Thanksgiving in Kingston

We went to Kingston for Thanksgiving and to celebrate my Dad's birthday. The weather was absolutely amazing and the kids had a great time. Steve made a wonderful Asian-inspired dinner on the Saturday night for Dad's birthday and it was delicious. I had arranged for a cake from a friend of mine who makes cakes - and it was so beautiful and yummy.

On the Sunday night, Bob made an extravagant turkey dinner and it was incredible.

The kids spent a lot of time at the local parks, outside in the yard and down at the beach. We also went to a big Corn Maze and picked up some pumpkins.

It was hard missing our family in London but we had them in our thoughts!

The birthday boy and the grandkids (showing off my friend's incredible cake!)

The incredible cake up close (she even decorated the base the cake sat on!)

Ready for the birthday party.

Showing some of the detail of the cake.

More close-up detail - simply beautiful.

Everyone ready for the corn maze

Alex and his caterpillar (Alex is very serious in photos lately)

The caterpillar was tickling him as it walked on his arm

Not sure what he's doing here lol

Serious Alex and silly Kian showing the pumpkins they picked

Alex and Kian were very curious to check out what Jennifer was doing.

The kids on top of a big hay bale pile.

Some tech-time!

Easter in Kingston

We went to Kingston to celebrate Easter. Strider was at Dogs at Camp in Arnprior having a wonderful time, and we went to Kingston to my parents' place for the long weekend. Everyone else came as well, so we had a full house with Mary coming from Montreal, and Kathy, Steve, Jen, Sarah, Jenny and Kian coming from Toronto.

Chris, Alex and I cooked a big Korean meal on the Friday night for everyone - we started with some korean pancakes (veggie ones and some with crab and veggies) as an appetizer, and then served the dinner with bulgogi, rice, lettuce wraps, mandu (dumplings) and JapChae (yummy sweet potato noodle dish with veggies and beef). Everyone seemed to really like it.

We had lots of fun for the whole weekend - the kids had a great time, and they loved the Easter Egg hunt we had outdoors on the Sunday.

We also go to celebrate Kian's birthday - hard to believe he's already 4 years old!

Here's some fun pictures of the weekend.

Alex using Thor's hammer to break his chocolate "Thor" treat.

It worked - Thor's hammer is soooooooooo strong.

Looking for eggs and treats at my parents' place in Kingston

Sarah tolerating me taking her picture during the Easter Egg Hunt

Kian saying hi while looking for eggs

More egg hunting

Alex and Kian running/rolling down a big hill

The kids going geocaching with Millie

Sarah and Alex enjoying breakfast

Chris saying hi to Kammie at my friend's farm

The kids waiting to go for a wagon ride with the two big horses!

Mary showing off Kian's cool birthday cake

Kian helping us all sing

Lunar New Year

We had a great time in Toronto to celebrate Lunar New Year with the Korean Canadian Children's Association. Here's some pics of the wonderful event.

Not only did we get to see some amazing friends and wonderful people from the KCCA, we also got to enjoy some yummy Korean food and see some great demonstrations. In addition, the kids all got to participate in a special Korean ceremony that is part of the New Year celebration. The kids all do a ceremonial bow to the elders, and in turn, they receive a small gift.

It was so much fun to see the kids learning how to do the bow properly (it differs for men and women), and to watch them play with their friends.

Family picture

Alex in his gorgeous new hanbok

The elders of the Korean Community ready for the kids

The kids watching a demonstration of the bowing ceremony

Some of the wonderful dancers

More dancers doing the Fan Dance

Learning how to bow

Waiting his turn

Alex bowing before the elders

Birthday Weekend!

Well it finally happened... I'm 45 years old. Chris has been teasing me for weeks now about my upcoming birthday and how "old" I'm going to be (even though I'm only two weeks older than him!). We weren't sure what we were going to do for my birthday, especially as Chris had to be away all week until Friday night at a sales conference in Montreal.

We decided to use a couple of our free nights Chris has earned from his business travel so we booked a hotel west of Montreal. We'd planned on spending the afternoon and evening with my friend, Moe and her family. Moe and I have known one another since I was in Grade 1, and we've kept in touch over the years. She is now married and has two amazing kids.

Alex adores going to their place as they've got cute hamsters, fun toys and they like to play video games! For a six-year-old, it's just about as perfect as you can get.

We had a lazy morning on the Saturday as I wasn't feeling 100% and then we grabbed a quick lunch and went to Moe's place. We spent the afternoon and evening there, and had a truly amazing time. Lots of yummy nibblies, pizza and salad for dinner, a home-made lemon cake for my birthday and lots of laughs and fun.

At the end of the evening, Moe even volunteered to pull Alex's wiggly tooth and it came out without much fuss (although I have to admit that I did feel a bit wobbly when she was doing it... I'm such a wuss).

Here's some great pictures!

Meg and Alex with one of the cute hamsters

Meg showing off the hamster (she'd just been
holding another one that nips, hence the gloves)

Alex and Chris with the hamster

Tim and Alex sparring

Tim and Alex getting ready to battle

They pretty much shot those 'nerf' things at their Dads most of the night

Tim and Alex doing battle on the XBox against the older guys

Meg snuggling with her Dad (aka Jacques Spratt)

Moe and Chris

The boys concentrating on the game

Alex right after the tooth was pulled!

How Alex "REALLY" lost his tooth
(just kidding lol)

The bagels we brought home with us!