Milligan Blog

Playing 500

2011-01-14T16:33:00.004-08:00

It is 12 degrees outside, with a few hints of sun. So, after school we got out one of our Christmas presents--a batting tee, bat, and whiffle balls.

It was a lot of fun! Both of them have really improved their hand-eye co-ordination since they were playing Tball and Blastball last spring.

After a few turns of hitting, I explained the rules of '500' to them. It was really great--both of them caught a '100'! It wasn't so good when I was batting though--they were both so competitive they were falling on top of each other to get the ball.

Here is a video of Harriet batting. I'm sure it will be raining again soon, but we enjoyed the brief break in the weather.

Summer Vacation

2010-08-24T22:14:00.010-07:00

We have been busy this summer!

First, here is a link to a slide show of our camping trip at Golden Ears Park in July.

Next, here are some pictures of our recent trip to Belleville/Ottawa/PEI.

Here is Rowan with Gran in Market Square in Kingston. We had a great time visiting Gran in Belleville, going to the Pirate Ship park, playing in the backyard, and going to church.

Here are Rowan and Harriet with cousins Sam and Ally in Kingston. We visited their house that afternoon and had a nice visit--and enjoyed a good swim in their pool.

Next we were off to Ottawa for a day, where we stayed with our friend Cathy and her two daughters. We also met up with our friend Sonia and her son. Here is Madelaine, Harriet, Rowan, and Cedric. All five kids played pretty well together.

After Ottawa, it was off to PEI. We enjoyed lots of beach time and lots of just running around the yard. Very good to see so much family, too! From Nanaimo, Oshawa, Mississauga, Gananoque, Waterloo, and PEI. We even had day-visitors from New Glasgow come to see us.

Here we are at Cabot Beach.

Uncle Mike and Auntie Jenn picked up some lobsters on the way home--Rowan was VERY excited by the live lobsters!

Here we are in front of the Confederation Bridge. Rowan picked a nice potato out of the farmer field behind us for dinner!

Here are Rowan and Uncle Mike in the yard. Rowan had so much fun in the yard!

On our way back through Ottawa, we survived a 6 hour layover by visiting our friends the Santors. Harriet and Rowan played very well with their host Thomas. An uneventful flight back to Vancouver and it was done!

Here is a bonus picture of Harriet in Market Square:

Stitches!

2010-08-09T15:59:00.004-07:00

It's been an exciting summer. I'm so glad we had a couple of practice runs to the hospital, so we knew just what to do when Rowan fell down the last two steps in our concrete stairwell. We gave him a snuggle, cleaned him up a bit, then took him to the hospital. This time, we were in Burnaby, so we got to check out yet another hospital. Lucky for us, we checked in, and got in to the express line where only one other guy was waiting. He got a room first, then we did... and it was the same room - different bed though.

After being assessed, the nurse put a sticky patch on his head with a great big gob of anesthetic goop. Here he is:

Rowan and Harriet spent a while colouring while we waited for our turn. When the doctor came by, he said Rowan would need stitches. Poor guy. He really didn't know what he was getting. It was bad enough when the sticky pad had to come off and that was just the beginning. He then had the wound cleaned out with a needle, and the doctor was none to gentle. Then came the tough part - the actual stitches. Rowan was a tough guy, but I think Harriet get the actual tough guy award. She watched the whole thing!

Here's Rowan with his three stitches:

He was very sad and upset for a long time (understandably), but he wouldn't let that stop our planned trip to Langley. He did pass on berry picking though. He wanted a nice, relaxing time at Namma's, so Rowan and Mommy hung out there while Namma and Harriet picked us a couple buckets of berries. Mmmm...

After a good night's rest, he has bounced back and he's completely unaffected by his stitches. We thought he might not be able to do his swimming lessons, but it turns out it's ok. Lucky guy. Here's his stitches today, two days after the fall:

Edmonds Show & Shine

2010-07-25T20:32:00.002-07:00

The Edmonds community puts on an annual Show & Shine. There was a mini street festival and many, many cars. Here's some shots of the kids and their favourite cars.

Camping at Uncle Dick's

2010-07-20T08:44:00.008-07:00

For half of our trip, we camped out in a trailer on Uncle Dick's yard. We had so much space to play. The kids flew kites, tossed a football, played frisbee, batted a baseball, threw horseshoes, and endless other outside running games. In the evenings, we had a fire to roast marshmallows (while getting eaten by mosquitoes - they LOVED Harriet). Harriet & Rowan were so wiped out some days, they napped!

We spent the rest of our holiday at Papa's house with a couple of day trips. First we went to Grandma Pond's house and helped weed the garden. Another day we went to Beaumont Provincial Park for a swim. The second day we went to the beach, we had hoped to go boating, but it was too windy. The whitecaps came almost all the way to the shore. It was disappointing, but hopefully we can go next year.

St John Hospital

2010-07-20T08:31:00.002-07:00

Our family picnic this year was at Riverside Park, in Vanderhoof. It was a great park. Right beside the covered picnic area, was a playground. (I wish the playground was covered too - it was a hot day.) The kids enjoyed playing in the sand as well as on all the climbing structures.

It was great fun, until Rowan got hurt. He was playing under the teeter-totters when he stood up underneath one and the bolt on the bottom of the seat cut into his head. He cried, and bled. Blood is very bright and shocking on such blond hair. Luckily, Auntie Jenni was nearby and cleaned him up with her first aid skills. (Thank you!) As is common with most head wounds, it was a small cut with lots of blood. An hour later, the cut was still seeping a little bit of blood and slightly open, so I took Rowan to the St John Hospital (where I was born) and got him patched up. Lucky for him, these days they don't suture in spots where a scar won't matter... so the nurse glued the wound closed and we were done.

Facepainting

2010-07-20T08:22:00.000-07:00

We went to a neighbourhood event a couple weeks ago and the kids were disappointed we missed the facepainting. I said it was an easy fix and bought some facepaint from a craft store. They were determined to have their faces painted every day, but it did wear off. The facepaint was popular with the cousins too, and many of them sported facepaint tattoos for the weekend.

Hell's Gate

2010-07-19T09:00:00.003-07:00

This summer, for our holidays, we drove to Vanderhoof. Papa and a bunch of my family live there, plus, Grandma & Grandpa Klassen and more aunts, uncles and cousins came for the weekend for a family campout at Uncle Dick's.

It's about a 9 hour drive if you go fast and don't stop. We wanted to do the drive in two days and so took it slow and stopped frequently. It was a really hot day, so our first stop was for Popsicles.

When we came to Vancouver when I was a kid, my favourite parts of the drive were the tunnels in the Fraser Canyon and Hell's Gate. I forgot though, that summer also means construction and there was a fair bit of it all the way up. The highway is being upgraded to four lanes all the way to Prince George. So, after waiting at the front of the construction waiting line, we finally made it to Hell's Gate.

It was cool. (Especially because kids 5 and under are FREE! and a season's pass costs the same as a single ticket.) We took the tram down to the lower touristy level. It's a long way down.

First thing we saw out of the tram was the wishing well. It wasn't deep, so they could see all the coins in it. Very exciting.

We then panned a bit for gold. Good thing we'd had some practice at Science World the week before - we knew how to do it. Didn't find anything though. (And I think we were supposed to pay...)

We went for a walk on the suspension bridge. I was surprised that Rowan wasn't scared. When we were at the CN Tower, after he realized that he was looking at ground below him through the glass, he wouldn't walk on it anymore. The bridge had a steel deck, with plenty of holes, but he was completely not bothered by it.

A couple of years ago (maybe 2008), a new tribute to Simon Fraser was made. You can see the kids' little faces peeking through the railing. When Simon Fraser came down the Fraser River in his canoe 200 years ago, he got to this spot and had to climb around the rapids. In his journal he wrote "surely, this must be the gates to hell" and hence the area got the name Hell's Gate.

Science World 2010

2010-07-19T08:33:00.002-07:00

For the first time in a long time, we went to Science World. It used to be one of our favourite hang outs, but since moving to Burnaby and being in school full-time, we haven't been in at least a year. It was really fun.

This visit, the special feature was Pirates. I thought the rocky area was for taking photos (previously they had a lego car here), so I took one, then we discovered that it's actually for using metal detectors to find treasure.

We shot some cannons (the ships got away unfortunately), set off alarms, and tied some knots. Harriet wanted to keep practising, so we took a photo of the instructions to keep.

After shooting balls in the main upstairs area, we went up to the Contraption Corner. I'm not sure that we've been there more than briefly, previously. This time, there were a number of building stations. Harriet and I built bridges out of washers while Rowan built Jenga towers. I was quite impressed with Harriet's skill. Then we went to a domino table and built towers and lines of dominoes to topple.

Harriet's Kitten

2010-07-03T08:51:00.002-07:00

Harriet has a little curled up kitten knick-knack that she adores. We discovered it one day in the closet and there was great excitement as it had been lost for a while. Harriet wanted to have photos taken with the kitten on her. And of course, Mr. Eko had to have a photo with the kitten too.

Some Spring Pictures

2010-04-23T23:53:00.003-07:00

Here are some pictures from the last month or so.

First, a picture from Rowan's birthday party at Granville Island.

Next, a recent close-up of Rowan.

Here we are at Cleveland Dam about 3 weeks ago. It was a very clear and warm day, but it had snowed in the mountains the night before. It was realy beautiful up there that Saturday.

Here we are today in Lighthouse Park where we had a nice picnic in the forest.

Easter Through Harriet's Eyes

2010-04-06T21:04:00.004-07:00

Harriet had a camera too, but I think her photos may be on Namma's memory card. These are the ones from the camera's hard drive. Harriet has learned how to delete files she doesn't like... so there were only a couple left.

Easter Through Rowan's Eyes

2010-04-06T20:57:00.005-07:00

Rowan ran around with an old camera taking photos. He should have had more photos, but for a while he had the camera set to movie...

Paralympic torch relay

2010-03-11T22:11:00.005-08:00

I noticed that Smithe St. outside our place was blocked to traffic around 4:30pm. The Paralympic opening ceremonies aren't until Friday, so I couldn't figure out why.

A few minutes later as I was preparing dinner, I heard on the radio that some roads downtown were closed for the Paralympic torch relay. Cool--right in front of our building!

Better yet--a minute of googling led me to the fact that this relay goes until 2pm on Friday--they are running a loop through downtown continuously overnight!

Harriet was disappointed we didn't go down to ground level when the torch first went past. I told her we'd go down after dinner. She was very excited. Rowan didn't really want to go, but he agreed to come if he could just look another way and not at the torch. (He promptly forgot this, of course, once we hit the street!)

It was raining very hard, so we had our umbrellas with us while we waited.

Finally, the torch came. Horns honked and we cheered!

After we saw the torch on the street, we watched it go by from upstairs a couple more times before bed. The circuit seems to take them about 30 minutes.

Having the torch go by your house is kind of fun--but having it go by 50 times is pretty unique, I think!

Here is a video of us cheering from the apartment.

Olympic photo album

2010-02-28T17:32:00.004-08:00

We had a blast the past two weeks in Vancouver hosting the Olympics. The horns are still honking outside in celebration of the gold medal hockey victory.

Here is a slideshow of the pictures taken during Gran's visit.

Some Olympics pictures

2010-02-17T11:06:00.004-08:00

It has been a lot of fun already, and there are still ten days to go! We are off to the Sweden-Germany hockey game tonight. But here is what we have been up to so far:

Here is the Olympic clock--day 0000!

Here are the little snowboarders. Shaun White watch out!

Here we are on the patio at the Pan Pacific hotel. I knew there was a good view from here, so we just walked on up to the patio. It was a little wet and windy, though.

Here is a photo of the infamous flame, located at 'Gitmo on Burrard Inlet'. I see in the news today that they have cut a hole in the fence so you can get a better picture. But it still stinks. $1 billion for security and they can't afford a handful of beefy mounties to protect the flame from ne'er-do-wells?

Here we are at the Mint Pavilion on Friday. There were no crowds on Friday. We were lucky to get in when we did! The staff was all fresh and were hovering around us. After a few days of big crowds, I bet visitors didn't get the attention that we did!

Here we are with some boys who carried the torch in Abbottsford a few days earlier. There were a number of people like them with torches posing for pictures around downtown. Very nice of them!

Finally, here is a picture of Harriet watching the fireworks that went off in Burrard Inlet after Gretzky rode the pickup truck down to light the flame. Harriet thought is was so funny when we saw dozens of people running at top speed down Burrard and down Thurlow to try to get to the pickup truck before it went past. The flame is right at the foot of Thurlow St--and you can see it all the way down the hill from Robson.

Visit to the Mint Pavilion

2010-02-13T00:45:00.004-08:00

We did make it to the Olympic clock and take a picture with a 0000 day count--but I'll post that later.

While we were there, we were interviewed by CBC radio and Harriet was asked about the opening ceremonies (she attended the dress rehearsal with her mother on Wednesday). Gran heard the brief interview in her car on the way home from the gym. Quite a shock, I'm sure! We heard it at 5pm on the local newscast in Vancouver. Harriet was thrilled to hear it. I can't find it online, though.

After the clock, we went to the Mint pavilion. They had a kids room and fun displays so it was a great time. There are dozens of pavilions around town so there will be lots to do over the next few weeks.

Here is a picture we took at a booth at the Mint. A video can be found here--at least for awhile.

We had a lot of fun watching the opening ceremonies. We could see the fireworks on the waterfront overtop of the buildings. It will be a fun couple of weeks!

Olympic Clock pictures

2010-02-11T23:03:00.004-08:00

Over the past three years, I have taken a number of pictures of the kids in front of the Olympic Clock by the Art Gallery on Georgia St. Tomorrow morning we plan to go take a picture on 'day 0'.

Here are the older ones. Most of these were taken with my cellphone camera, so quality isn't great. The number on top is the number of days until the opening of the Olympics.

Let's Eat Carrots

2010-02-09T20:51:00.002-08:00

At supper, Harriet nibbled on only one carrot and claimed she was all done. As an incentive to get her to eat one more, I picked up a carrot and said in a squeaky voice, "You have to eat me I'm the baby." (I usually get the best results with encouraging her to eat the smallest pieces.) It worked so well that I moved on to the next one, "You have to eat me I'm the sister carrot." Gone... Hm. Good thing going here, how about brother carrot. Ok. Next. Mommy carrot. Still going. Ok. Daddy carrot. And the last one! Namma carrot. Yay! Harriet ate all the carrots on her plate. Must be a first. :) Now, I wonder if this is a one time trick or if it can be used for future carrots.

Santa Claus Parade

2009-12-12T12:51:00.004-08:00

We went in the Santa Claus parade last Sunday on a float organized by our church.

Note that the parade is on TV RIGHT NOW if you get Global BC / BCTV on your satellite or whatever. I expect we'll go by the camera at about 2pm-2:15pm PST.

The float was decorated to look like a church--but the 'walls' were a little high so our little guys couldn't really see over top. The gospel choir was up front and the kids dressed as angels and shephards were behind.

The weather was around freezing, but very clear. We were well bundled so that was ok. If it had been raining, it would have been unpleasant, so we were lucky with the weather.

We had to wait about an hour on the float before we finally departed, but the route only took about an hour to do. Harriet sang and waved the whole way. Rowan fell asleep in my arms just as we departed. So, I was sitting on the floor behind the wall completely invisible to the street--although I could look out the 'stained glass window' on the float. This accounts for the angle of the pictures and the movies I took!

Here are the two videos of Harriet singing:

From 2009-12-06

Halloween and Christmas

2009-12-05T21:38:00.002-08:00

Here is a catchup post showing some highlights from the past 6 weeks. There are some Hallowe'en pictures, some UBC Christmas party pictures, and some tree-trimming pictures. (We put up our tree early this year--why not!)

Harriet was just getting over being sick on Hallowe'en, so she came along in the stroller bundled up warm.

Pumpkin Patch Trip

2009-12-05T15:20:00.006-08:00

In October, we made a trip to the Pumpkin Patch in Richmond along with the preschool class.

We enjoyed getting lost in the corn maze.

It was very fun. We were quite lucky with the weather--sunny in late October! Here are the pictures I took with my cell phone.

Snack Class

2009-12-05T15:12:00.004-08:00

This fall, Rowan has been enrolled in a class called Incredible Edibles in Burnaby while Harriet is at Kindergarten on Fridays. We call it 'snack class'. Each week, they had some play time, made some kind of food, and read a story about that food.

In the picture below, he is eating the vegetable soup they made four weeks ago.

They made everything from chocolate chip pancakes, to ginger snaps, to muffins, to trail mix. Harriet is always curious when we pick her up about what snack Rowan made for us--usually there is enough to share.

With all the half-day schedules (kindergarten and preschool) flipping from morning to afternoon in February, we can't enroll in a class again in January. But we'll find something for the boy to do while Harriet is in school--but I don't know if we can do better than 'snack class'. (Or 'nack' class as Rowan calls it!)

Jingle Bells

2009-11-28T14:00:00.002-08:00

Harriet and Rowan sing Jingle Bells at the Edmonds Santa Claus Parade.

Who's turn is it?

2009-11-06T20:43:00.003-08:00

I told Harriet that she couldn't play computer games tonight because there wasn't enough time before bed. She wasn't too upset, but asked if she could have the first turn tomorrow. I said 'sure'.

She was worried, though, that Rowan might go first. So, she wanted to write a note to solidify her claim.

She spelled her own name and Rowan's name. I dictated the letters for the rest and she wrote them.

Harriet First Day at Kindergarten

2009-10-30T13:03:00.002-07:00

Six weeks late in posting this, but here is a video of Harriet on her first day of Kindergarten!

New Playhouse Games

2009-09-28T18:20:00.003-07:00

Actual conversation today after the kids discovered a new playhouse in our playground. Our neighbour, Nicholas, was already playing in it.

Harriet inside the door of the playhouse, Nicholas further inside.

Harriet to Nicholas: Get out! I don't want you in here.

Mommy: Harriet, this house is for sharing. Nicholas is your neighbour, why don't you find a way to play with him.

Harriet: Ok. Let's play neighbour. Here's how it works. There are two houses. Your house is that one. Harriet points to the old playground structure. This one is mine. Harriet indicates the new playhouse.

Late Summer in Vancouver

2009-09-13T21:59:00.008-07:00

We have been up to a lot of fun recently. GREAT weather this weekend; 20+ and all clear. Today we went to the Southlands Country Fair. I had never been in Southlands before, but I knew there were a few stables down there. I was surprised how almost rural it felt--lots and lots of horses! The fair was great; lots to do.

We dressed up in our overalls since we were going to a horse farm. Rowan kept tucking his hands inside and I was able to catch this picture. Ha! (UPDATE: here is a picture that hangs in the Milligan cottage in PEI. See any similarities?)

I think they had the most fun in the hay zone, where they got to throw hay at each other for 15 minutes.

Yesterday, we went to the beach. We were at Spanish Banks again. Last time we were there, it was low tide--and the tide goes out a LONG way. This time was high tide, so it was a very different experience.

Finally, last weekend we checked out the new Canada Line skytrain. We took it from Waterfront Station all the way to the Airport. It took us just 24 minutes.

Here we are at the point of departure, Waterfront station.

At the airport, we took this picture below beside the Bill Reid artwork. Check the 20 dollar bill in your pocket and compare! Rowan and Harriet thought it was cool to see that the statue was on Daddy's money.

Summer Swimming Lessons

2009-08-21T22:49:00.002-07:00

During the summer, I enrolled the kids in swimming lessons. It was hard to fit in with their busy summer schedule, but we managed to squeeze in the last session. The kids were awesome. They swam everyday and improved immensely and had a great time too.

I was so proud of how they both can jump off the diving board, unassisted. Great job Harriet & Rowan!

Camping at Golden Ears Park

2009-08-16T23:51:00.003-07:00

We spent Saturday and Sunday at Golden Ears provincial park. It was about an hour away, and I expected them to fall asleep on the way there. No dice--too excited!

It was 18 degrees and cloudy as we left Maple Ridge and started into the park. By the time we hit our campground it was only 15 degrees--at 1:30pm. I had visions of a very chilly night (in spite of the rain of the past couple of weeks, the campfire ban was still in place). It actually didn't end up getting too cold; 13 degrees when we awoke.

The rain stayed away though.

While I put up the tent and set things up, Rowan and Harriet played in their 'sandbox', which was a sandy part of the driveway by our campsite. They played nicely together while Daddy struggled with the new tent.

We did lots of good camping things, like s'mores (below), playing soccer for a long time in the field with some other kids, and going for a walk at dusk with our flashlights.

They slept very well in the tent--they got the air mattress and Daddy was on the hard ground! We had fun this afternoon at the beach before a nice nap on the drive home.

They were keen to stay more days--after this successful trip I think we will try a longer camping trip next summer!

It is HOT

2009-07-30T20:16:00.004-07:00

We had the hottest day in the recorded history of Vancouver yesterday. Today was even hotter! 34 degrees at the airport; much hotter inland. WOW. We even had a thunder storm on Saturday. Weird weather.

On Tuesday Harriet and Rowan went with Mama to a water park in New West. When I asked them what they wanted to do on Wednesday, they immediately answered--Water Park!! Good answer.

While we were having snack, we noticed a bunch of people in athletic uniforms. They had t-shirts that made it clear they were here for the Fire and Police Games, but I couldn't tell what country they were from. I asked--and it was South Africa! Harriet asked if that was close to North Africa. The nice man informed us that it was a 20 hour plane ride and Harriet was impressed.

We also saw athletes from Poland and Spain.

We had fun splashing around until about noon. That was our first time down to Coal Harbour water park this year--and I hope we have a chance to get back there in August before the summer is over!

Finger Knitting

2009-07-23T22:51:00.000-07:00

One day at Morgan's house, Michelle showed me some of the knitting that Morgan had been doing. We had tried French spool knitting, but it was too difficult to get the yarn over the pegs. Michelle discovered finger knitting. It's a similar concept to spool knitting, but it's done over the fingers. It makes a long hand-wide strip. The cool bit is that because fingers are bendable, it's easier to do the yarn over a finger rather than the peg.

Interestingly enough, Morgan was able to make long scarves this way, but Harriet only had the attention span to make small squares. Odd, as usually Harriet will sit and do a single activity for hours. These squares are Barbie pillows and are maybe 2"x2".

Update: Harriet did manage to make a scarf about 2ft long. It took a lot of encouragement though!

Vacation in Ontario

2009-07-23T14:13:00.012-07:00

We had a great vacation in Ontario. We played in the Pirate Ship Park, played in Gran's backyard, went to the beach (and it wasn't windy or cold this year!),

visited the Belleville waterfront festival, had a family BBQ, went to Gran's church,

learned at the Agricultural museum, took a real train, and went up the CN Tower.

It was a lot of fun. More pictures can be seen here. (Slideshow below.)

Face Painting in the Park

2009-07-21T22:48:00.000-07:00

In the summer in Burnaby, many of the local parks have playground leaders and daily programs for kids. It's great. Our favourite place to go is the Ron McLean Park. Not only does the park have a shallow pool and crafts, but the leader almost always does face painting. These faces were painted many, many times throughout the summer. (And always the same image!)

Frequent Flyers

2009-07-18T22:47:00.001-07:00

After all that travelling, Harriet and Rowan have turned out to be quite the travellers. I suppose it helps that they can watch cartoons on demand on the plane...

Birthday Party Crashers

2009-07-18T22:46:00.001-07:00

On our last day in Toronto, the Leake-Lachmans were invited to a birthday party for Leslie's little boy and we were invited to go along. It was in a beautiful park (of which I can't remember the name). In the summer, it has a farmers market - which I missed entirely. There was a huge sandpit with water, a couple of climbing structures and swings. The kids loved it.

The party was great too. Lots of food, goodies and of course, cake. Carrot cake - it's my favourite and man was it ever good.

There was a little hill where the kids ran around and rolled down.

After all the fun, the kids were sad to say their good byes. (Harriet's tears are about not being able to take a balloon on the airplane.) Rich kindly drove us to the airport and we were on our way.

Thank you for the visit! We had such a great time.

Biking in Toronto

2009-07-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Baby Tayo

2009-07-17T22:44:00.002-07:00

It was neat to meet Baby Tayo. I don't get to see Patti very regularly, but I'm lucky to have met each new baby while they were still little. I met Jet when she was 3 months old and ate carnations at our place in Boston. Zaylie came out with Patti for Rowan's birth when she was 9 months old and we got to meet Tayo when she was only a month old. Very exciting!

Harriet and Rowan were a little familiar with babies, as we are good friends with Marijke and her girls. Her newest daughter is Sabine, who we've known since birth. H&R didn't pass up the chance to visit with a new baby though. We were all fascinated with how small her fingers and toes were.

Visiting with Patti, Rich & Family

2009-07-16T22:43:00.000-07:00

I have some good friends who live in Toronto, so it's always nice to have the time to spend a few days with them. Patti and Rich now have three girls: Jet, Zaylie and Tayo (sorry - we missed you in the pictures Tayo!)

The older two are similar in age to Harriet and Rowan. I think Jet is a year older than Harriet and Zaylie is between Harriet and Rowan. It's started to make some good play times. (Patti and I also enjoyed comparing and contrasting First Child vs. Second Child and how their personalities develop differently.)

Jet and Zaylie had a few summer programs they were doing, so Harriet, Rowan and I got to hang out at some parks during the day. Patti showed us the nearby school playground and we found this polar bear rock. Perfect for taking a picture! It's not too clear, the kids are each holding a small apple from a tree in the playground. We tried them later and they was quite bitter. We were all disappointed.

Jet and Zaylie also have a number of bikes to ride on. It was great for the kids. It allowed them to try a tricycle, run bike and a two wheeler with training wheels. We went many times up and down the street trying out the various vehicles.

It took a little while for Harriet and Jet to warm up, but once they did, they had a great time together.

The CN Tower

2009-07-15T22:41:00.000-07:00

I met the kids and Daddy at the CN Tower. It's pretty impressive. We got there nice and early so we didn't have to worry about waiting in line. We pretty much walked right up to the elevator and went up to the top. We did get a little sidetracked on the way in with a few of the displays. They liked being able to touch the exhibits.

At the top, Harriet and Rowan very excited. They were happy to pose around the windows. They also loved the floor. It was pretty cute. At first both kids happily crawled or walked all over the glass floor. Then once Rowan realized it was a long way down, he no longer wanted to stand on it. He was ok if Daddy held him, but he wouldn't stand on the glass any more. Harriet had no issues. She liked to do starfish on the glass.

Captain Underpants

2009-07-02T23:24:00.001-07:00

Happy Canada Day!

2009-07-01T22:20:00.005-07:00

We had a great Canada Day in Vancouver. Just a bit over 20 degrees and not a cloud in the sky.

We started out at Canada Place with our friend Hannah (and her Daddy Markus) from Victoria. They had a much bigger event this year; much more spread out. The kidzone was way down in Coal Harbour park this year; a 10 minute walk from Canada Place. Much better to have the bouncy castles and everything outside, though. We played with bubbles, a little face painting, and 5 different bouncy castles.

A quick ice cream break, then off to the baseball park for a 1:05 start with the Vancouver Canadians. We got there only a few minutes before game time, but we had great seats behind the visiting batting circle. REALLY sunny, though, so the sunscreen was spread heavily all afternoon!

After a few innings and some hot dogs, we went over to the kids play area where they had (another!) bouncy castle and some mini-golf. Harriet was justifiably proud of her hole-in-one on a hole that had a bridge you had to solve.

Finally, after some dinner at home, we walked down with Hannah and her family to Georgia St. for the 1st annual Canada Day parade. It was pretty good, although I had to fight off people who kept trying to sit in front of us! The picture is Rowan's happiness at seeing Sumi Miga and Quatchi near the end of the parade. The building is the Shangri La Hotel, the tallest in the city.

Kids are now sleeping--they should sleep soundly! Thanks to momma for giving us the whole day.

Rowan's toe injury

2009-06-27T09:16:00.002-07:00

Last night we were watching some youtube Jackson 5 videos (for obvious reasons) . . .

Harriet and Rowan were on my lap at first, but then insisted on dancing to the music. Very cute--but I forgot to take pictures.

Then they saw the J-5 spin moves and had to try them out. Rowan did a spectacular spin jump move and landed on his toe. Much crying ensued. (He's ok, don't worry.)

Not as easy as MJ made it look!

The Bike Trailer

2009-06-19T23:36:00.001-07:00

Rather than buying a car, I thought I'd try out biking with a kid trailer instead. We took the trailer out for a test drive. The kids are a little cozy inside but enjoy travelling by bike. We look forward to biking adventures in the summer!

Look who gets to travel in the trunk. ;)

Ocean Cement in April

2009-06-12T23:31:00.004-07:00

In April, we went to the Open House at Ocean Cement on Granville Island. What fun! I would highly recommend it to any toddler. Here is the post from last year.

We honked horns, played in the sand pile, and looked at some of the displays.

The incessant horn honking was a little much at times, but we survived.

They had a very well-equipped colouring tent that occupied Harriet and Rowan for about 45 minutes. They each coloured four or five pictures.

The light was shining through Harriet's hair, allowing me to take one of my favourite pictures I have of her yet. My beautiful girl!

A very summery June

2009-06-12T22:49:00.005-07:00

Summer has definitely arrived in Vancouver. We have had almost no rain so far in June, with lots of hot and sunny days. We made it out two weeks ago to the beach for the first time this year.

The beach involves a lot of 'Daddy can you please go get us some more water.' This is fun for awhile, but I can admit that I do look forward to the time when they can carry their own water buckets!

We went to Third Beach in Stanley Park, which I am trying to convince them has the best sand for playing. Of course, my ulterior motive is that the water is much closer than at the other beaches we have tried, meaning shorter water hauls for Daddy!

Like their mother and father, Harriet and Rowan have very fair skin. We made it through last summer's beach season without any major sunburns and I am really hoping I can do the same this year. Two weeks ago at the beach, somehow, I got burns on my ankles, but the kids were fine.

We don't really do any swimming, but we do some splashing around and playing in the surf.

Rowan and Harriet kept a keen eye out for crows, and remembered very sharply the tale of the crow
from last summer. I am happy to report that no one got our snacks!

We were among the first on the beach at 10am, but we packed it in at 2pm. A little ice cream, and then home! They were both asleep before we got out of Stanley Park . . .

Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and warm, so we'll be back at the beach.

Harrison Hotsprings

2009-06-07T22:23:00.000-07:00

For a mini holiday, Namma invited us out to Harrison Hot Springs to use her gift card from her boss. Harriet and I were invited when she was one and we had a great time. It was time to introduce "The Boy" to Harrison.

This time, we thought we'd try a cabin rather than a hotel room. There were some good things about it and some not so good things - like it smelled like wet dog. It was a cute little place and we did enjoy it. We had a lovely time playing in the pools. I was amazed at how well the kids swim and play in the water now. Swimming lessons are paying off! They were very proud to show off their swimming skills.

It was quite windy, most of the time. Namma had a couple of kites she's been packing around for years in her car just waiting for a good windy day. They were cheap ones, so it took a fair bit of skill to get one up. Luckily, Harriet has a good deal of perseverance and was able to keep at it until her kite was up. It was tricky, but she did it.

Auntie Evelyn and Uncle Bob came out for the day. We had beautiful sunny weather, so we took advantage and played on the beach. It was lovely. We built a huge castle with an even larger moat. The kids helped to trek in the water.

Of course, what day at the beach wouldn't be complete without ice cream. Even with the chilly wind, the kids were insistent about having ice cream. And blue ice cream at that. It was a big hit and very messy. Thanks Uncle Bob!

Second Visit to the Dentist

2009-05-29T14:46:00.000-07:00

Now that the kids have teeth, it's time for routine dental checkups. I've been a little slow getting this done, but we found a nice dental office on the far side of Highgate. We went once before and Dr. Basi and his staff were friendly and there were toys in the waiting area. The kids were great. Last time, the kids went sequentially, this time, they went at the same time, while I wandered back and forth. They were so good. For the cleaning, the hygenists gave them sunglasses and set them up with TV. Harriet got to pick the channel and chose Treehouse, of course. She also got the headset. Rowan, didn't get any choice or the headset, but he was amused enough with the process and possibly the pictures on the screen.

After the cleaning, they got a flouride treatment. As I think 99% of the kids do, they chose bubble gum flavour. Funny because they don't even know about bubble gum, at least I don't think they do. Dr. Basi came by and gave them an examination. All good he said. Keep up the brushing.

The hygienists gave the kids a choice for a toy. Harriet picked a plastic flower ring, Rowan a car.

Day at the Beach

2009-05-23T21:25:00.003-07:00

With the wonderful weather this weekend, we took the opportunity to hit the beach with Namma. Last year we discovered a nice sandy beach east of Steveston. The kids loved it. Rowan napped for a bit in the car, while Harriet explored the area. She found a puddle around a log that was perfect for collecting water. She carried the water up to the top of the beach to make sand castles.

Once Rowan woke up, he decided the puddle was much better as a pool.

This caused a bit of problem as it wasn't quite big enough for two children. So, Harriet and I dug a hole beside Rowan's pool and let it fill up with water.

They had a wonderful time, until the tide started coming in. It came up slowly at first. The kids realized that the mud wasn't much of a barrier to getting new water, so they started hauling from the river to the log pools. As the water came up, the trip got shorter, until the pools were in the river and they still continued to fill them. The water seemed to rise quicker after that, so we told the kids it was getting time to go.

The kids were very sandy and I tried to get them to go in the water and rinse off. Rowan went in up to his knees and got mostly clean, but Harriet would not go in far enough or squat down. Then, she realized that the water was rising and she freaked. All of a sudden, it was time to go now. She was concerned about what would happen as the water got higher. We had 15ft or so to the water at this point, but Harriet talked like it was 2 inches away. Finally we got her cleaned up and dressed. Phew! She was happy to leave.

Dance Class

2009-05-22T21:57:00.002-07:00

Harriet and Rowan have wanted to take a dancing class for a while. Unfortunately, the first class I could get was starting in April. We had to switch around the preschool days to go and it was worth it. They had such a great time. Today, they had their final class where they get to show their parents what they've learned. I was pretty impressed. Way to go, Harriet & Rowan!

I took a number of movies and had a hard time picking my favourites. I was going to post my top three on photobucket... but one is two big and the others are taking a long time to load. I'll have to post them later.

UPDATE: I have posted four movies. I have two more, but they are too big.

Nap Time

2009-05-18T21:42:00.001-07:00

A pair of tired children who were hard to get to sleep, eventually passed out in my bed.

Sun Run 2009 Continued...

2009-04-19T22:34:00.000-07:00

Namma and I picked up the kids bright and early at Burrard Skytrain. This was a much better plan than last year when we walked all over downtown looking for a coffee before the run and trying to find a bus to take us to the Mini Sun Run start line. We took the train to Stadium and the start line was minutes away. We even arrived on time! (A first for us.)

It was a pretty chilly morning, so the kids wore their winter coats under their beautifully painted Sun Run t-shirts. Harriet was happy to walk most of the way, even jog a bit occasionally, but Rowan was insistent that he ride. Poor Namma! The kids liked racing in the strollers and yelled "Ready, set, go!" throughout the day. Their favourite leg of the race is under the bridge.

Namma finally forced Rowan out of the stroller when the finish line was in sight. He then jogged the rest of the way, except for a few minutes when he was distracted by greeting some mascots.

After the run, we went inside BC Place for some breakfast and activities. We had yummy oranges, juice, bagels and yogurt. (The kids only ate two of those... can you guess which?) We found the elephants again, so Harriet and Rowan ran over to give them big hugs. Then it was time to wait in lines for the bouncy castles. The lines were long, but the kids were patient.

There was a band playing. We stopped by to listen for a bit and the kids danced. You can see Harriet doing the star jumps she learned in her dancing lessons.

We stopped for a bit and visited with Daisy the Cow. Daddy dropped in and said "Hello." Rowan and Harriet were excited to see him. Harriet was impressed that we beat Daddy in the race - helps to have a head start and a shorter course. :)

Finally, when the bouncy castles were taken down, we were able to lead the kids away. We stopped off at Costco for a pee break, then had lunch there. Harriet insisted she needed an ice cream and not a hot dog, so I bought both kids enormous cones. Harriet remembers everything, so I'm sure next year, we will have to include an ice cream stop after the run.

Sun Run 2009

2009-04-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Namma dropped off the shirts for the mini Sun Run on Saturday afternoon. When we got home, we had a good time painting them.

Harriet was painting very carefully, one colour at a time, within the lines.

Rowan was having fun mixing all the colours into a dull brown colour. To each his own!

Here is a video of them having fun.

Rowan's birthday and Easter

2009-04-18T22:35:00.001-07:00

Here are some links to recent albums of things we've been up to.

Rowan's Birthday:

Making Easter Eggs:

Lynn Canyon

2009-04-18T22:05:00.005-07:00

We went to Lynn Canyon today and walked across the suspension bridge. The bridge is known to us as the 'Shakey Bridge', of course. We have been there a few times, but Rowan didn't remember it. Harriet did.

We normally stop at the pool a hundred metres or so north of the bridge.

Today, however, everyone wanted to walk up the stairs (one million of them, Harriet guessed) and check out some of the upper trails.

Daddy had to put his foot down and turn our expedition around before we got too far. Sure enough, suddenly everyone was tired and couldn't walk anymore. Luckily, this happened just as the hike ended within sight of the Shakey Bridge so we all survived.

Here is a movie of us before setting out. The clapping is pretty funny.

How High Can You Count?

2009-04-18T07:54:00.002-07:00

Mom, "Hey, Rowan, how high can you count, now?"

Rowan, "one, dwo, dree, door, dive, dix, deven, eight, nine, den, leven, telve, eighteen, sixteen, leventeen, three-teen!"

Three-teen

2009-04-13T09:34:00.002-07:00

One of Rowan's favourite computer games is Dora in the Lost City. He likes the colour-by-number mini-game. He plays it over and over and over. Harriet is called in to help, as he likes to know the name of each number. Rowan calls, "What's 8 and 1?" Harriet responds with "18!" (Rowan usually calls the numbers out in reverse order.)

This morning, Rowan all of a sudden discovered the 'teen' pattern. He liked the pattern so much that he figures 13 is no longer 'thirteen' it's now 'three-teen'. When we try to use 'thirteen', Rowan corrects us. Harriet throws up a bit of a protest sometimes, but Rowan insists, "It's a new number."

Rowan's 3rd Birthday Party

2009-03-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

We had Rowan's party in the common room downstairs. It worked out well and the kids had a great time with lots of space to run around and chase balloons. This year we had: Jayden, Evan, Julia, Morgan, Alex, Georgia, Camilia, Dahlia, Sabine, and Jack.

There was playdoh, cars and crafts for the kids. They played Pin the Wheel on the Truck. Then, the kids made mini pizzas for lunch.

Rowan had a Cement Mixer truck. I had fun making it. Harriet loved the icing and wants to have the same icing on the butterfly cake for her birthday.

Rowan did a great job blowing out the candles. He had them all blown out the first try, but the 3 candle came back to life and he had to blow it out again. Alex was happy to help.

After all the eating and playing, Rowan was excited to open presents. He quickly went through the whole stack and was careful to read each card and thank everyone.

Thanks to everyone who came and extra special thanks for all the help.

Happy 3rd Birthday Rowan!

Happy Birthday Rowan!

2009-03-14T22:23:00.004-07:00

Rowan has been very excited about his upcoming birthday. Today is the day (officially). He is now THREE. The party is on Sunday at Momma's house and both of them are looking forward to it a lot.

Harriet found it a little confusing that his birthday is today but the party is tomorrow. On the ride into Vancouver on Friday night, she insisted very strongly that the party was on Saturday because boy's birthday is on the 14th. She was very concerned that we would miss the party. When we got home, I showed her the invitation. March 15th. She then informed me that the invitation must be wrong, and that we had better be ready to go first thing on Saturday morning. So, as a last resort we called Momma to get it straight from the host's mouth.

Harriet was a little disappointed to hear that she was mistaken, but she got over it soon enough.

Here is a video of Rowan this morning. He's a happy three year old!

At the end, you can hear Harriet interjecting that he's not really three until he has the party . . .

Rowan's language is coming along well, but he still mixes up some of his sounds--he loves D's and uses them all over the place. (Remember how he called himself 'Rowdan' for a long time?)

We had a bit of an incident this evening when cutting out shapes--he was saying something like 'oduh' for 'oval'. I got it after about a minute, but he was getting pretty anxious until I did get it.

Anyway, in the clip above you'll notice he says 'door' for 'four'.

Last week I tried working with him a bit on the 'f' sound, using some of the techniques I remember from my speech therapist I had in grade school. (I had a very incomprehensible lisp until Grade 2 or so.)

He said 'door'.
I said 'fuh fuh fuh fuh four.'
He said 'fuh fuh fuh fuh door'

So, he hears the f sound, can distinguish it, can pronounce it, but he's just too used to saying 'door' to change at this point. So interesting!

His language has really become clearer over the past two months. (In December we used to have one of the above 'oval' type of meltdowns at least once an hour; now it only happens once in a while.) So, I'm sure he'll continue improving.

Birthday haircuts

2009-03-14T22:08:00.002-07:00

On Wednesday I took the kids over to Lonsdale Quay in North Vancouver. It's one of our favourite trips--we get to take the Skytrain and the Seabus.

We normally play in the ballroom and do a little shopping.

The main purpose of our trip this time was to get hair cut before the big birthday party on Sunday. This was their first time getting their hair cut outside of the home (according to Harriet anyway).

I found some pictures of the kids haircut place at Lonsdale Quay on flickr the night before so the kids were very excited about the special chairs. Harriet was certain she wanted the Barbie car!

Harriet went first and was very relaxed. She was quiet, but didn't mind it at all. It tickled her a few times, but she was very cooperative and it went well.

When she was done, it was Rowan's turn! Harriet went over to the ball room (it is right beside the salon), and Rowan picked the Spiderman chair. He was pretty relaxed--enjoying the Diego video on the screen and steering his Spiderman car.

He was a bit more nervous about the scissors and flinched a few times, but was overall well behaved.

We had time after we were done for a few more minutes in the ball room, then had to leave to make sure they could get to preschool on time. They are both happy with their haircuts and looking great for the party!

Rowan's School Party

2009-03-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

I dropped of Harriet and Rowan at school on Friday with a box of cupcakes for Rowan's birthday. Apparently, they do quite the performance, even on short notice. Harriet and Rowan had been sick for over a week and I completely forgot to let the teachers know that Rowan's birthday was coming up.

Unfortunately, I was unable to see the party, but the teachers kindly took many photos, better photos than I usually get too!

Sick Kids

2009-03-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

Above: Lazy Rowan and Harriet watching VHS movies in m bed.

We were pretty healthy most of the winter, but when we thought winter was almost done we were hit with a bad cold/flu. Rowan got sick first. He had a bit of a stomach flu I think. Then Harriet came down with a terrible cough. Then Rowan got the cough...

They missed over a week of school. I took them finally on Wednesday. Rowan was asleep when I dropped him off, so he slept in the daycare room. Luckily I stayed nearby. Rowan woke up disorientated and sad that I wasn't there. I quickly returned and spent the rest of the day at school. It was actually very interesting to see what they do at the school.

The owner who does the Montessori component of the program, was keen to show me all that Harriet had learnt while at the school. It's impressive. She can name and identify numbers up to the thousands. Mrs. Olga also says that Harriet is a quick learner and retains what she learns for a long time. Way to go Harriet!

Below: Snuggly Harriet and Rowan watching Treehouse.

Recent activities

2009-03-08T15:58:00.006-07:00

We've been busy with lots of fun adventures. A few weeks ago, we had a special Lent 'picnic' at church. We played some games, ate pancakes, and made Mardi Gras masks.

We were very excited to be eating pancakes at church, but in the end they weren't the same as Daddy's pancakes and there was a bit of disappointment. Nothing more syrup didn't fix, though!

It was all very fun.

Another thing we've been doing more is swimming--no pictures though since I have my hands full enough when at the pool with these two. They both wear a life jacket-flotation thing and have a 'water noodle'. Harriet can swim by herself with either one of these two things. Our last time down, somehow, she got it in her mind that she had been swimming last time with no support. I was quite skeptical, but it took a couple of tries before she realized that maybe she did still need the life jacket.

They are both getting comfortable getting their faces wet and otherwise accustomed to being in a pool.

In late February we had a nice sunny 10 degree day so we got out the baseball equipment. We headed to a nice park in West Vancouver that we like (Ambleside), but I forgot that it would be colder by the shore.

Harriet is getting proficient at catching and can hit sometimes too. Rowan has fun. He mostly liked playing fetch like a puppy--I would hit the ball and he would run after it giggling.

We finished off with a snack by the beach. Harriet remembered the story of the crow who stole our snack here last summer and she was very wary that it would happen again. The crows kept their distance and we were fine, this time.

Today, we took a trip to Maple Ridge to see the almost-completed Golden Ears Bridge. (It's amazing how quickly one can drive around this town on a Sunday morning with no traffic . . .) I told Rowan that his ears would turn to gold when we got there and he was a bit concerned.

It was quiet and calm under the bridge and it was fun to see all the construction equipment. The security guard came and talked to us and told us it should be open by July 1st. He was very skeptical that trucks would be able to get up its steep approach when it was icy. Time will tell if the engineers got that one right!

After enjoying the bridge construction, we took the soon to be shut down Albion Ferry to get back over the river to the highway. It was only a 2 sailing wait (not like the 5 or 6 sailing waits you always here on News 1130 during rush hour), so we were waiting only about 20 minutes.

The trip is only about 8 minutes across, which disappointed Harriet even though I told her it was not a big ferry. She did like that we landed in Fort Langley, which she surmised (correctly) must be near 'Regular Langley' where Namma lives. Harriet is still struggling with r's and l's (just like her Daddy did) so 'Regular Langley' is quite fun to hear her say.

We made it home in time for lunch and then a good game of Trouble.

Freezing Bunnies

2009-02-25T21:29:00.000-08:00

We had another snow fall. There was about an inch or two of snow on the ground when I picked the kids up from school. They were so excited that we had to play in the snow before going home. First they ran around and made tracks (and looked at tracks - kids & birds), then they made snowballs. Harriet worked on hitting a telephone pole, while Rowan was happy trying to hit the street (not hard from the sidewalk...).

Harriet figured out that she could roll a snowball bigger and make a snowman all by herself. She made a good sized base, but the next ball broke when she put it on top. She was able to find a big enough piece and put that on top, then added a third small ball... which broke. Mommy came to the rescue and rebuilt all the balls and stacked them. Crisis averted!

The kids taught me a new phrase. I'm not sure if they made it up or where it came from. Freezing bunny: melted snow running around inside your jacket.

Maplewood Farm

2009-02-21T21:34:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we made a trip to Maplewood Farm in North Vancouver.

They had lots of great animals to see. They had these huge Belgian horses that kept neighing at the kids. They had an enclosure for the baby goats so the kids could play with the kids!

Without doubt, though, the favourite was the bunny hutch. Rowan and Harriet really enjoyed petting the rabbits and chasing them around.

When we were looking at the sheep, one of the farmers came up and talked to us. Both the kids were wearing their overalls and Rowan in particular was *thrilled* that the farmer was wearing overalls too.

We also liked the parrot, even though we could only make him say 'hello' and 'goodbye'.

Below is a movie from the rabbit hutch. They really like the bunnies!

Making Pizza

2009-02-15T08:48:00.004-08:00

When I was a kid, we used to make mini pizzas on English muffins once in a while--I remember it used to be a favourite for birthday parties.

So, I decided to try it out with the kids yesterday. Rowan was more interested in playing with cars, so I just had one helper.

Harriet painted the sauce on each one, did all the cheese (with a little help from Daddy to even them out) and put three pieces of pepperoni on each one.

She has a lot of fun doing it. I hardly did anything!

After we had them dressed, I googled around to see how to bake them. Some places said 400 F; others said to broil. One good tip was to pre-crisp the muffins so that they wouldn't get soggy. But, we'll have to try that next time since ours were already dressed.

They didn't take long to cook, and we finished them off with a couple of minutes under the broiler.

Harriet was very impressed that the cheese now looked 'right' because it had melted.

We sat down to eat them and Harriet went right at it. I couldn't believe her appetite. She normally has a bird-like appetite, but this night she ate 2.5 of the mini pizzas--which was a lot!

Rowan started by picking off the cheese. He then ate the meat, leaving behind the well-picked muffin. Actually, not leaving it behind. He very generously offered them to Daddy. Gee, thanks, boy!

I think we'll be trying this one again!

Below is a video. Harriet is pretty excited. When she starts (at 10 seconds) doing her Axl Rose back and forth shuffle, you know she's happy.

Rowan Draws an R

2009-02-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

I don't think this was planned, but Rowan recognized it right away as being an R.

Harriet's Typing Skills

2009-02-12T09:22:00.002-08:00

Harriet enjoys sending Namma emails. Today she thought Namma would like to read an excerpt from one of our books, "There's a Wocket in my Pocket". Here's what Harriet typed:

Anb a
NOOKGASE
in mu
BOOKCASE
Anb a
FNDOW
in mu
WINDOW
Dib yOu
eVer haVe feeIinG
WASKET
inyOur
BASKET
Or a NUREAU
inyourbureau

Two Hundred!

2009-01-28T09:14:00.002-08:00

For about a year now, Harriet has been able to count consistently up to twelve. Then there were usually a series of eleventeens and sixteens in with anything afterward. A few weeks ago, she started studying numbers at school. I was hoping she'd figure out the pattern of the numbers after twenty, but I got impatient and helped her to recognize the pattern. Then she counted like this:

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12, what comes after 12?, 14 (both 13 & 14 sound the same when Harriet says them so it's a little unclear whether she's repeating the 13 or continuing with the 14), 15,16,17,18,19, what comes after 19?, 20...29, what comes after 20?, 30..39 (or possibly 40..49 since she pronounces 30 and 40 the same, she only counts one set, so she's missing either the 30's or the 40's)

I started using the digits by saying "three zero" instead of saying "thirty". With that new bit of knowledge, she was able to count up to 99, but usually got distracted before getting that far. She still had to ask for 13 and skipped the 30's.

Last week, we counted up to 100 (still missing the 13 & 30's). She was very impressed. It's now one of her favourite activities. At some point, she finally remembered 13, but still skips the 30's. One night when she said she couldn't sleep, I suggested we count to 200. The first night we made it to179 before she moved on to something else. The next night we made it all the way. Yay!

Yesterday I heard her counting, but she was out of sequence. She counted for a while in the hundreds, then the two hundreds, then under a hundred.

My Dishes Girl

2009-01-17T14:56:00.002-08:00

Doing dishes is one of the household chores I hate the most, particularly because it needs to be done every day. Luckily, Harriet thinks it's a fun task. She does a pretty good job too! Yay, Harriet!

Rowan's First Day of School

2009-01-05T19:33:00.003-08:00

Rowan's almost three and it's time to start school. Graham Montessori takes them as young as 2.5 months as long as they are potty trained. We've been waiting a while and now he's finally in. He has always enjoyed the programs that Harriet has done, particularly Two's Time at the West End. These are photos from his first day of school.

The school is about a 25 minute walk away, so we take the bus. The kids enjoy the ride and love to pull the cord to ring the bell for the stop. They have a favourite bus driver who resets the bell so they can each have a turn.

We walk for a block down Graham Street which has been rather treacherous. It has gotten much better now that the snow has been melted off the sidewalks.

At the school, Miss Lisa and Harriet helped Rowan to get settled in the class.

It was cute watching Harriet try to get Rowan to cross his legs. It was made more difficult as I forgot some inside shoes for him so his big winter boots were a bit cumbersome.

I stayed a few minutes to watch Rowan. He was pretty tired and did a few head bobs. After waiting patiently for a few minutes, he got bored and went over the the puzzle station. He has admired them before. Harriet tried to call him back to the carpet, but he was more interested in the puzzles than waiting for the teacher. Eventually the teacher noticed that he was puzzling and she asked Harriet to get Rowan back to the mat. Instead, once Harriet got to Rowan, she too became interested in puzzling... I left without seeing how the teacher got them back on task.

When I came back to pick them up, they were sitting nicely on the carpet singing along. The teachers said Rowan did well. He participated and was good. Harriet was a helpful big sister.

On the way home, Rowan fell asleep in my arms on the bus. I carried him home. He was still sleeping when I put him on the couch. I stripped him of his winter gear and put him to bed. He slept the entire night! He was one tired boy.

More Snow!

2008-12-22T13:52:00.000-08:00

This year we had an amazing amount of snow. Most of it arrived without warning and never let up. Lucky for us, we had no pressing activities that couldn't give way to the snow. The one event we did miss was that Papa was going to come down for a Christmas visit, but ended up canceling his ticket. We missed you Papa! See you in the spring.

The kids playing with Naomi, one of Suzie's babysitting kids.

Face wash!

Trying to slide.

Hello Annie!

2008-12-22T13:45:00.000-08:00

We haven't see Annie in a long time. It was great to have her over once again. The kids adore her.

Thanks for babysitting!

Dinner with Santa

2008-12-20T13:37:00.000-08:00

Namma pulled a few strings and invited Santa and Mrs. Claus over for dinner. The kids were impressed and enjoyed visiting with Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Thanks for the visit!

Graham Montessori Christmas Concert

2008-12-18T13:11:00.002-08:00

Mrs Olga, the owner of Harriet's preschool, has two productions that are performed each year. She puts on quite a show. Harriet enjoyed singing all the songs at home and taught them to Rowan who was eager to learn. One night, she was laying in bed listening to Raffi's Christmas CD and when Up on the House Top come on, even though she was almost asleep, her hands came out and she started doing all the actions.

We took Harriet early to the school to prepare. Rowan fell asleep on the way and slept until the music started. When he woke up, he joined in singing right away.

I took a few movies on my camera. If you'd like to see Harriet's performance, check out the movies on Photobucket.

After the concert, we had snacks and we were invited to check out the classroom and meet the teachers. Harriet wanted some photos of her teachers, so here are Miss Lisa, Miss Indira (right) and one I don't know.

Edmonds Christmas Party

2008-12-14T10:41:00.001-08:00

Our building has an annual Christmas potluck party. We were asked to bring an ornament for the tree. The kids brought some beaded candy cane ornaments that they made.

Santa came for a visit and gave all the children a special gift. The hardest part was waiting for all the kids to get their gifts before the opening could begin.

The kids loved the toys and enjoyed the visit. Thank you Santa!

Snow!

2008-12-12T10:35:00.001-08:00

The first day of snow, we went out with our trucks to make tracks and haul snow. It was fun for about 30mins. By then, Rowan had had snow in his mittens many times and was no longer interested in being outside. He does not like the feeling of cold snow trapped up against his skin. We left just in time, as it started to rain not long after we went in.

Christmas is almost here

2008-12-11T23:22:00.004-08:00

We have been doing a lot of Christmas activities around here. We put up our tree a bit early--at the end of November. We also tried making some cookies. They turned out quite well, although I think I might invest in some aprons for next time!

The hardest part was getting them to be approximately uniform thickness so they would finish cooking at the same time. The dough was also a bit sticky so rolling it out was a bit difficult--but I remembered the trick of using flour on the rolling pin. I likely haven't rolled out dough in 30 years, but I still remembered how! The kids are more accustomed to playdoh than the real thing.

Last Saturday, we went to Coal Harbour Community Centre for a special Christmas Party. They had the gym filled with the regular play things, but also a big bouncy castle, a number of special games, and a few craft tables as well.

They both made jingle bell bracelets, got their cheeks painted, and enjoyed some snacks.

Of course, the highlight was Santa's appearance. All of the kids in the room were pretty excited!

A couple of weeks ago there was a special 'picnic' after church in one of the back rooms. We got to eat hotdogs and some cookies and play some extra games. Then there was a good craft to do--an advent wreath/candle holder thing. We had fun designing ours and Rowan really liked shaking the sparkles on it.

The liturgically correct among you may object to us having all five candles lit, but maybe we were just giving it a trial run! Next week we have another special craft day at church so the kids are looking forward to that, too.

Of course, the best thing about Christmas will be our special visitor. No not him, Gran! She'll be arriving on the 22nd and staying with us for a week. The kids are very excited and we have lots of fun things planned.

Finally, here's a short movie of the kids coming down the slide at the Coal Harbour Christmas party.

Catching up with Daddy

2008-11-26T20:48:00.014-08:00

We have had a busy month. Here are some photos showing what we have been up to.

We made some jack'o'lanterns for Hallowe'en. Harriet wanted a butterfly, but Rowan wanted a scary pumpkin.

We made a trip to Lonsdale Quay a few weeks ago. This is a good rainy day activity. We get to ride the skytrain, and then the seabus.

There is a ballroom there (like this, not like this). We also picked up our dinner at the market.

Next up was the aquarium. The baby beluga is bigger now, but they still weren't doing the regular big beluga show. That was ok--we had lots of fun in the kids play area fixing up all the injured seals. The 'Nemo fish' (aka the clown fish) hasn't been there the last couple of visits. There was a fish in that tank, but it didn't look much like a Nemo fish to us anyway.

The baby beluga's name is Tiqa.

We have also started to go to church on Sundays. The church is very beautiful and the kids like the big pipe organ and the stained glass--as well as storytime and Sunday school. Their very favourite is a short song filled with 'Hallelujahs' that is done just before story time every week. Everyone does the sign language signing for Hallelujah, which Harriet likes. Rowan just puts his hands up high in the air as though in rapture. Very cute.

Here they are all dressed up and ready to go. Lucky for us, it's only a block away!

Next up, just this past week--a trip up Burnaby Mountain to SFU. Daddy is working at SFU this year, so I took them up the hill to see my office. I took them up once before, but it was so foggy we couldn't see anything. This time it was a very clear and sunny day.

We had a snack near the economics department, then walked down a path to a playground I had seen on a walk previously. Rowan saw a roadsign for a deer crossing and was babbling about seeing Bambi. He decided we were in 'Bambi forest'. When we were in the playground we decided we would call it 'the playground in Bambi's forest.' Except there was a STRONG difference of opinion whether we were 'in' Bambi's forest or 'near' Bambi's forest.

Either way, the view down from Burnaby Mountain was great. We could see downtown Vancouver, Stanley Park, the Lion's Gate bridge, West Vancouver, and North Vancouver.

Let's close this long post with a movie. Here is a clip from our journey to Lonsdale Quay. Harriet says something about Lonsdale Quay, her butterfly purse, and the fountain. Rowan also says 'Lonsdale Quay' and 'Bear.'

Edmonds Santa Claus Parade

2008-11-22T21:26:00.003-08:00

The Eastburn Community Centre is a busy centre. Throughout the six months we've been here, we've noticed Edmonds Street has been closed for various events. When we saw the signs for a road closure in November, I went online and discovered that there is an Edmonds Santa Claus Parade.

Harriet, Rowan, Daddy, and I went to the parade. We found a spot at the end of the route. Unfortunately, I didn't calculate in the time it would take for the first float to arrive, so we waited a long time for the parade to start. The parade itself was fairly long. It was just like a small town parade. Very neat. My favourite floats were the bus dressed up as Rudolf and the truck covered in stuffed animals (which were all given away at the end of the parade). The kids, of course, loved Santa in his sleigh. They also enjoyed the car handing out gifts. Rowan got a gift, but Harriet didn't.... luckily it was a game perfect for sharing.

After the parade, the community centre had activites, food, and visits by the parade celebrities. The kids made Santa hats and a beaded tree decoration. We got to see the police mascot, and we saw a reindeer from a distance.

Captain Underpants

2008-11-17T09:48:00.000-08:00

Christmas Sizes

2008-11-16T21:19:00.002-08:00

As requested, here are the kids' current clothing sizes:

Harriet: Clothes size 4, shoes size 9
Rowan: Clothes size 2, shoes size 7 wide

ps. read below to hear about our Disney trip

Rowan's Big Boy Bed

2008-11-02T09:31:00.000-08:00

When I was looking for a big girl bed for Harriet, I wanted to find something made of solid wood and that could be stacked with another bed to make bunkbeds. I thought that would give us the maximum flexibility. I found these great beds made by Canwood. They can stack, and there was also another attachment that could make a bed into a loft bed. Cool. I debated at the time, whether I should buy one bed or both beds or wait. We decided to wait.

So, when Rowan was too cramped in his toddler bed, I went on a search to find a Canwood bed to match Harriet's. Well, I knew that the store I bought hers from had closed, but I had found that the Kids' Furniture shop across from Ikea Richmond also sold Canwood. We happened to be driving by one day, and thought we'd stop by. Uh oh. It was empty and obviously no longer in business. Once we got home, I checked online to see if I could get a list of other retailers, and I discovered that Canwood had been bought out by Storkcraft recently. It's too early to know if they will continue to make the same beds or not. I immediately emailed to see if there was anywhere I could possibly buy a bed. Amazingly enough, I got a quick response and a list of about six retailers that may still have some left.

I called around and found a place on Kingsway that had a couple beds left. When we got there, they had a bed, but the bunkbed set was reserved for another customer. I negotiated and was able to buy a ladder off the display and a bag of attachment bolts, along with a single bed. Phew!

I set up the bed and surprised Rowan. He was very excited, particularly because there are cars on his sheets. He had to take the blanket off to fully admire all the cars.

Pumpkin Patch

2008-10-26T22:37:00.011-07:00

This year, Harriet's school didn't take her (us) to the Pumpkin Patch, so Namma decided she would do it. This was Rowan's first time going and he had a blast.

The first thing we did was have some mini donuts for a snack. Then the kids ran off and played in the hay tent. They chased each other and toss hay around.

I tried to get me and the kids in a photo by holding up the camera... this was the best I could do. At least we are all mostly in the photo!

After the play in the hay, we lined up and went for a wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. We had a friendly driver who sang songs with us and gave us the tour of the farm.

The fields were quite muddy. We found some great looking pumpkins and somehow managed to carry our four favourites back to the wagon and to the concession area.

It was lunch time by now, so the kids ate hot dogs and Rowan tried some pumpkin pie. I think the size of his mouth openning for the next bite is a good indication of how much he likes pie.

Halloween Jack o Lanterns

2008-10-26T21:24:00.003-07:00

We bought some pumpkins and I got some patterns on the internet. Harriet requested--you guessed it--a butterfly. Rowan liked the 'mean' face. No picture of that one--and it has already started to fall apart.

Note to self for next year--check carefully for rotten spots on the pumpkins before purchasing. These ones are not likely to make it to the 31st . . .

Some dessert visitors

2008-10-26T20:57:00.004-07:00

On Saturday night, Landon and Marie and Anna came over for dessert. Harriet and I made the cake, with a little last minute frosting help from Landon and Marie!

Landon brought his camera and took some great shots of everyone.

From age 6 months to 18 months or so, Rowan was a bit afraid of Landon for some reason. Maybe the deep voice. However, over the last 6 months, Rowan has become much more welcoming. Now Landon gets an unprodded big hug when he steps out of the elevator.

Harriet is normally a little more shy but when she saw Rowan giving away the hugs she ran right up to Marie and did the same.

When we got inside, Marie helped get out the colouring book and some crayons. Harriet and Rowan started colouring very co-operatively. I wish I could say this happens everytime, but it's not so.

We all had some cake and ice cream. Harriet wanted hers in separate bowls. Can't have that cake touching the ice cream you know. Maybe she's kosher and wants to separate her dairy products . . .
After dessert, we started to dig into the Halloween bin to get out the decorations. Marie got out the skeleton.
Harriet found a sword and decided to vigorously defend us from the skeleton.

Take that!!

Rowan got out a sword and took a few wacks as well. It didn't take long until it was time to put the sword away. I'm not quite sure how a kid is supposed to have fun playing with a sword if s/he can't wack on things. Isn't that kind of the point of having a sword in your hand? How exactly is a kid supposed to play with a sword. Well, I can say that I'm glad it is in a bin in storage for 51 weeks a year.
Next up was the firehats. They looked pretty cute but the hats were almost too small. We're getting bigger.

For the final trick in the Halloween bin, I put on an old mask I've had for 10 or 15 years. I think I got it somehow when I lived in Kingston in the early 90s.In any case, I am certain that Rowan was asking himself, "Daddy, why are you wearing a Jacques Parizeau mask?"
After the bin was empty and the decorations emptied, the kids went back to their things. Anna helped Harriet with her new princess puzzle. It's a pretty big one, but if you put pieces of the same colour near each other on the table, Harriet can get them fit together.

Anyway, it was great to have visitors again for dessert.

Time to Go

2008-10-19T09:35:00.002-07:00

We had a lovely time in Disney World, but alas our time had to end. It was back to Vancouver for us. Unfortunately our flight was at 8:30am, so we were at the airport bright and early. Rowan's sleep was interrupted and he spent the entire car ride crying that it wasn't time to go to the airport, that it was dark and the airport was closed. He was terribly upset.

Rowan eventually calmed down and we made it smoothly to the gate, with a quick stop at the Disney souvenir store for his souvenir. Rowan slept through the souvenir shopping Harriet and I had done the day before and there hadn't been another time to do it. He was adamant that he get a Ariel Polly set like Harriet, but I managed to find a Peter Pan figurine set that overshadowed it. PHEW. In fact, it was a great toy for the plane. He played Peter Pan for ages.

When the flight attendant came around, I asked if she had any cups with lids for the juice. The only thing she had was a coffee cup. Rowan looked like he was drinking coffee and we all had a big giggle about it.

Harriet played ponies and made crafts for most of her flight. They were great kids, in spite of the early morning. We had a few whines, but they were awesome travellers.

Thanks to Bill & Michelle for inviting us along and both the Dalls and Dycks for giving us such a great holiday. We loved it and look forward to travelling with you on another family trip.

Thanks also to my mom, Namma, who kindly drove us to and from Seattle. It was great to have the extra help at the airport, too. Thank you!

The Parade

2008-10-18T09:26:00.001-07:00

On the way to meet the rest of the crew, we accidentally stumbled on to the 3pm parade. We decided to make the best of it and stay. It was a pretty good parade. Sleeping Beauty is the latest movie out of the Disney Vault, so Aurora and her prince lead the way. Next were all the other princesses, princes and bad guys, then finally Mickey's gang finished it off. It was good. The kids were excited to see all the characters.

We also managed to run into the Light Parade. We didn't have a very good view, but I managed to find a garbage can for them to sit on. It was a little wet and rained on and off, but they still enjoyed the show. It was very pretty.

Princess Dinner

2008-10-16T17:00:00.005-07:00

Thursday was our special Princess Dinner day at Epcot. We did a few rides and the kids played a water park for a while, then got dressed up in their princess clothes. Here are my two wet haired princesses.

We stopped at a couple of pavilions on the way to the Norway pavilion for the princess dinner. The Mexican pavilion was neat. The kids liked trying on all the hats.

The princesses had to take a moment to do some final touch ups their make-up before going to dinner.

When we got to the princess dinner, the kids went and had a portrait with Belle. Harriet and Morgan went together, then Rowan. :) At the end of the dinner, we were given a few 8x10s.

The great part about the princess dinner was that the princesses came around to the table to have photos with the kids. Here are the princesses, Cinderella, Ariel, Sleeping Beauty, and Jasmine.

Jasmine melted every boy's heart and gave them a bright red kiss on the forehead. She came by once and found us doodling princesses, and offered to do one of herself for Rowan. What a lucky boy!

Waterparks

2008-10-16T09:34:00.001-07:00

It was pretty hot in Florida, even in October. It was high 20's or even 30C every day. Hot and muggy. Disney had this in mind and there were a number of water parks for the kids to play in. Harriet was concerned at first about getting her clothes wet. I told her that "Everything dries in Florida." Which was true. We had clothes that were soaking wet and later in the day they were completely dry.

Ariel's Grotto and Pooh's Thoughtful Spot were the ones we visited the most (of course, no photos of those). We also had a great time in Epcott at one we found on the way to the Princess Dinner. Harriet, Rowan and Alex are in the photo, but they are hard to see.

Harriet also enjoyed Donald's Boat. Rowan was sleeping, so she ran around and played by herself. Following the example of other kids, she learned how to aim and spray the water that shot up through the holes in the ground. She also begged to be helped into the portals.

My favourite part about Donald's Boat was that it had a leak. When the leak was plugged by a finger, another leak came out. Plug that one and another popped up. Judging from the small holes in the hull, it looked like you'd need about eight people to plug them, or more... maybe I didn't see all the holes.

The Rides

2008-10-15T21:32:00.007-07:00

The Magic Kingdom had lots of rides for preschoolers. The kids had a blast. I was prepared for long waits, but usually we waited less than the posted time (we tried to stay with rides that had less than a 20min wait). We didn't take many photos of the rides, since we were usually too busy hanging on or admiring the surroundings. Here are the few that we got.

Cinderella's Carousel was a good one. We rode the horses several times. Harriet had a favourite horse. Once when we rode, she raced off around the outside, abandoning Evan and family to search for the one she wanted. She was excited to get it. Previously, she'd gotten there just as someone else took it.

The Tea Cups were cute and fun. Rowan discovered that in the centre of the ride there was a mouse popping out of the huge tea pot. I had no idea what he was talking about, but we eventually figured it out. Apparently he was more observant than Harriet and I.

As we were taking a train above and around Tomorrow Land, the kids spied a race car track. After a pit stop and refueling, it was our next ride. The three of us squeezed into one car. The kids took turns steering while I controlled the speed. They were terrible drivers. Harriet started first, and we were tossed from one side of the track to the other. Rowan wasn't much better. They loved it though and we talked about how bad they were all day.

We found a much tamer car in MGM Studios. Rowan's in the front and you can see a bit of Harriet's head in the next row.

Harriet's favourite ride was Aladdin's Carpet Ride. It's a pretty basic "Dumbo Ride," i.e. it goes up and down while going around and around. There's a button in the front that raises and lowers the carpet, and in the back is a scarab button that supposedly tipped the carpet, but I couldn't seem to get it to work. We went on this ride so many times.

On the last day, Rowan decided he wanted to do the Bambi ride. There is no Bambi ride. I eventually figured out that he wanted to do the Dumbo Ride. This is the worst ride. It's basic and has the longest line of any of the Dumbo style rides. Hardly worth it. We waited for ages for our turn. I can't say for certain, but I think we waited there the longest out of any other rides (except Harriet who waited for over an hour with Michelle and Morgan to ride Peter Pan).

For those under 40", there's Goofy's Barnstormer. It's a mini rollercoaster that does a few good corners, but no upside down bits. The kids were so cute. The staff was pretty strict about having only two people per row, so Harriet got to ride with a friendly staff member. Rowan giggled the entire ride; Harriet screamed (in delight). Wish we'd had a movie. In this photo, it's most of our travelling crew. Bill & Morgan in the front, then Harriet and Evan, Allan, Me and Rowan, and Michelle and Alex. Thanks to Cheryl and Julia for the photo!

Meet the Characters

2008-10-15T09:36:00.000-07:00

One of the main attractions of Disney World is of course, meeting the characters. You can get a list of where the characters are at certain times of day, but that was too much planning for me. Plus, after running into Pooh and Tigger and realising how long the lines actually were to see them, I decided that we wouldn't actually go and greet the characters.

The first character we ran into was Donald Duck in Frontier Land. We were on our way and I thought I would take a different route out than the way we came in. Unfortunately, I didn't consult the map before making this decision and it was quite a hike to go through Frontier and Adventure Lands before reaching Main Street and the exit. Rowan was in the stroller sleeping and Harriet was up on my shoulders. We stopped for a minute to wave and take a photo, then we headed out again. That brief encounter was enough for Harriet to have a preference for Donald and so it was Donald magnet that she chose to buy for Daddy.

We didn't see too many other characters until we went to MGM Studios. There were some great places to meet the characters, but we just took shots of other people with them. My favourite was the green "plastic" soldier. He had a piece of plastic grass on his boots. No photo though, we were in a rush to depart so Harriet could play with her new Ariel Polly Pocket.

Harriet and I were shopping in Toon Town while Rowan napped. We found Mickey and Minnie who were almost the same size as Harriet. I got her to pose on the store shelf.

An aside: This was a cool store. In the centre there was a column filled with My Little Pony and Mr. Potato Head accessories. For $18 you get a box and stuff it full of as much as you can. I was quite proud of myself. I was able to stuff four ponies and plenty of accessories into the box.

An easy character to find is Dumbo; he doesn't move. He's sitting outside of the Dumbo ride and has steps and a seat for the kids to play in and pose.

We did manage to see some characters in the end and give them a few cuddles. On our way out on the second last day, we noticed Chip and Dale just before the Main Street train station. We raced over and were second in line. We ran into Allan and Cheryl there too. Then Pluto came by. Allan took some cute shots of Harriet and Rowan with Pluto while I tried to take a movie. It would have been an awfully cute movie, but... I messed up with the buttons and recorded after the visit. Oops. At least we have photos. Thanks Allan!

Fireworks

2008-10-14T22:25:00.004-07:00

We stayed late at the park to watch the firework show, Wishes Nighttime Spectacular. I'm not big on fireworks, but it was pretty neat. It started off with Tinkerbell flying from the top of the castle. Pretty cool. Alex talked for days about Tinkerbell afterward. The entire show is choreographed to Disney music classics and the castle changes colours throughout the show. There was lots of space for sitting on the ground and we all had a great view.

Harriet was tired after a long day with no nap, but managed to stay awake through the whole show. Both kids were tense with excitement the entire show. Rowan's hands were suspended motionless above his lap. Harriet had a concentrating frown and stiff body.

I spent the time playing with my camera and trying out the various settings to see if I could get a good fireworks shot. It was fun.

Pooh's Thoughtful Spot

2008-10-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

One of our favourite spots was Pooh's Playful Spot. We discovered that it was a great place to meet up, rest and grab a bite to eat. Rowan loved to play inside Piglet's House. Inside is a table and he climbed up on top and peeked out the window. He spent most of his time playing inside. Harriet explored the area and liked climbing on top of things. There's plenty of kids to demonstrate new places to climb to and Harriet enjoyed the challenge.

Peek-a-boo Rowan!

One evening we actually thought to take some family photos.

In Disney Awe

2008-10-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Disney was pretty amazing. I was impressed with how efficiently we were parked and delivered to the front gate. They have a great system for filling up the parking lots. Flag people wave you to a spot and fill up row by row. Then you walk to the end of the row, where a tram is waiting to pick you up and take you to the ticket gates. After the gates, there's the option of monorail or ferry. I liked the monorail better. The ferry took a long time to load and wasn't as stroller friendly. And finally, you go through the baggage check and then the actual gates into the Magic Kingdom. In spite of the efficiency, it usually took us about an hour to get from the hotel to where we wanted to be in the Magic Kingdom.

Our first day at the Magic Kingdom was also Harriet's Birthday! She got a Happy Birthday button which she didn't wear. The travel books said characters would often do a special Hello or something to the birthday visitors, but we didn't see that. We did see lots of people with the same birthday pin.

On our first day, we walk out on to Main Street and met a song and dance group. It was good; the kids enjoyed it. I liked the horse the most. It was covered in little Mickeys. Click the picture to see how many you can find. :)

We decided to start in Fantasy Land. It had the most characters that the kids knew and some popular rides. It's a Small World had a short line when we got there, so we went on that one first (after getting our FastPasses for Peter Pan). The kids were hilarious. They had big eyes and open mouths for the entire boat trip. The boys had to point at everything. I think in the end we went on this ride at least 5 times, likely more. It was a favourite.

The Resort

2008-10-13T09:17:00.008-07:00

Bill & Michelle have a timeshare and got a week Westgate Lakes Resort in Orlando. They had a huge suite that could sleep 13. They kindly invited our family and Allan and Cheryl's. It worked out great. Each family got a room and we shared a kitchen and living room. We scored the master bedroom, since the three of us are quite happy to pile into the same bed. It was a king sized bed, so much larger than the double I have at home. What a treat! In addition to the massive bed, we also had an enormous tub.

The resort had seven pools. We only tried out the couple by us. The kids had fun. Harriet and Rowan became completely comfortable wearing water wings. Eventhough the water was too deep for them to stand, they swam around everywhere. Morgan was amazing; she could swim without water wings.

Flying with Frontier

2008-10-12T21:10:00.001-07:00

I booked our flights through Frontier. I decided to cut costs and have my mom drive us to Seattle and fly out from Seatac. We also had a transfer in Denver. It was all good until about a month before our trip when my mom checked our flight schedule and discovered it had all been changed drastically. Instead of leaving at 10:55am, we were now leaving at 6:30am. Impossible to do with two kids even if we stayed the night in Seattle. Luckily, it was a schedule change of >4hrs and I was able to change our flights back to similar times with a switch to United for the Denver-Orlando leg.

Namma took the hotel shuttle to the airport and helped us get checked in. We then went through security. We got put in a separate line and the security staff were kind. They helped us through and entertained the kids for a minute while I unpacked all our gear. On the other side, we found coffee and a playground. The theme was an airport, so kids flew (and climbed on) an airplane, jumped off and slid down luggage, and hid in the airport building.

Frontier has some animal theme going on, and the plane we flew in had a parrot on the tail. Pretty. The kids were great on the plane. Harriet, of course, scored the window seat. In Denver, we got to ride a train to switch terminals. Then I checked us in a the gate counter. Luckily the flight attendant was appreciative of a mother travelling with two small children and he bumped three other people off the plane for us. It was overbooked. They were offering great deals, one of which was a free flight to Hawaii if someone would give up their seat. If only I was travelling childless!

We arrived at 11pm in Orlando. I'd arranged beforehand to have Allan meet us at the airport. It was nice to have a friend around, who could watch the kids while I dealt with the rental car agency. He also helped with the carseats. He gave me directions on how to get to the hotel. Then helped out again, when we arrived at the hotel and both kids were sleeping in the car; Allan carried Rowan up to bed. It was probably the toughest part of the trip. Thanks so much Allan!

Disney World Vacation

2008-10-12T14:01:00.002-07:00

Bill and Michelle invited us to Orlando to stay in their timeshare with Allan and Cheryl. It was an opportunity too good to miss. Our kids are all about the same age and I was sure my kids would love to spend a vacation with friends. Originally I had planned to mostly stay at the resort and play in the pools with the kids. As the date to leave approached, Disney was becoming more and more the focus of the trip. In the end, we spent a part of every day at one of the Disney parks. Wow. But it was so much fun. The kids travelled well and enjoyed it all.

Harriet is FOUR

2008-10-11T00:46:00.003-07:00

We celebrated Harriet's birthday last weekend. It was a lot of fun. Here is a slideshow with some pictures.

You can look at the full pictures on line here.

Thanks to everyone who came and also to those who sent good wishes. Harriet had a great time.

(I didn't have a great day handling the camera--for the first hour my shutterspeed was too fast and later my ISO was too high. So, sorry for all the fuzziness.)

Fleet Feet

2008-09-23T21:44:00.003-07:00

Today I had to jog to keep up to Harriet's running. Previously, I could walk fast and keep pace. I wonder how long it will be before she can completely out run me.