The deck...

The 5-year mark in this house was reached in February and it gave me a bad case of the reno-itchies.  I'd only planned on staying in this house for 5 years but with the market the way it is, and my not having an income, we decided we couldn't afford a new house quite yet.  So, I felt compelled to fix this one up a bit.  Luckily, I didn't go too overboard with it...

With guidance from a staging & colour consultant, I made some cosmetic changes around the house, adding/changing accent pieces, plants, picture arrangements, furniture arrangements, etc. 
-We dismantled the guest bedroom and moved our office upstairs so we could work together, spread out a bit more and get access to sunshine
-I hired some millwork guys to build us a closet for the main bedroom (it looks great!),
-I bought an enclosed cabinet for the bedroom to hide my shoes/boots/purses/sweaters :-)
-I had the Laurel hedges removed from the back yard & had a new middle-deck constructed with a privacy lattice screen,
-I had some concrete work done out at the front, public sidewalk
-I bought a new dining room set
-I've been purging a lot of big items that we no longer use (many of which are Maya's unused toys, strollers, tricycles, scooters, etc)

Work to be done this year
-new furniture for our new deck
-dismantle the main floor bathroom, remove carpet, repaint room, install vinyl floor in simulated bamboo/reed pattern.
-repaint dining room
-repair/repaint door frames in bedrooms

Work to be done next year
-new kitchen counter-tops (ideally, I'd like to replace the whole kitchen but I don't think it would be worth it)
-new fences around the whole property (they're old & rotten)

Sadly, the reno-itch for this house has begun to spill over in to the other house and now we're considering replacing the kitchen & bathroom in the upstairs suite next year.  It's going to be an expensive couple of years....

  

          

     

 

Trail-a-bike...

Maya's best-buddy, Lucas, often comes to school on a trail-a-bike.  Since first seeing him on it, Maya now becomes extremely excited any time she sees one.  Excited, as in, screaming 'trail-a-bike! trail-a-bike!' multiple times a day and making us deaf.  We started to get the idea that she might be ready for one herself.  So, I trolled Craigslist and found one with the specs I needed. 

The smallest trail-a-bike was still a bit big for our tiny girl but we tried it out anyway.  We did a few practice laps up and down the lane to let her get the hang of the wobbly feeling.  In no time, she got the hang of it and now she's hooked!!!  Goodbye stroller.  Goodbye bike trailer.  Goodbye tricycle.  She doesn't want anything but the trail-a-bike....

The end of JK2...

The end of June brought about the end of Maya's first year in 'school'.  She finished JK2 and was very excited to be moving on to JK3.  Although she'll miss her teacher Ms Tam, she's very excited that her other teacher, Ms Choi, will be moving to JK3 with the class.  

First day of JK2



Last day of JK2

At the start of the year, our sweetie was 29 lbs and 37" tall. Now, she's 33lbs and 39" tall. She's grown so much!!  

It's hard to believe that in one year our baby will be starting Kindergarten.....

May days...

May is a busy month for celebrations.  Springtime must bring that out in people.  There were wedding anniversaries for: Charmaine & Maurizio, Lynda & Marc, Laurent & Nicole and Trudy & Stuart.

and birthday celebrations for: Megan G, Glenn, Olethia, Susan V, her son Nathan V, Bryan, Allison, our Maya, her boyfriend Nathan V and Molly.

Luckily, June is rather quiet so I can take a break from all of that shopping (for other people, of course)!

2 wheels...

Taking a risk, I suggested Maya try out her 2-wheeler bike again this past weekend.  She's been too afraid to try it in the past but seemed open to the idea this time.  With a brief time of reinforcement & reassurance, something clicked for her and she was off...  Stopping is a bit of a challenge, and she needs the training wheels, but she can really go!  She was even standing during hill-climbs. 

John made some comment about Olympics 2024 but we'll let that go for now...

Anniversaries...

May 18 was the day our daughter met her new parents. 
May 19 was the day we signed the papers to become her parents PLUS it is her birthday. 
May 20 was her Abandonment day PLUS the day she received her Canadian Citizenship. 

That's an intense 3 days of very powerful positive and negative anniversaries for our lovely little girl...

Mothers Day...

Once Maya's birthday party was all cleaned up, I declared the start of my extended Mothers Day.  For the next 36 hours I was not going to do ANYTHING.  No cooking, No cleaning, No decisions, No picking up, No nuthin'...

John and Maya stepped up nicely and took over most things (they kinda had to if they were going to eat though...)  We went for a long bike-ride, had a picnic (birthday party left-overs), wandered around Granville Island, lazed around on the deck in the hot sun and BBQ'd for dinner.  I didn't have to do anything but relax, play with Maya & be fed, wine'd, and pampered...

I could get used to this...