May
May started off with Hadley being nominated and awarded the Youth Excellence Award. We were invited as a family to the Audley community hall for music, dinner, and the awards presentation. The Youth Excellence Award recognizes and honours the hard work, leadership and dedication of youth in our community who have made a significant impact on the community (which she has done with over 100 hours of volunteer work in the last three years), and at her school (which she has achieved honour roll every year and has worked hard to achieve the SHSM Specialized High Skills Major for Technology).
We are so proud of her efforts and glad to see her honoured in this way! She came home with flowers too!
This month was dealt some sad news. Gary, who had been Hadley's bus driver multiple times and had such empathy and kindness, sadly passed away.
Hadley had regular conversations with him so this was difficult news to take in. To help Hadley we decided to go to his celebration of life and it was nice to talk with his family.
On with the rollercoaster of the week, Hadley had her Teen Advisory Council Appreciation event where there was more food and celebration. However, this was just for those being appreciated and not extended to family members. This will be her last year on this council.
Easton had received two tickets to Boy With Uke for Christmas and so for the week prior to the concert Brian had been listening to the music to get to know the lyrics. Then the two of them headed to History in Toronto to take in the concert. I think they had a great time!
After the concert Brian flew to NYC to spend the rest of the week there for work.
I started a line dancing class with Marsha and Melissa who also invited a few of their other friends. So once a week we get out to dance for an hour and then socialize. That will go until mid June. We also went out for drinks one night and will probably do it again.
Brian and I are still playing floor hockey once a week with the same group, so it is nice to get out for exercise that is fun!
For Christmas we got my dad train tickets, a hotel room and a trip with us to Ottawa for the Tulip festival which fell nicely on Mother's Day weekend. Also, it was the 80th year of liberation with the Canadian Army. The weather was beautiful! When we arrived we wandered around the Byward Market and had a 50s style milkshake with fries. The flowers were so lovely and we were able to spend some really nice time outside wandering around Dow's Lake and then enjoying food together. We even saw the Supreme Court of Canada, we saw the parliament buildings, the National Gallery of Canada with the giant spider out front, the royal mint, and a cool place called Level 1, where we played video games, which Easton LOVED and could have stayed all night! We enjoyed food with good company. Friday to Sunday was quick, but such a lovely way to spend a weekend. We had a nice breakfast for Mother's Day at the hotel and then back on the Via for the train ride home.
Brian and Easton spent the long weekend back in Ottawa at Scott and Robin's house for a LAN party while Hadley needed a weekend to recover from some big school weeks of projects, tests, and life. So we spent the weekend relaxing.
On May 27th, Accompanied by the Queen, King Charles made his first visit to Canada as monarch. During his visit, he opened the 45th Canadian Parliament and delivered the speech from the throne, the first time a Canadian monarch has done so in person since 1977.
Hadley had her Senior Soiree, also known as prom, which brought back such lovely memories of when Brian and I went to prom back in 1996.
From getting the dress, and shoe hunting which happened prior to the day, I love that we had these moments to share including the day of the event...
On May 29th, the day of the event, she went to her first class because she had a project that required her attention and then she took the rest of the day off. We went and got manicures and pedicures, we went out for lunch where she bumped into some of the teachers from her public school and then she got her hair done, we picked up her corsage, and then back to our house for a few photos where she also tried on my prom dress right before putting her beautiful blue dress on for her special night out.
I dropped her off at Deer Creek Golf Course where many parents were outside taking photos in between moments of rain. We got a few photos in front of the water and with some friends before she headed in for her big night of food, votes of who is most likely to... and then of course dancing! I think she had a lovely day.
The next day was senior skip day. She went in again for that first class that had that big project coming due and then I picked her up to take the day off to recover.
For the last weekend in May, Julie planned her girls weekend and we had her kids here for the weekend. On day one we spent a lot of time outside, from the swings, to the slide, climbing, making wishes with dandelions, and collecting bouquets, I think they really enjoyed just being able to run. We also had a little indoor time just to get out of the sun for a while where they did some colouring, stickers, reading and workbooks as well as building with blocks and lego. By bedtime they both easily went to sleep.
Day two of course there was more swing time, but this day we walked over to feed the horses which they both loved. It was a bit cool outside so we came home to play restaurant, and did a little journal about the weekend with the cats. Day three we pulled out the train tracks and built a track all around the couches and into the kitchen, then we went outside with freezies and more swing and slide time. However, it was again a little cool, so we came inside to play with the tunnel and marble run toy before they had lunch and went home with Julie. Aside from Selinah's allergies, I think they had a very happy weekend! I am exhausted. But it was my pleasure to have them stay with us!
What a busy month!