October 24, 2011

Cara's 3rd Birthday Party!

We celebrated Cara's 3rd Birthday on Sunday with all of her favourite people.  
Mummy made the cupcakes - chocolate with strawberry buttercream icing!
Cara with Leah (top), Rebecca holding baby Sidney and Freya (bottom) doing a pumpkin painting craft!
Leah deep in creativity.
Cara getting inspiration.
Freya being abstract.
Nana and Howie holding the baby buddies.
Cara blowing out her 3 candles!
Yum.
 Yummy!  The cupcakes were awesome!
Nana and Gwen!
Little girls descend on the presents!
  Cara was a very gracious birthday girl :)
Such a haul of new toys and books.
"When is my turn!?!?"
This girl loves to play dress up!
This girl loves to eat puzzles!

Cara's birthday party was great.  She is getting so big and is becoming so independent!  She will be starting preschool in a week and she is also becoming a performer - she put on a "show" for us after supper last week that had stories, jokes and songs and started with a "ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!".  She is such a cutie pie!



October 19, 2011

Trip to NB 2011 - Part 2

 We continue our trip on Thanksgiving Sunday.  We took a drive to St Martin's with Nanny & Papa to see the sea caves.
 Cara and Daddy helped hold up the ceiling.
 Gwen loved the ocean air!
 Cara had a lot of fun beach combing.  We found little green crabs.
 And she loved the sea weed.
 Looked at lots of periwinkles.
 And marched on more sea weed.
 It was a fun trip - even with the rocks we walked on that hurt!
 Gwen enjoyed looking for rocks with Cara - she even tried to eat a couple.
 Then we were back to Nanny & Papa's for Turkey Dinner!  
Gwen covered herself in squash!
 Then Cara ran with the dogs.
Her favourite part was being chased!
 Thanksgiving Monday we went to the Andersons' for a big Irvine fam get together and had a great lunch!  All of the cousins had fun playing together.  It was such a beautiful day!
 Irvine kids all grown up.
 Cara had such a great time playing with all the toys - when we left she was upset to be leaving "the playground".
 Gwen, Cara, Sharon, Sarah and Connor - everyone loves a swing set!
 Cara and Uncle Jamie after a skateboarding lesson.
 Cara and Isaac had fun rolling around!
 Gwen, Eamon and Maggie enjoying some freezies in the +25 degree weather.
 That afternoon we met up with Mummy's old friend and her girls at a playground.  It had been a very long time since Mummy had seen Angela and it was so great to get together.
 She made us some fabulous cupcakes that we enjoyed back and Nanny & Papa's.
 They were so good Cara actually licked the plate clean!
 Cara post-NB-bath.
Gwen post-NB-bath.  The girls slept so well while we were there.  Cara in a big twin bed and shared a room with Gwen.  They never woke the other up - just Mom and Dad.
 Cara loved exploring in NB.  She explored the yard at Nanny & Papa's.
 Daddy and Gwen climbed the freshly delivered woodpile.
 Gwen wanted to start stacking it right away!
 Daddy, Papa and the girls on Mt. Woodpile.
 We went to see Aunt Barb and introduce Gwen to her!
 Then we went for some more beach combing at the Irving Nature Park.  It was cool and rocky.
 Cara wants to know where the sea shells are....she collected lots of mucky sand this trip though.
Gwen liked it too!
 Our next to last day in NB was another sunny day - we spent the morning with Deborah, Maggie and Eamon and the Bruswick Nurseries farm animals!
 Girl cousins in the roots of an Octopus Spruce.
 Sisters and cousins.
 The Byrnes!
 Followed up with lunch at Jungle Jim's!
 The shock of Daddy in the mask paused her sundae eating by a millisecond.
 We had a great time with the Andersons!
 The newest cousins playing.
 By the end of our trip Cara was brave enough to walk Pearl!
 Another favourite feature at Nanny & Papa's was the digger parked next door.
 
 The girls with their wonderful grandparents.
 
We had an awesome trip this year.  Cara and Gwen enjoyed themselves and got back to their NB roots.  We wish that we were closer so that trips to visit were easier and more frequent.
Thank you to all of our family and friends who made this trip so great - we love you all!