The youngest child Q&A

Q: Who stuck the chewed bubblegum to our front window?

A: Taggart.

Q: Who unrolled a whole roll of toilet paper and left it in a heap on the bathroom floor?

A: Taggart. (at least he had the courtesy to throw the empty roll in the garbage)

Q: Who unbuckles he seatbelt well before we've reached our destination and stands up in the vehicle, thinking it is wildly funny?

A: Taggart. (he gets in trouble every time)

Q: Who has to go to the bathroom every. single. time. he gets in the pool and then runs into the house dripping wet without even enough time to grab a towel on his way and then leaves a big puddle on the floor?

A: Taggart.

Q: Who can make us so insanley mad and make us laugh in the same breath?

A: Taggart. (thank goodness for him that he's so darn cute)

I'm blaming it on the birth order thing because....well just because I've got to blame it on something.

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Had a great day in White Rock with Mary and the kids yesterday. Will post photos tomorrow.

Weekend in review

Lots of fun stuff happening around here the last few days. So, as I have done many times before, the easiest way to update is with photos. Here goes:
Edit: I don't know why the font size in some of this post is showing up so huge. It won't let me change it. I know it seems like I am yelling but really I'm not.

Friday

We drove into Vancouver to spend the afternoon and evening there with Tony. Taggart had been at Mary's since the night before and we were also picking him up. Me driving downtown isn't a common occurrence so Tony knows that I can always use a little help. Well, he really out did himself this them as he had a bird's eye view of me driving thru the city and easily guided me to where I wanted to be. Somehow he timed it just right to be on top of his building (I really like how we call it his building), the Shangri-La, just as we were driving. The funniest thing is that we were able to look up, way, way up, and see him standing at the very top looking down on us. The kids thought it was pretty great.

So after we parked we walked over to Chapters to meet Mary and Rochelle with Taggart. After we said goodbye to them we hung out there in the kids dept. a bit longer before heading over to find Tony. From there we drove into Stanley Park to play, have a picnic and play some more. My peepsThe water was coooold.Not a very good photo but I still love it because all the smiles are real and that's hard to get.

Throughout the evening Reagan had it in her head that we would be going back downtown later to get a cupcake. We passed the shop earlier in the day and she was determined to make up for a mistake she had made a few summers ago. (We visited the beautiful shop full of cupcakes and Reagan was too overwhelmed to make a choice and ended up choosing nothing). Tony said no way, it was too late, but then proceeded to drive out of Stanley Park and pass right by the shop. I was following him in my truck and Reagan was yelling at me to stop, stop, but I of couse kept going - following Tony. Reagan is now very mad at me and not speaking to me. Tony then proceeds to drive right back into downtown and we find a parking space ($10 - Ouch!), almost run to the cupcake shop (it's 8:50 and we think it closes at 9) and spend $16 on cupcakes (another ouch). But...Reagan has a lovely cupcake with pink frosting and Daddy is once again the hero. Oh ya, and Reagan is no longer mad at me - bonus :)

Saturday

We had a seriously crazy thunder and lightning storm that lasted hours. Pretty rare for our neck of the woods. The air was thick and humid - felt very tropical. The kids (minus Hudson) thought it would be fun to swim in it.Sunday
Don't mess with a man and his lawn.Watering restrictions are pretty tight right now - no sprinkling your lawn at all. But nobody said anything about watering your kids.Monday

Cooper's at camp this week and Reagan went to the waterslides with a friend so I was down to two. Since the temperature was meant to hit 35* we headed to the lake (Cultus Lake). What a strange feeling to be only the three of us. Fun day.

Inspiration

As I poke around the web and the blogging world I am constantly coming across things that inspire me. Sometimes it's something crafty that I want to try, or great photos that make me want to get better at my photography skills, but today I came across something that inspires me to keep telling the stories of our lives. I thought it was worth linking here: Phillip Toledano's Days With My Father. This is just words + photos. This is real life documentation and celebration. It also hits close to home as we deal with elderly parents and how we can so easily forget who they once were. It inspires me to keep telling the stories of my family with more words and less stuff.

Mother's Day 2009

...and the elephant's up to bat.

Sorry, haven't been blogging much lately. Just been busy staying up late, sleeping in, playing in the pool, etc. It's been rough. :) On that note, Taggart is turning into quite the little fish. I'm sure you're all familiar with the front crawl and the back stroke, but have you ever heard of the infamous inchworm stroke. Taggart is working on perfecting it. I will try to get a video of it and post it hear soon. Quite funny.

P.S. Mary, this is the photo that reminded me of Jake. Is it just me??

Look what I made

A little surprised to find Cooper and Hudson with the play-do all spread out on the kitchen table. Since I kicked their little behinds off the video games for what seemed like the 10th time that day, they decided to make the video game characters out of clay instead. It left me with a little mess to clean up but it kept them busy (and not fighting - anyone else feel like that the word 'parent' is interchangeable with 'referee'?) for a good long time.

Kid stuff...

This was built in the backyard by the little ones and their neighborhood friends. They spent all afternoon setting it up, getting snacks, and giggling. (The orange shorts and shirt were purchased today off the Gap clearance rack - Tag had to have both. But the deal was he wouldn't wear them together, a little too much orange, as the girl at the Gap said "you don't want to look like a pylon". But as you can see, my deal went out the window as soon as we got home and he proceeded to shed his other clothes and put on the pylon outfit.) Yes, Tag does spend most of his days playing with girls, it's just the dynamics of the neighborhood, but he doesn't seem to mind.The building in the front yard by Cooper and his friend Daniel soon caught their attention and they left their little fort to check it out.Tag standing there with his hands on his hips like he is supervising their work kind of cracks me up.

Cooper's happy dance after the ramp is successful.This also took most of the afternoon and kept my sweet eleven-year-old off the video games. This kind of play from my kids just really makes me so happy. Just good old-fashioned fun.

Things to make you smile

The gorgeous flowers that are blooming all over the backyard. Don't you think that this first photo could be framed? Tony took it.
Homemade pizza, eaten in the shade on a hot summer evening.Baking something yummy on a Sunday afternoon and enjoying it with those you love. you can find this recipe hereOut with Dad at The Keg for a rib dinner - a reward for scoring 100% on his end of the year school project (this one definitely made Cooper smile, as it was him who went). No photo of this one but Cooper more than made up for it by giving us a detailed play by play of the 3 hours they spent at the restaurant and every drink, appetizer, meal, dessert, etc. that was consumed. Those of us who know Cooper can appreciate the significance of this. No doubt, a big highlight of his summer.

Back up to full strength

Picked Hudson up at camp tonight so we are back operating at full numbers again. It always amazes me that just one person being gone makes a real difference in the house.

Hudson ran up to meet the car as we pulled in to camp tonight, with a big smile on his face. Tony said, just before we left, how he was so looking forward to that huge grin we knew we were going to get when he saw us, and he didn't fail to deliver. He was exhausted, of course, but really chatty about all the things they did and what they had to eat. Seems like he had a better experience than last year which I was really happy about. He originally wasn't even sure if he wanted to go this year so I'm glad that his decision to go paid off for him.

These two missed him the most I think. They really wanted to be in the picture and I had a hard time getting the one of Hudson on his own. They look happy here but what you don't see is that just seconds before Taggart is screaming because he thinks he can't be in the photo, Reagan is being hit with a stick (by Tag) that he found and is now the best stick in the world and has to come home with us, and Cooper is sitting in a tree beside me shaking the branches so violently that leaves are falling all over me as I try to get Hudson to stand beside the Cedar sign for a photo. They say a picture says a thousand words, but trust me , there are many words left unsaid in our photos taken of smiling children.

Anyway, we are happy to have Hudson home again.

Summer breakfast

The warm wather has left us for a little while and I am wearing jeans and a sweater today but I am still enjoying my favorite summer breakfast. Vanilla yogurt with whatever fruit I have in the house (today it's raspberries, blueberries and nectarine) and topped with a pile of granola. Yummy!

I wonder what Hudson is eating for breakfast today. He spent his first night at camp last night. We pick him up on Friday. I hope the sun comes out for him.

A little bit of silly

There's never a shortage of silly with this little dude around. He is seriously always up to something and always has something clever to say.

Ended a pretty lazy Sunday with a dip in the pool for the kids and some mini marshmallow roasting on the deck. I'm still trying to convince Tony to build a little stone patio down in the yard so we can get one of those fire pit table things. But for now candles will have to do.

A day at the beach

I cleaned my house all day yesterday so today I figured we deserved a day of play. We got a bit of a late start as we had to wait for skipping camp to finish for Reagan. By the time we arrived at White Rock beach it was already 2:00. We packed all our stuff across the rocks to set up camp on the sand but ut wasn't long before we had to move back onto the rocks as the tide was coming in pretty fast. Reagan and Tag had just started to build a sand castle when their little plot of sand turned into a little island and then got covered under water all together.

So since they were already out there Cooper, Hudson and Reagan played some catch in the waves while Taggart found a friend on the grass to play frisbee with. Some man sitting there all peacefully with his wife in the sun started playing with Tag. He said that he looked like he needed a playmate. I didn't actually see it but my guess is that Tag through he frisbee at the guy hoping that he would take a hint. Seriously, that kid will talk to anyone.

Some snacks, some more football on the grass and then Tony showed up at around 5:00.She didn't like the camera today.

We were just trying to figure out what to do next, whether we would stay for fish-n-chips or go home, when my cel phone rang. Some friend of ours were also in White Rock and wanted to meet us for fish-n-chips. So that decided, we spent the rest of the evening eating on the grass and visiting with friends.

Happy Day!

Happy Canada Day!

The boys talked me into taking them to the parade. They didn't really have to talk that hard, as I actually quite like that kind of thing. Tony on the other hand, would rather do just about anything else. So since Reagan had her skipping camp all morning he stayed home so he could pick her up.

Just me and my three little Canadian boys.

We got there almost an hour early, to get a good seat of course. But since we were right in front of the Tim Horton's the big boys went in to buy donuts while Tag and I waited...and waited...and waited. (Taggart kept checking through the window to see how far they had gotten in line.) When they finally came out there was still 25 minutes to kill so I sent them over to Starbucks to get me a mocha. By the time they did all that and came back they still had to wait for a while for the parade to start.

More time to kill so they talked me into buying those silly little yo-yo balls. $2 and it entertained them for a while.

Time for a self taken shot. Tag loves those.Finally it started.

Two and a half hours later we headed home to have some lunch and get ready for our annual neighborhood Canada Day BBQ.

But I really just wanted to hang out and visit this year so I left the camera inside.

These little guys are the only proof that we had a party here tonight.

And if Tony wouldn't have reminded me I would have forgotten to put them out. How annoyed would I have been to find 24 little googly-eyed beavers staring at me tonight after everyone had gone home? Mad enough to eat quite a few, I'd think. Lucky for me they quickly got devoured by our guests. The whole night was a great success and the kids, as always, had such fun. Eating, running around with friends, swimming, throwing water balloons and then later in the night they usually find one house to congregate to and they all start to chill out. This year it was our house. So around 10:00 we kicked them all out, the ones that weren't ours of course, and put some tired little kiddos to bed. And speaking of bed, that's where I'm headed. Good night.

(By the way, Reagan and Hudson made it right through in the tent last night. This morning I heard them giggling in there. Apparently they started playing charades after they woke up)