Julia and Emily's World

The girls enjoyed some night swimming the past couple of nights. I cranked up the heat in the pool to keep them nice and warm. We threw some glow sticks into the mix tonight for some added fun.

Mya and Jenna stayed over after the BBQ on Saturday. They are here until Monday. The girls have been very busy. Swimming, night swimming, playing in the basement, watching movies, going to the movies. They are all behaving and getting along great. Last night they took our bed and we had to sleep in Julia's bed. I'm not sure who's idea it was but it wasn't mine! (I think it was Jenna's).

On Saturday we had a BBQ with the Inamoto gang. We don't get to get together to often so it was great to see everyone. It looked like all the kids had a blast. The weather wasn't too hot. The cloudy skies made it chilly at times although the kids didn't seem to mind at all.

Today we went to Centre Island with Ron, Julianne, Russell and Ava. The weather forecast was looking iffy but in the end it was a great day (a bit humid though). We spent the day at Centreville.

On Sunday the Yams and Uncle Louis came for a visit. We had a great time in the pool and everyone stayed for dinner. It looks like the circus inspired Dan and Lucas.

On Saturday we went to the Shrine Circus with the Tabata's and Yam's. The circus was at a mall in North York. The show was ok but not great. Some cool acrobatics but the main clown was painfully unfunny. The kids really liked it so I guess that's all that matters. Emily's favourite part was watching the man selling balloons (he had some Dora balloons). After the show we headed to the Pickle Barrel for dinner.

After all that rain we got on Saturday, we were eager to get into the pool on Sunday. What a perfect day!

Emily loves her goggles!

On Sunday we had family over from my Mom's side to see our "new" house. We got lucky with the weather again. No rain! It wasn't particularly hot but it was warm enough to be comfortable in the pool. The kids certainly weren't complaining!

We had a great day with friends today. The weather was fantastic and the company was even better. Thanks everybody for making this an awesome day!

Julia has now graduated from SK! The school held the ceremony in their outdoor courtyard. We are very proud of how well Julia did in SK. She can actually read books now! Grandma also came to the graduation. Like usual, Emily did her best to be the centre of attention. I think she succeeded.

Emily is a rough kid. She likes to be noisy, active (risk taker), and bang stuff around. Anything that makes noise is good to her. Well she took her spoon to our kitchen! Below is a picture of our bench in our new kitchen. Yup, right through the paint! Days later I asked her, "Naughty, who did that?". She said with a straight face, "Mommy".

A few weeks ago we took Emily for her first haircut. I was kind of worried that she wouldn't sit there but she did. She wasn't happy about it (look at her face) but at least she let the hair dresser do her thing.

OK. This time for real...I'm going to start updating this thing again. Here's a quick recap of some of the highlight from the past 8 months that I didn't blog. Renovations - We moved out for two months and lived with Grandma while all the dirty renos were going on. We were back in the house on Boxing Day. The bulk of the renos were complete by the begining of January. We are very pleased with how everything turned out. I never want to go through that again! Julia's Birthday - We held it at a chocolate store in Bolton. It was cool. The kids got to make pizza and treats. Then her cousins Selena, Mya and Jenna came over for a sleep over. We went to Chucky Cheeses. The following week we had the relatives party. TV - Got a new TV for the basement. Nothing too fancy but nice. Vacation - In May we went to Florida for a week. We stayed in a condo (same complex we stayed in 2008). This time Grandma came with us. We had a great time. We spent most of the time in D...

Hi Everybody! Emily is now 1 year old. It's hard to believe that it really has been 12 months since she was born. It has been an eventful year. From those first few weeks in the hospital to now cruising around tables and anything else she can climb up to. Boy has she grown! Other than those first weeks of life, Emily has generally been a health baby (knock on wood). I remember Julia being sick a lot more often in the first year. Emily has proven to be very different from her older sister. Where Julia loved her cuddles as a baby, Emily is hmmm...how do I put this nicely...stand off-ish. She will give you a whack in the nose before you get a hug. Hugs are very rare from Emily. Julia gets the most hugs from Emily. However, Emily seems to be much more independant. She will play by herself for longer periods than Julia at the same age. How will this all translate in the coming years? only time will tell. Emily will be starting daycare at my work in March. Until then, Grandm...

On Saturday morning we went to Mya's birthday party. We had the extra pressure of getting there on time because we had the birthday girl with us. The highlight of the party was the critter show. I was surprised to see how brave all the kids were. They even touched a spider! No way was I going to do that!

Julia slept over Grandma K's house for 2 night this week. Selena and Mya also joined in for a night. Mommy, Emily and I were in Leamington. Julia likes to go to Grandma because she gets to do whatever she wants. Tonight the sleepover party is at our house. Selena, Mya and Jenna are here for the night. Auntie Jackie and Jacob were over in the afternoon for a swim too. Tonight we went to Chuck E Cheese for "dinner". The girls had a great time. Afterwards the girls went for a night swim. The air was cool but the water was really warm. The heater's been cranked up high all day! Tomorrow morning it is off to Selena and Mya's for Mya's 6th birthday party.

This week Julia took advantage of the nice hot weather by staying home from school for a 3 day "Stay-cation". Finally we were able to really use the pool all week. On Saturday we headed to Bracebridge for the day to go to Santa's Village. I remember going there as a kid so I thought it would be fun to check it out. Well the drive up there was hell! The 400 was packed with cottagers. We broke off the 400 and head up hwy 27 which was only marginally better. With a 30 min stop in Barrie for a break, we finally arrived after 4 hours! Now we only had 3.5 hours until it closed. We basically saw everything in that time. It's not that big a place. It's a nice place but not worth the drive. It's a good place to go if you're cottaging in the area. The trip home was just over 2 hours...no traffic. Surprisingly the kids were great in the car. Today we just relaxed in the backyard. Everyone was still tired from yesterday.

Emily's Baptism was on Aug 9th. The service was long but Emily didn't cry. She was her fidgety self though so it was tough holding her at times. Thank you to Uncle Ron and Auntie Gina for being the God Parents. After the church we headed back to our place for some summer fun and food. Luckily the weather held up for just long enough. It was hot and humid but as least it didn't rain until everyone was ready to go home. Thank you to everyone for all the generous gifts.

Well, as of July 22nd we are officially in our now house. That was the day we moved out of our old house. The move was long. We had a crew of 4 guys and they took all day. They did a great job though. They disassembled and assembled all the furniture. Not one piece was damaged. They did damage the hardwood stairs at the old house but the moving company sent a repair guy and they had it all fixed up in a couple of hours. Since the move we have been doing our best to get organized. This house is significantly smaller than our old house. We really bought it for the yard so we are sacrificing square footage. It has been a challenge dealing with less space. Nothing major on the renos has started yet. Just a bit of painting and trim work in the bedrooms and wallpaper removal (thanks Auntie Weezie and Auntie Linda!). Lots to come though. We have decided on a contractor to do the structural changes so that's one decision out of the way. We are finding that keeping to our bud...