Esthetically Pleasing

I thought it was time I learned how to do some pretty basic blogger type things. I've been frustrated with the width of the window (it seemed so narrow) and unsure how to put a photo in the header. Both of these things were actually very easy to do. Who Knew? (Well probably lots of you but keep it to yourself alright?)

Another thing that random google searches recommends is writing the text of your posts in Word or Open Office. What a fabulous idea! The little window in blogger that is supposed to be where you write the text of your posts is teeny tiny and completely frustrated me.

I'm not totally certain about pictures yet but I think I've wasted spent enough time today on it.

It feels as if Summer is winding down already. It's been so cold this week that the kids are already wearing jackets when they play outside. School starts on Tuesday and Ana is excited to be back. Zachary begins his first week at pre-school on Wednesday. I get to go along for the first day which is awesome. He's also very excited. Especially about his new Lightening McQueen backpack.

Now that I have this blog thing more in hand I may try posting more (don't hold your breath – I said I'd try). I would love to be a bit more regular about it.

Ontario and Mexico Bound

This July we headed out to Ontario to visit my family. It was a lot of fun and the kids were kept very busy. Not one minute to be bored!

Grandma and Grandpa got Zachary his very own "Bible Man" suite. If you haven't heard of bible man you are not really missing out! Zac loves it though and wore it every day for the whole first week. Here are him and grandpa battling it out with some pool noodles.


One of the kids favourite things was to swim. My Aunt Pam and Uncle Zeke have a great pool and Ana and Zachary were in there pretty much every day. Usually for hours.




The goggles were a big hit and without water wings we would have been sunk(!)



By the end of the two weeks they were like little fish.

And...while they were having so much fun, Sam and I managed to escape for a week to Mexico where we celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary in fine style. We had so much fun reading books and sitting on the beach and snorkling and of course eating. It was such a great vacation.






One of our last days there we finally got to hang out with both Auntie Heather and Uncle Kyle. It was good to see you guys! We miss you!




PS: I had all the photos formatted differently but they don't seem to fit on my blog page - what's that all about! Sometimes I really hate blogger!

June Tidbits

I actually don't like the word tidbits. Have you ever thought about that word - it just doesn't sound nice. Tidbits. Tidbits. Anyway. That's all I could come up with at the end of a long day. So it's June Tidbits!



Father's Day is in June. The kids brought Sam breakfast in bed and then left him to eat it all alone! It was sort of funny. This was for lunch/brunch which we had after church. Yummy pancakes with peaches and whip cream.





Zachary also learned how to ride a two-wheeler. He didn't really want to once he realized it was sort of hard (it really wasn't that hard - he did it on the first try but he couldn't get the starting/stopping thing down right away) but by the next day he was throwing his training wheels in the garbage (he saved them until daddy came home from work so they could throw them out together). I had to put in the crying picture since that is so typical of our days around here.






And of course, all boys need their first bike injury. I thought it was justice since he was riding where he wasn't supposed to be riding when this happened. He doesn't get that logic!

Sam went with Ana and her class to the Aquarium. The Aquarium had to be a daddy field trip!

Ana lost both her front teeth this month. The first one took forever and she played with it night and day until it finally came out. The second one came out wrestling with Daddy and Zac complete with blood and a bit of crying. (I think it was Sam's shoulder that finally did it in).

School is done for the year. It's hard to believe Ana is already done kindergarten. We have one last day tomorrow - a bowling day with the whole school. Ana and Zac are pretty excited. After that it's summer holidays. Good thing it finally decided to be summer outside. For a while there I thought we'd missed it completely.

In two weeks we get to see the grandma's and grandpa's. We're staying with my parents and Sam's are going to stop by for a visit since they'll be in the area.

Then Sam and I are heading to a fun sun spot to celebrate our 10 year anniversary. Grandma and grandpa are excited to babysit and have lots of fun stuff planned for the kids (who are super pumped by the way).

Also this month I'm looking to pretty much finish up the rough draft of the novel. I don't talk about it much because it's taking me a terribly long time to finish. I never knew it would be so much work! It's going on 5 years this summer since I started and it's a completely different thing then it first was. Don't get too excited though folks - getting the first draft done is great but there's a lot more left to do. After July the next bit of hard work sets in. I get to read the whole thing and see all the glaring gaps in plot (which I know will be numerous), character development, tone, pacing, overall structure, and don't get me started on grammar, and then edit, edit, edit. That should take another 5 years (hopefully that is not the case - I'm already sick of looking at the thing).I'm also looking for readers after that so I can get some good honest feed back - Any takers (you have to be willing to be brutally honest!)

All this and I haven't said a thing about what Sam's up to! He's been working hard as usual (when I started getting up at 5 am to work on writing he decided that would be a good idea so he does it now too ((in fact he does it more regularly than I do)) ). I'm glad he gets to head off to do some Frisbee golfing with a few of the boys this week. It's an annual thing they like to do where basically they frisbee golf from the crack of dawn until sunset with barely a break for food and water before they're back at 'er. I better stock up on the Rub A5-35 stuff (is that even what it's called?!)

I leave you with a pic of my favourite little man in fine form.

PS: Can you tell I'm into parenthesis right now?

Fun Fair Fun

Ana's school had a Spring Fun Fair last weekend. It was so fun for the kids. There were those big hot air slides and a swing ride, cotton candy and popcorn. So very exciting!

We went with Darcie, Lexi and Xander. Zachary was glad to have a friend around. This was the favourite ride. I think they went on at least twice maybe even three times.

Ana found a friend from school and they hung out all night.

Both the kids decided they only wanted to spend their tickets on rides. There were games and a kids silent auction but they refused to do any of that stuff. So rides it was. (And of course popcorn and cotton candy).

In other news:

Sam's been gone for a bit but comes home very soon! We can't wait.

School is almost out for the year and I can't believe Ana will be going for full days in September and Zachary will be going to preschool three mornings a week. I won't know what to do with myself!

In just a month we'll be heading to Ontario to visit grandma and grandpa. We're all pumped about that.

I've started doing some after school care for one of Ana's friends from school. It's fun for her to have someone to play with and the little bit of extra money sure comes in handy.

I think I might be almost done the first draft of my novel-in-progress. Now on to making it actually not stink!!

Refurbished!

A couple weeks ago a friend gave us their dining room chairs when they upgraded to really nice new ones!



I painted them (well a few of them- they're not all done yet) and bought new fabric in three different designs for the seats. Here is the first one that I completed.

I think they turned out great! Thanks Darcie and Jason!

Two-Wheeler Fun

Ana learned to ride her new two-wheeler last week. It only took a few days of Daddy running behind her before she got it. Now she rides as much as she can and the fun part is going for real bike rides with Dad to the duck pond


Zachary is still riding with training wheels but after a nasty fall off the curb on the weekend Sam is trying to talk him into taking them off.








Zachary looking on. He was quite excited for her.

Someone is Six!

Ana turns six tomorrow. We had a party yesterday. Just three friends from school but they had a great time. Ana got a few gifts and now realizes she loves the Littlest Pet Shop. Her and Zac have been playing with it all day! Pizza, chips, and Creamsoda. What a blast.

Since I realized (when Ana turned 1) that I'm terrible at decorating cakes, I took the easy way out. White icing with pink letters and my little pony figures on top taken right out of the toy box! Too easy.

Some friends from school. These girls are tight and I really hope they all stay in the same school!

For a craft we coloured wooden figures that I bought at Michaels. They were fairly cheap and doubled as the goody bag. They also did an Easter egg hunt.


I'm not sure why this picture is smaller but ah well. The blowing of the candles.

Tomorrow is Ana's official birthday but we're just going to have a mom and dad party. Probably play some games and then watch the hockey game!

GO CANUCKS