oh, happy day!

well, today was the long awaited day.
the kids are back in school.

every year I take pictures of the kids beside their dad on the first day of school,
so we can see how much they have grown since last year,
and I am betting that next year Ben will be taller than Cory! my two biggest headed off on their way to Junior High-
I am so glad Jack has Ben there to tell him all kinds of helpful things-
Jack was asking so many questions, and Ben was filling him in.
then I took the littler ones off to elementary school.



while we were getting them settled in their classes, a friend asked if Maggie wanted to come to her house to play-( heck, yeah!)
so I came home to a messy house, and promplty went on the computer!
okay, I have done a bit of tidying, and have a lot more to do, so off I go!
what a happy day!

going...

my sweet sister, and her crazy hubby are moving far away.
they are leaving tomorrow on a jet plane.
not sure when we will see them again.
sad.
we had a fun barbeque today with all the sisters (and their families)
and as my crazy bother-in-law was squirting everyone with a water bottle,
I was thinking it might take a little while before I miss him,
but I will definitely miss sweet Jill, and her two cute munchkins. we love you guys!
come back soon!

amazing.

I am still in a bit of shock myself-
but last night, Cory took all the kids away.
I had the night to myself-
(so incredibly sweet, I know)
and now I have the morning.
and I thought I would try to do some scrapping!
and I did.
and it felt good.
and now I want to do more, and more. but I know they will be back soon.
and I have so many more things I want to get done.
but check out my 2peas if you want to see a few more.

summer

It wouldn't be a real summer without a little sand in someones ear. right?

things I will miss (and not miss) about summer vacation

1. I will miss sleeping in. (especially since Ben and I have to be at the church by 6am for seminary starting Tuesday. yikes. that is soooo early.)

2. I will miss me getting up early and getting my computer time in before the kids even stir. (like right now, it is 9 am and my kids have not made a peep!) - oh my, Monday morning is going to be so hard!

3. I will miss our days of not having to do anything or be anywhere. and we have had a lot of those this summer.

4. I will also not miss our days of not doing anything. I am excited to get back into a regular routine.

5. I am not looking forward to mornings when school starts. I really need to get a morning routine going for the kids, so it is not complete chaos, like always!

6. I will miss the hot sunny days. (already it is darker a bit later in the mornings, and darker earlier in the evenings.)

7. I will miss hearing the kids all play together (although this really doesn't happen all that often)

8. I will not miss hearing the kids fight. and this does happen way more often than the laughing and playing, unfortunately.

9. I will miss the four kids who are at school all day, ( at least a tiny bit. maybe)
10. totally off topic, but my mail lady just knocked on my door, to give me a package, and at the same time her phone was ringing, and I totally thought it was the package ringing. it was kind of funny. - there is no label on the package though, so I have no idea who it is for, or what it is. interesting.

11. I will miss having kids to do some work for me around the house. mind you, they did very little work around the house, so it won't really be a huge loss. in fact, having them gone all day will probably make less work for me!

12. I will not miss not making lunches. okay, I didn't know how to word that to work- I am not looking forward to the whole school lunch thing. although I generally have the kids make their own lunches, but I need to make sure they have all the good stuff they need! yikes. a lot of the times my kids do come home for lunch (being that we are pretty much just across the street from the school- but Ben and Jack won't come home too often- there school is about a 5 minute bike ride away!)

13. I will miss having Sadie around to play all day with Maggie, and I am sure Maggie will miss her too! but Maggie is very good at playing by herself. I am sure the first few days will be the hardest!

love it.

I am forcing my girls to grow their hair long, just so I can get a picture like this of them. but, considering the rate of Maggie's hair growth so far, this could take a very, very long time.

wouldn't it be so fun though?

I think so, at least!

just four days ago

we were here- in the sun, on a boat, having fun together.

I loved this cabin- it had hammocks slung between the wooden pillars, and the dock had a slide on it. oh, so fun. I could spend my whole summer there.

(I assume the inside is as fabulous as the outside!)

oh, if only I had a ton of money. that is so what I would do!

then my feet could be here more often!

(and that tan would be a lot darker.)

our trip. in a nutshell

(actually that series he read had four more books, that aren't pictured, that he also read. he averaged one book a day. but he ran out of books by the end. next time he will have to pick a series with a few more books!)

ha ha.

we went out on a 4k hike. we thought it was a total of 4k, but one way was 4k. (or maybe way longer. it sure felt like it!) and it was hot. and the kids did not want to carry on. so me and the kids hiked to the highway, Cory hiked back and got the van, and we met up. but on the way, the kids and I passed a place where people were cliff jumping into a river- and Cory and Ben and Jack ended up going back there and having a great time, so I guess it was all good.

(this was on another smaller hike, the night before the long hot hike, and it was much cooler. thank goodness!)

ah, this is what I came all this way for. so nice and hot.

I didn't ask, but if we go back, I am so doing the u-pick in the chocolate orchard. I hope you can eat what ever you want!

and what is a trip anywhere with out seeing the worlds largest something? this time was a truck. awesome.

and of course, an awful lot of this. and some movies, and rest stops, and fighting, and crying, but hey, it was a good time over all.

so, those are some of the pictures on one camera. we had three going. so I might have to share some pictures from the other cameras next time. like the cliff jumping, and the boat we rented.

There has already been talk of a return trip, so I guess it was a hit.

but, now that we are back we can get ready for back to school. 7 days and counting.

13 things I love

1. chocolate.

2. the thought that my kids will be in school in about a week and a half. yay!

3. that I still will have Maggie to hang out with. she is a good kid. easy to take places. keeps herself busy at home. she plays great all by herself. thank goodness!

4. naps.

5. quilting. hopefully I will have a finished one to show you soon. just need some more red thread for quilting it!

6. knitting! I will have to have a show and tell of stuff I have been making this summer.

7. scones. warm with butter and honey. I am going to have to make some soon!

8. koolaid. so sweet and delicious.

9. the warm summer sun. summer is way too short up here. I think we should move somewhere warmer.

10. zuchinni. I didn't used to like it, but now I do. grilled on the barbeque with some olive oil. yum. or even better- in some chocolate zuchinni cake. delish.

11. stars. I have a new big one. and a big plan for it. hopefully I can get Cory to help me hang it, and I will show you, of course!

12. reading blogs, finding stuff on the internet- great craft ideas, knitting help, recipies, anything you need, really! amazing.

13. scrapbooking. really. even though I haven't done any in so long. I have some ideas. I bought some new paper. I will make some more pages. soon, I hope!

15

15 years ago today, it was just the two of us.
getting hitched.

now look at us! madness!
but the best kind of madness it could ever be!

my baby..

she is a super star!

after

this is what it looked like after. double weird!

13

1. we hooked the internet back up to the pc,

yay!

so, here are some pictures and stuff!



2. Maggie has been going to speech therapy a couple of times this month. it is at the health center, that is at our mall. this is the hallway of the mall. yep, all the stores are closed.

okay, not all. there is a jewelry store, a shoe store, and a flower store.

oh, and liquidation world. I hope that never closes. good deals there sometimes. but I don't go too often.

3. when we moved here the mall was okay. there was even a super cute store there. really. then Canadian Tire moved to the new area by Walmart, then the stores closed down quickly.

darn that walmart!

4. there is a new hospital being built in our city, then the health center is moving there.

then the mall will be even more empty and sad.

my sister and I want to revitalize it. with a bath and body works, and other such fun stores. the potential is great. but the money is not.

5. what I love the most about summer:



6. or more especially, my kids sleeping in!



7. on a walk the other day we saw this on the sidewalk.

kind of random. super cute.




8. For Jed's birthday he decided he wanted blizzards instead of a cake. so we made a bunch up earlier, and I knew we needed some whay to distinguish between the different kinds, so we made little flags. fun. cute. yum.

9. we went shopping for school supplies today. money I was happy to spend!

still need more stuff. I always wonder if the teachers actually know what is on their lists, and if they know that some of that stuff is not so easy to find.

10.

enough said.

11. my kids are having so much fun with the photobooth on the mac. it is quite funny to watch them. good times. right now Jack and Jed are making a comic book. interesting stuff.

12. our new van is at the shop. apparently there is more wrong with it than we initially thought.

good to know right before we head out on a nice long drive.

vehicles are so fun.

13. well, I need to go watch camp rock with the girls. good times around here!

that darn apple

yowsa,
that mac computer is responsible for my lack of posting.
not my busy life. sadly, we haven't been doing much.
but the excitement is coming.
the driving, the beach, the cabin,
a week of family fun.
it's coming.

but that apple.
it won't let me sign into my blog.
it won't let me sign into my etsy account.
it won't even let me into my library account.

so I am at my sister's.
using her computer, and watching a movie.
it's not all bad!

A recap

The weekend was a blur

-I had my sister's two littles while she was off to Ontario to look for a house.

that was good times. 

(I realized I really love that my kids (mostly) sleep through the night.)

- had Jed's party. three hours is too long. 2 would have been just right.

water fights can get crazy. the kids might attack you with water, and you might back up, and you might just fall into the fire pit and get some big bruises and scratches. maybe. 

so watch out for water fights.

-Cory has hooked the internet up to his apple, my pictures are on the pc, so no pictures right now.

- we discovered that with the apple, each kid can have their own account and a set time limit!

awesome. 

so maybe the apple will be Cory's and the kids, and I will get the pc to myself. that would be sweet. 

-I love that we have friends that plant gardens, then go away on vacation and let us pick the stuff that is ready! (since we have no garden. hopefully next year. maybe)

thank you friends. 

Thursday

1. I feel like I just need to stay home today and get a handle on the mess, and all the stuff that is started, but not finished.

2. good thing I only have two places I need to go today. No excuse not to get something done around here!

3. this is the ramp by our back door. it used to have railings, but the boys pulled that off a while ago when they were going to pull the whole thing down. they got one board out, then stopped. the wood was screwed in there pretty tight! 4. and this is my back steps now! (it rained last night)
that little gap between the top step and the door has caused a few stumbles. we are so used to the ramp going right up to the door!
It seems so spacious out there now.

5. could also be that now a bunch of the garbage and junk that was lying around is also gone.
maybe.

6. ahh, sweet summer time.

7. Sadie decided she wanted a shoulder bag instead of a back pack for the coming school year, and we found one she loves ( for $7. sweet!) so I pulled out the box of extra school supplies and went through them.

ahh. sweet fall!

8. Wow, I can hardly believe I will have two kids in junior high this year.

9. and next year one in high school. Ahhh. crazy.

10. Jed's birthday is on saturday.

Jed's party is on saturday.

he can hardly wait.

some snack foods have been bought,

blizzard machines have been borrowed.

(that's the part I can't wait for!)

we are going to fill up a ton of water balloons, and just have fun in the back yard.

boy, I sure hope it is hot on Saturday!

11.wow. it is 9:45 and three of my kids are still sleeping.

I think the start of school is going to be a shock to our systems.

12. good thing we have a week of school before seminary starts.

now that will be a shock to my system.

(and Ben's, I am sure!)


13. speaking of Ben, isn't he quite styling?

( haha. I think he would not be happy with me if he saw this picture on here, but I am pretty sure he doesn't read this at all!)

this rarely happens

all of my kids hanging out and enjoying the same thing! (well, I don't know how much Sadie and Maggie were enjoying it-
but they just had to see what was happening)
The boys were making up words,
and always asking- can we use names?
can we use places?
I think we need to play scrabble more!

the weekend

well, Sadie lost another tooth.
and that silly tooth fairy kept forgetting to come
but she was thinking she needed a tooth fairy pillow
(sadie was, not the tooth fairy)
so she drew a fairy, I stitched it, we added a little pocket,
then the tooth fairy came!
( she drew the fairy with help from a book we have- how to draw fairies from usborne. such a fun book!)

oh, and the garage-
well, we mostly emptied it all out:

what a lot of stuff. Cory took a load to the dump, then put some stuff back,
then left to help some friends of ours move.
then some rain clouds came rolling in,
and the thunder was rumbling,
so me and the tree youngest scattered around gathering what was left outside and stuck it back in the garage.
yikes.
thank goodness today is a holiday.
Cory is getting rid of the back ramp (hopefully)
and cleaning up our white trash wood pile,
and finishing up the garage.
I suppose I could help.
maybe I can work the chainsaw. that could be fun.
and dangerous.