I'm Baaaaack

So, it has been quite some time since I have posted. Here is a quick update on what we have been up to.

Trip to the Toronto Zoo with the kids, and Kurt's parents as well. It was awesome! The boys like the fish the most, they ran around saying "Nemo, nemo". Thanks a lot Disney...They had such a great time that we went to Springwater Park that has animals as well, and the local zoo in Elmvale too. Fun, fun, fun

We played hide and seek, made forts, we painted, markered and stickered, we went to the park every day, sang songs, danced, did science experiements, and played pretend. Below Jude is being a robot, because all cardboard boxes either became trians or robots. Isn't that what they are for?

Naomi and my Dad flew through for a quick visit, and stopped to enjoy some strawberries of course. Later on the whole family, and I mean everyone, descended for a short family reunion. Coordinating the brief overlapping visits from my brothers out west took some work, but it was so cool to have the whole family together for a day.

 We camped! We camped with friends and and a bazillion of our kids altogether at Grundy, and later we camped just with our little family at Arrowhead. It was fantastic, the boys really loved the whole thing, so did we!

 We celebrated! We celebrated Kurt's birthday, Scott and Jillian's engagement, and recently Rob and Ashley's wedding.

And now it is back to school and work, and the insanity that is juggling work and home. In fact, I should be marking, or doing laundry, or planning, or making phone calls, or making a newsletter, or emptying the dishwasher...really there are about 100 more important things than updating this blog! See you later...

Love love love long weekends...

Beautiful weekend, beautiful pictures. Who needs words?

After our brief stint of 'summer' in the middle of March, things have cooled off quite a bit. But that's okay because it is always nice to cosy up with a book to read with your stuffed animals. We like to frequent the library to keep our reading materials fresh, and to hit up the story time as well. Despite our best efforts to bring new and exciting books home, Jude somehow manages to bring home the same books - trucks, trucks, trucks anything about trucks. The book in the picture is a very dry, but beautifully illustrated, alphabet book about construction equipment. *sigh* I'll just keep trying to warm him up to some other topics as well. I was successful with "The Doorbell Rang" by Pat Hutchins, but then I wanted to ring the authors neck after the 1 millionth reading of it in a row. Oh, well, at least it wasn't "h is for horizontal borer, q is for quad axle lowbed"...

Jude Speak

Jude's talking has increased a lot lately. This has led to some interesting converations. Here is one example.

Jude: What was that noise?

Me: The noise you just made with your mouth?

Jude: Yeah, from my mouth. I farted in my mouth!

Me: Actually Jude, that's called a burp.

Jude: Oh, 'scuse me.

Ring around the River

More conversations with a two year old

Jude: "Snowman?"

Kurt: "No Jude, we can't build a snowman right now. It is dark outside."

Jude: "Snowman?"

Kurt: "No Jude, it's too late. Also it is dark outside we can't see anything out there."

Jude: "Moon. Snowman!"

Oh Jude, way to find the loophole around the 'no light' outside in the winter.

Peas

Jude: "Peas, Mom?"

Me: "No, we are all out of peas, sorry"

Jude: "Grocery store? Peas?"

Me: "Yes, the next time I go to the store I will get more peas."

Jude: "Peas..mmm...good"

I will cherish this conversation forever and will etch it into my mind for the inevitable future moment when my child, instead of requesting vegetables, will be throwing some kind of tantrum for junk food. For now I will enjoy this moment of cute perfection. I will also enjoy the sweet pictures of my boys below!

Sick...

The last week before the holidays first Jude and then River were very sick with croup. This carried on over the break, when Kurt got sick as well. During this time we visited family, and scraped together a few festivies of our own. Finally, the boys were all better and we returned back to work/daycare routine. Then River got the flu, I got sick, and then Jude got the flu. So...I am skipping any details about our holidays other than to say that we survived, presents were given and recieved, and Kurt and I haven't had a decent nights sleep in over a month (well, I haven't slept since I was pregnant with Jude....but that's another rant for another day).

Photo Update...since I have been so slack in wrting entries! Here the boys are enjoying the squirrels romping around the backyard.



We finally got a good dumping of snow and had to celebrate by making a snow(wo)man.

Oops, forgot to mention that River also began walking over the holidays. He now looks like he is part of some baby fight club as he is covered with bruises. It is exciting, but also very alarming.

River was pretty sick on his birthday, so we celebrated a week later with a 'monkey' themed party. We had monkey cupcakes, snacked on fruit kebabs, and made palm tree decorations. All to celebrate our little monkey named River. It has been quite the crazy year. We're glad to have survived it, and we look forward to many more with our little monkey man.

Jude just had to help make the cupcakes.