Birthday for the Boy

The boy has hit double digits.
(Age wise that is...)

He seemed to be pretty pleased with his new Oilers jersey.



And birthday desert...





Happy Birthday Cayde!

Mark is now gainfully employed

OK, so there is only so much househusbanding I can take.

I got a job with 5D Information Management doing stuff like cleaning toilets, watering plants and administering servers.

Mark

Addie's Party at the Ice Palace

Addie's dream for her 8th birthday party was to have an ice skating party, so off to the Ice Palace at West Edmonton Mall we went...







Setting up the party room



Mr Dolphin.





So once we had the room sorted, we headed out onto the ice to skate with the guests.



Addie and Mark.



Connor.



Addie, Cayde, Katie, Mark and Nilakshi.



Alana.





The whole mob.



Some random stranger. (They don't come much stranger than her...)



Party time



There's that strange one again, about to plunge us into darkness.



Luckily, we had a candle to give us some light, but the strange one came and blew it out - the rudeness!



Then she started hacking into our food - the hide of some people.



Then she opened the gifts that everyone had brought.



We decided to let her stay and play some games with us, like pass the parcel.





Enough party room stuff - time to get back out on the ice. Hurry up Zamboni!





After all the guests had left, we went exploring the mall.
There was a giant, multi-headed jester monster hanging from the ceiling.



A shop selling Moose Mounties.



Somebody had parked their boat in the middle of the mall.
(The running joke is that WEM has more submarines than the Canadian Navy :-)





This just made me giggle.



Mark

Edmonton Motor Show

Last Thursday and Friday the Edmonton Public Schools Board held their annual teacher's conference. While Delle was off partying with the other teachers (what else do teachers do when they get together with no kids?) Cayde, Addie and I headed off to the Edmonton Motor Show.



Yellow punchbuggy!



The Oilersmobile was there in all its glory...



Yes, that's a wide screen LCD TV in the back hooked up to the DVD player in the cab. There are speakers on the roof bars as well.



When a car manufacturer wants a distinctive style for a new vehicle, they often head to a design studio in Italy such as Pininfarina or Bertone .

When Ford wanted a distinctive style for their new Bronco, they went to Bob the Builder.





Cayde and Addie hijack an F350



Yes, F series trucks are very big.



Ooh - shiny!



A yummy Ford GT - It only costs $200K



Blue Nissan Versa! (For all the "Heroes" fans out there :-)



Hmm - something seems to be missing from 350 Chev motors - ah yes! the car.



"So I was driving between these two trucks, and they just kept getting closer and closer..."



Addie making off in the Uni of Alberta's Formula SAE beasty.



The cops were soon on her tail in their modified Tiburon.



There's a Grand Prix in Edmonton later in the year, and apparently this car will be racing.
OK, so it's a Champ Car, not Formula One, but hey.



So while I was at the show, I checked out some potential replacements for Bessie.
A Mercedes...



Some Ferraris...









And a Lamborghini...



Over to the Hummer display.
A Hummer is not just a car, it is a lifestyle.
From the ridiculously huge chrome wheels...



To the huge array of bling you can pimp your Hummer out with.



Radio controlled car race track.



Stretch SUV Limo service. (The stretch Hummer was off at another engagement that day...)





"Ooh daddy, can I have this green one?"





Sporty Suzuki thingy.



Now this is my kind of car. What more could you ask for than a slot car track wound in, out and around your car to keep you amused while stuck in traffic?



Scary how well the boy fits in this funky little Smart.



Hybrid time - Toyota's Prius.



She broke it - she has to fix it.



Camry hybrid - a family sized petrol/electric mobile.
(Shame that the batteries take up so much of the boot space though.)



Look! A new Bessie!
(OK, they might both be Malibus, but the modern ones are a bit more compact - more Camry than Kingswood)



Yay! The Subaru guys had a Liberty wagon :-)



Only they are called a Legacy over here.



Enough looking a parked cars. Time to take something for a spin. Something like a Toyota truck (or two).
So we piled into the monstrous blue Tundra and took it for a lap around the 4WD track.



I managed to scrape it going over these bumps - oops :-)
At least the FJ Cruiser we took for a spin after that handled the rough stuff a bit better.





Time to head home. We had to check out the giant miner dude waving his pick at the carpark.