The Dempsters

Today was Patricks 5th Birthday party. His request was to have one at our house like previous years but then we started to work on his guest list – he is quite the social butterfly! Between gymnastics and his preschool we quickly got to 20 guests and so for the first year ever it was purely his friends rather than the offspring of his parents friends! 20 gave me quite a headache in the planning though. Clearly our house was out, 20 kids + bouncy house + sugar + trampoline + excitement felt like a recipe for disaster so I needed to find a venue that could accomodate that many kids. Thankfully I was recommended to My Gym and they were outstanding. Patrick and his friends all had a ball. You can see from the cake that this years theme was dinosaurs. We had fun designing the cake together and I think he was pleased with the result.

To take full advantage of the the childrens meagre school holidays we have just spent a week in stunning Yosemite with my Mum and Dad.

This is the iconic shot of Yosemite Valley with Half Dome rock in the background, Bridalveil Falls on the right and El Capitan on the left behind the tree. Believe it or not Mr D took this shot and it isn’t a postcard. Yosemite was breathtakingly beautiful and I am so glad that we went at this time of the year. We arrived last Saturday and for the first couple of days the weather was a little chilly and rainy. It didn’t put off the great Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday and it meant that the valley was teeming with lots of waterfalls.

After that the weather improved and we enjoyed many sunshine walks. Parts of the park are in excess of 5,000 feet which at this time of the year means snow! We visited the Mariposa Grove to see the Giant Sequoias and the kids had a ball playing in the snow. They weren’t so keen on the mile walk up to the trees so Diesel and I had to Sherpa them up which wasn’t the most enjoyable part of our trip!

Other days were spent at the Railway Museum in Jamestown and a very enjoyable afternoon sitting on the ‘beach’ of the River Merced panning for gold. I’m convinced what we found was gold but Mr D is going to subject it to some vigorous scientific examination this week to confirm. Either way, I doubt it will make us rich!

We stayed in a little town called Midpines which was not far from the Arch Rock entrance to the park. Our rental house was a total find … a three bedroomed house built around a very large tree. The deck wrapped around 3/4 of the house and we had terrific views of the mountains and pine forest. We all had a fabulous week, great scenery, great company and too much good food and wine. We all felt very sad yesterday when we had to leave. In fact Patrick’s comment was ‘no Mum, we need to stay at The Treehouse for 100 more sleeps’ ….. we wish little boy!

2011 here we come! This year I’m not going to spend too much time dwelling on the previous year as we were surrounded by things that I would hope are not repeated in 2011. What I will say is that Grace and Patrick have continued to grow and thrive and 2010 saw our first visit from the tooth fairy, first display in an art show, first go on a surfboard and a ton of other great memories.

We travelled back to the UK last year and so this year we are planning on exploring and getting to know our home state a little better. Over the Christmas break we have been up into the Angeles National Forrest and thrown snowballs at 7,000 feet. Today we celebrated the New Year with a visit to the annual Rose Parade in Pasadena. The clue is in the title but its true! Every float was made from flowers, in fact the rules say that no man made materials can be on the float so everything is flowers, seeds, bark, seaweed etc. It was an amazing thing to see and we all had a blast – definately something that will become a tradition in our house!

I’m not sure we are particularly keen on New Years Resolutions so we will keep our plans for 2011 fluid but hope that they include lots of exercise, happy healthy children and many more memories of this beautiful state of California.

and so was the sound of Halloween for the Dempsters this year. Our little boy has the most beautiful manners and was happy to use every single one of them on each and every doorstep we visited last night. Whilst it was lovely to watch I’m not sure the kids in the line behind him were very impressed!

This year we continued with the animal theme which has dominated our house for some years now. Grace picked out a costume as a pink leopard lady whilst Patrick went for an elephant. They both looked great and every year I find it interesting to see how they have grown and changed from the previous year.

Last year Patrick was all about trying to go into each persons house and Grace was terrified of her own shadow. This year Patrick was much more verbal and whilst he is still not bothered about eating the candy he was quite excited to check out his ‘loot’ when he got home. Gracie is still not keen on the really scary houses but at least she didn’t cry this year when the rather intense Dad who was pretending to sleep on his front step suddenly screamed BOO at them. I do think her ‘courage’ was helped by her brothers very pragmatic approach to the whole decoration thing. On seeing a motion detector scary ghost hanging outside someones house he said “look Mummy, a skeleton in a bag” and carried on walking.

So thats Halloween done for another year, as is the fickle world of children Grace is already thinking about Thanksgiving and how we can decorate the house for that. By all accounts my attempt at Halloween was boring so I need to raise my game for Thanksgiving!

Whew! The summer is over and already it feels like a distant memory. Still, we had a ball and really enjoyed everything that our new home had to offer. Gracie learnt to swim and is now confident to swim front crawl, breaststroke and is just beginning the backstroke. You may find this hard to believe but she also has some dive sticks and she enjoys going down to the bottom of the pool to collect them. She had 4 weeks of private lessons and it was worth every penny.

School has been back for almost a month and the routine is already well established. We are now back on Canada time as we have to leave the house at 7.45am to get Patrick to school for 8am. He has started a new preschool class and is doing really well. We are very pleased with the schools here and Patricks is no exception. He is working through a curriculum designed for 4 year olds and seems to be coping really well with his new schedule. He continues on with coach Jerry and has also added swimming to his list of activities. He has also unleashed a love of the computer. I say unleashed as he is like a monster when he gets on it. He is very independant and can navigate his way around the kids sites with no difficulties. I am quite torn as I would rather not promote computer time but on the other hand he is learning an enormous amount from the games he is playing and computers are a big part of school life so …

Grace is now a First Grader so school has really started for her (which is a joke considering what they achieved in Kindergaten!). Grade 1 is a very different proposition to K and she now has her own desk, pen box and homework. No one shies away from hard work here and the kids are no exception. 30 mins a night Monday through Thursday and then a timed test on a Friday. Thankfully Grace is a very good girl and will do her homework conscientiously every night. She likes nice pencils and erasers and it takes me back to how much I liked those sort of things too.

So for Diesel and I life has been hectic. Its typical, nothing happens all year and then everything is crammed into 5 weeks! September has been a month of travel, first Diesel to San Fran, Denver and then Vegas and now me to Chicago and then Vegas. All this craziness will culminate for us on the 2nd weekend in October when we go to Vegas together for Rachels 40th. My Mum and Dad are coming down to look after Grace and Diesel and I are beyond excited. Shouldn’t think there will be too many pictures posted of that weekend!

… and quite frankly it wasn’t a moment too soon. The US system of limited breaks during the school year and a huge long summer will take some getting used to. I was exhausted by the end of it so I can only imagine how Grace was feeling. This is our first week off and we have all (sorry Daddy!) enjoyed not having to get up and moving quickly in the morning.

Both children have had a fabulous year and we were very proud parents when their school reports came home.

Gracie is now officially a First Grader, no longer the babies in the school and a graduation to the ‘big playground’. Grade 1 will be an interesting transition because as with everything else here they put alot of responsibility on the kids early on and she will have to deal with managing her own schedule and moving herself around classrooms and teachers for her core knowledge subjects. As with the beginning of Kindergaten I’m sure I will worry myself sick for a month and then she will nail it. Her progress this year has been amazing. She can now read by herself ( although needs confidence to do it) and is fascinated by reading everything she sees – road signs, cereal boxes, billboards you name it. She also loves to write and by spelling phonetically can write long pages of text to describe an event or write a letter. Number sense also seems to come easily for her and adding and subtracting has also become part of our daily life. Grace has always been a pretty skilled negotiator but now she has more tools in her armoury! Grace has really excelled this year in art class. We have always known that she loves to draw and colour, her art teacher thinks she may have real talent and has selected her work to display in two local events. It was funny to watch how excited Grace got over her first art show, that was just the local Moorpark one which was fairly low key. I wonder what she will make of the next one which is at the County Show. Grace has also made huge leaps in her confidence this past year and made lots of friends in the classroom, including one little boy who used to ask her daily “are you going to fall in love with me today?”. Thankfully, Daddy didn’t volunteer in the classroom!

Despite my worries about my baby leaving me at 3 for daily school Patrick has adored preschool. We have never had a day when he hasn’t wanted to go and it is a joy to watch his eyes light up when he sees his teacher Miss Marilynn.  He has made amazing progress under her care and his speech has come on leaps and bounds. When Patrick comes to me and tells me very clearly what his sister has done to upset him, it is difficult to remember that only 6 months ago he could barely communicate. Marilynns attitude is that her kids can achieve anything and so allows them to learn at their own pace. What that means in reality is that these kids are exposed to things that they wouldn’t normally be in preschool as she moves them on when they are ready. I am shocked that my 3 1/2 year old can count up to 30, knows the alphabet and all his letter sounds, is trying to write his name (he can almost spell it), can trace a picture almost perfectly and thats before you get onto all the gross motor stuff that he can do. It has been such a privilege to work with Marilynn, Kerry and Vera and I cried when the school year finished. Their commitment and belief in Patrick’s ability has meant that he will go up a class in the Fall, a year ahead of when he should transition. Having been to observe the new class it looks more like typical Kindergaten and again I am concerned about how he will cope. Gina is also a very gifted teacher and seeing the other kids in her class and listenning to her stories of how far they had come I’m sure he will be in good hands. Through his school we have discovered that Patrick has a love of science and the natural world. We spend many hours in the garden looking for bugs and our summer project is a butterly garden. The caterpillars are currently eating and growing and we are all eagerly awaiting them turning into cocoons. He also has quite a developed sense of humour and will tease his teachers to try and catch them out. He is also becoming more interested in his friends and will look for Benjamin and Joaquin when he goes to class.

Californian summers are the best as at least we are assured of consistent good weather. This week we have just chilled out at home and caught up with ourselves again. Grace has also been doing intensive swimming lessons everyday. Next week we will start with Phase one of our summer, Patrick has two hours of summer school a day and Grace will have her first experience of summer camp for two days. We are planning playdates, beach days, pool days and some exploring.

All in all we are very much looking forward to our summer holidays!

You may see the pace at which my life is moving based on the length of time since my last post. When I think about what has happenned since then it blows my mind a little.

Lets start with the first big event – Auntie Kellys wedding. We all headed to Maui, HI at Christmas to see Kelly marry Ali on December 28th. It was a beautiful day and whilst Gracie made a lovely bridesmaid Patrick wasn’t quite so convinced about his Miami Vice suit! Emma, Marcus, Callum and Ryan then came home with us and we had a lovely few days going to the beach, enjoying the sunshine and keeping a newly walking Ryan from going up and down the stairs.

The New Year started with more change as Patrick started nursery school 5 days a week. Mummy had a sleepless night worrying about how much her baby would miss her whilst Patrick just went straight in without a backwards glance. Four months on I am pleased to report that he adores school and his teachers and can already count to 30, recognise the letters and sounds of the whole alphabet (even the dodgy zeeeeee), spell his name, cut like a demon and sing a variety of songs in what his teacher calls an angelic singing voice. Apparently, he can hold the last note beautifully … America’s got Talent anyone? In other Patrick news he has recently started going to gymnastics with Coach Jerry; a rather tough ex-marine who throws him 12 feet in the air off the trampoline into a pit of foam cubes. I groan but Patrick thinks he is the greatest person on the planet and as it is only him and his little friend in the class they are learning a huge amount.

Gracie continues to enjoy school and charge at full speed toward teenagerdom. I am just hoping that if she gets all this angst out now it might save us some trouble later on! Her confidence continues to grow and she has made some lovely friends here both in her class and the neighbourhood. One of the many benefits of Socal living is the ability to walk home from school most days. People are really chatty in the Parks and there is a nice community atmosphere where we live. Grace has also joined a gym but thankfully one that involves less throwing and more high fives and stickers. She is loving it and is learning that if you fall down you just get back up and try again, something that Grace has always struggled with. This year has also seen Grace become more interested in fashion and she has her first pair of fashion shoes – Sketchers Twinkle Toes. After I persuaded her that she didn’t need to get the pair with the skull and crossbones on because Daddy works with bones I actually think they are quite sweet. Diesel wants me to get a pair now but I’m not sure I can channel my inner pop princess to that extent. The tooth Fairy has also put in an appearance at our house this year as Grace has lost her bottom 2 teeth. Unlike her Auntie Em she didn’t really enjoy the process of wiggling her teeth so they didn’t come out until the new ones were well and truely through and even then Mummy had to do the final pull. (The things Mothers do – it was disgusting!) For anyone who is interested the going rate in our house was a golden dollar, in our house the tooth fairy only brings coins x

We have just got back from our bi-annual trip to the UK and apart from the Rotavirus that Patrick got we had a lovely time. Thankfully our decision to stop off in Chicago on the way back also prevented us from getting stuck in the Volcano problems otherwise I am sure that we would still be there now!

All in all, 2010 has started well for the Dempsters and now that we are back home from our travels we are hoping to spend some time exploring our new home State.

So here we are. After a very horrible last week in Canada spent with the movers packing up our home and then saying some very emotional goodbyes, we packed up our children and travelled to the land of fruit and nuts. We cleared immigration in Canada with no problems which meant that when we arrived we just went straight to the hire car. The children were amazing on the flight, Patrick slept most of the way and Gracie watched a movie. When you are 2 and 4 it is hard to take on the enormity of an international move. We have told the children that we are living in a holiday home initially and they seem to be okay with that idea – Grace especially as she is sleeping in a double bed at the moment. Luckily, our move coincided with Diesels company 4th of July shutdown and so he has been around all week which has been great. Our number 1 priority was to get the children settled and I think we have managed okay on that. Patrick was a bit iffy at first and struggled if he couldn’t see both his parents at the same time and Grace has made some comments about not having a real home and clearly she misses her friends very much. On a positive note though the appartment complex is really great and we have been making good use of the pool and gym facilities. Grace has surprised us again in the water and on the first time in the pool she was already swimming in her armbands on her own and happy to get her mouth under the water. To try and maintain this momentum I have booked her in for a 3 week course of swimming lessons which start tomorrow, if shes going to be a Californian girl then clearly she needs to be comfortable in the water.

Not ones to hang around we have also managed to find, put in an offer, and get it accepted on a new house – phew. We hadn’t really intended to buy one this quickly but decided to use some of the time whilst Diesel was off to do some hunting. The first one we saw we fell in love with, particularly as we never expected to find something in our price bracket that had already been remodelled. Unfortunately, the day after we viewed it someone else put in an offer so we were forced to act. Despite the fact that I am feeling a bit rushed I am delighted to have the house. It is walking distance to the school we had already enrolled Grace in, it has all the bedrooms upstairs (which isn’t common here) and the list goes on. We are due to close 4th August so will have plenty of time to decorate the childrens rooms and get them settled before Gracie starts school on 27th August.

As for this part of California – it is undeniably beautiful. There are mountains and fabulous views everywhere and just over the other side of the mountains is the Pacific – wow. The weather has been stunning this week, mid 20′s every day but no humidity and no bugs so it is lovely to sit outside.

We are all desperately sad to leave Canada but after week 1 we are feeling confident that the next chapter for the Dempsters will be a good one.