Happy Birthday James!

Happy Birthday to our favourite dad and husband! If there's one thing we've learned from Great-Grandpa, it's that you don't just celebrate your birth-day, you should celebrate all month...or at least all week. And that's exactly what James did! His birthday was actually the day of Great-Grandpa's Celebration of Life, so there wasn't much celebrating that day.  But we managed to have a little party the next day.

James trying out Duncan's cool hat.

Looks pretty good on Daniel!

Daddy and his boys.  (Sarah was taking a nap.)

Attempting an (almost) family picture.

Happy Birthday to you!  (The boys decorated the cake with Grandma.)

Family pictures.

Dave was busy taking pictures.

The boys with Great-Grandma and Grandpa C.

Mmmm...icing...

I love this picture.  So much going on!  :)

Adam and Grandma.

Crazy boys.

Uncle Duncan in his cool hat and Daniel in Grandpa's old glasses.  I think those glasses may be making a bit of a comeback.

The boys were given Great-Grandpa R's original Nintendo Gameboy.  They love it!  It's so retro, it's cool!  None of the kids at school have something like that!

Enjoying a bit of sunshine when Sarah woke up.

Happy Birthday to our favourite dad and husband!  If there's one thing we've learned from Great-Grandpa, it's that you don't just celebrate your birth-day, you should celebrate all month...or at least all week.  And that's exactly what James did!  His birthday was actually the day of Great-Grandpa's Celebration of Life, so there wasn't much celebrating that day

Memories with Great-Grandpa

March 19-20

This past weekend, we said good-bye to Great-Grandpa R.  We were so lucky that our kids were able to get to know their great-grandpa - all of their great-grandparents, actually, since they have been able to know four of them, all of whom I know the kids love and adore.  The kids have fond memories of playing at the beach with Great-Grandpa and having fun at the fishing derby.  I think they may always call him "Grandpa at the lake."  :)

Here are my three favourite pictures of the kids with their Great-Grandpa.

Festival du bois

March 5, 2011

After Daniel's soccer tournament, we went out to Coquitlam to go to the Festival du bois to experience a bit of Quebec culture here at home.  Unfortunately, the nice weather from the morning disappeared and it got a lot colder and rained quite a bit.  But we still managed to have a good time.

Our first stop was to the sugar shack to try some maple syrup on a stick (tire d'erable), a Quebecois favourite.  We were hoping that the boys would be able to pour the maple syrup onto the snow themselves and wind it onto the popsicle stick.  After all, we did pay $2.00 for it!  But, no, they were just handed their maple syrup.  Oh well. 

Daniel loved it

Adam gave it a try.

He liked the idea of it, but wasn't too fond of the taste.  James and I ended up eating his.

Daniel, however, worked on his for almost an hour and truly enjoyed it.  He didn't let any of it go to waste and was quite sticky by the end of it!

Sarah tried one little lick and thought it was pretty yucky.  I got a picture of her face and it wasn't very flattering!  But here's a cute one of her and Daddy waiting for a magic show to start.

Nervously waiting to see what the magician was going to do.

She wasn't too fond of his loud voice.  The boys thought he was funny but Sarah kept plugging her ears.

Daniel's Soccer Tournament

He was a little nervous when he first started but, by the end of the season, Daniel loved soccer.  He had such a good time playing with his new friends, LOVED playing goal and got a lot better playing in the field.  He started off quite timid and wouldn't try to take the ball away from the opposing team but, by the end of the season, he was getting right in there.  We were so proud of him!

The first weekend in March, Daniel played in his first tournament.  Surprisingly, the weather cooperated and we had a beautiful sunny and kind of warm morning.  Daniel was very excited about his upcoming games.

The Thundercats, ready to play.

Daniel's two greatest fans!

Get in there, Daniel!

Here's Daniel throwing the ball in.

Daniel the goalie!

The Thundercats, very proud with their medals - Ellery, Kai, Lucas and Daniel in the back and Seth, Tyler, Kenneth and Nolan in the front.

Daniel had so much fun and is already saying that he wants to play again next season.  There are a few soccer camps this summer that we may sign him up for some.  And Adam seems pretty keen to get out there, too, so we may have two soccer players next fall!

Snow!

February 27, 2011

Winter wasn't ready to give up quite yet!  The kids had fun playing in the snow for a few minutes before their swimming lesson.  Unfortunately, they didn't get too much time to play - it started raining before we got home from swimming lessons.  But they had fun for about 15 minutes!