best buds

summer

We're here. Just getting into the rhythm of summer. Henry and Walter have their first set of swimming lessons every morning this and next week and then a kids cooking camp the week after. From 10-3pm for 4 days! Wow, talk about a break from the usual ... I'm going to enjoy that. We met up with Joy, Lorna and 4 of their kids yesterday as they were down in Victoria and I have a coffee date tomorrow with a friend. Trying to work on projects, starting to write stuff down in my new daytimer for August 1st, avoiding the heat but needing to get a bit of colour to my pasty legs, and looking forward to all we have planned for Sam's 3 weeks off work next month. Drinking lots of water and loving new foods like hemp seeds, almond milk, kefir and feeling a little obsessed with avocados. Thinking of my sister lots who's only 12 weeks pregnant and already super sick, as per usual. Singing Itsy Bitsy Spider for Felix every time I change his diaper as now he mock sings along with me and does all the actions. Laughing at Henry who will all of a sudden just say ... "Jumping junebugs!" ... and I have no idea where that comes from. Quietly giggling at Walter who says the same thing he's thankful for every night going to bed: "I'm thank-a-ful we go to Jim and Joy's for a sleepover. Eat meat-waffles (what??), ride the car, go to the farm". Oh man, he is so excited for that sleepover! And through it all ... just simply trying to get through each day. Parenting feels hard lately. The chaos, the noise, the dramas, the meltdowns, the lack of sharing and the struggle to obey, the constantness, the exhaustion, and the simple fact that this is just what it is with 3 littles. So we try every day. And every day we clench our hands in frustration because they're horrible and also smother them in kisses because they're the best ever. It's always every emotion on the spectrum every day ... the good, the bad and the ugly. Closing those doors at bedtime is pretty awesome but hearing their little sleepy Hi Mum's (and Felix's very loud Haaaaa) every morning is pretty great too.

So I just try to remember my new motto: Keep Calm and Eat an Avocado. Smooshed on a slice of toasted Ezekial bread with a bit of salt. Divine. You will thank me.

navy days

We spent this afternoon literally down the road at the navy base where their annual family fun day was in full swing. We were there for just over 3 hours and we did alot! Train rides, inflatable mazes, face painting, balloon swords, the Bear Hospital, fingerprinting, free ice cream cones, remote car races, mechanical bull riding, toddler play zone, carnival games for prizes and a chance to get really up close to a Sea King helicopter! Sam had taken Henry and Felix here last year while I was camped inside potty training Walter for the weekend but it was great to all go together this year. It really was an awesome event, impressively organized and the volunteers and those in uniform were so happy and helpful to do this for the families. We'll definitely be back again next year ... without any stroller though. Just three boys on the loose, oh my!

canada day

This year Canada Day was spent bike riding all morning at our favorite local park, a few hours inside to escape the worst of the heat and then downtown to meet up with our friends Chris, Heather and their girls for all the celebrations along and around the Inner Harbour and Legislative Buildings. It was great to get out and join the crowds ... yet if you've seen the news it was amazingly at the very place we were sitting listening to the music that homegrown bombs were placed for a Canada Day attack in the middle of all those families and children. A Canadian couple had been closely followed since February and so this attack was known but it was needed to have them place the bombs in order to arrest and charge them. In fact the public was never at risk because investigators had been monitoring the couple’s actions for months, using covert techniques to make sure the devices were unable to explode, and yet the intent was there to create maximum impact and harm to Canadians. You can read about it here on the Times Colonist. It was a strange feeling to read about this the next morning and to know we weren't just in the same city or a nearby neighborhood but we were in the exact location. Never in any real danger as the plot was thwarted from the beginning but still gives you pause to think that even Victoria was on someone's mind to harm. Yet I know that whatever happens in life, whether for good or for evil, God is in control. I love this quote by Corrie Ten Boom "Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God". Ok, I'm not giving this one more word of attention ... all this never-to-happen drama aside, it was a great Canada Day in our new city with new friends. I'm grateful to live in such an amazing country.

it was time

It's a big moment in your childhood ... that first real bike. And it was more than time that Henry and Walter (Henry for sure!) have a proper two wheeler as they were looking pretty cramped on their little red tricycles. It was on our list for this summer instead of waiting til their September/October birthdays and it was a complete they-couldn't-believe-it surprise for them. Sam took them to the bike shop after church for ideas and sizing and I was kept up to date with photos of two very happy boys on certain bikes they quickly insisted were their favourites. They came home with bikes and cool helmets and full safety kits and oh my were they excited! It felt like a big moment, something so simple and yet something so telling of their growing up. I am loving these milestones ... ha, I'm sure you can sense that theme from so many of my posts this year ... but I am loving watching them grow up. Conquering something as simple as riding their first two wheeler (ahem, temporary four wheeler). And as parents it sure is fun to make them oh so happy. Like wake up in the morning and ask to go out biking right away happy.