My Favourite Boys

The Run

This past Sunday, I laced up my running shoes and participated in the annual 5k Run for the Cure. Although the reality of having Christel's name on my back really sucked, I wore it proud because quite frankly, I'm totally proud of her. She's fighting the biggest of battle of her life and doing a darn good job of it. Waking up every single day and dealing with this dreaded disease can't be easy and so waking up one Sunday morning to run a 5k in her honour is the least I can do.

Christel, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I'm so proud of you girl and I'll continue to be here, cheering you on from the sidelines. Go Christel Go!

You can see from these pictures how many people participated. It was packed. It's always a challenge when the race begins because you're stuck in a crowd of people trying to run. Finally around halfway through the 5k, it breaks up a bit but you're always surrounded by people on all sides. It's interesting to read the signs on everyone's back as you run. It seems as though almost everyone knows someone close to them that has dealt with or is dealing with breast cancer. So it's awesome to see so many people supporting this event.

A family outing

The kids had a PD day already last week Monday and so we decided to take them somewhere fun for the day. We wanted to go to the zoo but the weather didn't cooperate and so we went to the science centre instead. The kids were so excited and we all had a great time. We even watched a movie on the big OmniMax screen. It was an under the sea movie and it was really cool. Well, most of us thought it was cool. Unfortunately Victoria found it way too overwhelming and kind of scary. She stayed as long as she possibly could, with her face covered for much of it, and then Mike finally had to take her out. And of course Samara wanted to be where Victoria was for fear of missing out on something. So Mike took Victoria, Samara and Denver out and Austin and I stayed and watched to the end. He thought it was really neat - and so did I (which in hindsight is kind of strange because swimming with fish is totally unappealing to me).

The kids had some favourite parts of the day. They all found the section on space really interesting and the rock 'n roll part was also a lot of fun. But they spent the most time in the kids zone. Victoria's absolute favourite part of the whole science centre is the marketplace. They have a store set up there with a scanner and everything. She was the cashier most of the time and checked everyone's groceries out. It's actually really cool and quite realistic.

Another great place to spend a day with the family.

Last day of summer vacation

I feel like the summer flew by and we barely did anything. Okay, you're laughing. I know I went to Ethiopia and brought home our son and all but still . . . I felt like we didn't do any major outings as a family. Okay, that still doesn't sound right.

Anyway, the last day of summer vacation we decided to take the kids to a farm nearby our place. The kids' favourite part was the train ride that took us for a tour of the farm. Even Denver loved it. We had a really good time and it was nice to spend the day together with the six of us. (SIX of us! Yikes, that still feels strange to type!).

Soccer

Saturday mornings this summer were spent at the soccer field again. This was one of Austin's favourite part of summer. He loved playing soccer again this year and looked forward to the games each week.

A very serious goalie:

I love this picture. Just a little distracted by something more interesting in the grass!

Here he is getting his medal at the end of the season.

Austin, we're proud of you. You did your best and always had fun regardless of whether you would win or lose.

Funky Lettuce

In my last post I mentioned something about the little things in life making Samara happy. Well perhaps I can relate to that every once in a while . . . because this funky lettuce made me smile. I went to make a salad the other day and after pulling off the first layer of leaves, this is what I found. How cool is that? Have you ever had such cool romaine lettuce in your salad?

A brief update

I'm so behind on blogging it's pathetic. And I still don't have time to catch up. So here are just a few cute pictures just for the sake of blogging. Hopefully in the next day or two I'll be able to post more.

Samara has really been missing Victoria and Austin since they've both started back at school. They're both gone full time this year and she really notices the difference. She enjoyed having them home this summer and is a little sad every morning when the school but comes to get her playmates. She'll often say, "I don't want Victoria and Austin to go to school all the time". Or "they ALWAYS go to school!". Or her favourite thing to say lately "it's not fair!". It makes her really happy when we pack her a lunch too. She carries it around all day with her. It's pretty cute. Here she is eating her snack.

Here's Denver. He wants to crawl so bad but . . . just . . . can't . . . do it! He rolls around the room and gets around that way but hasn't been successful at crawling yet. Last night for the first time he got onto all fours from his tummy and started rocking back and forth. I don't think it will be long now but we've been saying that for about a month! And honestly, I'm not in a hurry because I know he'll keep me hoppin' once he's mobile.

Samara thought it was hilarious to take a picture of me when I was taking pictures of Denver. She gets to play with my old film camera and thinks it's the best. She laughed so hard when she saw these pictures of herself, especially the one where you can just see her eye peeking over the top of the camera. Doesn't take much to amuse her . . . I love the joy she gets out of the little things in life!