First Tooth is OUT!

Talk about milestones in your kid's life... this is one of them, the first tooth to fall out!  Nora's tooth has been wiggly for a couple of months now, even her adult tooth has been growing from behind.

It was all very exciting for Nora.  First she bit into her pancake and she noticed it was way more wiggly.  She couldn't stop playing with it, quite giddy.  Then she bit into a piece of bacon and gave a little scream... I got her to spit out her bacon, checked there wasn't a tooth in there, and noticed a little bit of blood in the gums.  I grabbed a kleenex, cleaned up the blood and since it was dangling I grabbed it and *poof* out it came!

She was SO SO excited to see the tooth in the kleenex, she ran to the bathroom window to take a look at her new gap - squealing at a high pitch voice so excited.

It was pretty cool to be there to experience her pure JOY.  Phew, glad it was a pleasant experience than a teary one :)

First tooth is out!

It's sooooo tiny! 

Her little note to the Tooth Fairy

"It's me and the tooth fairy!"

And of course, I need to show a video to express her excitement...

Birthday Celebration

If it hadn't been for Mom's vision to spend her 60th birthday somewhere exotic, Spain wouldn't have happened.  So Mom, thank you for putting it out there a year ago and making it happen!  What a fantastic idea and what a great way to celebrate such a big milestone with the extended family.

Happy 60th Mom! I Love YOU!

To officially celebrate Mom's birthday, my aunt and uncle booked an awesome restaurant, Cafe Del Mar.  It was on the beach... and what a beautiful setting, white linen, white chairs, all under a white awning, made everything feel so fresh and famous! (The really cool thing was it had their own enclosed playground outside for the kiddo's to run wild before and after eats).

Nora and Po Po

The kiddie table :)

Mom's long time friend, Anita (lives in Switzerland) joined us too

The brothers!  My dad and his brother, Tomson

My cuzzie Michelle with her baby nephew, Maxwell (Kev's kid!)

Mom's actual birthday is August 22nd, so we look forward to celebrating again on her real birthday :)

In and Around Spain

Having Marbella as the home base was great for low key pool days but every now and then we adventured off to check out our surroundings.  It was great having a car for the 10 days, definitely cover a lot of areas within the southern coast.  IF we had just another day or two, I would have really loved to drive down to Gibraltar (only an hour's drive away) to see the Rock of Gibraltar, as well as to possibly take a ferry to Tangiers / Morocco just to say we touched and reached the northern part of Africa!

Each little town we visited in Spain had such a neat little vibe and it's own 'cool' factor.

Mijas

Cute and quaint little streets

What a pretty little town with its white walled village, blue flowerpots and red flowers.  Quaint tiny narrow streets to walk or dare try to drive through, complete with little donkeys or horses giving rides to many tourists :)

 When we arrived, the kids were pretty much past hungry and cranky and well into 'hangry', so we stopped for lunch and happened on the first restaurant called Coko Cafe.  We decided on a bunch of tapas to try and what a great choice.  Each dish was so delicious and such a pleasant way to have lunch and calm all our tummies and feelings :)

Getting into Mijas was a little overwhelming when Trav took a slight right instead of left to the parkade.  We ended up driving on these narrow narrow car wide roads trying to find our way out and back to a parking lot.  Quite the experience and just so thankful for tiny cars in Europe! :)

Great viewpoints looking toward the Mediterranean Sea

Ronda

Pretty town on the side of a cliff!

About 45 minutes from Marbella, we took a windy road inland toward Ronda.  This little town sits on top a steep cliff, above a pretty cool looking canyon.  The viewpoints are amazing and you can just see for miles and miles.

Super hot day, but standing on that ledge gave you enough wind channeling from the canyon up to cool you down!

You can take a walk down toward the bottom of the canyon and then look up at the new bridge spanning between the cliffs.  It was quite hot that day and I had a very tired little Lily who didn't feel like participating too much in walking, so I declined the walk down toward the bottom of the canyon to take in some pretty breathtaking views looking up.  So, photo credit to Cherie, this is what you could see along the walk.

We didn't make the walk down, but this is what Cherie captured, pretty awesome!

The look and feel was similar to Mijas with white walls and flowers on balconies, but I really liked the consistency and look / feel of the blue flowerpots and red flowers in Mijas :)

Sometimes there are just too many choices and options for eating when you're in a new place, that by the time you are hungry and just want to get everyone fed, it becomes such an overwhelming task of finding something to eat!  I had to put this photo in to remind me of the chaos that it was in making a group decision on where to have lunch... a whole side street full full of choices... in the end... we ended up sitting on two tables between two restaurants because one side had food that the some of the kids would most likely eat, the other side with delicious looking tapas that we wanted to try, AND a pizza that I ordered as take out just in case my kids didn't eat the other food.  In the end, the good ol' pizza won out with all the kids!  Aiya, sometimes picky-ness is not necessary when you just stick with basics for them little ones :)

Deciding where to eat... up and down, up and down :)

Juzcar

On our way home from Ronda, there was a little turn off for Juzcar.  I had read up before our trip that this little town was painted all blue in honour of the world premier for the Smurfs movie.  The sign said it was only 12km away, so we thought it would only be a 15 min detour.  Oooops, little did we know it was a 1.5 lane road that twisted and turned in and around a mountainside.  I was a tad nervous the entire way and at some point didn't know if it was worth it to turn around and just head home or not.  Anyways, since Trav was having fun with the crazy switchbacks, we carried forward... finally we made it to little Smurf Town!

Granada

A major highlight to our Spain trip was taking a little one night getaway to Granada with my cousins, without kids!  It.was.awesome.  Not only because we didn't have the kids to worry about but because we had this incredible time exploring a new city with our cousins, the bonding and just the freedom... wow, we all felt young again!

I just love this photo that Cherie took of us  

The last time Trav and I were in Granada was 8 years ago on our 1 year anniversary trip to Spain and Croatia.  It's such a beautiful city - so impressive with the Alhambra perched ontop of a hill, the Albayzin area opposite it with their cute little cobblestone and narrow walkways, along with pockets of Moorish and Morrocan influences everywhere.

I love the intricate design and detail, and the doors are solid and huge.

We visited the Alhambra in the dead heat of the afternoon - it was SO hot we only lasted an hour and covered mainly the Palace.  For sunset, we went for drinks at the San Nicholas Plaza to take in the view of the Alhambra, such a gorgeous view!

It was our night to try and find some amazing food and tapas and ideally go from place to place, but it also so happened to be a World Cup soccer night when Germany was playing against Brazil.  While we were walking the streets to find a place, we kept up with the score, and when Germany scored twice in a row, the boys couldn't take it anymore and settled for a bar showing the game.  They didn't want to miss any more of the action.  So, unfortunately, the food was definitely not what we were expecting but hey, all in good company :)

The next morning however, Trav and I ventured around and found a neat little breakfast place and had the best cafe con leche, churros con chocolate and tomato bocadillo (tomato baguette sandwiches)... best breakfast ever!

The rest of the day was spent shopping shopping shopping! :)

So, it was super nice to get away but also to do these fun mini roadtrips with the girls.  They travelled really well and we were so proud of them for making the stops all worthwhile.  I think a key part in our happiness in the car, besides being able to play games on the ipods, was bringing our Jennifer Gasoi CD with us for the car.  The girls absolute love her cd, know ALL the words, so singing something familiar was awesome!

Still more to come... Mom's big birthday celebration and the last leg, London!

Europe 2014 - The Journey & Our Home Base in Spain

Can't believe it, but our much anticipated trip to Spain has come and gone!  What a fantastic and wonderful time!  The girls had a great time getting to know their other cousins and we had a brilliant time enjoying the culture and delicious tapas y vino!

Our journey to get to Marbella, Spain was quite the adventure.  Although if we were in Amazing Race, I don't think we'd win, felt like it took an eternity to get there :).  Basically, we went from Vancouver to Atlanta, 1 hour layover, Atlanta to Paris, 2 hour layover, Paris to Malaga and then a 1 hour drive to Marbella.  22 hours in transit!  I'm proud of our girls, they did well and we really couldn't blame them (or us) for any meltdowns toward the end.  I must admit, we were SOO happy to see the rest of the family on our arrival.

Our route!  Now the girls can add their 'pink dots' to show where they've been in the world!
A whole new continent!

(Tip for future Sharon:  try go direct if possible, and if not, at least a couple hours layover to give you time to stretch the legs, find food and go to a washroom before the next leg.. then you're not having to rely on the plane food!)

Nora's shirt says, "Off to see the World"

We then spent the next 10 days in Spain with Kai Canada (my parents, Steve, Cherie, Megan and Owen), and Kai London (Uncle Tomson, Aunty Marj, Michelle and her family, Kev and his family and Andrew).  Also, Mom's friend Anita & Claude (from Switzerland) and Cherie's Mom Margaret and Tom joined us for the festivities!

Boys bonding: watching the World Cup! (Photo credit: Cherie)

Bunk beds for the kids room

My uncle found an awesome setup in Marbella.  We had two villas which were connected so a really perfect way for everyone to hang out.  Each villa had a pool - this by far was one of Nora's favourite moments.. being able to swim everyday, all day!  It really makes a difference having a pool right in the house (vs in a condo where you would need to pack up stuff each time you wanted to go to the pool).  This way, the kids would go back and forth between swimming, drying up, changing and playing and then basically repeat repeat repeat :)

If you read up a bit on Marbella, there's a really famous marina close by called Puerto Banus.  This is quite the marina where many richy riches show off their big and fancy (hotel looking) yachts and crazy sport cars that would even probably put Porshe and Lamborghini to shame!  Interesting place to wonder around for the nightlife, but I was quite happy staying in the villas 10 mins walk away and on the quieter side of the beach :)

The Mediterranean Sea

Water a little bit cold!

But Lily being brave on the beach, dipping her toes in with Dad

That was our home base for 10 days, just lovely!  More to come on our adventures in and around Spain!

Lily is FOUR

(Awww I feel bad, I can't believe it's taken me almost two months to post something, especially since Lily' birthday draft has been in the works for so long!)

Lily's Birthday was on May 5th but we started celebrating at the end of April so it's been a blast welcoming in her fours!

For her 4th birthday party we had a nice intimate 4Cats "Pop Art" party.  It's been so sweet seeing her come out of her shell at preschool that it was a real treat for us to be able invite some of Lily's new friends to celebrate her birthday.  

Preschool has been great for her!  As much as she wants to resist or says she doesn't want to go at times, she often comes back and tells me that she's glad she went.  We've seen a huge change over the past couple of months, even the teachers and parents have commented on how much she talks and how happy she is, so it really makes me so proud of her for going on her own and finding her own way.  

Lily loves her swimming and gymnastics!  She's comfortable in both aspects and just loves to look out for Nora at the same time to wave hi and call out to her.  

What a bubbly girl!  Plus quite a joker... she loves the slapstick type of humour, loves to do silly faces and to just make you smile.  We really enjoy singing and lately we have been listing to "Jennifer Gasoi's - Throw a Penny" cd... one day she came up to me, gave me this massive hug, and then sang, "Baby baby baby boo, baby baby, I love you".... awwww *melt my heart!!

Nora and Lily are the best of friends!  I really love to see how much Lily looks up to Nora... together, they re-enact Frozen almost everyday, they play their polly pockets or Lego friends constantly, they're building forts all over the house and just chitter chatter all day.   When Nora wants alone time to just sit and read a book, Lily's all good with going to play by herself with her little dolls.  She loves just about any mini characters and will play for hours on end with them.  So, in that way, it's a nice balance and good to see each take their 'me' time for when they want.

They are starting to get to a point with a little bit of competitiveness / fairness... "first one to do this is the winner, no, last one to do this is the winner"... and of course, sometimes both can't be a winner and so we're in a learning stage that it's okay to not win all the time... but phew, it can get tiring! 

Some kids love their stuffies, maybe some don't... Lily is definitely a 'stuffies' kinda gal.  Back when she was 2 until 3, she absolutely without a doubt, had to have cat and Red with her.  Then over the year, her puppy "Baba" (formerly known as "Fred") has been her confidant... the one she has to go to bed with and the one who will calm her down... its so sweet.

And just like that... my kids are now four and six!

Little Miss Nora Turns Six

It's the last day of being five and then Nora turns six years old tomorrow! I can and I can't believe it...

If I think back to that very moment she entered our lives and all the amazing memories and experiences we've had so far, it feels like we've already been and done so much and what a full six years.  But then today, I couldn't stop taking my eyes off Nora, watching her just being herself.  Her energy she gives when she's excited or happy, her calmness when she picks up a book to read by herself, her pure joy when she performs the Frozen song, "Let it Go!" with Lily or her intensity while trying to build her Lego friends by herself.  Where has that time gone where she entered this world a clean slate (unable to do anything but eat, poop, cry and sleep) to just six years later where's she's making us breakfast some times, reading her little sister a book, or teaching her cousins the next big song to sing and dance!

Nora loves to pick up a book and just read and read.  Trav says it reminds him of when he was younger and would just read all day if he could!

I love it and I love that I have her and Lily in our lives to show us what new things we can take on together.  For example, Nora has picked up on skating and just absolutely loves it!  That girl has no fear of falling and just seems so natural on the ice but thanks to her, it's made me go on the ice more and really get into skating too!  For the past couple months, in between Nora's skate lessons, the girls and I have also been going once a week to a parent tot drop in with the Kai kids and fully enjoying our time on the ice together!

Always willing to lend her sister a hand!

Doing Kindergarten at home has been awesome!  For sure, we've had our rough 'student teacher' days but overall, it has been AMAZING watching Nora absorb everything and just being there to watch her take it all in.  Plus, she's totally the perfect person to give you the 'ooooh and ahhh' expressions when something really interesting is being explained... but that's the fun part.. at five, they just can't believe how things can be like that, or how things works, so really, for them... life is pretty darn cool!  I'm just so happy I get to be there to see her expressions.

This past month we learnt a ton about space.  I didn't think I would go too detailed and thought I would just give a general overview of the planets in our solar system.  But, once we got into it, she was truly fascinated by it all.  Before I knew it, we were going to the library almost every week to get more books, sometimes she'd read the books ahead and then tell ME some pretty cool stuff.  I think she kinda blew Grammy and Grampy's mind away when we started talking about the dwarf planets (did you know Pluto is no longer considered a planet, it was downgraded to being a dwarf planet!).  Then without hesitation, she told everyone where "Ceres, the dwarf planet" is found within the solar system.  Trav had to google it just to confirm and prove she was right! (Even I couldn't remember after reading about it with her!).  So, I just loved her attention and retention toward space, it's pretty cool.  By the way, in case you're wondering, Ceres is in the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter :)

"Our Solar System" project!

We also celebrated our 100 days of school with a few activities.  This was definitely a fun one to get both girls involved.  We did 10 reps of 10 different exercises, we grouped our snacks for the day into 10 groups of 10, and then we did a fun pop dot activity showing 10 dots per section.  I found this one pretty neat in how the two girls each differed in their approach and as a result, two quite different looking pieces of art!  Try it with your kids, it'd be neat to see how there's turn out.

Take a blank piece of paper, write 100 in the middle of the paper and circle it.  Then divide the page into 10 sections.  Then tell them to put 10 dots in each section and give them different coloured pop dots / markers.  (Ideally you have 10 different colours, but we only had 9 so we had to duplicate 1 colour).  Then see how they organize their dots...

Celebrating 100 days of school!

Nora decided to put all 10 dots of one colour in it's own section (except for the last section, where she still put 1 colour of each dot in that section).  Then Lily's approach was a bit different... she would take 1 colour pop dot and then put 1 dot into each section as she counted to 10.  Then would take another colour and do the 2nd dot in each section.  Two different looks! :)

Beautiful capture of daddy and his little girls!

Nora at 18 months

Nora at 6 years

Happy Birthday to our wonderful and beautiful Little Miss Nora!  We love you just OH SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH... through the Milky Way and back! :)

Snow Fort

(I can't believe my posts have been so far and few between, I need to keep up, else I'm always going to forget all these moments!  And I really rely on my blog to help me put together my photobooks!).

The last weekend of Feb, we took a little roadtrip out to Courtenay to visit Grammy, Grampy and the Legers.  I'm so glad we decided to bring our winter gear with us because it didn't stop snowing that whole weekend and we spent just an AMAZING fun time out in the snow, building and building and playing and playing.  Plus, I had never ever built a snow fort before, always snowmen, but never a fort.  It was such a joint effort and pretty awesome in the end!

This was the 'original' fort that Trav and Nora had started

Then since it kept on snowing, we decided to expand some more!

Ta daaaaa!  Super cool!

Our journey and trip getting to the island was quite an adventure.  But unfortunately, I don't have all night to write it up, so maybe another day I can give a recap!  Just happy I finally made a post!  Sheesh, it's only almost mid March and spring is around the corner!