Birthday Party at Midway!

For Alex's sixth birthday, we arranged to have his party at a place called the Midway Family Fun Park. We had originally planned something else for the party but had to change our plans, so I had to scramble a bit to find another place that had space on relatively short notice.

We were absolutely thrilled with the party at Midway. We had eight kids there and they all had so much fun. The party was really well organized by our own personal "party pro" and everything went like clockwork. The kids got to play in an indoor climbing/sliding/running gym with multiple levels before going outside to slide down a HUGE inflatable slide. They then took a short train ride, got to ride in some cool and fun bumper boats and then rode some ATVs.

After that, they went inside for pizza, hot dogs or pogos and then had cake, opened presents and then got to play in the arcade before being picked up by their parents. It was so much fun to see them all having such a great time and all of the kids were so well behaved and listened really well. I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a fun place for kids this age.

I'm trying out a different way to post pics from the birthday party. Please let me know if it doesn't work for you.

 

Birthday Fun

Alex turned six today! Where has the time gone? It's hard to believe that he's already six and about to graduate from Senior Kindergarten.

For Alex's birthday, we had tons of fun. The Kindergarten classes had a special day planned with a fashion show. Kids could pick anything they wanted to wear - costumes, favourite outfits, sports uniforms, PJs, cultural outfits, etc. Alex picked his new soccer uniform (as did a couple of other kids) and he looked absolutely adorable.

The teachers and volunteers did a great job organizing it and the kids all looked so adorable. The parents could then go back to the class to hang out a bit while the kids had their snacks (Alex had brought small cupcakes to share with the class for his birthday). Once that was done, he came home with me and we went to meet Chris for lunch.

Alex picked Lone Star Texas Grill for his birthday lunch, so off we went to feast on fajitas, nachos and salsa. The waiters came over and sang a VERY LOUD song for Alex's birthday and had him wear a very cute and very BIG hat. He also got to play with some of the dough they use to make the tortillas, so it was a fun time.

After Chris finished work, we had reservations for a nice dinner out with Alex for his birthday. We had a party planned for him that weekend, but we'd told him he could pick the place he wanted to go for dinner on his actual birthday, so of course he picked a pretty darned expensive Italian place near us. It was a very yummy dinner and well worth the splurge as it's always great food. It's not the fanciest looking place but the service is great and the food is very good.

Trip to Emergency

Alex made a recent trip to the Emergency Department at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. He'd woken up that morning and threw up once and just felt really crappy. Normally, Alex can have a high fever or be really sick, but he's still happy and laughing and eating well.

Not this time.

He didn't want to eat anything and only drank small sips of water and complained that his stomach really hurt. Then the fever hit. He mostly just laid on the couch and slept for most of the day - something he'd never done before.

After a while of this, and watching him cry out in his sleep from his stomach hurting and also having him wake up crying a few times, we decided to go the safe route and take him to emerg. We got him there and got checked in pretty quickly. He was still feeling pukey and he still had a fever (so they added Advil to the Tylenol we'd already given at home) and then we went to wait in the busy waiting room.

And he fell asleep again with all the people around and the bright lights and the noise and the commotion and everything.

I was trying hard not to freak out but both Chris and I were concerned about his appendix.

Thankfully we got streamed into a semi-urgent status and got into our own room very quickly to wait for the doctor. Alex slept in Chris' arms the entire time we walked to the new room and didn't even wake up once he was on the bed and he barely woke for the doctor's exam.

She was concerned about dehydration even though he had only thrown up the one time and said the stomach pain might have actually been caused by the dehydration. So they woke him up to do blood tests and put in an IV.

It was amazing how quickly he perked up once he had some fluids in him and the fever was under control. We stayed for quite a few hours for the IV fluids and he ended up missing three days of school, but he's thankfully all recovered now.

I can't imagine how hard it must be for parents who have kids who are more seriously ill or injured... it must be so hard on everyone.

Soccer!

For the first time ever, we signed Alex up for soccer. He's playing in a big local league (sponsored by Tim Hortons) and he's having an amazing time. Two of his friends from school are also on the same team, so he really loves playing and learning to kick the ball and be part of a fun group.

He's #6 and plays for team "USA".

He's played a few games so far and he loves it but he doesn't really feel comfortable yet getting into things and trying to take the ball from the other team. If someone kicks it to him, he'll run with it, but otherwise he tends to follow along with the group. I don't really care if he's amazing at this or not - he's having fun and learning to work with other kids and play fair and that's all that really matters, especially at this age.

Here's a few pics from his first game.

Tulip Festival

Anne and Bob came to visit us in Ottawa for the Tulip Festival. We had a great time with them for their visit and got to go out for some really yummy Korean food. Bob wasn't feeling great the morning we went to check out the tulips so he stayed at our place and rested while Alex, Chris and I took Grandma out for a drive and a nice walk. We also got to enjoy some yummy Beaver Tails - a classic!

If you look closely, you'll see that Anne is doing the little "bunny ears" behind Alex's head. He thinks this is quite funny - obviously Grandma does too.

Fun Visit to Alex's School

Alex's school recently had a fun Open House day at his school. Parents were invited to go see projects the kids had been working on, check out some books for sale and also check out the cakes donated by different families for the "Cake Walk". Kids could buy tickets and put them into the bin in front of a cake (or cakes) they wanted to win. If they pulled your ticket out of the bin, you'd win that ticket.

Alex quickly fell in love with a 'creepy crawly' cake and put all of his tickets in that bin - and he won it! We picked it up that night and it was very yummy.

It was fun going to see Alex in his class and meet some of the other parents and also work on some projects with them.

Easter Fun

We spent Easter in Kingston at my parents place and Kathy, Steve, Jenny, Mary and the kids were all able to come as well.

The weekend was great - we celebrated Kian's third birthday, got to go on some adventure walks, and had a fun Easter Egg hunt outside in the nice weather.

I've posted a bunch of pictures as a slideshow - just click on the play button. You can make it bigger by clicking the enlarge button in the lower right corner (looks like four arrows pointing outward) and you can also click on "show info" in the upper right corner if you want to see some captions on some of the photos.