April 27-28

What amazing things start with B??? Babies, Birthdays, BBQ… Buddies… ok that last one is stretching a little, but the first 3 definitely… ok no buddies are amazing too!

Saturdays are truly important now that Ken is working 5 days a week and pretty much from in office… and this Saturday was even more special with it being Trinity’s birthday weekend. With her party scheduled for the 11th (family party that is), we decided to do our Novak celebration right away.

But first… the errands! The library for a stash of Mother’s Day related literature… an attempt (note ATTEMPT) to pick up the last skein for the big (time sensitive) project… and a special stop off at the used children’s clothing store (KidsRack) for a birthday dress for Trinity’s party and a chance find of a 1.00 skirt for Echo! Then it was time to head to the Novak’s.

They were actually out helping move bricks at Andy’s work and we beat them there. Such a lovely day to be out in the sun!

Fun in the yard waiting on the Novaks

Of course we HAD TO take advantage! There is a park within walking distance from their house with the path going past a lake so of course we headed over. 9 kids, 4 adults and LOTS of sun! It was warmer than we thought I think!

On the way to the park

I do love a good shadow picture

Fun in the sun

Ken and Anthony

The guys

Darcy wanted to decorate for Trinity and put up some banners and streamers!

Snoopy was supervising

After our walk to the park and back (with minimal injuries) Darcy got a text from a neighbour to come see her daughter’s prom dress… something Trinity and Darcy could NOT resist! While they did that I stuck around with the other 8 and the guys went and got groceries for…. BBQ!

oooh another B… BEAUTIES

Manly work for our first REAL spring weather day… YUM! Then the day just sort of wrote itself from there… Minecraft, playing outside… presents! (handmade backpack from myself and Ken and 6 cupcakes, crochet… patterns HERE and HERE, a horse that drives a CAR from the Novaks that Darcy took Trinity to pick out!).

With her presents

Soon to be a remote car driving pro

Poor Echo and Andrew were the first to crash! Youngest and Oldest!

Out to the world

Here I am!!

Oh and did I mention CUPCAKES??? Trinity helped Ken and I make them in the morning… and then Trinity presided over them at the Novak’s. And then we handed them to the boys to eat OUTSIDE… they were super messy already with playing outside most of the day!

Birthday girl’s choice

Helping Daddy

The ones from the Hello Kitty machine

Birthday girl!

Baba and the done in baby

Sunday was MY day!

Snuck in the polka dot dresses

Ken dropped me off at Bree’s for over half of the day… post lunch and after dinner visit. My weekly Lily and Bree dose! I do so love my time with the girls… and this time we took pictures of the darling Lily in things I have made her!

She was passed out on the couch… I love how her chin in this one reminds me of my cabbage patch doll

With the lovely weather continuing it was time to go out and and about baby in hand. First stop… Caribou where we introduced Lily to co-workers where Bree worked before her current Caribou.

Caribou was started in Minnesota!

Meeting a friend of Mommy

Then it was time to walk and walk and well shop. The street Bree’s old Caribou was on had tons of wonderful little independent stores that were open on Sundays including a YARN store!!!! With a SALE!!!!

Walking with our cold coffee drinks

Just ONE wall in the yarn store!

We also checked out a baby supply store… saw the sights and walked a nice long walk. It was perfect! Then back home to pump, feed and rest up before…

Girl power for our Girly Day

Dinner at Noodles & Company… YUM!

Noms

And back…

Ken’s turn

One last snuggle for the drive

well we certainly did go out and about and my camera got a good workout as well. I am not sure when our next girly day will be though, Ken starts beer league soccer soon! Sundays of course! Hoping I can find another girly day to enjoy in the VERY near future!! Especially while I work on coming up with the next Lily accessory.

Did I hear you right??? There is going to be a LILY OVERFLOW!

July 4th and 5th

When one is within visiting distance of a god-parent/great friend what can one do but… VISIT. It just so happened that on Wednesday we had the time and she had the day off so what did we do? Pack everyone up and head to a different part of town to visit Gavin’s godmother Christine. We so rarely see her with how busy she is with her job as a pharmacist and our not living in the same town. BUT we lucked out with her days off and our spare time though the weather was not nearly as nice as the company.

Gavin and his Godmummy

No kids to play with but TWO dogs and THREE cats, though the cats went out of site quite quickly one by one (with one not making an appearance from the start). Echo was quite intrigued by all the fluffy critters. 

PUPPY

There was a bucket of toys and some snacks and some good company and the time apart just sort of melted away. I have to say, I love visiting with Christine and miss her so much. It is so wonderful that when we DO get together it is like the time has not passed. Gavin was over the moon with his chance to spend time with HIS god-mother. 

The Lego structures he created for her

Chatting

Thursday was a day of kids time INSIDE with a weird continuation of crap weather. Thankfully having kids to play with made the weather bearable.

They got in a brief amount of time outside before the weather truly turned

Giggles at the table

Logan and Echo

We adults dealt with the doom and gloom weather with homemade hamburgers on the grill… note the lovely apron!

Isn’t he cute?

And that was that, sometimes you just need some slow down sorts of days! Which brings us to the end of the week and FRIDAY… which began a much more exciting weekend so… more on that later! 

Ominous weather

And the sunshine and warm weather came in spades today! And boy did we enjoy it! We had special lunchtime plans with Kristen and Fydo at their place. With their lovely deck and fenced backyard it was the perfect place for a bbq/picnic. Add to that  the kids being able to play with their OWN toys, bikes, etc… and wow was everyone HAPPY!

BBQ King

So there was our little slide that can easily be built and taken back down for Echo to learn all about! That slide has gone through all 5 kids and is in great shape! 

Each and every one of them did the slide this way!

After lunch – hotdogs and watermelon (total yum thanks guys!) on the blanket in the sun for the kids and the table on the deck for the adults it was  time to ride bikes.

Picnic!

Talk about utter bliss… of course the helmets were buried so we had to skip on those and the twins had to use the small bikes (large are still at warehouse) BUT they got to go… Kristen knew of the perfect path to take where we could see them far ahead and give them to freedom to pedal as hard as they wanted!

Pedal power

Echo rode in style in the stroller and Trinity took one of the scooters. Kristen and Trinity worked together to get the hang of it. 

Learning the scooter

By the time we returned from our walk the guys had unearthed a couple of buckets of Echo’s clothing and one of the boys’ summer gear so I was able to dig out some new bits. Some old favourites for Echo that were Trinity’s and a few more shorts for the boys. When we get moved in I am definitely going to Kijiji myself out of some clothing. Put it nice and cheap but you take ALL of it… I don’t want to keep anymore of the boys’ stuff, I had kept enough for a baby on up to now… and it is finally time to get rid of some of Echo’s outgrows. 

Before the garage spelunking expedition.. they are so programmers

We lucked out even further with TWO garbage bags of girls’ clothing waiting for Trinity to sift through thanks to Kristen’s sister. So the kids are good for the rest of the month, hot or cold! And some of those clothes that Trinity will grow into… SUPER cute!!! Ken and I are so appreciative when people do give us handmedowns. I don’t think the world at large understands how much that saves us money wise! A million thank yous to EVERYONE who has given us their outgrows over the years! I love being able to do the same. 

Once the garage was all filled back up and closed it was time to recollect the 9 of us and go for another walk. This one to the nearest park… which just happened to pass a Mac’s. So you can imagine what we did on the walk back! 

...and back to labeling until the glasses are repaired - Zander

Asleep

Big kids

By the time we got back to Kristen and Fydo’s it was time to head to Michaels for some craft supplies I needed and then back to Chris and Chris’. The kids were rather put out that they couldn’t stay longer and play with Kristen and Fydo and their own toys but it was such a lovely visit all the same. I picked up HELLO KITTY duct tape! YAY! So have that to add to my crafting process. In fact, tonight is a designated duct tape craft night. So it is bows and change purses all the way… I need to think on the purse for Trinity but it will happen too! 

First of the kitty

So our day has been quite the adventure. We saw friends we had not seen in ages, went to the park, ate outside, did a bit of shopping AND had slurpees. Though the kids were sad to see it end they were go go go all day. 

Look I was there too!

Aren't they cool?