Day out with Thomas... toot toot!!

Yesterday was a very special day, Emma got to meet one of her favourite character, Thomas the Tank Engine! For those of you without little ones, Thomas the Tank Engine is probably one of the most popular Children's programming amonst the toddler set.
For the past two weeks, Thomas left his home on "The island of Sodor" and was staying here in Winnipeg at the Prairie Dog Central Railway.
Of course, we needed to purchase tickets for this one ($20 per person 2 years and up). I must say, this event was definitely worth every penny. Not only did Emma have a great time, so did Xavier.
There were so many things to do which including, of course a train ride, storytime, videos, inflatable bouncy things, magicians, clowns, Sir Topham Hatm, as well as an imagination station.
Emma was so excited to meet Thomas in "real life".
"They're 2, they're 4, they're 6, they're 8. Shunting trucks and hauling freight. Red and green and brown and blue, they're the really useful crew...."
Yeah, it was good!

Canada Day Fun in the Sun

Happy belated Canada day! Hope everyone had a great day!
First and foremost a big congratulations to Pascale who officially became a Canadian citizen yesterday! We had the intention to go to the swearing in ceremony. It was at the mint at 9h15, but sometimes, with little ones, best intentions is all you can give. We, unfortunately did not make it. However, we did extend our congrats to her.

So this is what we did. We walked down our street (with the kids riding in the stroller of course), across the Louise Bridge, up Higgins and down Waterfront Dr to the Waterfront Dock. At the Waterfront Dock we caught the waterbus which brought us to the Hugo Dock on Wellington Drive. From there we walked all the way on Wellington Crescent to Assiniboine Park (about a 10km walk).
We enjoyed some of the Canada Day festivities including a bouncy Winnie the Pooh house for Emma to jump in, ice cream, music and of course hot dogs. Believe it or not, I actually found a hot dog vendor that sold veggie dogs! Amazing! That made me very happy!
We than made our way to the Zoo where Richard waited in line FOREVER just to get some drinks for us!
We made our way home by walking back to the Pavillion area of the park and walking across the footbridge to Portage Ave, where we hopped on the 11 Kildonan which brought us all the way back home minus a block or two.
All in all, a good Canada day.
Oh yeah, I did all that walking wearing leisure shoes, so I'm a little achy breaky this morning. Getting out of bed was a hard thing to do!!
:-)

On the road again...

Okay, so I meant to blog a few times last week, but never got around to it. We did have a busy week.
I think it's important to note that we now have a pool in our backyard! Don't get too excited, it's not inground or anything fancy. However, it does the trick, it's 12' wide and 30" tall, so it's perfect for us and our little ones. We've been spending most mornings enjoying our new pool.
On Monday of last week, we finally got together to celebrate Diane's birthday (it was on the 11th)! We had pizza and cake. It was nice.
Tuesday was a busy day. We had "Bebe, parents et gazouillements" in the morning, it was an outdoor celebration since it happened to be June 24 (la St-Jean-Baptiste). There were quite a few cankerworms, but it was still a nice time. The kids played in little kiddie pools and we had a finger food lunch.
We visited Memere Gendron (my mom) in the afternoon for a little bit until Richard finished work on the house. We then went to visit Pepere and Memere (my dad and step-mom) where we had a great meal and a great visit. I must say my dad makes THE BEST bbq potatoes! So yummy! Before heading back into the city we stopped for a short visit to my brother's house, so the kids could play a little bit and we got to meet the new alpacas on the farm.
Wednesday we had some shopping to do, we also had a well deserved visit with the chiropractor. In the evening we went to our Families Connecting class where a lawyer came to talk about Wills, Power of Attorneys and Health Care documents. The best part about the class was that I was finally able to go with my bike because we now have a bike trailer for the kids to ride in. It felt great to be riding on a bike again! For those wondering, I was able to get a helmet for Emma from MEC(Mountain Equipment Coop), they also have infant helmets, but were sold out when we went. I got Xavier's helmet from Woodcock Cycle and Ski on St-Mary's Rd.
Thursday Richard had his annual physical, we had wanted to go to Tinkertown, but they were not opening during the week yet, waiting for school to let out for the summer. Instead we went to the Children's Museum. Emma had a great time as usual and Xavier is finally started to enjoy himself there as well. They have a little area specially designed for the under 2 group. We also took a little boat tour down at the docks at the Forks, it was nice.

Garage sale success

We had a garage sale this weekend and we did really well. However, I did find that doing a garage sale on a Sunday is not really worth it. Next time we will do it over a Friday evening and Saturday morning.
We made enough money to be able to purchase a bike trailer for the kids. Now I just need to find a specialty bike store so I can get bike helmets for the kids. In the stores they only start selling at 3 years +.
Very excited.

Composting fun!

First of all I want to say a happy (albeit belated) father's day to all the Papa's and Grandpapa's out there. Didn't have time to post anything yesterday :-)

On Saturday it was the annual Earth Machine compost sale. For more information about their products visit: www.earthmachine.com
Richard went out first thing and purchased a new composter for our yard.
This morning, after breakfast, I went to get the composter started with my trusty sidekick (Emma). We started by putting in dry leaves that we had saved from last fall. (Tip: if you want to keep composting throughout the winter, simply bag your leaves in the fall and place them in a dry cool place, add to composter as needed).
Emma was very excited, she really enjoys helping out in the garden. She even put in, all by herself, all the kitchen "greens and browns" I had put aside over the weekend. She started helping me dig up some worms, but got quickly grossed out as the worm started to move in her GLOVED hand! Hahaha! That's my girl!
Emma is still outside helping Papa with the yardwork. Xavier and I are inside relaxing now that the afternoon sun has come out. Time also to make some lunch!

Everybody was Kung Fu fighting!!

Yesterday we ventured out to see our second movie as a family. If you go during the day, usually the sound is lowered so it's not so hard on little ears. Also, Silvercities offer what is called Stars and Strollers, which is baby friendly and they even offer "stroller parking".
Anyway, we went to go see "Kung Fu Panda". It was a really good movie, Emma really enjoyed it as well, she laughed a lot. There was one part that lasted about 5 mins let's say, that she found a bit scary, but she just cuddled into Papa and everything was good. There are many Disney cartoons that are much scarier then this one.
I definitely recommend this movie. I had fun.

Happy Birthday Diane!

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday! Hurray! Let's all sign together. I won't divulge her age, but say that she is older than me ;)
hehehe