Paris through the eyes of a child

Many of you know that we helped send Luke, Britt and Ciel off on their 6 month voyage by spending a week of family bonding in Paris. Although Luke has chronicled it quite well ( click on the link to check out the 4 posts about Paris if you haven't already seen them). I thought for our post I would base it on Ian’s perspective as he was quite the shutterbug on our trip. Most of the following pictures were taken by him, the rest are other good ones I wanted to share. Enjoy!

No wonder the kids were antsy if this was their view from the Hop on Hop off tour.

Some sort of sporting field. Ian has a special radar for sport related sights.I included this picture as he took 19 shots of this scene, not sure what the attraction was.DaddyLexiEiffie (Ian's souvenir Blue Eiffel Tower- cost 1 euro, value priceless)He knows a masterpiece when he sees it.Strategic Planning at the LouvreIan was fascinated by this group of people who did rollerblading tricks in random locations. I'm pretty sure he would have been happy spending the entire vacation just watching these guys.

Ian took this picture of one of his favourite things- a fire truck. The excitement increased whenhe got the opportunity to climb the ladder.I couldn't believe he was willing to go up to the very top. I was so proud of him.Almost as proud as he was of himself :)His devoted fans and cheerleadersFirefighter or R2D2 clone??This trip really was a gong show. We contemplated leaving the kids at home (or at least Lexi she's pretty full of energy and trouble.) but we really love having them with us especially since sometimes it seems like our "family time" gets squeezed by work commitments and household responsibilities when we're at home. Vacations give us that 24/7 family bonding time (literally when at 3 in the morning both kids are wired thanks to the jetlag). Secondly, I was worried that Alexa might look at these pictures in the future and say "Hey, wait a minute....why wasn't I there??). Lastly we were super-excited about spending the week together with Team Bearss before they set out on their adventure. It was sort of our way of cramming 6 months of family nights into one week. So, in order to mitigate some of the effect of the gong show we try to set aside time just for them to do kid stuff at a slower pace. It means that we see and do less than we would have in a "pre-kid" trip but it makes the things we do see substantially more enjoyable.Cool dude with his spiky hairPlaying in the sand near Le Jardin de tuileriesBurning of some excess energy on the lawn of the Louvre

Auntie Melanie & Uncle Spencer came down from London to join us for the weekend which was nice. I think they were a little stunned/scared/intimidated by the gong show but they managed to squeeze in a few snuggles with the kids before retreating to their own hotel. I like to think this picture is representative of the budding and future relationship between our girls. They're so cute together.

Another successful vacation draws to a close.

Hallowe'en

There are some anxious grandparents who have already called once and emailed twice in addition to many verbal reminders of the fact that they want to see Hallowe'en pictures of the kids ASAP so I'm pre-empting my Paris post with a Hallowe'en post for those who just can't wait...

I think Fall is one of the top 10 reasons why I love Canada. The vibrant colours of the leaves on the trees, the cool weather that allows you to pull out those cozy sweaters that have been hibernating all summer, the justification for daily hot chocolates, Hallowe’en and of course fall photo shoots :)

The results of our leaf hunt- it's amazing that these vibrant colours are natural and not the result of some animation genius at Disney.

Our Hallowe’en Week began with a trip to the pumpkin patch with Grandma Rita. Despite the threat of rain it was a beautiful, crisp fall day, just perfect for our search for the perfect pumpkin.

Interestingly the pumpkins were $5 each or 3 for $25....

Painting pumpkins at Grandma's

Ian and I carved this masterpiece although by the night of Hallowe'en it had already been eaten by the squirrels.

This is one eating the star ear.

We also made caramel apples, they don't look so smooth but man do they taste yummy!

My mom never bought costumes. Now store bought costumes have come a long way since those plastic bag ponchos with masks from Zellers nevertheless it's in my genes to create Hallowe'en costumes from scratch much to Cam's chagrin. He says it's a sure sign of Hallowe'en when my sewing machine takes up residence on our dining room table. I wasn't convinced that the kids' costumes were going to turn out as planned this year but in the end they looked great.

Cute she is!!

Despite our attempts to convince Ian to go as Luke Skywalker to match Lex he decided to go with the EMS theme again and dressed as a police/swat officer this year.

Even Mr. Potatohead got into the spirit of Hallowe'en.

Ian, Lexi & Zoe

Now the discussion about what NEXT Hallowe'en's costumes are going to be begins....