Vancouver Days

I am currently residing in rainy Vancouver.

Last Thursday I made the 14 hour flight from Sydney to Vancouver to celebrate my dads 70th birthday and visit with family before we expand our own. The flight was good with a bit of turbulence. I paid to have extra leg room and there was also an empty seat in the middle of our row so it worked out well. I had lots of room to stretch my legs and could easily get around the other guy without waking him up. I stayed with my brother Matthew for the first couple of days until the surprise was revealed.

All day Saturday, most my siblings and I worked at the church to get the surprise party ready. My brother James is a chef and catered the party so we helped do food prep, set up the hall, hang decorations, etc. James did an incredible job with the food! It was well presented and delicious. A lot of guests commented that it felt like they were at a wedding.

James also surprised everyone by having two ice sculptures made for the party. The salmon even survived in the church parking lot for church the next morning. James did this all on his own birthday too!

Needless to say my dad was very surprised! My two sisters flew in from Toronto and Las Vegas and all of my dads siblings (5 brothers and 1 sister and spouses) all flew in from across Canada too. For me personally, it was great to have everyone there so I could catch up with relatives I haven't seen in many years and probably wont see again for another few.

The day after the party all of the family met at church and had lunch at the church together. My siblings and I went back to Matthews house for the rest of the day and my dad and his siblings went to my parents place. We had a lazy day sitting around talking while the children played with their cousins.

Monday I moved to my parents house and had a much needed quiet day by myself. It was lovely. Tuesday I dropped my mom off at work and drove around to do some shopping. I got some good bargains as winter is finishing here and Australia is just going into winter so everything was on clearance. Tuesday night I got to catch up with Ali and Kim, two good friends from high school. It was great to see them!

Today I am going to do some more shopping with my mom. I bought a new diaper bag to fit all my shopping treasures in for the way home as I was running out of room. Tonight we are having a little birthday party for James and myself at my parents place.

I miss my boys like crazy but I know they are both doing well. Barney had 4 days off of work which he said was great and he got lots done around the house which he has been meaning to for a long time. He went back to work yesterday and Myles went back to day care. They both have Good Friday off so Barney has another few days off of work. I don't think he is complaining about it!

My dear friend Ashley is coming in from out of town to visit me for 2 days and I cant wait to see her and meet her beautiful daughter. Together we will also visit two other friends from high school who I haven't seen in 5-6 years!

I don't have to many other plans, just trying to relax and enjoy this time before heading back to Australia on Monday. It will be along journey home with a 14 hour flight, train trip then 4 hour bus ride to my house. I am not looking forward to the travels but can't wait to scoop up Myles and give him a big cuddle! And Barney too :)

Myles Turns Two!

Two years ago we became parents and over the last week, we celebrated our beautiful boys birthday.

I'll rewind to middle of last week when our oven broke. I didn't think much of it until Saturday when I realized that I needed to bake Myles' birthday cake. Oops! We decided to go to Barney's mums place (they live half hour away) early Sunday morning to bake the cake and cupcakes for his birthday party on Monday. We got them baked and went out for breakfast while they cooled. We went to a local macadamia farm that has a café and it was lovely. They have just built a new playground for the kids but Myles was more interested in chasing the resident chickens. We had a great breakfast then headed home.

Smiling at his daddy of course

At Myles' daycare they have two pet turtles that the children help take care of. Myles loves them so I decided to make a cake with a turtle on it and colour his party with blues and greens.

On Monday mornings I usually get together for a mums group, so I decided to just have Myles' birthday party during that time to keep it simple. We had cake, some chips and a fruit platter. I hardly have any energy at the moment so a simple, relaxed morning was perfect. The children played nicely together and the mums got to relax too.

His friends sitting down are from daycare and are cousins, but I met Fletcher's mum at hour hospital birth class. Fletcher's birthday is two days after Myles' and Lucy's is 9 days after

Cake time! I wasn't taking the pictures which is why he looks so serious.

All his friends singing happy birthday. He loved the singing!

Just hanging out in his (dry) pool... funny boy.

On Wednesday, his actual birthday, we had a busy day. I had an early doctors appointment so dropped Myles off at daycare early. He had a great day at daycare with all of his friends. He got a cupcake there with a candle and all the children sang to him. Apparently he felt pretty special which is great since we couldn't spend the day with him.

I picked him up just after 5pm on my way home from work, got home, played in the yard and headed to Macca's (McDonald's aussie name) for a happy meal. He had some chicken nuggets and ate a lot of fries. We gave him an apple juice but he doesn't like juice so I drank it for him. I had to head back to daycare at 6:30 for a parents information night so Barney took him home after dinner.

And that was how we celebrated our little man!

Myles is really a wonderful boy. I mean he is a typical toddler who doesn't always like to listen and throws plenty of tantrums but he has a great heart. He loves helping with everything. He helps unload the dishwasher, gets the laundry soap out for me and pushes the button to start the washing machine. He sweeps and rakes the leaves outside. He is polite and makes sure he says thank you. We are teaching him instead of whining if he wants something or is getting frustrated with a toy, to ask for help. He says "bup" for help and "buppa" for helper, which he calls himself often with pride.

He has started to learn to count. He counts 2,4,5,6,8,9. We are now focusing on his letters. He recognizes many letters and can say about half of the alphabet. He loves reading our license plates before getting into the car.

He is happiest being outside. He loves going to the dog beach to play in the water and chase the dogs down the beach, usually screaming "puppy!" the whole way. We are trying to teach him to hold out his hand flat to let the dogs smell him first before petting the dog but it's a learning process and hasn't quite caught on yet.

He loves his daycare friends. Usually he lays in bed naming all his friends. Ivy, Max, Milo, Lucy... it is super cute. He loves Ivy so much. They have been caught kissing at daycare and Ivy's mum says all Ivy does at home is talk about Myles. He says in bed too "Hi Ivy, I'm Myles".... its like he is working on his pick up lines, funny kid.

These details are more for me to have a look back at so sorry if they aren't very exciting!

Barney and I are so proud of the boy Myles is becoming. He loves giving us hugs and cuddling. We are so thankful for a wonderful son. He makes us laugh every day.

We love you so much Myles and look forward to watching you grow as a young boy and soon to be big brother!