Cycling

We took Holly for a bike ride on a trail today - she is getting so good on her bike, and never had training wheels! Her glider was the best thing for learning to balance from the time she was not quite 3 years old. . .


. . . remember this?! (May 6, 2008)

Butterflies

Holly's teacher got some butterfly larvae a couple of weeks ago. They were in little plastic cups for a while (and very tiny, you could hardly see them), and then grew into rather large caterpillars. They cocooned and just started to emerge yesterday. These are Painted Lady Butterflies and the process was amazing to watch. They look like brown moths when their wings are closed, but when they are open, the colours are so vivid. The butterflies actually produce colour and it looks like they are bleeding, but they are really shedding their excess pigment.

These butterflies came from FlutterBuys - check them out: www.flutterbuys.ca.

Adventure Dog!

We forgot to take a picture of Adventure Dog yesterday, so we took one before school.

Adventure Dog's Adventures

The Kindergarten class have a pet stuffy. Each day he gets to go home with a student - there is a list so everyone gets a few visits. He also has a journal that travels with him so we can record what Adventure Dog has done . . .

Adventure Dog first came home in February and here is what Holly wrote, "Adventure Dog's first adventure was playing pets. We did pets on the plane with a owner and that plane went to Pet Land and you learn to train your pet. Holly." The picture shows her holding Adventure Dog's paw, and the one on the right is her lying in bed and Adventure Dog sitting beside her.
















"Me and Adventure Dog played fairy dress-up. I gave my dog a clip, and then I had dinner and my dog watched Playhouse Disney night and then it was morning so we went to school." See how nicely we're sitting at the table! On the right is a picture of Holly and Daddy - you can tell it's Paul because he has no hair and his signature goatee that Holly includes in all her pictures of him!
















This is the entry from today, "Me and Adventure Dog waited for my mom at school. Now it's home time. Now we have breakfast. Now it's school time for me and Adventure Dog.  ?? was fun like sleeping over Adventure Dog."




















"I read to Adventure Dog. He liked the book, Cinderella. It was a happy ending for him. We watched TV at night. Now it is sleep time for me and Adventure Dog."

Crazy Canucks!

Today the Canucks played San Jose in game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

Check out this Crazy Canuck Girl . . . .


. . .  and a Crazier Canuck Dad!

Sarah's birthday

We went to Sarah's 8th birthday part at Crash Crawly's. The kids got train tokens and had fun going through the tunnel . . .


. . . Holly and Claire held hands across train cars.


Danielle, the birthday girl's sister, Holly, and Sarah, the birthday girl, herself!

At IKEA

After brunch, Holly and I had to stop at IKEA for a couple of things. She saw this little chair and asked me to take a picture of her in it so we could show Daddy!

Mother's Day Brunch

Our family went for Mother's Day Brunch at the new Riverway Golf Club restaurant. Because of the grand opening, the all-you-can-eat brunch was on special. It was great - the food was super yummy, and the desserts were heavenly!

Holly & Mommy.


Holly, Poh-Poh, Bel-Ee, and Mommy.




Mom, and her sisters, Gloria, Grace & Ivy . . .    and me!

Mother's Day Tea

Today was our annual Mother's Day Tea celebration at school. Unfortunately, it rained this year, so we had to go over to Queens Avenue United Church instead of having it on our front lawn.

One of our teachers, Tatiana Celis, made these beautiful flowers, by hand, and painted them, by hand! They were amazing and there were so many different ones - I was amazed!
















Me with Kate Newman, our wonderful Drama Specialist.


My mom and I enjoyed ourselves with the lovely tea, cupcakes, and excellent service by the students.


Each class had a presentation, and the Kindergarten class sang a very cute song!

Hula Competition

Today I competed in my very first hula dance competition. Grace, Frankie, and I took First Place in the Comedy Group division at the Pacific West Dance Festival. The Festival runs for about 2 weeks, and includes ballet, tap, hip hop, Polynesian, Chinese, and Indian dance - among many others. Ok, it sounds impressive, but I have to be completely honest - we were the ONLY entry in our division! We did, however, still have to meet a minimum score to win. Originally, I had asked Frankie to do a comedy duo with me, and then we added Pat - but Pat had a very unfortunate fall about 6 weeks ago and broke her ankle! Grace kindly stepped in for 2 dances (I also performed in a group number) and here we are!


The trophy that Frankie is holding was actually donated by Josie, our teacher!


Later in the afternoon, our girls won First Place in the junior group poi division. (We didn't tell them, but they were also the only entry in their division!). They were very excited to win and performed very well! Josie doesn't always want or let the younger kids enter - she doesn't want them to be crushed if they lose, and also doesn't want them to expect to win all the time if they do in fact win. I think they had fun and for both myself and Holly, it was a great experience all around.