The Weekend Lens

We travelled to Vancouver this weekend to celebrate Vic's mom's 87th birthday.  We arrived in Langley on Friday night and drove down to White Rock to walk along the pier.  Pretty but pretty busy.

On Saturday we drove down to Commercial Drive and had brunch in a little hole in the wall place.  I like that Commercial is not "commercial" and there are no franchise places along the strip.  We wandered around, looked at some of the interesting murals and then headed over to Stanley Park and went to the Aquarium.  We hadn't been there since July 2011 and there have been some big renovations (grand opening is next weekend).  The dolphin show was probably the big hit with the kids and seeing the under belly of the big sea turtle in his big tank.

Nice (but noisy) dinner at the Olive Garden with Grandma H and Russ.

Home on Sunday...tired but good.

 

Taylor Swift, etc., ..

We had quite a weekend, and the official Canada Day July 1 celebrations haven't even started yet.

We drove down to Vancouver on Friday. We had intended to see Vic's mom who is recuperating in the hospital but it turns out she was discharged, and that is another story....

Friday night we took a nice stroll down to English Bay with the kids after a nice dinner at Milestones. The seawall around English Bay is gorgeous. I haven't really been down that end too much before so it was all new and interesting to explore.

On Saturday we got up fairly early and had breakfast at Urban Fare which was just across the street from our hotel.. Excellent oatmeal! After that we headed over to the Vancouver Art Gallery and checked out the new Grand Hotel exhibit which was amazing. We then had some street food from the vendors just behind the VAG. Fynn had a hot dog (as usual),while the rest of us had something a bit more ethnically inspired.

We had tickets for the new FlyOver Canada attraction Canada Place. Fun and very much like Soarin Over California at Disneyland except with "Canadian content." :) Tickets are not cheap, especially when you are buying for a family, but one of those have to do it once sort of things.

The high point of the night for Sophie was dropping her off at BC Place to meet up with her Auntie Joanne who was going to the Taylor Swift concert with her. Taylor did a great show -- 3 opening acts, and then Taylor. She was there from 5pm - close to 11pm! A late night for sure.

Today we drove home and stopped in to visit Vic's mom who is convalescing at home. All in all a very busy weekend.

The Weekend Lens

This week just flew by. Both kids had Valentine's Day events -- each actually had two parties: Fynn at daycare and preschool and Sophie at her school and in her after school program. Sophie had a good week at school. Vic and I went and watched a little talent show that her class put on. Sophie did a little talk about ballet and showed her ballet shoes to her class.

Today I took Sophie to one of her ballet exam prep classes while Vic took Fynn to his friend Chay's birthday party.

Here is a photo of Fynn playing with his beloved Matchbox/Hot Wheels cars and Sophie in her ballet exam prep classes. A guest instructor from Vernon, Miss Katy taught the girls today. She is originally from England, so she was especially "exotic" for the girls. The photo of Sophie's class was taken through the viewing window of the ballet studio with my i-Phone so the quality is not that great.

Christmas lights and Brownie Camp

Sophie had a great time at her Christmas Brownie camp. They did crafts, had hot chocolate and ate turkey dinner with popsicle sticks :)

Daddy and Fynn put up the Christmas lights this afternoon.
Later I took the kids to the SASCU (my work) Children's Christmas party.

Fynn has been feeling whiny and so emotional this weekend. Part of it is lack of sleep due to a couple of late nights. I am so ready for an early night with him tonight.

The Weekend Lens

On Saturday Sophie invited her friend Hunter over for a sleepover.

Vic and I took all three kids to the new movie, Arthur Christmas. Very cute, well done and answers that age old question of how Santa manages to deliver presents to all those children in one evening.

As someone in the HR field, the movie hit a few good HR funny spots: family succession planning, executive recruiting, and the problems when your key employee (Santa) is just phoning it in.

The Weekend Lens

On Saturday Vic and Fynn had some fun "smashing pumpkins." We had a bunch of our pumpkins that needed to start decomposing in our back garden, so out came the axe and a iittle bit of chopping. We joked that Fynn is claiming responsibility for the Pumpkin Day Massacre. (A little dark humour).

In the afternoon we dropped Sophie off at her Brownie sleepover camp. It was in one of the buildings down at the fairgrounds. Sophie had her bedroll (sleeping bag, tarp and foamie) all rolled up and ready to go, along with her kitchen bag (eating utensils). This was a trial run overnight trip for a two-day Christmas camp the girls are doing in Vernon closer to Christmas.

The girls had a great time. They went to the movies and saw Puss and Boots, played outside, had hot chocolate, did crafts and read books. The Brownie leaders love to stay busy so the girls are always doing things and earning badges.

We took Fynn down to Kelowna. We went to the new Bed, Bath and Beyond store too. The next time I need new towels or bedding, I will definitely check it out. Fynn got one of these (now he has no excuse to take Sophie's).

The Weekend Lens

We had a nice, quiet Saturday. Sophie had her friend Hunter sleep over last night. Hunter participated in our usual Friday family activities which include going to dinner at Boston Pizza and a visit to the library.

She and Sophie stayed up fairly late (no surprise) talking, giggling and reading.

This morning we did a bit of yard work around the house until it was time for Hunter's parents to pick her up.

Tonight Vic and some friends are at our kitchen table playing poker. Nice to have a quiet evening to myself. A book I am really enjoying right now is Simplicity Parenting. It is excellent.

The Weekend Lens

This past weekend, we visited with family for Thanksgiving and celebrated Fynn's official 4th birthday. Vic and I also ran in the BMO Okanagan 1/2 Marathon and 10km race (photos a bit later).

The Weekend Lens

This weekend was busy!

Sophie had a sleepover at her friend Hunter's house on Friday night. She wrapped that up while Fynn was having his birthday party.

On Sunday we had a fun event for my work. 31 of our staff and their families went down to Davison's Orchard in Vernon for a great afternoon of orchard touring (it made me proud to be an orchardist's daughter) and then some pumpkin picking.

Last night Vic and I went to the movie The Help. I loved the book so much, I am glad the movie did it justice.

The Weekend Lens

On Saturday morning we went to the memorial service for our friend Doris' father Gunther who passed away recently. It was a very nice service, but also sad since Gunther was a lovely man and only 72.

Later that day we took the kids out to Harold Park and let them race around the almost deserted campground (now that the Albertan tourists have all gone home) and enjoy themselves on their bikes. The lake is still warm enough to dip your feet in, too.

Tonight Vic and I are going for my final long run before the 10km in a couple of weeks. Bryan and Patti are watching the kids for us, then we are putting some steaks on the BBQ and wrapping up the weekend.

The Weekend Lens

This weekend we focused on our yard and garden. We also brought a new fig plant into the living room area. It looks good and adds some green life to a corner.

We planted a fall mum that is a bright beautiful yellow and looks great on our front steps with our pumpkins.

The pumpkin patch is robust! We will have a lot of pumpkins this year and we grew them ourselves.

Saturday afternoon I had a work planning session and then later I met up with the kids and Vic who were over at Marg and Paul's for a little get together to celebrate their harvest of honey from their bee hives. Very unique get-together.

the weekend lens

Sophie had a sleepover last night at Hunter's house, so Vic and I took Fynn down to Kelowna today for a little bit of a road trip.

Sophie had a great time - they had a French themed dinner, complete with crepes and then French toast this morning for breakfast.

Here are Sophie and Fynn getting ready to hit the pool this afternoon.

the weekend lens

The best of Sunday.

The Weekend lens

We had a nice Saturday.

Easy. We did some gardening - Vic bought some pumpkin seeds (a variety I heard recommended by the CBC) and he also did some planters.

Later tonight while he was at the Rotary Auction helping out, I played outside with the kids. The light and air temperature were perfect.






(I have figured out how to make photos look larger in Blogger - I like it!).
The gorgeous yellow flower is a photo that Sophie took. She is getting really good.