Hullabaloo...

Do you know the game Hallabaloo???

While selling stuff in preparation of moving someone asked me if I had this game for sale and I said no I had never heard of it. She explained it to me and I thought it sounded fun so I ran to Value Village to see if I could find one and guess what...I DID for only $3.99!!!

The girls LOVE it. It's simple, it's easy and it's even easy enough that they can play by themselves when we need a few minutes to pack alone.

Just place all the pieces on the floor, turn on the machine and it talks to you and tells you what to do. This game is best summed up as a cross between Twister and Simon Says. Lots of fun...even for dad and mom!

So if you don't know this game...you can buy it HERE or keep your eyes out at thrift stores as it's worth the wait!

Oh and while at Value Village I also got these two books for $1.99 each...looks like Ontario is speaking to us :)

a new use for old colouring books, Valentines activity and yep she's SOLD!

While packing things up this week we also are sorting everything in the house and have come up with a neat idea to reuse a favourite colouring book that all the pages are coloured in. Both my girls love dot to dots so this is what we came up with to extend the life of a favourite book (as when I suggested tossing them in the recycle bin I was faced with very teary eyed girls).

This is simple to to do just take a sheet of white paper and lay it ontop of the desired page. Draw dots along the main outline of the picture, draw in the features, then the kids can do the dot to dot and then colour the picture again :) Brilliant if I don't say so myself! A great pre-writing activity to practice fine motor skills too!

We've started making some Valentines this week as I am sure the 14th will sneak up on us quickly. While packing I came across this book...Things to Make and Do for Valentines Day by Tomie de Paola published in 1976.

I remember as a child making all kinds of Valentines out of heart shapes so when I found this printable (can be download from HERE)

 it reminded me of those heart creations from my childhood. I showed Sierra and she was all for making some for her friends at school. Her and Aayla both made 2 each tonight...these might end up being teacher gifts as they might get bored of them before they make 20 each! But so far they are looking pretty cute :)

And yes seven (7) hours after our first showing we had an accepted offer and all subjects were removed tonight so our house is

SOLD! It's dark and late here now so no picture of the gorgeous four letter word on our sign but it's done! I am happy to not have to try to keep the house immaculate for showings...we can concentrate now on selling off the furniture and preparing for our move to Ontario.

It's official...

We've been very busy getting the house ready to sell and now it's official! Our house is finally for sale!

We've been busy cleaning, and selling off stuff, and organizing the house in preparation to sell. You can see my post about about our preparations HERE.


We've been so busy here that we have let Chinese New Year pass us by but as Valentines Day approaches we will have a few things to share...until then I've a few walls to wash but can barely wait to get back to crafting with my kiddos. They've been so patient as we do SO much prep work!

I find it amazing just how quickly "stuff" accumulates. Have you seen the video for the "Story of Stuff"?
It's quite interesting.

With packing, and thinning out and selling off you realize just how much "stuff" we have...I am sooOOooo looking forward to building our Earthship and living a simpler life...full of love, happiness, wonder, creativity, imaginations, nature...and way less "STUFF"!

Happy New Year!

We wish you all a very Happy New Year! Filled with love in even the most least expected places :) Here's where we found our unexpected love this New Years eve...inside a walnut :)

We stayed home tonight and had a couple of local friends come over and two friends flew in from Toronto, for a "quiet" night at home. All the kids were having too much fun to make their new years shakers so we skipped the activity :(

We did enjoy a lovely turkey dinner again (we really enjoyed our Christmas dinner with Gordon Ramsey's help and could barely wait for New Years to do it all over again).

All the recipes for the delicious dinner we had can be found by clinking the titles below. We enjoyed Gordon Ramsey's delicious roast turkey with lemon, parsley and garlic, roast potatoes with Chili and Tumeric, and pancetta chestnut brussel sprouts (which we substituted for walnuts). It was all delicious!!! For those of you saying yuck to the brussel sprouts...give this recipe a try. I am the only one who actually likes brussel sprouts but everyone loved these and even asked for MORE!

Liz who detests brussel sprouts having seconds by request!

For desert and because it was New Years we had Strawberry Margarita jello shots in real strawberries...they were yummy! I got the idea HERE and the recipe is there too. They are a little time consuming to make but OH so good!!! Even for those who said no they didn't want any Tequila, tried them and gobbled them all up! I made two dozen and they didn't last long!

 We had some insides from the scooped out strawberries left so...

we had to make regular Margaritas...can't be waste after-all and we always jump at a chance to pull out the Vitamix ;)

Mmmmmm me and my Margarita

We had a wonderful quiet evening at home...and we hope you enjoyed your evening as well! Happy New Year everyone! 

Tobogganing at Hemlock

Today we headed to Hemlock to go tobogganing.

We've never been to Hemlock before but we had a great time. It's $12 per person over the age of 5 so for us we paid $24 for our family of 4. Sierra and Aayla were both free! Hemlock also provides tubes for you so you don't need to bring a toboggan. Since it's a one time thing for us this winter we didn't need to go buy anything to go and have fun. Biggest plus...you get pulled back up the mountain.

Sierra getting pulled up the mountain

Aayla and daddy on their way up.

Sierra coming down by herself for the first time

Let's go again!!!!

Fun! The nice thing about living in British Columbia is for someone like me who doesn't really like the cold and the snow...I can go to the mountains and get a little fix of it then say goodbye and go home :)