Not qute "Five", but celebrating early

Last week Brooke & Bailey stayed with us for a few days & Sydney wanted to have her birthday party when they were here. Since her friend Evelyn's birthday is actually around mid-month, they shared their party. We booked an indoor playground, invited about 20 kids & they had a blast! Although it was noisy & chaotic, we & the kids appeared to have a lot of fun. The best part for us was of course...no clean-up!

Evelyn, the birthday girl.

Our very pretty nieces.

Even the dads got to play. You are welcome John, I am sure that you love that I got this photo!

Brooke giving Sydney a helping hand.

These are one of the loot bag items. Hatching alligators, dinosaurs & snakes. Jason woke both mornings & got up on the stool to watch them. He stood there for an hour one morning. Definitely a hit. Brooke & Bailey did not leave theirs behind, so they must have liked them too.

It's been busy

I have now been off work for more than a month & it has been VERY busy. I have received some flack from various family members (most notably my husband & brother-in-law) that there is very little staying at home going on in my new role. However, I figured that if I was at work & the kids were at daycare, they would be spending their summer playing with friends & spending a great deal of time outdoors. So, I don't want them to have any less fun because I am now at home with them and not working.

I have a big list of things that I want to get done, but this list is not receiving any focus until the kids start school & we establish a new routine. We still have one week left before we need to focus on school, so the plan is to be sure that the last week is filled with as much fun as possible. Hopefully this includes another day trip with Brad, swimming & another hiking adventure.

Holidays

We were on vacation for the first two weeks of August and they were filled with activities. Here is a "short" recap...

Bisbee North

We ventured to our friends' cottage for the annual event & although the weekend is much tamer than it used to be, it is still fun. Sydney went tubing for her first time & had fun. I was thankful that I had her in a sitting position so that I could wrap my legs around her. Ed was lying with Matthew & there was one moment when Matthew caught some air when we were crossing over the wake. I think I would have freaked had that been Sydney.

Sydney just completed 2 weeks of swimming lessons each day & the continuity appears to be paying off. She was much more confident in the water & was jumping from the raft all on her own. Now we need to start working harder on Jason. He is quite content to play in the sand and wade into the water.

Our plan was to hit Santa's Village on the way home on Tuesday, but the weather stopped us. Oh well, hopefully next year. The kids were treated to a movie on the drive. We don't have portable DVD players because we don't spend too much time taking long drives so they seem pointless to us. However, Brad brought his laptop for the kids to watch a movie & it worked perfectly & of course they thought it was great. It sits on the armrests of our seats & has enough battery power for one movie (although I think he should get the extended battery as 2 hours is not long enough). I personally enjoyed the absence of "Are we there yet?".

Rainy night, enjoying a movie...

...& oven smores (much better than over a campfire)

Centreville

Thank goodness the strike ended & we could go here for the day- it was perfect for them! They went on 27 rides that day!

About 10 seconds after this picture was taken, Jason said "I changed my mind!" He watched Sydney from the sidelines.

Brad & Sydney went on the Log Ride 3 times. One because they liked it & two because he was waiting for his hat to be rescued from the water. Note to all, turn your hat backwards when on windy rides.

I don't do spinney rides. I feel sick for an hour afterward.

I didn't tell Brad that the guy was coming when he was in there being a "Monkey in a Barrel". :)

Jason rode the carousel 3 times while Sydney & I went to the Ferris Wheel. Each time he rode a different animal, but each one had to be black. I think he also rode a pig & a bunny.

Sydney joined for Jason's 3rd ride & went for height. She wanted to be as high as she could.

At the end of the day, we asked which ride did they want one last time. Sydney wanted ice cream instead. Since I too wanted ice cream, they got the best of both worlds. Sydney's choice was the tea cups & Jason chose the Dragon roller coaster.

Albion Falls

The quest to see all the waterfalls Hamilton has to offer may take longer than I thought, but we did get to one more over our holidays & it too was beautiful. It took us awhile to get to the fun part because we had to provide first aid to Sydney's knee after a tumble on the trail, we hiked the wrong direction for awhile, and had to wait for our pokey daughter to finish her lunch- she can be such a slow eater sometimes it is maddening. However once we got to the right side of the falls, we climbed down & got closer to the water. Sydney loves to climb & Jason loves to throw rocks, so this is a good day trip to satisfy both of them.

Brad provided the educational aspect of our trip & explained how the stones were used to make flour. We will see if Sydney pulls that bit of trivia forward sometime in her lifetime.

Waiting for Miss Pokey to finish her lunch.

Pigeon Lake

Last week we were at Camp Fisherman with Robb, Michele, Max, Gracie & Maddie. Although 4 adults & 5 kids does not sound like a vacation, we do have a good time together. The kids love playing together & after the kids were all in bed the adults got to play too. First we got to listen to Sydney loud whisper "Max!....Max!....Max!" in their room, but Max wasn't playing. Don't think he was willing to risk getting caught talking again. Sydney says her favourite part of vacation was swimming & she progressed even more over the week & can swim good stretches and stay under water longer. Jason says his favourite was playing with Gracie & Maddie. He is so good with them, it is so cute. The kids also dubbed our bedroom the "party room", so they all were often in there jumping on the mattress that was on the floor for Jason.

Looking through my pictures, I don't feel like I have much variety since the weather was so great we were swimming A LOT. Since we spent so much time in our swim suits there was actually a lot of clean clothes that came home since we did not need pants, sweaters, or long sleeve shirts. Considering the weather this summer, we scored large for our vacation.

Swimming @ Sandy Lake

Ready Uncle Robb?

Jason playing with Maddie (or bringing her wet sand from the lake to put in her mouth)

The fish are this big

Arts & Crafts

Running in to pee

Party Room!

Rainbow sunset

All the fresh air knocked Jason out for 2 hour naps for the whole vacation.

Early scavenger in the recycling bin. This was during Robb & Michele's date night, so don't think the parents let this happen.

Riverside Park & Zoo- Peterborough

Before we headed home we again took the kids to the park in Peterborough. I have not yet found a park that compares to this one.

The Party

For Jason's birthday we asked him if he would like to invite anyone to play & he told us that Adam was his "best friend", so we asked him. This worked well since Sydney & Jason had not been to daycare for 2 weeks so this gave them the opportunity to see Ben (who is Sydney's age) & Adam again. They came for a play date earlier in the morning before the rest of the family showed up for lunch & cake.

For the third year it was very hot celebrating Jason's birthday, but I think a good time was had by all. The only decoration I got was balloons. I gave the balloons to mom to tie to the back of Jason's chair for the cake presentation & pictures. Brad did not think they were tied well so he tried to untie them to fix, but could not get them undone. Apparently he was holding onto them too, but got distracted & let go. The pictures below tell the rest of the story. Thankfully we did not have any tears.

See the spots in the air? Those are the balloons gone bye, bye.

All is forgiven later when Daddy rides with him on his new plasma car.

Three Years Old

Well Buddy, you are now three. You have made some dramatic changes over the last year. The biggest one being that you finally talk! You talk non-stop now & sing songs & comment on so many things. Understanding you is still a gift possessed mainly by those closest to you, but others are catching on. Part of that is that when you meet someone new, you are still quite shy and do not speak up because you are hiding behind Mommy (& now Daddy too!). The other big change is you are really coming out of your shell. You take less time to warm up to a new situation & once you are comfortable, you often become quite a ham. Like your sister, you like to entertain. There are a few occasions where you do things that are completely unexpected- for example, hugging Pastor George. I am not sure who was more surprised- him or me.

You are such an affectionate little guy. You are constantly telling me "I love you so much Mommy" and giving me a big hug. It is plainly obvious that you love your family because you shower everyone with affection. I think you are practicing to be a ladies man because Sydney, Grace & Maddie definitely receive the most of your affection. There was once when we were shopping that I had to actually tell you to stop kissing your sister. People in the store thought your were cute, but when you had been doing it for 15 minutes, enough was enough.

You stopped going to daycare because I am now staying home with you guys, but Jo always said that you were the gentlest boy that she ever cared for. You are definitely a boy's boy, but you are also quite focused on how other people feel. You will get quite worried about a baby that is crying if we are out and will always ask what is wrong. You are also very good at sharing when you know what you have is something that someone else likes (although this does not always extend to your sister when it comes to toys). If you get candy or a treat of any kind you are very concerned that others don't have any & you are quick to share. This is a great quality and one that I hope that you keep for your lifetime.

You have little sayings that depending on the moment can be very sweet or tiring...

• "Don't copy me!" (meanwhile you copy your sister constantly!)
• "I love you so much" (most times is sweet, but sometimes I think you say it for the show)
• "Big Truck" (this has not gone away with age, you are still focused on finding the big trucks when we are driving.)
• "Orange Juice" (pronounced orang-ie juice)
• "I was talking to..." (if you ask a question, you have it in your mind who is supposed to answer & no one else)
• "Mama" at the beginning or end of each sentence (the last month there has been more "Mama" than "Mommy", but you often have a cheeky tone to your voice)

You still love music & some of your favourite songs right now are:

• Teddy Bears Picnic
• Old King Cole
• Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
• B-I-N-G-O
• Barenaked Ladies Snacktime- any song

Overall, you are a lot of fun & we love you dearly.

I have found you in this position on more than one occasion when I check on you before I go to bed. You may rise early in the morning (much to my chagrin), but when you are asleep- you sleep hard.

You love to throw rocks & will search any nook and cranny to find a good one.

Art Camp

Last week Sydney attended art camp at the Dundas Valley School of Art. She really seemed to enjoy it which was no surprise to us since she is always wanting to do crafts. She may not be Picasso, but as she learned at camp- she is the artist & she can choose what to create. Here is the work that you would see if you visited the Sydney Taylor gallery of art currently exhibited in her room.

Landscape

A perspective (?)

Self Portrait :)

Her sketch pad.
The front apparently says
I like to look at eggplants