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.

not-quite-25-days of Christmas

Last year I read about Andrea's 25 Days of Christmas and loved the idea, but with planning a solo cross-country trip with three kids (remember that one? F-U-N!), I didn't quite have the time/energy/will/desire to play along. This year, with our trip to Curaçao and not returning home until December 7th, I'd kind of written the whole Advent thing off for this year, too.

But then Christmas-y things just seemed to keep happening to us.

So I present you with Days 1-3 of our abridged 14 Days of Christmas...

Day 1: We set up the Christmas tree and put the lights on while watching "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer".

*sorry, no pictures*

Day 2: A kids Christmas/cookie decorating party with some friends from the embassy. The kids got to play, decorate gingerbread cookies, play, eat, play some more, and then have a gift exchange. After a nap/sugar crash, we headed to the Usaquen Market to see the wares, have supper and see the lights in the park after the sun went down.

enough sprinkles, Simon??

our fellow decorators/sugar-eaters

Day 3: My pregnancy-induced insomnia and general exhaustion kept us from being ready for church on time this morning, so we put on some Christmas music and FINALLY(!) decorated the tree. After fresh fruit and eggs for brunch, Andrew had a nap and Liam went down to the courtyard to play soccer with some neighbour boys while Peter and Simon were able to spend some one-on-one time playing Snakes and Ladders. I was busy making cookie dough (this recipe, doubled) that Simon later helped me roll while Peter taught Liam how to play Risk. As I type, the game is wrapping up (if they're able to keep Andrew from destroying the board), there are five tummies full of ginger cookies and the sun is actually shining here in Bogota. (ETA: the sun didn't last *sigh*)

"What do you mean I'm not supposed to throw these?? THEY'RE BALLS!"

Now to figure out Day 4...

one way to stay cool in a heat wave

These help effective, easy for even little kids to use, and only-cost-$5- from-Toys-R-Us spray guns help:







It also helps to have a husband who's a great sport:

his eyes were super red that night... wonder why...

(Valerie, your girls are having a terrible time...)

Marilou? The water fight was a bit too intense for the babies, so they ate frozen blueberries and frozen mangoes to help beat the heat (not pictured: a purple-stained Andrew).




Isn't Peter a great multitasker? Having a water fight while protecting his beer!








I think everyone would've loved it had Peter been able to stay home with us the whole week! The kids, obviously (because he's WAY more fun than me!), and me (because, let's face it, sic kids are a lot of work and, well, because he's way more fun than me!).

what did YOUR kids do in school today??

One of the great things about homeschooling is the flexibility it offers. 

Flexibility to be able to put your books away and head outside to play after a day of being trapped in the house by the rain.

Flexibility to tell your kids to go put some already dirty clothes on...

...because...

...you know things are going to get dirty.

Very, VERY dirty.*

Andrew's shirt says "who did you think you were saving the planet for?"

 

Andrew's shirt started off the colour of natural cotton/hemp.

He also started off with a shoe on each foot.

Half an hour of muddy fun later, headed to the backyard for a hose down...

 

...and to try making a homemade water slide...

 

...that Andrew decided it might be in his best interests not to try.

While other kids were sitting in desks, bent over notebooks and text, my three were enjoying a warm spring afternoon together. 

In a mud puddle.

Following some more water play in the backyard and a warm, soapy bath, we went back to our books to finish up the little bit of school we had left. 

Then I did laundry.

THE END

*check out the air Liam got in the picture second from the right, bottom row of the first mosaic! His feet are even with Simon's face!

A few more pics from our looong day at Winterlude...

Although Andrew did take a blessedly long nap in the stroller, he spent most of the day in a wrap or just in my arms, being carried up the hills, standing in line, the flying down the ice slides. He also had fun toddling around the snow maze trying to keep up with his brothers.

Near the end of our day, I was trying to set up the camera to take a picture of the four of us in front of one of the huge snow carvings. I planned to get the boys ready, set the timer, then run to get in the picture. But a  nice man stopped me to ask if I wanted him to take the picture. I agree and began to explain how to use the camera, but he kind of shoo'd me off like he knew how. I figured he must have a similar camera at home and know how to use the settings...

Um...

Well maybe HIS camera has a setting for so-over-exposed-that-people-look-like-cartoons, but mine doesn't! Yeesh! But at least I have proof that we were there together. Sort of.