cupcake

Yesterday I picked up our Girls and Alexa's two Girls and took them out for cupcakes and tea at a fun coffee shop... Tracy Cakes. It was very fun! Sayaka had requested in her letter to her Host Family (when applying to the program) that she would like to go to a bakery when she came to Canada... so I thought this would be a fun start to a bakery and then we walked over to an actual bakery.which cupcake to choose? Though this is after the Woman put the only cupcakes left that day onto one shelf since it was nearing the end of the day... The cupcakes these girls have are Strawberry Cream, Peppermint Patty and Maple Rina got a Marble Mocha (Rina takes a picture of every food/meal she has eaten so far... she even took a picture of her toaster pastry that I fed them in the van on the way to the bus early this morning! So cute!)Elijah chose Peppermint Patty too

Megumi, Sayaka, Rina

On Thursday, February 26th we picked up three Girls that arrived to do a very short visit in Canada from Japan. :) They brought a whole bag of Japanese candy, rice crackers and this chocolate cake (though it was a white cake covered in chocolate). It was delicious and nice to eat something that I actually like from their country! ;)

Elijah asks me in the van this afternoon, "Mom, are these girls {referring to the three Japanese Girls we have in our home this week} going to go to Grandma's too when you and Dad go on vacation?"
I said, "no, they will be gone; back to their home in Japan."
E - "how long will they stay here?"
Me - "only 1 week"
E - "that's a long time" (LOL)
Me - "actually, it's not a long time at all, it's a very short time to come to Canada"
E - turns to Rina who is sitting beside him, who he just adores, "I will miss you". They hadn't even been here for 24 hours yet, let alone 7 of those hours were spent at school today. LOL. Too cute. I had to write that down for my sake.

Pictures to come, my camera isn't beside me and I should go to bed; gotta get these girls at the school for 6:45am...

Tulips

Last week Wednesday (February 18) we went out during our beautiful weather streak and planted some tulip bulbs that were already sprouting. I picked up quite a bundle of tulip bulbs that our City was giving away when they pulled them out last year after the tulips were done. My Mom planted a bunch and I planted quite a number too.
We did get snow this past week (February 25) and the ground is mainly still covered with snow a few days later... but I'm sure it will warm up nicely again and we'll have some lovely tulips!

Goodbye Soobin

Tomorrow (Saturday, Feb 21) we will send off Soobin back to Korea to join her Family after spending the past 7 weeks with us.
On Wednesday this past week, there was a little Farewell Concert kinda thing put on by the Korean Students that were in the Elementary School - we joined all the grade 4 and 5 classes in the Music Room to listen to the kids play all sorts of instruments one by one. Soobin played a song on her flute; dressed in her Tradtional Korean outfit.here we are:

love

In the morning I gave Soobin part of her Valentine's Gift - the pink heart shirt... and then after supper & bath we had a special snack and a gift for each of the kids (I just went shopping for them in my Gift Totes)They each got a book; Sammy also got a puzzle; Elijah got PJ's; Gabi got her Valentine's shirt that she wore in picture with ErinHappy Valentine's Day!!

Literacy Day

Already almost a week ago at our Library (Feb 14th) we went to our local Library for a Literacy Day celebration... filled with "Mr. Flowers - the Balloon Guy" -Alexa was there with her kids too - so here's Erin who got a balloon flower madeSoobin and Sammy with their balloons..."I'm a Little Teapot" -free Panago Pizza lunch saved us a trip to McD'sStorytelling, science show and crafts - at this table the kids made Olympic Torches!we really enjoyed ourselves!

decorating heart cookies

Of course, this is an expected activity around Valentine's Day. We did some in the morning first with Erin and Luke...and then after school Elijah did a bunch and Soobin did a bunch:

Thank You

I also received a Valentine's Gift from my wonderful husband... one dozen absolutely beautiful red roses! THANK YOU!and from my dear friend, Alexa, this wonderful, beautiful card! It's so nice to receive 'made with love' cards! Thanks!!And then just in time the Post Carrier just dropped off this fancy-schmancy Valentine's card from Laurie - a friend I've had since Nursery School! Laurie, this is pretty cool - thanks for taking the time and thought and energy to sent it my way! I will show you a top view so you can see it's not just a card, but more a gift-card... enclosing some cherry Lypsyl!and the inside, in case you want to give this cute gift idea a try!Thanks everyone!

so precious

Daddy came home this morning with gifts for Gabriella and I.
You'd think the way Gabi responded, she knows that getting flowers is pretty special!Thank You Daddy!

Erin and Gabi

Today Erin came over all dressed up in Valentine-y clothes, so I thought it was high time for some pics of the girls together. I quickly got Gabi changed into some Valentine-y clothes too and had a little photo shoot... well, I did take a lot of pics actually and will publish quite a few b/c they are so cute! It was hard to get them both smiling...
Erin is 18 months and Gabi is 19 months:Erin started to blow:

eventually, house pics for you...

Here's the front of my house - what's missing to the left is a shot of our address attached to our double garage. I will plan to do some house pics in the next week, before I become too busy with Soobin leaving and 3 Japanese Girls coming soon after for one week, followed by a vacation for Jason and I to LV. :) Yikes, I don't think the reality of how soon all these things are taking place is...

more words

Some more words Gabi says. After I did her 19th month post I started a list of words I wasn't remembering she says.

baby - spoon - shoes
ball - train - this - cracker
Beppe - here - stuck
jump - me - mine - cookie

Blog Candy

I found a blog with a new giveaway this week... it's the book called "Intimate Issues" written by two mature Christian women. It looks like a good read!
(Alexa, I found this link from one of the comments on your 1 Corinthians 7:5 Challenge on your blog)

Anyway - this generous Woman, Leah, is giving away two of these books if you have a USA mailing address.
Here's the link to her post: Intimate Issues Giveaway

Thanks Leah for this opportunity!

Uncle Matt

On Tuesday Samuel and Gabriella went to my Parent's house for a few hours in the morning while I went to a Parent Prayer Walk around the campus of Elijah's school and then to a couple fitness classes --- Uncle Matt pulled out his camera and took some fun pictures. I have to share! (I guess these two pictures are smaller files)wearing Grandma's glasses: