Seven

Seven years ago we had our first "little man."  It's hard to believe sometimes that it has been that long since he came into our lives, kicking and screaming!  We love our sensitive, loving guy who is smiling more often than not, and gets along with everyone, making friends easily.  He's also getting pretty good at jokes, still loves to draw and reads lots of books.

To celebrate his birthday we went to the mall in "the city" and bought tickets for the sea lion show/marine life exhibit.  The aquariums were underneath the grandstand and we could see nurse sharks, sea turtles, and various other fish inside.  On the other side we could see African penguins diving in the water in their tank.  We were just in time for a penguin presentation where an employee talked a bit about African penguins and welcomed questions afterwards.  

Brownbanded bamboo sharks.  These were in an open tank where you could actually touch them.  There was also a tank that usually housed some bullnose stingrays you could pet as well but it was under renovations.  I forgot to take a picture of the beautiful sea anemones, which you could also touch!

Nurse sharks.

After lunch we came back to watch the sea lion show, which was pretty entertaining.  Callum was chosen as a volunteer (but he only volunteered after he saw someone else take a turn!) to throw a basketball for the sea lion to carry back to the edge of the tank on her nose.

Mugging for the camera.

After that we came home and whipped up a huge (atari-inspired) birthday brownie we had with ice cream (after a healthy supper of course!)  

It was a fun day!

Our Community

One

This post is a little late in coming, but it's summer and the days have been very family-oriented as we are making up for lost time during the school term!  We also took a trip to Ontario to see all of our family.  It has been three years since we've all been back and it was so wonderful to see everyone again!  It was very sad to leave, though.  After spending three weeks with everyone it felt like we were moving away again.

More on our trip later, though.  Here are some photos of Strawberry in her twelfth month!

She loves books, just like the rest of us.
And goofing around with Daddy.

Anticipating birthday cake.A card in the mail from Gramma!