Crayons, markers and everything in between

This little stinker is becoming more and more challenging. Right now, her new favorite thing is markers, pens, crayons etc. it's killing me....

Tiny nest

We found a tiny birds nest! It's a little late for any eggs, but Eve was so excited to see it! She said it's just like the one in the dr Seuss book "are you my mother?" 

Make yourself at home

Graham feels at home, he just crawled up on grandpa and sat like that. He then proceeded to fall asleep like that. 

Good bye to uncle Skotty

It was a blast. Not many people can drive that long and spend that much time together and still love each other afterwards haha, but I just love this guy to pieces. Is been such a wonderful experience having him for so long. The kids and I will miss him so much! Eve left him with some drawings of them together for the road, and greta grabbed him by the drawstrings to give him a big slobbery kiss.

Graham's birthday 7-8-2015

Skott played the piano for Eve and I to sing happy birthday. I set up the camera to record it, and at the end when he went to blow out the candle, he inhaled it instead burning his nose. Not the perfect moment we had hoped for. But eating a doughnut seemed to help it be all better. We had a mini celebration for his official birthday, we will do the real thing later when Braden arrives. But I couldn't not do anything for his actual birthday! So celebratory doughnuts for the kids it is! Happy birthday G-man!

Little Houdini

So this little stinker is a modern day Houdini. She managed to learn how to climb out and shimmy down her crib. She also learned to climb her way out of a pack n play. So when putting her to bed it was constantly putting her back in bed after she came upstairs. She was always so proud of herself, she'd sneak upstairs, look at us and say "hey!" Like a "look what I did" kind of way. 

So we tried many different ways to keep her in there, and she managed to get her way out of them. So this particular night, I just didn't want to deal with it anymore. After 9 times of putting her back to bed and her coming back out, I just let her stay up until she was zonked out. She had a great time staying up and watching the bachelorette with us. 

Amusement park

Skotty started feeling better toward the end of his visit, which allowed us to have one last hurrah! We went to the toy factory, amusement park, and got the famous ice cream at the Kensington creamery. We were lucky that grandpa stayed back and played with the cyclone we call Greta. It made the older 2 kids feel special, and a lot easier on us not having to have her around. 

Simple pleasures

This place is heavenly. Is a beautiful view, full of wonderful people. The simple life is such a nice change for us. "Going in to town" is about 25 mins, and a lot of dairy and potato farms, quaint beach houses, cottages, and cute touristy villages make this place so darling. The weather is really pleasant, and people are very nice. But what I love most are my people who live here. It's so nice to just hang out with my parents, watch the kids learn fromthen, and stay up late laughing and playing cards/dominoes. 

 

The uncle and his nephew

Skott and Graham became quite close on this trip, he lived having another guy to hang out with. Poor thing is always surrounded by the Girls, he was so pleased to have him with us. All the time you'd here Graham say "where's heehaw?" (Skotty) and he would run around looking for him. 

4th of July

We didn't do much to celebrate the 4th, but we did wear our festive gear and fire up the bbq. Happy 4th of July!! We are so grateful to love in freedom and a lovely country. 

Grandpas helpers

The kids love to help grandpa! He picked up a load of reclaimed asphalt to spread over his driveway, and the kids ran to get their tools and help him out. They slow him down, but he really doesn't mind, Eve is great company because she'll talk your ear off. 

Grandma and Grandpas house, July 2 2015

Well Skott got sicker. He got a nasty cough and pink eye! No one else got sick luckily, but poor guy spent a lot of his vacation taking it easy, But dads scooter got him out and about for a while.

He won't let them on if he's mowing, but he will let them "drive" it around the yard. 

Drive to Canada

The drive. Did not go as planned. We were going to drive to CT, spend the night, drop the kids at our old nanny's house, and spend a day in NYC before continuing. Well as we approached CT, Skotty wasn't feeling well, so we took it easy at our friends the Francia's house. He went to bed early. But by morning he had flu like symptoms, feeling like strep (which he gets a lot) and it was raining pretty hard out. It was forecasted to rain all day, so we decided to skip the city and just push on to Canada that day so he could spend more time recovering in PEI before returning to work. 

As fun as it was driving across the Canadian border in Canada day, it was a rough day for driving. I wasn't feeling well either, but Skott was much worse. Kids were troopers, just happily watched their DVDs and ate heir snacks. 

It was easy for the boys to use the bathroom, they can go wherever, whenever. Whereas for us ladies, it's more complicated. Early in the day, as we were going through Massachusetts, we stopped at a McDonald's so we could grab breakfast. Skott went in first, to order food and what not. Eve days in a panic, "I have to pee!" So I asked if she could just wait until he got back, because I can't leave the babies to take her in. So we decided to just let her use the potty chair we had in the van for emergencies. 

Well that was easy, in theory. As I'm helping her up, Skott came back, and Eve was in a panic! She is so concerned with privacy and modesty lately, that to see her in panties was the end of the world. Anyways, the side door opens, she's dressed, and as I step outside my sandal got caught on the potty seat dumping all of her pee out all over my legs!! Gross!!!

To be honest, it's not the worst thing that has happened to me when it comes to my kids bodily fluids, but the timing wasn't ideal. (Is it ever though?) 

Skott let out this bellowing laugh. He couldn't catch his breath. And even by the time I had come back out after cleaning myself up, he was still cracking up. As nasty as it was, it was the first  I had heard him laugh that day and he said he started feeling a bit better. 

There aren't many people you can drive over 26 hours in 2 days with. But I'm so glad I had him. No arguments, no impatience, just laughs and good times. It wasn't perfect, but we laughed our way all the way home. 

So tired

This seems to happen to my kids a lot. I guess all the sun and pool just wears them out they can't finish their dinner, not even when it's your favorite. But don't worry, Graham swooped in and finished it before anyone could clean it up. 

Skotty visits Charlotte -part 2

Greta wasn't sure about Skotty at first, but with a few doughnuts, he was her best friend. We had a blast at the pool with him, he's so good with kids. I'm so grateful for the chance he had to come and really get to bond and get to know my kids in their own setting. He helped Eve swim, and gave her some good pointers. He got to rough house with Graham. And having 10 nieces, Graham is a bit of a novelty, and different from what we are all used to, so it's really fun. 

Painting the cement. He also got a little surprise with cold pool water on his back from Graham. 

Skotty visits Charlotte -part 1

Ok, only coolest uncle ever comes off an airplane wearing a super hero cape to match his Nieces and nephew. Uncle Skotty came to visit! He's the best, he came to Charlotte to see us for a few days, as then drive to Canada with us so I wasn't doing the 26 hour drive alone. 

He's so sweet to come, who would use their vacation to drive that long with 3 kids under the age of 6? He would. 

We showed him around Charlotte and Huntersville, but as soon as he got off the plane he said "chick-filA is the first stop." Haha Canadians and that chain, is a love that really cannot be justly explained. But my family just loves it. 

We spent our days in Charlotte at the pool and just hanging out, it was perfect. Braden and I even got a babysitter so we could take him out and show him uptown and be grown ups for a night. It was so fun! And he thought Charlotte was a pretty awesome city, and we totally agree.