A Belated Jaylene & Camron Birthday!

We waited until the 23rd to celebrate Camron's 10th and Jaylene's 15th birthdays! Here are Helene and Mia ready to eat!

I made a rigatoni dinner, my mom's recipe!

Mike was the photographer that evening!

Irene!!!

Birthday Cake!

Deja hangin' out in the background.  She's beautiful!

Jay's first bite

Cammie waiting for his ice cream

A second wish

That's some yummy ice cream!!!

Camron's growing up! Happy Birthday to our fun-lovin' nephew!!!

Jaylene opening her gift from Judy and Chester

Irene and Cheryl

Ah, Warriors gear, just in time for basketball season!

Happy Champagne Birthday (15 on the 15th) to one wonderful young woman!!!

Class Christmas Party!

Thought I'd share some photos from our class Christmas Party! This was our make-shift Christmas tree, with some of the Secret Exchange gifts underneath!

Students guessing the number of Holiday Kisses inside the water bottle.

Posing for pictures while chowing down on a smorgasbord of delicious food: Chinese dumplings, sushi, pork rolls, a Filipino rice dish, homemade guacamole salsa and torilla chips, rice pudding, fruit salad, and more...

Yahoo, the last day of school (for 2011)!

Drawing names for our Secret Gift Exchange!

We had multiple contests/games with prizes.  This is the Paper Dance!

These students know how to have fun!

A very groovin' game of musical chairs! (Man, some of these kids sure can dance!) What an excellent way to end the year!

Christmas Wrapping and Decorating the Tree!

I enjoy Christmas wrapping! What I don't like is when Christmas day is suddenly fast approaching!  It creeps up, almost stealth-like, except for all those bells, bright lights and overplayed carols (love those too!). Needless to say, I spent some late nights Christmas wrapping...

and Mike shot a few photos, which forced me to take a mini-break.

However, Christmas doesn't wait.

I continued....

Love decorating the tree!  It's one of my favourite Christmas moments.  Mike and Jay started singing "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" while I rushed out of the kitchen and reminded Josh it was time to get off the computer. The four of us began opening the boxes of decorations and choosing which ornaments we were going to place on the tree. Then it was angel time. This is Jay's job, usually with a little help.  Here we go again...

I jumped in to move a couple branches, but she really didn't need the help.

She got that angel up there all on her own!

...to Josh's amusement.

One of Jay's favourite Christmas ornaments!

One of Mike's faves!

A decoration I made with June and Amanda when I was a kid!

Decorating with a little ambiance...

Christmas gifts waiting to be picked up by Judy and Chester...

Gifts waiting under the tree...

Some were hidden in the branches...

We love Christmas!!!

Judy's Belated Birthday!

We had a belated celebration for Judy, because she was in Vancouver for her actual birthday!

Judy making sure all those candles are out!

Chester + Judy = love and happiness

Helene and Mia

Keith and Jay relaxin' after finishing their birthday cake

Josh and Camron

Cheryl and her girls

Judy opening her gift from us. She promised the card wouldn't make her cry...

Keith, Jay, and Mike's reaction after Judy finished reading the card!

Our Campfire in the Snow!

Jay, Chester, Rowan and Josh roastin' smokies and hotdogs 'round the fire at the cabin!

Ready to eat

Jaylene

Josh

Rowan and Josh at the campfire

Chester's first veggie dog

Mike's definitely-not-a-veggie dog

Rowan's baked goodies made Mike extra happy!

Jay, Josh and Rowan ready to go quadding in the snow!  It truly was a fun-filled weekend.  When we weren't enjoying ourselves outside, we were in the cabin playing board games (backgammon, Scrabble and Scattegories), eating, chatting, and watching movies before bed!