Few more museum pics...

In the dinosaur gallery, mountain goats, and lunch at the museum.....then home again to open gifts with Susie and Laurence and Grandma and Grandad Spicer phoned from England to sing Happy Birthday to him as always! We ended the day curled up watching Kung Fu Panda.

Sams bison

Here is Sam with his bison scene at the museum - he LOVES this diorama!! He has seen it soooo many times and often talks about it :) I know, I know...weird for a 4 year old lol!!! I blame the Father ;) hahahaha! This is what he wanted to go to see for his birthday - yes, for his 4th birthday he requested to go and see his bison - not the live bison at Elk Island park, but the dead bison with the blood pouring from its mouth at the museum :) Some kids ask to go to the cinema...some kids ask to go to Chuck E Cheese. My kid asks to go to the Museum to see a dead bison!!!!!

I see therapy bills in our future ;)

Birthday gift opening

Sam opening a few of his gifts...

Sam and Daddy

My poor Lloyd looks so tired!! He was determined to give Sam a great birthday before giving in to his tiredness from his trip though!

A Taste of home.....

Some of the goodies Lloyd brought back from England......yes...just ONE of the suitcases.....

Yummy!!!! :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to any Ukrainian Albertans reading my blog :) I know there are a few of you! Have a wonderful day of celebration today!

Happy Birthday Samuel!!!

Happy 4th birthday to my BIG BIG Samsam!! I can't believe my baby boy is already four years old!!!! Poor Lloyd - he doesn't want his little boy to get big already - he loves having him all little and cute and cuddly! Already he is four years old! Time has flown by so fast!

Today we are off to the Royal Alberta Museum - Sam loves going there - his favourite part is the Native history section - he loves the dioramas of the Natives killing the bison etc etc- he had a miniature bison and a Native Indian with a weapon type thing (Val help me out here) in his stocking and likes to pretend to kill the bison....

My favourite part of the museum? No, NOT the bugs or dinosaurs (surprise surprise lol) but the gemstones and fossils...those gemstones are just STUNNING!!! I also like to see the sections that change - and also the animals of Alberta.

Mind you, the whole museum is just glorious - we love going there. If it had been warmer today we would have gone to the zoo to say hi to the baby tiger cubs too but its just too cold and snowy - so we'll do that another day!

Home for Kung Fu Panda cake later and presents with the children after school :)

Happy Birthday my Little Man! Love you lots!

I need to fly more...

www.aircanada.com/en/about/media/facts/documents/B777_executivefirst2.jpg

www.aircanada.com/en/about/media/facts/documents/lay_flat_seat.jpg

www.aircanada.com/en/travelinfo/airport/maplelounges/features.html


So Lloyd flies business class...and of course when I fly it is always with five children so I do NOT fly business class...so when Lloyd phoned from TO yesterday and said he was hungry I reminded him he was back in the land of Tim Hortons!! He of course was heading up to the lounges to get free drinks and food because when you fly business class they provide free drinks and food for you! I did NOT know this!!! Lloyd laughed and said 'you need to fly more baby'.......I guess I do!!!! How did I not know this???? Free food????? Free drinks????????? Free shooters????????? Free wine??????????? OMG!!!!

Lloyd keeps saying I should go home for a weeks holiday to see everyone - and fly business class :)

hmmmmm free wine :) FREE FOOD........sooooo tempting :)

Tuesday....

Yesterday, we had some good news - the workmen have finally tracked down our sunroom and windows from the new kitchen! They were delivered from New York over Christmas but there was no one in Edmonton to receive them so they stayed on a truck since then and no one knew where!!!

Yikes! We had visions of them being returned to NY and them having to be re-ordered!!! that could take WEEKS!!!

Thankfully yesterday morning we heard that they are fine and will be arriving this morning and so the sunroom and kitchen and walkout basement will start TODAY - woohoo - the house will start getting closed up!! Heat and warmth and my new kitchen :)

I think Tim and Denis will be very happy to be working inside too! So cold out there!

Sam went back to preschool yesterday, same class he was in before Christmas. He has a few new children in his class but mainly the same ones. The teachers are the same thankfully. His class is held in a big sports centre, so now that Abigail is homeschooled, we will be aking use of all the facilities there during Sams class. He still goes twice a week for 2.5 hours a time, so we will go swimming, ice skating or running on the indoor track etc.

Yesterday Chris came with us and he went into the gym for a while a worked out before going off to shoot hoops. Abby and I went swimming. We had a great time - when the wave machine was on she would get in the paddle boat or go in the lazy river. We sat in the hot tub for a while too which was nice! After the swim we went in to the indoor playground for a while.

Sam's class focused on snowmen today - they made snowmen out of doilies and painted snowmen too. they do crafts on Tuesdays and then do ABC's and 123's on Thursdays. He will take a treat on Thursday for everyone because of his birthday! His show and tell day will be March 5th this time! Last time he took his Wall-E.

It's nice getting into our normal routine again - I soooooo wasn't in the mood for Christmas and I'm glad its over with and we are back into the new year and our day to day stuff again!

He's home....

.....and all is well in my little part of the world :)

It's gonna be a long night....

and day.....

So I emailed Lloyd to wake him up in his hotel room at 10:45pm my time (5:45am his time). He phoned me to let me know he was awake. He drove up to Heathrow last night (today) because their weather is bad and he didn't want to risk getting stuck in traffic because of an accident on icy roads and missing his flight in the morning, so he booked into a hotel and spent the night close to the airport instead.

So now he is returning the car he hired for the week and then going to check in for his flight. He flew direct there but couldn't get a direct flight home so he has to transfer in Toronto :(

So now we've said goodbye and I won't speak to him again until he lands here in Edmonton :( it's going to be a long night and day :( I'm not used to that. I'm used to him emailing me and calling me constantly from work throughout his day. I hate flights and that you can't email during them. No phone call when I wake up..no message when I switch the computer on :(

The children will be so thrilled to see him :)

Tomorrow night can't come soon enough. Hurry home Lloyd.

One more sleep...

and he's home :)

Urgh.....

The night before Daddy arrives home, the night before pre-school starts, and two days before his birthday (and those all-important birthday pictures!!) and Sam gets hold of the scissors and cuts big chunks out of his hair!!!!!!!!

Oh sometimes I swear I could just strangle that child ...if he wasn't so cute and funny....I had to hide my face while I told him off because I was laughing while I said it - as were Chris, Laurie and Susie!

Laurie then made me a cup of tea to calm me down :)

I don't know that its very clear in the above pictures but he cut a big chunk out of the very top of his head and then kind of thinned out his fringe (bangs) so he has a really odd thin fringe and a big chunk missing from the very top of his head. Luckily it doesn't look too bad if I mess his hair up but if I brush it neatly (how it should be) it looks noticeable.

Oh and Sams eyes look black because I used the red eye remover - had to use Susannah's point and shoot as my SLR isn't working. In fact it really needs to go in and be fixed. Lloyd and I were talking last week about me buying a replacement. Maybe it's time to replace my Nikon. Then I don't have to worry about how long they take to fix the Nikon...my lenses could do with some maintenance too....professional cleaning etc too - they've been used daily for three years now.

I'm not sure what camera to get...I've been looking at a few. My camera is so important to me, I haven't been able to use my SLR for about a month now - I really missed it over Christmas - I didn't get ANY decent pictures. This year we have several people coming to stay and I am going to need my camera.

The Funeral

Lloyd has been to his Granddads funeral this morning, over in England and is currently mingling with everyone after the service. He's emailed me a few times to let me know how everything has gone, so I know he's ok.

He did make me laugh because he said that his coat really WAS a good match to the funeral directors!!! Hahahahaha!!!! (that was NOT the coat he wore by the way lol!!!!)

Wish I was there for you Lloyd.

This is the obituary from the local paper in Lloyds home town:

BROWN, FREDERICK
BROWN FREDERICK Passed away peacefully on December 20 aged 93. Much loved Father, Grandfather to Lloyd, Russell and Andrew, Great Grandfather to Jessica. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him. Funeral Service to take place 12.40pm Monday January 5 at Worthing Crematorium. Flowers and enquiries to Ian Hart Funeral Service Ltd. 92-94, Broadwater Street West. Worthing. West Sussex. BN14 9DE. Tel. 01903 206299.

Monday

Yay - normality returns (almost). Susie and Laurence are back at school today. The workmen start back on the new addition today.

Lloyd isn't home yet, but he would have been at work now anyway.

Abigail is homeschooled now and it has been nice not having her crying and shouting and complaining this morning. She is still asleep. She is like me and NOT a morning person.

So the house is filled with calm. I have plans to head out and get the things I need for Sams birthday on Wednesday. I also have some work for Abigail to complete.

Tomorrow Sam returns to Pre K. Abby and I will swim and run.

The girls return to dance classes tomorrow too.

Wednesday is Sams birthday and he wants to go to the museum to see the dead bison :) funny kid ;) its his favourite thing!