I know super crazy right! I think even my dad would be a little bit scared of doing this, but I have always been danger child, so for me it was no big deal! Last weekend, my friend Abigail chose me to be her special friend to invite on her birthday trip, and she decided to go paragliding because she had wanted to do it ever since her dad did it earlier in the year. When I got home my dad asked me about the experience, and Abigail's dad Chris took a short video of my experience. I feel pretty lucky to have done this as I am pretty sure they don't let you do this kind of thing in Canada! 

A couple weekends ago, I got to go on a special hike with just my dad. We went with a bunch of people from all over the world  on a trip organised by Kinkajo Adventures. It was my first overnight hiking trip, and on the first day I was pretty tired, but I had a lot of fun. My dad was super impressed, because I was really polite to all of the people I met on the trip, and I ony compplained about my legs being tired once. 

I was a little bit shy on the first day of the trip, but then after going out for dinner in San Rafael, in a tuk tuk, with a nice British lady named Jade, she was super nice, and even bought me some candies! After the dinner I opened up  quite a bit and then on the next day I made a new friends with a Canadian traveller named Joel, who taught me all about quartz, and even helped me collect a bunch of sample rocks. Its funny, my uncle Joel in Canada is also crazy about rocks, I wonder if this is just a Joel thing?

I really enjoyed spending time with my dad, and on the second day the hiking was a lot of fun because we got to play in waterfalls, and my dad was a super big champion because he carried me up and down some very big muddy parts. The water was super cold, so I mostly played on the side building things out of rocks. I am really looking forward to our next hiking trip!

So I am very excited to be all finished with my first year of school! A lot has happened this year, but I have not had time to reflect on it all yet, so i think i will back date some updates about my life now that the busy school year is behind me! I have recently lost a whole bunch of teeth, but I will talk about that another time.

My very first teacher was Mrs. Blanchette, she was really nice and taught me a lot of interesting things. I especially liked show and tell, and learning how to read and write. I am getting pretty good at writing my letters, and I made a lot of friends in my first full year at school.

I will be sad to leave my friends and my school, but I am really excited to learn a new language and explore a new country. When I come back to Canada, I will be able to speak in Spanish! 

Well it has been a while since I have updated you on my little life, so I thought I'd let everyone know that I have started going to school with my big sister! I am in Kindergarten, and she is going into grade 3. My teacher Miss Blanchette seems really nice, and I even get to ride the school bus to school, which for me is very exciting!  One of my new friends has a big sister that is in Aurora's class, so I think we are going to plan some play-dates soon.

Aside from school, I am about to start taking keyboard lessons, just like Aurora, and I am also going to be trying ballet. It is good to be back in Canada, and soon Halloween will be here and I will get to go trick or treating, and then not long after that, or probably before - my dad says, it will be snowing! Anyway, that is all for now speak soon!

It has been a pretty busy couple of months for Brynn. Now that she is three, there are a lot of things new in her life. In September, Brynn started going to the YMCA playschool just like her big sister did when we first moved here, and she is absolutely loving it. She is starting to churn out paintings to catch up to her big sister's output from her time there, and she is atrting to make some of her own friends, not just siblings of her sister's friends.

Another big step toward big-girl-dom has also happened around this time, and she has decided that it is time to be toilet trained, much to mom and dad's relief! It has not been without incident, but she is doing a really good job, and we can tell that she is proud of her success. Now that she is a big girl she is a very active participant in taking care of her little sister, singing her songs, and making sure that she is well entertained.

Having spent more time now in New Zealand than Canada, our Brynny is missing out on some traditional Canadian rites of passage. We are doing the best that we can over here though to make sure she does not forget her roots. As luck would have it Marshall was fortunate enough to have a Canadian student teacher this last term, who also happened to be a figure skater/coach. She graciously offered to take the girls skating during the holiday. Miss Kayla became the favourite person for the day as Brynn took to the ice for the first time in her young life. Aurora was 100% improved from her first effort at the age of two, and Brynn managed to stand-up on her own, and even make her away around the rink a couple times while holding someone's hand. We had the traditional cup of hot-chocolate after (not from Timmies unfortunately) and Brynn was ready for round two!

Every Tuesday morning mom and I go to Gymnastics for an hour.  I get to run, jump, climb and roll and so many other things here, and I love it.  Since February, Nainie has been coming with us, as well as my new baby sister Clara.  I have been showing my Nain how good I am at swinging on the bars, and walking along the balance beam.  My favourite things to do at gymnastics are swinging on the parallel bars and doing front rolls.  I am getting more confident on the balance beam, although I would not say it is one of my favourite things to do :D  

Mom and I had been collecting all of our bread loaf ends for a couple weeks, and we were finally able to get out and feed all the ducks in the small water way in Christchurch.  We fed the ducks with my good friend Gwen and her mom:-) It was a lovely 30 minutes of throwing bread chunks.  I tried to go close to the water a few times, but my mom did not seem too happy with me when I tried.

I love to get into shenanigans at home, most of the time it involves sitting inside something after collecting a pile of goodies to play with, from inside my nest.  In these pictures I am very happy to be playing with my pack of diapers (nappies).  I stayed in this lovely pink basket for nearly an hour, giving my mom a much needed break from watching my every move!.  

When mom and I are waiting and watching Aurora at gymnastics, sometimes I like to play on the big trampoline.  I don't like to jump on it very much, but I do love running in circles and falling to my hands and knees.  I am pretty active at gymnastics when my big sister is out on the floor, and I can not wait until I am old enough to go do my own gymnastics.  I love to climb on the equipment that is close to the sitting area, and hang from the parallel bars swinging my legs.  I am such a

Brynn would like you all to meet Janek, her very first boy-crush. Well, perhaps not the first, she also has a thing for a boy named Toby who does gymnastics with Aurora. Anyway, Janek is an Irishmen who has been living with us for the past three weeks while he did some work in Christchurch, and left last weekend to rejoin his girlfriend in Queenstown. During the first couple of weeks Brynn paid him little notice, but in the last few days he was with us she became quite glued to him. No longer did she have interest in being given her bedtime “baba” by mom or dad, only “Yanet”. She was quite fond of cuddling with him on the couch and having him cary her around while she snuggled into his shoulder In the days that followed Janek’s departure she would pace outside his room calling “Yanet! Are yoo!”  She was quite sad looking when we told her that he had left, and we were not likely to see him again. We now have a house-full of new people, and she seems to be moving on, brave little trooper that she is.