October came and went!

Wow- the time sure flies when you are having fun. My girls were so excited for Halloween- they had their outfits picked out early in the year and could not wait for the day. Luckily this year Halloween stretched over 2 days for them. The 30th was the day they celebrated at school- with a parade and hot lunch. Saturday was a long day of waiting for the big trick or treating expedition. We passed the time carving some great jack o lanterns and raking up the leaves. The weather was amazing- it was supposed to rain but it turned out to be the most amazing Fall day you could imagine. At 6:30 they were off! They returned half way through the night to drop off some of their stash- and then went back out for more candy. 2 hours later we had more candy than we could possibly imagine- now 2 weeks later I wonder where it all went?!!!

Summer is over!

Summer seems to officially be over. We have had the most amazing weather ever and the rainy wet coast we live in seems like a distant memory. That was until this weekend of course- the rain came with a vengeance - which is fine if you don't have to stand on a soccer field and watch your children play...
The only downside to the great weather is that all the pumpkins ripened very early this year, so the choice for Jack-O-Lanterns is not as large as usual. We managed to grow 2 pumpkins in our garden this year- but they are pretty small so we need to go and get some more from the Pumpkin Patch.

Summer Fun!

It has been a crazy, awesome summer so far. We have been to Oregon, we have been camping and this week the girls are in summer camp all week long. They seem to be having the best time ever and the camp is like the one you see in the movies- honest. Today they did archery and kayaking- amazing. We haven't done as many outings as we had planned but we have had a few local outings around town. There is still so much I want to do and the days are already getting shorter and the evenings cooler... Where does the time go? Next week is the last week of summer holidays so I will be sure to do something extra fun with the girls- what to chose from?

Gone Fisihing

We had a great Canada day at the lake. After a great picnic dinner, grandpa took all 5 of the grandkids fishing. Dani and Boo's have been fishing a few times and are a little discouraged as they have yet to catch a fish. Well what do you know, Dani feels a tug and next we look over and she is pulling in a trout. She was over the moon, until we realized that we couldn't throw him back as he had swallowed the hook. But grandpa gutted him and we had him for dinner the next night. What fun!

Catching up

I am getting more and more behind on scrapbooking. I have been trying to catch up and every time I get a few pages ahead I take a few more photos!! I am trying to figure out why my camera takes such dark photos. On the automatic setting it seems fine but when I switch to AV and adjust the white balance I have to go 2 F stops up to get them lighter- this is ever since I had a broken camera- I wonder if it was something that broke in the camera!! Anyway I guess I am eternally grateful to RAW photo adjustment in photoshop- I can't seem to look at a photo now without wanting to adjust it. It takes that scrapbooking to a whole different level and doubles the time to scrap a page {sigh}.

Moms gone CRAZY!

Hey ladies- here it is! The talent at the talent show was amazing and what a way to end 27 great performances!!

Holiday

We are back from our 2 weeks away- although it already feels like an eternity ago! What a great holiday we had. The first week we were in Orlando and did the Orlando touristy things- minus Disney. I love SeaWorld, we saw pretty much all there was to see there. My fav of all is the dolphin show. Our second week was on the beach and what a great place. Our condo was literally on the beach. We loved the hot weather and the sea- I have no idea how many sunset photos I took! The high light was having the manatees swim with us for about an hour one day. The next day the dolphins swam by as we ate breakfast- ahhh the little treasures. Now I have over 800 photos to scrap- wow that will keep my busy.

Happy Easter

What a wet Easter! We had 4 days in a row off and we had heard that there was rain all weekend long, so we didn't bother to get topsoil and work in the yard. But Friday turned out to be a wonderful day, it would have been great to work outside. Saturday started off rainy but ended in sun, another afternoon that would have been great to get out. Then Easter Sunday- oh my word- how much rain could possibly fall?!!! It was not just rain but a downpour all day- yuck.
The girls were up at 6:30am eager to see if the Easter Bunny had been! I was not thrilled to be up that early on an awful rainy day!! My bed was so warm! But up we got and then really lazed around the rest of the day- it was great. A around 3pm I had to put the ham in the oven as we had 14 people over for Easter dinner. And we had a great Easter dinner- what a great, wet day!
I am so looking forward to sun- we are off in 2 weeks for sunny skies and I cannot wait- summer seems so far away. I am still scrapbooking last summers fun and I tell you summer cannot come fast enough this year...

Memories of Summer

Being almost a year behind in scrapping, makes me look so much more forward to summer. I am so longing for long hot summer days. I look at our photos of last summer though and cannot believe that we didn't go to the beach more often than we did. White Pine is 10 mins away and we only went a few times. I think summer is just too busy- we have to take the time to enjoy the little things {sigh}! The good news is it is SPRING AHEAD weekend so the days now become longer.

Fishing

With all this snow STILL around I am dreaming of Spring. Not even so much Summer- just Spring would be fine! I look at the damage the snow has done to my yard and I can't wait to get out and clean up. I know that there is no point going out now though as there is more cold weather still to come... I so look forward to the Spring bulbs - oh wait I don't think that I will be able to see any bulbs this years- as the pesky squirrels, of which there are many, have been frantically digging up the garden and chowing down on all bulbs they can find! Oh well, I am looking forward to Spring, bike rides on the trail and fishing at the lake!

SNOW!

Wow, what a winter it has been thus far. I cannot believe the amount of snow that is on the ground. The idea of a white Christmas was wonderful, but the reality of it is another story! We started off our cold snap up on Grouse Mountain for our annual peak of Vancouver trip- it was soooo cold up there I thought we wouldn't make it. It was roughly -25C with the windchill. That is cold for us West coasters. Then the snow settled in down below.
We had so much snow on Christmas Eve I thought we were going to be house bound- but a power outage made sure we shoveled ourselves out! We went to Frank's brother and sister in laws for our regular Christmas Eve, which is always fun. Coming home was not so much fun- we got stuck on a side street and spent a while digging out of there.
Christmas morning we woke up to still more snow and off to Maple Ridge we headed! Thank goodness it eased up a bit. Boxing day- more snow- then rain and boy did those piles of snow turn to puddles of water FAST. New Years Eve- more snow- enough already!! Then the weekend of January 3rd- we had a further 30cm or so!!! Well back to school on Monday was awful- the little ones were stepping in snow up to their waists, there were no sidewalks to be seen and the traffic oh my gosh- a nightmare. Now we are stuck with huge piles of ugly, dirty brown snow- these piles will be here until the Spring- yuck!

A little behind

I really love digital scrapbooking but it seems everything gets in the way these days and there is no time for it. I am so behind in my pages, but trying to catch up. I am still working on Spring break 2008. Halloween just passed and now I am even more behind. BUT what should happen to me - the worst thing ever- my camera broke!!! i have no idea how I bumped it- but I did and it is now broken. So I am not taking nearly as much photos as I usually would- so this is a fine time to catch up!

All done

We finally put the play structure together for the kids. I cannot believe how many parts there were. It took me almost a full afternoon to sort all the screws into their own little areas. We then spread the 200 pieces of wood out- across the entire yard! Then it took us 4 days of working together to assemble the thing. I tell you I thought Ike@ products were bad. But we are finally done- the girls love it and that' s all that matters! I hope that the sun actually stays out for the next few weeks so they can enjoy it- the days are already getting shorter, don't take the sun away!

Disney Photos!

Yahoo, I have finished scrapbooking all my Disney Photos. I still have to do the Santa Monica ones but at least these are done. What fun it was too...

My grid stage!

I am so far behind in scrapbooking but feeling a little uninspired. Not sure why as I have so many wonderful photos to scrap. i am just getting to Xmas though and it is so hard to scrap Xmas in May- what with birds chirping, flowers smelling lovely and weeds waiting to be dug up! I am trying to just put photos on paper and then move on. So it seems I am at my grid stage- I like grids as you can fit lots of photos on a page. I need to be done 2007 so I can start in on this years photos!

I need a holiday

I am so amazed at how fast holidays fly by. We went away for 4 days over spring break and it flew by, but we knew we had a 10 day holiday coming up in April. We were so looking forward to it- and it was a fantastic holiday! But now it is over! I can't stand that we look forward to holidays for months in advance and then poof they are over. Anyway Cali was amazing - the weather was great there were many memories to be had, The girls LOVED Disneyland and 5 days was perfect. Then 5 days in Santa Monica was great, relaxing and awesome. Oh- I need a vacation.

Violin

My DD has taken up violin- her choice. I cannot believe how good she is. She has been playing since Sept 07 and I was fully prepared for the squeaking and awful sounds that might come form learning a new instrument. Much to my surprise there is the odd squeak, but she is amazing. She had her first recital on Valentines Day and I thought for sure she would be nervous- no way. She played the song and it was perfect!

Memories of summer

I am still scrapping memories of last summer and am really looking forward to this summer. It has been a very rainy winter and I am not usually one to complain about the rain- but oh my gosh-enough! We have booked our holiday to Anaheim (wink, wink) for April- but that seems like an eternity away. I am trying to catch up on all my photos so that when I take 1000 photos in DL I will be able to come home and scrap them right away. I hate nothing more than waiting 6 months to scrap stuff and then I have forgotten all the great thinks I was going to write about! So I am in August 2007 right now. I discovered MAC books too- which are the greatest books- I love them- if you have a mac and iphoto it is the easiest thing to scrap- chose a book - flow your photos and 5 days later a coffee table book is delivered to your door- WOW! Anyway here are some pages from last summer of Galiano Isalnd- what a great place to go.

It's been a while

Well I have not posted in a while. Life gets so crazy at the end of the summer and back to school. Being on the PAC at Dani's school keeps me busy for the first 2 months of school as I have to look over all the health and safetly forms- what a task. Then soccer starts and all the girls other activities. Somewhere in there my offices moved- which was a great thing as they are now a block away from my house!!!! I have been teaching some intro to scrap classes and generally just a busy bee. I am so behind in my scrapping I am trying to catch up but I have been doing all sorts of other fun projects and here I am. In Novemeber a birthday for Dani looming and photos from June still not scrapped!!! So here are a few pages I did for a competition that was on one of the sites I frequent.

Summer's Over?

I cannot believe that summer is almost over. Mind you the weather the last few weeks has been anything but fall like. Well, last week was back to school- Dani is now in grade 2!!!! It was back to school and then do nothing for the first week- my how times have changed since I went to school. But, by Monday she had her class and they were all settled in by the open house tonight. My baby is getting so big {sigh}. This week with all the activities back on it was like the break of summer never happened- I cannot believe how fast time flies!

Now that Maui is done!!

Wow, now that I have created, and printed all 55 Maui pages I am so far behind in my scrapbooking. This is probably because I have to take photos at every waking moment. Frank always laments that we don't do enough family activities-well you only have to look at my photos to know that is not true. I thought that we had a not too busy summer until I browsed through the almost 1000 photos I have taken so far!!! Damn that is a lot of memories. I am still scrapping last Xmas- so somebody stop me from taking anymore photos. Nah- not gonna happen. But the photos aside we have had a great summer- what with 4 family getaways and tons of local activities. I cannot believe that the kids go back to school in a week- wow. I think it is time though- my girls are at each others throats! Ahh the lazy (???) days of summer.

Maui finished!

Finally I have finished scrapbooking my Maui photos! That took forever... Now I am only 7 months behind in scrapbooking- I really have to learn to take less photos :)

Galiano Island

We have had some very busy days these past few weeks. We were in Oregon week before last which was stunning. This past weekend we visited Galiano Island with friends. Wow, talk about beauty in your back yard. A mere 50 min ferry ride and you are in this little paradise. Of course it helped that the weather was co-operative. We had a great stay- we rented a cottage in Bodega Ridge and it was awesome. We got in a great bike ride to Dionisi0 point park (these starfish were everywhere!) The kids had so much fun exploring the tidal pools and seeing who could find the most starfish, crabs and clams. This is a great place and we will go back soon!

Exhausted!

I am so tired- this weather takes it out of you. I cannot believe what a busy weekend we had. Little miss Delaney turned 4!!! Wow- where has the time gone. What a great birthday weekend she had- with a family party on Saturday, followed by a kids party on Sunday. I was so busy baking all the cakes and making all the food. By Sunday night I was done- but no I thought it would be nice to put together the bed that we had bought her so that she had it for the morning. Did I mention that it was an IKE@ bed!!! 5 hours later (and still not done) I had to go to bed- I was was beyond tired. Then I woke up Monday to continue the giant jigsaw! After all that the matress we bought didn't fit (oh wait- read the small print- it takes 3 days for it to recover from it's wrapped up state- it now fits- thanks heavens!) After all of that I spent the rest of Monday sorting through her toys and getting rid of all the junk my girls collect! Does it ever end???

A walk in the Park

FINALLY- we got to go on a "hike" with the girls. We have been dying to try a little hike without Delaney crying-"pick me up!!" So on Canada day we took a walk in Minnekhada Park- it was great. We saw so many great sites. There were birds everywhere and I don't think that the girls even noticed that they were walking! When we got to the lodge it was open and we got to go inside- what a great piece of history in our back yard. We are so looking forward to more hikes...

Baby Finley

Yahoo! My new nephew is here. He arrived after 3 hours of labour on Friday afternoon and I am so happy. He is perfect. Willa got to spend the whole of Friday and Saturday with us too- which was great. She has no idea what is in store for her and she wasn't too impressed by baby Finley at the hospital.
We are happy though- there grows the family!

In the Pink!

I am a bit late with the pink week!
These are photos from our weekend on the Sunshine Coast with friends and family. What a great house to get away to. The kids always have so much fun together, it hard to think that they have all know each other for their whole lives! They don't see each other as often as we would like, but when the kids do get together it is like they were never apart.

Cute as a button

My nephew is as cute as a button and I realise that I don't take enough photos of the girls and their cousins. So that is my goal this month. As there is a new baby boy due in the next few weeks it seems like a great month for cousin photos. That is my goal and we will try and stick to it.
I realise as I scrap that I take photos of the same events and the costumes, weather, age and sometimes locations change from year to year. BUT overall the same photos. I have to step out of that box and start taking photos of the little everyday things that in a few years will not be everyday. For example the girls love all their stuffy animals and play for hours on end with them- I need to snap some of those moments. Or the fact that miss Delaney NEVER wears what I put out for her each day and proceeds to dress herself in the worst possible combinations. She needs a badge- I dressed myself today! Anyway watch this blog for cousin photos!