Catch up #4

We made one trip to Big E's favourite restaurant...The Mandarin Gardens, affectionately known as "The Mandarin". It's a HUGE chinese buffet place that serves way more than just chinese food. This one is in Toronto and is extra big. Each room had a theme and we got to sit in the parrot room. One wall was glass and between our room and the next (that was having a wedding reception) there were about 6 beautiful parrots. The boys were captivated. There was another room that we passed on the way to ours that had a GINORMOUS fish tank on one wall. Very cool. The best thing about buffets is that when you've got kids with you, there's no waiting for your order. When out with adults a regular restaurant isn't a problem, but with children I've found a buffet is the way to go!


The last adventure we had before leaving was a night at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls.


I have NO pictures of Munchkin here because he always seemed to be asleep when I was taking pictures. The boys really slept WELL there. Here is what we saw right away in the front lobby. Little Dude is looking up because there were different things that would move and 'speak'...including the tree. This is one time when Munchkin wasn't asleep, but was too afraid of the moving/talking tree to go and sit with Little Dude and his cousin. :)


Once we got checked in we went up to our room and when we got to the elevators there were big glass windows showing us what fun we were in for!!!


I have to say...one cool thing about this place is that there were no room cards. Everyone got a computerized wrist band and they would just wave their wrist over the lock to their room and to door would unlock! This meant no searching the waterpark for the person with the card key and even the 6 year old could open his room! THE best idea ever.

Here is one of those smoosh a penny machines.


We managed to have fun in the gift shop, but not buy anything!! Whew.


On a side note: We are canceling our internet here at home. This means future updates will have to happen at the library. Hopefully once we move this winter we'll be able to bundle services to make the internet affordable. But we've come to the end of our contract (that we begun so Big E could access school stuff he needed...2 years back) and we are terminating! This will be hardest on me...the blogging, addicted to Facebook mommy. I'll learn to live with it, and more over my budget is going to appreciate the sacrifice! The only thing I'm worried about is whether the library has the photo editor that I've become fond of....oh well, one challenge at a time! :)

Catch up #3

Here are some memories from the farm and some shots while walking around Toronto Temple.
Little Dude explored to his heart's content on the farm and found 'snail friends'. He found friends a couple of times!


Munchkin and Little Dude both reminisce about the swings at the farm.


Smelling flowers is something of a favourite activity for Munchkin.



We also had the opportunity to see my Uncle twice in one summer! He rode his motorbike to our home before we left and then made a second trip and went across country and visited out east....and by then we were there too! Here he is with 2 of his sister's...one sister lives too far away to get east very often.


We drove to the Toronto Temple with Big E's parents. While they were inside we toured the outside. There were water fountains, stairs and a kabillion flowers. (Yes, I'm sure that's how you spell kabillion...just like it sounds.) Here are some shots:

Catch up #2

Two of the highlights in August was a visit to the farm by Poppa's big work truck and a first ever fishing trip. We've been home now for a bit more than a week and today after church Little Dude asked to go to Poppa's farm. Took a bit of remembering for him to realize that a 3 day trip is not so easily undertaken and there wouldn't be a trip out to the farm for many, MANY sleeps. He wasn't too impressed with that, but there wasn't much to do about it. :) Here are some photos of the big truck...
Munchkin LOVES to pretend to drive anything. He constantly checks car door handles to see if they're locked...and oh beware the car that isn't...he's inside in a blink and sitting in the driver's seat. He really enjoyed pretending to drive Poppa's big rig.

Little Dude really enjoyed climbing on the trailer. I'm sure he looked at it and could only think, "RAMPS!". And so he climbed them all as high as he could go.


Big E took both boys and one nephew fishing. The boys had never been before and Little Dude enjoyed himself immensely. Munchkin had mixed feelings, due to the fact he was hungry. He kept wanting to eat the bait (mini marshmallows, corn, and shrimp-he stayed away from that last one)! So we had to sit him down and I scrounged some jelly bean from the bottom of the diaper bag.


Little Dude was pretty patient.


His patience paid off when he finally caught his FIRST FISH!

He was a bit nervous about the fish flopping around and so wouldn't hold it with one hand so I could get a picture of his face in the shot!

Of course they were interested in feeling the fish once they were safely in Dad's hands.

Catch up #1

I don't promise to do these in order...but they DID all happen in August. With baby 5 weeks away and a million things to do, chronological order just seems slightly out of reach. As I type I am putting off dinner (tv really helps with that) in the hopes I can get something done before our hunger wins out...

Well, the pictures got downloaded, but I'm finishing up the actual blogging after dinner. I think that works better anyway. First off a couple of cloud shots. There is a difference between clouds here and there.

This sunset was just so vibrant and I could see it right out the front door at the farm.

This time the whole sky was filled with grey clouds, threatening a lovely storm. However there was this one white, bright bit...couldn't resist snapping a shot.


Here I am with about 6 weeks left to go...I have to admit I enjoyed being away from doctor's appointments and just 'being'. It was actually less stressful!

This has been the easiest pregnancy so far!

Here's Big E with his next oldest brother. One of the biggest reasons for our visit was because this brother, who works in the armed forces, was being stationed in Afghanistan for the next 10-12 months. Since it's a place where there are people shooting at you we thought it a good idea to visit before he left.

Of course once the biceps were being measured, ALL the brothers had to get in on it.


And then things got silly...

Just look at Big E's face. I think he looks more Italian here than Latino.

Not your usual military vehicle.

The cousins were busy having fun...


And some more family photos...

Cyber spirit world

It's obvious the universe is against me. First it's taken me THIS long to get around to catching up on the things I missed blogging about, and now when I've sat down and expended the mental energy necessary to download pictures the file I need is EMPTY. That's right, I have pictures in ALL the other files, but in the August 2010 file....nada. This means I have to download them straight from the camera. Whew, I hadn't erased them yet. So...until I have pictures let me assure you that things are clicking along like clockwork. The midwife is happy with the baby (I am too), sometimes I feel a bit ginormous but mostly I still have a fair bit of energy and am doing my darndest to get ready for baby #3. We're pretty sure it's a boy and we're pretty sure that we'll be naming him Samuel Elijah Zea. It seems none of our children are fated to have quick easy to spell first names. Soon after he's born we'll be getting in the swing of Thanksgiving, followed by Halloween and then a mad scramble to organize Christmas and then MOVE. Whew, I get dizzy just writing out the list. Our place here has not sold yet and while we continue to pray that it will sell before January we're making plans to move regardless. Well enough nattering at you, I'll go and download pictures since I know that's what you REALLY want....right Mom? :)