Stanley Park

On the weekend we went to Vancouver for basically the entire day (12:00-10:30pm) for the "Celebration of Lights". USA was on deck for their Fireworks show.
We went so early with plans of spending the afternoon in the park using the free shuttle to get off and on at any of the 15 touristy stops around the park - and for the purpose of getting their early enough to have a parking spot and a place to view the fireworks. We called Kurt and Dana the day before to say where we'd be in case they wanted to join us in the evening since they were going to be at the Aquarium that afternoon - well, funny thing is we pulled into almost side x side parking spots at basically the same time - not even knowing for sure that we'd meet up with them! What chances are those? Crazy! They went to the Aquarium at that point and we went on the free trolley:we had Angel, one of the girls in the Chinese Group with us for the day. She is not even 10 years old yet...so she was a bit homesick the week before (their 1st week here), so we thought it would be good to have her along so she could be with Fran and Amy. Here we are at one of our stops, the Totem Poles:another stop was Prospect Point - viewing the Lions Gate Bridge:
we got back to the place in the Park where we wanted to park ourselves for the fireworks at about 4:30. In this area are 2 playgrounds within steps of our preferred perch (we sat in the exact spot last year too), so the kids keep busy for the most part... Kurt, Dana, Katrina, Shiho (their Japanese Student), Danika and Alise joined us at close to 6:00 - the kids had fun playing together! Once it started to get a bit darker (it's not totally dark here til 9:30 or later) I pulled out these glow in the dark bracelets - which was a hit for all!
Mr. Kurt:Amy:Fran:Angel:
And here's Sammy and Shiho playing with the 2 light up spinny things that Danika and Alise brought - my boys, especially Sammy, just loved these things-It was a wonderful day - maybe we can get some more of you out to join us next summer?!

On one of our stops off the Trolley, I walked down into the Rose Garden area - past four different Brides with their wedding parties taking photos - how fun! I took a couple pictures of flowers, just thought I'd share.
(why is Blogger doing this lately? the 2nd photo is not supposed to be up/down like that... why did it turn itself? Grrrrr. So look at that photo sideways, looks better that way.)

bowling

On Friday last week we took part in our local Community Family Centre's organized fieldtrip - 5 pin bowling. Alexa and her huge clan was there too - so we had a great time bowling (yes, despite the frustrations of certain individuals bowling next to us) - though with our lane having 4 children 4 years and under, one game of bowling took over 1 hour!! LOL.
This was Sammy's first time- he just loved it! I didn't get a picture of anyone else and not even Elijah, but Alexa did and her blog is not private anymore, so go on over to take a peek!Sammy's shoe size is smaller than the smallest bowling shoe, hence the Madagascar slippers I brought along with us thinking that might be the case!

Welcome Benjamin Picnic

Last week Wednesday we had a welcome picnic for Baby Benjamin! I don't have any pictures of him, but I do have some of what the other kids were doing -

Gabi was helping herself to crackers off of Koby's handy-dandy stroller tray... and then Koby thought he would help her out by passing them to her:

Korinne - we need a picture of Koby and Gabi side x side... you all have to see the size difference! Koby is a couple inches shy of Sammy's height! It's crazy!

Then I spotted three little munchkins in a little patch of dirt... Jessie, Sammy and Mercy had a hay-day:big sister Jessie loved the dirt, just not in her precious eyesand who do you think joined in the fun?Thanks for organizing the potluck Dana - and Congrats again Aaron and Jen!

Max's {cool} Birthday Party

Last week Tuesday we went to Max's Birthday Party - a very fun party! Max's family owns a Bouncy Castle company and they put it to good use for their son's 4th Birthday! :)they set it up right in the centre of their cul-de-sac. This castle was huge - Jason and I went on it too, it was great fun! And once I told the girls they were going on it (see, they don't know how to play so unless I make them they won't try much of anything on their own will) - they had a blast too! Alexa and her Family showed up shortly after we did, so the four girls together had a wonderful time.
The boys were able to play the most they have ever played in a castle because normally we are at a festival or whatever where there are huge lines to get into it and a timed jump for the kids (of course). It was great.

We had hotdogs, chicken wings and watermelon of course for dinner -and snow cones for dessert!GREAT idea Rachel and Paul - we loved our time there!!

65 years together

It's my Grandparent's 65th Wedding Anniversary this week!!! Unreal - Happy Anniversary!

Welcome Fran and Amy!

Finally our Students from China have arrived! They had quite the hassle getting all of their Visas to come, but once they did they basically jumped on the plane and headed our way. We have Fran and Amy in our home. 11 (almost 12) year old Twins!!! They are not identical - so right off the bat I was able to figure out who is who and not mix that up (though I have called out "Ellen" yesterday when trying to get one of their attention... habit, I guess and she didn't hear me so it didn't matter and even if she heard me she wouldn't have a clue)...

I had two of these mirrors in my stash of this and that's... something Jason picked up for me from the IKEA As-Is section a few months ago for $1.50 each... I figured I could use them for the girls "personalized item" for their rooms. I think they turned out good.(again this picture flipped itself, grrrrr)the boys are quite fond of the girls... this picture is on Sunday afternoon, basically a 1/2 a day after they arrived and they are attached to them! The Girls arrived on Friday dinner time... and on Saturday Morning early I already had to drop them off at Alexa's for the day while Jason and I went to a wedding in "The City". So they were already there for their first real day in Canada and slept over too!! Crazy timing, but what can ya do?!
The wedding was an Indian Wedding - it was a neat cultural experience to attend the ceremony in the morning and the reception in the evening. Jason and I had 7 hours to kill between these two events but we found an Outlet Mall (in Canada?!) for plenty of shopping and some nice deals... I didn't bring my camera, but here are 2 photos I've snagged from one of Jason's reps that emailed them out to us.there were 900 guests and wow, it's all about the party! The reception started at 6:30, though we were told not to show up until 7:30 - which we did. We were early! The Bride and Groom showed up at 9:00 which is normal... and when we left at 10:15, dinner hadn't even been served yet, again what we expected! Such a different style and format - but quite fun. They even had an Open Bar for 900 guests! And not cheap stuff either (stated a man at our table a couple of times!)... here we are, a happy couple who spent the entire day together with no kids!

nighttime creatures

Take a look at my flipflops... (this picture is the correct view before it comes onto blogger, so sorry for the sideways pic. I tried 2x and it still goes sideways?)
...silly me knew there was a raccoon around when we are alseep because I've seen him out there at 2:30am. He tears up rubber balls, foam balls and now he stole my flipflop (which I found down near our gate)... so now nothing edible stays outside for this creature!

** update: the Chinese Group finally got their Visas issued on Tuesday, so they are coming tomorrow. They will be here until the end of October. We will be hosting 2 Girls who are Twins! They are 11 years old and will turn 12 in September. We are excited to meet them, and have also enjoyed the 3 weeks with no one extra in our home too! :)

Party

Her Hippo-stuffie is her all-time favourite animal, so that inspired me to do a Hippo party for her this year! So I bought some of that Fondant icing - which is cool to make a nice shape, but didn't taste as good as normal icing - I think it turned out okay -we met at the park for her party - we had invited a lot of families to join us, but many couldn't come due to summer holidays. We brought the little BBQ with us and had a simple menu of hotdogs, chips & melonwe got a few of the sparklers passed out before they fizzled outHappy Birthday Baby Girl-mmmm, cakeNathan enjoys cake tooHere are three of the 2007 Baby's: Isabella, Gabriella and Erin - we could have also had Koby and Luci-Ann in there too for a picture but we missed their company at Gabi's First PartyUncle Matt was happy that Gabi finally warmed up to him nearing the end of the partyElijah's request was to play Ring Around the Rosie - a party-game-staple to him with my Familysome of her gifts --> Thank You Everyone!

One of the Families that was missing but not due to holidays or other commitments were the T-Family... we extend our hugest Congrats to them as they surprisingly welcomed their 4th Baby into the World on the 4th as well - a healthy baby boy, Benjamin Domenic - we can't wait to meet you! I will share with you one of the photos that was emailed to us with his Birth information (Jen, you look great so I am hoping you won't mind this posted on here... if so, LMK!) --

The Fourth of July

well, I now have a 4 1/2 year old, 2 1/2 year old and a 1 year old - Gabriella is ONE! We had a party for her on Friday at the park (post to come)... Here's our little precious princess on her special day (in appropriate attire) - and here we are doing some sparklers at her party - to tie in "Independence Day" and to celebrate Gabi -Uncle MattDaddyGabi blowing them - not sure how she knew to do that!

Gabriella:
- can climb stairs and stays away from them when she is at the top
- walks like a pro
- crouches or squats down to either pick something up or to "sit"
- can walk with things in each hand (I read once that this takes quite awhile for a child to be able to walk with something in 1 hand, let alone each hand)
- still nurses and doesn't like cows milk... gotta work on that!
- only 2 teeth still, though I think we are working on more

Happy Birthday Big Girl - you are such an angel.

Canada Day Parade

Last Tuesday Kurt & Dana Danika & Alise met us at our house and we walked to the parade route... but first Danika and Alise gave Gabi a gift for her birthday since they would be away on the weekend when Gabi's party was - thanks!
Danika and Gabi (who I just woke up from her beauty sleep)and here's the gift; so adorable!we met up with Rachel & kids and Korinne & kids (and Deanna & Family too, but apparently we changed our seating to front-row so we were no longer by you, sorry!)...and here are Alexa and kids across from us:Gabi's first Canada Day - about as old as you can get to have your first Canada Day!Elijah was very well coordinated with Canada flipflops even!back at the K's van before heading to the Family Fun DaySamuelI forgot to bring my camera to the Family Festival thing that afternoon. We spent about 3 hours there - it was a great time!