Waiting for Nana and Granddad

My parents were away for the month of March in search for warmer weather.
The children and I were greatly anticipating their arrival home- so we made our signs and greeted them at the airport.
I guess customs was going a little slow- as we had received a text saying that they were in line.
Getting more and more impatient, Kezia rolled up her sign and used it as a megaphone. She was yelling into it, "Where are you Nana and Granddad- I KNOW YOU ARE IN HERE SOMEWHERE!"

It was a priceless moment- that I'll remember always.

Swans and ducklings and abandon robin's egg- oh my!

Last year on fathers day you may recall how we stumbled upon some resident swans during an evening walk. We learned that they come every spring, so we went hunting and this is what we found...

 When we first arrived, the swans were out in the water near the nest. Above you can see one in the water and the other on the river bank just starting back toward the nest (that was two feet in front of where we were standing with a fence separating us).

 The first swan stood here for literally 10-15 minutes drying herself off. She would take her beak and stretch it as far as she could under her body, rub her feathers a little and then flick the water away from her body. It was so fascinating to watch the agility she had with her neck.

Later her mate joined her. She wouldn't go and sit on her nest, until her mate was there- so of course we then had to watch him dry off too. Then after she waddled over to the nest, she started touching up the nest. She reached for just the right reeds to bring up to the top, or support the base. Again, this process took about 15 minutes. It brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "nesting" for pregnant mothers.

There were 7 eggs when we saw them, and apparently there were 9 in total. Sadly, as has happened every recent year, the nest got flooded out with heavy rains and rising river waters. There were no cygnets from this family. =(

 In somewhat happier news, there were many ducklings for the children to see and feed at my Nana's home. I say somewhat, because every year this ducklings are threatened by crows who swoop down and steel them. We saw the crows attack a few times, but thankfully my kids ran over yelling at the crows to go away to scare them off. This went over really well with all the old folks! ;)

 Oh and the abandon robin's egg; Theo found this on the boulevard where we parked the car the evening we went in search of the swans.

Theo designer extraordinaire!

Back in the spring, when the Canucks were doing pretty well- we were invited to Boston Pizza in Surrey by Oma and Opa. The kids were given placemats, that had blank goalie masks that they were to design and colour. That evening, Theo could care less about his meal- he was totally into the challenge. He spent so much time on this thing, we couldn't help but take a picture before he handed it to the waitress to submit for the contest.

Then several weeks later, we received a phone call from Boston Pizza, letting us know that Theo's submission was selected as a winner! He was pumped! Here he is accepting his tickets.

 To make things even better, the day before the game Theo found out that his best buddy also had tickets to the game. So the boys all met up before to get a manly burger from 5 Guys!

 A happy memory indeed!!!

Easter Opps!

Life has been a bit busy lately! I clearly forgot to post about Easter.
This year for Easter we had a very special person living with us. Her Canadian name is Jessie- and she is from South Korea. She lived with us for just over 2 months while we taught her some English.
Here is a picture of Jessie icing some easter cookies with us.
Props to my friend Julee for teaching me how to do it!

Kezia's

 The Easter service at church this year, was quite touching. After the message, we were all handed a palm leaf and a marker- we were able to write down what it was that we wanted/needed to give over to God on the leaf and then tie it to a nail on the cross. It was beautiful to watch people go and give up their "stuff" to the cross.

Colin took the kids for a bike ride, while I prepared the Easter dinner. Upon their return, they had some lovely flowers to surprise me with.

 We egg hunted in our dirt pit yard that had been graciously cleared for the occasion.

 It was so nice to have my niece and her parents join us for dinner as my parents were away.

 Later we went to Oma and Opa's for more hunting and another yummy meal.