McCartney Family

The first thing that I have to say is that my sister and brother-in-law are AWESOME house guests. Our front room was tidy every night and the dishes were done every night. It's Sunday night and they left this morning and the front room is a mess, but the dishes are done! There are so many reasons that I will miss my sister, but the two selfish reasons are the cleaning and baby holding! Okay now onto the fun!!

Saturday, August 3 - The arrival
They got in just after 8:30. Alice and Kate were so excited. Heck, we were all excited!

Sunday, August 4 - Church with the Grandparents
We got up got ready and got to church for 10:03 AM in Richmond Hill. I was very proud of us for getting there almost exactly on time! We enjoyed church, I always love visiting Richmond Hill, even if my kids weren't exactly pleasant... and then we went to hang out with the Grandparents and Uncle Andrew and Auntie Rayna.

Monday, August 5 - Simcoe Day at Wasaga Beach
Before we left for the beach there was some cute play time.

I don't think that Suzanne had been since she was a teenager. She really, really wanted to go to Wasaga. We all tried to suggest a beach closer but in the end Suzanne won, and I'm glad she did. It's been too long since I've been there myself. I forgot how beautiful it is. It was a little cool and windy and a few more beach chairs would have been nice, but those minor details aside, it was so beautiful! The kids had fun playing in the sand and they waded in the water a bit. Wasaga beach is the longest freshwater beach in the world - 14km long. It seems so obnoxious to me to have this need to be the biggest, the tallest, the best in the world and to put it on signs, but there it is. After beach fun we went to dinner at Harvey's.

Tuesday, August 6
This was a quiet day around the house... at least as quiet as it can be with six kids and one baby in the house! Suzanne and Matthew went to see Cats in the evening (Suzanne's friend Neesa is performing in it) and Mom watched all her kids! Way to go Mom!

A word about the sunglasses that Alice is wearing. When we were at Wasaga Beach, Thomas found a pair of Oakley sunglasses and gave them to Isaac. The boys suspected they might be expensive sunglasses and looked them up when they came home. They were so excited to find out that they retail for $140. Someone will be sad that they lost their sunglasses at the beach.

Wednesday, August 7
Originally we were going to go down to Thornhill or Richmond Hill and do something, but the later it got the more I thought not. The girls and I had a quiet/crazy day. Fiona had 20 minute sleeps all day and was in my arms most of the day and Kate and Alice were well, a little crazy. Oh well. The cousins came back eventually and Isaac got some more cuddles with Fiona.

Thursday, August 8 - Centennial Beach, Barrie
Today was another beach day. Centennial Beach was my suggestion, there's a longer beach than the other beach areas and the park is awesome. What was not awesome was the interesting smell and how busy it was. The kids had fun, Mom and Dad came up and all in all we had a fun time. The boys went go-kart racing afterwards and Uncle Andrew came to hang out in Tottenham for a bit.

Suzanne also helped take Fiona's nine week picture. We had a funny moment when I told her I wanted a picture of her "bear" bum!

Friday, August 9
We had a quiet morning again around the house. The plan was to eat lunch and then head downtown to go to a park, the distillery district, then perhaps eat dinner and bid adieu to the boys who were going to watch the ball game.

Before we left I took a picture of Anna holding Fiona. Fiona is wearing the outfit that Anna wore when she came home from the hospital!

We picked Corktown Common, a relatively new park near to the DVP and near to the distillery. What we didn't know about was all the crazy construction. It seemed like every route into the park was closed off. We went straight to the distillery instead. Then we kind of wandered without a plan. Did a little shopping and ate some sweeties, half of us grabbed dinner and then it was adieu to the boys.

From there all of us ladies headed north in the van. Suzanne conducted a phone interview while I drove. Kate fell asleep and thankfully the baby was asleep. We drove and the baby started fussing just before 16th on the 404 so we exited and started driving up Leslie looking for a place to stop. The baby wasn't really fussing but then Anna and Alice started demanding food so then we stopped and picked up some food. We sat in the parking lot for a while, Kate asleep the whole time. Suzanne took over the driving and we continued north. I thought we should go to Once Upon a Child in Newmarket and Suzanne agreed, silly me, I thought Kate would wake up. We got there and Kate was still asleep. Suzanne went in with Alice and Anna and shopped. Kate, Fiona and I waited in the van. When they came out Anna tried to wake up Kate. From there we drove to the grocery store to pick up food for tomorrow. Kate woke up just before we got to the grocery store but was in such a state I sat in the van with her and Fiona. Suzanne took Anna and Alice and did all the shopping for tomorrow. I sat in the van. Let's just say it wasn't the most fun evening ever!

Saturday, August 10
The day we've been waiting for! Today was blessing and baptism day. Today was a lovely, lovely day. In the morning Ken and Suzanne did food prep. I finished the program and wrote a talk. Joey wrote his talk. We got to the church to set up just slightly behind schedule and started the service just a little after 1:30 and everything was just lovely.

Bishop Black conducted the program, Rebecca Turner and I alternated at the piano, Dad said the opening prayer and then first up Fiona was blessed. Ken gave her a lovely blessing. The men that participated in the blessing were: Ken of course, Bishop Black, Ken McCartney Sr, Ted Bacon, Joaquin Molina, and Matthew Bates. Yay for family! Next Kate and Anna (with a little help from Auntie Suzanne) sang "When I am Baptized". I played the piano and from all accounts they did beautifully. After that Joey spoke about baptism and then Thomas was baptized.

I played the piano for the five minutes it took Thomas and Matthew to change and then I spoke about the Holy Ghost. Next Matthew confirmed and blessed Thomas. The men that paricipated were: Ken McCartney, Ted Bacon, Bishop Black and Matthew of course. I had to excuse myself and take Alice out part way through. Poor little over tired stinker! We missed Irene Black presenting a little baptism bag to Thomas and the closing song and prayer, Ken's mom said the closing prayer. After the short service we all enjoyed the yummy food and good company.

Those in attendance were: Maria Melo, Bridget, Adrianna Solomon, Nancy Fine, Liz Tory, Rebecca and Ellia Turner, Joaquin and Laura Molina, Maureen, Caitlin and Braden Laughlin, Bishop and Irene Black, Ken and Chris McCartney, Mabeth and Lillibeth Placido, Ruth and Ted Bacon, Andrew and Rayna, our family and of course Suzanne and Matthew and their family. Between helping my children to be happy and socializing I tried to take pictures. I didn't quite get everyone but I took a few! It was just a lovely, lovely day.

After visiting and cleaning up we drove to Earl Bales Park to meet up with Andrew and Rayna. It was crazy busy so we went to another park just up the street - Ellerslie Park. It was perfect. The kids played and we snacked and talked. It was the perfect end to a perfect day.

Sunday, August 11
And just like that it's Sunday and the week is over. They left around 11 but not before some last cuddles and hugs. Goodbye cousins! We're glad that you made the drive and came to play. We love you and we'll miss you. Until next time!

It is such a lovely thing when your friends have friends for your kids. It's magical even! Kate and Alice both love Ava so much - it's so cute! Ava's party was a costume party. Alice was a bee and Kate was a cheerleader.

Once we were all at the party step one was decorating the loot bags.

Step two was filling the loot bag!

Then some games... hot potato and freeze dance.

Then it was time to make fruit loop necklaces and Wreck-it-Ralph cookie race cars.

Then swim time...

I didn't photograph cake time, and after cake it was present time! Most of the presents were arts and craft themed, Ava looked so excited opening all her new art supplies!