Our weekend has just flown by! Saturday was hot and humid feeling with severe thunderstorm warnings from the very beginning of the day. We spent it VERY close to home, keeping the kids inside for the afternoon when it reached around 32 cel. The boys spent the majority of their day in the basement playing with their toys in a room that felt almost cold! Trinity on the otherhand spent most of hers upstairs as she was snacking on bread and drinking her water almost constantly and I do not want food OR drink in the basement playroom on the newer carpet the owners had to put down last year!

To cool our poor baby girl down we dug out the baby tub and put it in the middle of the livingroom on top of some towels. She was in splashing bath heaven and stayed in it for at least 30 min and was FURIOUS when daddy went to dump it out… following him in the buff and shrieking her displeasure as he did so.

Beating the Heat

Saturday evening was a whole different story. We put the kids all down to bed and BANG literally the storm hit! Everything from rain to hail to gale force feeling winds… down the street from us either the wind or a lightning strike (there was one that felt like it hit RIGHT HERE) knocked down half a tree! In fact, there are branches down all over the place and our backyard has toys tossed EVERYWHERE. Luckily we did not lose power but the flickers meant Ken gave up on his computer for most of the night in favour of playing the DS.

Poor storm abused tree!

Thankfully the storm broke the heat wave BUT today was miserably windy and cool. We made the executive decision NOT to go to church this morning in favour of letting Trinity relax after her miserable day in the heat and lifted the tv restrictions on the boys. This gave Ken and myself.

Zander , Emanuel, Gavin and Isabella

Alexander and Trinity

The meal was delicious and desert was ice cream and chocolate sauce (thanks Ted!)… We finally left for home around 7pm tired, but happy kids in tow.

Xinny and Ken and ICE CREAM!

Mmm Ice Cream!

So the weather has not co-operated exactly but it looks like the week will improve which is GREAT. Tomorrow the twins and Ken are off to the local library to meet a Police Dog and then the plan is to head over to a Produce store that is supposed to have some terrific prices… I still need to plan our trip to the Leg and Thursday is that Homeschool group park day that I definitely want to go to again, though we will probably only stay for an hour to accomodate Ken and his need to “Get things done!” All in all a much busier week than I originally anticipated coming up! Definitely a good thing!

We did miss my Nephew Jimmie’s first birthday here in Cananda… he is 4 now! But my mom and her brother managed to make the party and I did send my love and our best wishes.  I am still holding out hope that we will head south to visit in a month or two. Distances can be hard but Ken and I are planning on popping a special homemade card in the mail this week to remind him we are thinking about him! I do believe his mom has posted pictures from the party on her Facebook account so if you know her be sure to check them out!

All in all my day was good – though the weather did not play nice most everyone else did!

Let’s start with the idea first… Ken and I were discussing his intense interest in computers and programming and how he wishes to start the boys on learning it in the forseable future… and the idea came up that PERHAPS he could advertise and teach homeschooling kids programming and how to build their own computers? Now this idea seems viable (I messaged a friend on Facebook and she said she thought it was a good idea) but it brings up a ton of questions… how much do you charge, how do you structure the classes, class size, computer numbers, ages, how much do you teach in a set of sessions… but for once these questions and connundrums really seem  – FUN! So now I start hunting around and asking questions… and who knows, this could be the beginning of something fun and fulfilling for Ken. And a way for him to give back to the homeschooling community as I foresee us becoming more and more involved in it. So if anyone has any advice… feel free!!!!

Now onto what we did today… well there was heading into the bank to pay a bill… and having to convince them to take an American Money Order that apparently they CAN’T verify right away? COME ON it is a MONEY ORDER that I was using to pay THEIR credit card from an account at THEIR bank… as Ken would say /confusion! I ended up having to deposit the darn thing at their atm directly to the credit card. THEN I called the credit card number to tell THEM I made the payment and THEY were sweet as pie! Go figure???

For the first time in well over a week we all had a treat – the boys had McDonalds!!! And Ken and myself… DONAIRS! YUM and then for the lovely Miss Trinity – strawberries!!! Decadent! I am so proud of my family, we eat EVERY meal at home now… we snack on things like carrots and cut up apples and bread from my breadmaker and the boys are not complaining as much as they used to! Granted our meals are not hugely varied but the basics are there and the tummies are full… and the McDonalds VERY appreciated!

Our late afternoon was a family affair! All 6 of us dressed up in our swimsuits and headed out to the backyard to play in the pool which after the heat of the day was actually rather tolerable once you got over the initial chilly shock!

Trinity and Emanuel in the pool

The boys thought it was great fun to have Mommy AND Daddy out there in the water and took turns showing off and splashing through the sprinkler I had running to water the raspberry bushes in the back of the yard. In fact EACH BOY got a raspberry today! They are almost ready… so many yet not red! The boys are VERY impatient about it all!

Kenny in SORE need of a shave!

Yours Truly!

It was a rather hot day today but we made the best of it! I am hoping for a cooler day tomorrow so that Ken can take all 3 boys to the park while I work on cleaning in the basement where it is nice and COOL! For the rest of tonight I am enjoying my slurpee (another special treat!) and surfing around on the internet while Ken has some of the guys over for Magic… oh the life of a mother of 4 on a less than shoestring budget! But you know what? I am finding my fun and my stride now! Friends on MSN to hang with, fanfictions to read and Youtube ghost shows in abundance… not to mention my library books and listening in on the guys and their jokes. Life is not half bad!

Can you see the silver lining? I can!

Aka the moment we went from living quietly to social explosion!

Yup our sedentary lifestyle got a bit of a JOLT the past two days… it all started with an early evening phonecall while the boys were in the tub… Grandma Anna and Mike with Harley in tow were in the city and after a quick bite to eat on their way over! The boys were in puppy and Grandparent HEAVEN. Even Trinity got in on the fun and deigned to touch the silly doggy… I figure one more visit and she will be just as glommed on that dog as the other 3. I must admit Harley puppy is quite the gal! And obedient.. so obedient!!!

Harley Puppy

This visit was quite the exciting thing because not only was there visitors BUT they also got to stay up SUPER late… today was equally exciting with plans to go to the City Hall fountain. These are plans that were originally made for the day previous but weather worked against us. Luckily the friends we made plans with had an equally flexible schedule and were able to rework things. So at 3:30 we braved the beginning of rush hour traffic and headed out to downtown. Which, just to alert anyone on their way there – the parkade parking has gotten A LOT more expensive… before 6 pm.. 2 dollars a HALF HOUR! Ouch but we certainly got our 5 dollars worth!

City Hall Fountain

Zander in the Fountain

Gavin in the Fountain

Trinity

Emanuel

Ken

Me

To make things even MORE fun we planned this event with a friend of mine from high school Chris and his girlfriend also Chris! It was great to catch up and hang out and just generally have some adult time! I am hoping next week when we go to the Leg they can join us! Only later in the day when the parking is CHEAPER!!!!

Chris and Chris

So now that the “soccer team” are all tucked away in bed and I have AT LEAST an hour of cleaning and organizing for tomorrow to do I am starting to look forward to tomorrow… and why might that be? Well, we are going out of our comfort zone a little and heading out to a homeschool meet up! A friend on Facebook gave me the heads up on this event, so I figure we will go… meet her in person… have the kids socialize a bit and find out more about the association that puts on the event! That ends our run of socializing for Friday all I have planned is a trip to the park for the boys with their daddy! But whew have we made up for living quietly!

I also have a finish to report! Last night I finally sat down and finished up the bib I bought back in Minnesota for Trinity. I am VERY happy with how the lettering worked out and hope to use the pattern again!

Trinity's Bib

And with that I really SHOULD clean up the livingroom and make that loaf of bread and face the lessons for tomorrow… wish me luck!