Our New Toy................

The kids have outgrown our Little Tikes climber/slide and we have decided to "upgrade" for some serious backyard fun. We are hoping to built it over the Easter weekend...........pictures of construction to follow!

The Bear went Over the Mountain......

This post is a little bit late....but better late than never! :0
Two weekends ago we decided to take the kids out for their first BIG hike. We had hiked alot with Alec when he was little but then something happened and we sort of got away from it. Well I know what that something was........3 kids......mini van........house to renovate........multiple jobs to pay for the before mentioned.........you get the idea.
Adam and I were interested to see how the kids would handle an afternoon of "roughing it." No indoor potties......no video games.......this was going to be hard and I mentally prepared myself on the drive to the trail head.
Always lovin' to be proved wrong, the kids did great. The first hill in the shot below was a duzzie! Claire and Alec sprinted to the top, Adam and Evan kept a slow and even pace and me......well, lets just say there was alot of heavy breathing and creaking of bones!
After a quick rest we hiked the rest of the loop (about 2 hours), discovered deer tracks (and poop! - very exciting for poop intrigued children), found bird feathers, and managed to gather a bag full of interesting rocks and sticks.
All in all it was a wonderful afternoon made even better because there was no whining (or need for bandaids etc).
We were so inspired that when we got home we booked a wilderness canoe treking/camping weekend in August. Let's hope the positive attitudes continue!

Part of the mountain (ok....maybe a big hill) we climbed. There is another level after this one!

Evan was determined to keep up with Alec (who was determined to get the hike over with as quickly as possible)

Claire found a cool hideout on the trail

So, What Was the Best Part of Your Day?

O.k., I've got the March Break blues real bad! Yesterday I loaded up snacks, pails and shovels and took the kids to the Park. I swung them, turned over more sand castles than I care to admit, and gave so many "bum boosts" on the difficult climber that I'm surprised they don't have "bum bruises!" After lunch we played "What Time is it Mr. Wolf," "Red Rover," and "Tag." We followed that up with bike riding around the neighbourhood that landed us at the local school playground for more games of "tag," sliding, climbing and their favourite game......mommy, the troll under the bridge". I also read Claire 2 entire chapter books (fairies), build more Spiderman puzzles than I can recollect and managed to whip up yummy snacks in between.
Soooo.......during dinner as we went around the table to share "the favourite part of our day" I was expecting BIG compliments about the awesome day with Mommy. The favourite part of their day? DADDY COMING HOME.............
I gave up................and took my aching feet to bed!
Hmmmm......how should we fill our day tomorrow?

A Little Bit of Work and a Little Bit of Play

The weekend began a bit gloomy here with the news that the family van....."old rusty" was feeling under the weather. Apparently "ball joints" are pretty important and Adam (and the mechanic) declared it not road-worthy until it can be repaired. Now the decision is........fix it.....or scrap it!!
Normally I wouldn't care if the van was declared unoperable for the weekend except that Adam had a full day of Real Estate planned and would be taking my car for the day. My plans of hangin' at the Mall were soon replaced with how to spend a dreary day with 3 kids..........We managed to fill the day (just) with walking the dog, riding bikes, reading and (my favourite) napping!
Sunday Adam was home and we packed a picnic and headed out on a couple of errands. Being stuck at home I've become a tad addicted to Kijiji, which is basically a online classified website. I was searching for a winter jacket that might fit Claire next year when I came across an ad for a Lily Pullitzer dress in a size 6......perfect! I was very familiar with the designer's name but none of her outfits have graced Claire's closet as I'm simply not willing to shell out $200 for a dress!! Well I jumped at the chance to purchase it...for a mere $25!! The only catch was that it was located an hour away....... My very sweet husband (and I know you are reading) agreed to the field trip and we were off! We combined the road trip with a trip to our favourite park that has a little zoo attached, a trip to the Comic Book Store to appease the biggest member of the family, and some yummy Chinese food to finish off the day.
So the weekend started out kinda boring but finished off with some great "family time." Enjoy the pics.............

King of the playground

Never too old to bounce......the funny thing is that we have a picture of Alec on the exact same bouncer when he was 3........he's grown just a bit since then!

Always lookin' cute

Queen of "the pose"

Another fun day.............