How'd we miss this???

Somehow, and daddy will take the heat on this one, photos of Big C's birthday cake from last year were missed.
Saje outdid herself with a super-looking Cars theme. Here is the proof of her Herculean effort:


and Big C's reaction:

Sunday morning sillies!

BAT CAVES!!!!

I went to see the caves at Aventure Lafleche last year and they were FULL OF BATS! We told Monkey about it and he wanted to go and see. When we went in the summer the bats were not in the caves. They are only there until about April when they are hibernating. So this winter Heather and I made plans to go and spend a special morning at the caves. I couldn't convince any of his friends to go. Apparently fewer little people than I thought are in to dark caves full of bats *confused look*.

"Look at the bats guys!!!"
Sitting right beside a bat.
Peering into the murky depths. He really didn't care about the tour information about the caves. He had already heard it this summer. He REALLY just wanted to get to the bats!
Heather coming through the tunnel.This is the bench where we all turn off the lights and the guides tell a great story in the pitch black. It ends with everyone being told that there are porcupines under the benches and everyone freaks out. He was ready for her. Before we even turned the lights out he checked no less than a dozen times to be sure that nothing was under that bench!!
Standing in front of the ice.
BATS!!!

We had an awesome time. The best part of the whole trip?? When the bat woke up and was flying around right past our heads. HE LOVED THAT PART!

Skiing with Grandma and Rob!

His smile says it all. He had a fabulous day. The bar tow is not an easy lift – lots of balance and energy needed. He rode once with Rob, then once with Grandma. For the next time, before we could get ourselves into position, he was up the hill independently! We were the only folks on the hill, so Big C took on the task of starting the lift. He also took great care with the clock. Once the “up and down” part became too easy, Rob introduced “turning.” Rob showed him once, how to lean his ankle in to manage a turn, and the rest is history. He “slalomed” through the cones successfully every time.

Big C and the new book

He LOVES IT!!! It is darned near impossible to get a photo of him smiling with his book since he would much rather play with it and stare lovingly at it : ) These photos are the best that I can do.




He isn't allowed to sleep with it, otherwise I am quite sure that he would!

THANK YOU PAWWWL.

What did you use??

Paul describes how to use a silver engraved pie lifter to decroate a cake....it is just like a trowl...

The Book....the book!

Sunday night Big C got a present from Paul. He's a great guy and a good friend who has helped out daddy in a pinch numerous times. You may remember him from such episodes as 'the forklift'. Well does he ever still have Big C's number.
For his 4th birthday Paul hooked up Big C with this:


It's a magnetic book all about Cars and Mater. Big C played with it right away (a good sign) and followed that up by coming home yesterday and heading right for it. He asked politely for help to bring it off the shelf and then played with it quietly for half an hour.Following that he packed it back up neatly and put it away.
Awesome B-day gift: Priceless
Half an hour of peace and quiet in the middle of the afternoon : Also priceless

Thanks Paul (and the sto-re) that you got it from!

Red Hooded Sweatshirt

Big C got a cozy red hooded sweatshirt for his birthday from Heather. He loves it!
The snuggle
The full force hug...
The tickle

He loves it like Adam Sandler loves his red hooded sweatshirt!!!
In case you are not familiar with Adam Sandler....

Full contact dessert

While I was growing up, dessert was a contact sport. My mother has always made absolutely INCREDIBLE desserts and it was common that she would save the best for when we had guests over. This often resulted in a complete and utter lack of available second helpings. So, we learned to steal from each other's plates. This is a risky thing to do when everyone has both reflexes and a weapon, but it was worth it.

Tonight at Heather's house the birthday cake was super yummy, and steal worthy to say the least. A couple of people at the table had not yet been properly introduced to the sport, so we did our usual trial by fire. Meaning that I reached over and stole some of Annette's cake. I got a look, and a threat, but nothing to worry about. Then the boys got in to it and quickly devised some new strategies to get dessert off of someone's plate when your arms are too short...

At the W's Cottage

We had the great fortune to be invited to a family friend's cottage for the Family Day holiday. We certainly said yes, however mommy wasn't able to join us.
When we arrived the boys headed almost immediately to the toboggan hill and spent about an hour there. A quick lunch later and more of our friends had arrived. We had all brought snowshoes so we decided to head out for a good long hike. Daddy brought the toboggan just in case Big C got tired, but he was such a trooper that it almost wasn't needed. Here's the group of us early on:However E-man's Dada couldn't be in the photo. So he took a self-portrait.
Sha-la-la-la was really into the outdoors and just loving it. She even went further than the boys had energy for.
Though she paid for it later (and maybe tomorrow too).
Here are some general photos of the boys on their travels.







and here's a little message from the boys: