Ooooooooh, an old photo booth!!!!! I've always loved these, and have been on the search for a good b&w one for a while - I used to take Kea out to the Metrotown mall when she was a baby to get photos in one by the Sears, but eventually that one was more often broken when we arrived so I gave up. Since then, I've been on the lookout for another one but have only found colour ones. Then a friend mentioned one at the Park Royal Mall, so after picking up Kea's friend Lucy at Horseshoe Bay I dragged everyone all over mall hell (according to Jamie!) to find the booth - and then we took some fun photos!!!!!!!

Sept. 13th, 2008

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Originally uploaded by the five mckays

And here's Tiegan on the morning of her fifth birthday - her godmother Stephanie is helping her put her new supergirl costume on, which she proceeded to wear for most of the day! And I have to tell you, she truly had super powers to be able to stomach running around in so little clothing! We decided to go camping in Princeton for the weekend, where it got up to 30 degrees in the day, and down to 0 degrees at night - we went from swimsuits and complaining of the heat to toques and numerous blankets, freezing our toes off. CRAZY!

For Tiegan's actual birthday, we had donuts for breakfast, we went up to Granite Creek (an old Goldrush ghost town) to explore, went to the bull riding finals at the rodeo grounds, went swimming at our favourite swimming hole, and then went back to the campsite to enjoy hot dogs and s'mores on the campfire, as per the birthday girl's request!!!!!!!

Kea

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Originally uploaded by the five mckays

I snapped this photo about a week ago - I came upstairs to find Kea sitting in the window, listening to her new Hannah Montana song and singing along word for word to "True Friend". Somehow, I thought I had YEARS to go before this preteen stage hit?!!!!! She spends so much time in her room, drawing and sewing, writing and just laying in bed listening to stories on tape. More and more Tiegan and Ryland run around playing together and Kea becomes more interested in having time to herself - such a shift in this 8th year of hers.

Tiegan's Fifth Birthday Party!

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Originally uploaded by the five mckays

Okay, so finally I am here to catch you up on a few posts! First off, Tiegan's fun Dora the Explorer birthday party! I'm not usually one for specific character parties, and I personally can not STAND Dora (I find her voice annoying, she talks to kids like they're idiots and I DO NOT see the appeal of her show. But then, I'm not 4!) So I had a bunch of ideas for Tiegan's party, but she kept negating them all and insisting on Dora. I was not inspired at all around what to do for a Dora party, so I kept trying to talk her out of it - and then Jamie finally pointed out the obvious.....whose party is this, anyways?!!! So at that, I sat back and listened to what Tiegan wanted!

And we ended up having lots of fun - Jamie did the research by watching episodes of Dora, we made maps, we filled a backpack full of useful tools and the kids went on an adventure (in the backyard to save some animals, over the rainbow bridge from tallest to smallest, and then along the hopscotch) to find the pinata that Swiper had swiped!!! Inside the pinata were Dora gummies, and instead of a take-home gift we donated money to the SPCA.

Birthday cupcakes

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Originally uploaded by the five mckays

It was a busy day today....first off we had our second open house so the morning was spent cleaning frantically (it's amazing how quickly the five of us can mess up a house!) and then taking off. We definitely did not have high expectations as it was a very wet, grey day here in Vancouver and this is a second open house, but apparently 35-40 groups came through so that was good news! Some of them were second viewings from last week, and some want to come back tomorrow. Still lots of interest in the house, just not the sense of urgency to actually purchase it that we would prefer!!!!!

Secondly, Jamie spent the afternoon down at the lot, helping our mechanic fix up the Barth - the mechanic is very meticulous and knows what he is doing, but man is he ever s-l-o-w. With a capital S. But now that Jamie has dedicated much of his time to passing tools, encouraging less talk and more action and to getting his hands greasy, things have been moving along at a much better pace and today they actually got it started! Woo hoo! A few more fluids filled up and then we should be able to take it on the road......down to midas to work on the muffler and new tires and check out the brakes. But still, movement - always a good thing!!!!!!!

It's an odd time right now, kind of hanging in the unknowns, excitedly preparing for our adventures to come while immersing ourselves in the nostalgia of finishing up projects and packing up our life here. Quite surreal, often emotional, very exciting but overall rather fulfilling. We just need some more house-selling vibes sent our way so we can file that away!!!!!!!

House Update....

Sooooooooooooooo, we had our open house on Sat. and from all accounts it went really well. 75 plus people coming to look, a line-up out our door at 2:30, many people coming back through the weekend for 2nd and then even 3rd looks, and lots of positive 'buzz' about it. The real estate agent was very postive, the neighbours were shocked that we didn't immediately have a bunch of offers from what they observed, we came home on Tue ready to sort through offers.....but nothing has come through so now we just wait.

I think a few things are going on. First of all, the market has changed a lot here in Vancouver, and noone's sure how it works nowadays. Since it's more of a buyers market, people feel free to sit on a house while they look around at others (in the past, people were signing bids on the hood of the car at the open house - now our real estate agent has a short list of people to contact once a bid is put in plus people calling daily to see if there's been any more activitey!) and it seems everyone is waiting for someone else to make the first move. I think people love the house and the neighbourhood, but it's not perfect for a couple of reasons, primarily there is no suite already built in to help with the hefty mortgage payments and it is only street parking. Nothing we can do about these factors, so for now we're left sitting and waiting and wondering!

We're having another open house this Sat., and we're seeing this as an opportunity to become zen-like about uncertainty and lack of control!!!!!!! Something we need a lot of work on :-) Send your positive vibes our way - we're definitely feeling more positive than anything, as realistically we've barely been on the market for a week!!!!!!

Tiegan at Science World

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Originally uploaded by papallany

I love this shot of Tiegan, as she really is constantly in motion!!!!!!!!! And as always, with her unique fashion sense!

Kea at the coffee shop

Kea
Originally uploaded by papallany

As always, looking so much older.........

Ryland and Kermit

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Originally uploaded by papallany

My friend Anja came to visit for a few days, and she has just posted some photos of the kids so I thought I would share them with you - until I get organized enough to share MY recent photos with you!!!!! This photo is down on Granville Island....such a sweet age when they're just happy with the car and don't quite realize that money will make it move!

Hello! We're still here, still alive, just busier than we've ever been as we are totally consumed with selling our house. Crazy times - full of purging, purging again and still feeling we have too much stuff, cleaning and painting areas we haven't touched for years, organizing and recleaning. You can imagine how much fun this process has been with 3 young kids, but hopefully it'll be over soon and well worth it!!!!! We're also doing it with such mixed emotions - both excited for the adventures to come, and sad to be leaving the house we love, the neighbourhood we love and the city we've grown and changed so much in during the past decade.

Anyways, I'll be back soon with a plethora of posts to catch you up a little, but first I have to stop procrastinating on cleaning up my office!!!!!!!!!