Walk With Dinosaurs

A few weeks ago we took the kids to see "Walk With Dinosaurs". Jason is dinosaur-crazy and Sydney truly enjoys them too- at least I am pretty sure she enjoys them for herself & not just for Jason. It took me awhile to convince Brad that we should go, but he finally relented. The biggest issue was the tickets were quite pricey & we really were not sure what the show really entailed. However, since we have a boy that talks about dinosaurs about 75% of his waking moments and can say most dinosaur names better than he can say "Sydney"...it seemed a shame not to go.

We got the cheap seats, but that still cost us over $100. Obviously many other families balked at the top ticket price of $74 since the lower bowl was practically empty (until the intermission when people moved down). Since the event was targeted for kids, it seems to me that it would make more sense to have lower ticket prices & fill more seats. Instead the arena was maybe a quarter full. Hmm....

Before the show, Jason was very serious in his waiting.
Brad & Sydney on the other hand...not so much.
You will note that Jason shared one of his dinosaur shirts with his sister for the event.

Waiting with bated breath

This shirt is huge on him, that is why I rolled the sleeves on him.
I wasn't going for the Miami Vice look.

A baby T-Rex came out first before it was joined by its VERY LOUD Mommy.
This was Jason's favourite part of the whole show.

To this day Sydney & Jason are still playing Walk with Dinosaurs...in costume & with the myriad of dinosaurs in our house.

Little Gymnasts

This is pretty late, but this winter Sydney & Jason both took gymnastics. Our goal for their involvement was to do something active & have fun. I figure that this should be most parents goals for their kids at this age. However we were amazed by the attitude of a set of parents that rode their daughters the whole time- many times the oldest who is the same age as Sydney was in tears & one night was chasing her mother out the door crying & saying "you hate me!!!" I could not believe it.


It is a good job that Brad & I do not have that high of expectations for Sydney & Jason. They seemed to achieve our goals of being active & having fun.

First step for a new phase in his life

I realize I am not a frequent blogger anymore, but I rarely sit down at the computer for any great length of time anymore. I find that by the time I get the stuff done that needs to be done & check my emails, the last thing I want to do is sit at the computer longer. I miss my laptop. I realize that there are many who think I should have time during the day to do stuff like this since I am home with the kids, but I am hear to tell you...I don't. However, today is something I need to write about.

Today we had Jason's JK orientation. I was really looking forward to it & excited for this next step in his life, but who am I kidding? I am really going to miss having my little boy with me so much. Especially when I watch some other little boys out there. I am disappointed that Jason won't be going to school with two of the friends he has made since they will be in school during the afternoon, but I do hope that he finds another friend in class that helps to make this transition easier for him. He doesn't exactly embrace change & is very shy in new situations. Thankfully the teacher he is assigned is one that I have only heard glowing endorsements for.

We visited the class today & the teacher read them a story & the kids did a very good job of sitting & listening. Jason discovered that there are some great toys in his class & I will need to remember what they were so that I can use that as the incentive to get Jason to walk willingly through those doors. I couldn't help notice that there were a lot of girls visiting the classroom, so I am curious to see the boy:girl ratio. After experiencing the 10:7 split in Sydney's class I am hoping that Jason's isn't quite that bad...or the boys in his class as crazy wild as the boys in Sydney's class.

I think Jason enjoyed today at some level. He seems to think that he should be getting Sydney's teacher & her classroom, but I think after seeing the toys he gets we can get past that disappointment. I am truly praying that the only tears we see on his first day are mine after he walks in the school!

Since we are on the topic of Jason, I thought I would share a few pictures of him that make me smile.

This one is from a couple months ago when Sydney had to bring a living thing for show & tell. We kept a spider for Sydney to take & every morning Jason was eager to see Brad feed her. That spider had a very well fed week, but unfortunately show & tell did her in.

Seated with Jason (left to right) Papa Elephant, Baby Ella (constant companion), Teddy, and Diny (newest constant companion- thank you Aunt Debbie).
I don't know what he is watching, but I am sure it was the birds. I just had to run & grab the camera when I came down in the morning & saw him sitting there...I thought it was too cute.

This past weekend we went to the Burlington Model Train club.
It was a big hit with both kids.
Those of you who grew up with outdoor pools may, like me, find it sad that this is now a Model Train club. Why do we no longer use outdoor pools unless it is part of a huge water park?

Great Wolf Lodge

Sydney, Wolfie, Jason & Howler

Since I suspect that I may have some people checking for pictures, I thought I should get these up. We spent Sunday/Monday at Great Wolf Lodge with the kids & although for the first hour I thought it was going to be a horrendous two days it turned out to be fantastic. The kids were not ready to leave, but Brad & I were exhausted.

The last month or so the kids started taking swimming lessons at the Y & the results are good. (so thankful that I switched from the city rec program). Jason is again warming to the water & enjoying himself, but he still hates splashing & getting his head wet. So when you walk into a water park where there is splashing everywhere & people spraying water at you as you walk around...what do you think Jason does??? Brad of course was off with Sydney having fun on the slides that she could go on while I was stuck with the boy who didn't even want to go near anything. I knew that if I could just find Brad & Sydney & that if she played with him he would get over the fear hump & start having fun. Once that happened it was all good!

We took advantage of most everything: meal plan, activities for kids (except the 8pm story time- figured we would have meltdowns the next day if we tried that, good call), kids got stuffed wolves...it was great! So thank you to my friends at TU for the gift card...I finally used it & I know that we will go back again.

I think one of their favourite parts was having a t.v. in their room.
Enjoy it on vacation, because it won't happen at home!

See, once he got over his fear he had a blast (& I did too!)
I don't have a good pic of Sydney on the water slide because she was going too fast!

Another of the kids favourite.
I think Brad wishes he had the video on when I was crossing the lily pads.

Sydney & I coloured a pillow case for her and

Jason & Brad (mainly Brad) coloured a bag for Jason.

Life size Connect 4 in Kid Club

The firetruck in the arcade moved without you putting tokens in!
Worked great when we only had one token left.

Egg hunt, egg hunt, egg hunt...

Easter for us was filled with many, many egg hunts which equals A LOT of candy. Since there are many sweet teeth in this house, it is amazing how quickly it disappears. We had Brad's family for brunch on Good Friday & the kids all participated this year in the egg hunt. It was pretty cute. Later that day we took the kids to see The Backyardigans & although I think they really liked it, the show was pretty lame. There was no "story", they just did some songs. I guess that is why the tickets were so cheap.

Sunday morning we of course had to find all the treats that the Easter Bunny hid around the house. Sydney was up before Jason & could hardly contain her excitement. She decided this year that she was going to dress up as a bunny, but when she made ears at school- they were all she wanted. We give the kids 'stuff' at Easter & it usually consists of different things that they may "need" at that time. One of the things I thought they needed were some more dress up clothes to match what they typically play- so Princess Sydney got a cape & Jason got a T-rex costume (which is really supposed to be a dragon costume- but you can't tell him that).

Sunday afternoon we headed to Uncle Ron & Aunt Lois's for more time with family & of course ANOTHER egg hunt. Thankfully our time there was as "sweet" as all the loot we brought back home.

Jason & Grace were putting in time waiting for the egg hunt to begin. These two are hilarious together (most of the time, the other time they can be trouble ;))




Remember Hayleigh's long hair from Family Day?
Some lucky person will be getting it now.
I love this cut on her, very chic.

North Carolina...part II

This is the reason we made the trek.

Look at how happy they are to be together!

Well it is almost a week since we got back from Wendy's so I thought I better get this posted before it is a distant memory. We had a great time. The drive although a little painful at times was much better than I thought it would be. I told Kate that I am going to hear Matthew say "I want Thomas HeeeRooo" in my sleep. The past couple of days I have heard Sydney and Jason ask each other a couple times, "do you want to play Matthew?" and then they start the Thomas chant. It is mildly amusing.

We didn't really do anything event-wise, the kids just played together. We could not get over how well the girls played together- it was amazing. I was worried about how well it would go with there being 3 of them & 3 can be a bad number, but they did great. We did not have daily meltdowns and they slept pretty good all being in the same room. The boys had fun too, but they did have more meltdowns than the girls...but they are 2-3 years younger too.

Kate & I would like to do the trek again, but we would like the next time to be just a girls vacation & we would make it a little shorter. I think Wendy & Jason did enjoy having us even though it meant that they had 6 kids in their house, but taking the boys just put too many extra house guests in the house. I have another year to convince my husband of this plan. If he doesn't agree, then he may need to get his passport so that we can go there as a family.

Before hitting the road on the 2nd day of driving, we enjoyed some time at the pool.

Portable DVD players...godsend.

First meal & the beginning of the knock, knock jokes.

Nothing like a little sidewalk chalk after dinner.
Kate was determined to make it warm. Nothing like wearing flip flops with a winter coat. ;)

Movie night

Bedtime

Welcome home Jason!

Buddies.

Buddies x 3

Lazy 5 Ranch- kind of like a miniaturized African Lion Safari that you take a horse & wagon through. And you get to feed the animals! The kids loved it.

Jason got a kiss from the giraffe too!
After this he got very brave & was feeding the animals without any help.

Our hosts

Sydney was leery, but she did finally agree to feed the goats.

We got one girls night. Unfortunately Wendy was a little under the weather during our visit, but we made it out the night before our departure. There is an area, Birkdale Village, where there are a lot of higher end stores & the aesthetic beauty of the area is stunning. Can't imagine that much care being put into a shopping area anywhere around here.

One more group shot before we load them in for home.

12.5 hours later- almost home.
Notice that Matthew is the only one awake? He napped for an hour around 7pm & that was it for the night. He was still awake when Kate dropped us off at home at 11:30 pm. Almost 14 hours after we left Huntersville, NC

Jason too was out!

North Carolina...part I

Currently I am at my friend Wendy's in North Carolina. Kate & I came down with our kids for a visit. A man saw us at a rest stop & asked me "what were you thinking?" I told him that "2 women & 4 kids is no problem". Kate & I were prepared for the journey to be a little painful with the 4 of them, but figured it would be worth it to see our friends. We were very pleasantly surprised with how well the kids did in the car. We drove for 8 hours on Thursday & stopped in West Virginia for the night & then only had 3.5 hours of driving for the next day. After a very poor sleep both Kate & I woke up thinking that on the way home we are going to try driving straight through. Yes, it will most likely be much more painful than the drive here- but worth it to just get home. Why spend $100 each to get no sleep?

Sydney & Emma are having the time of their life playing with Ellie & Katie. It is so great for them to be able to see where their friends live now. Sydney is having so much fun that I have on two occasions had to beg her to come see me for a bit. The boys are getting along pretty good, but being a bit younger they often present different challenges. I really hope Kate is not cursing me for convincing her to bring Matthew because with just the girls it would be an "easy-peasy" vacation, but Matthew is placing some demands on his Mommy.

We have a few more days to visit & then we are heading home. I will post pictures then since I did not bring my cable to upload my pictures now.