wow! we got 24 inches of snow in 36 hours! school was cancelled today and i couldn’t even make it to work. and they say there is more on the way! i guess winter is here. it’s so pretty! and, it gave us a perfect backdrop to do our family picture for our christmas cards!

… that was definately the question! fate was trying to tell me something but i refused to listen!

so, for about 6 weeks, i prepared and planned a surprise party for derek’s 40th birthday, which is coming up next weekend. the party was planned for saturday, november 25, 2006. all the invitations went out via my ’secret’ hotmail account (so he wouldn’t find out), the plan to get him out of the house was finished and the cake was ordered. and not just any old cake, after all, it is his 40th. i ordered a very special cake from a local bakery, custom made, just for derek.

(omen #1) last monday night, the local bakery burned down! OMG! what am i going to do now! (omen #2) they phoned my home to let me know that my cake wasn’t going to be ready for saturday…. derek took the call! cat’s-out-of-the-bag now! oh well, that’s ok, all he knows is that there is going to be a party in his honour! he knows nothing about who is coming or any of the other little surprise i have in store. it was good in a way that he found out because now he is able to help me get everything ready.

saturday, november 25 arrived. it was a busy day as usual, emily had her dancing and tyler had soccer. it was ‘openhouse’ at dance, so i was able to watch and take a few pictures of emily. they say she is more than ready to do her tap and modern exams in the spring!

tyler had fun at soccer. i managed to get a few shots of him in action.

we had my good friend’s dd staying with us and all day long, she kept saying, ‘it’s gonna snow today. it’s gonna snow today!’ i kept telling her to bite her tongue. and i warned her not to say that nasty four-lettered-s-word anymore! LOL!

(omen #3) well, at about 2:30pm on saturday afternoon, it started snowing. and before you knew it, everything was turning white! oh no, what about the ’surprise’ party? the party will go on, and i was more determined than ever to see to it! by 6pm, the rcmp shut down the highway. that meant that none of our guests from victoria were going to be able to make it. some of them did manage to get through before the highway closed, luckily!

for some unexplained reason, that i still haven’t figured out yet, that ’surprise’ party was not supposed to happen. i am happy to say, that we managed to have a fabulous time with 16 of our great friends, who braved the weather and came to help derek celebrate his 40th birthday. you all hold a very special place in our hearts and we love you! thanks to all of you who made it and i am so sorry to all of those who missed it! who knew that was going to happen!
(that’s fire cheif dan with the fire extinguisher… he’s so funny!)

a HUGE thank you to shonna and chris for putting together tha amazing slideshow for derek. even though you weren’t able to make it, you managed to send me the file via messanger so we could enjoy it too! thank you, thank you, thank you!

i came across this picture the other night. i took it a couple of years ago and i am finally now, just getting around to having it printed. oh, she is going to love me for this one when she gets older! lol!

p.s. i made a few changes to my blog! can you tell what? let me know what you think!

another busy weekend gone. luckily, tyler’s soccer was cancelled on saturday so that was one less thing to do. i am finally finished putting together the portrait packages for the big daycare shoot that i did. i will drop them off tomorrow morning on my way to work.

we went to victoria last night, as mentioned in my earlier post, to see the santa parade. we left a bit early and went to old navy to pick up a few things. i must say, we all did very well. 2 new shirts for emily, 5 for tyler, 6 for derek and 6 for me. they always have such good deals!

we also picked up my new lens last night. so, of course, i just had to try it out today! i bought the canon 35mm f2.0. much more versitile for indoor shots. here are a few from today. thanks for looking!

last night, we met derek’s mom and her friend downtown to see the santa parade. a great night for a parade. the weather was so nice and mild, a nice break from all of the rain we have been having. the kids had a wonderful time. they especially enjoyed seeing the big guy dressed in red himself…. even though they forget their letters to him at home.

ps. i grabbed my camera bag as i was leaving only to realized that all of my cf cards were sitting on my desk at home. so, we had to stop and buy a new one! remeber to check for cf cards before you leave home!!

Labels: Christmas