5th Birthday Party

My girls celebrated their 5th birthday party this afternoon. I tell you this weekend is jam packed with fun stuff. They were so excited when they woke up this morning that the first thing they did was bring the loot bags for the party that I had assembled upstairs downstairs ready to go out of the house. Bouncing off the walls excited from 7:30am! I made them lie down and take a quick nap after lunch so that they wouldn't burn out this afternoon. We had the party at a gymnasium where the kids could run run run and have fun.

The girls loved their cake. It was kind of like a marble cake inside. Bonus, they get to keep the barbies :)

Thanks to all the mamas there that helped me with the party. I was losing steam by the end of it. Thank goodness for good friends to step up and help with all the birthday activities.

I don't want the birthday parties to be all about presents so whenever I talked about the upcoming party I kept focusing on having fun with their friends and sharing food and cake. But when I came home and asked both girls what their favorite part of the party was they both answered...OPENING PRESENTS! Jeesh... so much for trying to turn the focus away from gifts. The girls had such a terrific day and were very lucky to have shared it with their friends.

Fun Day

Today was Fun Day! The last get together for music class. The girls have been looking forward to this all month...ever since their teacher told them about it. It was done outdoors and it was really put together well for the kids. The girls were in the car, with their seatbelts done up by themselves, waiting for me to come out, half an hour earlier than we had to be there. This never happens. I'm usually rushing them along to hurry up so we won't be late getting out of the house. They were that excited.

They went 'fishing' in the hottub.

They played parachute games. Me running under the parachute and squatting was just totally wrong with my huge belly BTW.

A little croquet was played by these sweet girls in their summer dresses.

To wrap it all up all the kids played once more at the keyboard for everyone who attended and got their certificates for all their yearlong hardwork. They were very proud AND happy. Oh and I forgot to mention their favorite part of the day, ice cream, pink lemonade and cookies.

Spring Planting

Shalane's Wedding

Shalane & Phil got married today and we all had so much fun. The girls LOVED everything about it. The church part where they exchanged vows, when they kissed, when they got to blow bubbles as the couple left the church. Everything. They thought Shalane looked like a princess, kept talking about her dress, were wowed with her cake, was entranced as they watched Shalane have the first dance with her husband, then her dad and then her stepdad. They laughed when they saw the garter toss and then they boogied their little bumbs until 10pm. When they got in the car they asked if they could go to another wedding soon. Fun, Fun, Fun!

Quick Trip to Vancouver

Looks like Baby Sophia might be coming a few weeks earlier than planned. Yahoo! We are looking at June 10th to be the big day which makes me happy because it is so soon but also makes me freak out because there is only a few weeks to 'nest' and make everything ready. So the whole family went for a quick trip to Vancouver to enjoy the last few weeks of being a family of four. When I think of our family expanding to five I feel very blessed and overwhelmed.
So what did we do in Vancouver? Well, Papa took the girls to the aquariam and they all had a great time. And while they were there, I leisurely strolled along Robson street and relaxed at our hotel room. Then we met up for a scrumptious Thai lunch. No pictures of that lunch but I did take pictures of my beloved Black Bean Crab that I got to enjoy one more time during this pregnancy. But the best part was enjoying this meal with my family. Papa had to work double time cracking open the crab legs to keep up with Alex's demands for more and more crab meat.

We also had Korean food one night. So yummy. The girls ate so much it was scary. We also had Dim Sum one morning...so basically it was an all out Asian Food Fest this past weekend. We just love eating out in Vancouver.
The bottom picture is of BimBimBap which is basically rice in a hot clay pot, topped with seasoned veggies and a raw egg that cooks with the heat of the clay pot. It was so delicious for a pregnant mama.
And I just have to add a tidbit of my emotional and mental state. Basically I feel huge at this stage and I have resorted to buying one litre milk to avoid having to carry the heavier 2 or 4 litre containers. And as you can see, I can't remember if we have enough milk at home so each time I'm at the grocery store I keep buying more. Jeesh...my mind is like mush I tell you.

Today at Safeway, I went to the Deli counter to get some grilled veggies and noticed in horror that there wasn't any there. I NEED my grilled veggie sandwiches at lunch! The lady reassured me that everything was fine and that they had moved the grilled veggies to a self serve counter. Phew! So I'm happily filling a container full of veggies when I clumsily knock over the whole oily gooey veggie mess onto the counter, the floor and me. I felt like crying. Once I got past that whole hormonal scenario and I was back in the parking lot loading up the car, I dropped my quarter for the cart on the ground. And just that one extra effort of bending down with my huge belly to pick up that damn quarter made me feel like crying again. How crazy are these hormones? One more month....tick tick tick....

Shalane's Bridal Shower

We all had such a great time at Shalane's wedding shower yesterday afternoon. We couldn't have had better weather. It was lovely outside and we sat on the deck and drank and ate delicious food and chatted and laughed. Thanks Sha! The girls and I are so excited for your big day later on this month. Can't wait to boogie the night away at your wedding.

Rules for Papa

This is the first Part in the series of 'Rules for Papa' written up by Rachel and Alex.
1) Put down toilet seat. (pretty self-explanatory - Girls don't like going into the washroom and seeing the toilet seat up Papa!)
2) No showing his underwear. He's always telling the girls not to show their panties to anyone but they wonder why he walks around the house in his undies. Fair enough.
3) Pick up Socks. Yeah man...they are stinky and we don't want to see them by the coffee table.
4) Don't leave newspaper in bathroom.
5) No lying on top of Tobi. You are too heavy and he doesn't like it.
6) Share your office. Papa is always telling them not to touch the paper in the printer, etc... but how else will we get paper to write down Rules for Papa?
7) No more Papa Juice. Papa Juice being wine that is. If you make us drink water then you drink water with us. Fair, right?

All these rules (except for rule 7 which Shannon helped us with) were thought up and written by Rachel and Alex. We are going to post them for Papa to see when he gets home from work. Don't feel too sorry for him though, he is the master at making up rules for the girls to follow in the house so they are just giving him a little taste of his own medicine.
Poor Papa... surrounded by women all day long at work and then more women when he gets home from work. No wonder he wants to lie down with Tobi and bond...the only other male in the house.