Willows Beach Creatures - Collect & Release

Our kids are lucky. Their schools are awesome and so are their teachers.

Cuddles

Caddy bay

 With Willows Beach closed to dogs for the summer, we go to the bay next door, Cadboro Bay, for Rocket's play time. Not a bad wee spot to hang out.

Ash's Great Escape

It was 24 hours of bliss. A looooooong bike ride in the sun, a short and beautiful ferry ride, an adventururous ride on the other side on Pender. Then time with an old friend and her fam. So fun and then the whole trip in reverse...cept a bit of a bus ride, and a cheeky pick up at the Root Cellar (Thanks MegaDob!).

Sewing and Jujitsu

Thank you Aunt Lynnie, for lending us your wonderful sewing machine. Mac is working some magic, even if he is a bobbin.

You don't get to be this pretty...

...without a little work.

 Oh, but the hair...that is effortless.

Mother's Day 2019

I got spoiled at the home spa, and Nana got taken to task on the tennis court!

Red Panda Power

Sav is having a GREAT season with her beloved Red Pandas.
They recently traveled to Vancouver for three nights and came third at a Lower Mainland Tournament.
Sav made a triple play (!???) and won MVP one game. She was chuffed.
Hats off to the amazing coaching staff.

 
 

Shawnigan

For better or better, we bought some land on Shawnigan Lake with Nana. The cabin needs, ahem, a little bit of work. The land has some challenges. And we are not sure if we will catch much sun. 

BUT WE LOVE IT!!!!

We are so smitten with this spot we have found. 

Chill out on the deck, anyone?

We have already explored the land in late Winter (our neighbour was snowed in for 7 days!).

And came back in April for some early camping.
The ground is rough enough that we went for a suspended tent.

The outhouse is dodgy enough that we carved out a "window". At least now we can see the spiders and snakes while getting on with business.

We have worked hard to prepare a spot for a ground tent too. That is about 12 wheelbarrows of mulch from a tree up the driveway in an attempt to smooth out some ground.

Rocket thinks he is king of the castle, up on his rock.

Nana has a plan to live on the dock, we think, until the premises are in better shape!

 
 Glen has already had first dip off the dock.

 A bit chilly at this time of year, but great fires to stay warm.

 

 Yay for Team Rob-How and all of our family and friends whom we hope will join us for summers at the lake. We feel very excited and lucky! 

Mac and his swagger

We are working on a card for end of year for Mac and G's awesome teacher. It involves a joke around the Canadian Tuxedo. So Nicole set up her camera and she and Spielberg took some shots.

 
Mac and G look like such cool dudes - teenage years seem around the corner.
But the truth is, through the swagger and tough talk, after going to the village solo to get ice cream with his mates, and once he grows tired of playing nicky nicky nine doors on the neighbours, Mac still likes to have a soak in the tub and create battles with his lego buddies-

"Each fight, mom, I don't know who is going to win. They tell me as the battle evolves. I am as surprised as you are by the ultimate champion."

The Quintland Sisters, by The Shark

She wrote a book, she wrote a book! And a good few Wednesdays ago, we had the pure pride and joy of hear her speak in YYJ at Munro's!
Celebrating this #1 Canadian Fiction Bestselling Masterpiece, we share pics of the Shark and her amazing achievement, published by Harper Collins, The Quintland Sisters!

Here is what I wrote on Facebook so local buds would know to come out (thank you book clubbers!)

EVERYONE! There are 5 very important reasons for reading Shelley Wood's beautiful book, THE QUINTLAND SISTERS:

5. The book is very easy to source. Find it while browsing online via Amazon, while drinking a cappuccino and eating avocado toast at your local hipster book store, and also while eating free samples and stocking up on nuts and cheese at Costco.

4. The story of the Dionne Quintuplets is an important part of Canadian history, with many a connection to what's going on in today's world. After reading the Shark's fictional book, which is intertwined with much of the true Quintland story, you'll probably be like me and spend the night googling more. See the Shark's musings in Time Magazine here. http://time.com/5555131/dionne-quintuplets-kidfluencers/

3. The Quintland Sisters was written by the best of the best, and has been #1 on the Canadian Bestsellers list for the second week in a row. The story is a wonderful, touching journey with many a twist and turn. The writing is sensational, as always with our Shark, aka Shelleywoodauthor.

2. I play a prominent role in page 440 of the book (as in, VERY prominent).

1. MOST IMPORTANTLY - Shelley will be speaking about THE QUINTLAND SISTERS in Victoria on April 3rd at Munro's Books, 7pm. She might be appearing as image 1, or as image 2. You don't know. But you want to know. And that's why you have to make it there. Camon YYJ-ers (and YVR-ers) - make it happen!

https://www.munrobooks.com/?q=p.events

The big night (started with a bike ride, then a book signing tour, then a beverage and an iffy salad. 

 Biggest fan club:

 
 Then the main attraction-

 More fan club

Day after with lovely gang-
 

Glen reading fiction? Damn, that must be good.
Sav read it and LOVED it. But she hated the ending. No spoilers, but Sav was upset and wants Auntie Shark to rewrite the finish, with unicorns and fairy dust.

Rocket was enthralled from start to finish.

Lastly, we discussed The Quiltland Sisters at the book club that I am part of and the group loved it. There is no pic of the book in this snap (damn) but it wasn't all about cake and wine that night. We had a great chat about Shark's work too.

Hooray Shark!