Dinosaur cake

Sophia, as you may have heard, loves dinosaurs! She and I made a dinosaur cake this week, just for the fun of it! We used the Betty Crocker video and instructions and customized the colour and candies as per Sophia's whims.

Sophia was thrilled with the results!

She was proud to cut out the templates by herself.

I did the icing and Sophia placed most of the candies. It was a true team effort!

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!