The Great Plant Project

With spring upon us daddy thought that it was time to get an idea that has been brewing for awhile off the ground. It was time to plant some seeds with the boys and see how plants grow. At worst they'd either get overwatered or underwatered. At best they'd learn something about nature and treating it kindly.
Here are the results from day one. We got together the 8 pots and planted two varieties of beans, some wheat and corn.
To find out how things go please stay tuned.

Same bat time.

Same bat channel.

Vacation Part III - Saje's View

Saje had an awesome trip with the family. The travel was stress-free (thanks for the prayer) and the accomodations were outstanding. Being able to walk indoors on the first floor, i.e. no kids on the stairs, to the warm pool area was outstanding. Not to be forgotten was the 'golden griddle'. Saje worked up waffles, grilled cheese sandwiches and omelets with eggs and ham (yummy!) on this little wonder. It will certainly be making future trips with the WB family.
Here she is having breakfast with Monkey on the bed:

Snuggling up with Big C for storytime:
Winning the race against Peter!!
Note: The photo finish doesn't lie




Getting ready to go tube racing with Monkey:
and here's all she had to work with to come up with a Big C approved breakfast:

Our new guest K2

Last week we welcomes a new guest into our home. K2 will be staying with us for the next 3 months. She's originally from Northern Quebec and is here to be immersed in the English language (with WB-style culture on the side).
What better way to welcome her than with making cookies. Here is Saje showing her how we do it:

Surfin' USA

Woo Hoo! The photos from Loretta of the S family camera are in. Here we are on the surfboards havin' a great time.
Here's Monkey:

and here's daddy:

Vacation Part IV - Daddy's View

After some time to reflect on things I feel like we had a perfect vacation. Here are some of my thoughts:

Travel - no airlines, no hassles, nothing lost or stressed over. The GPS was golden. There were no discussions of 'are you SURE we're going the right way?' as we weaved through the Adirondacks and every small town along the way

Food - oh my goodness. SJ's breakfast's in the hotel were lengendary. Two mornings of scrumptious waffles with a day of ham and cheese omelettes sandwiched in the middle. Grilled cheese and veggies for lunches. Inexpensive dinners of pizza n beer and pasta at local chain restaraurants that didn't break the bank in the slightest.

Company - the S family and their kids made things sooooo smooth. The boys each had someone to play with, there was company for the ride up there, the kids cancelled each other out in terms of their energy. It was just fantastic. Oh, and the parents were just as goofy as we are. Priceless Peter, just priceless.

Fun - the place was well designed and we had a great time. There were few drawbacks and lots of benefits. Thanks to the S family for suggesting this.
Family - we just had a great time. It was so nice to just be able to ask one of the boys 'hey, do you want to do this with daddy?' and be able to just go. Here's Big C and I waiting for our turns together on the surfing ride.

Extras - lots of packages delivered to the hotel (I forgot to take a photo of the shoe mountain that I stacked by our hotel door), duty free, cheaper gasoline, storytime by the fire at night, beer that we could buy at the Walmart (and drink by the pool). Oh, and the police dog on the way home as they were looking for partiers on St Patrick's day.



All in all it was just a fantastic trip. Here's hoping that the cottage this summer goes half as well and that future vacations are this stress-free.

Vacation Part II - A Monkey's eye view

Monkey had a fantastic trip. He brought his DS and was just so well behaved with it. He listened and shared and was just a fantastic little boy.
Monkey's favourite part of the water park was by far the lazy river. He loved to ride around in a tube. He loved to just walk and/or swim in it. He went around with daddy. He did 'snuggle rides' with mommy.
Here are some shots of him enjoying himself.But Monkey didn't stop there. He enjoyed tube racing with both mommy and daddy. Here he is racing mommy.
Note: Yes I believe that Monkey won. Fun was had by all.
Here are the funlovers sharing a photo after one of the races.
By far one of the favourite things that daddy and Monkey shared was the surfboard area. They had a C-shaped run of water that you had to jump off the top of and ride down on a wakeboard. You could then surf on the rushing water for as long as you could stay up. Although the camera either wasn't working or wasn't present each of the three times that Monkey went (argh) he was such a trooper. The first time he fell off after a little bit of time. The second time he did much better. He was beaming with a huge smile. So much so that the lifeguard at the bottom of the surf area said that in all her years she'd never seen anything like it. His third trip he even did a trick - moving from on his belly to getting up on his knees -without falling off. He was so proud when I mentioned to him that the next person in line asked me "Is that your son? He's really good!". I was so proud of him.
Here's the photo that he asked to take when we got back to the hotel room.
To me, this was his first trip as a 'big boy'.
I'm loving the memories that we're making already and I can't wait for our family to go on more little trips like this in the future.

Vacation Part I - Big C's view of the trip

We just got back (ummmm Ok, a few days ago) from an awesome vacation!!!
We travelled with the S family who have two daughters that are exactly the same speed as our boys. T-Bear is Monkey's age and Morphin travels at the same speed as Big C.
The place that we stayed at was outstanding. It had an indoor waterpark where the natural sunlight streamed in and it was warm, warm, warm all day and night. The rooms were huge and it was located near a Walmart for groceries and several family friendly restaurants. Thanks to the B family's GPS we had no trouble getting there. Phew!
I decided to tell the story from each our family member's perspective to show individual highlights of the trip.
Here's Big C's perspective.
I played at the spot where you could move the water around.I played there on Sunday when we arrived.
And Monday.

And Tuesday (though it was closed for a good part of the day daddy came rushing over to get me when it opened up half an hour from closing the park, nearly giving mommy a heart attack when daddy came sprinting over)
And Wednesday.
All day.
Everyday.
I never got bored of it even a little bit.

Can I go back there again soon??

The Princess Diaries

We have some new princess gear at our house...

There was much princess playing and casting of spells : )

Hanging the bird feeders

Here are the photos of Monkey and I hanging the bird feeder that Annette made. Apparently when Dave adn Big C hung the other bird feeder he forgot to take photos : )