The Barrhaven Santa Clause Parade

What a wonderful night at the parade! A very cold night, but at least the rain and snow held off. Each year the parade has been a great experience working with friends, family members and staff members to prepare a float for the event. This year, I think, was our best effort yet! Alan did a fantastic job taking part of the pirate ship apart at A Gym Tale and actually built a ship around his dad's truck - much to his dad's surprise! But he really pulled it off and it looked great! It was also so much fun getting all of our new characters out and meeting everyone. Spiderman, Batman, Wolverine, Princess Belle, Princess Aurora and, of course, Tales the dragon all made it out as well. While the superhero's ran around trying to meet as many new friends as possible, the princesses looked beautiful waving with Tales on the float. Unfortunately, with all the excitement, I forgot to take any pictures:( So if anyone was able to catch a few pic's of our float I would love it if you could email me them (info@agymtale.com).

Afterwards, we had our annual 'thank goodness the parade is over' celebration party back at a Gym Tale with lots of pizza, hot chocolate and  'Glee' themed karaoke songs. Thank you everyone for your help, we really had a great night!

Ewan's First Haircut!

So we finally did it - Alan and I took Ewan for his first haircut. We were a little worried about how he would handle someone touching his head - as it was next to impossible even for me to cut off his rat tail. We knew our best chance would be to take him to a children's hair salon that could offer the best distractions. We decided to try Chiquicuts and what a great place!

 The theming is wonderful, it is bright and welcoming, and the kids sit in cute little cars with a television in front of them. I am sure that for most children they would have a wonderful experience - and I have heard first hand from many people that their children had a great time. Ewan unfortunately did not - as you can see by the look on his face and how Alan has him in a head lock! But the hairdresser we had was so very patient and still managed to do a wonderful job. And afterwards, we recieved a certificate and a lock of his hair as a souvenir.

And now my baby looks like a little man!

Chiquicuts also has an awesome website - check it out for more details of what they have to offer!
www.chiquicuts.com

Halloween Excitement!

I am not normally big into Halloween, but having Ewan around and some brand new 'real life' costumes for 'Character's Come True' really got me in the mood to celebrate. Alan and I decided on some traditions that we wanted to begin this year for our family. The first being taking a trip out to Saunders Farm for a wagon ride and choosing a pumpkin. I was really surprised by the amount of things to do there - from a little farm, to the pumpkin patch, wagon rides, beaver tails (yum!) and parks around every corner - we had a really great time.

Another tradition we wanted to begin was on the eve of Halloween to carve our pumpkin, bake the seeds for a snack, and watch a scary movie (one with Ewan and then a real scary movie). Ewan was a little unsure about reaching into the pumpkin, but did decide that he would try a bite of pumpkin - his face was priceless!

And at this point he really wasn't interested in a movie. But Alan did force me to watch Saw 4 - I absolutely despise scary movies, my body just cannot handle the suspense and I get terrible nightmares - but I survived it.

The day of Halloween, we also had a wonderful time. Ewan spent the day with my mom while Alan and I dressed up in the most authentic costumes I have ever seen and went to the centre for a day filled with entertaining the kids, signing autographs and taking pictures. It was great to see all of the kid's costumes and their faces as they saw their favourite superhero or princess come to life!

That evening, we stayed dressed up in our costumes and got Ewan into his Tigger costume - which he really didn't mind - until I tried to give him whiskers! Alan and Ewan went Trick or Treating around the neighbourhood, while my brother and I  - Spiderman and Sleeping Beauty answered the door. We ended the evening with coffee's and a whole lot of chocolate!!!