downtown for olympic fever

We are so lucky to live close to one of the greatest events in Vancouver's history - on Thursday, Feb 18th we took Elijah out of school at Noon and headed in. It was a well-worth trip - we had a blast taking some of it in!
The adventure started with the kids' first trip on the Sky Train!and all dressed very patriotic -(Elijah has a Quatchie jogging outfit on, you'll see)

Remember these Eagles I posted in October when we were Downtown with Kelly and Lily? Here's another - Sammy remembered posing by many of them in October so he right away posed in front of this first one we saw off of the sky train - and look at all these Coke People behind him!we didn't go into any of the Livesites or Pavilions (too long of lines) but stayed entertained by many different street entertainers (tap dancing, spoon-playing, juggling) and LOTS of walkingI want a better picture of this flag - jeepers, I could have taken a perfect one in October - we're hoping to get back Downtown this weekend before the Olympics end, so I may have my chance yetthe cauldronAnd how awesome to see the Olympic Mascots do a little 15 minute ice show for us on the Robson Square ice! Yea!!!the kids even got to high-five them after the showwe caught the overtime of a hockey game by standing in the street with many of these folks, looking into this restaurant's little TV and joining in the cheering! It was such a fun experience - hearing cheering coming from buildings/restaurants all down street!

And as I mentioned we did a lot of walking - from Station Sky Train station, around and about, to Waterfront, more around and about, to Yale Town... and back to Station sky Train station around 8:15pm when we headed for home! Elijah and Sam fell asleep on the sky train... way too cute, my troopers!

Go Canada Go!!

O zone

On Saturday Feb 13, we went to Richmond's O Zone - in the ugly weather - and had a great day! We visited BC Street with little tents set up for our different regions

it's been so long since I've blogged regularly, you likley have no idea who this Student is! This is Lily from Korea, age 11 - she was with us for 7 weeks (January 2nd til Feb 20th)Richmond is one of the largest producing areas of Cranberries - so they had filled this area around City Hall with cranberries - so fun!and of course, my beloved brother Matt was performing, so we got to be up front and personal for his hit "Today"his video was playing on the jumbotron too while he was singing livewe were given tickets to go on the Ferris Wheel toothis maple leaf and the olympic rings are also filled with cranberries! (shots from the Ferris Wheel)Great day! And well done Uncle Matt - loved seeing you perform today!

absolutely stunning weather

Our weather for February has been unbelievable (not so great for hosting the winter Olympics - but oh well!)! My tulips have been out of the ground for weeks already... I see crocus' blooming all over, it's been absolutely gorgeous! So on Thursday, February 11th - I took Sam and Gabi to the "lake" for a picnic... and Sammy's first-ever bike ride - he made it around the lake without a complaint. I had Gabi in the stroller and got a good walk in! this is all we have for Gabi so far, so she doesn't go more than a foot at a time and then is bored of it - who can blame her!Sam is soooo proud of his first bike ride and actually first real time on such a bike! And I am SO proud of him too!

Red and White Day

Elijah's school had a Spirit Day on the 12th of February, the day of the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics! Of course, it was Red and White dress-up day!! Yea, Canada!!! Here's my boy with lots of school spirit and Canadian Patriotism! (I altered this Burger King crown so he became the King of Canada; and his teddy bear accompanied him to school too because it had a Canada sweater on!)
He's with his good friend T from his class -and to their chapel that day they had two Dads of Student's come in for a quick hello with their torches which they carried - one of which I graduated with - that was neat!
While Elijah had this at school, Sam and Gabi had swim lessons and then we stayed at the Rec Center to watch the Russian Figure Skaters practice - they were here for 2 weeks prior to the Olympics praticing! Very cool -and here's Gabi taking photos too! If you remember years ago now, when we last visited Disneyland my little 12month old Samuel pulled my camera into the hot tub on our first day in Anaheim - well, this has since been a play camera and Gabi likes it as her own -

Go Canada Go!!!

And the Olympics are finally here! Vancouver has been talking about 2010 for forever it seems - well, I figured 2010 was SO far away, but man, it's here and the Olympics begin this week! Last night we had the privelige of partaking in some Vancoc festivities and seeing the Torch run through our City! It was very exciting!and here's Mr. C himself handing out Olympic pins to us!and the Torch - which we were right in front of, but they had all sorts of people walking with the runner, so I couldn't grab a decent shot til after he passedand even awesome-er news is the the publicity my Brother, Matt is getting from the Music Video he shot a couple weeks ago for the City of Richmond! It's awesome - you have to see it! hopefully it will be aired during the olympics, so stay tuned! CLICK his picture to view the video!

my apprentice

Gabi has been my apprentice for quite some time already; wish I would have kept track of that more precisely. Anyway - here she is this past week... enjoying the Tupperware Pitcher and cup for many tea parties and water spills with her brother(s).and taking the kitchen cloth to clean her own kitchenette in her room!what a doll!

Erin and Gabi

Two and a Half years old - look at these two!sweethearts!

sick, sick, sick

School was back in session too soon this month! It was sooo hard to get back into the groove quickly on the Fourth of January! But we managed.

One week later Elijah's class went skating for 50minutes. I had the privelege of joining him there to help tie skates...etc. I ended up getting some skates myself and getting out on the ice with him - since this is all new to him. He was able to use this bar thing the whole time, but even with it, he wasn't able to motor too quickly. I got behind him and then we got motoring. It was quite fun!

Since I am doing some posts here to more or less get the blog updated, I may as well mention that Elijah missed this whole past week of school. He started out with some spots on his cheek and around his mouth that I was unsure of and so was the Doctor at the Walk-in Clinic I took him too on Friday (Jan 22) - by Monday Elijah's ear hurt soooo bad, but the spots had mainly faded on his face - I took him to our Family Doctor. He called it a 'staff infection?" I think - and that was caused by his runny nose... never seen anything like it! His ear was actually discharging liquid - and by the next day at one point his ear was discharging green snot like mucous. It was unreal. He had to keep using a tissue to wipe his ear, not his nose! We got him some antibiotics (even though we are otherwise against them), a saline flusher thing for his nose and ear, and eardrops. After five days missing from Class, I sent him back on Friday (29th). Poor guy.

Samuel started all this sickness in a different form on Tuesday (19th) - which ended up being Strep Throat in combination with scarlet fever! Yikes! And not to mention myself - I ended up heading into the Clinic too for some meds for my painfully sore throat - which I'm calling strep throat even though we didn't do a swab for it. Sick, sick, sick. Everyone seems on the mend now!

5 4 3 2 1, Blast Off

My Sammy is 4 now - they just keep getting older and older!
On January 3rd we had my Family over for waffles and cake in honor of my Dad's birthday and Sammy's birthday - And then a week later we had Sammy's "Little Einstein" party here with friends.
Little Einsteins is a cartoon put out by Disney - one of Sammy's favourite shows. It's a great show incorporating classical music and musical terms while traveling the world. Sammy is quite familiar with "the great sphinx" and "the eiffel tower" and "the space needle" to mention three... so until I get myself to a Michael's cake-decorating class, I think I am done with shaped cakes for now - hence this creation using our printer, stickers and a toy!Sam was very happy with the cake, and you know, so was I!I got the kids to make sugar cube 'pyramids' or towers, to incorporate some of the theme Little Einsteins - and I made a Great Pyramid 2D "pin the rocket on the pyramid"and of course, the pinataIt was a success! Here's to four fantastic years, my boy!