Happy 70th Joan !!

Joan's 70th today so we had cake and champagne for lunch at her apartment.  Monica made her a GF chocolate cake with coloured candles.

Cutting the (delicious) cake.

And serving.

And for the grand finale she sported her Minnie Mouse ears & Bows (from one of her Birthday Cards). just proving, we NEVER get old. 

2016 Academy Awards

Swag Bags are at the ready.  As guests arrive each one adds a surprise to each bag.  

This year was themed - Pajamas & Pearls.  

Everyone received their bags AND their Academy Awards quizzes.  The quizzes this year:

1.  Pick the movies that WON Best Picture (1991-2011) - had 64 movies listed and only 21 won Best Picture

2.  Name the Star - from a high school or public school photo of the movie star

3.  Oscar Ballot - Predict who wins in various categories

4.  and of course the ever famous Oscar Bingo

Everyone is hard at work.

This year it was an Appie affair.  And boy, everyone outdid themselves in bringing delicious appetizers.  The food was great and we visited that table many times.  Of course, there was lots of bubbly too.

And the winners are ...  My favourite was the Best Supporting Actor Mark Rylance for his role in Bridge of Spies.  He was excellent and I am so glad he won.

Rendezvous 2016

You can see how warm it was - 4 degrees with sunshine.  The snow was melting and none on the walkway.  The kids were here with Dad to support Timber's first appearance at Rendezvous.

Before the Howling Contest was the Pet Parade.  Above are two entrants of the parade.  I don't know who won this event as I was looking after kiddos who were pretty active.

Snow Sculpture Contest:  Above is my favourite.  And they won.  Unfortunately with the warm weather the sculptures were dripping and getting smaller by the hour.

This was my 2nd choice.  The dinosaur wrecking a ship.

Timber

Here is the 2nd Place Winner (note the medal around the neck) and his coach after accepting their prize.

Yukon Rendezvous

Our big weekend for Rendezvous.  SR took the kids downtown and I joined him there.  We listened to music at the Kwanlin Dun Cultural Centre.  The kids, although they love music, were apprehensive about this stuff.  I think it was too loud for them.  Anyway, Gillian Campbell fell in love with the twins and wanted a photo taken with her and the twins but they wouldn't have that, so SR stayed in the picture.

As you can see, even with their father in the photo they were not too thrilled, but at least there was a bit of distance between them and that scary lady dressed in bright red and lots of sparkles.

Feb 22

I babysat today - one child, not two.  This is a first for me.  Alanna went to appointments with Mamma.  It was beautifully warm, about 3 degrees so Emerson and I went outside so he could shovel - one of his favourite words.  Of course, we get out there and he immediately eats snow.  I took a couple of pictures then tried to teach him NOT to eat snow as I am afraid of his face getting frostbite.  But I must admit the piece of snow he chose looks like a heart - a great picture for Valentine's Day.

Eating snow makes him happy.

In Remembrance

RIP dear Wally.  I will always remember your laughter and your big heart.  I will miss you.  Have fun with Mary and Andrea and say hello to Jimi Hendrix and all those guys and gals too.  And I'm sure Chevy is now by your side.  Love you.

Gramma

Brooke snapped Gramma and Alanna having a laugh.

Enough is Enough

From my last performance, here is our group.  Will only post one more photo if I can find it of all the Dolls, Lions & Dragon and hopefully our Chinese Rendezvous Queen - all of us together.  If not, oh well.

Our group from the last performance - me, Grace, Mary & Liz.

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day brunch at Gramma's house.  After an exchange of Vanentine's gifts, Alanna concentrates on moving those blocks around the wire.

She also did pretty good at climbing onto the chair by herself ... many times - up and down, up and down ...

The were re-united with their new sippy cups and just about drank a whole cup of water.

Emerson found the large pail and thought his head was a good place to put it.  

"Where's Emerson?"  Then the pail comes off and "Oh, there he is".  It was a great game.

Brooke gives some attention to Timber.  Lily stayed out of sight underneath the dining room table.

It was a good visit with a waffle and blueberry brunch but unfortunately for me, they had to leave to have their afternoon nap.

Later this afternoon I am off to the Arts Centre to see Brooklyn.  Am looking forward to that.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Feb 12, 2016

It is February 12th and this is the temperature at 4:00 in the afternoon.  Don't know what the high was today but I sure saw a lot of melting while I was walking.

Oh yeah, below are my lucky sox.  The year of the Monkey and I HAVE Monkey Sox.  What luck.  

My last performance is tomorrow night at the Rendezvous Queen Fashion Show.  I then turn in my Big Head for this year anyway.

Front Page: Whitehorse Star

Photo by Vince Fedoroff

RINGING IN THE NEW YEAR – The Year of the Monkey was celebrated Saturday with the Chinese community at the Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre.

Above:  what appeared on the front page of the Whitehorse Star on February 9th (or it could have been February 8th).  I am just to the right of the dragon's head with my hands over my eyes (Big Head).  If I had only taken my mask off a little quicker, you would have seen my face.  Mary (to the right of me) and Liz (to the left of the dragon head) had their masks removed when Vince took this photo.

Still Chinese New Year

All attendees to the performance received a Chinese calendar.  If anyone knows what it says, please let me know.  This is the year of the Monkey by the by.

I wore my Monkey sox (thank you Lisa and Kate) and showed them to a group of Chinese women who smiled immensely and said they were very LUCKY sox.  And my friend Joan couldn't get over the fact that I HAD monkey sox to wear to this event.

Also took my Chinese purse (again, Thanks Lisa).  It fit in well and held all my valuables.  A fun afternoon!!

Chinese New Year Performance - The Big Heads

Our Dance:  We walk on stage waving to the audience (by the way we were introduced at "The Dolls").

We all do our little 4-step dance.  (That's me in the forefront although I didn't mean to be there, but who knew anyway??)

The lions join us on-stage.

Then the Grand Finale.  The Dragon joins the "Dolls" and the "lions" and surrounds us.

And we (the Dolls) exit behind the Dragon with our heads off, so the children won't be afraid of us. The Lions then exit after us.

My costume

I am taking part in a performance for Chinese New Year on Saturday.  This is my costume.  We have been called many things but the most prevalent is Big Head.  In our dance, there are two boys and two girls.  I am a boy.  Also on stage are four lions and a long long long Dragon.

Still January

Did my twinsitting a couple of days ago.  They were happy (for a wee bit) to sit on the couch and read their books.  Alanna's favourite page in her counting book was the number 20 - 20 Rockets.  I found that interesting as she has no idea what a rocket is but liked looking at them.

Emerson had carried his favourite book around all morning.  I tried to read it to him and Alanna, but he wouldn't let it go.  In fact he read it to me.  Big Red Barn had a lot of animals that he could recognize - the moooooo, the nehhhhhh, the baaaaaa ...

We had a fun morning together.  Next is Sunday where both parents are away for most of the day.  Looking forward to that.

My newest venture is participating in Chinese New Year.  I will dance onto the stage with three others wearing a mask similar to the girl mask above (I will be a boy) and a red and gold costume.  We will be the children.  The children precede the lion and then the dragon on-stage.  A couple of practices to go, then the big show, February 6th.  Should be fun.

The Weekend

Saw The Big Short before it finished up in our theatres.  I was a bit afraid it was going to be a bit too technical for me to enjoy (even though I had taken the securities course) but they explained it very well.  It was tastefully done, kept my interest right through and the acting was superb.  I especially liked Steve Carell.  I give it 4 Stars.

Got caught up with an old friend this weekend.  We had a lovely meal and talked and talked and talked.  

Up for 12 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor (even though he hardly talks and when he does it's in a whisper because he had a hole in his throat that he cauterized himself with gunpowder and fire).  This movie should be called "If It Can Go Wrong, It Will Go Wrong".  He is brutally attacked by a bear, almost drowns in a river, goes over waterfalls, leaps off a cliff with his horse, is chased by Indians on a constant basis, gets buried alive ...  The movie was slow and perhaps southerners wouldn't think it, but we northerners know he should have died of hypothermia many times over and should have, early on, lost his feet and his hands to frostbite, if not his ears and nose.  It is based on a true story but I'm sure this very much embellishes the truth.  The meaning of "Revenant" is "one that returns after death or a long absence".   That's Leo.  I give it 3 Stars.

January 15, 2016

Haven't visited the twins for almost 2 weeks.  Tonight I played with them while their parents took a night off. And it was a delight.

They were little bees today.  

Here they are with their Beanie Babies that they received in a treat bag from a birthday party they attended.  These are the ones with the HUGE eyes.  Alanna's is KIT-TEN and Emerson's is AAA-WOOOOO.  We call it Puppy but that is his word for DOG, taken from Timber's howling.

OK, obviously I'm not the greatest at selfies, but give me a break.  I don't have a viewer in the front of my camera.  So I thought I did pretty good here.  I got part of me, Emerson and a bit of Alanna all in one photo.

I took pictures then showed the kids what they looked like in the back of camera.  They loved it and start to understand when I would say OK, sit here and I will take your picture.  I had to be fast though because they would sit for 3 seconds then jump up to see the back of my camera.

Happy New Year

Finally feel well enough to go out in public.  Went to see Star Wars, The Force Awakens, last night.  It was a movie I thoroughly enjoyed and loved visiting our old Star Wars friends who have aged, just as we all have.  

Hans Solo to (Princess) General Leia:  "you've changed your hair".  

As usual we wanted to grab a beer after the movie to discuss what we have just watch.  The Westmark closed at 9 PM, the Edgewater closed at 9 PM...  whattttt !!!!  Finally found the old Capital Hotel bar opened and we were the only ones in there (and they were cleaning and it smelled like bleach).  

Downtown was empty as can be seen from the above photo, looking toward the clay cliffs and the bottom photo looking at the White Pass and Yukon Route building.  The Christmas lights are still there and I love the look.  Thanks City of Whitehorse for decorating our downtown.

Great movie for young girls to watch as a main hero is a SHE, not a HE.  And you do not have to go back and watch the first 3 (or first 6) movies to catch up.  They do a wonderful job of weaving the past with the present and you never feel lost or left behind.  Five Stars.

And since this is the first blog of 2016, let me wish you all HAPPY NEW YEAR.  May 2016 be  good one!