Science Centre

We went to the Telus Science Centre a few times this month and I thought I'd post some of the cool pictures Jess took. They've just redesigned the children's play area and it's really fun, the kids love it there.

There's an airport area where there are suitcases that you can run through the x-ray machine before loading them into the back of the airplane. And in the cockpit, the buttons make it sound like you're talking to the tower, taxiing down the runway, taking off, etc. The kids could have played there for hours.

The co-pilots didn't always agree on which buttons to press...

There was also a really fun water play area with all kinds of things to touch and explore. Really fun.

We'll be back again this weekend!

Maira's 5th Birthday

My little baby girl isn't quite so little anymore. Five just seems so much older than 3 or 4 - she's not a toddler or even a preschooler anymore. She's more than ready for kindergarten and can't wait to start in September. She's a funny, kind, smart, friendly little girl who loves to dance like crazy and her list of what she wants to be when she grows up includes being a mermaid, a princess, a candy seller, or a candy taster.

On the morning of her birthday, she woke up to a bed full of balloons, which we always do for our kids on their birthday.

Then we got dressed and I took her to Build a Bear. She'd never been there before and she had a blast picking out a special bear and its outfit. She ended up with a turquoise bear sporting a sparkly red outfit with sparkly red heels. Very...colourful. We both had a lot of fun there.

That evening, we had family over to celebrate her birthday. Her choice for our meal was pizza and she let me choose what kind of cake to bake, as long as it was pretty. I copied (sort of) the cake here, which I found through (of course) Pinterest.

With my sister Jill's family over, we had 9 kids (if you count Shae as a kid) in the house so after supper, we put on Toy Story 3 so we could have a few minutes of peace.

Jess decided to take a picture of me the night before, making the decorations for her pink birthday party. I really enjoy making birthdays special for my kids but yeah, it IS a lot of work...

For her friend party, she wanted to do a Pinkalicious themed party. We got the idea while browsing through Pinterest together. We didn't use just one website but combined ideas from a whole bunch of them. Who knew it would be such a popular theme for a birthday party? But it's one of Maira's favourite books and she does love the colour pink so it was a perfect choice.

Pinkalicious is the story of a little girl who loves pink and one day, she eats so many pink cupcakes that she turns pink - her skin, hair, everything. She's delighted but her mother rushes her to the doctor who proclaims that the only cure for rare and acute pinkititis is a steady diet of green food. So, we took that storyline and ran with it.

For starters, instead of a birthday cake, we had pink cupcakes, of course. And we had a very pink lunch. I even added food colouring to homemade bread and made pink peanut butter and jam sandwiches for the main course. There was also pink lemonade, pink candies, jello jigglers, and strawberry ice cream.

We played pink games like Pass the Pink (hot potato), read a few pinkalicious stories, and they all had their nails painted pink and we applied pink tattooes to their cheeks or hands.

We also did a photo shoot so we could photoshop their pictures and print them off so it looked like they had eaten so much pink at the party that they turned pink too.

We gave each guest a photo of herself, all pinkified, and then I gave them their treat bags, which were green, and were full of green treats, to cure any pinkititis they might have acquired at the party.

And finally, here are a few shots from the photo shoot that don't have to do with the party but are too cute not to put up.

A boy and his dog.

Down Dog.

Glowsticks in the Bath

Thanks to Pinterest, we have been coming up with all kinds of fun ideas of things to do with the kids. One of them has been to put glowsticks in the tub and turn out the lights. Here are some pictures Jess took of Hudson playing with glowsticks in the tub.

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve this year, we decided to have a fun feast/games night with the kids, which we've done before, but this year we wanted it to be special since this may well be Shae's last night spending New Year's Eve at home since she'll be 14 next year and will probably want to go to the youth dance.

So, we went and bought all kinds of fun treats and hor d'oeuvres, even escargot (which I was sure Connor would love but he was way too grossed out to try it).

We started off with a rousing game of "Match the coloured circles on the dinosaurs" which Hudson was a pro at...

Connor and Shae challenged each other to a game of computerized Battleship, while enjoying the delicious treats.

Later we played family Cranium which had us doing all kinds of silly things.

I realized that my younger kids have never had a float before so here is Hudson tasting his first orange pop float:

Hudson went to bed around 10 but we let the others stay up until midnight and after our countdown, with kisses and hugs, toasts (non-alcoholic drinks of course) and a half hearted attempt at Auld Lang Syne, we opened crackers and then sent the younger ones to bed.

Then, Jess, Shae and I got down the very serious business of finishing our game of Settlers of Catan. The game went forever and we didn't get to bed until 2:30 am (and just so you know, I won).

Bring on 2012!