The Talens' Tales

We had a great time celebrating Joash's birthday. He requested a Lego logo cake.   Oma and Opa came for coffee time and we had gifts and cake. So many great gifts for Joash. He was pretty pleased with all of them. We also went swimming in the afternoon and pretty much had the pool to ourselves. The life guards still opened the water slide for a little while, so that was pretty awesome. Both Joash and Mataya were brave enough to go down the slide by themselves for the first time. Then we headed to Boston Pizza a the request of the birthday boy. He gave it a big thumbs up!  And he was pretty thrilled with his first experience with a free birthday dessert and song from the wait staff. It was a fun day!

What is your favorite color? Blue What is your favorite toy/activity? Lego What is your favorite food? Pizza What is your favorite game? Sequence What is your favorite animal? Jackal What is your favorite book? The Treehouse Series by Andy Griffiths Who is your best friend? Ben What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride bikes and skelters What is your favorite drink?   Juice What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pizza from Boston Pizza What do you want to be when you grow up? Scientist 

We had a wonderful holiday season this year. The winter weather has been rather crazy, but that made for great time at our house with family. We had a nice looking tree. Made Cut-out Sugar Cookies...with all hands on deck for decorating. Joash and Mataya decorated gingerbread houses. Once they were assembled, they were both able to indepently put on the icing and candies! We opened gifts with our family, with a scavenger hunt for the kids to find their final gifts. Christmas day found us with a turkey and lots of lovely company. Boxing day was a great day for our almost annual Boxing Day walk on the beach. Wilbert's brother and family were here for the week following Christmas. That means lots of music... Cousin time (all of the kids LOVED Nieko)... More presents (including the gift that has been circling the family since at least 2010)... And a family swim followed by an early supper at Boston Pizza. The kids sure changed a lot in that week...

A few things worth noting have happened lately. First, Mataya got a hair cut and she loves it!  It is still long enough for pony tails and braids, but it is much more manageable and less tangley which make us both happy! Second, it was Storybook Character day this week at school. We went the Robert Munsch route this year, which was nice a simple. Joash made a cookie of play dough and was Christopher from Mmm...Cookies!  And Mataya rocked the side pony tail as Stephanie from Stephanie's Ponytail . We did some pumpkin carving. Mataya was going for silly and Joash was going for frightening! And finally, I headed back to the classroom and started teaching again last week. I am teaching the 9/10 English class at ICS. I teach three class periods a week, last period of the day on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I asked to teach in the afternoon because then Gideon can stay with Wilbert and we don't have to worry about who is taking care of him. It has been g...

What is your favorite color? Blue and Green What is your favorite thing to play with? Lego What is your favorite food? Grilled Cheese or Pad Thai What is your favorite tv show or movie? The Prince of Egypt What is your favorite outfit? black gym pants and a t-shirt What is your favorite game? Not sure What is your favorite animal? Jackel What is your favorite book? DK Eyewitness books - especially those about history Who is your best friend? Ben What is your favorite thing to do outside? Ride my bike or the skelter What is your favorite drink?   Juice What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Pancakes and jello What do you want to be when you grow up? A chemist, archaeologist, geologist, paleontologist or Egyptologist

We have an 8 year old in the house! Yesterday was Joash's birthday and we had a great day celebrating. This year I made a cake shaped like an 8.   Joash thought it turned out great, as did I!  It was a PD day, so there was no school. That meant Oma and Opa could come for coffee time. Joash was pretty pleased with his gifts! Books on his favorite topics, cool rocks, a light for reading in bed and real tools!  And Tante Reina came for the birthday supper of pancakes and jello (and bacon and eggs). And Joash will have lots more facts thanks to another new book!

School has started once again. Joash began yesterday in Grade 3.  Mataya started Kindergarten today. She was VERY excited. She was all ready to go to school by 7:15 am this morning. Those last 45 minutes before we had to leave for school were a very long time to wait.  And Gideon wanted his picture taken with a backpack on as well. He get to have all the attention to himself now while brother and sister are at school.

My parents came for a week long visit and we had a wonderful time with them.  We spent a morning at That Fun Place.  We also went mini-golfing one morning, but we forgot to take pictures. Another day we went the Greenwich Beach, which has very interesting interpretive center, trails to walk and lovely, quiet beach. Exploring the map of eastern PEI a the interpretive center  Walking the trails at Greenwich Beach  They have nice lookout tower at the beach.  Playing on the beach with Grandpa and Grandma.  We also spent sometime downtown Charlottetown. We stopped a the library, had Cows Ice Cream and did the Fox Story Walk together. It was a fun day. We are so happy that Grandpa and Grandma could come to visit and we look forward to the next time we see them.

 We decided to head to Old Home Week again this year. On the dairy show day, because if we go, that is the day we go. We had fun with these animals!  Gideon went on his first amusement park rides and he liked them quite a bit.  And of course the large tractor. Everyone is a fan of this one!

There is still so much of the Island and so many things to do that we have yet to explore. Last week, we did two days trips to different destinations on the Island. We used the Heritage Pass that is available for check out from the Public Library. This pass is good for one free family admission to seven different sites on PEI.  One day we visited Orwell Corner Historical Village. This was a great hidden gem of a place! The main agricultral museum is air conditioned, which we really enjoyed since we visited on a very warm day. We had our picnic lunch by the school house, watched a working black smith, took a wagon ride around the site and saw some neat farm animals. The kids all really enjoyed this site and would like to go back again!  Another day we headed further east and visited the Elmira Railway Museum. This was a small museum, but very nicely done. They have a great model train display. There are also two different train rides you can ride on while there. ...