Sunday, July 8, 2007

Weekend at the Cabin



Friday Cole and I headed out to my parent's cabin for the weekend while Dan and Bonnie went to Kenora for Dan's sister's wedding. Cole and I had a wonderful weekend. Never a dull moment it seems, even at 3 in the morning when he woke up crying for no apparent reason and there was nothing I could do to comfort him. Frustrating and sad all at the same time.




Friday Morning: Cole and I got picked up bright and early at 7:30am by my dad so that we could go strawberry picking on our way to the lake. I unfortunately left my camera in the car, so no pictures were taken, although I probably wouldn't have had much time to take pictures because according to my dad, we were on a mission! We ended up picking 23 ice cream pails of strawberries in less than 2 hours. Due to the extreme heat in the fields we were that much more motivated to get the work done with so we could get to the cabin and jump in the lake. Now, you might be wondering what anyone would need 23 pails of strawberries for. Well...my mom and my grandma made jam and froze them when we got to the cabin and then of course we had numerous pails for eating. I am surprised we didn't turn red because we ate A LOT of strawberries.






We spent most of the rest of the day on the beach building sand castles and swimming among the waves in the water. The water was so nice and comfortable to swim in, which was very nice.





























Saturday: Our cabin community had a family fun day at the local park down the road, so Cole and I hopped on the quad to go and check it out. It was great although once again I forgot to bring my camera. Everything was free: hotdogs, drinks and chips, plus there were lots of games and silent auctions. Cole was extremely dissapointed when they announced the judging of the bike decorating contest. We apparently didn't read the flyer close enough because we neglected to decorate his bike. I had a very disappointed boy on my hands, which ended very quickly when we discovered the fish pond where he could fish for a prize. All was good with the world again!


When we returned from the park, we headed down to the beach for another full afternoon of swimming and sand castle building.







Right: Water fights in the lake















A couple weeks ago I bought a Spiderman slip n' slide for my daycare this summer and ever since, Cole has been begging me to set it up. I thought the cabin would be the perfect place to set it up and it was. However, once it was all ready to go, Cole decided he didn't really feel like trying it out anymore. Tears were shed and it seemed like the end of the world that I was trying to convince him that he would enjoy it once he tried it. Eventually he brought himself to crawl through it 3 times very slowly and then he had had enough. I am very thankful that I only decided to spend $10 on this toy!



ICE CREAM AT BEACHSIDE DELIGHTS











Cole enjoying a "real" rainbow ice cream (he's lactose intolerant, so this is a rare treat for him)













At the beginning of the weekend, my parents and I had promised Cole that we could have a campfire on Saturday night. Due to the heat though, none of us really wanted to sit by the fire and roast marshmallows.

























Cole however, was not about to let us forget about it. Funny how kids can remember everything. Cole normally goes to bed between 7 - 7:30, so I told him that at 9:30 we were going to have the fire once it got a bit darker outside and had cooled off a little. In the meantime I set him up in front of Peter Pan in hopes that he might fall asleep and forget about it. WRONG!!! He would start to doze off and then quickly jolt up and ask if it was time to have the campfire yet. I finally gave in and at 8:30 my dad built us a fire so that Cole could just roast his marshmallows and then head off to bed. I think in total the fire lasted about 20 minutes.


Above: Helping getting the fire going


My mom helping Cole eat is extremely hot, yet unroasted marshmallow



Like I mentioned earlier, Cole and I had a bad night on Saturday. He all of a sudden woke up at 2am bawling about nothing. I tried all that I could to comfort him and get him to go back to bed, but nothing seemed to work. I felt terrible because by 3am the rest of the cabin was also awake. Eventually he quieted down by 4 and went back to sleep. The cause of his outbreak is still unknown. When I asked him about it this morning, he said he didn't cry or have a bad dream, so go figure.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

The Best Summer Job Ever

Well, I have officially started my summer daycare as of Tuesday of this week. It is going incredibly well. There are a ton of great kids and I really enjoy spending time with them. We have spent the last 2 days outside going for walks, playing at the park, running through the sprinkler and enjoying yummy popcicles on a hot day! I also cannot remember the last time I spent 2 hours playing Barbies (I was not the Barbie playing type as a kid, so this is sort of new to me). I have 6 kids everyday that I look after ranging in ages from 1 year to 5 years old.
I couldn't possibly think of a better job to have in the summer. What other job would let you sit on the floor and litterally play or allow you to go to the park and swing on swings and still get paid for it!

Here's to 7 more weeks of daycare! Cheers!

Monday, July 2, 2007

Dancing, Grad and Long Weekends

Well it is about time that I updated the blog with a new post. It has been a very busy week it seems. What else is new right?


Last weekend was the final dance lesson that my friend Steph was teaching a bunch of us at our church. It was so much fun and I think it needs to become a regular occurance. Not everyone who attended was necessarily coordinated, but we all had a ton of fun with people in our church that we might not necessarily hang out with on a regular basis.











Bre & Jess pulling out all their cool moves. I believe that classics such as the lawn mower, the fishing rod, the sprinkler and the shovel were pulled out. Those moves were definitely not part of the moves Steph had showed us :)


This past week was filled with graduation events. My youngest brother Derek graduated grade 12 at MBCI. It made me feel very old (even though I'm really not). It was only 5 years ago that I was celebrating my own high school graduation. It's crazy how fast time seems to fly. Last week with all of the crazy weather we seemed to be having I was happy that they had beautiful weather for both their grad banquet and also for the commencement ceremony.

THE FORMAL BANQUET


Derek & Courtney: Pictures at the Legislative grounds

THE CEREMONY




Right: Derek & Grandma

















Derek and the girls: Dominika and myself








Right: Derek & my parents


















The whole family








The Kids











Seriousness doesn't seem to run in our family










Derek the morning after the grad party enjoying the beautiful cupcakes that I made for him.






LONG WEEKEND

This past weekend I headed up to the cottage to spend some time with my family. We were unable to celebrate Father's Day on the actual day due to a couple of us writing exams and being extremely stressed out, so we celebrated this past weekend. It was a very nice and relaxing weekend filled with a lot of reading, puzzling, playing games, laying on the deck, swimming, tubing and water skiing and movie watching late into the wee hours of the night. It was a lot of fun and I was very sorry to have to come home tonight. Life is just so much more slow paced and relaxing at the cabin in comparison to here at home. It seemed as though as soon as I walked in the door, there were messages to return and emails to respond to, laundry to wash and just get ready for the week ahead. Oh well, only 4 more days until I get to return the cabin to spend another glorious weekend away from the city, although this time Cole will be joining me out there, so there will probably be a lot less relaxing going on and a lot more building sand castles and playing, which is all good too.



Over Christmas we headed down to the states for a couple days and my dad found this tacky gem in a garden center. He couldn't resist buying it and this weekend was when the beautiful decoration got hung up at the cottage.










Playing Games



FUN IN THE WATER





































Above: My dad has not skiied in probably 10 years, but this weekend he decided to give it a try and he got up no problem, although I have a hunch that he is going to be very sore this next week.

Soaking up the Sun








Dominika and her dog Peanut enjoying some time on the deck relaxing.















Right: Grandma












Myself and Dominika on the beach








Right: Courtney and Derek











By the end of the weekend, even Bailey was exhausted!






Tomorrow I begin my summer job running a daycare out of my house. I am very much looking forward to the weeks ahead spending time with a bunch of different kids. However, I imagine there will be some frustrating and stressful moments also as I have 6 kids every day of the week except Fridays.

Friday, June 22, 2007

A Clean Room

I feel like I can finally be comfortable in my own room again. It has been a pig sty lately, but as of yesterday, it is nice and clean.

Before:















After: