2013 in pictures ~ february

harry potter, move over
cayo coco, cuba
chinese new year
beach walk
family day at winterlude
stripey legs
strolling down the boardwalk
sister love

those glasses!

Move over Harry (Potter), there's a Harriette in town! ...and she is ridiculously cute.

Most days, she'll grab a pair of glasses from the dress-up box and wear them around the house.
You see, her big sister wears glasses and she likes to act just like her big sister!

新年快乐 - xīn nián kuài lè - happy new year!

I know this is a little late... we happened to be in Cuba this year for Chinese New Year! I'd packed the girl's Chinese dresses and they wore them to dinner that evening, gaining many compliments from the staff and other tourists. There was even Spring Rolls at the buffet to celebrate the occasion! Although I don't think that was totally planned!

Call me vain, but I had actually imagined this wonderful beach photoshoot in my head, with the girls all snazzy in their Chinese dresses... but the many long days at the beach had made us all quite tired, so much so that we napped right through that glorious photo opportunity! My excuse - it got dark earlier than I anticipated! Oh well, sleep, and as a result, happy girls, makes the vacation much nicer than grumpy girls and photoshoots! ...just sayin!

But don't they look the picture of happiness and joy in this picture?! I admit, I do have to act quite silly for these grins! But it's SO worth it!

Xīn Nián Kuài Lè! Happy New Year my friends!

little stripey legs are simply irresistible!

I just love stripes.
Especially stripey legs.
ESPECIALLY when they're jumping on the bed!

There's no greater joy than that!

[ the flickr set is here ]

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!