More pictures!

Kristin and Karl hanging out with their favorite niece!

Watching the buffalo at the Saskatoon Zoo

Lily and Auntie Kristine at the Children's Zoo

Kristin's parents' place in Regina Beach - what fun we had there!

Bert, Brucie wants "runter"! :)

Claudia got to ride a great horse, Cairo. First ride in a looong time, and a lot of fun!

Fearless Finn feeding friendly fellows.

Lily preferred to throw her oats in the approximate direction of a horse nose.

See, Lily, they like to be scratched right HERE.

My handsome wannabe farm boys.

In Regina! Uncle Karl and his brand new BBQ. Everything tasted GREAT!

Finn, Liam and Lily.

Liam sharing his goldfish crackers.

Lily staying cool at a Regina playground. The bunny is a much cherished gift from K&K.

Poor Antonio seldom got a break from being loved on

Stay tuned for more, everyone! The fun has just begun. :)

Oh Canada!

So we are here, and have been for a week! The trip went well, but it was tiring. For us. Not for the kids. They decided sleeping on airplanes was for babies and old folks. After some intense fussing and hyperactivity (fun fun when the seatbelt sign comes on!) they finally crashed on the flight from Toronto to Saskatoon, not even an hour before we landed. It was 2am our time and 5pm Saskatoon time by then. They were impossible to wake up, so we arrived at Saskatoon airport with one sleeping (Lily) and one extremely grouchy child (Finn). All we could do was to put them straight to bed at home and while Lily cried every now and then Finn slept all through the night, until 1am. :) That is when he woke up for the day and he lasted until 7pm at night with no nap, try as we might. Things have gotten a bit better by now, but let us tell you: jetlag is not a nice thing to deal with in small children. None of us got nearly enough sleep the first week.

Nevertheless we have had a great first week with grandma and grandpa, Karl and Kristin, Kristine and all the other friends and family we have already met!

Here are a few first pictures. I will update more later!

Munich airport. We just checked in our baggage. We had to claim it in Toronto to go through customs and check it in again. Stressful, as we almost missed our flight to Saskatoon. Seeing us hurry through the airport with 2kids, 1 stroller, five carry-on bags and a mountain of big suitcases on a cart (we checked in 6 pieces) one guy congratulated Neil on moving to Canada. :)

Arrived and checking out the acreage on the next day:

Sunrise in the prairies at 4am. The kids are WIDE awake. Us, not so much. We will do what it takes to snooze a little longer:

Finn and Lily playing with the nice toys grandpa got for them:

He even prepared an outdoor play area for them in the garage:

Working hard:

... and eating well! The food is awesome, thanks to
Grandma!

Lily did a good job...

... NOT catching herself on her hands when she fell yesterday (it could injure her arm again). She decided to do a faceplant in the gravel instead. She spit out blood and stones, but thankfully not teeth, and looks a little scraped up now.



Other than that we had a great weekend! The weather was very nice so the kids spent Saturday and Sunday afternoon in the yard. We were told not to expect this kind of weather in Saskatoon; it's hard to imagine right now. I went for a run around noon today and passed some chickens that were pressed flat against the wall of a barn. They looked at me over their shoulders (do chickens have shoulders?), and it was the funniest sight ever! I then realized why they were doing it: the only shade in the yard was by a little tree, thrown against that wall. I was sweating like crazy myself, so total sympathy on my part. But I digress - here are the yard pics:

Neil made grilled cheese sandwiches for supper and we had a picnic. They loved it!

And I know I should be packing and getting the house ready, but this was more fun! Finn will have a little farewell celebration with his preschool class tomorrow, so I made this cake for him to bring.

And here, last but not least, a message from Lily!

Lily's 2 year check up

We went for Lily's 2 year check up today and she is doing all the things she's supposed to do at this age and more.

She is very tall for her age, 91 cm (36.5 in) and weighs 13.4 kg (29.5 lbs). To give you an idea what this means, here are Finn's stats:
At 2 years he was 83 cm tall (33.2 in) and weighed 11.1 kg (24.4 lbs), and at 3 years old he was 93 cm (37.2 in) and 12.9 kg (28.5 lbs). So Lily at 2 already weighs 2 lbs more than Finn weighed at 3 and is almost as tall. I'm not sure what Finn's stats are now, but to me it seems he hasn't grown all that much since he turned 3.

Way to go "little" sister! :)

Lily got two shots (vaccinations) today which she wasn't at all happy about, and she developed a slight fever tonight. Plus, she tensed her muscles quite a bit so she has bruises where the needles went in. We gave her some pain killers and she's sleeping now. She also got her cast off today! What a relief - her arm is a bit weak and the skin is peeling, but she's so happy. She splashed and soaked in the tub for over an hour. The doctor said to be careful for the next 4 weeks: no roughhousing, jumping on trampolines, somersaulting, doing handstands and the like. I was like: "Okay, where is the prescription for the sedatives?".

Sorry, no pictures today. We're getting ready for our big trip! So much to do still!

Ladybugs welcome!

What a fun day! Lily celebrated her second birthday with her little friends and lots of ladybugs! She still has her cast, but that didn't bother her much. (After yesterday's x-rays the doctor decided she should wear it another week.)

Here are some party pictures. The weather was perfect, the kids had lots of fun (there were 6 kids 4 and under), and we actually got to visit with our friends. We fed the kids first and then ate while they played. It worked really well, and as usual Neil did a great job BBQ-ing! Everybody went home tired, happy and with a few ladybug stickers as a farewell present. I love how children this age can get so excited over a balloon and some stickers.

The kids' table. Some of the decorations I made with Finn and Lily, but the table layout was a surprise. When Lily saw it her eyes went big and round and she said: "WOW!!!"

What the kiddos ate. Their favourites were the jello ladybugs (made from grapejuice) and the strawberry/chocolate ladybugs. The cakes turned out quite nice too, but they mostly just picked the icing off, as usual. :)

What we ate. A neighbor gave me some rhubarb from her garden, so I made a cake from that, and a strawberry/pudding cake. (Neil loves pudding, in case you didn't know :)

Three pretty girls!

Neil was the master face painter. The design: ladybugs of course!



Then it was time for some outdoor fun.

And then, more food! (Sorry, no ladybug sausages :)

And while the kids ate their dessert ...

... we had time to visit.

The kids went to bed really late, but when I put Lily down she happily sang: "Happy Birthday to Lily..." Apparently our little ladybug liked her party.

Oh, and Finn has announced what he wants as a party theme for his 4th birthday : GIANT SQUIDS! I've told Neil it's his turn to make the cake and decorations...

Lily is TWO!

I can't believe my "baby" turned two on Monday! Where has time gone??

Here are some pictures of her big day. Oma was here (for 5 days total), and Jana and Marion came over for coffee and cake in the afternoon. Lily was really excited to get her tricycle. She keeps telling everyone it's her "birthday bike".

Blowing out her candles. Finn had to help a bit.

Her new best friend, "mine Taahlie tat". ("My Charlie cat." All cats are named Charlie in Lily's world, after our neighbours' black cat.)

Playing a game with Finn, Jana and Marion.

The guys helping with Lily's birthday cake.


The finished cakes, decorations made by Oma and Claudia.

Trying to get the hang of pedaling.

Oma entertaining the kids.

Lasagna for supper. It tasted better than it looked. :)

On Saturday we'll have another little party for her, with 6 kids total. Hopefully it will be sunny and warm so they can play outside. Lily sent out homemade ladybug invitations (mama helped her a bit to make them) and I'll see what other ladybug ideas I can come up with. Although, the other day Lily had an encounter with a live ladybug, and after she watched it crawl across her finger for about 3 seconds she suddenly totally freaked out and in her panic squished the poor little thing. She talked about that for days! So maybe I won't use red and black icing for the ladybug cake I want to make. Don't want to give the girl nightmares!

On Friday her cast will come off and her arm will be x-rayed again. We're hoping she won't have to get another cast! (By the way, this is her THIRD. The first one she took off, the second one she dunked in the watering can in the garden and it had a rough edge that hurt her fingers, so that came off too. This one has stayed on, but it's getting grimy and, well, smelly. I can't wait to wash her arm and hand on Friday!)