Julia Turns 17

Julia turned 17 last weekend! We had a nice birthday celebration with a few friends, and Kate made her a Nutella chocolate cake. I love this photo that her friend Melika had taken and had given me permission to post. The past few months have been good for Julia, with a lot of changes: a new school and with it, a new routine and new friends (not to mention a few changes in hair colour). She still has a year-and-a-half to go in high-school but is starting to think about options for university, which is very exciting and a bit scary, for all of us!

Julia Turns 16

Julia ... then and now. Happy 16th birthday, with love from the whole family!!

Oktoberfest Race

Here is a family photo from last weekend's Oktoberfest race. My cousins Rob and Beryl came all the way from Montreal to join us for the race. Their kids stayed home with Kate, while Julia and Todd also did the run with us. We were joined by many more friends, including Mark who was responsible for this photo, and Fei Min, my workout partner of sorts over the past five years.

Rob, Beryl and I did the 10K. This was my first 10K and I was both surprised and thrilled to finish it under an hour (though not by much!), along with Beryl. Rob was recovering from an injury but gamely did the run with us. Todd, Mark and Julia all did the 5K for the first time and had very respectable times, given that they only started training a short time before. Actually, Julia didn't train seriously at all, but I guess being young helps a great deal.

Apart from the race, for which we had perfect weather, we had a terrific weekend with our cousins. Rob and Beryl brought treats (both copious and meaty) from their home-made smoker, along with a lovely selection of beverages from Quebec and Eastern Ontario, and the kids enjoyed spending time together. We'll definitely do another race together next year.

A Weekend with Family

We took an extra-long Canada Day weekend to join Joe and Jill in Montreal. They're in Canada for a short time, and though I saw Joe a couple of months ago, we hadn't seen the rest of the family since we were in Singapore for Christmas 2008. Julia and Kate were thrilled to spend time with cousins Oliver and Martin, who are growing into smart, active boys with loads of personality! The girls were willing to babysit, so we even had an evening out at a Tapas restaurant in Old Montreal with Joe and Jill. Mom has almost fully recovered from her surgery (we were all teasing her for giving us such a scare earlier in the year), and Dad cooked plenty of good Chinese food, as always.

As an extra bonus, the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal was on and we caught a few of the outdoor shows. Todd ducked into the Montreal Guitar Show for a couple of hours to check out the incredibly expensive handcrafted guitars made by top luthiers. I consider myself lucky that we managed to leave Montreal with only one new guitar, a nice but much less expensive acoustic guitar for Kate which ironically we found in a bookstore. Well, it had been a bookstore but now it sells musical instruments too, and we really did go in looking for books ....


We happily had the chance to spend time with many of our other Montreal cousins. Some joined us for a day at the amusement park and the rest we saw at a BBQ hosted by Beryl and Rob, who graciously gave us accommodation on our last night in Montreal. Now, Rob is a Master of Meat, and this photo above should convince you if you had any doubts. This is his pride and joy (after his three beautiful daughters, of course), his handcrafted smoker complete with wireless thermometer so that he can check the status of his meat in the comfort of his living room.

Apart from the horrible traffic between Montreal and Toronto, it was a terrific weekend, with great weather, great company and great food!

A Wedding

My cousin Barnaby got married over the May long weekend! We travelled to Montreal to attend the wedding and reception, and everyone is thrilled that Krista (along with her four-legged friend, Mr. Frodo) is joining the family. They had a traditional Chinese banquet, the kind where you eat non-stop for three hours (followed by the traditional Chinese Black-Forest cupcakes, of course). Todd, Kate, Julia and I were happy to see all the cousins, and especially glad to see my mother there. She had just returned home after spending the past couple of months in the hospital and convalescent home, and there was no way she was going to miss this party. Congratulations, Barnaby and Krista!

Family Update

A family update is long overdue, and Mother's Day seems a good day to post one. We're all doing well, but it's been a busy year.

Over March Break, Julia went on an exchange trip to Switzerland with her French teacher and a number of classmates. She first spent three nights in Paris (lucky girl!!) before meeting her French-speaking host family in Switzerland. She received a very warm welcome from her hosts and had a fabulous time there. Among other experiences, she got to see the Louvre and go snowshoeing in the Alps. After her return, we hosted her exchange partner from Switzerland, a lovely girl named Zana. The school took her on the requisite trips to Niagara Falls and the CN tower, and we had our own family excursions to the AGO, Chinatown and the Eaton Centre (a must for most teen girls, it seems, regardless of nationality). We were much impressed by Zana's willingness to try all kinds of Asian food and her excellent command of English, and we hope to see her again in Canada in the future. A few weeks later, Julia went on another school trip, an intensive week-long science/technology course in Ottawa with her entire Grade 9 class.

Concert season is almost over for Kate. Within the past three weeks, she has performed in an orchestra concert, a group violin concert, four Kiwanis competitions (violin, piano and composition), a school talent show with her band (for which she plays guitar), and a dance recital. Phew! It's not usually this crazy, but somehow, all the season-end recitals landed at the same time. She has one more violin recital to do next weekend and then she plans to do nothing for an entire week except play computer games.

Todd is still doing the usual stuff: travelling for business, playing guitar, building tube amps. I'm still reading, knitting, and writing software. I've also been volunteering with the adult literacy centre, tutoring a student once a week. It's been an interesting and rewarding experience.

For those of you who have been concerned about my mother, I'm happy to report that Mom is out of the ICU now and on the road to recovery. She seemed in good spirits when I spoke to her today and is getting stronger every day. She is still in the hospital but will likely not have to stay there too much longer. Happy news indeed for Mother's Day!

Halloween

Here's my crazy family on Halloween night, minus Julia who was in bed with the flu. Kate very generously offered to share her loot, which goes to show that little sisters aren't always annoying pests.

I'd bought Kate this lovely white princess dress for Halloween last year but she'd refused to wear it. "Princess" just isn't her thing. Instead, she opted to shred it up with scissors and splatter it with (fake) blood, for the zombie-bride look. (Personally, I think she looks more like Lady Macbeth with that knife.) We were especially pleased to find the perfect fabric for her veil at Len's Mill, but it made me sick to my stomach to think of how much I'd paid for my own wedding veil 18 years ago. To think that I could have made do with a $2 piece of fabric, a $1 head band and two safety pins ... but it's too late to return it to the bridal shop now. Todd opted not to repeat the Napolean Dynamite act (too embarrassing to Julia, who cringed at the thought of her friends seeing him on the streets) and went for a more basic look.

I stayed home and passed out candy to over 230 kids before shutting down at 8:30pm. When you have a crazy family down the street who sets up a huge and elaborate haunted house and opens it up to the entire community, you can expect a lot of trick-or-treaters. I don't mind, though, and the kids are always pleasant and polite.

Mac 'n' Cheese

I'm way too tired to write a book review, knitting pattern, or anything else requiring much thought, but I've been getting gentle reminders from various sources that I should keep my blog up to date. So the best I can do is this: Kate's fabulous home-made mac 'n' cheese, which I had the honour of helping her make. It was better than KD, really.

Why am I so tired? I guess it's the back-to-school chaos: getting used to waking up before 7am again, rushing to Office Depot because one of the kids absolutely needs a binder/notebook/glue-stick by the next day or else she is doomed to failure for the school year, dashing out to the grocery store after realizing there is no lunch food except granola bars in the house, being told about a parent-teacher meeting just as it was about to get started (with the reassuring words, "But you don't really have to attend, Mom"). However, things are starting to get better. Life isn't exactly returning to "normal", but we're starting to establish a new routine.

First Day of High School

Kate started grade 5 yesterday, but today is Julia's very first day of high school! By 7:30am, she was dressed, had eaten breakfast, and had all her stuff organized and ready to go. What happened to my kid??!!

The Summer in a Nutshell

It is definitely time to revive this blog, and I'll start with, "What I Did During My Summer Vacation." One thing I did was work, as I wasn't fortunate enough to have the whole summer off, but I still had plenty of time to spend with family and friends. My cousins Beryl and Rob spent several days with us, and the girls had a great time with Emma, Amanda and Olivia. We went into Toronto with them after their stay here and spent an afternoon at the Ontario Science Museum.


Julia had a terrific two weeks at summer camp with one of her friends from school. She claims she had a great time, despite the fact that she and her cabin-mates got caught in the biggest and wettest storm of the summer during their three-night out-trip. She then spent the rest of the summer relaxing at home and doing some volunteer work at the library and at our neighbourhood pool, reading with kids and assisting with swim lessons. Julia seems to enjoy working with younger kids, as long as the group doesn't include her sister.


Kate also had two weeks at a different summer camp with one of her good friends. This camp had a small lending library and Kate made it a personal mission to finish one Nancy Drew mystery each day at camp. Not surprisingly, she earned a "fastest reader" award from her camp counsellor. She told me that she did put the books aside long enough to swim, canoe, learn to make a fire, and do the usual camp activities, and she is looking forward to returning next year.

Todd and I had the opportunity to enjoy a kid-free weekend with our friends Mark and Sharon. We spent a couple of days in the Niagara Region, tasting and stocking up on wine, eating excellent food, and playing Settlers of Catan and Pandemic. I also got through at least a dozen novels and produced a decent crop of lettuce, peas, beans, eggplants and cucumbers this summer, though tomatoes were disappointing. Tomorrow, it's the start of a new school year!

Two Anniversaries

Two days ago, Marilyn and John, Todd's parents, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. There was a big party in Wasaga Beach, well attended by over 200 family members and friends. Their entire wedding party was there, along with many people they've worked with in their long careers and extensive volunteer service. It was clear from the stories and comments I heard that they've touched many, many lives and they play a vital role in their community. We, of course, already know that they're wonderful parents and grandparents. Congratulations, Marilyn and John! We wish you many more years of happiness.


Todd and I are celebrating our own 18th wedding anniversary today! We're having a low-key celebration with our girls this evening. It's been a good year for our family, and I expect the next will be even better.

Celebrating the End of Middle School

Julia celebrated the end of Middle School with her grade 8 prom a couple of nights ago. Here she is, looking very grown up in the dress and wrap I'd made for her. For those of you who had wondered why I've not had any "Sunday Craft Updates" for a while, the reason is that I was not allowed to divulge any details of the prom outfit until after the event.

Grade 8 has gone very well for Julia. It culminated in her school's annual end-of-year ceremony today, where she learned that she graduated on the honour roll. It's been a fun two weeks for her. As soon as exams finished, the whole grade 8 class went on a trip to Quebec City and Ottawa that included a white-water rafting experience. Then there was prom followed by after-prom parties, and now summer vacation begins!

A Busy Concert Season

Kate has been a busy, busy violinist these past few weeks. First, the junior orchestra played their final concert of the season. They worked for months on the third movement of Vivaldi's Summer Concerto and they played it beautifully. They also joined the intermediate and senior orchestras to play a modern piece composed by David Wadley. A few days after that concert, Kate participated in the local Kiwanis Music Festival, in three violin competitions and a composition competition. She had practiced many hours for these competitions, and we were very proud that she played her pieces so well.

The following weekend, Kate's strings school had their annual spring concert. Kate played, with her group, a medley featuring pieces from "The Sound of Music". It was definitely a crowd pleaser and appreciated by Todd's parents, John and Marilyn, who joined us for the weekend. She also played selections from the Suzuki repertoire with the entire school. Even though I have to see this at every Suzuki event, I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing a stage full of kids playing Twinkle variations together! There's Kate in the photo above, among all the violinists in their best black-and-white concert garb.


As if there wasn't enough craziness, Kate also had to attend dance rehearsals the week before the concert. I spent much of the weekend shuttling her between her two dance performances and the group violin rehearsal and concert. The whole family attended the dance recital too, and Kate performed beautifully in her "Pool of Tears" and "Card Guards" dances with the rest of her class. My friend Laura designed this lovely card guard costume in the photo above.

Now, Kate gets a few weeks' break before an upcoming violin exam. Julia had decided some time ago to abandon the arts scene and is no longer doing dance and piano recitals. However, she too has been busy, going to track-and-field meets every week or two with her school team. It's nearly impossible, though, to convince a teenager to pose for a photo for her parents, so you'll just have to imagine her racing in her school colours and spikes.

Julia Passes Her Solo Test

For the past couple of months, Julia had been working on her solo program for the Skate Canada StarSkate Preliminary Freeskate test, and on Tuesday, she passed the test! She has now completed her Preliminary and Junior Bronze dance and skills tests, and both portions of the Preliminary Freeskate test. She is going to take some time off skating to concentrate on Track and Field for the Spring, before resuming later in the year. Congratulations, Julia. We're proud of you!

Happy 10th Birthday, Kate!

Our little Kate turned ten today! She had a terrific day, receiving birthday greetings from friends, family and classmates. We all went to her favourite Viet-Thai restaurant for dinner. Happy birthday, Kate!

March Break in Montreal

The kids had March Break last week, and we spent it in Montreal visiting family. Todd was eager to get a few more skiing opportunities before the season ended, and so we brought our skis along. Our first stop was at Beryl's and Rob's house, where we always get a warm welcome! The girls were happy to spend time with their cousins, Emma, Amanda and Olivia, who is reading her new Dora books with Julia and Kate in the photo above. We had a terrific day at Mont Avila. Rob took Todd and me skiing, while Beryl took all the girls snow tubing, and the evening ended with an excellent meal at a local gastro-pub.

We had an opportunity to ski again later in the week, at Bromont. Bromont's a great place to ski. It's a large resort, like Tremblant, but slightly less expensive and definitely less glitzy. There are enough challenging runs to satisfy Todd, and there is enough variety in the easy runs for me. Though the snow was rather slushy, both ski days were sunny and warm.

Being on vacation, I didn't keep up with news, and it was only after we returned that I heard about the death of Natasha Richardson at Tremblant. I was somewhat shaken by this, having done that same run a number of times. The Nansen run is a beginner run, but when I was on it in February, there were some very icy sections. However, we ski with helmets, and being the worrying type, I always insist on a trip to the doctor after a head injury. Our family seems to be prone to this, as we've had three (non-skiing) incidents in the past few years, with two requiring stitches. Maybe we should wear helmets all the time ....




We spent the second half of our March Break at my parents' house, where we had fabulous Chinese food. My mom cooked my favourites, including steamed lobster (also Julia's favourite), braised mushrooms, and stir-fried greens. We joined my cousins Teresa and Leo for dim sum, but unfortunately, their kids were in school, as Quebec students get March Break earlier in the month. We rounded out the week with the inevitable clothes-shopping trip, a walk through the McGill campus (a futile attempt to inspire Julia to pay more attention to her studies) and an afternoon at the Biodome, a nature museum housed in the velodrome originally built for the 1976 Olympic Games.

Happy Birthday, Julia!

Julia turns 14 years old today! She dashed off to school today before I had a chance to get a new photo, so here she is, a month ago, at Hong Kong Disneyland. It's definitely not shorts weather here today. We're going to celebrate with birthday cake tonight and a meal at her favourite Viet-Thai restaurant on the weekend. Happy Birthday, Julia! We all love you and wish you a great year to come!

Hong Kong Disneyland

Here, finally, is the last post about our vacation that I had intended to write the first week of January. It took me a week to get over the jet lag and another two weeks to get over the cold that each of us in the family succumbed to in succession. No more excuses ... here is what happened at Hong Kong Disneyland.


We went to Hong Kong Disneyland by subway, which is the most sensible way to get anywhere in Hong Kong. Kate got pretty excited when she saw the mouse-ear windows on the train that connects the theme park to the rest of the city. We were happy to see that the park wasn't crowded when we arrived. The cool and damp weather seemed to discourage the locals and other tourists, but to us, it was quite pleasant. Many of those willing to brave the 15 degrees Celsius temperatures were sporting hats, mittens and even parkas. Yes, parkas -- those big puffy things we put on when it goes below zero degrees and there's at least a few centimetres of snow on the ground. Really, how can you look cool shooting down the villains on the Buzz Lightyear ride wearing a parka? Julia stayed in shorts the whole day, even though I'd packed long pants for her in our backpack. Can you spot the Canadian girl in the crowd?


Hong Kong Disneyland is much smaller than the Florida's Disneyworld, but it was just the right amount of entertainment for us to fill up the day. Julia felt a bit queasy after her first ride on Space Mountain but recovered sufficiently to go back on a few more times. The rest of us stuck to the tamer rides. Of course, we had to do the "It's a Small World" ride. I love the displays in that ride and could have gone through several more times; instead, I had to be satisfied with hearing Kate sign the song over and over the next three days. The Winnie-the-Pooh ride was also a must-do for us. This time, we didn't get stuck in the psychedelic Heffalumps and Woozles section like we did in Florida several years ago.


Oliver wanted to meet all the characters, so Joe and Jill went off on their own for a while. Our kids opted for rides, but Kate did want to visit Mickey's Christmas House, where she got to have her photo taken with the man himself. She was also thrilled to find in Mickey's house a framed picture that matched a Walt Disney cross-stitch picture made by Jill and hanging in Oliver's room.



The final photos below aren't from Disneyland but I wanted to include a few from our visit to Ocean Park on New Year's Day. Ocean Park is a huge marine-themed amusement park set high up on a hill. The weather was wonderful and we had a fun day with Joe, Jill, Martin and Oliver before having to say a sad farewell to them the next day. We had a wonderful two weeks with them and hope we see them all again before too long.

A Very Green Christmas

It looks like Santa Claus did indeed make his way from the North Pole all the way to Singapore after all! Oliver was happy to see that Santa ate the cookie and drank the milk he left out, and he was thrilled with all the toys Santa left for him. Martin was mostly excited about unwrapping all the pretty boxes. It's great to spend Christmas with family, even if we're 15000km from home!


We really did have a green Christmas here, as we'd decided to spend the afternoon at the Singapore Botanic Gardens building up an appetite for the big turkey dinner. Julia had finally recovered from the jet lag enough to want to go for a run, and the rest of us admired the gardens, including the incredible National Orchid Garden, at a somewhat slower pace.

Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful ...

After two days of good weather, we had a tremendous downpour that started in the wee hours and lasted through the morning. When it rains here, it really pours! That didn't stop the kids from having a good time outside. Actually, it was quite refreshing walking around the patio, with shoes and umbrellas as optional accessories.

It is strange but rather fun to celebrate Christmas in this tropical country, knowing that our family and friends back home are being subjected to yet another snowstorm and enjoying a very white Christmas. So how do Singaporeans celebrate Christmas? I've noticed that they, like us Northern folk, enjoy putting up bright and colourful decorations. The mall entrances feature huge Christmas trees heavily laden with ornaments, and windows of homes are decorated with Christmas lights and snowflake (yes, snowflake) cutouts.


Then, there are the enthusiastic ice-skaters at the mall. I suppose the skates are rented, as I wouldn't expect these to be in every Singaporean's closet. I loved watching the skaters. The kids seemed to be truly having fun, not beating each other with sticks on the ice like they do in Canada.


And then there are the truly bizarre interpretations of the Yuletide celebration: