Bung, bung, bung.......

First blackberrries of the season, fantastic!


As if the blackberries all over his face weren't enough he decided to fill the rest in with high lighter!

It is finally raining today. I know everyone in Ontario and Eastern Canada, as well as in the UK, can't WAIT for the rain to stop but we haven't had any here and desperately need it. Our garden is finally planted and we are expecting to be able to harvest a bunch of fall vegetables, and most likely share them with all our friends who have been doing the same with their spring and summer crops.

I made a discovery today that our plum tree, that we thought was only ornamental, actually has plums on it the size of cherries and they are SOOOO sweet. Kian and I wanted to pick them but it was pouring at the time and we need to get the ladder out so we will wait for dad to get home. In the mean time we have tons of raspberry jam to make. And dinner to make....

The last couple weeks are a bit of a blur, as with most of my weeks! I know that I had a birthday and celebrated with a great group of friends. Shawna was nice enough to bake a cake, that was wonderful, as well as cook a fabulous dinner. We all had a great time and I know that all the kids were worn out after an evening of playing together. I got a smoker from my family and friends and can't wait to try it out. Mark is convinced that the turkey for thanksgiving will be smoked this year. I'm not to sure about that but we can see.


A fabulous birthday cake made by Shawna for my birthday, zucchini chocolate cake.


Katie certainly enjoying her cake!


We were at the beach a couple times to cool down by the water during the hottest days of the heat wave that just passed us. The water is way to cold for me to go in more that a couple inches but it was enough to just be by it to cool down. Kian and I collected a bunch of nice shells and played in the sand. We also had a picnic with some friends and had so much fun that Kian decided that the next day we had to go back with daddy.

For the August long weekend we decided that we wouldn't go camping and maybe get some of our projects around the house done or moving along. We were able to make a dent in them at least. Kian is a wonderful helper, even if it is in his own little way....

Our renovations seem to be moving along slowly. Uncle Darcy came by yesterday expecting to be building a sandbox and play structure and instead helped in the spare room to remove all the cedar shake shingle off the wall and some more plaster. There is light at the end of the tunnel and I think we can actually think about having the room finished before the end of September. Kian was very helpful with his little hammer, wrench, pliers and screw driver. He proceeded around the room hammering all the walls and removing all the nails. He calls his hammer a "bung bung" and that's what he says when he uses it. The screw driver is a "wee wee" because it turns when you use it. The wrench apparently makes a good spoon for cereal... not too sure about that one.


Picking the first apples of the season at St. Ann's Academy.


Climbing with my hero, my dad!


Climbing the trees at St. Ann's Academy. By myself.....

Renos

Here are some renovation photos of our house. Projects are going inside and outside at the same time..... We have pulled out all the carpet downstairs but I don't have photos of the living room and the back section of the house yet.


Spare room pre-destruction.


Lovely wall paper in closet of spare room....


Mid-destruction in spare room.


Closet and original window.


Detail of interior wall in spare room which used to be EXTERIOR wall.


Former exterior wall backing on to living room wall. Mark found a former window.


Former exterior wall in spare room



Former dining room pre-destruction.


Dining room oak floors.


Former dining room detail with oak floor and walnut inlay.


Garden in the backyard before.


Garden before.


Back yard wall for garden.


Back yard wall for garden.

Just really slow lately...

"Hello there!"

Ok, so I have been incredibly slow with this blog lately. I'm lucky if I remember to take the camera with me when I go out. Which I usually forget to do. Like today, when I took Kian to the beach with a bunch of his friends. Needless to say, you won't be seeing any of those photos today. We are actually going back to the beach tomorrow so that I can take some photos!


Nice goaty goat.


Hey! That's my hat!

Lets see, what's new, well I think the first big news (and worst kept secret!) is that we are expecting our second child in November. Maybe that is why the brain seems to have shut off lately! We are really exited and can't wait for the new arrival. I'm feeling great now, although get very tired by the end of the day having chased Kian for most of it. The first few months I could have done without but that is all over now. And no, we don't know what we are having and don't want to find out before. We will surprise all of you (and ourselves!) in November.

To prepare for the new baby we have decided to rip the house apart and make it completely un-baby safe. Great...

We had our home energy assessment done for our house at the end of May. It turns our that what we where expecting was in fact what we got. On a scale of 1 to 100, 1 being out in the fresh air and 100 being unattainable, our house rates at a 45. Not very good for energy efficiency or warmth, as we found out last winter. We have no insulation in most of the exterior walls and want to put something in them (hopefully) before this winter hits too hard. Too hard, for Victoria standards anyway.

Mark is busy removing plaster from the walls in our spare room right now. The walls are definitely hollow.... There have been some interesting finds already with a house that was originally built in 1929 and I'm sure we are going to find some more. I will post reno photos in the next blog post so that this one doesn't get too long.

I just had to add this funny story. Since we have been renovating the spare room all the extra stuff that has been stored in there has had to be moved out, i.e extra kleenex, toilet paper, etc. including the things that I don't need right now, like maxi pads and tampons. Well I had to find a place for all these things so they have ended up in the bathroom downstairs. Kian likes to play in the extras and found the items not needed at the moment. I was not paying attention for a few minutes and Kian was watching Bob The Builder on the computer downstairs, or so I thought. When I went to check on him to make sure he was ok I saw a box that I thought was white chalk from a distance and wondered where he found that. Once I got closer to him I realized that it was a box of tampons and that he had chewed on at least half a dozen of them already. Guess they were tasty!


Sharing the car with my buddy Jacob


Snacks on the grate with my friend Ysabella


Can you believe that my mom made me chocolate chip pancakes with whipped cream and syrup?!


Canada Day in Victoria. Not the same as Ottawa at all!


Lounging by the pool with my snack.


At the beach


Playing in the sand with daddy


24 weeks.....

Camping

We had our first camping trip of the season last weekend and Kian had a great time! Our trip took us to French Beach which was really nice and peaceful although a lot colder than it is in town. We were prepared so it wasn't bad at all.

Our friends Shawna, Joa, Eli and Jacob joined us. Joa played the guitar and entertained us for the evening and we roasted hot dogs on the fire for dinner. The adults even got in a few games of cards before we hit the sleeping bags. I don't remember the last time we did that! The consensus is that we will have to do a camping trip at least once a month for the remainder of the summer. Hopefully that will actually happen!

Here are some photos of the weekend.


Playing the guitar for mom and dad on the way to the beach


Pumping up the air mattress


Helping set up the tent


Jumping on the bed with Jacob


Kian, Eli and Jacob


Kian and daddy at the beach


Walking along the beach with Shawna, Joa and Jacob


Kian and Jacob playing in the sand


Running on the beach


Looking for rocks


Enjoying the music at the camp fire

Luxton Fair

Winning a Meow with mom and Auntie Renee


Watching the train hoping to catch a ride


Fishing for frogs with daddy


Catching ducks with Auntie Renee




Okay, so now I'm REALLY far behind in my blogging! Life is hard to stop when you are having fun!

We have been busy doing...things, I guess. I can't really tell you what we have been doing, obviously not blogging though! I haven't really been taking any photos lately so that doesn't make blogging very interesting. Hopefully that will change now that I don't have two little ones to look after during the day. Kian's little friend was able to find some daycare arrangements.

Well I'm just going to skip what has been happening for the last month (because I really can't remember it!) and tell you about the terrific day that we had at the Luxton Rodeo Fair today. Auntie Renee told us that she wanted to take Kian to the fair (I think so that she had an excuse to go on the rides) so we all decided to go along for the fun. Kian was at the Saanich fair last summer but he doesn't really remember it and wasn't anywhere big enough to go on any of the rides then. He had a BLAST today!

We met Auntie Renee and Uncle Darcy at the fair grounds. Kian's eye lit up the second we were out of the car and he was off and running. First we got some very healthy doughnuts to make for a great start to the fair and then it was off to win some prizes. Mom and Kian played the pop-the-balloon-with-a-dart game and won a blue "meow". Kian was so excited about it he wouldn't let go of it, until he saw the train, that is. Uncle Darcy got to go for a ride on the "oo-oo-oo" first, then mom did and so did Auntie Renee.


On the train with Uncle Darcy


On the train with mom this time


Oo-oo-oo with Auntie Renee


We were finally able to leave the track and make it to the carousel and the busy bee ride, which Auntie Renee and daddy got to have fun on. Kian did a great job at the duck pond and won a frog with all the ducks he caught. He traded his frog up for a bigger one when he went fishing with dad at the frog pond. Daddy got to go through the jungle ride with Kian and Auntie Renee and Uncle Darcy both got to go down the slide with Kian. He was signing for more before he even got to the bottom with Auntie Renee and ran straight back into line for another turn before we could stop him.


Carousel with Auntie Renee


Riding the busy bee with daddy


Signing for more on the slide with Auntie Renee before he even got to the bottom!


And again with uncle Darcy

There was so much to do that we didn't even make it to the rodeo or the farm tractors, which he LOVES, or the animals that were there. The poor little guy was so upset when we told him that we ran out of tickets for the rides that the pouty lip that he has had since he was born, almost hit the ground. There was no crying though. I think he was probably a little happy that there were no more tickets because he was exhausted this evening and went to bed without a bath or stories. Mark and I got to hear all about his terrific day at the fair in the car on the way back home.

"Meow (the blue cat) oo-oo-oo (train) wee wee (that would be the slide) oo-oo-oo meow babbo (that's a drink) oo-oo-oo wee heeeeeeeeeee( that would be the big HUGE grin and the clapping coming from the back seat!) oo-oo-oo weeeeee meow duck duck heeeeeeeeeeee" I think you get the picture.


High in the jungle with daddy


On the slide with daddy