March - The Beginning of Birthday Month

 There are SO many family birthdays in March. In our family with Mom, Dad, kids and grandkids there are 5. Two first birthdays to celebrate this month. Lots of partying to do! Between this weekend and today we managed to celebrate two of them. Next Saturday Dave turns 31 too!

Friday was just a regular evening at home with the family. It was beautiful out, so we had an early dinner and then got outside before sunset. Dom wanted to play hockey, and Emilia wanted to ride her bike. Sold! I took the girls for a walk while Dave and Dom played hockey. Man this boy loves sports. We went to the park and enjoyed the last few minutes of sun before getting chilly and heading home.

Love this one

Constantly trying to eat bark mulch

Saturday was packed. In the morning I took Emilia out shopping with me while Eva napped. We came, home, had a quick lunch, and then I took all three kids to my parents for a walk at the park. We came home, let Eva have her nap, and then packed back up again and went to Jeff and Marta's for the hockey game. Originally it was just going to be us and them, but things escalated into a party with people I hadn't properly seen in close to 10 years probably. All of a sudden the party comes with 7 kids too haha. Wild! It was a super fun surprise gathering and we stayed late to hang around the fire for a bit. Dom befriended Adam H's little boy as well which was too cute. 

The book Emilia chose from the school library! Hahaha Oh dear

She could hardly believe all these beautiful dresses haha

Emilia trying to add every single girly princess/sparkly/unicorn thing to her birthday list

Can't believe she's nearly walking!

I attempted Eva's first ponytail <3 She is so funny. Looks like a cartoon character

Now off to Jeff & Marta's place. Myles freshly awoken from a car seat slumber

Uncle Jeff surrounded by children. You can see Dom's foot as he just flew out of frame as the picture was taken

My Goblet of Fire

Sunday we had a quiet recovery morning at home. We got Eva up from her nap and threw her in the van to drive to Vancouver for Myles' first birthday party! He doesn't turn 1 until March 20, but my parents will be away and there are so many other birthdays in March they decided to celebrate early. They rented out the gym at the Creekside Community Centre in Olympic Village. Genius! This was the first big birthday party since COVID I think. Most adults wore masks, but there was so much space to spread out it wasn't much of a concern. There was a ton of food, and LOTS to do! It was like tot romp, but for babies, toddlers, kids, and adults. I hardly saw Dom and Emilia the entire time. Dom could be found trying all the sports. Emilia zipped around on a little bike thing for much of it. Eva mostly stuck close to me (or maybe I stuck close to her). She was very serious and observant, but did get adventurous at points. Myles seemed to enjoy himself, and could frequently be spotted being supervised by 2-3 adults as he recklessly climbed the structures. Phoebe was toddling around all over the place screeching with joy and offering smiles to anyone in her vicinity. It all made me hope we can rent the church out and do this sort of thing for Dom's birthday next year. Depends on COVID restrictions I guess... That's prevented any sort of party his last two birthdays. We'll see!

On our way out we all had a good laugh at this cool dude

Then Dave and I had a good cry at the fact that $150 got us 3/4 of a tank of gas :(

Birthday boy!

Eva's face almost the entire time haha

Dom made many new friends through his love of sports. Not a natural ping pong player, but he tried hard! Haha

Aforementioned supervision of Myles climbing haha

My brood :)

No denying who Myles' father is! Twinsies

Yesterday was Mom's 55th birthday. We were planning to go there for a celebratory dinner, but Eva and I had to stay home after she'd been unable to keep food down for a few hours. Not my favorite, but at least she was still happy. I felt brave and took all the kids and the dog to meet Ashleigh at the Uplands dog park in Brookswood. As we pulled into the parking lot Eva threw up all over herself and her car seat. Thank goodness Ashleigh was there to take the big kids and the dog for me while I tried my best to clean her and the seat up. Gross. Glad I had a spare set of clothes. Fingers crossed it ends here!