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!

My Cutie Pies

I've caught both Averi and Ella doing the same sweet thing...

If one sister is sleeping while the other happens to be awake, they will take their own personal "blankie" and cover their sleeping sister with it! Awww!

Shadow Play

I just had to pop in and share this cutest of cute photo...

Love that nappy bit of hair Taylor has!  ;)

The Sisters Arrive in Victoria!

I'm finally getting back to our trip to Victoria...  ;)

Wednesday, June 22 was the day that my sisters and Claire were to arrive.

 Of course, they were later than anticipated. At least later than I had anticipated since I had forgotten that they were coming via Port Angeles rather than Tsawwassen.

Can you believe that Eva DROVE in those shoes!! So Eva!  :D  Her philosophy is: if you can't do it in high heels then you shouldn't be doing it!  ;)

Claire and my kids hit it off right away, of course!

Eva did Claire's hair so nicely and she was only happy to oblige Averi with the same hair!

They had driven through the night and were quite tired but still, Eva insisted that we stick to the general schedule we had planned.

So we headed off to the water front!

The kids were fabulous together!

We caught some moments of them holding hands but the pics are blurry:

Taylor wasn't too excited about the ocean until we started climbing over the monstrous rocks!!

Then, he couldn't get enough!

Everyone had a good time:

You can tell that Lerina was our primary photographer!! With us so busy with the kids, it was very reassuring that our memories would be captured.

Here's a shot of Eva wearing Claire's Hello Kitty hat!

I love this shot of Ella heading upwards:

She always has more energy than I do!

I also love this shot of Auntie Lerina holding Ella... Not so much because Ella is squirming to get away but because Dad is in the background holding everyone's coats!!! Seems familiar somehow!

Heading for the car, the girls and Dad (Grandpa) were holding hands and singing... I don't know if I caught the singing but it's still cute!


We weren't the only happy ones at the water front... This random little girl just stopped on the path and gave the kids hugs!!

So adorable!!

Next up was Beacon Hill park, of course!! Mostly just the petting zoo...

That evening, Des and Jane and all their kids came over to Grandma's for supper! I hadn't seen my cousins in AGES!!

Here's Lerina and Des:

Here are Lerina and sorta-cousin, Ashley, showing off tattoos!!

Lerina's "sleeve" isn't finished yet....

I laughed at Lerina for getting a picture of "the spread..." It's so Dad!! ;)

Here are Grandma and Jane... Jane is reclining due to pain from her abdominal cancer, though you couldn't tell by looking at her.

She was such a trooper!! She made dozens of FABULOUS deviled eggs. I didn't even think I liked deviled eggs but I think I ate my weight in them!

More pictures with Des and Jane in future posts.

A long and busy day!!

No wonder it's taking me so long to get these posts up... With so many photos, etc., they take FOREVER!!  ;)