Playland! - with pictures!

Every year, James' company organizes a Playland day for all its employees. Well, today was the day and Daniel was so excited. I showed him pictures of our day at Playland last year, and all he could talk about was "Palay land" and all the rides. After the boys' naps, we headed out with my parents. Daniel was so excited and Adam was enthralled with all the action around him. This was the first year that Daniel could go on some of the rides by himself and he wasn't nervous at all. He's such a daredevil!

We started out with the dunebuggies. Parents can go on this one, too, so Daddy and Adam tagged along for the ride.


Next was the helicopters. Daniel rode with Grampa while Adam went with Mommy. As you can see, Adam still might be a little small for some of these rides!



We went for dinner next, which included hot dogs, hamburgers, ice cream and Daniel trying to get wet by standing under the water ride. He really wanted to go on it, but he was 6 inches too short. Maybe in a few years! I told you he was a daredevil!

After dinner, we tried out the kiddie rollercoaster. We weren't sure whether Daniel would be scared of if he would love it. Well, he LOVED it! He went with Grampa the first time. The ride went around twice - the first time, he looked terrified but, the second time, he had a huge grin on his face!


Then Daniel went on a few more rides on his own. The motorcycles and elephants seemed a little tame compared to the rollercoaster!



Daniel and Mommy went on the new big slide, first with Gramma then with Daddy and Adam.


Next stop was the merry-go-round. Adam really liked this one. He had a big smile on his face throughout most of the ride. James had the two boys sitting on the same horse and made Adam tickle Daniel, so the boys were giggling the entire time.


A few more rides for Daniel - the boats, the racetrack and the big climbing obstacle course.



The evening ended with two more rides on the rollercoaster. I don't know if you can see the look on Daniel's face but he absolutely loved it. He won't be content with the kiddie rides for much longer!

Braver than Dad

I have heard stories about three year old Jamie who watched "The Incredible Hulk" and then became terrified of bodies of water because he was afraid that the Hulk would walk up onto the shore. Well, the next generation does not seem to have the same fear. Daniel saw an Incredible Hulk toy the other day and loved it so Gramma bought it for him. He loves playing with "Green Man." Today, we went to the spray park by our house and there was a community centre leader there doing face painting. She told Daniel she could paint a dog, cat, lion, Spider Man or Incredible Hulk on his face. When I told him that Incredible Hulk was, in fact, Green Man, he knew what he wanted. He was so proud of his face all day! He kept saying that he was bad man or tawee (scary) man. I think we'll be heading up to the park often during the summer because the only way I could get Daniel to wash his face tonight was to promise he could get in painted another day!

Another busy weekend

There have been lots of celebrations going on around here this weekend. On Saturday, Daniel and I went to the birthday party of his daycare friend, Jamie. James and Adam stayed home. We think (being the doctors that we are...) that Adam has roseola. Roseola is a blotchy rash that is accompanied by a fever. It's not itchy and doesn't harm the baby at all, but it makes them really cranky and feverish. Daniel had it at 9 months, so we recognized the signs in Adam. There really isn't much we can do about it, just give him Tylenol and cuddles. But Jamie has a brand new baby brother and we didn't want to expose him to the roseola, so James and Adam stayed home. Daniel had a lot of fun at the party, even though it was held outside and it rained a bit. I never realized what a peace-loving little guy he is, though. The other boys were pretending to shoot each other with sticks and, when they'd try to shoot Daniel, I could hear him yelling, "No thank you!" The whole way home, he told me how he didn't like it when the boys shot at him. He kept calling them bad mans.

Saturday evening, for the first time in months, I went out by myself! I went downtown to celebrate my friend, Elaine's, birthday, while James and the boys stayed home. I think they had lots of fun without me. Daddy always plays with toys that Mommy forgets we have, like puppets. And I was able to have a glass of wine and dress up and go downtown, which I never do!

Sunday morning we went to the grand opening of our little neighbourhood park. The park was finished last November, but wasn't officially opened until today. Daniel ran the entire time and had very rosy cheeks by the end of two hours. He played with a parachute, jumped on the trampoline and spent lots of time on the teeter totter. He wasn't a big fan of tag, though. He really doesn't like people chasing him - to Daniel, they're bad mans, too. Adam, of course, wanted to join in with the big kids. He did get a chance to play with the parachute, though.

Boys love trains...and ice cream!

This year is BC’s 150th and, to celebrate, a heritage Canadian Pacific train has been touring around BC. Today the stop was in New Westminster, so the boys and I met up with Gramma and Grampa to go see it. Daniel loved the train and was in awe of the steam engine. He proudly wore his train engineer’s hat. Unfortunately, the event wasn’t really geared towards little kids and there wasn’t much to do except watch a bit of singing and walk through one of the cars. We thought the car might actually look the way they did back in the 1800s but, instead, inside was just a bunch of old maps of BC. But, despite the fact that it was a little dull and it rained a bit, Daniel had a good time. Both boys also got souvenir wooden train whistles, which are pretty cool. I’m sure they’ll be played with a lot at our house.

Since we were at Westminster Quay, we decided to stop for a hot dog lunch and then wander around the quay. Unfortunately, the quay is falling apart and there really wasn’t much to look at. But there was an ice cream place! As you can see, both the boys LOVE ice cream!

The boys fell asleep on the way home. After naps, we met up with Daniel’s buddy, Carson. We played at the playground until it got too warm and then Carson came over to play. Carson’s mom is due to have a baby any day now, so I’m sure she appreciated some peace and quiet! The older boys played trains and then went up to Daniel’s room. Poor Adam looked longingly after them, just dying to play with the big boys!

After dinner, we made a quick trip to Walmart. As we came home, we saw some neighbours out playing street hockey. Of course, Daniel wanted to join. Our neighbor Greg, who has two daughters, quite enjoyed teaching Daniel about hockey. And I think Daniel was quite the natural. I’ve always hoped that I wouldn’t have to go to early morning hockey practices but I may have to one day! Or I’ll just send James…

Happy Canada Day!

And Happy Birthday Gloria! We spent the day down in White Rock at my parents' trailer because there was a Canada Day celebration going on there.

Everyone gathered around the flag pole to sing "O Canada." All the children went to the front to sing, including our boys...although neither sang. James probably did, though!

The ceremony was finished off with some strawberry shortcake. Of course, Daniel loved it. Adam loved the cake but wasn't so fond of the strawberries.

We went back to my parents campsite for lunch and more cake. This time it was birthday cake for Gloria. Obviously, she needed help from Daniel to blow out her candles. Doesn't everyone?

Then we went down to the beach for some kite flying, crab watching and tide pool wading. Our tide pools didn't stick around for too long, though. The tide was coming in pretty fast and we figured we better get off the beach before we got stranded out there.




We headed home around 4:00 and both boys immediately fell asleep in the car. It was pretty late for a nap, though, so we woke them up as soon as we got home. Daniel was in a funny, overtired, hyper kind of mood for the rest of the evening and wouldn't eat any dinner. Fortunately, by 9:00, all three of my boys were fast asleep! Now I can enjoy a nice, quiet evening to myself!

(Make sure you check out the last entry in June - the one called "Hot Hot Hot." I promised to add pictures there and I just did it tonight. And there are a lot more Canada Day pictures here, if you're interested...http://tinyurl.com/6k7py7)

Hot, hot, hot!

It is so hot here! While I am loving the hot weather, I don't think my boys are! So, to beat the heat, most of the day was spent in the water.

This morning, we walked up to the spray park. Daniel had a great time running through the water and Adam loved sitting in the puddles. I was actually surprised; the water was really cold and I didn't think Adam would like it. I think we'll be spending many hours up at the spray park this summer.

On the walk home, Adam fell asleep in my arms. I guess the fresh air and water tired him out! It tired Daniel out, too. He managed to eat some of his lunch. Then, he looked at me and said, "Me wipe" because his face was covered with beans. As soon as the words were out of his mouth, his head fell backwards and he was fast asleep!

While the boys napped, I went out to get some groceries. I guess my mind was elsewhere because, after loading the car with the groceries, I locked my keys in the car! Luckily, it's only a 15 minute walk home. I had mentioned to James that I was looking forward to grocery shopping because I haven't left the house by myself in over a month. I wasn't planning on a long walk by myself, too! It was a little warm, but I did appreciate the peace and quiet!

After the boys woke up from their naps, Daniel's buddy Carson and his parents, Chris and Terryl, came over to swim in Daniel's pool. (Well, Carson swam, not his parents!) The boys had a great time pouring buckets of water over each other's heads and squirting each other. Adam really enjoyed his baby pool, although sometimes he would look over longingly at the older boys, wishing he could join in!

And just a cute one of Adam trying out an apple juice popsicle:

It's finally summer!

The weather was beautiful today and we certainly took advantage of it. We started the day by meeting up with my friends, Aster and Daisy. Daniel and Adam had fun playing with their friends Tyler and Katrina and I finally got to meet Aster's new baby, Katelyn, who was very cute but very sleepy!

Then we went down to White Rock to my parents' trailer for lunch. Uncle David, Aunty Joan and Alyssah were there as well. We had a nice afternoon roasting hot dogs and making smores as well as walking along the beach and playing in the sand. Adam found himself a couple of older girlfriends who took quite a liking to him and we discovered that Daniel thinks that seaweed is plippy.

(Our best attempt at a shot of the two of them. It's not an easy thing to do these days!)

James actually got home early today after a week of early mornings and late nights, so we were able to head up to the community centre for the monthly Family Fusion dinner. We met up with a few of our neighbours, had some pizza and then watched the kids play tag. Daniel wore himself out! And Adam discovered a love of dirt. He managed to get a few mouthfuls in there and didn't start to cry until I tried to clean him up!

It was a very fun, sunny day but I think all that fresh air tired us out!