Olympic Torch Relay goes through Waterloo

The Olympic Torch made its way through Waterloo on Dec. 27th. We brought the kids to join in the festivities. They got pretty excited, and they got a pretty good view. Good thing there were no protesters and nothing happened like in Guelph. How pathetic was that?!?

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer

Now taking videos in HD! :-)

School Pictures 2009

Picture With Santa

Jessie was very clear that she wanted to sit *next* to Santa, and *not* on his lap.

Best Reading Device Ever

LOL. So high tech, its low.

Canadian, Please

The Marshmallow Test

A simple test involving a small room, a marshmallow, and a salivating four-year-old tells us a lot about what kids will achieve later in life.

For the full story and background information about this study, go to http://www.babble.com/marshmallow-test-predict-kid-success/

Should I try this on the girls? :-)

Happy 10 Years!!

10 Years ago today, Leah and I got married. Best.Day.Ever. :-)

The new remote

Well, after several years of mainly fantastic service, our Harmony 880 remote finally bit the dust. Not sure what happened, since it seemed the screen was still working, but it didn't seem to be sending any commands to the devices... So we had to pull all the remotes out, and try to figure out how to use them again. :-) Once you have a Harmony remote, it is almost impossible to live without one! After a couple of weeks, I finally caved, and bought a new Harmony One remote.

From Drop Box

This thing is a beauty.... The buttons are much better than the 880 (I had several pop out and had to glue them back in over the years), and they are easier to press (for those of us with "bigger" fingers!). The touch screen is great. In general it also just fits better in your hand.

Now let's see if we can keep it away from the kids so it will last.... :-)

Face collages

Ok, these face collages through Google Picassa are just too fun.

Funny Faces

The new Picasa (version 3.5) has a new face-detection feature. It attemps to scan all your pictures, and detect faces for you to label. Here are some funny results from the scan on all our pics: (is that Saddam Hussein in the middle??)

From

(click on the picture for interactive)

Family Picture

Funny pics

Vacation at the cottage!

We're back from the cottage (and I'm back to the office... :-( boo!) We had a great time again this year. Some highlights:

• We celebrated Jessie's 3rd birthday
• went tubing with Sharon, John & Allison and their kids Jenna and Justin
• did lots of fishing (Sarah and Abby caught some nice-sized bass with their Barbie rods)
• lots of swimming (Sarah swam to the rock by herself, without her lifejacket!)

The weather held out really well for us. It was beautiful and sunny for the first few days, then we had some short showers Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but they were usually short periods of rain, and didn't stop us from swimming, etc.

There is a family of ducks that frequented the floating dock, and were really friendly. The kids had lots of fun with them. (And so did Leah) :-)

You can check out the slideshow below, or click on it to open larger individual pictures.

Here is a video taken by Allison of Leah waterskiing!

Abby's 5th Birthday

Here are some pictures from Abby's 5th Birthday. It was a "Reptile Party". As you will see, kids are not afraid of anything!! :-)

Abby the rocker

Abby in her music class, singing B-I-N-G-O. Look how calm all the other kids are... We have a serious rock-chick on our hands! LOL!

Alice in Wonderland - Dance Recital

Sarah had her "Alice in Wonderland" dance recital yesterday.   It was at the University of Waterloo humanities theatre.  At least a few hundred parents/family were there to watch.  Sarah was pretty nervous to be out on stage in front of such a big crowd, but she did great!  See the attached pictures and video clips.  :-)

The Audience

 

The Program

 

Sarah's name in the program (top line)

 

About to begin!

 

(Sarah is in the middle on the right hand side when it starts)

Video Part 1:


Video Part 2:

Earth Day

Here are some pics from Earth Day at Laurelwood Creek. All the girls had fun (although it was very muddy) and got to plant their own tree.

Vegas before and after Earth Hour

[Getty Images, inspired by The Big Picture]

Ikea and GM merging?

Imagine what would happen if Ikea and GM merged? Would your car come in a flat box like this? ;-)

Sarah bike riding

Yay Sarah!!

Sarah and Abby music solos

Abby at Gymnastics

Sorry there hasn't been much action here recently. I hope to get back on track again soon. Here are some videos to get back to speed!

:-)