::Hello::

::Hello everyone!! I don't really know what to write about. I'm sorry I haven't been writing. It's been busy getting back into routine with school after the Holiday Break. Our swimming lessons have started up again. We've been taking swimming at the JCC(Jewish Community Centre) for the past couple months. We started in September have liked it and are still doing it. I'm not in swimming but I'm still allowed to go in the pool and swim for fun. It's a great place for homeschoolers because you can book swim lessons at any time in the day pretty much. Dance started the week after the break. I died after the first week, but my body is getting used to it again. I don't really know what else to write about. Have a great week!!!!::

::Happy New Year::

::HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! ::

::My trip to Montreal::

Auberge de Jardin D'Antoine

 ::Hello everybody. If you read yesterday and today, I mean Saturday and Sunday. I wrote this ysterday(Sunday). Sorry, I've been busy so I've not been able to catchup on the Christmas Count Down. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas. I just got back from my trip to Montreal. We went to Montreal as one of our Christmas trips that we've started doing. We left yesterday morning, and got back today at around 10 to 4 or so(3something). We stayed in a little hotel called Auberge de Jardin D'Antoine. It was a weird hotel. Weird as in you have to go outside and on to a balcony to get to your room. We had two rooms. One was close to the door to get to the rooms (Room 12)and to get to the other one, you had to walk all the way to the end of the balcony, go through another door, behind that door there are two more doors and our door was the one to the left(Room 16). To get to the breakfast room you had to go back into the main building, and go down a set of stairs.  Now do you understand what I mean by weird? The room had a few table and chairs, and off to the left there was a big table against the wall with berries, croissants, yoghurt, orange juice, milk, chocolate syrup, honey, a few kinds of bread, muffins, eggs, ham, plate, forks, spoon, knifes, glasses, and a microwave(I know). The chairs were really pretty. Yesterday we went straight to the Biodome. Where the Biodome is now is where the Olympics were held when it was in Montreal. The building is really cool. If you don't know what the Biodome is, it is a really cool place where you can go and see different kinds of habitats and some of the creatures that live in them. It was AWESOME!!!! Then we went to the hotel, stayed in Room 12 for a little bit, then went to eat. We tried to go to a creperie called Juliette et Chocolat. It was packed, so we went and tried a place called Les 3 Brasseur(The Three Brewers.  It was also packed. Then we tried McDondalds. It was also packed. We were about to go to the pizza place at the end of our street, when I spotted a restaurant called Frite Alors!(I'm not sure what it means except that Frite means fries). The food was amazing. If you ever go to Montreal, you should tell your parents to go here for dinner. If you like poutine, this is where you need to come. The poutine is AMAZING with a capital A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!! There sauces are also AMAZING  and so are there burgers. Then me and mom walked around. The street everything that I've mentioned so far(except the Biodome) is on rue St Denis. Me and mom walked the opposite way that we walked to get to the restaurants. Mom had a lot of memories on that street. By that I mean lots of memories of building on that street. The trees on our part of the street and the restaurant part had big red, light balls. The part of the street that me and mom walked around had blue and read wreaths of light(light strands). Then we went back to the hotel. Dad and the boys to room 16 because it had two double beds, and us girls took room 12 because it had a double and a single plus a pack'n'play. Me and mom started of in the double together, but I was to spasmic for her so she threw Norah in with me because Norah was used to my spasmicness and Mom was not. In the morning we went to breakfast, packed up and went the Mount Royal. We did a bit of off-roading in places that you were sometime not supposed to go because we wanted to get to the top the fastest way. I almost fell a few times and got my runners soaked a couple dozen times. The view from the top was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We could see everywhere. There was a little plaque that was about Mount Royal. Did you know that Montreal is named after Mount Royal? Jacques Cartier(I don't know if I spelt the right) was following some First Nations up the mountain and he name it Mount Royal because of the view. I don't blame him. Then we went and visited my Aunty Laura(she's really my great-aunt but I call Aunt) and Uncle Georges house. When I went upstairs I remembered it and the room my and mom stayed in the last time I came to Montreal immediately. I was only 5,6 or 7 the last time I was there. At there house we had pizza with chocolate swirled on it. Mom got it from a place called Coco 70. Uncle George had a weird/cool assortment of instruments that the little kids(kids younger that me) LOVED. They also had a birthday card that one of them gave the other that had a cupcake on the front that sang a song when you pressed on a button and the top half of it move to make it look like it  was singing. On top of that it had googly eyes.
Well, I'm a cupcake,
I sing and shake.
I'm here to say
I hope your birthday's great.
If you eat me,
you're gonna gain weight.
Another year older
and a stomach ache.
I thought it was funny. After there house we started on our journey back home. That was our trip to Montreal::
Here are some pictures of what some of the places looked like. I'll get the rest of the pictures later. The internet is not co-operating.

The Breakfast Room

Biodome

::3 Days Left::

::Hello. Sorry about the title of the last post. It was supposed to be ::4 Days Left to Christmas::. 3 DAYS LEFT!!!!!

::4 Day Count Down to Christmas{not including today}::

:

::Hello everyone! I'm doing a 3 day count down to Christmas!! I'm using cute pictures of babies.

4 Days left!!::

::Hello. I've got leave for dance soon so I'll make this quick. I found a picture of the leotard I got. It looks like this except the colour of mine is called sapphire. Mom said it matches my eyes. I don't have time for the tip because I've got to get ready. Bye::

::My 12th Birthday::

::Hello. Here is the post about my birthday that I should have promised in my last post. My birthday started with sleeping in until 8:00 or 8:30. When I came downstairs Dad was busy making the waffles I had requested for earlier. The Van Dyk birthday tradition is we get to chose all three meals for our special day. So I chose waffles. Before we ate I opened my presents. It had three parts. For the first part, I got a sleepover guide for 4 year olds that me and my friends can have fun with being dorky and pretending we're little kids. Part number two was a pair of chopsticks someone from my dad's work brought back from China. Part three was The Blood of Olympus by Rick Riordan. It's the latest of the series The Heroes of Olympus. After we had finished our waffles with whipped cream and berries, Dad left for work, and me and Mom started to clean up a bit. Once all everything was put away and cleaned up, we got ready to go to Grammie's house. We picked up Aunty Karin on our way because we were going to make our own Christmas Crackers. It was an experiment that Mom wanted to try because she wanted better little gifts inside of it and she thought making them would be fun. So far it's going great. I would say what some of the adults got but some of them might be reading this post. The girls are getting green wrappers with sparkly white reindeer and the boys are getting red wrappers with little tin soldiers with green suits all over. I don't know what the kids are getting. Me and Gabe ran down to Bread By Us and some pastries and cookies. At 1:00 dad came and picked up the kids(Gabe, Lij, and baby) and Aunty Karin and Sarah. I finished eating and me and Mom started on my birthday outing. First up was the Bibles for Missions thrift store that Oma works because she had a cad for me. Then we went to a theatrical/dance store called Malabar where I got a new leotard. It is blue with designs on the front and back. I love it. After that we went to a few stores and then we went to an awesome sushi place called  Hockey Sushi. Hockey Sushi is my favourite place for sushi and other fishy foods. Whoever likes seafood should check it out. Then we made a quick stop at  My Sister's Closet before going home. then we went to bible study at Samantha and Eric's house. I got to hold Teddy for the first time. That was my birthday. Here is today's Tip to remember or you'll regret it. Don't eat to much seafood. Have a good rest of the week and I will write to you in a week or so. Bye!!::