Arrrr! It's a Pirate's Life fer me!

My daughter, Elise, recently turned 7. This year, we have not had our parties even close to our actual birthdays, so we finally got around to having her party - yesterday.

For a few weeks, she went back and forth between a few ideas. I was pushing for an Art Party. I even had the canvases purchased for each child to go home with a masterpiece. She was pushing for firetrucks. She really only cared about the cake. Once upon a time, I made a firetruck cake (shown here) for my oldest son. That was the cake my new seven-year-old had her heart set on. But, this mama didn't feel like making and decorating a cake in the heat of summer. So, I had to divert her attention elsewhere. I had just cleaned out my stamping room, and came across the Pirate party kit from Stampin' Up! that I had been holding onto for years. I showed it to Elise and she LOVED the idea of pirates! Good! So, then instead of making a cake, we did the next best thing... we went to Safeway and ordered a cake.

Here's the party in pictures. I figured that if we were to do all the amazing party ideas I have been pinning on Pinterest over the last few weeks, we would need a 10 hour party, so I opted for 3 games and 3 crafts. There was a 4th craft planned, but we didn't get to it.

We started the party with a treasure hunt. We practiced a few rounds of "Arr, me hearty!" and then I handed each child a loot bag and they got to go in search of their treasure. 

Another game we did was "Walk the Plank!" The kids loved this one, and, thankfully, they all stayed away from the nasty piranhas in the ocean below!

Our last game was "Stick the patch on the pirate". One girl said she was the best at this game. I made sure to cover her eyes extra well! But, sure enough, she won! She got some pirate's gold (chocolate) for that!!

Some of the decorations...

And onto the crafts. First off - PARROTS! Everyone knows a pirate needs a parrot. Thanks to Pinterest, I found some pretty cool parrots to make.To check out the source of this craft, click HERE.

Hard at work making a unique parrot.

The Birthday Girl and her parrot friends.

Here's a craft that everyone loved. Shrink art. Stamp in Stazon ink onto the special plastic sheets, colour with chalks and blender pens, or sharpies, and then trim and shrink. I used my Embossing heat tool to shrink them. I didn't let the kids do this part.

The last craft of the day, which ran over our 3 hour time frame, were some quick little boats. I should clarify, they were quick to make, but they weren't quick in the ocean. They took on water, but the kids loved pushing them around in our kiddie pool.

 

FOOD! When a pirate isn't on his ship, he or she might be on the seashore. Either way, a pirate is always hungry! What better food for pirates than seashells (pasta with white cheese) and octopus (European wieners... cut them in half and then slice 8 legs before putting them into boiling water for a few minutes. These were my favourite part of the meal!). We had different kinds of chips to eat, as well. To drink, the kids got the choice of "Swamp Water" (iced tea) or "Liquid Gold" (orange juice).

The delicious cake from Safeway. It was a white cake and in the middle there were strawberries and custard.  On the top is SpongeBob and Patrick and their pirate treasure. It doesn't show in the photo, but inside the treasure box is a white skull ring and gold doubloons!

At bedtime, Elise gave me a big hug and said, "Thanks for a fun party. I really liked all the Pirate stuff we did!" That made it all worthwhile!

10 Hours in Revelstoke

During the 2nd week in July, while my kids were on the Island at camp, I got to go along on a road trip with Steve. He drives truck during the Spring and Summer, and this is the second year he's had this job. I haven't been able to go along before since we have 3 kids and only 1 person can go with him at a time. The kids all got their turn last summer, and again this summer. When one kid is along, I am at home with the other two.

The first thing Steve said to me, as we packed up and left the house on the first day, was, "Don't call your bag 'luggage' because this is not a holiday. It's just a backpack with your stuff in it and we are on a working trip." I had to laugh at that. For me, 4 days on the road, with no kids, is definitely a holiday! I don't care if I have to sleep in the sleeper of a semi truck, or eat fast food. We left our Province - that's a holiday right there!

Our travels took us to Edmonton, Calgary and Lethbridge. Then, back through Calgary and homeward bound. On our way home, we stopped in Revelstoke, BC. What a beautiful place, right on the river. We had beautiful weather for our short, but sweet, stop. It was only a total of about 10 hours, with approximately 8 of them sleeping, but it was enough for me to feel the town's charm.

Dinner was at Denny's and breakfast the next morning was at McD's. Here is a quick look at this quaint town from my point of view at the edge of the highway.

We parked just West of the town in a large pull-out area. The trucks slowly started pulling in and stopping for the night, but it wasn't even close to being full.

The bridge is over 50 years old and, let me tell you, it SHAKES! After the stories of bridges falling down, in recent months, I was looking for my escape route the whole way over.

Right as we were crossing the bridge, we heard the train. I was able to capture a few pics of the train crossing right in front of us on the tracks parallel to where we were standing. I love the reflection on the water. We had such beautiful weather.

These next pictures almost made me sick to take... looking up while the bridge beneath your feet is swaying is not my idea of fun. But it made for some cool pictures, so I had to go for it!

 The sliver of the moon as we walked back to the truck after dinner. 

 
In the morning, we followed the trail under the bridge and I got some cool shots of the underside of the structure. Being below, you can really see the bridge moving when large trucks go over it. It is quite loud down there, as well.

The next picture happened right in front of us while we were having breakfast. I put a little news report on Facebook, so I will just copy and paste that...

This is Sarah, reporting LIVE, on the road, for the Kenworth news: Everyone who was anyone, in Revelstoke, was at the local McDonald's this morning and witnessed the chase and arrest of 2 guys. Handcuffs and everything. 2 police vehicles - the first officer called for backup. What could it be? Stolen car? DUI? Drugs? (they kept pulling more stuff out of the car) The old men of the town even took turns doing a walkabout and coming back with more information of what they heard and saw up close! Pretty funny (I guess not for the 2 guys arrested, but from a passer through's point of view, I appreciated the collaborative efforts of the locals to get the story woven together!)

The story of "Woodenhead"! What a fun piece of history right here! The write-up is in the 2nd picture.

 

This was the sweetest picnic table I think I've ever seen. Heart cutouts in each end.

Finally, while other parts of our trip were sponsored by Tim Horton's, this sunny day, in Revelstoke, was definitely sponsored by McDonald's. They really do have great coffee - no joke, it's our favourite. At the end of the trip, Steve told me that it felt more like a holiday than his other trucking trips. He said that he felt less rushed (he rarely has a sit-down dinner like we did). We knew the kids were safe at my parents' and he had me along... he actually wanted this trip to last longer (his words, honest!).

Next time I am in the Revelstoke area, I would like to explore inside the town, not just the sights at the edge of the highway!

Demolition Derby

This past Monday was BC Day. Every year on the the first weekend of August it is a long weekend, but it is also the local fair - Agrifair. We usually go at least one out of the 4 days each year. It's not too big of a fair, and there is always lots to see.

As we stood in line to pay our admission fee, a lady came up to us and asked if all our kids were under 11. I said yes, but I didn't know why she was asking. She told me that kids 10 and under are free. Bonus, I didn't know that!! But, then the real kicker was when she handed Steve and I each a ticket. She said, "This will get you in free, as well." Wow! Talk about a serendipity! It would have cost us $24.00 to get in.

The Demolition Derby was our main goal to see at the fair, but of course, there were other things that we really enjoyed as well.

Last week, our kids went to a VBS (Vacation Bible School) at a local church. It was all about Creation and dinosaurs, and they absolutely LOVED it!! The same people (Creation Truth Ministries) that put on the VBS were at the fair with all their dinosaurs! 

Next, we went to the car races and demolition derby. The first race was featuring the kids. They were great! This little cutie is only 5 years old and he won his race.

The Demolition derby events were broken down into different categories, according to the size of the cars. This Batman car was Elise's pick to win in this event.

My favourite was the Transformer, but neither one of our picks won. The winner of the small cars event was #61.

Oops!! This little pile up started the first fire of the day. A quick little spray with the fire extinguisher and the action was back on.

Here's the fire that stopped the event. Men came rushing out with fire extinguishers and had to work on it for quite awhile before they were satisfied that the fire was out. They even called in the loader to lift one car up so they could aim the fire extinguisher right at the fire underneath. Exciting stuff!! Eventually, the last 3 cars, that were still active, were allowed to continue to determine the winner.

The very last hit of the day, between these 2 orange beauties, decided the winner... #9, on the right took home bragging rights as winner of the derby. He also took home a very broken car!

We met up with our friends at the fair. Thanks for hanging out, J & K!

E got herself into a little bit of trouble...

I pulled out my camera and asked Scott to stop for a minute. He automatically smiled for the picture and then was a bit sad that I just wanted his shadow! haha!

Fun times at the fair... can't wait to go back next year for some more excitement. I feel like going for just half a day didn't give us enough time to take it all in. We might consider buying a weekend pass next year.

Summer Fun

We have had a "close-to-home" kind of summer. One year, I am sure we will do Disneyland, and maybe Europe in a few years, but this year, I was quite happy to have a peaceful time, close to home.

Towards the end of July, we spent an evening at a nearby lake. The water was perfect - so warm. As we drove to the lake (about 45 minutes away from us) we saw the masses of people heading home from the lake after spending the entire day there. That suits me just fine! I loved that we had a long section of beach all to ourselves because we arrived at about 6:00pm. The kids all had turns in our blow up boat, and I was reluctant to get out of the water when it was time for the gates to close. We hope to go back a few more times before school starts up again.

Sunbeam Music - A Storybook Project

One of the dreams I've had for awhile is to write a children's story. This dream is coming to pass, thanks to the help of a Canadian publishing company - Word Alive Press. One day, soon, I will write a post about the whole process, but for now, I will share just a bit.

Here is the cover of my soon-to-be-released children's book. Today, I approved the cover art and design, and that takes the project one step closer to publication. A few weeks back, I approved the final storyboard and layout for the whole book. I just love it, and I get excited about being able to see it in print very soon.

This sweet girl on the front of the book is named Veronica. She is one of the main characters in the story. All the beautiful illustrations in the book are thanks to the talented artists at Word Alive Press. They took the characters that I wrote about on paper, and brought them to life in pictures. It has been a wonderful process and Word Alive is a fantastic company to work with. If you have a dream of writing a book (any genre, not just children's stories) then I highly recommend contacting Word Alive.

I have created a Facebook page so I can make regular updates. If you are on Facebook, I invite you to hop over there and "like" my page. It's called Read With Me - Sarah Froese. I purposely didn't call it by the title of my story, because I am hoping that this is the first of many stories to be created :)

The publication date has not been announced, but when it is, my Read With Me Facebook page friends will be the first to know!!