Busy times

The key to keeping my kids out of trouble is to keep them busy.  James and I sometimes joke by saying, "what are we going to do to tire these two out today?"  We are kidding, but not really.....the more active they are, the better they listen...not sure if it's just my kids/kids in general/or boys...but it works for us.

Friday morning I had to go to Georgetown to sign the boys up for gymnastics (at Cartwheels) so we met Nana at a park afterwards.  We had a great time playing and then we all headed to McDonald's for lunch.

We left Nana in Georgetown and came back home so that Hunter could nap.  He REFUSED to go to sleep.  It was this huge fight where I eventually gave up and brought him downstairs.

Our pumpkins are getting big!

A few minutes later, he fell asleep on the couch.

Saturday morning we joined some momstown peeps at a "crafty critters" event.  The boys made rattles out of paper towel rolls and corn kernels.  Drew met another little boy his age, and had a lot of fun playing with him all morning.

I took the boys to subway for lunch and then we hit the Milton mall to pick up some shoes for Drew for school.  Turns out I should have done it a long time ago.  At some point during the summer, Drew's feet grew 2 sizes!  He went from a size 12 to a size 1.  Holy crap!  Hunter's feet had also grown, going from a 7 to an 8.

We found some shoes for Drew that light up at Payless but they didn't have any nice ones for H, so we went to Zellers, where they were having a sale.  We got a pair of transformer shoes for Drew (his "indoor" pair for school) and a pair of Thomas ones for H.  Success!!

Saturday night was a fun one for me.  I left the boys at my parents and headed to Cambellville for a girls night/baby shower for our friend Kristi.  She is having twins in the fall and we wanted to do something special for her before she had them.

Delicious wine!!

The theme was "two peas in a pod" and Brenda and Rocchina went all out decorating around that them. It was so cute.  We had some delicious food, yummy drinks and fun games (provided by Kelly).  It was one of the funnest nights out I'd had in a while!

Sunday morning in an effort to get the boys out of the house, we headed to Crawford lake.  We hiked around the lake and then checked out the Indian village.  It was really great.

Learning how to start a fire with Flint.

Giving it a try.

 Sunday afternoon, Nana and Papa joined us and we all headed to my aunt and uncle's place to celebrate Jayden's 3rd birthday.  The boys had a great time (as did we).  Happy birthday Jayden!

The downfall to all this activity, of course, is the fact that sometimes I just can't keep up.  Monday was a hard day for me.  I had a crazy headache and could hardly see half the time.  We layed low for most of the day (heading to Nana and Papa's for the evening - thank god for them).  I was feeling a bit better in the early afternoon, so Drew and I baked brownies while H napped.

Drew playing on the PBS kids website....he had fun with a lot of the games!

 I was feeling much better Tuesday morning, so I packed the kids up and off we went to Burlington.  We hit Ikea first.  H fell asleep on the way there and Drew wanted to go in the Kids babysitting area, so I had essentially an hour to get all my shopping done (H napped in the stroller).

H and I picked Drew up after the shopping was all done and we headed up to the cafeteria for lunch.  The boys devoured their food and then we hit the kids area for more play (they like to play in the bedrooms that are set up).

Costco was next.  I had ordered some prints (super cheap there) that I had to pick up and we needed wipes.  We also found the halloween costumes, where Drew picked out a fire-fighter costume.  It is adorable, and he had to put it on as soon as we got home.  He wanted to wear it to soccer, but I said no.  My dad is on the hunt this afternoon for one H's size at the Costco in Brampton....he really wants one too.

Drew had his last (night) soccer game Tuesday night.  James surprised us by showing up to watch it.  He had worked some overtime on Saturday night and used it to get off a few hours early.  The boys were THRILLED to see him (as was I).  We had fun watching the game (along with Nana and Papa, of course) and then we all went to DQ for an ice cream....very exciting!

The boys went to bed fairly easily, after stories from both me and James and then James and I watched "couples retreat" which was on TV.  We had seen it before (in the theatre) but it's such a funny movie, was fun to watch it again.

That's that....James is off for 4 days now, so we're planning on getting a bunch of work done around here.

Happy Wednesday!

Fast week re-cap

Remember how in my last post I "promised" to do better with photos?  Ya, I forgot my fancy camera at home when we went to the cottage....ugh.

I did my best with what I had.

Let's see....Grandma and Grandpa joined us at the cottage for a night.  They watched the boys for us while we went to our first "official" condo meeting.

The meeting went way better than expected.  There was no yelling and everyone remained relatively calm.  James and I were pleasantly surprised.

James was elected to the management committee, he is the secretary.  Yay for him!

After Grandma and Grandpa left, we headed into Peterborough to grab some groceries and other various things.

We introduced the boys to Dairy Queen.  Drew has had a blizzard before (he doesn't remember) but we decided it was time to bring chocolate-dipped cones back into our lives.

It was love at first bite for both the boys.  A very messy outing, but super fun nonetheless.

While we were at the cottage, we rented a boat from Tony.  After this outing, I have a feeling that getting a boat has moved up on our wish list of things for the cottage.  The boys (and by boys, I mean all 3 of them) LOVED it.  We took it out a couple of times that day.

Fish!

Hunter loved it so much, he fell asleep....had a good little nap while we were out!

Hunter falling asleep while eating.

We went to Costco, the boys immediately found a huge skid of construction equipment...

Thomas is a big hit at the cottage again.

 On our way home from the cottage, we took a detour and headed back to DQ....LOVE those chocolate dipped cones!

 On Wednesday we worked around here, went to Home depot and had lunch at the subway there.  We picked up some more wood and some fungicide (for the boys pumpkins).  We dropped the boys off at my parents for the afternoon so that James and I could go see a movie.  We saw "Crazy, stupid, love" and I would highly recommend it!  It's now one of my favourite movies!

Thursday we met some of our friends for a picnic in the park.  It was great fun (for Drew, Hunter slept through most of it).  Once we were done at the park, we took the boys to visit Grandma and Grandpa while James and I headed to Square One  My phone was broken and we had an appt. at the apple store.  They ended up giving me a new phone (yay Apple!) and James and I had a nice time at the mall.  We picked up some stuff for Drew's birthday and had a yummy dinner at Panera bread (made me long for Florida though).

And that brings us to Friday, which I'll recap a bit later.

Happy weekend!

Ninjas, subway, fruit kabobs and hikes....

The title just about sums up the end of our week.

James went back to work and it was an adjustment, to say the least.

Don't get me wrong, the boys and I had a great time, but the constant, "where is daddy?"..."when is daddy getting home" tends to wear on a person.

I did not take many photos throughout the past three days.  My I-phone camera seems to have gotten a bit fuzzy and I keep forgetting to bring my "fancy" camera along with us when we do fun stuff.

So, sorry for the lack of photos, I will do better in the next post, promise.

Wednesday morning we went to a momstown pool party.  A great way to get the boys minds off of the fact that daddy had gone back to work (and mine too!).  The pool was in-ground, salt-water and HEATED.  Seriously like slipping into a bathtub.  It was absolute heaven.

I wasn't sure how Drew would do at the play-date as all of the kids that were signed up were Hunter's age or younger.  He had a blast.  Was jumping in and swimming around.....it was great fun.  Hunter really liked to jump in too...he kept saying, "gump to you".  I made sure he had his life-jacket, but he wouldn't let go of me in the water (he couldn't touch the bottom).

The mamas seemed to have a fun time too....always great to get some adult conversation in while the kids are having fun.

Hunter fell asleep on the way home, so Drew and I had some fun Drew/mommy time while he slept.  Once he awoke, we headed to Nana and Papa's and went straight on the gator for an adventure back to the bush.

The trains are back upstairs at Nana's.  They were put away for a bit, but Drew insisted that they be brought back up.  Thomas is a favourite again.

Thursday morning we met some friend's at Rotary park, the boys had a great time, I had fun talking with my friend Cheryl and then we left to get some lunch as the boys (and myself) were starving.  Drew asked for the Ivy Army (Ivy Arms) but I didn't want to sit in a restaurant waiting for our food with 2 cranky boys by myself so we opted for Subway...a much faster alternative.

While we were eating, Drew asked what a "stow-a-way"was and as I was explaining it, we discussed how that was part of what uncle Jamie was policing (the trespassing in the CP yards).  Drew decided that if the stow-a-way was a ninja, he would be very difficult to catch and then made me record him asking uncle Jamie if he had ever arrested a ninja.  After we recorded the question we e-mailed uncle Jamie...I have yet to hear back.

Drew then decided that daddy must have arrested a ninja, as ninja's probably try to jump on planes a lot.

Oh, to be able to tap into that mind of his, and see what he was thinking all the time!

Last night we went to Nana and Papa's again and went on yet another adventure.  I LOVE going back there, it's such a pretty spot.  We found the truck/tractor trail and were able to drive the gator right back to our "secret" picnic spot (I used to go there with my grandmother).  It's not so secret though, as some strangers have made a fire-pit back there (to their credit, it's a really nice fire-pit, but still...PRIVATE PROPERTY people).

Anyways....

This morning we joined momstown again for the junior chef program where we made fruit kabobs complete with chocolate, caramel and cream cheese dips.  DELICIOUS.

The boys really liked making the kabobs, and Drew has asked me to find the stick thingys so we can do it at home.

Hard at work making their kabobs

Yum!

 After our cooking fun, the boys and I headed to the library to pick out some new books for this weekend.  We picked out an arm-full of mighty-machine and dinosaur books that we have already read half of (I picked up 2 country living magazines for myself!).  The boys then hit the computers there for a while before we headed home.

Drew asked for bacon for lunch out of the blue today.  I knew I couldn't let my friend Laurie down (a huge bacon fan), so I cooked up an entire package of the stuff (house still smells like it) and we all feasted on yummy bacon for lunch.  I had an incredibly artery-clogging bacon, goat-cheese and mayo sandwich (we are running very low on groceries)....it was oh so delicious though.

After H's nap (which was preceded by a horrendous pee nightmare.  I had put his diaper on him, but somehow neglected to put the most important part inside the diaper.....pee everywhere!) we headed back up to Nana and Papa's where the boys stayed around the house (no adventures today).  We filled up their kiddie pool, played trains and just hung around.  They both seemed very tired.

And that's that.....hello weekend!!!  Also, I just had a mild heart-attack when I read that the EX started today....yikes!  The end of summer is so close........must.....keep.....having.....fun!!!

Monday and Tuesday - James' last 2 days of vacation...

We picked Drew's friend from school up in Georgetown at 9:30 monday morning.  It had rained the night before, so outside, the ground was still wet.  James and I did not really want the 3 boys tearing up our house inside first thing in the morning, so we all headed to Skedaddle.  The boys could run all they wanted there.  We were hoping they'd tire themselves out.

I left the boys at Skedaddle, once they were settled with James, and headed to the Milton Early years centre.  Hunter has hardly done any programs there, so I decided it was time to sign him up for something.  I succeeded in registering him (seriously, it's a competitive sport, registering for things in Milton), getting one of the last 2 spots in "Discover together".  This class will run on Wednesday mornings (when Drew is in school)....**insert fist pump here.

Once the boys had had enough of the play place, we took them home.  All of the boys played well together outside in the sandbox and inside in the playroom and then we took them to McDonald's for lunch......we are the funnest parents ever! 

Hunter napped through lunch

As soon as we got to the restaurant, Drew's friend informed James that "he always gets ice cream after he eats here".  How could we refuse that??

Nana met us at McDonald's, so plans were made for us to stop by there after we dropped Drew's buddy off.

Once there, the kids dressed up, pretending they were at a ball.

Hunter is sad because papa and daddy left to go get supper.

 Nana, the boys and I took the gator out for one of our adventures.  It was really fun.

 The apples are almost ready.  Still pretty sour, but Drew insisted on eating it anyways.

Tuesday morning, I took the boys to Lowville park.  We met his friend Ethan there (his twin, Emma was not there though, which made Drew sad).  The boys played and had a great time.  I did not take any pictures.  I am seriously sucking at the photo-a-day thing lately.

James texted me as I was leaving Lowville, asking if I wanted to meet him at East Side Marios.  Did I ever!!!!  We had a great lunch, that Hunter once again slept through.

Once home, we got out the kiddie pool and the boys had a great time playing in the pool and chasing the kittens around.  James worked on finishing off the porch extension (just need some handrails now) and putting the new gutters together.

 Soccer was  next on our agenda.  It was a late game (7:15) and Drew was not enthusiastic about it at all.  I don't think he had much fun.

Hunter had a great time though!

After the game, we went to Alison's for ice cream with Nana and Papa (actually, bought by Nana and Papa).

It was a great couple of days, and I am very sad about James' being back at work.  :(  It's so nice having him around...even if he is usually out in the field doing something, it's better than him being at work!