Fun at Tinkertown!

We spent Thursday this week at Tinkertown, an amusement park for smaller kids found just East of Winnipeg. I thought I would post some of the 136 pictures I took before the camera battery died.

At least Ella is paying attention to the road!

"Is that a cow? What kind of car ride is this?"

"Seriously...What kind of ride did you put me on here?"

Ben giving the "I'm ready to take off!" signal.

"Okay...a boat? Seriously, what is going on here?"

"Oh, a bell. This is kind of fun!"

"Okay Dad, seriously now. What are you doing to me?"

Speaks for itself.

2 kids, 2 levels of enjoyment.

Ella is a little late with the wave.

"Put me on one more ride and I'm seriously going to hurt you. Look at my hair!"

Ben and Mommy riding the stupidest ride ever invented - the Tilt-a-Whirl.

Ben and Daddy riding the second stupidest ride ever invented - Spin the Apple. (If you look closely at the second picture you can see me pretending to enjoy the ride for Ben's benefit.)

This coaster terrified Daddy as a kid.

Apparently it terrifies Mommy too.

3 pics of Ben having fun:

"Oh YEAH. There IS a cow."

Little ingrate sticking out his tongue.

Here's a little animated gif of Mommy and Ben on the Superslide. (It doesn't seem to be working right now. I'll work on it):

Lastly, I went to get some gravel to put in with my fenceposts to hold them up. Here is a cute picture of Ben-Ben helping me vacuum the extra gravel out of the car:

The 2 Week Deck or WOW! That's a Lot of Pictures!

Well, we are overdue for a picture update, so I'll start with the kiddies:


How about a montage of Ella grabbing the camera...(every blog needs a montage!)

(I love this picture - the overexposure just adds to the Blair Witch / Emperor from Star Wars vibe.)

Ben being the serious young man we are raising him to be:

As you all know, serious young go-getters ALWAYS sit IN the sandbox. (Think inside the box - that's my boy!)

Caught on Film - A brother and sister moment where nobody is fighting or crying! (I'm just kidding - it's like this at LEAST 4.2% of the time)

For a quick break from the kiddies, I'd like to share that this bear (named Debby, I believe) just made the Guinness Book of Records for being the oldest polar bear alive in captivity at 40 years old. She is apparently in good health and the zoo is hoping that she will beat the all-time recorded record of 41 years. (I'm not sure how that all works either - I'm trying to remember the newspaper article that I skimmed while stuffing my face at Burger King). Ah! Read all about it here: Polar Bear is really, really old. I mean, ready to be stuffed old.

Here's Ella making sure her teeth are level:


and phoning Grandma (Joan? Susan? Who Knows? Who Cares?) on her level-phone (soon to be showcased in the new Get Smart movie starring Steve Carell - I'm pretty sure EVERY movie stars Steve Carell; I shouldn't have to mention it here.)


This exceptionally cute picture is otherwise unexceptional except, if you look closely, you can actually see Gord doing something that might be work. (At least I'm standing upright, which is a huge step in the right direction! Go, Gordo, Go! Vamanos, El Gordo, Vamanos!)


No comment funny enough:



And lastly, a nice new deck in a messy, messy yard:

p.s. I did not finish this deck in two weeks.

An update in pictures...

Sleeping a la Grandpa Bill:


Ella and Grandpa:


Ben on one of his marathon phone calls:


Ben trying out Sari's rocker:


Ella's favorite way to sit on the little chair is this way:


At the beach!


Ben & Gord going "fishing":

(Gord might kill me for posting this picture...)

Hogging the limelight:

??????


Have we mentioned that Ella just went through a "pick her own nose" phase? She was CONSTANTLY shoving her index finger up her nostrils. Thankfully, she's pretty much stopped that, until tonight - I was showing her the parts of my face (eyes, nose, mouth), and while we were discussing my nose, she stuck her finger up it. Yuck. And then put her finger in my mouth! Double yuck. I swear, my nose was clean...

Done...

as of 2:18 pm this afternoon.

You know what I'm talking about.

Life with a 3-year-old:

Scene: laying in bed with Ben tonight, trying to get him to go to sleep.

Ben: "Mom, I used to be a little baby."
Me: "Yes, you were a very cute little baby!"
Ben: "When I was a little baby, I had little boogers."
Me: "Yes, yes you did."

Bear with me people...another HP post...with an afterthought of the kids...

Doesn't this look like fun? Who wants to go with me? If only Kathy lived in Winnipeg. Sigh. Any other takers?

I know all this blog's been about lately is Harry Potter. I'm sorry about that. So I'll add in some stuff here about the kids:

Ben is quite entertaining these days. I was talking to him on the phone one morning, and I asked him what he had for breakfast. He said, "A peanut butter and jam sandwich. Mom, jam is jelly and jelly is jam. That's the way it is!" Mmmm-kay, I guess I can figure out the converstaion he and Gord had while making breakfast! He also does this cute 'two thumbs up' thing now and says things like, "Way to go kids" or "Alllll-right!" His moodiness has eased off a little - he would melt into tears if something didn't go the way he wanted it to. Ben loves, loves, loves to be outside, watering flowers, playing in the sand, riding his bike, whatever. As long as it's outside, he's happy. He can also recite a couple of poems, which is beyond cute. He learns them off of a tv show on Treehouse called Four Square. I'm sure that some of you know that one!

Ella...she's great too. She loves to follow Ben around and do what he does, but she's also really great at playing by herself. She doesn't say very much - she says da-da, duh-duh (duck), day-doo (we think that's "Thank you"). That's about it. She signs quite a bit - more, milk, baby, book, dog, cat. Ella loves her blankie (one that Grandma Susan knitted her) and likes to carry it around. She too is obsessed with being outside and if she knows that someone is outside and she's not? She throws a fit. Ella loves to climb stuff - end tables, kitchen tables, stools, wagons, you name it, she'll climb it. She likes to give kisses and LOVES to give zerberts (raspberries, whatever you call them) on your back. If you are lying down and a sliver of your back is showing, she'll come over and get ya!

Both kids are loving berry season - strawberries, blueberries and raspberries are HUGE hits right now. I'm thinking of going raspberry picking this weekend...

Gord is currently working on finishing the deck we're putting on the house. It's a monster deck, at 12 feet x 32 feet. We ablsolutely love it already, even though it's only half done. Next, we're going to do a new fence, 'cause we hate chain link. Our backyard will be unrecognizable by the end of summer. Hopefully, sooner than that.

OK, that's all. I gotta get back to work.

6 days...

Six days people...SIX days! There is nothing more to say, or I might just explode.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

So...tired...today...but it's my own fault...'cause I WENT TO SEE THE MIDNIGHT SHOWING OF HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX LAST NIGHT!

Oh yeah, I did. It was great! The writers did a good job keeping to the book - of course, some stuff wasn't in there, but considering that the book is over 900 pages long, they included the stuff that they should have. The special effects were awesome, the actors were on their 'A' game, the audience was into it...it was all good!

However, I didn't get home until quarter to 3. A.M. And Ben woke up to go pee sometime after I crashed. So I'm going on about 3 1/2 hours of sleep today. Thank goodness I don't operate heavy machinery!

And look, I can post a title today! Too bad it's a boring one.

Tomorrow is July 11th! Yay! I am so tempted to drag Gord to the theatres tomorrow night, it's not even funny.

Is it sad that I'm 30 and I am so obsessed with what is technically a children's book? Wait, don't answer that.

And why oh why can't I add a title to my blog posts? Grrrrrrr...

Harry countdown update:
Days until movie comes out: 2 (I'm getting shivers!)
Days until I'll see the movie: 5
Days until book is released: 12
Days until I buy the book: 12
Days until I finish the book: 13

I can't add a title...darnit all to heck.

A cutie-patootie

Check out the adorable pictures of our niece, Sari, at her blog.

Harry countdown update:
Days until movie comes out: 5
Days until I'll see the movie: 8 (single digit - yay!)
Days until book is released: 15
Days until I buy the book: 15
Days until I finish the book: 16 (I'll stay up all night if I have to)

Ben is currently at Grandma & Grandpa's house for a holiday. He sure doesn't want to talk at length with me on the phone; here's how our conversations go:

Mommy: "Hi Ben! How are you?"
Ben: "Hi Mommy! Fine, thank you! How are you?"
Mommy: "I'm fine Ben."
Ben: "How's Daddy feeling?"
Mommy: "He's doing good. What did you do today?"
Ben: "What's Ella doing?" (he could hear her in the background)
Mommy: "She's playing with the magnets on the fridge."
Ben: "OK, so good-bye Mommy!"

This takes all of 8.2 seconds. So I get the full reports from Mom or Dad. Of course, I'm sure that they leave out certain facts, like that Ben is eating lots of treats, having ice cream for breakfast, going to bed at midnight, listening to rock & roll music, watching PG-13 rated movies, etc.

On Tuesday night, we went to the grocery store before supper. The kids (well, Ben, though I'm not so sure of Ella's innocence anymore!) know that at Sobey's, they get a cookie, so as we entered the store, Ben says, "Yay! A cookie!" I negotiate with him that we'll get the cookies but that we'll put them in my purse to have after supper. All's good. I put the cookies in my purse, which is sitting next to Ella (Ben is in the big part of the cart). I'm pushing them around, doing the shopping, and finally notice a weird look on Ella's face - a guilty look. As our eyes are locked, I see her hand slowly reach into my purse and then travel to her mouth. I'm stunned at first at my 14 month old's boldness! Here she had been reaching in, grabbing little chunks of whatever cookie she touched, and eating them! She'd probably only successfully eaten a loonie-sized piece, but still. What...a...sneak. However, she'll eat all her supper whether she has a cookie before or not, whereas Ben won't.

Updated 'Potter' countdown...

Days until movie comes out: 7
Days until I'll see the movie: 10
Days until book is released: 17
Days until I buy the book: 17
Days until I finish the book: 18

A visit to the doctor...don't worry, everyone is fine!

It was just Ella's 14-month well-baby check. She weighed in at 23 pounds, 11.5 ounces and 31.5 inches tall. Wow. Ben came along as we had some hearing questions for the doc, and he weighs 34 pounds and is 36 inches tall. The doc wondered if Ben's height measurement was right, 'cause he hasn't grown any since February. Just the other night we were measuring ourselves (Get your minds out of the gutter! This is a family-friendly blog!) and I measured him at 37 inches. I told the doc this, and he said we'll measure him again at Ella's 18-month appointment and go from there. Anyhoo, when he moved on to Ella, he noticed her stats and said, "Boy, they're not cut from the same cloth, are they?" To which I replied, "Just WHAT are you insinuating? They DO have the same daddy!" No, I kid. About saying that to the doctor. Ben & Ella really do have the same daddy. And it IS Gord.

I finished all 6 Harry Potter books in lots of time for the July 21st release of the 7th and final book. And the 5th movie comes out on July 11th (Can you guess what we're doing for our anniversary? No, not that. God no, not that. We'll go see Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, whether Gord likes it or not!). I think I'll start a countdown to each, 'cause I am completely obsessed by both:

Days until movie comes out: 12
Days until I'll see the movie: 15
Days until book is released: 22
Days until I buy the book: 22
Days until I finish the book: 23 (Hope Gord doesn't mind me going missing for a day or so for me to read it)

A Picture Montage of the past few weeks:

Yummmmmmmm...yogurt...


Our little cross-dresser:


Can you find the 3-year-old in this picture?


How about this one?


Ready for a bike ride:


If that's not my lion, then whose is it? (BTW, this is one of her favorite books...we highly recommend it if you don't have one.)


I was folding Ben's laundry, and stuck his Superman jammy pants on her head. She wore them for like 20 minutes before I took them off - I needed to put the laundry away!


I'm tired and grouchy and I have to put Ben to bed.

Fun with tea towels!

Whenever Ella walks by the stove, she pulls the tea towels off the oven door handle. Tonight, she wanted to put the towel on her head. And the fun and giggles ensued!




Here's our little fashionista!


Love this face:


Where's Ben?

Opinion poll...

Is it weird that I brought the milk for my cereal to work today in a breast milk bottle?

It was clean, before you ask.

And nobody saw, 'cause I kept it at my desk.

Kids and cookies - a match made in heaven!

Yesterday, I needed to get the kids out of my hair for a couple of seconds, so I gave them cookies. They think I'm the best mommy in the world!



Notice Ella's shoes? I couldn't restrain myself any longer. I'd been looking for some sandals for her and couldn't find anything I really liked. So I broke down and did it. Ella loves them - she can practically put them on herself! She is a textbook "Miss Independent".

The other night, Ben, who'd had a really late, really long nap, was entertaining a tired Mommy and Daddy with a dancing showcase. He was cracking us up with his cool new moves, some of which I don't even know where he learned. Maybe Grandma Susan has some dance background? ;)

Sorry everyone, that's all I've got right now...how lame is this?

Whaddya know?!

Ella's bedtime snack tonight was Uncle Greg's specialty - banana avocado whip! I noticed that it was the same color that we painted the kitchen:


Weird, no?

Here are some random pictures from the last little while:

Ben watching the bears at the zoo (this was one of the few pictures that actually downloaded last week)


The Girls


She's already obsessed with shoes! Look out!

Help! We're being taken over by DINOSAURS!

So I was working late tonight, and called home at one point to get Gord and the kiddos to come and pick me up. What I heard on the other end of the line was absolutely frightening!

There were two dinosaurs in our living room!

Apparently, some of Ben's little dinosaurs were kicking around, and him and Ella were playing with them. Ben started roaring, so Ella lifted a dinosaur above her head, both arms up, and roared too!

Here I am, asking if the phone was off the hook earlier, and can they pick me up, and all I can hear are the two of them yelling and screaming and roaring and laughing. Gord could hardly hear me with all the ruckus!

I sure wish I was there, although Ella did do her dinosaur impression for me before bedtime! So cute!

I tried to get a picture of her doing it, but the camera battery was dead. I am just not having any luck with that camera lately!

Sunday Blatherings...

First off, Happy Mother's Day to all my fellow mommies!

I'm kinda grumpy right now because I deleted the pictures off our camera and should have checked that they all downloaded okay, 'cause THEY DID NOT. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Here's a rundown of our weekend:

Friday night we took Ben for a haircut and on our way back home, we stopped at the spring carnival at the rec centre by our house. Ben wanted to hit a few rides, so he rode a dragon roller-coaster and a little train. I promised him that I'd bring him back the next day to do some more rides.

Did I mention that I just deleted a month's work of pictures from our camera without downloading them?

Saturday, I went out to do some shopping with a friend. I did a little extra shopping when we parted ways and the kids got some (more) new clothes. Ben and I went back to the carnival and he rode some more rides. There was a 'Finding Nemo' ride, the carousel and a car ride where the cars just go round and round. He rode that one twice...I think it was his favorite. Later, we took Grandma Susan out for supper for Mother's Day - I mean, why would we want to brave the hungry crowds on actual Mother's Day? We had a nice supper and took a walk in the neighborhood around the restaurant. The kids were very well behaved. Ben was all dressed up, in a cotton dress shirt, khakis and some brown plaid high-top shoes. And his cool glasses. He looked so preppy. I was going to take a picture of him when we got home, but by the time we got Slurpees and got home, he had cream soda stains all over his shirt and pants. Probably better I didn't waste my time taking a picture anyways, as I just now deleted all the pictures off the camera. Oh, I'd already told you? Right.

Today, Gord and Ben did some work in the backyard. We're relocating and redesigning Charlie's run, and this entails pulling up the patio blocks and gravel. Gord and Ben shoveled a lot of gravel into the big wheelbarrow and trucked it over to the side of the house. Honestly, they worked for hours out there. Ben had his little plastic shovel and little plastic wheelbarrow and took many a load himself. Down the little ramp into the yard, out the fence, up the driveway to the side of the house. What a little trooper! He'll sleep tonight, that's for sure. Gord too.

My lovely Mother's Day/birthday gift consisted of a pretty blue sweater, Grey's Anatomy Season 1, and a pink iPod shuffle. Awesome! The iPod is charging here beside me, in all it's pink glory.

Since I deleted the pictures and therefore cannot post any, I'll just describe them to you and you can let your imaginations run wild. There was a cute picture of Ben riding in an empty wheelbarrow. Ella was wearing some pretty green necklaces and taking them on and off, wearing them on her arms, etc. There was a couple of Ella toodling around our backyard, practicing going up and down the steps.

Ella loves to sing and make lovely squealing, sing-song-y sounds. Especially in the car. Where it's closed quarters. And it's really loud. And so so so cute! She has really taken an interest in signs lately. When we do a sign for her, she concentrates very hard on what you're doing and you can just see her mind filing that away. She'll almost do "baby" and "book". And when she does her sign for "book", she says, "Buuuuuh". Ella still won't say "mama" - I swear she purposely says "dada" just to tease me!

After Ben and Gord came in from working this afternoon, Gord was sitting on the couch and Ben wanted to sit with him. Or on him, as the case may be. Gord said to Ben, "Bug, I'm really hot and if you sit on my lap, I'll just get hotter." So I told Ben that he could come sit with me. He smiles, walks over and says, "Yeah Mommy, you're not so hot! I'll sit with you!" He loves me, really!

Mmmmmmmmmmm....

Greek salad and a Starbucks Cafe Mocha. Deeeee-lish.

I promise, promise, promise that we'll do a proper blog entry this weekend. Complete with pictures and funny stories...