We are going to the Zoo!!!

Thanks to Colin, Liam, Jen and Ken for the 2007 Zoo Pass! We love you guys and can’t think of any better way to spend time together that at the zoo. We had a great time after Christmas hanging out with the boys and their trucks! We especially enjoyed your basement amusement park! Here is to seeing more of each other this year. Happy 2007!

Christmas Dinner

We had a sweet afternoon at Mom & Dads in Tyrone. We arrived around 2:30 and had lunch with Robyn, James, Mom & Dad. Then we got right down to getting spoiled. Mom & Dad got us a great rocking chair for reading to Hailey (among many other great gifts) and Robyn and James got us a beautiful snow globe with Hailey’s photo in it. We had a delicious turkey dinner before sitting down to a hilarious game of Hoopla (that Elaine and AJ had bought for us). We were up very early the next day for Boxing Day Hailey spoiling. Thanks Mom & Dad for spoiling us!

Christmas Morning!

We had a wonderful Christmas morning at Lynda’s home. We were up late wrapping gifts and playing games. Lynda and Lyle were up early making breakfast and Santa made sure that the room was overflowing with presents. Andrew finally woke up and decided that we could start Christmas. It was great to spend his first Christmas morning with him! We were all spoiled and had a fun time. Thanks Auntie Lynda!

Avery's Christmas Pageant

Avery’s Christmas Pageant was fun. She performed two songs with actions and enjoyed every moment of it. Grandma, Grandpa, Erin, Kevin, Ewan and Alex came out to show support. What a ham!

Family Christmas Party

We had a great time at the annual Family Christmas party. It was a Hemsworth hosted event at Mom & Dads home in Tyrone. We managed to get the kids to sit still long enough for a family photo. Thanks for a great day!

Introducing Baby Hailey!

We are so excited to introduce Xiao Man Hai (Hailey for short). She was born on January 28, 2006. She is currently staying at the Foshan Nanhai Social Welfare Institute in Foshan City in the province of Guangdong, China. She really misses us, but is enjoying the company of a lot of little girls her age that speak her language (baby talk). Her hockey stats are as follows: (as of August 31, 2006)
Weight: 6.5 kg
Height: 64cm
Head Circumference: 14.8 cm
Chest: 40.5 cm
Hobbies include: Active and Restless behaviour, Listening to Music and Playing Games.
We are a very proud and excited Mom and Dad. We are eagarly anticipating our all-inclusive trip to Bejing in March to meet the little princess. We are already practicing our lack of willpower with expressions like "Yes sweetheart, of cource i will buy you that". What a cute little pumpkin. I know that we are all very excited, including little miss Avery who can't stop ready her book on China. Looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Love Jason & Alex.

MINI: The Battle of Britain

Kevin and I went up to Downsview Park yesterday and participated in the Battle of Britain. BMW set up a race course of pylons with twists and turns just for the new Mini testing. They had the new Rallye and SOHO models there. We could go as many times as we wanted in an hour taking out all kinds of different models including convertables. You could smell the rubber as i gave it as hard as i could on the track. The last exercise was to go as fast as possible and then slam on the brakes to test the ABS brakes. It was great fun and completely FREE! Where else can you take out a brand new car and drive the crap out of it on a race track for FREE?

Pizza with the Sanfords

We had a great weekend with the Sanfords. They brought pizza ingredients from scratch that we did on the bbq- it was delicious. It kinda rained on and off, but we didnt let it stop us from having some fun. Water balloons were the weapon of choice, but the water guns got much use. A superman slide was set up on the hill resulting in some awesome watery wipeouts. A nice fire on saturday night with Smores topped a great day. Sunday we floated for an hour or so on air mattresses in the hot sun before packing it in. Thanks for the great time!

Happy 2nd Birthday Colin & Liam!

A great afternoon was had by all at the Pettigrew boys 2nd birthday. Ken put together a series of games including gumball guess, pin the bucket on the backhoe, and target practice to name a few. A tasty BBQ and birthday cake rounded out the afternoon. Happy birthday boys!

Avery’s 3rd Birthday!!!

It was Averys 3rd Birthday yesterday. The party was at her home with a bunch of her friends and family. There was some fun bike riding out front to start off. Then inside for a yummy dinner and some play time. She decided after dinner that it was swim time, so we all changed and headed out to the pool for some sliding and diving. Even Ewan tried to get into the pool. When we all got a little shivery, we all towelled off, changed and headed in for some cake. Erin made some fun cupcakes and cakes laid out on a big tray. The girls huffed, and puffed and finally blew out the candles. Me moved on to the big pile of presents. Thankfully, Averys friends were able to help her open all the gifts. After the opening, everyone packed up and headed out. What a great party!

Timber!

Dad came up to help us out this weekend. We took down the last birch with precision. It came down right beside the other in the driveway. We worked hard all afternoon to cut it up and clean up the parking area. Late afternoon we switched to the waterfront. Charlie and Elaine (our great neighbours) had offered us their old dock while we wait to afford to put in a new dock to replace our old, broken down dock. We floated the new dock over and after some repairs moved it into place. The new dock is an excellent temporary solution, possibly until next year. Cheers.

Happy Birthday Canada!

It's a dogs life. Cyber and I were up at 6am today. It was a beautiful way to start Canada Day at sunrise. The mist was thick on the lake. Cyber and I stood on the old, rickety dock and watched the loons and beaver fishing. This is my favourite time at the lake. All is quiet. No chance that "Suck My Wake" will sputter to life and send wake crashing onto my dock.


Kevin, Erin, Avery, Ewan, Reggie and Charlie joined us for Canada Day at the cottage. It was a sunny day, the kids played at the water. Avery swam with mommy in the lake while scaredy pants daddy watched safely from the shoreline. Kevin and I visited with Shanthi and Derek at Pringles Cove for the bakery Open House. The gave us the tour and treated us to some very delicious baking. It rained after dinner forcing us into the cottage for the night. Unfortunately we didnt get to any fireworks, but chatted late into the night. Sunday, Erin and the kids left for more visiting in Muskoka, while Kevin decided to head home to catch up on his kitchen project. He left just in time, because by early afternoon the high winds knocked over a large birch by our parking area. The birch came down right where his Mini Cooper had been parked. It certainly would have written it off! Mom and Dad came for dinner Sunday night. We had a nice dinner and caught up on their trip. Just after they left, 3 neighbours across the lake started an hour long fireworks display. Alex and I sipped coffee from the bug-safety of our screened in room. It was so great. Cheers.

Keep Sailing Bob!

Had another sunny weekend at the cottage. Louis, Rita, Katrinna, Ethan and Cristal came to visit for the day on Saturday. Cyber and Cristal had great fun chasing each other around the lake. It was very buggy on Saturday- the bugs forced us into the tent and cottage for parts of the day. Poor Ethan was quite disturbed by the many huge flying insects. It was a great day otherwise, with some overdue catching up. Bill came by and brought us our new boat. After some easy patching it was somewhat seaworthy- sorry, lakeworthy (is that a word?). I got it started on Sunday and we had our first tour of the lake this year. Also on the agenda, refinishing our flag pole. Got it sanded down and a coat of paint. Another coat next weekend and we should be ready to hoist the flag on Canada Day. Cheers.

Roof on the shed.

A seriously hot weekend with highs of 34c. Sunny, sunny, sunny. Another weekend with Dad and Alex. Got some more lumber and added the roof. Baby steps...

Starting the shed

Got the floor and stud walls up on a very cold weekend with Dad and Alex. Both days sunny but with only a high of 8c.

Have your cake... and WEAR IT too!

Ewan turns ONE! with an exciting birthday party at home in Pickering. Party highlights include: homemade sports cakes, the bubble machine, and the play room. Ewan had a ball!