House Project Update

I'm using my old Canon to snap a few photos of the house, since my Nikon is still away being fixed.

It's really coming along. I spent some time at the new house today with Paula, our builder's wife and we went over some more details for the cabinetry in the kitchen, walk-in closet and the kids storage area. (Sophie snapped the pics of Paula and I. Interesting angle, Sophie :)

Later, Sophie cooled off today down at the waterpark, and Fynn practiced his little "superman" pose where he brings his arms and legs off the floor.

Little friends

Sophie and her little buddy Abby love to play together.
Abby is one of 4 children in her family that runs a dairy farm. She goes
to daycare once a week, so she and Sophie have Tuesdays at d/c in common.

I arranged with her mom, Joanna if we could all meet at Fletcher park today for some
play time and then have lunch together. Abby came with her brother Rod, and Rod's buddy Spencer. Of course, our little Fynn was there too.

We had a great time, and lunch at McDonalds, plus more fun in the Playplace.

5 things list:

1. This book has been missing, and it is due back to the library in 3 days. I found it under the seat of our Pilot today. I'm quite excited since I had visions of (almost) losing another one.

2. We lowered the asking price on our house today. We are hoping for some activity now.

3. Sophie is a little bummed out because one of her favourite caregivers at daycare is going in for a hysterectomy and will be off for 6 weeks starting tomorrow. A bit of a change for her, as this lady really is special.

4. We are hoping to go here with my brother and his wife and little son this summer.

5. When I got back from the gym this afternoon, the window to Fynn's bedroom was open. Hmmm....I wondered. Strange. I was greeted by daddy and Fynn. Fynn wearing a completely different outfit from when I left him. He had one of his atomic poops that apparently was beyond stinky. The little guy's system is still getting used to his food.

Tulips

Friends of ours have about 2 acres of tulips on their property. Each spring they invite you over to pick them with a donation to the local hospital CT scanner project.

We got two beautiful bunches of tulips.

They also have a putting green. Sophie and dad worked on their short game.

Naturally, Fynn flirted with the ladies.

working on Disney

I've been working on sorting out our Disney souvenirs.

The photos we ordered via Disney Photopass came in the mail on Friday and they are now tucked safely in our album. I'm glad now that I spent the $$ and ordered the pics, as they are some of the best ones we got of Sophie with Jasmine and Ariel.

Here's a layout I did last weekend of the little daredevil and daddy on Splash Mountain.

Happy Saturday!

Getting outside

The goal today was to keep activity and be outside.

I think I've become like a shark, and I need to keep moving.

Or, perhaps I need to with Sophie -- that girl has energy.

* Gymnastics this morning. I didn't see what they were doing (parents only can watch for 2/8 sessions), but I heard they were on the "bars."

* A weird thing happened when I was loading up the car with Fynn's stroller: Sophie was sitting in the driver's seat (pretending to drive) and this man sat in the passenger's side of our car. He even put his grocery bag on the floor beside him. I said, "excuse me, I think you are in the wrong car." Turns out his caregiver had a colour of vehicle similar to ours and it was parked right beside ours. It kind of freaked Sophie out a tad.

*We rented Cinderella for $1.50. Can't beat that for a bit of entertainment.

*I put this on while we were at the playground this afternoon. I'm really curious to know how many steps I take during the day. I know I get way more exercise chasing these two munchkins (okay, only one right now) around than I did at the office.

*We then wandered around our downtown, browsing around. Saw some cute toys for Fynn - he loved playing with this at his cousin Jackson's.

*Back home to do some weeding. Sophie was fascinated by our garden snails. Maybe I should wip up some for dinner for this upcoming celebration! (yuck)

All in all, we managed to stay outside for the majority of the day. Greatly reducing the "I'm bored...what can I eat....what's on TV" blues.

more from vacation

We are still thinking about our vacation (which is nice, since usually those feelings are so fleeting) and wondering if we can go somewhere else before I go back to work in the fall.

My camera is still in the Nikon shop, but here is a photo taken during our final port in Victoria. The 4 of us with my sister-in-law and her little guy (Vic is holding him). Neat totem pole in the background too.

We had just walked a fair distance off of our ship so we were tired in this photo (and hungry) and in the back of my mind I was reminding myself we needed to find diapers for Fynn as he was on his last one! I under-estimated how many diapers he would use by 1 day. We eventually did get some lunch here - one of our favourite lunch places in Victoria and we caught a flick at the Imax. We saw the Mummy show and it was entertaining, educational and a nice, cool place to sit and chill out for about 45 minutes.

the whole Hamilton gang

Part of the fun of our vacation was going with Vic's brother, his wife and 3 boys and her sister. In Victoria, we met up with Vic's middle brother and his wife and their little guy.

Here is a photo of all of us at the Parliament buildings in Victoria.

Missing my camera

I miss my camera. I took it to London Drugs on Sunday and the camera guy sent it to Nikon in Vancouver. He suspects it is the mirror. We hope so, as that should be a relatively inexpensive fix. If not, it could be very $$$.

I can't post photos of our house project. It is really coming along -- the roof is on and the timber pillars out front are in place.

*****

Fynn and I had a fun time at his Little Caboose playgroup today. They brought in a professional storyteller, Susan Munzer, who told 4 different stories using these little kits made out of wooden figures. To top it all off, she gave each of the moms a kit to take. We had time to paint the wooden figures while the children played (Fynn rolled around on the play mats). We picked the "farm" story, so I got to paint a lovely brown horse, chickens, etc.

observations from our vacation

We got back about an hour ago from two weeks vacation.
One week in Disneyland, followed by a repositioning cruise on Princess from LA up to Vancouver.

Some thoughts:

1. Disney has the best bathrooms for moms. The changing tables have disposable liners. Loved that.

2. Disney knows how to control line ups. Princess Cruises hasn't figured that out yet (particularly with respect to disembarkation)

3. You can nurse a baby standing in line for the Finding Nemo ride (45 min) AND for the cruise disembarkation in Victoria (45 min). Actually, the cruise line up was more of a muddle of several hundred people crowded in a small space trying to get off a ship.

4. Mothers and Grandmas will empathize with you when you have to do #3.

5. With your second baby, you lose all worry about what "first foods" he can eat. Since we ran out of rice cereal on the ship, Fynn experienced bananas, peaches, yogurt, ice cream and meat/veggies. Princess carries baby food (thank goodness).

6. A broken camera on the FIRST day of Disney can really bum you out. Thankfully they sold disposables. I'm still bummed about this. I think something has gone wrong with the shutter.

7. Disney charges a fortune for their roving photographer photos. But when your little girl gets to meet Arial and Jasmine, you gotta buy a photo. Right?

8. You can lose/maintain weight on a cruise. Yes, you can. When you are running around/carrying children to and fro and walking all over the place (in search of diapers, Starbucks, bathrooms).

9. The kid's centre on the cruise was heaven sent. Each evening Sophie happily went there and we got a bit of time to go to some shows (with Fynn since they didn't take babies).

10. Speaking of Fynn - he WAS the star of the Golden Princess.

11. Never assume your hotel valet parking and your cab driver in Vancouver are speaking the same language. You will wait 20 minutes for your car, with 2 hungry kids and 2 semi-tired/cranky/hungry adults. You can't be rationale when you have only had a cruise pillow chocolate since waking up (no breakfast when you disembark at 7:15am).

12. Your 4 year old may be scared of "Bugs Life" but not Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, Tower of Terror or Thunder Mountain Railroad.

13. Be thankful Small World was closed for maintenance.

14. Be thankful for the SunVeil/ UV stroller cover you bought 4 years ago and never thought you would use. In Southern Calif. the sun is hot! And Fynn still has baby white skin.

15. Fynn can roll really fast. Thankfully the beds in our cruise cabin were not too high off the floor. Poor kid. No bruises.

16. Le Brea bakery is the best for breakfast at Downtown Disney.

17. Trudging through the heat of the day / crazy Friday crowds is worth it for Sophie to go to the Princess Faire. So worth it!

18. You will be grateful for on site laundry machines at the hotel.

19. Staying on site at Disney is worth the money.

20. You will think (a bit shamefully) to yourself that it was "worth it" that your daughter got a sliver under her nail and had to go to first aid in California Adventure. Disney, in all of their Disney goodness, awards young patients with a plush toy if you need first aid. Sophie scored with a $19.95 baby Cinderella plushie for her pain. Actually mom took out the sliver because the nurse couldn't get a good grip on it. All of my eyebrow plucking over the years came in handy.

21. And again, you think your misfortune has an upside, when after being stranded on top of Mulhulland Madness due to a malfunction, you and your young nephew get 5 Fast Passes that you all use on California Screaming.

22. It's good to be home!