A super fun Easter Party!

Aloka told me a couple weeks before Easter that she wanted to have a party with an egg hunt. It turned out to be a great success and the weather was terrific!
To eliminate the competitive nature of egg hunts, every child was allowed to find 10 eggs plus three chocolate eggs each.
Josh and Richard hid them discretely in a beautiful park in Nelson, called Gyro Park.

Chris holding Junie-bug

Egg hunting!

It was a potluck and my contribution was cupcakes with little jelly bean bird nests.

"Out of the mouths of babes"

This is what the total stranger said to me after Aloka leaned over to her in a waiting room that Aloka, Richard and I were in., and said "he has really stinky toots". Luckily the lady had a sense of humour as well as having her own kids and grand kids. So poor Richard was only slightly totally embarrassed.

Another incident happened as well, last month, where I received a business call but I wasn't home. Richard was in the bathroom (unlucky for him) and Aloka answered the phone because she loves to do that these days.
The lady on the phone asked for me, and Aloka politely told her I wasn't home right now, just Richard is. So the lady asked to speak with him to leave a message. Aloka said "he can't come to the phone right now. He's pooping."

Boy I bet she made that lady's day!

Strawberry Princess is no longer

Aloka's hampster died a few days ago. We're not sure how or why... we have many different speculations, old age not being one of them. It was very odd. Richard found her during the day when I had gone into town to pick up Aloka from Josh's house. The transition day is always a little hard for her so I decided to wait until the next day to tell her. Richard moved her cage out to the wood shed outside and she came home just before bedtime and didn't notice the cage being gone which i was glad about. It would have been bad timing as she was having some anxiety about going back to school after a long weekend. (She's still having some separation anxiety). That night, I came to bed late, around 11:30pm, and she heard me and woke up, half dazed, to go potty. The lights were almost all turned off, and out of the blue Aloka mumbles "where's Strawberry?" and then, "outside?" I couldn't believe it and had no idea how to answer her, so I didn't.

The next morning she had no recollection of it, and I decided to tell her after school. She was sad, but not as much as I expected, at least not right away. I think she's still processing it. Later that day she said "Oh well, I guess we can give her away now... although no one would probably want a dead hampster" I thought this was pretty funny and I told Josh. Aloka overheard me and shouted "Mom! It isn't funny, my hampster died!!" I felt pretty bad, but I think she's processing it well. We miss Strawberry...

Junie babble

Aloka's tea party

Aloka and I had a little tea party a couple weeks ago, and made little miniature plates of food. She loved it, and it was fun and easy. I put little currants on top of cheerios, slices of cheese, cookie cutter flower shaped sandwiches and little french toast triangles left over from breakfast. She loved it!

Winter fun

Aloka and I built a cool snow cave last week. Spring is definitely coming but we're still getting some snowfall. The days are sunny and balmy feeling, things are starting to melt, but it's still very cold at night (20's). So this snowcave was perfect to build in the wet icy snow.





Aloka also went snowmobiling with Richard on our land. Behind the land is an abandoned old BNR railroad that goes for hundreds of miles and attracts snowmobilers and cross-country skiers alike (including us!)
Someone gave him this 30 year old snowmobile, and I joke that it looks like it came straight out of an old James Bond movie!

air poop

"mama, there's poop on the mirror"

"What? What do you mean 'poop'??"

"it's air poop"

"What's 'air poop'?"

"Dust!"

Just a quick little Junie video

Valentines Day!

Valentines Day is my favourite holiday. Maybe it's all the pinks and reds...maybe it's the symbolic heart, and the love it represents. It could be the fond memories of making and decorating our "Valentines Boxes" at school, and come the end of the day, finding it full of Valentines and candies from teachers and peers. But if I only needed one reason alone...Chocolate!
And not just any yummy chocolate... on Valentines morning, I'd wake up, and there on my night stand would be a lovely small heart-shaped basket filled with Valentines goodies and chocolates of all kinds!
My mother was so good with holidays, but she always made Valentines Day so special.

I, of course, want Aloka to share my love for it. And at the same time I now look at it from a Mama's perspective; how can I create this for her without inundating her with sweets (as the remnants of Christmas goodies still linger in the house)!

It's all a balance I suppose. This year, she'll be getting a small but pretty red metal bucket full of some of her faves. I also bought her a (pink) CD player to listen to her own music on. I was just going to give it to her, but then Richard suggested it be a Valentines Day gift. She'll love it!

Today we made chocolate chip cookies and Valentines. What fun!


These are wax paper hearts that we grated pink, orange and red crayon on. We'll hang them in our window!

A Valentine for a little girl in her class

Aloka's Polly Pockets

Aloka was pretending she was a big hungry monster, and her polly pockets were dinner. The picture says it all!

quick little video

Aloka took this little clip when i was in the other room. I had no idea until i found it on my camera!


Last week I took her for her first real haircut (not by me, by someone who actually knows what they're doing!). She got it cut, curled and even got a little makeup. She was totally enthralled and loved it, and she looked so cute! I'll post some pictures up when I get them from Josh. I hadn't brought my camera with me, so we went to his house after the appointment and he took a couple pictures of her curls!

more snow.... more more more snow

So, just so you can see this.... look at the amount of snow we've gotten only a couple weeks later!
For some reason these pics are darker. Also some more pictures of Aloka's favorite pasttime... playing with Richared's glasses!

Aloka goes sledding

Aloka loves the snow! She has no fear and is already excited to start snowboarding!



And here's a bunch more pictures:


















This is our home... We live in the left side (the window is lit up compared to the right side). Richard has built the right side and extended the roof all last summer. believe it or not, this is a trailer! he also built the addition on the left side which will be a mud room. The space we're living in is 500 sq ft, but probably by next spring to summer we'll be able to move in to the new side also, which will increase the total to 1000 sq ft, yay! we'll have two bedrooms, 2 bath, a larger kitchen, living room and dining room. what luxury!

some semi recent pics...

Just a few random pics...some more recent ones plus some videos coming soon!