Brendans 6th Birthday

Brendan turned 6 today in high style - starting with presents on Mom and Dad's bed (a Lock tradition). He was very happy with all his toys - a Star Wars Lego AT-RT Walker with Yoda minifigure, a fishing rod with tackle box, Transformers Optimus Prime and Bumblebee (whom he sadly has already had to share with his baby brother who followed him around the house sobbing "Bubble, Bubble" until he was allowed a turn with Bumblebee) and a small plastic ball that expands into a creature called a Zooble. I don't get it, but he was thrilled.

We then headed off to the Museum of Aviation in Ottawa to see the special Star Wars exhibit (I booked the day off work). It was blissfully empty on a Tuesday and everyone had a great time. In addition to the large collection of Star Wars memorabilia, the Museum had a few cockpit cutouts for kids to sit in, an ejector seat demonstration that Brendan was chosen as volunteer for, and an innumerable array of planes spread around a football field sized airplane hangar. As museums go, it was pretty much perfect for the babies, who were able to wander while we held on to their backpack handles (leashes essentially), and even for a long while wandered while they held on to each other's leashes. This was great, since they slowed each other down quite a bit. Eventually Harrison lost interest, but Heidi took on the role with rather worrisome gusto, yanking on Harrison's line everytime he tried to stop to look around. I fear this one may be a little bossy.

I apologize that these photos are out of order, an eccentricity of my phone, I guess...



Fighter Pilot Brendan tries on a helmet and air mask for size - He looks just like Maverick from Top Gun!



The kids pose with Anakin's podracer from the Star Wars movies



Brendan with C3PO and R2D2 - Did you know there was actually a guy in each of those suits in the movie!?


Part of Brendan's birthday - we told him he could eat anything he wanted all day long - this is him eating a Tim Horton's sprinkle donut for breakfast



Arriving at the museum of aviation



Brendan loved watching Canadian Astronaut Chris Hadfield in the Space Station this spring, so we took the photo opportunity of a lifetime! With a cardboard cutout.



Harrison. Frolicking.



Brendan considers his future as a grown up air traffic controller on his first day being 6.



Harrison behind the controls of a Cessna



Brendan attempts to eject himself out of an rocket ejection seat.



The Lock brothers take the Cessna controls together. Pilot and Co - Pilot. Awwwwww.



Brendan was quite excited that he is taller than Yoda.

Happy Birthday to Brendan

Well, we survived. The children survived. The school survived. So we'll chalk that up as a win (after all, as our motto goes; set low enough standards and you'll succeed every time!)

We hosted 19 children for Brendan's 6th birthday party (his actual birthday isn't till next Tuesday) at his school gymnasium this past Sunday. He chose a Lego theme, and I've spent a rather ungodly amount of time wandering around on the internet picking up cool ideas for homemade decorations, goodie bag activities, games etc. so that was fun for me AND the kids.

All the planning in the world however did not prepare me for surprises like -
     #1. Most parents drop their kids off at a party, even if it's not been designated "a drop off party". What a neat surprise that was!
     #2. Most kindergarteners are too distractible to play tag. This little nugget of wisdom was passed on to me by our neighbour, the kindergarten teacher, after I told her what a gong show all my various tag games had been at the party.
     #3. A table of fairly random treats picked up at the bulk barn will turn into the highlight of the party for most of the kids. One child will be overheard at the Candy Buffet saying "Woah! I've never seen so much candy in my whole life!"

So, with respect to the "whole class party" concept - we've now been there, done that and don't feel any need to do it again. Phew!

It's hard to believe that it's been a whole month since I posted last. Rob and I got away on our own while Bob and Gail looked after the 3 kids and 1 dog in Lonsdale for the first weekend in June. We had chosen to go tent camping to our own secret free camping spot in the Adirondacks to celebrate our 11th anniversary and it was total bliss. Highlight - afternoon naps in a hot tent. Lowlight - thunderstorms in a wet tent. Can't win em all!

We had a great May 2-4 up at the cottage too, and tried out hiking and biking as a family unit. It went great! The babies loved sitting in the bike trailer side by side and lasted 45 minutes... until someone took a toy from someone else. That is certainly the stage of life we're in right now; take-cry-cry-take-take-cry-share-stop crying-take something else-cry again... you get the idea. Brendan also loved his trail a bike (an extra bike wheel and seat that attatches on the back of an adult bike), but complained each time Rob coasted "Dad, you can't make me do ALL the work!" Hiking was a great success too. The babies walked for almost a full kilometer until they got tired and we put them up into the hiking backpacks. Honestly, it was a hot enough day, I think Brendan would have been glad to go up in a hiking backpack if one had been available!

We had family photos done, thanks to a gift certificate I won back at last falls Firefighters Ball. As soon as I get them back I'll be sure to post them. The photographer posted proofs to Facebook and they look great. It's very affirming to know however, that even a professional finds it nearly impossible to get a picture of all three of my kids looking at the camera and smiling!

We had a fun visit with Mom and Dad who were back from 5 weeks cruising and travelling in Denmark and Iceland. They collected up their dog Dougald who we successfully converted into a hardy country dog while he was here and who dug a smaller but matching hole beside Blaze's in the front lawn to lie in all day while he stayed with us. Heidi and Harrison missed him dearly after he went. Heidi kept going to the front window and asking Dog? Dog? for days after his departure. We tried to bring Blaze in to point out that we actually have a dog of our own, but she seemed unsatisfied, and Blaze seemed deeply pained by having to interact with someone, so we let him back out each time.

I'm laughing that I had planned to stop doing blog posts and turn this into a Baby Book of sorts for the twins on their first birthday. The updates certainly come less frequently now, but hopefully it lets you keep up to date on some of the happenings here at "the zoo". If nothing else, maybe I will be able to look back at this in 15 years when I can't remember any of these early days (not hard to believe they will be nothing more than a blur) and resurrect these long forgotten stories in my memory. Either that, or I'll have converted all those past memories into those rosy versions that develop over time where the children were calm and happy all the time and Rob and I were carefree and struggled to fill our oodles of free time. In that case, rereading this blog will be terribly demoralizing!!