Simply adorable - Day 5

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The other thing we did today was drive to a property that had been featured in the free local paper for its 14th annual Christmas lights experience. And what an experience it was. The house, which was large, was in a fairly rural area and had dedicated most of its land to a grotto like affair of Christmas lights. As well as lights, such as these reindeer, there were numerous cabinets filled with models (many animated) of various Christmas stories - even religious ones(!!) - such as The Grinch, The Night Before Christmas etc. We were the only people there and wandered around the lights with the kids with snow still falling and the freshly fallen snow crunching under food. I can think of at least one blogger who would have had a field day describing it using words such as 'adored' 'awe' 'wonder' 'amazed' (but then again given their everyday use perhaps a whole new set of words would have had to be have been invented just for this occasion - I know she would have loved it). Suffice to say it was fum.

More snow - Day 5

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The weather forecast for today was for snow. Not a lot, a few centimetres, but enough to discourage us from travelling too far from home. I am glad we didn't as when the snow came it was quite heavy and quickly covered the roads, pavements, and houses with another layer of fresh snow. Much of this was on top of already icy areas which made walking a little treacherous. We did what any people not used to regular snow do and went for a walk around the neighbourhood and slid, threw snowballs, played in the park etc. I particularly like this short video clip. As Poppy falls I pan away for the much more exciting shot of 'car driving on snow'. Poppy was not badly injured.

Awesome!!!! - Day 4

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After two days of lazing around and acclimatisation we thought we should do something today. By far the easiest thing to do when in Toronto is to go to the CN Tower. Well I say easy......the problem being that Elijah has been worrying about going up it for months. He doesn't like heights. He had worried about the flight but that had been enjoyed in the end so we were hoping the same would be true of the CN Tower. He spent much of the morning saying he didn't want to but after a while said he would. We drove about 40 miles from Milton to Yorkdale shopping centre so we could get the subway into Union Station. We then walked the Skywalk from the station to the tower. E was clearly nervous and getting more nervous as we got nearer the lifts. As we got on the lift he stopped outside, upset, saying he didn't want to go up. Alice picked him up and he buried his head in her neck as the lift went up. On arrival at the observation deck he, with the others, confidently strolled to the windows and looked out without a care at all!! I. on the other hand, tentatively moved towards the windows, having a mild fear of heights myself. When we ventured down to the glass floor it didn't take long for him to be walking all over it with his two older sisters and mothers. I eventually stood on it briefly. Lulah was not to be persuaded!!

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Once down from the tower we wandered through a combination of the streets and the PATH (the underground network of shops and food halls that link the various office blocks without the need to venure outside) to the Eaton Centre, stopping briefly at the free skating rink at City Hall. Only a modest shop at the Eaton Centre. We were looking for boots for Poppy (which we eventually got at the Yorkdale shopping centre on the way back to the car) but got trousers for Tilda. By now we were all a bit hot (the problem of having to dress for the cold and the very warm indoor areas) and tired so we got subway back down to Union as we wanted to go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. We had various good reviews of it online and in guide books. It didn't disappoint. The food was great and plentiful and fantastic value. $80 (40GBP) for a three course meal with unlimited drinks. And the added North American benefit of being served by people who see service as some sort of art or vocation and nothing is too much trouble and everything you do is AWESOME!

So back to the subway then to the Yorkdale Shopping Centre then to the car then to Milton (with the only downer being a first experience of the notorious 401 traffic). All in all a great day.

Let it snow - Day 3

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I am not sure we had any great plans for Tuesday.We woke up early again but managed to get up a little later than the first morning. The kids spent much of the morning getting dressed in warm clothes, going out to play in the snow, coming back in covered in snow and then repeating the exercise half an hour later. We didn't do much else at all. I snoozed part of the afternoon away which was nice. We also spent some time asking trivia questions from a game called Q2000 or something similar.

A favorite question was 'What did Prince Charming do when he found Sleeping Beauty'? The answer being 'Her.' Yes it baffled us too.

We got in the car (on what was now fairly icy roads due to the snow turning to rain later in the day) to find somewhere to buy some dinner. We ended up, rather lazily, in Wendy's. Not one of us had a Baconator!!!! We had pudding (a donut each) from the adjacent Tim Hortons. So not much done but a nice relaxing day nonetheless.