AETE Family Day

Yesterday AETE hosted family day in their hangar on base. (AETE: Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment is where Peter works). They started out the day with a pancake breakfast and had all kinds of things planned for kids. Also, there were helicopter rides running all day for immediate family members. My flight was scheduled for 4:40 pm, but something went wrong with the helicopter around 3:30, so I never did make it up - I guess I'll have to wait until next year! Either way, we had lots of fun, mostly Ainsley who most of the activities were geared towards : )

Here she is in the kids play area.





Heading to the slide - military style ; ) Ainsley was not super excited about this slide ... it was a bit long for her to go down by herself; I was at the bottom to catch her, but she was still pretty uncertain about the whole thing. Two rides down was enough for her!





Peter took Ainsley in the bouncy castle ... another activity she was not too sure about! The funniest thing was that they had to wear socks inside the castle .. neither of them had socks on, but there was a basket of clean socks for people to use just outside the castle. Well, I came back from the washroom and saw Peter putting these enormous socks on Ainsley and just cracked up!! They looked so funny on her, and Peter looked so funny trying to get them on!! Little did he know that she had a pair of tiny socks in the diaper bag ; )






I took Ainsley on a little ride in a very tiny fire truck. As you can see, I was a little large for it, which is why my head is bent in that weird way! We just didn't think she would have liked going on her own ... even though there were seatbelts.


Ainsley was also lucky enough to have her face painted! When we walked over to the table to have it done, Peter said to the girl 'Want a challenge?' She just smiled and I'm sure she was thinking, 'Oh, it can't be that bad'; well, it wasn't actually, but Ainsley did jerk her head a few times ... it still turned out pretty good!





Ainsley & I also got to go and sit in the F-18. That was very exciting for her ... there were lots of buttons and gadgets to look at and push : )




Finally, we were able to go up and see where Peter's desk is in 'cubicle jungle' as he calls is. And, lucky us - Peter showed us the 'messiest desk in NATO'!! Ha ha ... and no, it wasn't his!


The helicopter I was supposed to ride in ...


A very busy and fun day : )

Team PM & Ainsley

Boys Birthday Bash

On Monday we went to a birthday party in the park for 5 little boys all turning 1!! I only had Olivia for half the day that day, so she & Jamie were able to come too. Here we are checking out the slide - the girls loved it!


And, here are the cute birthday boys, from left to right: Deklen, Evan, Linden, Brody & Griffin.


And, of course my cute girl & me! Her hair is getting so long and its making her ponytails longer too! We've got to work on some new hair dos' : )



Team PM & Ainsley

Adventures in Babysitting!

I'm not sure if I mentioned in a previous post or not that I would babysitting come the start of the school year. My good friend Jamie has a daughter the same age as Ainsley; Jamie is a teacher and is back to work this week. So - let the fun with two 15 month old girls begin! Fortunately the girls play very well together, and in some ways, its easier because they do have each other to play with. Today we took advantage of the nice sunny day and played out on the deck for a little while.





After playtime outside, it was naptime inside! Fletch, however, decided to have his nap outside under the deck : )



Team PM & Ainsley

My little sweetheart

A picture of Ainsley out at the Colbournes' for a bonfire. A friend took this and had posted it on Facebook, so I wanted to share it on here also. Can you tell Ainsley was getting tired? I think it was about 9:30 p.m. or so when the photo was taken - well past her bedtime!

Team PM & Ainsley

A-I-N-S-L-E-Y !!

Ainsley keeps me entertained every day - she is such a little ham! She loves to dance - as soon as she hears music she starts moving her head to the music! It is the cutest thing. She has also started to mimic us when we do things - such as laugh, whistle, sneeze etc. She does her best to try and make the same sound - it is SO funny! I will have to try and get some video of that to post on here ...

Her newest game is to take random toys that she is really into that day and pile them on top of a chair, or the couch, or someone's lap. She leaves them there for awhile, slowly adding to the mix ... and then at some point she decides that its time to pull everything down and bring it back to her toy area. Here is a pile she made this morning on the rocking chair in the guest bedroom. It was a lot of work going back and forth ...


It is getting increasingly difficult to take Ainsley's picture before church when she is wearing one of her pretty little dresses. This Sunday was no exception ... but I did get a few shots of her - in one you'll notice toys piled on the ottoman in the living room. In the other you'll notice her carrying some toys placed into a bucket, (a variation on the 'toy piling' game is to carry around a pail, a bucket or something else that toys can be placed inside of).




The other thing she likes to carry around these days is her blanket. She has one that was made for her by Peter's great aunt - Ainsley has decided that this is her favorite one. She loves to sleep with it, cuddle with it, and drag it around everywhere!


But occasionally she will drop it to pose for a photo!



Team PM & Ainsley

Oh, and I almost forgot .....

When we were in Cincinnati Peter took in a Reds Game. He got a ticket from a scalper 5 minutes before the game started, and ended up sitting 5 rows back just behind first base - for $20! The Reds played the Chicago Cubs and, unfortunately, they lost :( It seemed like there were as may Cubs fans there as Reds fans, so alot of people were happy about the loss!

Highlight of the night: Cubs player hits down the first base line and the umpire picks it up. He looks into the crowd, smirks, then puts the ball in his pocket. Every person sitting in that area booed him for this! Joey Votto, the Reds first base man, had a big grin on his face the whole time. So, after the final out of that inning (put out at first), Votto threw the ball into the crowd - into the hands of one Peter Connolly!






Team PM & Ainsley

Wedding weekend in Cincinnati

This weekend we went to Cincinnati for the wedding of Peter's good friend, John Danson. Peter & John ... (makes me feel like singing 'Peter and James and John in a sailboat ...') have known each other since they were little kids, and went all the way through University together at Carleton. Since then, John has moved to England where he met Alison Best - a very nice girl from Cincinnati. A few years later, and here we are attending their wedding : )

It was a great weekend and so nice to see our friends John & Alison, as well as other friends Will & Sara who live in California, and also to meet both families - who were all SO nice! Here is Ainsley sitting with Will during the reception.


We learned this weekend what a charmer our little girl really is! She isn't shy AT ALL ... she walked right up to just about anyone if they were willing to pay attention to her ; ) We had a really busy weekend, and Ainsley was so good through all of it - barely a complaint at all. She got to see lots of new faces, and eat some new types of food and be a part of really fun weekend.

Here are some shots of the wedding venue before the wedding - Aston Oaks Golf & Country Club; and some photos of the wedding ceremony.






Peter had to be at the venue at 3:30 for pictures on the day of the wedding. So, Ainsley & I hung out with some relatives of John & Alison who were also there early. In particular, Alison's 10-year-old cousin Shylah loved Ainsley to pieces! She took care of her a lot that afternoon, walked around with her, pushed her in the stroller - it was great! She even took her outside later on during the speeches which was excellent timing ;)






There was one other little girl there, who was around 2 years old. She & Ainsley sized each other up ... and it ended in Ainsley being pushed down by the slightly bigger girl. Ainsley handled it well though, she just looked at her, got up and walked away!


Peter & Beth (the maid of honor) working on their speeches during a little downtime just before the ceremony.


I really liked the centerpieces on the tables at the reception. John & Alison have done plenty of traveling while living in the UK ... so each table was named for a place that they have traveled together. For some personal flair they added photos of themselves from their travels - it was very unique and suited them perfectly!





This one is for you Mom : )


It was a busy weekend and we were all looking forward to sleeping in our own beds again. Ainsley couldn't wait so she had a nice nap on the plane ride to Chicago ; )


We had about a 2 hour wait in Chicago over the lunch hour ... Ainsley posed for me as she was starting to think about having another nap ; )


A fantastic weekend ... now looking forward to our next vacation - when we find out when that is we'll let you know ; )

Team PM & Ainsley