Happy Birthday Daddy! Gwen Crawls!

Daddy had a great birthday this year! Gwen and Cara helped him blow out the candles!

Cara was a big help decorating the cake. A cake isn't finished until there are sprinkles on it.

Gwen cheered on Cara's decorating from her highchair!

We went to a "beach" for a picnic birthday supper and Cara and Gwen loved the sand! Cara had sand head to toe and Gwen enjoyed trying to eat it. This is a man made lake at the provincial park in the city. We'll go back again. It made Mummy & Daddy miss real beaches and the ocean. It was Cara's and Gwen's first times playing in sand at a beach!

We've had so much rain the grass is still nice and green and soft - Gwen loves crawling in it! Cara loves pulling it out in clumps.

Gwen and the big blue sky!
Taken at the same lake/park as the sky picture of Cara on this post. (2nd pic down)
That was back when Cara was 30 weeks old. Gwen is now 36 weeks old!

Sunday Daddy got to choose his birthday supper - maybe because he was feeling Maritimey after the beach visit he chose fish & chips...so we went out and found some frozen haddock fillets & Cavendish fries and borrowed Papa's fish recipe - it turned out pretty good. Almost as good as home!

Now for the biggest news! Gwen started crawling this week! Really traveling and now she's all over the place getting into Cara's toys (mostly her puzzles) and coming out to the kitchen when Mummy's cooking supper. Fun times ahead!

She is also working on 2 or 3 teeth and is making a lot of babbling sounds - her favourite word is still Dada and she always has a big smile for Daddy! She is also starting to clap her hands!

Cowgirl Gwen Jumps!

A bonus movie from Stampede week fun.
Gwen absolutely loves her jolly jumper! And she is a great jumper - take a look!

Stampede Fun!

We had a fantastic Stampede week. We were busy nearly every day so prepare yourself for lots of pictures this post! I've gone back to the regular way of posting the pictures since the compression of the slideshows took away from the photos. So enjoy our Stampede Week Recap!

On Tuesday we went to the annual General Dynamics Stampede BBQ. Above is Gwen all ready to celebrate in her cow girl wear!

Cara and Daddy enjoyed some cotton candy!

The sugar gave Cara the energy required for lots of bouncing.

Daddy and his girls checking out the army vehicle.

A little more sugar after lunch - cotton candy and slushy!

We had a great time at the BBQ. On the way to the car Cara found a caterpillar so we had to check that out too.

On Thursday we went out with Nana and had a nice walk around the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary...although we did get eaten by mosquitoes.

Friday was our day to go to the Stampede Grounds! We took the bus & train down and Cara was so excited to go!

Gwen was excited too! We got to see a Thomas the Tank Engine show and Splash & Boots (apparently the "U2 of kid entertainers")!

Cara had her first corn dog!

Then all she wanted to do was "rides"! So Daddy bought some tickets and we did a couple of rides.

First up, the carousel. She really wanted to ride a pony at Stampede so this was it!

She loved it!

Gwen napped during the ride portion of the day.

The 2nd and last ride of the day was this roller coaster! Cara was tall enough and Mummy was game thinking "how bad could a kid's coaster be?". Well, this one was a bit "intense" and after the 2nd time around Cara said "when does it stop?!?" and it went one more time around....it was an exciting experience for mother and daughter! She did have fun though and after we got off she was proud of herself and said "I was very brave!". So she is a coaster lover now!

Then we went to see some ponies!

And ride on a torpedo!

Gwen had a ride too!

Then we stopped for the traditional Milk & Cookies break (only a buck!) and Cara saw this big cow and ran right up for a hug!

Daddy and Cara having a great time!

Daddy played a game and was close to winning but didn't.

Cara got a souvenir book bag full of treats!

And we were wearing the red buttons that we got on the grounds as a contest thing where if you were spotted wearing the button you could get a prize...well, after we'd finished the rides we were spotted and could have had free ride all day passes but passed them on to someone else to win since with the 2 little ones we weren't going to get to take full advantage of the prize - but it was cool to actually win something!

Cara liked these performers that are like statues. They move really slowly and you think they are bronze until the move or blink. One of them made Cara jump!

On Sunday we went to the new splash park near our house. Gwen loves sitting on the grass!

Cara liked running away from the water!

It was very refreshing since we are in a bit of a heat wave.

She had a blast!

Gwen did too!

Time after the splash park for a swing.

Sisters take a ride on the motorbike....a glimpse into the future????

Stampede Time!

We're trying something new this week for the blog - slideshows of pictures (and a few regular pics)! Save everyone from scrolling and scrolling (hint - there are a lot of pics this week!) and you can sit back and watch the great pictures! If anyone would like a copy of a picture I can email them to you just let me know which picture. Enjoy!

We had a very hot week here and enjoyed a day over at Nana & Howie's house - which got Cara a very blue cupcake! Then we had some fun with Leah and our ladybug sprinkler. Gwen dealt with the heat pretty good - slept in just her diaper one night and also got her toes wet in sprinkler. Cara enjoyed the fan!

The pic with Cara and Gwen has a story:

I told Cara that it was time to feed Gwen lunch so she went to her kitchen and got her plastic spaghetti and meatballs in a bowl and used a small spatula as a spoon and was feeding Gwen by saying "here comes the train - choo choo - open up the tunnel!". Gwen was confused!

On Friday the Calgary Stampede kicked off with the annual Parade! This year Will and Kate were in town and almost half a million people went down to see them drive by before the parade started! We were about 15 people deep from the street and Cara spent a lot of time on Daddy's shoulders and Gwen spent all of the time strapped to Mummy in the carrier!

Saturday we got up and the girls grabbed their hats to go to the Renfrew Community Annual Stampede Breakfast!

After "enjoying" some traditional Stampede pancakes (cold) and sausages (also cold) and Cara's plate (with her breakfast still on it) blowing away, we checked out the cool firetrucks that came to the breakfast!

And Cara took in a bounce in the bouncy horse house (it is like a regular bouncy castle but is brown with an inflatable horse's head on top)!

Sunday we went to Calaway Park again for the afternoon. Cara went on a couple of new rides and was very brave! Gwen took in a couple of rides too. Daddy played some games and won his girls some new toys (and Cara played and won a game too - she loves her prize bear so much he's taken over a spot in her bed!

Finally, a real video for you all to enjoy. Gwen has started talking!!! She is almost crawling too so once that happens there will be another video!

Happy Canada Day!

Cara got her new cowboy hat last week and this week Gwen got her new hat! Yahoo!

She also tried on a chef's hat while we made banana bread. She is a natural chef!

Gwen all decked out in Canada Day attire.

We went to the Canada Day activities at Fort Calgary again this year. It was a beautiful day and lots of crowds but we had fun. Cara entered a colouring contest!

Gwen stayed pretty close to me and had a little nap.

Cara and Daddy checked out the baby animals in the petting zoo.

Cara enjoyed the animals much more than last year!

A beautiful day and beautiful sisters!

Gwen was not fazed by the crowds!

On Saturday we took a day trip to the mountains. We stopped for a picnic near Lake Louise.

Cara got to run after a very long car ride - the traffic in the park was insane!

Gwen got to have lunch al fresco.

After lunch we went to see Morraine Lake. This is a brook near the lake. We took a little trail up to a nice viewing area.

Daddy and Cara at the look out!
Cara has been looking at a painting we have of this lake and kept asking to go there so we did. She saw the lake and said "just like my picture!".
This lake is so much prettier than Lake Louise and much bluer too.

Byrne family portrait!

What would you do for a Klondike Bar?

Turns out I would accidentally steal one! Haha! After a bit of a misunderstanding it turns out that I walked out of the shop with this treat and neither me nor Daddy paid for it...we didn't realize this until later that night at home and we weren't going back...but the next time we are there we'll settle the bill! Promise!

On Sunday we went to visit our friends Verity, Rod and Freya in their brand new house! Cara and Freya had a blast playing together and Gwen joined in a bit too. A great end to a great weekend!