Jason's Love Affair

Jason has a new love in his life...he spends quality time with it every morning and every evening.......if only he would spend as much time cleaning and polishing other areas of the house as well:)

Look at those cheeks!!!!!

Simon is finally getting in his one year molars and his flaming red cheeks are proof. They have been trying to work their way through for over a month now and have just started to peek through.....thankfully they don't really bother him...he is still a happy little guy despite the cheeks.

Great Wolf Lodge

Riley, Simon, Amanda and Nee Nee spent the night at the Great Wolf lodge with Amanda's friend Chantal, her husband Craig and their three children, Mathieu, Andrew and Alivia. Jason wasn't able to go because he had a volleyball tournament. We arrived on Friday afternoon and after spending sometime with the moose and the bear in the lobbby we headed into the waterpark for a couple hours of fun in the wave pool, splash pad and in the kiddie pool. After a full morning and afternoon we headed back to our room for a nap....or so we thought. Riley slept for about 30 minutes, a far cry from her normal three plus hours and Simon well he yelled "moose. please" for about 20 minutes so Amanda took him out of the room to see the moose to let Riley sleep. We had dinner then headed back to the waterpark with Chantal and Alivia. By 8:00 we were in our P.J.'s and heading out for storytime, Riley and Nee Nee sat through storytime and Simon quickly passed out in Amanda's arms. On Saturday we had another full day of playing with our friends in the waterpark(Riley went down a big waterslide with Amanda) and playing in the cub club. After a quick lunch we headed to the lobby to see Robert Munsch, we had our books in hand for autograping....us and about 500 other people. We decided to pack it in for the day after Simon was walking in hallway and tripped and didn't get back up or move....he fell asleep walking!!!! It was a great two days away and we are are looking forward to getting some rest.

Gymnastics

Our winter session of gymnastics has begun. Both Riley and Simon are registered in the same class so they get to spend 40 minutes running, jumping, climbing, swinging and crawling together. It is so great to watch them together and to watch Amanda sweat as she tries to run after and help two children at the same time. Riley loves the trampoline, swinging on the bars and jumping off a really, really high vault which she insists she can do all by herself. Simon also loves the trampoline and jumpng into the pit, the problem is he jumps into the middle then lays there and yells "help, help, help." Here is a picture of the kids doing their ta-da pose.

Dress Up

Another favourite activity in our household is playing dress up. Both Riley and Simon love to dig into the tickle trunk and create their own little outfits, it is pretty cute to watch. Here are some photos of the kids in some of the dress up clothes.

Yoga Babies

Amanda and the kids have signed up for Yoga on Wednesday mornings...Amanda was hoping that three of them would be able to have a nice quiet morning together learning new things and meeting new friends...she almost got exactly what she hoped for....She and Riley learn new Yoga positions and stretches together while Simon heads off across the room to his new little friend Lilly's mat. They spend their time kissing each other(what a heart throb...chip of the ol' block) and chasing each other....now we just need to work on the quiet part. Here are our little Yoga babies all ready to go. Namaste.

Skating Helmets

We are all suited up to go skating at the outdoor rink that is a block away from our house...the hockey helmets have been purchased and adjusted. Now if only the weather would cooperate with us on our quest to skate.

It is obvious that the kids large head size comes from the Hubbard side of the family...Amanda was able to get the toddler helmet on her head before the adjustments began.

Colouring, Colouring and More Colouring

We cannot get enough of colouring in our household these days. They both LOVE to sit at the kitchen table and colour on a blank piece of construction paper...they often create maps...just like Dora. Riley has taken to drawing happy faces and has very quickly gotten pretty good. Here is a picture of one of her latest happy face creations.



She has more recently started to add little arms and feet that come directly out of the happy face's head....very cute.

“Simon plays the maroccas, shakea-shakea-shakea. Riley plays the flute dinka-dinka-dinka.”

“Simon plays the maroccas, shakea-shakea-shakea. Riley plays the flute dinka-dinka-dinka.” Riley has a new favourite song to sing...not sure if she learned it from school or if it is another one of her made up songs and stories. The entire song goes: “Simon plays the maroccas, shakea-shakea-shakea. Riley plays the flute dinka-dinka-dinka, Daddy plays the drums bamma-bamma-bamma, Mommy plays the guitar struma-struma-struma. We all pretend to play our instruments while she sings....a sight to be seen. We were at the grocery store the other day and came across a plastic flute and some moroccas...I couldn't resist. As we were checking out the cashier actually said to us “oh, you're going to regret this”...the car ride home was a little noisy, but fun. When we got home, our little band struck up and with all the high pitched squealling so did Newman...the howling began...now there is a new line to Riley's song....Newman signs a song...and he howls away...watch out Partridge family; here come the Hubbards.

He Escapes!!!

Well, once again we have learned that Riley and Simon are two totally different little people. To this day, Riley has never stepped foot out of her bed without one of us going to get her. When she was fifteen months, we moved her into her toddler bed and told her that she is not to get out without mommy or daddy, and like Riley usually does, she listened.....now let's talk about Simon:) Simon has also been in his toddler bed since he was fifteen months, a move Amanda didn't want to do for fear of exactly what's happening. He has figured out that it is easy to escape in the wee hours of the morning. Usually between the hours of 3:30am and 5:00am, we hear a little “hi mommy” coming up from beside our bed. It is especially enjoyable when the sweet “hi mommy” is accompanied by him reaching up into the bed and saying “honk” and pinching Amanda's nose. We have tried to pull him into bed with us to try to get a couple more hours of shut-eye...but.. he likes to jump in our bed--Amanda has resorted on those really early mornings to folding herself in half and lay down in his toddler bed with him. Did we mention that his toddler bed is actually his crib converted down into a small toddler bed. Another favourite time for him to break free is when he is supposed to going to bed...it's a fun game to have your mommy and daddy chase you down the hallway and put you back in bed. We now stay with him in his room until he falls alseep...thankfully, it usually only takes a couple of minutes. This too shall pass....we hope:)