Happy Birthday Daddy... let's go to the Play Palace!

Today is Daddy Tom's Birthday. To celebrate, he took Kiora to the Play Palace. There were Bouncy Castles, Trikes, Obstacle courses and a giant slide.

There was so much to do and see, there was a smoke trail where Kiora zig-zagged back and forth across the arena from one inflatable to another.

There's no evidence of it, but both Mom and Dad were in the big bouncy castle with Kiora at one point. We were trying to give dad the bumps. We gave him a total of 15 bumps;-)

Daddy went up the giant slide with Kiora. Once he was tired, she roped Gabby for half a dozen turns then Sue for a half dozen more!

Mommy glowed just watching all the activity.

Kiora had oodles of fun and from the looks of it may become the next world fooseball champion.

I'm sure all the kids will sleep well tonight.

Rainy Day Blues & Butterfly Dreams

This weekendwas rainy mostly. We spent much of it watching Wiggles videos, sporadically taking short trips to the store and to the park and one adventurous afternooon at IKEA. As a parent, I must say that I'm becoming a fan of the shopping experience there. In addition to the children's play area, we could freely wander and bounce & rock and play with all the props for the kids displays. Kiora had great fun on the Rocking Moose, with the stacking coloured donut rings AND getting her face painted. It was a special yearly sale event and the store brought in face painters. Doesn't Kiora look good in blue? In addition to getting a shoe organizer, we bought a new patio table. We're anticipating sunny weather soon, so that we can sit outside and enjoy the summer. We'll post photos of the new table when the weather dries up enough for us to assemble it!

Happy Family Day!

June 16th is Family Day And it's when the Hunan Spice Girls have their yearly reunion. This year we gathered at Maplewood Farms.

Kiora and Mary enjoyed themselves tapping their umbrellas in a rendition of singing in the rain, playing a little soccer, then fetch with Mathew (guess who had to fetch?).

Then they sat down for a much needed rest on a log to watch the animals on the farm.

We visited with the farm animals; including Rosie and Roberto (miniature donkeys), a couple of pot bellied pigs, some horses, cows, goats, sheep, ducks, peacocks and rabbits. The girls had loads of fun feeding carrots to the rabbits.

Look at what's on the menu for the pot-bellied pigs!

Under the giant Gazebo, a spread of food and treats were laid out. There was shrimp cocktail, veggie dip, croissant sandwiches, hummus dip, cheese & crackers and fruit to start.

The girls gathered in anticipation of the cake cutting.

The cake was embellished with the likeness of the Hunan Spice girls. See how beautifully they're blossoming. Top L to R: Ayaka, Georgia, Jasmine, Elaine, Mary, Poppy, Emma, Kiora, Sydney and Kai Li.

Emma and Kiora were resting after feeding the rabbits... we didn't really pen them up for a time out. Honestly we didn't.

Jasmine shared her soccer balls, and Ayaka brought giant Bubble wands. The kids had a blast sharing these toys!

Here are the children posing.

Elaine and Kai Li were camera shy.

Late in the day, an annoucement came over the PA regarding a missing Asian girl... guess who? Poppy! Daddy Craig came to the rescue. He found her far afield breaking new trails on the farm.

All's well that ends well, and a fun day was had by all.