Happy Birthday Mama / Gramma

With all our love,
D, R & Scotty!


(watch for Scotty saying, "cheese!" at the end)

We hope you have a wonderful day!

Hey, Where's the Goat?

On Family Day this year, Scott discovered a goat at Cardel Place. This is him during the search for said goat. I think you can almost hear him asking that age-old question: "Hey, where's the goat?"

Family Day is an interesting holiday. The government says to you, "Hey, grab your family and go spend some quality time somewhere doing something." This is opposed to other holidays, where you are told more specifically what kinds of things to do. With little direction from the authorities, we went in search of activities and found that the Cardel Place community leisure center was hosting their First Annual Cardel Place Winter Carnival on Family Day.


We've been to Cardel Place before (1st visit, birthday visit) to swim and liked it, but we were pleasantly surprised by this carnival, which was on a massive scale. They had free public skating, hay rides, inflatable bouncers, an R/C car race, crafts, mini golf and a petting zoo. Plus, there were lots of little activities to do in the hallways, like guitar hero and sitting in a mini fire engine. Scott loved the fire engine, but he was intimidated by the retired firefighters who were standing around it. He started bawling when we got in it (I know the picture makes it look like he's crying because I stole his hat, but that is not the case).


As you can see, he finally settled down just as our turn in the fire engine was over. Then he cried because we took him out of it. Some people have trouble coping with the stresses of the holidays, I guess.


We were joined by two of Scott's cousins, who live near Cardel. His 4-year-old cousin A took charge of the kiddie posse, which was kind of nice. They all looked so cute, hand-in-hand.


Here are the boys. They are only 6 months apart and they are slowly getting to the point where they play happily together instead of just a tug-of-war over toys and screaming.

Still, even with all these good activities, we had to ask ourselves, "Where's the goat?"


After waiting in line for the petting zoo, we found the answer.
The goat is HERE.

Community Winter Festival

On Saturday we went to the winter festival hosted by our community association. The local Scouts and Guides were serving up scones and hot chocolate, and there were some outdoor games to play. Scotty wasn't really old enough to play many of the games, but he tried his hand at snakes and ladders -- tossing rubber snakes at a ladder -- and he went down the slide quite a number of times.





comments:

Allyson said...
Just when I think Scott couldn't get any cuter, you post pictures like these!

JwRiDe said...
That kid is insane cute

Grandma Walters said...
It is good you ALWAYS have your trusty camera handy!! I agree, his pictures are priceless!

Date Night: Value Village & Earls

For Christmas, R's sister K hooked us up with the means for a date night. She knows that we have a reliable babysitting arrangement, so she wanted us to have something to do. A week ago, we used a portion of her gift to go out shopping -- at Value Village.


One of the first dates that R and I ever went on involved Value Village (called Savers in the US). Back in high school, a group of us went bowling, but first we went to Value Village and picked out outfits. She and I ended up with gas attendant uniforms -- mine was from Shell and hers was from PetroCanada. This time around there was no bowling. We were just browsing for whatever looked fun.


I always gravitate to the overcoats section, and I have done quite well there in the past. I think I have 6 overcoats from there and some of them are pretty sweet. This time, I found this ENORMOUS winter coat made by London Fog. It was a size 50 and it was built for those white collar commuters who have to cross the Himalayas on their way to work. Awesome coat, but maybe a little big.


R tried it on, but it even seemed big on her. In the end, we decided not to buy it, even though we probably could have fit the whole family in it.


You know, I think we were the only people in there that were shooting photos. Strange. I guess other people aren't as interesting as we are.


After making a few purchases (mostly shirts and sweaters), we headed over to Earl's Restaurant for some hot wings and their divine spinach feta dip and toasted pitas wedges. We have been cashing in our airmiles to get gift cards for restaurants to pay for our date nights, so this was effectively free. It was a very successful and satisfying evening, so we want to thank K for making it possible.



Until next time!

comments:

David & Cheryl said...
Value Village is definately a great place to be. Every one seems to have their own personal area where they gravitate to within that store, but I also find that everyone has a certian area that they also stay clear away from too. I prefer the short sleeve collared shirt area, but I stay away from the items placed above most of the racks. There's often times things there scare me. Sometimes these items are right above the shirt rack that I want to peruse, it then becomes a battle of the mind vs your senses.

Allyson said...
I think "strange" is exactly the reason that you were the only ones taking pictures!
Looks like a fun date. Gary and I are almost giddy if we manage to include a trip to DI while we're out sans kids.

JwRiDe said...
This story tugs at my heart strings. So many good times, just out of reach. Im not allowed in DI or the equivalent. I started buying clothes for halloween costumes, but lost my privileges when I began wearing them as every day attire. Oh, that and something about a rowing machine...great read D.

Jessica said...
I remember buying all our Christmas gifts one year with AirMiles. Oh and another year we got all the kids toys at the Dollar Store.

Grandma Walters said...
It's neat when you young couples are learning to shop where you can afford! Thanks again to Karla. When our first baby was born we still felt we needed a break, so we had no car but had a bit of money for baby sitter and WALKED down town to buy some ice cream...some of our best dates!