Happy 4th Lucas!

We celebrated Lucas' 4th Birthday in grand style as usual. We had 21 kids, many more adults and a whole bunch of laughs. Lucas' chosen theme of a bike party went over well. The kids and parents did a great job of decorating bikes, scooters and ride-ons and then had a wild, multi-speed parade down to the school where the kids rode around a pre-set course in happy delirium. Even better was that the parents got to watch the event while sipping hot coffee.

After a frenetic lunch the young ones whacked an unsuspecting Lightening McQueen pinata and were whisked away in a sugary blur. Aaahhhh.. another one hits the dust.

These two fantastic photos are taken by our good friend Jeff Ow, not me, as you may be able to tell. Any of you young enough to be getting married or lucky enough to be getting married again (hahaha!) should check out his really fantastic photography.

Isn't this an amazing shot?

Mia, Rob and Jeff relax at the park

The birthday boy and lots of cake fans.


There's nothing quite like waking up the next morning to new toys.

A pox

A pox on ye who told my son that one could make jelly out of quince. (Was it me?)

We, I mean I, spent a large part of today peeling, coring and boiling itty-bitty sour fruit. You can see how it turned out based on the look on Lucas' face. Yech.

A Kitchen Upgrade

We are in the midst of chaos. Voya, the restaurant Rob is helping to open, is just about at opening date, Lucas' birthday is around the corner, and we decided to re-do our kitchen. Yikes!

Rob has been fearlessly pioneering away; burning the candle at both ends.

I have been doing what I can, including a bit of plumbing; a secret talent.

Although not finished, I couldn't wait to show you how things are shaping up.

I kind of dig Rob in his safety glasses! Now bring on the floor!!!

Mia Ballerina

Mia and I have started Mommy and Me ballet. She loves it. I do too. Enough said.

Oops...

I read my last blog entry today... and was horrified at my writing and typos. I'm ashamed to admit, being the teacher I am, that I didn't edit before I posted. Ah well. My apologies to anyone offended or disgruntled by my lack of care. ;P

Today was the start of pirate week at school. Lucas, perhaps only slightly coerced by me, came fully outfitted in pirate gear. I experienced my first case of, "Oh my Lord, what have I done to my child... will he now be ostracized by the other children?" when I quickly realized that he was the only child in pirate garb. Har.

Lucas, my brave soul, was pretty much unshaken by it all and walked around proudly for almost a whole five minutes. He then took of the head-gear and continued with the day. I was happy to see that by the time I had come to pick him up there were several other children and teachers then sporting pirate-wear. Lucas also proudly showed me his telescope he had made. (Which we used to view the spectacular new moon tonight.)

Mia had her second Spanish and Art class today and I was thrilled to learn that she was LOVING it. Last week was success, but I wasn't sure if it was just a fluke. But this week... oh my... she was in finger paint heaven and completely bewitched by all the Spanish-speaking attention she was getting. She is so much fun right now. I can't wait to see how she does in her first ballet class tomorrow.

Happy sunny-days to all.

Savary Island - A Photo Tour

The end of the summer was a lovely break from work with lots of great family time at home and on Savary Island. Plans took their time to get together with Rob's unpredictable work situation, but at the last moment he was able to join us for the full week.



And Savary? It was amazing... the island was everything I had hoped. The cabin we rented was perfect; quiet, private, safe, close to and containing everything we needed. We spent our days zipping all over the island to explore beaches on the cabin's rusty, too-small bikes; Mia in the trailer and Lucas either riding his own bike our hitching a ride on my rat trap. The rain we received inspired giant forts and roasted marshmallows by the fireplace as well as slug hunting on soggy hikes. We ate oysters we harvested ourselves, built marvelous driftwood castles, collected hundreds of shells and sand dollars, watched incredulously as deer munched wild blueberries beside our porch, whispered quietly as the gigantic woodpeckers made their way through mottled trees, read our books while children slept, swung in trees, had candle-lit baths, found sand-snakes and became very creative with food rations. Lucas ate ice-cream for breakfast twice, we forgot our bike helmets and rode recklessly down bumpy roads, blew a tire, lost cash out of open pockets, and didn't care. Lucas and Rob rented a rickety scooter that cost a fortune, lost it's speedometer while driving and wouldn't start after it was stopped. Mia had baths in a bucket on the porch after the beach, played nude golf and slept in a nest on the bedroom floor. Lucas slept in a tent, played magnetic fishing by candlelight, whipped around on a hot-pink run-bike abandoned at the cabin, was buried alive, and perfected his throw of a tennis ball. It was great time to connect as a family, extended for a few days and then blissfully just us for the rest. No phones, no internet, no tv, no computer, no light. A very happy puppy and a super unwound family.

We can't wait for next year to do it all again.

Camping at Porpoise Bay

Since we are leaving for Savary Island on Saturday and I'll surely want to post pictures after that, I thought I'd better throw some up from our long weekend jaunt to Porpoise Bay, Sechelt.

It was a really fun-filled weekend of giant starfish and jellyfish, a squishy tent, racoon invasions, smores and late-night lantern reads. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, so I only have photos from the first drizzly day.

Mia and Pillo

Ok, how funny is Pillo in this picture?!

So much fun...

...such little time to write about it.

Summer has come. And with it has come a tidal wave of activity that seemed about ready to burst through the walls of our house only weeks ago. Thank goodness the weather faeries cooperated and agreed to let us enjoy our summer with the somewhat normalcy of anticipated good weather.

I had a great week off between terms, and am now two weeks into summer school, but this new schedule of working only mornings is allowing me to really enjoy the best of what the summer days have to offer. Our weekends have also been jam-packed. Yippee!

Let me take you on a small photo journey of some of the highlights of the last few weeks.

These pictures are from a weekend camping with our good friends the Humes. Kirstie and I decided to be really brave and take the four kids camping without our other halves. Although my greatest fear was losing a child in the woods, the greatest obstacle ended up being the accident on highway 99 that closed the highway for several hours. We left Vancouver at 12:30 and arrived at Alice Lake (just outside of Squamish) at 7pm. Yes. I also am surprised we made it. We discovered the trick to too many hours with small children in a car that is not moving very fast is to give the kid that is annoying you most to the other mom. We each spent the tormentous drive feeling sorry for the other and slightly smug that we didn't have to deal with child X. Brilliant.

It was a fantastic trip. We lost no children. We had great weather. We even slept a little. We were very pleased with ourselves for our gumption and are planning another spouse less weekend.

We have acquired a frog. My mother laughed somewhat hysterically when I told her this and then said, "You don't remember your frog Lily Higgins, do you?" I chose to ignore the underhanded allknowingness of her comments... but now three weeks, three pet-store for crickets, two water changes and no interest from the children has made me review her remarks. Apparently Lily Higgins was re appropriated to the pond next door.



Anyone want a fire-bellied toad? (At least for a few weeks?!)





Lucas now loves my camera. My new camera. The one I saved my pennies for and have been coveting for a long time. The one that weighs more than he can typically handle carrying around. That one, yes. But to his credit, he can take some fine photos with it. For example these lovely portraits of Rob and I. Who would have known that my camera was capable of taking pictures of me?

A breakfast joint in Pike Place Market, Seattle. By Lucas Herman.

Constructing in the Children's Museum in Seattle.

Immediately after the camping trip we took a family trip to Seattle. I was none too pleased with the border line-ups nor the traffic on the highway, having already spent far more time in our truck than I ever wanted to that week, but the trip was worth the wait. It was in luxurious contrast to camping and we had some really good times seeing the tourist sites and just hanging around.

Mia is building her own sand box (or mud puddle) in the back yard. I may have to break down and buy a sand box.

Mom has left for Ecuador for six weeks. It has left me feeling a little sad and lonely, for who else will listen to my endless babble day in and day out?, but I am happy that she will spend the summer with her cousins.

Biking the sea wall in Stanley Park.