Gold for Canada!

Today I was hoping to see Canada win a gold medal . . .

The Richmond Olympic Oval - it's a beautiful facility . . .














Shannon Rempel skating in the Ladies' 1000m Final . . .















This camera is very cool - you might spot it on TV sometimes - it runs on a track all the way around the rink so it can follow the skaters . . .














Christine Nesbitt - she was in one of the last pairs . . .














. . . and crossed the line 2 hundredths of a second ahead of Annette Gerritsen of the Netherlands who was the leader at the time! The crowd went crazy!

She would end up with a Gold medal after Kristina Groves skated for Canada in the last pair - Kristina missed winning a Bronze medal by 6 hundredths of a second!















The flower ceremony was held in the middle of the carpeted area you can see in my first photo and it was facing sideways, so my best photo opportunity was to take one of the screen!















A self-portrait of me and my sister, Ellena. We didn't see him in the crowd, but saw on the screen that Richard Branson (billionaire adventurist and owner of the Virgin brand) was in attendance also!

CAN vs SWE

Today I went to my first Olympic event of the 2010 Winter Games! It was at Thunderbird Arena at UBC - it's been a while since I was here and it brought back some great memories of the 7 years I spent going to school there.














Paul isn't allowed to take time off during the Games, so my uncle came to the game with me instead - Paul's loss was his gain!














Our event was women's hockey - Canada vs Sweden.















The Swedes were over-matched and had to take a time out - unfortunately for them, they lost 13-1 (at one point it was 13-0!). We were expecting a tighter match because the Swedish team won the Silver medal in Torino in 2006, but it was fun to be in the crowd that was supporting the Canadian team - the atmosphere was great!














Even Donald Sutherland made an appearance at the game . . . my lens is not super strong, but you can just make him out standing up in the front row with his white hair - and sitting at the end of the row to the right is John Furlong, CEO of VANOC (the Vancouver Organizing Committee). Unfortunately, this is one of the sites I was hoping NOT to see - a bunch of empty seats in the IOC section - the rest of the arena was completely full.

Go Canada Go! and Gung Hey Fat Choy!

Holly and her cousin (2nd cousin), Owen, who is 8 months old. She loves him and kept asking if she could hold him. If we're lucky enough to have another baby, I think she's ready to be a big sister!

Valentine's Day Party

Today, the JK Class had a Valentine's Day Party - everyone was told they could wear red or pink to school. Because Chinese New Year happens to fall on the same date as Valentine's Day this year, I told Holly she could wear her Chinese outfit to school (it's red!).

Ruby (Sienna's mom) took this one of Holly, Cassie & Sienna when they got to school - thanks Ruby!














Some of the us (parents) came back early to check out the party before school ended - enjoying some snacks brought by their friends . . . (Holly, Sam & Ariana).














Sienna, Aryn, Katie, & Holly.














Ariana and the twins, Gabe and Cole.













Karl decided to sit at another table and enjoy his cookie alone!



















Everyone in the class has a special heart.














Dancing to music with the student teacher, Courtney.














Relaxing . . .














. . . and practising their yoga moves . . .

China Doll

Build A Bear (or something else)

Today the girls had a Pro-D Day, so Mimi suggested we take them to Build-A-Bear for Mackenzie's birthday. It was Holly's first visit to actually make a bear (or in her case a unicorn!) and she had a great time.

The girls - waking up the hearts they are going to put into their stuffed animals . . .















Part of waking up the hearts included making sure they were healthy - so they had to have a little race in the store . . .



















Mackenzie with her Valentine's Dalmation and Cassie with her Hello Kitty . . .














Holly picked out the pink unicorn immediately upon entering the store - funny coincidence - when I was little, I had an imaginary friend - who was a unicorn! She picked out a pink vest and purse for it and named her Priscilla, which was the name of my Pontiac Sunfire - I was suggesting names that started with a P because the unicorn is Pink, and as soon as I said "Priscilla", she picked it out!

Torch Relay

Holly's school went to a celebration in Queen's Park for the Torch Relay this morning . . . it was a lot of fun - the 2 hours we waited to see the torch didn't seem all that long (at least not to the parents).

In the first picture, I tried to get everyone waving their flags - in the second shot, you can see the Olympic Torch on stage.














Holly's class walking back to school - Holly isn't in the photo because she was doing her impression of a Klingon! (i.e. child who clings-on to a parent - a term Paul & I came up with when I was pregnant - hoping we wouldn't have one!)

Declan's birthday

We went to Declan's birthday party today - it was at a gymnastics club.

Holly is finding blue things to sit on!














Now find yellow things!














Being SuperKids!














Partners with Jack . . .














The birthday boy - Declan.