Jessica's Wedding Pictures

Jessica & Joe had a lovely wedding on the shore of Jessica's family's cabin in Invermere, BC. (For those who don't know, that's FAR BC, new time zone BC.) It had been kind of lousy weather all week, but as Jessica's car pulled up, the heavens beamed and we had glorious sunshine for the ceremony.
Jessica was gorgeous!
Jessica & Joe's good friend, Bree, presided over the ceremony. I had no idea you could do that, but as long as the legal components are there, a Justice of the Peace can sign the paperwork. It's so much more personal that way!

The reception was a ROCKIN' good time! They had a keyboard, drum kit, and mikes set up on stage, and Jessica and various family and friends periodically got up to jam. They were good! My husband, Warren, who had not heard Jessica sing "real" music (ie: NOT Kindermusik) before was baffled that they weren't on the bar circuit singing professionally. Jessica wrote a song for Joe - I can't believe she made it through the song! I wish I had a video clip of it to post!! I've asked for someone to email it to me, so keep your eyes open...
That's Joe on the left on guitar. You can't miss the bride on lead vocals. And that's Paula, Jessica's sister (& bridesmaid) singing backup on the right.

Too cool. Thanks, Jessica, for inviting us to be part of your day!

Happy Pooh Day, Jacob!

It was a lovely day in the Hundred Acre Woods today (thank goodness!). Jacob turns 4 on Tuesday, so we had a few of his friends over for a Pooh Party. We flew kites and climbed honey trees, pinned the tail on Eeyore and ate vegetables from Rabbit's garden.


Where would Pooh be without his honeybees to make honey?

Childrun Photo

I finally found a photo of some of our Childrun racers! Thanks again for coming out!!

Where Does the Time Go?

I can hardly believe Piper is 8 months already! She's a busy girl, with not a lot of regard for sleep. Apparently, it's overrated.

She's started crawling, so it's time to do some more serious baby-proofing again (perhaps we'll set up a gate at the top of the stairs...).

Jacob just had his last day of preschool today. Sigh. Thanks goodness for summer camps! Have you signed up yet?

PS: The fall schedule is up too!

Peas in a Pod!

Fickle Feline

Our cat, Stoker (so named after the author of Dracula) loves to sleep with Piper. He is very patient with her, and lets her pull his fur out by the fistfull.
Having survived a year and a half with Jacob, Stoker is not so patient with him, and comes at him in full attack mode. Jacob loves finding the cat, chasing the cat, carrying the cat, and generally creating mahem for the poor beast. Sometimes, Stoker lands a good one in his own defence. This is Jacob showing me his play wounds.

When I Get Work Done

Jacob loves the bathtub, and will spend an hour in there if I let him.

It's usually not hard to convince him to take a bath while Piper is taking a nap, so if we're home for one of her naps, I get him in the bath and sit on the floor with my laptop.

Yesterday afternoon I spent an hour at Gleneagles Community Centre cutting 3' lengths of ribbons for my Music Box class while Jacob took a cooking class and Piper slept in the stroller. I got a few strange looks...

It's either that or late at night!

Get Cooking!

Cooking with little ones often means big messes, but it's lots of fun too. As a bonus, they are learning all kinds of things:
- COUNTING - 3 eggs
- FRACTIONS - one cup of flour, 1/2 a cup of milk, etc.
- SEQUENCING - first we put in the dry ingredients, then we add the wet, etc.
- FINE MOTOR SKILLS - cracking eggs, not spilling the flour when stirring, etc.
- PATIENCE - you might feel like it's an exercise in patience for you, but 18 minutes to bake a cookie seems like forever!

Jacob (3) cooks us dinner at least once every couple of weeks. His favourite is scrambled eggs & toast, but he regularly makes pancakes, cookies, banana bread, and muffins.

Tomorrow I will have him help me make butternut squash and pear puree for his little sister.

The Art of Minimalism

Can you believe people live in these apartments?
They are available for rent in Japan.
I think my dorm room at university was a little bigger than these...Can you imagine what their bylaws must be like? Whew! Pretty severe, I imagine!
I wonder if they come with a free session with a professional organizer?
Clearly, no children live here.

The Perils of Procrastination

For our Imagine That class on Saturday we were to make something that we might find in the city: a building, a person, an animal, etc.. We left our homework 'til Friday.

Jacob decided that he would like to make an ice cream cone (my pregnancy sweet tooth lingers on and I had taken the kids out for a cone earlier in the week). Little did I know, paper mache takes more than a few hours to harden up - especially when a 3 year old is in charge of the sloppy stuff. We tried using the hairdryer, but it didn't work.

So, we made a diorama of the aquarium instead. It's Jacob's favourite place to go in the city. A whole bunch of finger paint (and a second bath later), we have our project completed! (I didn't get the camera out in time. Today it is an empty blue box with holes on the top. It DID have aquatic creatures dangling on ribbons that one could pull up and down to make them swim. Clearly not child proof!)

Kate & Kiana brought their statues to class too. They were beautiful! Good job, girls!

PS: We used the hairdryer on the diorama too. Next time I'll look into the homework thing by Tuesday!

Finger Painting Gets Fancy!

It's cold and flu season, especially here in Vancouver apparently. Remember to keep your little ones at home if they're suffering from anything that oozes in technicolour. You are more than welcome to do make-ups during the semester at any age-appropriate class. Some classes are full, so make sure to call or email if you're coming to a make-up.

Here are some fun things to do with your hands if you find yourself at home with a whole lot of time. These pictures make me think of Zoo Train, one of my favourite Our Time camps! Have fun making all of the animal sounds with your little one.

Sharks, Turtles, & Octopi - Oh My!

Warren & I went scuba diving this morning. It felt great to get out there again - especially in the warm water!


White tip reef sharks lurking in the coral.


Lots of enormous turtles. Good news: they are no longer on the endangered species list, but they are still protected by State law.


A wonderful find! A little octopus that gave us quite a show!

And I was singing songs from Creatures at the Ocean the whole time!!!

Whale Watching

We've got some calmer weather, and so we went for a whale watching tour with The Pacific Whale Foundation. They have naturalists on board to explain all that you see (or don't see). We got lucky and had lots of breaching whales, some dolphins that came right up to the boat, and a bunch of sea turtles as we were coming back in.

Jacob liked the dolphins the best. Piper slept nearly the whole time on my lap in the bowels of the boat. Fortunatley, I've been on a few tours before, and didn't feel too left out.

Check out the site above, as there are lots of neat video clips of whales for little ones to watch with you.

Sorry for the lack of posts and photos. Poppa likes to use his camera (actually, it's Granna's), and we don't have the right plug to upload all of his amazing pictures! We'll try to use ours a little more regularly!

Aloha!

We arrived in Maui after a long flight. Piper & I met a lot of people while standing at the bathrooms. That will happen when you're there for 5 hours!

The weather has been stormy. Big waves have washed away the beach, and we've had quite a bit of rain. It should get nicer by Saturday. Today we'll hit the aquarium for a while.

Despite the rain, we still manage to exhaust ourselves by bedtime!

Can you imagine waking up to this face in the morning?

Best wishes for a Happy New Year!

Hope you don't wake up on the 1st feeling like this dog looks!

Newbies Needed

The folks at Revival Arts Studio are looking for a few tiny models to capture in their newborn innocence. They are developing new promos for 2007 and need some fresh babies to put on them. If you have a little bundle of joy under 5 weeks, give them a call. They will come to your place and you can relax while they artistically photograph your baby.

The session is on them and you’ll receive 15% off their regular product prices. Please pass the word on if you know someone who has a newborn.

604-864-6339
Email Revival Arts Studio

Jason has taken some beautiful shots of my babes, and his wife Darcie is a fabulous Kindermusik educator, although she has cut back substantially to help Jason out with his booming business.

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

I'm going to turn off the phone and run away from the computer for the next few days. We're escaping to our cabin up near Sun Peaks for the holidays, but will be back on the 27th to take all of your registrations!

Have a wonderful holiday season, and I look forward to seeing you all in the New Year!

Wrapping Paper & Bags

Jacob & I decided to make our own Christmas bags today. (OK, I decided and he went along with it.)


We tried using paint brushes, but hands were so much more effective for applying mass quantities of paint on paper.



The results! Later production runs tend towards various shades of brown, although I'm sure the recipients will still feel the love.

May the Bells Ring On!

Connor has been attending Kindermusik Village With Seniors classes since the summer. One of his favourite instruments are the baby bells. He loves them so much, his mom bought a couple to take home. Apparently, he wouldn't let them go - not even for his nap!

If you would like to have some instruments at home, I am happy to sell them to you. I have lots of Kindermusik eggs, baby bells, small scarves, chiquita shakers, and rhythm sticks. Just send me an email and I will get them to you asap!

Kindermusik Egg Shaker $4

Baby Bells $4

Small Scarves $3

Chiquita Shakers $4

Rhythm Sticks $3