It's A Zoo In Here!

For Rachael's birthday Oma & Opa gave us a season's pass to the zoo! So, seeing as it was Spring Break we decided to try it out. The forecast all week was nothing but rain, but it was looking pretty sunny this morning, so we headed out.

Before we left I stepped outside to see how warm it was. The sun was shining and it seemed like a pretty nice day. But when the sun went behind the clouds it was CHILLY! We even saw a bit of the white stuff! What? It's spring!

But we braved the cold for a few hours, anyway. We didn't go see everything because we can come back whenever we want! At the Vivarium (nice and warm in there!) we got to pet a turtle.

And we saw the Birds Of Prey show. (Not so warm there!) Always impressive.

We saw the baby giraffe. Look how close we got to him!

Ok, so maybe that wasn't the baby. This isn't either, but it's still an amazing animal. The baby giraffe was in his house.

We didn't stick around for the lion and tiger feeding this time - the kids were too cold! But when we were leaving we saw this peacock with it's tail all up. The picture didn't turn out great, but it was very colorful.

Maybe next time we'll pile the bikes in the back of the truck and the kids can ride around the zoo. It was good practice walking. We were there for two hours and the only sitting we did was at the Birds of Prey show. Of course, walking is a lot easier to do when you get to stop and look at the cool animals all the time.

Rachael's Birthday

Yesterday Rachael turned 7 so we had the local Froese's and extended clan members (ie Claire, Chris & Nicole) over for vereniki and sausage. Rachael, the little vereniki monster, ate seven, cuz she's seven! Yikes! I hate to see how many she'll eat when she's 15!

And we had presents and birthday cake. Not nearly as fancy a cake as Autnie Kendra makes, but it was tasty!

We measured Rachael to see how tall she is for the height chart, and she's 4 feet! Growing like a weed! Today we're going to Gramps & Grams for some more birthday and Easter fun.

Coloring Contest Winner!

We got a phone call today saying Kaitlyn won a coloring contest! They had different age categories and Kaitlyn won for the 3-5 year olds. This was her picture:

This was her prize! That bunny is almost bigger than she is! Way to go Kaitlyn!

We dropped off more pictures for a different coloring contest. Those winners are announced on Saturday, so you never know!

Rachael's 7th Birthday Today!

My goodness, can she really be seven already? Time sure flies. Rachael wanted to go to the park that's close to our house today. It was kind of a run down park that was nothing special but she wanted to go. It was trying to be sunny so we went just before lunch.
We used to be able to see the park from the other end of the park street, so I thought it was a bit strange that I couldn't see it today. But we got a bit closer and we saw that they replaced the old park with a nice new park! So much nicer!
The girls brought along their "puppies" to the park and had fun pushing them on the swings and going down the slides.
A nice birthday surprise.

An Exciting Night On Our Street...

We woke up last night at around 3:30 to hear someone trying to start their car. It obviously wasn't working, but this person kept cranking the engine for about a minute at a time trying to start the thing. Meanwhile we were thinking, "give up already so we can go back to sleep!" They did this about 4 or 5 times, then stopped. That's when the yelling started. Darcy thought it might be our girls calling, so I went and checked on them, but they were asleep. So then I wondered who would be yelling at this time of night. I looked out our living room window to see our neighbours across the street out in their pyjamas looking at something down the street. So I looked too, and a car was on fire! It was parked on the side of the street (fortunately not in a garage!) and it started as a little fire, but then grew quite quickly. The windows and a tire or two blew out but the firemen arrived before it got hot enough to reach the gas tank. Not like in the movies where cars blow up right away. There was a car parked in front of this one and just before the owner moved it, the tail light caught on fire, but I think they were able to get it out right away. At least when the fire truck came it didn't come with the sirens on or they would have woken up the other half of the neighbourhood (namely my kids!). So then we had to listen to this noisy fire truck idling outside our house for at least half an hour. And then the noisy tow truck after that. So we were awake for over an hour in the middle of the night. And being right after the time change, I was more than a little sleepy waking up this morning! I don't think I'll tell the kids about the excitment. I can see Rachael not wanting to ride in a car anymore, or go to sleep, worrying about it happening to our car in the garage.

The moral of the story? If your car isn't going to start, STOP TRYING!!!

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.