Well we are back from our 5 day adventure, weary, laundry burdened and thoroughly cranky but home! As it has been way too busy to share all at once it is going to take multiple updates before I catch up… perhaps some 2 post days? PHOTO heavy 2 post days I do believe. BUT time to get on with it, and with that I start at the beginning = THURSDAY…

In order to accommodate Ken working some Thursday AND gaming at night AND getting to Grandma’s BEFORE the wedding frenzy began we left for our 1 1/2 hour away destination (AKA the SHORT DRIVE of the almost full week away) earlier in the day. Well AFTER meeting with a Kijiji ad buyer and feeding everyone, cleaning the house and ensuring that the backyard was relatively clutter free (we DID run out of time before we could mow but no one is perfect and the lawn was not that bad). Of course there was time for a photo on the front lawn of the VERY excited children.

Ready to get in the van and get going... Emanuel is holding his picture for Grandma

Grandma had one last day of work before the wedding so we stopped by there to say hi (I ran in solo) and then headed ahead to her house. I figured that I needed some time out bonding with my new stroller so opted to walk BACK to her work which is a decent walk from the house. Of course with the stroller came Echo and with that excitement came Trinity and Emanuel who just HAD TO come along. After all we WERE going to find Grandma! How exciting! We had one turn back when silly Mommy realized that we had left WITHOUT diaper bag, sunglasses and a spare pull up… BAD Mommy! But after that we were ready to go. 

Ready to walk

We had to stop and admire the piggies on one of the nearby yards. Mom thinks they may have been pig farmers but are now retired. Trinity thought they were the cutest thing EVER and demanding pictures be taken. 

Piggies

After a victorious trek over the train tracks and down to Grandma’s work where toys were played with and much chatting and cooing over Echo done we headed to the nearest gas station to buy a treat for the hard working walkers and those we left behind. Of course, after opening the orange pop and using a straw we HAD TO stop multiple times to drink it down to a level where it would stop splashing my hand every time we had to go up a curb or cross a street (seriously STICKY!). 

Time to share

It was a perfect day for our walk with lots of shade to jump through and pretty yards to check out. And by the time we got home we were more than ready for our snack. Grandma beat us home even though she left way after us but she cheated and had her vehicle with her! Of course that meant the evening was GRANDMA and GRANDPA MIKE TIME! It has been quite some time since we have been to their house and the kids soaked up every minute.

Playing a boardgame with Grandma

Add to that a tent in the backyard (there was absolutely NO left over room the next two nights at the house) for the twins and they were in heaven. Emanuel TRIED to sleep out there but apparently the big boys just are way too noisy!!! 

Trinity asleep in the middle of our bed - I was amazed neither of us woke up with black eyes!

Thankfully I was able to sort us out MacLean style – everyone’s things were bagged up according to where they would dress – girls at mom’s, boys at the Chris and Chris hotel room… Petite Sheepette went to bed already dressed for the day, the wedding gown was peeked at, as was Mae’s bridesmaid’s gown so I had an idea of what we may need to do to ensure absolutely ZERO dress calamities (or at least attempt to ensure…). I am glad I did as there was some alterations that ended up needing to be done – but that is information for the NEXT post… It was nice to get in some quiet visit time at my mom’s… to enjoy the tidiness that is her home… and of course the entertainment that is grandparents with the grandkids leaving the parents free to sit back and chuckle. Mom worked hard to get Echo to relax with her and while she refused to pass out she did do some awesome snuggle time and pave the way to a much easier Saturday. 

Getting to know Grandma's house all over again

I have to admit I was very pleased to have a calm and energy burning Thursday though I swear mom and Mike moved the house further from her work while I have been done… I was not aware of the length of walk we would have to take with the little legs just a trundling to get there and back… BUT the new stroller and I have bonded and are now thoroughly happy with the relationship… the things has SHOCKS! and Echo FITS! So worth the $40.00.

Baby legs... the visor down to save eyes from the sunlight

So it has happened… we FINISHED The Trumpet of the Swan! Took us long enough to get to that last chapter I know but we did it… 21 chapters, with an illustration and words (except for the 1st chapter that was just an illustration) for each as well as a cover page. All on 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inch white cardstock. We are going to put a hole in the top corner of each and get some nice large metal rings, they are just too thick for the traditional book. Our next story is already lined up – Stuart Little by E.B. White! Emanuel has expressed interest in doing the chapters as well. Though I think just pictures and dictating words to me for his share. 

Working on their last chapter

The front covers

Emanuel dove right in today and was hard at work on his letters. He gets very excited when there is a sticker to be placed at the top of a finished page. 

Such a big boy working on his letters!

Oh I have to share our grape packaging… VERY cute… a 2lb cube of grapes. What you do is rinse them in the box, shake and then open them up and eat. Crazy enough, they were only a dollar for 2lbs so we bought two cubes at the H&W. Makes me miss the store even more!!! BUT we have them now which is great.

Grapes in a cube

I made a bit of a luxury purchase today. I mentioned last night that my stroller (beloved as it is) had a wonky wheel… well I wasn’t able to find a local spare part so I went onto Kijiji and contacted someone selling their old stroller, which is newer than MY old stroller. 40.00 later (the rest of Echo’s birthday cash from Nana and Baba and an ad or two of my own’s cash) and I am the proud owner of a lovely Quattro Graco stroller. What excites me the most is the seat itself, much more close… so no more Echo slipping around. She can be snuggled in a bit like she likes!!

STROLLER!

I also managed to clear another stack of random stuff in our room today – with the help of the kids, sort of. I even found a few more items to post up for sale on Kijiji and a building set Zander had been asking about. Still no box of photos though… which is minorly discouraging but with Ken swamped with work he has not even started looking. BUT our room is looking roomish in a bedroom fashion so I am content. 

Tonight is to be spent sorting some of the floss I had to lump together into smaller labelled bags and then of course… tidy tidy tidy. Today the boys went all out helping with the cleaning. We hope to leave the house neat as a pin so that when we come back it is just put what we took with us away and then RELAX. Or something like that… maybe? 

Silly baby

I shall be kind and start with today’s adventure… The long awaited and much talked about GENETIC TEST appointment. Thankfully NOT at the crack of dawn so not nearly the rush Echo’s cardiology session was, as well as not as long of an appointment of itself. 

We got off in good time and headed to the city. The parking wasn’t too difficult but certainly NOT cheap and we did get a little lost walking to the correct building. After all this is all part and parcel of the university so there are lots of buildings and some construction going on. We even got a little misdirected by someone who was confused as to where we were trying to get to. BUT we made it right at 11:30. 

The office was TINY but the wait non existent. They basically took our info and in the time it took to change Echo we were shown into the examination room. There we talked with the nurse, and she took Echo and myself to weigh and measure. I don’t have the numbers but Echo did rather well with it all and didn’t try too hard to dive off of the scale.

Waiting for the doctor

We returned to our little room, gave permission for the intern to come in with the doctor and there they were! Talk about quick! There was lots of talking, sharing history of ourselves, family and kids… tracking how many siblings my mom has… where the cleft lip and palate came from… all old hat for us. The geneticist was an older gentleman who had 4 kids himself and the intern a lovely young lady who Echo allowed total access to! She lay quite still through it all and even gave her a little smile. They measured her feet to compare the two… her arm length… and it all came back – fine. As we have been told all along she is in perfect proportion… for a MUCH younger baby! 

They had nothing to add to the blood work the doctor gave us as a last set and have only added one procedure – a bone growth x-ray. What they do is x-ray the bones in the hand and check where they are growth wise. Apparently (and I need to do more research on this) your skeleton can be younger than your actual age. His answer to things if this is something that has occurred – puberty… so…. 

Basically she is a petite child. Apparently the geneticist is able to find out the why on petite children a whopping 5% of the time! Though he did figure that once Echo’s PDA is dealt with we should see some growth increasing but again the cardiologist said do not expect massive change. Basically we are back to what we said when we started – she is JUST PETITE!!!!! BAH!

The other kiddos

So, Sunday… Well we kept ourselves busy in the heat to be sure! It all started with a pancake breakfast. And then all 5 kids dressed in their Sunday best (as pictured YESTERDAY), the boys with matching shirts (thanks to Nana). This was our first service at what is to become our new home church.

Service was a lovely hour long, though we decided NOT to risk corralling the herd and going up for communion this time round. We did meet the minister before service started… a lovely older man. And after service we met the lady who was in charge of snacks for VBS who remember the boys fondly AND the secretary for the church office who is going to contact our old church (Trinity Lutheran… I know I know) for membership change. It is time to put down some permanent roots in our new community. After all, Sunday School starts on the 11th of September! Where has the time gone? Another lovely thing about our new church – well, apparently there are other homeschooling families AND the family we met in passing who had a boy/girl set of twins (older) were very receptive when they asked our boys where they went to school and were told by Zander that the boys DON’T, they HOMESCHOOL. How proud was mom that they knew the right answer to share! And so proudly he said it!

Sitting pretty

After some time at home and Karyn taking me out with her on her errands (we took advantage of the Michaels’ buy one get one for 1 cent sale on card stock) it was time to pack up and head out to the splash rock and fire pits that are a lovely park here in the city.

On the menu… hotdogs (no brainer), fruit, carrots, and SMORES! But first we had to head over to the splash… rock… and well… splash. For some reason though the weather was absolutely HOT the water was FREEZING. Echo did NOT approve, actually neither did Mommy. It was fun to watch the big kids make new friends and splash away. 

Splash Rock

Brrr

Aunty Karyn spent some time splashing it up with Trinity while Kristen and I found some shade.

Splashing with Aunty Karyn

And shade we found, on the hill. There WAS a bench free, but for GOOD reason – ANTS. Echo enjoyed the shade on the hill and Aunty Karyn’s keychain. 

KEYS

After getting our fill of splashing and rocks we moved back over to where Fydo had held down the fort and kept the fire burning.

Fire

The smores were quite impressive… Kristen had biscuits with chocolate already on them and then you add MORE chocolate… makes my mouth water even now.

Smores

After sitting around while the kids played until Echo was done in we all headed to our respective homes… what a great way to spend a VERY sunny Sunday afternoon. We hope to go again in September. 

Smiling in the shade

Oh I didn’t mention the kicker for today – we pulled out my stroller for Echo only to find out that the wheel had melted or warped enough to make it bounce funny. I think the heat shining through the back window of the van while it was pressed against it did it or something like that. BUT it did last over 5 years and through 3 kids… so back onto Kijiji to find another. I have message TWO ads today and have high hopes that something will come through. 40.00 is my limit as I don’t want to dip too far into funds set aside for other items. 

We stopped in at H&W to pick up some much needed (and amazingly priced) produce… the best deal? Bananas at 29 cents a lb. I bought over 11 lbs of bananas for 3.25! And a stop off at Bulk Barn for a few spices and snacks. We have to head back to the city for Alexander den Otter’s birthday beginning of September so I plan on making GOOD lists for those two stores so we are able to take advantage of being there. 

Bananas

Two days in a row that definitely wore out the kids. One with fun the other with travel and excessive amounts of having to sit and be quiet (which they didn’t do very well though other people were tricked into thinking they WERE – thus they ALL got stickers). A stop at the grocery store to get sandwich fixings and then fruit when we got home and at least their tummies were content. 

We have started having a small potty success – Trinity has been peeing before bedtime ON THE POTTY! Of course not OTHER times but with how busy we have been, all the go go go… I am pleased! One step closer to her Hello Kitty undies! 

A success!

Tonight is set to be quiet, and the last night before I begin the preparations to get to the wedding in one relatively busy and somewhat content piece. I have cleaning I want to have done, laundry ALL put away… the kids need to clean the backyard. Any volunteers to help out?

What a face!