Upside down Friday

Some pictures from our outing yesterday. Amanda with her darling daughter

Sweetie lazing in the hammocksava!

Honey paying her dues after Lovey pulled everyone else around!

Amanda's darling son, picking up chicks!

Well today was a little backwards but not bad at all! Grammie came first thing in the morning instead of in the afternoon. I skipped breakfast & tried to get things sided up a bit but only managed to tame the living room! Oh well, I wasn't going to fool her anyway! ; ))





I got my grocery list in order as Mum started the manicures/pedicures. Honey was quite pleased with her new purple paw-lish & Sweetie was excited about having sparkly orange paw-lish and Lovey was content to go with her regular red. I skipped out midway through the second "appointment" and headed to a new used clothing store in town that I've been meaning to check out. I was quite excited to find a pair of GAP shorts for $1.99 woohoo!





It was nice being inside the grocery store, what a stinking hot day! Unfortunately, I'd picked up some peanut butter chips at the bulk store and left them in the car. Most were salvageable but a few got liquified! I got home without too much time to spare for Mum to get Jordie to his appointment.





I was thinking about taking the girls out to their pool when I noticed the wind pick up like crazy & the dark clouds roll in but nothing came of it so out we went. They were pretty happy, the water was very comfortable & I added some more. I'd thrown a bit of bleach in the other day to try and keep it from going scuzzy too fast. I was afraid it might be too strong so thought I'd better water it down some more but that was enough to flip it from warm to cool. Lovey was having a lovely swim and kept flipping around singing "Under tha SEAAAAAAAAAA! Under tha SEAAAAAAAAAA!" Someone's been watching a little too much "Little Mermaid" I think. Then they started goofing around, tickling each other, shoving and trying to wrestle each other into the water. Nothing to rough and they got themselves laughing so hard, they didn't care when they got a nose full of water. Pretty cute stuff but I'm a little worried that they might start sitting on each other & hold someone under so I'll have to keep an eye out for that!





The rain held off & we were able to bbq some cheeseburgers for supper & the girls went out to help Murray get things ready.

Sweetie making her getaway "all DONE Mumma!"

The rain didn't wait for me to finish my walk however & I got a nice refreshing shower. A little two for one deal! You know how I like a bonus!

Looking forward to the weekend!

The week's pretty much taken care of with no ill effects, yay! Grammie's coming first thing tomorrow and all is well with the world! (assuming I get the grocery list in order before she gets here....)

Yesterday we had playgroup which is now outdoors for summer. Personally, I prefer the gym in the church basement! When we go there, the girls run off and play with the toys and occasionally drift back to check in with me. At the park, they don't want to leave my side or they want me to play with them on the equipment the whole time. Part of the draw of playgroup is being able to hang out & chat with the other moms & watch the kids have a good time playing. I get lots of quality time with them every other day so 2 hours separation on Wed mornings would be ok with me. I thought that after a few trips to the park, they'd be more comfortable and as long as I can see them, I'm not too worried about the stalkers/kidnappers. (they're out there dammit, I know it!)

After playgroup we came home & spent some time out in the pool again. I was in it again myself actually & the weather has kept it at a nice temperature, not freezing cold but still refreshing & cool.

Last night I got out to meet up with some of my MOM friends from the multiples group & we had some munchies & got caught up on everyone's summers & it was a great night out!

Today we had a visit from Shirley who's been busy most of the summer, travelling & visiting family etc. I was surprised to hear from her yesterday & pleased that she wanted to come see the girls. She said she needed her 'fix' LOL. I got busy when she arrived and she kept the girls occupied for over 2 hours! I made 2 loaves of banana bread, a cake (little overdone though) and a pan of squares, did a load of wash & cleaned up the breakfast mess & all the baking mess. I didn't get any housework done though (brace yourself Mumma) and this afternoon we were out visiting a friend & only got back in time for supper & then I was off again to a movie with my cousin and that took care of the rest of the day!

Beating the Heat!

This morning started off not too hot so I thought I'd get some cookies baked before the sun got to its full strength. The girls enjoyed doing their jobs & anxiously awaited their little spoonfuls of dough when it was all mixed. We only have one beater on the mixer so I give them the spoons instead & that way I can have the beater!

Around 11am, as I'm waiting for a batch of cookies to come out, Old Nanny phones to ask if we want to go to her daughter's house to go swimming. I wasn't long accepting THAT offer! The tricky part was that I had to meet her within 2 hours... and finish the baking, cleaning up that mess, make lunch, get them to eat the lunch, clean up the kitchen & pack our stuff, sunscreen everybody, load them in the car, get the dog to Murray and arrive on time to meet her. Let me tell you, this was no small feat but the reward was well worth the hustle! I had to be on the kids all the time & remind them a million times that we were going somewhere. They're not big on completing tasks in one sitting! I'm very proud to say that I made the 1pm rendezvous!!! (well maybe 2 minutes late but I'm still impressed to have managed even that!).

The kids had a blast in the pool. Initially guess-who was a little uncertain about going in & I think she was planning to sit on the side & watch but before she knew it, Old Nanny had picked her up and carried into the water. So much for that plan Honey! Sweetie & Lovey were a little more daring & after awhile the life jackets got in the way so we ditched those and they were happy to float on the toys & hang off my straps in the back as I swam around. Lovey would let me push her under the water towards the wall & the ladder & practice "swimming". They haven't really got the hang of kicking or paddling but I think they have to be ok with getting their faces wet before they figure that out. Sweetie wasn't as keen on going right in but Lovey did it over and over. They got out of the water a couple of times but kept wanting to go back in. After we'd been there almost 3 hours, I started to get their clothes out so I could dress them & they told me they weren't ready to go yet, they wanted to go back in the pool!

Murray's always been sortof against getting a pool, thinks they're too much bother, doesn't know anyone who has a pool that thinks they're worth having etc but I told him how much fun they had there & he seemed to half consider it this time. Usually whenever I mention it he immediately shoots me down. This time he wanted to know how big this one was so he could price them! Give me a few years and I just may get somewhere! Rick, you might get to swim with the girls yet!

11th Annual CRS Memorial Golf Tournament

Our 2nd big family event of the year! Another great day, beautiful weather (a tad on the hot side though!) and lots of people. Usually the actual golfing part has me pretty freaked out. My dad is like the ultimate die hard golfer AND he's freakin' good too! I remember in university, guys my age in town would figure out who my Dad was and they were always all impressed with him and then I'd have to admit I couldn't play to save my life and they'd look at me all strange, as if I should automatically be a golf whiz too. But no, the prevalent golf genes in my family seem to have passed me by. Every year the tournament has been a little stressful as I tee up on the first hole with everyone watching me swing wildly, desperately trying to make contact with that ^%#@* white ball. Not this time baby! I was embarrassed to ask Dad for a lesson but I decided it'd be even more humiliating to go back on that course with no more of a clue than the last 10 tournaments! and it wasn't like he didn't already know that I sucked so I didn't really have much to lose. The lesson went well & REALLY paid off! I had a great time out there! I was with my Uncle Wayne and 2 other cousins of Dad's that I didn't know well but it didn't matter. We all got along and had many laughs.

The tournament has many rules, you must related to Curt or Annie to play, you must be at least 12 years old, teams cannot have siblings or parents on them (cuts down on the fighting), you must use at least one drive from every team member (so the avid golfers don't take over the game), no more than 30 seconds can be spent looking for lost balls (or the tourney would take all day)... just to name a few. Anyway, even though we were only required to use one, TWO of my drives were used. I was quite excited about that. Normally if my ball gets more than 30 feet off the tee, I have to argue to convince the team captain that THAT is likely to be my best drive of the day. Besides my drives, a few of my chips & putts were also used as the best ball so I was pretty pumped about that. The rest of the team as complaining that they were having a terrible day & that we should all promise to never talk about how we'd played. I said the heck with that! this was my best game ever & I was going to tell everybody! So there, now I have. : )))

The kids had a pretty good day, it was very hot and the tourney ran late, so did awarding the prizes and it was almost 7 before we said grace and got to hit the buffet. The kids enjoyed watching the balloon toss and were all psyched up for the sack races but only Honey went to the starting line & then she lost her nerve amongst all the bigger kids. Lovey had a little run in with a sharp metal spikey thing and punctured her lip (tetanus was up to date so no hospital visit for us, whew!) and she wasn't up for any of the games, but my cousin Liz & I got Honey & Sweetie in for the wheelbarrow races. They had trouble grasping the "run with your hands!!!!" concept and kept wanting to stand on their heads. Good training & look out next year competitors! There was also tug of war (my team won!) and 3 legged races but the kids didn't do those ones but had fun watching. They did try the piñata though but the bat weighed almost as much as they did & they coudn't hold it up in the air without help. They got in on the candy when the thing finally broke & were pretty happy with the candy lipstick & necklaces.

Finally, around 9:30, fireworks started and it was quite a display. Long enough to get bitten by 4000 mosquitoes I'd say. The girls looooooooved watching all the explosions of colour and every time, Honey would say "I fink there's gonna be another one maybe!" and they all made sure to announce whenever their favourite colours appeared, or if one of their sister's favourites popped up. Listening to the running commentary of these 3 year olds was almost as good as the display itself. They clapped and oohed and ahhhed but Honey had the most comments so she might be more of a fireworks enthusiast than the others.

Bedtime was about 3 hours behind schedule & it took them awhile to settle down upstairs in the hotbox of a room we were in. There were fans everywhere but the temperature never seemed to drop all night. It took me forever to fall asleep and I was exhausted the next day!

Even with the heat & the messed up routine, I love going to Grammie's for this event. It's so much fun to see everyone (even if we didn't get to play Spoons) this time. We all missed the cousins that didn't make it (only 7 out of 18 of us were there) but it was really great to see Curtis (Grandad's namesake) who hadn't been home in 10 years or so. He lives in Toronto and his dad died when we were little kids so he & his brother didn't grow up around here like the rest of us. Hopefully we didn't scare him off & he'll come back again sometime!