Sumo

It seems our little man is already interested in girls. Or to clarify, one particular babe (well, baby, really). He met her yesterday in bed and things moved quite quickly from that point, with Henry kissing (and biting!) her quite a bit. Luckily, she didn't seemed bothered by the attention, even when he whipped her around and pinned her like a Sumo wrestler.

Here are the two lovebirds. Let's hope Evy doesn't mind the abuse her doll took at the hands of already-bratty-baby-bro!

He spots her from across the room

With a coy glance and a bite to her bum, so began the wooing

A little serenading is in order

Such joy, such glee!

Giving her a twirl

A quiet snuggle

The ever-popular face mash massage

Um mom, can we have some privacy please?

Two blue-eyed babies pause for a photo

Hard to believe little man is almost SIX MONTHS! Where has the time gone?!

Fall into Fall

Although the temperatures this week have been fairly balmy, there's no doubt that fall is on its way. And I for one am cheering for the first frost! (The cheer goes something like this: "Yeah frost, stick it to that pollenh*le ragweed, woot woot!" Ah, life with allergies is sublime).

Whether you are lamenting Winter's arrival or not, you have to admit, Fall is a beautiful time of year. The geese are descending on the pond by the dozen, the leaves are starting to turn, and it's lovely to snuggle under the duvet at night. Unless you're sleeping next to a 6-month old, but I digress.

Proof in point:

The last bloom on the honeysuckle vine

More honeysuckle - the humingbirds love it and you can see why

The house looking lovely in late afternoon sun

Fall mums in the planter

So, we await those first few flakes of snow, and in the meantime will enjoy all the dreaminess of this fine season.

Never a dull moment!

Well, I'm pretty sure when I woke up this morning, I wasn't thinking, "Gee - I'll probably seen an elephant on King Street today." BUT, there is never a dull moment in this wee village of ours!

We heard the news and grabbed the camera and headed over in time to see them filming some scenes with this beautiful elephant from the Bowmanville Zoo. We didn't find out her name, but she's 49 years old and was very lovely.

Evy was super impressed, with both the elephant and with the costumes worn by the actors.

Elephant actress getting ready for her big scene

Evy quite liked the dresses and the clowns

The horse and carriage waiting for the next scene

Not a sight you see every day

The elephant and her keeper strolling past

Pausing for a photos with a local fellow who is 93 -
I thought he might need a heart pill after having his
head in the elephant's mouth!

Heading up Tupper Street for a break in someone's backyard
The people driving by were suitably surprised

Madame E pausing for a picture with our friend, who was taking
a break from the rigours of filming

Well, I'm pretty sure the afternoon is going to seem quite boring in comparison to our awesome morning! And poor Colin Mochrie was hanging around, having his photo taken and talking to a few people but we just ran on past to get to the elephant. I didn't even take a picture of him! He was totally upstaged by our large grey friend.

Tomorrow is the last day of filming, so we'll have to check it out again. Who knows what might be down the main street tomorrow?

Sunshine sketches of our little town

The CBC is filming a TV movie based on Stephen Leacock's 'Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town'. And where oh where could they find a beautiful little village to use as a backdrop for their filming? Why Millbrook, of course!

They have transformed the main street into a circa-1912 worthy set, complete with dirt on the road, horses, and some very charming shopping establishments. (Not much of a need for Temperance Hall in Millbrook these days, I suspect!).

Here are a few photos of all the lights, cameras and action!

One of the equine stars

The action

Waiting between takes - must be hot in those dresses!

Covering the 1970's brick of the hardware store with wood yesterday

Putting the final touches on the olde-town

No sign of some of the Canadian stars rumoured to be in the movie including Eugene Levy, Gordon Pinsent, and Colin Mochrie. We will investigage again tomorrow - who knows, they may need some delightful kids to act as extras. Oh wait, I don't have any of those! Har har har.

That's all from Millywood!

Swingers

We had a lovely fall weekend, though with the temp today getting up to 27, it sure didn't feel very autumnal. Dinner with neighbours yesterday, doing about 47 loads of laundry, and a day trip to Bobcaygeon today, for lunch and icecream.

We even managed to fit in a trip up to the swings when we got home. It was a beautiful evening, and the kids had a jolly time, including little madam show-off, who is getting to be quite the daredevil on the swings:



Henry was most impressed with his first swinging experience. (That sentence might sound odd if taken out of context). He giggled and kicked his feet at 100 rpm.


Even Rob got into the spirit of things:



And I tried to capture the massive goose-egg bruise on Evy's noggin. She fell last night and this perfect unicorn-horn of a bump protruded from her poor wee cranium. She continued eating her cookie and cried only because I was holding ice on it for about an hour. She says it doesn't hurt, and has been fine - no walking backwards or drooling (or at least not any more than usual) so I hope there's no long-term damage. Just 36 new grey hairs for poor mom and dad.


So, happy birthday to Grandpa Al tomorrow! Hope you get feeling better! And thinking of Granny and Poppa who are starting their preparations for the long drive West.

That's all from Millbilly-land! G'night!

And for comparison

Here is Evy's first passport picture. She was about 3.5 months and Henry is 5.5 months in his. Do they look anything alike?

Lil' man

Here's little dude, looking handsome in his passport photo.
Not that we have any trips planned, but, I shall live I hope about some fun in the sun this year.

Too much fun?

How much fun is a fun fall fair
when a fun fall fair's quite fun?

Another great year at the PoHo Fair today. Here are a few photos taken by Lee.

Madame E had a great day - was definitely worth the $25 all-you-can-ride bracelet! She even went on the little rollercoaster, though the bouncy slide was the favourite by far.

Already looking forward to next year!

Zooooo, Part Twoooo

I'm sure you've already been over to Lee's blog where she posted some excellent pictures of our fun at the zoo yesterday, but I wanted to add a few from my camera.

A good time was had by all. An overcast day + school back in session = almost empty zoo for us to roam in! It was my first time witnessing the otter feeding, which was very entertaining. And, it was Lee's first time wrangling three kids in the bathroom at the same time. Not enough hand sanitizer in the world, people.

Senor digger on the job

Daredevil devil

Clickety click Barba-trick!

The amount of blurriness is directly
related to the amount of fun

Swing pusher, butt-wiper, slide slider, super-mom/auntie!

The view from the top
(of the super-slide, that is!)

In other news, we've had a (mild and possibly non-existent) case of chicken pox here. Cousin Sam is inflicted and after Ev had a fever of 102 last week and then some mystery red dots (but less than 10) we figured better safe than sorry. So, no daycare for her this week (she usually goes 3x a week). It's been surpisingly ok having her home, though pretty sure that's all to do with being down in Port Hope for 7 hours on Tuesday and then at the zoo all morning yesterday!. Misery loves company, or something along those lines!

Happy back to schook week for all of you school-bound friends! And, if you're in the Millbrook region this weekend, don't miss the Zuchinni Festival on Sunday. It's seriously the most fun you'll ever have with a Zuchinni!

Yum

Someone had his first taste of rice cereal today. It was scary. Not for him, but for me. I was worried he was going to gnaw my arm off once he got on to the idea of 'food'. Luckily, there were no injuries, and a lovely breakfast was had by all.

I get it now...

This is why people don't have kids.

Tiny Dancer

Who is this little girl who wants to be a fairy princess? I had to tell her she could not wear a tiara to daycare today. I blame Disney.

I think all who know me would agree that I'm not really a dainty pink-wearing frilly person, so I don't believe she's getting it from me. And I'm definitely not graceful. Maybe Rob is secretly teaching her pirouettes when I'm not looking? Or maybe it's just about being 3 and liking 'pretty' things, and wanting to express herself by shaking her bootie. The impromptu dance performance she gave last night was heartfelt, serious, and enthusiastic (even when she tripped on her own feet and face-planted the couch cushion). Time to sign this girl up for a gymnastics class!

Here she is at the cottage last week, playing with the $1.25 ribbon I bought her (thank you Dollarama!). Never has $1.25 provided so many hours of fun to any child anywhere. She was just so completely earnest - it was adorable.

Putting on a show for the loons

Concentrating despite a graze after knee met granite

So serious! Tongue sticking out with effort!

Five months?

Two topics of disbelief today....

#1 - it's.freakin.September
#2 - my BABY is five months old today!

Here he is last week, looking priddy darn cute!