From Ned's Noodle

Here are a bunch of photos from the last three months!

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Ned Sleeps for Two Months

2009-02-28T23:29:00.000-08:00

Yaaawwwn...

What, is it March already?

Wow.

Anyone still visiting this blahg? Amanda... haven't given up yet?

Well, let me think on what has been happening...

Simon needs all of his friends in his bed with him (Mimi the boy bear, Kitty-Cat, Camel, Ernie, Giraffe and Tad). He still doesn't say sorry to anyone no matter how hard he throws things but we did get a very sincere apology from Kitty-Cat to Elliot when Simon through a rubber puck down a flight of stairs and it hit Elliot in the head. We take what we can get...

He often puts himself to bed. A couple of days ago he was playing lego with his mom in the evening when he suddenly went to our living room bookshelf, grabbed a book and his water and starting heading up stairs. I could hardly keep up but ending up meeting him in his room. He is the easiest kid to put to bed of all two of our kids. Even more so than Elliot.

Simon hasn't many friends his own age but loves playing with Elliot's friends and calls them his friends too. He really enjoys going to Elliot's school and playing with the kids there when Mom is the parent helper.

Elliot is doing really well at school, where they are learning letters and just went through a month of learning about dinasours. He really enjoyed that and has decided he wants to be a
Paleontologist, though at dinner tonight he decided he wants to be a teacher and a dad.

Elliot is eating a lot better at dinners now which makes dinner, in general, a more pleasing affair.

Tales from Ashton Manor

2008-12-31T19:37:00.001-08:00

Simon is talking all the time now. His words are clear, his sentences are well-formed. He loves to ask questions. His favourite question is why we say certain things. Say, for example, that I dropped a boulder on my toe and said "Shoot!". Simon would follow with "How come say shoot?"
He has a teddy bear which we received as a gift from the hospital where he is participating in a study. His teddy bear has been named Mimi and is a boy. When Mimi first moved into our house, he mostly just said "mimimimimimimimimimimimi" in a high-pitched voice. Now Mimi has begun to talk quite a bit too. Simon takes good care of Mimi, feeding him, fixing any ouchies he might have and making sure mimi gets his naps.
Simon is also getting sneaky. He approached his mom today and used a disguised voice to pretend to be another toy he had in the house. The toy, the voice stated, was hungry for chocolate. So mom gave Simon a chocolate to give the toy. But, after giving it to the toy, Simon discovered that the toy didn't actually like chocolate after all. So Simon had to eat it instead.
He loved Barney the large pink dinasour and his favourite song to sing before bedtime is "Oh Canada".
He is also beginning to use his imagination in very creative and astonishing ways. Today he used a box as a hockey net, a basketball for a puck and a container of glue for his hockey stick.
Simon will be, if all goes according to plan, in Boot to Blades in January.

Elliot passed his level one skating class and is going into level two in January. He has been really glad to have his Aunty Amanda back from school for the Christmas holidays and he is looking forward to his uncle Clayton being back after his Christmas holidays in Saskatoon.
Elliot is doing really well in school, enjoying being with his friends there and loving his teachers. He also loves Sunday School and his pastor Liz.
We still read a Cam Jansen story nearly every night but recently Elliot also recieved a dinasour book unlike any other. It is a huge pop-out dinasour book that you really need to see to believe. Anyhow, Elliot loves it and I don't mind the break from Cam Jansen's clicking. It was getting on my nerves.

Elliot has loved the snow, Simon is warming up to it.

No pun intended.

Ned's family is snowed in

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Official Verwoerd Immediate Family Christmas(OVIFC2008)

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Elliot passes level one preskating!

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And Aunty Shelley visits...

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Simon's Birthday at McDonalds

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Simon goes adventuring through the tunnels at McDonalds for the very first time!

Simon's Birthday at Whitespot

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Simon's Birthday at the Christmas Train

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Hello there, Ned.

How do you do?

Tell me, tell me

What is new?

Elliot is four

Simon is two

Pictures to come...

2008-12-30T22:34:00.000-08:00

I just downloaded (uploaded?) a boatload of pictures. Simon's birthday, Christmas, Snowdays and other cool pictures. I'm just away from the main computer right now. But I'll get to them as soon as I can so you can see them too.

curiouser and curiouser...

2008-11-03T19:33:00.000-08:00

In a Wonderland kind of way, our kids are crazy.

Case in point:

Elliot: Simon, do you want to play Uncle Bridge?
Simon: Yeah.

Elliot and Simon (while running around the kitchen table): Uncle Bridge!! Uncle Bridge!!

Elliot: Simon, who is Uncle Bridge?

Post-Halloweeeeeen Post Post-Five (AKA Six)

2008-11-02T22:13:00.001-08:00

Finally, Halloween Night arrives and the Ashton men head out for some real, honest-to-goodness door-to-door trick-or-treating. Simon lost a boot, but we got it back. He wore his orange rain coat over his pirate costume so most people thought he was a pumpkin. Elliot went with his friend Tate, who was dressed up like Jack Sparrow. Elliot's pumpkin bag was literally overflowing by the time we finished our townhouse complex. Our house only saw thirty seven kids this year. Great weather though.

Post-Halloweeeeeen Post Post-Four (AKA Five)

2008-11-02T22:10:00.001-08:00

Elliot's preschool Halloween party, which mom volunteered to help with, which meant Simon had a chance to attend the party as well, which meant great fun for all!

Post-Halloweeeeeen Post Post-Three (AKA Four)

2008-11-02T22:05:00.000-08:00

Here we are, us Ashton men, working on our Halloween crafts.

For the pumpkins, Elliot designed the faces and Mom and Dad did the carvin'.

Dad only cut himself fairly severely once this year. Mom is thinking of buying a plastic knife for Dad, corked-fork to follow.

Please note - Roughrider shirt on Elliot, as Oct 30 was the day Saskatchewan defeated the Toronto Argos to take home advantage for the... oh sorry, you stopped paying attention didn't you. More pictures you say? Alright...

Post-Halloweeeeeen Post Post-Two (AKA Three)

2008-11-02T22:02:00.000-08:00

Simon Arrrrrrrie Ashton and his dad, Captain Yellowbeard after a long and treacherous journey.

Back to the great and proud Ship Dodgecaravan to head for home with our many treasures!

Post-Halloweeeeeen Post Post-One (AKA Two)

2008-11-02T21:58:00.000-08:00

Arrrrr, we saw some scary sights on our journey through the dark waters of 176 and 176A St, but we wernt afraid. Nah, we kept on treckin from business to business repeatin our pirate words "trickortreat" - wait for candy to hit bottom of bag - "thankyou".

Arrrr....

Post-Halloweeeeeen Post One

2008-11-02T21:52:00.000-08:00

Yo-ho-ho and bottle of rootbeer, those scally-wag Ashtons have hit the high-waters again, sailing fearlessly into the depths of downtown Cloverdale where they will pillage and pillage some more until their treasure sacks are overflowing with sweets and chocolate bars!! Led by the not-quite-as-smart-as-a-bag-of-hammers Captain Yellowbeard and his pirate princess, the great and proud Ship Dodgecaravan met dry land at the Surrey Museum.

My other son...

2008-11-02T21:50:00.000-08:00

Might I be able to introduce you to my other son? His name is Pocoyo. Energetic, mostly well-behaved and always entertaining. I'm not sure which side he takes after, though he reminds me a bit of Clayton when he was much much younger.

Open Letter to Zaxxon

2008-10-26T19:39:00.000-07:00

Dear evil alien robot commander,

We haven't met in quite some time. I know you are still alive because you never die. No matter how many times I succesfully steered my space jet around, over and under brick walls, bombs and other obstructions, took down all of your faithful kamakazee pilots with my deadly accurate laser beams and found myself face to face with your dastardly self, you could never be completely defeated. Oh sure, I could dodge your weak blasts and dodge back and forth with my peerless agility, knock you down with my impressive arsenal every time but I would always find myself at the beginning of another maze of brick walls, bombs, obstructions, enemy starfighters and then you again. You never made any discernable noises, but I know you were mocking me in your own robot-made-of-boxes way. I've never forgotten.

We will meet again one day, my fine adversary. Perhaps we'll rendezvous somewhere that might give me home advantage. Or maybe I'll jump back into my space ship and dodge walls and bombs, take out enemy fighters and knock you down once and for all. Regardless of setting I look forward to looking into your steely blue robot eyes for the last time.

Sincerely,

David Ashton

Other pictures, random and more random

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Elliot's birthday - at Surrey Rec Centre

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Elliot's birthday - at home

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Elliot's birthday - at grandma and grandpas

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me catching up from a month of non-blogging

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A very wet and muddy visit to Hazelmere Farm for Elliot's first school field trip

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Creations by Elliot and Simon

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Uncle Brian and Elliot make cornbread

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a teaser...

2008-10-01T21:51:00.000-07:00

There will be pictures and posts coming which will highlight several events centred around Elliot's fourth birthday. It will include athletics, extravagantly designed cakes and pirates. I can tell you nothing more, you will have to wait...

not to be forgotten...

2008-10-01T21:45:00.000-07:00

Simon, the less flamboyant of the Ashton boys, is truly coming into his own these last few weeks. He is very polite (quick with his thankyou's and excuse-me's), loves everything to do with hockey (all he really needs is two figures and a penny to entertain himself for hours) and is greatly appreciative of naps and eating nearly all foods (which makes us wonder if he may be, in many ways, a bizarro world Elliot).
Just as his brother needed me to read "The Hockey Sweater" every night for a million years, Simon has chosen "Clancy with the Puck" which is a great book but no matter how many times I read the book, Clancy always hits the goal post and loses the game for the Maple Buds. Maybe I'll change the ending myself just once to mix it up a little.

where the wild things are...

2008-10-01T21:43:00.000-07:00

As requested by Grandpa Ashton...

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Elliot is doing very well in his pre-school skating lessons. Which is pretty cool because he did not do very well with skating a year ago. So here are some pictures his mom took last Saturday.

Elliot rides a bike

2008-09-20T15:40:00.000-07:00

Elliot has been working at learning to ride a bike. We got him a green bike Christmas last year, I think. Or was it his birthday? Anywho, it is still too big for him. Tate has a smaller bike and has grown taller than Elliot. So they trade bikes and Elliot is doing really well with Tate's.

A message to Aunty Amanda

2008-09-20T15:37:00.000-07:00

To Amanda, busy at school and toga parties, who wished Simon Arrrrrrie Ashton a happy international-talk-like-a-pirate-day, here are some pictures, which do not include Simon but do include Pirates.

Meanwhile...

2008-09-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

Simon continues to grow up. He says please and thankyou. He loves playing bowling and hockey and his favourite books include The Chocolate Chippo Hippo.

While his brother is at school on Fridays, his mom has been taking him to the Reading Time and the Cloverdale Library and he is really beginning to enjoy that a lot.

He is also doing better in the nursery at church and now only cries part of the time.

Elliot Skating

2008-09-20T15:28:00.000-07:00

He had his first new skating lesson today, and we were both quite worried that it would be a disaster. I was so worried, in fact, that I double booked myself and went to my hockey pool draft. Which left Andrea alone with the two kids. Yes, I can hear the boos over the internet now. Boooooo!
Well, it went very well. I now have Steven Stamkos on my team.
Pardon me?
Oh, you don't care about my hockey team? You want to hear how skating went?
Mmmm okay.

Skating went very very well. He stood on his skates and walked on his skates. Mom says he looked like a pro.

I know it was only his first lesson, but we are feeling much better about things right now.
If you remember, he didn't enjoy his earlier classes at all and spent most of his time sitting on his cold bum with tears streaming down his face.

Sorry, no pictures.

Elliot at school

2008-09-20T15:16:00.000-07:00

Things are progressing nicely at Cloverdale Mini Rec Centre Preschool. Elliot is making friends (something his father was never particularly good at) and his teacher has congratulated Andrea on raising a very well behaved boy. He listens to the teacher, is quiet during class, plays politely with the other kids. Of course this left us wondering why he has so much trouble doing those same things at home. But mostly we are very proud of him. Here are some of his pieces of art which he has done at school and brought home.

Potatohead Conference

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School Project Two

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In this self-portrait, Elliot is wearing his green shirt from the Calgary Zoo complete with the orange tiger in the middle of it. You'll notice some consistencies with his earlier portrait of his own head. He put a freckle on this one himself because it was so funny the first time.

Simon likes to do the following things:

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-Play bowling with our plastic bowling set. He set them up in a fairly random order at random distances from each other. Then he steps back about three paces, says "ready.......go!" and throws the bowling ball at the pins. Then he says "almoooost" and tries again.

-Board games. He certainly doesn't understand the concepts yet but he loves to have Elliot's board games brought down, opened up and set up.

-Eat food. Whenever a meal is ready it is often a battle to get Elliot to the table but Simon yells out "meeeeeeee!!" and runs to his seat. He devours plates full of noodles, fruit, bell peppers, cheese sandwiches, broccoli and nearly anything else.

-Copy words. He is copying almost every word his mom and dad say.

-Playing with his Aunty Shelley. So far, she seems to be the clear favourite aunt. Though Amanda moving so very very far away may have played a part in his decision.

-Shopping. He loves to say "Shopping" and he loves to do shopping.

-Watch Bob the Builder. I guess he has been caught in the same craze most other boys have been caught in.

Exclusive!!

2008-09-05T16:22:00.001-07:00

Elliot's first preschool artwork. A self portrait with the help of a mirror. He had another good day at school today. Simon was jealous and wanted to stay for school too.

The black freckle beside his eye to the right was added by his friend Noah. Noah thought it would be really funny.

Elliot's first day at school

2008-09-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Elliot did very well this morning getting ready. We were out the door on time and made it to school early. I waited in the van with Simon and Tate while Andrea took him in and got him settled. I watched as all the parents filed out, one or two at a time. I wasn't surprised that Andrea wasn't among the first to leave. But she ended up in there for nearly an hour as Elliot panicked a bit.

Then a girl offered to play with him. "I'm not ready to be your friend yet because this is the first day and I'm just getting to know everyone but I will play with you." She said.

Then Elliot was okay.

Afterwards he told us all about the day and it apparently went very well. He is excited to go back on Friday. He is quite fascinated by the fact that there are two girls with the same name in his class.

A salute to Hoisin Sauce

2008-09-03T19:27:00.000-07:00

Yeah, Elliot loves Hoisin Sauce. He has it as a dipping sauce for his french fries, has his veggie-dogs glazed with it and will dip his fingers into it and then lick said fingers.
Today he attempted to bring it to a new level. He asked us to drain the milk from his sippy cup at supper and fill it with the sweet and salty oriental sauce you read about earlier.
We said no.

Q and A on Cookie

2008-09-01T20:23:00.000-07:00

There have been many questions asked on this new character in our story named Cookie.

Here are anwers as provided by Elliot and myself.

Q: Is Cookie the man who lived in the dining room light that Elliot refered to many years ago?
-Aunty Amanda

A: No. That man has never been identified and he hasn't been heard from since we switched to LED bulbs in that room. He may have moved.

Q: Where does Cookie stand on the issue of Rep by Pop as opposed to the First-Past-The-Post system currently used in Canadian politics?
- Darcy McDoogle

A: He is a traditionalist and is resistant to change.

Q: Does Elliot have other friends name Puppy and Monkey?
-Aunty Amanda

A: No, these are simply two other exclamations he uses to show certain emotions.

If there are any other questions, let me know and I'll see if I can get answers for you.

Can anyone see into alternate dimensions?

2008-09-01T20:13:00.001-07:00

Many months ago we registered for the Wind and Tide preschool program for Elliot. Even though I had registered about two and a half minutes after registration opened, Elliot was placed on a gigantic waiting list. So we looked elsewhere, found a nice little pre-school, got to know the teacher and watched Elliot fall head-over-heels in love with the little brick building in the heart of downtown Cloverdale.
Fast forward to today. Two days before his first day at his new school, having trained him for getting ready in the mornings, having driven by the school countless times at his request so he could gaze upon the lovely equipment in their playground, wander through the windows with his imagination dreaming up what fabulous lessons and activities he would be engaging in, we receive a phone message.
After returning from our trip to Walmart/Old Navy/McDonalds we came home to hear a voice on our answering service ask us if we are still interested in having Elliot in Wind and Tide starting a week from today in a location about twenty five minutes from our home.
Suddenly we were left with a tremendous decision to make, a decision we had settled with not having to make many months ago.
It made for a stressful afternoon.
We poured over every possible Pro and Con.
Then we asked Elliot.
Elliot said no.
I miss how easy childhood was.
We turned Wind and Tide down, for now at least. And his first day of school remains two days from now.

Monday morning at the Ashton household

2008-09-01T09:18:00.000-07:00

Elliot, Simon and I had breakfast. Elliot told me much more about Cookie. For instance, Cookie still has olympic coverage on his television news. He also has birds that live in Africa, in the part where it doesn't rain.

Simon spent most of his breakfast counting things like his fingers, apple slices and eventually toes.

A very good reason to get back to blogging

2008-08-30T20:24:00.000-07:00

A remarkable young woman named Aunty Amanda will be spending most of her time in Kelowna studying things like the laws of thermodynamics and the timing and control of human development. We are all going to miss her a great deal and we hope to hear lots from her, but realize that she is going to be as busy as a pancreatic cel at an icecream bar. However, we anticipate that she is going to be missing her two nephews greatly and so I pledge to try once again to be a faithful blogger.

In preparation for school

2008-08-30T20:21:00.000-07:00

Let me see now, there are probably two and half to three people reading this blog and if it is the two and half to three people that I assume it is, you all know Elliot is starting school on Wednesday. He is very excited about it.

Andrea has been practicing getting the kids ready in time in the mornings. The first morning they were fifteen minutes late but the last morning they tried, they were ready with ten minutes to spare. Remarkable!

Simon the Dragon

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Simon looks quite a bit different now

2008-08-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

While I was at work on Friday, Elliot and Simon and Mommy went to the barbershop and had Simon's hair significantly reduced. You can see from these before and after pictures that our boy doesn't look quite the same any more.

He didn't enjoy the haircut experience and was pretty freaked out whence he saw himself in the mirror afterwards.

Elliot's Imaginary Friend

2008-08-30T19:54:00.000-07:00

Name: Cookie

Residence: Disneyland

Occupation: Elliot's Imaginary Friend

Okay, here is what we know about Elliot's imaginary friend, Cookie. He has Elliot over for visits quite often. He has a Monkeytail Tree. He receives a newspaper which only tells good news. He

serves corn-on-the-cob with which you can actually eat the cob as well as the corn. At Cookie's house, the constellations in the sky aren't just connect-the-dots, but actual pictures in the sky.

Elliot says Cookie's name out loud when is surprised or extremely happy.

No one else has met Cookie yet.

The pictures contained in this post are of Elliot in his favourite outfit.

Three months later...

2008-08-25T20:01:00.001-07:00

Elliot is starting school next Wednesday and he has never been more excited about anything in his life. Every time we drive anywhere, he asks if we can detour past his school so he can see it again. It is a beautiful and tiny brick building in the downtown area of Cloverdale. He will be attending Mon, Wed, Fri mornings for Pre-School.

We are also hoping to get him into swimming lessons and he is signed up for more skating lessons.

Simon has grown in size and vocabulary. Gone is his cute little "oooooh Daddeeeeeee" but it has been replaced with such classic phrases as "no way" and "Daddy gone?"

We went on a very fun trip to Rocky Mountain House in Alberta where we met, for the second time ever, the wonderful twin sisters Katie and Amelia as well as their mom and dad and the grandma and grandpa. We went to McDonalds five times and listened to the entire 789 album from the Barenaked Ladies more than twenty times. I got sick of McFish burgers but never honestly became tired of the Ladies. That is a good album. Elliot has every word from every once of the songs memorized. Some of them are memorized wrong but it is still an impressive feat for a three year old.

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Mother's Day Project

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Fun with Boxes

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Civil Engineering (get it... tee hee hee)

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A Great Day at the Zoo - 1

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A Great Day at the Zoo - 2

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Another Architectural Wonder...

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I wonder when Simon will figure out that his cash register isn't a ClickStart computer

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reduce re-use recycle

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This cleaning was done to dance music

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Ashton Variation on a Snack Tent

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Chocolate brings out a range of emotions

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Artists

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Working Together

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The Ashtons make an appearance at Seedarama at Stewart's Historic Farm

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Mommy and Simon strike a pose!

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Elliot draws an airplane

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Two chairs, Two Dollars!

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Tinker Toys!

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Uncle Clayton's Birthday

2008-05-10T22:38:00.000-07:00

Uncle Clayton was kind enough to allow our humble family to participate in his birthday festivities this year. Our festivities included BBQ Pizza/Guiness Cake/Hours of NHL2008.

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Easter egg hunt

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Group photo at the zoo

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Here is a photo of the five most attractive people in our party of six at the zoo.

It was a cold day at the zoo

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Good Friday was a day at the zoo for the Ashton family and we had very special guests with us this trip. Uncle Brian and his "beautiful wife" as Elliot likes to call her visited the animals with us. They even let me see my favourite animal (Shadow the Grizzly) even though it meant walking all the way to the far corner of the zoo.
The boys loved hanging out with Brian and Carmen and they slept very well afterwards (as did Brian from what we've heard).
Carmen is from Texas and it wasn't the warmest day of the year but she hardly complained at all.

Simon wears his cool sweater from Uncle Andrew and Aunty Cara

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The boy loves to garden

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Always the showman

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Moor Ran Dum Foto Graffs

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Elliot looking at pictures of Grandma and Grandpa in Mexico with his Great Grandma who just turned eighty. Simon looking adorable.

Doctor Simon

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Randum Foto Graffs

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Take me to your leader

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Simon looks awefully comfortable in this flying saucer. Which supports Andrea's belief that he takes after her side of the family. tee hee hee

More pictures from Telus World of Science

2008-03-23T22:30:00.000-07:00

Simon has developed a bit of a gunslinger swagger.
Clayton and I discuss how to solve the world's problems while Simon builds with really large blocks.

First Ever Trip to Telus World of Science

2008-03-23T22:28:00.000-07:00

We took Uncle Clayton, being a scientist of sorts, to Telus World of Science (c) a few weeks ago. It was Elliot and Simon's first trip ever. We all had a lot of fun.

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Finger Painting

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Andrea tries to do a craft or fun activity every day with the kids. This was their foray into finger painting. Simon, as you can tell, tried to eat some of the paint. When you're one year old there is a very blurry line between what should and shouldn't be eaten. Colourful guck that you are encouraged to pick up with your hands equals possible food item.

Bedtime Snack

2008-03-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

We introduced Popcorn Twists (c) to Elliot during a road trip. Andrea's family only ever ate them during roadtrips. My family was never terribly fussy about rules regarding junk food. So I bought a bag for the kids to enjoy and then they did.

I know it's February...

2008-02-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

...but my family had a great birthday picture of Simon that I needed to include here. Simon REALLY likes chocolate, can you tell?