Our New House - Before the furniture

The day before the movers arrived we spent the day cleaning the house. Not the most exciting day for anyone especially the kids who were in an empty house with a small portable TV/DVD to keep them amused and of course they could not agree on what to watch........

Snack time in the soon to be dining room.

Riley presenting the dining room and the door to the back deck....

Riley presenting the lounge room (minus any lounge room furniture)

Half of the kitchen with the builder's carptenter doing some minor alterations. Seems they didn't leave a gap big enough for a standard oven so the bench top had to be trimmed so that the oven could fit.

The other half of the kitchen. Not as big as Oakville but still does us very nicely.

A very exciting pic of our front entrance, coat closet and laundry doors. Once I get motivated (and by motivated I mean my house is clean enough) I will take some pics with our furniture in.

Time in the Hatch unit

We were very fortunate that Hatch owns their own apartment here in Sudbury so we were able to stay there whilst we continued our search for a house and then whilst the house was being completed ready for us to move in. It had two bedrooms so Emily slept in with us and Riley had a room (which is usually set up as a bit of a home office) to himself and had a sofa bed to sleep on which was a novelty for a bit. The unit was fully furnished and equipped so all we really had to do was buy our own food etc. Sure beats staying in a hotel for a month or two!

Welcoming Daddy home from work.... It was such a novelty for the kids to welcome Daddy home each afternoon after having so many months of only seeing him on weekends.

I think someone thought Daddy had bought her a lil gift............but 'twas for Mummy LOL!!!

Making the most of the wet weather and trying out her raincoat and rain boots (not that they made much difference as she ended up sitting and then laying in the puddle anyways)

Jumping in the puddles! Who would have thought a lone puddle in an apartment complex car park would prove to be so much fun??

Taking a little break from the fun and sitting down...........

If you are looking at this thinking that it looks like Emily is drinking the water you would be right, EEEEEWWWW Riley was both fascinated and disgusted at the same time. The more I tried to stop her the more determined she was to drink....

Warming up in the bath after puddle jumping and enjoying a mess free ice-block at the same time!

After the puddle jumping and bath time ice-blocks it was time for a kids movie and some popcorn.

Baking cookies in the unit was a little more challenging seeing as how I didn't have any of my usual baking goodies and this was the biggest bowl I could find in the cupboards to use as a mixing bowl. I need not have worried as a good portion of the mixture ended up in a couple of certain kids' mouths.........all part of the fun of baking when you are little I think!

What you lookin at Mummy??

The big move

Riley was lucky enough to go for a short ride when the guys moved the truck out of our driveway and across the street.

Gosh I didn't even realise it has been so long since my last blog (almost as long as my last confession hahaha). We have made the big move from Oakville to Sudbury and after many months of looking we found ourselves a nice little house to rent. It is one that we looked at buying (back in our temporary insanity when we were considering purchasing due to the very limited and very crappy rentals). Turns out the builder couldn't sell it due to the current economy and remembered Brad mentioning to him that we were no longer interested in purchasing and would continue to search for a rental so he gave Brad a call and offered this house for rent. After some initial negotiating we reached an agreement and we moved in the first week of August. We are mostly unpacked but going from a very large 5 bedroom house down to a single story 3 bedroom house with 1/2 finished basement means we will most likely have boxes around for some time yet.

The kids seem to have adjusted quite well with this move. Thankfully Emily is still young enough not to really know what was happening although she did give the movers a mouthful for entering her room and touching her stuff (I think Riley will be in some big trouble in years to come if he dares to enter her room without permission!). At first she was waking quite a bit during the night and coming into our bed so a little unsettled with all the changes but now she seems to only come in once a night maybe every second night.

Riley 'supervising'.....always so helpful

Riley and the team. They really were so very patient with him and really made him feel like a part of the team.

What's Your News?

Earlier in the year Riley went along to an open audition for a children's program. On the day he spoke really well but was very shy and so as we left we thought that we would just chalk it up to experience and think nothing more of it. Thursday last week a lovely lady by the name of Sharon called to tell us that Riley had been cast in one episode of the show! He jumped for joy and screamed something at me which Sharon and I took as a sign that he would be slightly interested in giving this a go.

The program is called What's Your News? and is a kids show featuring real kids (not professional actors) and animated characters (mostly ants). The ants are the staff of a news program and report on such things as a game of hide-n-seek (which is Riley's episode). So for Riley's episode the story is that he and his friend Taya are playing hide-n-seek, the twist however is that they play it with a bear. One of them dresses up as a bear (in this case Riley) and goes and hides the other person tries to find them and if they cannot find them they shout "Where's the bear?" and the person hiding growls Grrrr. So day one Riley filmed scenes of him walking up the street and the driveway to Taya's house to play with her. They also filmed him sitting on the front porch with Taya explaining to Gi Ant how the game is played. Today his scene was inside the lounge room hiding behind a chair where Taya finds him.

I am so proud of my little star he started out a bit shy on the first day but the staff were all so great and used to working with kids that they had him relaxed in no time. His little co-star fell in love with him on the first day and nick-named him her hottie hot hottie! Brad and Angelina have nothing on these two.....although after a couple of days to think it through he decided that he would stick with the girlfriend he already has at school...........they are married aferall.........

Overall he had a great time and was kinda sad this morning when I told him that today was his last day. I think that I will keep my eye out for anything else that he can do over the summer as I know that this has been a great confidence booster and I can only imagine how stoked he is going to be when this airs in September. To quote Riley, best get your autographs now whilst they are still going cheap LOL!!

Running lines with Taya and Jason (aka Gi Ant) on the first day.

Getting 'wired' with his mic inside his suit.

Fixing the suit after having the mic put in.

Day Two. Look closely you can see Riley behind all that equipment.....


Riley between takes hanging out behind the chair that he had to jump out from behind. Check out all the guys and equipment around him that he had to ignore......now if only they all looked and sounded like me he would have had no problem ignoring them..... seriously though he did do really well at this.

The look of concentration, I am imagining he is going over his lines in his head............(his ONLY line for the day was GRRRRR teehee)

Now there is the cheeky Riley smile we all know and love.

Peeking out from behind the couch whilst Taya was saying her lines.....

Goofing around with Jason. If you look closely in the background on the left hand side of the screen you can see the head of Gi Ant............whose voice is done by Jason.

Action shot!!Riley and Emily in the back of the production truck! Emily is holding a little teddy bear that they gave to her and Riley got himself a box of 4 army trucks as a thank you at the end of the day too.

Chicago, the windy city - Day One & Day Two (part one)

Recognise this fountain anyone? Think back to the 80's sitcom Married with Children...... This is the Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park in Chicago City.

A view up Michigan Avenue.

Another view up Michigan Avenue a day earlier whilst we were waiting for our tour bus to arrive.

The city skyline poking out through rain clouds. What a day for a tour.

So after a couple of quiet and very wet days in Detroit we hit the road once again and headed West for Chicago. I have to say that Chicago is such a beautiful city and I will most definitely on my 'go back and visit again' list. We arrived pretty late in the evening on Thursday (although it was still light out) and so we ordered ourselves some very expensive room service and got to bed. The next morning it was off exploring for us. The Concierge at the Hilton (where we were staying but more on that later) told us of a great little cafe for breakfast called Eleven. It is a Jewish inspired cafe with the most delicious french toast I have ever eaten not to mention the biggest topped with fresh bananas, strawberries and fresh grated coconut! My mouth is watering and tummy grumbling just thinking about it now. After brekky we set off walking around our immediate area, we ended up taking a short round trip ride on their famous El which is the elevated railway system the trains operate above the city streets (much like the skyrail in Brisbane that goes to the airport). A spot of souvenier shopping saw us purchase a pink Chicago teddy bear for Emily that she pulled off the shelf (with the help of Daddy I believe) and became attached to and a Chicago City Police Department Sherriff's badge for Riley (which Daddy talked him into talking Grandpa into buying for him). After a long day of walking and a great bus tour we ended with a nice dinner at an Italian eatery.

Day Two we thought we would try somewhere else for brekky and decided to try another little cafe that came recommended to us by the Concierge at the Hilton. When we arrived we found approx 40 -50 people lined up outside and the inside completely packed. We thought taking a number and waiting might not be so much fun (especially with two little hungry people with us) so we gladly headed back to Eleven for some more french toast. They too had a line up but thanks to some ugly roadworks outside the cafe not nearly as many people were there. After another big and very yummy brekky we headed off on a walk through Grant Park. This is a beautiful park on Michigan Avenue. In the summer of 1968 Grant Park was filled with young people protesting the war in Vietnam. A riot broke out and the mayor at the time gave the local police the order "shoot to kill". Investigations into that night later revealed that it was a police riot and not the protesters that caused the violence to erupt.

This is our tour bus coming along.

A very famous talkshow host lives here.............

This is a little theatre house opened by David Schwimmer (otherwise known as Ross from Friends)

Riley on our walk through Grant Park.

A walk in the park is just too much for some little ones LOL. We ended up forgetting to pack either of our two prams and so had to buy this at Sears in Detroit on our way to Chicago, not bad for $17!

Riley and Emily happily sharing an ice-cream in Grant Park.


Riley just before he rolled down his second hill in Grant Park on Day Two.

I was trying (in vain) to get a nice pic of both kids in front of the fountain, seems Emily had other ideas......

Limousine American style. Stretch H2 Hummer!

The city is filled with so many beautiful flowers (apparently at the request of the mayor's wife). Here is Emily pointing out which one she wanted whilst in Grant Park.

The last two pics are of Native Americans (albeit naked!) on horseback posed as though they are about to shoot off an arrow from a bow and arrow. The fact that they do not hold a weapon is said to represent the power that has been taken away from the natives. These two statues are facing each other on Michigan Avenue at one of the entrances to Grant Park.

All that Jazz..............

Hilton @ Chicago view from Grant Park across the road. The tallest black tower behind the Hilton is Sears Tower.

Hilton @ Chicago view from Sears Tower.

After our short stay in Detroit we loaded up the kiddies and the grandparents and headed off to the windy city CHIGAGO!! Brad found a website called hotwire.com where we have managed to find some pretty good last minute deals. The way that it works is that you choose your town/area and the star rating you want and it searches their database for hotels wanting to fill empty beds for those nights. It means not having a booking too far in advance but so far that has not proven to be of any issue. We went online before leaving Detroit and booked our accommodation and found a 4 star hotel for $79 per room per night (we were looking for 3 but there were none). Good enough deal we thought. Well that was until the name of the hotel was revealed. We had booked ourselves into the very famous Chicago Hilton. This hotel has an AMAZING history starting in the 1920's.

American Presidents stay here, Barrack Obama gave one of his speeches there. The Queen of England stayed there JFK stayed there and Elvis once booked out an entire floor! We felt very honoured to be staying in such a beautiful and historical place.

Chandeliers were everywhere throughout the hotel. This is a hallway outside one of the many ballrooms.

This chandelier was in our elevator.

Our floor had a seperate set of elevators called the Executive Floors. This is our elevator foyer on the ground floor.

This is not the best shot but it is a foyer that goes out onto Michigan Avenue and the stairs go up to the ballroom that Barrack Obama gave a speech in.



The pics behind Riley are of the Obamas speeches in one of the ballrooms at the Hilton @ Chicago



The elevator foyer area on our floor.


JFK leaving the Hilton @ Chicago I think in 1960



This was our view from our room. You can see Buckingham Fountain and Navy Pier off to the left side of the photo.

We all loved our time in Chicago and will definitely go back there again some day for a longer stay.