Happy Birthday Zander and Gavin! February rivals December for this family in degree of busy. And now we have added Chinese New Year into the celebration mix. It is still VERY difficult to grasp that the boys are actually SEVEN!

To add to the excitement today we went to the city centre mall and saw the Chinese New Year festival. It was very busy and crowded but we had fun. We watched some kids drumming.

Caught a little bit of the girls with the fans (very pretty).

And then let the kids do a craft if they wanted to. Gavin and Emanuel each wanted to do a craft so for 50 cents a piece they got to make a bunny. Emanuel’s was an origami piece and Gavin’s a paper plate bunny.

Zander wanted to do a game so the kids did the sure thing – spin a wheel for 50 cents a spin. Zander got a lollipop, Emanuel a bookmark and Gavin 3 tickets that he traded in for a bouncy ball. Trinity kept busy pushing her baby around (this is, right now, her favourite dolly.)

Echo spent the time in the carseat as she really didn’t fuss and slept through half of it!

Then after the festival we ran by the eye-care place to get Zander’s glasses ordered. Definitely more pricey than Walmart but the eye-doctor was very exact and careful to figure out exactly where the bifocal line needs to be on his glasses. After the coverage we have (thank goodness we have some) we have to pay 80.00 out of pocket. Not as bad as it could be as the entire cost is closer to 300! He is VERY excited about the glasses, though I am not sure how excited he will be when he HAS TO wear them. They should be ready sometime next week. So I am postponing his and Gavin’s yearly picture until AFTER we have them. I did do up Emanuel’s this evening. I will share some of them tomorrow to get general opinion of the best to post on the wall!

We got some not so great news in regards to the boys’ birthday party today. Ken’s dad is in the hospital right now with a blood clot in his leg and apparently a few other places. He is going to be in for a few days and then they will put him on blood thinners. If those don’t work it is surgery to remove the clots. So definitely not a good situation to be flying in! We would love to have them here but of course it is best if they remain in the states where he is being observed and taken care of. So hopefully we will get good news in regards to his health in the next couple days.

We had TWO special meals for the boys today. As the twins have to share their day we let them choose lunch (Gavin) and supper (Zander). Gavin wanted pizza so we stopped off at Little Caesar’s for pizza, and Zander wanted dumplings so he picked some up at the grocery store. I tried my best to hint around at lasagne but apparently that is only MOMMY’S favourite meal.

While the little ones napped we brought out our new projector and the twins made themselves a giant frog. They traced it together (a definite lesson in taking turns as they kept blocking out the projector with their heads) and then chose the colours together. I figure we will put either pictures from their trip to the zoo to see the frogs or have them write things about frogs on the top part of the paper. Zander did our first day of frog observations and of course we had some hopping in the livingroom.

We even squeezed in a Valentine’s themed craft… called a Sweetheart Collage. I explained how to do it to Gavin and Zander and then they taught and helped the younger two.

Now with a house to clean, and winter clothes to collect for the boys (they are going sledding right after church with Daddy tomorrow) we are definitely going to keep busy tonight. And Ken still has to run out to Toys’R’US to get Emanuel’s birthday present! Where did the day go?

Our version of the red envelope money - chocolate loonies and toonies!