National Holidays - Ours and Theirs

Living where we do, we took the opportunity today to enjoy some Fourth of July spirit. Our Canada Day was depressingly un-summer-like and meant we missed our usual trip to the Ladner Canada Day Pancake Breakfast. I think we were all bummed out by this more than we thought we'd be. The weather this year has been HORRIBLE! We'll get one nice day and you sigh, and think "ah, finally summer has arrived!" and then the next day is cold and rainy. YUCK!! So when Greg read about a parade happening today in Point Roberts which is a 15 minute drive away (on the South side of Tsawwassen) we decided to check it out. We'd never been to Point Roberts before so it was an adventure for us all!

But before I get into that, let me share some pictures from our OWN national holiday - Canada Day ...

Like I said, the breakfast was a wash out this year. Cold + rain = no fun sitting outside with 3 small children eating pancakes and sausages. Not even the memories of past Birthday cakes topped with fresh local strawberries in the design of the Canada Flag could entice us out into the damp! The day did dry out enough by the afternoon to make sitting outside at our friends the Symons tolerable. They were gracious enough to host the old Apocolypse Cows crew for a BBQ. (FYI - Apocolypse Cows is our old Ultimate Frisbee team!) As seems to happen at Cow get togethers now, it turns into a Kid Fest. We've all (mostly - Greg and Steve are desperately hanging on to their glory days) given up playing ultimate in favour of chasing after our many kids. It's a whole lot of fun, noise and brightly coloured toys!!

I didn't get pictures of them all but here are a few of the gang ...

The set up ...

... bouncing Sophie ...

... shy Charlie with Dad Dave and stiffly smiling Richard ...

... Sadie and her tongue (love it!) ...

... goofy Andrew and long suffering Jonina ...

... ah, THAT'S better!

... bike riding LC and bouncy toy chewing Sadie ...

... and what's a Canada Day party without a little street hockey?!

Last but most certainly not least, BBQer Steve!

So that was our Canada Day. Also, coincidentally it was Heather's 40th birthday but the sneaky gal didn't tell a soul!! Steve and the boys got her a nice birthday cake though which we all got to enjoy.

Now for today ...

Waiting for the parade to start.

Greg and LC.

The theme was The Oscars which for some reason meant there were a lot of hot dog related entries!

Not too sure what the casual shirts and Jamaica hats with dreds thing was all about but their bagpipes said Delta Police Band so I'm thinking ... pipers on holiday?

Did I mention there were a lot of hot dogs in this parade?

Now who or what could Fearless Marley and Fraidy Cat Paige be hiding from?

Him ...

... and him.

No really. They are (for reasons totally unknown and extremely frustrating) terrified of Chinese Dragons and Lions. Guess we're not going to any Chinatown Chinese New Year Parade any time soon!!

LC on the other hand was not afraid. Good girl! Have a lollipop! Or two!

Apparantly we should have brought their Easter Baskets to carry home the candy haul!

Marley has gotten very agressive when it comes to scrambling for candy now. I think she even took some from in front of the two kids next to us! Sheesh!! Where does she learn this stuff from?!

Paige's haul was more modest - mostly because she was too afraid to leave her seat much!

Well, that was it. We went for a little wander after the parade ended then had lunch at a local place and headed home. Point Roberts is a really pretty seaside town that I look forward to returning to. Maybe we can make this parade an annual outing. The girls would love that!

No Scrapping, just Family Updates

I've been lousy on posting updates on the family lately so prepare yourself for a barrage of photos and info!

First up, May 9th 2010 - Mother's Day (not that there were any pictures taken of me and the girls - grr!) and The Vancouver Sun Run. Greg and Marley did the Kids MiniRun (as did Auntie Jonina and cousin Matthew) while Uncle Andrew and I ran the full 10K.

May 29th, 2010 - Cousin Jasper turned 4 but my camera battery died early on so there are basically no pictures of the event. Sorry Jasper!!

May 30th, 2010 - Ladner May Days and the annual Fair and Parade. Paige's preschool has been in the parade every year since it's inception (the preschools' not the parades') so we have the covetted 1st position behind the dignitaries and the fire truck! Marley joined in (feeling nostalgic in her big Kindergarten way) and helped carry the Li'l Rascals banner. Paige was only convinced to walk in the parade if our teacher Kari held her hand the entire way (you can't actually see her in any picture that Greg took.) Once things got going though I caught her waving at the crowds! So cute. Greg took the girls to the fair before and after the parade while LC napped. Marley of course burned through her tickets in no time (she was even tall enough - in her runners - to ride the bumper cars all by herself) and Paige got brave enough eventually to enjoy some rides.

June 13th, 2010 - Cousin Sophie celebrated her 4th birthday with butterfly face painting, nutella crepes and pin the antenae on the butterfly. Paige and Marley kept Uncle Andew busy with the face painting! Cousin Matthew wanted a scary face - I think he succeeded!

June 15th, 2010 - Paige's preschool went on a field trip to a local stable (one of the Mom's works there.) Paige was (get ready to be shocked) the ONLY child to not ride the pony. See, I told you you'd be shocked! NOT!!! ... sigh ... When will she decide to be brave? When?!?! She was all ready to go, in her helmet and everything, and then she saw the HUGE horse (read: small pony) we expected her to ride and she freaked. Then, even though LC was in no danger and was actually doing very well on her own, Paige took it upon herself to protect her baby sister from another scary beast (read: miniature pony). LOL! Paige's friend Sarah was brave enough to go for a ride but not even that could convince Paige to get on the pony. Not even to have her picture taken. Not that that would be much incentive, I admit!

June 16th, 2010 - Marley's kindergarten class had their annual Kindergarten Family Picnic. Marley's friends' oldest brother Ryan spent most of the time pushing about 30 4-6 year olds around on the merry go round. What a trooper! Also, LC discovered popcorn - and how to make a mess with it! Later that day we were at the preschool for the annual Family BBQ which this time was dedicated to our teacher Mary who decided to retire this year. She will be missed!

You know, if I DO fail my Directed Studies it's not too surprising! I've been a busy Mom!!!

June 29th, 2010 - Post Directed Studies (phew!) Marley "graduated" from kindergarten. It was pretty cute. They were matched up with a Grade 7 (really it was all about them not the kindergarteners) and as each Grade 7 name was read out, a kindergartener went up and gave them a flower. In return they got a pencil (passing of the baton so to speak) and then walked hand in hand out of the gym. Afterwards I took a picture of her with her teacher - check out the comparison from her first day in September. She's growing up so fast!!

  

Well, that rounds out May and June - the 2 months I wasn't really blogging because I was TRYING to focus on my project. Ha! I'll post about Canada Day and Independence Day in another post. This one is WAY too long already!

Sketchy Thursday - Parks and Bunnies

Sketchy Thursday challenged everyone to a double page layout (my personal favourite kind of layout!) and since I'm all PDS (Post Directed Studies) and stress free (sort of) I took on the challenge. Here is my two-page layout :

Yes, I'm still working on Marley's baby album ...

These pics were taken in Victoria when we took Marley there for a long weekend in November 2004. Greg's parents live near the University of Victoria which is completely over run by bunnies - the bane of most residents and the delight of my daughters!! Here Marley got her first taste of chasing the bunnies! There are also pictures of her at the play area at Beacon Hill Park. The ones of her in the train are just too cute!!

The sketch shows circles in the lower left and upper right which I didn't notice until I'd started putting everything together. So I decided to draw them in. I quite like the effect. I kept the embellishments simple this time and in fact used fewer than is shown in the sketch. But I felt the paper was so busy that I wanted to keep the rest of the layout pretty simple.

Well that's all for now. We are off to Point Roberts to watch a 4th of July Parade! Happy Birthday USA!

Supplies: cardstock from DCWV Neutrals stack; all patterned paper from MME glittered paper stack; white photo matte is from BG basics white; journalling lines is a Studio Calico stamp and I used chocolate brown ink from Craft Smart; ribbon is Celebrate It from Michael's and the alphas are Recollections in bittersweet.

Giveaway over at All Scrapbook Steals

Check out THIS awesome giveaway! It's at All Scrapbook Steals and closes July 10th. Good luck!

Got MY Groove On!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!!

Okay, now that's out of the way I can show you my latest completed pages. It's amazing what you can accomplish when the whole country's on holiday, the weather outside is frightful (read; early spring-like cold and rain. where, oh where is SUMMER?!?!), and you don't have any stressful classes keeping you from your scrap table. So far in my PDS (Post Directed Studies) state I have completed 3 layouts! Wowee!

This first one is for the latest Design Dollies Colour Challenge - dark green, light green, kraft and pink. Such a cute combo, how could I refuse?! I've been itching to try another Dollies challenge again so I'm really glad I was able to.

I am still completing pages for Marley's baby album (she's now "graduated" from Kindergarten ... do you think I'll mange to finish her album before she graduates Elementary School?!) All my kids were born with a full head of dark, dark hair so first haircuts came pretty early in their lives. Marley was a trooper and even let me cut her bangs somewhat straight!!

Materials used: kraft paper - Jiilibean Soup - Split Pea; dark green paper - Jillibean Soup Liced Bacon; light green paper - from my stash; pink butterfly paper - SEI - Chocolate Cherie; flower and button embellishment - from my stash; green metallic alphas - Thickers by American Crafts in Tinsel.

This next page was started before I started my Directed Studies and was for a challenge but since I had to set it aside before I totally finished it, I now can't remember which challenge it was for or what products I used. Sorry. You'll just have to enjoy it for what it is!! I DO love this colour combination though, don't you?

Marley started walking at about 11.5 months but before that she was ALWAYS moving. Once she started to crawl I couldn't get her to stay in one place! Here she is at about 8 months old cruising on the furniture.

Well, thanks again for stopping by to check out my humble blog. We are off to a Canada Day BBQ - let's hope the rain stays away! Happy Long Weekend Everyone!