SV# 3 ....Busy Day

Finally, a nice hot day. So what did we decide to do? Hey, lets put up an outdoor bug tent. Of what fun that turned out to be. It took 6 hours, three visits to Zeller's to see how they built theirs, and a nice little sunburn was the end result. Actually, I think the tent looks ok; the mosquito netting is for a different model but they were sold out of the one for this model so the the colours are a little off. Now we need furniture to go in it.

Rachel is gone to Meaghan's camp for a sleepover and it was way too hot to cook supper so went to Pizza Hut for supper followed by a walk uptown.

Summer Vacation - Day 2

We had a busy day today. Let's see, what went on. Chores were completed first thing in the am, then we out to Zeller's to look for a new bicylce for Jacob. He is at the ackward size of being too big for a 24 inch tire and too short for a 26 inch. We tried a few out but decided to shop around before making the purchase. We did buy a couple of kites which we should be able to use as it always seems windy in the west end of the city.

Then we went to the library and the kids picked up french and english books to read. The deal this summer is a penny a page, two cents for each french page. The kids need to work on their writing skills over the summer so I may figure out some way for them to write a small book report or something. It will be easy for Rachel but like pullimg teeth for Jacob and Erica.

After supper we actually managed to "fly" the kites, which I was never able to do when I was a child. Rachel's kite was too heavy and only took when we took it the beach and let the Bay of Fundy winds take it up to the sky.

First Day of Summer Vacation

Ahh, summer holidays, where the kids spent half of the day whining that they are bored! Nicole has developed a list of chores which should help them through their boredom issues.

I worked last night but was not able to sleep much this morning, I was up at 10am. But, I did do a lot of housework so at least my first day off was not a waste of time.

After supper we played a game of croquet and then went for a walk. Funny, somehow we always end up going for a walk in the direction of the local ice cream stand. Just as the Pumpkin Patch came into view Erica asked if I had any money - I should have said no and watched her expression!

Last Day of School

Schools out for Summer! They all had excellent report cards with no issues. Very well done!

The kids cam home at lunch and we met Nicole at Pizza Delight. Rachel and Erica have been driving up nuts about getting a pet, so we compromised and I bought them SIMS with Pets for the Wii. They were not too excited then, but they seem to be enjoying their new game. Jacob received Wario Ware which looks like a lot of fun.

And now Michael's turn...

Nuff said...

Mother's Day

Following in the Landy tradition, we celebrated Mother's Day/Nicole's birhtday with a lobster feast! We drove up to the Miramichi Friday night and stayed till Sunday. Lenny, Giselle and Mylin were also there.




Erica finally gave papiere his Xmas gift which was left home on the 25th.


On Sunday, we went to mom's for lunch before hitting back to Saint John. Erica loves mom's cat, Annie.




Then we headed back to Saint John. I tried a new route which of course was significantly longer.

Nicole receiving her Mother's Day gifts, I think a couple pairs of earrings are in there somewhere....

Nicole turns 42

May is a busy month in our household and Nicole started the celebrations with her 42nd birthday. I worked till 7:30pm and met the gang at Boston Pizza. Food was great actually, a little pricey, but better than Mickey D's!

Afterwards, cake and ice-cream and presents. Nicole is a bit of a firebug so we bought her a firepit for the backyard. Now that we live in a city we can no longer have massive fires in the backyard...sorry dear.

Rachel Taylor Turns 11 (Part two)

Another attempt to make the pictures a little more interesting...although this site does not allow much creativity with its slideshows and the way it crops the images is a little too tight. Jacob is actually in some of these pictures! But at least the slide show works all the time as compared to the one beneath it whcih is sort of hit and miss. I think I will leave both slide shows and take a vote on whcih one is better.



Rachel’s Birhtday

Rachel Taylor Turns 11

Today was Rachel's 11 birthday and I am trying something new: a slideshow.

End of March Break

March break 2007 was certainly not as exciting as last year's cruise and visit to Disneyland, but, well, I suppose shopping in Maine is better than nothing!

The clocks moved forward an hour last night as daylight saving time began three weeks early. This meant the kids slept in till 10am and it was a mad dash to get some pool time in before check-out.




We finished up our shopping in Bangor and headed back to Canada around 5pm. We stopped at the border and intended on having Chinese food for supper but they drench their food in MSG so we ate at Pizza Delight on the Canadian side instead. The girls made a big mess in the washroom with the hand soap (the waitress informed us)so it was a very quiet meal.We had no trouble crossing the border and we were just shy of our $1000 limit.

It was a busy week-end...

Day 2 in Maine - Shopping and Eating

I guess a week off from school has played the kids out as they were up rather late this morning. We only had time for a quick dip in the pool and then we headed out for breakfast/lunch at Denny's. After stuffing ourselves(I think mine and Jacob's breakfast was at least 3500 calories)we spent 6 hours in Bangor looking for bedroom comforter/sheet sets for each of the kids as well as clothes and some kind of bathroom closet. I never realized how expensive bedroom linen was until today. We did manage to find some nice sets though.

Next it was eating time and we waited 90 minutes before getting a table at the

Even though Jacob had a great big breakfast/lunch, that didn't slow him down at supper. He went for the Tour of Italy...




We made the mistake of ordering off the Children's Menu for Rachel - not a very big portion! She ended up eating some of Nicole's chicken and all of my pasta as well as numerous breadsticks.



We left the Olive Garden at 9:05pm and noticed that the stores were still open so we shopped till 10pm and then drove back to Bar Harbour.

Taylor's off to Bangor, Maine

A first, well, maybe not the first, but close. We are going away for the week-end and we actually booked a hotel in advance. I know, it is not as much fun as driving around at midnight looking for a place and trying not to get mugged (Miami last spring) but I guess I am getting older and not up for as much adventure.

I found our hotel online using and it turned out to be a nice hotel and a pretty good price. Mind you, Bar Harbour is something of a ghost town in the winter and the majority of the hotels were closed till spring.



We are 100 km away from the border and it was another 180 km to the hotel. It was 7:30pm by the time we arrived in our room. The pool closed at 9pm so we dashed down to the pool for a quick swim before heading out to supper.




Even though it was a Friday, the restaurants that were open in Bar Harbor stopped serving food at 9pm. We ended driving till to Ellesmere and eating at Friendly's and then back and off to bed. We all need to be rested for a big shopping day tomorrow.

Rachel is down and out

I am not sure if it is the flu, probably just a bad cold, but Rachel is down and out. She threw up a few times on Saturday and has a nasty cough which is not getting much better. Rachel stayed home from school yesterday and was still asleep this morning at 8:30 so I guess she will need another day at home to get get better. Fortunatley daddy is off till Friday so no babysitter issues!

Here is Erica reading to Rachel last evening. No, Jacob is not ready for bed, it was pajama day at his school.

Jacob Taylor is now a Teen!!!!

It is so hard to believe, but Jacob is now a teenager. Wow, I can remember when Nicole called me at work and told me to get home as it was "time". Well, I zoomed down the Don Valley Parkway, onto the Gardiner Expressway, past the SkyDome and CN Tower and out onto the QEW. An hour later I was bringing Nicole into the Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington. Twenty-six hours later and in the middle of a snowstorm Jacob Michael Taylor was born.

That was one of the longest days and nights in my entire life. The maternity ward was under construction, a baby had been stolen a week earlier so the nurses were all skittish, and trying to comfort Nicole was not an easy task. Plus, it seemed that Jacob was enjoying the comfort of his mothers womb and was in no hurry to come out. With the help of the doctors forceps, out he came at 12:40 pm, 8 pounds and 7 1/2 ounces.

Traditionally, the kids have a sleep over with their friends on their birthday. Since we are in a new community, we did things a little different. The kids had a sleep over with nanny and aunt Lisa. I heard them in the basement at midnight still carrying on so I guess they had fun!

First Visitors

Mom and Ken were our first visitors from away. They made a quick visit; stayed for a couple of hours and then left. We spent the rest of the day looking for furniture for the girls rooms.

Rachel wins karoake contest

The schools close to our new home do not offer early french immersion, so the kids have to travel to another neighborhood to attend school. The community centre in that neighborhood was having activities for its winter carnival so we decided to attend. Well, we were the only parents there and it we stuck out like sore thumbs. Although,I must hand it to the guy who ran the place; keeping 40-50 eight to seventeen years olds in line is not an easy task!

Anyway, there was a karaoke contest and Rachel sang her favourite song: James Taylor "You've got a Friend". After listening to an hour and a half of bad karaoke the place sure got quiet was Rachel started to sing. Rachel won first place and $25.00. She is getting very comfortable up on the stage. Now she just needs to expand her repertoire.

Jacob's Good-Bye Party

Finally..We have a new home

After a frantic week we finally have comes to terms with the owner of our new home. Our initial offer was rejected and we were a little stressed. We did not come in with our best offer but we figured a quick closing would be a plus. We were mistaken as the owner had already lowered the price and was not willing to go much lower.

Nicole started her new job today and the kids and I drove down this afternoon. At 6pm we put in a counter offer but were not optomistic. Instead, we took the kids and showed them the remaining 4 houses on our list, none of which were perfect but would have to do. While we were visiting the last house the phone call came in along with the news that our offer was accepted. Yeah! Now for the fun part...financing, lawyers, insurance, moving, and selling our own home in Bathurst.

Still, everyone seems happy with our new home. All of the kids will have their own bedrooms and the house is completely renovated with new appliances! I think we have to change the windows in the basement and maybe some cosmetic touch-ups but other than that we are good to go. Hopefully we will be able to keep this home in better shape than our last?

Happy New Year...2007

Welcome 2007 and good-bye 2006. This year will be memorable for our family. We move to a new city very soon, both Nicole and I start new jobs and Jacob, Rachel and Erica will be starting at new schools and making lots of new friends.

We had hoped to hear about the offer we put in on a new house today but the owner is living in Vancouver and speaks Korean so his agent had to e-mail him our offer and he would find someone to translate. Unfortunately, the agents e-mail server is down so we have no idea whether he accepted our offer or not. I guess later on today we will have a better on where we stand.

Tonight we had our traditional fondue and then watched the local New Year Celebration and then celebrated again an hour later with Dick Clark Live from Times Square. When the kids are all in their teens we will probably make the trek to New York City and join the million plus revellers in a once-in-a-lifetime celebration.