Hugo gets a trim

Hugo occassionally goes for a hair cut ~ we do get him trimmed fairly short, but it is always a bit shocking when he comes home to see just how naked he looks...

Akis made it!

After 18 ~ actually 19 long months, Akis attended his final day of school. As part of his final project, he had to compose a Demo Reel which showcases his work and will be used when he applies for jobs. He has been working very hard over this past year and a half ~ attending school and working part time.

To celebrate, we had some friends over and a yummy ice cream cake. Who can say no to strawberry and chocolate??





Akis has compiled his work together in a separate blog. It can be found at the following link: http://gregorykoutrakos.blogspot.com

Our Christmas

We spent the holidays in Vancouver. With Akis needing to continue his classes we did not have the luxury of him having time off. We received the care package from Southampton just in time to open the box on Christmas day and indulge in the Christmas morning scratch ticket ritual ~ and what do you know, these ones were winners. I've never had a $50 winner before!

We spent our second Christmas eve with the Radley family. We have felt very lucky to be embraced by this family and their traditions ~ of which include Bingo for gifts! The Christmas Eve dinner was a Tourtiere.

We also managed to wander out in the city to take in some of the sites ~ this included the gingerbread houses at one of the local hotels.

And it wouldn't be complete without some shots of Hugo!

Probably the best news of the holidays was that I am once again pregnant. It's very early on and we have many fingers/toes crossed that things will go well. Should all things go well, we can expect our bundle in August.

Learning some new skills

I had been looking for a course where I could learn how to make Croissants ~ yummy croissants ~ and found the Vancouver Pastry school. (http://www.vancouverpastryschool.com/)

Marco started his business 6 months ago and has worked around Europe and Asia. We definitely had a great person to learn from!

In addition to learning hands on how to make bread, how to shape the funky rolls, and make tons of stuff, we were able to take this all home! It was a lot of stuff. This was a 2 course experience. The first course was the bread basics. I don't have any pictures of that as I didn't think to take my camera, but remembered for the second course which was the croissant and breakfast pastry class... We all had our wooden tables that we worked off of and let some of the dough sit while we worked on other items ~ this is the raisin bread.








With the goal being the croissants ~ we observed keenly the whole process ~ including the size of the dough after letting it sit in the fridge overnight!









Akis enjoying the bounty from the class.