Happy Canada Day!!

Appearances can be deceiving. For instance, many of you look at our pictures of going to the beach and message/comment/email about how jealous you are of our perfect life. Ha ha!

Some of our most spectacular fights have been at or about the beach. Some of my most childish sulkfests have been there too. It took a long time before Andrew learned to share and play with our kids at the beach. Well, maybe it's not quite that bad.

But yesterday. Oh yesterday.

You all know I'm big on festivals, parades, parties, fun. Right? Okay, well every year we (erm, I) try to think of something spectacular to do for Canada Day. YEARS ago my stylist told me about the Canada Day celebrations at Harrison Hotsprings. And ever since I've wanted to book a hotel room at the Harrison Beach Hotel, stay over night and spend the whole day on the beach followed by spending the evening on the beach and then watching the fireworks from our balcony. Perfect, right?

Well, except that it's a lot of money just to watch fireworks from a beach. So this year I had a brain wave.Why didn't we just go to Harrison (we'd have to get there really early to score a parking spot close enough to lug all our stuff to the beach), spend the entire day there, and then drive home after the fireworks. To my joy, Andrew totally went for my idea and we began to get ready.

Then I saw the weather reports. Oh boy. Rain, rain, rain and cold. NOT how Canada Day should be, nor how it has been the last several years either. I desperately tried to back out of my plan, but my lovely husband was having none of it.

Oh my. Well, we go to the beach all year long, so we packed lots and lots of clothes and blankets and off we went.


This is Elisabeth's I love you face. She says, "I love you mama" and then smiles. I love it!

I had to include this one cause it's the only picture of me from all day.

We got to the beach and my worst fears were confirmed. It was cold. Very cold. And it misted. My family swore they were warm enough and refused to leave. So I sat on one blanket, wrapped a towel around me, put an umbrella over my head and read. I was very miserable.

Apparently I was the only one. David found a friend in cute little Bella who followed him every where and happily chattered the whole time.

Andrew sculpted things out of the sand, with help from Elisabeth.

During the worst of the drizzle (it never did more than drizzle/mist) the kids carried their umbrellas into the lake.

Next time, I'll bring Elisabeth's swimsuit even if it is too cold for swimming.


I suggested to Andrew that I might be warmer if he'd bury me (I was seriously so miserable. I considered taking my book to the car and just staying in there all day. Then I gave myself a good talking to for being such a spoil sport.) Andrew laughed at me and then buried the kids.



My washing machine and tub got such a workout today!

Liquid sunshine.

All the little boys on the beach (whose parents were huddled under blankets/sleeping bags and cowering beneath tents and tarps - smart people!) came to watch Andrew and ask him questions.
A new kind of sculpture - a crab! Nice work.



I swear each fifteen minutes took hours to go by. Although by this time I was enjoying my mystery book and glad of the extra time to read it. Finally though it was four o'clock. Time to pack up, clean up and go see what was going on at the lagoon.

First stop: the playground!

Why does David look so concerned? I think like me, he was wondering why there was a group of not very talented teens playing loud music right next to where the mayor was opening the 2010 Canada Day celebrations at Harrison.


When the native dancing and speeches were over, we headed over for some free flags and CAKE!

YUM!


Elisabeth loved eating the cake without forks (they were out). David, not so much. Doesn't help that, like his mother, he's not a fan of icing.


After the cake, we walked over to where the kids' activities were taking place. We watched the potato sack races and then the three legged races. While Andrew and David took part in the 3 legged race, Elisabeth helped organize everyone and judge.



Then it was time for the potato-spoon race. The kids were a little unsure of what they were supposed to do.

Ready, set, GO!



David's an expert!

"What do I do now?"

After the races, we walked down the strand to listen to music. And maybe hug some teddy bears along the way!


Showing some Canadian pride!






David saw this bike and said, "THIS is the bike I want!" I asked, "Because you could ride in the back?" "Exactly."

Finally, the parade started!

I guess my kids are used to big western valley parades. This one was a little too homespun for them. But I enjoyed it!

The evening entertainment. We watched them warm up while the kids danced.


And then finally, as we waited for the fireworks, my fambly went and got some Baskin Robbins.

The fireworks were amazing! I'd definitely do this again...if it's warmer next year!

Strawberry fields forever

Last year on Canada Day we checked out Krause Berry Farms out on the way to Aldergrove. And there began a berry picking addiction! Though I remembered that strawberries were just about done by July 1st of last year, this spring has been weird, so I was hoping that the berries would still be good. I checked out their website and there was only good news so to celebrate the first day of summer holidays, we went berry picking!

Based on my experience last year and on Thursday, I recommend trying to get to the fields as early as possible. For one thing, it's not hot yet (though, fyi, the Lower Mainland hasn't managed to get hot yet all spring/summer!) But we also found that there weren't very many people there yet at 10 am. On the other hand, by the time we were leaving (just before 11:30) the crowds were definitely there.

It took us about 45 minutes to pick about 17 pounds of strawberries. Considering we were just about done when a regular showed up and the kids in charge told him our field was closed because it had been picked over (so why did they let me in there!) I think that's pretty good!

David was amazing and probably picked 7 of those pounds himself. And kept exclaiming, "This is the best day EVER!" the whole time he was picking. Yes. I *am* cherishing these moments.

Next we headed to the raspberry fields. We couldn't find anyone to show us where to pick, so we just meandered down an aisle. It was the first day of raspberries and they weren't as good as last year. So we only picked about 6 pounds of raspberries then I said we could go.

Look at that bounty! I've just about got all our berries frozen now so as hopefully we'll head out again tomorrow morning and refill our buckets. I got a free deep freezer from our neighbors across the cul-de-sac and so I've got LOTS of plans for berries/fruit/veggies this summer!!

A little snapshot

Facebook makes it soooo easy to be lazy about blogging. And until today, it was so much easier to post pictures there that I was having trouble motivating myself to post on here - that's why there's been such huge gaps between posts.

However, I've been having major problems with my computer lately. I've pretty much used up all my hard drive and so my computer is crashing several times a day (painful, much?!) And I need to update Java but for some reason the updates never seem to work. That means I can't use Facebooks photo exporter.

What's that? Too much information, you say? Well, okay. Let's just get on with it.

These pictures have been on Facebook since last weekend. But, since this is a record of everything we do, I thought I'd at least create a collage and put them on here too.

Last Saturday it was sunny and warm. Lovely in fact. So we met up with our friends and enjoyed a lovely day at Harrison Lake followed by ice cream at our favorite (island farms) dairy. It was just about perfect...as you can see for yourself!

Berry Season Part 2

Remember all those berries we picked in June? Well, we like to stock our freezer so that we have plenty of fruit for smoothies. So Elisabeth helped (and I use the term loosely) me get them all ready for freezing.

And since I'm not a mean mum, I let her enjoy some of the fruits of her labour without having to snaffle them from the freezer trays.

The latter half of the week

We're ending the school year in a FRENZY of activity! Unfortunately, David has a cold, but he did insist on being at the year end party at Al Anderson Park. It was pretty low-key and lots of fun.

Paigey, you're adorable! We're gonna miss your snuggliness next year :(

Crazy Jadeybug.
And David pretty much spent the whole day playing in the sand. When it was time to go, he was mad that he hadn't gotten to play in the water park. But it was probably a good thing considering it wasn't all that warm.

The Lyths got a new backyard toy and I am SO jealous (even though we don't really have a flat spot for our own trampoline yet anyway!) I hope they go camping or something this summer so I can sneak over and spend the whole time they're gone bouncing...

Ellie
David doing his best "daddy" impersonation.
Apparently this is my mini me, though I think she's much cuter. Little sweetie.

And since the weekend I'd been forced to cut off all Andrew's hair and my mum's. So I was in the mood to go nuts. Poor Davey was my hapless victim :)

We headed out to Chilliwack this week to visit our friends the Abelmans. David is really into making beaded jewellery lately so we brought some beads with us.

Meanwhile, Elisabeth, Seth and Charlise played outside.

David found a pair of glasses and looked adorable shooting up the neighborhood.

And on the way home the kids played with my sunglasses.

For Father's Day, we let Andrew decide what he wanted to do. He chose the beach (surprise, surprise!) Let me tell you, it was FRIGID! I had layers and towels for everyone but me; I was so sure I'd be fine in two layers of short sleeves and my down vest. Nope! Luckily someone left a bonfire smouldering on the beach and I furtively fed it all afternoon!


Andrew decided it was time to move to the next stage with his castle building so he brought some heavy duty tools. But first, they had to dig up some sand.


Then he showed the kids how to sculpt it.


Elisabeth got too cold around this time, so she came to snuggle under the blankets with me.

While the boys kept carving.

The finished product:


By this time the tide was coming in pretty fast, so the race was on to fortify the house.

Random pictures from lately

Ellie got new glasses!

It's barbeque season!
David and Elisabeth using chalks on their easel.

It's a cat bus!

Kindergarten Fieldtrip to Vancouver Aquarium

I never would have planned for us to make two trips to the aquarium so close together. On the other hand, it was very nice to be able to take our time on one of the trips (with just the family) since the school trip felt really rushed. We pretty much had two hours there, with the dolphin and beluga shows mandatory. Not long, but if you have extra kids it feels like long enough!!

First up was the dolphin show. We got there a few minutes early (since last time I couldn't even see the water, let alone the dolphins!) and had a snack.

Next, we wandered through the dolphin and beluga underwater viewing areas. The kids really liked this exhibit:

Mostly cause the screen changed when they ran their hands on it, not because of anything they were learning!

We ate lunch by the beluga viewing area again. It's a great spot to sit and watch some wildlife!