Ah life got away from me again. At what point does the blog just phase itself out? I don't know. I keep going because I love looking back on my old posts!
So I left off on June 9... What has life even been since then. Chaos? Haha
Saturday, June 10 was a busy day.
First of all, Dom came wandering down the stairs at 7am with nothing but his undies and a police hat on. Dave and I laughed at the oddness of it all. I took a picture of him with his little smirk and then right after, he pulled his hat off and TEN Hot Wheels came pouring off his head! Oh we laughed.
We were invited for breakfast with Bobo Moma, Mom & Aunty Sonya at Elim. We all went out there and Oma was in a great space. She loves seeing the kids <3
My mom took the picture. I said to everyone, "Smile and look at Oma!" Eva put on the cheesiest smile and looked straight at Bobo Moma. She cracks me up.
From Elim we went straight to the library for the first time in a long time.
In the afternoon Dave and I met up with my parents and we all drove downtown for my half-birthday dinner! I love this tradition. Every year (for the last couple), my parents take each of us kids out for our half-birthdays instead of our birthday. Around your birthday is always so busy and you're so spoiled that things hardly feel special anymore. This way we always have something to look forward to! First stop was my cousin Karl's Jazz band performance at the VSO School of Music. I love jazz!
Karl is on the drums
From there we went to Nightingale for a deeeelicious dinner. We started with some cocktails and then ordered 6 or so dishes (everything is designed to be shared). The fried chicken was TO DIE FOR. We actually ordered a second fried chicken for dessert haha. Everyone kept telling me before we went that the fried chicken was amazing. I was skeptical. How good can fried chicken really be? Alas... I was very pleasantly surprised!
Gin & Elderberry(?) cocktail, and Dave's sesame scotch something or other
Our food:
- Arugula, blue benedictine, picked red onions, lemon dressing
- Kennebec fries, ketchup powder, malt vinegar aioli
- Roasted cauliflower, sultana, sunflower seeds, cilantro, turmeric vinaigrette
- Grilled bok choy, sesame, chili, miso vinaigrette
- not on the menu: Salmon with buttery sauce and fiddleheads
- Caciocavallo ravioli, morels, asparagus, lemon
- Buttermilk fried chicken (x2)
- Some sort of salted caramel dessert. Yum!
On our way home we swung by Adam and Aly's new house they purchased and are moving into in August!
June 11 we went to church, and then were invited to a Pride market at the Clayton Library. I had no idea it was going on, but we met up with Scott & Ash there. Lots of great booths with so many fun crafty things that inspired me to go to Michaels and do some crafting!
Free popcorn, Plinko for candy and toys, story time, food trucks... lots of fun stuff haha
Bought these little wooden things at the dollar store and painted them with paint I had at home already. Went over them with Modpodge to make them a bit more shiny/durable. We've added faces to most of them and hair to some. The kids have had fun playing with their little family. They also have painted many of their own haha.
So many people sell these homemade yarn rainbows. I decided it can't be that difficult. I already had the yarn from a previous project, so I bought some cord at the dollar store and tried it out for Emilia because she's obsessed with rainbows. I looove how it turned out! And it didn't take all that long! It's hanging on their door now :)
Eva was playing outside in the afternoon while Emilia and I did some painting, and this is what came inside. How does one get this filthy?!
The whole week was pretty much a blur. Some little moments here and there, but June is crazy with just the day to day stuff! I worked a day at the school, worked at Spartan Foundation, had small groups, Dave had some bigger shoots, etc. etc. I also read the Matthew Perry autobiography which I found really interesting. He has such an intense personal story.
Got a little quality one on one time with this little Nate Nugget <3. Perfect deal for me. I get to escape and steal him away to a quiet room to get him to sleep while others deal with my noisy kids haha!
Looking at this boy before school started one day and just thinking... Why is he so big? Who is this teenager? Why is he so darn handsome? How did I get so lucky?
Oh golly. I went to Krazy Binz in Fleetwood. If you enjoy thrifting, and if you haven't heard of this place, look it up. Madness. They buy pallets of amazon returns, and then sell the items off at a different price each day. New stock goes out at $29.99 on Fridays, and prices decrease all the way to $1.99 on Thursdays. I got this shelf, and many other goodies for $3.99 when I went last Tuesday.
Aunty Lasagna has completed the Lion King/African animal set for the kids. Emilia's face says it all. <3 <3
Perks of working at the school, getting to pop out and hang out with this guy while they watch the Grade 7 Egg drop! <3. He gets so adorable and cuddly when he sees me at school. Like he feels really special and that makes me feel special :)
This boy had an upset tummy one day (and thankfully just one day). He followed Dave to the garage and curled up by him during his workout
Some day I'll get over the fact that Dom can read now. Today is not that day! He read Eva a bedtime story the other night. Could this be the next stage of life? Multitasking by doling out responsibilities to other children?!
Saturday Dom wrapped up his Soccer Shots season. He had a hard time this season, I think because he went from being the oldest in the 3-5.5 group to the youngest in the 6-8 group. We'll see if he decides he wants to do it again in the fall, but I'm thinking not. He did have a good final session though!
We went straight from soccer to drop Dom off at a birthday party for his friend Logan. This age is so cute. The boys were so into it, it was a hockey party where Dom "won" the Stanley Cup, and Dom picked out his own gift, picked out the card, and wrote his own message in the card. "Logan, you are my best friend. I love playing hockey with you. Love, Dominic".
*How do kids suddenly just become able to read and write? That is the most significant change for us this year... what the heck. So cool!
Saturday afternoon Dave and I were lucky enough to do a Lifestyle Video and Photoshoot for a couple's 30th anniversary vow renewal with their 4 adult kids! We went to Deer Lake Park, the weather was absolutely perfect, and the family was very kind and beautiful. We'd never met them before so it was a different experience for us! It was also different because Dave's friend lent me a camera (THANK YOU KEITH!) so I could play around with being a second-shooter and allow him to focus on video a bit more. I actually really enjoyed it once I got into it and got some photos I'm quite proud of. Maybe this could become a thing... We'll see! I cannot WAIT to share some of the photos and video from this shoot. :) :)
Sunday was Father's Day! We packed up and went out to Agassiz for the day! I didn't get many pictures, but it was a nice relaxing time, and the drive out went very smoothly. The drive home... less so. Picture 30 straight minutes of the middle child screaming at the top of her lungs for some unknown reason. With bouts of the other two screaming because why not?! We made it home in time to throw a pizza in the oven and then ordered sushi for Dave and I after bedtime and watched the F1 Montreal race. Happy Father's Day :)
These girls had a great time together!
Oh I almost forgot... In the middle of the night Saturday-Sunday (like 12:10am), Dave and I were JOLTED awake by this HORRIFYING sound. It was absolutely the loudest noise I've ever heard in my life and our house was shaking. My first thought was that someone drove into our house or our neighbour's house, or that there was an earthquake. It sounded like the world's largest garbage can was being dragged through our brains. It's honestly indescribable. We texted the neighbours like, "Umm... wtf was that? did you hear that?" They had, and we deduced it was probably thunder but from what? Then it started pouring rain. Okay... most likely thunder. Unlike anything any of us had ever heard before. We hopped on Facebook to the neighbourhood page and found hundreds of people commenting similar thoughts to us. I can honestly say I have never been so scared in my life. All of us 30+ year old adults were cowering in our beds wishing our moms were there haha. If you were here and you heard it, you know what I'm talking about. If you didn't hear it, you probably think I'm a wuss. Fair enough. It shook houses from Brookswood-Willoughby-Fleetwood and everything in between. Apparently it struck in Clayton.
Sherlock was the real MVP though. While Dave and I panicked and shook and paced around the room trying to figure out what was going on, Sherlock just stared at us, rolled his eyes, and went back to sleep. Loud noises do not freak him out. We knew fireworks and regular thunder didn't, but this?!When I was trying to get back to sleep, I kept thinking about the families living in Ukraine and other countries with military conflict. If they woke up to a noise like that, it could actually be the worst case scenario all our brains jumped to. Awful.
*If anyone is interested, I'll try to post a video (with sound) of the strike from a doorbell cam, as well as some of the comments at the bottom of this post so you can see I'm not crazy!
By some miracle, the girls slept through it. Dom woke up disoriented, but fell back to sleep quickly. He did hear us talking about it in the morning and had lots of questions. I guess he had some processing to do, because I found these two drawings in Gramma and Grandpa's playroom after <3
Monday Dom had school, and then after school Emilia had her first (of four) HORSEBACK RIDING LESSONS! A & T Equestrian sent an email with a promotion for their parent & tot lessons and I signed her up. We have spent so much money and time on Dom already with his soccer, hockey, floorball, etc. and Emilia had been sleeping with the flyer from this Equestrian center ever since her field trip there in May. I wasn't sure how it would go, because at her preschool field trip, it took her 20 minutes to get on the horse (pony). I was prepared for tears and a battle, but she rocked it. She ended up on a pony again because the larger horses were claimed by the other kids, but I think that was a good first step. You couldn't wipe the smile off her face if you tried.
In the parent & tot class, parents lead the horse while the kid rides. We did steering, balancing, practiced form for jumping (stepping over a pole), and then the instructor helped out with a lap of trotting. I thought she'd be nervous about the trotting, but again. She rocked it. She showed so much confidence and it made me tear up. Who wants to sponsor us so she can keep doing this? It was the best! We have 3 more classes and then we'll see where we go from there :). For someone with so much social/separation/generalized anxiety, this was absolutely monumental for her!
Before class, she was hoping to ride Angel again (the pony she rode last time). This day she got to ride Apple Jack, who is Angel's mom. Oh boy did Emilia ever feel special! We also went to the stable area before hand to meet some of the horses which helped Emilia. She recognizes some, knows some of their names, and feels much more comfortable. She is VERY ready to claim a big horse next time!
Tuesday was Emilia's last day of preschool! I made cards for the teachers, and Emilia wanted to make one for one of her teachers as well. Here is the card. What she wanted help spelling, and then what I found on the inside hahaha.
"Happy having no fun without me"
Where does she come up with this stuff?!
After I dropped her off I realized this would be my last day until September of just Eva and I at home, so we invited Uncle Scott and Phoebe over for a playdate.
After I picked up Emilia I started feeling anxious and overstimulated. Dave asked me a week ago how I was feeling about summer vacation starting and when I said I was looking forward to it, he kindly reminded me that my mental health tends to TANK around this time of year. I had kind of forgotten about it, but I'm glad he reminded me because that's exactly what happened right on her last day of school there. She was being very sweet and very Emilia, and just chatting and wanting to be close to me and ask me a million and 1 questions. I suddenly had this feeling that I would never be alone again and I panicked haha. I told Dave how I was feeling, and the genius that he is, he said, "Okay I'll take both the girls to go pick up Dom." Life. Saver. That hour and a bit of alone time in the house saved me (or a child haha) that day. I randomly went through old binders and papers and got a bankers box worth of stuff to shred. If anyone needs a binder... let me know. I've got a stack of empty ones now!
That was all I needed to recharge and reset my brain, and I'm so grateful he just made the decision and offered to do that, because I was not about to ask, but it was exactly what I was wishing for.
Pro tip... Don't put those "special" things in your memory box and think, "Oh ya. I don't need to label that. There's no way I'll ever forget." Ya... don't do that haha. I have zero idea which kid this is or how old they were. I'm GUESSING Dom, but I really don't know... That box had some baby Eva things in it too.
Lightning/Thunder....
It's the second CRASH 6 seconds in that really got me
