Friends Make Good Days Even Better!

Since summer's almost over, we're trying to squeeze in as much fun stuff as we can before we become slaves to the school week!

It's the end of an era! As one of my triplet moms put it we used to be able to "drag our summertime fun all the way to October because that's how we rolled!" Having preschoolers meant we were free to go on day trips, have play dates, sleep in, watch TV, whenever we wanted, as long as we were home for supper and sometimes not even then. There will be more fun to come, I'm sure, just different.

So with the end in sight, Teena & I got the kids together, along with another friend from preschool and went to a local farm produce stand. The kids got to feed & pet some animals & play on the playground equipment while the mums chatted about all the fast approaching changes and of course we had snacks!!! I'm going back there tomorrow just for the pumpkin chocolate chip cookies! Yummmm!!!!

We weren't quite ready to call it quits so we decided to go to lunch with this bunch of animals. Thank goodness it was late when we got there or we'd have seriously put a dent in their usual lunch time crowd. We hadn't been there 20 minutes before the few remaining dining patrons ran for the doors with their ears covered.

Who knew eating was such a loud, rowdy activity!!!! (well, we did but apparently the other folks weren't used to it?)

Grammie's Princesses

Grammie's always on the lookout for interesting things to do with the girls, to make for the girls etc. She found this ready made fabric (including the gathered part at the top that for the life of me I can't remember the name of at the moment! ugh!!!) She put these together and as soon as the girls saw them at her house on Sunday, on they went! They started right into their princess roles, recruiting Murray as the prince and then we told them to come out to the royal gardens so I could get some pictures :)

They ran around the field, picking flowers and playing for a long time! Their games are always very involved, the dialogue intense and the roles defined :)

Honey appointed herself the leader (note the hands on hips stance) and was telling them how everything was going to go down. Someone questioned this and she struck this pose and said

"I'm the leader and I get to make up all the rules!"

They had to strip the petals off the flowers and save them and then on her count, they were to shower her with them. It's amazing how they take this from her. I'm wondering how much longer she can get away with this and when the mutiny sets in??? Although, the roles seem to rotate and they each get their bossy turn in regularly.

I'd read about some sunflare shooting techniques and tried to get the 'starburst' look. I was happy to see it turn out similar to the shots I'd seen on the MCP Actions blog! Yay me!

My SuperModels :)

Ever heard of PCS? It can stand for Photographer's Child Syndrome. My kids often have a strong case of it. (hence all the stuck out tongue shots) On Sunday they were loving having their picture taken so I went with it and tried to get some practice in, positioning for better light etc. Lovey was especially keen. I must have a hundred pictures of her as she stood in front of various trees, posts, fences etc, striking a pose and asking for me to take her picture. Then she & Honey did a bunch of posing. Sweetie of course was having none of it. I got a few of her and then she was done with that and bolted. We had our little photoshoot while Murray worked on our poor, bedraggled & beat up garbage box. Some animals had finally punched through it and have been wreaking havoc with it regularly. Murray fixed their wagon! Brand new lid and back and we're good to go! He had to shovel it out before he started and it was nasty in there! The girls and I will paint it soon and it will be spiffy and functional! Hooray! It was so nice to have the return of H.I. Guy (home improvement). He used to come once a week but that was a looooooooong time and 3 kids ago.

Here are some pics from Sunday afternoon :)

Who Needs Sun???

Lovey woke up ridiculously early today, before 7am I'm pretty sure. She's pretty good about being quiet usually and just looks at books until someone else gets up. Murray was up super early this morning & went for a long run (and he was pleased with his time today, 4:36 avg pace/km and a total of 39km in 3hrs 55 seconds) So he was long gone when she first got up. Then Honey joined her and they played for awhile as I tried to force myself to get up (admittedly without great effort) but it deteriorated when they decided to set the table for breakfast. Honey was causing Lovey great distress by blocking her access to the cupboard. Lovey had accidentally knocked down a bag of toothpicks and desperately needed to get them back in their place on the shelf so Honey parked herself on the chair and wouldn't let her up to reach. So even when they're trying to be good and helpful, they're still rotten!!! Lovey was beside herself as her OCD sent her into a tearful panic and she came running into my room to let me know that the toothpicks, despite her best intentions and efforts, were NOT in their proper place! I told her it didn't matter as they didn't appear to be properly rotated and shuffled anyway. (hahahaha!!!) Actually I told her to leave them on the counter for me to put away later.

When I got out to the kitchen, Sweetie had also joined them and they'd all gotten bowls, cups and spoons, poured their milk & cereal and were all set for breakfast. So what did they need me to get up for anyway? "Mummy Mummy!!!! come come! Hurry!!!!! ....... See? we don't need you!" well thanks for that newsflash!


I went to my class at the gym and they did their morning jobs and then watched TV while Murray relaxed in the recliner. After lunch we jumped in the car and went for a swim at the indoor pool! They've been wanting to go for awhile but since we have a much better pool in our yard, we've been putting them off this summer. The whole way there they chattered nonstop at their excited high pitch level. They were wound for sound!

We swam and played for over an hour and a half when we finally pulled them out so we could go get some supper. The whole way to the restaurant they were still hyped up but managed to settle down once we got inside, thank goodness!

We went to a Mexican place and they were sooooooooo good to the kids! They each got their own menu and once we'd ordered, a guy came over and asked if they'd like a surprise and then came back with a helium balloon and a toy for each of them. This was much nicer than the surprise we got when I took the girls to the ladies bathroom and noticed the owner was using the wheelchair accessible bathroom with the DOOR OPEN!!!!!!!! Ay chihuahua!!

We had a great dinner and shared some dessert and they thought the whole thing was just awesome. Honey really wants to try chopsticks though so she asked if we could go to a Chiny (rhymes with shiny) restaurant next time. Lovey said she didn't want to go there, she likes Mexican food better! and what exotic authentic Mexican cuisine did she try? Some muy bueno chicken fingers and fries!

When we got home we were feeling pretty full so we took Murphy for a walk even though it was raining and the girls got to use their rain suits again. Not a puddle was missed on this outing! :)

Needless to say, they weren't long settling down to sleep tonight!

Cuz Staying Home's for Punks! ;)))

We were back from vacation a whole two days before we decided to do another road trip! A friend from my dorm in university lives several hours away now but is usually around for a few weeks each summer. Teena & I took the kids up to visit a couple of times 2 years ago and last year Leanne wasn't home at all so when she let us know she'd be back this summer, we planned a road trip.

Teena offered to take one of my girls in her truck so Boo would have someone to talk to and play with on the drive. Her backseat gets a little lonely (a concept we simply cannot grasp!) so this was pretty fun for her and I think it gave Teena a break from being entertainment director on the trip. She said everything went well but that there was an awful lot of discussion about poop! Lovey got a seat on the way there and Sweetie took a turn on the way back (Honey had had a turn on a previous excursion)

I got to travel with my "twins" and they also talked nonstop but their conversation was mostly "are we going to be there soon?". We finally arrived and the kids were keen to jump in the water so they got their suits on and splashed around a bit while we unpacked our lunch.

Leanne's son was away with other family members but her daughter was there and was just so cute I had a hard time not following her around with my camera all the time!! She's like a little doll!

The kids were in and out of the lake several times and we all had a great visit at their camp. The view is gorgeous and we once again had great weather!

An Apple A Day....

I'm not sure "sour green apple martinis" are what they had in mind for that saying but you can never be too careful!

I discovered the secret to solving vacation stress! Martinis! LOL I gave Rick this kit for Christmas last year and he saved it for the cottage. I helped him mix it up and since Teena was there, I thought we'd celebrate a bit. Besides he had the right glassware and the kit came with some yummy rim trim that looked too good to pass up. The drink was waaaaaaaaay too strong for my liking but the sour green apple taste helped to mask it a bit and I didn't gag! We stuck them in the freezer so they were pretty slushy and the iciness made them better too. I managed to get 2 of them down before my stomach got uncomfortably warm so that's my hardcore binge drinking for this decade I guess!