Julia and Emily's World

Pictures of tonight's lunar eclipse. Not the best shots but the best my camera could do hand held. The first shot is early in the eclipse. The second shot is during the full eclipse phase. Awesome colour. Unfortunately the shutter speed had to be very slow so getting a clear shot hand held was impossible.

Today was Julia's birthday party! What fun! All of Julia's cousins and Jenna and Russell came to celebrate with Julia. All the kids had lots of fun in the basement and were eager to make lots of noise! Thank you everyone for the generous gifts! Unfortunately Grandma and Papere couldn't come. We missed them.

Pictures from Valentine's Day at Julia's daycare.

More pictures from Julia's daycare birthday party.

Today is Julia's birthday. She is 4! What a big girl! The daycare had a "party" for her and Mommy and Grandma came by to celebrate. This evening Grandma, Papere and Auntie Weezie came over for dinner and cake (chili was for dinner...Julia's choice). Julia got a train set and clothes from Grandma, Papere and Auntie Weezie. She also got a kitchen and a mermaid costume from Mommy and Daddy. She was very excited about all her presents. Julia is looking forward to her party with her cousins this weekend!

Today was picture day at swimming lessons where parents were allowed to bring a camera on the pool deck. There was only 2 kids in Julia's class today (usually there are 4). Here are a few pics.

Saturday was Andrew's 5th Birthday Party. Wow! Lot's of kids. The magician was pretty good. All the kids enjoyed it. He was entertaining and I couldn't figure out most of his tricks.

On Saturday we visited Grandma and Papa. Also there were Andrew, Nathan, Auntie Debbie and Uncle Bob. Grandma treated us all to dinner at East Side Mario's. It was a bit of a disaster. After being told that a table would be 20-25 minutes it turned out to be over an hour and 20 minutes! In the end they gave us free appitizers and the kids ate free. The kids were really good waiting for a table. Only a few "I'm STARVING!"s from each of them. Once we got a table the food and service was good. After dinner we went back to Grandma's for a swim.

This morning poor Julia survived a very traumatic experience. As I was clearing the snow off the car, the doors to the car locked with the car running and Julia inside! Tailgate?...LOCKED! Passenger door?...LOCKED! Drivers door?...LOCKED! I check all doors - THREE TIMES! OHHH NOOO! I have a spare set of car keys in the house but my house keys are hanging from the ignition! Panic starts to set in. I need to get in the house. Then I realize I have my cell phone in my pocket. Yes! Grandma has a spare key to the house so I can just call Grandma. One problem, I DON'T have Grandma's number on my cell phone! I'll call Sheryl to call her Mom. VOICE MAIL!!! and my cell battery is dying! Finally I get a hold of Auntie Weezie and she brings over the spare key. 20 minutes into the ordeal I am finally back in my car. Poor Julia. She sat in the warm car (climate controlled at a temperate 24C) watching the Backyardigans laughing at me and oblivious to my plight. Seriously, ...

Today was Julia's first class of her swimming class. This is the first swimming class she has taken without me going in the pool with her. She was a little bit nervous but didn't hesitate to go with the teacher and the rest of her class. One little boy was very active and splashing the others getting Julia in the face a few times. Julia didn't like it but she sat quietly. Overall I could see that she had a lot of fun. She is looking forward to going next week.

Happy New Year! This afternoon we went to Mama's house for the annual New Year's Day feast. We wish everyone all the best in 2008!

Just picked up today!

Julia loves her new bath robe from Auntie Linda!

On Saturday we had a party with all our friends. It was great to see everyone. It has been a long time since the last time we all got together so there was a lot of catching up to do. All the kids had fun playing in the basement and upstairs in the toy room. Hopefully we can do it again soon!

Christmas day was a busy one. The morning started with opening presents from Santa. Julia was very excited to see that Santa ate his snacks and left presents under the tree. She noticed that Santa left some arrows on the ground forming a path to the basement. Julia followed it downstairs and saw the playhouse she asked Santa for! Julia was very happy. (See video below) Online Videos by Veoh.com We had the whole family (including Uncle Louis) over for Christmas dinner. The kids had fun playing in the basement. There was some fighting over toys but overall the kids were well behaved even when opening presents! Check out the photos to see some of the highlights.

We had a special Christmas Eve dinner...PIZZA! We also opened up our Christmas presents from each other with Grandma, Papere and Auntie Weezie. Of course we also left a snack of milk and cookies for Santa. Julia warned me not the take any.

On Sunday we went to Grandma and Paperes for dinner. Mommy's Uncle Steve (Grandma's brother), cousin Suzie and her husband Mike were visiting from London Ontario. It was good to see them. Although they are relatively close by, it has been many years since we last saw them.

Today Julia's class held their Christmas Pageant. Each class did a performance. Julia's class sang a couple of songs. Surprisingly Julia was not nervous. In fact she seemed rather disinterested with the whole thing. Mommy, Grandma and Papere came by to watch. Overall Julia and her class did a fantastic job! (Check out the video)

Due to the weather we stayed in most of the weekend. On Saturday Julia and I made (assembled?) a gingerbread house. Julia liked licking the icing and the candies. She was somewhat disappointed with the results because it didn't look like the picture on the package. Later we went to the mall to visit Santa. Julia told him what she wanted. I made the mistake of commenting "he looks like the real Santa". Mommy quickly corrected me by saying "that's because he IS SANTA! You dumbass!" (The dumbass part was under her breath). Oops. Guess what? Snowblowers are sold out. Whoda thunk it with all this snow? No problems. My $40 snow plowing thingy did great! Plowed the snow right onto the lawn...no lifting! (I picked up that tip watching my neighbour across the street.)

Exciting day at the daycare today. Santa visited. Mommy and Grandma also visted to see Santa. Julia was a bit shy but after a few nudges she worked up the courage to go see Santa.