Alex's 3rd Birthday!!!

Yesterday was Alex's third birthday. We invited several kids from Vanderhoof and two of our friends' families from PG... as well as our families. It sounds overwhelming, but it worked out really well. The weather held up for us, so we were able to spend the majority of the day outside in the backyard. Alex's swingset has never seen so much use! The children had a great time and so did Aunty Lindsay! LOL From 11:30 until about 3:00, we had the "kids" party. After that it was just Alex's grandparents and us, so a lot quieter and more peaceful. They stayed for dinner and headed home about 8:00. It was a great day!


Alex is opening his gift from us. We bought him an easel... it has a chalkboard on one side, a whiteboard and paper roll on the other side and then trays to hold his crayons, chalk, paint, etc. It's pretty neat. The thing I think I would have loved as a kid... wonder if he'll let me use it? ;)

Grandma Judy made Alex's birthday cake for us.... how cute is that? It was "Birthday Bear", one of Alex's (or Cory's) beloved Care Bears. It was funny though, cause when it came time to blow out the candles (we tried twice), Alex ran and hid. Maybe too many people?

Opening presents with Aunty Lindsay... and Connor! See Grandpa snoozing in the background?

How cute is this gift? We put it outside on the deck and Alex ate dinner at it. It was like having our own little bistro!

Our second go at the cake... again, didn't want to blow out the candles.

Bubbles, courtesy of Uncle Eric's bubble blowing machine... for some reason he didn't want to pack it to Ontario, so we inherited it.


This is the most kids we've seen on this swingset at one time! How neat!

Wow...

Well, I finished reading "the book" today. It was definitely the most intense book of the entire Harry Potter series. It was really, really hard to put down... and if I didn't have children, I wouldn't have taken 4 days to read it. I won't say anything here to spoil it for anyone who may not have read it yet, but WOW... it's the kind of book that leaves you wanting more. I'm going to go back and read it again, at a more leisurely pace because I'm sure I've missed key hints here and there. I'm tempted to re-read the entire series and see if I can pick up on some of JK's foreshadowing, but I'm not sure I'm up for that again, as really, I just read them in the spring for the umpteenth time.

I took some really great pictures today so without further ado... this is the best one yet of my boys...

And here's a lovely picture of my son enjoying his strained prunes... bleah! Not sure why, but Alex loved them too.

Yesterday was Cory's birthday. Mom and Dad gave him a barbecue... I'm very excited about that! All that stands between us and bbq'd steaks is... putting it together. Wish us luck!

See how helpful my guys are at unwrapping Daddy's gifts?

Ready for a walk with Grandpa... my little gangsta!

New photos...

So, here's a bit more of an update for our friends (whoever's still following my neglected blog at this point)... on July 1st Connor turned 6 months old. We're still dappling with solids so here's his first introduction. He quite enjoyed the cereal that I mixed for him. I fed him and Cory snapped photos.


Oops... I either over-fed him or under-fed him, but suddenly he was furious that I took the spoon away and ended the meal. Huh...


In June we attended his cousin Tyler's wedding reception. It was fun, we drove to William's Lake for the day, his brother Matt and girlfriend Janis, drove in from Calgary (10.5 hours!) and his other brother joined us from Kamloops, so Cory's whole family was together for at short while. Matt's holding Connor and Mark is holding his son, Brandon. Alex didn't want to be in the picture... he was too busy dancing up a storm on the dance floor.



My little guy sits up now... he's getting really good at it. I usually put a pillow behind him though, to catch him when he falls... this time I'm just out of the frame... ready to catch him.


Happy Canada Day! and Happy 1/2 birthday Connor! We went for dinner to Cory's parents' house and she nicely made a cake to commemorate both occasions!

Splashing in the kiddie pool...

Not sure what to make of the jolly jumper... I think Alex enjoys it more than Connor.... umm... "No Alex, it's not a swing... please stop pushing him!"

July...

Well, it's been brought to my attention that I haven't updated this page in a while. What can I say, July has and always will be a busy month for us. Today is Cory's birthday. Saturday is Alex's birthday. We also celebrated our 9th anniversary a couple of weeks ago by taking a very rare opportunity to leave the boys with their Grandparents and going to a matinee of the new Harry Potter movie. Don't watch it unless you read the book first! It leaves way too much to the imagination. I really enjoyed the movie and would love to sneak out and see it one more time in theatre, but that would mean leaving Cory to deal with bedtimes by himself. Umm... don't think that would go overly well! :)

On Saturday morning, bless him, Cory went straight from work to wait in line at Extra Foods to pick up a copy of the newest, and last, Harry Potter book because I'd been given the information that they were only getting 36 copies and we'd better get there early because when book 6 came out people were lined up outside. Cory was home 10 minutes after the store opened, with the first copy sold... so I guess there aren't as many die-hards in this town of 5000 as I thought. LOL

So... I've been shorting myself on sleep for the last two days and half indulged in staying up way past putting the boys to bed to read. Last night I went to bed 1 minute after Cory turned 31 so I was able to wish him a happy birthday before retiring. And no, that wasn't at 12:01, it was after the time of day he was actually born... so I'll let you guess as to how late that was. I kept waiting for a chapter to end on a non-cliffhanger note... or my eyes to get sore from pushing myself... neither of which happened.

Cory read the first chapter and then put it down and said I could read it first... which is sweet, but frustrating cause I have no one to discuss the shocking bits with. Might have to phone my brother Nathan, although he's likely already finished it (not having babies to attend to all weekend gives him a bit more leisure time than me) and Cory said he might let something slip that I haven't read yet. Anyway... here's my review... it's amazing... every chapter is so compelling!!! If you haven't read the series, what are you waiting for? Don't fool yourself into thinking that the movies are good enough... they're not! Sure they're great, but they're eye candy and very low on plot!

So... there you go! I've updated my blog... and now I'm heading off to get in a chapter before breakfast! :)