Richmond Children's Arts Festival

This year we have fallen in love with the Richmond Arts Center. The programs that we are registered in are all really high quality programs. Eva is in ballet and Theo is taking a circus class. Both instructors are amazing- so great with the kids! We love that there is an awesome, huge library attached, so that we can also get our weekly library visit in. The mall is across the street, so if there was something dire that I need, I can walk over during a class.
Anyways, last week, they hosted a children's festival. You could register for an artsy class for $10 and enjoy all of the festivities, or you could just pay $5 to enjoy the festivities. They had the usual "imagination station", balloon twisters, and professional face painters. There was a craft table, a clown show and best of all a drum session! I decided to enjoy a hour an half break break from the big kids, and signed the kids up in a puppet making class. They LOVED it, and came out with some pretty amazing, mouth moving puppets! Here are some photos to enjoy.

Sorry for the over exposure. This was the drum session.

A sword and two butterflies.

A private rooftop lunch date with my three.

Eva wanted a picture with the beautiful rocks.

A ballerina of course for Miss Eva.

The cutiest R2D2 ever. She asked for it, with no influence from her brother who was busy making....

this: Theo's imagination led him to make a robot puppet.

Those are spinning plates in the background. The clowns were fascinating.

Kezia designed this whole mask her self. I just helped with a little bit of glue.

The amazing puppets they made in their class. You can see the string on Eva's, where you can move the mouth (hair elastic) to make it talk. Such fun!

All in all, a great day, with many happy memories. It wasn't even that busy- so we will definitely return next year.  = )

Hockey Day in Canada

I wanted Kezia to have her party to herself, so Colin obliged and took the big kids out to the amazing free event that the Olympic Oval hosted that day. Since I wasn't there, I won't comment much. All I know, is they had a such a great time, that even though they had to leave for Theo's floor hockey game; they went back for more after! I sure hope that they do it again next year, so I can go too!

The lights lit up when the puck went over them.

Bernie getting Trevor's autograph.

Lots of free stuff!

You can't see it, but Eva got "Fin's" autograph on her sleeve.

Free hockey sticker books.

Kezia's 3rd Birthday Party

My baby girl turned three last weekend. She has never really had much of a fuss made over her birthday before so this year, since she actually has some friends whom she loves and talks about, I thought I'd go for it and throw her a party.
Her request was a Winnie the Pooh cake. I thought this was a little random, because we don't have any Winnie the Pooh toys, and other than one VHS movie that she has watched a total of about 5 times in her life, we haven't really had any Pooh talk. So I questioned her commitment to this request at first. But then, when Colin and I talked about it, we realized that he favorite sippy cup is Winnie the Pooh (she calls him "Mrs. the Pooh"), and the potty seat at Oma and Opa's is Winnie the Pooh, as well as the dishes that we serve almost every meal to her on. So I conceded and started googling Winnie the Pooh Cakes. Here's what I came up with:

 Then I made "hunny" pot loot bags, for the kids to fill with the treats from the Pooh pinata.

 As it turned out, Kezia was afraid of the Pooh, Tiger, and 'Roo candles I found.

 And after everyone clapped, she told everyone to be quiet because her cousin baby Mackenzie was sleeping upstairs.

 Thankfully Mackenzie woke up in time to receive a little sticker decorations from her cousins. ; )

 Happy Birthday my sweet girl. You are so smart and funny. We love you very much!

Happy Belated New Years

Since having kids we have developed a tradition of celebrating a Newfie New Years. This means that we would get together with friends and celebrate the count down with Newfoundland at 7:30pm our time. We would play Great Big Sea music, and dance with kids. It has been a wonderful tradition that we have been happy to share with other young families. A special shout out to Mark and Michelle Miller who hosted the first Newfie New Years party that we attended! Thanks for the great idea.
This year, we had hosted a lot over Christmas and didn't get any invites out- so rather than feel sorry for ourselves, I decided to get into the spirit, and plan a party just for us. I googled a bit, and read up on all my favorite blogs to get some ideas. And since the kids are getting a bit older- we thought we'd shoot for a New York New Years this year.

Here's what we did:

 First we decorated and put on our party hats. Then we cut out some circles to make some clocks.

 Then the kids printed the numbers on the clocks, and make the hands point to each hour that we would stay up that evening.

 Here's the final product. Then I filled each bag with some special dollar store treats.

 The 4 O'clock bag was full of decorations...

And since I wanted it to be a special evening, nothing says special like roast beef and Yorkshire puddings!

The kids came up with the brilliant idea, of stuffing their Yorkshire's with garlic mashed potato, meat and carrots and then eating it like a bun.

 It was so yummy- if I do say so myself. There were many other bags to open, with many other surprises. The final bag even involved a confetti gun. We all had such a great time together- just us. It was truly amazing; no tears, no fights. I will remember this night with fondness for the rest of my life. I hope they do too!