Sunday 31 December 2006

Happy Birthday Jeremy

Jeremy turned three years old today. Yup, hard to believe he is three years old - only nine more months till he goes to Junior Kindergarten. Also, now that he his three, he can start swimming lessons - it's been nine months since Mom & Tot swimming.

Like any Szymczak birthday, the day began with the playing of the Captain Zoom birthday song and performing a wacky dance. Jeremy needed some prodding, but eventually danced away. Next were presents from the rest of us.

Enjoy your special day, Jeremy.

Saturday 30 December 2006

Jeremy's Birthday Party

That is a picture from Jeremy's birthday party. The theme was trains. It was two hours of organized mayhem. Tina had enough activities to keep the kids busy. It was sunny with no snow - actually it was mild for the end of December. One of Tina's co-workers said that we could had part of the party outside.

Though it was a small party, Jeremy opened quite a few presents. The cake and ice cream was eaten in no time. Everyone had a great time, including Jeremy. Next year's party will likely be in January to allow some of Jeremy's future classmates to enjoy the festivities.

Thursday 28 December 2006

Christmas With Chris, Lisa, Teegan & Madigan


The trip up to Goderich was uneventful. It was freaky as there was no snow, anywhere. Typically, when you drive up to Goderich at the end of December, there is lots of snow. Nothing in 2006. It did start to snow after arrived, but it amounted to nothing much.

The kids opened their presents. We had an awesome turkey dinner. We watched TV, did some shopping and just hung out. It was a good end to Christmas.

Monday 25 December 2006

Christmas With Nanny & Poppy

Bev & Gerry decided to spend Christmas here in Windsor. They arrived mid-day on Saturday, and the boys were very excited to see Nanny & Poppy. We went out for Chinese buffet and filled our plates many times. We were all stuffed afterwards.

Sunday was Christmas Eve, so we spent the day hanging out around the house. We had the traditional 'Szymczak Family Buffet' later in the afternoon. This was followed by opening presents. It was interesting to watch the boys. When Corbin was opening a present, Jeremy would move in for a closer look and vice-a-versa. Everyone opened their presents and everyone was happy with their haul. We even took a small break to eat some more food.

When 8:00 pm rolled around, Adam abandoned the family and joined the rush of people trying to buy items at the annual Future Shop Boxing Day sale. Just after 9:30 pm, Adam was able to add three items to his basket and successfully checkout. What did he buy? A 500GB External Hard Drive for $199.99, a 2GB SD memory card for $39.99 (after a $15 rebate), and a SanDisk Sansa 2GB mp3 player for $69.99. Not a bad haul. The boys eventually went to bed after playing with their toys. After all, Santa could not come if they did not fall asleep.

Christmas Day arrived and the boys were hopping out of bed. They ripped open their presents from Santa - Corbin went for the present that Santa 'hides' in the kitchen. Santa also leaves a toy unwrapped so the boys can play right away. We emptied out our stockings, including Guinea's, and unwrapped the small prizes. The day was weird because there was absolutely no snow on the ground, in fact we got rain. Talk about a green Christmas. Gerry put together a toy table for Jeremy - it came with a train set and blocks. It will be nice to have in the living room.

Sunday 17 December 2006

Christmas with Babcia and Grandpa

Babcia (Adam's mom) and Grandpa travelled by train to Windsor to celebrate Christmas. Though the train was advertised as being 15 minutes late, it was only 5 minutes late. That meant that Corbin did not have to wait around too long for Babcia. On the way back home, Adam picked up Jeremy from Jenn's house and Jeremy was happy to see Babcia and Grandpa.

Shortly after we had a pasta dinner with home made alfredo sauce. The boys and Babcia began to play shortly thereafter. Tina bought new clothes for the boys, so Jeremy and Corbin showed off their smart and sharp looking outfits consisting of pants, dress shirt and a jacket. Babcia was mighty impressed.

Saturday morning began with a continental breakfast and with the boys eager to open their presents. Adam told Corbin that we will open them after lunch. Corbin said "fine". Sure enough, after having some delicious perogies for lunch, we opened presents. The boys were very pleased with their presents. Among other things, Corbin received a bunch of Narnia characters and Jeremy received a Spiderman car and a Safari set. Babcia was impressed with the scrapbook created by Tina - she cried as Corbin read the sayings. Grandpa was busy checking out his new book.

After supper, Babcia, Tina, Adam and the boys set out to Toledo, Ohio, to check out the Lights Before Christmas display at the Toledo Zoo. The drive to Toledo was uneventful, but it took 45 minutes to get into the Zoo parking lot. There were more people at the Zoo then during the summer. The weather was nice, slightly on the warm side. Adam's mom could not believe how wonderful the Christmas lights were - she was impressed. We arrived back in Windsor just before 11 pm - both boys fell asleep on the trip home.

Adam made waffles, while Tina nuked the bacon and prepared other items, for breakfast. Babcia played some more with the boys. Eventually, it was time for Adam to take Grandpa and Babcia to the train station for their trip back to Brantford. They boys were sad to see Babcia go - they wanted her to stay and play some more.

Tuesday 5 December 2006

Potty Success

It has been four straight days with no poop accidents with Jeremy 'pooping in the toilet'. Over the past week, he has earned three trips to Chuck E Cheese for is toileting success. Maybe, just maybe, the end of diapers is near?

Saturday 2 December 2006

Christmas Is Here

Adam installed the outdoor Christmas lighting about a week ago, during the warm spell. That was a good thing given the cold weather that came quickly Thursday night. It was a PA Day on Friday, so Adam stayed home with Corbin and put up the Christmas Tree. Corbin was very anxious to decorate the tree, but Tina was involved with a Creative Memories open house at Jenn's house, so he would have to wait till Saturday. Besides assembling the tree, Adam and Corbin spent some time shopping and playing video games.

Saturday morning arrived and the entire family headed out to the Maple Leaf Restaurant for breakfast - Jeremy was asking to go to the Maple Leaf for 'panpapes' aka pancakes. After another good breakfast, we headed out to do some errands, such as exchanging some winter boots for Jeremy at the Columbia Outlet Store.

We arrived home and began decorating the tree. Both Jeremy and Corbin helped, with Jeremy's help consisting mostly of pointing to where decorations should go and Corbin putting decorations beside each other. In no time, the tree was decorated. Tina decorated the rest of the house, while Adam and Corbin played some NHL07 on the PlayStation2.