un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, SEPT!!!

Happy birthday to Sam... Happy birthday to Sam... Happy birthday, happy birthday, happy birthday to Sam!!

My baby boy turned 7 today. Wow. 7!!!!! He was very excited. Yesterday we went to the grocery store & he picked out a cake. A mint chocolate mousse cake... which Juliet understood to be a MOOSE cake.. and wanted NOTHING to do with it. Sam tried to explain to her that it's not made of moose but just called that because the chocolate on the top is in the shape of a moose. I almost didn't want to intervene in their conversation to explain what mousse was... but I did. "Ohhhhhhh".

We didn't have any plans for the day really. Sam wants to have his birthday party at the movie theatre so we have to wait until there's an appropriate movie playing. Sam has decided that "Hotel Transylvania" will be the one but it doesn't open until the end of September. So all he wanted to do today was..... go to McDonalds. We hit McD's for lunch & East Side Mario's for supper where Sam was serenaded by the waitstaff in a loud ESM version of happy birthday. Sam had the cutest look on his face... a mixture of happiness, shock & embarrassment. It was good. We got video but I'll have to post it tomorrow... for now here are some pics.

finally some faces!!

I guess the apples were a little sour... hehehehe.

PARC SAFARI

In an attempt to make this summer fun & eventful without traveling across the country we've been trying to choose activities that don't break the bank & that we will all enjoy. I had intended to take the kids to LaRonde because we haven't been there in a few years but at the very last minute decided that waiting in lines with Sofie would REALLY suck... so I decided that Parc Safari would be a better alternative. Animals, water park & rides all in one.

We set out from my mother's... kids, Grama & I... and after Google Maps took us right through downtown Valleyfield & getting lost in farmland we eventually made it to the Parc. We decided to have lunch and wait for my sister to arrive before piling into the van to drive through the safari.

Butternut Squash

Beach Bums

Yesterday we hit another beach for the first time... Iroquois. It was quite nice. Packed, but nice. Geez it was 40+ degrees with the humidity... as you can see by this sweaty little nose. Nonsense.

The kids ran wild and I got to visit with a friend I hadn't seen in ages. It was good times. And we got to see a few freighters enter the locks. We'll definitely have to go back sometime and get a closer look at that.

Lyn Pit

So I'd been wanting to go to Lyn Pit for a while... like since last summer. So we went today. It was cool... water was kinda grimy but the kids had fun & want to go back. We also had the place to ourselves which was great. Anyway I basically just wanted to share some photos...

I'm On A Boat.

Good times. Good times indeed. We had a long overdue visit with some good friends of ours a couple of days ago. I don't think we'd seen them in 2 years or something. Crazy how that works. You don't realize how much you enjoy a couple's company until you hang out with them after so long... then it's like geez, where did the time go?

I hadn't been to their new house since they moved in 4 years ago. We planned to get together on Monday for some fun & games but I had a brilliant idea and invited us over for a sleep over Sunday night, so we could get in an afternoon of some good 'ol fashioned drinking without worrying about who had to drive home. Lucky for us the hosts agreed that it was a good idea so we didn't have to force our way in. They welcomed us.

" we are all a little MAD here... And a lot disappointed."

A few weeks ago I came across an event for the kids that was being held at the Fulford Mansion.

"How neat" I thought. Even more so because it was a Mad Hatter's tea party. Fabulous. And at $40 for the kids to attend the 2 morning event (9am-noon each day) I thought why not. Let's be social.

I don't know what led me to believe that it was going to be some extravagant tea party in the Fulford garden with frilly table cloths, yummy eats and elegant tea ware... but I was WAY off. Way, way off. I guess with kids ranging in age from 5-12 plastic cups & paper plates are way more suitable... and granola bars cut into little pieces with not enough juice to go around way more cost effective. Way more disappointing, but way more age appropriate... ugh. Speaking of age appropriate... let's talk about the activities. One of the activities they did was a scavenger hunt. The kids broke off into groups and were each given a clue as to where their next clue was hidden and so on. Oh what fun! Well someone forgot to remind whoever made up the clues that the age range was 5 to 12 years. Even I couldn't understand half the clues. "We hang from the arms of the friendly giant". Oh yes that must be something hanging from the branches of the dead tree way over there on the other side of the HUGE lawn. Any 8 year old (+/- a few years) could have guessed that. Please. What ever happened to find a pine cone, a feather & a dead bug or something?? Oh and for pin the grin on the Cheshire Cat...  which Sam won btw, have you ever heard of sticking the cat to the wall so the kids could go for it instead of holding the cat in your hands and going for the kids? IS IT SO COMPLICATED??!

Boo. I had such high, albeit unreasonable, expectations... so I was a titch disappointed with the whole thing. The kids, however, had a blast. I never thought Sam could possible be THAT excited for a tea party. Here are some pictures, that undoubtedly make it look WAY MORE FUN than it actually was. Better luck next time, although next time I should probably just stay home.

On the plus side I got a free mini-tour of the mansion and took the opportunity to take a few photos of the garden statues! Yay me.

Peas, Bananas & Pears Oh My!