grantalias

Father's Day Weekend

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 08:27:13 -0400

What a busy weekend that was.

Saturday, a local Zoo was showing off a few animals at the now Wal-Martless mall. My sister met us there with her kids. Let me tell you... trying to keep three kids under the age of four occupied while waiting in a line is alot of work! We pulled out all the stops from candy to ipod videos.

An upside to all this work was that we got kid passes to the Zoo and since we were planning to go for our yearly trip anyway it was two birds with one stone kind of deal.

I was super surprised that our kids touched the snake, I didn't see that one coming.

On Sunday we again with my sister and her kids when to LaRonde and even got them in free with some coupons we got with out season passes.

LaRonde

Luckly, Donna being pregnant and unable to go on the rides A) looked after my new nephew how was born last month and B) took some photos and video so there is proof for future generations that I was actually around and not absent from every event or activity. Thank you Donna.

One thing I've got to say. First really hot weekend at the place so super packed and you're not fully staffed to have all the kiddie rides running. Fail LaRonde, fail!

It was a great day all be it a very hot time, but I love seeing the little cousins play and interact. I know they see each other at daycare, but us parents don't get to see that.

LaRonde animoto_video

MIKA - Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)

Serendipitously, Caillou made an appearance and the kids were reasonably entertained. Of course looking at the video after the fact it's hard to understand. I guess it helps to be a kid sometimes.

What I found really funny was the kids show they have there and they sing Mika's Big Girl (You Are Beautiful), but in French with kid tailored lyrics.Very strange to say the least.

IMG_6527

And the little troopers were asleep before we got to the van in the parking lot.

Father's Day

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Thursday Nights Are On

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Fri, 09 May 2008 01:02:08 -0400

stay on target

With the warm weather upon us the local Ice Cream parlor has reopened for the season and the classic cars are having their weekly gathering at the dinner next door, Thursday night is back on.

Since ET has been fully aware that the cars started showing up two weeks ago and the Ice Cream parlor was open back in March, when on the way back from daycare he let me know that there are "people inside". It was only a matter of time before we went.

Not only did the four of us go, but my sister and her family also came out to meet us.

I always love seeing the kids together. They were so cute eating all their ice cream... I mean the ice cream that didn't melt down their hands. Thanks to Donna for bringing some wipes they cleaned up pretty good.

The kids really got excited when the Impalla started hopping, you can hear them in the video.

see piggy eat!

Oh and if you're wondering I'm back on the Parfaits.

Just wanted to let you know that I'm really wanting to pay for that pro account over at Animoto. 30 seconds videos are not enough!

Ice Cream & Cars

kids, cars & ice cream

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Best Laid Plans of Butterflies & Penguins

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 06:35:24 -0400

Montreal Biodome

Originally we had planned to visit the Butterflies Go Free event at the Montreal Botanical Gardens, but after being told that we'd had to stand in line for 3 hours (with 3 children under four, two pregnant ladies and my mom) we thought better of it.

Not wanting to waste a Sunday morning and all the work it took to get everyone out of the house, in the van and to the east end, we drove around the block to the Montreal Biodome.

It was lots of fun seeing all the animals in their (artificial) natural habitats. And who doesn't like penguins.

family photo

Coincidently this outing impressed on me yet another reason why I have to start taking the boys to church. There was a class from a private girls school / convert (I'm guessing) being chaperoned by a few nuns. One of the nuns offered to take a family photo of us. After I thanked her and she walked away Ethan said that she was the Witch of the Waste from Howl's Moving Castle. From the mouths of babes.

Biodome Fun

Check out Mozart para bebes y niños

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Jade's 2nd Birthday

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:38:44 -0400

Jade's 2nd Birthday

My niece turned two back in March and I have been behind on posting the family photos and videos.

Jade 2nd birthday

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Merry Go Round

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:49:00 -0400

Day @ the Mall

Duck Car Ride

Saturday (before the snow hit) we headed over the Mall because they had a Merry Go Round, car ride and a bouncy castle thing. We met up with my parents, my sister's family and my cousins-in-law family. I think all the boys had a great time because they fell asleep on the car ride home.

Rides at the Mall

spin me round

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PJ Chritmas Day

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 22:07:45 -0500

PJ Day

I took the day off because Carter had a follow up appointment today and I thought I could get some Christmas shopping in also. Little did I know I was going to have my plans derailed.

Today at daycare was their Christmas day. So everyone was in PJ's, and a play and Santa were also planned. The boys were in Spider-Man PJ's (as you can see).

PJ's at the Doctor

The doctor says Carts' is fine and on the mend, so that's a relief. After dropping him back at daycare, my mom's car (that we are borrowing while we pass judgement on the fate of the family van, just passed a historic mile stone) refused to start.

Tow

It got towed and luckily my father in-law lent me his car so I can get around for today and tomorrow.

Thanks to the afore mentioned generosity of my father in-law I was then able get back to the daycare and see Santa making the rounds. Though I did get there too late to see ET get his gift. I spent two hours in their classes and it was great to get to know their friends a little bit better and see how good they can be when they want to. I also kind of got roped into doing some face painting on a few kids in ET's class but unfortunately we had to leave before we got to everyone.

Jade

My niece Jade is in Carts' class also but she was a little scared of Santa. Ethan was the same his second Christmas. Of course there was a girl in their class that was frea-keen-ing out. She just hid in the back of the class. Hopefully next year she's over her fear of Santa. Kids that small usually haven't made the correlation between Santa and Christmas morning yet.

Love the Boys Expressions

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Dinner and Dessert

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 12:55:02 -0500

The family got together last Saturday at my parents for dinner. Great dessert mom. Always great to see the little cousins get together and play.

17 11 07 Mom & Dad's

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Labour Day 2007

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:13:55 -0400

Labour Day 2007

Another Labour Day has come and gone and we were lucky enough to spend it with friends at the Church's in the eastern townships.

Thanks Linda and Phil for letting us invade your home for a few days.

The kids (Ethan, Carter and Jade) had a great time and really kept themselves busy playing in our tent. It was great to see the boys playing with their little cousin.

We brought Ethan's ATV, unfortunately I misjudged the level of charge on the battery and didn't bring the charger. Next year I'm totally going to be prepared.

Or course we forgot beach toys, luckily the Church's neighbors lent some of the weekend and the kids had fun playing in the sand

And of course it was great to see so many old friends.

This labour day also let me have some time to play around with my camera and get some nice shots. Or at least I think so. Although I'm starting to see the limitations of a $200 digital camera. Thanks Jamie Hynes.

Morning Breakfast

Hopefully next year Carter will get over his need to wake up between 5:30am and 6am and maybe sleep in a bit like his older brother. Of course there will be a dozen kids there next year so the chance of all of them sleeping in is pretty small. All I can say is thank god that the Church's have a microwave.

Check out the collection below to see all the Labour Day photos.

Labour Day

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Children Invade Bark Lake

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 09:48:57 -0400

It was quite the busy weekend. Not only did the four of us (Donna, Ethan, Carter and myself) go camping, but my sister Kim and her husband Phil and their daughter Jade and our friends Aaron and Cynthia with their two sons Aidan and Declan also came up.

18 08 07 Bark Lake Weekend

It's been years since we'll all been up there together. Of course there was hardly any alcohol consumed this time around. But it was still great to have the gang back together for a few hours. Plus the kids are older now and they can for the most part keep each other busy. We just need to keep an eye on them and make sure they don't go over the side of the campsite.

While my sister was trying to get Jade to have a nap my dad and I took the boys for a boat ride. It was a little cold out on the lake. Thank goodness they had hoods on their jackets.

On the way back we stopped off to see my friend Josh and his brother in law Nick who were wrapping up a week of working and recreation at their cottage. The kids downed a blow of corn chippy things and ran around on the balcony. I did have to pull apart Ethan and Aidan apart few times for the usually kid pushing.

Josh & Nick

Dinner was great but we had way too much food. That's what usually happens when everyone brings something. On the upside there was lots of food. Better more than less I always say. Josh and Nick come over for a bit after dinner and we had a fire more out of necessity than ascetics. The temperature dropped a wee bit this weekend.

Sunday morning was freezing. Luckily my dad had just bought a heater and it upped the temperature in the shelter by 10 degrees C.

19 08 07 BLSC

My dad and I went off to sailing and I actually won the day, first time this year and probably the last. I finished 1st, 3rd and 2nd with 18 points. There wasn't that much wind, but it was the most I've got to sail in this summer. Everything just flows away when I'm out there, it's the most relaxing / stressful / fun time I can have.

All the other photos from this week can be found in the Bark Lake 2007 collection.

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Got to Love Photoshop

nobody@vox.com(grantalias) — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 06:33:50 -0400

Since I'm getting compliments on this photo, I just wanted to show everyone what the original looked like. I took the photo at Ethan's Birthday party. I removed the trees, power lines and a bit of the shed. And Jade will never know, so don't tell her.

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