Saturday was busy, but in a good way. She made some egg sandwiches for Emelia and me, which we ate on the way to Emelia’s piano class. I took care of some food shipping and then ran Emelia to the school for her swimming class.

Sue and Caitlin came to the school to see Emelia swim for the first time in this class. A quick lunch at Amy’s house and I brought Emelia to a friend’s birthday at the bowling alley.

We finished off the evening with dinner and dessert for my birthday. I wanted some Chinese take-out for dinner from our favorite place. Dessert was cappuccino pie. I would rather have that than cake. It is coffee ice cream mixed with walnuts molded into a pie plate with Oreo cookie crust. You take a slice of pie and top or with whip cream, mini chocolate chips and warm hot fudge. Awesome combination.

James stayed over for the night and Caitlin stayed over Amy’s house. So we got a chance to work in the puzzle and we got to sleep in since we didn’t have Caitlin there to wake us up early.

Today is looking to be much calmer and less hectic. Emelia has Chinese school but after we will hear to Amy’s house for pizza and wings as well as some football. I am hoping to make the whole weekend without working. So far so good.

Sue and I cooked the lions share of the food. It was a good and tasty meal. We stuck with traditional food and it turned out good.

I spent most of Friday running around doing errands as well as getting ready for the party. Nothing like impending guests to make you want to clean house. I also took the time to decorate the house nicely this year. I was disappointed with myself last year so I made up for it this year. It was simple, but the girls loved it.

And now for the pictures.

Neil, Jess, Amy and Ivan

Amy holding Ivan

Caitlin with a silly photo face

A more natural, surprise look from Caitlin

Jason enjoying the food

The little ones sitting at their own table. I remember those days.

After snacking we all got a chance to catch up with each other. Sue was a slave to the stove cooking up a wonderful meal of chicken parm for the family. Shortly after the big meal it was time to open presents.

Emelia in her hat with braids. She spent all of Sunday and part of Monday in this hat.

Opening presents from great-grandma

Time for hugs

Last, but not least, it was cake time.

This is not a typical face for Caitlin, but it is her silly, take my picture face. James and Emelia do the same thing, although, Emelia is a little less harsh. It’s cure regardless. I took this picture as the girls were playing with their cookie baking toys. Caitlin has on an oven mitt holding a tray of frosting. Emelia at the moment has the cookies and knife. It’s all wooden and not dangerous, but the girls like to use them to “bake” for mom and dad.

Today marks Caitlin’s second birthday. She’s come a long way in two years and I can honestly say I can’t remember life without her in it. She fills my life with love and excitement. Caitlin was a 100% momma’s girl last summer, but now she is making her way to being a daddy’s girl. We spend our share of one-on-one time and she loves all of it. We also go to swimming class together.

At two years old she is a very intelligent, beautiful person that is stubborn as a mule. Once she has her mind set up it takes a team of people (or some bribing) to change it. It’s her strength, but it is something that causes us plenty of trouble.

She’s come a long way with talking as well. Although she is not as talkative as Emelia she does chat away when she is in the mood. Her pronunciation is improving. Once she has a word down she pronounces it correctly. The words she doesn’t know too well ends up sounding like an alien language. Thankfully, we can usually figure out what she wants or she can show us so that we can learn. Her latest activity has been singing along with us or music on the radio. She can usually keep up pretty well even when she doesn’t know the words. It’s very cute to experience.

Just like Emelia she doesn’t have much for hair. Sue trimmed her curls once, but other than that has not had a real haircut. She loves having her hair up and doesn’t miss many days without her hair up (much like the picture above).

I feel blessed to have three wonderful women in my life. Happy Birthday Caitlin!

The only complaint I have and I understand the reasoning is the parking fees were higher than we expected. Instead of being $12 as it usually is, the cost of parking was upped to $20. They do this since the Ex was in session and if they kept parking at $12 they would fill up with cars for people going to The Ex instead of going to Ontario Place.

We started the day off as usual with a small breakfast in our room and headed out early. Despite being within walking distance of a TTC stop we decided we would be more comfortable making the short drive over to the park. Many travel guides suggest taking mass transit at all times in Toronto, but with a family in tow and with little traffic getting around town while driving is well within reason. Parking isn’t cheap, but it is not too bad. If we had known this before we definitely would have driven and parked near the harbour front when we went to the CN Tower and islands.

The drive to the park was uneventful. We had trouble finding the place on a map, but we were able to get directions from a guy that was "parking" his bike in the hotel parking garage. He was your typically friendly and more then eager to be helpful Torontonian.

When we arrived it seemed we would have the place practically to ourselves. We arrived early and it wasn’t too busy this day. There were some other families there, but plenty of parking. We opted to try to sneak in some water bottles this time, but we were pleasantly surprised to see the staff didn’t mind if we brought our own drinks. We probably could have brought lunch in as well, but didn’t think of it ahead of time.

Once inside the park we headed over to the area where the kids would have most fun. It was quite a hike since we had to walk nearly the full length of the place to reach the place. Again the kids had the run of the place. There were only a handful of families there. Emelia headed towards the 40" and taller kids play area. It was a large "building" full of places to climb and get lost. Sue brought Caitlin to another building that had lots of stuff for the littler kids. We all ended up there eventually.

The baby place was perfect for little kids. They had a large selection of toys for infants, a large area for drawing on the wall using chalk, play tables and other kid related toys. They even had a number of baby swings for the littlest of infants. My favorite piece in this room was the ball blowing machine. It was a device with various pipes and chutes that constantly blew air. It was fun to play with, but even better used as a device to blow air into your clothes. On such a hot day it felt great. And the funny part is that I wasn’t the only way. There was a family there from Boston and the dad did the same thing.

We spent some time in the baby area before heading over to the paddle boats. The four of us squeezed into a boat and headed out for a nice, cool trip around the park. It takes a little bit of effort to move four people around, but it was worth it to be on the cool water and to get out to see things from other perspectives.

The girls all geared up and ready to hit the water. These two had no issue or fear with being on a paddle boat in the water.

Caitlin was very happy today.

The heat was getting to the girls so they don’t look too happy here, but of course that could have just been the affect of my presence.

After our boat trip we hit up an entire building that had nothing but machines that blew sponge balls around. With the number of machines blowing balls around and others sucking them up the building was a cacophony of noise. We stayed there a little bit and would have stayed longer but the noise got to us all. Not to mention there was a large number of older kids there that took control of every available device. There wasn’t much for our little girls to do there. So, we headed out into the heat again and walked back towards the water park.

On the way back I took pictures of some of the dinosaur statues that we saw along the way. I’m not sure what these were there for, but they probably were part of some older display or attraction.

More dinosaurs behind fences.

A permanently (?) docked boat.

It was a treat to see this ship in action. I’m not sure if they were associated with the park or not, but it was nice to see.

On the way to the waterpark we also passed by a helicopter tour ride that takes off from the park. Had Sue been willing I would have splurged and brought the whole family for a ride. It was expensive for single persons, but for a family of four we could have gone up and see Toronto from the sky for a mere $200. Not bad considering what you’re getting; a personal helicopter ride. I almost went with just Emelia, but decided against it due to the cost of just the two of us. I also really wanted Sue to enjoy it too. Having a weak stomach she thought better to keep her feet on the ground.

Once we got to the water park we decided to grab a bite to eat and rest in the shade. It isn’t that these days were physically exhausting, but spending so much time in the sun, while carrying gear and kids you are just drained of energy. Fueled up on hot dogs and french fries we changed and headed to the water.

The water park on Ontario Place is decent. Larger than that which is at the Toronto Zoo, but smaller and less crowded than the one at Canada’s Wonderland. The shining star at this park was the huge bucket of water that filled and then spilled over the entire place at regular intervals. Sue and I both partook, but the girls were too small and were not interested in getting soaked.

We spent a long time trying out the various stuff in the park. Many of the good areas were crowded by larger, more aggressive kids so Emelia was a little bit intimidated and therefore didn’t get to do all she wanted to do. I did want to bring her on one of the larger tube rides they had. The kid area measured her at 40", but without shoes the water park so it was a no go. I talked to the girls there and told them about how they measured her early and they forgave the difference in height and let us pass. It was nice of them and I was going with her so no big deal.

The walk up and wait for the tube ride was long, but Emelia did well. We got a chance to see the entire area from the stairs on the way up. Some older girls (8-10 years old) talked with her on the way up. When it was our turn we got a big tube and grabbed hold. On the way down I went backwards and basically pulled her down the whole way. I outweigh Emelia by about 190 pounds so I made the ride fun, but we didn’t turn much. She had an absolute ball. She really surprised me in that she didn’t get scared at all on rides.

Since it took so long we could only make one pass and then we headed back to the locker rooms to change and get ready to head "home". The girls partially wanted to stay, but also were exhausted. Neither had taken a nap so they were wiped out. We headed back to the hotel to shower and rest a bit.

One the drive back I brought Sue around to the St. Lawrence Market area of town. Caitlin and I had been there the night before to buy food at the supermarket and got a chance to spend a couple dollars on donations during a street fair they had going on.

A shot of King Street and the clock tower at the old city hall.

One of the many churches in town. I forget the name of this one. The picture would have been nice had it not been taken through the spider web of cables used by the street cars.

After resting at the hotel we headed out yet again. The girls could not get enough of being out and about so I decided that we could walk over to Nathan Philips Square and see both old and new Toronto city halls.

Here is a nice shot of the nice looking old city hall.

The clock tower attached to the old city hall building.

Another shot of old city hall from Nathan Philips Square.

The water fountain at Nathan Philips Square.

New city hall.

The area is okay, but not much to do. There were a handful of homeless here and a bit of graffiti, but not much else. If you like architecture it’s worth the walk, but otherwise you can get the same feeling driving by  it in a car.

Nathan Philips Square from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Caitlin!

Emelia!

Sue!

Another shot of old city hall.

The back of old city hall. We took this on our return trip to the Eaton Centre. I wanted to check out the maps for the area at Indigo.

After this trip we headed back to the hotel room for the night. We ate up left overs for dinner and headed to bed. The next day was to be a big day on the road as we made our way home. We only had a couple stops planned, but most of the day would be spent in the car driving.

Taking the side streets made for a nice and pleasant trip. We got a chance to see real life Toronto, not the big city bit. It’s not amazing to look at, but it is real. The streets were not crowded so we made good time getting through them.

When we arrived in Vaughan we made a quick side trip to the store. We happened upon a huge Asian market the size of a typical supermarket. We almost went in and thought we might hit there on the way home. We ended up not going at all, but I’m still amazed at how big of a store it was and to find it in a suburban area.

Regardless, we made our way to the park, paid for parking and trudged to the the entrance. It was early and not full yet, but there was plenty of people there. The girls took a pee break while I stood in line with Caitlin. Some woman told me that they wouldn’t let me through the line I was on since I had a stroller. There were dedicated stroller lines, which I clearly missed. I wasn’t happy about having to switch lines after waiting so long, but in the end it was the best thing that could have happened.

The lines for the strollers went fast. The security check was minimal. I ended up having to get off line again just to wait for Sue. We had to find each other the old fashioned way since were were not using our phones while on vacation. $0.80 a minute can add up quickly when you’re racking that up per phone per minute. Nearly $2 to make a one minute call. No thanks.

We headed in, creamed up and got the girls measured for the rides. The kids get wrist bands indicating which rides they can go on. While on line I shared our sun screen with a family with five kids that were behind us. It was sunny and very hot that day and they forgot to bring sunscreen. I felt bad for them. Afterwards we reviewed the map and came up with a  plan. We headed out to the kiddie section.

The first ride of the day was the swan boat ride. It seemed like a nice easy start. In the end the girls waited nearly 45 minutes to get through line. 45 minutes of standing in the sun. Not a good way to start off the day. The girls were patient and enjoyed the ride.

Here they are. Mommy is showing them where I am.

Swan boat ride from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Waving hi to daddy.

Hot and in the sun, but enjoying themselves nonetheless.

The kiddie section is named "Planet Snoopy". Most of the rides are Peanuts or Snoopy based. Here is the requisite picture with Snoopy.

The kids section has a decent setup for the families. We got the kids updated with our cell phone number. In case they got lost the staff would call us on our phone. Well worth the $0.80 a minute in my book.

Also in this area is a building that has a couple of large rooms for little ones. One room for nursing mothers with microwaves for heating bottles and food. Another room with multiple changing stations to allow for an army of moms to change diapers. They were very ready to accept plenty of families with hungry kids and dirty diapers. I expected to at least find a changing station in this area, but the park shocked and amazed both of us by being so family friendly.

Next up was some other rides. Emelia rode on a small, kiddie swing ride. It was borderline for her. Next year she’ll be too big for something like this, but she enjoyed it.

Kiddie Swing from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Around and around she goes.

Holding on for dear life!

After the rush of the swings I brought Emelia over to a small roller coater. She was barely big enough for this ride, but with an adult to join her she was okay to go. I barely fit into the kid size car, but Emelia fit perfectly. I wasn’t sure if she could handle it, but she did. The ride was fast and it goes around the track twice. Emelia held on and when I told her to put her arms up in the air and yell she did. She is going to be our wild child. She had no fear of doing that even on a fast moving roller coaster.

Here is a short video I took of the ride after we got off.

Kiddie Roller Coaster from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

While we were on the roller coaster Sue had brought Caitlin onto the train ride. Emelia wanted to go as well so we took a leisurely ride on the train. Not much to do other than sit there on the train. It was cool in the shade and relaxing.

This is not a self portrait. Emelia took this of me using my camera. Not bad for a little kid.

When we got back Sue was filling Caitlin with ICEE to cool off. She’s sweating just sitting there.

Next up was the carousel. The kids both wanted to go on it so we abandoned the stroller and we all went for a ride.

Caitlin really had a great time on this ride. She was nothing but smiles.

Emelia was full of real (and in this case, fake) smiles.

Emelia looking at the mechanisms to see how it works. She’s such an inquisitive child she had more fun trying to figure out how the carousel moved the horses up and down than she did actually riding it.

Carousel from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Next up with the Red Baron ride. Emelia took the pilot’s seat and worked the stick to move it up and down.

Emelia looking at the controls.

Red Baron from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

Flying high in the sky.

After the Red Baron was a "space" ride. Both girls got to go on this one. It was Caitlin’s first ride without Sue or I to help her. She did excellent. Nothing but smiles and no fussing.

Caitlin and Emelia trying to look at us as they fly by.

Space Beagle from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

One excellent service provided by the park (for a fee) that everybody should take advantage of is the buffet lunch. It sucks in that it is only available online and only for advanced purchases, but the $7 charge is well worth it. They clearly want you to buy in advance so they know how much food to prepare. As usual I was skeptical, but pleasantly surprised. Despite the huge numbers of people eating the buffet lunch the entire thing was well run, well stocked and worked out well.

The buffet lunch was all you could eat, picnic type fare. Hamburgers, hot dogs, fried chicken, potato salad, green salad and fountain drinks. The food was nothing special, but it fills you and you get to eat and drink as much as you can handle. Seeing as bottles of water run $4 a piece and food is very expensive the buffet is worth it. We ate our fill and even refilled our Starbucks cup (from a drink we bought earlier in the day). They won’t let you take food or drinks out of that area, but they didn’t care about us because we were not using their cups.

On our way to the water park area we stopped for a shot of Sue (infamous Starbucks cup in hand) in front of the waterfall. It was man made, but huge.

On the way over you walk over a stream filled with koi. The kids enjoyed watching them.

Koi Fish from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

I didn’t break out the camera for the rest of the day at the park, but we had plenty more fun. The water park is large and has plenty to do for the kids. The sky was going overcast and looked like rain again and again, but it stayed dry. The place was absolutely packed with people and kids. Getting a changing room was difficult because you had a lot of single persons using the family changing rooms. I guess some people are just not comfortable changing in front of others. Best they stay at home next time.

The girls played in a series of shallow wading pools. These were popular and nearly as fully of kids as they were full of water. Emelia took a couple rides down a small waterslide. I talked Emelia into going onto a large waterslide ride that you go down on using a tube. She had a great time and wanted to go again, but it was busy.

Lastly we stood in line for the lazy river ride. It’s a ride exactly like it sounds; it’s a shallow, slow moving river of water that you can ride on while on a tub. Emelia got to sit on my lap on the tube. Since the line was so long Sue got back in line while we were in the water to hold a spot for me to take Caitlin. That was a mistake as Caitlin was so exhausted she spent most of the time on my lap screaming bloody murder. It was a relief to drop her off with mom when we were done.

With the afternoon quickly approaching and the kids exhausted we decided to leave. Easier said than done. The area around the park was in the throws of afternoon rush hour. We stopped to buy some iced tea and a milk shake and Mickey D’s and proceeded to take the back roads back to the hotel. The girls slept and we entertained ourselves checking out the local area.

One fun thing we did see was a Canadian Price Chopper store. This is not the same chain as the Price Choppers in New York. Sue took a quick picture of the store front while we drove by.

When we got back we rested for a bit, but the girls again got anxious to do something. So, I talked Sue into coming out to the Eaton Centre to at least check it out. We had been there the night before and I thought Sue would like to see what they had in store.

The girls had a great time pointing out things as we went to and through the centre. With out whacky schedule we ended up getting hungry and decided to eat there. We were going to just get some nuggets at McDonalds, but they don’t have a dollar menu and if we were going to spend any significant money it would be on something a little better than chicken nuggets.

We ended up at the food court eating Thai. The food was pretty good and we had plenty to take back and have for a meal later. They were a bit stingy with the cups of water. Two small cups for four people doesn’t really cut it, but maybe I’m wrong. Seeing as Torontonians head home early we ended up leaving by 9pm to crash and get ready for day 7 of our trip.

The happy parents.

The lady of the hour. Olivia Bailing.

Emelia being adorable.

A family full of little kids.

James was extraordinarily quiet.

Sue got a little time with the newest family member, Ivan.

Despite the position and James face he wasn’t in trouble of moving around. This is just how they took the picture. He looks ready to flee.

Jason, Lily and Ivan pose for a family photo.

Amy and her little girl.

The entire family.

Godmother and goddaughter posing for a picture.

A rare picture of me holding Olivia.

Family photos with more than two kids are difficult.

Jason and Lily along with the little girl.

Mom and dad posing with Olivia. By this point Olivia has had her fill and is ready to leap.

Our family photo.

I didn’t take any pictures during the mass (obviously), but the kids held up well. After 20 minutes Emelia and I made and escape for a bio break. Emelia ended up not having to go. I think she just wanted to get out of there. We made our way back and after 5 minutes I ended up taking Caitlin out. She was restless and needed to make some noise. We made our way to the back of the church to play with the books and small toys they had out.

I don’t feel too bad about leaving, because there were plenty of others with us. The church itself was packed. Unfortunately, during Caitlin’s break is when they did the ceremony, so I missed it. The mass lasted an hour and half and ended at noon. After the place cleared out we packed up the family and headed to Amy’s house for snacks.

Emelia and I ate a tasty Italian donut along with some tortilla chips with spinach dip. Grandpa watches on while we eat. The rest of the family rested before heading out for lunch.

Grandma Pat spending time with Olivia.

For lunch we headed out to Olive Garden. It was a late lunch, but we figured it would be busy. We sent Mike off to get the group a table early. Thankfully we did because even when we arrived we still had to wait 20 minutes. Too bad they wouldn’t take a reservation. It’s not easy to get a table for 16.

Ivan looked like he was going to be out for the entire time, but woke up minutes after we sat.

Caitlin occupied herself for a little while with crayons and her menu.

Emelia hung out with Ayi and meimei.

Our table as seen from the other end.

It was by far the very longest meal I’ve ever spent at Olive Garden, but it was nice enough. They didn’t make us feel rushed and we were not in a hurry so we had a long leisurely meal. Sue, Jason and I scored the Sue special (Chicken Marsala with pasta instead of potatoes). Having had snacks before leaving, appetizers, bread and salad I hardly had enough stomach to eat my meal. We ended up bringing home most of our food.

After  our meal they brought out the cake that Amy brought.

A cup of coffee and cake and we were all done. I wasn’t as tired as I expected to be, but the girls were. We had been there over two hours and that after being in a church for two hours. When we left the restaurant Sue was the first out. The girls crashed just before we got home. Emelia didn’t much of a nap, but Caitlin stayed asleep for a couple hours once we got home. It threw off their sleep pattern for today, but they’ll bounce back tomorrow.

It was pleasant day. The weather was good, it was great to spend time with family and Olivia got her initiation rite taken care of. If I can get tired early enough I made even go to bed early..

It was fun to see Emelia lead grandpa to the porch to play.

For Sue’s birthday we went out for dinner at Canali’s. It was our second trip there and we got nearly the exact same excellent meal we got there the first time. Their food is excellent and I would normally completely ignore a place like this based on looks, but a friend knows them personally and got us hooked.

The girls spent the evening with Amy and Mike while we were out having dinner. To finish the night we devoured a black forest cake (with strawberries) from Villa Italia. Yum!

Singing to Sue:

Happy Birthday Sue from xiaoniu on Vimeo.

The kids certainly enjoyed themselves.

Here are all of the graduates along with some of the four year old kids that were there to participate. They started off with a procession into the auditorium and walked to their chairs.

The little graduate.

Here is Olivia holding up her end of the bargain by being well behaved and quiet. By the end she wanted out the car seat.

Caitlin spent the time walking up and down our row of chairs, climbing up and down and showing off her boo-boo (she had blood drawn for some tests). I can’t complain, because she was relatively quiet the entire time. The only moment she was trouble was when she tried to run off.

The kids were awarded certificates of graduation and sang a few songs. Each child also got to tell everybody what they learned while at daycare. James was proud to say that he learned his phone number. I would post the video, but he really does know his phone number and told everybody in the auditorium. It was cute.

Caitlin doing her best to squirm out of my arms. She was tired and ready for bed. I was hoping for a nice picture together, but this is all we could get.

James and the girls.

James and one of his buddies. This little guy’s aunt works where I work.

James’ grandparents came up to attend the ceremony and visit with the family.

Afterwards we headed back to the daycare for pizza and snacks. The kids stuffed themselves with pizza and cookies. I gave Emelia a small cup of soda, which is a first for her. She took one sip and told me to give her a cup of tap water. That’s my girl.