DAKOTAH'S BIRTHDAY

On Feb. 6 Dakotah turned 7...gosh the time has gone by quickly....she is so tall and is missing so many teeth now. She had two birthday parties this year because her birthday fell on Superbowl Sunday. On that day a family birthday was had at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Langley. Then this past Sunday she had her party with her friends and they all had a great time. Happy Birthday Dakotah!

 Can you tell she is mortified?  The waitresses singing Happy Birthday was not something she was happy to have happen!

 Jaime and the cake, their Mom spent most of the night before making this lovely cake for her.

                                                            The birthday girl herself.

                                             Some of the family

                                         some of the kids at the children's party

                                         Jaime at the cookie making station

                                                   One of the crafts they made was this guitar, the theme was rock stars. We helped the kids glue the strings on them with the glue gun but they choose the colors of string and decorated the rest how they wanted. Jaime loved his!

 This is one of Dakotah's oldest and dearest friends. She has known her since she was about 2. We met Ani and her mom at a playschool group and her mom and I used to sit side by side and hold the girls on our knees and do crafts with them. It was great fun. Despite the fact they go to different schools and live in different areas, they have a very strong bond still. Baby Kalani and his favorite activity(the balloons) is in the foreground.

 This was a store bought cake, there just was not enough time to organize and gather everything needed for the party for her mother to do another homemade one. this one was good too! Everyone had a lovely time and next it will be time for Jaime's, it has been hard for him to have to wait through Kalani's and now Dakotah's birthday, his turn next!

THE OLYMPICS ONE YEAR LATER.....

February 12 marks the one year anniversary of the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Many events are planned downtown Vancouver to celebrate the anniversary, however the monsoon like rains we have been having all winter are back again so it may be a damp party. Tonight we were at the mall and in The Bay which was the official store for all things Olympic during the games and although the design has been changed slightly, they are still selling some of the best sellers. I don't like the new red mittens as much as the official Olympic ones however they are still being sold and donating funds to Canadian Athletes so it is for a good cause. The little one laying accross the shelf below is my grandson, he couldn't resist the shelf, it was just his size!

KALANI'S FIRST BIRTHDAY

                        On January 9, 2011 Kalani turned one! Here are a few photos of his big day.

A CHRISTMAS LUNCH

 We had the great pleasure today of spending time with my niece Ana and her Mom and Gramma today. We hadn't seen her for quite awhile and she has really grown and we were so happy to find she is such a sweet little angel girl, so well behaved and so nice. Truly a joy to spend time with. My Mom, below was also just thrilled to be able to spend time with Ana. It was a lovely way to spend the afternoon! And the "I love You" Ana said as she was bundled up to leave was such a sweet way to end a precious afternoon! We love you too, princess!

AT LONG LAST, SPRING HAS ARRIVED!

This is actually pretty funny but I think spring finally arrived on the West coast! We have been having some nice stretches of awesome weather lately and today I was sure spring was here as it was actually warm outside! We are using these last bits of nice weather to hurry and get things done outside. Our new stairs in front now have 3 coats of stain on them, the side of our house that tends to be a mud pit all winter as the grass won't grow there is now a concrete jungle and I love it. And now I have spent two days painting outside...I can't believe I am painting outdoors in November and the paint is actually drying within a couple of hours and set by sunset. I would be truly happy if our weather stayed like this forever but I hear we are going to normal November weather at midnight Thursday so my outdoor fun is coming to an end. My rhododendron is blooming too but I can't find the pictures right now. Have a nice week and thanks for visiting my blog.

GOODBYE TO THE SUMMER OF 2010!

Well, it has been brought to my attention that I am not blogging lately....not sure what excuse to use...didn't feel like it maybe? So, to rectify and catch up, I will post a few pictures of a summer that just seem to have zipped by. I can't believe it is almost Halloween! Above is Myself, Leona and Loretta at our summer bbq.

If you come to our house, expect to work!! Just kidding...Loretta and Leona had professed a desire to use power tools so Pepa showed them how and let them learn how to work with power tools. Loretta loves that saw!

Leona under the palm tree..almost looks like she is having a holiday somewhere exotic instead of the back yard of my home on the west coast...

Helping to put the rails on the stair railing....our deck is finally complete! Yeahhhhh.....

The tables for dinner....and in the background, my Mother's Day Clock gift which I adore.

Pepa showing Leona how to use the tools.

The chef is cooking! Num...

Meanwhile at a table of their own some little Bleuette Scouts are anxiously awaiting dinner for themselves, Yvette Marie and Zoe brought their table and picnic basket to share with Madeline.

Madeline received a new sister from Hong Kong, She was very excited until she found out she has to share all her stuff with her....just kidding, she is a good sister.

August was a fun month as our little Bleuettes went to Admiral Scout camp that was organized by Admiral Claire and Tante Gael. A fun time was had by all and I will do a special post of this event one day soon...the month flew by doing camp stuff...what fun! Here Madeline shows off her uniform and badges...we now have badges the right size and need to get them cut out and put on properly!

Signaling the end to summer is always the Fair at the PNE...it means summer is nearly gone and back to school is around the corner. This year the Fair was turning 100 years old...WOW! The Province newspaper asked for submissions of your memories of the fair and I submitted two stories and was surprised when they published them both! I forgot and didn't buy the paper for the supplement however I was able to view them online on their website.

Got mini donuts??? This little llama at the local fair reacted every time anyone wiggled a mini donut bag...she had obviously sampled them at some point before..... She was very entertaining

my friend the cow at the fair.

Pepa found a new friend too...

We made a couple of trips to one of our favorite places, The Harrison Hot Springs resort. It was lovely!

The view across the lake. The weather wasn't great but the hot spring pools were awesome!

Lying in this pool at night is really relaxing. The sky is so dark you can see all the stars and constellations in the sky.

Some of the flowers around Harrison!

two of the three white dogs...one is busy checking out something else.

I took my mom out to Swiss Chalet...dinner was very good but she lives for dessert! Hence the smile on her face!

So tired she fell asleep in her dish...getting old is the pits, isn't it? I can relate...although so far I haven't fallen asleep on my dishes...

some of the flowers in my garden. They are still thriving!

My fuchsia tree did so well this year....it is a beautiful sight to behold.

My rhododendron thinks it is spring...it is blooming now in October.

My son has been doing a lot of crabbing this summer. He brought this home for his Dad the other day. I am allergic to seafood but both of them enjoy it

And that is all for now...thanks for stopping by and I will try to post more often....