the olympic flame!

I love the Vancouver 2010 Olympic graphics. Everything looks amazing from the cute mascots to the amazing website.

Got off work early today because the Olympic flame torch relay was in our city! The last time I saw the flame, I was in highschool and was so blasé about it. But it passed right in front of my school bus... and it was so cool.

Waiting for the flame...

Picked up Keira from school, made her put her full winter gear on (so cold today!) and we headed to our city hall and met up with Keira's Papa. Someone was giving out small paper olympic flags and we waited (not so patiently by Miss K btw!). So after some fishy crackers, some chips and alot of "y'est où la flamme???", a bus stopped by and it was the next relay runner! I have absolutely no idea who she was but she looked pyched!

Awesome..

And a few minutes after that, the mobile posse went by along with endless cop cars and then... the relay runner with the olympic flame! Wow, so cool. I'm so glad Keira got this experience... On to Vancouver 2010!

The flame bearer! On his way to City Hall..

From one torch to the other...

fly-by weekends

While we did our shopping, we got Keira the new Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games stuff. The plushies and fleece blanket were too cute to pass up! But the clothes are horrible... All bought at The Bay.

Another weekend come and gone. Why do they go by so fast? We had a great Saturday afternoon courtesy of a kiddie birthday party. This time, it was OUR turn to drop Keira off at her friend's house (her school chum turned 5 too) and we got to have a cozy afternoon to ourselves. Actually, we did some holiday shopping but it was great to shop by ourselves.

Keira with Uncle Rainier

Today, I actually accomplished what I set out to do: grocery shopping, pharmacy to renew prescriptions, send off packages, finish holiday gifts etc. We also had my brother (hm, not my blood brother but just about since we grew up together!) over for a visit. Hadn't seen him in almost 2 yrs! So it felt great to see him again. Keira was shy but just as she got over it, he had to leave. Doesn't that always happen?

It's past 8pm and time for our movie in bed. Can't wait til our basement is totally finished and a tv set up there. Will start movie nights as a family then!

a girl, a llama and a thank you!

It's been a really hectic 3 weeks or so. What with Keira's birthday, crazy work and us trying to get it together. I hadn't checked emails, fb, or even gone to our mailbox in about a week or so. So sad.. I only have 1 kid and I feel like I'm struggling with time.

So what a surprise to find 2 boxes in the mailbox for Keira! And from the West Coast Ahn clan! Keira was over the moon. She found, a plush llama, a book with a llama in the story and a stamp set that she used right away! That llama is now part of her posse (including Shilvi, Uniqua and Hello Kitty).

Thank you so much Alex, Rachel, Audrey, Sophia and James! You've really touched our hearts with your thoughtfulness. Too sweet!

happy birthday for real

Happy birthday for real! To our favourite most beloved sweetheart ever, mummy and papa love you. You make us laugh, you make us cry, you make us crazy, you make us love life! Five years is so little but so much. Keira at 5ive is:
1. An intuitive person.
2. An honest person; always fessing up when breaking/messing up or creating a huge mess but with that face, that cute little voice and such naivité, it's easy to just hug her to bits instead.
3. A fun imp! Ready to dance, clap & sing along (and if she doesn't know the words, she makes em up as she goes along!). Karaoke.. here she comes!
4. A cheese-lovin' 5 yr old. Able to eat spoonfuls of parmesan, without the pasta!
5. A memory-loading, learning machine. Able to tell you off the bat what happened at the precise moment last year, also able to tell you the direction you're going in the car is wrong (and she's usually right!). As my mom says, "her brain is a sponge with new batteries and it's going on strong".

Baby girl, we love you for being you.

it's a keira weekend!

I won't cry, I won't cry...

It's a Keira weekend! Our little girl is turning 5. To start off our celebration for this weekend, I've put together a little video montage going trippy trippy down memory lane. Sit back, relax, drink your latte cuz it'll take a while! (warning: video is about 17 min.)



Keira - The Wonder Years from chantal on Vimeo.

l'artiste

I usually don't pay much attention to Keira's drawings when she brings them home each and every night from the service de garde (where she usually goes before and after school-it's at her school btw). I glance at them and go, "wow! great job!" and then put them on a big pile of her other drawings accumulating on the kitchen counter.

While most of her peers her age are drawing cats that look like cats, dogs that look like dogs, people that look like people... well you get the drift, Keira usually draws à la freeform abstract type. You know, lines, squiggles, random crayon marks.

Lately though, I've noticed the way she draws "people's" faces. She actually draws a circle for eyes (or the iris) and then another circle within as pupils. And then, 2 nights ago, she came home with these: I was blown away!!

Check out the awesome hair! 2 bad-ass ponytails, like her own. Yep, the arms are still sticking out of the heads.. hehe.

The Spotty Dog!

Field of Flowers

My absolute favourite of them all! Whack-job bunny bonhomme with flowers sticking out. Total awesomeness!

hairclip

Rarely do we see Keira with her bangs off her forehead. Rarer still will she put in clips or barrettes in her hair. But these are the clips she got from a friend for her birthday. Hello Kitty clips. She asks her daddy to put them in her hair for school (usually on the sides). Tonight, she let me put up her bangs with the clips for 1 whole minute!

Scary part is... when her hair is off her face, she kind of looks different. Can't really tell from these pics but... whoowee. Look at all that baby hair framing her face! I could just squeeze and hug her and freeze-frame this time. Time is going waaay too quickly!

Btw, yes, this is the third evening/night in a row where she has been wearing that velvet dress. She's hoping for another ped-week where she can wear her non-uniform clothes to school! Can't bear to tell her it won't be til next year...She seems to have taken a liking to that dress...

Ah yes, Megatron!! She likes him cuz he's "bad!"