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Shaune's amazing Nana turned 94 a few days ago. She is a magnificent woman, I have so much respect and admiration for Kay. She is beautiful and smart and loved by so many. Here is a photo my mom-in-law Lynn sent me from her birthday celebration. Wish I could of been there to give her a birthday hug.
Just a photo I snapped of Keaton before School today. He is growing up so fast. Grade 2... hard to believe. He is hockey obsessed. Shaune took him to a Belleville Bulls hockey game last week and he loved it. He got this goalie mini stick and Shaune had it signed by their amazing goalie... the goalie billots with a co-worker of Shaune's. Keaton loves it and has it in his hands at all times practically (or right beside him, like this photo shows). He is refusing to play soccer this summer... we are leaving it a bit to see if he changes his mind. His reasoning is that it doesn't have anything to do with hockey (as opposed to 'ball hockey') so he doesn't want to play. Go figure.
We celebrated Adah's 2nd birthday 2wkends ago. I really cannot believe my one and only neice is two years old. She is so sweet, and will have a little brother or sister soon! Sarah and Aaron invited us and other family over for a nice BBQ and fun for the kids. Keaton and Chloe love their little Adah so much and we all laughed so hard when Adah had a little sugar-high from her birthday cake and just kept screaming and giggling "nummy, nummy, nummy"... yes, she liked the cake. Sarah made the cutest Elmo cake - I was very impressed. Watch out Sarah or I'll be asking you for a cake for Chloe in June ;)
Happy birthday Adah, we love you so!
Adah and her new sandbox:
Chloe loved painting her flower pot:
Blowing out her candles:
I love this photo of Adah and her mommy:
Keaton:
The girls had an tea party:
Well, I had hoped since the kids were up til after midnight last night watching movies that they would sleep in... I can barely get them out of bed by 8:15am in time to get ready for school but on vacation I guess that isn't the same thing. Chloe woke me up at 7ish... too early. I am tired tonight. We will not be up as late tonight! :)
We didn't get out of the hotel room til around 10:30am and headed across the road from our hotel for some Starbucks. Then we walked the 10 minute walk down to Clifton Hills where all things "tourist trap" live. The kids liked seeing everything and we looked at going in a few of the different places (Ripley's Believe it or not, etc) but Chloe was totally freaked out by the wax people and all the Haunted House facades along the main street. So... mostly we did the road and made out way down to the Falls. Wow. I've seen them lots but when you are standing at the end of the path where the Canadian Horseshoe Falls tumble down... it is crazy the amount of water and the drop it takes. Maid of the Mist was closed because there is still some chunks of ice in the water so we mostly just 'looked'. We made it back to our hotel and spent some time with Shaune at the pool. Shaune is at an event tonight so the kids and I are hanging... chillin' and we just watched Alvin & The Chipmunks. Cute, I guess. They laughed and laughed so that is what is important! We ordered in Chinese Food for supper (Keaton's idea) and it was tasty. All in all... a fun day! Now how do I get these kiddies to bed?!
Some photos of our day...
K & C at Dennys for breakfast:
Clifton Hills:
Down at the Falls:
Last one... Keaton and 'the slide':
Day 1 in Niagara Falls is almost over. We are getting set to watch a movie in bed and I told the kids they could stay up as late as they want.... hoping they'll sleep in til 9am tomorrow! We didnt' get here until around 4pm. Niagara Falls is about a 3 hr drive from where we live, plus pit stops for coffee and *other* things. The hotel is really nice. Shaune knows many people staying here for the conference and will be busy most the time we are here, he is here on a work conference.
Once we settled into the hotel, we went for a walk to show the kids the massive waterfalls surrounding us (you can see both the US waterfall and the awesome Canadian horseshoe waterfall from our hotel room - we are on the 19th floor). Tonight Shaune had a meet & greet to attend and so after our walk we all went to supper at the Keg and then Shaune went to *work* and I took the kids down to the gigantic pool here. They hit the jackpot with the corkscrew waterslide that they must of each went down 20x. I even tried it out a few times with Chloe sitting on my lap. Talk about giggles (from both of us!) I'll have to take some photos tomorrow of the pool fun.
So... to sum it up. We are having a good time on our last minute escape to Niagara. Here are a few photos from today.
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The long 3 hr drive... Nintendo DS's, snacks, Leappad, and other distractions kept us all sane.
A view from our hotel room to the USA falls. We are staying at the Fallsview Hilton:
The kiddies:
Shaune and Keaton on our walk:
Shaune and Keaton goofing off at supper:
Keaton the Tourist:
Miss Chloe:
Chloe is starting to enjoy Kindergarten and is learning to not complain each and every morning she has to go to school. LOL. Honestly, once she is up and out the door...waiting for the bus, she is happy to be going - but for months now there has been complaining and a lot of this: "Momma, I HATTTTTTTTTTTTTTE school!"
I think it is a combination of her uncertainties about school and friends there, along with her deep love of just chillin' with her mom and dog at home. I mean, school is great but where other than home can you throw a tea party for you and your dog (complete with dog bones) in your underwear with crazy hair that Mom hasn't made you brush. I need to get a picture of one of these tea parties?! Chloe's most favourite place in the world is HOME. I love that about her. Sometimes I will ask her if she wants to go to the park and she says no... that she'd rather stay at home and hang out with her dog in the back yard, perhaps while wearing a frilly dress-up 'pretending' dress.
Anyhow, back to the school thing. She is doing pretty good. Here (I live in Ontario Canada) we have 2 years of Kindergarten. It is within the public school and Chloe see's her brother at recess and plays with mostly the boys from her class and some girls from Grades 1 & 2. She is learning really well and one of the things we have needed to work with her on is numbers (it was the same for Keaton at age 4). She is loving all this 'homework' at night and relishes in the attention and praise. I snapped some photos of my gal practicing her number identifying and her counting skills with her daddy tonight. She is so darn cute!
Every year my great friend Melissa puts her extreme talents to use and creates a spectacular evening for a group of ladies (luckily, myself included) who appreciate amazing cuisine and fun times. This year she used her 'chef-y' skills to make the most incredible theme dinner featuring the many meals in a day. Each course represented a different 'meal' such as breakfast, brunch, lunch, high tea, supper, dessert, midnight snacks'. Wow, she made so many amazing dishes that I can't even pick a favourite. She makes the most amazing creme brulee and her beef tenderloin was too-die-for. Appetizers such as mini Eggs Blackstone, Lobster bisque and goat cheese salad ... the list goes on and on - it was amazing and the best food I've ate in quite a while.
All this, she does for such a good cause. We raised almost $1400 for Breast Cancer and the "Pink Ladies PJ Party" was a huge success! We all wore pink pajamas and had a great evening. My hat is off to Melissa who is the most amazing hostess, as well as her mother Jay who offers up the Grotto for our party.
Here are a few photos of the fun. The lighting was very low so some are blurry... but by the end of the night I might of been seeing a little blurry myself. HA. I got home sometime after 1am.
THANKS MEL!
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