July 27, 2010

This past Friday Grant actually had the day off, yay! Kaitlyn ended up having her friend Telesha over for a sleepover, and McKenna slept over at her friend Isabella's house. Grant and I went over to our friends house (Carrie and Tyler) for a games night.
Saturday, Kaitlyn went to "Shakers" for the day with her friend Telesha. They had a blast on the go carts, and wall climbing etc.) Damian and Catcher went to their cousin, Ethans, birthday party. It was a pirate party, and looked like a lot of fun. I picked McKenna up from the sleepover and her and Maiya and Tyson decided to have a juice stand. There was a yard sale just down the street, so this was the perfect opportunity. I decided to put a bunch of the stuff I was giving to the salvation army, out on my driveway for free in case anyone wanted it (saves me a trip). This also got more traffic. The girls were selling the juice for 25 cents per glass, and they ended up making $12.50.  They were very excited about this, and of course McKenna wanted to make a trip to the dollar store afterwards. Money burns a hole in that girls pocket. In the afternoon, we headed over to the Prairie Winds splash park to cool the kids off. It was a great day for it. It was crazy busy there, but the kids had fun and made some new friends to play with there. I always think it's so great how quickly children are able to make friends.  Sunday we went to church. It was a very inspiring day. I was well fed spiritually that day. After church we had the missionaries over for a bit and then our friends, The Adams, came over for a BBQ.
Monday morning, I woke up and it was a gorgeous day. So we decided to head down to the south of Calgary to Lake Sikome. Such a perfect day. It was nice and hot (I treasure those days in Alberta since there are not very many of those). We got there early enough that we got a good spot on the beach and there weren't a ton of people to start out.

Grant was able to come because he worked at night. Charity and her kids came, and so did my brother Caleb. My goal was a tan on my extremely white legs, and I got a bit of one. We'll see how long it stays. The kids had lots of fun with their cousins. Charity and I had some fun visiting, tanning and Charity reading a bit. Grant and Caleb played frisbee, chatted, buried kids in the sand, haha!

I love the beach. Such fun! After the beach, we went to go visit my Mom and Dad at their house. We visited, and had some dinner there. It was nice to visit. Here is a picture of Tyson with my Grandma (his Great Grandma)

this is my Dad with my sister, Shawna, and my brother, Seth, on their front step. (Mom refused to be in the picture after a long day at work)

Afterwards we drove home to get soem clothes for McKenna and Maiya. I dropped them off at Reese and Presleys house for a sleepover, and went to pick up Drayton to have a sleepover at our house with Damian. After picking up Drayton, we headed over to the ward garden to help pull weeds.

While we were there, the kids also enjoyed petting the horses and feeding them long grass.

Kaitlyn headed over to Teleshas house afterwards for a sleepover (wow do my kids ever do a lot of sleepovers), so I was left with only boys. So weird.
Drayton and Damian had a blast together, as usual. I'm surprised that they never get sick of eachother.
The girls all headed over here today (except Kaitlyn who stayed at Teleshas) and will be sleeping over tonight. I got lots of cleaning and more organizing done (seems like a favourite thing to do, haha)
Have I ever mentioned how much I love summer??

July 22, 2010

So we had my 4 nieces down for the past 4 days. We brought them back with us on Sunday night. The girls were so excited to have their cousins stay. We don't get to see them often, so this was a treat. On Monday the girls had lots planned. They created their own product. They decided to make their own perfume. They called their brand "Sager Scents".  Their first scent was a rose scent. They got some roses and put the petals in a bowl of water. They boiled it to get the scent out of them. It actually worked out pretty well, and ended up smelling nice. Very creative!
They went off to the park for a while and then came home for lunch. After lunch, we got ready to go out. Grant took the boys to go see "The Sorcerors Apprentice" at the Roxy in Airdrie. I dropped the girls off at the moviedome. (It's a second run theatre) They ended up watching "Shrek: Forever After".

While the girls were at the theatre, I took Maiya and Keira to the mall for a bit.

I bought them each one of those surprise bags from Ardene with an assortment of jewellery etc. They were so excited to open those bags and show eachother their treasures. After being at the mall for a little bit, we headed over to the McDonalds that is right beside the theatre so we would be close when it was time to pick up the girls from the movies.

 It was a very cool McDonalds. It had an interactive playplace in it with videogame stations. The girls weren't really bothered with them though, they just ate and then played tag and hide & go seek with some girl they met there. I just have to say that even the chairs that they ate at were cool at this McDonalds.

 

We went home and the girls made bead bracelets together.

They had dinner and then had a movie night. Grant and I went out to dinner to celebrate his b-day a little late. We went to Applebee's and then browsed a couple of stores that he was interested in.

On Tuesday morning I took the girls out for a photoshoot. We got some cute shots. I especially liked the bright yellow canola field. I was not liking the intense sun creating harsh shadows, but I wanted to do pictures there anyways. I think they turned out well...shadows and all!! (We went to another spot with shade later to do a few more as well)

When we got back we had lunch and then the girls all walked over to the rec centre to go swimming. Damian and Catcher went to Ethans house (their cousin) to play. The girls spent a good few hours at the pool and as soon as they got back they walked over to Macs. After dinner I had to leave on a photoshoot for a sweet little newborn. So they all watched a movie until Grant got home from work.

Wednesday morning, the girls all decided to have a fashion show in the basement.They came up with different looks using the clothing in the girls closets. They even did seasons (fall line, winter line etc) They made up a soundtrack for it, poses and made a T for the runway. They were quite excited for me to watch, and take pictures of their event. It was fun to watch. Kaitlyn did not want to be one of the models. She wanted to stay in her pjs and be the announcer.

We got some surprise visitors today. Pam and Pete Pepper and their 3 kids (teenagers now) came by for a visit. It was so good to see them. They used to be in our branch back in the Fort Erie days.

Garth and Sarah came up after dinner to stay the night and pick up their girls. As soon as they got here, we went over to Josh and Alex's house for a bonfire.

Yummy roasted marshmallows! I had to leave and go to guitar lessons after a bit. It was funny because when my instructor walked into the room, he said "hmmm...it smells like a fire in here" hahaha!! I guess the smell was really strong on my clothing. Oh well, I like that smell anyways. As soon as Grant got home from work, we watched "The Losers" with Garth and Sarah. We ended up chatting and didn't get to bed until 2:00am. oh dear!
This morning we got up and they got their stuff ready to go and visited a while. We had the Sherlocks over as well and had a BBQ before Garth and them left. They went clothes shopping and then headed home. The rest of my day was spent catching up on tons of things I had to do for my photography. Kaitlyn baked us all some VERY delicious cookies too. So YUMMY!
Oh, and it HAILED tonight! Sheesh! Alberta weather is so weird!!

Our Weekend in Stirling!

So this past weekend we went to Stirling to visit family (my bro inlaw and sis in law and their girls). We left Friday morning (the kids and I..Grant had to work). It was a 3 hour drive. We got there at about 10:30am. I was so exhausted (I had an extremely busy day of cleaning, grocery shopping, photoshoots and packing etc...then driving the 3 hours with the kids so early was tiring). I was ready to have some fun being away from home though. Thank heavens for a really warm weekend. The weather has been odd this year, and not very warm for summer. It was exciting for my kids to see their cousins again. It has been a while. After lunch we went swimming at the outdoor community pool. It was an awesome pool area with a huge slide, splash area, tot pool, and main pool.

The kids had a blast at the pool and could've stayed there all day.  Friday night was the start of Stirling days. They had a chili cook off and a cake walk. The girls and their cousins participated in the cake walk. Kind of like a musical chairs of sorts. People maek creative cakes and donate them. Then people buy tickets to go in a cake walk and if they land on the right number, they get that cake or cupcake. Kaitlyn and McKenna both won a cupcake. Kaitlyn won an alien cupcake and McKenna won a sunflower cupcake. I loved the sunflower ones. I thought they were awesome!

Saturday morning Garth, Sarah, Natasha and Zoe participated in a 5K run at 6:30am. I was still sleeping, haha! Afterwards we went to the pancake breakfast they were having.

We headed over to Sarah's Dad's house to set out lawn chairs for the parade that Stirling was having. It was way better than the Airdrie parade. Not just politicians cars driving by undecorated, waving and expecting applause. Actual effort was put into the parade entries. Much more fun to watch, and they threw a ton of candy (good candy too). Meaghan and Kiera got to be in the parade too.

Grant arrived after the parade to join us for the weekend. All of the older kids headed back over to the pool while the adults and the younger kids went over to to the park to play for a bit while we waited for the Kiddie Carnival to open.

The Kiddie carnival was a lot of fun for the kids. They had a big bouncy blow up slide, 2 bounce houses, a bean bag toss, rubber chicken tic tac toe, facepainting, fortune telling (haha), fishing for prizes, a freezie and juice station and each kid got a loot bag of candy. They loved it!!

After that we relaxed at the house for a bit and then headed over to the pool again with all of the kids. It was so gorgeous outside and the pool felt awesome and refreshing. I was trying to work on a bit of a tan on my extremely white legs, but I think I only got a faint hint of a tan (probably gone now, haha) My legs take forever to get a good tan. After swimming for a couple of hours we had dinner, watched Dr. Who and then headed over to the street in front of the pool where they were holding a street dance. It was just so fun. They blocked off the street and had big sound equipment out there and a bubble machine. Lots of fun loud music, and the kids had a lot of fun dancing their hearts out outside. Grant joined in on the action, and most of the kids (neices and our kids) wanted to copy Grant and dance around him, hahaha!! So funny to watch.

Tyson was the most hilarious dancer ever! What a fun experience. The dance went until 11pm and then we headed over to a hill for fireworks. It was a gorgeous night for it.

We all went home to bed, and us adults just visited and chatted for a while.
Needless to say we all slept in the next morning. We got the kids all ready for church, and before we left I took Garth and Sarah's family out for a couple of pictures of their family.

The kids enjoyed going to church together, and being in some of the same classes. Tyson was actually excited about nursery too and stayed no problem. After church we packed up, ate dinner and got ready to leave for home with 4 cousins along for the ride.

We had a really fun weekend in Stirling together! Some more great memories to add to the list!

July 10, 2010

These days I have been trying to get the house more organized again. It tends to get out of control with all of the summer fun! Lots of laundry to do too. Yesterday Grant worked on the deck (it is super shabby looking and so he was stripping it, cleaning it and painting it).

 I took some of the kids to the rec centre to go swimming.  Kaitlyn went to Calgary with a friend and Damian went over to hang out at Draytons house. It was a good day for the rec centre because it was so hot and stampede is going on, so there was barely anyone there. No overcrowding, which was nice. Maiya went over to Presleys house afterwards too.
Later on in the evening, Kaitlyn had some girls come over for a games and fondue night.

It was too gorgeous to stay inside though. So they all went over to the park to play frisbee etc. When they came back we had the yummy fondue with a small assortment of things to dip in it (strawberries, grapes, pretzels and marshmallows)
Then the girls went outside to play a game that Leah was teaching them called "Ninja Assassin" haha.

They were having a blast together, and then it all of the sudden turned into a big neighbourhood water war. They got so soaked and were just having so much fun!

This was how Kaitlyn looked by the end of it. It went on until 10pm.

Needless to say, they all slept extremely well. This morning I had to wake them all up to go to the stampede breakfast. They were entirely out and didn't look like they would have woken up anytime soon on their own.

There was lots for the kids to do and they had a lot of fun there.

Kaitlyn holding the baby goat.

Tyson jumping in the bouncy house

Damian in the head cut out photo op.

McKenna with her balloon flower.

Catcher getting his face painted by Kaitlyn. (They didn't have face paint, they were using washable markers, haha)

Maiya and Tyson riding on the wooden horse wagon, haha!!!

I went to Marvins baptism in the afternoon while Grant rested before work and the kids played.

My photoshoot got cancelled because of our crazy Alberta weather that decides to keep pouring every few minutes. My sister in law, Alex, was a god send today. She made an extra meatloaf and asked if we would like it for dinner. YAY!! Dinner is covered thanks to an awesome sister in law! My neighbour also did something so kind for us today. She brought over a tub full of art stuff and treats for the kids. Perfect day for it because it is now raining. My kids were very excited. They always love new art supplies...but especially on a rainy day!

July 7, 2010

Monday morning Kaitlyn left for her first girls camp. She was so excited. I was glad we mainly had everything she needed since I thought the camp started on Thursday and found out on Sunday that it was on Monday at 8:30am. I was so excited for her to go and experience it, because I always loved going to girls camp and also went back as a leader and still loved it.  The weather has not been very "summer like" but we are working around it. While it's been on the chillier side, we have made the best of it.

Finding things around the house to enjoy with friends and cousins.

Marbles...

Bubbles...

Picnics on the front lawn....

Painting rocks....

sidewalk chalk, bike riding, trampolines, parks, badminton, puzzles, games and anything else we can think of.

Damian went to the movies with his best friend and cousin Drayton. They went to see Karate Kid. They loved it and came back with some moves of their own, haha! Drayton ended up sleeping over.

Today I spent my morning cleaning out my very cluttered laundry room while the kids entertained themselves. We went to pick Kaitlyn up from camp at 1pm. She was happy to see us, but would have loved to have stayed at camp longer. I listened to her stories all the way home and enjoyed every second of it. I used to love camp so I guess I was living through her. She was just how I remember being after camp... loud, spouting out cheers, tons of stories, and coming back with souveniers.

As soon as she got home, we didn't give her a second to relax. We headed over to the splash park for the kids to enjoy the water. This summer has not been great yet for doing water activities outdoors, so they were very excited! I also enjoyed myself. It was gorgeous outside. Charity was there with her kids too, and Amy for a bit.

We love our summers!!