Party Time!

Rachael had her 7th (Yikes! 7 already!) birthday party a bit early this year. Her birthday's on Spring Break and at least four of her friends are going to be away then so we decided to celebrate early so everyone could come. Rachael had eight friends and family celbrate in a dino-mite way! We played dinosaur games like pin-the-horn-on-the-triceratops.

and "eat" (aka - pop) other people's (I mean dinosaur's) eggs (balloons) while keeping yours safe. We had a relay race where they had to wear dinosaur "feet" and carry talking eggs ("Hello, anyone out there, let me out, let me out!") on a spoon,

and a dinosaur version of duck-duck-goose where whoever was "it" got to make up the dinosaur names to say ("triceratops, triceratops, T-rex!)

Then we went upstairs for a Dinosaur egg hunt and then there were presents to open! Can't forget about presents! Then there were some hungry dinosaurs who wanted to eat! And of course, Auntie Kendra provided an amazing cake again!

Rachael wanted a dinosaur popping out of an Easter Egg (because her real birthday is so close to Easter this year). Thanks Auntie Kendra!

Science World

Since Darcy has been working so many weekends we decided to do something really fun this weekend. So we loaded up the kids in the car and drove to Metrotown. Then we hopped on SkyTrain and headed off to Science World. While we were there we saw the Dinosaurs Alive show at the Omnimax (dizzzzzzyyyy!) The girls loved it! Rachael got a little bit hungry so she found something to eat! Kaitlyn tested her grip. The girls love playing in boxes! Even at Science World! We also saw one of those little shows they put on - this one about toys. And Rachael got to be a special helper! They were making a pop bottle into a rocket. Rachael got to use a bicycle pump to pump air into the bottle, and then another boy pulled the trigger and it launched in the air a few feet. Then they added some water to the bottle, pumped more air into it and sent it flying. This time it went all the way to the second floor! Very cool. And right then is when the camera batteries died, but at least I got lots of pictures! The girls had a blast and Rachael is looking forward to going again with her class after spring break.

It's Summer!

Well, it's Sunny, anyway. Maybe the mercury needs to rise a bit more to make it officially summer, but after a long cold winter, we're ready for it! Kaitlyn is out walking her puppy to the new house. What a good dog! If only all dogs were that easy to take care of...

We're having a summer meal for supper tonight - barbequed hamburgers, potato salad, carrot sticks, jello and lemonade! Mmmmm!

Kaitlyn's Quip

Yesterday we were driving home from my Mom's birthday party. We were on a hill and could see the lights of Mission. Kaitlyn had a good view of them because we were in the truck and her chair goes in the middle seat so she had a good view out the front window. She said something like, "Hey, those lights look like stars lining up to get ice cream!" Twas very cute.

Random Acts of Kindness

Last June we went and handed out flowers to some seniors' homes in town and the residents enjoyed it so much we thought we'd do it again.

Our Life Group from church went to an assisted living place and handed out an early Valentine's day present. We thought lots of the people there may have lost loved ones and so we thought we'd brighten their day.

The girls had a blast and the seniors loved seing the kids.

Hot Wheels

No, not little matchbox cars, but Darcy did get a new toy. The old rusty van was dying - needing a new transmission or something we didn't want to pay for on an old thing, so Darcy went truck shopping.

It's a 2004 Chevy Silverado (I think). Fully loaded. Dual climate control, AC, heated leather seats, cruize, the works. (I think this time it's rain, not dust on the camera lense!)

The reason he needed a truck was because Darcy and Ryan found a great deal on a trailer that came full of tools. So he needed a truck to haul it.

This will definately be the vehicle we take our summer vacation with!

"I Want Candy..."

"I want candy..." What parent hasn't heard that a million times? Though, probably not followed by, "...only once a week." !!!!! Ok!!!! That's what Rachael said on the way home from school today, and I, for one, will not argue! In school they're working on nutrition and the four - I mean five - food groups. Apparently there's now a "Junk Food" group. Rachael said her teacher suggested eating junk food only once a week, and she wants to do it! Fine by me!

Kurly Kaitlyn

Kaitlyn got her hair curled at a Christmas family reunion, but I didn't have my camera, so Andree took some pictures for me. Kaitlyn loved the curls so much we went out and bought a curling iron.

Frosty

It snowed a bit yesterday and last night so this morning I got them all bundled up to go play in the snow. Then as I was grabbing their boots from the garage I saw that it was pouring rain! But they still wanted to go outside anyway. So they went out for a bit and they made this little snowman, Frosty. It didn't rain for too long and they didn't get all soaking wet, just their gloves. We even had a bit of sunshine today.

Little Vereniki Monster!

Daddy made vereniki for us yesterday and Rachael ate 6! That's more than Mommy and Daddy ate together! What a little vereniki monster!

Kaitlyn doesn't like vereniki, but she did have a second helping of noodles.

White Christmas!

The girls weren't allowed out of bed before 7am on Christmas morning, so at 7:01 they came and opened our door! We opened presents here and then went to Gramps and Grams for more presents, brunch and turkey dinner. To our surprise it started snowing! I can't remember the last time we had a white Christmas! There was maybe an inch or two on the ground when we left that night, and as we got closer to home there was less and less of it on the ground. The streets by our house were bare, but there was a bit of the white stuff on the grass.

Curly Kids

At the Stobbe family gathering on Saturday we met Uncle Al's new wife Koralee. She's a hairdresser and she curled Kaitlyn's hair while we were there. Kaitlyn loved it! So we went and bought a curling iron and this morning I curled both girls' hair. Rachael's hair is pretty thick and didn't take to curling very well. Kaitlyn's held the curl much better. What a bunch of cute kids!

Rachael's Christmas Concert

Rachael had her school's Christmas concert yesterday. She had an afternoon and an evening performance. There were no individual class productions, just primary and intermediate, French and English choir, and ukelele performances. Oma and Opa Stobbe were so pround of how well Rachael sang, and how she kept her eyes on the choir director.

Only one more day of school, and it's a pyjama party day! Rachael is very excited!

Christmas with the Froese's

We had Christmas with the Froese family a little early this year. Darcy's parents are in town until the 19th only and Kendra and the Walls are going to Ontario with Claire for Christmas this year, so we had our celebration after church on Sunday.

Darcy got a nice Star Wars figure set thing. It'll go nicely with his Star Wars book collection.

Christmas Concert

Having been snowed in for the last two Sundays we didn't know what Kaitlyn was supposed to learn for the Kids Quest Christmas Performance. It was actually the same poem that they've been doing for the last few years, but she's only four so she didn't remember it. But she got to stand up there with the rest of her class and look cute. There were only two or three kids who knew the poem and song, anyway.

A Hard Day

We never got to hold you
Or kiss your little head

Or watch you sleeping soundly

All snuggled in your bed

We can't count your tiny fingers

Or your even smaller toes

We won't see your smile, your beautiful eyes

Or your cute little button nose

You're gone too soon, we don't even know

If you're a girl or boy

Our hearts are filled with sorrow

When they should be full of joy

We know you are in heaven

Where there is no pain or tears

You'll never get hurt or sick

In heaven there are no fears

And though we're sad you're not here right now

For us to hold today

We know we'll hold you in our arms

When we're in heaven with you someday

In loving memory of our baby - due today but Gone Too Soon.

It Still Counts As Snow!

While there was no white stuff falling from the sky today, there's still remnants of it on the ground - so it still counts as snow on Kaitlyn's birthday! That's snow on her first birthday, her second, third and fourth! No snow the year she was born, though. We're definatley hoping to end this trend for next year!

Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn! I can't believe you're 4 already!

Winter Wonderland

It's dumping snow outside right now, so I had to set up my Christmas Village, even though it's before Kaitlyn's real birthday. I try not to set up Christmas stuff before it's her birthday to keep it more special, but we had her party on Saturday and it's snowing now, so up it went! Besides, it's really more of a Winter Village than a Christmas village. It's certainly not the village Baby Jesus was born in! His "village" aka Nativity scene will wait until Friday.

Come by and see it IRL (in real life) - pictures don't really capture the atmosphere of all the little glowing houses. This is the first year I've got the little duck pond and train station up, too!

Kaitlyn's Birthday Party

We celebrated Kaitlyn's 4th birthday on Saturday with lots of family who came over to help with the festivities. Auntie Kendra made another amazing creation! Kaitlyn requested a My Little Pony unicorn cake and look how great it turned out! Not that we ever doubted! Of course no child's birthday is complete without a pile of presents. And Rachael was right there to help out. She got lots of fun presents, but the favorite was the Ponyville teapot house that plays music. Often. And not very quietly. I think it's time for this toy to go downstairs to the play room where they can play it all they want!

She has to wait until her real birthday to get presents from Mom and Dad. You can't have a real birthday without some presents, even if it's not the day you have the party.

Miss Independant

Little Miss Independant here (not even 4 years old yet!) knows how to make her own Peanut Butter and Jam sandwich. She can do it all by herself - she just needs help with taking off the lids and getting the bread out of the freezer.

Post- Wind Storm Campfire

With all the trees and branches that fell down on Sunday and Monday we decided to go across the street to the new lot and have a little campfire. It was never a very big fire. The wood was too wet, but the girls had lots of fun.


Apparently some of you don't know about the new blog all about building our new house. Well there's a link to the left of this blog called "The House That Darcy Built" or you can just click here http://darcyshouse.blogspot.com/ for all the latest on how our house is coming along. We're getting forms for the foundation tomorrow and they pour it on Friday. Then about a week to get all the services in and back fill it, then around the 26th Darcy will start to frame it!

Trick or Treat

The girls had fun Trick-or-Treating yesterday. Kaitlyn dressed up as a scarry lion. She walked around for about half and hour and that was enough for her. Rachael and Daddy went a bit longer. Rachael dressed up as a butterfly. It was nice she could put her wings on over top of her jacket because it was COLD last night! Daddy took them around the neighbourhood while Mommy stayed home (where it was WARM!) and handed out candy. We had maybe 30 kids. After a while I was giving out big handfulls of candy and we're still left with a ton of leftovers. Not that they won't get eaten. But we had way more kids at the last house than here. Next year I'll have to remember to buy less candy. (Or, maybe not!)