Birthday triptych

So, the boys all had their birthdays in the last few months.  

This is Leo, our newly-minted 4-year-old.  Technically, he's been 4 for a while now as his birthday was back in July.  The first picture is from his actual birthday while the next batch of pictures were taken at his party in mid-June.  He wanted a treasure hunt so we ended up wandering around the neighbourhood and even ended up digging for buried treasure at the park.  Finally, Leo passed out on the couch after having a great time turning 4.  The last set of pictures are from Leo's annual funfest out at Auntie Karen's cottage.  Henry had his first swing at a piñata, Leo scored a wonderful bin of Lego and the intrepid Max & Leo braved Treasure Island where they once again found a stash of treats to bring back to the cottage.  Good times!

And now for Max's party.  For his 6th birthday, Max went to Midway with a few of his school and daycare friends.  This first picture is my favourite, not for what Max & co. are doing to the characters in the bouncy castle, but for my heaving Leo through the air in the background.  Max ended up winning (I think) 200 tickets in a game of skill/chance and then enjoyed a couple of cakes (one at Midway and one made lovingly by Auntie Laramie).  Oddly, Leo's first day of school coincided with Max's actual
birthday so we snapped a couple of pictures of the boys heading in on the day Max turned 6 (Leo's crown is something his JK teacher asks all of the new students to decorate and wear so that she can remember their names and so that they all feel special on their very first day of school).

Finally, here are a couple of pictures from Henry's low-key birthday soiree.  Yes, the little guy is now 2 and loves eating cakes, singing Happ Day Day, blowing candles and opening presents.  He's also a huge fan of musical cards and opens and closes them repeatedly until they wear out.

Happy birthday to all our little men!

A fantastic weekend

So every now and then, a weekend is wonderful.  Exceeds expectations.  This past Thanksgiving weekend was definitely one of those weekends and we'd like to commemorate it with a rare blog post.

Here is a brief list of pros regarding that weekend:
1 - it was long
2 - the weather was sunny and dry and above normal for all three days
3 - we got outside for multiple, extended adventures
4 - the kids were fantastic
5 - the kids napped.  Seriously, all three of them.

On Saturday, we started things off with a nature walk to Mud Lake, the area situated right behind the boys' daycare.  We got out relatively early and soaked up the sun while poking around "in nature", as the kids like to say.  In our first few minutes on the trail, we saw ducks (Henry was fascinated) and a garter snake (the older boys were a little freaked out by this).  We collected leaves, found walking sticks, fed chickadees out of our hands, saw a heron, made piles of leaves and pine needles, peed on trees (sorry nature), and enjoyed a nice picnic on a rock by the shore of the lake.  Everyone got some much needed fresh air, a chance to run around and get some sillies out, and a chance to check out some cool flora and fauna.

The next morning, we headed over to Auntie Laramie and Uncle James's place for a yummy eat-in McDonald's breakfast.  McMuffins all around, except for Max, who is partial to the Big Breakfast (a deconstructed McMuffin with jam).  The goal was to have a second big nature walk on the Lime Kiln trail, but the turkeys, which had been thawing in the fridge since Thursday, were still frozen!  So we needed to go somewhere quickly and then turn around and come home to do the birds.  So we went to one of our favourite neighbourhood parks in the area of Central Park, by the Experimental Farm here in town.  There was sliding and swinging and playing in the boat structure and kicking a soccer ball and running down a hill and enjoying yet another beautiful day.  In order to make sure that the older kids would be tolerable later on, I took a little drive with them and gave them a chance to nap . . . they took it.  Meanwhile, Henry was seriously looking forward to napping in the house.  I don't know what it is about sleeping over in West's crib, but Henry loves it.  He'll have to suck it up when the crib belongs to someone else :)  That night, we had an amazing dinner with over 30 lbs. of turkey, a 12 lb.
ham, and all the sides and fixings.  Great food and good company (we had 17 at the table) made for a boisterous evening replete with full bellies and fun conversation.

Monday was a perfectly lazy day.  We had some ideas of big plans to take on, but in the end, we tackled the yard, had some craft time, did some homework and generally enjoyed some laid back family time.

Here are some pictures from Mud Lake:

 Somehow, we only took a couple of pictures the rest of the weekend.  So here's Leo doing his impression of a hockey target, followed by a shot of our Thanksgiving dinner from above and a picture of Leo looking on while Max crafts to his heart's content.