treats

When I was putting away the crayons in the Kids' Closet this afternoon, I spotted an "iced tea crystal" type of container filled with art stuff... my mind somehow went from that - in a split couple of seconds - to creating a project for Ellen and May to do this evening!
A few years ago in Sarah's Stampin Up Club I was in, we covered large formula tins (as still seen on her blog, I believe) (Korinne, you may remember a Hostess Gift I gave you in the tin 2 years ago?) and so I used that idea and the girls each covered one "tin" tonight. This tin will be for chocolates, gum, candy (as you see on the label) that they can grab for recess or whatever at school, now that they have lockers beginning this week (and are integrated into the actual Classrooms). This little cutesy container will remain in their lockers and come home when it needs to be filled again... kinda fun, I thought!

this is May's:

this is Ellen's:

why not?!

This evening, after dinner, Sammy and Gabi were going to have a bath and Elijah didn't need one since he went swimming at our Fitness Club's pool with Jason this afternoon and showered after the swim... so Elijah's famous question is "can I watch a movie" (we only watch "movies" (videos) since we don't have cable to just flip on); but I didn't want to put one on for him since he had one already this afternoon... so I thought, why not teach him how to vacuum?! He loves to do "jobs" and is always looking for a job to do (especially since the Girls are here and they are asked to do this and that; he's right in there wanting to either do the same or be special enough to have his own task assigned) ... so I got him to clear the floor space (notice a soccer ball on the couch?!) and off I showed him how to vacuum! He vacuumed for a good portion of time and would have done more if I had allowed him! So maybe I don't have to vacuum as much any more?! Though, vacuuming is one of my most tolerable of duties around here! LOL. <

ponytail

It took me so long (don't know why) to find small elastics for Gabi's hair... and well, I did when the 4 girls and I went shopping yesterday (at a $ store, of course)... so here's my Baby Girl with her first pony! (eating my new headband I bought for myself)

My Weekend with 4 Girls

This weekend was(is) the last of Spring Break for our schools and the perfect time to celebrate Ellen's birthday with her friends, now that Easter is over. So for the weekend I had Sophia, Michelle and my Girls (these 4 are the only girls in the group from China).
We began our activites on Friday at the pool for a swim, along with any of the other Classmates that could also join us in honor of Ellen. Their Teacher came and 2 of the of 6 boys were able to meet us there! They swam for awhile...then we went to McD's (where else?!) for dinner and that's where Ellen opened her giftsthen home for 45 minutes or so, to feed Gabi her dinner and get her into bed before heading out to scrapbook (at a local scrapbook shop)and back home for a movie; Shrek 3 was requested!
Then Saturday, the weather wasn't cooperating (it actually snowed this past week) to really be outdoors or go to the outdoor amusement rides set up in a local mall parking lot... so we used this chance to do a craft I had set for the girls. Pictures frames - which turned out lovely!then after dinner, the weather really cleared up and it was 4*, so I decided in a matter of minutes that we'd jump in the van and head to the rides... they were very excited! They each had a coupon we clipped from the Paper good for 6 rides for $13...May isn't totally into rides; this picture was taken seconds after the ride first started to move! She looks freaked out already!
and since the other girls used their last ride ticket on a ride May was NOT going to go on (Skymaster or something like that), I went on the Tilt-a-Whirl with her!We survived a weekend with a house(small one) full of 7 kids; we are happy to give their host Families (Alexa is Michelle's host Mom) a good break...!

Happy Birthday Ellen!

Well, Easter Sunday also meant it was Ellen's birthday! I don't really have many Easter pictures to share (strange)... so here is Ellen blowing out her candles on an ice cream cake Grandma bought for her! This weekend I will have 2 other Students with us for the sake of her birthday and celebrating it with her friends...

Bryan Adams

2 weeks ago, Jason received word that he won 2 tickets to an "by invitation only" Bryan Adams concert! SWEET!!!! So the two of us went to his "private" acoustic concert held in a United Church downtown last week Thursday. It was great! (just now the girls watched "Spirit" - a Dreamworks movie we got out of the Library... anyway, Bryan Adams does the soundtrack for this movie and so I said to Ellen and May that the singer is who Dad and I saw last week... they said "we know this song. We learned it in China, in English" but they have never heard of the movie before... but I found it quite coincidental! They loved this movie, BTW. May had tears in her eyes when she brought me the DVD after it had finished. "it's happy, sad, happy, sad... very good movie!" Too cute!

Stanley Park

On Saturday, we decided after 10:00am to drive into Vancouver for the day... so we all got ready lickety-split and headed to the City. We duplicated our activites of last year's Good Friday... Children's Farmyard and Miniature Train, but had to nix the idea of a picnic/BBQ in the park since it was not nearly as hot as it was last year (due to Easter being earlier partly; though we have had some very beautiful days already this March)... we all had fun!

Leftover Soup

Thank you to Rachel for thinking of us while Jason was away and dropping off a large portion of "leftover" homemade soup for us to enjoy! :) Much appreciated, Rach... very tasty! Thanks so much (I have your bowl ready to return, just need to do it!)

furniture walking

As soon as Gabi started to crawl, she quickly learned to crawl over to the couch and pull herself up and almost immediately start walking alongside it... (March 14th)
Here she is on the 8th at Guildford Mall play area...catching the eyes of all the moms and caregivers in the "park" because she is standing and just so small to be doing such a big-girl thing! LOL.
and so since she likes to stand more than sit now, we brought up this toy for her:

March Fun... catching up on our activities

Some of what we've been up to... over the last month! I've been slacking in the post-department!
On Saturday, March 8th, Jason had to work for the day out of town, so I took Ellen, May and Elijah to a Home Depot Kids Workshop... they did great! They each made, from scratch, an art "box":
Then the next week Friday, Pamela joined us for dinner and she played with the boys a bit! They loved visiting with Pam! Jason was away this week, and so it was especially nice for the boys to have someone other than me to play with!and that same time that Jason was gone, I was thankful to have Ellen and May's help... they each took turns feeding Gabi dinner while I did dishes...

If you're going to dye eggs soon... I just found a neat site that might interest you and a tip that I got from Elijah's preschool teacher: put salt in the water before boiling egg to keep it from cracking (as easily I suppose). :)

DLTK's Easter Eggs

Happy Birthday Pamela!

Today my friend, Pamela, turned 30!!! Happy Birthday Pam! :)



I wanted to publish a picture of you on this post, but I don't have any recent ones of you (speaking of which, Alexa can you email me the one of Pam and our girls?)...

so here is Pamela 1 1/2 years ago when she was last here for a visit... click this and click this



30... thirty... can it be so? It's a big year for many friends of mine and me too... such is life I suppose, but who'd ever thought we'd hit the big 3-0? I'm not sure I ever thought I'd be thirty, especially when I feel more like a 20 year old, with 3 kids mind you! LOL. Kids age you... I will give it that!



Happy Birthday Pam! I hope to see you this week! :)

8 months

Here she is at 7 1/2 months, some pictures I haven't shared yet but would like to:
After reading one of my posts about Gabi liking to jump... my friend, Rachel, dropped off her Jolly Jumper for Gabi to use! She loves it... here she is in it for the first time...! Thank so much Rach! :)And on Friday, Feb 22nd (Amy's birthday!) I had given the kids a bath and then sat Gabi in the living room on the floor... next thing I knew, she'd crept closer to the couch and pulled herself up and I caught her like this:February brought gorgeous Spring weather for us here, so off the park we ventured a few times already. Here is Gabi's first swing:
And now Gabi this past week at 8 months...
- with her bear (though now her hippo from Auntie Suzan is her favourite to sleep with!)
and "while you (her brothers) were sleeping" Gabi was able to destroy their Mega Block castle - something she has since done a few more times this week! And so it all begins... LOL.

Gabi is just a precious bundle of joy. Here are some things she is doing (more for my sake and using this as a journal):

- she has started to eat baby cereal and jar veggies/fruit at lunch time now too (not daily, though it will be soon enough).

- she started to say "ba, ba, ba" at the beginning of March

- in the 7th month she began rolling and sitting up on her own and not caring about being on her stomach more and more each day

- she began crawling this week, so up came the gate! See my first uploaded video below of Gabi crawling on Thursday for the first time.

- she sleeps between 2-3 hours (sometimes longer) each morning that we are home (most mornings we are) and then depending but usually about 2 hours in the afternoon too... nighttime on the other hand isn't any better... she is awake every 3 hours or so...

- she weighs 14.6lbs

-she also began clapping this week!

Literacy for the Young Ones

On Monday I went to a Meeting called "Bright Spark" - a free information-gathering, toy-receiving meeting and Alexa did too. Anyway, this is a program that will only be available this school year b/c it hasn't received further funding for the following year. I am thankful Alexa got information about Bright Spark at the Literacy Day at our library! On Monday, we received these three items and a rubber duck. This program is encouraging literacy development and preparation for life basically, starting now... a Sassy soft book to insert photos in for Baby to look atMelissa and Doug Stacker toy and a ball

Then along these same lines, BC has a program called "Books for BC Babies", availalbe through the Health Unit. I got one of these last night for Gabi and this is what it included, as well as the slide following it is a little pamphlet about the importance of reading to your baby. Check it out:

Gotta Be Kiddin'

On the weekend we went to a Children's Festival at the same place the Agiculture Show was. We had a good time! We picked up Peter, the Girls Classmate, to join us for the afternoon. Check it out: