Birthday

My mom got me a cake to celebrate my birthday. It was a delicious chocolate cake - and pretty, too with all the fancy chocolate decorations!





























Smiley - probably because she is anticipating eating some chocolate cake AND a lemon cupcake with lemon cream cheese frosting (something I decided to try).





































I have NO idea what this face or stance is about!

Ni Hao Kai Lan

A few weeks ago, my mom was at the mall and saw a sign that Ni Hao Kai Lan was going to be making an appearance. She got some tickets for us and for Cassie-Anne and Mackenzie.

Cassie and Mackenze were a little shy and didn't want to get their pictures taken with Kai Lan, but Holly was all smiles . . .



















It was basically just a photo op and afterwards we went for walk through the mall. The girls were given some money by my mom to ride Cinderella's carriage. It's so cute and this is the only place I've seen it at - it's shaped perfectly like a pumpkin, too!

Happy Birthday

We went out with my mom for my birthday tonight - Holly insisted we put our arms around each other for a picture!

Another day with Poh Poh

Today, the plan with Poh Poh was to go to Stanley Park after lunch so Holly could ride her bike. They went to a park near the house and Holly was having so much fun there that she didn't want to leave.










































































































A quick trip to Starbucks after for a treat!

Aquarium with Poh Poh

It's still Spring Break, so Holly spent the day with Poh Poh because I had to go to work. They went to the Aquarium and had a great time - wish I could have gone along! My mom took some pictures, so I got to see what they did today.
























































































My mom treated Holly to one of those penny flattening machines, which imprints an Aquarium picture onto a penny - she had to use all her muscles to turn the handle . . .



















. . . and stretch her legs out for leverage, too!

In the van

Today we had my grandfather's funeral. My good friend Helen came and after the service, she stopped by to pick up her daughter, Kayli and brought her to the reception. Kayli was my flower girl when we got married and she is now 11 years old! Holly was happy to see her and Kayli is so good playing with Holly. They set up some chairs to make a "van" and Holly made Daddy sit in the back . . .

Paralympics Outing

Today was the first day of Spring Break for Holly & Cassie, and the Paralympic Games are on right now, so we decided to head downtown to visit the Olympic Store at the Bay and see if the mascots were still performing at Robson Square. It was a nice day and we had fun - Holly, myself, Cassie, Mimi and my mom.

After visiting the Bay and making a couple of small purchase for myself (they were out of the Team Canada hoodies I really wanted and were sure would be left over after the Games and on sale - what did I know?!), we walked to the Library to see how long the line was to view and touch the medals from the Royal Canadian Mint . . . answer - VERY long! Probably about 2 1/2 hours, long for adults and much too long for little girls!

We then walked towards Robson Square - along the way we found a Trevor Linden/Canuck eagle on the street - Holly has photos with quite a number of the eagles around town!



















Cassie got a Miga stuffie from London Drugs, so the girls are showing off their matching Migas.

































Alas, no shows at Robson Square, so after a brief walk around there, I thought about checking out the BC Pavilion in the Vancouver Art Gallery. During the Games, my sister had tried to visit, but the line up was over an hour long. We went in, and saw a few people in a line. When I asked a hostess, she confirmed it was indeed the line to enter and we got in in under 3 minutes! Plus, because of the Olympics, the BC Government was allowing free entry - BONUS!

The girls had fun checking out the transportation display . . .



















And the interactive gallery - there were four screens in this room with a picture of trees in the four different seasons - when you touched the screen things would appear and move and change . . . hard to describe, but very cool.















On the way back to the car, the two girls found a "stage" and did a little dance for us.





























And also discovered a very cool sculpture!

Barbie Mermaid

Holly's friend, Claire invited us to see a movie premier - it was "Barbie in a Mermaid Tale". The movie was made in Vancouver and we saw the director along with some of the animators there. After the movie, all the kids got presents - there were 4 different ones and depending on what colour card was under your seat, you got a corresponding gift. Holly and Claire got the 2 best ones, in my opinion - Claire got the actual mermaid Barbie, just like in the movie, and Holly got the DVD of the movie we saw!

We all went to Oakridge Mall for lunch after the movie and the 2 girls took Barbie for a walk . . .














As we were walking past Lululemon, we saw someone demonstrating yoga positions on their raised platform. Holly has been doing yoga at school and she and Claire went up to pose with the nice lady who also gave them some stickers.

Gymnastics

The girls are on Spring Break, so we decided to meet up at a local drop-in gymnastics session. Mackenzie, Cassie & Holly really enjoyed it - here they are doing some stretching to warm up.

Kong

I'm sad to say that we lost my grandfather yesterday - he was 96 years old and passed peacefully after suffering a stroke in his sleep. We will miss him dearly, our Kong (grandfather) and Tai-Kong (great-grandfather). Our pain is eased by the knowledge that he has been reunited with Poh-Poh (my grandmother) - his one true love.



















This is one of my favourite photos of my grandparents and the last picture I took of my them together before my grandmother passed away 12 days later - it was taken at Horizon's Restaurant on my mom's birthday last year. They still look so happy together after nearly 72 years of marriage and at the ages of 95 and 90!