My baby is three...

K's birthday falls right at the beginning of school, but since school wasn't in session in September, we had her party at a water park and invited the older siblings as well.  K was thrilled to make her own cupcakes the night before.  All she had been talking about for weeks was blowing out candles and having a balloon.  We got her a Dora birthday balloon the morning of her party and somehow lost it by the time we were on our way to the water park.  Same thing happened for her first birthday.  So I had to turn around and go back to the dollar store and get another one.  K loved her simple party: she played with her friends at the water park, had snacks and cupcakes, blew out her candles and got a few presents.  Her dad even took his kids from work to our water park as their activity that day so that he could watch K's party.  We had breakfast for dinner; K's favourite foods are breakfast foods.

The weekend after her birthday, my parents came into town to celebrate with her.  They took the girls to Parksville for a beach fun day.  K got one of her favourite dinners: chicken Caesar salad with garlic bread.  She got to blow out candles one more time and open more gifts.  I can't believe my first baby is already three.  If she could have her way everyday would be filled with grandparents, friends, stickers and treats.  She is such a sweet, tender girl.  She is obedient and independent.  She is a rock star sleeper: everyday I'm grateful for that.  If I said yes to what she wanted to eat everyday it would be all cereal+milk and peanut butter+jam.  My two favourite things about her are as follows: #1, no matter how tired or awake she is, once she is put to bed she will remain in her bed quiet until she falls asleep even if it takes hours. #2, her resolve to do something over and over again (usually on the playground) until she can do it all by herself without help, no matter how long it takes or how many times she falls first. 

Happy Birthday Baby, I love you!

stirring up her chocolate cupcakes

special baking time with mommy while B went to bed

quality control testing

pouring the batter in all by herself

daddy crashing K's party

waterpark fun

part of the gang

homemade chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter buttercream icing

some older siblings

K and her friend G

Add caption

opening her present from grandma and grandpa

a book

a Frozen backpack

new rain boots

new Frozen poster

B being silly

new Anna doll

her crown so she could be a princess

all decked out in presents

Camping Take 5: Hornby Island

Cole took off the first week of September and we headed to Hornby Island for one last family camping trip of the season.  We were there for 5 days and because it was September, not many campers were left.  Hornby Island is a really cool little community- suuper suuper small and very hippy.  It was really neat to see.  Everyone was very friendly.  It started to pour our first night (thankfully Cole had prepared tarps ahead of time) and continued to pour our whole second day there.  We went on a hike, took a long nap in the afternoon and contemplated going home.  We're not scared of camping in the rain but with a small toddler it gets messy fast and we only had that week to spend together and thought maybe it would be better spent at home.  But the forecast said the rest of the week would be bright and sunny so we stuck it out and the forecast was right.  Nothing but sun the rest of the week.

We enjoyed beautiful beaches.  I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon nap with my girls every day.  We sampled some of the locally grown produce in our dinners.  We also ran out of there early the last morning.  B must have had enough camping for one season because she cried the whole last night.  We were up at 6am packing up and drove away at 8am.  Nothing like a crying baby all night to help motivate you to pack up well before check out time.

My favourite story from the whole trip was B and K playing out on the "road" in front of our campsite.  I heard K scream, "HELP! BECCA! TRUCK!" I came over to see B sitting on the road and K with her arms around her.  She had tried to lift her little sister off the road to safety but she was too heavy so instead she stayed with her arms around her, obviously very scared, until we came to help.  There was a big van driving down the road towards us (quite far away at this point and very very slow) but all K knew was that there was danger.  She knew you got out of the way for vehicles and you could get hurt.  She didn't want to leave her sister even though she was really scared.  I almost wanted to ask the driver to stop a minute while I got my camera to document the moment, it was so sweet.  We told her she was a good big sister and did the right thing calling for help.

boots and rain jacket for our wet start to camp

spent a lot of time picking black berries- kept going back every day to the same
bush and somehow found new berries everyday

rigging tarps

mud castles

beautiful hike in the rain
(I did this hike 7-8 years ago and it rained that day, too.  Maybe one day I will
get to do it in the sun.)

sun finally came out for us

island girl to the core

beach baby

who would ever want to leave?

bow and arrow with daddy

nap time in the wagon

family soccer game

the giant swing at the campground

loves dangerous games

night time swinging

Camping Take 4: Sproat Lake

BC Day long weekend found the whole Brown (and Wight and Greenwood) clan at Sproat Lake.  We had gorgeous weather.  The lake was crystal clear and beautifully cool.  The girls loved having their extended family all around them.  It was nice for Cole and I to have extra chaperones around as well.  Our girls slept wonderfully, for the most part.  We took a day trip to Tofino on Saturday- it wasn't hot and sunny and clear there...there was this funny mist that settled on the beach and you couldn't see more than 20 feet in front of you and it cooled things off.  But we still had fun..most of us anyways.  We (the Wights) LOVE Tofino in any weather.  It was still warm enough for us that we didn't need sweaters and we still went into the ocean. My girls are true island girls and love the beach in any weather as well.  I'm not very good about taking pictures- I did get some this trip but 97% were in Tofino, 2% were in Coombs on the way back and 1% was on the way out of camp the last day.  So there aren't any of actual Sproat Lake.  But mostly because we were constantly swimming and having such fun. 

Highlights and memorable moments:

-watching K swim around the lake confidently in her lifejacket
-watching B get more and more brave in the water
-wrestling my sister off her tube after she claimed I wouldn't be able to
-playing President late into the night with Cole, Tanya and Alexis and all the "butthole" jokes that accompanied it
-TOFINO TOFINO TOFINO
-TACOFINO
-playing in the ocean (I got wet head to toe and I almost never go that far into the ocean- I'm a fresh water kind of gal)
-surrounded by family in the lake and K saying she wanted to go with mommy (possibly the first time she's every said that when daddy, aunties and grandparents are all options)
-cousin love with J, K and B
-Cole forgetting to open the bbq lid while lighting it and singing much of the hair on his face off

Many, many, many pictures to follow:

MIXED FAMILY SHOTS

B running to Alexis

hug

Alexis spinning K

sibling-in-law rivalry

mommy snuggles for J and a curious B

building sandcastles with Aunty Jacqueline

Grandma and J

the favourite Aunt (for real)

SKIMBOARDING

B joined in at the end

FOOTBALL

MY GIRLS

same expression

love

COUSIN LOVE

pay no attention to the girl picking her nose

POSED GROUP SHOTS

COOMBS

goat on the roof in the background

Now if you've made it all the way to the bottom, you will now be graced with the picture of Cole and his facial hair singed off...