Montreal/Quebec and 2 seasons in 2 weeks.

If you are friends with me on Facebook, you may have seen some of the Canada pictures. Sorry for the duplicates.


Montreal

So, here we are at a Portugese restaurant in Montreal. It was a Tapas restaurant and the menu was all in French. The waitress was explaining the items to me, but unfortunately most of the items were seafood. I am not a fan, but my brother told me that we were going to experience some new things with this meal. I reluctantly agreed. The man with us was the owner of the restaurant and he was very fun. His name was Jack and he helped us order. He brought out the first item, served it to us and said "if you don't like this, you don't like anything in the world." So, I tried it, being true to the agreement I made with Jon...it was strange. It was OCTOPUS!!!! I knew we were getting that and I had suspected it. Thankfully I didn't get the pieces on Tim or Jon's plate-they had the suction circles on their pieces. YUK!!! It wasn't as bad as I may have talked myself into thinking if I had known before eating it, but I certainly would never eat it again. I was proud of myself for even trying it. I wouldn't say the night was a total bust though. The food was not the best, but the ambiance in the restaurant and the owner/waitstaff were fantastic. I appreciate those kinds of things. It was a really small restaurant and it was very nice. Just not the kind of food I was looking for.


Here we are in a little pastry shop by Mount Royal. This was the only place where we had any trouble with the language barrier. They were VERY french here, but we were still able to get by. Besides, how can you go wrong with pastries!


Here we are on Mount Royal. We didn't quite make it to the top of the mountain. We had already done so much walking. It was cold-thus the hats. I bought mine when we were shopping before we made it up to the mountain. Thankfully, I did find one that I liked or I would have been in big trouble! It was windy and pretty freezing. I had mittens and everything. Despite the cold, we did have a nice hike up part of the mountain. It was nice to spend some time just Tim and I.

There was a road that we could have tromped up, but we decided to be more adventurous and go up some slightly beaten paths. It was interesting. This was after we had climbed back down from that hill, this was also when we decided we weren't quite going to get up to the top of the mountain to see the view of montreal. We asked Jon to take us there later-by car!

The view on Sunday morning from atop Mount Royal. It was a nice view, but much easier to get to by car.
Quebec City-Saturday trip.

Chateau Frontenac. This is a huge hotel in Quebec city which first opened in 1893. It was indeed HUGE.

The view from the boardwalk in front of the Citadelle (the area where some battles were fought long ago)

Aren't these great fall colors...and on one tree!

Back to home life...

She falls asleep in some crazy positions-and always with books and some kind of doll or baby. it's pretty cute-Oh and I can't forget blankie!

The 2 seasons in 2 weeks...

Fall, just yesterday cleaning the leaves up in the yard.

"Mom, no more pictures!"

Fun jumping in the leaves.

A leaf salamander. They also made a leaf fort, but Caleb kept getting mad at Ellie because she was running through the "walls" and not using the doors. It was a little funny for me!

Buddies goofing around.

At Gertens checking out the pumpkin piles

Another curious sleeping arangement. At least she fell asleep. Naps are really few and far between for this girl!

And now, the 2nd season...WINTER!!! It was back on 10/12-just plain WRONG!!! Caleb liked it though. I was complaining and he said "but mom, I like snow!" I told him that snow was okay, but Not in early October!

The snow we got was PERFECT for snowmen.

"I need some doves (gloves)" I didn't have any for her yet so her little hands got pretty cold. I did pick up some for her a few days later though so we are ready for the next snow-hopefully it's a few weeks away still!

And our little snowperson.

Ellery's 3rd Birthday-a little late! And the apple orchard

My Princess is 3!!!


Here's the beautiful dress-up dress from Auntie Janet and uncle Dave. I think you may see this dress in a few weeks. (Cheaper than buying a princess dress for the best dress up day of the year!)

This was on her actual Birthday. We stopped at Cold Stone to try out their ice cream cakes

Auntie Janet also sent Ellery a birthday bouquet. It was a sweet surprise that came on her actual day. :)

During the day on September 22nd, Grandma G and I took the kids to the Mall. They got to ride on a few rides, eat at the Rainforest, and make a new friend at Build a bear. Below is a pic of Ellery kissing the heart before putting it in her new Kitty.



And here we are at home with our new friends. Caleb got a fishing bear.




The Big Birthday Party.

This is the best pic I could get of her before her party started. She was so excited and since it was 12 days after her actual day, she had been saying it was her birthday every day up until this day. I guess she is taking after her father in saying things about a birthday month/week etc. Figures...must be something to do with September birthdays in our house.

With her first "wilton" cake. I think each year they get harder for our hands to handle.



At the Apple Orchard.





This year, we went to the orchard with the Prices. Myla, Caleb and Ellery had quite a fun time running around the orchard together.
"I only like the sour ones, Mom."

this was just too cute not to add, it's not our pumpkin for the year yet though.

We'll be back next week with pictures from our trip to Montreal. I can't wait!!!!

School and Dance

Caleb started his second year of preschool on Monday. The first day went well thanks to him knowing one of the teachers and a few of the kids. He went in, a little shy as usual. Once the kids went outside, he was great because he got to make "stinky garbage" from the mulch on the playground with his friend Ty. They seem to really like playing together, so I am so glad that they are in the same class again this year. It made the transition so much easier...or so I thought...(see below)

.....onto our second day of preschool...

The second day of preschool was also the second day for Ellery to have dance class. My mom got to take her to her first day :( (good for grandma, sad for mommy) because mommy had to work. So, this was mom's first day seeing her little girl dance. It was so sweet seeing her with little dance shoes, just like momma used to do...However, that was the problem with Caleb.

Ellery said that morning before we left for school, "Mom, you and I are going to dance class and Caleb is going to school by himself".....can you imagine what went through Caleb's head....well I'll tell you what went on at school that morning.

We arrived at school, I got Ellery out and was attempting to get Caleb out of his car seat while he was kicking at me and saying "I don't want to go to school" Well, I've heard that before and I have the policy of ignoring the comment. Last year, that worked out well. He would say he didn't want to go, but once we got into the classroom, he was fine.

Well, wednesday that was NOT the case. I carried him into the school and wouldn't you know that I chose that day to be EARLY to school...so I had to sit with a screaming-and I mean SCREAMING to the point that the other kids waiting to get into school were covering their ears screaming-kid who was fighting me so hard that I was sweating from restraining him. Finally, they opened the door (thank God-but I am sure they were just so looking forward to opening the door to the screaming) and I brought him in-still screaming and handed him off to the teacher and I headed out the door. Theresa, his teacher from last year, took him from me and he sat on her lap for the beginning of class. I stayed by and watched for a while, he did seem okay.

One of the other moms was staying to be a helper for the class and she told me today that he did fine once the class started. When I picked him up that day, he said school was "good" and today when I took him, there was only a slight 'I don't want to go' that happened. He seems to enjoy school, but almost doesn't want to admit it to me for fear of hurting my feelings or something. The assistant at school who works in the office told me that the "I dont' wanna go" didn't end for her daughter until 4th grade-someone HELP ME if that happens with Caleb!!!! He is always good when I pick him up and he is usually smiling and playing nicely when I stop by to observe (unnoticed of course). Hopefully he will realize that school is cool and start to LOVE it. That's my goal!

Ellery, however, went right into her class and sat down without any prompting from me. She didn't always listen to what she was supposed to do, but she did pretty well for never having been in school before. She seems to LOVE her teacher "Miss Heather" and I think she really likes tap shoes. I had her try them on for dad at home later that night and she was just tapping away. I hope she enjoys dance as much as I did.

Here's how we found him one night. With headphones, no shirt, showing off his cool frog tatoo-catching flies...

Caleb LOVES to make art projects. This was a self portrait. I think it's pretty darn cute-close resemblance-no?

Dad's birthday. Caleb and mom made him a chocolate cake, but it wasn't a surprise because Dad came home from work early that day-naughty!!

At the Burnsville Fire Muster Celebration. We didn't get to go to the parade this year, but we did get to check out a few fire trucks and eat some mini donuts. They had a band, but Caleb said it was too loud. He didn't want to stay there for too long. Ellery was having fun dancing to the music, so we had to stay for a little bit. The mosquitos were out in full force by the time we left, so we decided against staying for the fireworks.

A funny and a sad story to share

I have a few words to share with all of you. First is a hilarious story about my dear son...

I worked on labor day and Tim was home with the kids. When I got home, they were down in Caleb's room finishing stories for bedtime. I walked into the room and Tim was saying "tell her what we practiced" after a few moments, Caleb turned to me, smiled and said

"Mom, your butt is extensive"

Okay???

Well, turns out one of his Star wars books had that word "extensive" in it and Tim was helping him understand the word. They were trying out different uses of the word. Tim had told Caleb to say something like "those noodles are extensive"...or so he says. But Caleb has been OBSESSED with the word "butt" lately. He uses it on a daily basis-we're trying to get him to stop calling peole "buttcracks". Anyway, he apparently came up with this use of the word- he said "dad, how about this one, 'My buttcrack is extensive" " Thankfully he hasn't learned those lovely names such as "butthole" or "buttface" hopefully we can wait a few more years before he is calling Ellie those things.


So I started with the funny story first, now here is my sad story to share with all of you.


Last wednesday night, September 2, 2009, a fantastic doctor lost his life at the young age of 59. He was one of the most amazing doctors I've ever had the opportunity to work with. He had the most positive attitude and he was brilliant! It hurts now just thinking of it. He was crossing a street to get to his car in Los Angeles (he commuted from here to LA where his family lives) and a car hit him apparently going about 50 mph. There was no blame placed, so it was just a horrific accident, but I tell you all just to say...you never know when it is your time. Please love those you love as much as you can and try to be kinder to those other folks in your life. And never wait to tell someone that you love them. Life is too short and you are really only given this instant. So, I love you all, as some of you have already heard from me lately.