Go Canada Go

Sunday, February 28th Gold Medal Hockey Game between USA and Canada - getting ready for this big day before Church:window was open so when there was a goal or excitement we had our heads to the screen and cheered like the dickens, and shook our instruments and waved our flags!then we headed to the street! with many many others! honking horns, screaming, flag waving...What a GREAT afternoon!!!!!! Yea Canada!!!!!!

mascots

February: We picked up a pack of the 4 mascots and let our kids each have one - one is being saved with some other Olympic merch Jason is displaying in his office.
Elijah likes Quatchi:GAbi loved Miga:And Sammy liked MukMuk:

little cuts

Again - going back to February - Gabi became interested in scissors! Uh-oh! So far so good - let's keep the hair out of the scissors...looks like she has a bit of a cold here

cinnamon

I have this bear here and his name is Cinnamon. I received him as a Christmas Gift from my brother, Matt, when I was a teenager. I had really wanted a big teddy bear and so Matt fulfilled that wish! Thanks!!

This is going back to February - when Gabi learnt that this was Momma's Bear, during a week period she kept bringing Cinnamon to me. I don't recall what she would say, but it was something along the lines of "here Mommy, here's your bear". It was just so cute!She's not much bigger than Cinnamon!

paralympics

We were away for most of the paralympics, so when we got back, we had one day to go and take in the Olympics one last time. On Saturday, March 20 we headed into Town. This time we got into the Vancouver Site and happened to be there to get a picture with the Stanley Cupand the kids played some interactive games... we spent a couple hours in there.

There were a few street entertainers still...
and this one Elijah wrote about in a piece of his writing at school and referred to him as a Rockstar, which he is (Alice C.)

Vacation Day 8 ~ Disneyland Day 6, final day

Our final day in Disneyland - wah. We could easily stay longer...

when I asked someone to take our Family picture in front of the castle, Jason says to me as we're smiling "I know that person" and so when we retrieved our camera they realized the Gentleman from a local store which Jason used to call on - what a small world!and yet another ride on the teacups, just Gabi and I - her choice was a purple one:
Then over to CA. Here's the Mulholland Drive which reminded me of Mousetrap from our local amusement park, though this one was nice and smooth not rickety like Mousetrap.Gabi's laughing her head off in the ladybug mixer type ride:this picture is compliments of Elijah - Sam and Mom in the bumpercars

We left the park by 2:30 and got back to our hotel to catch a cab to the airport. We allowed the kids to pick one toy as a "souvineer" from Disneyland... (all the shirts you've seen the kids wear were bought ahead of time for cheap cheap). Sam chose a Buzz Lightyear astro gun thingand Elijah chose a Slinky BankOur flight was at 6:00 and landing at 8:30pm - I thought the kids might be tired out from our week and sleep, but fat chance of that! Here's how I had to keep Sam busy at one point because in fact he was tired, but not allowing himself to relax... he played photographer for awhile:As we were touching down both Sam and Gabi decided to fall asleep - now talk about a challenge getting 2 sleeping kids out of the plane with 5 backpacks and 4 suitcases (we don't check our bags)! We managed - next time I'm going to bring melatonin (spelling?) and that should do the trick.
Great trip! We told the kids we'd go again in 2 years - for Sam who doesn't get time at all yet, has asked a number of times already if it's "2 sleeps til we go to Disneyland". So they loved it and can't wait to go again! Me too! (and yea, I finished blogging about it!! Woohoo!)

Vacation Day 7 ~ Disneyland Day 5

Today was Saint Patty's Day - so I had brought green along for everyone except Gabi, who doesn't have anything green.
of all the rides there, we went on the teacups the most!and our longest line was by far the line up to meet the Princesses! I waited in line while Jason took the kids on Small World - we were able to be creative with line waiting and worked it good! We were guaranteed 3 princesses and so the ones we met were:
Princess Tiona from Princess & the Frog (which we haven't seen yet)Belle from Beauty and the Beast:and Ariel from Little Mermaid of courseBack over at California Adventure later that day, I remembered we had met Cinderella there in 2007, so sure enough she was there for meet/greet after a 'drawn to magic' show - unfortunately Gabi didn't want to go close to Cinderellaother characters we met were Chip and Dale:and Lilo from Lilo & Stitch:we just LOVE meeting the characters! It's so fun!
Here is a shot of the huge ferris wheel in C.A.and here's Crush (from Nemo) in the interactive show I referred to earlier in the week:

Vacation Day 6 ~ Disneyland Day 4

I can't believe I'm never on my blog anymore... I can't even catch up and get my Disneyland pictures on here. Sheesh. I'll try to get some more on here now. A month later.
To save a few miles walked over the 6 days, we took the horse-trolley, old-fashioned fire engines and double-decker bus often from Main Gate to the castle (either Jason and would walk to meet the 4 of us at the castle due to the stroller we had along. Anyway, Disneyland has 25 working horses that each take their little shift doing the jaunt down mainstreet... Disneyland owns several acres (can't remember how many now) behind the park where they keep their animals. I found that interesting!
Over at California Adventure, we were able to meet McQueen and Mater in Radiator Springs:another great day!

Day 5 of vacation - Day 3 at Disneyland

On Monday we had a great day, besides losing my first (and almost last) cell phone! I cannot believe it - but it happened. Last I remember is when Gabi had it in her hand while we were waiting for Jason and the boys on a ride; I told her to put it back but can't recall anything after those words - darn it. Nothing showed up in the Lost and Found where we were able to put a claim in for it and they would have contacted us. Free phone + $50 Gift Card is when Jason got one for me, for moreso emergency uses... so it wasn't the end of the world. Thanks to Jason's data package on is iPhone, right then and there he looked up Fido and got my # suspended so that if someone were to have found it, they at least couldn't use my plan.
Let's move on to happier things - afterall this is the happiest place on earth!

Here's a glimpse into our day:
riding Dumboin front of Small World in the line; I wanted to grab this shot of Sam in front of the manicured Moose like the moose on his shirtMinnie's houseGabi holding up her autograph book for Jessie (from Toy Story 2) to signFantastic times...
for interest sake and the last day I took time to recall what we did like this:

• Alice in wonderland ride
• Casey Jr. Circus Train
• Dumbo ride
• It’s a small World
• King Arthur Carousel
• Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
• Pinocchio’s Daring Journey ride
• Storybook Land Canal Boats
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Big Thunder Ranch – petting “zoo” and colouring in log cabin
• Jungle Cruise
• Tarzan’s Treehouse
• Gadget’s Go Coaster
• Minnie’s House – met Minnie
• Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
• Fire Engine ride down Main Street
• Horse-Drawn streetcar down Main Street
• Then over to California Adventure:
• Monsters, Inc. Ride
• Muppet Vision 3D show
• Turtle Talk with Crush (EJ got chosen to talk to Crush and then Crush wanted to talk to his Mommy!)