July - WEEK FOUR

Sunday - Church and a quiet day.
Today was our second Sunday of 9 a.m. church and we made it for sacrament - yay!  We were only 5 minutes late so considering that we have a 40ish minute drive to church I'm pretty impressed with us.  After church was finished and we had the whole afternoon in front of us, I almost didn't know what to do with myself.  We had a pretty quiet day. 

Monday - Swimming Lesson.  Marisol came to play.  Ken left for Whitby.
Today was Kate's 3rd swimming lesson - the last of this mini session.  There was some small improvement.  I'm not sure how much she loves her swimming lessons, but we went from tears the first two classes to no tears the third, so that's something.  Krystal - her swimming teacher said that there was definitely improvement, so I'll take it!  We brought Marisol home with us after the lesson was over and Kate and Marisol had fun playing.  We said goodbye to Ken - for 2 days it turned out.  (What am I going to do when he goes somewhere farther away than Whitby?!) 

Tuesday - Trip to Upper Canada Mall.
Today was a fun little trip to the mall to pick up a birthday gift for Ava.  It was a fairly successful trip to the mall - Kate did run off once and was out of my sight for about 30 seconds - any longer and I think I would have started to freak out. 

Wednesday - Zoo trip, and then Whitby - visited with Kay, swimming in the hotel with Kate and we all stayed overnight with Ken in the hotel.

I was impressed with myself today.  The girls and I got up, I fed them, packed up to go overnight to Whitby, made lunch for the zoo and cleaned up the kitchen all by 10:30!  Okay so it wasn't super early that we got out the door but still, I was flying solo!  I was also proud of myself for taking the girls to the zoo by myself.  I didn't meet anyone there, it was entirely me and the ladies.  We had a fun little trip which started at the carousel, next a trip on the zoo train (zoo mobile) and then we visited the butterflies, the polar bear (baby Hudson is getting very big), the Eurasian Pavillion, then a stop for picnic lunch (we had been snacking) and then up the hill to say hi to the penguins and giraffes.

Next I drove to Whitby, went to the place Ken was working and he gave me a hotel key.  The girls and I went and hung out in the room until he was done work.  Ken then informed me that he had to have a meeting that night, but luckily Adrian's wife (Ken works with Adrian now) - my lovely friend Kay was available to hang out.  Her cute boys (almost 14 and almost 12) hung out with Kate.  More like Kate followed them around, but they were so sweet with her.  Their dog Buster kept trying to eat Alice's diaper (the one she was wearing) which was mostly amusing!  Alice took it all in stride though so that was good. It was so nice to see Kay.  We had such a lovely visit. 

After visiting we went back to the hotel.  Once Alice was asleep, Kate and I went swimming.  This is when I noticed a difference.  Kate was so much more comfortable in the pool.  She jumped in (cautiously and into my arms) from the side of the pool, she practised her swim strokes and she also put a little of her face in the water.  It will be interesting to see what the results of her next session of lessons in August are!

Thursday - A visit to Grandma and Grandpa's and a swim with Grandma.
We left the hotel around 9:30 and drove to Thornhill to spend the morning with the grandparents.  We had a nice visit and a fun swim.  Alice and Kate had so much fun in the water.  Neither of them wanted to get out of the pool.  Alice has no fear and just loves the pool.  Both girls were just so cute in the water. 

Oh and Ken came home - yay!  Originally he was supposed to come home Friday.

Friday - A pretty quiet day.  In the evening went to Newmarket - Ken finished getting the stuff for his home office computers, visited Big Al's Aquarium Services, dropped of Ken and the girls at the mall, went to the Canadian Super Store to order glasses - half price frames and lenses, then back to the mall where I bought a dress.  (Pictures to follow... soon?)

Saturday - Breakfast at the Hockley Valley General Store, Farmer's Market in Orangeville, Every Kids Park in Orangeville, Home for a Nap, Then to the Plumbs for Ava's 4th Birthday.

Ken and I love going out for breakfast.  Heck, we generally love going out to eat, but there's something so fun about getting up and going out first thing on a Saturday morning.  We left the house around 9 and got to Hockley Valley in time to beat the rush.  We ordered a few things and shared.  The blueberry pancakes and the french toast were so yummy.  I've decided that breakfast is the perfect meal to do with small children.  Kate and Alice were so well behaved.  I suppose it helped that they both did a few laps of the store with their Dad while we were waiting for breakfast.  That and the food was out super quick!

Next we went on to Orangeville.  It had been a little too long since our last visit to the Farmer's Market.  We enjoyed some music.

Some toys.

Some crafts.

Mostly I followed the girls around and Ken did the shopping.

All except the Saucy Girl - Sue.  We know Sue from Orangeville Ward.  She's such a sweetheart and makes the most amazing soups I've ever tried.  I don't know how she comes up with the flavour combinations that she does.  I bought a container of roasted turnip and bok choi yesterday and ate it yesterday.  It was so good.  I'm sad that I only bought the one container of soup.

After the market we walked up to see the waterfall.

And mostly tried to prevent Alice and Kate from falling/jumping into the water.

Kate then requested to go to a park - so we did.

After the park it was home for lunch and naps. (Alice slept too, but I didn't take a picture.)

And then the Plumbs for Ava's 4th birthday party.

There was some trauma this week due to the birthday gift.  This is from a message I wrote to my friend Ruth (Ava's Mom) earlier in the week: We bought Ava a barbie unicorn the other day and have so far had two melt downs. Poor Kate is being slightly tortured looking at it. I've moved it out of sight and I'm thinking we'll wrap it and not mention it again. We'll see how Kate is doing on Saturday. Ava might just need to open it when we're not there! The joys of the "mine" stage! Mostly she is doing so much better sharing, but she's never had to give away a Barbie unicorn that isn't hers before!

Kate had a fun time at the party.  And she did a great job giving Ava her present.  There were no tears the whole party - except from Alice, she lost it at the end but that's our fault for keeping her up too late! I had a lovely time too - we all had a fun time.  Ruth always throws a plum party!

I am having such a lovely summer.  I don't want it to end.  It's funny because I was thinking that we had such a quiet week this week.  Bring on next week - the Bateses are coming!  YAY!  (The only bad thing about next week is that it is August.  We just won't think about that will we?!)

Alice is 17 Months Old

July - WEEK THREE

Sunday - Church 9am in Barrie (we were only 5 minutes late) DRIVE - Barrie-Mount Forest-Guleph-Waterdown - BBQ @ Maureen's
What do you do when you have church at 9 a.m. in Barrie and then you need to be in Waterdown at 5 p.m.?  You pack a picnic and then when you can't seem to drive away from the rain to stop and enjoy your picnic, you just keep driving the most indirect roundabout route possible while your kids are sleeping.  And then oops when they wake up and you're still really far away from Waterdown you stop at a cool park in Guelph.  We're definitely going to go back to the park sometime.  There was a carousel, a little train, a river, a waterfall and a fun play ground - just a great little park.  The girls didn't really get to enjoy it because it was raining.

When we finally did get to Maureen's everyone showed up within 5 minutes and we all enjoyed a wonderful bbq and visit.  The kids had so much fun with each other and everyone was just able to relax and enjoy.

Monday - Swim Lesson
Kate had her first of three swimming lessons - for this session in a friends backyard.  There is a young lady in town who teaches private swimming lessons all over Tottenham in people's pools.  She rides around town in her wet suit. Her name is Krystal and she's great.  Kate wasn't too sure about things at first and there were some tears, but she was doing a few of the things that Krystal asked her to do by the end of the lesson.

Tuesday - Orangeville Friend's - Terri-Ann's, Bookclub
I wondered when we moved into this house how long we'd live here.  I assumed that when we moved out of this house would be when we'd leave Orangeville Ward.  It came then as a total surprise and shock when we went to a multi-stake meeting in February and they announced that a new ward was being created and we would be a part of it.  Cookstown Ward is slowly starting to feel like my ward family but I still miss my friends in Orangeville.  The fun part of being moved wards but not houses means I'm still just as close, geographically speaking of course!  I messaged a few friends on facebook last week and put out the call for a playdate.  Terri-Ann graciously offered her house and backyard.  All in there were five moms (Terri-Ann, Erin, Heather, Sarah and Myself) and 15 kids!  Terri-Ann's backyard is awesome and so is her playroom.  The kids all had so much fun and so did the Mommies!  I took a few pictures of our little gathering.

Terri-Ann and Juliette

Amelia, Kate, Benjamin, Olivia and Carter.

Chloe

Claire

Alice

Audree

Evelyn

Lucienne

Wednesday - Swim Lesson
Swimming lesson number two.  There were still tears but she did more!  And just to mention, the lessons are at Michelle and Alexei's who are the parents of Marisol and Amelie.  Michelle has become a very good friend, and she's the one who put us in touch with Antoinette who looks after Kate and Alice when I'm working.

Thursday - Tyndale Park in Barrie with Grandma and Grandpa.
I meant to bring the camera.  But as I have learned if I don't do something the minute I think of it, the thing gets lost in the commotion of a 3 year old and a 1 year old.  We had a really fun afternoon at the beach.  It was a great little beach and park.  Kate and Alice loved playing in the sand.  It was a little cool near the water - because it was so windy so we didn't really go in the water.  We splashed around a little, but mostly we played in the sand.  And because I forgot the camera (I remembered half way there) there are NO pictures!

Friday - Cosmo Music, Richmond Green, Lake Wilcox Park, Drive to London.
I needed to drop off some books that should never have been ordered, a ukulele and a flute.  I also wanted to see Holly who is the head of the education/school side of things.  We had a fun little visit at the music store and then we went to lunch at Subway.  And then since we were around the corner from Richmond Green I thought we'd go.  I had this romantic/idealized notion of our trip.  I brought bread so we could go feed the Koi under the bridge like we did last fall.  I'd take pictures.  It would be lovely.  I didn't count on summer camp.  There were TONS of kids and guess what they were doing, feeding the fish and then trying to catch the fish in nets.  We waited for a break in the commotion but of course none of the fish would come to the surface as the were already stuffed and afraid of nets.  It was a bummer.  The girls still had fun.  I would have had more fun if I'd brought the stroller along to cage Alice.  I suppose it was an okay outing, just not what I had anticipated.

I should have made this shot below the last one...

...perhaps then Alice wouldn't have thrown the net into the pond.  (The camp leader did fish it out. I felt sort of badly but not really.  Perhaps I unconsciously let Alice throw it into the pond to spite the campers...)

So we got in the car and drove north and drove past Lake Wilcox.  I wanted to show Kate the lake, not sure why exactly, but then she saw the park and we decided to go.  We had fun playing at the park.

It was getting later so we continued on the way home.  Kate promptly fell asleep.  I spoke with Ken and we decided that we would in fact go to London to the children's museum.  So counting on the fact that Kate and Alice would both be asleep he was going to back our bags so I'd pick him up and we'd go.  Of course when we got home Alice was still awake and so I took her out of the van, and got ridiculously distracted by a number of things.  Kate slept the entire time and Alice, well she fell asleep not long before we got to London.  We checked into the hotel and walked to McDonald's and Shoppers and then came back to put the girls to bed after a VERY long but fun day!

Saturday -  Children's Museum in London, Riverdale Park in Guelph.
FUN!  We really did have so much fun today.  We started the day off with a great breakfast at the hotel and a fun swim in the pool.  Then we made our way to the children's museum.  It's a great little museum.  It's in an old school - old as in it said "BOY" in stone above the main entrance.  They've done a great job converting the space.  All three floors of the school are used and there are a number of fun exhibits.  Some of it looks like it could use some TLC but over all it is a great museum and Kate and Alice had lots of fun.

After we left the museum we picked up lunch and with a sleeping Alice we drove to Guelph.  We decided that going home by way of Guelph was a fun idea - good for Alice to nap and then get a break from driving and good for everyone because then we could go back to Riverdale Park.  We had so much fun!