BOO!! Happy Halloween.....

This is of course our first year of trick or treating here in Canada and let me tell you it is serious business over here. All the shops are full of merchandise (of course can't miss the opp to make a quick buck), the houses are decorated in loads of goulish things, people (adults included) are dressed up in all sorts of costumes both fairytale and horror and trick or treating is all the buzz. The owners of the house that we will be renting suggested to us that we go to our new street and trick or treat our new neighbours as a way of introducing ourselves but we thought we would start small and just trick or treat the hotel this year.

During the week I hit Wal-Mart and stocked up on some halloween treats and then gave some to Betty and some to the kind folks at the reception desk.

Our first stop was our friends down the hall Betty and John. John is a Hatch employee from London and Betty obviously is his wife. Betty spends quite a bit of time with the kids and I as we are both holed up in the hotel a fair bit. Betty helps me by sitting with Emily when I need her to and in return I take Betty along with us on our outings to the shops etc. They are such a lovely couple and it has been so nice for the kids to have a psuedo grandmother figure in Betty over the last couple of months.


Now who could refuse this sweet little face??

Or this one for that matter??

Stocking up on treats from Betty and John.

Ohhh is this really for me??

BOO!! Riley looking like he was just spooked by his balloon.

We thought without the red-eye reduction on this one looks really scary!
The kids hitting reception. Riley hid down low and put his balloon up on the desk to spook the lady. Turns out the lovely people from the hotel gave the kids not only the stuff that I hooked them up with but they also did up a pack of their own for them which was really sweet. They really have been so good to us since we arrived.

Riley checking out his stash and showing us the craft project spider lantern that he got.

Emily 'helping' Riley sort all the goodies.............or was that Emily 'helping herself' TO the goodies??'Oooooh Mummy I don't feel so goooooood...................

Oh no too much candy.........

Just kidding of course she was just checking out her pumpkin bucket before the trick or treating began hahahahahaha.....

We're off to see the WIGGLES!!!

OK so not the best photography (I had a one year old on my lap trying to pull the camera out of my hands every time she saw me pick it up) but I swear it is the skivvy wearing aussies in person!! In December of 2006 I had tickets for Riley and I to go and see the Wiggles live in Brisbane. Sadly our plans changed and instead we were in a hotel room on the other side of the world making the decision to move to Johannesburg, South Africa. Last weekend, again on the other side of the world, we saw an advertisement on television about the Wiggles and, after some promopting from a certain family member (whose words I believe were "You can log on to Wiggles.com mummy......") I logged on and found that they had a concert booked for this weekend. I quickly booked some tickets and so today Riley, Emily and I headed off to Toronto city to go see them. The show was right in the middle of the city in Toronto and seeing as how it was during work hours it was up to me and my trusty GPS to find the way. Thankfully we are back in a first world country and the roads are well signed so getting there was no problem. We spent the first few minutes of our car trip singing "We're off to see the Wiggles, the wonderful Wiggles from OZ, because because because because because................because of the wonderful songs they sing......."

Riley was a little star-struck and, after the initial excitement of seeing them run onto the stage, sat quietly for most of the show and even had somewhat of a worried look on his face (which he later explained to me was because he didn't know why he was feeling a little bit scared of them). Anthony and Sam (Greg's replacement) came right up to our row and Riley ran over to them and then got scared and so didn't get to say hi to them (which he is kinda upset at himself for now poor kid).

Emily on the other hand.....had the time of her life! She hopped and bopped and grooved her way through the entire hour and a half show. She tried her best to do the movements and sing along. She was really very cute and got many comments from the people around us.

Considering I braved the whole thing alone with the kids (and with the help of one red bull before we left - next time I will make it two.....LOL) I think it all went really well. We found our way in without getting lost once, we found parking right across the street from the venue and got to our seats with 1/2hr to spare. I even braved peak hour (on a Friday afternoon no less) traffic in the city to get home which meant that a 25min trip was somewhere around 1 1/2hrs.

I think that if we see the Wiggles (or any live act for that matter) again that Riley will fare much better as he will be more prepared for the overwhelming feeling of seeing people that he loves to watch on tv up on a stage in front of him in the flesh. Perhaps we need to make a trip to Wiggle world at Dreamworld when we are home for Christmas........

I think that this is when they were dancing to "You make me feel like Dancing" (which I think is a Bee Gees song)

We got our souveniers and we are just waiting to head in to see the WIGGLES!! (Emily has her eye keenly focused on Riley's wiggles light in this pic)

A bit of a close up but this is my boy enjoying the show.

Emmy just chillaxin.......(and not taking her eyes off the show even for a pic)

Fall Colours - Take One

In keeping with our pledge to get out and see our new suuroundings we jumped in the car on Sunday and headed a couple of hours North to a little place called Barrie to see the fall colours. We were unfortunate enough to have chosen an overcast day and so the colours were not as prominent as they would have been in the full sun light (a theroy that was proven on the rare occassions that the sun did show itself that day). We got our cameras out and took a few pics anyway and then in a few more weeks we may do the trip again and see if we can get a better look at these fall colours that everyone keeps on telling us about.

This is my favourite pic of the day. We were up in a little village called the Blue Mountains (not where I always thought the Blue Mountains were but anyway) and this is looking across over the lake (pretty darn huge lake!). On the other side of this fence was a bloody huge drop, so given the state of the fence I think it is there more as a deterrant rather than a safety feature.

Daddy & Riley (with his belly button showing!) It was a really cold day (about 7 Degrees) and the wind was freezing, I think we may need to do some winter clothes shopping soon......
A rare pic, me actually posing.
The Girls, the only way we could get Emily to keep her beanie on was to put her hoodie over the top of it. We will be buggared when she figures out how to get it out from under there.
Me with my boy, who insisted on wearing shorts even though we told him it would be cold. Who am I to come between a boy and his fashion sense? I also really love this pic of Brad and Emily, you can see a little bit of the colour and the lake in the background. I think that this old fence really helps in the colour contrast of these pics.
In the winter time this mountain is actually a skiing field, coming in from the bottom you can see the different slopes marked out and separated by trees.This is Riley pointing out the different runs that the slopes have during the winter time. I think we may have to do a weekend trip back to try our hands at skiing too. Let's just hope that the kids ski school will let a big kid in.......could get messy otherwise.

Looking out over the lake. That little island in the middle actually has a light house on it.

I thought that the township below looked really cute and very organised so I took a pic of it.

Our Little Emmy Bear is One Year Old Today!!!

OUR LITTLE PRINCESS!!

Can you believe that a whole year has passed? On this day last year we found ourselves in the delivery room of the Sandton Medi-Clinic in Johannesburg South Africa with a new addition to our family. A beautiful baby girl, EMILY MAY CROSBY. Today we are celebrating her very first birthday. She is such a little princess and a fearless adventurer at the same time. She is sweet and cuddly and smiles at everyone. We are often pulled over by people who are drawn in by her smile and her big bright blue eyes (in just the same way that we were with Riley). Riley is still the ever-loving brother and Emily just adores him. When he goes into class at school each day the whole class lines up and blows a kiss to their mum or dad and Emily will usually blow a kiss back at Riley too and wave bye to him. They will play together in the car as we are driving along I will hear loads of giggles and when it is quiet I can often look back and see them holding hands across their seats. Emily is also into climbing at the moment and it seems that no mountain is too high, just the other day I came into my room to see her standing at my bedside table (which is just slightly taller than she is) she had her hands on top of the table and was trying to bring her knee up to pull herself up on the table! She has also worked out that if she climbs onto something else first she can then get herself up to another level. The other day I came in to find her standing on Riley's little step investigating the top of my bathroom counter, a surface previously unavailable to her due to height. She is walking confidently along furniture and whilst holding onto to our hands and has taken a couple of steps alone this week so I imagine she will be walking properly sooner rather than later.

PEEKABOO DADDY!!

Em is wearing the princess tutu and tiara that Riley bought for her - he calls her his little princess and was totally his idea to buy her this gift.

GETTING SET TO BLOW OUT HER CANDLE.

FLASHING A WINNING SMILE AT HER BIG BROTHER.

HHHHMMMM TASTES GOOD.

GOTTA LOVE BIRTHDAY CAKE TIME!!

RILEY SHOWING EMILY WHAT NANA BOUGHT HER.

RILEY 'HELPING' EMILY TO OPEN GRANDPA & NANA YVONNE'S PRESSIE.

EMILY SHOWING US ANOTHER USE FOR HER NEW BIRTHDAY PRESSIE FROM MUMMY, DADDY & RILEY.......

Niagara Falls

When we moved here we said to each other that we were going to make an effort to get out and see Canada and hopefully parts of USA also. So this past weekend we took a short road trip (about 1 hour from our hotel) to Niagara Falls. The falls were gorgeous and although it was an on and off rainy day that did not stop us (or the million or so other tourists there) getting out and seeing the sights. We didn't get a chance to go for any rides on the boats but we will definitely be going back again one day soon and we will do a ride.


This is my arty shot of the falls and the rainbow after the rain.

My boys taking their first shots of the day, I thought that this was too cute not to take a pic of.

Emmy trying out her new trick of climbing anything she sees.....not nerve wracking at all........

My little man posing for us in front of the falls.

My two gorgeous kiddies taking in the view (and Emily sucking on the guard rail).

This is my favourite photo of my gorgeous kiddies. They were playing so sweetly on the grass opposite the falls whilst Daddy was busy taking some video and pics of the sights.

Seeing as how only a couple of days prior to our Niagara visit it was our 10th wedding anniversary we decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch with the kids at Niagara. This is just one pic of the view from our table, you can see one part of the falls, the mist that is generated and then the green grass on the other side is the USA.