Construction Party for a 4 year old

This weekend we threw Tristan a construction party for his upcoming 4th birthday. It was sort of a full time job this past week planning and implementing his party. Seriously. It was also a last minute scramble to accommodate twice as many guests. We anticipated half the number of guests but then to our surprise everyone but one child accepted their invitation. Last year we had trouble getting enough kids so we invited a lot this year. I was very impressed that everyone RSVP-ed back on time as well:) You can never predict these things but you need to be ready at all times to do whatever you can! The last 24 hours before the party was a grind.

The Preparation

I spent the last few weeks here and there thinking about the party and slowly coming up with ideas. Every time we went shopping, I would browse for things that we could use for the party. I even picked up a couple of things during Halloween because black and orange were good "construction" colors. I wish I had gotten more stuff though because once Halloween came, everything was gone:( You know how hard it is to get orange and black decorations? Hard! Yellow, on the other hand, is available everywhere.

Last year was our first theme party for Tristan. When he turned 3 years old, we had a "monkey" party. It was also the first time I baked a cake for his birthday. I didn't really have the skills to do it before. Since then I had a bit more practice and now I have the confidence to bake more theme cakes and will probably never buy another one again. Lol. For this year's theme, I chose to throw a "construction" party because it is something I've always wanted to throw for him and I thought 4 years would be a good age for it. He already has a lot of construction toys, which made it perfect for using as decoration at the party :) Thanks to Pinterest and the popularity of theme parties from a lot of creative parents, there are tons of ideas out there. Construction parties are indeed very popular, but not popular enough to find supplies for at the Dollar store yet. Luckily, we were in Seattle recently and were able to grab some cool construction party supplies at one of the big stores down there :)

We had store bought decorations and I made some on my own as well. I customized them to read "Tristan 4", "Kids At Play," "Kids At Work," and "Party Zone" etc. The signs were easy to photoshop and I just used yellow and orange construction paper to print them on. They turned out better than I thought. I initially created them with a black marker but the computer printed ones were faster to create and they looked so much better! Then I went a bit crazy with photoshop and decided to photoshop the food labels, food picks, and thank-you tags as well. It was pretty straight forward and all the computer printed stuff just made everything look a bit more professional. You know how I like to pretend to be professional, right? :) Lol.

We had ton of game ideas but when we found out we had so many guests, we had to change our games at the last minute. We had three prizes for three games. We had other activities planned as well, like coloring the dump truck and building paper construction vehicles, but there wouldn't be prizes for those. It was so cool that I found so much stuff on the Internet for our construction party :)

The week leading up to the party was kind of crazy. When we realized the challenge we were up against, I just laughed so hard. I absolutely love planning parties but even I freaked out at the thought of having to plan, host, and cook for more than 30 people. Could I really do all that by myself? I ended up delegating some party tasks to Jean-Louis. I just couldn't handle doing EVERYTHING. Jean-Louis had no choice but to help me with the games. He also helped with putting up the decorations, putting up signs to direct guests to our party site, and of course driving me to the store to fetch things. For a couple of nights, Jean-Louis and I both lost sleep over the stress. Lol. The day of the party, I had to ask my parents to come by 1 1/2 hours earlier to help out. They helped with the tuna sandwiches, macaroni and cheese, veggies and fruit and they helped carry everything over to the party site. We used a bigger room in our building, which was a minute walk away.

Signs/clues to lead guests to party site.

Party Day

There were around 12 kids, including Tristan, and many more adults. There were well over 30 people at the party. My family was there too but there were only a few of them. I have never hosted such a big party or fed that many people before. Ever! We were maybe 30 minutes late, which is always embarrassing, and I realized the next day that I forgot to serve some food. Doh! Even without that missing food, I was still able to fill pretty much the entire pool table with food and that didn't include the dessert either. I guess I really do cook too much food! Haha.

Two words come to mind when I think back to our construction party: epic and chaos. It was the biggest party we have ever thrown! So much work and detail went into bringing it to life. Some times I wonder if anyone notices all the details, besides me :) The whole place was transformed into a construction site using signs, caution tape, and colors yellow, black, and orange. We went all out to create a wonderful construction party for our little boy. He loved it and so did we! I hope our guests loved it too. I overheard that one mom called me a "supermom" for cooking, baking, and doing so much by myself. Someone asked if I was a professional cook or baker so that was a nice compliment too :) I am none of those things but it's always nice that some people think I am.

The party was chaotic with kids going a little wild with balloon fights because the "entertainment department" kind of broke down for a bit. I wasn't there to conduct games and control was lost for a bit. We actually used the cowbell from our marathon to get people's attention. Lol. I had to dash off for 15-20 minutes to deal with camera and camcorder problems. If I didn't, we wouldn't have been able to film anything for the party and that would have been devastating. All that work and we can't even document it? Unthinkable. I also had to find something to blindfold the kids for the pinning game since Jean-Louis couldn't find anything and kind of tore the house apart looking. Chaos. Everyone was waiting for me! Luckily, I was at my computer and was able to check my email because one of the moms had emailed me because she lost our address. I called her right away and they came. Phew :)

We played 3 games, which we implemented in the few nights leading up to the party. We had other games in mind but they were only suitable for half the children. When we found out there were going to be so many kids, we had to change everything. Jean-Louis ended up conducting all the games during the party and did a good job :) I love team work!

Game 1 was "pin the wheels on the dump truck." This one was Jean-Louis' idea. Easy enough. He also created the dump truck. Only 3 kids were interested in playing. I think we had a lot of shy 3 and 4 year olds.

Game 2 was picture bingo. I came up with the idea of picture bingo and Jean-Louis came up with the idea of using stickers to implement the game. We had little construction stickers and we had a big enough set for each child. All the kids received a 4x4 grid, 16 construction themed stickers, and 16 plain white round stickers. They had to place each sticker on the grid in whatever order they wanted. We photographed all the stickers and then printed them big on a sheet in color. We cut out each sticker from the printed sheet and then placed them in a construction hat to be randomly picked out. Each child had to look on their sheet for the image drawn from the construction hat and then cover that image up with a white sticker. Using the white sticker was my idea :) It was a bit transparent and removable, in case we wanted to check for accuracy. But we didn't - ha! Also the sticker wouldn't shift around, unlike playing chips. All the kids were into this game so that was cool.

Game 3 was "throw the rocks (or balls) into the dump truck." Jean-Louis drew another dump truck and we stuck it to the front of a big box. Each child was given 4 balls to throw in. Whoever could get the most balls inside won a prize. Most of the kids were into this game.

We had coloring sheets and crafts but the kids were not really into sitting quietly for a long time to complete any of those. Some of the kids colored a bit. We just sent each child home with the sheets to do it themselves. We had a little TV in the corner of our party site so we borrowed some Bob the Builder shows from the library and played that during the party. Kids would come watch a bit and then leave. Some watched while they ate their food. It was fine.

Made a runner for the table so the cloth wouldn't move too much.

PARTY FOOD MENU

Appetizers:

• Veggies, specialty chips served with onion dip & dill dip
• Ham sausage, bread crackers
• Pretzel sticks (labeled "logs")
• Veggie chips, kettle chips

Main dish:

• Macaroni and cheese
• Tuna sandwiches
• Samosas (only thing that wasn't homemade)
• Pineapple, mandarin oranges, persimmons

Apple juice, other fruit juices, Orangina pop, ginger ale, Aloe vera juice

(Things I forgot to serve: black grapes, all orange cheddar cheese sticks)

Dessert:

• 10 inch Construction cake (chocolate & white cake with caramel & chocolate buttercream)
• Chocolate cupcakes, with fondant toppers
• Lemon vanilla sugar cookies

People ate but we had so much food leftover still. I always find that the parents are a bit reluctant to eat at parties. I did indicate on some of the emailed invitations that food would be provided for everyone, including parents. The kids seemed to have likes the macaroni and cheese. The macaroni and cheese, tuna sandwiches, and onion dip were new recipes I tried for the first time at the party. They all turned out well I thought.

I was so pleased with our "cake zone." I thought it looked super cool. The hanging decorations were overshadowed by all the sweet treats though. There was too much happening in the room and I think those decorations were lost in the mix. I shouldn't have bought them :( It was one of the few things I did buy. Oh well. The lighting was also bad in the area since one of the wall lights were burnt out. We didn't know. Boo :( It was a rented room and we missed testing that out. All the desserts turned out nicely, both in the way they looked and tasted. I thought the sugar cookies were particularly tasty :) I think it's because I used more vanilla bean seeds this time. The cake was super moist and delicious. I screwed up the cut a bit when I assembled it but hopefully people got the idea :) I'll blog more about the cake on my food blog later for those who want more details. Only 5 people chose to have a cupcake instead of cake. The kids also got to choose whether or not they wanted to eat a construction cone or rock on the cake. My nephew requested the "dirt" on the cake. Lol. In my experience so far, cake usually wins over cupcake.

Messed up the 45 degree cut inside - oops!

Each child got to take home a wooden construction kit and a cookie for their party loot. I found the cement trucks and backhoes at Dollarama and pretty much bought them all. Score!

Loot gift wrapped in tissue & taped with caution tape.

"Thanks for stopping by" cookie.

We kept mess to a minimum. Nothing was damaged and cleanup was fast. The party was a success. Jean-Louis and I were so pleased and relieved after the party concluded. Omg.

We bought cow bells for our cheering squad!

I finally got my hands on some cow bells. Boy are they hard to find! Some people suggested for me to check out music stores but I was looking for them at toy stores. Luckily, I found one at a local toy store in Vancouver called the Toy Box and Toy Jungle. They put their last cow bell on hold for me and this past weekend, we went to pick it up! It was $5.99 and then we got 25% off since it was during their annual anniversary sale. Score! They also threw in a toy blue one that doesn't make as much noise. I'm so excited about them!!! Now Tristan and my parents can make noise when they see us and for all the other runners in the race :)

We are all pretty much set now. Cow bells have been acquired. Training is pretty much over. Carbo-loading and operation "eat well" is in progress. Next weekend we head over to Victoria to the expo to get our numbers and Sunday morning we race.

Yesterday we ran a 14km route that included two hills. It was a great route because we barely trained on hills this summer and we really needed to. This was our second hill run. The run was easy, thank goodness. It is only 1/3 of the marathon we have to run next weekend. It better be easy, right?! :)

This is our resting week. Today we take a break from running. Tomorrow we do a 11km run. We break again the next day. Then we go on our last run, just 8km, which will fall on the Thursday after work. That's it! In the meantime, we are eating well and carbo-loading all week. It takes the body 2-3 full days to carbo-load without any exercise. Our race is Sunday morning.

Overall I'm feeling pretty good. If I'm not ready now, it's too late. The biggest advantage I can give myself now is to eat properly, carbo-load, take care of myself and rest this week. I was close to becoming sick with the common cold late last week. I had an increasing big headache, sore throat, and was very tired for a few days. Thanks to daily prevention cold-fx, I'm feeling more myself again :) I initially thought maybe I should go on a diet this week and try to lose a couple of pounds but now that I think about it, I should keep everything constant. It's just too late in the game for any changes! Although running a couple of pounds lighter could really help me :) But it could also present new problems and I already tested everything out that works so, yeah bad idea.

The one thing I am a bit worried about is my left foot. The spasm at the bottom has not gone away. It has been there for over a month now. It starts to hurt after about 20 minutes of running now. Sometimes right after starting. It definitely worries me but I can't do anything about it right now. It's unfortunate I will be taking this 'injury' into the race with me. I know it's going to be a big source of pain for me during the race. After the race, I plan to stop running for at least one week to see if it goes away. If it doesn't, I'll go see my doctor. That's the plan anyway.

Our first ever garage sale at the Highgate Village community garage sale

On Saturday July 21st, we took part in Highgate Village's first community garage sale. Proceeds from the table and parking stall rentals went towards the BC Children's Hospital. We are always in need of decluttering our house so this seemed like a good chance to do it. Community garage sales seem more attractive to those who are looking for good garage sales and since Save-On Foods was hosting it, we figured they would do all the publicizing and advertising for us. We registered and got 1 table to sell our goods.

The morning of the event it rained:( The organizers decided at the last minute to move the setup from the outside parking lot next to the shopping center down to the dark underground parking. We had to setup our tables by 9:30AM because the event started at 10AM. They decided to tuck us all near the back of the parking lot maybe because we wouldn't be so intrusive(??). Very few people came by to check us out. To make matters worst, I only saw one sign that was written on the white board in a faint marker near the entrance to Save-On Foods. Most of the people shopping at Highgate Village just didn't know there was a garage sale taking place underneath. That would be my guess since there were barely anyone walking around.

When the decision was made to setup underground, a very upset vendor told the organizer that no one was going to know we were down here. The vendor tried to get the organizer to allow us to setup upstairs. He said that the weather was predicting sunshine later in the day. The organizer didn't believe it and said it didn't look that way. The organizer was wrong. Shortly after 10AM, the rain stopped and by 10:30AM the sun came out. The sun stayed out the rest of the day. We were already all setup and there was no way we were going to move. Too bad:( The garage sale ended at 2PM and it was a beautiful day when we went outside. Doh!

This was the first year Save-On Foods has hosted a community garage sale to fund-raise. They didn't really know what they were doing but they could have definitely helped out the vendors a bit more. The weather cannot be controlled obviously but they could have helped publicize the event a bit more. Where were the big signs ready to place by all the entrances to the parking lot? Where was the big sign by the hot dog stand at the top they were using to fund-raise? Where was the big banner by the Highgate Village entrance? Why the heck was it not even advertised on their website? Why were we tucked so far back in the dark in the underground parking? The underground parking area by the entrance upstairs got way more traffic than the underground parking further away. Sadly for us we were one of the tables further away:(

Having a community garage sale is a great idea. Unfortunately it wasn't well organized and it hurt both vendors and shoppers. Everything we were selling were $5 or under. I researched about garage sales beforehand to make sure I was setting prices right. Our prices were pretty much right since only one person asked for a lower price. Our main goal at the garage sale was to get rid of our things. If we could make a few dollars in the process, that would be great! This was our first garage sale so it was a bit of an adventure for us. I advertised our sale on craigslist and I tweeted often about it. That might have gotten us a few extra visitors. Things that sold well were children books, toys, and cupcakes. The cupcakes were made to lure people to our table but in the end, at least half our of profit came just from cupcakes! I heard cupcakes and bakes work wonders at garage sales and it's totally true :)

There were a ton of bargains everywhere. It would have been a bargain shopper paradise if people knew about it. We ended up buying a couple of things too:) I was actually joking with the girl next to me saying that we were "negative" since Jean-Louis walked around and bought something before we even made our first sale. There was a table selling lots of DVDs in great condition for just $1. There were also lots of books going for $0.25 to $1. There were over 20 tables and maybe 6 or more parking stalls worth of goods.

We still had an adventure and Tristan got to learn a thing or two about garage sales so there's that :) We explained to Tristan that we were playing store that day. His job was to greet people and ask them if they wanted to try some cupcakes. If someone bought something we would pass him the change and he would give it to them. Despite being in the dark underground for most of the 4 hours, Tristan was really well behaved and was even helpful. I made conversation with a lovely lady at the table next to me. She was by herself and she had a newborn with her. Tristan talked and played with the baby a bit too. To him the baby was like a live doll! So small and so adorable. If it wasn't for good company, I think the garage sale would have been very long and boring.

Most of what we didn't sell, which was maybe 70% of our stuff, ended up being dropped off at the nearby donation center at Value Village. We tested out the garage sale but that didn't work out well but at least we tried, right? Now we know. Maybe things would have been different if the weather was better or if there was more publicity. Weather is such a big factor in these events that I'm pretty sure it would have made a big difference. Unfortunately, we will never know because that was our first and probably last garage sale:(

I don't think garage sales are for us. It's not worth the organizing, time, or even baking. The table rental was $15 so when you consider that we only made $34.57. That's kind of pathetic. Lol. We did it for the experience but now that that is behind us, we don't really have any good reason to hold another garage sale. The big things can be sold on craigslist and the rest will be donated. Our biggest take away from all of this is that it is very hard to sell things, even for $0.25. We will definitely be more careful of what we buy now, especially toys and clothes.

Tristan is turning into a little "us"

He started copying us awhile ago.

Besides the obvious which is that Tristan resembles both Jean-Louis and I, he is really starting to behave just like us. Here are a few examples why you would totally be able to tell that he is our son:

• We were at Toys R Us recently and there was a boy nearby holding a Lego toy. Tristan watched and then turned to him and told him "that Lego is not on sale." The boy ignored Tristan but then Tristan followed him around the store and kept telling him "but that Lego is NOT on sale." And we die of laughter.
• These days, a lot of the things I cook is new stuff. Every time I present cooked food or a drink to Jean-Louis, his first response is "is it vegan?" Now Tristan does the same thing when I present him food, "is it vegan?" Even when it clearly isn't like eggs. Ha!
• When Tristan saw me peeling off some fat off of my meat and putting it on the side of my plate for garbage, he told me I had to eat all of it or else I don't get any fruit after my meal. Yeah, but...oops.
• Tristan says he is working all the time. When we ask him who he works for, he says "Pete." I work for a guy named Pete. Tristan is like my office receptionist here. He'll pick up the phone and tell me "it's Pete." Yeah, so I guess he does work for Pete too :)
• Funny faces and noises! Tristan makes them all the time out of the blue. I'm pretty sure he either imitates me or gets it from my genes. I can be quite the goof that way - sorry. *blush*
• Tristan has playmobil toys and Lego toys. Some may be the same size and mixed together but he knows which is which. Now, Jean-Louis is quite anal about storing playmobil and Lego in their dedicated containers. One day, I was picking up some random toys and putting them in the closest container just to get them out of the way. Tristan quickly corrected me that I was packing toys in the wrong box! Oh. My bad.

Daiso: my favorite $2 store

This past weekend we took a skytrain field trip down to Richmond. We had no purpose going down there aside from the fact that we wanted to ride the Canada line with Tristan. The Canada line was built for the Olympics in 2010 in Vancouver and I think Jean-Louis and I have only rode it once. The skytrain on this line is what you would call your typical subway train. It's longer and wider than your typical skytrain. It's funny because every time we come back from France, the skytrain feels a bit like a toy when we're sitting inside. It's so small and narrow compared to the big trains in France. It's awesome to have skytrains in Vancouver though and Tristan LOVES riding them:)

During our long ride into Vancouver and then to Richmond, I decided that we check out an Asian-type dollar store to find some replacement kitchen slippers. Yes, I was very particular in my search! :) I figured we could find something similar to what we could get at the night market during the summer. When I googled for dollar store in Richmond, I was surprised at so many results pointing to Daiso. The more I read about it, the more excited I got :)

Those who know me, know that I love to bargain shop. I am a big sucker for good deals! From the outside, Daiso didn't really look like your typical dollar store. For starters, it was HUGE! Within about one minute of stepping in, I fell in love. It was the dollar store of dreams! :) There were so many cool things I have never seen before at a dollar store or normal store for that matter. All for a dollar or more? Really? I started in the kids and toys area, carefully browsed and took mental notes on what the inventory was like. I could see Jean-Louis laughing at me already:) Then after careful consideration, I got yet another puzzle for Tristan. Where the toys area ended was where the gift bagging area started. Oh boy! There were so many cool things. I kind of went crazy and loaded my basket with tons of cute packing paper. I'm not sure when I would use them but I'll worry about that later. Seriously, I shopped like it was my last day in Richmond or something! And the place is only a 20 minute drive away from home. I'm CRAZY.

Like with every first visit to a new store, I slowly browsed and tried to look at everything. Jean-Louis actually took Tristan out and walked around the mall since Tristan lost interest in the store pretty quickly. I think Tristan was hungry for lunch though. I figured I had plenty of time to shop. According to Jean-Louis, I was in the store for over one hour! The store was so massive, I actually started to feel a bit ill near the end. Again, I can hear Jean-Louis teasing and laughing at me. I also had to pee a lot. Ha, there's the laughter again! To conclude, I didn't get to see everything and ended up just paying for what I had so far and promised myself I would come back another day. Who's terrible idea was it to slowly browse and shop in there anyway? Right. It was me :( Now I find out that they have over 50000 types of products in the Richmond Daiso store. 50000!!

We got slippers plus much, much more!

I shopped for an hour but I did good. I got all this cool stuff but it ended up being a lot more than I had originally thought. When things were not marked with a price, it would automatically ring in as $2. Not $1. That pretty much doubled what I thought I spent. Oops. However, most of the stuff I got cannot be purchased elsewhere so it was still a big win for me :) Dollarama in Station Square at Metrotown is still my favorite dollar store but Daiso is now my favorite $2 store!

Insulated water bottle bag for $2!

Finally interested in stuffed animals at 3 years

We've had stuffed animals since before Tristan was born. Over the years we have accumulated more through gifts from friends and family. Tristan was never interested in them so we never bought him any. A couple of times in the past, he brought a stuffed animal to bed with him but then he would give it up before falling asleep or it would just be a one night attachment. He would then forget all about it. When it came to playing, he never played with his stuffed animals at all during the day either. We kind of thought it was weird, especially because we saw little kids his age or younger always carry stuffed animals in their strollers. Many of the daycare kids have stuffed animals in their cubbies or on their sleeping mats. Again, Tristan was never interested.

Just a couple of months ago, he decided to bring one of his stuffed dogs to sleep with him. That was cool. This was repeated again and again. He may have forgotten a day or two and then he would remember and bring his stuffed dog to bed again. Again! It happened so many times that he has now developed an attachment to his stuffed dog when he goes off to bed. I mean he can still go to sleep without his stuffed dog but it's routine now to look for it and bring it to bed. Occasionally, he would want it taken away and we would just place it on his bedside table. It's amazing to see all this now because it just happened all of a sudden. I wondered what triggered it.

Tristan's stuffed dog even has a name. He named it Bean. Then one day, he gave it a full name: Black Bean. We weren't sure if it was because we had been eating so many beans from cooking Jean-Louis' vegan food or what. When we asked Tristan, he gave us a very logically explanation. The stuffed dog's nose looks like a black bean. So does the dog's eyes. Fair enough :)

Now Tristan likes to play with his stuffed dog, as well as more of his other stuffed animals. He likes to cuddle with them and role play. He sometimes sits and read with them or watch dvds with them next to him. I guess this all really started when he was playing with all his toys more. He has all these stories in his head of what is going on and then he acts them out with his toys and stuffed animals. I suppose you can say he is bringing life to all of his toys. A couple of weeks ago, he declared it was Black Bean's birthday. His dog was turning 3. When I made cookies that day, we declared them birthday cookies and sang Happy Birthday to Black Bean, who was not present by the way. Tristan said that Black Bean could not blow candles or eat cookies anyway because he has no mouth. Very true. Yup. Being parents is sometimes wacky :)

Our toddler loves toy-size vehicles

Tristan may not always look like a boy but he plays like one. Okay to be fair, girls can act like this too. Tristan loves to play with cars and trains. He signs train, car, bus, airplane, and bike. He can say bus but only signs and makes motor noises with the rest. Well, he calls a bike "dooy." Not sure why but he just does :) I know Tristan played with dolls a bit at daycare, which I thought was cool but he definitely has a preference for vehicles and things that involve interaction and music.

Tristan's favorite toy size vehicles are found at the playground and at the mall. He loves being in them so much that it is always a challenge to peel him off when it's time to go. He becomes territorial too and if he sees others approaching it, he gets upset. Toddlers! :)



What is better than playing with miniature toy cars, trains, buses, and airplanes? Actually, riding in a toy size car, train, bus, and airplane! I say toy size because when Tristan is in the real thing, he is not really aware he is in the real thing and because it isn't as colorful as the toy version, he isn't as amused. As an observer, he is always excited to look at and hear the real thing though.

17 month old is one cool toddler on his new Strider bike

Today, we bought Tristan his first bike. He's just 17 months old but the Strider running bikes are for toddlers 1-5 years old. Once a baby can walk, they can ride the Strider. I'm not so sure about that but ok. I can't believe it's his first bike. As first time parents and since he's our only child, I feel like we're totally spoiling him. I have never owned a bike in my life! His dad loves biking, maybe even more than running so I think it's great :)

Only minutes after we put him on the bike, he fell over and hit his chin on the handle. Oops! Now he has a bruise and tomorrow is Mother's Day and we're suppose to be taking lots of pictures. Terrific :( Anyhow, it was so cool to see him on his orange Strider but I can see that he still needs to grow a little bit taller to fit on it well. His feet barely touch the floor. It may be okay with his running shoes on though.

Seeing Tristan on the Strider makes me realize how big he is now. My baby is a big little boy! About to ride a bike, for crying out loud! How did he grow so fast?

Feels like a happy productive weekend

You know that feeling you get when things get done and you still have time to have fun? Well, that is how I feel about this past weekend. On Saturday, I put the finishing touches on our taxes and we went to Highgate Village to mail it. Phew! I have been working on those taxes for weeks on and off. At Save-Ons we purchased a few bargain items including 2 for 1 packs of croissant. I don't remember Save-On croissants being so good. Of course, they were just baked from the oven and we were super hungry when we got home. 12 croissants for $3.49 is so cheap! I always feel good about getting a great deal :)

We finally brought down the jumperoo for Tristan and am slowly increasing the amount of time he gets to spend in it. We took lots of pictures too of course! His exersaucer, once in the living room, is now in our office (Eeeks!). He enjoys that so much more than just being in his bouncy chair with toys. We're trying really hard not to spoil him so fast with these toys - else he will get bored really fast of everything!

Jean-Louis finished all his todos for our iPhone app Saturday so I know he had a productive time. Today, after I worked an hour for my work, I spent some time testing out the app and started compiling a new list of todos for him. Yeah, it seems like it never ends. Most of it was just about polishing it up though :)

Jean-Louis cleaned the house Saturday and I cooked for us. Today, the weather was beautiful so we decided to go out with the stroller with Tristan. It was a nice walk and I have to say I am totally out of shape. I'm starting to feel a big urge to run again. 15°C - I'm waiting for it to be 15°C first. As a treat for being so good and productive this weekend, we're about to watch Twilight. We just rented and downloaded it from the iTunes store.