Family dinner

JL made my favorite Lentil soup from the rebar cook book. It was a nice, low key night. 

Back to life!!

Back to work .... Back to school .... 

This tea bag amused me this morning : 

I had some paperwork to walk over to the Vitals agency so I thought I'd do it during the boys piano lessons and get all my fitbit steps in.  I overshot how far the agency was, so the upside is I got a ton of steps but the down side was that I was late to get back to the boys!

I found their beautiful teacher playing a music game with them in the sunshine on her porch while they waited. 

It was a music theory game to teach them about counting .... Apparently they are quite competitive with eachother.  She's such a great teacher .... Giving them songs they are interested in - Elliot has a new Zelda song to learn.... She just listens close to them. We are so lucky to have her. 

Lychee Nuts ....

When you tell your parents on the long ride home from grandparents house about homework due tommorow. Research and write 20 sentences, written in French, about Lychee Nuts. 

Happy Birthday Aisha!

Tonight we helped to celebrate Aisha's 58th birthday!!  This woman is so beautiful!! She has a smile that lights up a room!!  Turns out she has never had candles on her cake before! After we sang to her, she laughed and didn't do anything until we all started saying 'blow out the candles!!'.... 

Here is Mohamed telling his grandma what to do!!

Blowing!!

First time for everything!!

And a moment ago, she was aiming this across the table at Jenny!!

They seem to be quite joyful ... They are both very nice to be around. 

Isaac started playing cards with Mohamed and showed him a few more tricks!

Family Day in Port Renfrew.

Do you see what I see?!

Port Renfrew is like pushing a reset button!!  It's so rugged and beautiful...

Exploring the beach ....

We went exploring along the rocks only to look back and see our path back to shore covered in water!! It swept in so fast!!

Here is Chris trying to monitor when the water will wash out again to sea in order for us to get back!!

We're smiling, but we were a bit freaked out!

Mel's boots are still my favorite!!!

Classic red touque ....

Piggy Back ...

The kids ran for much of the trail!! 

This stopped the running, but only momentarily!! We both noted that five years ago, had his shoe gotten stuck like this, he'd be yelling and crying and we would be carrying him! But he waited calmly for us to arrive and help him put it back on ...

This is a sweet little tree on a tiny little island in the middle of Fairy Lake.

Happy Family Day!

Sunday at Skutz Falls.....

We left the house at the same time as Laura and the girls to head out to one of my favourite hikes at Skutz Falls ....

I love this picture of Chris and Elliot !!

Strange enough they found a couple of decorated eggs inside this little hut ....

Geocaching !!

Elliot happily chose the little headband.....

....and got laughed at ....

He stuck to his guns ....

My back was aching at the end of the long hike .... Just over 2 hours and 8km's and a beautiful hot tub waiting for us at home!!

Happy Sunday!!

Ava's birthday morning ...

Ava and her little friends came down at 7am stating they hadn't slept and were hungry.  Laura sent them back upstairs with apples for awhile.  Laura also went back to sleep for a couple hours!! So when I went upstairs to ask if they wanted chai lattes (Ava's favourite!) - this is what I found!!

Here is Poppy wrapped up in a little nest!

Lydia's daughter Hannah - 

Ava was passed out while her cousin played Mario Kart with the only girl remaining awake!!

So I set the table, made some pancakes and made coffee for Laura and I.

Ava arrived at the table last, literally looking like the 'morning after' !!  She refused to wear the tiara .... Which the adults found amusing to watch!

Before breakfast, Elliot showed Laura what he loves about Blocksworld-

It was a nice night .... 

Ava's 11th Birthday Party!!

Super fun to have Ava and a few of her sweet friends up to camp to help her celebrate turning 11.  Laura brought pizza and ice cream cake!

My boys took it on themselves to explode these streamers Auntie Jackie gave to them last weekend!! Beautiful but brutal to clean up! Ava seemed to love them!!

..... Chris took them to the gym after dinner for a run and then we walked them down to the outdoor chapel to yell at the mountain and hear the echo back.  The wind blew our umbrella down yesturday so chris went and bought a new one and strung lights up for Ava and her friends! So pretty!!

After hot tubs, the girls put on Freaky Friday (better than their first choice of 'Fault in our stars'......)..... Laura and I hottubed for an hour during the movie and went up to say goodnight.  Ava isn't planning on sleeping so that'll be interesting!!  

This is how we left them!!  Sweet girls .... Hard to believe she's 11 already! Love that she's having her party here....so fun.