It's Snowing!

Well,ok so maybe it isn't snowing persay. But the girls think so. Tati exclaims like, "Mommy, SNOW!"

This cotton is everywhere! It is gross and itchy and it feels like mosquitos are on you all the time.

The Bombs Bursting in Air!

It is a little weird that our national anthem is so about fighting and war. Obviously I get why but I had this total mothering moment when we went to the local military base to go to the beach. There is a missile park before you enter the base and it was sort of weird explaining to Chloe what missiles were and why they are shot, etc. Tati was pretty stoked about the jets...until she discovered all the sparkly, decorative rocks everywhere. I keep finding them around the house even now.

God Bless the USA.

p.s. Funny note, the Canadian anthem says, "stand on guard" all over the place. Maybe they're watching out for all the bombs flying over the border--except we wouldn't do that to them.

California Dreamin'

We've been extra smug this week because it has been snowing back in O Canada. We need to soak up the rays while we can. It has been so awesome to go to the beach with the girls. Surprisingly Tati doesn't like the water but would rather lay on the towel in the sun. I wonder where she gets that from? I've been trying to lay out everyday but I'll probably still go home super white. I just don't really ever tan. But as long as I don't burn, I'm good.

Just wanted to share some pics. This one was tricky to take because of the freaking delay on my camera. Someday I'll have one of those nice ones with no delay. Then I can take 3000 pictures on my vacation like somebody I know. I love this beach. We seriously have seen a pod of dolphins pass by like every time we go there. It is something that you can never get used to--so rad.

Here's my Beach Baby.

And here's her beach bootie.
Notice how artistic and totally planned (cough, cough), to have Chloe off in the distant background.

Chloe had a blast with the endless supply of sand for digging and building. She kept running back and forth to the water to dampen her sand. That is one of the things I love about the beach, the simple and endless entertainment from the sand and water. All that playing makes you so hungry and so tired and then you sleep so well.



So like all great Mom's, I found this crab skeleton in the sand (with almost all his limbs still attached) and the girls decided to make him their pet. Chloe fed him a kelp bulb and Tati fed him an Oreo and many other parts of her lunch that day. By the time the day was over, he had lost about half of his limbs. That poor crab.

Anyway, Happy Mother's Day! Hope nobody in your neck of the deck was too crabby.

Tie This On!

Today was so awesome because Chloe learned how to tie her shoes! We've had this pair of tennis shoes for a couple of months just waiting for her to grow into them. One of the things I wanted to get done while we're here in CA was to teach her how to do it. I've never done it before but I couldn't believe how easy it was for her to learn. Now all she needs to do is perfect the tightness of the laces and she'll be in business.

Here's the practice round.

Phase 1: Bathrobe Tie





Phase 2: The Shoe Practice

The proud victory moment!

Tati's Big Girl Haircut

It is funny because I keep wanting this to be called her "First Haircut" but truth be knownst, we shaved her head back when she was a baby. It's a long story.

So this is actually her 2nd haircut. She got it on April 16. I knew it was time for a while because it was so tangled and gross on the ends. My nice friend, Amanda did the hair cut for us and she did a great job.
The best part was Tati's cute little self esteem. You could tell that she felt beautiful and she sat so still, we couldn't believe it. Our little baby is growing up!

Guess WHO is 6?

Our big girl is 6 now! Look how awesome she can pull an outfit together! This year she had a friend party. She wanted it to be a bird party. It really was amazing how many things we had around that went along with the theme. I have to say I do amaze myself sometimes.

These are the bird balloons we bought at my favorite store "Big Lots" (AKA Pic-n-Save). We had a lot of compliments on those. It was really Martha Stewart's kit but they were pretty cool. We let the kids each take one home for a souvenir.

Here are the fun cupcakes we made. The idea came from a really fun book called, "Hello Cupcake".

We did an egg hunt. They were supposed to be the Mommy or Daddy bird looking for their baby bird eggs. (Took advantage of the post Easter sales.) The eggs were filled with candies and stickers. I think Tati loved it more than everybody else. She was pretty convinced it was her birthday.


We did this one game with a rubber band bird (airplane) that they had to glide and land in the nest (bowl). Surprisingly only one person was able to get it into the nest but they had fun trying. They stood on our stairs to give them the height and then the nest was at the bottom.

Chloe with one of her BFF's, Linnea.

Chloe and Greg had a special date on her birthday day since her party was on a Saturday. He picked her up from school and took her to one of our family's favorite places, Ikea, for lunch. They had a great time.

Here is a special "Top 6" Edition, from her Daddy:

Chloe is six and here are six things great things about Chloe:

1. She loves to draw pictures then give them away to friends and family. Especially cards. She could easily put Hallmark out of business if she were allowed to just sit and make cards all day (and most of them are pretty darn cute and creative).
2. Being a big sister is not a job, it is her life. She loves it. She loves being Tati's best friend. Sometimes she also loves being Tati's second mom, but we are working on that. She helps Tati learn new "tricks", talks to her and gives her advice all the time and is always teaching her about everything she knows.
3. She is ready to be a grown up. She wants to do (and we usually let her) grown up things. Wash the dishes, fold and put away her clothes, clear the table, answer the phone, etc.
4. She is a very tender child. She doesn't like intense or scary scenes in movies. She is concerned for people when something bad happens to them and wants to help them (usually that means making a card for them). She just wants life to always be full of sunshine lollipops and unicorns surfing on rainbows - and who can blame her?
5. Chloe loves receiving and giving surprises. Even at an early age she would hide things behind her back and have you close your eyes to surprise you. She gets super excited for other people and is bursting when she is watching them get a surprise or open a present. She loves to be an accomplice in springing a surprise on somebody - she is really good at keeping secrets when she is supposed to.
6. Learning is one of Chloe's favorite past times. She is always talking about things she learned on her field trip to the space and science center here in Edmonton. Or the little fact she learned on a tv show. I can remember watching a geology show on tv about ice dams during the ice age and catastrophic flooding. She shooshed me when I tried to ask if she liked the show or not because she was listening so intently.

Man, time is flying by so fast. Hopefully by her next birthday, she'll have some more teeth grow in. Poor girl.

Happy Easter!

I'm so behind in posting on this blog. It has been sitting in my draft folder all month.

This is our bunny family. Chloe drew it and I thought it was a great one for our Easter family picture. If you haven't already seen her other Easter pics, you can check this link.

We had a rocky start to the day when Tati wouldn't stop crying because she wanted to eat her Cadbury creme egg and didn't want to eat breakfast. Boy, did we learn our lesson about that one for next year. Can't really blame her. I mean, who doesn't love a cadbury egg? Luckily Daddy was full of patience and fun that morning (what a great way to celebrate) and gave her lots of love and eased her into some bites of real food before the assault of junk food began. Then after breakfast we waited for the sun to start shining so we could do our egg hunt OUTSIDE! It has been 3 long years since it has been warm enough to do the hunt outside on Easter. It was still cold but practically no snow left. Woo-hoo. In fact the highlight of the afternoon was sitting in the backyard as a family and blowing bubbles and laying on the grass with the sun on our backs.

The only thing we didn't get to do was have everybody gussy up and take some Easter pics. We'll see if we can pull it off in the next few weeks.

Here are some pics from the day:

Happy Easter!