Cottage vacation

On July 28, we returned to the cottage in Sundridge on Lake Bernard -- but this time, for the first time, we went for two weeks instead of one.

Taking the longer vacation was a great idea and we had a wonderful and relaxing time. The weather was almost perfect every day until the last two days. Even on the days where clouds and rain were predicted, it seemed to clear up by mid-day. And all the hot, humid weather we'd been having down here in Toronto all July only found its way up north for two days. Otherwise, it was just sunny and warm.

The kids loved being able to swim every day. And that they did -- even on the two last days when it was cooler, rainy and/or cloudy -- they still jumped in for a minute before running back up to cottage and taking hot showers!

The water level was quite shallow this year -- so both kids could easily touch all the way until the dock (which is about 100 feet from shore). So they ran and played in the shallow water all time. When they weren't in the shallow area, they were both jumping off the dock into the deep end -- Austin even getting up the courage to dive in.

One day during the first week, we found a hiking trail about 30 minutes away and hiked for a couple of hours. It was a beautiful, secluded trail and we all had fun.

One day during the second week, we drove down to Bracebridge to go to Santa Village for the day. We had been there two years earlier, but figured it would be fun to do again. The kids had fun riding the kiddie rides, playing in the Elf Island park and of course, visiting Santa.

Over the August long weekend, our friends Rob and Vone and their kids Lilo and Isla came to stay with us for two nights. We hadn't told Austin and Alex that they were coming and they were both VERY surprised when their friends simply 'showed up' one afternoon! For two days the four of them had a blast running around while the four of adults enjoyed a beer or four. 

The biggest news of the two week vacation is that Alex learned to ride a two-wheel bike. It happened early in the first week. You see, to get four bikes on our three-bike car rack, Ryan removed her training wheels and bungeed the bike to the rest of them. He had every intention of putting the training wheels back on once we got to the cottage. Well, Alex had other ideas.

She insisted on trying to ride without them -- and basically proceeded to get on the bike and ride away. That first day she fell several times -- often only getting 20 or so feet before falling and once even falling in a ditch! But nothing would hold her back and by the third day, she was a superstar at it and we took a family bike ride 2 kilometres into town to go to the playground (and of course, 2 kilometres back). That's our Alex!

I leave you with a slideshow of some of the photos from our trip and a video of our superstar bike rider.

Read more...

General June and July update

I know, I know, I’m way behind in giving you all an update. At least I managed to put pictures up a few weeks ago. Now here’s what happened in June and July.

Visit with cousins

On June 8, Ali, Billy, Theodore and Julian arrived for a week’s visit. They stayed with my parents in Brampton and we spent almost every day with them. Julian – who was just 4 months old at the time – is just adorable and Austin and Alex loved playing with Teddy every day.  They all get along so well.

Unfortunately, it was during this visit that my mom went into hospital for bleeding on the brain (she’s fine now, by the way) but it was a pretty scary five days while she was in the hospital. So while visiting with Ali and her family, we also took turns going to the hospital or staying home with all the kids while the other went to the hospital.

When we weren’t at the hospital, we took the kids to the park, to Downey’s Farm (in Brampton) and spent one day visiting at our house (where Teddy could check out all of Austin’s trains!)

After a busy week, my mom was released from hospital and Ali and Billy left for Ottawa for the rest of their Canada trip.

Canada Wonderland
On June 16, we took the kids to Canada’s Wonderland for the annual PCL day. We arrived just after 9 a.m. – because part of deal we get is entry one hour before the park opens – and headed straight for the Beheomth roller coaster. Ryan rode it first, while I sat with the kids, and then I (reluctantly) rode. After that, we realized that Austin was tall enough for the nearby Stunt Coaster, so Ryan took him on that. And then on the Minebuster. By 10 a.m., we were almost roller coastered out!

It was on to the kids area for awhile after that, and then off to the group area for lunch. After lunch, we decided to hit the waterpark. It was packed but an afternoon well spent. And as it turned out, Alex was tall enough by a hair to go on all of the waterslides. And we quickly converted her into a waterslide monster. She loved every one she rode, yelling ‘more, more’ when we’d get to the bottom.

When the waterpark closed at 6, the kids insisted that they wanted to go on one more ride. So I took Austin on the Fly roller coaster and Ryan took Alex for her second trip on the Ghoster Coaster (oh yeah, she’s a roller coaster monster too!). It was 7:30 by the time we left Wonderland .

Canada Day Camping
For the first time in 3 years, we went camping over Canada Day weekend. We had given up on that weekend a few years ago, after having bad luck with the weather. This year, there was no bad luck – as it was hot and sunny every day we were there.

We went with our friends Rob, Vone, Lilo and Isla to Emily Provincial Park. We spent the three days hanging out at the campsite, riding bikes, swimming at the beach, watching movies by projector under the stars and roasting marshmallows. In all, a great weekend!

Blue Jays Game

On July 14, Ryan took the kids to a Blue Jays game. They both had a blast, although didn't last in their seats for the entire game. Ryan says they watched the first few innings, then wandered over to the kids area to play games, get temporary tattoos, etc. and then headed back to their seats around the seventh inning. 

The highlight of the game? The kids got to run the bases afterwards!

July in general

Both Austin and Alex are playing soccer this summer – Austin on Wednesday nights, Alex on Monday nights (and with a practice on Wednesday nights). They both seem to be enjoying it.

In early July, the kids and I took a big TTC adventure downtown to meet auntie Suzie for lunch. It was 36C that day (plus humidity) but we still had a great time. We had lunch, and then since Suzie was only working a half day (it was a Friday), we wandered around the Eaton Centre, checked out Ryerson campus and 'visited' the fountains at Dundas Square.

Because the kids were just a little wet after their 'visit' to the fountains, I called Ryan and rather than taking the bus and subway home, he met us after work and we then wandered over to Nathan Phillip Square with the kids and then went out for dinner. In all, a fun, but hot, day.

They both took swimming lessons for the first two weeks of summer (I love the every morning lessons in the summer, because the kids turn into fish!). And then for the third and fourth week of July they were both in camp. Alex was in a half day camp and Austin was in an all day camp at the same centre. They both had a lot of fun – Austin even going on 2 day trips, one to the movies and one to a carnival.

I think that’s about it for now. Now (since I wrote this in Word while at the cottage) you’re up-to-date. 

Read more...

June and July photos

As if I wasn't feeling guilty enough for being too busy to post in the last few months, several people in the last week have now not-so-subtly reminded me that I'm WAAAAYYYY behind.

So, here's a little something to tide you all over. Photos from June. Hopefully blog post with details of all these photos will come later this week.

Read more...

Racing Day, it's Racing Day

Saturday June 2 was racing day for the Evans boys! Both Austin and Ryan were competing in their first triathlons.

First up was Austin in the 6-7 age category. He had to swim 25 metres (with a lifejacket), bike 1.5 kilometres and then run 500 metres. He completed it in 19 minutes and 10 seconds and we are both so proud of him!

He looked pretty wiped when he got to the finish line, but was pretty pleased with himself too. And on the way home, when we asked him if he had fun, his response was "I want to do another one again this year"! I guess it was fun!

Ryan raced a few hours later -- completing a 200 metre swim, a 9-kilometre bike and a 3-kilometre run in 35:58!

They did they're triathlon with our friends the Emersons and the Markhams -- below is a post race picture of  all the athletes!

And, of course, a post race photo of our athletes!

And here's a slideshow with all our photos:

Read more...

A quick update on what's going on

It's been awhile since I'm simply written an update on what's going on, so I'll try to keep it short and sweet here.

Alexandra
Alex has now finished preschool. She loved the program and I'm sad to see it come to an end. But it's time to start thinking about Kindergarten!

She has also finished speech therapy and will be going for a re-assessment later this month. I think she's improved greatly from the few months of therapy (she couldn't even make a 'k' sound before and now, not only can she do it but she remembers to use it in every day speech) but we'll see what the therapist says. If they think she would benefit from another session of therapy, then we'll likely try to squeeze it in over the summer.

Alex is also playing soccer for the first time this summer. (Ok, she played tot soccer when she was 2 but that doesn't really count because she wasn't really into it.) It just started last week so expect pictures of our soccer star soon.

Austin
Well with the school year coming to an end, it means Austin is just about done Kindergarten and is getting ready to go to Grade 1 in the fall. Can you believe it?! He's doing very well in French Immersion and seems to be picking up the language well. He can even string together short sentences.

He to is playing soccer this summer. For Austin, it started a few weeks ago and he seems to be enjoying it very much. It helps that his best friend Evan is on his team. Expect pictures of this soccer star as well! Austin's skating lessons are also done for the season now, and he's asked to play hockey in the fall.

Everything else I can think of
Both kids will be going to camp for two weeks in July -- Alex for half day camp and Austin for full day camp. It's the same camps they went to last summer, so they're both really excited to be going back.

Let's see, what else? Gymnastics is almost done. They both seem to have enjoyed it very much, but are now tiring of it. They've been going every week since the first week of September so I guess it's time to do something new.

Austin, Ryan and me have all competed in races recently. First I ran a 10K on Mother's Day (finished in 1:09:47 -- just 8 seconds shy of my personal best) and then Austin and Ryan ran triathlons on June 2 (race report and photo slideshow to follow shortly).

We got a new kitten at the end of April. Her name is Moo and she's now a little over 3 months old. The kids  absolutely love her (in fact, every night they ask for their doors to be left open so Moo can come into their rooms and sleep) and more importantly, Moo absolutely loves the kids. This is important because our other cat Chloe is terrified of the kids so it's nice for them to have a cat to play and cuddle with.

That's all I can think of for now...so I'll leave you with the last two slideshows:

Read more...

Meet the newest member of our family

An about 10-week old kitten joined our family last week. Her name is Moo (yes, like the sound a cow makes) and she's a beautiful calico.

The kids love her already. Mainly because unlike Chloe (our 9-year-old cat) Moo isn't a scardy cat. Moo will happily be played with by them for hours and will curl up on anyone's lap for a quick snooze.

 Oh yeah, and lying on my shoulder while I sit at my computer in my office is one of her favourite places! 

Read more...

Happy 4th Birthday Alex!

On Tuesday, Alexandra turned 4! She was super excited about it being her special day ... ALL day. The day started with preschool -- and our little fashionista insisted on dressing up for school and brought cupcakes to share with all her friends.

After school, I took both Austin and Alex to McDonalds for lunch (along with some friends of ours). It was sort of a mini-party. That night, we celebrated, just the four of us, with cupcakes.

Sunday was her party. A Princess Tea Party. So of course, she had to dress like a princess for the special event.

We invited five friends -- so in total there were seven kids including Austin and Alex. Four of them were dressed as princesses. We played musical chairs, had a dance party, did crafts and of course, ate cake and drank 'tea' (apple juice in a tea pot). I made a princess cake (Belle from Beauty and the Beast) for the occasion.

In all a good time -- and Alex declared that she loved her party, except for the part when her friends had to go home.

Happy Birthday Alex!

Read more...

March Break Madness

Austin, Alex and mom had a lot of fun over March Break. Ryan had to work, so the three of us did the staycation thing here in Toronto.

On Monday, we met some friends from Austin's school at the Maple Syrup Festival at the Kortright Centre. Suprisingly, it wasn't that crowded (probably because the forecast was calling for rain -- and it did rain, just as we were leaving). We walked down the maple syrup trail, learned how to make maple syrup, went on a wagon ride and watched a magic show. The kids had a blast -- and of course it was more fun to be there with friends.

Tuesday was a beautiful sunny and warm day so the kids I had hit the zoo right after lunch. Since we go to the zoo so often, I decided we should go to the Americas Pavillion because we rarely go there. We saw lots of snakes, birds and lizards as well as the otters. Then we went over to see the spider monkeys and the jaguars before heading back to visit the baby polar bear again (who was again sleeping -- so far, we're 0 for 2.)

On Wednesday, we lay low in the morning and then went to Alex's speech therapy appointment in the afternoon. Afterwards, since it was an even warmer and sunnier day than the day before, we went for a 'hike' through a nearby conservation area. We stuck to the paved trail (hence the quotes around hike) but we were on a mission. The trail followed the DVP and from the highway, the kids have often pointed out a tunnel on that trail that's painted like a rainbow. So, we found it!

Thursday we lay really low all day because we had big evening plans. We went to see Disney On Ice. So, around 4 p.m., the kids and I took the bus and subway downtown (which is a big deal on its own, because they so rarely get to ride the bus and subway) to meet Ryan and auntie Suzie for dinner. Afterwards, we all went to the show (thanks for the tickets auntie Suzie!). The kids had a blast!

On Friday, we went with a friend to the Science Centre -- where it was crazy busy but a lot of fun. We ended up staying for almost 5 hours -- visiting mainly areas that we rarely ever go to and coming home completely exhausted.

To end off, here's a link to the latest slideshow of pictures: https://plus.google.com/photos/107184376695639310597/albums/5724376137465970481?authkey=CPK5m67Kvd-EhgE

Read more...

Trip to Montreal

On March 2, Ryan and I headed to Montreal for a long weekend without the kids. We left on Friday afternoon and drove down the 401 to Brockville where the kids stayed with Auntie Krista. After about an hour, we were back on the road and by 8 p.m., we were checking into our hotel in Old Montreal.

To be honest, after a long drive, our Friday evening in Montreal consisted of finding somewhere for dinner and then crashing back at the hotel in front of the TV.

After a sleep that wasn't interupted by children ;-), we met my friend Laura and her husband Matt for brunch at a nearby place. Laura and I have been friends for 25 years, but with life as it is these days, we don't see much of each other anymore. So it was nice to spend a few hours with them.

After that, Ryan and I wandered along St. Catherine's Street for awhile and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel to get ready for the evening. You see, the purpose of our trip was to go to a Habs-Leafs hockey game at the Bell Centre. One of Ryan's sub-contractors sent him and his boss four tickets at Christmas for the two of them (and their wives) to attend the game (with someone from the company, of couse).

We were first taken to dinner at the restaurant in the Bell Centre where, by chance, Henri Richard was also having dinner. And yes, I was one of those people who went up and asked to have my picture taken with him. (Although I at least waited until he finished his dinner!) Henri Richard was one of my father's favourite players growing up and I just had to show him that I met him. He was very nice and very gracious about having his photo taken.

After dinner, we went down to our seats -- which were in the third row! I have never sat that close in my life (and probably never will again) and it certainly is a lot of fun to watch a game from that perspective!

Unfortunately, the Habs losts (or as Ryan would say, fortuntely the Leafs won) but it was still a lot of fun!

The evening ended with drinks at a local bar.

Sunday was the only day we didn't have any set plans so we rolled out of bed in time to have 'breakfast' at Schwartz's at noon! Mmmmmm, smoked meat sandwiches.

After that we decided to go for a drive around Mt. Royal and then, since it was such a nice day (cold, but sunny) we walked around Mt. Royal for awhile.

Later that evening, we had dinner at a restaurant in Old Montreal and then tried to find a bar. But unfortunately, being a Sunday in March meant that most places in Old Montreal were closed. So we grabbed a cab downtown and looked for somewhere to go there. Places were open, but again, being a Sunday in March, meant they were all pretty dead. After about half an hour, we gave up our search, grabbed a bottle of wine from the liquor store (which was still open) and went back to our hotel and watched a movie.

On Monday morning, we hit Schwartz's again for breakfast (and this time it was even before 11 a.m.!), grabbed several dozen bagels from Fairmount and headed home.

We picked up the kids in Brockville and were told that they had a fabulous time. They got to play in the snow and make a snowman (something they haven't been able to do in Toronto this winter); and they went to the Science and Technology museum in Ottawa. Auntie Krista even admitted that although she was exhausted after the weekend, she'd still take them back again for a weekend (phew!)

Read more...

Happy 6th Birthday Austin!

On Friday, Austin turned 6! He had a pretty good day -- brought cookies to school to share with his class and then I took the kids to McDonalds for lunch and to play in the playplace.

His party was on Saturday morning at a nearby indoor playground. He invited 7 friends and their younger siblings so in total there were 11 kids (7, 5-6 year old and 4, 3 year olds.) We had a private party at the centre, so the kids had the place to themselves to run around.

They had a blast and barely wanted to stop for pizza and cake.

 Happy Birthday Austin!

Read more...

Baby cousin

I was so busy catching up in the last post that I forgot to include the big news: Austin and Alex have a new baby cousin! My sister, Alison, gave birth to a healthy baby boy on January 27. Julian Emmanuel Biggs weighed 7lbs, 3oz and now, almost three weeks later, is growing like a weed.

We've Skyped with them twice since he was born and mom, dad, big brother Theodore and Julian are all doing well.

Here he is, my baby nephew, at two weeks old!

Read more...

Just an update on what we've been up to

Yet again, another month has gone by since the last time I wrote. I guess it's been busy around here. Let's see if I can recap what's been going on.

January started out slow -- with the first week of January being part of the school Christmas holidays. The kids and I made the most of our week together -- going to the zoo one day, hitting an indoor playground another day and meeting up with friends on another day. Then it was back to the real world.

Alexandra
Alex is once again in preschool four mornings a week. She's really enjoying it and has made several friends. Next week, I'll be registering her for JK. It's hard to believe she'll be starting Kindergarten this fall. And the school she'll be going to is switching to an all-day Kindergarten school, so unlike Austin who has been in half-day Kindergarten for the last two years, she'll be starting full-day school in September -- at the same time that Austin starts full-day school in Grade 1 (and yes, that means that mommy will suddenly have full days to herself).

In mid-January, Alex went for a speech assessment. Those of you who see her on a regular basis know that she can sometimes be difficult to understand -- at least until you learn to speak Alex! We had had her speech assessed last June, and at the time, she was only slightly delayed so we opted against therapy.

Now that she's almost 4, she's still lagging behind her age bracket and will be starting speech therapy at the end of February.

On another note, she's still taking gymnastics once a week (and will be until the end of June) and we go to swimming lessons once a week. She's enjoying both.

Austin
In mid-January, Auntie Suzie was able to get her hands on two tickets to Monster Jam (thanks Auntie Suzie! And although I don't have any good pictures to share, I also have to thank Auntie Suzie for getting us four extremely last-minute tickets to the Disney Princesses show the week before.). Ryan and Austin went together...and he had a BLAST!

Like Alex, Austin is also taking gymnastics once a week and swimming lessons once a week. And, he's still taking skating lessons once a week. He loves it but seems to only have one speed -- go fast! Ryan and I are just waiting for the day when he tells us he wants to play hockey.

And he's still doing very well at the French Immersion school, and seems to still be enjoying it.

Mom and dad

Nothing really to report on us. Although, in March, we are escaping for a weekend to Montreal without the kids (the kids are taking a vacation at Auntie Krista's). We're looking forward to a weekend away -- and to the Habs vs. Leafs hockey game! (Go Habs!)

That's about it for now, here's a short slideshow to finish up.

Read more...