july was

Grandma and Grandpa days

• Henry's first ice cream cone on a hot, hot 37c day!
• The luxury of in-house babysitters ... I had a nap, wandered around in a real mall, went to the movies, browsed a bookstore leisurely, went for Coldstone ice cream with Sam, shopped til the stores closed late after the boys went to bed, and read my book on the beach from start to finish!
• Henry woke up to a standing Feed the Ducks date with Grandpa each morning. I'm not quite sure who had more fun.
• Walter ate sand. And then laughed.
• Henry had his first Pirate Pak at White Spot! (Now this is a rite of passage for every child living in Western Canada ... that chocolate gold coin included is just so exciting!)
• We took Henry shoe shopping at an awesome baby store to stock up on winter shoes and to fit his feet now for some summer kicks. Yes, the one morning he would not eat anything for breakfast. So this necessary errand that turned into lots of screams from Henry and lots of apologies from us. But it was worth it, as all his new shoes are stylin'!
• Visited my Gramma in Penticton. I told her she'd be famous once I put her photo up on my blog! (Hi Gramma!)
• Walter slept in our room's closet - the dilemma of only having one travel bed. We blockaded him in with a suitcase each night so he wouldn't roll out but then he'd wake up us each morning by banging his head on the wobbly, clangy sliding doors. Ah yes, traveling at its best.
• Did I mention it was hot here?
• And did you read the part where I said I had a nap? And left the house alone to wander around Winners and read books at Chapters? Oh, you caught that, did you?!

beach days

My parents live only half a block from the most popular beach in Kelowna (imagine that!) so we made sure to get there early this morning for a few hours of sun and sand before all the crowds descended and it became too blistering hot. Henry fulfilled his wish to get as wet and sandy as possible, Walter dipped his toes in the lake for the very first time and I stayed in my beach chair with my book open and the camera close by which was exactly what I wanted! First day of holidays ... I think we've started out in the perfect way.

We're back to the beach again tomorrow, that's for sure ...
I'm only halfway through my book after all.

ummm ...

I'm not quite sure why my Mum hasn't blogged in awhile.

I'm still pretty cute, aren't I?

working on a "cherry" fun project!

from last year's to-do list

It seems as though I like to finish my projects at rather a relaxed pace. Seeing as this was Henry's First Year photo collage ... and he's going on 2 now, oh dear. Remember the hanging photo mobile I made for Henry's birthday? Well, I finally printed up his twelfth month's picture and put them all together as a sort of flip book. I can't believe this little guy is now my walking, talking, climbing boy but I'm so thankful I kept a thorough photo diary over the year so we can look back and remember just how precious and funny and lacking-in-hair he really was!

nine months old

1 parade + 1 BBQ = our Canada Day

I'm so enjoying the fact that the kids are a little older now and so we - and they - can participate in so many more activities and actually really enjoy ourselves. I must say, it's just such a welcome change to be emerging from this baby fog from the past 21 months.

Today was just that sort of a day ... fun and different for us but also fun and different for both the boys too. Sam took Henry to our Canada Day parade this morning, meeting friends of ours at the library only a few blocks from home. And even though Henry had a few moments of nervousness with the very loud machinery, horns, and whistles I'm told that he had a great time ... though all he would tell me when he came home was "Owie" while holding his ears!

The same friends hosted our 2nd Annual Canada Day BBQ this afternoon too and as we live just across the street from them it was awfully nice to just troop on over with food and chairs and two little boys and a camera. I tell you, that is a treat! The kids played, the adults talked, we all ate and ate, took photos, and appreciated the good fortune that today was a perfectly perfect summer's day after all.