Vacation at The Cottage

Carrie's Grandpa's place is near Parry Sound, and we went up there on August 17th, returning on August 23rd. It was really fun--Carrie's parents were up there too, until Monday. And the mosquitoes were nowhere near as bad as they were last year.

The kids enjoyed the park, feeding the chipmunks, swimming, boating, eating, making crafts, playing games, and generally having fun.

Laurier and her mom went fishing. They each caught a fish, and Laurier complained about how long it took to catch (a whole 15 minutes).

Carrie and I took Laurier on the paddleboat, and got within 20 feet of a pair of loons. It was great, but of course we didn't have the camera with us. Bummer.

Open Text Company Picnic

We went to the Open Text Company Picnic on Saturday, an event which I helped to organize as part of the Social Committee. It was great fun, providing a catered BBQ lunch (with meat to die for), Bouncy Castle, Bouncy Obstacle Course, Sno Kones, Cotton Candy, 9-hole Mini-Golf, and a Beach Ball Pit.

Laurier ran the most honest egg & spoon race ever--she held her non-spoon hand behind her back as instructed, and did a great job getting 3/4 of the way down the course before dropping and cracking her egg. Then she cried, but perked up when I reminded her that every participant gets a prize. She got a pair of tinkerbell rubber-balls.

Simon had fun with the beach balls. He enjoyed the bouncy-castle, and he got some new cars to take home.

I arrived at 10am with Laurier to set up, and Mommy and Simon walked to meet us there at 11am. We packed it in at about 2pm, and took the kids home to have naps. Once they were asleep, I went back to the office to help clean up.

Overall, a fun day with great weather. As an organizer, I'll be using this year's event to come up with a that-much-better picnic day next year. We had about 100 people come out this year--hopefully the success of the picnic will encourage more participants next year.

Laurier's Update

I went to Camp, and I have been making a paper mache pinata. And in Sarnia I made a wind chime, and I painted it. And we had a sleep-over in Sarnia, and I went to the beach, swam in the wading pool, and I had a hot dog, broccoli, carots, and goodies from great-grandma. I think that's all I have to say for right now.

Fence Posts

We got our fence posts installed today. So my next couple of weeks will be concentrating on building the fence. We have all the pieces (sitting in the garage), it's just a matter of putting it all together. The kids are being pretty nutty to Carrie lately, so I'll have to include them in the building process, just to give their mom a break.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I just finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and it was really good. It's 600 pages, just like the previous book, but the typeface is a smaller font, so the story is actually quite a bit longer. This is the last book in the series, and for those who haven't tried reading Potter, it's quite fun, even if you're not a kid. I won't give away any of the secrets here, and I'm thankful that no one spoiled it for me before I got to the end.

Balloon Festival

We went to the balloon festival this weekend in London, Ontario. It was great fun! We went on Sunday to the 6am launch, and there was almost no one else there (compared with the 6pm launch, I hear). The kids loved it, and we took lots of pictures.