Halloween '07

The Fall Fair

The girls both entered some of their art work at the fair. Three things each. Brooklyn won 1st place for her entry in the category 'creature made from fruit and vegetables'. Julia won a 3rd place for her 'face with buttons on a paper plate' and another 3rd place for her 'colour a picture from a colouring book'. Yay girls!

Baseball Girls

Here are a couple pictures of the girls in their ball 'uniforms'. They had a lot of fun. They were on the same team which ranged from 3 to 7 year olds. It was coach pitch so they had to hit the ball from their coach pitching to them. There was no striking out. They just tried until they hit the ball. (Sometimes makes for a long game). But all in all lots of fun.

Walking with Dinosaurs

We went to see the very fun show 'Walking with Dinosaurs' at the Air Canada Centre. It was hard to get any decent pictures because it was dark but the dinos were amazing. I think they were actual size and they were very realistic. The show was only in Toronto for a few days but if it ever comes to Ontario again - I highly reccomend it. There is a website where you can see a clip of the show if you are curious about it. It is http://www.dinosaurlive.com/ . Go to the dinosaurs tab and then click on the box that says video. Very cool.

First Catch

Here is Brooklyn with the fish she caught when she went fishing with Grandpa C. on his birthday.

The BEST caves

Many of you have probably already heard us talking about - or experienced - the Best Caves. They are correctly named. They are the BEST we have seen so far. We are pretty addicted to visiting them. I think we went four times this summer and I am pretty sure we discovered new caves on every visit. There is no other way to describe them they are incredible and no doubt the BEST. Albeit - a little nerve wracking for some. You walk right past 30 ft drops all the time. Fortunately for us the girls are both fairly cautious and are good about following the rules that we give them. Here are a few pictures of one or more of our hikes.

Chautauqua, New York

Here are some photos from our vacation in Chautauqua. The experience is hard to describe. There was everything from sailing to political lectures to art/craft shows. You could go for the entire summer and never run out of things to do. But the really intriguing part of the Chatauqua experience was the atmosphere. You seldom saw anyone driving in the gated community. Most people walked or biked everywhere. If you had to get somewhere quickly or it was too hot there were trams and buses that you could hop on and catch a ride. The houses were adorable and the people were friendly. I could type for hours and never do it justice. Hopefully, these photos will help a little.

Weekend at Brewsters '07

Notice how I managed to get around the number after Weekend at Brewsters since it seems to cause such a debate? So I guess now I will just use the year :) It was a great year and we were happy that so many people could make it. Here are a few of the picture's Beth supplied - I don't think I got my camera out all weekend! The last one is my favourite. It is Mitch getting chased by a firework that tipped over after he lit it.

Julia's Daycare Graduation

This is Julia's daycare graduation ceremony from back in June. Julia was a flag bearer during O'Canada. It was hard to get a good picture of it though.

Chipmunks - Cute menaces!

We have had this chipmunk hanging out on our new patio lately. So cute! I even let the girls put out peanutes for it. I thought what harm could it do? LOL. As some of you may be aware we had no internet for over a week. I was ticked. I thought here we go. We took a risk and got that satelite internet when no one else had it and many people seemed nervous about how reliable it would be. Well we finally had the guy over to look at it the week before we left for holidays. Turns out it wasn't the internet service that was unreliable at all. That pesky little chipmunk decided to chew up the cable in the garage! So our internet has been restored and it is just as reliable as it has been since we got it at the beginning of January. However, I now have some catch up to do on this blog. The night it went down I was trying to post pictures of Julia's daycare graduation. I now need to add photos from Weekend at Brewsters and from our vacation. I promise to try and do that soon! As for that chipmunk, well let's just say I don't think we will be seeing him around anymore.....

The Party

Well the chaos of the birthday party is finally over. 15 kids in total, of course there were 4 parents to patrol them so it isn't as bad as it sounds. (We share the party with one of Brooklyn's best friends because her birthday is the day before). I was complaining to Mitch about how much I hate those useless pinatas because no one can break them. Not even dad's who are over 6 feet tall and have a baseball bat in hand! (Yes that is speaking from experience). I suggested that he make a candy catapult and - he came through. Of course now we have a 10 foot monstrosity in our backyard that he really wants to leave up as a testament to his good work. It is right beside the 18 foot monstrosity of a play fort that our kids play in twice a year. Anyway, a good time was had by all and here are the pics....

The (almost) finished product...

Well here are the final pictures. Well almost final. They still have 1 morning of work to do which is supposed to be completed tomorrow. Yay!

MItch Takes Flight

Well Mitch finally got to cash in on his birthday gift. A helicopter flight lesson. He has always said that if we ever had lots of money he would want to buy a helicopter. I figured he should try flying one to make sure he likes it. You never know when those lottery numbers might come through!

A Match Made in Heaven

It is crazy hair day at daycare today. Could my morning be any easier?!? We were just going to 'not brush' Julia's hair this morning. But when she got out of the tub last night I decided to do something crazy. I put my mousse in her hair. It is called 'big hair' incidentally. But then we decided that wasn't enough. So we scrunched up her hair into five bunches and put hair elastics in - sort of like a messing bun. The result this morning is this photo. Not bad. And yet I still felt the need to add a little hair spray to get her bangs up in the air too. I have no idea how we are going to brush through it tonight. We might have to shave it off. I will try a whole bottle of conditioner first though.

To the farm....

Well we had a very busy weekend which of course included lots of Mother's Day visiting. And the usual yard work. Then I got home last night and decided I should dig an herb garden. I got it all dug and added some peat moss. Lined the garden with rocks and transplanted the chives and sage out of the garden that had sprung up from last year. Not bad for only being around for a few hours on Sunday. Here is a picture of the girls with Grandpa's surprise baby 1 day old calf - Hector, I believe.

Toothless is Timeless

Brooklyn has lost her 3rd tooth. One of her top ones this time. The other top one is extremely wiggly too. She was devastated when Mitch told her she may miss corn on the cob season this year. I figured once they come out she will have an easier time eating it than she would with wiggly teeth anyway. The toothfairy brought her a toonie for her tooth. She has told me that many of her friends have received $5 and even $7 for their teeth. I think that is a lot for a tooth. We are still trying to guess why the tooth fairy brings different amounts for different teeth and different people. Any theories?

Ch ch changes....

We have torn out our side deck and patio and are hoping to have people start today on the new and improved version. I say hoping because it is virtually impossible to find any trades type people to come out and do anything at our house. Mitch even tried calling home depot to get a second quote on this and well lets just say that after spelling where we live over and over again, giving them our postal code and telling them which store was closest. They finally called back two days later from a store that is almost an hour away. He told them again that there is a closer store and which one it was and they agreed that was the store who should be calling us and we haven't heard from them since. Much like the 3 months it took us to find someone to put in a new patio door. Anyway here is the demo photo on the left. And on the right, a picutre of our new 'sitting garden'. There is an actual garden beside the wishing well - not a great photo. I think eventually there will be more gardens and benches and possibly paths through it. But this is what we have done so far.

Sorry and also HELP...

Ok we have been done Brooklyn's winter changes to Spring(and back to winter) since Easter weekend but we have not been able to figure out a way to post it on here. I just assumed you could attach a file but it doesn't seem that you can. It is a Powerpoint slide show. Does anyone know a place I could post it and then create a link to it? Any advice out there?

Look at our cute little babies!

We planted our pepper plants a couple of weeks ago and our tomatoes and some flower last week. Here are some photos of their progress. The biggest ones are the peppers.

Two Wheeler Time

Brooklyn is off and running..er..biking that is. She has finally gotten comfortable riding without training wheels. Always so cautious she has been struggling since last summer to find the nerve to get rolling without us holding on. We got her a new bike since her old one is getting ridiculously small and Julia inherited the old bike. It fits her perfectly. I have taken her out a couple of times without adding the training wheels to test the waters. She did not too bad. We haven't decided whether to put them on or leave them off yet. A few more test runs first I think.

We are hoping to complete Brooklyn's project of winter changing to spring this weekend and get it posted.

New Cuts

Finally the girls both got their hair cut tonight. Long overdue. They are lookin fine!

Soon to come: Winter changes to Spring by Brooklyn. Watch for it :)

Later that night....

I guess it is because I don't like taking pain medication myself unless I absolutely have to - but it didn't occur to me to give Brooklyn some tylenol until she was tucked into bed and still complaining about her arm(s) being sore. So I gave her some and she went to sleep fairly well. Julia on the other hand is not adjusting to the time change. She is normally asleep by 7:30 and was still wide awake at 9:30. At this point she started calling for me (again). I went in and she was sobing 'I don't know if it is drink time and Brooklyn won't wake up and tell me'. They take water to bed every night. And I guess they were playing a game where Brooklyn would announce when it was time to take a drink out of their sippy cups. I tried to explain that Brooklyn was very tired and that she (Julia) should try to get to sleep too. But it was past the point of reason and she was on the verge of hysterics. Now we have always been very against lying to the kids for convenient reasons (like to get them to do things and we are just too lazy to take the high road and explain why it needs to be done and follow through with it). But I guess there comes a point in every parents life when they just want to go to bed. Sooo... after about the fifteenth time of telling her that she can go to sleep if she just lays still and waits for sleep to come and the 16th time of her saying 'I will never fall asleep and I will just lay there all night' (between wailing sobs that is). I caved. I went to the kitchen and routed through the treat basket looking for something that would pass for medicine. Finally settled for one peice of a candy necklace and took it to her. It was dark so I put it in her mouth and said 'here this will help you sleep'. I was very careful not to refer to it as medicine or outright lie. Five minutes later when I went in to restart their sleep CD - assuming she would start wailing at me any minute - she was sound asleep. So I would say I didn't lie. It did in fact help her to go to sleep. Some medicine is psychological rather than physical. And just to ease my own guilty conscience I have to add - if she should ask me what it is or refer to it as medicine I will definately tell her it was candy.

It's a beautiful day!

Spring fever has hit! We are soooo happy to finally have some beautiful weather out there. Mitch expressed his happiness by shovelling a path through the 4 feet of snow to the BBQ. He then made us steak and potatoes. Yummy! We were all very happy to eat BBQ'd food again. Earlier today we all went into the doctor's office and had our final dose of Twinrix. Poor Brooklyn was overdue for a couple of her regular boosters and had to get two other needles as well. She was completely brave and nonchalant as usual but she has been complaining all evening that her arm is sore. Julia didn't cry after getting her needle for the first time. Usually she wails and makes you feel cruel for putting her through that.

Is it Spring yet?

The winter months are almost over - yay! We have been very busy with swimming, ballet and skating all on Saturday mornings. They are all finishing up this month and then we hope to have more free weekends to get out and do some visiting. March 25th the girls will be preforming in a skating year end carnival. Spectators are welcome.

Brooklyn is excited that March Break is almost here. And after March Break her class is planning a 100th day of school party.

For now we are just hiding out indoors and waiting anxiously for some warmer weather.