My kids this week

Sometimes - actually usually things happen all at once. It was Alma's turn last week. She lost her two front teeth within 24 hours.
They were both loose, but one was much looser than the other. On Saturday we were visiting with family when she collided with her cousin during a game and she jarred the not-as-loose tooth. Than evening the tooth came out while she was eating supper. Unfortunately it got swallowed with the noodle.
Lucky for Alma, her tooth fairy is very understanding. Alma wrote a note explaining:
Dear toothfairy;
I'm sorry to tell you this, but I have to. My front tooth came out but I swallowed it with a noodle and it's in my tummy. Can you get it out? Cause I wish you could. My Mom took pictures of me and Ivy - so you can see the tooth came out. Do you know how to use a camera? Are you a girl or a boy? Please tell us."

And yes the tooth fairy was very understanding. Here is a picture of my lovely daughter with a big gap in the front of her mouth with a very dangly tooth in the front.

The next day, as everyone was sitting down to a late breakfast and I was packing to go back home, I hear the commotion upstairs...Alma lost another tooth! She didn't swallow it or anything! Daddy put it in some peroxide to clean and it is safe...except we forgot to bring it home with us. As far as we know it is still sitting on their kitchen counter. Oops. I haven't told Alma yet - I don't think she realizes she could get a present for each tooth.

In other news...we starting swimming lessons today. Alma is doing pretty well, but she has a hard time floating and still doesn't like it when she goes down the waterslide and water sprays up in her face.
Ivy doesn't like putting her face under the water. She is a very stubborn red-head. I finally promised her we would try goggles tomorrow...we'll see how it goes.

I have finally discovered how all those moms got the fun candid photos of their kids...I'm keeping my camera in my purse from now on.

Just another boring ol' weekend

I was so happy to get home, get unpacked and relax for the rest of the summer. It lasted almost a whole week.

Last week, my Auntie and Uncle from Ottawa came for a visit. We had a great time. We went to see the steam train and they loved it. It was so nice to sit and catch up. I really loved having them visit. Maybe someday Graham and I can take the girls out to Ottawa to visit them.

We drove down to Cardston, AB last weekend. Graham's dad was in the Cardston parade and we wanted to see Graham's brother and his family before school started again. It was a great parade...loads of candy and beautiful weather. It was fun to watch Graham play with his family - his brothers and Dad and all the kids. We had a great visit and as we were just sitting around talking on Saturday evening the town had a fireworks display. It was great because we had an amazing view from the living room window.

And now we are home

Well, After all the fun we had on the coast it was time to head home. The girls missed Daddy, Mommy missed Daddy, Daddy missed us, it was time. We had a great trip back, we stayed at Peeks Lodge in Revelstoke, BC which is a lovely little town if you ever get a chance to go through there and made it home before the thunderstorms hit Stettler. Which was really nice because It cooled the house down to "acceptable to sleep". I am happy to be home. I'm trying to catch up with paperwork and enjoy the last few days of summer before the girls start school.
My Sister-in-Law Audra is expecting her 3rd child in a few weeks - She looks so adorable pregnant and I know they are so excited for this baby. We where talking about how big we can get and I promised I would post a picture of me the night I had Ivy...just to make her feel a little better about her size...this is for you Audra - I love you!

Our Summer Part 2

Just three days after getting home from Manitoba, the girls and I took off for the coast to visit with my Mom and brother. It was a great visit. Mom and I borrowed a motor home from a friend of hers and took a little trip down the Oregon coast. the motor home is older than me - with lovely shag carpet...but it worked great.

We stopped at the Tillimook cheese factory. Ivy was so excited to go see the place where they make cheese...and then they found out that milk also makes ice cream. We could hardly hold them back. It was wonderful.

The next day we drove to the Oregon Aquarium. If I thought the girls were happy about the cheese factory, they were ecstatic about the aquarium. They loved all the tanks of fish and sea life. Ivy was most excited about the sharks...and they even got to pet a baby shark. It was great. To top it off, the RV park were we stayed that night was right on the water and we were able to go out during low tide and see a bunch of star fish and sea anemones. The beaches in Oregon are amazing.

This is the beach were we stayed the second night.

So after two very successful days we were excited to go to the world famous Sea Lion Caves. Everyone went down to the lookout and saw the sea lions from up above and were amazed at how many there were and we almost had to run to the elevator to go down and get in the caves to see them up close. We got in the elevator, rode down about 220 ft, and the doors opened...
it was dark, very loud, and very very smelly - of course! That's were the sea lions live...we are the ones in the cage. The girls HATED it. "Get us out of here!" Since I am a mean mommy, I made them wait until I had my fill of the smell and noise. It was really an amazing thing to see and hear. I may not ever get the kids to go back there, But I would go back in a heart beat.

We saw a bunch of light houses and sat on the most amazing beaches and when it was time to go back it was so hard to leave. I will definitely be making a trip down the Oregon coast again, next time with Graham!

ok Mom...are you happy now?

It has been forever since I posted. I have been hounded by my mother to "please update"...so here it is...
We have had a very busy summer. Lots of travel, lots of fun
School ended in June and my little girl (Alma) graduated from kindergarten with all smiley-faces. I am so proud of her. She is going into first grade the last day of August. We even bought a pair of tie-up shoes for school.
We decided that a new deck would add a lot to our house, so tore out our old deck and build a new one - I am really pleased.

the old deck...

in the process

the NEW deck

The first week of July we went to Graham's Dad's cabin in Manitoba. It was beautiful. The girls love playing with their uncle Parker and Auntie Devin and most especially the three dogs. It was a bit colder than last year, but the girls still had a blast at the beach.

Graham brought a volleyball and we had a hard time keeping him away from the beach volleyball net.

I really enjoyed being with the family, riding bikes and playing games. We had a great visit.

part two coming up...