Logan's Birthday Bash

Although his birthday was officially a few days ago, we doubt you could convince Logan of that fact because the big party had yet to happen. That day finally came this past Sunday as Logan and his best pals met up for a round of glow-in-the-dark mini putt at The Putting Edge. Surely he will have some future birthdays on the links with his buddies, but they are unlikely to be anything like this. A wild group of 4 and 5 year olds stickhandling golf balls under blacklight before loading up on pizza and sugar. Well, maybe it won't be that different when he grows up, except the holes will be longer and the beverages more front and centre!

Everyone had an awesome time, especially Oliver, who took to golf like he has been doing it for years. Maybe because it's so similar to the hockey stick and ball he has been lugging around our house for the past week! Somebody should probably tell him that in actual golf, they don't let you pick up the ball, walk to the hole and place it two inches away from the hole. If they did, Oliver would be on the PGA Tour. Nevertheless, he loved playing this and was so distraught on the final hole when the ball disappeared into the hole and never came out!

Oliver on his way to the first tee, clutching his trusty putter and ball. He listened intently to the instructions but just like he does at home, he went on and did his own thing anyway. He was very patient, waiting his turn on every hole. Good practice for all the waiting he will do if he ever takes up real golf!

Best-dressed girl on the links. She also took to the sport and in typical Isabelle fashion, she announced on her way home that she wanted her birthday party there next year. Isabelle plans about 30 birthday parties a year, it changes every time she goes to an event. Luckily she is still the age where she forgets all her plans and follows her parent's suggestions!

Mommy and the birthday boy smile big for the camera. It's so nice to have been a big part of the little dude's life since the day he was born. The friendship he has with Isabelle and now Oliver is unmatched with anyone else we know. We look forward to many more years of watching these 3 run rampant and it will be so much fun. He's a great guy and our friendship with his Mom and Dad just keeps growing. Baby Kayla will have so many people to take care of her!

Oliver finishes up his round. To no one's surprise, he was suitably attired in one of his many golf shirts. We chose white for the best effect under the blacklight. Little did we know that it would also help us find him quickly, that dude zipped all over that course! Surely we will be back again soon, we have to practice so we can take on those wicked courses in Orlando next spring!

Logan and his happy crew of partygoers. Shortly after we got this picture (and it took awhile to get it!), we headed over for pizza and cake, followed by gifts. There might have been golf but seriously, that was just a formality until we got to the important stuff, right?

We wrapped up an awesome afternoon with a trip through the arcade, where tokens just seem to disappear magically. We were lucky to amass enough tickets to cash in at the store and get some tiny toys to bring back home. Oliver seemed to really like the air hockey table, which is another reason we will go back, because there is no way we are fitting one of those into our house! All in all, Logan had a great birthday and we all loved getting the chance to celebrate with him. For a brief 6 days, Isabelle was older than him, but now they are back on a level playing field!

Happy Birthday, Auntie Jessica!

We've been very lucky over the past year to see Jessica and her growing family so often. The little cousins are always so happy to be around each other and little Matthew gets cuter every time we see him. Jessica is clearly a superstar of a mom and continues to be a great friend to us. Seriously, we were at a movie with 3 kids this past weekend and gained some newfound respect on how amazing you are to handle the mania with such relative ease. Congratulations to you and Chris on the awesome family you built together. We wish you all the best on your special day and we are looking forward to our next trip down the 401 to reunite the kids and see you again. Happy Birthday!

Matinee at the Movies

Given that her best pal Logan was unable to attend either of her birthday parties (one at her daycare and one in Toronto), we were able to convince him that they would they have their own birthday get-together this weekend. And what better place to be than at the local theatre to see the re-release of The Lion King in 3D! Oliver was sure to join them, of course, as he has been talking about this movie for several weeks. Well, little O, it finally came out in theatres and we were there front and centre. After loading up on food, we marched into the auditorium and found our seats. The three of them looked completely hilarious with their 3D glasses on. In fact, we were lucky to get a picture of all 3 with them on, considering Oliver kept peering over the top of them and Isabelle needed convincing that they were even necessary. Once sufficiently full of popcorn and other snacks, we all settled in to watch the movie. Isabelle as usual got a bit scared and had to curl up with Mom, while Oliver needed a walk break to cool off before he could be coerced into seeing how it ended. Logan was no problem, as long as he had his many bonhommes with him at all times. Everyone had an awesome time and we got to give Logan's parents some time to finish off last minute preparations for his upcoming party. We are already set to come back again for the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie in a few weeks!

Went to a movie and Dance Dance Revolution broke out!

Reservoir Dogs? Nope, Lion King fans!

Happy Birthday, Auntie Rhiannon!

In a month filled with birthdays, we have another to commemorate as Auntie Rhiannon celebrates her special day. It will be her last one before she embarks on her next great adventure: motherhood! She and Matt are just a few weeks from welcoming a little one into their lives, and we are so excited and thrilled to be part of all the excitement. She looks so ready for the big event and the baby's room looks amazing. She and Matt will be awesome parents and we can't wait to share the news when it happens (maybe when Auntie Mer is in town!). For now, the focus is on celebrating her birthday, which we will do in style by bringing breakfast over to their condo tomorrow! Happy birthday to such a great friend to all of us, we love you!

Rock Star Logan Turns 5!

So many birthdays in September! Today we are wishing Isabelle's number one pal Logan the happiest of birthdays. These two have been best buds since the moment they arrived in this world, 6 days apart way back in 2006. They started out just visiting, then moved on to sharing a nanny, then a long time together at Tupper Tots, in fact maybe the only people that have spent more time with Isabelle are her parents and her brother! Logan and Isabelle have now moved on to separate schools but still get lots of time to hang out with each other on weekends, including the one coming up, where we are slated to take Logan to see The Lion King Saturday and then celebrate his birthday in style on Sunday. He has been such a great friend to Isabelle, they always play so well with each other, and has been so good to Oliver since he joined the crew a couple of years ago. Good practice for Logan as he recently became a big brother to baby Kayla. All the best, big guy, we can't wait to see you this weekend to wish you happy birthday in person!  Rock on, dude!

Happy Birthday, Michael!

Happy birthday to cousin Michael down south in Dallas, TX today! The little dude is getting bigger, it's hard to believe that he is already 7 years old! Wow, it seems like yesterday he was this tiny tyke attending our wedding on that chilly day back in May 2006, snacking on goldfish while bundled up with his mom. Now he is the big cousin our little ones look up to. We are happy to report that Oliver has inherited Michael's love of Lightning McQueen and Isabelle is always asking about what her southern cousins are up to. Hope you have a great day, buddy! Lucky to have your grandparents there for the occasion!

Pretty in Pink

Pink was everywhere...and we know one little girl that wouldn't have it any other way. People came from all corners of Toronto (and even Halifax!) for her party, and she was thrilled to see them all. This family has always been a big part of her like and to be able to be back just a few weeks after the family picnic was a treat for the kids and for us. Everyone had an awesome time getting caught up with each other and in seeing the kids rip it up and run around to their heart's content. Maybe a little too much as Peter disappeared at one point. A frantic search high and low found him hanging out with his Uncle Jeremy in the condo. Crisis averted, Uncle to require some child-minding tips! Things settled down and Isabelle enjoyed the chance to open her presents and thank everyone for attending. Oliver was only to glad to help and had a few presents of his own to keep him busy. Watch you step, there might be a car near your feet! We all had some great food and tasty cupcakes for dessert (courtesy Gran!), then spent the rest of the time visiting and having fun. Even Sean and Alli arrived after several hours delay due to a dead car battery. What troopers and great friends. We miss these Toronto-area peeps so much. It is always a pleasure to see them and tell them how much we love them. We expect this won't be the last of Isabelle's birthday parties held in the GTA. Thanks to everyone for making her birthday so special.

Open-the-present game was a big hit

Can she be more excited?

Cupcake in one hand, bubble gun in the other. Your typical 2-year old.

Proud new parents show off beautiful Ben

Oliver and his new best friend Kayla launch their cars

Cutiepie Elliot and his rockin' parents

Testing out the Wii with her cousins

Birds of a feather stick together

Literally bowled over with presents

Hanging on for the long haul to upstairs

Cooling down for a story and a good night's sleep. All partied out!

Prepped for Pinkalicious

After hours and hours of work over the past week, the stage was finally set for Isabelle's big bash in the big city. We had close to 30 guests ready to come and toast the birthday girl, so we wanted to make sure that this party didn't disappoint. Having attended so many of their parties over the years, we had our work cut out for us to live up to expectations! Sure, family party, should be easy to plan, right? A few balloons, some food, drinks and a cake? No problem! Think again. After a lot of late nights and a fully packed van traveling down the 401, we finally drew the curtain and invited everyone to celebrate our awesome little 5-year old's big milestone. Thanks to every one for coming!

Laminating machines sure come in handy!

A tiny project that turned out much bigger

Just what toddlers and preschoolers need: candy!

Loot bags packed tight as can be

The guest of honour (and her bodyguard!)

Welcome to the Jungle

As part of Isabelle's cavalcade of birthday celebrations, we thought it would fun to partake in an activity that both kids would completely love, and why not have some other little friends join us? Isabelle, Oliver, Peter, Carys and Matthew (and their parents and a couple of grandparents!) all met up for a fun afternoon at the Toronto Zoo! We have some experiences at zoo-like establishments like the Biodome and have seen other animals at Hatfield Farms, but this was taking us to a whole new level. All the kids were super excited to not only see some amazing animals like elephants, hippos, zebras and giraffes, but to get to do it together in such a big group allowed us to share the experience. They got the chance to ride fake animals on a carousel, followed by a real-life camel ride (where we had to fib and tell them Oliver was 3 to get him past the tight security!). From there, we moved on to the touch pool with stingrays and even got to see some tiny sharks! Finally we hit the African sector, where Oliver was at his happiest, seeing giant elephants and even some sleeping tigers. He had his best roar ready to try and wake them up. After a great lunch courtesy of Auntie (thanks, Jess!), we visited the penguin/pelican tank (this isn't a joke for the Haligonians, they really did have them in the same place) and our last stop was to see what the polar bears were up to. We were very lucky here, we got to see them really close as they walked past several times on the way to and from their den. We even saw one go for a swim in the water! What an awesome place to spend the day, especially with people we love so dearly. These cousins are getting such great opportunities to spend time together this summer. We look forward to future visits and getting to know the newest cousin Ben! We plan to make the zoo an annual thing now, how could we not after these kids had such a blast only seeing half of it!?

So excited to take this for a whirl

Could this be Chris' first merry-go-round ride? 

Peter and Isabelle ecstatic. Camel, maybe not as much.

Curly camel cuties saddle up for a spin

Don't mess with this dude

Finally he gets to see one of his favourites in person

Wake up, guys! You must be scared, I am roaring so loud!

Cousins having a grand old time

Dennis the Menace in action

Matthew gets in on the fun

The boy just loves penguins

Isabelle is 5!

Headline: Ottawa Parents in Shock as Baby Girl Turns 5 Already!

It is unbelievable that a tiny little girl went to bed last night and seemingly overnight turned into a school age kid. No more toddler, no more preschool, she is well on her way, already halfway to double digits in age! She is such a great kid, always full of life and smart as a whip. She is surprising us every day with her comments and her actions, from a diatribe about the water situation in India (did you know that people are throwing garbage in the water there?) to new French words every day when she comes home. She is a sponge and sometimes feels like 5 going on 15. We have our hands full but they are full of something very special. She is so excited for her big birthday weekend extravaganza in Toronto!

Oliver is just as happy to celebrate big sister's big day!

Isabelle had a great birthday. She was a little confused when her parents told her that when she woke up she'd be 5, as if something magical would happen in the middle of the night. She noticed immediately the next morning that she could touch the top of her mirror, something she was sure she could never have done when she was 4! She ventured out the door, proud to be 5 years old and ready to share it with anyone who even looked in her direction.

She loved all the attention at school and at daycare, even wondering why the school age kids that arrived back at 4:00 weren't also singing happy birthday to her. She had cupcakes delivered to Acorn for all her friends and teachers, and was lucky enough to have Jacky the face painter come and paint hers and all her best pals' faces, a colourful mix of butterflies and Spider-men. A great kickoff to the weekend in store for her. She hopped in the van for the drive to Toronto as happy as can be. Happy birthday to the greatest little girl we could ever have. We love you!

Stay tuned for more on Isabelle-apalooza in Toronto!

Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

It was an awesome day in our neck of the woods. The sun was shining and like many days around here, there was a lot going on.  Yesterday morning we woke up and were having breakfast when we heard quite a commotion from outside. We rushed out to see what was going on and saw that it was the annual Carleton Engineering students' canal boat race. It was a blast to see these kids having so much fun in their homemade vessels, capping off a noisy frosh week around here. Then in the afternoon, we took advantage of some free tickets from friends to take in the 67s game just up the road. The home team won again and the kids had a blast as always. All this activity and all within walking distance of our house, who could ask for a better spot, especially with the fall colours soon to be upon us! Busy times ahead, we know a little girl that is soon turning 5!

If only one would have tipped, huge cheers!

Two seats in the front row, please!

Dreaming of other destinations

Hockey (and ice cream) fans hanging out