Happy Birthday Beans...

That's what we call her!  Olivia's nickname has always been 'bean'.  It started out as Livi-Bean, sometimes it's Beanie, and sometimes just plain 'Beans'.  We love this darlin'.  She's a sweetie by nature.  Gentle like her Daddy, quick to love, slow to anger.  She's creative and generous, has a love for magic tricks and crafts.  She's entering that pre-teen phase already.  I see her maturing in so many ways.  She's getting just a 'little' more stubborn;)
Today we celebrate her 11th Birthday.  We're still on holidays, but she's still being celebrated.  Beansie..you're the best!  We luv ya!

Recital...

Another year has wrapped up for Piano lessons.  This was our last year with 'Miss Charity'.  Charity has been a wonderful teacher.  Very patient, kind and nurturing towards Olivia.  We appreciated the life skills she built into Olivia along with the musical knowledge.  Olivia's recital theme was 'Beach Party'.  It was a fun evening with good music, good food and fun visiting with fellow piano families.  Olivia played the piano piece titled 'Chimes'.  She did a great job!  We are proud of you Livi!  Keep up the hard work!  Music is a wonderful part of life!

The Kids & Christmas...

I hand-made a lot of my Christmas gifts this year.  I managed to get everything done ahead of schedule, no all nighters were involved.  I'll post a little more on those projects soon, but my point is, I didn't have a whole lot of time before Christmas to post about all the going ons that we attended. Here's a quick catch up of things the kids were involved in over Christmas.  I already posted about the school Christmas sing a long, but here's a few more.

The children's Christmas program at church was as cute as ever. The uncles came out to see the event. (Rob had to haul Isaac off the stage part way through...for obvious 'parent of a 2 year old' reasons):

Olivia had her Piano Christmas Concert. She played jingle bells and it sounded great!

And the kids helped us out with a few songs on Christmas Eve.  They rang the bells for us while we sang 'Come on Ring those Bells' and they helped us out on kazoos  for the

oh so memorable rendition of 'Mary's Boy Child'. 

All in all a wonderful Christmas Season with a some wonderful memories made!

Double Digits...

Our sweet 'little' Livi-Bean officially turned double digits this year!  Hard to believe that we're here already.  I remember so well being blessed with this baby.  She will always be cherished.  Enough mush...on to the party!  Well, if you read my earlier posts you'll know that we were in Oregon during her actual Birthday.  Being that she's a late summer baby, it's hard to get friends to attend her party.  Lots of people are still on vacation and unable to come.  We've tried doing it in June, before the school year lets out, we've tried just church friends, we've done small parties, we've done it all.  This year we waited until school was back in and had a very well attended party!  There were 4 friends that couldn't make, but 7 that could!  Livi and I talked about where she wanted her party, when, and what theme.  She remembered her cousins, Emily & Julianna, having a movie-night themed party and decided that's the theme she wanted.  I was so proud of Olivia.  She did all the decorating and most of the prep work.  She made my job easy, especially when she requested vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing.  Here I thought I was going to have to make a movie reel shaped cake! (don't think I didn't google it people!) 
We started by stamping 80 'tickets' to divide amongst the girls.  When each girl arrived, in her pj's as requested, she received a bag of tickets.  From there on in they had to use their tickets to 'buy' their movie, pizza, concession and b-day cake.  I joked with them that they'd better save tickets in case they needed to use the bathroom.
The party was a roaring success.  The girls loved the decor, the theme, the slide-across-the-floor-in-your-sleeping-bag-eat-a-marshmallow-and-slide-back game that we played.  Olivia chose Camp Rock 2 for her movie selection.  The girls watched half the movie, then had an 'intermission' to play games, eat cake and open gifts, then the concession stand opened and they went back to the movies.  The second half of the movie turned into an impromptu dance party.  Yes, it's true, I had to use all my restraint not to join in and show them how it's done.  I need to maintain my 'cool mom' status and that would've blown it.
All in all a great evening.  No, no sleepover.  I'm just not that brave yet.  Wishing you a wonderful year ahead Olivia, you are such a ray of sunshine in this home!
P.S...just so it's on record Livi, we measured you the other day, and as of your 10th birthday you are officially 4'11". Unbelievable.

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.

You know you're a bad tooth fairy when...

...you find this note on your pillow before you go to bed...

Such a Sweet, Sweet Heart...

That's our Olivia. Olivia has always been such a sweet girl. She's soft spoken, gentle in nature and such a helper. I don't know what I'd do without her. She's creative and artsy, curious and clever, sensitive, and at times stubborn, but most of all, a beloved daughter. Rob and I were so pleased to get a call from Olivia's teacher a couple of weeks ago telling us that Olivia would be the recipient of a Student Of the Month Award. Olivia attends a traditional school. People always ask what this means...I describe King Traditional as a school that puts equal emphasis on morals and academics. The staff are committed to quality academic time and are able to carry it out by emphasizing respect and responsibility with the children. The kids are taught to be respectful of each other and their 'elders'. We personally chose King Traditional because we felt it was very much in line with what we want to teach our children here in our home. Each month the school focuses on a virtue of the month. It could be responsibility, justice, etc. The virtue of the month for December was kindness. The class is open to write out nominations of who they think is deserving of the award and they have to give a reason why. Olivia received several nominations for the award by fellow classmates. She received a prize, a picture with fellow award students, and a lovely card from her teacher, along with the written nominations from her peers. It was so special to see her receive an award and a commendation by her teacher. Way to go Olivia, we are so proud of you!

FLYGIRL

We feel pretty lucky to have a pilot in our family! Rob's brother, Ken, is fanatic about airplanes...has been ever since he was a little guy. It's only natural that he obtained a pilots license after eating, breathing and living planes for so long. Rob and I have been up with him and had a great time. Ken was looking forward to the day that Livi expressed an interest in being ready to 'take to the skies'. This was the year for Olivia! She wanted to go to the Abbotsford Airshow and said that she'd also like to head up with Uncle Ken for a flight and he was happy to oblige! Last night was the big night. She was super excited and just a little nervous. She got her own headset and watched as Uncle Ken did his pre-flight checks and rolled the plane out of the hanger. Once she was settled in the plane, Rob and I were 'escorted' out of the hanger area and headed to the tarmac to watch her take off. We even got a wave from the plane as it glided off the runway! Ken took her up over Cultus Lake, over the flats and followed the Fraser River back and over our house. Olivia enjoyed it a lot and says her favorite part was the 'fly-bys'. This is where Uncle Ken prepares to come in for a landing but then pulls up and heads back out again...he did 2 of these for her! It was great to hang out at the airport and wait for her to land and tell us what she thought. I think she'll definitely want to go again soon! Thanks Uncle Ken...you are THE coolest Uncle!