family day at winterlude

This past weekend was a long one. In February we get one day off - the day is called "Family Day".

So yesterday, to celebrate, we went out for breakfast and then headed on down to the Winterlude Festivities. There were lots of child friendly things happening and albeit a little chilly, we still managed to have a lot of fun!

One of our favourite things this year was the impressive “tunnel” made out of over a thousand lanterns. It was made in collaboration with the Jinju Namgang Yudeung Lantern Festival, in South Korea. There was also a fun activity for the kids called “Ephemeral Art” where the kids got to make their own sculptures out of great big colourful ice cubes! The ice-sculptures were also amazing this year again and Lilah, of course, got her fill of hugging all the different mascots - which she loves!

Not to mention the beaver tails, hot chocolate and maple taffy. Mmmm - good times!

[ the flickr set is here ]

cayo coco, cuba - an evening beach walk

If you know me well enough, you'll know a little teeny tiny photoshoot is compulsary!

Of course, I never say something like that out loud... I just put nice respectable clothes on the girls and drag my camera along. No expectations! Actually, speaking of respectable dresses, Phebe is wearing her 'Cuba' dress and Lilah is wearing a dress I bought last year, from a store on Etsy called Palm Tree Princess.

And I was very proud of myself, because I only did the 'photoshoot' thing once in the whole seven days of beautiful and amazing photoshoot possibilities! Ha! Right? I know, very proud of myself. And on top of that, it was very casual... not too many stand, smile and look at the camera moments... well, mostly because a 5 year old and a 2 year old have a very hard time doing just that. And with my limited experience of two kiddies, casual is definitely the easier way to go, and the natural shots are always, by far, my favourites.

I was not expecting it, but when we got quite a ways down the beach, the sun was starting to set and another family came walking by. Much to my joy, they kindly offered to take a photo of all of us. It meant so much to me, and it meant even more when I realized it actually turned out quite nice too. We don't have nearly enough family pictures.

I absolutely adore my family. God is SO good.

cayo coco, cuba - the kiddies pool!

The beach was so nice that we didn't spend much time at the kids pool. In fact, only one day - which is kinda too bad, because it was really nice, and really really quiet... ie - we had the whole pool to ourselves! I guess everyone else liked the beach best too!

The girls brought their (dollar store) lilos along and had plenty of fun! You'll see in my pictures below, that Phebe learned how to work the water squirter too. Yep, that grin she's wearing is a result of making her Mama squeal, especially when she aims said water squirter at her Mama! So much fun! Oh, and in another picture you will see my girls lying up in sunchairs with their buckets, they would take it in turns to run back and forth, filling their buckets with water and then lying up in the sunchairs and pouring it over themselves!

Now that, is the life!

As a side note, I bought their cute bathing costumes online from the Garnet Hill store. I love their clothes and well, you know me, I may have a slight weakness for chevron!

cayo coco, cuba - the beach!

This year we vacationed at the Memories Flamenco hotel in Cayo Coco.

I had previously done a little bit of research on the best beaches in Cuba and Cayo Coco seemed to be the place to go! It did not disappoint! After searching around holiday packages I found the Memories Flamenco hotel, one of the things I liked about this hotel is that is was basically brand new and had just opened a year ago. Also, the bus ride from the airport was only about 20 minutes, which was great. One of the main things we love about Cuba, apart from the fantastic weather and great beaches, is the people! They are always consistently friendly and kind... and ever so happy. It is a joy just to be around them. Mind you, if you had heard my two girls say "Hola Amigo" to everyone they met, including the tourists!! ...well, you might have had a grin on your face too!

It was such a wonderful trip and I have SO many pictures, I hardly know where to start! But I figured I'd start with the best part - the beach! The weather was so ideal, every single day and the water was that perfect blue/turquoise with the sun shining down. Every single day the first glimpse of the water gave us that 'WOW!' moment. It was absolutely stunning.

The first day we introduced Phebe to the water she wasn't so sure about it, which is mildly strange because she LOVES getting bathed and even pours water over her own face - she has no fear of water whatsoever. Anyway, that first day she decided playing in the sand was so much more fun than water! However, by day two, she was sold on the water. It was so beautiful and warm, like a gigantic bath! It got to be that each morning Phebe would say "Mama beach. Mama water. Mama swim!" and her eyes would light up! She was so excited when I showed her how to swim one day with her armbands on... she talked about "swimming" non stop after that! The other two items she learned the name for were the rake and the hoe - two sand utensils that rarely left her hands!

Lilah loved the water, she wanted no part in the kids pool this year and begged to go to the beach every day... like we were going to say no! Ha! She spent a good part of her time sitting and playing in the water - I could hear her chattering away to herself have a jolly great old time. She was in Caribbean heaven! The only problem for me was having to drag her out of the water into the shade every now and again, as I was afraid of her getting too much sun exposure, even though I put Factor 50 on her several times a day!

Anyway, here's an overload of beach pictures... just because, it was *that* good!

valentine's day

Lilah and I made these little sucker flowers for her class friends.

It was a spur of the moment idea, because we just got home from Cuba on Tuesday... and well, there was a whole lot of unpacking and laundry vying for my attention! Happy to say it's all done, washed, ironed and put away - but hopefully only for another couple of months, or less! I'm so ready for Spring and Summer now!

Today my girly is away to school with a big old grin on her face, ready to hand out her sweet flowers.

cayo coco, cuba

We arrived home yesterday evening, after a fabulous week in sunny Cayo Coco.
And I've been on my toes ever since - I'm still working on uploading the pictures to Flickr!

I leave you with this postcard... "Wish you were here!"

I just love the colours of the Caribbean.

'wedgees'

Last year, against the advice of the optometrist, I bought Lilah the frames SHE really liked. She wanted blue frames, nothing would do until we found a pair of blue frames. And at the time, I felt it necessary to buy her the frames she really wanted, because I felt if I did, she would wear them without complaint. The optometrist, on the other hand, felt Lilah would have been better off with a pair of frames that had nose pads, because of her nose bridge or lack thereof, but unfortunately we couldn't find a pair with nosepads in the magic colour - blue! So I bought Lilah the frames she adored!

And she loves her frames - other than the odd reminder from us, she wears them faithfully. And that is quite something for our Lilah, because our girly doesn't like to stand out and be different from other children... no way, she's self conscious and sensitive on many levels and she very much likes to blend into the crowd. And with only one other child in her class with glasses, I figured we'd be in for a battle. But no. Thankfully, that wasn't the case.

However, there HAS been a battle with these glasses. The battle has been trying to keep her glasses from slidding down her nose. In fact, it was getting to the point that she wasn't even looking through the glass half the time and they were more of a nuisance than a help.

So, about a month ago I had come to the realization that I needed to get it together and buy her a new pair of frames, with nose pads. But first, in a last minute attempt to educate myself, I googled the problem... because I figured there had to be more than my Lilah girl out there with this exact same issue. Yep - of course there was! I went through a list of articles and ideas of what to do, etc, etc and then I came across the website for 'Wedgees'! After reading the reviews, I decided we just had to give them a whirl. I figured for $20 (two pairs of wedgees, plus postage) we couldn't go wrong! Oh, and we live in Canada, I think they're cheaper if you're ordering from the US.

And guess what, they're absolutely FABULOUS!! The wedgees are made from a piece of neoprene, (a synthetic rubber commonly used to make wet suits) that slides tightly onto the legs of your glasses. They hold Lilah's glasses on perfectly - no slidding whatsoever! They are comfortable and you can't even see them - I bought the black ones, to match her hair! She can even jump up and down and run around like a crazy girl and they stay put... as demostrated in the pictures below!

We are so thankful for these 'wedgees'. You can check them out here... www.wedgees.com
I also posted a video below, you can check it out too!