August - WEEK NINE

Sunday - Church in Barrie - Cookstown Ward, home for naps, movie watching, then dinner and an impromptu trip to Alliston to go to the sun park, because, why not!
Alice had her first official day in nursery today.  I should have taken a picture, but I didn't.  She stayed in the whole time!  She stayed in the whole time because Ken is an awesome Daddy.  I love my sweet Ken.  After a relaxing afternoon Kate asked to go to the sun park.  Ken started to say no and I looked at him and said why not?  The summer is going to be over and it's back to routine and well, why not soak up every bit of fun and fancy-freed-ness that we can.  So off we went, and we had fun.

Monday - The girls went to Antoinette's, I set up my classroom, Ken worked downtown, placed an ad on Kijiji to sell the Corolla.
The girls... Kate was fine, she was so excited to go see Annie and play at her house.  I was excited for her.  Alice on the other hand.  I just don't want to let her go.  I know she's 18 months but that's still so little.  I'm not done with my little shadow.  I felt numb after I left her.  There were no tears, but I felt sad.  Once I got to school though it was go go go, so thankfully no time to think about Allie-boo.

Ken was on-site at a job in Toronto and he had a great day.  His new job - with Intricity doing software customization for SugarCRM is going well.  I'm so glad he's happy.  Working from home is going well.  There is some travel involved... I just hope I'm up for the challenge during the school year.  I also hope that most of his jobs are day trips - or commutable so I don't have to miss him.

At some point today, looking at the rest of the week I decided that I was going to list the Corolla for sale on Kijiji.  My Mom offered us her Optra - she bought another mini-van because Dad can now get in and out of a mini-van.  Perhaps some day he'll be able to get in and out of the Optra, but Mom LOVES the Dodge Caravan, so it just all works out well.  I wanted to pick up the Optra before school starts, and I wanted to sell the Corolla before picking up the Optra.  So I put an ad on Kijiji and had a bunch of requests for more than my asking (which was pretty much giving it away anyway...)

Tuesday - Sold the Corolla, drove Ken to a job thing in Richmond Hill, went to visit Grandma and Grandpa, went swimming, drove the optra home.

After much messaging back and forth into the wee hours of this morning, I had agreed to sell the car.  He was going to come by around 10 which gave me time to go up to Alliston and pick up the Used Vehicle Information package.  There was a bit of negotiating, a short test drive and we waved bye to Petunia.  I hope she is happy in her new home, and I hope the young man who bought he enjoys her!

Ken was meeting Adrian for a sales meeting with a company in Richmond Hill so the girls and I dropped him off and then went on to my parents place.  After Alice had a nap and I did some cross-stitching and Kate watched lots of stuff and Ken came back, I took the girls down to the pool.  Ken came too, and sat and watched us.  At one point during our swimming adventure both the girls went under the water.  Neither episode was long, neither girl was in any real danger in either episode, but it was enough to make me want to get a PFD for Kate.

Ken drove the Optra home.  I am grateful to my Mom for her generosity.  I am so grateful to have a more reliable car to drive to work.  I am looking forward to getting everything transferred over into my name... on November 5th.  Did you know that you can only gift a car to an immediate family member once every twelve months in Ontario?  Nope, neither did I.  I like legally avoiding paying taxes!  THANK YOU MOM!!

Wednesday - The girls went to Antoinette, I worked from home.
I feel like today I got something and nothing done.  I'm really working hard to stay happy and positive about this fall.  Home is where I want to be, but that isn't what is meant to be right now.  Somehow everything will be okay.  I will have the time I need to do my work and to be a mother and a wife.  It might not be ideal but we'll make the best of it!

Thursday - Canadian Tire - PFD, Upper Canada Mall - backpack, met Michelle and the girls for lunch at McDonald's, went to the open house at the Tottenham Coop Preschool, went shopping - Ken bought a bathing suit.

After doing a few errands I met Michelle, Marisol and Amelié at McDonald's in Newmarket.  Going out with little people does not make for a relaxed visit.  I'm glad we were able to go have lunch and hang out, but it was a little cuckoo.  Kate was a little nuts in the play place.  She's been doing so much better with social stuff, but I didn't prep her and I think we're really going to have to do better at getting her to bed earlier this fall.  EEK!

The best part of today was after dinner.  We all went to Kate's new school.  She is going to go to Pre-school on Tuesday and Thursday morning.  Antoinette is amazing and she's going to drop her off (and another little girl Olivia) and pick them up.  Kate got to meet her teacher and go play in the classroom. The teacher, Mrs. Jandl (rhymes with candle) is awesome, and from all reports everyone loves her.  I'm so excited for Kate.  I think she's going to have an amazing year!

Friday - Met with Gayla at her parents house, went swimming, went to Cambridge stayed in a hotel, went swimming as a family!
Everyone has their journey to parenthood - their unique path.  My friend Gayla's involved going to Russia - twice.  Liam joined her family in March at 13 months.  He's a precious little guy.  Gayla is a sweet mommy.  Her two boys are blessed to have such a loving mama.  We had fun swimming and hanging out.  Kate wore her PFD and although she wasn't totally keen on swimming unassisted, we all had fun.  Now I'm not sure why I didn't get one for Alice too.  I think I might just do that, especially considering we'll go swimming at Mom's through the fall and winter.  Gayla and I used to work together at Blue Willow and we hadn't seen each other in two years.  We pledged to do better at getting together.   

The girls and I drove home, and Alice fell asleep.  When we got home Kate and I played and hung out and we sort of got organized.  Eventually Ken was done work for the day and we finished packing up and getting ready.  When we got to the hotel it was late and we realized we had forgotten swim diapers.  Alice and I went out to buy swim diapers while Kate stayed with Ken and watched TreeHouse.  This is the third time we've stayed in a hotel this summer and Kate has in the last week started asking to go to a hotel.  Not sure if that's a good thing or not?!

Alice and I got back and with 20 minutes until pool closing time, we all suited up - and by all I mean all and went for a swim.  Ken hasn't gone swimming in years, but finally bought swim trunks and joined us in the pool.  It was nice to have him there (and not just because of the second set of hands/eyes).

Saturday - Had breakfast, went swimming as a family, went to African Lion Safari.
We really liked our hotel room.  We stayed at the Homewood Inn and Suites in Cambridge - part of the Hilton family of hotels.  It was lovely.  And we got the package deal that came with African Lion Safari tickets!!

African Lion Safari!!  FUN!  We started off driving our car through the animal enclosures - driving on safari.  Can you believe that there are two park trucks parked beside the lions and they have to use their loud speaker to tell people to put their windows up?  Yup, that's right, there are signs EVERYWHERE, you are in an enclosure with WILD animals and we were there looking at the lions and someone in a car near us rolled down their windows! 

The baboons didn't come near our van but one of them was having fun with one of the tour buses you can take, if you don't want to drive your car through the park.

It was fun driving around with the girls on our laps.  You never drive faster than 20 km/hr and good idea or not, we were not the only ones doing it, and we had fun!

After the driving bit, we went into the other area?  Not really sure how to explain it.  Our first stop was the boat ride.  It was okay.

Next we had lunch.  Then we went to a little park area with a ball pit.  Alice and Kate loved the ball pit.

Then we went on the train.  The line up wasn't too bad.  Alice almost lost it but she didn't and then it was our turn.  The train ride was nice.  Not too many animals to see, but it was nice to have a breeze and shade continuously.  It was a HOT day!

And then Ken wanted to watch a show and I had my doubts/reservations, whatever, but we went anyway, and I'm so glad we did.  The elephant show was so great.  The girls loved it, and it was just a really cute little show.  I can't say enough good things about it.

Ken suggested a bird show, but it was late, the girls were hot/tired/cranky (I will include myself as one of the girls) so we got Kate's face painted, nursed and changed Alice and called it a day!

Two more days until I can write about how awesome my summer was.  I have loved my summer with my girls.  I am NOT ready for Tuesday, not even a little bit.  (Shhh, don't tell!)