Avalon's 12th Birthday

Our little Avalon turned 12 on April 1st - yes, she is our April Fool's baby!  She is our "wild child", creative, theatrical, dramatic and goofy all the time.  She makes us laugh with her little "booty dances" and we would not be surprised if she ended up being an actress one day!

We went to Tucker's Marketplace - the meal is complimentary for the birthday person.  It's a higher end, all-you-can-eat buffet.  Unfortunately, my kids don't eat that much on the menu - we were dissapointed to find absolutely no veggies at all.  There were lots of offerrings of meat, but since I am vegetarian, that option was out - the kids loaded up with the ice cream bar at the end of the meal.  My hubby wasn't too impressed with the selection either. At the end of the evening, in the past, the servers would all come over to the table with a lit piece of birthday cake for the person and sing a long rendition of "Happy Birthday".  Well, not anymore, they didn't even bring a cake at all!  They simply came over a sang a shortened version of "Happy Birthday".  So, for a meal that cost us $120.00, we decided that this might be the last visit there.

Europe: You can keep the Winter - Ontario is enjoying the "Spring"!

(photo credit: Studiolit)
The Purty Northern Lights in Canada! I really don't want to jinx anything but who can't help think that we are so lucky to have had such a mild "winter" thus far.  We have not even had to use our snow shovel once! It snowed sparsely a few times in January, but the rain washed it away the next day.  Douglas and Trinity have yet to even wear a winter jacket! (I ran out the other day in flip flops!Okay, so I'm pushing it - but my little piggies were just fine! ) Europe - you can keep the winter with you! Pretty soon it will be March time - which is pretty much the end of "our" winter anyway!

New York City Road Trip

Our summer was so crazy and stressful here in Ontario (one day I may therapeutically write about it) that I took 5 weeks off work and took the girls on a roadtrip to New York Cty! Wow! What a city! We absolutely loved it!!  We stayed on Staten Island, drove to the ferry (which was a short 5 minute drive) and then took the ferry over to Lower Manhattan!

We took a bus tour of the city which was all encompassing - so many landmarks were covered.  We went to all the different boroughs of the city, saw where some famous and infamous people lived, site of the twin towers, the beautiful architecture of the most famous buildings - everything you could imagine and I am sure we only scratched the surface.

We loved Times square the best and spent a great deal of time there.

We drove there in my sister's Toyota Yaris - it took 10 hours to drive there.  Guess how much it cost in fuel to get there? UNDER $40.00!! So, my next vehicle is going to be a Yaris! It was a beautiful drive, the roads were straightforward and in excellent condition.

We walked and walked from 8am until after midnight. 

We were so impressed with the city we are making plans to definately return in the future with my hubby - just have to work on getting him a Visa!

Summer Recap - My Crazy Summer

The weather now is definately starting to turn colder.  I have neglected to do any postings throughout the summer, like everyone,  being sooooo busy.  The summer was filled with the usual fun stuff; beach, trips, swimming, Canada's Wonderland etc.  I finished the summer off with taking the last 5 weeks off from work & the girls and I hit the road for a road trip to New York City - a ten hour drive from here. Here are a few pics from our "crazy" summer:

Avalon is our little mermaid - she is ALWAYS swimming - loves the water!!! I swear she has gills.

Trinity & Douglas had their fill of the beach in El Salvador - they were a bit more difficult to drag to the beach.  Douglas spent HOURS doing his artwork this summer. 

Port Dover, Ontario - Too busy on Canada Day - the beachfront was PRIME real estate!

We managed to find a spot!

 A cool addition to his hand tatts.  This was the Girls' Father's Day gift by a cool Tat artist in Toronto.

An old pro at Tats!

Out for Lunch at "Bennies".

 Go-Karting near us - so this became Avalon's passion this summer as well.  Not a cheap hobby.

 Avalon in Lake Ontario - let's hope she doesn't grow a third eye!

 Long Point Beach, Ontario  Nice clean, white sand. 

We had Season's Passes to Canada's Wonderland - had to get the obligatory pics. Trinity is in the green sweater! Day out with her friends.

                               Peace Out! Bye for now Beach Fun!

Trinity's Graduation

We recently enjoyed Trinity's graduation from Elementary school (Gr. 8). It was held in the church attached to her Catholic school. Unfortunately, they rush the grads through to accept their diplomas with their backs to us & I took horrible photos - but at least it was something.  But, the dance was great - she had a great time!  The next day she enjoyed a fabulous house/pool party with all the grads! So now the scary part - my baby entering HIGH SCHOOL!!!! Douglas has already bought a baseball bat to fend off the boys.

Avalon with her big sister that she looks up to so much!

Trinity with her Great Aunt and my Dad and Mum (her grandparents).

Douglas/Daughter dance.

Canadian Cheerleading Nationals

The end of Cheering Season FINALES - the Canadian Cheerleading Nationals!

We all headed to Niagara Falls VERY VERY early in the morning on both Saturday and Sunday - tried to find the coaches - uh oh, they were MIA on the first day until the last minute! The girls scrambled with their warm ups and no girl was dropped during the performance (it happens!). 

I resent having to pay $70.00 for the family to walk through the doors of the convention center to watch our athlete - my theory is that we already pay enough in athlete fees throughout the year for them to do the cheerleading in the first place! On top of all those entrance fees, there are then pictures and DVD's and t-shirts to be purchased! They have a popular t-shirt that the vendors sell - I love it - it reads (all in bling): "She cheers! I pay!"  That about sums it up!

It is a fabulous sport to watch - I could spend the whole day just watching those amazing stunts!

We also had a fabulous time at Clifton Hill at the arcade and rides (pics of Trinity and Daddy enjoying the amusements), but unfortunately, it rained the entire weekend!

Canine Love Affair?

This is Thumbelina - our six year old Chug (Chihuhua/Pug).  She is a little girl. She is an only child, so therefore very spoiled.  She had a Siamese Cat sister for over a year named Ophelia, but unfortunately we had to find a more peaceful home for Ophelia when Thumbelina got fed up with her.

This is Tequila - our apple headed Chihuhua from El Salvador.  He is a little boy. He is just over a year old. He is also an only child - but spent his life running around El Tunco chasing after deer, turtles and iguanas!  

The two of them met a few weeks ago for the first time.  Tequila introduced himself by trying to mate with Thumbelina's face - "Hola Senorita!". Thumbelina is getting used to Tequila.  Tequila just wants to play all the time and lick Thumbelina behind the ears - Thumbelina cannot really be bothered with him and when she has had enough of his attention, she really lets him know! He goes off running with his tail wagging and then comes back for more!

Here they are competing for treats!
*As you can see from pics we are still moving in - very slowly lugging boxes from storage into our house - still no artwork on walls and "minimalist" look for now! (Hard to move when you work full time and the weekends are taken up with Cheerleading competitions!)

FINALLY BACK IN CANADA!! Whoopie!

After just over two years of debacles and every hoop and bloody brick wall you could think of - my husband FINALLY landed back safely on Canadian soil and literally kissed the ground when he did!

Even at the last moment of leaving El Salvador there was a major hiccup - the Immigration officials photocopied all his Immigration paperwork just prior to him boarding the plane and forgot to give him back a document that was a letter he was given from Canadian Immigration that said he HAD to present the letter upon arrival to Canada.  Douglas left in the morning hours before me so when he landed in Costa Rica and did not have the letter, he immediately phoned me and I immediately went to the Immigration office located inside the El Salvadoran airport.  They were beyond unhelpful - they refused to tell me who had photocopied his documents, refused to look in their photocopier even. I had to escalate the issue as my plane was about to depart - so I had three Delta employees standing with me telling me they were holding the plane for me, the Immigration officials saying their boss would be "up here in one moment" - after 10 mins of waiting I ran down to the Immigration office to find the Manager sitting at his desk with his arms crossed doing nothing.  The ensuing conversation was not good  - he was so unprofessional and refused to help at all.  During my entire flight I kept thinking that they would probably just deport him back to El Salvador when he arrived in Canada without that letter, or at the very least, hold him overnight until it could be sorted out with Guatemala in the morning.

Thank Goddess - when he landed in Toronto, the Immigration official had some common sense and understanding and it was sorted out with no problems.

Our two daughters and my parents were on hand at the airport to greet Douglas and Tequila (our little Chihuhua)! Big hugs all around!

When I landed that evening at 3am (after my plane sat on the tarmac for 3 hrs) Douglas was the only one left standing. 

He has been having lots of fun with hitting all the food places he had craved for the last two years - yes his life revolves around food - slim guy stores it in his hollow legs. 

 Two years without his Tim's!!! Tragic!

We have been running around furnishing our house as well as getting him set up again to do hair in an in-home salon - so that has been fun!

Semana Santa in ANTIGUA

We did more running around at Immigration offices and had the restriction on my husbands' passport lifted.  We crossed over into the Guatemalan border for a few days of Semana Santa in Antigua! Antigua was beautiful - reminded me of Miami with the pretty colours - but colonial. The temperatures in Guat were much more comfortable than El Salvador.  This was a very touristy place to go - not your typical Guatemala I know - but I really wanted to see it as so many people I know in Canada love to visit Antigua.  The bus ride was 5 hrs to Guat City and then another hour to Antigua in traffic.  We just drove through Guat City - which reminded me of Mexico City. 

This is the famous Arch.  Loved the cobblestone paths everywhere - like so many colonial towns in El Salvador and our roots in England have these gorgeous cobblestones everywhere - loved them but after walking on them for nine hours in wedges we were ready for serious foot massages at nightime!

                          Many fab churches!

Everyone in our fam loves Mango with salt, lime and chili sauce! Mangos were everywhere!

Purple people everywhere and a procession coming right at us!

Gorgeous carpet made entirely of rice that the purple people are about to destroy!! Saw about three of them. 

Oh, don't I look so "holy" - my palm decor that the local villagers made in front of the gorgeous yellow church - only $1.50 each.  It made it back to San Salvador a little worse for wear!

Villagers making the Palm crafts to hold during the mass/procession.

Our hotel was right around the corner from this gorgeous church. 

View from our Hotel room - stayed at an awesome little boutique hotel that I would thoroughly recommend, "Casa Christina".

My favourite "float". We spoke with one of the ladies afterwards and she said it was quite heavy to carry.  They carry this for hours around the town route.

Close up of the devotion/exhaustion.  Love the veils - gettin' their Mary on!

Loved all the indigenous villagers! Their clothing is very thick though - that surprised me. 

We really loved all the beautiful crafts and colours - went a bit crazy - but hey - we're admitted shopoholics!  We were dissapointed about the silver jewellery - for some reason we thought it was supposed to be a great place to find silver and we didn't find much of that.  We did lots of bargaining - which is of course the Latin American way!