Potter AND the instrument she's playing is a tenor saxophone.  (You might have to turn up the volume, I just used my camera to video her).

Of course, when she tried out for the talent show a week prior to this performance she HAD to try something she's never played before!  She LOVES to challenge herself and stress me out (but its really not about me)!!

MRCB Twilight Tuesday

You've often heard me mention the Maple Ridge Concert Band as this is the group Les and I are affiliated with (except we're the beginning band, actually I guess we're official the intermediate band now).  Tonight was their last Twilight Tuesday night performance and since we hadn't made it to any but the 1st one we wanted to get out and show our support.

Enjoying the show (Adrianna still in her up-do from the day before)

MRCB

REALLY enjoying the show!

The weather was perfect and it was great seeing all the seniors swaying to the music and young families dancing and jumping around to the music!

Grade 7 Moving Up Ceremony

I'm still finding it hard to believe that Adrianna is old enough to be entering High School!  Yikes!!  She had her Grade 7 Moving Up Ceremony this afternoon and of course was the most beautiful young woman there, just take a look:

Receiving her certificate from her teacher Mr. P

Received a Service Certificate for participating in Me2We

Auntie Trish (aka hair stylist) and Adrianna

SO beautiful!!

Auntie Trish did an awesome job!!!

These two are officially in different schools

Of course we had to have a little fun!!

She's had some pretty amazing teachers supporting and cheering her on along the way that have helped prepare her for the next chapter of her life.  We're so proud of all her achievements and accomplishments.  She's a hard working and very dedicated student and we looking forward to seeing her continue to excel in high school!

CONGRATS &

LOVE YA MISS A!!!!

Sylvan FamilyFondo

The Prospera Valley GrandFondo arrived or more specific the Sylvan FamilyFondo for the Haddad family!!  Packed up and headed to Fort Langley just after 7 in the morning to participate in the 3 km Sylvan FamilyFondo.  Distance wise easy as we're use to much longer distances as a family but we wanted the kids to experience what a mass-start felt like.  Heck Les and I wanted to experience it too!!

In the waiting area before getting the okay to move to the start line
Note:  I really dislike bike elements but I get the purpose!!

Ready for the mass-start!!

Kids received their finishers medal

Face painting - one of the many activities to take part in

A well organized event filled with goodie bags, police escorted route, kid friendly aid station, finishers award, Panago pizza, cycling themed activities AND free entrance into the Fort Langley Museum (we didn't go to the museum).  By the way this event cost our family a whole $10 to participate and it was well worth it!

Another exciting part of this event was that not long after we finished our ride and started in on some of the activities the participants in the MedioFondo (80 km) started arriving.  What a thrill to watch all these cyclists cross the finish line, so thrilling its inspired us to want to enter next years race.  More about that later.......

A Rough Week Turned to Pure Bliss

It's been a really rough week in the pet department for the Haddad home.

Sadly, our cat Rudy hasn't been seen since the evening of the 1st. We've looked everywhere, gone to the local SPCA, and talked to neighbours and nothing.  She's only ever been out of the house over a 12 hour span and is quick to come in when called so this certainly isn't in character for her. We don't know what's happened to her but we can quickly guess the probable reasoning and its not a good one. 

Rudy when we first got her back in December 2009 at the age of 3.

Saturday I started cleaning up all the cat stuff; litter box, food, toys, etc. and suddenly found that I had a child overwhelmed and in tears over the worry and loss of Rudy.  Truthfully I have to admit that with all the pets I've had growing up (either family pet or personal pet) I've never found myself so attached that I'd be devastated.  A little foreign (but not heartless) to me with all the emotions this child was feeling the question became is it too soon to get a new cat?  Do we want to replace Rudy?  The child said that a new pet was needed and Les gave the thumbs up and before I knew it the kids and I had already gone to the SPCA 3 times in one day!!

That evening our dinner conversation revolved around what kitten to get.  There were 7 adorable kittens but what a choice to decide which one would be the best for us?  As the conversation excitedly continued on I proceeded to feed the fish only to realize as I got to the tank that they were ALL dead.  The fish tank thermometer decided to spike up to 95 degrees and basically fried the fish!  We started the fish tank a couple months after we moved to Maple Ridge and some of those fish have lived that long - 6 years and gone just like that.  We've definitely decided no more fish.

After managing a 24 hour period of owning no pets we became pet owners again.... 

Meet Elroy and Sylvester, 2 month old kittens

Elroy exhausted crashed sound asleep in this awkward position

Sylvester, the quieter kitten of the two but still with plenty of personality

 Questioning two kittens?  That would be Les's idea.  When we explained the different pairs of siblings at the SPCA he felt maybe it would be best to adopt siblings that way they'd be together and would keep each other busy and out of trouble (hopefully).  So far that thought seems to be working.  Everyone is LOVING these cute little guys!

During this experience I questioned whether having had 4 cats in an 8 year period was horrible?  The answer.  Only one has gone missing.  So I guess we haven't done so bad?  As much as we'd love to have Freddy join our family again (the first kitten we ever got) we know he didn't like it when we first brought him to the city and he still wouldn't, the country is definitely for him!

The kids visiting Freddy last month at Grandma & Grandpa Haddad's