Random Cuteness

A trail of Diego cards that leads to....

... a crazy monkey.

Dressing up

Friends came by to play yesterday. A little buddy with the boys for running around and pretending Batman and Indiana Jones. And his big sis. Who has a great sense of style.

Note the necklace, bracelet, purse and heels!

Poor little Lainey needs more pink in her life. Thanks J.

Backyard before the rain

View of the neighbourhood from a top the playhouse

On one of the last nice days before the pouring rain started we were hanging out in the back yard. Very much cuteness was caught on film. Well, ok, not really film but you know what I mean.

I know there are broken arms in my future just a matter of who and when...

Love these ones of big brother teaching my baby how to swing.....

And a good time was had by all!

Oops, the first day of preschool

With the onset of this back to school cold I seem to have neglected about every responsibility in front of me. Except cooking, mysteriously I am cooking a ton lately. But don't worry I am still neglecting the dishes so the universe isn't totally thrown off balance.

On to Kobaroo's first day of preschool. It was a full week after Ry-guy's first day of grade one. Torture I tell you. Try to explain to a somewhat absent minded 4 yr old that he is going to school just not for 6 more days. 5 more days. 4 more days. You get the idea.

Here is his cuteness packing the backpack.

posing on the porch...sitting with his teacher...

Hmm, funny how she sat right next to him right away. She says she is excited to see him again. Just kidding, I know she loves his quirky side (sliding around on his belly like a penguin instead of walking for example), but I think he caught the new teacher a little off guard. Just wait til she gets to experience the 2 cousins together in the same class this Monday, should be fun.

One quick picture

Sorry, my brain has been on vacation this week, I do have pictures to post but until then....

Here is a little something to tide you over.

This is our friend the mower who has been styled with a leaf much the way a ballroom dancer would carry a rose. Can you picture it? Courtesy of Lainey Jane.

In case I forget..

Friday morning, Aaron walked out into the hall as Laine was walking by.

She said -

That's my Daddy.

He's a good Daddy.

Hi Daddy!

And then continued on down the hall.

Holy cuteness.

Just like when she says

You changin' me Momma?

Oh tanks Momma.

Indie

There are 3 obsessions in our house right now when it comes to the boys. Lainey is obsessed with Angelina Ballerina and Dora the Explorer, but that is another story. Back to the boys. LEGO is still king, they play LEGO everyday and love it. Kobes is obsessed with Batman, particularly the LEGO Batman game for the Wii. But he doesn't descriminate, he also love the original series TV shows that we downloaded.

That brings us to Indiana Jones. Ry is particularly smitten. He wants to play LEGO Indiana Jones 2 on the Wii everyday. And when he is not playing he wants to be telling me about it, offering me Indie lessons, explaining the levels to me. He requested I come and take these pictures. So here they are.

Long weekend fun Pt 2

After the picnic with Oma and Opa, we went to Grammie's for the afternoon then dinner, and stayed overnight. Sorry no pics! Then we went to an outdoor movie near her house and watched "How to Train Your Dragon". It was very fun.

The movie ended around 10:15 at night. Which was, coincidentally, about 20 minutes after Lainey lost her mind and started rolling around and laughing histerically. She was only calmed by fruit snack bribes and managed to survive 'til the credits. The boys did fine and really loved the whole experience.

We were pretty early so we passed the time with UNO among other things.

We watched them inflate the gigantic screen, a highlight for the kids too!

And here they are just as the movie started.

Aaron was on the left of Kobes, and I was in the space between Laine and Ry.

And of course we stayed like that for about 5 seconds and then proceeded to try 15 million other configurations as the show went on.

Long weekend fun

Here we go, sigh, the last summer recap. We had a little bit of time the last weekend of the summer so we made the most of it first with a picnic with Oma and Opa at their favorite park near their house.

This is Ry telling them something unnecessarily long and detailed.

I have always known Aaron looks like his Opa, but checkout Koby-roo next to Opa! Yep, there is some Dutch in that boy.

One last note, Laine was there too but she didn't make it in the pictures mysteriously. And the boys shirts match but I had nothing to do with it, Ry picked their clothes, really!

School Days

Ry guy started the big Grade One yesterday. But today is his first full day.

I am chilled about it, really. (But I did give him a note with my cell number just in case, don't tell Aaron.)

So these pics are from the first 2 days of school because they don't look right without his backpack full of labelled school supplies and his Star Wars lunch kit.

Looking big with his friends, and bored already.

Koby had to pack a backpack too. It had a "video camera", a doll, a bouncy ball, a broom, and baby turtle. Oh, and he dressed himself.

Waiting for Ry on the first day, all 45 minutes of it.

Lainey thinks she is going to school too. Not for one more year little one.

Happenings

Back to school is coming today for one of my kids! Crazy! The middle child starts next week. But before then I am going to desperately try to post some more pics to get "caught up". Truth be told I have pics from Labour Day weekend that I will put up later this week, but for now here's a snapshot of the last week of vacay...

... helping Daddy repair the deck, yes they actually did the hammering

and yes it's actually quite sturdy!

Princes L playing cars, this time with the ones from Rush Hour Jr

which I love BTW

Dressing herself already, I am so proud!

She is modeling a spiderman mask over a OR christmas hat, and carrying a "packpack"

And here more modeling of the costume jewelry

that Auntie Donna gave us that was GG Nan's

what a mug!

Hiking with friends

We initially had high hopes of camping for the weekend with our friends this summer. Due to some disorganization and procrastinating (that would be me) we didn't end up camping but instead spent the morning at Golden Ears Provincial Park hiking and picnicking. My baby girl was getting the star treatment with her Grammie that weekend so it was just the 4 kids.

you try to get a picture of 4 kids at the end of the day...

Can you believe the monkeys did 5.4 kms just like nothing?

Probably better in the end for the kids, and parents too that it was just a day trip. It was just enough time to be enjoyable and when everyone got cranky it was time to go home.

All in all very fun. A new summer tradition maybe?

LEGO

LEGO continues to be the #1 past time at our house. Jo told us about a big Lego build that was happening at Willowbrook Mall and the kids could participate. Here are the boys building part of the wall of that gigantic backpack behind them. As a nod to back to school. See the pencil behind Koby's head? It was big. Ry could have stayed there all day. Koby was pretty much done after a few minutes. So we got the free ice cream and left. But it was worth the trip for sure!

One long month

Everybody's favorite person is Miss Charlene our babysitter. Kids and parents alike are happy to see her come.

But she is on a very exciting trip overseas for a month. A very long month. Then I think she is getting a real adult job. Sad all around.

Anyone know a nice 13 year old that can keep 3 kids in line and enjoy it?

For like the next 6 years?

Miss you Charlene!

Swimming Lessons

Summer lesson at an outdoor pool. Is there anything that screams summer more than this?

And if the kids have lessons you can get in before (or after) for half price. That means 3 kids and me for $2, or the whole family for $3. The weather was perfect the whole time and we all swam 6 or 7 of the 10 lessons.

The key was finding a very shallow outdoor pool in our neighbourhood. We had to carry Laine around but the boys could easily stand on their own. That made for a lot more practice and a lot more fun.

Very proud of both these monkeys. Ry passed his level and Koby passed 2 levels! It his floats. He is very floaty.

I swear we feed this kid. Yikes, look at those ribs.

They were so proud of themselves too. It is great to see them getting better and more confident. We swam a ton this summer and I could really see the difference.