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Saturday, April 23, 2011

5 on ... er ... Saturday. (Warning - LONG post!)

Oops!
I completely forgot to write a post yesterday! In my defense I'd pulled off another birthday party on Thursday (with super short notice!) while looking after one of Paige's friends all day and one of Marley's friends from 3:00 on. So I enjoyed my Good Friday day off! I crafted (can't share it yet though - it's for Mother's Day) in my pj's until noon and then in the afternoon we went over to friends and had the first BBQ of the season. The weather even cooperated and allowed us to sit outside until it was time to head home to get the girls into bed - about 7:30PM.

But I am getting ahead of myself ... here are my 5 things for the week.

1. More Paige
Grandma and Grandpa came over last Sunday to celebrate Paige's birthday. The favourite gift? A scooter!!!

I was asked what her favourite cake flavour was so they could bring it over with them. That's easy! Anything but chocolate! And a white cake (in this case Angel Food cake) with strawberries is a winner every time.

Here she is opening the scooter which had to be tried out immediately! 

Then it was taken outside for a proper breaking in! 

2. Field Hockey
Soccer season is over and Field Hockey season has started. Marley played for the first time last year and took to it quite quickly. So far this year she is dominating! Last Sunday she scored 8 of the 11 goals her team got in the two games they played!! But better than that, she is playing smart. Instead of being a part of the "bumble bee cluster" that typically forms around the ball at this level of play (U-7 means both kindergarten and grade 1 players), she stays to the outside ready to scoop up the ball if it's cleared and run it to the net. Clever girl!! Here are some pictures of the action last Sunday.

Warming up - Marley is on the far left.

A couple action shots of Marley. I tried to get ones of her scoring goals but the cluster of girls behind her obscured her too mcuh. So these will have to do! 

A little sideline soccer action! 


3. A Reason to Play Outside
When we got home from the hotel last Saturday, our neighbour was out cleaning off a plastic playhouse she'd found on the side of the road during Spring Clean up (a municpal sanctioned extra garbage pickup where you can put all your "crap" on the curb and the city will haul it away to the dump for free - also known as "troll the neighbourhood for treasures"!) She'd also picked up a pink playhouse but since she has 2 boys, she offered it to us. We got busy cleaning it and then on Sunday I hauled it around to the back yard.
Best thing EVER!!!
The girls now love to play in the back yard - sometimes for hours. It's awesome! I've been trying to get them to play out there since we moved in but there never seemed to be enough incentive. Greg and I have talked about buying a playhouse but somehow the money always needs to go to more urgent projects. So a free playhouse was an answer to prayer!




4. Paige's Pyjama Party
As I mentioned at the top of this post, I threw together a birthday party for Paige on Thursday. I feel bad that it was very last minute and thrown together but honestly, she had fun and that's all that matters. I highly doubt she ever felt it was a last minute, let's-get-this-thing-over-with-so-we-can-move-on type thing! :)
She'd originally wanted to go to Go Bananas but once she went to a friends PJ party, her mind was made up. I figured it was a fairly easy theme to put together at the last minute and with a little conspiratorial help from a friend, she even got her favourite movie to show - Tangled.
Here are some pictures ...

Busted!

Wishes really DO come true!

Do you see LC in the foreground? I blew up the air mattress thinking the girls would really like to lounge on it while they watched the movie, but it basically turned into LC's personal trampoline while the rest of them piled onto the couch!
Best laid plans and all that!!

What's a movie without some popcorn?!

The cake - sprinkle cake with vanilla frosting, sprinkles and (duh!) strawberries!!! Yum!


Hey, a picture of me! Not so flattering but ... what the heck.

Blowing out the candles. 

Opening presents. Paige received a Tangled cartridge for her V-Reader. Another winner! 

The craft was painting pillow cases. Another case of my best laid plans not going quite as I expected. But they eventually all painted one and now they are curing in my dining room. I'll pass them out after Easter. 

5. Easter BBQ and Egg Hunt
Yesterday we went over to friends for a BBQ. We haven't seen these particular friends for almost a year so it was really nice to visit again! Celia is expecting their second child - not that I knew that until we arrived and found her very much "with child". But considering they didn't tell anyone about their first pregnancy, hoping to surprise people with a baby (they're like that - it's all about the gag!) I wasn't all that surprised to see her baby belly yesterday. Just thrilled for them and glad that all are well.

After dinner we locked the kids inside while the "Easter Bunny" (Dave and Richard) hid eggs all over the back yard. The kids had a blast but unfortunately my pictures are mostly over exposed so I have little evidence of the chocolate carnage! I have been trying to keep my camera in manual mode and learn the settings but  ... obviously I still have a way to go!! Here are some of what I have.

The Man Cave! There was a lot of Canucks Playoff talk going on here! Probably explains the face Greg is making!

Yes, Paige is wearing her Easter basket as a helmet. Sigh.

This is a test of the house construction. So far so good!

Close up of Basket Head Paige!

LC on the tricycle.

Evidence that Greg is a bad father!! LOL! Just kidding. We have a picture of Paige at about 2 "drinking" one of Greg's beers so he decided to continue the theme. Afterwards LC said "where's my beer?" so maybe this is not such a good idea!

This is the post beer pic smile. Hmmm ...

Mmmmm ... can't you almost smell the burgers grilling?

LC and Charlie got a slight head start on the others.

Not that they needed it. LC very quickly figured out what was going on. In fact I started re-scattering some of the chocolates from her basket just so there'd be some left for the older kids!

The pictures of Paige on the hunt were all seriously overexposed but this one of Marley came out okay. She was good at finding the ones that were actually hidden - rather than scattered on the grass!

Enjoying her haul!

6. Spring! (Finally)
Since it's Saturday I thought I'd add a bonus entry. Six on Saturday!!
Here are some shots of what is happening in our garden these days. They were taken last Sunday and Greg and the girls were just outside weeding the vegetable patch today so maybe in my next 5 on Friday post I'll show the progress. For now, enjoy these spring time pictures!





Okay, that's it I promise. Thanks for sticking with me - I know this was a long one!
Happy Easter to you all. We are heading out to Abbotsford tomorrow for some Graham family fun and another egg hunt. Yay, more chocolate! At some point today I'm going to try and get some Easter cards made for the girls. I know my crafty posts have been missing lately but I will try and get one up soon. Until then, enjoy the sunshine!! We are!!


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