Ribbons, ribbons, and more ribbons...

A few weeks ago I had a lady from a pregnancy spa order some bows from me. I ordered the ribbon right away and just got it this week! I can not believe how crazy slow the mail is here! But, when I got the ribbon I got right to work. I had bows and ribbon everywhere! Not to mention, a 19-month old who kept carrying off my supplies!

All of my bow parts!

Six hours later...I had the finished products ready to go!

Ta daaa!

Keep your fingers crossed for me, please. I really hope the lady likes them, they sell well, and she buys more!

Playground slide!

I had to take a couple of pictures to show you Claire. She climbed up the play structure by herself and went down the slide! I was so proud of her. She usually is pretty scared and I have to go with her, but she let me stay on the ground to catch her. What a big girl she is becoming!

I told her to sit and push!

Weeee!

Love that smile...

Fort Edmonton

Tuesday we went to Fort Edmonton. This has to be my favorite place so far. Not only was it interesting to learn about fur trading, Claire had a great time riding rides and playing on the playground. When you arrive, you have to take the train in to the fort. I was just as excited as Claire to ride the train!

I have n ever seen Claire so excited. She kept saying "sit!" "choo choo!" over and over.

The train "Canadian Northern"

We went into the fort to look around. I was surprised that there wasn't things to read to learn about fur trading. The workers at the Fort were all in costume and acted as though they were still in the 1800's. It was interesting to ask them questions about the fur trading and hear their stories.

Check out where the "head honcho" fur trader lived!

We left the fort and walked a ways to the wagon ride. Claire still insisted on walking. She trucked along behind us all day like this!

There's my big girl!

Then, we rode on this wagon. It was pretty bumpy. Imagine traveling like this for a day!

After the wagon ride, we stopped for lunch and to play on the playground. Claire packed away the food and swung on the swings. On the way back to the front of the park, we stopped to ride the carousel.

Claire riding on her horse "Comet."

We then rode on a hand-turned carousel. I had never ridden while someone cranked the ride for us...what a job! By the time we walked back to the front of the park, Claire was ready to nap. She never did want to ride in the stroller, I wonder where she got her independence from?

Valley Zoo

On Monday my new friend and I went to the Valley Zoo. It is a little zoo, which was the perfect size for Claire! She wanted to walk the whole time and did pretty well keeping up. First, we got on the wooden train. Here she is with her new buddy Amaia.

Look who wanted to drive!

Then, we checked out the petting zoo. Claire enjoyed petting (harrasing) the animals!

Run, sheep, run!

The bunny was so cute and soft!

 We saw all of the usual animals and then walked out to where the pony rides are. I wasn't sure if Claire would ride a pony, but I really hoped she would. Sure enough, I put her on the pony and she let me take a couple pictures before saying "all done!" Well...that's one way to get a free pony ride!

I told her to hold on tight!

Can you tell she is ready to get off? :)

I think Claire's favorite part was the tiger. She looked through the window at him for a long time and kept saying "woof woof" over and over. I told her that the tiger was not a dog, but she was sure he barked like one!

We had such a fun time! Claire fell asleep on the way home and didn't even wake up when I put her in her crib for a nap!

Up In Smoke!

This weekend has been pretty uneventful. We have stayed inside most of the time due to rain and cold weather. Yesterday was around 65 degrees...makes me miss the 90's in Kentucky and Tennessee!

Thursday we had some excitement. I was upstairs putting Claire down for her nap when I smelled smoke coming from outside. I closed the windows and went outside to look around. When I didn't see any fires, I googled the smoke. Apparently, forest fires in British Columbia had caused smoke to blow in to Edmonton. It was hard to breathe outside and very hazy. The news said that 45 people had called thinking they had fires in their neighborhoods! Whew! Glad I wasn't the only one who thought that!

Over the weekend the smoke has slowly gone away. It is nice to go outside and take a deep breathe of clean air again!

The Edmonton Journal posted this picture of the Quesnell Bridge.

Ready for Winter...a little early!

We just got back from shopping...and here's what we bought! We just joined a recreation centre that has a swimming pool and ice skating rink...but then again EVERYTHING has an ice skating rink here...haha!

Check out our skates (we are probably the talk of the store with our lack of knowledge and weird accents!)

Since Claire's feet are so small they have "double blades" for her that attach onto her shoes. We thought that was really neat!

And...we finally found a helmet to fit her little head!

We were so excited with our new purchases that we drove right out to the skating rink. The lady there thought we were nuts...apparently we were supposed to already know that the rink was closed all summer to the public for private lessons. Darn....we were ready to go!!

Fringe!

This weekend we ventured out to the Fringe festival. This is where the street performers from all over Canada come to perform. Charlie was so excited to see what they could do. Claire was thrilled to ride the train again. The last two days she has insited on bringing her two babies with her everywhere. Even right now she is sleeping with them in her crib. I think it is so sweet. She kisses both of them every 30 seconds and likes to make them go "night night." I have been waiting for her to play with babies for so long!!

The two performers we watched were really talented. I couldn't help but be appalled that both of them rode their unicycles in their underwear! What in the world?

He was very proud of his "Canadian" underwear!

This was the last festival of the summer. I guess now we have the fall festivals to look forward to!!

Cariwest Festival Parade

We have never seen so many festivals! There are actually two this weekend, but we only went to one...the Cariwest Festival which is a Caribean Arts Festival. Claire was so excited to ride the train again. It really does save a lot of time. Here she is with her Daddy...
I am starting to get used to riding the LRT (subway). There is one part of the trip that the train all of a sudden starts going super fast and then before you know it you are zoomed straight across the river. It's kind of crazy...Charlie said he was behind the driver one time and he thinks the train goes about 70mph.

View from the LRT of the river.

Station where we got off. We think it looks like it belongs in a 80s music video with all of those mirrors..haha!

When we got off at our stop, we went striaght up to the street and got in a good position to see the parade. Check out what we saw!

Claire and me on the street.

I only took this picture because I thought having a budget rental truck in the parade was hilarious! Then, I realized every group had some sort of rental truck after it...I guess to store their stuff...?

Now that is some talent!

After dancing to all the music, this is what we saw while walking back to the LRT. Poor girl...

The train arriving at the LRT station.

We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping a little bit...it was a fun day!

Happy Heritage Day!

Tomorrow is Heritage Day here and to celebrate Edmonton has a huge Heritage Day festival every year. The festival is at a park and there is a tent for each country that is represented in the city. (There isn't a USA tent though). Each tent has a stage for performances, a food area, and a place to buy merchandise. The popular thing to do is try all of the different foods.


Charlie, Claire, and I rode the bus to the festival. You can't drive or park there. Claire really liked the bus. We had a fun time watching all of the performers. Take a look at what we saw...

The dragon was Claire's favorite. She cried when it was over and we had a hard time explaining that the dragon was all done!