A "Daddy Special"

C requested for his birthday party a "Daddy Special." That means, a party that J plans and executes to wow and amaze. Two years ago, we had a science party with many experiments and explosions.

This year the theme for the party was Dangerous Book for Boys. Codes, a rocket, remote control cars, BB guns.

Eight boys converged on our backyard. The first activity involved a robotic sprinkler. The boys had to see if they could retrieve the canister guarded by the sprinkler. The sprinkler detected motion and would go off when they got close. For the first time ever, J wrote software for a party activity!

Inside the canister was a piece of paper with a QR code, which is a scan-able bar code. Some gibberish came up on a smartphone when the QR code was scanned.

On the other side of the paper, written in invisible ink, were the words "Caesar Cipher 4."  C pulled out his Dangerous Book for Boys since he remembered it had codes and ciphers in it.

The book said that every letter is shifted by a certain number. One boy decided to write out the alphabet and take the gibberish and decode it systematically.

The result was "Birthday's Boy's Nickname," We thought this would be easy to figure out but C's friends didn't know his nickname. One boy was able to guess it out of the blue. Taking those letters C and one friend turned the switches on a box (switches for each letter of the alphabet) which launched an ethanol bottle rocket with a message inside.

The rocket shot out of the top tree house and landed on the ground.

A map was inside of the bottle. It was cut into jigsaw pieces and written in invisible ink. The map was of our yard.

The boys eventually found the "X" where the treasure was buried.

The treasure was a plastic box (dug out of the ground) which contained remote controls for two RC cars.

We went out to our cul-de-sac where the boys took turns operating the RC cars. The goal was to use the RC car to push the cardboard box through the goal posts (two flower pots). The 2nd car played defence. Inside the box was the artillery (BBs) for the next activity.

J had the boys use BB guns to shoot some cheap pottery which was hanging from string. We were surprised at who was the best shot. A quiet boy who is our pastor's son. He could shoot better than my husband J! I don't have photos of this activity since I had to leave to pick up the ice cream cake.

C opened his presents and we had cake.

After that was over, the boys played hide and seek and used the tree houses and sprayed each other with water guns. J & I vowed that this is the last elaborate birthday party we throw!








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Mother's Day 2015

This year's Mother's Day was a bit different. My father in law has been visiting us for a week.

After church we went to Stanford's and had lunch outside on the patio.

In the afternoon we enjoyed the beautiful sights of the Washington Arboretum.

For gifts, I bought myself two deluxe hanging baskets for my gazebo. The boys wrote poems for me at school as part of Moments with Mom on Friday. Here is me with A in his classroom.

I'm thankful that another mom took this photo. I'm the class photographer for both classrooms so I didn't get one with C since I was busy taking photos of moms with their kids.


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Spring Blooms - Lilacs and Tulips.

Time to share some photos from the garden. My lilac tree is doing so well this year! It is a relief since last year there were hardly any blooms on it and that was sad. I'm amazed at the quality of photo I can achieve using my smartphone. The photo above was taken with my phone!

Here you can see the height of the tree.

The goal was for me to be able to see the blooms from my kitchen window and I now can! I wish you could smell them. Amazing.

The tulips are almost finished for this year. These photos were taken about a week ago.

I love the dark coloured tulips.

Of course, I have pink tulips. :)

Next to bloom will probably be the peonies and the rhododendrons.

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Easter Weekend in Victoria

This year for Easter, we travelled to Victoria where my parent live. The boys were on Spring Break so we were able to be together. We were blessed with excellent weather for the entire visit.

On Good Friday we took the BC ferry from Twawwassen (near Vancouver). On Saturday, my mom and I went to Butchart Gardens which is north of Victoria. The flowers put on an incredible display for us.

The options for lunch left a bit to be desired since the main restaurant (the Blue Poppy) was closed. Very strange for Easter weekend. One new thing that I noticed is the moss animals such as these three bears.

I always learn something when I visit Butchart. This flower was one that I'd never seen before.

A fritillaria raddeana.

I went to two of my favourite stores on Saturday afternoon - Mercedes Lane on Cook Street (women's clothes) and Super Chance (consignment store) in James Bay. I found a plate for my collection. On Saturday night we had supper at Odgen Point Cafe which is right next to the sea wall. I had a delicious quinoa and chicken salad. Here is C posing by the sea wall.

On Sunday morning we had a very good breakfast at Cora's in downtown Victoria. We went to my parent's church for Easter service. Three people were baptized and gave their testimonies. We had a delicious Easter buffet where my parent live. While we waited to be seated, a lady was playing various hymns on the piano. I played name that tune and my son C was quite impressed with how many I identified.

In the afternoon we went to Saxe Point park in Esquimalt. There was a plaque about the first person to ever to swim the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

My climber A enjoyed the challenge of the rocks. I enjoyed the views and pretended that I was along the coast of England.

Later we went to Oak Bay Marina and fed the seals with fish that was for sale. One seal was quite the ham and clapped for his food.

In the evening, my dad, J, and the boys played crokinole (my dad has a board) and the boys discovered a "new" game that has been around since the 1860s. What is crokinole? A game played on a board like this.

note: this is not my photo. Source.

On Monday morning I made quick visits to Monro Books and Murchie's Tea. We returned via the Sidney to Anacortes ferry.

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Spring Mantle

I finally finished my spring mantle. Yes, I know Spring just started but we had many weeks of spring weather before the official start of Spring.

Sources from left to right:
Tall blue vases - Marshalls.
Watering can from Ben Franklin Craft store.
Faux Boxwood plants - I bought them last year so I'm not sure. Probably Marshalls.
"Keep Calm and Garden On" sign from Barnes and Noble.
Runuculus flower in vase - antique store.

Bloom sign - Joann Fabric.
Apothecary jars from my stash.
Moss birds - Michael's.
Mini bird nests inside apothecary jars - Ben Franklin.

For the picture frame, I took a frame that I found at a thrift store and glued moss on the edges. The pastoral image is from an old calendar.

The pink and green fabric garland I made last year. It has a habit of falling down after I spend an hour trying to hang it. :)




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Week in Review - March 15th

Funny that we're all wearing navy. We didn't plan that!

I don't normally do this type of blog post but a lot of different things happened this past week and I want to remember them.

The first event of note this past week was chaperoning for a service project day for my son A and his fellow middle schoolers. There were many different locations and projects going on throughout the day. I traveled by charter bus with 30 or so kids to Northwest Harvest warehouse in Kent. The bus ride itself was pretty eye opening. I learned that SOME middle schoolers are talking about their crushes and some of the girls are very pushy! At the warehouse we donned hair nets and gloves and went to work! We were taking 50 pound bags of oats and splitting them up into smaller bags and then put 19 bags into a box. These boxes are then sent to numerous food banks around the area. We had various jobs such as scooping oats, running, packaging, and boxing. I supervised and also participated. It was fun work. Later that day A helped clean up a local park. I had a previous commitment so I didn't join him for that portion of the day.

On Friday we had the awards night for Robotics. My husband J (the head coach) gave a speech and then handed out awards to each member of his team which includes my son A.

Saturday we went to the Compassion Experience. That is the photo above. It is hard to put into words the impact that it had on me. This was a 30 minute audio and visual demonstration of life before and after a child enters the Compassion sponsorship. If you are able to attend one, I can't recommend it highly enough. It was so moving. Our family currently sponsors two children through Compassion.

Saturday night we went to see Paddington in the theatre. We don't often go to the theatre but this movie was worth it! I highly recommended the movie. It was very funny and sweet. Perfect for all ages.Pin It

This and That

I haven't blogged in a while so here's a mishmash of things. Hockey and gardening. We continue to enjoy Spring weather even before Spring has officially started.

We went to a junior hockey game on Friday night. This is an annual outing with the Cub Scouts. I laughed so hard when I found out what team the Silvertips were playing. The Calgary HitMen! Guess whose home town that is? Mine! I decided to try to cheer for them. There was one gal near our seats that was wearing a Calgary jersey. She bravely stood up and rang her cowbell (all alone) when Calgary scored. It was an exciting game and yes, there was some fighting. Everett played very well and won 7 to 2. They scored first just 43 seconds into the game. The shots on goal was very unbalanced. Calgary outshot Everett 43 to 29.

Gardening season has officially started. I planted some sugar snap peas. Yesterday I cleaned out some of my raised beds and found tons of carrots that I had neglected to harvest in the fall. They are still good and I gave a whole bunch away to a friend.

This is less than half of them! Now, how many things can I make with carrots? :)




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Winter Break or Spring Break?

We have been having incredible temperatures here along with lots of sunshine. I *almost* feel guilty knowing my father in law is busy shoveling snow and dealing with extremely frigid temperatures. The boys had two days off from school this week. We decided to take a mini vacation to Bonneville, WA, where there is a resort.

Bonneville Hot Springs Resort and Spa is located along the Columbia River. There is a bridge over the Columbia River called the Bridge of the Gods. We didn't find out the reason for the name.

We've been on much grander and higher bridges. We did find out that Charles Lindberg flew his plan underneath the original bridge. There is a toll for the bridge but it wasn't too burdensome. Only a dollar. We got a kick out of the window of the office where they collect the toll. It was decorated with many little troll dolls, including a princess troll.

I was surprised to find out how close we were to Multnomah Falls in Oregon. I had seen many beautiful photos of it and had longed to go there for quite a while. It was actually chilly that morning due to wind and being on the shady side of the river.

Multnomah Falls is the second tallest year round waterfall in the U.S.

There are many waterfalls along Highway 30 (Historic Columbia River Highway) in Oregon. This one is Horsetail Falls.

At our hotel, the boys spent a long time playing in the pool and J and I enjoyed the hot tub. I didn't spend any time in the spa since there weren't any treatments that interested me. The lobby is quite grand.

We found a small restaurant in Stevenson which is just east of Bonneville. We had both lunch and dinner at Big River Grill on Monday since the prices were reasonable (much better than at our hotel) and the food was delicious.

The boys are currently into playing football (mainly catch and throw) with J. They did this on a large grassy area by the hotel in the afternoon. C and I played Scrabble on my phone for the first time and it was very fun.

The views of the Columbia River gorge are incredible. Whoops, forgot to take photos! We were so fortunate to have sunshine for our drive there and back.

On the way back, we stopped in the town of Camas where a large antique mall is located. I found a few treasures that came home with me. We had lunch in Centralia at Country Cousins. C was puzzled when the salad that came with his kids meal arrived with goldfish crackers on top!

He wasn't too impressed. Sorry for the blurriness. Phone photos!

It was a short break but good to have lots of family time.




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Super Deluxe Valentine's Day Box

So, there are no lazy, slapped together boxes from this family. Oh no, we had to up the ante from just making a creative box and put a ROBOT inside of a robot for C's classroom Valentine's Day box this year. C loves duct tape so he used three different colours. I suggested the red.

There is an EV-3 inside. What's an EV-3? It is the Mindstorm robot that the middle schoolers program for First Lego League.

I'll include a video because that's the only way to get a true sense of how awesome this box really is!

Here's a photo of the valentines that C is going to hand out today.

Yoda is "holding" a glow stick.Pin It

One Thousand Gifts #500 to #507

500. Crocuses popping up in my garden.

501. Taking photos with my new smart phone.

502. Great news from the doctor regarding my health.

503. Using coupons from my smart phone at the craft store. Much easier than using a paper one.

504. Using my creativity to put together a gift basket for a friend in the hospital.

505. Hearing about my neighbour's trip to Uganda and being challenged.

As iron sharpens iron,

    so one person sharpens another.

Proverbs 27:17

506. My oldest son is healed from his sore throat and cough.

507. Women's prayer meeting which happens each month.Pin It