Bad Blogger! Bad, Bad Blogger!

After a busy & fun summer... including trips to the Zoo, the PNE (and saw the Doodlebops!), the lake, 2 birthday parties, another "train day", etc etc...

Me & the girls on the train at the zoo

(though with the pathetic FOUR posts I did through the whole thing, one might doubt we did anything at all)

I sort of reached the point of being so far behind in blogland that I may never catch up & therefore, stop blogging all together. So I am starting from here & going forward...

We are just concluding the second week of school (and swimming lessons, and dance lessons).

Averie, as per her style, has adjusted well & quickly to Grade 1. The full days don't seem to affect her too badly and, in a rare move, her school chose to keep all the kindergarten classes the same & just advance them to Grade 1. It made the transition that much smoother. She likes her new teachers, LOVES having her own desk, and is even taking the bus this year! Just one way... but she is SUCH a big girl!

She is also doing Jazz dance classes (Thank you, Nannie & Grandpa!!) & is loving that, too. Here she is before leaving for her first class - doing "jazz hands" - LOL

Evan has started his second year at preschool. He has 2 new teachers & a lot more kids in his class (last year due to move outs, etc he only had 9 kids in his class by the end of the year!). He has also gone very easily & loves preschool. I think his new teachers are very good for him as they encourage him to do more than just play with cars or trains the whole time! lol - he has even been bringing home crafts! I can hardly believe I am going to be registering him for kindergarten in just a few short months...

He has had a bit harder time adjusting to Averie being gone all day but enjoys walking to the bus stop to pick her up. And has started taking swimming lessons (Thank you again, Nanny & Grandpa!!) to fill some of the time while she is gone. He had a rough start his first class (didn't want to do anything the teacher asked, needed to develop some trust I think) but is doing very well now! He had started over the summer to develop a bit of a fear of the water - we would like to nip that in the bud. It is nice because in his time slot, his class is literally the ONLY people in the whole pool!

Brynlea is her usual silly self. She is getting so big & is quite a climber. She isn't saying a whole lot but does quite a bit of signing. She is such a smart cookie! She is so good at conveying what she wants & follows instructions really well. She (thankfully!) was able to finally get on a regular nap scedule this summer - that was sure a fiasco last year with kindergarten & preschool drop-offs/pick-ups! - and we are hoping she will maintain them for a while yet. She has graduated from the high chair to a booster seat at the table & will be starting in the nursery class next week at church as she is turning 18months! Wow!

Her and I are taking a little dance class together on Thursday mornings & it has been nice to get a little more one-on-one time with her over the last couple of weeks.

News from Graham & I??? Well, while entering his 3rd year as a substitute teacher with no prospects for a continuing contract coming any time soon (dang recession!) we have made the decision that Graham will return to school. He is doing the Computer information systems program which is a diploma or degree program (depending on what he decides to do), and we will be back on student loans for a bit... it is a difficult decision to make, but we need to roll with the punches & see where it takes us.

As if that didn't make things crazy enough??? We also found out this summer that we are expecting baby #4. I kinda thought that by the time we got here, we might be a little more stable financially - but it is not to be, I guess :) This will be our last baby, so I am trying to enjoy it. It's not difficult as so far this has been one of my easiest 1st trimesters. Some days I have to remind myself that I really AM pregnant! LOL

and so on it goes.... hopefully I will manage to keep this more regularly updated!!

Nothing better than the Beach!

As usual, time has gotten away from me & it's time for a little "ketchup"...

My Mom & sister (with her 2 boys) came to visit the week of my birthday & it was a great time!

One evening, Graham's youth group was planning a trip to White Rock beach (one of my favorite places!) and I discovered that in the 25 years my mom lived in the Lower Mainland, she NEVER went to White Rock beach!! (I know - travesty!)

So, out to the beach we headed...

First had a walk & looked for shells before the tide was ALL the way in...

Driftwood playground...

Then fish & chips I mean, BARREL of fish & chips from the best place on the strip - Moby Dick's

Is there anything better than fish and chips THIS close to the ocean?! Oh, and see that BUCKET on the table?? Ya, it's FULL of the best fresh cut, yukon gold potato french fries EVER!!

A visit with the "White Rock"... and a walk down the pier at sunset = a PERFECT evening!

Beating the Heat

In the midst of a record-breaking heatwave where we live (I read today it was hotter here than in JAMAICA!), I am beyond grateful for the not-typical wise purchase we made at the very beginning of the summer.

Every year in the worst of the summer heat, when air conditioners are hard to find in stock & are their most expensive, we swear "THIS fall, we will buy an air conditioner!!"...

(and I have had 2 August babies - so some of of those promises included actual swearing! LOL)

but there is something comforting about those cooler fall days & evenings, and it seems that once in the lull of more comfortable temperatures, the torturous ones are forgotten...

(Kinda like labor... I mean you know it sucked, but not until the first contraction with the next child do you recall exactly HOW MUCH it sucked - then it's too late!)

NOT THIS YEAR...

We had a very LONG winter & a SUCKY spring & it seemed like summer would never get here... then suddenly the first week of June - we just about cooked!! It got up to 35 degrees (Celsius) and none of us wanted to eat, couldn't sleep, forget about naps for Brynlea... one day when the kids (and us) were particularly crabby & sweaty, I'd had enough... there was NO WAY I was doing THIS for the entire summer!

I went to a local hardware store & they had LOTS of stock of air conditioners & in fact, were CLEARING out some of last years' models!! *SCORE*

So I managed to grab a 10,000BTU window unit for $198.00!! We installed it in our room & with some carefully placed fans to circulate the cooler air, it keeps our entire townhouse quite comfortable (our room is actually COLD! haha)

HAD to post this - SO funny!!

We had family visiting this week & had lots of fun (more to come on that), but what do a couple of 6 year olds do to pass the time on a VERY muggy afternoon??

If you're my cutie patootie daughter & nephew, you set up a lemonade stand (with help from your very cool mom/aunt) and make $2 selling lemonade to the inhabitants of our complex :)

...that was in only about 45 minutes because they couldn't stand the heat anymore than that either! lol

They were so cute! You could tell my nephew had been to a few baseball games, "GET your lemonade here, ice cold lemonade!" Averie chimes in "It's very refreshing!"

Seriously, does it GET cuter than that?!

End of the "Cat Debate" with one foul swoop! *warning: kinda graphic*

We have had an "animal encounter" - due to my husband's allergies (and most likely, Evan's as well) we do not have any pets...

(outside of "Frenchy" the goldfish who was a gift from my husband's grade 12 students at the end of the year)

My kids are not really socialized to animals. Averie & Evan like them, if they find their behavior a little intimidating at times, but Brynlea is quite scared of animals.

Though cats are not an option, my husband's allergies could likely tolerate a dog. At the moment, my sanity cannot. I have enough poop, pee & vomit in my life. Thank you very much.

Also, see THIS post about our already cramped living situation. I won't add a dog to the current cramped chaos.

My kids can repeat my mantra now anytime they ask for a dog - "Not until we have NO babies." And I will likely push this further to "all children in school".

While Averie understands that "cats make Daddy sick" - she has still pined for one.

Until yesterday.

I did a photoshoot for a dear friend of mine since highschool who has an adorable baby girl. After the shoot, I was going to the hospital to visit another good friend who had just had a baby. Averie wanted to come with me to both.

I figured she could be my pack rat in training assistant for the afternoon. So she came & carried stuff, then played with my friend's son while we did the photos. My friend has a couple cats. Averie was very interested in them.

She was being very good and gentle. Only playing/petting the more patient of their 2 cats & leaving the other alone.

As I was packing to leave - it happened. Suddenly, Averie was crying & ran to me with her hand over her eye. "The cat scratched me." When I managed to get her hand away, I couldn't see precisely where she had been scratched because she was crying blood. Disturbing? Yes! And just as much, if not more so, for my friends.

After cleaning her up a bit, we realized she had a VERY near miss - Your going to start blinking a lot, or rubbing your eye when you read this...

the cat had scratched across the bridge of her nose & the other claw had actually scratched the pink in the inside corner of her eye. The clincher was that it got it's claw in the tiny opening to her tear duct:

and well, kinda... um... tore it. I know - major bum squeeze! Admit it, you are sucking air through your teeth & squeezing your bum muscles right now! :)

We stopped the bleeding, I think her crying was actually good, because it flushed it out well - put a cold pack on it. Luckily, no scratch at all on the eyeball.

It appears to be healing really well. I debated about taking her to the doctor to have it checked out, but am erring on the side of "watching it" so far no redness or irritation showing at all.

You can see, in the close up, she has developed a bit of a "shiner" on that side. A black eye from a cat! Well, if that didn't end the cat debate - nothing will!

Now, I want to say very clearly, this was a VERY sweet cat and my friends were absolutely BESIDE themselves about it - they have called 2 times since it happened just to check on her & make sure she is okay. I am honestly confused about it - the only thing I can figure is having the AMAZING eyelashes Averie has, proved to be her undoing in this incident. I think it just saw those lovely lashes batting away & figured they would be a fun toy.

But expectantly, Averie has decided she no longer wants a cat.

On a funny note, as I was putting her to bed last night, I said, "We'll watch it & if it starts to be sore, or irriated, we'll go to the doctor so he can check it out" - She got this panicked look on her face and said "What?!" I repeated what I'd said & she says, "Oh! I thought you said so the doctor can tooked it out! I don't want to be like Grandad!" LOL (My dad is missing his right eye after a bout with cancer)

Thus ends the cat debate.

O Canada!

So, I am in over my head again. It is wedding season :) I LOVE it! However, it leaves me little time for blogging as most of my "me" time is used photo editing.

Since my family had the nerve to leave last week WITHOUT uploading their pictures of all the fun we had to my computer, I shall have to redirect you to a very cute video my sister did on her blog to see all that we did.

CLICK HERE

While the boys are away....

What a weekend!

To mark the first official weekend of summer, Graham & Evan went on a Father & Son camp organized by our church. Evan was SO excited to go!! He could hardly stand the wait until 4pm friday afternoon when he & daddy finally headed out the door.

Cutie Patootie with his backpack & my "boys" heading out into the wild! Ah, feel the testosterone in the air! lol

Playing Soccer with some of the boys... and posing with what I am informed was "the pee tree" - ew.

The tent & daddy & son right before lights out.

I figured since the boys were away, I would take the opportunity to have some "girl time" with Averie. Brynlea's a little too young to participate (yet!) but this definitely feels like it's worthy of a tradition, so in a couple of years, she will join us. This time she stayed at home with one of our trusty sitters who had a really easy job with just 1 child to watch.

First, to the "Nail Studio" where I got pampered with my beginning of the summer pedicure & Averie got pampered in a big massaging chair beside me to get her toes all prettied up & painted. It was SO fun! She got to choose her color (and mine) and what nail art she wanted & was so patient once she was done & had to wait a while for me to be done. We chatted & giggled over different nail art we could have done. It was so nice to have uninterrupted time with her!

Then we went out for sushi! Another love that Averie & I share - yummmm...

She even tried her hand with chopsticks & didn't do too badly at all!

We finished off the night by watching Mamma Mia in mommy & daddy's bed (with popcorn, of course) and then Averie stayed in my bed for night.

How much I love seeing little glimpses of the time when I can be friends wtih my kids.
I may be a little biased but I think my kids are pretty cool people!

Boys & Tractors - Part II

First let me refresh your memory with this post that occurred almost one year ago (CLICK HERE)

Not much has changed. If anything, Evan's love of heavy machinery has only increased.

We awoke this morning to see that they had decided to finally replace the street lights in our complex parking lot which met untimely demises a while back thanks to a couple of misplaced cars - this meant heavy machinery RIGHT outside our front door!

Therefore, Evan spent the morning like this:

All the guys working would wave & say "Hi!" periodically, but he just sat there - riveted.

Then we went to take Averie to school. I had to threaten him with his life to keep him on our yard when we went out to the van.

When we came home, after I put Brynlea down for a nap, he got set up like this:

All the workers seemed very amused by him and were waving a lot. Then suddenly, one of the workers (Larry) noticed me taking Evan's picture (above) and pulled the loader right up to the curb of the house - then asked Evan if he wanted to climb in!!

He came down & helped Evan climb up so I could take his picture:

First in the front, then turned the seat around so he was at the controls for the scoop...
Larry & I chatted - he has 4 grandsons, so he "gets" the boys & tractors thing :)

THEN...

He asked Evan if he wanted a RIDE! Um... gee - ya think so?!

SO Evan got a ride around the parking lot...

Wait. It gets better...

He asked Evan to help him finish his work, so Evan got to sit beside him, while he was working!

(click on the picture for a closer look at the faces - it's what pure joy looks like!) I love the one on the right - they are both concentrating & have almost the same expression! LOL

And just when you thought it couldn't get any better...


That's right, he actually got to CONTROL the scoop!! Make it go up & down, etc.

Let's just say, we will be hearing about this over & over for MONTHS!

Thank you, Larry - for taking the time to make a little boy's day - and a memory that will last!

Don't think this obsession is going to diminish any time soon!