Sunshine days...

Beautiful sunny and warm days equals days of playing outside, digging in the dirt, muddy hands, dirt under the finger nails, walks, rocking throwing and zoo visits.  Just to mention a few of the things we've been up to.  I don't want to mention how wonderful the weather has been too much because things may change again for our weekend. (yes that's right, there is more snow in the forecast - did I mention today was 20 degrees!!?)

All hands on deck!! We had a great visit the Snider crew one afternoon and all enjoyed digging holes, building fairy houses and playing on the tire swing!

We are loving the extra sunlit evenings and have begun venturing out to Fish Creek after dinner to begin to teach Cameron the greater techniques of the Augustine rock throwing academy.

Master and chief rock thrower Rory was bursting with excitement that the snow and ice had finally melted and that all 'his' rocks had returned!

The Augustine boys!

Taking a rest and smiling for mom.

"Hey watch me mum!!"  Cam was totally into the rock throwing - loved every minute!

Another visit to the zoo to see our friends again! Rory just chatting with Mr Silverback! 

Enjoy some videos of our recent antics! 

Cam is quite the entertainer.  We can often hear him giggling away to himself after doing something silly.

Happy Birthday Rory!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RORY!!

This smiling birthday boy turned 4 years old today. I cannot comprehend where those four years have gone. We've spent a full day celebrating Rory, beginning with a cinnamon bun at Ikea, mac n cheese for lunch, a trip to the mall in the afternoon to meet daddy, a visit to the Lego store, a ride on the carousal, dinner out as a family, back for prezzies and birthday cupcakes and a birthday skype visit with grandpa and grammie! 

Rory making a wish...

Yum yum yum yummmmmyyy!!!

How cool are grammie and grandpa - celebrating Rory's birthday with some cupcakes of their own during our skype visit!!!

What an awesome package of craft goodies to create with!! 

(Mum can't wait to dive into those goodies with Rory!!) 

Wishing our ever growing, smiling, curious, inquisitive, wonderful son Rory a fantastic 4th Birthday!! Looking forward to another year full of firsts and new adventures. Thanks for keeping us smiling and always on our toes!! 

Happy Birthday Rory!!

Zoo visit..

Finally a beautiful, sunny mild morning...time for a trip for the zoo to say hello to some of our furry friends.  Rory, Cam and I packed a lunch and headed out for an adventure at the zoo!

While many of the animals were awake and very playful, the lions couldn't help but to snooze in the warm morning sun.

The tigers were up and prowling around - Rory and Cam making their best tiger roars to say hello.

Saying hello and good-bye to one of our favourite friends - the elephants are moving soon to another zoo. It has always been one my favourite animals to visit each time, we will miss these big guys! 

LOOK OUT!!! This one of the most dangerous and unpredictable wild animals I have ever seen!!! Doesn't he look dangerous!!!  (Rory definitely did border on dangerous after having  only a short nap after a morning at the zoo!!)

We had a 'howl' of time at the zoo this morning!! Looking forward to the warmer days ahead for more adventures!

Spring??

Hello again - we've been enjoying some spring-like weather with the boys. We even started to 'tidy' up the yard with our little helpers collecting pine cones and sticks. 

A great day for a swing ride....and then.....

We were housebound again with a couple spring snow storms!

Out came the toques, mitts and winter gear and back to shoveling the white stuff once again.

A few days inside to enjoy some stories..

With the crazy warm up and freezing we had some spectacular icicles form on our house as well as on our neighbours.

We also had an early birthday celebration for Rory. We rented out a local gym for an hour and invited some of his friends to join in some running wild time! There was soccer, hockey, giant frisbees, balloons, basketballs and lots of lots of squeals of delight. Not too mention many tired little legs afterwards! It was back to ours for some pizza and birthday brownie sundaes! 

And of course a post isn't complete without some dancing videos...enjoy!

Can't wait for Spring...

Come on Spring.....we can't wait any longer!! We want our yard back, we want to pack away our toques, mitts and snow pants!! We have been trying to gain our yard back and find our grass again - we are tired of old man winter and all the snow!! With some milder temperatures, we took matters into our own hands and started shoveling and chopping away the ice and snow that covered our backyard. The boys loved it!! Okay so did I!

Rory was an awesome worker - shoveling away massive pieces of ice into our back lane way and enjoyed loading up his dumptruck to tip loads of ice out on the grass to melt. 

Here Rory took some time to dig for dinosaur bones!!

Cam was also a good little worker - but had a difficult time negotiating the slippery ice in his snow boots.  He love just squatting shoveling snow into his dump truck.

A little treat for Rory after some good days at school - a camp out with mum in the basement on the weekend!!  It was great fun - stories shared with flashlights and Rory talking long into the night.

Of course Curious George also had to join us and keep us safe!

And what is a blog post without our boys showing off some new groovy moves! 

Here they are dancing to some Thomas tunes!!

We enjoyed some sunshine and milder temperatures this past weekend and headed to our favourite spot at Fish Creek.

No rock throwing yet - as the rocks were still covered in some fairly deep snow and ice.

Although, as Rory discovered, the snow is soft in some spots and sunk up to his hips in some spots.

Cam loved getting out into the fresh air and managed a few tentative steps on the ice. 

We cannot wait for the snow to melt we've got another rock thrower ready for action!

All smiles and grateful to be out of the house and back outside again. 

Please stay away winter!!!

Some friends joined us for a walk and where there are boys and puddles -  there will be splashing - and lots of it!!! These puddles were huge and only getting bigger the longer we stayed!

A great way to spend the weekend - although the reality of jumping in puddles from melting snow -- resulted in some very cold and soggy boys(not too mention a little grumpy after all the fun was over!)  We'll be back puddles - look out!!!

Staying warm....

Winter is still looming it's angry face this weekend.  Above is a photo of the forecast for the weekend - yes those are minus values. It has been a cold one here with lots of time indoors. So what do you do with to high energy boys who are still fighting off some colds and stuck inside??? Well have a look for yourself......we like to dance to stay warm!

We also conducted a little science experiment to show the boys how cold it was and we could magically make snow from water. Needless to say we had to retest our experiment over and over and over again!! Mum and dad have to have some fun too!!

Last weekend Cameron had his first haircut and took it like a champion!! No tears or squirminess! Way to go Cam!

What a handsome chap!!

Stay warm everyone - I'm sure Spring is just around the corner????

To the mountains...

On a snowy Saturday morning we packed up all the troops, snacks, sleds, toques, mitts, tea and coffee and headed to the mountains. Our destination was Quarry Lake in Canmore.  It was a gorgeous morning for a hike - light snow was falling throughout our hike.

The mountains were playing hide and seek with us this morning - popping into view through the thick snow clouds every now and then.  It made our hike rather magical.

The serene and quiet scenery was soon interrupted with squeals and giggles of two little boys having some fun on their sleds. Cam and Rory hitched a ride around the lake, catching snowflakes on their eyelashes and noses, they giggled all the way down the hills.

All smiles in the snowy mountains!!

As we ended our walk the skies began to close in and the snow became heavier - no worries though - it was time to find a warm spot for some lunch! 

Rory perfecting his snow angels! What a day in the mountains!!

Our snow pile at the end of our driveway after the last dump of snow.

Rory can actually touch the tree branches in our front yard!

Some snowy videos....