It is strange to say the least to be wrapping up school and extra curricular activities at this time of the year, but there is only 3 weeks for Shem and 4 weeks for the rest of us left in this academic year. That and seeing Cherries appear in stores feels most peculiar!! While to us it feels like the year has only just begun, to the locals the end of the school year couldn’t come more quickly. After 6 short months Dibs, Jemima and Chloe are done with grade 4, 3, and 1 respectively and will have an amazing 10 weeks off before starting a new school year.

I have unofficially become an elementary school teacher! Because my certification over hear allows me to teach from K-12 I have been working in both secondary and primary schools and finding filling in at the senior secondary level so boring as you really are just supervising. I am loving working in middle years particularly and am now getting quite a bit of work at the kids school and have started to be asked back to teach the same grades at a few other schools which is nice as you start to get to know the kids.

Dibs and Jemima were involved in the school musical Sussical at the end of April and this was an amazing experience for them both. Dibs had a lead role as Mr Mayor and in his “now fairly legendary way” his performance on stage was 100% pure Dibs! We were so proud. Jemima was very lucky as a grade three to be allowed to be involved as one of the citizens of WhoVille and for her – it was a sensational opportunity to get to know some of the girls in her class in a different setting. She volunteered me to do the who’s hair and along with another mother we made sure the Whos were the best looking kids on stage (not competitive at all!!) The production a tribute to a very hard working and brave Music teacher and an absolutely wonderful experience for our older two.

The kids have been going on lots of field trips with school and most are designed to embrace the amazing environment around the school. They have been on hikes up mountains, into the local parks and wildlife reserves. Chloe now has an impressive knowledge of forest ecosystems which she is more than happy to share with anyone who will listen. I was invited by her to attend an excursion to a beautiful provincial park a few weeks back and it was great to see a park we would not have discovered otherwise.

  The kids have just finished up their Dance classes culminating in an amazing performance which included three shows over two days. The dance school is located on campus and as such I signed all three kids up – so happy to have an activity we didn’t have to drive to. The school is a very accomplished and professional outfit and the concert was incredibly well done and enjoyable to go to! Mind you the lead up for the children included a 4hr technical rehearsal on Tuesday, a 5hr dress rehearsal Thursday, Friday evening performance ending at 10.30, Saturday Matinee 2-5.30 and Saturday evening performance till 10.30 – they were completely and utterly stuffed! (they also performed for a grand total of 2min and 30 seconds each show!!!! Most telling was finding Dibs on the couch Sunday morning still in his bright blue outfit – he had slept in it!

Since my last post we had an amazing May Day long weekend away in Port Renfrew with the Beatty Family. We  – well mainly Jemima- looked after little Lauren for the night while Ashley and Simon went to Graduation in Vancouver living it up as a for child family for 24hrs before heading to Port Renfrew. 

   
   Port Renferw is only 2hrs from Mill Bay on the rugged west coast of the Island. It is reportedly quite similar the famous Tofino which is on the same ocean side of the Island but a bit further away. We hired a cottage right on the cliff overlooking the river mouth. 

    The weather over that side of the island can be quite unpredictable, but we were incredibly lucky with beautiful calm sunny days. We went for a walk to a place called Botanical Beach which famous for its tidal rock pools. What we loved it for was the sound of crashing waves – which we did not realize we had missed until we heard it and the beach smells that are not present on the mainland-facing side of the island where we live. The kids loved the mountains of drift wood – which to their surprise was very light and easy to build with.

   
   The west coast of the island is also home to some of the counties oldest intact forests with massive Douglas Fur and Ceder trees, and we enjoyed wondering through these and allowing the kids to find their own paths through the forests without the fear of snakes (and we are too naive to worry about bears!)

   
   On our way home we stopped in at a famous west side beach called China beach. The experience of walking through massive old growth forest for a km and then arriving at a stunning black sand beach was simply stunning. The weather was great and the kids got a little bit wet – the water was absolutely freezing!

Back on campus the children have been swimming in the bay almost every day – bugging Shem or I to take them down to the Rowing docks after school even on days when they have swimming training later in the afternoons. It is about 100m from our house and a beautiful place to relax in the sun, so not such a chore. We normally round up a gaggle of campus kids and they play very happily jumping off the docks, wrestling and swimming from dock to dock. The water is, according to the school’s boatman 8 degrees – however I am sure it is warmer than that – it feels kind of like Novemeber in Anglesea.

We have also been taking the stand up paddle boards out which has been a major hit. Today the water was like glass and we all had such fun exploring the local coast line with about 6 seals watching within a 20 meter radius – their heads popping out of the water to watch and following us around.   
     

We are truely loving the amazing and apparently unseasonably warm weather this spring has provided us with. The nights are warm and light till 9ish already. This is a photo of us eating dinner on our deck and if you look really hard you can see the water!

  
Anyway – only 3 weeks to shems parents get here and then we are travelling for 7 weeks around USA and mainland Canada. A great deal to look forward to as our year zips by – flights home booked – the kids and I will be back on the 8th of Dec with Shem following on the 21st! How time flies when your having fun.