some firsts (potentially icky for the squeamish)

Parenting small children comes with many firsts. First step, first solid foods...and so on. It also comes with some fun (for parents!) firsts - first trip out in underpants instead of pull-ups. First overnight without diapers. These are good firsts. Exciting firsts. Firsts we are glad to see.

Other firsts, well, not so much. Let's take, oh, um...first time throwing up in public. That's not a good first. I'm sure most people reading this can remember that time someone in their class in elementary school threw up. Right? I know I can.

We also had "one of those" firsts today. Isaac did seem a bit under the weather this morning, but we didn't think much of it. There was a parents lunch thing at school, for education week, to share lunch and some favorite books. Rob went along, as "the girls" were at a playdate. By the time lunch was finished, it was obvious that the little man wasn't feeling 100%. Dad, with his quick reflexes, managed to act quickly and catch the, um, event, and salvage some of our little guy's dignity. Thank goodness for lunch bags, quick hands, and paper towels.

Which means we experienced a whole bunch of firsts today. Mixed blessing, those firsts.

girls' brithday party!

Last Saturday was the "Fairy Princess" birthday party for the girls. 5 little fairy princesses joined us, as well as one big brother, one little brother and one newborn baby sister. We drank pink punch, ate yummy food, had delicious cake, did some princess related crafts and opened gifts. Oh, and pumpkin spice lattes for the grownups. It was a lovely party.

Little princesses making tiara crafts


A few more princesses hard at work with glue and sequins


The pink ladybug cake for Ruby




Norah finally changed her mind from a soccer cake to a butterfly




Blowing out the candles



The fairy princess shoes we made as a craft.



The party guests in the "fairy princess corner". It's amazing what you can do with mosquito netting, ribbons and christmas lights. one of the princesses is missing in this shot, she was playing cars in Isaac's room, but her baby sister is in the shot.

fall day play

A few Saturdays ago, the older two spent an hour shoveling leaves into a big pile. Yes, shoveling. Then they applied their skills from gymnastics class to the leaves. Apparently, somersaulting into leaves is lots of fun.


They used their chairs as starting points.


Leaves in the hair.

Happy Birthday 4 year old!

Helping making her birthday pizza. She loves the turkey pepperoni because it's not too spicy. Otherwise, she wanted pepperoni pizza so she could "pick off the pepperoni". 4 years go so fast, it's hard to believe she's already helping cut things in the kitchen.


Blowing out the candles on her strawberry cupcakes.


"Don't steal my cupcake"


Smile!

delicious!

Now that Fall is officially here, the smells of Fall are all around the house.


Crockpot beef in wine with potatoes and sweet potatoes


Peach and (garden!) strawberry crisp



Then from this:



To this:
Green tomato relish, canned and ready for winter. Tomatoes and green pepper from the garden out back. Yum!

sadness

"From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood; from mplague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death,
Good Lord, deliver us"

BCP, General Litany

Sudden death is a horrible thing. It sneaks up when one is least expecting it and changes our worlds in an instant.

We are currently dealing with the aftermath of a sudden death here in town. A 22 year old young man, son and grandson from our parish, died in a tragic car accident this week. Thankfully, his girlfriend escaped with minor injuries, but Gregg was pronounced dead at the scene. Word travels fast in a small town, and hurt is big. Rob was out of town when this happened, and I had to track him down on his clergy retreat, and he hurried home to be with the family.

This is a new type of mourning. All the funerals Rob has done so far have been for the very elderly or the sick (or both). This out-of-the-blue sudden death is so very different. The pain is just different, the sorrow is a different kind. As Gregg's grandmother said to me on the phone this week "this is just like a horrible dream I just can't wake up from".

If you, dear family and friends who read this, are the praying type, please pray for this family. For the parents, grandmother, younger brothers, extended family and friends. There is much hurt here. Dear Lord, deliver us all from sudden death.

Happy Fall!

Sure, it's not technically Fall yet. The leaves here are changing and starting to fall. The mornings are crisp, even if we haven't had a real frost yet. It's pretty much Fall, we can't avoid it.

victory over the sink!

With all the kitchen work being done, it seemed to be time to take on the leaky bathroom sink faucet.

Well, you know all about "best laid plans" and "simple jobs"....three days later, still cursing at the stinkin' sink bits that were not cooperating, I suggested calling a plumber. Never one to be easily defeated, Rob dove back in for another go around with the "stinkin' sink bits"...and won! Finally, all the pieces that were supposed to be easy to change were loosened, and Rob was able to install our new faucet. With the state of the old faucet, it was going to take much more than just a set of washers to get it looking nice and working well again. So proud, and no plumber called!

Voila!

pssttt....

wanna a sneak peak of the partially reno'ed kitchen?

This is what we came home to:

the new pantry - it's huge!


Check out the new layout. Until the electrician gets here, the dishwasher and hood fan are simply decorative. That's ok. We can wait.



Technically, the sink wasn't installed until after we had been home a few days.


It's almost done! Tonight, we came home to a tiled backsplash. :)

Biggest truck in the world!

After Seattle, we drove to the Yakima area of Washington state to visit with friends and their two daughters. Lots of fun and late nights talking. Then it was time to (yet again) pack up the van and head home. We drove the most boring stretch of road ever, then hit Spokane which looked like it had plenty of charm from the interstate. Stopped in Idaho and enjoyed our first visit to Sonic, where they make amazing slushies and flavored Coke. Then headed north and had a wistful moment when we drove past an amusement park, and we all wished we were on the roller coaster instead of still in the van. Made us wonder if driving past fun looking places as kids, and hearing the "no, we can't stop" was just as hard on the parents as it was on us kids. Northern Idaho and into Canada again - what a beautiful area that is! Somehow, the children were less impressed with the views.

After overnighting in Cranbrook, we stopped in Sparwood to see the "World's Largest Truck". Who can resist that photo op? Not us! It WAS big!



Then on to Red Deer (or Reindeer, as the kids called it) for a stop - including the most fun hotel slide EVER. Home the next day, and an exciting discovery of seeing one of the local highways *finally* completed roadwork.

the joy of new running shoes

Around age 12, I (Kristin) was really excited to have saved up enough babysitting money to buy myself my first pair of Converse Chuck Taylor One Star running shoes. They were black, low top and so very lovely. I remember clearly the April day, going out to the mall, and finally bringing home the prized shoes. Walking around the front yard, making those shoe prints in the late spring snow still on the lawn, trying really hard not to get mud on them. I was so cool in my own mind.

While we were on the way to Seattle, it was apparent that we were needing a quick pit stop. Imagine our (ok, my) joy when the next exit held the promise of good shopping at a massive outlet mall - and plentiful bathrooms. We did a bit of shopping, had some lunch, ran into some people we knew (really! some from Vancouver, some from Iowa!)...then we found the Converse outlet store. I was sure that Isaac needed a pair of runners, so in we went.


They had green ones, and Isaac was all over that. He was so excited. We also got him a pair of black velcro-closing ones for his school shoes.


Then Norah spotted the pink ones. Having once had a pink pair myself, it was so hard to say no...so we didn't. She was really after the pink glitter ones, but they didn't have her size. She settled on pink low tops.


At this point, Ruby was getting antsy. She wanted some shoes too. Well, if it wasn't our day! There were 3 pairs of white low tops with red ladybugs left, and one of them was in her size! How could we say no?


I also found a pair for myself, black and turquoise. Ahh, bliss.

Now Isaac just needs to learn to tie his shoes.

other things we did

- got to enjoy the 40th wedding anniversary party
-went for sushi with the kids, and Norah was all over it
- visited with friends and their kids, with friends without kids, with friends with grown up kids
- spraypark!
- Granville Island, where Isaac chased the birds and mom found too many fun toys (but showed restraint)
- went to the church Dad grew up in, and got to hear him preach there
- meals with family, both close and more extended
- did a little shopping - no really, just a little
- had a fun beach meet up with some of mom's friends and all their kids
there was more, it's just so hard to recall it all now!

Hands down though, if you ask the kids what they liked best it would be playing with their cousins. Without question. These three cousins are missing their other three cousins a lot now that we are home.

Playland!

One of the first outings we had in Vancouver was to Playland with Grandpa Tom. We wanted to enjoy the rides before the PNE started and the lines were crazy. What a fun day! Hot, but fun. The kids LOVED the rides, and were all pretty much little daredevils. Norah had a minor meltdown over being denied (by mom) the chance to ride the big swings, but got over it. All three kids rode the little roller coaster - twice. The major highlight was the older 2 riding the log ride with dad and Grandpa. They were soaked, which was a very welcome side effect on such a hot day.

Driving



While we were there, we ran into mom's cousin K's daughter R (who is 2 weeks older than Ruby) and her hubby P. Even a big city like Vancouver is still a small place sometimes.

That's cousin K's little one in the green.

home again

Ahh, the lovely feeling of returning home. Home we are, and it's great. So much to reflect on, so much to share, not enough pictures taken, too much grass to mow. Lots to say, but for now, we're just sharing that we're home.

recent conversation

Dad: "Isaac, can you get me a kleenex? There is a bug here on the floor."
Isaac: "sure Dad. Is it a cute bug?"
D: "um, it's a bug"
I: (wandering over with the kleenex) Hey, it's a cute bug! It's so cute dad. hi little guy!"
pause to watch bug

I: "kill it Dad"

effective immediately

Looks like Red Dye #40 might be the culprit in Ruby's welts and rash on her face. Effective immediately, we're eliminating it from her diet and our home.

That dye is in a LOT of foods.

hmm

Not only are the kids have HUGE reactions to mosquito bites these days, looks like Ruby ate something yesterday that didn't agree with her.

This was last night, the redness across part of her face up to her ear. A little Benadryl should clear it up...



...but it didn't. The photo does not capture it well, but the redness is straight across her face like a mask over the lower half. It also runs down on to her chest. It's not terribly pretty. All we can figure that she ate out of the ordinary were 3 Starburst candies. Perhaps a red dye allergy?

Wedding fun

We were at a wedding in town yesterday. For size reasons, it was held at the Catholic church, but Dad was officiating. The kids were great. Norah wanted to know why the stained glass windows looked like pizza pepperoni (red circles). After the ceremony, we blew bubbles out front for the wedding party to walk through.



It poured rain as we headed out for the reception, but we managed to dodge a lot of the raindrops. It did clear up beautifully, just in time for us to head home. The wedding was very kid friendly, with a small pack of kids chasing balloons around the civic centre. As we left, the kids decided it would be fun to pop balloons. We told them it would be polite to do that outside, so here they are, trying to pop them. Lots of fun.

Today's activity

We've been getting slammed with thunderstorms in the last few days. Throw in some snotty noses, and we've been inside quite a bit. Today, they discovered the fun of a superhero kit that was sent to Isaac from friends in exotic locations (nudge nudge Bonnie).




Rest assured, you will be safe with this trio on the scene. Unless you take their toys, then they will attack.

A day at the lake - or, when popsicles attack

They may be little, but no park can stop them!

Friday was warm and sunny, so we headed up to the lake. We went with J and her three kids, and had a lovely time. We ate lunch, seasoned ever so delicately with sand. The kids swam, and swam, and swam some more. Beach balls were kicked and chased. Sand was dug. Laughs were had. Bubbles were blown, and bubble solution was spilled. No mini golf was played, we went to a different lake.

Great time. Just before meltdown time, we loaded all of our stuff back to the vans and took the kids up to the ice cream shop. Norah, being our only non ice cream eater, chose to have a pink popsicle as her treat. Well, the popsicle was so cold that it stuck to her tongue. Painfully. So, she did what any self respecting 3 year old would do. Panic.

You know, there are times as a parent when it's really really hard not to just laugh at your kids. This was one of those times. She's much better now, still ate the popsicle, and there was only a couple drops of blood.

From l to r: Norah (and the evil popsicle), Mr. R, Mr. C, Ruby and Isaac. The boys' sister is smearing ice cream all over mom on the other side of the table. In the interest of staying friends, I didn't take any photos of that. :)


Little girl, big cone.

The big boys on the monkey bars.


Our trio, just hanging around.


On the way home, the older 2 listened to a book on cd. Ruby fell asleep before we had even turned back out of the lake's parking area. It was a great day. Except for the sand that ended up in the van and on the bathroom floor at home.