We have revived our old blog to share our travels with our family, friends and our future selves. We've changed our names around a little to keep our privacy. We hope you enjoy your visit!
For as long as I've known my beautiful wife she's always wanted a water balloon fight this time of year. This is the year. While she took the boys to the grocery store on the weekend, I took the stash of balloons that I purchased earlier this week and filled them up, then hid them in the backyard. She was none the wiser when one of our good friends showed up and coaxed her into the backyard. Here is the photo evidence of the event. and the video evidence (sorry...I couldn't stop myself from laughing the whole time!)
I love you sunshine and the pure joy that you had is one of the greatest gifts I've ever been able to give to you.
The boys have been itching for a playdate since we got back form the cottage. We took a quick look at the people that we could invite and they chose BNK. He was over in about 15 minutes! Here are the boys playing on the waterslide that they put together:
And then Monkey decided that it was time to make mohawks. Here they are with Monkey stylin' it up (I love the use of the toy square to do the coifing....do they use that in the salons??):
During the week we got a visit from some of our friends. They brought up lunch and supper and made a day of it. It was SO much fun! Here's Monkey taking his turn at running off the dock into the lake:
and here's E-man's go of it too.
What a good bunch of memories we made. Can't wait to get back there next year.
We had such a wonderful week at the cottage in Westport. It was a simple cottage with two little bedrooms, a small kitchen, an even smaller bathroom, but a beautiful spot on the lake. We spent almost all of our time outdoors and the weather was just gorgeous. Here are some of the early shots from the week. I'll post more as this week rolls out. Here's the dock and the view of the lake. The boat isn't there, but it spent the first hour and a half of our day out on the water exploring and chatting with the boys. Best bonding time ever. I taught Monkey how to fish. Here's the before picture: here's the bait that we went out and found. I taught the boys how to look for worms and 'catch' them. We caught two of them. Here's the first on the line: and here's the after photo. He was so proud of his first catch: Big C meanwhile was checking out the caterpillars that would fall from the trees: By the way,after catching the first fish Big C was put in charge of watching the fish in the bucket and the worm next to it. Before I knew it Big C was telling me "Hey daddy, I fed the fish'. That's right, he'd tried to feed the fish that we caught the worm that we were going to use to catch more.What a cute kid. We showed off Monkey's first two fish to mommy.: and here he is releasing his catch:
We rounded off the day as I taught Monkey how to catch a baseball in a glove and throw it back, taught him how to build drip sandcastles taught him how to skip stones on the water. There were so many moments, but that day was by far my favourite.
The boys have been itching to go to their favourite museum. Here are some photos of our most recent visit. They decided to check out some old favourites:
and some new spots like the braille exhibit where Monkey made his name on a piece of paper. It's pretty neat - you have to work right to left to get it to work out and he flew through! the crazy mirrors: the new little kids area was a hit with Big C (check out the train tracks):
The Dino museum and the sleepover at M&T's house where he watched "Art Attack" both had an impression on Monkey. Monkey got in his mind that he had to make an 'art attack-o-saurus'. Here's how the process worked out for him (to my knowledge his first process that he did entirely by himself): Here's where he tore apart the box to get a flat sheet:We discussed proper scissor use. After monitoring his first few cuts here, we decided it best to move to the kitchen for the rest of the work: Here are the sheets getting ready for their work: The arms and legs are taking shape, and the head is currently at the bottom: and now the finished product, proudly hung in the basement: Big C got in on the fun too.
Big C's sleep is going markedly better than it was months ago. He's almost always staying in his room and the sticker reward program that we have going is paying off big time for him. Yesterday, he got to watch Dinosaur Train on TV. I thought it fitting that we follow that up with a trip to the Dinosaur Museum (aka Museum of Nature). We had a free pass left from years ago, so off we went. The renovations are finished and it looks SO good. Here are the boys out front: and here we are on the inside: Since we'd been a few times before, I thought that we should spend most of our time in the newly renovated section. Here we are in the marine section checking out the huge fish tanks: The deep dive submarine (where the boys surely could have spent all day....it's filled with dials and knobs and all sorts of cool stuff): learning how fish swim: the attack turtle: stopping for lunch and heading over the canal for a more scenic view: Daddy realizes that he's not in many of these pictures. So here's one: Big C taking a boat for a tour: cool Zeolites in the Earth section (with lots of cool chemistry stuff...Daddy could have spent all day in there): Big C looking at his eye in a camera when we were at the Discovery Zone:
and then checking out the shark teeth and trying them on: after 3 1/2 hours we'd had a great time, but had run out of steam. Thanks for a great day boys!
