Big C and Daddy's Day Out

The Easter weekend provides a chance for some good down time on the Saturday and the Monday. Daddy decided to take a few passes out from the library and take the boys each on their own adventure. Saturday, it was Big C's turn.

We started the trek by driving to the local mall where we could catch a bus, a huge favourite for Big C. We had to stop off at the big blue car in the cell phone store display area to take it for a spin (guess I'll need to remind him to open his eyes once he starts to learn how to drive!)

We started off by getting a white hot chocolate to share. Here's Big C waiting in line showing off that he's big enough to carry the backpack (which included a special surprise that I wasn't allowed to see).

We hopped on our bus and went straight to the back (I can't even remember the last time that I didn't get onto a bus and go straight to the back with my boys).

After an hour long bus ride we ended up at the Museum of Civilizations. We'd never been here before and we were both quite eager to see what it offered.

We headed straight for the kids area and grabbed our 'passport' so that we could be sure to check out the entire space. Big C was very excited to explore the theatre area. There was a dressing room in the back where he picked out a king's costume. He made the announcement to the stage director that he was ready and then made his grand entrance to fanfare. It was quite the cool set up.

Next, he stopped at the classic phone booth to call his grandparents

and then checked out the bus from Thailand.

So far, we were three-for-three on things that Big C has always loved!

We stopped by the Robert Munsch exhibit before lunch. It was really cool. Here's Big C sitting for a photo on the Big 'M' that you could crawl all over and explore.

We tried changing our voices into 'Robert Munsch storytelling voices' at the big sound wall. Daddy told Big C about how Robert Munsch came to visit his school when he was about his age.

We stopped for lunch and enjoyed the surprise snack that Big C had packed. He said that he wanted to put in a yummy snack just like I do for his lunch every day. How heartwarming!

We returned to the main part of the museum and checked out the Great Hall

and then the postal museum.

Big C was overjoyed to discover the jeep that used to deliver the mail and how a letter goes from his house to anywhere in the world.

The back of the postal museum leads right back to the kids area. Big C found an area to make shadow puppets. He told a cool story about a frog who went off to explore the world.

We finished up stamping the last of his destinations in his passport at the ocean port.

He waited very patiently for his turn in line,

daddy was quite impressed based on his level of excitement, to get a turn at the big crane. Here's Big C moving a load from the big ship onto land.

He saw daddy headed to the right spot to take a photo, which was conveniently placed on the loading dock, so he tried to have the load land on my head. Silly boy!

We went down to the water to take one last picture at the museum and then ran to our bus to head home.

We snacked on the bus ride back,

but felt that wasn't quite enough nourishment for the day. We grabbed a Booster Juice to enjoy on our car ride back home and called it a day.

I'm already looking forward to our next day out!

Crazy Hair Day

I make this post largely for the effect that it will have when we show it in his wedding montage one day.
Here's Big C all rarin' to go for the recent 'Crazy Hair Day' at his school.
Love you buddy!
You have the most awesome mom in the whole wide world!

Big C on 2 wheels!

The boys have been working on some biking fundamentals today. Here is the evidence of what they've been up to:



That was only his second attempt!

You can see his smile from ear-to-ear in the photos that I took on his future rides.



He's pretty proud of himself.

Big C n Daddy Day

A little while ago I had a thought.
I've always wanted to take a day each summer and just do nice stuff for other people. Kind of a 'pay-it-forward' principle.
And then I had another thought.
Why not share it with each of my boys.
So today, Big C and I took what I hope is the first step of many.
Since it was something new and Big C still has some learning to do on the subject, plus a rather short attention span, I thought it wise to start by focusing on just having some fun.
So he got to pick everything that we were going to do.
Here's how it went:
Step 1 : Get out of bed. Not easy considering that with the new bed mommy now has free reign to come in a snuggle her little guy again. Roxy can also get up there with ease.
Step 2: Dancing in the car to the tunes on the radio.
Step 3: Sprinkly donut at Tim's. Yummy!
Step 4: Dancing while we wait for the bus.
Step 5: Dancing while we wait for the O-train.
Then ride the O-train

Step 6: Ride an escalator while waiting for our first stop to open.
Step 7: Go to the currency museum and learn about money! Big C can now check his allowance for authenticity.Then make your own currency (note: yes, ironically enough he does know that the 10 000 000 dollar bill he made is in fact counterfeit)
Step 8: Throw coins in the fountain outside parliament
Step 9: Go up to the Peace Tower and check out the city.
Step 10: Go to Chapters to look at books. Take pretend photos of daddy while he takes real photos of Big C.
Step 11: Off to the 'do things for others' activity - we went to Rideau Centre and held open the main doors for people. Most people walked right through the open doors that we had ready for them. Some people didn't (weird). We stayed for a good while during the lunch crowd and had at least 50 people go through each of our doors. Many, many people said 'thank you', much to the delight of that little boy.
Step 12: Catch a ride back to near where we left the car (NOTE: this is NOT in fact a real bus)
Step 13: go for lunch at The Works. Mmmm.....yummy burgers...and the milkshakes are absolutely good to the last drop!
Step 14: Go home and walk Roxy over to pick up Monkey. Then have a little down time reading in the office (what a great spot to hang out and read!)

Thanks for the awesome day Big C!