How we entertain ourselves here...

As I was cleaning up the breakfast dishes this morning....pancakes with Aunt Jemima....the children found some great ways to entertain themselves.
First off, we have found a great little thing in the hockey highlights on NHL.com which the boys watch faithfully every morning. So here they are glued to the screen.
And Hannah and Jacob were busy getting themselves dressed and ready to go out for a scooter ride! You may be interested to know that it hasn't rained here for a few weeks now so they must be anxious to wear their wellies even though they have no need to. Jacob did quite well with getting shorts on but left on his pj top. Hannah managed to get the shirt on but no bottoms at all; fortunately her shirt is a little long.
Hope you all have a great weekend...Go Ottawa Senators!!

Finally for Hannah

I know you won't really be able to tell in these photos, but for Hannah it was a fantastic and life-altering thing....the other night, I finally decided to cut her hair. It still isn't that full on top but the back was getting a little stragley (what a great word...even if I have no idea how to spell it!) She is sooo proud that she got her hair cut, she is telling everyone! And she says "I got my hair cut just like Benjamin, Alexander, Jacob and Mom!"
Anyhow, as I said, it is hard to see in the pictures because she turned her head for the "before" shot so you can't really see how long it was in the back. However, SHE knows and I guess that is what counts.

BEFORE
AFTER

I had to come back and edit this post because as I was writing it, the children were all playing outside and it made a great picture....another beautiful day here and they are digging up on the hill and right outside our window:

Here they are up on the hill....recognize any construction toys Mom?

Oh and one other thing.....We love Aunt Tracy...AND Aunt Jemima!! Thanks Tracy for the great parcel and the great french toast we enjoyed this morning.

Royal Botanic Gardens and our own backyard

First off, congrats to Scott and Dee on a beautiful baby girl!! We wish we were closer so we could see all these cuties in person. However, we fully expect many pictures and updates in the next year (at least) of these two great girls, Emily and Sarah. What a blessing they will be to the families God has placed them in.
Now on to the pics of our little blessings....
Last week there was a great Science Festival in Edinburgh. We went to the Royal Botanic Garden one day to take in some of the activities of the festival. It was our first time there but we will be going back for sure! Already there were tons of flowers and trees in bloom, it was very beautiful and I can only imagine what it will look like come summer.
So after taking in some of the science activities, we had a nice picnic lunch and then walked through the gardens. It was a great, warm, sunny day and the children had fun running and watching the ducks in the pond. Here are a few pics from our day:

Here are the children enjoying a race in the gardens. Shawn and I were sitting on a bench and watching the race which went around the big tree you see in the center.

And here they are coming around the tree...a little hard to see H and J in the background but they are there!
Here is everyone (except me of course) walking down one of the paths in the gardens...
And then stopping for a pose under this great tree

We really are enjoying this city!!

And here are some pictures from our own backyard which I took last week. We have some great trees and flowers which I look forward to seeing in full bloom very soon.

This one is so neat...it is actually growing out of the trunk of a tree. There are dozens of these clusters all over the tree trunk and it's branches.

And all along the back walkway are these shrubs/bushes which I thought were just going to be greeen. However, they have these great red flowers all over them now.

Here's a close up for all your horticulturalists!

Rejoicing with Friends!!

We are rejoicing today with our friends Matt and Christine on the arrival of their baby girl, Sarah!
Yet another house of boys has been invaded by a little girl.....oh the fun!! I can't wait to share stories of how girls are simply different than boys.
Blessings on your whole household....
Now we await the next little one which will arrive any time to our friends in NB...Go Dee and Scott!!

New additions and Scrapbooking

This is a dual-purpose blog-post as we have some new additions to our family to announce:
Meet Goldie and Seashell!! A friend here was looking to get rid of a couple of goldfish so we said we would take them. The children are quite excited about it as Franklin the turtle picked goldfish as his favorite pet in a story book we have. Plus, they remember that Elmo had a fish when we used to have a TV to watch Sesame Street...there are times I do miss our TV.
So here are our new additions:

Here are the happy children displaying our new pets; and yes it is shorts weather here!!

I also completed a whopping 6 pages when my friend came over last night...she says she is getting quicker because of me and completed 2 pages and some cropping last night!
So here are my pages:

Our church Ceilidh from back in the fall

Our snow day which I blogged about earlier

Hockey
Halloween


Miscellaneous shots from the fall and winter

Easter Weekend Fun!!

Here is a rundown of our Easter weekend fun:
We started off the weekend with a great cake for my bday on Saturday. It was from the sweetie shop which we love! We were a little late with supper that night and so cake was our bedtime snack after baths; thus the pic of all the pj's.

Then on Sunday afternoon, we had our friends come over for an Easter egg hunt. Here are the children hard at work searching in the toy room for their eggs:

And then here they are showing off their goodies in their Easter baskets:
We had some other friends over for a great Easter dinner yesterday of turkey and all the fixin's; which we are still enjoying today!
And this afternoon, we got a ring from the postman that we had a package arrive with some great goodies from Grammie Weir....thank you! Sorry we missed you on the webcam, I held them off as long as I could!

In other news, we are on day 5 of our "nappy free days"!!! Hannah and Jacob love wearing their "undies" as they call them. They are doing very well with only a couple accidents thus far. They still wear diapers at night but in the day, we are attempting to do underwear. I had forgotten how cute little ones look in nothin' but their undies!

Monkey Music

Yesterday, we took a lovely trip to the zoo again. As we are on holiday here there were some special events taking place there. We were able to take in a Monkey Music session and then look around the zoo for the rest of the day. It was another beautiful, sunny day here (around 16 degrees)...very nice!!
So here are some pics from our trip:

Playing the drums during Monkey Music

A little too warm for the polar bear

This eagle was up on a branch and flew right down to the glass in front of us...pretty spectacular

There are 3 or 4 great playgrounds within the zoo grounds. As it was so nice yesterday, we checked them all out. By one of them, there is a little hill which turned out to be great for rolling! Take a look:

Getting ready to roll....

In the act....

Hannah and Jacob also joined in

A short note for all the pregos.....

Just thought I would post a little note to all my pregnant friends to let them know what they may have to look forward to:
I have a friend here who last week gave birth to a beautiful baby girl! She was 10 days overdue and her little girl weighed...are you ready for this???? 11lbs 1 oz!!!!
Wishing you all a happy delivery! Looking forward to hearing and seeing pics of your "little" ones! We miss you!

NEW PLAYGROUND

They finally completed a great new playground very close to here a couple of weeks ago. I was quite distraught back in October when they put up a sign saying they were closing down the playground which is on the way home from the boys' school; it was such a great find that we were disappointed to lose a playground so close to our home . However, after many months of waiting, we have a terrific new playground. It has so many great play areas. There is a sand area, many different climbing frames, some great swings and a zip line (or a flying fox as they call it here). The children all love it, as do I! We started a 2 week spring break here on Friday and we have been to the new playground every day except Sunday since! We have been having terrific weather lately: sunny and 10-14 degrees.

Here is one of the many great twirly things...I'm not up on my playground lingo to know the real name! You stand on a little platform, lean back and swing around and around.

And the great tire (I guess I should be saying "tyre" so that I can teach the boys properly as they are going to school in August!) swing which they will all fit on but here is shown Hannah and Jacob only.

And the great "sand box" is a whole section of the playground with shovels, pulleys, slides, etc. for digging and playing....and burying people!
This is one of my favorite (and the children's favorite) ride at the playground. It is like a roundabout but to make it go around, the children all peddle the bicycles. It looks like great fun!

Hannah and Jacob on the 2 baby swings they have. They also have 6 regular swings and 2 special swings which are like car seats for small children and/or handicapped children; really neat.

I seem to have taken more photos of Hannah and Jacob than of Alexander and Benjamin...probably because the boys didn't stop long enough for me to take a picture! This was our first trip to the new playground, so they had alot of exploring to do. So here is one of the seesaws in the sand area.

And finally (for now), here is Jacob getting ready to come down the slide. I can't wait to do a scrapbook page or two with playground stickers and all these photos! And it isn't even summer yet!