I hate summer.

There.  I said it.
I'll get the smelling salts for you and give you a moment to recover.
"How can you hate summer?"

from hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.ca

Does that help? One summer, at Red Rock Bible Camp, I got heat exhaustion. Ever since then, I've been seriously sensitive to heat and feel barfy and queasy when it's more than 24 degrees.
And sweating.  I hate sweating. When the unrelenting sun is bearing down on you, there's no breeze and it "feels like 43.6 with the humidex", how do you exist outside without sweating?  Even my eyelids sweat.  That's not okay.
Then there's the "activities". Swimming. Camping. Picnicking. Bonfires. Parks.
"What's not to like about bonfires? Surely you enjoy sitting around a crackling fire!"

Yeah, that.
Swimming = pouring myself into a bathing suit, dragging at least 1 crying child into the water against their will ("We didn't come to the beach to play in the sand for 4 hours!"), all the while hoping nothing brushes up against my leg, the kids leave the floating band-aid alone and my boobs don't tumble out of my bathing suit. Again.
Camping (for us) = 4 people sandwiched into an tent (aka canvas pod of recycled stagnant air), a slowly deflating air mattress and kids who literally wake up with the sun. Which, if I recall correctly from last summer, was 3:42am.
Picnicking = everyone ate outside 1000 years ago. Then we built shelters and now the smart people eat INSIDE. Without the bugs and the sandwich meat which is slowly warming up and the watermelon which is causing a line of stick from my daughters wrist to her elbow to her stomach to her knees. This will later attract legions of bugs, all of which she is terrified of.
Parks = other people's children.
I'm sure you're wondering now if I hate kittens and cotton candy too, and I can assure you that I love (the idea of) kittens and cotton candy (in very small doses). So there.

Despite my summer avoidance, I have two children who love summer and love being outside, so I suck it up and occasionally take the kids for ice cream at Warky's, cover the driveway with bizarre interpretations of Yo Gabba Gabba characters in sidewalk chalk, play at the (smallest and quietest) park and when I really feel like testing my limits, we do go camping.  It's Wyatt's favorite thing ever, and how do you say no to that? We eat too many hot dogs and s'mores and nobody sleeps, and he talks about how great it is for a year.
So here's to swollen, itchy bug bites, sweaty eyelids, swimming in someone else's pee (oh, you know it's happening), accidentally inhaling a mosquito while biking and drinking a can of pop with a bee inside. Cheers!

06.30.14

Kaeleigh & Barney got married on Saturday!  And my goodness, the weather did not wish to cooperate. While we were getting ready to leave for the wedding, it was POURING. I made the cake for them, so it had to make the hour long car ride. Of course, the sun was blazing hot on the way in and I was busy shoving that cake around behind my seat trying to keep the sun from melting the icing!

When we got to the city, the weather still looked promising, but the skies opened up again just before the ceremony was set to start. And once again it stopped, so the staff and some guests quickly got everything ready for the outdoor ceremony. It was a lovely ceremony, a wonderful reception and just such a happy day.

Congratulations you two!

 

 

 

PS. Sorry if the pictures are all over the page.  I posted from my phone and attempted to edit the post on my laptop to no avail.  Damn you blogger!!

06.29.14

On Thursday, Wyatt had a little "ceremony" to celebrate his kindergarten graduation. While I do understand wanting to celebrate the end of the school year, a "grad" seems a little...superfluous? I mean, in Morden you can't "fail" kindergarten. Everyone gets a pass. Regardless, it was a cute little ceremony.

First day of kindergarten (left) and last day (right)!

Wyatt receiving his diploma.

Singing "Parents are Awesome".

06.11.14

This weekend we went to the Teddy Bear Picnic. My in-laws joined us as Josh was at the funeral of a fellow firefighter who was killed in a workplace accident.

I'm incredibly grateful that they showed up - my father-in-law has a magical ability to talk Wyatt into doing just about anything. So Wyatt drove the Power Wheels. He went into a bouncy house (with other children!). He was all over the place - but he drew the line at face painting. ;)

This week we started swimming lessons. They've been going terribly. That's about it.

05.24.14

Paige's Lalaloopsy Cake

The set up

The sundae toppings (YUM)

The birthday girl!

Thoroughly spoiled!

Cousins

Having a blast in the bouncy house

Some fun new colours for her birthday

A birthday cake donut on her birthday!

Cake #2 (one we actually ate!)

Not really enjoying the sparkler.

Paige celebrated her 3rd birthday yesterday!  We had her party last weekend, and she had a great time.  We had an ice cream party (as per Paige's request) with tons of different toppings, sauce and 4 different types of ice cream.  It was a great idea!  Josh's parents lent us their bouncy house and the kids had a blast with that.  I was floored at how much Wyatt loved it, to be honest.  When they first got the bouncy house, he mostly just wanted to stand in it (no one could jump!).  Now he was hoping around, going down the slide head first, running back up the slide, just generally enjoying himself.  Paige, of course, loved it and that was no surprise. 
Everyone was terribly generous, and there were lots of gifts to open.  Josh and I had picked up a few things for her to open at the party, and then kept a set of Duplo (Sleeping Beauty) for her to open on her birthday.  Looking back, we didn't need to give her anything to open at her party!  I think she was a little overwhelmed.  A week later, she's still discovering some of the gifts from the party!
One silly oversight was that I did not serve her cake (everyone was full of ice cream I guess!).  So no one sang happy birthday AND she didn't get to blow out her candles!  She's recently gotten into Bubble Guppies (a show on Treehouse), so I made her a small cake for her actual birthday (I was making cupcakes to bring to daycare anyway).  She was thrilled!

04.24.14

Obligatory Lego photos.

On our Easter egg hunt!

A rare afternoon nap at home.

The Snow White doll Paige got for ditching diapers!

Wyatt wandered outside to play this evening, and I found him laying with Shrek in the backyard.

Not a whole bunch has been going on in the last month. The weather has (mostly) been downright miserable still. High of 11 for Monday (my birthday) with rain. I remember having a birthday party on our deck a few years back where a couple of people got sunburns. That won't be happening this year. :/
Our plan over Easter long weekend was to attempt to potty train Paige. The Wednesday before, she suddenly decided she was ready. So she was into underwear on Friday and has been dry (save for one accident while she was totally preoccupied on the iPad) since. Easiest potty training ever. I promised her a princess doll when she was out of Pull Ups, so she got that yesterday.
We had a really quiet Easter weekend, as my parents were in Calgary visiting my brother and his family.  We saved our Easter egg hunt for Sunday, and the kids had a blast searching the backyard and following a trail of eggs the Easter bunny had left behind. It brought back memories of when we searched for Easter basket hunts with my mom's side of the family. There were usually at least 10 of us cousins, and the uncles were in charge of hiding the baskets. They made a game of making my brother's the hardest to find. I know there was one year his was hidden up in the eaves of my grandparents' house. Mine was in the ditch in front of their house 2 years in a row. I suspect they did not have confidence in my searching skills. ;)

03.14.14

It's no secret our family has gotten big into Lego lately. While Paige has lots of Duplo, she loves playing with the regular (and much smaller) Lego. Because she's normally careful with it (as in, she doesn't try to eat it - she takes everything apart as soon as I build it for her), I don't mind her having a few small sets. We've bought her the Lego Friends sets - there's lots of controversy about these sets. They only come in more feminine colours (pink, purple, lighter shades of green, yellow and blue), and the sets themselves are "ehhhhhh" (my official review). Bakeries, lemonade stand, pool sets, etc. are the more prominent sets, however there is a drum set, karate class and a pretty neat tree house. What gets my goat is the new figures that come with them. I just don't like them. They're big, you can't really change outfits (not beyond changing the colour of their tank tops), and they don't look like Lego.

Kaeleigh recently linked to an article where a 7 year old takes Lego to task for having more "boy sets" and she wanted more girl sets that "had adventures". Kaeleigh asked if it was actually up to Lego to provide an equal number of male/female sets, or up to parents to teach their children to get more creative and invent that which we find lacking. It got me thinking - because I agree with the 7 year old (why can't I find a female firefighter set?), but also with Kaeleigh.

So tonight I ordered a few female Minifigures that I hope will help Paige's imaginative play later on - a scientist, a police officer, a surfer, a robot...thanks to EBay, I was able to "build" my own minifigs for her. Okay, and for me.