Italy!-Venice

They did so well on the trip to Italy. The flight was rough on us all but they did well especially Dominic who was fairly happy watching movies. Sleep was an issue of course because of the flight and the time difference so while Mommy pulled an all-nighter Dominic and Samantha slept in the stroller while we walked around Venice. Venice was beautiful and I will always have wonderful memories of the kids running around St. Mark's square at 10pm while classical music was played live. They also got complimented by the tour guide at the Doge's Palace. It was nearly a two hour tour and Dominic was quiet the whole time. He was so good!

The Fair

Ok, I'm backing up again to catch up!

Dominic was very excited about the fair. He was also big enough to go by himself in a play house. I couldn't believe he was tall enough since he had to be 40" but he was. Where did the time go?

Happy 4th Birthday!

Dominic,

Happy 4th Birthday little man. I say this all the time but I can't believe how fast it's gone by. You are such a big boy now! You are a great big brother to Samantha and are a good friend to others. You are so empathic and caring of others. You have an awesome imagination and I love watching you play pretend. I love that you always ask questions that go beyond the simple answers you receive. You have such a wonderful mind and a curiosity to know about everything. I love that you enjoy your books so much. I love watching you with Toy. The first day you held your hamster I was so impressed by your understanding what a responsibility it was and making sure that she was well cared for and happy. Such a good little parent!

Even tonight, being so excited for your party tomorrow that you were tossing around in bed. You said "Thank you mommy for my presents" completely out of the blue. You are such a good kid.

I am so proud of you. You are venturing out and seeing you grow into your own person is amazing. Don't go too fast though, little man!

I can never express how much I love you. Happy 4th Birthday!

Love,
Mommy

Granby Zoo

One nice Saturday morning Dominic said he wanted to go to the zoo and we figured, why not? So we packed up and headed to the Granby Zoo in Quebec and had a great time looking at the animals and playing in the water park. He was frustrated though that he couldn't reach the shark to pet it (nurse shark) and that he was too small for the roller coaster.

The "Lake Beach"

We went to the lake to go swimming a few times this summer and Dominic always loved it. When we first went he asked about the waves and animals clearly thinking about the ocean. We explained that this was still a beach but it was on a lake. For the rest of the summer it was "can we go to the lake beach?"

Gee's Birthday!

We had Gee's Birthday dinner at our house this year and the kids were very excited. Dominic loves birthday parties even when they're not his own. In fact he and Samantha often play "birthday party."

Kenpo!

Dominic practicing his kempo.

Aidyn's 2nd Birthday Party

Dominic had a wonderful time at Aidyn's party! It was hard to pull him away, especially from the pool. It was so nice that he got to play with Cameron and Cole and the weather was perfect!

DRAGON!!

You gotta love how unpredictable kids are. I came home one day from work to discover a unicorn and a dragon. The unicorn was pretty upset to find we had no pictures of her on the trampoline! Ooops!

I'm in a Tree!

Daddy always encourages this type of thing...

4th of July

We had a very nice 4th with the exception of all the rain that seems to plague Gee & Papa's parties! They need to be nicer to the party gods! The rain did allow though for numerous games of hide-n-seek! At the end of the night I was determined to get Dominic to the fireworks. We had brought him the night before to water tower hill to watch Burlington's fireworks for the first time. He was SO excited before it started and then SO disappointed once it actually did. You could see the fireworks but it wasn't really any better than watching them on tv. I felt awful! So Dominic and I headed out to watch Williston's fireworks on the 4th. I dresses him in pjs and he had his "ear cuffs" for the noise. We played on the jungle gym to wait and when they started he was pretty amazed. They were right over our heads. So we settled in at the top of the jungle gym with a blanket around us and watched the fireworks. He saw 5 or 6 of them and then fell asleep! Guess the ear protection worked! The fireworks were short which was perfect because it started raining right as I was carrying him back to the car.