Back from the farm

In a surprise for mother's day, I decided to hop on VIA and go to my sister's farm for the weekend. We planned it out that my brother J would pick me up in TO and from there we'd head out to my sister, brother-in-law, Cousin Banana and Iggy's place. The train ride was great and I read a ton of stuff that I've been putting off for awhile. My brother was a great host and after a fantastic Saturday morning breakfast we were off to the farm. We arrived about a half an hour before my folks, so I was able to hide on my mom without her knowing. I surprised her by sneaking up behind her in the kitchen and it was AWESOME. She gave me a series of big hugs and was nearly in tears. We had a great lunch put on by Aunt K and then just hung out for the afternoon. I went into town with Aunt K and got some stuff so that I could make everyone some great pizza's for supper. That night my brother-in-law B, brother J and I took dad out for a boy's night to watch the hockey game. It was a really great night to just hang out with my dad like he was one of the guys. I hope that he knows how much it meant to me.
The next morning we all made something for brunch (I did pancakes!) and then just enjoyed each other's company and played with the girls. Wow how they've grown. It was a great mother's day for my mom and she mentioned countlessly how wonderful it was to have her 3 kids under the same roof for her special day.
All too soon I was back on the train, but not before I had a bunch of gifts for the boys - stuff from mom and dad's trip to SC and the Christmas presents from Uncle J that never made it up here earlier.
The boys were ALL OVER IT! Monkey really loves the shirt with the shark on it, as well as the construction paper for doing artwork (he's already copied the design on one of the pages for his first project) and the puzzle. Big C LOVES his new shirts (video will surely follow since I was able to grab it), the Lightning McQueen writing paper and the puzzle. Here are some shots of the boys barely able to contain their excitement. They were so overjoyed that we just couldn't open Uncle J's Christmas gifts or they'd still be awake, so we'll save that for right after school ends on Wednesday. I'll be sure to have the camera for that! Here are some shots of SJ opening her gifts!
Thanks so much for a wonderful weekend - and to boot I came home to a wonderful wife that had everything I needed to do to start the week already taken care of. I love you sunshine. I'm so very fortunate to have you in my walk through life.