Rollerblades!

Hannah got some toddler Rollerblades for her birthday and tonight after dinner I took her out in the cul-de-sac to try them out. A few of the neighbours came out to watch her and she was loving the attention. She fell down a few times but she got right back up each time.

More Dress Up Fun

Hannah is really enjoying playing dress up... yesterday morning Hannah even included Victoria while she was playing dress up (total shocker!). It was so funny to watch them... they were clomping around the room in the play shoes and gowns for quite a while. Surprisingly there was very little fighting while they were at it :-)





Hannah got some cute little princess storage bins for her birthday from Auntie Kara and Uncle Daryl and last night I got them out figuring they would be good for storing some of Hannah's toys in. Apparently they are also very good for storing children in too! Hannah and Victoria spent most of the evening playing in them....

Kites & Costumes

On Saturday I took Aunty Sherry and Jaden down to the States to do some Back to School shopping... it was a 2 and a half hour border line up!

While we were gone for the day Dave took Logan, Hannah and Victoria down to White Rock to fly some kites. He even thought to bring the camera to take a few pictures :-)

Tonight after dinner Hannah and I spent some time together just the two of us taking all her new dress up costumes she got for her birthday out of the packages. Last week I bought a cute storage box for her to store her costumes in so tonight we sat down and organized it together. It was nice to spend some time with her alone. She tried on and modeled all her new costumes and I took her picture in them. Then we put the box up in her bedroom so that she can try to keep all her dress up stuff in her room and not all over the house... hopefully!

Waterslides!

My cousins are in town from Alberta and we took them to the Trans Canada Waterslides today :-)

We took Hannah to the Waterslides in West Edmonton Mall when she was a baby so she doesn't remember. This time she was really into it... she rode all the smaller slides on her own and she rode some of the bigger ones with Jaden and Logan. Hannah is getting to be a good little swimmer this summer... she really enjoyed herself today :-)

Victoria went down the waterslides while sitting on our laps... she had fun too :-) She also really liked the little kiddie spray area. It was a long day for her with only a short nap in the car on the drive there and she was pretty tired when we got back tonight.

Dave and I took turns watching the kids so that we could ride some of the big slides with Jaden and Logan too. I think my favourite was the tube slide... Jaden and I kept getting stuck and then a big whoosh of water would come and send us flying. It was a pretty fun day!

A Day at the Zoo...

Dave is on holidays from work this week and we decided that we would try and do some fun stuff around town with the kids. We were hoping to go to the waterslides but it doesn't look like the weather is going to co-operate this week. Today was cloudy so we thought it would be a good day to take a trip to the zoo. It was also a nice way to take our minds of some of the sadness we are facing with the passing of my Grandpa yesterday.

So off to the zoo we went... it rained when we first got there for about half and hour and then it stopped. The rest of the day was nice... cloudy but warm and not wet!

Hannah brought her new camera along and she took some pictures of her favourite zoo animals. Because her camera is a kid's camera it doesn't have a zoom function so the animals are a bit far away in her pictures. But she did a good job and she was so thrilled to take her own pictures!

Peacock (above left) and Hannah's favorite the baby Giraffe (above right)

The Hippo's (above left) and The Lemur's (above right)

**The above photos are copyrighted by Hannah Smethurst... in case you were going to steal them and try and pass them off as your own ;-)

Hannah did really well today... she walked the whole zoo for over 4 hours without riding in the stroller at all and she was very well behaved! Maybe this is a turning point and she is coming out of the 'terrible two's'???

Victoria liked to look at all the animals... she was pointing and babbling away in her own language all day. She eventually fell asleep in the stroller about half an hour before we left.

Hannah, Victoria and I took a train ride through the zoo... Hannah loved it but Victoria didn't want to sit still!

Hannah and Victoria at the Zebra enclosure... if you look way back in the picture you can see the zebras in the background.

Jumping Lemurs!! & A baby Giraffe (nine feet tall already!)

We watched the Hippo feeding and Hannah was so amazed that the Hippos eat whole watermelons :-)

These were the two highlights of the day for me... The albino black bear (the only one of its kind ever recorded) every time I have been to the zoo he has been hiding. Apparently his eyes are very sensitive to light and he usually won't come out on sunny days... so it was lucky that today was cloudy! The second photo is of a mommy Wallaby with her baby in her pouch... another first for me. I have never seen a baby in a mommy's pouch before :-) It was cute.

** If you click on any of the pictures you can view them in a larger format!

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I also need wish Tanya a very Happy Birthday!! She is in Newfoundland right now visiting her family so I know she is having a special birthday with all of them :-)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANYA!

Is That Bill Cosby In My Living Room?!?!?!

Nope! That's my mom playing the Wii Fit Ski Slalom....


Yes, my Mom finally gave me permission to post the video after some hounding from Dave :-)

(For the record the person laughing like a hyena in the background of this video is also Dave!)

Ballet!

Hannah had Ballet Camp that she went to every evening this week. Her friend Rebecca was in her class and she was really excited to go to ballet class with her :-) The class was only 45 minutes every evening so Mandy and I went for coffee every night while the girls were in class. That was a nice break for us! The nice thing about Hannah turning 3 is that she can go to classes now and I don't have to stay... she likes the independence and she is always fine about me leaving her there.

Here are Hannah and Rebecca in the Rec Center parking lot on the first evening of Tot Ballet :-)

Tonight was the last class and they had a 'recital' for their families... so cute! They did all their stretches, ballet moves and dances for us. Hannah was really proud of herself and totally showing off! My Mom and Dad came to watch too so Hannah was extra showing off for them :-)

They even learned how to curtsy at the end of the 'recital' :-)

Here are a bunch of little videos I took.... so cute to watch :-)

The Ballerina Hokey Pokey -

Ballet 'In and Out' Steps

Ballet 'Marching'

The Ballerina Princess Dance

Ballet 'Side Step'