Visiting more family

While visiting my parents, we spent a day driving a couple of hours away to visit my cousin Colette and her family. Thomas wanted to see them again and we wanted them to meet Emma. I spent a good part of my childhood in this little town and it's always lovely to visit again. I grew up surrounded by a bunch of cousins, on the shores of a bay, running freely as kids did (do?) in small towns. My father and his brother married 2 sisters so these cousins (6 of them) in particular are practically siblings and a few other uncles and their families lived there too, so there was a whole bunch of us! :-) Anyhow, the kids loved their day in a small town...there's nothing like it. :-) It's so much more real and relaxing than city life...not that I'd trade city life, but I could definitely spend a few weeks in a small town every summer - maybe we will one day! :-)

Thomas and Emma on the ball swing...they love this thing!

Thomas, Emma and Jenna walking hand in hand on the beach.

Emma running barefoot on the beach... I don't think there's anything she enjoys more... well, put some food in her hand and you've got all bases covered!!lol

Jacob showing Thomas his tree house...cool eh?

Thomas, Emma and Jenna on the beach.

Emma loved the ball swing too!

Thomas and Jenna climbing a tree.

Off we go...again!

Well, a couple of days after our return from California, off we were to a couple of Eastern Canadian provinces to visit my family, just the kids and I. First off, as the queen of overpacking (see October 2005 archives for our China packing...just a tad much eh?lol) I am very proud to say that I travelled with 2 children for 5 days and only packed one small carry on suitcase and a diaper bag. Okay, so we spent most of our time at my parents' house within easy reach of a washer and dryer, but still, major progress for me, Miss Overpacking 2005!!lol Also, see the kids enjoying the pool on a rainy day... you knew Emma would find something to hang off of now didn't you? The kids had a great visit, particularly with my parents and Auntie Susan (SueSue as Emma calls her).

Parade of homes - Week 4

This week, Shannon is looking for kitchens. Our kitchen/family room is one large room, with the whole back being the family room and the front being split with one side being the eating area and the other the kitchen area.

San Diego with friends

Friends who have 2 children in the same age range as ours joined us on our San Diego vacation. It's always more fun when friends come along, especially for the kids.

Thomas and Spencer trying to give us a little scare!lol

Emma and Holly walking hand in hand on the beach. How cute are they!

Jordy holding on to the kids as they jump waves in the ocean. They all got soaked through and through and it was one of the kids' favourite things to do!

More San Diego pics

Here are Thomas and I hanging out with Darth

Thomas loves Bionicles and loved seeing them all over Legoland!

Here's Emma in all her glory, running on the beach! I've never seen a child who loves the beach and water like this little one!

Emma is showing us that she can stick out her tongue just like the kimodo dragon!

San Diego

We just spent a few days in San Diego...here are a few pics of the kids having fun. Amongst others, we hit Legoland and the San Diego Zoo.

Here are 2 characters Emma recognized!

Thomas is having a little duel with Darth!

Thomas making a new friend at the zoo!

Emma and Thomas walking on the beach.

Parade of Homes - Week 3

I'm a few days late with this week's Parade installment - we've been on vacation and Blogger is giving me the hardest time posting anything, or even accessing the blog at all!! Anyhow, since I can't download pics at the moment, these are all from a year or two ago, but the room is basically the same except for a new chandelier. Here's a pretty picture of the room all set for a special dinner. Looks kinda fancy til you notice a couple of kids' plastic cups - not to mention the cat under the table!lol

I didn't really want a big china buffet. I found this late 1800's dresser with a marble top and voila, that's my dining room buffet.

Here's an overall look at the room.

Our house is pretty much open concept and the living room and dining room are one large room as you can see here. A few people commented on the chaise in our living room... now you see why it makes sense, the living room/dining room is one large room so the fact that the chaise is "backless" doesn't visually cut the room in two. Also, the chaise is quite wide so when we have lots of people in the room, it allows people to sit on both sides and therefore offers a lot more seating than a regular couch could. :-)

Play by play!

Emma likes to talk, Emma like to talk A LOT!!lol As we're out and about the city, Emma likes to give me play by plays. She'll pick out a person and she'll tell me all about them:

Lady sit
Lady up
Lady purse
Lady toes red
Lady walk
Bye Bye lady

Yup, there are those whom when they realize this little muchkin is pointing (oh yeah, she's not subtle, she points right at the person the whole time!!) at them and talking about them in a very loud voice decide to get away as quickly as possible!!lol

What's Emma hanging off of now!

You know "Where's Waldo", perhaps I should start a "What's Emma hanging off now" game!lol Here she is in action. Gary of course says perhaps she's getting a mixed message since half the time I run to get the camera rather than getting her off of whatever she's climbing on or is hanging off of!lol Here she is hanging off the powder room sink!

Oh Emma!!!

We used to have a big Pottery Barn coffee table in our family room. Emma being the daredevil that she is, the coffee table disappeared from the family room shortly after she arrived since her running around the family room 100 miles an hour made us a little nervous and we figured one day, she and the coffee table would have a disastrous meeting. So, a few days ago, I decide to get these little lucite tables and try them out, just so we have somewhere to put down a glass or plate when Emma's not around. Not a hard corner anywhere to be found so I thought it was relatively Emma proof... of course I didn't count on Emma thinking it would be really cool to stand up on the new tables!!

Tide commercial girl!

Here's Emma after a full day of being Emma - she hung out at the park , went to the beach, had a swim, had some great Japanese food for lunch (much of which is displayed on her shirt!!) all with Nathalie, then she played in the back yard and played in a pile of dirt at a neighbour's house (they're landscaping) while waiting for Thomas' bus to get here. She should be doing Tide commercials!lol

Always ready for a swim!

You know Emma is always ready for a swim...here she is, ready to go and then enjoying a friend's pool.

Thomas is home!

Thomas got back from camp this afternoon...all is well with our little family again! He just spent 4 days at sleep away camp - my baby, gone for 4 days and I didn't hear a word from him or about him for 4 days...so hard! Thankfully Heather and Nathalie entertained us at the Beach most of the day! I couldn't wait to see him get off the bus today, neither could Gary, he came home early from work to meet the bus with Emma and I. Here are pics of Thomas waiting for the bus to go to camp and getting off the bus upon his return from camp. Overall, he said he enjoyed it and gives it a 7 out of 10 - apparently there was a kayaking capsizing incident and that takes a few points off!lol

Week 2 - Parade of Homes

In week 2 of her Parade of Homes, Shannon is requesting pictures of living room and/or family rooms. We have one of each. We practically live in our family room and although it's one of my favourite rooms, we rarely use the living room unless we're entertaining a larger group of people or I can get a little reading time on my own.

Living Room

Living Room

Family Room

Family Room

Emma in her new T

Here's a pic of Miss Emma modeling her snazzy T!

I love to brush my teeth!

It's taken forever for Emma to let a toothbrush anywhere near her mouth without her having an enormous meltdown! She's still not overly fond of us brushing her teeth, but she's quite enjoying doing it herself now so at least we're heading in the right direction!

It's hard to let go!

Here's a pic of Thomas' bed as it looked this morning - not slept in!! It would be really big news if he had actually made his bed but for the first time in the almost 8 years since we brought him home from the hospital, he slept away from home...he's away for a couple of nights... mommy and daddy are in serious withdrawal but know he's having loads of fun...can't wait to have him back with us and he's not leaving again until it's time to head off to university - and even then, we'll see!!lol Ah, it's not easy letting go!

Me

Someone was asking why there are no pics of me around... now that's an exaggeration, I'm pretty sure there is a pic or two of me somewhere on this blog!lol Let's just say I prefer being behind the camera and Emma and Thomas are much cuter to look at than Gary and I. But here ya go, here's a picture of Emma and I that Shelley took at Carolyn's house last month...

A girl can never have too many pairs of shoes!

When we bought those cute Ts yesterday, we were actually out shoe shopping. I hadn't bought Emma a new pair of shoes for a few months now and noticed yesterday that her little piggies were getting squeezed pretty tight so it was time to head off to get new shoes. I may have mentioned in my stroller addiction post from last month that my other addiction is shoes. Let's face it, short of having a 3rd child - which Gary tells me is NOT happening - my stroller addiction has reached the end of the line. My Diet Coke addiction is not particuarly fulfulling - although I'm getting looks now as Emma grabs her water cup and insists on calling it COKE - so that leaves shoes as my main addictive behaviour and so far, Emma seems to be loving her shoes too - that's my girl!! Anyhow, she's now the proud owner of a new pair of sandals, sneakers and a dressier pair of shoes... she proudly wore them all yesterday and kept coming to show me, pointing to them and saying "pretty"!

Cutest t-shirt!

I got the cutest t-shirts for Emma today...okay, some might say they're tacky, but since they originally cost $70 each, perhaps we can refer to them as eccentric instead!lol And no, even I wouldn't pay $70 for a t-shirt, but at 75% off, I couldn't resist...they just reminded me of a Roy Lichtenstein pop art print - maybe I'll frame them when Emma's done wearing them!lol Pics of Emma in her wild T(one is for now, one is for next summer) to be added in days to come. :-)

Cutie Emma

Here are just a couple of cute Emma pics.

Fun morning at the park

We went to this fun park with a big play structure built around a huge tree...it's made to look like a really big tree house...very cool! Here are the kids trying out a few parts of it. Emma loved hanging out with Thomas and he was great about helping her out through the parts of the tree house where she was just too short to manage on her own!lol After the tree house, we headed off for a swim and then a nice relaxing lunch... beautiful day to spend outside enjoying what the city has to offer. :-)