Our guitar hero

Isaac LOVES music and was singing all the time in China when we first got him. That continued once we were back in Canada and he always wanted to play Ella's guitar. He was very excited the first time he saw Auntie Lisa's toy guitar for guitar hero and he pretended to be playing it all the time...singing a mixture of songs - often ones he had just made up. This summer, we found a guitar hero guitar at Frenchy's - a used clothing store in the Atlantic provinces - for $3 bucks. The best buy we ever made. He loves it and plays it all the time singing the alphabet song, BINGO, row,row,row your boat...etc.

He loved entertaining us all summer. At Aunt Kathleen's cottage, we also found a walking stick that fit in a hole in the floor of the cottage and thus looked like a microphone. This boy is bound for the stage. Enjoy the video. Here are the lyrics...just in case.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Choo choo chugga chugga

big red car

ride the whole day long

Wiggle choo choo train

Wiggle choo choo train

Wiggle boat

Wiggle boat

Wiggle boat

(The first three lines are from a Wiggles tune; the rest is made up).

Last of our summer fun

Well, I guess this is a bit out of order now, but here are a few pictures from the end of our summer vacation in Newfoundland. We had a few more beach days....never grew tired of that.

even got poppy to the beach one day

When you're bored, nothings better than a wheelbarrow ride. Pirate hats from Trinity.

Isaac's baptism day. He loved it. Kept asking when he was going to get the water over his head and when he did get it, he laughed and asked for more.

catch up

Here they are in their uniforms.

Well, time does have a way of slipping by. Here we are a year into our new life as a family of four and just loving it. Ella and Isaac are both in school...yeah, just less than a year of coming to Canada, Isaac is in school...and loving it. I was a little worried about him as he is still only 3...a bit young to be in school. However, he is doing really well. Ella is a great BIG sister and she has actually got him dressed these last two days. She's quite proud of herself. She even put an undershirt on him today! She also did a great job on the socks. She got him undressed when they got home from school as well....they are wearing uniforms this year, so it's easier to choose what to wear. Ella went off to a play date today and when Isaac and I arrived home, I noticed that his pants were on backwards. He said he used the bathroom at school and I guess he put his pants on backwards. They're so big, you can't really notice, but it was pretty funny. I can't believe he can actually go to the bathroom by himself, but they have to be able to do this at school. There is a bathroom in the classroom, so that helps.

Happy Gotcha Day Isaac

Wow! We certainly can't believe it has been a year since we went to China to get this adorable little boy! He's such a loving, cuddly little guy who loves his big sister and has just settled into this family like he was always with us.

Here he is celebrating Gotcha Day with a cotton-candy flavoured ice-cream from a new ice-cream parlour that opened nearby. mmmmm

The Discovery Trail

Isaac was VERY excited to see his friend, Teagan, again. When they said they were going down to the wharf, I was a bit nervous and followed behind as Isaac is a runner and can't swim. I really didn't need to worry. Teagan was fantastic. She carried or held onto Isaac the whole time...never letting him pull from her grasp. And you could never tire of the view of Summerville Harbour. A fishing net had been left on the wharf and it was full of sea treasures....sea urchins, star fish and coral. The kids had a blast collecting their treasures. Teagon first spotted this starfish on the side of the wharf. It's the biggest one we've see by the shore. Tess pulled it off the leg of the wharf and we let it go closer to shore. Oh, why isn't summer a few months longer????

Last few days in St. John's

Spent a day out around the bay at Bruce and Maxine's place in Victoria. Uncle Bruce took the kids for a sail in the little boat our dad once owned. They loved it...especially Isaac.

Who doesn't love roasting marshmallows? And finally a great shot at Aunt Kay's place. What great travellers these two are...we've been dragging them all over the island visiting this one and that one and they're just amazing. The other day, Isaac did talk about "Isaac's house in Toronto". I didn't even know he KNEW he lived in Toronto.

I just had to add two more pics....the two of them zonked in their car seats. Our best ride ever...two hours!!!! all the way to Clarenville!!!! Ella rarely sleeps in the car anymore, but Isaac sleeps ALL the time. Great for us as Ella is fine...can entertain herself whereas Isaac needs a lot of attention in the car.

Rock the Rock

Our little rock star...loves to sing and play guitar. We bought this toy guitar at a used clothing store for 3 bucks...best buy ever!!!!

Salmonier Nature Park

A really great hike for anyone and we all had fun. It is about an hour to walk around the trail. That's a caribou behind Ella. Here's a blurb from their website...and true. We saw about 80% of the animals. Even the moose looked up at us.

The layout of the Park is based on a nature walk. The animals are in large natural enclosures scattered along the park’s boardwalk trail. This allows visitors to see animals that are part of their natural surroundings and also encourages visitors to feel they are part of these surroundings. Salmonier Nature Park takes people into the landscape where the animals are displayed in settings that are as natural as possible.

The emphasis at Salmonier is on quality, not quantity. Unless an animal can be displayed well, it is not displayed at all. Most display animals come to the park injured and unreleasable. Because of the naturalistic displays and the need to balance the needs of the animal and the desire of people to see them, the Park does not guarantee that the animals will always be visible. Most visitors see about 80% of the animals during one visit.

Regatta Day in St.John's

Someone was smiling on St. John's this year for their annual regatta...the oldest continuing sporting event in North America. The race is traditionally held on the first Wednesday in August...weather permitting. It has sometimes been moved to Thursday or even Friday. This year it rained Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Wednesday was sunny and very very hot.

No pictures of the races, I'm afraid...just smiling faces of teddy bear winners. Ella won a cuddly bear and Isaac won a smiley frog. Liam won a happy sponge bob square pants. They had loads of fun on the jumping castles and then back to uncle Bruce's and a swim in the neighbours pool with other friends. Luckily for us, uncle Bruce lives just a five minute walk from the lake. The race is held at Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John's.

Signal Hill

Same day and we made it to Signal Hill. You can see Cape Spear in the background. One can never grow tired of the view from here. The trail was too long for the kids so we just walked around the tower and checked out the view from the top.

Cape Spear

Here we are in the most easterly part of North America. Beautiful, sunny day but a bit on the windy side, so it was also a bit cold...especially for the kids. We're used to carrying around a bag of jeans and long sleeve tops for such outings. We saw Minke whales again and the kids enjoyed exploring the inside of the lighthouse.

Bell Island Mine Tour

Located in Conception Bay on the Avalon Peninsula, Bell Island is only 9km by 3.5km and has mostly sharp cliffs falling off into the sea. It's only a 20 minute ferry ride from Portugal Cove (which is only 20 minutes from St.John's). Finally, Isaac got to see whales...the bay was full of Minke whales. They don't come very far out of the water, but they were close and easy to see.

The Iron Ore mines on Bell Island closed around 1949, and now no.2 mine is open for tours. It is well worth the trip, a really great experience and the tour guides are fantastic. Although this mine extended out into the ocean, the tour doesn't go out there as the tunnels are mostly flooded. We went about 160 feet underground...walking on a downward slope the whole time. A little harder coming back up.

The pile of rocks outside the mine was made by young boys who went to work at the mine at age 8. They had the job of picking the rocks off the conveyor belt (separating the rock from the ore).

The lighthouse is also great to see...or rather the view around the lighthouse. The lighthouse was moved from out on the point to it's current location a number of years ago. It was a cold day, so Ella stayed in the car. We had to hold on tight to Isaac. It was a little scary near the edge.

Watering the garden

We finally made it to St. John's and here's Isaac and Ella "watering" my brother's garden and each other.

Grand Falls

Well, I've fallen a bit behind on the blog posting. We headed east from Port aux Basques and spent a week in Grand Falls visiting with Poppy (AKA Ye-Ye), Aunt Sheila and Uncle Dick. They were fishing, but didn't get much. Uncle Dick picked a load of bakeapples which we did enjoy. mmm

Here's Isaac and daddy at the salmon ladder where we saw Salmon jumping up the ladder trying to get back to the place they were born. They are sure strong to jump up this river with all the waterfalls and fast flowing water.

Grand Bay West beach

What a beautiful boardwalk around the Grand Bay West Beach area....just gorgeous scenery. As you walk down the beginning of the boardwalk, the beach is on your left. As you can see from the pictures, there are many beautiful little beaches along the trail.

on the boardwalk

Here's Isaac on the boardwalk around Port aux Basques harbour with mom's house in the background. He was very excited to see the boats coming and going, but he started to cry when they left. He said, "Mommy, the boat's not stopping. Where's it going? Come back" We watched two boats leaving and one coming in. He wanted to take a picture of the boat as it was leaving and he called out to the boat, "People, say cheese." This is the Atlantic Vision, the newest addition to the ferry fleet and the one we crossed the gulf on last week.

Grand Bay West Beach

More fun in the sand and sun. This is a beautiful beach in Port aux Basques. Great spot for treasure hunting. Ella liked being buried in the sand , but not as much as Isaac....he just loved it - do it again, do it again!!!!!