Off to a good start.

We brought Georgia home today. She is so tiny and has a bit of jaundice, so we are keeping a close eye on things, but we are very happy to have her home!

Georgia meeting her big brother!

Grandma and Grandpa meeting Georgia for the first time

 Cuddles with her big brothers.

Introducing Georgia Britton!

Georgia Sarah Britton was born at 1:32 on Wednesday, November 21st. She weighed 6 lbs 13 oz.

We are hoping to be able to bring her home from the hospital today. The boys came to meet her on Thursday and they think she is pretty neat!

Getting ready...

With the arrival of our newest family member fairly imminent, I thought I would post some pictures of her room. 

Auntie Sarah is doing a painting for her room, but it isn't quite ready yet so I'll post what we have. Thank you Grandpa for making the curtains!

Montre et raconte

One of Jack's homework assignments for October was to prepare a show and tell (montre et raconte) for the letter of the week. His letter was "H". Students had to decorate a bag with their letter and then hide the item in the bag. Jack decided to do "le hockey", but he chose to also put other vocabulary words on the bag as well.






 

He will present his montre et raconte in class tomorrow, and students will try to guess what
he has hidden in his bag.

Frankenstorm? We laugh in the face of Frankenstorm!

Ok so mostly I just wanted an excuse to use the word "Frankenstorm" in a sentence. And no- I didn't make up the name. I think Wolf Blitzer or Anderson Cooper or some other bored news reporter did.

It's looking like this Halloween may be a damp one, so we're doing what we can to have some Halloween fun before donning on raincoats over our costumes and heading out next Wednesday night!

The boys helped me make some spooky Halloween cookies yesterday!

Rory, Rory, Rory...

Rory has had an interesting few weeks. He had a really bad virus last week and needed to spend some time at CHEO getting rehydrated. The doctors and nurses were so wonderful with him and we really are so blessed to have such a world class facility in our area. (And it doesn't hurt that Grandpa works there, so Rory gets a little extra attention, I'm sure.)

Rory being distracted by an Elmo video on Daddy's phone.

He was so brave and even sang some Halloween songs for the nurses as they were putting in his IV.

Here we are a week later, and Rory had his first visit to the dentist!

He is quite the trooper. The dentist told me that Rory was the best 3 year old patient he has ever had! He had a fall a few weeks ago (one too many monkeys jumping on the bed...) and banged his front tooth. We were a bit worried about that, but it turns out these little people are pretty resilient.

What a kid.

Getting into the Halloween spirit...

We have had a quiet couple of weeks because poor Rory came down with a cold that was immediately joined by some kind of a stomach virus. It lasted two whole weeks. But he is feeling better and so we decided to go on a family field trip to get us out of the house and into the Halloween spirit!

It was a bit of a drive, but on Saturday night we headed to Morrisburg to see Pumpkinferno at Upper Canada Village. Upper Canada Village is a Parks Canada facility and they have been very successful at making use of the grounds in the off-season. They have been doing "Alight the Night" at Christmas for a while now (we have yet to check it out but they transform the village with Christmas lights and I have heard it's incredible) and they have recently started a Halloween program that is pretty spectacular.

Upper Canada Village - Pumpkinferno!

I'm always a little hesitant to take the kids to Halloween events because there is a fine line between fun and scary when you are 5 and 3. Pumpkinferno was perfect for all ages, though. More beautiful and mesmerizing than scary.

A few tips if you decide to go with little people in tow-

•  Buy your tickets in advance online. There are two line-ups when you arrive. One to buy tickets and one for pre-paid ticket holders. The first line takes about 2 hours to get through, but if you already have your tickets, you're in within 15 minutes. 
• Be there when it opens at 6:30 or a little bit before. The 6:30 crowd was mostly young families. There was a much older vibe (adults and teens) when we came out at 8:15. And the line up was significantly longer the later the evening got. When we were leaving, there was a 3 km line up of cars waiting to get in and park. Those country roads don't know what hit them!
• If at all possible, don't bring a stroller. The grounds are totally accessible by stroller or wheelchair, but there were areas on the tour that were pretty crowded and a stroller would have made getting around a bit of a nightmare. Baby-wearing or a holding hand rule is the way to go, in my opinion.  
• Don't use a flash. Seriously. This may seem obvious, but I can't tell you how many times I saw people using their flashes and then looking at their screens and saying "It didn't work!" or, better yet, trying to take pictures of the glowing pumpkins using their smart phones. Make sure the settings on your camera are appropriate for night time photography. I don't pretend to understand this, aside from that the ISO needs to be high. Or something. Ask Ben.
• Make use of the many benches! This was mandatory for my participation in this event as I'm 8 months pregnant and supposed to limit the amount of walking I do. There were lots of benches strategically placed along the trail, which made the entire tour much more enjoyable not only for me, but also for the kids. Walking from attraction to attraction is great, but when you're 3 and 5, sometimes you just want to sit down and really look at the pirate / Chinese dragon / western saloon / etc. Take some time to stop and smell the pumpkins. 

Happy Haunting! 

The future of the NHL?

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Happy Birthday, Maggie!

Maggie is 1 year old today! She's still nutty as can be, but has been a good addition to our family.

Even though there isn't a dog toy made sturdy enough to withstand her. Even though she broke my finger in three places. (To be fair, this was more my fault than hers... I accidentally got the leash wrapped around my finger and she decided she would really like to be elsewhere.) Even though she sheds more than one would think possible.

Happy Birthday Maggie!

Small victories

Jack had his very first homework project due this week. The instructions were pretty vague, just that we were to discuss what Jack's talents were and to send something in writing in to school so he could share his talents with his friends.

Now, you need to understand that until recently, Jack has been extremely reluctant to practice his handwriting. He would become so frustrated at not being able to do it perfectly that he would end up in tears. We practiced regularly all last year and into the summer, but he would become easily upset and want to give up if his writing didn't resemble mine or the print in the book. He has similar frustrations at not being able to ride a two wheel bike perfectly either. He would much rather keep the training wheels on and be successful than try to ride his two wheeler and not meet his standards.

We have had a breakthrough!!! Recently before trying writing tasks, we have had talks about how it is SO not important if the results are perfect or not. He seems to have finally gotten the idea that the process is more important than the product. He has also discovered the eraser, which seems to lessen the anxiety considerably.

Here it is! His first homework assignment! In French, no less!





I'm a pretty proud mum!

Wedding Bells

Some of you know that Ben is a really great photographer, and while normally this is something he does as a hobby and to capture wonderful pictures of our kids as they grow up, he has been asked to shoot the occasional wedding.

This is the slide show / video from the latest wedding he shot for- If you look closely, you will see Rory! He was the ring bearer!

Back to school!

We had a wonderful summer, but the leaves are starting to turn and two of the 4.5 Brittons are officially back to school (Actually, make that 2.5 of us!)

Jack started Senior Kindergarten today, and I have started at a new school in Ottawa this year. Lots of changes, lots of busy times ahead, but we are looking forward to all that is to come!

This is a picture of Jack on his first day of SK, holding a picture from his first day of JK! He's a growing concern!

Weekend fun

We spent Saturday at the boat with Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Sarah. The boys had fun fishing and even got to see a turtle!




Watching the door close in one of the locks along the Rideau Lake system.




Sitting at the bow of the boat with Grandma.




A turtle came along for the ride!




Jack and Grandma




Auntie Sarah and Jack




Grandma and Rory




Fishing with Grandpa and Daddy




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