Happy Birthday Atalie!

I had a miniature party for Atalie today while her friend (the girl I babysit) was here. The day began with playdough (a gift from her friend), watching "Horton Hears A Who" (GREAT Dr. Seuss movie!) with popcorn and juice, decorating cupcakes, lunch, another round of Horton with more popcorn and juice, supper (her friend was gone at this point), birthday cake, more presents and a trip down the street on her new bike...sort of. Decorating never got boring:) Watching their big flick! NEW playdough... such a novelty from the old funky-coloured stuff that's a bit tough to shape. Blowing out the candles, which she had been talking about ALLLLLLL DAY!!!! FINALLY endulging in a much requested "choca cake".... ...meanwhile, Aiden has already finished his, which was the same size as Atalie's. "Mo?! Mo?! Mo?! Mo?! Mo?! Mo?! Mo?!" - - - *sigh* "Ok Aiden... just a little more." Opening gifts (movies and stickers will never go wrong!) A bike! Believe it or not, I couldn't find a bike that wasn't extremely girlie... unless I wanted to spend a couple hundred dollars on a professional brand (like Norco), which is a little above and beyond this little girl... so red with flowers it was. Aiden was a tad more excited than Atalie was;) She'll get used to it yet - she really had no desire to try using the pedals for some reason. She cruised down the street while we pushed her and she sat there. haha!

Our bed.

Kevin is just about done and already he has an order for another bed frame... but not from me (yet!) ;) Our great friend Leah and her son Finn were here for the weekend and she couldn't resist wanting a Kevin-made bed for herslef - haha! She has placed her order and now Kev has another project to inspire him. I think he truely enjoyed making this bed frame!! Here's some pics: Above, Kevin holds up the soon-to-be footboard. The headboard (sitting in the basement with the other pieces, waiting for a coat of polyurethane). The beautiful grain of fir (helmlock, I'm told). A few pieces of wood before they were assembled today. Here are a few from our time with Leah and Finn (who is, of course, irresistably photogenic!):

Baby Shades

We got these sunglasses for Atalie when she was a baby and neither her nor Aiden seemed to take well to them... until now. Atalie FINALLY likes to wear sunglasses in the truck when it's "a bit bright" and Aiden likes to wear them on his terms for about 1 minute at a time. Silly kids. Or maybe silly parents for trying to protect their kids' sensitive eyes by being practical...? Who knows. ;)

The new look

Yay!!! I've been wanting something a little less boring for awhile now. I figured this one was suiting considering the season and purpose of our blog, meaning there were some more "feminine" (let's face it, very girlie) layouts which were kind of appealing but I figured I would keep the rest of my familia in mind;) If you blog and want something new, I recommend looking up The Cutest Blog On The Block for a free background download! There are a few "less" feminine layouts, inspite of the website's name.

Hotties

"Hotsprings", that is! We headed up to Lussier in Whiteswan Lake Provincial Park yesterday, which is about a 20-30 minute drive from our house (SO lucky, I know!!). There are three tiers of pools, all man-made/shaped, with the temperature ranging from 94 to 110 degrees, depending on which pool you are in. Natural hot springs pour into these pools just before reaching the Loussier River. I hadn't been there since my first time 6 years ago! It was a very first for the kids and they LOVED it!! The pools used to be a hidden secret amongst the locals and a few travellers, until tourism picked up in the area a couple years ago... and now you are guaranteed to run into somebody up there, especially on a weekend! Infact, so many people mindlessly trace their way up the winding 17km gravel road to get to these springs, that it can be a bit dangerous, depending on who else is on it. So before we get into more photos, I need to share what happened AS we were driving to the springs. Yesterdays story is one of many tourist stories we've collected in the past couple years: On our way up to the hotties yesterday we drove around a corner, only to wonder for a mere second why a white pickup truck was parked on the left side of the road and a lady was running for her life on the right side. Get this: Shortly after this curious thought crossed all our minds, Jeff (sitting in the passenger seat) says to Kev, "Kev hit it! Hurry up, put it in reverse and get going!!!! Get out of his way!" We noticed another pickup truck coming DOWN the hill with a HUGE trailer attached to it and he was out of control! I kid you not... the lady who happened to be the passenger to the small parked white pickup was outside the vehicle b/c she had just directed her husband out of the ditch (there are some slick parts on that road and apparently everyone assumes that mountains don't get snow in winter b/c they don't have snow in summer when they last visited) when she saw this truck and trailer SLIDING towards her and started running for her life!!! I've never seen anybody run so fast as she did... which kinda makes me wonder why she didn't just head for the snowbank instead of straight down...? Anyway, Kevin immediately put our truck into reverse and headed down as fast as we could without losing control ourselves. Now get this: The man driving the truck & trailer very casually gave us the "peace" sign and a slight nod as he continued on by with his head tilted back a bit and one hand on the stearing wheel (you know that look when you're in high school and are trying to look cool in your parents car). WHAT THE @#*#@$?! I don't even know where to begin with this situation. We were all pretty furious, not to mention the poor lady who was shaking so bad she could barely light her cigarette (ok that was a little funny). 1st Question to the huge truck&trailer idiot: (for lack of worse terms!!): WHY WOULD YOU DRIVE A MASSIVE TRAILER UP A SNOW-COVERED MOUNTAIN ROAD?!! Nothing exists up there except frozen lakes, hotsprings and snowy campsites. 2nd Question: WHY WOULD YOU HIT THE BREAKS, CAUSING THE TRAILER TO JACKNIFE AND THEN SLIDE?! HAVE YOU ACTUALLY DRIVEN WITH A TRAILER ON BEFORE DECIDING TO ATTEMPT THE WORST DRIVING SCENERIO EVER??? 3rd Question: WOULDN'T IT BE DECENT TO AT LEAST YELL "SORRRRRRY!!!" OUT YOUR WINDOW AS YOU DRIVE BY THE PEOPLE YOU NEARLY KILLED, IF YOU'RE NOT GOING TO AT LEAST SLOW DOWN?????!!!!! My frusteration with seeing Alberta License Plates only ever worsens. I'm sorry Alberta - I will always call you home and I love most the people who reside in your province, but you NEED TO SLOW THE *BLEEP* DOWN AND START PAYING ATTENTION WHEN YOU DRIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok. On with the purpose of our drive: A good ol family pic in the pools :) It began to snow a bit when we got there and was coming down pretty heavily by the time we left... quite peaceful while you're in the pools though :) Aiden took turns sitting on all our laps until he worked up the bravery to walk around and explore the pool (which was up to his waist). Atalie was in her glory. She made friends with another couple sitting accross from us who offered to play with her by picking up handfuls of gravel from the pool floor and let her play with it;) Jeff and Kevin have been wanting to hit the hotsprings since their first game of hockey a week ago - - - finally! :) After sitting in the water for a half our or more, you don't actually feel the slightest bit cold coming out of the water (even to change), except for your feet of course (frozen rock is never nice on wet feet).

Bedtime

This is a typical routine bedtime around our house... milk, story, teeth, hugs & kisses :)

The Israelson brothers play some shinney.

A good game of hockey happens in Canal Flats now and then... I considered this to be a pretty good game considering Kev got to play with his brother and there was a good turnout of guys. Kevin would say differently, according to his skill that day;) Atalie and Aiden were VERY intrigued! This was their first time watching Daddy play hockey and they actually sat intentely for the first 5-10 minutes (which is not typical of Aiden!). Before we left the house I overheard her say, "she shoots, she scores!! Yaaaaa!!!" hahaha!!! :) As soon as she saw Kevin she started chanting, "GO DADDY GO! GO DADDY GO! GO DADDY GO!" at the TOP of her shrill but boysterous little voice... if her volume would have been one notch louder, I think she may have shattered the glass infront of us. I saw a grin on Kevin's face as he skated by, unable to look away from whatever he was doing in the game at that moment ;) Above, Kevin and Jeff are in place for a goal ;) Atalie and Aiden did this for the rest of our time there... back and forth! Kev catches a pass along the boards. (I swear I've watched and overheard one too many games in the almost6 years I've been married to this man. I feel a bit like Kelly Rudy giving the replays at the end of the game). I have no idea what they're laughing about here... could be at the number of times they've each taken a spill... Jeff skates around centre and gets read to pass the puck off to Kev. It was a pretty good turnout considering it's one of the last games this year. There were 10 guys - enough for one sub on each team (a quick breather!), but only one goalie showed. I caught some true colours ;) haha! Too funny. You should have heard the moaning and groaning from these two the next day. Kev puts on a cheerful face for his kids, who were cheering him on from the stands!