Since You’ve Been Gone….

And we don’t really ever get to chat with you…here’s what we’ve been up to….

We had a visit from Spiderman…

He challenged the one eye monster to a wrestling match…Spiderman was in a close second

Ben’s been trying out new outfits and styles.  I’m not a fan of this one. 

Hop-along is still hopping along.  We now put a chair out front and she hangs out while the boys ride bikes and scooters and things.

C came over and showed us the awesomeness that we are missing out on.  With her help Ben was able to get a real live phone number!  He’s a little excited.

After swim one day we went with the W’s to have a picnic at the park and hang out.  We learned Z (the big one) fits into a little baby swing.  Ben pushed him…and it was a little sketchy getting him out.

Hop-along even came out to join us!  She can walk on her cast with her walking shoe on a few steps at a time.  It’s not her favorite thing to do so she only does it when it’s an emergency….like getting on things at the park.

Zack went down this slide an incredible amount of times.  Can I tell you how nice it is that he can climb up steps now?!?!

Z and Ben had to do a little time out….never fear, they kept themselves entertained with a game.

Why in the world are there not more teeter-totters at parks!??!  This was awesome!

Two monkeys on a monkey net.

Art with food…

Art on tile with markers….

Andrew taking the markers away….Zack not happy about it.

We appease Zack by taking him outside to help me put the pool away.  They quickly turn into pigs and roll, fall, run, slide in the mud….for two hours.

Even Coco was worn out.  She played with them for a while (she’s covered in mud…but she’s brown so you can’t tell)…but got so tired so decided to watch from the shade.

Zack attempts to lay out covered in mud to bake it off.  yep, that didn’t work.

Andrew made his own bird….out of mud.  It stayed so well on his arm!

Before they could come inside I had to spray them off with the hose.  But really all that did was add more water, which made more mud, which made more fun!  They ran all around while I sprayed them with the water.  Zack loved it when he would slip and fall and land in the mud.  He’d laugh and laugh and laugh!  The bathroom got an amazing cleaning after washing those two.

On our way to the fair this morning our garage door broke.  It’s hard to tell in this picture but its not going down straight.  Thank goodness N was home.  I called J and she and H came over to try and fix it…then we called in the big guns and had N come over.  He had it fixed in 5 minutes.  Now if it ever breaks like that again I can fix it!

As we were driving (quickly since we were 30 minutes late) we pass this….

And Kallie asked me if that’s how Heavenly Father makes clouds.  I thought that was so adorable!  Then we had a lovely conversation about pollution. 

I took  a few pictures at the fair.  I’ll post those for you tonight!  Love you!!!

Oh Canadia

There's just something fun about misprouncing Canada's name and I don't know what it is. I'm going to use the blog for short time from now and then to update Katie and the kids as to what I see when I'm traveling aside from the insides of other people's labs. I know this blog gets emailed to some of you, so if you are only interested in seeing cute pics of the kids just keep web surfing.
First off, I have to make Katie jealous: when I asked if they had a free upgrade for me at the rental car counter, instead of stuffing me into an ultra compact they gave me the brand new version of  Katie's beloved Grand Caravan. Even the base package comes with a back up camera.

Andrew lately has been VERY into money: how much is how much, different containers to put it in, whether he has enough to take over the world, etc. So here is a picture of very colorful Canadian money just for him:

 

Up the road from my hotel is Canada's Wonderland. Canada's answer to Disneyland. But just before that is one of the biggest malls I've seen. It has a Bass pro shop on one end and a Legoland Discovery center on the other. The kids love places like Cabela's and Scheel's so I snapped some pictures for them.

 

They definitely had a better fish tank than either Cabela's or Scheel's.

They had a real airplane hanging from the celing.

The Legoland place totally brought back memories of going to Legoland as a kid.

The really weird thing about this mall is that EVERYTHING was on sale. I thought sales were gimmicks in the U.S., Canada puts that practice to a shame. In fact, I think Canada may be having a buy one get one free sale on provinces right now...

 

A Few Homeschooling Perks

This year we are attempting homeschooling out kids.  I have to admit, the first few days (weeks) I really thought it wasn’t going to work out and we were insane to even attempt it.  After getting over a few bumps we are all really liking it.  Here are a few of the perks we’ve been pleasantly surprise to discover.

The park is normally pretty empty when we go there for a little break mid-day.

These two boys actually get along pretty well….when Zack isn’t hitting Andrew with a hard object.

I have lots of help whenever I babysit cute babies.

Homeschoolers have their own swim team!  The classes are small and they get some one on one attention.

We can have friends over and not worry about getting kids to bed right at 7:30.  They can sleep in a little the next day and be fine.

Ben is amazing at teaching Andrew math.  I love watching them teach each other!

Art projects with Zack are fantastic.  And can be done in pajamas!

This is just adorable so I had to add it.

Big brothers can be around to show Zack the coolness of jumping in rain puddles and getting soaking wet.

All in all we are really liking homeschooling.  Some days are better than others and I haven’t figured out how to keep my house clean with four kids home all the time….and how to get dressed and have time to go grocery shopping and make dinner….but those are all things that I’m sure will come in time!

Andrew’s Birds

Andrew has a thing with birds.  Every morning (and several times everyday) he goes outside and lays dog food on our backyard wall.  He watches was the birds come in huge flocks to eat it.  We have a ridiculous amount of birds always in our backyard.  In fact now before the dogs go outside Andrew runs out first to tell the birds to fly away because Coco is coming out and she’s already killed a bird.

The other day it was raining like crazy and I look out to see piles of sopping, wet dog food all over the walls.  I knew he was feeding the birds, but I had no idea it was so much!

This little man has such a soft spot in his heart for animals and I love it!

Sunday Fun

Sadly summer is coming to an end and it’s time to put summer things away.  We’ve been slowing draining the pool this last week, but all the crazy rain hasn’t helped much.  Tonight the kids were outside playing and Andrew asked if he could jump in.  I told him no since it was Sunday.  He really wanted to jump in with his clothes on.  Not thinking he’d actually do it I told him to go ahead.  He climbed up on that green chair and cannon balled right into the middle of the pool!

As you can guess Zack thought that was pretty amazing and quickly climbed up to follow suit.  I was quick enough to get his diaper off, but he was in too big of a rush to have me take his socks off.

These two (and Coco) had a blast playing in the freezing cold water and running around and falling in the mud and water.  It was so adorable to hear their cute belly laughs!

Best hour of my day today!

Andrew’s Birthday List

Hello Friends and Family of Andrew

This morning Andrew ran into my room to show me something very special….his birthday list.  Now, I know his birthday isn’t till April (we counted on the calendar for school yesterday and figured out it was about 230 days away), but one can never be too prepared!  After that conversation it got him thinking about what he really wants, so he got Kallie and with her help wrote out the following list:

1.  Helicopter (one that can lift him up like Uncle Anthony’s)

2.  A big thing of money (he would like two of these)

3.  Two pet cats (the kind that dad won’t get sick from)

4.  A big box full of notebook to make books

5.  TV (a really big one…like in the family room…for his bedroom of course)

6.  Candy.  lots and lots of candy.  any kinds

7.  Two pet parrots (I told him cats eat parrots…..he informed me the kind that don’t make dad sick also don’t eat parrots…good thing!)

8.  a seed.  not any seed….a seed that would make trees grow in our backyard.

9.  Rio (the movie with a blue parrot….that finally finds happiness with another blue parrot…possibly the reason Andrew would like two?)

10.  Ben Ten (movies, action figures, wrist watch)

11.  A book you can lock

12.  Super Buddies the movie

13.  Pudding (the costco kind for school lunches.  His own box that no one else can eat from)

14.  A laser

15.  Big bottles of lemonade…the kind dad blows up (if you watched Christopher’s TED talk you will understand this)

16.  Caramels (I’m assuming any kind would be fine with him)

17.  Bottles of soda (again…not picky on flavor)

18.  Pop tarts (only the hot fudge sundae kind please)

19.  His own 72 serving can of nesquik powder to make chocolate milk.

20.  Drums.  The real kind.  Like the really really loud kind.

I told him he won’t get this many gifts for his birthday.  That’s where the idea of reaching out to grandparents came up.  I decided why let grandparents have all of the fun?!  This list is too amazing not to share with all our loved ones. 

You’re welcome.

And now Ben and Kallie are at the kitchen table writing their lists.  I’m so excited.