Father's Day Cards

The kids made some very cute cards for me this year for Father's Day.







Note that "Sleepy" is one of my primary attributes. I asked Scott about it and he said that it was the first one he thought of.

The Easter Bunny Was Here

[Apr 19 2014]





As usual, the Easter Bunny left treats to discover when the kids woke up on Saturday morning. A trail of little treats led the way to a basket of toys and books. It is good to see that the Easter Bunny is on the same page as Mommy, who really would prefer to keep candy to a minimum.

Labour Day

For the last three years Scott and I have gone to the Labour Day Classic football game to see the Stampeders play the Eskimos. We have had the benefit of free tickets each time (including the year that I won a free pair by dancing with pom poms). When Labour Day came around this year, we didn't have any free tickets. I thought about buying some, but instead, we figured out a free version to enjoy our favourite part of the game:



We parked near the stadium and walked to the south end to watch the CF-18s buzz the stadium right after the national athem. They circled over Glenmore Reservoir and then came roaring back for a second pass (which is the one I got on video). It was awesome.

Afterwards, we listened to the game on the radio as we drove to Peter's and got milkshakes with Oreo & butterscotch. Total cost was $9.50, and this time Katie got to take part in the action.

We spent much of the rest of the day sorting through the basement to make more space for some of the new play equipment we've acquired.

Here are some quotes:
S: What are you doing with those shirts?
R: Getting rid of them because they're too small for Dad.
D: Actually, they're too big. I got them when I was a little bit fatter.
S: So are you going to throw them away?
D: No, we'll take them to the Goodwill store.
S: Oh yeah. They have lots of fat shirts at Goodwill. All of them fat.

S: What do we do next?
D: We need to have family night.
S: Oh yeah. And we need to have a treat. And it needs to be sugary.
R: It needs to be sugary?
S: If it's not sugary, then it's not family night.

Family night was memorable. We did blessings for going back to school, which was very sweet. Afterwards, we played hide-and-seek. We added in a stuffed gorilla as someone who could hide, since we don't have that many people to play.

When it was time for bed Scott struggled to get to sleep. I went in and sat in his room, which often is enough to help him relax. When the lights were off and we were sitting in the darkness he said, "Dad, I can't wait for tomorrow... to go to my school, and to have recess, and the new playground."

Hunting Easter Eggs

Every day for a week leading up to Easter Saturday, Scott said, "I can't wait for Easter -- it's only __ days away!"

Consistent with previous years, the Easter Bunny visited our house a day earlier than most, giving the kids all of Saturday morning to search for eggs, leaving Sunday morning free to focus on attending church and observing the more spiritual side of the holiday.

Friday night they left their baskets out on the kitchen floor to be easily accessible for the Easter Bunny (do they not recall that this same bunny has left candies hidden on top of picture frames in the past?) and dashed off to bed. In the morning, they were so engrossed by the loot waiting in their baskets that they could hardly stay focused on hunting for the hidden treats.



Scott stubbed his toe pretty hard while trying to get to a jelly bean before Katie. I picked him up and helped wipe his tears. He said he was sad that he got hurt AND Katie still got to the jelly bean first. Katie said, "No, Scotty, I put the candy in your basket for you." She is such a little sweetheart.





With a little prodding from me they managed to find the rest of the candies. Apparently, my memory for this sort of thing improved since that previous incident.

Beware the Bass Pro Bunny

On Good Friday we took a trip to the Cross Iron Mills Mall to take part in the Easter Egg hunt at the Bass Pro store, to get a photo with the Easter Bunny and to take in a Thomas the Tank Engine show that was there, since we were in the neighbourhood.



Jenny sent her kids in to pose with the Easter Bunny, with Alli holding little baby Elijah. The Easter Bunny held out his hands to take the baby and Alli handed him over without question. The combination of the shimmering-white bunny, the tiny little babe, and the shrieking of little Adalia made for quite a scene. We decided to jam our kids into the tableau to take the drama up a notch. I strategically placed Katie as far from the Bunny as possible and told her to hold Hayden's hand to minimize the chance of a panic attack.

Good Friday at Grandma's

With no school or work to get in our way, we gathered together at Grandma & Grandpa's house to colour eggs. Grandma had hard-boiled enough eggs for each child to colour 9 eggs, and there were 5 kids there, so you do the math on that.



Scott likes to eat hard-boiled eggs, and he was quite pleased to have exclusive claim of ownership over so many. He kept them in the fridge and made his way through them gradually over the course of the following week. He mourned over each one just a little bit as he had to crack the decorated shells, but as long as he felt he had control over his eggs, he was even willing to contribute a few to making tuna salad sandwiches.



Katie also loved colouring her eggs, spending the most time with the cup of pinkish-purple dye. She thought they were all so pretty, even though her decorating scheme was pretty simple -- dunk egg in dye, remove.



After decorating the eggs and eating what was probably mouthful of shell, her trusty side-kick Adalia joined her in the backyard to blow bubbles -- 30 minutes of dumping cold soapy bubble-water all over their hands. I simply cannot understand how little children can let their hands get so cold without noticing or complaining.



We capped it off with roasting marshmallows and making smores. It was a very good day.

Valentine's Day

Everybody knows that Valentine's Day is a crazy day to try to go out for dinner. So we went out for lunch instead and stayed home for dinner.



There was no school that day (Teacher's Convention) so R brought the kids downtown on the train and we ate together at the food court on the top floor of the Eaton's Centre. It was a pretty lively day there at the mall, with part of the 2nd-level concourse turned into a dance floor.



The kids got a chance to see the Devonian Gardens (including several enormous fish) and took LOTS of turns going down the slide at the severely crowded indoor playground. Apparently, everyone goes out for dinner in the evening on Valentine's Day, but all the nannies take their charges to the indoor playground for lunch.



In the evening we had a Valentine-themed dinner where everything was shaped as a heart, from strawberries and ice cubes right down to the salmon. Scott really enjoys having "fancy" dinners, so he loves these occasions.





I love these occasions because I get cute notes from the kids and new tube socks.



Date night was officially set for the following evening. Hopefully all the nannies will stay home and we can have the playground to ourselves.