School (and everything else) starts…

So, another school year has started and once again, B is not happy about being left behind by his sisters.  This year I don’t have a picture of him wailing at the bus stop.  You’ll just have to visualize it.   Actually, it was when we dropped him of at the caregiver, but the expression was pretty much the same.  :-)  Don’t worry, he got over it pretty quickly.

This week is the first full week of the girls going to full-day kindergarten.  All of the kids’ activities started last weekend too – swimming (for all three kids), piano lessons and Chinese school (for the girls only).  So, naturally this week everyone is a little bit on edge and there have been lots of time-outs and melt-downs late in the day.

Keeping with tradition, I captured the girls on their first day of school…

The first day of school we had some issues with the bus, and the girls ended up not being dropped off at the caregivers’ house.  But I think we have it all sorted out now.  Also on that day, we discovered that the girls have been separated this year into two different classes.  Not a big deal, but it might have been nice to know that a bit in advance so I could have prepared them … especially E who is not crazy about the idea.   And I have sneaking suspicion that the main reason the girls were separated was to make it easier for their teachers to tell them apart, and not for their benefit.  But, whatever, it will probably be good for the girls too. 

Finally, for the last year or so, I’ve been struggling with the girls who always want “wild hair” – i.e., no barrettes or pony-tails, etc.  But I can’t stand seeing their hair in their eyes all the time.   Last Saturday we had an appointment to get their hair trimmed, and on a whim we all decided that bangs were the way to go.  Here are before and after pictures, all taken within a couple of hours of each other… (sorry for the quality of the first shot… it was taken by DoT on his cell phone)

Finally, for those of you still having difficulties telling the girls apart, your troubles may soon end.  We had both girls to the eye doctor on Friday, and it looks like at least one of them may need glasses.  (Of course, I guess if they both end up with glasses, you could still have problems.)  We go back at the end of the month, to further assess them, and we’ll see then.  I broached the subject of glasses with them, and unlike my experience (oh so many years ago, when glasses were absolutely not  desirable), both girls want to have glasses.

Finally, I wanted to put up a picture of the kids in their new Chinese outfits from Auntie P and Uncle J.  (Thanks so much, J&P!)  The outfits are fantastic.  My pictures really don’t do them justice. 

I had to take a lot of pictures to get this one decent one (with them all looking at the camera and smiling).  Here’s one of the failed attempts, but I still love this picture…

Okay, so I think we’re now up-to-date (for anyone who hasn’t already seen it, I put up a post a couple of days ago.  Scroll down if you missed it.) 

K…

Vacation Part 3

This post has been a long time coming.  We’ve been very busy, and I just haven’t been able to find the time to put up another blog post.  But I didn’t want to miss telling you all about our trip to Centre Island (Toronto), so I’m finally resorting to just a  quick post with a bunch of pictures.

Friends of ours had suggested to us that when we were in Toronto we should check out Centre Island.  And am I ever glad we listened to them.   This place is perfect for kids our kids’ ages.  For weeks after we came back to Ottawa the kids asked when we were going to go to Centre Island again.  We had such a great time.  Here are a few of the (many) pictures we took….

Checking out the view on the ferry ride to the Island. 

B and I riding the chair lift across the Island.  Notice my seemingly happy expression in spite of the fact that I did not enjoy the ride at all.  I’m not a fan of heights, and despite the fact that the chair didn’t look that high up from the ground, when I was up in it, it seemed a lot higher.  B on the other hand loved the ride. 

As did the girls (A in this picture) and DoT…

Don’t you think every car should have two steering wheels?

  Hey little brother!

Riding the rails. 

And, of course, there was the always popular merry-go-round.

Finally, after learning my lesson with the chair lift, I made DoT take all the kids on the Ferris wheel.  First A and B…

Then E…

I zoomed in for this picture, from at least 20 metres away.  How does she always know when I’m taking a picture, and manage to mess it up at the last moment?…  

Okay, so that’s all I’m going to say (show) about Centre Island.  For anyone out there with kids between 2 and 8-ish, I’d highly recommend it.

Coming soon… a post about what’s happened in Ottawa since we got back.

Summer Vacation – Part 2

After the cottage we headed to Toronto for a few days.  Day 1 was a trip to the zoo.  The kids were pretty impressed with the animals we saw, even though it was very hot and we were there most of the day.  Here are the most popular animals we saw (yes some are dad’s favourites)…

 

 

Spot the loudest animals in this picture (hint: there are three of them)

 

Hey wait a minute!  These elephants aren’t nearly as big as they looked a few minutes ago…

 

Don’t worry tiger – the fence protects you from our kids…

 

 

How come the orangutan can wash windows but our parents can’t?

 

I don’t believe it either A, but dad claims it swims in the water..

 

This polar bear could backstroke with the best of them

 

We’re the star attraction!!

 

Thankfully the kids didn’t realize you could get camel rides – dad wasn’t keen on that idea

 

 

These animals were more fun to ride, although they kept turning left all the time…

 

These are the only animals mom and dad would let us bring home – they said “no” to the tiger…

Vacation 2010 – Part 1

For the last two weeks, we have been vacationing.  We started off at our annual cottage week in Grand Bend, Ontario.  For the last ten years or so, my family has rented a ‘cottage’ (really more of a house) and all congregated next to Lake Huron for a week.  As always, we had a great time again this year.  I think our kids would happily spend 24 hours per day at the beach.  E spent a lot of the time just running up and down the shoreline.  B and A alternated between the water and the sand.  And DoT and I mostly sat and enjoyed watching.  :-)

 

They also spent a lot of time as super-heroes….

And being with cousins, and aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas was pretty great too…

There are lots more pics on my flick*r account, so head on over there if you’re interested in them.  (Send me an email, or leave a comment if you want me to add you as a ‘friend’ to view the pictures.)

Also, after viewing all these droopy-drawers pictures from the last couple of weeks, I just ordered one-piece swimsuits for the girls.  :-)

K…

Happy Family Day, E and A!

It’s been a busy time for us lately… the girls’ birthday was on June 27th, then Canada Day on the 1st and the girls’ Family Day on July 2nd. 

On their birthday, we went strawberry picking at a local farm here (Proulx).  It’s become a tradition that every year at around this time, we meet up with friends for a morning of strawberry picking and fun at the farm.  This year it had been raining a lot the week before we went, so it was very wet.  And the berries weren’t very good.  But the kids had fun anyhow…

Then after the strawberry picking we came home for birthday cake…

And the best part, for the kids, I think, was licking the candles.  Although the first time he did it, B stuck the wrong end in his mouth.  :-)  Good thing they had blown the candles out first. 

On Canada Day we went to park not far from our house.  I thought rather than try to head downtown to Parliament Hill, where I knew there would be too many people (over 100,000, I’ve heard since), we’d go to a local park where I knew they had Canada Day events planned.  Well there were still way too many people.  The girls really wanted to ride the merry-go-round and the Ferris wheel, but the lines were so long we’d have had to wait over an hour I’m sure for either one.  So, instead we paid too much money for them to have (their first) horse ride.  They all enjoyed it, but all the way to the car they still complained about not getting to ride the Ferris wheel. 

And then, Friday was Family Day for the girls – the anniversary of the day we got them.  It’s hard to believe it’s been four years since we first met E and A.   The time is going way too fast.   So here are this year’s pics (yes, there are two of each of them… I can’t decide which of their referral photos I like best.  Must be the chicken suits – I’m sure they’d make anyone look great) …

If you are interested in looking at the photos from previous years, check them out here…

2009:  http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html

2008:  http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2008/05/happy-referral-day.html

2007:  http://andstillwaiting.blogspot.com/2007/07/happy-uh-gotcha-day.html

My work has finally lightened up a bit, thankfully.  I’ve been very, very busy at work right up until yesterday.  Last week , E drew a family picture that she gave to DoT… I was conspicuously absent in the picture.  :-(  I guess my family may be feeling a bit neglected.  Oh well, I should be around more now, and hopefully the blog posts will pick up to prove it.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far, and keeping cool somehow.  We’re in the middle of a heat wave in Ottawa, with temperatures feeling like 38 or 39 degrees with the humidex.  I’m really looking forward to heading to the cottage in a few weeks in Grand Bend.  For any of you reading who are in that area, think about dropping by for a visit.  We’d love to see you.  Send me an email if you think you can make it, and I’ll give you dates and directions.

Bye for now.

K…