The Year 2021 was the busiest year EVER!

Christmas Season is starting! A busy weekend with all sorts of activities. Krista performed a Hip Hop dance yesterday, Erik had a basketball game and today we will go to a Christmas party! We woke to snow this a.m. Looks like it is time to put out the decorations! At least I've already ordered my Christmas cards :)

Long Time No Blog

Just wanted to pop by and say HELLO! I'm still here and planning on updating the blog soon. For those who want to see any recent pictures, be sure to see my Flickr account with plenty of new images and stories. :) Hope you are all well! We are doing great!

The Colors of Happiness

The Colors of Happiness
Originally uploaded by kidzmom2009

Just for fun :) I haven't posted in SO long. Just busy...Life, activities, kids, photos...the usual! :) We are all well and happy!

Village Run

Today was the annual village run-- 1km for children 10 years to 14 years, 5km for 14 years and older and 10 km for adults. Krista was able to participate in the 1 km run and we both had a blast! Krista ended up coming in 5th place for her age category and ran very well. She was slowed down a lot by the crowd, but was happy with her results. Initally she thought she was 4th place and was disppointed only because she was SO close to being on the podium. I had a wonderful day myself taking pictures of the action. I am currently trying to master sports photography. It is MUCH harder than portrait work, but I am always up for the challenge! I got a ton of shots that I loved so for me it was a big win! I am really starting to get a feel for the AI servio focusing system. I was happy to have such a fun race today to practice my skills ;)

They all did great! Coming in 3rd, 4th and 5th!!

 The girls with their "dossards"

Here are the kids in the 1km. It was a madhouse! So hard to take pictures and video at the same time! Krista and her two friends are together still (the Asasics sign is the starting line).

More shots of the kids...

And you can see Krista here below #465:

Here's Krista at the finish line in the cool down lane..

And now for some photos of the 5 and 10 km. I had a blast taking these shots!!!

This is the winner. He ran 5km in about 16 minutes.

Here's our friend Michele!! She ran wonderfully!

Check out these guys!!!

There was also a father rolling his crippled child. Always such a moving experience to witness.

And the winner of the 10 km in about 33 minutes!

The trophies!

I took this one of Krista before the race on the walk to the cultural center.

First Day of School!!

They're off! It is officially the FIRST day of the 2010-2011 school year. Am I excited? YES!!!! It is always wonderful to have vacation time, but I do enjoy the routine and flow of the more 'organized' days. So here they are before school today!

Krista age 11, is in 6th grade this year and gets to change schools! Instead of going to the local middle school  for "College", she has decided to go to a school that offers English as a primary language of education. She will still have French, but her primary language will be in English. This will be a big change for her! She was SO excited this a.m. before leaving. Not only does she enter the "middle school" which is a big change in itself, but she is also changing her language of operation. Even though she is fluent in English, it is not easy switching education languages. She will also go to school with Toomas this year and return when he finishes work. The drive is about 30 minutes so it isn't easy for me to just swing by the school anymore.

Erik is entering 3rd grade this year. He will have the same teach as Krista had 2 years ago..so the path is layed out for him. Luckily Krista's teacher like her a lot, but he'll have big shoes to fill!

Kaitlyn is startting full day pre-school this year. It is her 2nd year of pre-school...and although she LOVES school, she was in tears this a.m. when we got there. The coat hangers are about 12 inches higher on the big kid classroom. She wanted to stay in the "petit" section (1st year pre-school). She is in a class with 30 children...17 are in kindergarten (age 5) and 13 are in their 2nd year of pre-school (age 4). This year will REALLY help Kaitlyn progress in the French langage!!!

Photography, Stolen Photos and Summer

Summer is flying by and I haven't posted much. I'm busy either busy with the kids, busy travelling or just up to my photography. As many of you know, I stopped posting on Flickr due to many of my photos being stolen. I thought I was safe since I hadn't posted in awhile and had removed almost all public photos. Today I randomly did a search and guess what? I found another photo. This is irritating, considering the site is advertising a best selling NY times book and my photo is being used WITHOUT my permission, nor royalty. And the blog is a high profile one, receiving nearly 19,000,000 *yes that is MILLION views. I'm very much considering selling stock photography soon, sinse at least I'd see some money from the photos being used. Anyway, rant over... I'll post the link for your enjoyment.

This is the book:

http://1000awesomethings.com/book/

Here is my photo....Sigh. I think I will write the author today.
Day #554. Staying in your Pj's all day..
http://1000awesomethings.com/2010/03/08/554-staying-in-your-pajamas-all-day/

Does anyone in the US want to do me a HUGE favor and check out to see if my photo was used just on the blog or in the book too? Next time your at Borders or Barnes and Noble? Look under Day #554 for me..If the photo is there I'm going to make him pay!!!!!!!!!

Otherwise we are all happy and fine. I really should get some family trip photos up soon. We all have been having a GREAT summer.