Pre-school Graduation...

June 15, 2013

Our little one graduated from pre-school this year.  It's unbelievable that she's starting Kindergarten this fall.  How time flies....

At the beginning of the year, Maya was 40" inches tall & weighed 32 lbs.  Now, 10 months later, she's 42" tall & 35lbs.  She's growing!

Glass Blowing 2...

May 4-5, 2013
I decided to progress my glass blowing knowledge with another weekend class.  It's been almost a whole year since my last class so I quickly found out how much I DIDN'T remember about glass blowing.  There were only 2 students in the class so, in theory, we should have a lot of blowing time.  However, it wasn't quite what I thought it would be. 

The other student in the class was actually a GB assistant from a shop in the British Virgin Islands so was fairly experienced.  He was in Vancouver for 1 week only and wanted to see how things are done here with new glass (they use only recycled glass there).  Unfortunately, the skills he had learned there were from a self-taught blower so the instructor spent much of her time trying to UN-teach his bad habits.  I did learn a few new things, and I did get some time with glass, but only managed to make a few (wonky) pieces.  I still want to spend more time working glass but I think I'll try to find a weekly class instead of a crammed, intensive weekend one.

Here are my wonky creations... In case you can't tell, they are: 1 paper-weight (John's special request), 1 small bowl, 1 plate, 1 starfish and 1 mutant mini starfish-ish....

Reading her birthday card...

This is Maya reading her 5th birthday card from Gramma & Grampa...

5th Birthday Party...

May 19, 2013

Maya's 5th birthday was a multi-stage event and she was quite specific on what the day would look like.  Gotta love a girl that knows what she wants!

First, she wanted breakfast in bed.  In particular, chocolate chip pancakes covered with peanut butter and jelly & cut in to pizza wedges with a side of apple juice.  There wasn't a lot of wiggle room in that menu but it was her birthday so we happily indulged her.

Next, she wanted to open some presents from our families.  The highlights were the light-up Spiderman shoes, the Trouble game, the remote control car, the Beyblades & the watch.

Later, she chose to have her birthday party at the Rocky Mountain Flatbread restaurant.  The kids get to make & eat their own pizzas so it was a task & a treat all at the same time.  Because she was turning 5, she got to invite 5 friends from pre-school in addition to our regular gang of 5 kids.  There was a LOT of activity happening with these excited kids.

For her birthday cake, she wanted ice cream this year instead of a cupcake-cake.   I couldn't get the Spiderman cake but she didn't seem to mind.  The kids got pizza & ice cream - hard to beat that! The adults got nibbles & wine.  Everyone was happy!

Later, our regular gang got together on their deck for dinner & to open the presents from the birthday party.  What a haul!  Some really cool stuff from our friends & they all had fun playing with everything.  It was a great day.....