Birthday Party Weekend

Here are various pictures from the past couple of weeks...

Olivia at the birthday party today...

Ethan and Nana last night..

Ethan swimming with a floatie, we forget his water wings...

Olivia playing at home...

Ethan excited at soccer...he is doing really well. He loves playing an actual game of soccer each week (although he is sometime disappointed if he doesn't get a goal) and he does a surprisingly good job of listening to the coaches..

Ethan and Olivia hanging out before bed...

Quick blog after a busy weekend....sorry it has been a while but I am feeling quite uncomfortable these days and just want to lie down after the kids get to bed. I can't remember what happened last weekend, so I will start with this weekend...

On Friday night, I went out for dinner with some friends and left Scott and the kids to fend for themselves. Scott took Ethan to soccer and then after dinner they headed to the pond with Jeff and Aidan to feed some ducks.

On Saturday, we headed down to St. Catharines to celebrate Nana's birthday. First we stopped at Papa's for a quick swim. Ethan is getting much more comfortable in the water and will swim on his own with water wings on. The breakthrough happened on Wednesday when Nana and Carly took Ethan swimming at the golf club pool in St. Catharines (he had a sleep over). At first he didn't want to go in but once he saw all the other kids his same age swimming with water wings, he thought he would try as well. Peer pressure seems to work well for Ethan - hopefully that will not last through the teenage years!!!

After swimming, we headed to Michelle's house for a BBQ. Olivia had fun playing with all her doting nieces and Ethan enjoyed playing soccer with really anyone who was game.

Today we went to our next door neighbour Harper's first birthday. There were a lot of kids Olivia's age and she had fun interacting with them. Ethan loved playing with his goody bag treats that he got as soon as he got there. There was a little 3 month old baby there and Ethan kept giving her gentle kisses - practicing for his new sister/brother (even though what he really wants is twins!!). Olivia is getting really good at standing on her own for extended periods of time - hopefully walking will follow sometime soon (I am hoping before she starts pre-school in September).

After dinner, Jeff and Aidan come over to play for a bit and the boys as usual had a blast. When we were leaving the birthday party, Cian was giving out cookies with a big 1 on them. Ethan asked if he could take one for his friend Aidan, it was really cute. So tonight he had a chance to give it to him (although Aidan decided he would come back and get it tomorrow - hopefully no one will have eaten it by then).

Will try to blog again soon!!

Back from Regina

Here is Olivia on the plane on the way to Regina!

Olivia at the beach..

Ethan swimming in the lake with Olivia's turtle...

Ethan at dinner the night before the wedding..

Ethan on the waterslide - it was pretty high, had to climb a couple sets of stairs to get there, but he was not scared!

More pool pictures..

Here is Olivia and Scott swimming in the hotel pool.

Olivia at the wedding. Ethan was not into getting his picture taken at the wedding....

Scott and Ethan playing in the fields of John's family farm...He also had fun riding on the tractor!

We arrived home on Monday night after a week in Regina/Regina Beach. We had a great time at the cottage and Auntie Jen and Uncle John's wedding. It was wonderful to spend time with all of Scott's family (and to meet John's family). A special thank you to Aunt Kate and Aunt Karen who helped out with Ethan a lot while we were there (that is in addition to the usual thanks that goes out to Nana Wendy and Auntie Jen).

In Regina Beach, Ethan got to sleep in a tent for a couple of nights, which was a big hit. Ethan and Olivia both loved the beach and swimming in the lake. After a couple of days there, we headed into Regina to prepare for the wedding. While at the hotel, Ethan enjoyed the waterslide and Olivia loved swimming in the pool.

Ethan was a ring bearer at the wedding. He was a little bit nervous walking down the aisle, so Scott walked down with him. He did a great job!

Although we had fun, it was nice to get home. Ethan was not a very good plane traveller on the way to Regina, but made up for it on the way home when he was an angel!!! Olivia was great both ways. While we were away, both kids tended to stay up late and get up late. With the time change, this led to very little sleep for me on Monday night - Olivia did not fall alseep until around 3:00 a.m. What made this even more difficult was the fact that I had to be up and out the door to work by 6:45 a.m. the next day!!! She ended up getting up at 1:15 p.m. on Tuesday. Ethan didn't get up until 10:30 a.m. Luckily, their sleeping habits seem to be getting back to normal.

More pictures to follow next time...