And your bird can sing?

While visiting Montreal we also checked out the Biodome. I could go on about it, but wikipedia has saved me the keystrokes. Here are K and Z coming face to beak with some bird or another.

Adventures in Montreal

We spent a wonderful few days with the MMs in their new hometown of Montreal. The first shot is of Zara playing at this really cool park (Parc Jean-Drapeau) which coincidentally turns out to be on the same island as La Ronde, the amusement park I took many a visit to in the late 80s and early 90s. In case you thought we were just making up this whole leave the country thing, the next shot shows Z, C, K and Char with a Canadian flag. This was on the water taxi that took us from the park to Old Montreal. And the last shot is very clearly authentic proof of our time in QC - poutine!

Happy 6th Birthday, Zara!

We celebrated Zara's actual birthday in Montreal with our good friends C, L, K and C. For Zara's birthday she received (from the MMs) a zebra cupcake kit thing (complete with super cool Zebra lunch box). Here's the birthday girl making her 3rd wish of the birthday season (we also ate cake and sang at the potluck following her BRIMS camp recital. Happy birthday to our zany, artistic, resplendent, adorable Zara!

Visiting Big Grandpa

On our way up to see friends in Montreal we stopped in to visit several members of my family in upstate NY. Thanks to K and V for hosting us! Here's a shot of my grandfather, Ted, with me and 2 of his 5 great-grandchildren.

Yaaaaaarrrrrr!

We celebrated Zara's 6th birthday a little early this year, as we were planning on being out of town on the actual day. We celebrated with a pirate-themed party (hats, parrots, scavenger hunts) complete with awesome pirate cake (by Wes). This was the first of many birthday celebrations this year :)

Lewis Ginter Gardens

It's a bit surprising that after 5 years here in C'ville and countless trips to Richmond we only *just* made it to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, which incidentally has a totally awesome children's garden. Here's a shot of Z and A building a fairy house, and A playing with some scarves. Looking forward to our next visit!

We we're picking berries...

Apologies in advance to those of you who now have "Berry Picking Time" stuck in your head. And to the rest of you, go buy Great Big Sea's eponymous album so when you next read this post you will also get it stuck in your head.

The 4 of us went blueberry picking to celebrate Zara's first official day of summer vacation. As with our go at cherry picking the week before, Zara was an awesome picker. Unlike the previous picking session, the rest of us got to help her out a bit since I remembered the Ergo and it did not take both Wes and I fending and scooping and restraining the 16 month old ball of excitement and fury that is Amity. You'll notice there are no pictures of cherry picking. That's because cherries rank high on the list of choking hazards and it was all we could do to keep Amity from consuming rotting nasty choking hazards. So no pictures were taken. But here, there are pictures. The Ergo rocks.

Day One Hundred Eighty (of 180) Done!

It was a very emotional day. For the first (and last time, it being her last day and all), we received a call from the principal as Zara was inconsolable. This is the kind of call you might expect on the first day, since she didn't really know anyone when she started, not on the last day when she's grown to know and love ALL of her teachers and friends. But she was borrowing a special necklace of mine for her last day, and it broke (though it was totally fixable, and Wes fixed it), and she was already pretty emotional about school ending, so I guess that just put her over the top.

The first picture commemorates the completion of her 180th day of Kindergarten, and pairs well with the snap to mark the end of her first day. She's looking surprisingly good considering that, moments before the picture was taken, her teacher Ms. C had run across the road from where she had been standing (with the large group of teachers and staff pictured in the 2nd picture) to give Zara one last hug and say goodbye (for the summer). They both had tears in their eyes, causing both Wes and I to get a bit choked up, too (and neglect our documentarian duties, otherwise you'd see a picture of the very sweet hug).

What a fantastic, wonderful, incredible, and growing year this has been for Zara (and the rest of us, too!) Thanks, Johnson Elementary School! See you in August!

First Grader (rising)

Here's Zara (and Amity, too! She stands now and everything) 180 school days after the first day of Kindergarten.