What If....

Ethan is currently going through the What If... Phase. Every other thought out of his mouth is What if... [He's rubbing his hands together] "Mommy, what if I rub 2 fingers together and they start on fire?" Not gonna happen buddy. "But what if it does mommy?"

[Sitting next to the pumpkin on the counter] "Mommy, what if someone put garbage in a pumpkin and lit it on fire, would it explode?" Probably not gonna happen little man. "But what if it did..."

{Hmmm, maybe it's more of an obsession with fire?}

[Driving in the van] "Mommy, what if a little kid accidentally drove on the road?" Kids don't drive Ethan. "But what if accidentally...?"

[The day after Halloween] "What if our pumpkin walked away?" Uh, it doesn't have any legs little buddy. "Oooh. But what if it grew legs and then walked away?" sigh

I wish I could remember to write down all his funnies, but some of them come one after the other like rapid fire. I know the day of the walking pumpkin he went on for about 10 minutes with his what ifs. Ah, life with little tykes is rarely dull. And rather though provoking. I mean you never know - What If.......

Happy Birthday Ethan

This past week Ethan turned 6. Six whole years. So we had cake. And presents. And then because I had to work on his actual birthday we had a party for him on Saturday too. So we had lots of cake and lots of presents.

For his birthday day cake I asked him what he wanted and he replied with "A really fudgey cake!". Alrighty then. So I whipped up a homemade cake and topped it with a double batch of whipped truffle frosting. And was he happy with the result? He loved it! And it was apparently so fudgey and rich the girls couldn't even finish a slice! For his gift I got him a Crayola Color Explosion 3-D that he had been eying for a while. And he was happy.

Roll on Saturday. We invited our neighbors (that Ethan and Mary play with every.single.day.) and grandma and grandpa for a BBQ. And we had more presents and more cake. Grandma and grandpa got him these Transformers which he loves. We got him a football, (another) Hotwheels track, some candy and Hotwheels jammies. Matthew and Sarah got him a Lego Helicopter set. Which again he loves.

For his cake we made a racetrack (and by we I mean the whole family helped). I think it turned out pretty good. And we had fun making it too!

Happy Birthday buddy!

Bad Blogger, Bad

I have been terribly neglectful of my blog lately. I have also been terribly neglectful of my poor family and my house. I have been working. And while I really enjoy it, it is very exhausting and quite time consuming;) I have finally had a couple of days where I have been able to see my kids and do a few things around the house. Hopefully now that the kids are in school our routine will slowly develop. And because this is a short post I'll quickly share a picture from our camping trip in Shuswap this summer. Maybe I'll get around to posting more and maybe I won't! Have a great September!

Smashed

This post has taken me all afternoon to get finished. It was supposed to be an epic update, but it will have to wait. This is all I have time to get out while dinner is in the oven and the kids are quiet (yay!).



The past few months we have had the fun of watching our little garden grow. It started off looking like this in May. Prim and proper little rows, so nice! Plenty of water and the little sunshine we had turned our little garden from this....

Into a beautiful green leafy oasis:) The peas were starting to plump up, the beans were flowering, we had cute little peppers and tomatoes.

And a few days later a nasty storm blew through town at 1:30 in the morning. We were all awakened to what sounded like a train rumbling through our house. After dashing around closing windows we peeped outside and watched the hail pound to the ground. And then we realised what it meant. Our poor little garden was smashed to bits.

This is the next morning. You can see some of the remains of the hail on the right hand side, next to what used to be my lettuce.

Our sad little lettuce beds. Thankfully we had picked some lettuce the night before the storm and were able to enjoy a yummy salad, but it seems to be all we will enjoy this summer.

The peppers and the peas pods had holes blasted right through them. Little teeny tomatoes littered the ground. Boohoo. No homemade salsa this year.

It could have been worse. In other near by communities , trees were uprooted and snapped like twigs and many farmers fields were flattened. While I'm sad about the garden I'm grateful that was the only damage we sustained.

[Pictures taken May 18, July 27 and August 3 2009]

Lots of Updates

I thought I would take advantage of the poopy weather we've been having and spend the morning updating my blog. Lot's to look forward to, bet you can't wait!

Happy Birthday

Well, Peter wasn't sick for his birthday so it went off without a hitch. The kids and I got him some helium balloons and decorated with streamers. We baked him a delicious strawberry shortcake. Supper was his favorite - homemade BBQ burgers, shell pasta salad, potato chips and lemonade. Mmm getting hungry thinking about it!

Happy Birthday!

Stampede Parade

This year we decided the kids were old enough to wake up at the crack of dawn and wait 2 hours just so we could get good seats and watch the parade. I however became very ill and couldn't go. Yes I was upset, I shed a few tears. The plan of getting there early seemed to work well, they managed to get a place right at the front of the sidewalk. Yeah! I had baked muffins the night before and we packed juice boxes, water bottles and all kinds of snacks and treats to keep them busy till the parade started. It worked out so well we may just have to do it again next year!

Here they are waiting excitedly for the parade to start. The rest are just a sampling of the 217 pictures Peter and the kids took. Looks like they had fun!

Happy Birthday to Me

Well it had the potential of being a fabulous day. My birthday fell on the same day as the Stampede Parade. We made plans to go to the parade and then to have a picnic lunch at the zoo afterward. Peter and I stayed up late the night before and made the sandwiches and I baked muffins for breakfast so we could eat at the parade and not waste precious time. Unfortunately as I was climbing into bed my tummy started flip flopping. (I should mention here all of my kids had had a stomach virus earlier in the week. Ethan on Friday, Megan and Hannah on Sunday and Mary on Tuesday.)

Needless to say by the time the alarm clock went off at 6:00 I had to rearrange my schedule to involve some serious time with my head in the toilet. I was ill all day and therefore did not get to enjoy my birthday. I watched part of the parade on TV, but it made me cry because I felt so sorry for myself.

When they got home from their picnic my kids came up to my room and gave me my gifts. Which were great, but, meh, I had no energy to even open them, really. Poor me. I got

a new ball cap, picnic bag, teeth whitening kit, Wii Fit, and from my fabulous sisters - scratch off lottery tickets (I won $5 !!) and a yummy fruit, cheese and chocolate basket (this is not the actual basket, I had to have Peter take it apart to put some stuff in the fridge and I forgot to take a pic first. It did however look every bit as yummy as this, only with CHOCOLATE too!).

At the time I was too icky to be very excited about any of my gifts, I mean who wants to think about exercise after they spent the day throwing up? But now that I feel better I'm very appreciative for my great gifts and my wonderful family who loves me so much!!

Peter also got me my favorite cake, black forest, YUMM-O. But I waited until the next night before I blew out the candles and had a sliver. And boy-o-boy was it good. First solid food in two days and it was cake, heaven!