Happy New Year! Seriously.

2009 was absurdly long, slow and painful for many people - not just our narrow circle. The whole world complained - all year long - and so did we. For us, business was slow, the weather didn't cooperate and there was never enough money, time or patience to get things done properly. There were some truly great moments in 2009, but many, many teeth-grinding, heart aching moments as well. 

We are so thankful to have been able to enjoy a wonderful December after clawing and scratching our way through the rest of the year.

At the beginning of December Grant and I, with the help of many, were able to go away without kids for the first time in eight years. We went to Vegas while Bumpa held down the fort for 5 days! He then went home to sleep for a week straight only to be back to spend Christmas Eve & Christmas morning with us. Jason & Maho arrived on the 29th, whipped DKM into a week-long frenzy and celebrated Drew's birthday & New Years.

Pictures are better than yap - so here they are.

Vegas Marathon - 30,000 runners on the strip at 6am.

Free beer at the finish line: 8am

The only thing cool about The Exalibur is this photo

 

Every single person who goes to Vegas has this shot.

Ta-da! Santa came through again.

Mara didn't care. She slept until 9:30.

But she was excited to find out everything left under the tree was all hers!

Bumpa's hit! Mara loves Jack.

Jason brought Drew his first pair of boxing gloves, 
hand tape & a shirt from his gym in Japan.

Maho gave Kai, Grant & I awesome Japanese haircuts

Drew's birthday serenade. 8 years old!!
"Then why does your shirt say 6?" - Kai

Roasting marshmallows on New Years Eve

(Yes, Kai has some in her hair)

3 very excited kids

One little princess very much in love with Jason, Monty Ho-Ho & "The Pan"

Constant Catch-up

We flew through October and November and now our house, blog and lives are all in need of a major catch-up.

Construction on the grand Castle DKM was completed in September. Grant made it up as he went along and it is made almost entirely with recycled materials. A climbing wall and a spiral slide will be added in the spring (thanks to some awesome junk recently collected).

The first order of business was to play robbers with the castle as their hideout.

Kai's birthday was celebrated at Harbour City Gymnastics with 19 friends - split half & half with 'old' and 'new' friends from Rutherford & Hammond Bay. No surprise it was High School Musical themed. She now owns every licensed piece of HSM merchandise produced.

 Opening her presents from Mara & Drew. Mara was very interested.

"OMG! It's blah, blah, blah from HSM3!"

Soccer continues, even in the cold & rain of November. The kids don't seem to mind, but I'm still fuming that they do the season 'backwards' here on the island.

The #1 goal scorer in this house

Halloween was a roaring success this year with all three kids really into dressing up. "Addy Paddy" bought DK their costumes and they got to wear them for almost a week straight with all of the different dances and parties they had leading up to trick or treating. Mara was many different things during the week; a ballerina, a cat, and possibly the only 2-year-old who was "Han-tanna" (Hannah Montana).

Heading to the school dance

Ready for the real event

 

"Next house? Next house!!!!"

Mara absolutely loved getting candy (duh) and spent about 5 minutes blowing kisses and yelling "Happy, Happy WEEN!" at every house.  She lasted about 7 houses & then caught on that she could just sit in the wagon and eat while DK did the work.

 It started with some gummies...

then a chocolate bar...

...but the Cheezies did her in.

Other Stuff

Firsts, Seconds & Thirds

September 8th was a huge day this year. Mara's birthday fell on the same day as her first day at her day home, Kai's first day of Grade 1 & Drew's first day of Grade 3!

So happy to be heading off with the big kids.
Her Dora backpack was Kai's gift to her.

DK - first day of school

After a big day of firsts for everyone, we had Mara's birthday party

So proud of her backpack! She wore it all day & through her party

Drew's special present for her

DK's presents were both big hits

 

Ketchup chip face talkin' to Grandpa & Grandma Nancy

I love how this could easily been any birthday photo from the 70's.
Same decor, same plates, same cake...

At least Drew thought the sparklers were cool

I love the photo of the apples I did for the party, 

but truth be told, they were crap.

Earlier, Mara had won a draw for an "exclusive VIP" meeting with Dora. She loved it, but the whole thing was very, very strange. Creepy Dora, sans Boots, was at the mall and greeted kids (silently of course, which only added to the creepiness) in a roped off section in front of a vacant store. The line was 3.5 hours long! Thankfully Mara's VIP status let us whip in and out without waiting.

Great backdrop

This is what I discovered on my camera after DK were upstairs being suspiciously quiet...

Because even the mention of underwear is hilarious to them,

they were hysterical over finding a bra and modeling it

This shaggy maggy is for you Bumpa!

Before the school year started some of Kai's friends held a party for her to wish her good luck at her new school. Amy's mum, Debbie, organized it with all of the Kindergarten girls from last year & the party included a bouncy castle, craft station, cupcakes & goodie bags! What a lucky girl.

Kiera, Kaitlyn, Amy, Kai & Holly

Last week was the first week of DK's soccer season - and our first season as the title sponsor for the league. It was very exciting for us to see all 800+ kids at the kickoff wearing our logo. Drew & Kai are both young enough to think mum & dad & the junk is still cool so they're pretty proud that we are involved this year. Seeing them playing again was exciting. Drew said, "I'd forgotten how much fun it was" after his first practice & Kai is just thrilled to be on a team that has both 'old' Rutherford friends and 'new' Hammond Bay kids.