Day 105, 106 - Vermont Finale!

We ended our Vermont trip at Shelburne Farms. They have a beautiful stone barn with tons of animals. The girls even got to collect fresh eggs from the hen house and milk a cow!

To get to the barn, you get to ride on a covered wagon through the farm for about 10 minutes. The girls thought this was a pretty good start to their adventure.

Maggie put in a few minutes of work in between chasing chickens.

Mike was the only one brave enough to hold a chicken. Carly is still a little unsure of them ever since she was pecked at Riverbanks Zoo. It didn't help that later in the day several chickens raided our picnic and stole Carly's bread. She was furious!

On the flip side, her favorite activity was looking for eggs in the hen house!

Waiting in line to milk the cows. Maggie's not so sure about this activity - curious but glad to have big sister go first.

Carly milking Rosie! We left the U.S. smelling like livestock and head back to Canada...luckily they were not offended by our stinch at the border crossing and let us back in.

Day 101, 102, 103, 104 - Vermont Part 3

Sunsets, Mountains, and Water

These pics are from Burlington, VT. The University of Vermont is right downtown and then as you go over a hill you see Lake Champlain and then Adirondack Mountains across the lake in New York. The town is so small and quaint - but does not feel behind the times or out of touch. The girls got to stay up extra late this night so that we could watch the sunset! It was totally worth it!

This is Church Street - pedestrian only for 4 blocks - lined with restaurants on either side. Tons of outdoor seating and live music. Can you spot our table? It was graduation weekend - so everything was packed!

These cows were all over the city. We had fun choosing our favorites.

      This playground was right on edge of the water. It was a great place to wait for the sun to set.

Day 100 - Vermont Part 2

We didn't really do much to celebrate our 100th day in Canada accept to acknowledge it and then also acknowledge that we are coming home exactly 3 weeks from today! We were roasting here today - 91 degrees! I don't think it would feel so hot accept for the fact that we only have air conditioning in two rooms of our apartment.

Now...back to Stowe, VT. On our second day, we traveled to the Trapp Family Lodge. Maria Von Trapp is actually buried somewhere on the property. We never quite figured out what the Von Trapp's had to do with the lodge...either visited frequently - or possibly built the first lodge once they fled Austria and moved to America. Whatever the history, it was impossible not to walk around the grounds and sing "The hills are alive....". So, we sang all morning long. At one point, I had the girls singing and twirling...but then the twirling reminded Maggie too much of "Ring Around the Rosie" and so my vision of the activity was quickly changed to a toddler's vision. It was still cute. There were beautiful sloping fields surrounded by mountains on all sides.  There were only a few areas that we could explore without being a guest. Maggie had fun rearranging all the rocks she could find. Carly enjoyed dancing in the fields and pretending to be an explorer. It would be a great place to stay if we ever visit this area again.

Day 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99 - Vermont Part 1

I can not say enough good things about Vermont...what a great state - at least at the end of May. I hope to come back again during any of the warmer months. We went a scenic (aka - longer than planned) route through the mountains to reach Stowe. We had some of the best pizza we have ever tasted at Piecasso and then we rented bikes to explore the quaint mountain town for the rest of the afternoon. The bike path followed a nice stream for most of the route. Mike pulled the girls along in a trailer which they nicknamed the "princess Chariot". Highlights of the afternoon were playing in the stream, biking over 11 bridges, and playing with several dogs in the water. I think the highlight for Mike was returning his bike and Chariot. His legs took a beating that day for the family!

Day 93

Maggie does everything Carly does. Anything and everything. This was her attempt at following Carly on the balance beam. Notice the yellow flower jacket. She's pretty opinionated about it...no other jacket is allowed. In a way, this is progress.  For a while there, she was throwing a major fit anytime we put a jacket on her. For some reason, the flower jacket is permitted - and she wears it pretty much every day.

 Following Carly down an enormous slide....and talking into the telephone just like Carly had done seconds before. Luckily, Carly is thrilled. Hope that continues...

Day 89, 90, 91, 92

Friday - wet, rainy, COLD!

Saturday - beautiful, sunny, HOT!

After a morning in the high 60's, the girls ditched their clothes for bathing suits. Unfortunately, they had to settle for the bathtub instead of the beach they were discussing while changing clothes. Whose idea do you think this outfit change was? Who do you think was in total agreement?

Day 87, 88

St. Patrick's Basilica -
My mom and I visited a beautiful church in downtown Montreal this week. It has a dark interior - so I'm afraid the pictures do not do it justice.

Day 86

Granny left Canada today. We enjoyed her company - but I think she needs to go back to the states to get some rest! We kept her moving. Carly enjoyed taking her all over town on the metro.

I apologize if you watched the previous mother's day video. The wrong video uploaded. The correct song is on Day 83 now.

Day 85

We are so glad that Granny came to spend a week with us. We have dragged her all over Montreal. On Friday, we spent several hours at the Botanical Gardens. I was very skeptical of Gardens in the spring in Montreal - but I was blown away by what we found. It was a great place for children to run, explore, and pretend. It was totally free, too. The website said that it would be about $40 for the four of us to tour the garden - but when we arrived we learned that it was free until May 14th! I'm not sure we would have gone if it had been $40 - but it actually would have been worth the money. We spent much of our time in the Chinese Garden. It had so many great bridges, hidden rooms, etc.

This was in the Chinese Garden. It was so fun to explore and photograph, too!

We had a great time throwing rocks into this pond until the staff ran us off - somehow we missed the sign that read "stay on the path".

This is the Olympic Tower that is adjacent to the gardens.

Day 83 and 84

Happy Mother's Day!!! We woke up to snow this morning - and it's still snowing strong - I don't think Montreal got the message that it's May!

Day 78, 79, 80, 81, 82

What's wrong with this picture?

Maggie continues to request dresses every day. Mike took the initiative to dress Maggie one morning this week. She convinced him that the dress she is wearing in the picture was hers...As soon as he had her dressed she said "I go show mommy this dress and she say it's Carly's".  Carly thought it was pretty funny and decided to see if Maggie's dress would fit her. Maggie wore Carly's dress all day.

This is how we found Maggie during her nap one day this week. She had gotten out of bed, tried to put on some of Carly's panties (both legs in one hole), and then fell asleep at the foot of her bed on the ground.

Day 76, 77 - Maggie

Maggie....Maggie! I have been terrible about documenting Maggie's development and milestones and most importantly all the funny things that she says. I used to write in her journal once a month. I don't think I've opened the jounal in about 6 months...So, this blog post is for Maggie - so I can remember 6 months from now what she's doing today.

Memories of Maggie at 2 years and 2 months (aka: 26 months):

• Loves to wear dresses. Maggie asks to wear a dress every day - no pants, overalls or shorts allowed. Whenever she sees someone she knows, she comments "See my pretty dress". One night she even demanded to sleep holding her purple dress.
• Refuses to wear bows or rubber bands. She complains that they are "hot"! She does like to wear any kind head band, though. Often right above the eyes.
• Is not a big fan of wearing a coat or sweater - which is sometimes a problem in Canada
• Loves trying on gloves, mittens, and hats
• Talks and talks - especially in the morning at 6 a.m. Maggie's definitely an early riser. She confuses her possessive pronouns a lot - "I want she hat", "Carly throwed she rock"...
• Loves pretending to be a mommy and making mike, carly or me be her baby - occasionally Mike gets to be the "bruva".  She makes up her own version of "night night Maggie" to whoever she is putting to sleep.
• Always up for playing with dolls
• Also really enjoys having pretend tea parties with babies
• One of her favorite toys is a wet wipe
• "She not being nice to me" - Maggie often says this when watching t.v. and a villian appears (e.g., Misses Hanigan from Annie)
• Is not afraid to fall to the floor - screaming, crying, complaining when she doesn't get her way - regardless of location - grocery store, mall, school parking lot
• Loves playgrounds - especially enjoys climbing steps and sometimes even ladders
• Says "bum"
• Sings "Bonjour mes amies"
• Sings the entire song "Angels Watching Over Me"
• Is not afraid to break out into song in public places
• Asks if we are going on "Adventure Ride" - I think that means going out and about - but I'm not quite sure
• Has a crush on her preschool teacher Mr. Mathieu
• "You want to see my silly face?" is a favorite phrase of hers
• Best of all...Maggie still loves to snuggle - she frequently surprises us with a hug or kiss and loves to be hugged or even tickled in return.

I took this picture of Maggie upside down - we were a little stir crazy last week when it snowed!