Last night in Paradise

This is what it looked like right before we I took the last trip to my new digs.  The storage is literally bursting at the seams but that is what storage is meant to do.  I think we definitely maximized our space usage there.

We also had a final dinner at our short time home.  It was a mish mash of leftovers and what was in the freezer.  As usual it was delish.

The Mrs. has been hitting us with some of our favourites over the last few days.  It is like she is trying to hammer home the fact that I am going to miss her incredibly for the five weeks we are apart.  With my mind on the various other things that moving your family to a new country entails I have had little time for the magnitude of our undertaking to really hit home.  It is starting to now.  I am officially packing up the computer after this blog and will not be driving our own computer again till I arrive in Japan.  Well the clock keep ticking and I have miles to go before I sleep.

Love, Out.

Dinner and a Guest

Can you believe twice in three nights.  On Sunday we whipped some currish chili.  Or some chili-ish curry.  Then our friend came over and had dinner with us.  She was a little under the weather from her previous nights festivities.  Then the wife managed to wrestle the fact that is was her birthday.  So we went and got a cake.

I had way too much cake but man was it good.  Very very happy happy.

 Then this evening we had a fabulous meal of cheesy fried potatoes and rice covered with fried veggies and ground beef.  

I promised we could go and look at the river which is rising fast after dinner.  So when I get out there what should the children have found.  

This little guy.

Looking for a positive ID on what kind of creature the river has driven from its home.  Thin not super long tail.  Slightly rounded snout. Not interested in a carrot.  Non webbed feet.  Found near river.

Well we had a pretty good day today.  First a picture of the Baby.  Look at him sitting up like the little man that he is.  He climbed up on that file box all by himself.

Next up we have the kids play day today.  The son got to invite one friend and the daughter invited three.  We had hot dogs for lunch and then they played outside a whole bunch.  We tried to keep them out of the house as much as possible and were mostly successful.

This next picture totally reminds me of the sister directly below me.  The daughter and her friends have their little lunch party all by themselves.  I admit I totally set it up this way but I can see the day coming.

Here are the girls with the baby right before I crashed out for my mid afternoon nap.  They watched about 20 minutes of the Golden Compass before getting bored and heading back outside.

I woke up to find one of them had already been picked up and the second friend was in the process of heading out.  Later on we had some friends over for dinner.  Sorry about the lack of pics but it was a pretty laid back affair.  We put on steak, baked potatoes, stir fried veggies, guacamole and ice cream cones.  The friends added crackers with asiagio dip and rice cripy squares.  It was a beautiful warm afternoon and the kids ranged all over while the adults sat and enjoyed some conversation and a lazy afternoon.  Good times.

Feels like the First time.

Well that was quite the break in Blogging.  Still getting used to the new upload tool.  However, I am enjoying the photo collage to start the post.  Today was Mother's Day and we did up a nice breakfast for mom after she came back from her run.  She also had the luxury of sleeping in today. 

In other news it is eleven days and counting here before we pack up and leave the Cottage.  Didn't get any real packing or organizing done this weekend but hey, we still have one weekend left so it will just be busy.  The youngest is recovering for what we suspect was a bout of Roseola.  His fussiness is moving on and he is back to walking around and picking stuff up.  One of his favourite game is to turn off the TV while his brother and sister are watching a video.  It has officially begun.  If my siblings and I are any indication it will never stop.  Hope you and yours are all well.

Oh yeah, Dinner.  We had mashed potatoes with cheese and white fish mixed in.  It would have been fish cakes if we had started earlier or been more motivated.  We also had broccoli and asparagus pan fried with garlic.  A green salad and rice rounded out the meal.  The little guy at a tonne of it and came back for more.  A sign of a truly great meal.

Have a good week.

Dancing in the Living Room.

That is what is happening while I type this.  We have "I've got a feeling." pounding out from Youtube.  The kids are ripping it up while I lay this down.  Mazeltoff!!

So that is what have we been up.  The youngest is spending quality time being insanely cute and demanding his thrice daily feed.  It is nice to have him gobbling up the solid food.  Always progressing towards being a big boy. The kids enjoyed the Easter chocolate on Easter and well into the next week.  As usual the boy managed to make his last longer and rubbed it in his sisters face.

Lets talk about dinner this evening for a second.  We had burritos which isn't particularly interesting.  What is interesting is that I managed to get the daughter to eat not one, but two burritos with spicy meat.  Initially she balked at the spicy food but then I basically said, quit your whining and try it.  And she did.  And she liked it.  It wasn't super spicy.  And it had all the other good stuff like guacamole and shredded cheddar.  We also had some a nice brown bean concoction whipped up by the Mrs.  So yes, milestone action.  The daughter eats spicy food.  Story at 7:00.  (its 7:00 right now so you see what i was going for there).  Otherwise week two in the new place is going well.  Good weekend with some nice bike riding and playing outside.  We played by the river today.  I arrived back home to find the remains of a picnic and some serious playing going on.

Could it be.

It is possibly the end of an era, maybe more of an epoch really. The Easter Bunny doubt has started to creep in. The oldest is seven going on seventeen these days and there was some distinct doubt being spouted in the back seat on the way home from "How to Train a Dragon." which was very exciting and though formulaic enjoyable. Shout out to Chris, the best trailer was for a movie called the last airbender. Anyways, back to doubt. With the last tooth that was lost there was some serious investigation. Notes were written to the tooth fairy and the hand writing on the response notes was matched with parents writing to see if there was any conclusive evidence, none was found. However, Easter is taking a beating. She knows that parents hide the eggs for the hunt but is still not certain how the chocolate enters the house. I have to admit that I am not really as down for the subterfuge as many of my parenting peers seem to be. I mean in our daily walks to school we are debunking organized religion these days, how can I look myself in the mirror if I am trying to hold on to the Easter Bunny. This may be one of those paradox's I just have to live with.

On a different front we have successfully sold our home, packed up our junk and got the hell out of there. We are still moving in to the new place. An alarming amount of our stuff is moving in with us. The storage is almost full but it looks like it will take the rest of the stuff we planned to pack in there. I am worried about the stuff we didn't plan to pack in there and now look like we are going to try to. Here are some pics of the new place.Living room shot.Close up of the three for Auntie Joey who asked. We will try for head shots some time soon.Still not unpacked kitchen and dining room.The son photo bombing another picture. This time of the kitchen facing the other way. Nice enough but small.
Tooth brushing time in the new bathroom.The kids are loving the bunk beds. I took a trip back in time and we played pirate ship on them. I honestly can remember doing that when I was like five years old. Maybe only Auntie Joey will remember that. Down stairs at the Keith Road house.
Here is where the Mrs. and I bunk down. King sized glory. Thank goodness I will be spending a year in Japan. The Queen will be super sized by the time we get back. Otherwise it would be pretty hard to down size.
This is the final picture taken at the old house. Caption, " do you want crackers or cookies?"

Happy Anniversary.

Can you believe it. My blogversary was on Thursday. The burger meal evening. It has now been two years of blogging. I wish I had something more monumental to say. I have really taken a hit recently on the blogging. Lets hope it picks up after the big move (not the one across town, the one to Japan).