they are gone

No more sippys in this house!

today

8:00-9:00: Get kids fed and dressed, pack lunches, pack Kyle's overnight stuff for camp tonight, remind myself for the millionth time it's much easier when I pack these things the night before, sunscreen on 2 big kids, let whiney 2 year old eat chocolate chip granola bar for breakfast, drop 2 big kids off at camp

9:00-10:00: Eat a bagelful for breakfast, make cup of tea (which ends up sitting on counter all morning), drive back to camp to drop off rain jackets as I see lots of rain clouds and forgot to pack jacket/sweater for the kids (third time this week I have done this I might add, you think I would learn!), chat with counsellors in office, drive to Leah's new preschool

10:00-12:00: Spend morning sitting in teeny, tiny, itty, bitty chair while encouraging Leah to play with other kids, encourage Leah to eat food at preschool (this preschool has awesome food...it's catered by a company which provides organic, ontario grown, healthy food...but it doesn't necessarily look appealing for a 2 year old so there was some convincing required however, she ended up eating 2 platefuls of fish, red rice and peaches)

12:00-1:00: Get message from camp, Jillian is homesick and wants to be picked up (it has been a whopping 3 hours since I dropped her off and she has spent the last week and a half at this day camp, makes sense she is homesick, right?).  Drive to camp and try to convince Jillian to stay but there are lots of tears so I bring her home.  Spent more time chatting with counsellors in office.  I hear there are people who just drop their kids off at 9am and don't return to the camp until 4pm but it doesn't seem to work out that way for me.

1:00-5:00: Entertain the 2 girls, break up some fights (yes, now that Leah is no longer a baby the sibling fighting has begun), empty dishwasher, load dishwasher, snack, laundry, look at clock in amazement that the afternoon had completely disappeared and I haven't gotten anything accomplished

5:00-6:00: Pick Kyle up at camp (normally 4pm but tonight is sleepover so I let him stay to set up tent with his group), 2 year old falls asleep in van, get McDs drivethrough for Kyle and Jillian on the way to Kyle's tennis lessons, drop Kyle off at tennis, drive home

6:00-7:00: Make dinner for grownups, 2 year old still sleeping, drive to pick Kyle up at tennis lessons

7:00-8:00: Drive Kyle back to camp for sleepover, chat with counsellors...again (I'm pretty sure they are sick of me by now)

8:00-9:00: Give Jillian and Leah showers (note: this entails complete freakout by Leah as she hates, HATES, baths and showers), get Jillian ready for bed, have talk with her about going to camp tomorrow and staying there all day

9:00: put load of laundry in wash, no bedtime in sight for 2 year old who slept so late so she is sitting on the couch watching Dora, I am currently contemplating the disaster that is our mainfloor and deciding whether to clean it up now or wait until tomorrow...

**UPDATED**

11:20 pm: finally got Leah to sleep, finally having a cup of tea and have decided the mess can wait until tomorrow!

camp and cars

Kyle and Jillian are off to camp this week again.  They were there all last week and had so much fun (and truth be told I like dropping them off for the whole day...peace and quiet in the house with only 1 child!).  This is a really great camp with tons of fun outdoor activities...canoeing, hiking, orienteering, tree climbing, etc.  Today Kyle even came home with a tie-dyed t-shirt.

While they are at camp Leah is playing with these...

Cars.  One of Leah's favourite toys.  She loves to play with cars, we have them in her carseat, in every room of the house, she fills bags and purses with them, they are everywhere.  In fact Leah loves almost anything with wheels, any kind of car or train.   And when we get to actually ride a train like the zoomobile at the zoo, boy is she ever excited.  She gets a little bored around the house without Kyle and Jillian (and I can only sit on the floor playing cars for so long!).  I'm looking forward to the fall when Leah starts preschool, I think she'll really enjoy making some friends of her own.  This week we are visiting the preschool a couple of times (with me staying).  So far so good, Leah enjoyed exploring the room and playing.  But she was really anxious for me to stay with her, I'm sure it will be a tough transition once I need to leave.

beach fun

I don't only take my kids to the beach in coordinating denim outfits for photo shoots.  We also spent a lot of time there just to play in the sand and water.  Here's proof of the swimming, sandcastle building, hole digging and bucket filling fun...

what's so special about this picture?

I was looking through our vacation pictures and this one jumped out at me.  It's just a quick picture I snapped of Leah in her pjs enjoying breakfast at the cottage we rented.  But there are a few things about this one which jumped out at me as signs of my little Leah growing up...

* We didn't bring a booster seat with us, in fact we never do anymore.  At home Leah uses this chair which is awesome and I absolutely love, but I don't bother bringing anything with us when we travel, she's perfectly fine in a regular chair now.

* We didn't bring any special plates/cutlery/cups for Leah.  The sippys are gone, and while I do use melamine plates at home (Boon ones are my favourite) and small Leah sized silverware, I don't bother bringing any with us when we travel or go to restaurants as she does just fine with regular stuff.

* The nightgown she is wearing is a hand-me-down from Jillian.  Which isn't a big deal, most of her clothing is (I love being able to finally pass down clothing!).  But what's special about this particular item is this was a big sister gift to Jillian when Leah was born.  And now here's Leah wearing this nightgown, sitting and eating her breakfast like a big girl.

So to me this is a picture which says a lot about how fast this little girl of mine is growing!

Cave adventure

One of our days at the cottage was spent in nearby Collingwood where they have something called the Scenic Caves Adventure.  We've been here before, a couple of years ago.  They have a bunch of caves you can explore, plus a large suspension bridge with a beautiful view of the whole area.

walking on the suspension bridge, and on the tractor heading back to the park from the bridge

It was interesting going through the caves with a 2 year old.  Some of the areas are quite hard to navigate, but Jeff and Leah got through no problem.  I held Jillian's hand for the hard parts (although she was fine for most of it all by herself) and Kyle was able to get through on his own without any problems.  I was quite impressed with all 3 kids.  Some of the caves are small and tight to get through.  Kyle and Jillian went right on in without hesitation, all the way to the back of the caves.  Leah was quite the adventurer as well, happy to explore.  We even encoutered a bat at one point!

Our navigator, looking through the cave map

After the bridge and caves it was time to hang out in the playground and ride the train...Leah loved the train and insisted on riding a second time.

beach photos of years past

I mentioned the beach photo shoot I did with the kids this year at Wasaga is somewhat of a tradition for our little family.  Here are some of my favourites from previous years...

2006

2007

2008

2009

This was a year we didn't do a cottage/beach vacation.  Instead we went to Disney World so I'll add 2 of my favourite pictures from that trip...one was taken one morning when we entered Magic Kingdom for an early breakfast and had a clear view of main street without crowds.  The second is a rare family shot with all 5 of us (along with Minnie Mouse!) from my favourite meal at Chef Mickey's.

beach photo shoot

Many years ago, when Jillian was only one year old, I took a few pictures of the kids on the beach while visiting a family cottage.  I loved them and the following year set up another beach photo shoot.  And so year after year it has now become somewhat of an annual tradition for me to put my kids through a photo shoot so I can have lovely pictures ;-)

The pictures this year are from 2 different evenings.  The first evening we went to the large beach, I took mostly candid pictures of the kids.  The following evening we went to the small beach behind the cottage and I took some more formal pictures.  Here are my favourites from the both nights...

Kyle wasted no time in getting completely soaked in the lake.  He is a fish and loves the water.  He spent a good chunk of time jumping over the waves.

Leah loved this red bucket and had it with her almost constantly on all our beach trips throughout the week.  I love this picture of her with the reflection in the water.

Jillian was on a mission to collect shells and rocks in her pink bucket.