Crazy Hat Day

Today at preschool it was crazy hat day! Melissa borrowed Carmen's Anne of Green Gable's straw hat & braided red hair. 

The traditional Anne...

My little Anne...

Riding the roller coaster ride...

Kiera chasing....

Melissa's turn to chase while Kiera rides... hanging on to those braids!

Lil' Gardener

This spring Melissa & I have thoroughly enjoyed the 'Lil' Gardener' class offered by the AgRec. I started documenting some of her more interesting plant crafts weekly and have compiled them here for your viewing!

Week 1 

Flower seeds in a painted pot:

Grass Guy: 

(You can note at week three the grass was having a really hard time pushing through the reinforced toe of the nylon stocking. I ended up having to provide it with some much needed relief by trimming off the top. I'm not sure how much further his face could have stretched!)

Melissa has enjoyed practicing her hairdresser skills on her Grass Guy. She is very cautious and doesn't take many risks when it comes to his hair maintenance. She is more concerned about keeping it all pretty much even. Maybe one day she will be good enough to do my hair!?

Week 2 

A terrarium of sorts: 

Sunflower seeds:

Week 3 

Vegetables:

(Carrots, tomatoes & peas. On the walk home from class two of the cups tipped over and seeing I hadn't watered the dirt, they spilled everywhere. I did my best to put them back together, but the tomato plant never did sprout. We had a later casualty with the carrots, I transplanted them outdoors and one morning we went to look at them and saw the slug that had eaten all of them for lunch. Grrrr.) 

Week 4

This week I brought my camera to class and took some photos of her in action. Here Melissa is decorating a little pot...

and filling it with dirt...

Flower seeds:

Week 5 

Cedar saplings:

Week 6

Hand-print garden stepping stone:

There were quite a few more projects we made, but these were the more interesting ones. It has been a blast for both Melissa and I to enjoy watching plant-life grow from seeds. Now most of her plants have now moved on outdoors and she takes great pride watering them with the big garden hose! I have such a great little helper ;)

Cars & Babes

They sure do grow up fast... 

Next thing you know they are driving... isn't that how it goes? 

Melissa got to drive her own sweet ride this week...

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... that is drive an immobile sports car in the shopping centre!

(and I didn't even stick any money in... I'm pretty sure that would have made it a bit too 'thrilling')

I got a chuckle out of her using the stick shift for the gas pedal! I guess she wouldn't know what to do with one as our vehicle is an automatic.

Some gentleman in the mall saw me taking photos of Melissa in the car, and told me to get in and he would take our picture together. I must say the car was uncomfortably compact!

Backyard Fun

Earlier this week Kiera came over to play with Melissa. It was a nice enough day to be outside, so the girls played in the backyard. Melissa was excited to get to use her gazillion bubble machine again...

The girls enjoyed PB & J at their little patio table...

Then played some more in the sandbox. In this photo Kiera is offering Melissa some "sand soup"... yum-yum!  (I couldn't talk Melissa into pretending to try some... she was firm when she said she didn't want any!)

The girls also worked on their gardening skills and did a very thorough job of watering all the backyard plants... which I appreciated :)

The Little Gym

Melissa was kindly invited to join Kiera for 'bring a friend day' at The Little Gym in Langley. Melissa has joined her once before and LOVED it, so she was very excited to be going again! 

This time a little added treat was that we drove together in Kiera's van. The girls were very thrilled and for the first few minutes they laughed (their phony laughs) together as loud as they could. It was amazing that baby Riley managed to sleep through this racket!

Things settled down (thankfully!) and the two girls sat hand-in-hand...

First at The Little Gym they sit around in a circle with the teacher. The teacher encouraged them to do different things, like a donkey kick or summersault. 

Then they ran (hopped, skipped, jumped) around in a circle.

Next they jumped on this large air-filled trampoline thing.

Then they lined up and continued on to the different gymnastic stations...

Here they followed instructions for each mini circuit style gymnastic course. It is amazing what these little kids can do given the right-sized equipment and instruction... for example I never would have encouraged Melissa to scale the parallel bars, and here she was doing it.

The balance beam...

The high-bar...

Parachute time...

After class we had a nice lunch in Fort Langley and a little walk through the shops. Thanks for nice day Farha & Kiera :)

Lola-Leela

Today while gardening with me Melissa found a new little friend... a ladybug she named Lola-Leela.

The two of them got pretty closely acquainted...

and so comfortable she let me put it on her nose for this photo!

She played with Lola-Leela for a very long time. I noted that Lola-Leela wasn't walking so fast near the end!

I guess walking endlessly between hands, and being dropped and picked up over and over can be very tiring and I'm sure discouraging :)

I went inside to make dinner, and Daddy went to meet Missy's new friend. Just as she was going to show Daddy, she dropped Lola-Leela and stepped on her! Ooops! So Lola-Leela is now taking a nap in my flowers ;)

Welcome Baby Amadora

This past week Melissa got to hold her first new-born baby. And this wasn't just any old baby... this is a very special baby named Amadora... yes the baby has the name Dora in her name! 

Amadora is also very special in many other ways... her parents have been waiting a long time for her and got the phone call three weeks ago that they had been chosen to adopt her! We are so very excited to welcome her and are so happy for her parents!

Two Wheeler

Just before Melissa's birthday she got her first two-wheeler bike! She is so proud when she rides around on it in our cul-de-sac, just like a 'big girl' :)  I'm sure I'll post some better pics when the weather gets a little warmer. 

PS. The scarf was her own touch! 

Making Pancakes

A few weekends ago Melissa had a sleep-over at Nana & Pop's house, and as usual was spoiled rotten with 100% attention!

For breakfast Melissa helped make the pancakes, stirring the batter...

and adding the blueberries...

Yum, yum!

Little did Nana & Pop know when they did this they started something... now every time I am making something in the kitchen Melissa pulls up a chair and wants to 'help'! 

Bradner Flower & Garden Show

Two weekends ago we went as a family to the the 80th Bradner Flower & Garden Show in the historic village of Bradner.

This photo was taken in this large room which had an amazing daffodil display. 

There were over 100 different varieties of daffodils on display, with each variety in a vase with its cleaver name below it. The fragrance in the room was amazing! Melissa went sniffing to try and find her favorite! 

Melissa was very much in the mood for getting her picture taken, and kept asking for me to! Here she is posing in-front of a vintage tractor and flower display.