What a great weekend! A great big thanks to Karen, Dave and Ava in Courtice and Karen from Oshawa for having us for the weekend! Enjoy the pictures!


Lily on a school bus - she's loving it!


Lily was fine to sit on the camel until she was informed that Daddy wasn't allowed to join her - she quickly decided to leave. But for the rest of our time at the Community Fair she wanted to see the camel. She knows what a camel is as we have a photo in her room of our friends Chris & Miia on the camel and she talks to the camel in the photo.


I actually think the camel is smiling for the picture!

Mike is showing Lily how a lion roars.

Lily getting her face painted like a lion.

Lily and Mike in a firetruck.

Lily finds buses to be fascinating. It was such a great adventure for her to check out a school bus with Ava.





Checking out the $500,000 infra-red light.
Lily is smitten with helicopters. It was a thrill for her to see one up close.

What a great day at the zoo! My friend from Teacher's College, Karen and her 20 month old Ava.


Ava and Lily hanging out with the python!

The lovely and amazing Karen!
Memories of September 2000 when Mike and I went to Niagara Falls and I took 300 photos (with film ~ not a digital camera!) of which nearly 150 were at the butterfly conservatory. I took over 500 photos this weekend - maybe that's why my camera is dying.....


Lily was completely oblivious (not a clue!) that the butterfly landed on her hat. Everyone around us was commenting on it!


Lily and the hippo.


Ava and Lily are checking out the hippo..

Mike and Lily were both deep in observation...

My monkeys :-)

Mommy - look at the kitty!

Yes - Lily is playing drums with my head!

The older primate took a running leap at the younger one - it was crazy!


Lily and the primate are face to face......
Mike and Lily enjoyed watching the elephants.

Ava riding the hippo!

Lily asking all sorts of questions about the kangaroos. She now likes to hop like them :-)

I think the Kangaroo Park was Mike's favourite part. We got to walk along the path and get to watch the kangaroos!

Toronto Metro Zoo is huge! So much walking, so little time!

Our Little Monkey..

I'm always impressed with the view of a Lion - what a majestic creature!

An odd thing happened earlier this week. On Monday night, during my beading get-together, TVARRIS (the computer system responsible for assigning supply work) called and cancelled my supply job on Tuesday. I was disappointed because a)its a class I enjoy working for a teacher I like and b) it was pay! So on Tuesday Lily and I went to the Children's Museum to check out their new music exhibit. When I got home afterwards there was a message on my machine from the school wondering why I wasn't at the school!!! It turns out that the teacher had to adjust the job specs and the system cancelled the job. I've been in touch with both the teacher and the school and they were apologetic of the system malfunction. Fear not, I'm going to be doing another four days of supply work for this teacher in the next three weeks!

On the positive side, Lily and I had a blast at the Children's Museum! We got there before it opened so I was able to take some outside shots of Lily :-)


The ladies and their creations! Awesome work Ladies!


Lily is playing hide-and-seek with me :-)


Lily loves to run! The hat she is wearing was knitted for her by her Grandmama (Mike's grandma Wolfe in Regina)



The goal of the Children's Museum is to encourage exploration for children. The newest exhibit, Music for All, is a great place! Lily loves her music so it kept her busy for most of our visit!
When you petal the bike, the energy that it creates pushes its way through a set of pipes throughout the room and makes music!


Lily is giving me kisses :-)

Lily and I in front of the Children's Museum.

Lily sitting on a stump.

Yoda McDonald. :-)
Lily's grocery store.


The music exhibit. The large pipes reaching to the ceiling are connected to the bikes.

Lily likes the sounds that the guitars make. She


It took a while, but she figured out how to hold the guitar :-)

Last weekend we got to hang out at Mom & Lyle's place. It was great to see Mom and Lyle working on the property. It's hard to believe that they broke ground a year ago and have been living in the house for nine months! The landscaping and basement are the last two things to finish up. For Lyle's Birthday we gave him a card calling him the Lawn Ranger. Despite his best efforts, grass will not grow for this man! We're really hoping that this yard treats him better!



Nana and Papa's place without the front grass.

Whalen and Nana's herb wheel outside the house.

Lily and I.

Lily's first time up the deer tower in Nana and Papa's back yard. They constructed this so that during hunting season, Papa can keep watch for deer and not be easily detected.

Nana and Lily walking in the woods.

Mike and Lily

Lily's famous 'stinky face' look.

Lily and Cora having a chat.

Nana, Cora and Lily enjoying their walk.


I'm not sure what the story is with Lily's tongue in this photo!

I love walking in Nana's backyard!

This is in Nana's 'back yard' Left to right: 2 year old Lily, 21 month old Cora, 4 year old Whalen, and my first cousins Blair, Chevy and Hana.


Whalen wants Papa to have grass so badly!

Lily walked around the 'yard' helping Papa pick up stones.

Cora love the camera :-)

Lily calls Lyle's ATV 'Papa's Jeep'. Here she is out front of Lyle's work shed.

This is the future home of Nana's rock garden. Lily is testing to make sure that she can still hop from rock to rock -)

Cora Patricia Spittachine at 21 months old. This is her first sporting of the piggy tails!


Lily's hair is wild!

Lily is enjoying riding Papa's tractor.

My cousins Hana and Blair. When it is bed time Lily often requests to see a picture of 'HanaBlair'.