HAPPY CANADA DAY!

On Sunday morning, we headed out to Victoria to stay at the World-Mark Hotel on the Victoria Harbor. We were SO EXCITED! Sharon called and told us what was the best and most cost efficient things to do... I love that about her! Always getting the best deals!  Once we got settled into our gorgeous accommodation we walked down to the fisherman's wharf, which you can see from our room, to try some of the Burdges highlights of their time spent here the day before.

Girls on the balcony, Fisher mans wharf behind Danika 

Definite highlight of the trip... buying some fish to feed the seals, such a COOL opportunity! 

The seals were so fat and would just float around- mainly on their backs. We came back later to feed them again and they weren't even hungry!

Adessa was SO sad when all the fish were gone

Pirate girls 

Locked up!

Me and my girls!

Steve took hundreds of candid shots... this is one of hundreds!

Another highlight of the trip.. the mini donuts on the wharf... o my goodness!!! They were deadly! But don't worry Sharon I only ate 2! ;) 

The World-mark where we stayed

Second time around, this time we made them slowly feed the fish as the first time they just dumped them in!  The seals came right up and grabbed the fish from our hands!

Cool Shot

The seal just took the fish from Danika's hand

Lots of time spent in the pool... Daddy is so much fun!!!

In the evening our wonderful friends Nathan and Amelia came over... one year ago they were married and Steve was a groomsman. It was totally a last minute call, but one we were so happy to have made as they came and spent the evening celebrating Canada Day with us! 

Danika has known Amelia since we started at camp... she used to call her 'Polka-Dot'  The girls had so much fun with Amelia and Nathan. 

We went and checked out the shows at the Parliament buildings, but it was too loud and busy, so we didn't last too long. 

 Cool video of the seal taking the fish from the girls hands

 Adessa busting a move!

The AMAZING firework show we could see from our hotel room!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!!! 
Sharon- Thank you for thinking of us and giving us this amazing opportunity to make so many wonderful memories! Love you!!! 

Danika The Babysitter

This morning the girls and I watched two little girls named Penny and June for a friend of mine. Penny is Adessa's age, so the two ran off and played so well together, while Danika took charge and asked to babysit June! I was so proud of her! She made sure June was always happy, putting in her soother, finding her toys or making her smile. And then when June was tired Danika laid on the couch with her, sang her songs and tickled her face (just like I used to do to her! *sigh*) and June fell asleep. 

Danika entertained her for about 2 hours, and she was so wonderful! Danika has only been done school for 2.5 days, but so far I am really loving having her home again! It is so much easier having her to play with Adessa- to help a bit with clean-up and just to have my baby girl back home all day! I didn't realize how much I missed her! 

Oh and Danika told me that when she grows up she wants to be a babysitter AND a teacher. Thought I would write that down for the record! :) 

Canada Day Craft

This morning as I was doing my "quick" check on Facebook I found this great craft idea posted by a girlfriend of mine! A very simple craft to make Canada Day shirts. We already had a few white shirts kicking around, had the acrylic paint from Danika's party and had two beautiful little girls who were eager to paint their hands! We had lots of fun... it turned into quite a mess as Adessa insisted on painting a few different pictures afterwards. But that is all the fun... isn't it?! 

Before shot... all ready to go! 

Danika painted her own shirt! She is becoming quite the little artist... it was a little hard for this mamma to let her do it by herself, as I wanted it 'just so' however I laid off until the end... where I took a brush to 'straighten' a few lines! (ooops, I couldn't help myself!)

Action shot!

The completed shirts!!! I am so excited for Canada Day this year! We have some pretty amazing friends some of which called me up yesterday and asked if we would be able to stay at her cousins World-mark Hotel on Victoria Harbor for Canada Day... um YES PLEASE!!! We feel so blessed and are so excited to be a part of Canada Day- Downtown Victoria within walking distance to all the events! Thanks Sharon... you are SO generous!!!! And we are so excited!!! 

Kindergarten Graduation!

My baby girl graduated from Kindergarten today. We can't believe it! It feels like not long ago when we were SO nervous for her to go into Kindergarten, and now she is finished. We are so proud of her and she has grown so much in this past year. The last couple of days Danika has been very emotional as she is SO SAD to be done kindergarten. All of a sudden she gets really quiet and we ask her what is wrong and she replies, "I am just so sad to finish kindergarten and leave Mrs. Mitchell." We have been so blessed by Mrs.Mitchell and she has been the most wonderful teacher for Danika. 

All ready for her big day of Graduation! 

Eating Graduation cake 

Adessa was very excited to be a part of it!

Shaking hands with the principal and getting her Kindergarten Diploma!

Danika made so many good friends this year!

Girls being goofy!

Danika with the twins

Danika and sweet little Noah

We are going to miss her!!!! 

Class picture... what a wonderful year!!!! 

Saturday in Chemainus

We had a few different options for Saturday. Number one non-negotiable however was tidying up my garage! Our church was doing a fundraiser to send kids to Camp Qwanoes so we were able to bring all our bottles and extra 'treasures' over to the church.We were planning on heading to Camp Imadene for their open house, but saw rain in the forecast and we really wanted our garage cleaned. So we instead decided to hit up the parade in Chemainus and come home to finish tidying the garage.  We all got ready for the parade, which started at 11am... and somehow didn't get there until 11:45, we drove right to the end of the route, in time to watch them turn the corner... oops! The girls were pretty upset because we talked it up so much, so we stuck around for some of the events. The girls got their faces painted, and they entered a reading program through the library and both got a brand new book! We then walked to our favorite candy store "Hansel and Gretel's" for our families favorite treats... BonBons. If you haven't tried one I would HIGHLY recommend them!  The day had called for rain, but the sun was shining with no clouds to be seen, so we picked up some subway and headed to the Chemainus beach. It really was a perfect afternoon. And once again we were just blown away by God's beauty and how lucky we are to live here! 

Picture with the moose! 

The starfish were everywhere, and the girls also collected a bunch of 'dead' sand dollars

Adessa trademark has been the 'plumber crack' and she truly lived that up this afternoon... I think its time for a belt! 

Meeko was in his glory! 

Some cool photos Steve took... this starfish was under water

The girls spent a couple of hours exploring this little 'island'

Dessa the Explorer... she is SO MUCH fun, she spent the whole afternoon exploring.. finding cool seashells and slowly stripping down so she could sit in the water

There she is... stripped right down! :)
We had this little beach to ourselves, as you had to walk a little ways out in an inch of water to get to it. It was SO FUN! 

Fishing with Daddy

Yesterday I went into Langford with Sharon for some shopping. I asked Adessa to pack her back pack and when I asked her what toy she packed she said 'a knife'... Oh ADESSA... it was a little green plastic one, but I made her grab a little stuffie as well. What am I going to do with this little girl! haha she makes us laugh ALL THE TIME. She is definitely her own little person and is already such a strong willed leader. But I am LOVING this stage with her. She is so independent and full of life and is such a good little helper. She never wants to miss out on anything. And she did so well on our shopping trip. Thankfully it was over lunch time at Costco so she had her cart full of little food samples! 

After Steve came home from work in the evening he voluntarily took the girls for a hike up to Crofton lake to fish in the pouring rain. I was SO thankful as I needed a couple of uninterrupted hours to myself to just clean! 

The BIG Bass they caught at the lake!

The girls when they got home... totally soaked, but so happy!

 I am so blessed by my wonderful husband. I am glad he found a hobby he loves (although I don't understand it...) and I am glad he loves to include the girls and that they are starting to love it too!

CAMP-sitting

A few nights ago we were asked to go hang out at Camp Qwanoes as no one would be there... so we did it! It was so fun having the place to ourselves, and brought back so many fun memories. The girls jumped on the trampolines, after de-caterpillaring them. Then we ran all over the skate park, Meeko chased balls, the girls slid down. We reminisced at the park, as Danika remembered our endless hours spent there, but Adessa was to small, so I just told her stories of how she would sit in the sand box and try to eat it the whole time! 

We then ended up on the dock for an evening of fishing. Steve caught a few of these ugly little guys...

Sole... they are flat with 2 eyes on the top

Steve with his fish!

My girlies

Such a beautiful place we live in... we are so blessed. And I am so blessed by such a wonderful husband who loves spending time with his girls and making memories!

The TENT CATERPILLARS... Camp Qwanoes is literally crawling with them... and we thought they were bad in our own backyard! 

All the 'tents' in the trees... entire trees are COVERED!

 It was a great night as a family... so many fun memories made!