Hat Girl

Some girls like to try on shoes, but Ro's pretty much determined she's a hat girl. Everything she touches, she puts on her head....the wash cloth, the tea towel, Tato's dirty socks and Mama's misplaced underwear! But every now and then she actually finds a hat, and wears it with pride!

Summer Fun at the Lake

A couple weekends ago Rowan and I were invited to spend the day out on Wabamun Lake with Dave, Chris and their girls. Rowan could not be torn away from the sandy beach (not even for a nap!) and sat all afternoon just shovelling sand...a goodly portion which ended up in her hair. While she didn't seen to like standing in the water on her own, she definately enjoyed floating in the baby tube. A boat ride and a bbq rounded out the day before the drive home.

Visit to Calgary

Last weekend we made a trip down to Calgary for a quick visit and it was fun to watch the cousins play. They had so many different, cool toys to play with, and it's always fun to wrestle with Uncle Yani, especially when the three of them gang up on him. There was lots of laughing together, lots of hugs and the occassional game of 'tag', which Rowan totally didn't get, but she loved the running around and screaming with glee part of it....

Ro's First Pigtails!

I've been thinking that Ro's mop 'o hair must be getting pretty close to being long enough for pigtails so I thought I would give it a shot the other night....OMG how cute is that?!? Too bad she's not to the point of letting them stay in a bit longer...but we'll keep working at it.

Street Performer's Festival

A couple of weekends ago Cath and I thought for a Saturday activity we would take the kids down to the Street Performer's Festival here in the city. Despite the potentially rainy weather, it actually turned out to be a nice way to spend the afternoon. The kids were pretty good about watching the performance while they had some snacks, and then we took them over to the Kids World area so they could run around and play a bit. It was pretty well organized in there, and we had screams of protest when we went to leave, but naptime was calling....

More Pics of Festival

These are the pics from Rowan's front row seat during the show, where she was able to have her lunch and be entertained. But she really enjoyed the Kids World Space, where she explored the different tents and had a chance to go fishing; she prefers to catch the fish with her bare hands instead of using the rod provided....even Colin enjoyed taking in the ambiance!

O Canada!

Well, for Canada Day we had really good intentions of heading to the Zoo for an afternoon of picnicing and wandering about. We called up the Finlaysons and we all packed up and headed down. However, after seeing the over-a-block-long-line-up just to get into the Edmonton Zoo (which is truly not worth that kind of wait!) we did a quick consultation and decided that a simple picnic would do just as well. So we headed out to Blue Meadows, which is the (private) Edmonton Police Service recreational grounds that sits near city limits. There's lots of wide open spaces for running and playing, a small river to explore in, and a park for the kids. It's much more than that, but those were the highlights we were interested in. There were a few other campers out there, but overall the grounds were pretty vacant, so it was truly more our speed to have no crowds and the ability to sit down and let the girls run. Oh, and did I mention this also allowed us the perk of picking up a couple bottles of wine to add to our picnic? Good times!!

More Canada Day

Of course Rowan and Kate had to find a chair that both of them could try out; I'm sure whoever owned it didn't mind sharing!

This border collie was persistent in playing with her frizbee, but she found it rather unsatisfying playing with Rowan as Ro just couldn't throw it far enough to be entertaining. Besides, most of the time she just wanted to walk around carrying the frizbee and you could almost hear poor Rosie saying, "just throw it kid, throw the frizbee, throw the frizbee, you gonna throw it now?" But she patiently followed Ro across the grounds...waiting....

Always drawn to the big toys, Rowan wanted to try out the bike.

Visit From Aussie Olivia

Our good friends, Nicole and Olivia Lech have come from Austrailia for a 5 week visit to friends and family in Edmonton. While they are very busy catching up with everyone, they did manage to pop over last week for dinner, and we're hoping to get next Saturday night out of them as well. Olivia and Rowan were fast friends as Rowan wasted no time in showing Liv her toy box and Liv directed the play ("Come on, Rowan!").

The Pool Is Open!

We are making good use of the pool that Auntie Lena gave Rowan last year, and we've had several pool parties already this summer. No need to fill it up too much, just a few inches to splash in. Only problem it creates is allowing Rowan just to go in the backyard to play when the pool is set up, as she will inevitably head in that direction and want to go in....thus we have to tell her "the pool is closed today." Thanks Auntie Lena, as I foresee much pooltime in the next couple of months!