Spring in Vancouver

Sophia helped me choose some photos from the month of May for today's post:

 Silly sisters

 Eleanor LOVES the swing (this is a happy face, trust me!)

Ellie found her big sister's underwear and thought it would make a great hat

We celebrated Mother's Day with brunch at the Sylvia Hotel with Mom & Dad

 The Sylvia is in an amazing location right on English Bay

 We had a great walk in Stanley Park and Sophia loved the Second Beach playround

She especially loved the fire engine!

With my girls on Mother's Day

Happy first birthday, Eleanor!

Happy first birthday to our wonderful Eleanor! She made us a family of four one year ago today and was a perfect birthday present for her big sister who turned four the day after Ellie's birth! Here's a photo review of Ellie's first year:

 Ellie's newborn days, March 2011

 Ellie at five months, August 2011

Eleanor with her plaque at BC Women's Hospital (it's true, she was 9lbs, 11oz at birth!)

 Our sweetie with her long and wild locks

 Little Miss Ellie loves books!

 She loves to stand with support from furniture and we expect her to start walking within the next couple of months. The next photo shows Ellie in her new birthday dress, I'm continuing the ugly birthday dress tradition that I started with Sophia.

 Ellie loves to be next to her big sister.

Can you believe I'm one already?

{this moment}

 Ellie getting to know Aunt Emmy

Sophie finds that Uncle Bill is always willing to read to her

{this moment}

Sophia's first dance recital

Grandpa reading "Too Many Mittens" to his granddaughters

{this moment}

teeth in (she's got a total of four now)

teeth out (one gone, another wiggly)

The Adventures of Polo

I've wanted to write a library book of the week post in the style of inchmark's blog for a long time. When it was time to return The Adventures of Polo to the library (we'd renewed it twice already), I knew this was the book I was waiting for.

The Adventures of Polo is a wordless book that takes you on Polo's fantastic journey from his little island home to worlds unknown. He brings along his very helpful backpack that contains items like an umbrella to help him keep his balance on tightropes. He's very prepared.

 The book is full of surprises (what you think is an island becomes a whale) and it's a real page turner.

 Polo eventually leaves Earth and meets some little green guys on the moon. Fortunately, he has his lantern that he can fill with phosphorescent mushrooms so he can find his way through the sublunar tunnels. All in a day's work for Polo.

Personally, I love it when he takes an elevator in a tree and finds a group of monkeys partying on a platform that eventually takes off into the sky. That's my kinda party.

 Happily, all ends well when Polo eventually returns to his idyllic island home.

Sophia loved this book and after we'd "read" it together a few times, I heard her whisper the entire story to herself. The good news is that Regis Faller has illustrated several more Polo books, so we'll be enjoying this series for months!

Halloween 2011

This year we carved Shaun the Sheep pumpkins and Sophie loved how they turned out. Shaun the Sheep is one of her favourite shows and it's great for adults too (especially adults who are kids at heart!). From left to right, we have Shaun the Sheep, little Timmy, Bitzer the dog, and one of the pigs.

I carved Shaun and this is my best attempt at his lopsided smile (it's hard!).

Dean carved Bitzer and the pig. But his real job was ...

 Costume creation! 

Dean made Sophie's entire costume this year and he did a wonderful job! She wanted to be a skeleton, so he made her a custom costume using fabric paint on a black outfit. He drew all the bones himself and then cut the shapes out of freezer paper to create a stencil. Then he painted in the bones with fabric paint. We used the steps from the Freezer Paper Skeleton tutorial on Instructables. It took way longer than anticipated, but the results speak for themselves!

 Ellie was a cow for her first Halloween (thanks to Mom and Dad for the cowbell!). Our poor little cow had a cold and didn't have a great night, but was a trooper during trick-or-treating and slept in the Ergo most of the time.

Sophie and her friend Sophie (the blurry cheeseburger) went trick-or-treating together and lasted for nearly an hour and a half on a windy, chilly night.

For the first time, Nonna and Nonno were in Vancouver to see Sophie on Halloween. It was great!