I love a good weekend and this weekend was a GOOD weekend. Although not the conventional way to celebrate a VERY special day… as of Satutrday June 16th Ken and I have been married for 11 years! Good and bad, thick and thin we have been together and I am so glad that we have decades more to look forward to! With my pet sitting vacation set up to start on the 16th we decided to celebrate more properly AFTER I get back. Instead, we simplified each of our lives by dividing up the child care. Trinity and Echo headed into the big city with Kathy and myself around lunch time and Ken and the boys remained at Grandma’s with plans of their own. 

We had a car full of stuff to bring with us including a playpen, stroller and the necessary carseats. I am always amazed at how much I need to take when visiting people who are not accustomed to babies and small children. Thank goodness for the 1.50 booster I picked up during JayWalkers at mom’s store. 

Boosted baby

Of course we had a few stops along the way… Mac’s on the way out of town (of course… company loyalty and all that for Kathy), and then a bathroom stop at the next city. THEN lunch! A late lunch but a YUMMY one! With all the Gasoline Alley had to offer we chose a family favourite – KFC! We had popcorn chicken and fries and gravy… and another potty break.

Lunch

After that it was on to Kathy’s and the kitties… settling in took little or no time, once we got everything out of the car and in the door. Mom’s playpen is smaller than ours so takes up less room in the spare room which is awesome. Thankfully Echo is tiny so really does not need much space to begin with. Once everything was safely stowed and kids refreshed it was grocery store time. Not the best trip as both girls were cranky but necessary. We picked up all sorts of fun foods all given the Trinity stamp of approval. This week is going to be a Trinity friendly meal week. She has not been eating much lately and I am thinking that is partially due to the creative meals mom has been making us. She is just in need of old familiars. So we are definitely obliging. 

Thus she was eating Kraft Dinner at like 9pm that night but she was EATING! 

Sunday morning Echo once again reminded me of how much she LOVES early mornings… 4:30, 5:30 AND finally 6:30 when we got up. Thank goodness we had no concrete plans… Ken and the boys on the other hand had FOUR viewings to go to back where we used to live and all this on… FATHER’S DAY! I did my part by having Trinity send her Daddy flowers online (yay app), messaging my dad through my stepmom on Facebook (I do not have US long distance available right now sadly), and making sure that the Father’s Day books the kids made at the library were given to Mike and Ken. 

After breakfast, kitty time, washing laundry, changing Echo MULTIPLE times and sorting through what we wanted to do for the day (not much thank you)… it was time to head to IKEA! Ohhh it has been an age since we have been! But first Trinity and Kathy decided to take advantage of the lovely morning weather (good plan as it did NOT last the whole day) and go out front and plant some flowers. 

Out in the sunshine

This coincided nicely with a bath for me and a nap for the early bird… then after we got motivated and into the car it was time to head to IKEA. Kathy needed plastic dishes and stools for Trinity. I love love love IKEA stools. They are the perfect bathroom height. And of course to check out the food section. 

Then it was time for Sobeys and picking up the groceries we missed on our tired walk through Superstore the night before. Trinity got her own tiny cart of which she was VERY proud! 

A Trinity sized cart

After cookie club and check out it was a mad dash out to the car as the weather decidedly turned against us. So of course, a drive through Starbucks was required and Trinity got her first fancy drink from there! Strawberries and cream milkshake thing… was she ever proud! And for supper we HAD TO introduce Kathy to the world of pita pizzas… she is another convert! We even had PINEAPPLE! What is there to do after supper but a bath for Trinity and some medication (she has a nasty bug bite under her chin I noticed on Saturday and it is taking FOREVER even with the Benedryl to go down) and then bed for her with Echo following around an hour later. 

The first I noticed it... it is smaller now and not as red

That left two adults up with free time… what better to do with it than play a Wii boardgame style game?? Seriously! Add in more cherry pie (we had that the night before), white chocolate Magnum bars and Pepsi and we had a blast. The kitties supervised of course. 

Neko

Ghostly Ozo

This is actually pie from Saturday with white chocolate ice cream but you get the idea

I have to admit, not having all the boys to chase and the house to tidy and the extra people in general to deal with was marvelous. I spent some time searching the elusive rental, enjoying time with a good friend, playing with my girls and generally being more… ME! A much needed respite even though I am missing Ken a lot… I am sure he is finding life a little more relaxing without his womenfolks! 

Girls together

Ozo looking gorgeous

What day was Wednesday? FREE SLURPEE DAY! What were the kids way too excited about? SLURPEES! Though Trinity had a mini temper tantrum when she was told we had to (GASP) drive since once again it was raining. She got over her snit when we finally got to the 7-11. They were promoting their new cream soda flavour (which only Trinity even tried with her love of the pink)… so 7.11 oz slurpees were free to the first 1000 people. Even Echo got one (she shared with Daddy), but yours truly opted for the purchased version! 7.11 oz is just not enough for a fanatic like me! But just over 2.00 and everyone was happy… AWESOME. 

7-11

She shared with Ken

All of the girls

We made great time on our schoolwork today. Lots of additions  to our duo tangs depicting our adventures here in town… the free slurpee made its way in, the weather has continued to bring interest and of course FARMER BOY! It was quite the exciting chapter with a thwarted robbery and everything! 

No one had any interest in playing in the rain and although Ken took Zander for the walk in the morning in the evening it was just Gypsy and Ken and a good brisk run. I did, however, with Ken’s help, finish Trinity’s purse. I am planning on adding a strap like that to the other mini Hello Kitty purse I have for sale BUT the larger (9 inch) clutches will remain clutches. Trinity was over the moon with it and I am watching her to see how the strap holds up, it is made up of overlapping 6 inch half strips folded in half… I have them alternating the direction of the fold as well. 

All done

I have been in communication with our new minster at our church back in the city. Apparently we are a part of the service this week coming up that is for new members! I am so glad he took the time to email us as while we were planning on being there for Sunday School we often don’t stay for church as that is over 2 hours for the kids. We don’t have any concrete plans for our time in the city though we do not plan on going and then turning around and coming back. We still need to empty out the last of the stuff in the old van so it can be picked up by the kidney society for demolition for parts though. So I will have to sneak a peek into my mom’s closet to find something to wear. She had already found me an outfit to borrow for Saturday that may work for BOTH occasions.

We are working through our list of to-do’s… everyone was on pins and needles for it to stop raining so we can start walking around the lake etc etc. 

Today was LIBRARY day! We went as a family though Ken was feeling a little under the weather by the time we got there so it was more of a kid friendly trip. Two movies and a stack of books later and we are primed for some reading. I had to come back to the house and do some Facebook question and checking on the library catalogue to get some authors to return for tomorrow. There area few activities that are weekly there that we may drop in on during our remaining time in town as well.

In front of the library

Playing

All 4 kids worked on various school projects WILLINGLY for once! We have our ongoing duo tangs and even Emanuel gave doing the weather a go today but decided that keeping track of it was not his thing. Instead he drew a lovely picture of himself and Pocoyo in his scribbler to show something from his bedroom here. Trinity has a new workbook thanks to Grandma that has her working through the alphabet. And of course we worked on Farmer Boy. Tomorrow I am totally taking advantage of there being a printer in the house and hooked up WITH ink… time to print some more Farmer Boy sheets, stuff for our US unit (we start in June)… and the little simple cards to go with my hair clips. 

Gavin at work

The day was lovely after all that rain so in the evening (after grocery shopping) I sent all the kids outside to play with Gypsy. Trinity and Emanuel were my walk buddies in the morning and Ken did a nice jog with her after everyone went to bed. Apparently she really doesn’t pull when jogging at all! 

Backyard fun

Oh I picked myself up a special cup (on the suggestion of Kathy) at Superstore. It cost me 5.00 and I love it. 

New cup

I have to say we goofed on our shop. We got everything to make chicken caesar pitas as a special treat for the adults… except lettuce so I had a rather simple dinner… cheese, pickles and aged sausage. Noms.

Supper and book searching

So new books, lots of working on our special pages and discussion of the weather. A pretty good day, though there was SOME whining about tv and electronic games. We are working our hardest to keep that under control. I have finished what owls I can with the white felt I have on hand, I definitely need to pick up more to get the last of them done (and a few Hello Kitties). We are getting on with our life in a positive manner and THAT is a good feeling!

At play under Gypsy's supervision

Thursday… hmmm… well another day at Karyn’s and this time having run out of MOST of my supplies. I basically was able to make 3 ribbon bows and that was about it. Karyn had a ribbon drawer for me to pillage which helped a bit. Of course with an unexpected free day and very little supplies at hand I indulged in a very long bath and some quiet time. Echo was rather sweet too and napped willingly and multiple times. 

Enjoying Aunty Karyn's

Karyn came home early and with packing and a viewing on his way to collect Echo and myself we had some spare time. After watching a silly Japanses commercial for KFC on YouTube we had to go out and get some! Then it was time to pack up and ready ourselves for Ken and the rest of the kids. 

We piled into the packed up van and headed out to meet Victoria at work at the library where I went in solo to chat and collect a few books to read. Then it was off to Grandma’s. The kids were even MORE excited when we stopped off at a grocery store to pick up sandwich fixings so they could eat IN THE VAN! 

We got to Grandma’s late enough that there was time to bathe the boys, get in our mountain of stuff and send the kids off to bed. BUT it was so nice to have space… and everyone have doors. The twins share a room, Emanuel another and then we bunk Trinity down in the playroom on a crib mattress on the floor… easy reach for the dollhouse! Echo, of course, shares a room with Ken and myself but there is plenty of room so I was even able to sort out our clothes into tidy organized areas. Of course that showed even more clearly have few options I actually have right now… boo. But mom lent me a few tank tops (I am missing one of mine in the transfer here so far) and an outfit for the internment next weekend. Thank goodness we are close to the same size!!

Gypsy in duplicate!

Friday was a pretty special day. First off, Ken watched Echo while Trinity and Emanuel and I did our first walk with Gypsy. We wandered the neighbourhood even though it was rather chilly (and the boys’ pants are not yet here… but will be after the weekend) and did our best to wear out the puppy.

After that it was time for us to pack the whole family up and head to Staples. We can’t get a PO number until next term after the end of the month so we called ahead before we came here and set it up for a mini shopping spree. It was rather fun to go with all of the kids and pick out some educational bits and bobs that we can use for more than just today or tomorrow. We even picked up a whiteboard! 

Then we went to Superstore for some groceries… pineapple for less than 2.00 and watermelon for less than 4.00! And then back home for lunch and NAPS! In fact, by the end of the day the only person who did NOT have a nap was Zander. Gavin fell asleep later in the day during a time out and the other 3 went to nap really easily at naptime. 

We snuck in some school work too! A page all about Grandma and Grandpa Mike and their home. Lots of reading and answering of questions. Thank goodness I had the iPad with some apps to explain what the difference is between town and province!

Gavin at work

Ken hung around for most of the day but before dinner and mom getting home was packed up and heading out for the LAN party at Kristen and Fydo. He must have been just devastated to leave… NOT! He is gone until Sunday night leaving me solo from Saturday morning on. While dinner was being made mom had her friend Ashley over who is helping us out with Gypsy when we aren’t at the house (next weekend for various reasons). 

Echo with her hair done by Grandma... 3 tiny braids

Our evening was rather quiet, Mike and mom had to pack. Though Mike had a surprise for her – brand new matched hard top luggage! Mom had wanted the suitcase but had not picked it up yet so he went back and picked it AND the smaller carry on up for her. Aren’t they lovely? And they were on sale! 

New luggage

That left me with my evening free, I have our laundry sorted, the kids settled and plans to explore the city… organized and RELAXED Lisa welcome back!!!! 

Cool baby