The Pezzente's: 2017

Since I've been slacking a ~~little~~ lot on my blog posts this past year, I thought I would do a quick year end summary. We were lucky to have such a fabulous year!

At the beginning of the year the kids took swimming lessons and Skye took her first skating lessons - she loved it! So she continued on into the spring session.

Both kids were also attending the same preschool (part-time) then, while Skye was doing an additional 2 days at outdoor Forest School (Common Digs) by Lloyd Park south of the city. This was her passion! She couldn't wait to get to school and be outside pretty much all day long exploring and learning with all her little friends. Even the cold didn't seem to bother them!

February and March were busy with dual birthday/vacation planning.

The beginning of April both kids celebrated their birthdays - Skye 5 & Rhys 3!

Skye invited some of her little girlfriends over for a pizza & smoothie making party. They had a blast! Rhys had a family birthday celebration with all his cousins and got to pick out his own ice cream Troll cake!

Also during Spring Skye played outdoor soccer and got to be on a team with some of her old dayhome buddies! It was fun to catch up each week.

At the be ginning of May we took our very first family vacation - to the "happiest place on Earth"! Disneyland, California!!

And family there was - we had quite the crew! We went with Dino's 2 brothers and their families, as well as Jenn's parents & sister. So there were 17 of us!!

After a LOT of planning and organizing from the "moms" (cause you can't just wing it with a group that size), we were on our way! And it turned out to be a fantastic trip.

We hit unseasonably hot weather and it was 30'ish degrees all week, and only started to cool the day before we left. We spent about 5 days in the park and then some pool time.

Daredevil Skye was in Heaven and basically went on ALL the rides (except the big rollercoaster - only because I wouldn't let her!). Rhys was a lot more skittish and only did about 5 rides - poor little guy. But he loved the rest of the experience and had no problems waiting around and just enjoying the scenery. And he was so excited to see Spider-Man and Captain America!

And of course the minute we got back home, they both asked when we were going back! They still talk about it every week. (and I STILL have to do a blog post on it...)

It took some recovery time (for mom especially) after "vacation" to get back into routine. And then we rolled into summer. And we had an amazing summer. I think the kids and I wer

e outside every day that they weren't in school. Either at the splash park, other parks, picnics, Riley Park, the zoo, the new Granary road with cousins in town for a visit, the local lakes with some friends or just outside riding their bikes.

Both kids got new bikes for their birthdays. Skye upsized to one with pedals (from her Stride balance bike), got on, started pedaling and she was GONE! No training wheels and no hesitation.

Rhys got a new bright green Stride bike to practice on. Both kids got super speedy in no time. Skye also took a bike class the beginning of June and it was quite helpful.

Skye finished up her outdoor school the middle of July and was sad to say goodbye to seeing her little friends everyday and all the fun that went with it. I wish she could have continued on another year. She really misses being outside, the little nature girl.

Although we didn't do our annual summer trip to the States this year, we finished our summer with a trip to Sicamous, BC to visit some friends. They vacation their all summer and were great hosts! We had some lake time, some yummy ice cream and we took the kids to the good 'ole Enchanted Forest! I remember it as being ancient when I went - LOL. But I had somehow forgot all about the little houses that the kids could go in - so they thought they were awesome. The site has actually added on an entire climbing/ziplining side as well, and Skye loved that part. Anything adventurous and that girl is in!

Fall showed up and it was new beginnings for Skye! She started Kindergarten at Escuela St. Benedict School (Dino's old stomping ground haha!! see art on the right!!). Although when daddy went there it was strictly English. Now it's Spanish bilingual. She is doing great there (they just had their Christmas concert and half of it was sung in Spanish!) and I've even been lucky enough to volunteer a couple times already. After school (mornings only) she goes across to the Southland Leisure Centre for Kindercrew (after school care) and she is loving that even more. They get to use most of the rooms in the facility and play and do crafts all day! It's hard to drag her out of there at the end of the day, when she SHOULD be exhausted. And yet, her and her little friends (and Rhys) still race down the long ramp. Us parents take the stairs...slowly.

Rhys misses his sister at his school, but he is doing well too. He loves to go pick Skye up at the end of the day and see all her friends and "teachers" too. He's part of their family too - they welcome him in even with hugs!

Also with fall came new sports. Both kids were in swimming again and skating. Rhys tried skating with mommy and wasn't all that into it...so I think we will sit and watch Skye when she continues on after Christmas. Skye is also trying Hip Hop dance. I think she likes it, but I guess we will re-evaluate at the end of the year and see the dance recital. I have a feeling she might choose gymnastics over dance - the kid is obsessed with hand-stands and cartwheels!

This year, as a late Father's Day Gift, the kids and I took daddy (LOL) to the Monster Trucks. It was the first time the kids had gone and they enjoyed seeing them in real life!

The kids and I participated in the Terry Fox Run again this year, along with
a HUGE group of family and friends. We try to do it every year - in remembrance of my cousin Jody. This year I ran the 10km and the kids did the 5km walk and the semi 5km run haha - with some assistance. It was a beautiful/fun day. It was a trial run leading into my first

ever Half Marathon run in mid September. My sister, Janessa, convinced me that we should do it (I've been thinking about it for ye ars but needed a push), so after not so much training, on my part anyway...we did it! It turned out to be a gorgeous day in the mountains (very chilly to start) for the Melissa's Road Race. And although I was super sl ow, I am proud of my accomplishment and finishing. And not getting eatin' by a bear.

October was spent on Halloween prep and costumes. And although the weather was a little cooler this year we still had fun! You can check out my previous post for more costume pics and details.

And...it seems that as soon as Halloween is over it's downhill quickly prepping for Christmas. This year I started really early and am happy about that. I knew I would have a lot of extra to do, as we are hosting a large number of Dino's family and extended family on Christmas Day. I've tried to allow for some R&R as well during this time, as it always seems to get too overwhelming. Well, as it goes during this fabulous season, we all ended up getting sick this past week (colds, flu, bronchitis...) and now I've been out of commission for the past 5 days and counting. I'm hoping these germs are gone by Thursday and we can enjoy the rest of our plans and Christmas (since we had to cancel all of last weekend). Fingers crossed.

Well that pretty much sums it up! A little longer than I expected...

Cheers to all of you and to another great year ahead!
For more up to date fun (or filling in the blog gaps this past year), follow my Instagram @ dellapezz.

Switching it around this year,

The kids wanted to pick their own gear 🙁

I found myself on my own,

Between Ironman and Unicorn!

What to do, what to be?

Maybe a Woodland Faery??

Thru the woods I will flitter and fly,

With my magical unicorn at my side.

Best friends we will be, forever and more

And if we should get into trouble -

Ironman will be our HERO for sure,

And get there on the double!?

It was a busy day rushing from work to pick up both kids, home to eat and then rushing over to our friends to go trick or treating. But it's so much fun to go with a group, rather than alone.

This year was a little wet and colder than the past few years, but we managed to last about an hour and a half - which was more than enough candy collected!! The kids had a blast and Skye was really into the spooky decorations - got right up close and inspected the glowing eyes and gruesome details - LOL. Wasn't scared at all. The funniest was this spider video!

More Halloween fun - Skye had her FIRST dance at school the Friday before Halloween. They had a DJ and lots of fun games. The kids had SO much fun running around and screaming and chasing each other

(hence the blurry photos)!

Mostly the girls running away from Ironman...poor Rhys.

It was complete chaos. I'm really shocked that no one came home from and "crash" wounds - there were some very close calls! They got to dress up as well if they wanted to. Skye wore her other unicorn "costume" (all about unicorns this year...)

I thought the most hilarious part was the DJ playing lots of songs from OUR school dances 30 years ago!! Funky town! and a remix of Sweet Caroline!