Wednesday, August 8

She's leaving on a jet plane... A heading to the gate for her very first flight ALL BY HERSELF! On her way to CA to see Grampa and Gramma (we're joining her in two days)















I had to wait for the plane to actually depart before the gate people gave me the clearance to leave. She was so close yet so far!!

Tuesday, August 7

(Happy Birthday Lois!)















Another great neighborhood get together for National Night Out. We've got such a nice number of kids around here, the firemen who came to visit had a great time showing the kids all the tools and stuff on the fire truck.

Monday, August 6

(Happy Birthday, Byung!)















The kids really enjoyed taking tennis lessons, this was the last one...

Sunday, August 5

(Happy Birthday, Grampa!!)




















Oh, so *this* is why A couldn't ever fit her clothes in her bins when I told her to put her laundry away! We went through all of her clothes and this huge pile is all stuff that's too small! Make way for new school clothes... :)

July 31-August 4

The kids and I went to visit Opa and Oma in Vancouver for a few days--always a fun time.















We went to a fireworks display on the beach just down from their apartment. I love taking pictures of fireworks and making the camera shake a bit to get cool effects :)















After the fireworks walking back up the street to the apartment.















We visited our friend Cheryl and her family, finally got to meet her adorable little guy, Jack. What a cutie! Next time we see them Jack will have a little brother...















We went camping in my parents' RV one night, lots of bonding :)















The beautiful lake by our campsite.















Summer time!














Hanging around the campfire...




















Oma taught A how to knit, A was sooo excited about learning (she managed to do a whole row :).















A lovely walk together.















Mr. Independant















Heading back home... The wait at the border was way longer than I'd expected (see next picture), but the kids didn't care! They were perfectly comfortable watching a DVD...















The loooong line at the Peace Arch border crossing...















Goodbye Canada, hello USA...

Monday, July 30

Ahh, summer--ice-cream cones on a hot summer day with friends

Sunday, July 29

Evidently Darth Vader had a growth spurt!




















Poor kid, almost all of his pants are suddenly too short!!!

Saturday, July 28

After a long week of being a leader at Girl Scout camp I was so ready for this adults-only party in our neighborhood!!! Cheers!

July 24-27

...the rest of Girl Scout Day Camp week. Lots of fun and learning!






This was part of Rocket Science
(something about hot air?!?! ;)




















We had a really great Native American unit, here E is touching a porcupine fur--prickly!!




Bubbles! Always a good way to pass some time...















We went on some great hikes






















More of the Native American stuff. The guy teaching us this week actually carved these masks!








The Egg Drop...











One of the most fun traditions of GS Camp--each group puts together their own packaging around a raw egg then the firefighters drop the packages from the very top of a super high ladder truck. Our egg made it down safe and sound!




















Another favourite tradition--finding the mascot. We added the pink bikini when we found the mascot :)

Monday, July 23

Girl Scout Day Camp! The Pink Panthers.

I'm one of the leaders for A's group this year...




...so E gets to be part of the Boys' Unit.



Fun for everyone!

Sunday, July 22

Getting ready for Girl Scout Day Camp... decorating their 5 gallon buckets.

Saturday, July 21

I told you there'd be more garage pictures! The latest addition was this peg board right above AT's coffee roasting area. I use the tools and such more often than AT does (I'm such the dude ;) and have always wanted our tool box to be more organized. I thought some peg board would do the trick.

Meanwhile, while I was screwing the pegboard into the wall and hanging up tools, AT was cleaning the kitchen. We are so odd!

Friday, July 20

Can you tell what this is?

We did something extremely unusual for our family... The four of us went to a movie!! I can literally use one hand to count the number of times that the four of us have gone to a movie together. We went to Ratatouille and all loved it. I tried to snap a quick photo of Remi the Rat to prove that this unusual event had really happened ;)

Before and After

BEFORE














I'm finally ready to share the embarrassing BEFORE picture of the garage. Mind you, I should've taken a picture a few days before this when all this stuff was on random shelves and piles and our cars could still park in the garage. But here's an example of the total chaos and the pile of random random random in the garage as I began the Big Garage Organization Project...

AFTER














Ta Da!! Everything in it's place... Still a work in progress (I'm sure you'll see a few more garage pictures in the weeks to come b/c I've spent sooo much time working on this that I feel the need to share :), but look how organized! This was after 4 trips to Goodwill and 1 trip to the dump... We love the painted floor, it looks so nice and finished now.

All the shelves along the right wall are full of tubs and supplies for my new job, that was the inspiration for starting this grand project--I didn't know where on earth I was going to store all the craft stuff for my job...

Wednesday, July 18

We met some friends by the library at the mall for a cool Mad Science special performance thingie.















I ended up getting TPd!! I was the adult volunteer on this one, my friend's son held a roll of toilet paper on a stick while the Mad Science guy blew hot air at it to see what would happen... The kids thought it was hilarious watching me get attacked by a roll of toilet paper!

Tuesday, July 17

Fancy fancy!

The girls had a good time with A's random makeup... You might need to click on the photo to make it bigger--then you'll see the oh-so-natural shade of blue they used on their eyelids. Yikes ;)

Monday, July 16

What a guy!

Sunday, July 15

A came to work with me at the local fair all day Sunday. Some of our neighbor friends came and she had fun walking around with them for a while. Face painting, ice-cream, balloons... fun fun fun!















I just love her goofy tooth-less smile!! She loved helping me out at my booth at the fair, she did a great job of helping younger kids with the craft projects.

Good Times With The Cousins

The big kids very seriously checking out something on the computer.




















The "little" guy hanging out... What a Chunkster! He sure has come a long way since birth when he weighed just over 5lbs!! Such a happy Day.

Friday, July 19

A & E had a great time at VBS this week. The theme was Spy Kids so everything was about being a secret agent...















In the evening the cousins came over to spend the night (with the uncle and aunt)!