August 16-17

We entered the weekend with a hello and a good bye… first on Friday while we frolicked in the sunshine in the yard as much as we could…

And of course a little harvesting of the garden.

Ken went to the airport and after having lunch out brought home his friend JEFF all the way from Alberta, Canada. Ken worked for Jeff (and Darryl) way back when the twins were tiny and they have been friends ever since. He now works for Apple in their Canadian office though he does travel often down to California. We lucked out and he had holidays he had to use up and a break in projects AND trips even further south. What a total pick me up for Ken. I think he had been missing his friends back home more than he let on. And Jeff is great with kids!!

The guys were quick to settle down in our room where they could game in peace. Happy boys!

On Sunday we packed up the kids and Jeff and took him to see our favourite (though slightly chilly with the heat of summer fading) beach. Double bonus – Renee and Christopher were able to join us with their 3 boys. Our best beach buddies and a good friend from Canada on a day when the beach was NOT full of people… awesome!

I do not have high hopes for school progress the following week but Ken and Jeff have plans to power through cleaning in the sub basement and sort sort sort. Ken has dreams of a computer room down there and they finally look attainable! Sunday also marks the beginning of Nana and Baba’s first longer trip to Mexico in ages. Friends and family and fun… awesome!

I need to start off the blog entry with my last image from Comic-con. This lady was rather amazing… not only did she play the very funky looking violin but she also is an artist! And I love her outfit! So I had to ask her if I could take her picture at her booth. Her name is Karen Sim and you can find her site HERE. Her cd is called Pedestrian.

Doesn't she look amazing!

Anyway… time to refocus on the day. Not an easy goal when the kids woke up cranky. We collected as much random items as we could and then sorted stuff into bags. I attempted a go out and play scenario which was met with a lot of whining and bemoaning of fate (even though it is a lovely day out!). So we ended up doing schoolwork! Even though I had figured we would call the day a wash. 

The rest of my day has been spent tidying, repacking, kid wrangling. Thankfully the sun came out so I sent the kids out in the afternoon to play in the backyard… they made a castle for Princess Trinity and were busy keeping the bad guys away from it when I checked on them! 

The castle

The princess

Her knights

We have been in a holding pattern all day. And honestly with the intense wish to GO GO GO it has been hard for all of us. Thankfully Ken is a lot calmer than I in these times and my lovely cousin Veronika on tap via messenger on the iPad (thank you Apple!) to keep me sane. Isn’t family grand! 

We ended  the evening with a 2pm meet up time and Ken with all the information he needs to go from there! Wish us luck, I will try and keep updating!! 

The Duke