August Recap

Once again an entire month has gone by without a real newsy post from me! Shocking!! Well, pour another cup of coffee (or tea) and get comfy 'cus this is going to be long one!!

August started in Osoyoos. We went to visit my Aunty Moira for the August long weekend - the first real Road Trip with all 3 girls. After about 30 minutes Paige was asking when we'd be there!! But eventually they settled back and enjoyed the ride. We even saw a little forest fire in the moutains on the other side of Manning Park! This picture is them going down hill "no hands" (for those of you who have driven this route through Manning to the Okanagan you'll know which hills I mean.)

Once In Osoyoos we went down to the lake and let the girls burn off some energy on the playground and by throwing some rocks into the lake. Greg was trying to teach them how to skip stones. I think Marley can do it every now and then, but Paige is still all about how big a splash she can make. And LC? Well, she just likes to get wet!!

We took the girls to the Model Railroad (AWESOME!!! a must do if you're ever in Osoyoos!) and to the Nk'Mip Desert Centre where we learned all about snakes and got to touch some (even Paige!!!) Then on our last day we met up with some friends of Gregs' in Naramata. There was a little (and boy do I mean little!) parade leading to a fair. The fair was a lot bigger than I expected (especially given the size of the parade) but the biggest draw was the lake. Marley claimed she needed Greg to catch her at the bottom of the slide so he hiked up his shorts (check out those sexy legs!) to help her out. I think he "caught" her once before she realized the water was shallow enough that she could do it safely on her own!

I just reread my July Recap post and I was apparantly going to do a seperate blog post about the Osoyoos trip and talk about the fabulous face painter we found there. Oops! She'd painted the girls' faces once before and did another amazing job. I included pictures on my Project 12 July post. Here is a close up of Paige.

Seeing Marley lounging on the beach chatting with the daughter of one of Gregs' friends I got a glimpse into my future. Can't you just picture a teenage Marley sunbathing and talking boys, clothes and makeup? Yikes!! They are growing up so fast!!

August 5th - We went out to Mill Lake in Abbotsford to visit with Ammee and Poppa, Aunty Ileana and cousins Caleb, Jenna and Luke. There was a pretty impressive water park and playground which all the kids enjoyed - especially LC.

She can do the slides all by herself now. Sigh, where did my little baby go?!

There was also alot of good pathways for the girls to ride their bikes on. Ammee helped Paige get comfortable on her bike - something she hasn't had a lot of opportunity to ride. Negligent parents!!!

Marley went for a long bike ride with Ileana, Caleb, Jenna and Luke. The elbow and knee pads came with the helmet we bought for Paige!

The kids tried to do some "fishing" from a little pier. They had found a stick with a string and a  bent paperclip on it and someone there gave them a worm. Surprisingly, they didn't catch anything!! LOL!

August 7th - I got a bee in my bonnet about the state of our house and banished Greg and the girls so I could have some peace and quiet to clean. They quite happily went off to spend the day with Aunty Christine and crew! One of my tasks was to tackle the girls toys. We have a rule; whatever doesn't get picked up by the end of a reasonable amount of clean up time gets taken away until such time as Mommy and Daddy decide they can have it back. Well, so many of the girls toys had been taken away that we pretty much had the entire contents of the playroom on our bedroom closet. I figured it was time to do something about it. Don't know why I bothered because it's now 3 weeks later and our closet is filling up again.  Sigh!

August 13th - With the demise of LC's water mat we were reduced to playing in the sprinkler only. All well and good but when I saw a slip and slide on sale at London Drugs for $6.40 I snapped it up!

August 15th - We went to the beach with the Campbell cousins. Andy and Jo had never been to Centennial Beach - I think they liked it so much this may become a more regular affair!

The "campsite".

After wading in the water for a bit, the kids decided to build sand castles. Well, MUD castles would be more apt! They had a blast and all won first prize in their category (Aunty Jonina was the judge)! And they all went directly into the tub when we got home!!

Paige and Sophie's creation.

Marley's.

Matthew's Volcano.

August 23rd - Greg and I celebrated our 8th Anniversary!

August 24th - PNE!!! The annual trip to the PNE was slightly different this year as Greg was working. Greg's parents and I took the girls and we had a blast. Paige was a bit more adventurous this year too. I think she may even have made the ride pass pay off!! She wasn't so adventurous as to allow us to take a picture of her with the PNE Bear though ... one battle at a time!

Paige and Marley on the boats.

Marley and Grandma on the Super Slide.

LC "fishing" with Grandpa's help.

The girls and their prizes (LC did NOT want her picture taken thank you very much!)

After lunch we went to the barns to check out the animals. New this year was the Safeway Kids Activity Farm. LC was too young to "officially" participate but enjoyed it anyway. Here she is trying to get an egg. 

Marley and Paige in the apple orchard.

Marley rode the Mini Hellevator by herself! She'd been earlier in the day with Grandpa but this time she wanted to go all by herself. Wow! Next year she'll be tall enough to go on ALL the rides!! Yikes! (This year she was right on the cusp - 48" tall - but since Greg wasn't with us I was happy to keep her on the little rides another year.)

Hey! A picture or ME at the PNE!! LC loved the Carousel and even Paige got on this time.

August 28th/29th - Seattle!! After our fun trip to Seattle last year during which we took in a Mariners game, Greg decided he wanted to try to take the whole family this year. He found a matinee game and we arranged to go with two other families. The kids lasted about 4 innings before getting too restless to sit still. Not too bad - I was bored after ... oh, heck, who am I kidding? I didn't really watch the game at all! I just don't like baseball!!

During our exploration break Marley had her picture taken with the Mariners Moose. Funny aside ... Marley keeps calling the team the Seattle Marinators!! LOL!

That evening we went to the CrabPot and worked out some angst by smashing some crabs!! So much fun! The food was pretty good too.

They bring bowls full of seafood, corn and potatoes and dump it on the table. Yup! Adults get to be kids again!!

A rare family picture!

Next day we went to the Seattle Zoo. I won't bore you with pictures of animals in cages - these are the animals you're most interested in anyway, right?

Phew!!

We made it through August!

Thanks for sticking with me - I know this was a long post. Insanely long really! I've really got to try and post more regularly!!

September will bring Grade 1 for Marley, another year of Preschool for Paige and lots and lots of activities for all the girls. Oh, and my birthday ... can't forget about that!! Well, see you later.

It's Finished!!!

Just a quick post to say Yip, Yip, Yippeee!!! I finally finished Marley's baby album (actually there were so many pictures/layouts that I had to split it into 2 albums)! I will try and figure out how to make some sort of slideshow thingy and post that so you can see the completed albums.
Thanks for sharing in this process with me!!


Aug 27th - UPDATE: I did up a little video in Picasa for you to see Marley's albums. This has taken me all day today - in between other Mommy tasks, that is! I had to take some pictures of layouts I'd forgotten to photograph or wanted to rephotograph because of flash glare etc, and of the album covers. Then getting all the pictures into the correct order was a little time consuming. Phew! I'm very happy to be finished and free to move on to other projects. Paige is already pestering me to start HER album .... soon, honey ... soon! I'd like to tackle our trip to Hawaii first though. Stay tuned, as they say!! And enjoy the movie!

Goodbye Uncle Ian

I received an email today from my Aunt Jean in Glasgow to say that my Uncle Ian has passed away. More sadness. More missing my family in Britain. More realizations that as I age, so do my Aunts and Uncles and I can no longer pretend that they will be around forever. Not that I really was. I am fully aware that we are all born, we live and then we die. I'm just not ready for that generation of my family to start with the dying part!!

Uncle Ian was my Aunt May's older brother. Double tragedy for that family this year and my heart goes out to them all. I so wish I could be there! He has been ill for a long time now and very recently had surgery to try to correct a previous surgical wound that wasn't healing. While his death does not come as a total shock, he will be sorely missed by all.

I looked back at my pictures of our trip in 2004 with Marley but I have no pictures of Uncle Ian from then. That makes me sad. He was always an intrinsical part of my visits there! I remember him as a tall, quiet man who always picked me up and dropped me off at the airport in Glasgow. He was so attentive to my Grandpa Jackson and Aunts Jean and Moira. He was a kind and gentle soul and I will miss him.

Good bye Uncle Ian. See you again someday.

Project 12 - July 2010

Well, here it is ... my Project 12 layout for July. I've actually had it completed for about a week or so but forgot to download the pictures from my camera until yesterday. Just now I saw Davinie's post and realized I had to get this posted and entered! The days are really flying past me lately!  

Here is the PageMaps sketch by Becky Fleck that we were given:

And here is my layout.

I really liked the rounded corners in the sketch. I bought a corner rounder thingy a while back and usually forget to use it! It was nice to pull it out again. I decided to use larger pictures this month. I tend to use small pictures on my layouts because I'm trying to fit so many on. I admit it!! I need therapy for "wanting to use too many pictures"! I'm just so in love with my girls that I want to show them off! I also switched up the right side of the layout to accomodate more pictures (see, I need a Support Group!) 

Here's a close up of the left hand side of the layout. Oh, and what'dya know! A picture of me!! Davinie made a similar comment and I laughed out loud because I knew I had done the same thing!

Here is the right hand side of the layout. The sketch has a long journalling strip and a single picture but I took the liberty (I think they call it creative license - really that's just an excuse to break the rules, right?) of making the long strip one of pictures instead. The journalling cards I've been using since the beginning fit better with this switch-up too. And I could round the corners on it. Bonus!

There you have it! For more details on Project 12 go to the Scrapbook and Cards Today Blog or visit Davinie blog at the link above.

July Recap

Apologies for being such a bad blogger lately! The summer has been busy and scrapping and blogging has been taking a back seat to kids, their activities, their needs for constant snacks, their needs for clean clothes, ... you know ... LIFE!

Here are some pictures of the goings on in the House of Day this past July 2010.

Marley started her summer with a week of Soccer Camp. Just so happened that it fell during our little heat wave out here!! Yikes! On the last day they had a Wrap Up Party with fun tournaments using a giant ball ...

... and a slip and slide to cool off on. After Marley tested it out and cracked her head by going feet first, a general head first rule was imposed.

Paige was a bit reluctant at first but after some help from Greg she fell in love with it. So much so we had a hard time removing her when it was lunch time!

Here's a rare picture of me!! I asked Greg to take it. Yup, that's what it's come down to ... begging to be IN the pictures instead of behind the lens! LC was having a "I'd rather be napping" moment!

But it passed when she discovered the cooling effects of the slip and slide spray!

The next day (July 10th if you're interested) our local Otter Coop gas station had a free BBQ party to celebrate the opening of a new car wash. Whatever! All I heard was "free lunch and cake"! They also had a fabulous face painter. Watch out for my post (whenever I get to it) about our trip to Osoyoos - I'll talk more about her then. Suffice it to say (and I think the pictures speak volumes!) this was the best face painting the girls have ever had!

That night was the Tour de Delta Ladner Criterium where hundreds of riders (kids, amatuers, pro ladies and pro men) tear around a circuit in "downtown" Ladner. It's lots of fun to see and feel them zoom past! Greg and I have volunteered the past 2 years and even billeted riders. This year I decided I couldn't handle the billets or the setup so Greg was on his own. Poor guy! For all his griping I think he had a lot of fun!

You may be wondering what Paige is shutting out ... look below and you'll see it's the Delta Police Band that piped the riders to the start area. Not much Scottish blood made it into her I'm thinking!!

That's Greg in the safety vest on the left walking the riders up to the start line. This is the final race - the Pro Men. Some of these guys go on to more well known races like the Tour de France!

Mid-race action.

That's the winner coming down the homestretch!

And this is how LC felt about the race!! LOL! Just kidding. She put her head down for just a few minutes at one point. But she was pretty tired - poor girl!! No naps for the wicked!

Jump ahead to July 17th - still in the grips of a heat wave and enjoying some backyard sprinkler fun. LC was given this play mat for her 1st birthday and the girls loved it. For all of a week or so before it got a huge hole in it which meant the sprayers stopped spraying. Bummer!

July 19th - Blueberry picking with Grandma and Grandpa Day at Emma Lee farms on Westham Island.

July 25th - Jonina and Andrew had us over to celebrate my completing my Interior Design Certificate. (Yes, for those of you who are wondering, I passed that final course ... barely! I haven't put out a big celebratory post 'cus I didn't get a high enough mark to continue on to the Diploma which bums me out. I know, I know, I should celebrate the small victories ... I'm sure my brain will get that message eventually!)

Greg decided to celebrate my accomplishment by drinking lots and letting me drive home. Hmmm .... not sure how that happened!!

This was where our play mat got a huge giant hole in it. COULD have had something to do with the kids jumping on it  ... maybe ... But they had fun - especially LC and cousin Sadie!

Okay, I had to include these pictures even though they don't strictly deal with our family. Sadie has a fairly strong personality (comes by it honestly!) and she wanted the hose. Jonina wanted to keep the hose in the pool to fill it up. Sophie just saw an opportunity to play tug of war! And play they did!!

Sadie eventually won! And then celebrated by spraying Jonina!! Gotta love it!

Well, that is pretty much our July. Lots of sunshine, water, kids and time spent outside.

Hope you enjoyed the peek into our lives.