Smarties

Taylor (sorting and sampling his Smarties*): Mom, would you like some?
Me (immediately flush with pride for my sweet, sharing boy): No, thanks, sweetie. I don't really care for Smarties.
Taylor (puzzled): Why not? They make you smart!

lol!

*Smarties in Canada are candy covered chocolate, similar to M & Ms (which are also available in Canada).

A Quick Peek...

...at my two older babies (Daddy was staining the deck)...

 (sorry this is soft...)

(nice socks, Averi!)

...as well as my youngest baby (who likes to get into Mommy's high heels!)...

 (it takes a lot of work!)

 (this is my fav shot! -- she's actually asking me for help here...)

(and we're up!)

Back to the Victoria Trip: Afternoon Tea

Getting this trip documented has been very much on my mind since I learned that Aunt Jane passed away... More about that in the next post.

Here are the kids on the morning of June 23:

Claire is so stylin'!

Dad took the kids out that morning...

One of the activities that Eva and I were eager to participate in together was Afternoon Tea. Victoria is quite steeped (pun unintended) in British tradition and so there are several Tea Houses to choose from, all of them relatively expensive... ;)

Here we are, ready to go!

Guess that's as dressed up as Lerina gets!  ;) Auntie Eva did my makeup and Averi's hair, of course!

We ended up choosing the White Heather Tearoom. Parking was a bit of a difficulty due to poor signage but once we made it in, the experience was delightful.

Here is me and my little girl sipping tea...

...although, Averi much preferred the food!

I love kiddy pictures when they are genuinely smiling!  ;)

I sat across from my sister, Lerina, who shared our monstrous tower of food. Certainly looked like she was enjoying it!

She definitely enjoyed hamming it up with her teacup! Pinky up!

Changing Seasons

After the unseasonably hot temperatures last week (up to 30°C!), it's hard to believe that Autumn has finally come but I had to bring up my bin of sweaters today...  :(

Avi's 1st Haircut?

Well, her first self-initiated haircut experience...

My cute little imp!!

Family Photo

I found a wonderful deal on professional photos! After a torturous 20-minute session (it was supposed to be half an hour but I think we were pretty well "cheesed out"), here is the pic we chose:

This is the web res file we received, but we also have an 8 x 10 and 4 smaller ones. It wasn't my best angle and def not Avi's best smile but we're all looking at the camera and Ella's with the group! Shawn's eye has been swollen and red for months! Not sure what's going on with that. Don't Taylor and Shawn look like twins??  ;)

We had a 2nd session that was more brutal than the first. At least, Ella was much worse. We ended up picking a photo of just Taylor and Averi since Ella refused to sit still for many shots. For some reason, I haven't received the web res file for that session yet but here's the scanned 8 x 10:

They're so cute!! And I was so fabulously excited to get professional pics again! I don't even know what happened to our last ones but Taylor was between 8 and 10 months old!!

Taylor's First Day of Grade One

I'm kind of disappointed in how the pictures turned out...  :(

I found these cute printouts on HowDoesShe. Since they're from the States, they say "First Grade" instead of "Grade One" which only bothered me a little at first. They're so cute that I can forgive foreign colloquialisms! ;)

You can see that Taylor let me do his hair for school!!

I get pouty when people get in the background of my shots...

 In the gymnasium being put into classes... Taylor got the same teacher he had last year (they're all moving up each year)! I'm sure that this will help him with the transition to full-time school. His teacher will also already know his strengths and areas that he needs to work on.

He even has the same classroom! His new velcro indoor shoes were purchased at an amazing sale and don't bother him!!!  ;)  Yippee!

Taylor's 6th Birthday

My first baby is 6 years old! He started grade one today (see next post)!

Here's our mini-celebration in pictures:

We had trifle instead of a traditional cake.

Here's the video for a taste of crazy!

Averi's 4th Birthday Party

I still haven't finished documenting our trip to Victoria and Idaho but I need to interject with a few birthdays!

Averi turned 4 on the 17th and had her very first birthday party on the 27th! It was my first time putting on a birthday party and it wasn't too bad. The age made it fairly simple and we invited only the girls in Averi's Sunbeam class and her two cousins, Rebecca (couldn't come) and Brooklene. (You can view the invitations we made here.)

We had 6 girls in attendance plus the birthday girl and her sibs:

Here's a glimpse of the food and decorations:

As you can see, I was blessed with perfect outdoor-play weather!

The girls were given a lei and a streamer wand at the door...

(If you're interested in how to make these, see here.)

Here's Averi's hastily made strawberry freeze "cake"

and her "haul" of presents

and the goody bags!

Four-year-old girls are so entertaining! They love to talk!