Well this should have been posted ages ago!! Oops! Happy WAY belated birthday to my double digits girl. I know I shared this on Instagram and Facebook but the blog must share as well!

On April 26th Trinity turned 10! Where has the time gone? We got her a rather funky and fun cup cake and cake Hello Kitty cake.

It matched perfectly with many of her Hello Kitty themed presents. Including some rather sweet doll furniture from her Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie. Don’t forget the grandparent phone calls. Lucky girl.

She chose her own outfit. Pink, pink and more pink!

Though she later changed into her new (Hello Kitty themed) sweater and we walked down the street for some fun 5 kid pictures. Boy are they growing up!

Youngest to oldest

Trinity was over the moon. This year her birthday fell on a Thursday so she also got to go to karate for her birthday!

For dinner we take the birthday kid (or kids if it is the twins) to a mom and dad only dinner. This year Trinity went big with a fancy burger at the Tavern!

Good food takes time, so we brought her DS and her new game!

The next day Renee and I took the two girls on a girls only adventure. 5 Guys for lunch.

Then off to an accessory store for some serious browsing and shopping, all finished up at a rather fancy cupcake store.

Trinity told me it was a pretty amazing birthday. Double digits sure looks good on this girl! She is growing up so fast! Happy Birthday revisited darling girl!

Hard to believe she is 8 already! August 13 th marked our Echo turning 8. We had to split up her birthday celebration to include Aunty Karyn who drove down from Canada for her visit the week before.

Saying goodbye on the 11th

So on the Friday (a day before Karyn had to drive back) we had an Echo day. We took her to the Como zoo (a zoo run on donations only) and she got a $30.00 limit in the main gift shop.

Butterfly!

She HUGELY lucked out. They were having a sale on a series of large stuffed animals that had her buying 2 for pretty much exactly $30.00. After much agonizing we purchased a red panda (my favourite animal) and an elephant. Talk about a happy little girl!

With her new Stitch teddy from Aunty Karyn

After the zoo we had to drive back home and clean up for Echo’s first dance recital at the YMCA! There was 2 recitals planned due to summer scheduling conflicts with parents. For this recital not only was  Aunty Karyn and Trinity there with Mom and Dad but she was the only one in her class that made it!

Dancing solo with Miss Grace

She did an amazing job dancing with her teacher Grace, and looked absolutely adorable in her little pink outfit. We were so proud.

After recital it was home for a cupcake cake! Since she is currently obsessed with Stitch I went on Amazon and found some little Lilo and Stitch statues to put on top of the cake. Success!

Monday marked her actual birth date so we had presents from us and Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie. I went all out with the Stitch stuff and Aunty Holly totally hit the mark with her Lego set.

Thank you Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie!

We also spent time at our favourite park.

A day or two later Echo got a parcel from Gammie. A brand new instant camera with film. Included was a lovely card from Aunty Heather and Hudson.

Add in birthday phone calls from Grandma and Nana and Baba and dinner out solo at McDonalds.

The topper on the day was swimming with Daddy while Mom worked out in her class upstairs.

Echo told me it was the best birthday ever. High praise indeed! Happy Birthday Echo!!!

Kitty school

Onto November and possibly getting my blog up to date before November of 2018 comes around… maybe? Summer gets so busy for us and I have let it snowball a bit. So enjoy the post and the look back at way cooler temperatures. A head’s up… December is already up and posted along with seasonal links HERE.

Ken spoiled me with a new tea mug!

Anyway, November… the month of chinchilla and workout pictures… wait that is much of my life the past year. I do love the Fluffy Overlord and working out has become second nature with me now.

Talking about chinchillas, November marks Neko-chan turning 1 year old!!! check out that post HERE

Emanuel went through a bit of an image change with a fancy new hair cut.

As did Echo. We have some rather spiffy looking kids!

The 3 younger kids went to Home Depot for the craft and even convinced Dad that PAINT should be involved.

I crocheted up a storm and we blocked this year’s special mom and grandma gifts… shawls! Plus matching hats for all 3 of us girls.

The kids dressed up in their finery for Santa. We went with the Schwartz family to their mall Santa of choice since our traditional one no longer exists after a store closing.  You can read all about that HERE.

I found winter boots in the children’s section of Target – something that made Ken laugh and entertained him and a few other people for days!

We had dinner with our wee niece Maevowyn… and her parents too, but we all know who the star of the show was!!!

I may be biased.. . but that face just makes me melt.

Echo LOVES her cousin

With Mom, and Dad photo bombing in the back

I also got in some quality kitty time, and pictures.

Silly Snoopy

We had school time.

Themed crafting continued.

A whole set of Halloween themed cupcakes that were out past the date.

Gavin made all of our cards this year.

Christmas Art

A Christmas mouse

Gavin the solemn crafter

Christmas mug cozy

Really all the babies babies were seen.

A poppy was worn, sent straight from Canada for Remembrance Day.

And I photographed my chinchilla from pretty well ALL possible angles…

All the junk in that glorious trunk!

Close up with lighting!

Yup that was November in a quick scan through images… hope you enjoyed!

We baked!

Whole family!