Summer Fun at Home - August 27 - September 2

Monday - Swimming at the Grandparents and dinner with the missionaries. The girls really love their grandparents. They love swimming, and visiting and being fussed over, and the Grandparents love it to. We went by Bruno's Fine Foods to pick up Gryffe's pizzas and then went to have lunch and swim.

We had the missionaries over for dinner - the sisters are so cute! Sis. Crowther from Arizona, and Sis. Pehrson from Sandy, Utah. They are such sweet sisters. We had quiche - I thought I had two pie shells, but it turned out I only had one. I made one regular cheese quiche with the pie shell, and I made a frittata with left over fried rice for the other, it was so good. They shared a sweet message about the plan of salvation and that was that.

Tuesday - Ken took the day off and we mulled over the idea of going to the Island, but there was a possibility of a thunderstorm in the afternoon, and Centre Island isn't really the best place to be in a thunderstorm. Fiona asked to go to an indoor play place. She's been asking for ages, so that's what we did! We had lunch at Wendy's in Vaughan, and then Playtopia!

Aside from the Groupon so we saved 53% of the cost, the attraction to this play place was trampolines and a play area. Kate and Alice have been asking to go to a trampoline place for a while, so it was a perfect compromise. The girls bounced, and climbed and played for two hours or so. Then they were played out.

I played with Fiona a little and made the unfortunate decision to crawl into a tube. I didn't get stuck, but comfortable it was not! After the play place we decided to go to Vaughan Mills - the animal mall. We went in May with the cousins and Kate really wanted to walk through Bass Pro and see the animals, but they'd been to Canada's Wonderland and it was just too much, but I promised that we'd come another time - so we did!

When Fiona popped around the corner with the cowboy hat on I was caught off guard with nostalgia! Here's Kate wearing the same hat in January of 2012.

After leaving Bass Pro we had dinner in the food court, bought shoes for Kate, and then a treat. We tried yummy macaron, Ken had a cookie, Fiona and Kate had cupcakes, and Alice and I had frozen yogurt. It wasn't the most exciting day ever, but we had a fun time as a family.

Wednesday - the plan was to go to my school and set up my classroom and if I needed to go back, I'd do that tomorrow, but well, the best laid plans. I started doing some prep Monday and Tuesday, but not enough really, so this morning by the time I was ready to go it was 1 pm. I decided I would continue working from home and that would would just go in on Thursday. The girls were pretty good - as I mostly ignored them!

Ken came home for a quick dinner. Lately when Ken and I sit near each other Kate will come and ca-caw like a bird to break up the "romantic moment". Tonight she was texting and ca-cawing, so Ken and I decided to be obnoxious and text her a pic of us kissing. It was pretty funny. It's a slightly awkward picture, but I'm posting it anyway because it's a funny memory!

After dinner Ken went to toastmasters and the girls and I went to the library, the dollar store and the grocery store. We also brought rocks and hid them at the library. So far for all the Sun Rocks that we've put out, one person has reported finding the rocks that we put out at Kinsmen Park.

Thursday - School set up with lasagna. So I don't really do service outside of my home very often. I write notes of appreciation, but that's pretty much it. Yesterday when I was reading my scriptures I felt like I needed to make a lasagna for the LaFrance's. I thought that was silly, but the prompting wouldn't go away, so yesterday I bought ingredients and a disposable pan and this morning I made the lasagna and we delivered it before we went to my school. It was a good teaching moment for the girls, I talked to them in the car about how reading the scriptures opens up communication with our Heavenly Father and how it's important to learn to listen to the spirit and follow promptings. Lori LaFrance (the Mom that plans all of Mom and Me camp) is away this week in Alberta at a family wedding and her kids although capable, are fending for themselves this week. The oldest was taking a first aid course and Dad on top of working full time is also the Stake President. It felt good to do something for them, no matter how small, and Janelle was so cute at the door. She was so excited for lasagna.

We went to my school and the girls were pretty cute. All three played, had snacks, and took turns helping me and having fun in the music room. I wonder what their memories will be of helping set up my classroom? I didn't take any pictures which makes me sad, but what are you going to do?!

I hadn't bought enough white baskets the night before at the dollar store, so after setting up we went to the dollar store, Sally's beauty supply (for a nail polish dispenser) and IKEA. Fiona went in the IKEA play place for the first time only a few weeks ago, but Alice was devastated. It was the wrong IKEA, we were in North York. I promised that we could go to the Vaughan IKEA which was the right one another time, and that promise was fulfilled today.

I was a little sad to be wandering around without my Ken, but I made the best of it. I wandered around looking at living rooms, thinking about someday replacing a sofa and getting an entertainment unit.

Friday - Originally I thought we would see Michelle, Marisol and Amelie but Michelle needed to go into school. Heidi, our neighbour and church friend organized a bike riding picnic at the church as an end of summer party. I was in slow motion today, like I am most mornings so we got there almost at the end, but the girls had fun for the time we were there!

I'm a little sad that we still haven't gotten the girls riding their bikes, but there's still hope, I think?!

After the bike party we went home and hung out until it was time for Kate's play date. Kate was super excited to be invited over to swim and have pizza at Arianna's. After we dropped off Kate we went to the grocery store and then we made dinner. Ken was home late so we ate dinner with him - kind of late. After dinner we went to a park for a minute, to Michael's and to Blue Sky. And poor Kate started to have a headache so we needed to run and get her, but she still had lots of fun!

Oh, and one more fun thing! There were two posts today in the Sun Rock group on Facebook. Someone found one of the rocks at the library, and someone found one of the rocks we left at the Butterfly park! Yay!

Saturday - Church Picnic. Sometimes we're good about going to church events, and sometimes we're not. I don't think we went to the picnic last year. I should look up what we were doing, but in any case, we decided to go today, and we went, and it was fun. There wasn't a huge turn out, but there were enough kids and enough people to have a great time. I made sure to take a picture of the girls with the amazing Bonnie, and I took a picture with Lynn Yates, the primary president and a wonderful woman. She did tattoos for the kids which was fun! Ryan Penney set up a splash pad, and he brought his air cannon/candy gun.

Ken, he's such a good man. He helped with set up and clean up, and when he found out it was the Penney's wedding anniversary he volunteered us to babysit their kids tonight so that they could go out for dinner.

Sunday -Today at church I was released from primary. I have been serving in primary in one form or another since 2010. Two weeks ago when a member of the bishopbric spoke to me I cried. (I cried when I was called to be the music leader in primary too, so maybe I just cry too much!) I still don't quite feel ready to be out of primary, but that is that. I've been called to be the secretary in the Relief Society presidency. I'm anxious about going to Relief Society for the first time in forever and really being part of it, but that is that!

The girls were stinkers today. They were actually great getting ready for church, and were fine in sacrament meeting, but they fell apart in primary. Alice was upset about me being released, Kate was miserable, as she often is in primary. We had a mostly good day - watched Legacy, a church movie, then the girls watched the live action Beauty and the Beast. They played for a bit, we had dinner, then we watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie - second season episode four. Bedtime was the stinky part, dinner wasn't great either. Sometimes the complaining is enough to make us forget anything good that they did. Going through all of this reminds me that really they were pretty good, they just had two rough spots. (Two and a half if you count dinner, and it was only really Alice that was difficult at dinner.)

Why does the bad stuff stick out so much sometimes? Why is it difficult to see all the good? These are good questions to ponder at the beginning of a school year. I want to remember the good stuff (acknowledge and deal with bad when needed) and focus on the blessings. My life is full and rich and amazing, and I'm so very blessed.