Another trip to Valois Park in the Snow

It was another beautiful day with the temperature just around zero and the sun shining bright. As soon as story time was over we threw (ok, struggled) on the snow suit and headed for the park. Lindsay's friend Madeleine brought her dad and two brothers along too.

From Valois Park in the Snow

Of course the swings were a big hit, but enough snow had melted by now that sand was starting to show. That meant it was time to get dirty and they spent most of the outing underneath the play structure building sand piles!

Soaking my butt at Sunnyside

What a winter weekend be like if I didn't struggle into my ski suit and head for the hills with my daughter and the toboggan?!

From Sunnyside Park Sledding

The weather was pretty warm this weekend and a lot of snow had already melted but we threw good sense to the wind, joined forces with the neighbour and her grandkids, and headed over to Sunnyside for a few runs.

Thankfully the joy of seeing kids have fun outweighs the misery of sitting in a puddle of slightly above freezing slush. Of course the princesses insisted on being pulled back up the hill by their faithful (grand)parent, but that's all part of the fun.

We finished the day off with a picnic in the basement while watching Beverly Hills Chichuahua.

Thomas meets people

Thomas is getting lots of attention these days, as the throngs of spectators drop by for an audience.

From Thomas meets people

Seriously, thanks to everyone who has come by to welcome Thomas or has stopped us on the street to say hello. We really appreciate your happy thoughts. And thanks to those who gave him gifts and brought us food.

And special thanks to those who remembered Lindsay!

Trying the new carrier at Cap St-Jacques

It was a beautiful and I've wanted to go cross-country skiing with Lindsay since X-mas, but there was always something that stopped me (pneumonia, cast on the arm, etc.). Finally today was the day, we set out after story time to enjoy the beautiful sunny weather and give the new carrier we got as a baby-shower gift a try.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature was a comfortable minus seven degrees Celsius. In short-order we had the skis waxed and in a pile at the trailhead.

Now the fun began. Did I mention this was my first time out of the season and I had to dig my gear out from beneath all the summer stuff that got dumped there in the fall?

The carrier was also new to me and I probably should have played with it some more at home. In other words, caved in to Lindsay's demands to get into the carrier while in the comfort of my living room.

I did finally manage to get Lindsay strapped in and the carrier on my back. It's much more comfortable than the old we have. And I'm sure it's much more comfortable for Lindsay.

From Cap St-Jacques Skiing

And then JF pointed out I had throughly messed up the straps around Lindsay's arms - no wonder she was tilted to one side and couldn't turn her head to follow Chloe!!!

Other than that little strap mix-up though we had a great time. Lindsay really likes the new carrier and so do I. Thanks JF for driving. And thanks to all the quilting girls for such a wonderful gift.

Sandra's birthday party

Kevin got things together and organized a pot luck birthday party for Sandra on Sunday. Almost all of us were there and we had a great time.

From Sandra's birthday

The food was excellent and we had a great time.

Minh's soccer game

 

Our friend Minh's soccer team was playing in our area so we went over to see the last 1/2 hour of his game. It featured all the drama and excitement of professional soccer game: some awesome moves, some good goals, and some melodrama from the players!

Hopefully we'll get to see more again soon!

Lachine Canal Picnic

Last Sunday we packed up the bike carrier, packed up the bike bags, and set off for a picnic in Rene-Levesque park (the Arboretum) on the Lachine Canal. We met up with our friends Christina, Nick, Pat, Minh, Jess, and Ada and enjoyed a beautiful summer (almost) day.

Lindsay kept us on our toes on the way there by throwing stuff out of her trailer. And the wind kept us peddling on the way back!

The full album is available on my PicasaWeb site.

Breakfast at East Side Marios

The neighbourhood crew gathered for breakfast at East Side Mario's on Saturday morning, the morning of the big game!

The photos are also in my online album.

First weekend on the deck 2008

With the weather getting nicer and nicer and only a little bit of snow left we decided this was the weekend to get out and enjoy the "summer" weather. This is year has been so perfect (not just the weather, getting to enjoy it with a family made all that much more perfect) since we went from massively snowy winter to beautiful summer weather without having to endure the soggy, rainy, muddy days of spring.

Mid-April and already we're kicking back on the deck after playing outside!

Full album available online.

St-Patricks Day Parade 2008

The annual March tradition of abusing Pat's micro-kitchen to feed a horde of friends before heading down to Ste-Catherine's street for the parade was held again this year. Much food was eaten, more Bailey's was drunk, and Lindsay got to see her first St-Patrick's Day Parade!

The full album is availabe on Picasa Web.

March Snow Storm

I love the snow! I think in winter it should snow, none of this wishy-washy maybe rain, maybe freezing rain, maybe snow. And I certainly was not disappointed this winter, what an awesome amount of snow we've had! But when we woke up to over 30cm of new snow this Sunday my back was starting to think enough is enough. Still, we had fun

The whole album is available online

Catherine and Stephane's Engagement Party

So now it's official - and we're looking forward to the wedding. The party was done in typical Stephane style: why open a bottle of champagne the easy way when you can use the biggest knife in the kitchen to knock the top of the bottle clean off?!

Of course there are more pictures online in the album.

X-C skiing at Cap St-Jacques

Saturday afternoon we had a wonderful father-daughter-friends outing cross-country skiing at Cap St-Jacques Nature Park.

We had a great time. The weather was beautiful; Lindsay never fussed about the goggles I put on her face; Stephane was crepe powered; and JF and Chloe led us all to the cool Chateau Goyer for a hot chocolate (and a peek at their Griffindor room).

The full-sized photos are available at my online album; and JF's blog about the afternoon is also available online.

Movie night at Ada's

This was supposed to be Movie Night at Ada's (we did watch a movie, Nanny Diaries, not bad - even for a chick flick), but I think the star of the show was Ada's new pet hedgehog Harriet. A strange little creature with a rapidly changing temperament and a prehensile tongue.

We also had some really delicious home-made caramel corn. The full-sized photos are online.

Lindsay's first birthday

I can't believe it's already been one whole year!!! Our little daughter is a year old, the last 12 months have just flown by. Of course we celebrated in style, we had four parties for our little girl - just the three of us; with all "her" friends; with all our friends; and of course with the families.

X-treme Luge

So not only did three geeks take their kids sledding, but when we got home we pulled out the beers and the mac book and put together this little video. iMovie was sweet but what about Microsoft Movie Maker? Well for one thing, it can't read video files from a Blackberry (3GP format, which Quick Time reads natively - Firefox on a PC uses the QT plugin to play them). So this is what I came up with on my ThinkPad.
At least I remembered to add some credits!

Friends over for three fondue dinner

Tonight we had a couple of our neighbours over for dinner. The menu was three fondues - a Swiss cheese fondue, a "chinese" or broth meat fondue, and for dinner a chocolate fondue. Of course several bottles of wine were also on the menu.
Barry tried to bogart the beef. And Maureen got the wine.
And we all had a good time. This is why we love our neighbours!