The Santa Claus Parade '11

The Connor family saved us great seats again for the Santa Claus Parade. It is an annual tradition for their entire family and they even design themed hats to wear each year! We can't begin to count the number of "Nice Hats!" comments they get from the people in the crowd and the parade itself. The most anticipated event has to be the silly string fight with the celebrity clowns though and Philip really gets into it too! Thanks again Sue for inviting us to your fun family tradition and it looks like we're going to be honorary members of the family from now on too! :)

The Santa Experience at Sherway Gardens

We were able to book an appointment for the Santa Experience at Sherway Gardens again this year. Santa is extremely popular here so even though his shows go until Christmas, they always sell out well before the middle of November! We opted for an earlier appointment since it was the only one we could get, but Philip didn't seem to mind and really enjoyed telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas (Thanos, Hawkman, and Flash... superheroes, what else? haha). What I really like about this Santa is that: 1) The show is a fun half-hour with Santa singing songs and reading to the kids, 2) The show costs only $5 and 3) You get to take pictures with your own camera so you don't get ripped off by purchasing photos. Needless to say, if I don't forget to book early, this will be our Santa every year, and if Philip is as nice this year as he says he was, there'll be some superheroes under our tree from Old Saint Nick! :)

I'm a Megabloks Pro!

Philip has developed quite the art for building things. We thought he had outgrown his Megabloks since he's now onto Lego, but every now and then he whips out the Megabloks again and builds something interesting. As a Math teacher, I'm thoroughly impressed with the symmetry and stability of his structures too (see below)! It looks like we'll definitely be keeping the Megabloks container around for awhile yet still! :)

Meet Ella and Caleb Arora!

Paul's side of the family gets together every year to remember his Uncle Bobby who passed away seven years ago around Remembrance Day. It had been awhile since we saw Paul's relatives so it was nice to catch up and remember. It was also a great opportunity to meet the newest members of the Arora family, twins Ella and Caleb! They are now almost four months old and are as sweet as can be. Congrats again, Denise and Rahul, and we hope you enjoy playing with your little ones as much as Philip always enjoys playing with you! :)

Ellen's 2nd Birthday

Ellen turned two and Ami and Daniel celebrated the occasion by having dinner with both sides of the family at a Chinese restaurant. Authentic Chinese dinners are always an O'Leary favourite, and we especially enjoyed the 10-course meal! Happy 2nd birthday, Ellen... I guess Philip can't really call you "Baby Ellen" anymore since you're a full-grown toddler now! :)