And then there were three...

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Parade of Lost Souls...

On the Saturday night before each Halloween, we head out to enjoy one of East Vancouvers many festivals... The Parade of Lost Souls. There is a secret route selected through a secret East Van community and only the home-owners along that route are told that they will be part of the route. The starting point and starting time is only revealed on the festival website on the day of the parade. Followers goes to the starting point during the designated time and are given a map to tell them the route to follow through the lanes and streets of the community. We were in awe of how involved the decorations were! Almost every house was done up with art displays, puppet shows, live bands, stilt walkers, bug plays, dancing, smoke, spooky music and so much more. Pictures don't come close to doing it justice! It was a wonderful event! This year, Todd & Karin joined us with their family. We had so much fun but left before finishing the parade, after 1.5 hours, as the kids were getting really hungry. 1.5 hours and we weren't done!!

Sunday, October 30, 2011

Pumpkin time...

Spelling COW...

Maya has been reading since she was about 2 1/2 and can read by sight or by memory more than a dozen words. While walking to/from school, the skytrain, sushi night, etc we practice by reading licence plates, door signs, street signs or whatever we may come across. One day, we were walking down Commercial Drive and I was asking her What 'd-o-g' spells, What 'c-a-t' spells. What 'e-r-i-n-n' spells, and so on. Then, I get around to What does 'm-o-m-m-y' spell? She blurts out COW! I start laughing so hard that I'm crying. She starts laughing because I'm laughing but clearly doesn't know what's so funny. A woman who had been walking in front of us turns around slightly with a confused smile and asked 'did she just say what I think she said'?. Laughing harder now, I reply 'Yup...And if she was a few years older, I might have been offended by that response'. She's now laughing hard, I'm laughing hard, Maya's laughing hard and I had the best moment of my day...

What a silly pair we are...

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Pumpkins...

Last year, we ended up at a pumpkin farm almost by accident. This year, we made a point of going back and had a great day for it. Maya HAD to wear her pumpkin costume which fitted the whole mood. Pumpkin fields, petting zoos, baby animals, popped corn, plus fabulous weather and fun friends made for a great day!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Catching up...

One of the many things that I needed to catch up on post-training was time with my peeps. We've had many play dates with whole families that have been great. The guys have had their boys weekends 2-3 times a year but the ladies haven't managed to get away, sans kids, for some time. Well, 4 of us managed to get away from our fur babies & flesh babies last weekend and took off to Seattle for some estrogen filled fun and shopping. We had such a great time that we're already talking about our next one! Here is the only family-rated photo I can show here...

Gymnastics...

Maya is naturally quite flexible and loves flipping, spinning, rolling, jumping, balancing, etc so we decided that she may have a natural inclination for gymnastics. The obvious next step was to sign her up for a class. She LOVES it!