Aidan’s 5th birthday was yesterday. He was pretty excited.

We had been to Toys’R’Us two days previous, where we bought his major gift from us (a new bike, no training wheels) and a Lego set from my parents. So of course, he was up early (“Daddy! Guess what? I woke up 5 today!”) and immediately wanted to build his Lego bucket truck.

By daybreak, Gwen and Quinlan got up, and Aidan opened presents before breakfast.

Later that night, there was AWESOME cake, hand made by Gwen.

We took some video of the blowing-out too:

This is BEYOND awesome. Click below to start then wait (patience) for it to load. Or, click it again to make it larger. In fact, it deserves to be embiggened.

Hallowe’en this year was a smashing success.

When Gwen’s sister Mary was here around Thanksgiving, we dressed the boys up in their costumes and took some pics down in Stanley Park:

Yesterday, we carved up the pumpkins we got from the pumpkin patch, stuffed the kids into their costumes, and went down the 3 blocks to the False Creek Co-op to Trick-or-Treat. Now, it must be said that I feel a bit guilty about this, but the atmosphere there is a million times better than around our place. In fact, we don’t think we got any kids last night at all. It’s hard to tell, because we weren’t home for quite a while, but we did leave a bowl of candy outside our door and it didn’t look disturbed at all. It didn’t seem like anyone else in our complex was handing out candy, and I’m pretty sure everyone else who has kids took them somewhere else. Contrast this with the False Creek Co-op where there are literally hundreds of kids, lots of costumed adults, and lots of in-the-spirit people handing out treats. I took some video that I’ll try to put together a bit later.

After trick-or-treating down there, we came back and took some pics of the pumpkins and the boys:

Today we all went out for a bike ride. This was Quinlan’s first time out on a bike (in the child carrier that Aidan used to ride in). We went down to ride the West Dyke Trail in Richmond — a nice scenic and FLAT trail on the western edge of Lulu Island. Return trip was about 12 km and we took it at a nice relaxed pace.

As you will be able to tell from the pics below, it was quite the fun ride for all involved.

Here are some shots of Gwen and Quinlan. The kid carrier fits Quinlan quite well, and after some time he got used to wearing the helmet.

A rare action shot of me on a bike and Aidan on the Trail-A-Bike. As you can see, Aidan likes the Trail-A-Bike. A lot.

After riding from Garry Point up to the northern edge of the island — and back — we took some family pictures:

Here’s a rare shot with all of us *together*!

And here are some awesome shots of Gwen and Quinlan:

Tomorrow, Quinlan turns 1!