Victoria Day Weekend

Despite a gloomy forecast, our Victoria day weekend actually tuned out to be quite nice. There was enough sunshine for us to get out and about a bit each day. In fact, Daddy and Mommy both got mild sunburns!

Friday Night

We went out for dinner, and the kids were amazingly well behaved (unusual, but great). Andrea charmed the server with her pleases and thank yous, while Kevin provided the entertainment for people around us by grinning at people, and gnawing on everything in sight. His favourite items were the edge of the table (EW!) and the dessert menu (EW again--but at least you can see how that might be tempting). He is definitely teething again, but I don't see any new teeth yet.

Saturday

On Saturday morning, Aunt Stephanie called and we decided to get Isabelle and Andrea together for a playdate. They're really getting to a stage where it's fun to get them together, because they are interacting more now. They like to dance together, and run together, and play with toys (although we're still working on the sharing!).

It was so nice out that we decided to take Kevin and the girls to the carnival at the nearby mall. We took Andrea last year, and she loved the kiddie rides! In fact, Daddy had taken her over for a few rides on Friday night, too. This time, we all went together.

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Andrea got to ride on the front of the miniature train, and ring the bell!

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"Yay! It's my first visit to the carnival!"

Riding In Style

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Kevin got to go on his first amusement ride, and he liked it!

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Isabelle was a brave girl--she was afraid of the rides, but tried out the Strawberry. It was okay.

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Daddy helped Andrea go through the bouncy crawler. Who had the most fun?

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This is definitely the biggest slide Andrea's ever been on! She liked it.

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Isabelle and Andrea played a boat and ducky fishing game. They did a great job--and both won a pink and white striped fish!

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I had to add in the picture of Kevin feeding himself when we got home. Mmm . . . spaghetti sauce and peas! He spits out the noodles, or scrapes them out of his mouth; thus, the mess!

Sunday

On Sunday afternoon, we headed across the border to visit Aunt Donna and Uncle Greg. They had an awesome BBQ chicken and corn-on-the-cob meal for us. Mmmm . . .

But of course, what we really enjoyed was spending time together!

Andrea just adores her older cousins. Caitlin is 15, and Tyler is 10, so she looks up to them; and they give her lots of attention in return.

Aunt Donna bought Andrea a Dora pump-up sleepover bed, which Andrea immediately fell in love with. (In fact, it now appears to be permanently installed in the middle of our living room!) She wanted everyone to lay down and play "Good night/Go to sleep" and "Good morning/Wake up!" with her!

Caitlin and Andrea cuddling on the Dora bed

Caitlin, Tyler, and Andrea playing "Go to sleep!"

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Yes, that is Aunt Donna hiding under the blanket and ball cap! Kevin enjoyed snuggling up with her to have his bottle. He DID NOT like the flash on Mommy's camera! ("Mom, I'm trying to RELAX here!)

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Tyler was so excited, because he got to put on a little fireworks show for us. It worked out well that he was stocked up for the U.S. celebration next weekend!
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Andrea truly appreciated Tyler's efforts. She insisted that everyone clap and say, "Yay!" after each firework. Tyler even gave her some sparklers, and Daddy helped her enjoy them safely.

Monday

It has been a busy day for us, but I just wanted to share an anecdote from bath time tonight:

Andrea has all kinds of pretend adventures in the bathtub, and gets very excited and chatters away to her toys as she bathes. Tonight, I heard her yell, "Help! Help! Get it off! It's crawling me!" It was time to get her out, anyway. But when I went in, she was curled up in one corner of the bathtub, and kept saying, "Get it off!" She had a toy bag draped on her arm, so I figured that's what she meant. But when I removed the toy bag, there was a SPIDER floating under it! Ewww! Andrea wanted to be removed from the tub immediately. When I saw how nervous she was, I tried to make a joke out of it: "Oh, the spider wanted to share your bubble bath, and visit such a nice little girl!" and "the Itsy Bitsy Spider came down your water spout!" (Meanwhile, I am inwardly shuddering and grimacing!) Andrea told me that the spider came in her bath, and "crawled my arm!"

But she's also telling Daddy and I that the spider was purple. ;-)