Olan takes to the slopes

We finished off our last day of what has been an incredible vacation by Olan's first trip to the local ski hill. It was a huge success, he wanted to stay and ski all day and has talked of little else since we got home, though he's so tired that he stopped mid-sentence at dinner and stared off into space. In the bath he drew the bunny hill and the different runs with his bath crayons and as he fell asleep he told me that he wished that his instructor Jimmy was part of our family and did I know that Jimmy was the greatest skier in the world??? Needless to say I think we'll be headed back to the hills this weekend.

Rose ski cheeks

Happy New Year!

Good friends of ours threw a kids New Year pajama party, it started earlier in the day and at 8:00 we did a "countdown" for the kids and let them scream and shout and wave their sparklers around... only one burn in the bunch and it was on a parent, phew. It was a great way to ring in the New Year, now what will 2011 bring for us all?

The hosts, into the champagne much? :)

Olan decorating his crown

Sparkler magic

Happy New Year!!!

Pooped kids with a movie on while the parents continued to party upstairs

Sweet music!

Olan had his first Christmas concert last week. There was much excitement in the air as the concert approached. I had to draw a line on the advent calendar because every day started out with "is TODAY the concert?". There were two performances, an evening performance the first day and a matinée the second. He had a great time and really enjoyed his time up on a stage with a huge cheering crowd. There were highlights that I won't forget; like the boy in grade one who couldn't keep his hand out of his pyjama pants or the girl up a bench who was singing so enthusiastically that I still can't believe that she didn't fall off at some point. It's the unexpected things that kids do at these concerts that really make them fun (like Olan using his feet as a percussion instrument).

Enjoy, I certainly did!

And umm, please ignore my inept videoing. I was using my camera video and was so excited by it all that my hand wasn't the steadiest. :)

The Pageant

Olan made a decision about who and what he would be in the church nativity play the morning of. He was flip flopping around between a shepherd, a knight, a bear or a lamb (these weren't options given to him, as there seems to be nothing in the bible about any bears being present at the birth of Jesus, however he felt that perhaps the bible was wrong...) When we got to church, he marched into the Sunday school room, looked around and then announced that he would be a SHEEP. And a sheep he was, baaing enthusiastically the whole way up the aisle. It was a hilarious pageant, mostly because Mary didn't appear to have a maternal bone in her body, poor baby Jesus was dumped in the manger face first... I guess word of SIDS prevention hadn't gotten around Bethlehem yet?

The little lamb in action, or sorry, sheep!

The whole Sunday school crew

Having fun in the stable post-pageant

The angel goes up!

Saturday, November 20, 2010

Mahone Bay magic

We spent the first part of the weekend in Mahone Bay and at the cottage. This is one of the busiest weekends of the year in Mahone Bay because it has the scarecrow festival going on as well as the magical pumpkin walk. We had fun walking around checking out all the scarecrows while we waited for darkness to fall so the pumpkin walk could begin. Olan had an absolute blast, I was worried that he wouldn't be able to last because his teachers said he'd been flying high all day with the excitement of the late night pumpkin walk ahead of him. I shouldn't have worried, he didn't fall asleep until just as we turned into the cottage road at 9:30. For those not familiar with the walk, two women in Mahone Bay carve over 200 pumpkins (sans patterns!) and they are arranged all over the place on a little road that goes up behind the three famous churches. It is so magical. It was a warm night, still 21 degrees when we went to bed, and there was a blustery warm wind blowing right in off the ocean. Perfect for a spooky pumpkin walk! The walk culminates in a dead end where there was a HUGE phantom of the opera scarecrow playing an organ, Olan was mesmerized and easily could have stayed there all night!

This one is for Rhiannon, and Isabelle!

Scary witches!

I'm a scarecrow too!

Dinner break at the pub

When darkness falls, he turns into a dragon!

What is Dora doing in Mahone Bay?

Refreshments with Alice...

ROBOTS!

Here we go…

Terry Fox, superhero

The Terry Fox run is a big deal at Olan's new school. Terry's brother came and talked to the kids at Assembly and yesterday they had another special assembly to watch a movie about Terry. Then today, the big run! All of this has had a fantastic impact on Olan, he's been very interested in talking about Terry, who he was and what he did and why it was all so important. After watching the movie yesterday he said to me last night "Terry said that he wasn't special, but he was very special wasn't he mommy".

Last night I made him a special t-shirt to wear today for the run and he was over-the-moon excited when I gave it to him after breakfast today. That's the kind of superhero t-shirt I can deal with.

He did a great job of the run, only stopping "one time on the hill for a rest" and then ran for the duration. They even staged another run in the after school program because the kids had so much fun.

Here he is, *trying* to be patient while I took his picture

Horses, rides and books, oh MY!

What a fun weekend! From the Windsor fall fair with the flashing midway lights and smells of cotton candy to picking out new books and laughing with friends, what a blast we had. One of those weekends when you just look back and smile, and smile and smile, and then stop because your cheeks hurt.

All the carnie loot a kid could wish for!

Riding the Merry-Go-Round, a favourite for sure

Word on the Street 2010. It was a huge success and I was so happy to have been involved this year.

Happy kids with cupcakes and faces painted.

Libby and Olan are at different schools now and were SO happy to be back together, the invincible duo.

So much love and fun with these two!

Olan took the stage in the kids tent and put on a bit of an impromptu show. He was telling me after "everyone was taking pictures of me!". Ahh the life of a star. :)

A big week!

This week Olan started big-boy school. What a big step, the first day of many, many first days of school. Pretty wild to imagine what he might be like on his last day, in grade 12.

School's out!

Olan had his last day of daycare on Friday! It was bittersweet for sure as evidenced by my crying the whole way home. Olan is so excited about starting big boy school and cheerfully hugged and waved at all his old friends as we made our way out the door for the last time. Hard to believe that the first time was almost exactly three years ago, what a lot has changed in all our lives in that time.

Here he is, cheerfully packing up his cubby.

Soccer wrap-up!

The last night of soccer tonight, summer really is going to end at some point!?! You'd never know it with the amazing weather we've had this summer but the first day of school is all too quickly approaching.

Olan really enjoyed soccer, we'll do it again next year for sure. We had a great night with a barbecue, obstacle courses, medals, loot bags and *finally* (according to Olan) some timbits! He had a blast running around with all his friends and conked as soon as his little head hit the pillow tonight.

Perfectly, perfect summer day

We headed downtown right after breakfast today and spent the day by the water with friends. It was a perfect day, nice and hot and the kids went from sand pit to swimming pool to playground with the necessary stops for food and ice cream.

We hear that there was lots of excitement at the family picnic today in Ontario and wish we were there, but since we couldn't be this was the perfect way to spend the day.

A delicious, but not necessarily nutritious lunch of hamburger and sweet potato fries... with delicious curry dip, mmmmmm.

Russ, trying not to succumb to naptime in order to watch the big boys

Olan and Parker having fun in the pool

Ice cream time with a beautiful view of the arm

They call him the fourth brother, so cute.

back from the lake...

What a posting drought it has been in these parts! Can't I just post a cute picture of Olan and not mention it?

So yeah, there's lots to catch up on and millions of photos to share but this one will have to suffice. For now anyway.

Taken roughly 7 hours ago. I probably wouldn't be so wistful if I didn't know that this week at work is going to suck in a large, large way. Why can't we do this all day every day?

School picnic

Olan always has fun seeing his school friends outside of school so they all had a blast tearing around together on the weekend while the parents caught up on news & gossip.

Learning to play the fiddle (interesting enough that he dealt with the glare off the shiny instrument)

Scary spider arm paint

He and his buddy Isaac who sat and chatted about the boats going by like they were in their rockers on the porch at 75, not 3 and 4!

Waving flags

Ducks

This is what I call his teenager face, he's just dying for me to finish with the picture so he can keep moving, moving, moving!