Monkey and Daddy's Day Out Together

This past week Daddy took Big C to daycare and Monkey got to choose the activities for the day. Here's how it all went down:
Start at Tim's and grab a chocolate chip muffin:
Enjoy the muffin on the bus (since it was FREE! - the ticket machine wasn't working so we rode for free)
Get a free yo-yo from a lady from Scotiabank who got on our bus and just started handing them out to all of the kids on board.
Hit downtown just in time for the changing of the guard (something that we always, always miss) - we had a primo viewing spot
Stop in at the memorial room - we just missed the W page Daddy wanted to see - argh!
Go up to the peace tower and catch the first ride up, so that we could see the end of the ceremony

Get a photo together - he's becoming such a smiler
Get a photo with some of the ceremonial guard
Check out the currency museum (also free!) - Monkey read the entire comic book-type story that they had on display about counterfeiting!

Get a photo at the Terry Fox statue - by Monkey's request

Get a photo with the guards at the War Memorial
Step at the canal for lunch.
Badger sighting! Badger sighting!Check out the Ottawa School of Art - take a fun photo
Hold the door open for strangers - most of them Pathfinders from Toronto who were very gracious
Take a photo with the moose
and a photo with the old car in one of the cell phone stores
Then decide - Beavertail or Booster Juice? Beaver tail or Booster Juice? Hmmmm....let's each get one of them and then share!
Take the O-train home
being sure to make funny faces when we go through the tunnel.
Thanks for a wonderful day together. Let's have lots more!

Castle-Building Part II

We decided to take our castles on to phase II - the painting stage. Thanks to some previous purchases by mommy and a gift of some tempura paints from Aunt H, we had lots of colours to choose from. Here are the boys getting down n dirty (thus shirtless) in finishing up their castles.

Castle Building - Part I

After going through some of the supplies that we have in the basement, it was noticed that we have:
a) An enormous number of popsicle sticks
b) tempera paints in black, white, green and brown
c) glue bottles x 3
In going through the kitchen we found
a) pirate cupcake wrappers
b) pirate flags.
In looking through the garden outside we found:
a) raspberries
looking in the bottom of the fridge we discovered:
a) rhubarb

So here's what we decided to do:
Step 1: Make raspberry, rhubarb pirate muffins (emphasizing the 'RRRrrr' in both fruits)
Step 2: Make pirate castles

Boat Ride!!

The boys got an invite for a boat ride care of Uncle Paul and they were absolutely through the roof! Once we had the green light weather-wise the boys were both stationed at the front door until it was time to leave.
We headed on over and got ourselves into life vests. Uncle Paul put on a fantastic afternoon for the boys - a full discussion of boating safety and how to boat properly, a trip through every part of the river that we could see, the boys favourite - a chance to drive the boat, going FAST!, and a delightful afternoon snack of cherries, blueberries, chips n salsa out on the open water. It absolutely blew them away. Thanks so much Uncle Paul for a wonderful afternoon!

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.