Settling In

Saturday was a big day - moving day and Keziah's birthday all wrapped up in one! It was a successful day and I couldn't believe how much we accomplished with everyone's help. I was expecting to still be living amongst boxes for another week or more, but most of our things were unpacked and organized by the end of the day. We were able to relax a bit and enjoy a birthday supper for Keziah.

Here's the birthday girl acting like a goof:

Everyone waiting for dessert in our updated eating nook. (Click here and here to see what it looked like the previous week.)

Ice cream cake from Dairy Queen!

Keziah blew out the candle before Erik even set the cake down. And then she just stared at it.

The kids are enjoying the new house. They seem excited about their new bedrooms and have been sleeping well. For some reason, they are actually sleeping in later than they did before. Wake-up time used to be around 6 am and now we're getting up at 7! I really hope this continues!

They've enjoyed watching the activity from the front windows. In our last place we never had windows facing a street and the only exciting things to observe were squirrels and the odd stray cat :) Now we can see cars and the garbage truck and the maintenance men with their cool leaf-blowers! The kids spent about 30 minutes watching them blow leaves yesterday which is 30 less minutes that they were whining and/or fighting :)

Here are the kids enjoying their new (unorganized) play area. We definitely need some shelving to make this space more functional, but it's nice to have a place for all the toys to live.

Our "backyard" may not be huge, but the kids have been enjoying it. We've had unusually sunny weather this last week or so. We have to get outside when it's sunny because the rains are always sure to come!

Delair Park is just down the street from us and it's a great park. The playground is perfect for the kids - easy enough for Keziah to maneuver on her own and still very fun for Micah.

There is also a walking trail that links to another smaller park.

Micah's favourite part at the smaller park is this cool digger machine. Erik played with it for the first time the other day and was quite entertained :)

A sunset view from the park:

There is still lots to do around here - organizing, paint touch-ups, cleaning, etc... But the house is very livable and it's been fun settling in. We've been pleased to discover that our neighbours are very friendly and welcoming. It's also been an adventure driving around Abbotsford now since we live on the complete opposite end of town. We are figuring out new routes to drive to places and also discovering what kinds of things are close-by.

I didn't want to post any official before/after pictures of the place yet since I feel like things need to get organized a little bit better first. Hopefully I can get them up soon though!