some summer fun

the wedding was a success. {a good friend was married this weekend and we were privileged to be able to attend}

the high school reunion was a success.



we went to school together from the beginning {grade one to university degrees} with only a few years apart in the middle. she and her husband farm in the area now. if it were not for her, there would not have been a reunion. we may go for years without even a hello and only have christmas cards to remind each other we are still around....but she will always be a friend. a kindred spirit. and she rocks!



i also managed to arrange a cabin holiday/visit while we were in the area.

all those years i lived in Meeting Creek, her husband and his family enjoyed summers at their cabin at a nearby lake only a few miles down the road from our farm.

then she met Kristian at work and she initiated get-togethers for us. as divine coincidence would have it, we also had our first babies only 10 days apart. thus cementing our friendship for life!

she is now living three hours away and we don't get to chat nearly enough. to our satisfaction, our firstborns still enjoy playing with each other and get along very well.

i'll share more photos on this later. {and also discuss my recent decision to not let photos of my extra chin be taken...ha! or maybe i could just work on removing it?!}



she now has 2 children. her youngest is a darling 9 month old. very. cute. Kiara is now old enough to join the oldest two with minimal complaint. although we noticed that little Shannon needs to grow up quickly and offset the odd number of playmates! 98% of the playtime was enjoyed by all three of them together. which meant we had some great chatting time and relaxation.




this lake is a bit of an oddity. one of the few that seems to be shrinking...even with the massive amounts of rain we've had lately. however it contained an important component - it was WET.

the kids enjoyed splashing. digging in the sand-mud.



oh, and whatever the weather this toy gator was a thrill to everyone.


the long weekend is nearly here. the sun remains. yay!! the plans for the afternoon will require sunscreen and involve lots of moisture. can't wait!!

Friday already?!

where has the week gone?

the rain has been crazy this year. it seems like we can't go for more than 5 days straight of sunshine. for the past few years, summer has been not so memorable. we've had lots of cloud and cold....but no rain. i believe we are now making up for it! the forecast has more sun for the next week and i hope it's reality.

on the positive side. the grass is REALLY green.


i think i mentioned before how the kids in our neighbourhood have the biggest backyards? they will play in one backyard for awhile...then move to the next yard...and the next.....then they play in the walking area...

so it seems the same play routine can go for the dogs in the community! one day last week, Aidan and Kiara requested that they play with our next door neighbours' dogs. these dogs have a lot of personality. a lot like our kids. they were thrilled to be chased, cuddled, catch thrown puppy-toys. to the point of exhaustion. our kids outlasted the puppies!

here is one of the "community dogs". ha!



he has been here only a few weeks longer than we have. her name is Cooper....or as one of our little neighbours calls her...Pooper. which is not all that far from the truth....for any mammal....



isn't she cute!

Cooper has a new room-mate. his name is Lennon. yup. as in John. and yes, he is a little rockstar. however, Kiara and our same little neighbour refer to him lovingly as Lemon.

our other next door neighbour has the same breed. Asia loves to jump and steal kisses. she may not sit still long enough for pictures.

another neighbour has a sweet puppy named, Molly. again i think we'll be lucky to get a photo of her too. she is a little wary of our children who are eager to share their love with her.

anyways....

the kids requested photos. this was the first time they learned how to hold the dogs properly. as you can see, Cooper is fairly tolerant of their learning.


of course i won't ever turn down the request for a photo opportunity.


we have a busy, busy, busy weekend ahead of us. lots of fun stuff. very much a "fly by the seat of your pants" kind of weekend. Monday will be welcome. but it will also be sad to have this exciting weekend complete.

i doubt you will hear from me until next week at this time. it will be all good!

for today

this has been the highlight of the summer so far.



i think he would be at the library nearly every day if he could get me to agree!



he has also decided to challenge himself to read more difficult books. it is amazing to watch him. once in awhile i catch a glimpse of that little baby boy that smiled at everything and said nothing! had i only known that he was just soaking in life during those first few months.






his top question these days is:

"how do you know that?"

drives us crazy!




he finally got his hair cut. it was getting so long.

he started going to the same salon where i get mine done. it was getting to be really inconvenient to take him back to the place where he first got his hair cut. he had a little boy crush on his hairdresser too. i still remember him looking through one of the gossip mags in the waiting room and seeing a blonde woman....he thought it was Simone (the hairdresser). i convinced him to show her the photo....totally made her day! he was only 2 1/2 years old at the time! a little charmer.

this time he sat off in the chair, while i waited in the waiting room and read my own gossip magazine. and Kiara read My Little Pony in French! not really. since she can't read yet, it is the pictures that are bilingual! i think the only thing he would have changed was getting some blue dye put in it. so far none of the salons we've taken him to have such a thing available.

they are growing so quickly. it really is unbelievable how much more independent they both are. today we went to Toys'RUs. neither of them fought, cried, whined, ran away or did anything stressful. i'd love it if it happened all the time. still, it was a glimpse of what we have to look forward to with them. what did we buy? water balloons, pop rocks and a game. perfect combination!

sillies

we are into the first real week of summer holidays. technically he finished school a week ago...but with the long weekend it didn't truly seem like school was officially done.

on Monday the kids signed up for the summer reading program at the library. i've done this with Aidan since he was either nearly 2 or 3 years old. all year he has been "expected" to read about 15 minutes at least 5 days a week. when i say READ, i actually mean being read to! nope, we think he's awesome. but he's no extraordinary genius!!

by the end of the day he read for 2 hours. on. his. own. yes. oh. yes.

by the end of the second day, he added another hour of reading to his sister. even more awesome.

today it was like a near-death experience getting out of the house this morning! the boy had wanted to go back to the library yesterday....and begged for most of the day. i finally told him we would go this morning and try and make the family storytime. well. we made it into the program by a hair. and Aidan got his books.



so far we have had few bumps on the family happiness level in the house. phew! the kids are truly good friends to each other 98% of the time. it's the 2% that make a day tiring.

Aidan took this photo with the timer on his camera. it was the only shot of the 2 of them. isn't it amazing that they are both smiling for it? Kiara was so cooperative.



i was busy putting kits together for the teacher gift class a few weeks ago. i have the worst look on my face when i concentrate, don't i? like i'm sure you thought i went through my day with a cheerful smile on my face all day! oh no!! the truth is out there! normally i wear sunscreen. apparently i forgot to apply it to my face that day.

this was also taken by Aidan.



this was taken by me. Kris has gotten himself involved with more men who love to road bike and mountain bike recently. once in awhile work keeps him away from the regular rides, but he's very good at getting out on his own.

we were pretty excited to see one of the ITU triathlon races on tv the other day. Aidan decided he wanted to try it because it was all 3 sports that he loved. i miss going to the races. it was definitely one more reason to get back to some kind of regular exercise regime. it has been way too long.


well, life on the block has gotten calmer since the gnomes have been returned. although they have been hiding their faces. traumatic, i guess?! hopefully they will get over it, because we have plans to make this a Canada Day tradition!!

someone has too much time on their hands?!

early this spring i read this line from Kayla Aimee's blog post:
  "my neighbors put gnomes in their yard. i would like to have veto power over that."

it is part of her "first home" saga. her stories always crack me up!

in total irony....the VERY NEXT DAY....our neighbours' girlfriend put out a garden gnome.

i could not help but laugh over the comment Kayla had made and this occurrence. seriously, i am not sure if i had seen garden gnomes in real life before that week. the only comment that came into my mind was: "oh, you are one of THOSE PEOPLE!" which may not have been the best comment i could have made. since we had not had that many conversations prior to that. {we have chatted numerous times since and i think she realizes that i'm not as rude as i first made myself out to be!!}


i did not realize that our neighbour had put out a garden gnome last year. the neighbour on his other side had commented as well. i did not know about that until recently as well.



enter to present day.




about a week ago they left for a short holiday. 11 days.



we live in the house beside him. on the left. my neighbour, Sandy lives beside him, on the right.


one day our kids were playing. which means we were cooling off with some wine in the shade. somehow the topic of the "traveling gnome" came up. we decided that it was time the gnomes were given a well deserved vacation of their own.

not having time to travel with them. we took their photos and photoshopped them into old photos. heeeheee




did i mention that this was where "their owners" went for their holiday?



and they went here. looked like they felt at home.



all i can say is CS5 rocks!!!



i think we got to having too much fun here!


the gnomes were returned this weekend. with about a dozen photos of themselves. complete with a note. incredible little guys even managed to ring the doorbell on their own.

our original intention was to return the gnomes before they got home. then send the photos in the mail or something. it did not go quite according to our plan. which is just as well. i think the final result was much funnier!!



there is so much more to the story....like a 3rd gnome that was mysteriously left on Sandys' doorstep with a note for the "gnome-knappers". at which point her 3 year old son picked him up while she was doubled over in laughter. then he dropped the crazy gnome, breaking his foot and hat. quickly thinking, she did the same....and put the broken foot in a bag and left a note "this time it's a foot, next time it might be an ear".... i think it horrified our neighbours, and they proceed to act upset and angry. i'm sure it was all an act. really sure.


our husbands were tortured by the guilt and let out some comments lending the neighbours to learn who was behind the really super funny prank. heehee


our children were left confused and threatened to not say a single word about 'the incident'. did i mention we are very caring and loving mothers?


and now we wait.


and plot the gnomes' holiday plans for next summer.


and be on guard for any kind of revenge. although there was a loud party last night. maybe the revenge has been had?!



for now....i think these photos will make some pretty awesome layouts!! Kristian was sure to tell they kids that mommy deleted them from photos and replaced them with gnomes. hmmm....now if that doesn't give the sweet children nightmares.....

Happy CANADA day!

this was the first year in a long time that we had a low key Canada Day. last year was a disappointment in celebration compared to the year before. celebrating with small kids there are just three things we look for.


small crowds. inexpensive. entertaining.


last year we waited in line for face painting for over an hour. only to make it forward a couple of feet. then to discover that they were charging something like $10 for a partial face paint. it looked like another couple of hours of waiting, so we left.


then the kids had to wait in long lines to enjoy the jumpy tents. we had a few scares because the kids decided to leave and move to the next one. and we missed them leaving the first one! wearing red and white turned out to be a big mistake!! talk about blending in.


thank goodness for Cap'n Arrr! and the firetruck hoses. 


this year....we all missed Cap'n Arrr!....if he was even one of the entertainers. perhaps he'll return to another venue around here this summer. we hope.


instead we decided to delight the kids with late night fireworks.







with the long days, the kids have slowly been falling asleep later at night. and waking up later. bonus!





we played a board game. watched a movie. {they LOVED the Adventures of Clutch Powers. actually we all enjoyed it!} then we packed up our cameras and headed to a community nearby. 





it was a treat. we loved to hear the kids giggle. i had never taken firework photos before. Aidan and i had fun. mine were the top 2, and this one is Aidan's. he was very proud of the effect he achieved! i would say we did rather well considering it was new to us.




we enjoyed a short visit with Kris' brother and met his newest family member. i was thrilled to be allowed to take some photos of them all. 920 and a totally full image card later. my niece was shocked when she thought i had said 120....she was speechless when i corrected her. ha! well, it isn't difficult to get some amazing shots when you fill a card! when it was time to leave, Aidan decided to hide in his aunt and uncles' closet. lovely. we didn't make a big deal of it. we left him in his hiding spot, said our good-byes and piled into the car. it wasn't long before he decided to join us. maybe it was some coercing from his uncle? not that he wouldn't love to have another kid to make their days more interesting! ha!!


then we enjoyed a little BBQ in our own backyard. i picked up some Chicken Burgers sold by the LoonySpoons and CrazyPlates ladies. {Janet and Greta}. they are sold at Costco. we were impressed. except Kiara. she is already tired of hot dogs and hamburgers. tough luck for her!


in the evening light, we took some family photos.





and i can't take just one. fortunately my family is fairly cooperative. although this was the best one from the evening. 


the next photos are the ones that did not make the 'top 10 good' list. but they made the 'top 10' in other lists. you'll see why.





i have a remote for my camera. it is sometimes difficult to hide. i can choose to delay photos. this time i tried the immediate function. of course Kiara is the only photogenic one in this photo!





not sure what is going on here? maybe a exaggerated 'cheese' smile?





okay. just being plain silly. mom and dad are not always cooperative either!





Kiara's favourite thing is to "HOP" on our lap. 





we will be celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary soon. we were laughing at ourselves in some of the photos. just because we look like we have been married for 15 years!!! this was not one of those. apparently we have now perfected the 'ball-cap-kiss".





then we were a family of three. this is a nice photo of us. 





and now there are four. she certainly brought some 'spirit' into our lives!!


this is where i ask myself: how difficult can it really be to have 4 people smile NICELY at the same time? should it really be that impossible?!





one of the last photos. i think it captures "us" rather well.





of course the best family photo of the night was taken by Aidan. go figure!