Grimston Park

July 21, 2010

Today we decided to check out a new and improved park close to where I used to teach.  It had a very old, wooden playground; one of those really tall and probably very unsafe playgrounds that kids love.  Just this summer, they revamped the playground, used wood from the old one and built a very cool new playground.  The boys loved it.  There were lots of things to climb on, hang from, dig in and swing from.

Adam and Sarah can literally swing for hours if you let them.

Of course, when they saw that there was face painting, Daniel and Adam were there!  They soon became Batman and Venom!

Sarah, meanwhile, took it easy in the shade.  I love the foot up on the stroller tray.  She does that everytime she falls asleep in the stroller.

There's a huge wading pool at Grimston Park as well, so we all had to cool down after being out in the sun for so long.

Overall, I was very impressed with the new park.  It will become one of our new summer play places.

Pigtails!

July 19, 2010

Bear Creek Park

July 19, 2010

I always forget about Bear Creek Park, in Surrey.  I always think that it's so far away when, really, it only takes us about 15 minutes to get there from our house.  So we decided to venture across the Alex Fraser Bridge to visit Bear Creek Park.  It is such a fun place!  There are two huge playgrounds, a train you can ride on, a water park, mini golf, and a beautiful park.  It was a little cold for the water park, and mini golf was too expensive, but we spent the entire morning and part of the afternoon on the playgrounds.

Of course, with our train-lover Adam, we had to go on the train.  It's kind of like a smaller version of the Stanley Park train.  All three of the kids really enjoyed it.

After the train ride, we headed back to the playground to have some lunch.  Being that it's Bear Creek Park, we saw a few bear prints across the path.  We even caught sight of two little bears!

Back on the playground again.

A fun day!  We'll have to head back in October to go on the train over Halloween.  They do quite a spooky train ride!

Fraser Fest

July 18, 2010

There is no end to the festivals in our little city.  That is one great thing about living here - lots of fun, free things to do.  This weekend was Fraser Fest, down at Westminster Quay.  There wasn't a whole lot going on when we got there, but it was fun.  Of course, we had to be there to watch James' band play!

I love the way Sarah holds her bottle, like someone is going to steal it away from her!

We were able to watch the Mascot Parade.  And, oh, it was so exciting!  There were the mascots from JRFM (the country music station), The NewsLeader (our local paper), Irving House (a museum-type place), Return-It Man (from the recycling depot) and KC Bear (from the PNE).  And then all the mascots had a limbo competition!  Does it get any better than that???  I guess Daniel wasn't too impressed with the mascots but Adam went up and said hi to a few.

No trip to the Quay is complete without playing on the boat that was a fixture at Expo 86.  The boys love running around and around and around on this boat.  Yup, this was the best picture...

Then it was time for the Royal City Concert Band to perform.  First, we stopped at the outhouses, then we bought a huge bag of popcorn to keep the boys still during the concert.  We managed to sit through the entire thing!  I caught the boys bopping to the music a few times.

Six years!

July 17, 2010

Yup, James and I have been married for six years!  It's hard to believe that, six years ago, we were at the beautiful London Farm, saying our vows and then partying it up in the very hot, un-air conditioned Heritage Hall.  In our vows, I promised to help James raise good, kind and fun children.  I think we're doing a pretty good job at that!  (I also vowed to always laugh at his jokes - a vow I regret to this day!  I kid, James, I kid!)  But, since we do have these three good, kind and fun children, it's pretty hard to get much of an anniversary celebration in.  Instead, we had a really nice day bike riding as a family of five.  We got on our bikes, trail-a-bike and bike trailer and rode off...all the way up to Tim Horton's for lunch!  We took it to go and sat along the Fraser River, watching trains, Skytrains and boats go by.  It was so nice, I took the opportunity to snap a few pictures.

Daniel and James, cloud watching.

Big brother Adam sharing his lunch with his little sister.  Yes, it's a peanut butter bagel.  I know babies aren't supposed to have peanut butter before age 2 but Sarah got hold of a peanut butter sandwich crust long before this.  This little girl is better than a puppy dog at cleaning up under her brothers' seats after lunch!

Two handsome boys.

And some really good shots of the three of them!  This is quite the feat!

Of course, we had to get a picture of ourselves on our anniversary.  And a great one it is - sweaty, helmet hair, a bit of sunburn, taken by a very skilled 4 year old photographer!

And James is looking pretty good in his "Fun Guy" shirt I got him for our anniversary last year!  We definitely know how to celebrate!

We did watch our wedding video after the kids went to bed.  (The boys saw a little bit of it.  At one point, on the video, I saw that we were being taped and I looked straight into the camera and waved.  Daniel said, "Look Mommy, you're waving at us!"  I thought that was pretty cute.  Yup, I didn't know anything about Daniel, Adam and Sarah and the time, but I was waving to them!)  It was really fun reminiscing.  That was a really fun day!  We certainly knew how to throw a good party!  :)

At the trailer with Grampa

July 12, 2010

While Gramma was on a girls' shopping trip down in Seattle, the kids and I headed out to White Rock with Grampa.  We had great plans to go down to the beach and play in the sand and water and have a barbecue lunch.  But the weather didn't quite cooperate with us.  It didn't rain but it was pretty chilly - certainly not beach weather.  That didn't stop us, though.  Dressed in our sweats, we went to do some digging.

Of course, one of the highlights of the morning was the train coming by! 

Sarah wasn't too keen on the wind. The poor little girl gets really blotchy red eyes in the wind (she's going to hate that when she's older!). So I headed back to the trailer with her and Grampa stayed down with the boys. They didn't last much longer than us, though!

We got out barbecue in (but ate in the warmth of the trailer) and then Grampa and the boys went for a walk to the US/Canada border.  (Sarah and I came up later in the van.)  We checked out the duty free shop (which is beautiful, surprisingly enough) and the Canada tourism office (which is also beautiful).  They've done a nice job at the Peace Arch border crossing.

So, although the summer weather decided to take a break on us, we still had a really nice day.  And all three kids fell asleep on the way home, so I got a very appreciated afternoon break!

Happy Birthday Uncle Duncan and Auntie Lindsay!

July 11, 2010

On a very warm and sunny Sunday evening, Lauren, Duncan and Lindsay came over to celebrate both Duncan and Lindsay's birthdays.  We went to their place the weekend before for Lindsay's big 30th birthday bash but weren't able to stay too long.  I'm sure that their friends didn't need three active little kids crashing the party for too long!  So we continued the celebration a week later at our house.

The evening started with a family water fight.

It was a little warm to eat inside and we didn't really have a lot of room anyway, so we set up the table in the backyard for our barbecue.  Of course, the meal ended with cake - lemon made by the boys.

Even Sarah got a taste.  Not too much, though - she needs to wait for her first birthday!

And no party is complete without a rip-roaring game of Cat in the Hat Speedy Diner!

Hope you both had great birthdays, Duncan and Lindsay!

Happy Canada Day!

July 1, 2010

It was a cool and grey Canada Day but we managed to make the most of it!  We went down to Gramma and Grampa's trailer where there's a small Canada Day party every year.  Everyone was decked out in red and white, flying their flags.

All the kids gathered at the front to sing O Canada.  I loved the look on Adam's face while he was watching the soloist sing O Canada.  :)

Afterwards, everyone got some strawberry shortcake (which is why Sarah was wearing her cute strawberry hat) and we had a barbecue lunch with Gramma, Grampa and some of their friends (with their grandchildren).

Happy Canada Day from our Canadian cuties!

Fishing Derby!

June 11-13, 2010

Well, it's been a month since the Fishing Derby and I still haven't had a chance to write about it in the blog.  Too much to do!  We had a lot of fun - too much to fit into a blog post.  But here is a link to the pictures.  Hope you can get a sense of how much fun we had.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=185577&id=581855950&l=e89e7d889d

They say the cutest things!

This morning, Daniel was watching a sleeping Sarah, and said to me, "Sarah taked my heart away because I love her so much.  Did Daddy take your heart away when he falled in love with you?"  Later, he told me, "I falled down because Sarah is just so cute!"  Awwww!!!

Later, the boys were nicely playing Lego up in their playroom and had lost one of the pieces.  This is the conversation I overheard while sitting in Sarah's room, putting her down for a nap...

Adam: Me find the Lego.  I a good finder, Danyo.  I a good finder.
Daniel: I'm a better finder than you are, Adam.  I eat carrots.
Adam: Sometimes me eat carrots, Danyo.  Sometimes.
Daniel: No, Adam, you never eat carrots.  You don't like carrots.
Adam: Almost.  Almost me like carrots...

A long overdue trip to the Okanagan

June 8-11, 2010

Well, it was about time for us to head back to the Okanagan to visit with everyone.  Our last visit was at Christmas, which was too long ago!

The first exciting thing was seeing Grandma and Grandpa in their new house in Penticton.  It will be the perfect house to host family gatherings for years to come.

GG came for lunch one day and we had a very nice visit with her.  Lots of talking, laughing and playing Cat in the Hat games.  :)

Great-Grandpa and Aunt Judy surprised everyone by dropping over, too.  It was so nice to see everyone.

The next day, we went to Great-Grandma and Grandpa C's house for a visit and then out to lunch at White Spot.  Kids and great-grandparents had a fun time waiting for our food, colouring and visiting.

A lot of time was spent in Grandma and Grandpa's basement playing with the new ping pong table.  We discovered that both the boys are naturals!  I didn't get any pictures of Adam but here are a few action shots of Daniel and James.  (And, of course, Sarah had to get in on the action, too.)

As always, there was lots of reading and sharing books at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It helps when Grandma is a librarian and can get all sorts of new and exciting books for the kids to read.  And they certainly do love to read!

We had a wonderful time visiting, although it was short.  After a few quick days, we headed out to Beaver Lake (past Kelowna) for the annual fishing derby.  But we will be back very soon (probably in August).