Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Little Round-up...


...every time we upload photos from our camera, there are always a bunch of straggler photos that come up. They don't get their own posts, but it seems a shame to just press "erase" or relegate them to being buried deep in the recesses of our unsorted photograph files on the computer.

The picture above is of the fortune cookies that Finny and I made to give her teachers to celebrate the Lunar New Year. In true Finny fashion, she got it in her head to make fortune cookie from scratch. So, we did that. Because the alternative was hearing her ask to make them every six seconds around the clock. Seriously.

I learned two things: 1. Making fortune cookies is really cool and they turn out awesome. I had no idea how to do it, but you bake these crazy egg white pancake cookies, then fold them straight out of the oven. 2. Folding things straight out of the oven with your bare fingers is a great way to temporarily erase your fingerprints. And test your pain threshold. And test your dedication to fulfilling your daughter's nutso, but totally generous and lovely whim.

Also, she wrote great fortunes to put inside. Finny was thrilled to deliver them to her teachers. The top fortune was for her Wednesday teacher (job share) who is single. She made that one specially. It was a great afternoon.

The whole process reminded me of the time I made bagels from scratch while we were living in Europe. I really wanted bagels. It was an insane all-day process that produced great bagels...but will never, ever be repeated. Who knew you had to boil bagels TWICE in between baking them? Life experience. Just like the fortune cookies. I did it once. Now I never have to do it again.


Great shot of bummed out Lukey. He is the happiest boy in the world approximately 93% of the time. The other 7% of the time, he looks like this.

Plus, you can really see the funky brown segment in his eye. I love that little quirk.


The kids had Pyjama Day at school. Molly wore one of my old nighties. And she had fancy hair. You can also spot Finny in the top left corner of the picture, wearing bright pink.


Lukey got a certificate of achievement for his patience and knowledge of letter sounds. He went up in his jammies with his special puppy, Gracie. Note his awesome principal and librarian...also wearing jammies.


The school had a skating party on the 15th of February. It is always a fun night. At least for us, since our kids can skate. The parents with the non-skaters...? Well, let's just say that doesn't look as much fun.


Molly with her good friend, Sara. Oh, and may I also introduce the doughnut residue on Molly's face?


Lukey and Eric made menaces of themselves. There was some racing...


...which Lukey loved.


When the skating party was over, we took our kids and four of our good friends the Warrington's kids to the UBC Thunderbirds game. We had seven kids: a grade six, two grade fours, two grade twos, one kindergardener and one preschooler. And they were phenomenal. I would do it again, anytime. In fact, I hope we do!

The next day, Lukey had three (!) birthday parties and hockey. We bailed on one party out at UBC, but still managed a Science World party, hockey practice and a sledding party for our niece Hannah's fifth birthday. All before dark. 

The sledding was excellent. We had the yurt at the top of the hill for lunch, snacks and cake. The kids loved sledding...and as you can see, the grown-ups did too.


Round-up complete.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Girls go skiing...Lukey and I hit the forest


Lukey and I dropped the girls off at the base of Grouse Mountain for a day of skiing with Jane, Mandy, Hannah and Catherine. The sun was a'shinin', so the girlies were mightily excited for a day on the slopes. Unfortunately, Lukey couldn't join them because he had hockey later in the afternoon. 

But we didn't want to be left out. We left the Grouse parking lot and drove to the first place we could get out and walk: Capilano River Park.


We were looking for our dose of sunshine, but I think the forest was, too. The beams were leaking through the boughs. The branches were stretching to meet them 


The wooden railings on the paths and bridges were steaming. Actual steam was coming off them, warming the winter right out of them. Us too.


 I miss my quiet weekdays with this little guy. For two years, we took those noisy, boisterous, giggling chickies at school...then headed of to tackle our day together. Nowadays, he heads into the school with those girls and I head home alone. I loved this stolen PD day Friday.


 We hit the fish hatchery.


We saw a rainbow.


The water, the day, the company...all sparkled.