Tuesday, April 26

Wednesday, April 20

The Helpful One


The twins never hit the "I want to help!" stage (or the "I want to do it BY MYSELF!" stage, for that matter). I wonder how long this will last?

Tuesday, April 19

The Agony of Bonding

I like spending time with my children. They are really great people and they bring me so much joy. And the children like to be with me, too. They like to have little "adventures". All week, I dream up fun things to do with them. On the weekend, I grab my camera, load the kids in the car, and we go out in search of fun.

Some ideas I have are better than others. Sigh.

Dan and I took the children for a walk at Mer Bleue. The children were shocked by this "adventure". Did I really expect them to WALK???? Ummm...YES!

I had to stop three times by the time we got this far in order to deal with Dan's and the children's complaints.


There was a huge puddle blocking the path. Since Dan and I both have holes in our shoes, I had the brilliant idea that the twins should push Sarah through the puddle because they had boots on.


Turns out, both twins had holes in the boots, too (that was complaint #3).

I directed the children to the boardwalk, thinking that it would be fun for them...


...I was wrong.

Katie was annoyed because she was tired of looking at "nature".


Sarah had "issues" with the boardwalk. For the longest time, she walked like this:


I wanted a "group shot". I took about 20 pictures. This was the only one without anyone complaining. The other 19 photos are crap!


Sarah overcame her fear, and wanted to explore. The twinnies refused to walk any further. They had already walked for 7.5 MINUTES!


Even the baby was shocked that the twinnies wouldn't walk any further!


Bethie: "Please don't make me walk anymore. I'm soooooooo tired!"


Bethie: "No one loves me!" (she had a splinter)


Katie: "Just take my picture so we can GO!"


Bethie found something exciting to look at - a Tim Horton's cup tossed in the bog. She started shouting "Why did Daddy throw his cup in the water?!". I explained that it wasn't Daddy, but I'm sure that everyone who passed by thought that we were Litter Bugs. Sigh.


Sarah, too, was enthralled with the garbage.


 But she, obviously, wasn't pleased to see it.


Random "art" which my children broke into, and this attracted ALOT of attention. I headed back to the car and left Dan to deal with the children.


Another group shot. Again, I took about 20 pictures. Here's one where one child looked happy. Sigh.


Katie found the tiniest tree and asked to have her photo taken next to it.


The baby.


The best bit? Splashing in the puddle on the way back to the car. Only Sarah was allowed to splash, due to the rest of us having inadequate footwear. She had a great time, especially because we couldn't go in to retrieve her. We all had to stand around and coax her out!


So, Mer Bleue was not a hit. However, we drove by a farm. I stopped the car and let the children look out the windows at the horses. This is how they prefer to view nature: from a distance. Kinda like "Drive Though Nature".

Sunday, April 17

A New Season

At this house, we have two seasons: winter and picnic.

This year picnic season began in what Dan and I still refer to as "winter". We have decided to disobey the children and continue to dine indoors. Periodically, we wave at our Popsicle Girls from the 21 degree comfort of our home. The children want to know when we will be coming out to join them. Ummm.... in another 10 degrees, Sweetheart.

Wednesday, April 6

Road Hockey Warriors

The girls love playing road hockey. It has just as much violence as the NHL, but admission prices are far more reasonable. There is ample parking ... on the street. Because when you're 2 and 5 years old, road hockey must be played on the driveway.

Katie likes to be the goalie. She gets a good view of the action and, therefore, finds it to be a convenient location to call out orders.


Bethie mans the other net because she does what Katie tells her to do.


Sarah's job is to try to score on either net.


When Sarah's attempt at a goal is deflected, she starts yelling "You cheated!". Because it is clearly wrong for the goalie to try to defend her net.


Sarah finds it difficult to hit the ball.


She has been known to forsake her stick in favour of more "tried and true" methods. This does not upset either goalie.


The goalies don't seem too concerned that Sarah will score.


"One on one" action is fun for only one player. The other does her best to fight boredom.


In fact, that goalie eventually finds a way to continue playing without standing around being bored.


Eventually, the Zamboni comes to clean the ice. All players must get off the ice, stand to the side, and applaud the Zamboni driver.


If a player decides after the 15th time that the Zamboni has stopped the game that she doesn't want the ice cleaned, the Zamboni driver will proceed to chase that player while screaming at the photographer.


If the photographer says, "Just let her clean the ice. She'll be done in a second!", the player will crack the Zamboni driver across the side of her face with a hockey stick.

And that is how we know that the game has ended.

Monday, April 4

Mr. Photography Goes To School

Bethie won an award at school. Again. The first award was for "Trying Her Best". This one was for her wonderful writing ability. Katie is ticked off. She's keeping score. No worries, she wrote a note to the teacher informing her that Bethie has had 2 awards and Katie has had no awards. She would like the teacher to rectify this situation. Sigh.

I sent Dan to the school to watch Bethie receive her award. I asked him to take some photos because I am soooo proud of my child and soooo disappointed that I had to miss the awards ceremony.

Here are the results:




It's my fault, I know. I shouldn't have asked him to take pictures. I just set myself up for disappointment.

There was one picture that was salvageable. Here is my baby accepting her award. I am very, very proud of her.