Their World, July 2014

And I thought that June was busy!

In July we:

• hosted a Canada Day party for 22 people
• enjoyed the last bit of our time with Nana and Papa
• had a packed 8 day visit from my sister and her family (geocaching, ice cream shoppe, the Ottawa Beer Market, a tour of the Cold War Museum at the Diefenbunker, the Science Museum, POUTINE, the Museum of History & Children's Museum, the Mosaika light show on Parliament Hill, along with park visits, bike rides... see? PACKED.)
• watched LOTS of soccer... so sad that Argentina lost.
• travelled down to Rochester, NY, to visit the Strong's Museum of Play, see a movie, do some shopping (including the Lego Store!), visit the Rochester Science Museum, and hit up a Wegman's to drool over their selection of gluten free foods
• spent three fun-filled days with Peter's brother and his family at our sister-in-law's family farm/pond, located right next to one of NY beautiful state parks 

We also swam with friends, went to parks/splash pads, had fun rock climbing and racing through bouncing houses/slides at les Jeux de la Francophonie Canadienne, climbed fences to watch trains go by, and cheered Peter on (from a distance) as he ran a 26km Spartan Race. In addition to that, I managed to squeeze in a family session, a maternity session, a full-day wedding, and potentially a birth if baby decides to come before the end of the month. In the month that I told myself I'd take off. HA.

And my birthday is July 31st!

(I decided to limit this to images of only my four kids, without any of their cousins... otherwise this post would have 53 images. No joke.)





02.July.2014 - with Nana and Papa (Peter's parents)

07.July.2014 - family shot at the Diefenbunker

14.July.2014 - picnic on our way down to NY, swimming & sundaes

15.July.2014 - The Strong's Museum of Play, the Lego Store

16.July.2014 - hurricane simulator at the Rochester Science Centre... and a little girl feeling left out

18.July.2014 - a little evening hike in the state park

24.July.2014 - inflatable fun at les jeux de la francophonie

25.July.2014 - traaaaaaain!!

I have so many other images to share from this month, but this will have to suffice. Next in the circle is Annie. Please click through and see what she was up to in July.

Their World, June 2014

June was full. Two birthdays, our 14th wedding anniversary, hot enough weather to finally be in the water, finishing our homeschool year, hours spent at various parks, a visit from Nana and Papa, and a big Spartan Race at the end of the month.

02.June.2014 - Liam opening his birthday presents. Eloise pouting because they weren't for her. *Excuse Andrew's dirty face.

09.June.2014 - Swimming next door. Our neighbours (a retired couple) are so good to us. They've given us a key to their pool and even bring out snacks for the kids every time we go to swim. Spoiled!

18.June.2014 - Liam's Nerf part with friends. I invited two (of my) friends, which meant 13 kids. They had a blast running around the park with a stockpile of 100+ bullets.

22.June.2014 - Trying out the pool at our friends' new home (they're all in there, I promise).

23.June.2014 - End of year homeschool picnic at a nearby lake.

26.June.2014 - Eloise opening her gifts from Nana and Papa and her brothers. We celebrated her birthday a bit late this year, which totally offended her brothers, but she didn't know the difference. She's in love with the 12 vintage Care Bear toys found on Kijiji.

28.June.2014 - Family pictures, post-Spartan Race. I should've had the boys all wear their Spartan shirts and medals, but no one was in the mood for wardrobe changes at this point, in the 40C degree humidity.

Next in the circle is Anika.

Their World, May 2014

The month of May brought warm weather. Finally. The kids are outside so much. Enjoying the yard, the two parks nearby, their bikes, their best-friends-who-will-soon-be-moving, and new neighbours RIGHTNEXTDOOR. Mother's Day was lovely, school is going well (and is almost done!!), and the garden is coming along. 

 11.May.2014 - Forced into taking Mother's Day pictures. Dirty socks, fingers in noses, and all.

12.May.2014 - A walk in a little ravine near our house. With sticks. Always with sticks.

19.May.2014 - Guest appearance from my older sister's kids during my sans-kids trip back to Regina.

20.May.2014 - I got to meet my new niece! And I hadn't seen my nephew since he was about 4 months old.

27.May.2014 - More fun at the park. I'm so, so, so glad the weather has warmed up.

From a bike ride later that same day. They're like a little gang.

It's not always easy to find the time (or the motivation) to pull out my camera and get some pictures of all four kids together. Especially when they seem to always have better things to do... and I always have loads of client work waiting for me on my computer. So I'm thankful to have a group of women pushing me forwards with this little project. 

If you'd like to see what some of the others were up to this month, then next in line is Annie.

Their World, April 2014

A couple of iPhone shots this month: puddle jumping, and dragging the kids to do our civic duty (i.e, vote).

We were back to the Science Museum with cousins this month, enjoyed a neighbourhood Easter egg hunt, and then a scavenger hunt at home. There were no clues down daddy's shirt.

A good month.




Voting is FUUUUUUUN!!




Our trips to the Science Museum are becoming almost monthly events. This time we had the kids' second cousins tag along.




Neighbourhood egg hunting.





Elaborate easter hunt that took hours to plan (write the clues, organize the clues, hide the clues, etc) and all of 10 minutes to complete. Not sure why Andrew looks so sad in this first one!



Sarah is next in the loop. You don't want to miss her little guy in his Superman undies.

Their World, March 2014

Soon these monthly posts won't feature snowsuits.

I won't miss them.



27.February.2014 - Child labour.

03.March.2014 - Toys R Us while daddy was in Switzerland. 

05.March.2014 - Sledding with friends. The hill to themselves. Homeschooling win.

12.March.2014 - March Break and Messy Hair at a Chapters Lego event.

13.March.2014 - 10 minutes early for the neurologist... who was 45 minutes late. Result: a 55 minute game of Eye Spy.

16.March.2014 - Settles of Catan on a Sunday afternoon. Peter won. And there were snack.

The next photographer in this series is Mandy Mester. Her black and whites are magical. Go see.

Their World, February 2014

Another month with a fair bit of illness in our house. I'm sick and tired of it (see what I did there?). I'm really hoping that warmer weather and more vitamin D will improve our chances. This month saw lots of reading, lots of playing, lots of days spent in pyjamas (or "jothes" as Simon calls them... jammies + clothes = jothes), lots of learning and schooling (and some tears shed), and yet more snow. 

We also celebrated Valentine's Day with a few friends. In our case, a "few" was 25 kids and 6 moms. I love throwing parties and making these days special for the kids. There are so many benefits to homeschooling, but there are also some fun parts of school that I don't want them to miss out on. I hope their childhood is full of memories of happy times like these.

01.29.2014 - Reading. Not all four kids, but 3 kids + 2 kittens. Good enough.

01.30.2014 - Simon and Andrew consented to play Little People with Eloise. She was one happy little girl.

02.02.2014 - Playing outside. An elusive smile from the 10 year old; swings and big jumps for the others.

02.07.2014 - Watching the Olympic opening ceremonies. 

02.13.2014 - From our Valentine's Day party. 4 kids + 2 kittens. Win.

02.22.2014 - Saturday morning screen time. The kids get an hour on the weekends (and then spend the rest of their time begging/scheming/working for more). Kittens are both present. Peter was working. The pile of laundry to be folded is representative of me. ;)

There are 10 lovely ladies participating in the circle, the next one is Ruthie from Fairy Wings and Dinosaurs, with her FIVE have a little tea party. Wonder if I can convince the boys to have tea with Eloise this afternoon...?


*The "Their World" blog series was dreamed up by Jude from Jude Wood Photography.

Their World, January 2014

"Their World" is a project that I've joined with some other moms/photographers/bloggers, with the goal of capturing our children, together, doing what they normally do. In their world. 

I want photos of all four of them together.

Doing what they do.

I spend so much time photographing other families, put so much care into editing the images, and so much effort into telling their stories. I want to be more deliberate in photographing my own children and recording their stories.

Our stories.

I blogged all of, what, three times last year? It makes me cry to think of all the little frustrating and funny and sweet and wonderful moments that I didn't record. But this is a new year and I think this project is exactly what I need to motivate/push/force me to blog.

Since I didn't join this circle until last week, I'll be reaching back to the end of last year for my first two images, but then my goal will be to post one image from each week. One image with all four kids.

I will award myself bonus points for getting either or both kittens in a shot.

big snow - 12.20.2013

Christmas Eve - 12.24.2013

Andrew's family birthday, 5 years old (and the beginnings of H1N1 for Liam) - 01.03.2014

Andrew's party with friends... and Grandma (who brings gifts for everyone) - 01.20.2014

Museum of Science on the day Grandma left - 01.23.2014

If you enjoyed these, Jude is next. She has an absolutely magical way of seeing her children.