Happy Birthday Lexie!!!!

This week Lexie will be celebrating her 11th birthday and we had a party for her on Saturday. She commandeered my services as official photographer so that she could have a post done on the blog. She was very concerned her Mom in Edmonton should be able to see her celebration and not feel so left out. I can say without any reservations that lexie and her brothers too, are such thoughtful children.

To start with, she met all her friends at the swimming pool for a couple of hours.

Five of these girls are my nieces. It pleases me to know Lexie thinks of her cousins as friends. She really loves her extended family.

Lexie on the left, cousins, Emily in the center and Natasha on the right.

After swimming, we loaded them into cars and drove to Aunty Donna and Uncle Dons house, where they have enough room to accommodate ten squealing little girls! Thanks Aunty and Uncle for opening your home and helping Lexie's dad Norm host such a fun event. Norm got pizzas which quickly got devoured. Heidi and I made the cake, in the music theme which Lexie had requested.

Although not used to being the party host, Lexie's dad Norm had a glow about him from all the fun and excitement, or was it just the reflections from the ceiling light?

This single dad thing can be trying at times, but this day, all that effort paid off.

It was as nice to see Norm smiling and genuinely happy, as it was to see Lexie so (but then she is always cheery). Milestones like this can also be cause for much melancholy for a family who is still missing our Kayla so sorely. But without a doubt, her spirit was felt singing along to Happy Birthday for her sister.
Aunty Donna holds the pinata as the kids scramble for candy. This poor creature was felled by a mighty blow!

CLICK THE BOTTOM LEFT ARROW IN THE ABOVE FRAME TO WATCH THE CLIP. Norm learns the fine art of music tech!
The main events of the night were to be music related. From freeze dance, to Karaoke, to Rock Band. We sure did have a house packed with talent. You would think all the exercise and excitement would have worn them out, but nooooo. They did not fall asleep until past 2.00am! I don't know why we call them "sleep overs" because they never get much sleep at these things!

Uncle Keith and Uncle Mike, wimped out early on and had a rest on Aunty Donna and Uncle Dons Bed for a while... WIMPS! They left their poor defenceless brother alone with a house full of women. Oh well, such is the price of fatherhood.

Uncle Don is one of Lexie's biggest fans and paid her many compliments on her new birthday outfit that she got off Uncle Mikes family! Only 11 but looking so sophisticated. But still young enough that I had to explain what sophisticated meant!

Happy Birthday little one.

I know your mom will be happy to see what a great day you had. Right MOM?

Inuksuk in Vancouver

Hi folks, I hope you are enjoying the weekend.
Sadly, my parents had to have their lovely yellow Lab, Lucy put to rest yesterday due to a serious health condition. Please stop by and leave them your thoughts by clicking on this highlighted text.
Today we went down to Vancouver. It was a glorious sunshine filled day. There was still enough of a chill on the air to remind us it is still winter, especially by the water. But the suns warmth felt really nice on my face.
We parked at English Bay and walked the 10KM right around the Stanley Park Seawall (http://vancouver.ca/parks/parks/stanley/), then walked a couple more KM right along Denman street to get back where we started. It felt wonderful to finally get out together and enjoy our local beauty. We were out the whole day.
These pictures all have the inuksuck in them. From tiny ones made of large pebbles to the huge statue. This symbol is becoming synonymous with Vancouver as it is on all the 2010 winter Olympic promotional material. Learn more about it from this write up that I borrowed from wikipidia.
The following text was copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inukshuk
An inuksuk (plural inuksuit) [1] (from the Inuktitut: ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ, plural ᐃᓄᒃᓱᐃᑦ; alternatively inukshuk in English[2] or inukhuk in Inuinnaqtun[3]) is a man-made stone landmark or cairn, used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America, from Alaska to Greenland. This region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome, containing areas with few natural landmarks.
The inuksuk may have been used for navigation, as a point of reference, a marker for hunting grounds, or as a food cache.[4] The Inupiat in northern Alaska used inuksuit to assist in the herding of caribou into contained areas for slaughter.[5] Inuksuit vary in shape and size, with deep roots in the Inuit culture.
Historically the most common type of inuksuit are a single stone positioned in an upright manner.[6] An inuksuk is often confused with an inunnguaq, a cairn representing a human figure. There is some debate as to whether the appearance of human or cross shaped cairns developed in the Inuit culture before the arrival of European missionaries and explorers.[6
The word inuksuk means "something which acts for or performs the function of a person." The word comes from the morphemes inuk ("person") and -suk ("ersatz" or "substitute"). It is pronounced inutsuk in Nunavik and the southern part of Baffin Island (see Inuit language phonology and phonetics for the linguistic reasons). In many of the central Nunavut dialects, it has the etymologically related name inuksugaq (plural: inuksugait).
Despite the predominant English spelling as inukshuk, both the Government of Nunavut [7] and the Government of Canada through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada [8] are promoting the Inuit preferred spelling inuksuk.

Dee and Me

My grade 5 class photo. Can you pick me out?

Thats me on the left and beside me is a girl who became my best friend. She still rates that number 1 spot as best girlfriend.

As you can see by our plaid suits, we were trend leaders on the fashion front. Either that or our mothers chose our clothes for us, which is more like it. I think we both wished we could have been as cool as the other kids and have been allowed to wear jeans and tee shirts on picture day. We will always be grateful to our mothers for their fashion guidance. And also for their gift with scissors, as D and I both sported freshly trimmed bangs/fringe for the big day. I love this picture now. But all through our school years we would laugh at ourselves both standing out like sore thumbs and looking what we thought of as a couple of goofs! Looking at it now, I think we look like the cleanest and "goodest" girls in the class. And we probably wee. We were both so innocent and naive.

Dee and I got together for coffee yesterday. We both still dress the same! She got here and I noticed we were both dressed in long sleeved tshirts with fleece vests and a "pashmina" or scarf as we used to call them. We have so much in common.

Our visit was cut short by me having to go to the rescue of a man who was without keys. Otherwise we could have drank coffee and chatted all day.

Here's to life long friends.

TWO AND A HALF WEEKS

No, its not the title of a movie...... It's how long it's been since my last post. I dont know if it was just the January blaghs, but I just have not felt like posting. I havent even had my computer on. Believe it or not, I have not shaken this cough yet. I went back to the Docs again on Friday and my lungs are clear. But my cough is so awful again. Doc says its my allergies. Which actually makes sense. I have been on a very unusual cleaning spree lately. I have sorted out every closet and got rid of a load of crapola to the 2nd hand shop. But of course, these kind of clean ups stir up alot of dust, which is something I am terribly allergic too. I also went into both of my sons rooms. I spent about 3 hours in each of their rooms, when they were out and got into every corner. My goodness its appaling the filth that was accumulated in there! They werent happy about it, but I figure if grown men cant keep it clean then they can move out or put up with mother invading their space! But man the dust bunnies jumped down my nose with a vengance and I have been coughing up fluff balls ever since!

Last night I was awake half the night hacking my brains out. I feel okay though, and am relieved I am not contagious, so I dont have to feel guilty to go to work coughing.

This morning, in spite of the gray skies, we took the kids out for the day. Crossing the Pitt River Bridge as we leave Maple Ridge. The New Bridge is really taking shape now. The first few suspension cables are now in place.

First we went to Grandma's house to drop off a TV for Aunty Valerie. Then we went to Keiths office to drop off the laptop and files.

Half an hour later, we enter downtown Vancouver. I love the banners on the lamp posts. They make a splash of colour in the sea of grey. Gray skies, gray buildings!

Then we went for a toot around Grandville Island. This is a former industrial area below the Grandville Street Bridge. The banners here say WINTERUPTION. I thought that was a good play on words. The water you see here is salt water from the pacific, coming into False Creek.

What is wrong with this picture? And NO I have not gained 150 lbs! Nor has Keith Lost the same amount! It is actually our reflection in a convex mirror. If you look closely, you can see my new hair cut. Yup, those long locks are now history!

Okay, this one is better..... A nice man offered to take our photo. I always worry that such people may turn and run off with my camera! But one has to have some faith in humanity!

How many people can you fit in a canoe? Well that depends how big your canoe is! This buch seemed like rookies as they didnt have their paddling in sync. But they seemed to be having alot of fun!

Inside the market we had a nice fresh lunch and then lined up for a treat at the bakery! I had a venitian florentine!

Nick was feeling all romantic and chose a sweet heart to nibble on.

Lexie picked out a pair of Sweet Lips which beckoned "Be Mine".

Following that we went to watch the old Guy play his hockey game. Our team lost but is was alot of fun jumping, yelling and cheering. Here, our boys in blue scored their first of the game.