Sunday, August 9, 2009

Typical summer weekend

Wow, our weather finally cooled off a little. It has been a hot summer!

I will eventually post pictures and stories to go with some more of our summer adventures (Alaskan cruise, trip to the cabin at Yale), but in the mean time, I thought I would sum up our weekend.

As usual, it was great!

FRIDAY
Max and I start our weekend on Friday morning. We usually start with swimming, but after we had such a great time watching the One Woman Circus at the Harmony Arts Festival on Wednesday, I thought we would go check out Bobs & Lolo. Bobs & Lolo seem to be very popular, but honestly, I have never heard any of their music or seen any of their shows. What a great opportunity to see them and find our for ourselves.

It was considerably busier than Wednesday had been, which was surprising, considering it had cooled off a little and looked a little like rain.

Max seemed to enjoy the show, well, when he wasn't distracted by the water and rock fountain that he had so much fun playing in on Wednesday. Of course I made sure that I had an additional change of clothes. He actually spent a lot of time standing up and asking me to get up so we could go to the water...

So, guess where we ended up? The fountain is perfect for kids. It is very very shallow (maybe an inch deep), with a really shallow windy river and a bridge and a few rocks built into the structure. It's great and obviously meant for kids to play in. Considering how cool it was, I am a little surprised at the number of kids that were playing in it, but Max got right in there as well. I am sure there are a few parents that were not as happy that I was letting him get his clothes all wet, as they were trying to discourage their kids from going in, splashing each other and generally getting really wet and cold. If I had not had a change of clothes, we would have had to try and avoid the fountain all together, but Wednesday had me ready for it. I think we'll probably have to avoid this area all winter though.

Of course Friday afternoon is spent with Grandma & Grandpa, although this week Max was missing Brandon.

SATURDAY
More of the Harmony Arts Festival, wow! What a fabulous kids day they had set up. We watched Beverly and the Billionaires, which was rather entertaining. Again it looked like rain, so the show wasn't nearly as busy as I expected it to be and Max and I got great front row seats (well, easy to get in and out of) and easy for Max to see as he spends a lot of time in the beginning just holding on and watching. This is particularly interesting to see, as he requests the songs that we saw performed again and again as soon as we get into the car to go home. Or to go anywhere.

I did not get many pictures, but we met a huge orca mascot and that was cool because Max is usually quite fearful of them. He shook the orca's hand, but really did not want to stick around for too long in that area.

There was also a bubble blowing station, a chalk sidewalk, a poster, a wand making station (we skipped out on this one), and various craft stations.

We walked down on the beach, on the rocks and the sand and then Max caught sight of the train on the playground and that was it. The train was where we spent the rest of our morning. Oh, and watching the kites. There were a few of them flying around, so Max had fun watching those.

The morning was so full of activity that Max fell asleep in the car... I can't remember the last time he did that.

Max and I spent the afternoon driving around and exploring various appliance stores looking for an upright freezer. As un-exciting as that may sound, I think Max had fun, as we spent at least half the time we were in each store, running around and/or playing with something.

Direct liquidation has some great couches for practicing climbing and sitting and has great mazes for getting stuck and chasing each other.

Sears outlet has really nice wide aisle's for chasing and dancing. We opened and closed the doors of every single fridge/freezer we could find. Sometimes twice.

We went to a few places on United Way in Coquitlam (I can't remember the store names) and did the same... opened and closed doors, although one store was mostly furniture, and they were clearing it out, so it really was a maze to get around in and out.

Bad news is, we didn't find an upright freezer, but the good news is, we may have some more fun one day when we look again. Or I may give up and just end up ordering one from Sears, they seem to have the best price. I'll take any suggestions!

SUNDAY
We got up and it was pouring! We actually slept in a little, which is nice, but definitely throws a kink in our morning as far as getting in something before the munchkin naps.

As we were coming up with things to do and getting ready in general, we realized... the munchkins feet had grown right out of his sneakers! Well, he's been wearing sandals for most of the summer (and occasionally flip-flops) so it didn't quite happen overnight, but it certainly feels like it. Funny thing is, just the other day I was looking at his feet and commented on how big they were starting to look. uuuggh, I LOVE cute little baby feet, but as his feet grow, I'm finding I love them just as much. They may not be as cute, but I still love his cute toes.

Plans changed: shoe shopping for the munchkin. I HATE SHOPPING. So it is always a good thing when I have company. Ross is not a big fan of shopping either, so it works out quite well. I find time and time again that our local Wal-Mart seems to have the best deals on kids shoes. I also find it nice that their sizes are fairly consistent. The shoes we had before were B.U.M. kids and it was easy to just look for the same brand, one size up. Not so easy to find, I think we might have had 2 options, but one was on sale and I liked it better. So we stuck with the one pair and headed off to the dinosaur exhibit at Metrotown.

All the posts and info you read is correct: it is a small exhibit and not very exciting. The munchkin seemed to enjoy most of it, although the little dinosaur that moves and roars really freaked him out.

It's on until September 20th http://www.metropolisatmetrotown.com/news

HUGE dinosaurs and fun, even if it's small. If you happen to be shopping, even better.

Almost fell asleep in the car again, so it must have been a good morning.

The afternoon was even better, we got to visit with Brandon! Oh how we've missed Brandon. Brandon's in daycare during the day now, so we don't get to visit with him as often as usual, but it was great fun running around the house, jumping on Grandma & Grandpa's bed, sharing toys (heeheehee), and getting/giving kisses again. We will have to make some more plans to visit so we don't miss him so much!

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