The Ladies Who Lunch decided to Supper...

So my 'ladies who lunch' group has had a great year of fun, trying out quaint restaurants, getting together to sew and quilt, but the one thing we've never done is get together as families.  Trying to arrange a bbq for this many people is no small feat.  We did quite a bit of corresponding before we could nail down a day but we did it!  The weather didn't cooperate fully, but we didn't let it dampen our spirits.  It was so funny to watch the FaceBook threads go on and on about who would bring what and were we having kids come etc, etc.  In the end, it was a lovely evening, with great food that everyone brought.  I even recieved a few hostess gifts that I'll share about in a later post:)  Thanks to our hubbies for braving an evening with all us crazy ladies!

Family Night...

We recently had some family from out of town come and visit us.  Rob's aunt Sue and cousin Tamara came and spent a lovely evening with us!  Theses gals are from the quaint town of St.Jacobs, Ontario.  In St.Jacobs you'll still find amish folk and old order mennonites with horses and buggies!  We've been to the east coast in the states to visit New England (which was AMAZING), but we've never been to our own East Coast.  One of these days we'll do it.  Rob and I are big advocates of travelling WITH our children.  We were able to do some travelling before we had kids, but now that we're in this phase of life, we want to enjoy trips that involve them.  That means staying a little more local and only getting away every now and then as a couple.  So, all of that to say, we would like to wait until the kids are a little older and then do a trip across Canada together.

We were very honoured to have these lovely ladies in our home for an evening.  They are real, genuine, kind-hearted gals who are so fun and easy to visit with.  They came over earlier in the day and helped me prepare all the fixin's for a greek dinner.  They played games with the kids, helped with dinner and after dinner we went for a walk to the park.  It was a wonderful evening of laughter and catching up on life.  Olivia was popular with her massage skills!  Tamara and I enjoyed discussing Jane Austen together!

Here's Isaac, in his chair, that he dragged out, ready for food...always ready

 for food!

Uncle Ken had to get in on the massage action too!

Love these girls and look forward to seeing them again soon!

My creative kiddo...

Livi is such a sweetie pie.  She's so thoughtful.  Always trying to think of gifts for others.  If she knows someone's coming over (which is, like, every day around here) then she immediately goes through her craft box and makes them a card or something else creative.  Livi wanted to make something special for our Japanese students before they left.  We had already given them a basket of goodies all representing Canada, but she wanted to do her own thing.  She asked for some specific felt colours so we went to the craft store and bought them....and this is what she came up with!  I was so impressed!!!  They were the cutest little pillows that our students were able to tuck in their suitcases to take home.  It makes me dream of days ahead when her and I could maybe quilt together or ???  I love this sweetheart and her creative side, but most of all I love that she's growing up with a heart for giving to others.

Pretty Boy...

OK...so hubby's gonna have somethin' to say about this post, but it's just too cute.  Isaac has always had a shoe fettish...shoes of any kind, 'blip blops' (flip flops) are his favorite, so we finally got him a 'manly' pair.  But he walked into the kitchen the other day with this headband on and I nearly snorted my milk out!  Yes, I know you wanted to know that.  Anyway...here's my pretty boy.  Even if it only lasted for a moment.  The point is, he's cute no matter what he does.  He desperately needs a hair cut but he's so darned ticklish that he won't sit still enough for a professional haircut...

 

Celebration of Light..

Every year there is a wonderful event that takes place in Vancouver.  It used to be called the 'Symphony of Fire', but for some reason, that I'm unaware of, it's now called 'Celebration of Light'.  My guess is that it has to do with sponsoriship or something.  It's a huge fireworks competition between different countries.  The fireworks and music are coordinated to put on a show like no other.  Once you've seen fireworks like this it's hard to go back!  The competition takes place on 4 different evenings over a 2 week span.  This makes it an event that draws hundreds of thousands of people.  There are people on the Kitsilano Side, English Bay, people in airplanes, high-rises, and boats.  But...it's CRAZY!!!  We decided to brave the crowds and head down with a group of friends for the grande finale night.  The country featured for the finale was China, although Spain won for overall show.  There were 4 famlies that went.  Everyone left their youngest children with sitters and we enjoyed a night out with the older kids.  The crowds are so insane that stollers are a nightmare to handle, besides the fact that you have to go hours early to get a spot for your blankets.  We headed into Vancouver around supper time and ended up getting home around 1 in the morning!  It was a great evening.  Crazy, but great.  We took Olivia and Abby and our two Japanese girls, Ririsa and Ayumi.  When I asked them what they thought of the show afterwards they replied, 'it was awesome!'.  This was a fun way to spend our last evening with our Japanese students. The police are out in full force, keeping things under control.  We heard that there were approximately 200,000 people there last night!  This is a long weekend here in B.C. too so I can't imagine how much more crazy it would have been if it wasn't!  We packed a picnic and hiked on down to the beach.  Half way through our wait we heard thunder...and then it POURED!  Big, heavy, raindrops fell on us for about 10 minutes. We all huddled under our blankets and got real cozy for a few minutes. Being true British Columbians we waited it out and settled right back in after it passed.  We visited, played cards, played on our phones, ate and laughed our way through 3 hours of waiting and then the show began!  I don't know how long it was, but it felt like about 1/2 hour of amazing fireworks.  Here's a few pics to share...although they aren't the greatest, they're all I took.  Enjoy. 

Sayanora...

This morning we said goodbye to some special girls who were our houseguests for the past week.  I mentioned Ririsa and Ayumi in my previous post.  We hope these girls had a good experience here in Canada and in our home.  We were able to do some fun things together.  We've been told in the past that these students are here to observe the life of a typical Canadian family.  For us this meant a week of regular things such as housework, cooking, yardwork, driving, relaxing and spending time together.  It also meant lots of entertaining, fun, and a few special outings.  This past Friday we were treated to a Sayanora Party where our students sang and danced for us, and expressed their appreciation to us for hosting them.  Here are a few random shots of our week with our students. Thank you for coming girls...we enjoyed having you stay with us..please come visit again!