July 16-17

But wait, I can’t spill THAT yet!! So Monday… Well we figured the kids needed a down day as did the adults. And the morning weather was NOT conducive to splash parking anyway. Time instead to start the laundry and packing process… Oh and to have a last movie night with Sharon. (a definite must).

We had plans for a leisurely Tuesday that would end with the not too long drive to Karyn’s for the girls and Kristen and Fydo’s for the boys… But as with all Reinsch-Johnson plans… They change and change drastically.

Instead we had to cram Tuesday’s plans into Monday to make Monday a day of further travel due to unavoidable Ken type stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I got my movie night… We were determined on that one. Have you ever seen The Proposal? I can now say I have!

My time with Sharon has been so much fun! Her plans corresponded with ours only she left Tuesday afternoon and we scooted out in the morning, after we let the kids have some special playtime. Emma was a total sweetheart and gave Emanuel a penguin plushy he had fallen in love with.

Trinity and Logan

Zander and “his Emma”

Gavin, Ethan and Emanuel and a DS

We packed up our van, said goodbye and headed to the city one last time. After a successful errand it was time for a celebratory lunch at McDonalds. The last errand on the list really. Hard to believe we had worked through most everything we needed to get done in a mere two weeks!! But we did!

Echo playing with Trinity’s hair… more like back combing it with her hands!

My babies

So after the lunch it was time to head back to town and meet up with Chris and Chris for our dinner plans – homemade stew with good friends. A final hurrah before our big adventure.

Sunny hot day

Duke and Echo

With the Chrises

After supper we got in some visiting but Echo made it very clear that she was TIRED!! So back to our bedtime destinations… and for us girls some girly visiting time and a run out for a forgotten item or two for Karyn.

Note the HUGE Pepsi slurpee late at night, in my defense they had no smaller cups there… seriously! It has been hot!

Trinity and her special Aunty

And that was our evening. We had a great but rushed day and were packed and ready to go for the rest of our week. Echo had a rough evening – teething and growing pains… but we managed. And by managed I mean I slept in a single bed with BOTH girls… but that was ok too. After all we had a DOUBLE adventure to face the next day!!! Check back to read more! 

Echo saying bubye

July 6-9

Friday marked the beginning of TWO adventures… We coordinated with Karyn AND Esther to work everything out relatively smoothly. We drove from the Bleau’s in the morning stopping off at Karyn’s work to collect her keys and say hello… oh and drop off two owls for Lauralee and Victoria! From there it was time to drop off the female portion of our little family at Karyn’s apartment in time to terrorize the cat and tidy the rooms. 

With Esther running behind schedule (as per usual) even with a quick stop off at Dollarama for a few necessities (ie. toothpaste for Trinity) we had enough time to get the dishes mostly done and carpet vacuumed before she appeared for a quick snuggle and visit. 

SNUGGLES

 That marked the beginning of the boys’ adventure – Aunty Esther collected them at Kristen and Fydo’s where Ken was finishing up with our sort  through and helping with some furniture movement into their now almost completely finished basement and they were off to the city for THEIR holiday from US!! 

In the meantime the girls and I sat back and enjoyed the quiet that is Karyn’s apartment and waited on Karyn finishing work. Now how to spend the evening? Well with girly things including doing HAIR…

Note the pro action with Echo

And blowing bubbles.

Bubbles

And apparently eating cereal with unicorns!!!!

Snack time with Unicorns

The next day it was time to enjoy our day to the fullest. I had received something rather special in the mail thanks to Karyn… a birthday card from my Dad and StepMom with spending cash. Karyn’s bank was open so we were able to change it over to Canadian and it was  time to head to the mall and get to the serious business of shopping!! But before that a special homemade breakfast by Karyn – raspberry pancakes, fresh bacon from the Farmer’s Market and Pepsi… cuz we rock that way!

Pre breakfast sunshine

Note the sheep inclusion

Breaky

Let’s see… we started at the MACS counter where I purchased a brand new foundation with some extra sponges. 

Dressed to impress

Then there was the Body Shop (of which there are TWO in Minnesota… I checked! One in Mall of America and the other at the airport??) with its clearance items and a lovely 3.00 lip colour. We wandered some more just to see what there was to see and then headed over to Winners where Trinity got a special shirt – Hello Kitty of course – for being such a well behaved girl. 

You can see the shirt here

I waffled over a maxi dress that after checking out Old Navy with no success I returned to purchase along with a new pair of sunglasses (finally, that morning my old ones just sort of popped apart after years of use and abuse!)… 

Shoe break

Don’t forget lunch! A mall lunch of anything we felt like… Trinity had frozen yogurt and I got myself some Umi Sushi Express. Don’t forget our traditional poutine which was Karyn’s meal of choice. 

Lunch at the food court

We were SUPPOSED to have dinner with the guys as Ted and Sean came up to help Ken search through his Magic cards for the ones he plans on selling (seriously we downsized EVERYTHING). BUT they got all jumbled in their meal choices so we gave up on waiting and ordered in another favourite! Indian Flame Indian Food!!!!! SOOOO good!

Supper

After some more time on the balcony enjoying the sunny day the girls went to bed and we settled down for another special treat – Blue Eyes tea and cherries. Remember Blue Eyes from the Library High tea? Well I was able to pick some up from the source for the event and bring it to share with Karyn. And it was worth it! Combine the lovely tea and fresh fruit with HEDGEHOG time and silly movies – Spice Girls AND the Beatles movie… and our day was… AWESOME! 

Tea

Kitty

And hedgehogs oh my

Sunday morning was a little more stressful with a tired and hot baby and a cranky little girl. The weather has held out at warm for so long everyone just feels sticky. So we sent the girls along to Ken that afternoon and took a couple hours of together time which included finishing laundry AND going to DQ for food and ice cream. 

Ted and Trinity’s new sweater

Sean and Kristen

We ended up at Kristen and Fydo’s for some more visiting… Sean and Ted had already left but got to play with the girls some… and then it was time to say good bye, head back to Karyn’s for the stuff we left there and head back to town. WITHOUT the boys! As, until Sunday evening they were at Esther’s and then that evening gone over to see their cousin Jimmie. So not only did we see MORE people, do MORE things but we did it with TWO kids!! CRAZY!!!!!

Just the girls, note Trinity is ASLEEP!

And that was my weekend… WOW! 

Oh and a special thanks to Kristen who snapped this one one night this weekend!!

JUNE 29/30th… catching up slowly but surely!!

The best remedy for a difficult move, stressful past few months and frustrating future? Super downsizing! That’s right… out with the old and NO in with the new! With the happy added bonus of emptying (or at least making great headway on) Kristen and Fydo’s garage which allows them to have a happier vehicle living IN its accustomed home. Now, this was a WHOLE weekend affair with us starting on FRIDAY! 

Our intimidating starting point

We were up and out the door as early as possible to get to town and get started. Kristen (the sweetheart) was able to take the day off and work with us to keep the process as quick as possible. There was a lifetime and a half to go through and we had to have it done by the end of Saturday (as of course Sunday was CANADA DAY AND Ken had to drive Darryl to the airport so we had to be back in town for that). It was a rather overwhelming prospect. So the best way to deal was to just jump right in.

She was adamant that she HAD TO sit in the chair at least for a few minutes

What amazed me by the end of the first day was the amount of stuff that was going garage sale and dump. I honestly am surprised at everything we keep around. There was so much that was old, not useful or perfect for someone else. So the end goal is to help others with our excess. 

We were MUCH more organized day 2, day one was just GET THROUGH IT!

Napping with Fat Sheep

At Aunty Karyn's

Of course none of this would have been possible without Karyn to be in charge of Echo and Trinity and their napping needs and Kristen and Fydo and SEAN for their help, vehicles and smiling faces. Add to that pizza, giggling over silly possessions and sunburns and it was a good 2 days. Saturday started a little slower with sunburns and exhaustion foremost in the minds of all. BUT we managed…

Uncle Sean!!

Saying good bye to our last wedding decoration

Thank you Sean for the loan of your truck to move things to the dump!!

Echo and Karyn took a nap break or two and I made sure ALL the kids got their OWN slurpee… Echo included… though she shared with Karyn (just to be nice of course).

Slurpees

We even managed a few pre-garage sale (thank you again so much Kristen and Fydo for hosting that!!) sales… passersby who saw something on the right side of the driveway and were like HEY I want that!!! Very convenient. And lots of inquisitive individuals who were very excited to come back when we WERE ready to sell. We stayed overnight one more night last minute so Ken could finish off what he needed to do and help with some of the garage sale set up but we HAD TO be back in town for Darryl to be picked up for his ride to the airport… and for us to celebrate Canada Day with the Bleau family!!

We found some favourite things right off the bat too - like this much fought over stroller (kept)

WINGS

Asleep