The Reuse Fair

There is this church down the street on the way to Chloe's school and they have been advertising their "Reuse Fair". You can bring whatever stuff you don't want anymore and then take whatever and how much of whatever you see there. We made it there last year and LOVED IT so when we saw the sign go up again, we just knew we had to go. Last year we got free hot dogs, chips and soda but I'm pretty sure that broke their bank so this year was just hot chocolate. Here is a list of our haul:

• a pair of ice skates for me (technically I already have a pair but these were way more comfortable. We'll see when I finally hit the ice.
• a pair of roller blades for me (mine are getting a bit old and the wheels dont' turn like they used to so my fingers are crossed that these will be better--although they are a bit big)
• a travel baby booster seat that can strap to a chair
• a bunch of dress up jewelyry and stuffed animals that we'll likely recycle in a few weeks
• A new, solid sewing chair that just needs a little face-lift
• A horse costume (he, he--for Chloe)
  
• And our biggest thrill...A PAINTING!

Look at how awesome this is! At first glance, of course I saw waves.

Then as I stared at it longer, I thought that maybe the waves were mountains. I liked how it could be both. Like this painting was depicting both me and Greg. Upon looking at the back, I learned that I was more right on the second account because it is titled, "The Lost Mountain" and it is dated "1969". Pretty cool, huh? We are just suckers for free stuff. Greg said that someday we're going to organize a "Reuse Fair" because it is just so fun and a great way to recycle old stuff.

Things I wish now a few days later that i had taken.
-a whole set of blue, glass pyrex dishes. I was looking at another bowl with a crack today and I almost kicked myself.
-A mini lego table with medium sized legos. We just thought we didnt' have room for it.

Xanadu

Chloe has been determined to learn how to skate before the warm weather is gone and the sidewalks are full of snow. I was trying to figure out a way for her to balance better and decided to load her up with a stroller. She loved it but we have pretty crappy sidewalk quality. I'm realizing how spoiled I was growing up across the street from a tennis court and using that as my roller rink. Her progress is pretty slow going. But man, can this girl dress, or what?!

Ode to Grandpa

This is my Grandpa. Isn't he a cutie?

The other day at our grocery store, I was perusing the sales in the clothes like I always do and I happened upon this beauty. I couldn't resist because Gavin was so freaking adorable in it and also because it made me think of my Grandpa who passed away a few years ago. Grandpa never met Gavin but I'd like to think he's smiling down on him now especially seeing him in this cute hat like Grandpa used to wear.

Helton Skelton

Fall is now here in this neck of Canadia. The leaves are falling down and the mornings and evenings are crisp and cold. We've been trying to take advantage and enjoy the last bits of sunshine where ere they are.

One thing that was on my "to-do" list for summer was to try and take some pics of the kids with the canola flowers. I haven't been having much luck and frankly this time turned out a bit of a gong show too but at some point it will work out and in the mean time, I can still enjoy the different trials and errors.

After spending a long morning at the doctor's office a few weekends ago, we decided that we'd find some canolas or die trying. So we set off down south on the highway with lots of food and lots of movies (because we had no idea how long we'd be gone). About 45 miles down the road with still no success, we decided we should probably give up and besides that the grasshoppers were about to head back to ant island and Princess Adda was going to be in trouble. Just as we were about to call it quits, we caught a glint of yellow so we exited onto a country road and found the field we'd been looking for all day. It was a little past full blooming but we were determined to get some pictures. The problem was that everywhere we turned there were fences and barricades. We finally found a side road taking us past a really nice field when we discovered that this wasn't a nice, country road but in fact it was somebody's drive way. I tried to convince Greg that we should just go ask them if we could take some pictures in their field but he didn't want to. Their name was the "Skeltons". Come on, a sign? I told him it was meant to be but he disagreed. He hates when I make him do stuff like that.

So we drove around the fields looking for better fields or accessible fields but there were none. After making a complete loop and ending up again in front of these people's drive way, Greg relented to go and talk to them. My foot was too swollen to hobble up to their doorway, so that's how I got out of it.

So we drove up to their house and this dog starts barking and chasing our car and Greg is like, "Great, here we go." While I'm yelling, "You can do it!" And the girls are in the back seat pep talking him too. So he talked to them, of course they agreed and they were super nice and since they were strangers they didn't know how embarrassed Greg was. The lighting was perfect as we were setting up the shots, it was a little overcast and the flowers were nice and bright. I was just lining the kids up and fixing headbands and such when we got overwhelmed by mosquitoes so we had to take a bug spray break and then FINALLY, FINALLY we could get started.

I started with Tati who was tired and hungry and short so I couldn't see too much yellow with her. To be fair, she is actually quite tall for her age she was just short in comparison with the flowers. We took a few shots and the lighting was working out nicely but then she got bored and of course then she had to pee. So we tried to switch to Chloe but Gavin was getting cranky so Chloe was entertaining Gavin. Then Tati peed. Then these peoples' dog came over and smelled her pee and Tati played in the dirt with the dog. Then the lady came over in her dune buggy and we were sure she was going to say something like she just saw our kid's butt while she peed on her land and we didn't ask if she could do that but instead she asked if we wanted a family picture of all of us. Super nice lady. We were forced to decline because I was in a sick/sweats outfit, Greg was sweaty and there was no way we would ever get all our children to all look at the same time together. Of course hours later, I wished that I had let her take it.

Next up was Chloe. Chloe had a great attitude and was excited to take some pictures. That was until the sun came out. Which was like 2 seconds before her first picture. Then she complained that she couldn't see and even with sunglasses told me how she thought her eyes were going to melt. Then she got bored and tired and sick of the sun so we let her be done. But we still had one more kid to go. Too little to stand in the field of flowers you say? No problem, we packed a chair.


Gavins turn. The problem was the chair had to go on the ground where things were brown and dirty. So I had the brilliant idea of having Greg lift up the chair and try and hover it over the canolas and at least we could get a nice shot of him against the yellow. But Gavin didn't want to take no stinky picture with the flowers, he wanted to eat the flowers or at least grab them. Then he got tired and bored and hungry and cranky.

Hey, we had a chair? So we made Tati take a few more shots this time standing on the chair so her head would be more into the yellow of the flowers but the chair was wobbly and scary. So we gave up. Threw in the towel and decided that maybe this summer wasn't meant to be the canola summer. We can save that for next year.

Although looking at these shots now, I'd say we didn't do too shabby.

Laundry time!

It is times like this when I think Gavin just has an awesome life. I mean, the awesome dino onesie, the awesome, long, striped, Michael Cooper socks, being entertained by a funnel and just chilling on the clean bedding in the laundry basket. Not a care in the world and having so much fun! I'm going to remember this cute image in 3 years when he refuses to put his clean clothes away or knocks over all the piles of neatly folded clean clothes.

2nd Grade

Well, Chloe started 2nd grade today. She was so pumped and anxious. She got up and was dressed and had all her chores done before I was even up. Yeah, this morning hit hard. It was the first time (all summer) that Tati and Gavin decided to sleep in. I ended up having to wake her at 8:10 and get her going. That is a bit tricky since she always wakes up so cranky, but we made it.

Chloe was so stoked because she is in the same class as two of her church BFF's and then 2 other school BFF's.

The big thrill this year is that she gets a locker. A locker?! Hopefully this will help our plight against lice because last year all their stuff hung on hooks next to each other in the classroom.

Apparently the teacher she has doesn't speak very good English but she did fine with me today and as long as we can communicate then I don't care. Chloe's French should be awesome.

Tati has been having a bit of a rough time. As we were leaving, we met the new principal and he was talking to Tati. I mentioned that she was really going to miss her big sis and he goes, "Oh, well your big sister is at school, you can play with her toys!" I looked at him like, "Are you retarded?" but it put a big smile on Tati's face and when we got home, she snuck upstairs and followed his advice to the "t". Good thing we got everything put back b/f she got home. The problem is that Chloe recognized that her shells were in a different order! Maybe we'll have to start taking before pictures and then let Tati play. Ha, ha.

The Culprit

Isn't this a pretty glass bead? It is one of the many from our rock table. Having children produced from a geologist is fun and definitely is awesome when mere rocks and pebbles can thrill them but it has its hazards as well. Take for example this glass bead. Shiny. Blue. Pretty. Smooth. Fun. That is until it isn't put away into the rock table but is rather left on the edge of the porch at night when Mommy is trying to set up some chairs for Daddy's boy bike ride party the next morning and she slips on said glass bead and falls and falls and falls and twists her foot on the sidewalk and lands hard onto the grass and lays there paralyzed in agony for several long seconds while she tries to figure out what to do because Daddy is upstairs, far away and several fans are blowing on high speed since it is so hot so he won't be able to hear her yelling so she decides to lay there and just relax for a bit and wait for him to find her but then she thinks about worms coming out of the grass that she is laying on and touching her exposed skin--like her neck which causes her to get up in a freaked out panic only she can't walk and she can't really crawl so she starts to army/Mowgli crawl into the house and somehow makes it to the living room shaking and sweating. That's when Daddy starts to come downstairs and looks at Mommy and casually says, "What happened to you?"

Luckily not broken. An older child sadly and guiltily apologized because she left the rock there. "Was it a blue one?" she asked when I told her I slipped on a rock.

Or maybe I should just watch where I'm going.