Where is Jia?

Jia is five!

Party is done, fun times.  It went well.  Highly organized.  Lots of help from Lili and Fei.   Two hours wasn't enough time.  Wii dancing, frozen drinks, a snowball fight, holding baby rats, craft time, presents and finally cake and snacks.  Luk was pleased with the treats.  His first ice cream cake and he loved it.

Jia loved the book I wrote her and she is happy with the old desk Eric refinished for her.  Her friends brought lots of crafts so she is set for projects for awhile. 

Not sure what we'll do to end her Birthday.  We didn't plan that far into the day.  Right now Fei is painting Jia's nails with Elsa nail polish.  Eric and I are on the couch.

Elsa party!

Prep work is almost done.  Have a few food things to do but will wait till the kids are almost here. 

Time to get dressed and worry about lunch.

Jia is super excited and Luk is totally bent that it isn't his Birthday.  Oh my.

Getting ready for Santa

Gingerbreads decorated, Santa cookies made and laid out with milk, oats sprinkled outside for the reindeer, snowflakes cut, presents all under the tree, stockings out, T'was the Night Before Christmas read together, new jammies for five kids and two reindeer.  Lots of fun around our place for sure! 

Calum Worthy

This post is about our trip to Butchart Gardens, and although we had a great time, the weather was mild and everything went our way, the only thing we're all likely to remember is that the big girls met Calum Worthy from Austin and Ally.  It was exciting for sure.

Fei thought she saw him in the sunken garden. I told them to go ahead and go back to look for him.  Eric and I hung out with the littles in strollers and they came back to say they couldn't find him.  We stopped at the upper bathrooms and I told Fei to wait for James so we didn't lose him.  Eric and Lili went ahead to line up for the carousel.   Then Lili spotted him and instead of going to him and asking for a picture she ran back to get Fei.  Awww sweet sister moment!  They asked him for a selfie and he took Lili's phone and took four selfies.   He's good at them too, they are all centered ;)  I missed it all, came out of the bathroom and could hear Lili saying thank you and watched him walk away with a girl. 

So, they don't really watch family channel anymore.  Jia does.  But they certainly remember all of the shows fondly and it was a big deal.  They had to fill James in on what they were so excited about.  Maybe they'll get around to showing him an episode today.

We had a visit with Scott, who continues to improve.  Kids were all noticing the difference yesterday. 

Then we went to value village to get books for Lili.   Eric found me an ancient orange table lamp for my motorhome.   I found a Bambi shirt for Jia that will be cute for the Disney trip and Luk and Jia both picked out toy guitars and were rocking out in the store.  Completely clueless about how obnoxious they sounded.  I'm sure they thought they were spectacular rock stars.  Someone gave me a 30% off card, so that was fun.  Oh, and Lili found some books.  Then at dinner our food was slow coming out so not only was our meal fabulous, they took two of the kids meals off.  A day for discounts.  Rare. 

Not sure what Christmasy things we'll get up to today.  I'm at work.  Perhaps decorating the gingerbread houses later.  It's James first Christmas, that's fun to watch. 

Readyish

Feeling organized.  Ready for Christmas, Jia's Birthday and New Years.  Phew.

James arrives tomorrow.  We're hoping to do Butchart if it isn't raining. 

Bethlehem Walk

We went to Parksville last night to do the Bethlehem walk.  What a fabulous event.  We had no idea what to expect.  It was  much bigger than I was thinking.  Very well done.  I felt like we'd gone back in time and were at the market in Bethlehem.  Big kids enjoyed it.  Jia was hungry and confused with lots of questions.  Starting with baby Jesus and when will I get a baby in my tummy.  Sigh. Luk couldn't see much and had very little interest.  Next year we'll do dinner first.  At the end you walk out of the market and enter a huge auditorium and they seat you with hot chocolate and cookies while you listen to the choir.  Lovely.  Totally worth the drive.