Saying Good bye

Cody is all in favor of time spent crawling around in the back yard weed patch! I only pulled one slightly disgusting thing out of his mouth...I'm still not sure what it was before it was crunched!

Leah and Sam worked really hard at turning our cucumber garden from a sea of weeds back into a recognizable garden plot.

And then the goodbyes. First Leah read Auntie Carolyn a chapter or two about Mr. Putter...

And then the good bye hugs and snuggles, Cody wasn't intentionally left out but was somehow missed just the same.

@ 2 years

Just barely two and this is what my dear boy came up with yesterday.

After getting ahold of the container of fruit puffs his sister was eating and dumping most of the container onto the floor I said a stern, "Cameron Overduin" to which he responded immediately, "Cara did it too!" Oh boy.

And after supper when he and Leah were playing "give me five, up high, down low, too slow" Cam's version was "gimme five, up high, low down, too late!" I grinned :)

A Happy Birthday

I really should be outside enjoying this truly wonderful weather but if I don't do it now, I'll never get these posts done!

Cam had his 2nd birthday on Saturday. He decided that when you are 2 years old the best thing about birthdays are the candles. "blow it? again!" So, he started with candles on his pancake.

And then candles on his donut at Opa & Nana's.

Where he got a puppy. Thankfully the kind of puppy that can take some really rough lovin'! "Goggie eyes!" "Goggie nose!"

Then we had a BBQ at Gramma and Gramps' house because not only was it Cam's birthday but it was Auntie Care's too. This may be the only party they share in many years. Cam was born on Care's last birthday as a single lady and after she moved to Wisconsin we didn't think they would have a shared party for a long time. Well, with Care coming for Shelly's grad we got that party in and it wasn't until 3:00 in the morning that I remembered I didn't even get a picture of the two birthday characters together. What a bummer.
Lots of fun things happen when we get the nuts of family tree together.
Uncle Brian gave some crazy rides....that's almost 90 degrees, Brian!


Leah was going just as high but I missed it.

Some more candles, on a cake this time. We had to light them in the shop because there was too much wind.

It was good cake, too.

There was the lawn mower gift.

Lots of fun!

And "new adventures of Curious George" with cool stories like George and the pancakes and puppies....
And a soccer ball that has already had its fair shair of usage.

"Uncle" Will showed the girls he can skip just as good as them. :)

And a little sister with a funny ears sweater.

Jumping on the tramp is lots of fun...

And you can't outwit or outrun them all night and so Shelly ended up in the pool, fully clothed, courtesy of Brian and Les.

An afternoon at the LC

An experience to be repeated in the near future. Thanks to Care and Hollie for the afternoon! I sure wouldn't be able to do it on my own.

(For crowd control purposes we went with as little luggage as possible. Big kids were allowed swimming shorts/suit + towel. Babies were allowed swimming diaper, period. You do notice who makes the rules? Camera was allowed :) )

happy exploration

part fish adventures (I love to see Leah love the water)

cautious enjoyment

pure delight! I could sit and listen to an entire day's worth of those giggles!

Hurray!!! for Shelly!!! Can't you see how happy we are for her :)

Of Wonderful and Busy Days

This morning Oma came for awhile before going for a delicious lunch at Sunset Manor. We enjoyed having her over and Oma enjoyed snuggling Cara. This picture is blurry but there is so much love there.
I wanted to get a picture of all my babies with their great grandma and I managed it. Poor Oma, Cody was not making it easy!

Nana came over while we were eating a treat lunch (McD's!! because Mom was too lazy to get back home and try and organize bread for hungry, impatient kids, even the twins can hold on to fries and munch instead of cry) and we had a conversation about where we should go if we sell our house. Leah wanted to live "in Sarah's land" (her cousin who lives in Ontario) and Sam wanted to "live in a land with lots of quads".
Leah and Sam went for a VERY FUN walk with Nana while Mom, Cam, Cara and Cody all went for a sleep. Wonderful.
When everyone had woken up and Mom was all packed for tonight's special supper we went to Gramma and Gramp's house to see.... Auntie Carolyn and her friend Holly who arrived from Wisconsin about 30 seconds before we got onto the driveway. Very, very nice to meet Holly and see Auntie Carolyn and little peanut who for now remains nameless.
Leah conned Care into a piano lesson which, I think, they both enjoyed.

In the mean time Dad was trying to fix my camera for me but although he spent a bunch of time on it, he had to resort to down loading the manual for further consultation. Thanks for all the effort, Dad!
After an all time favorite beef on a bun supper Sam got to go on the quad at Uncle Les's. He has a bit of a love/hate relationship with it. He ate half his supper sitting longingly beside it but wasn't really as eager to drive it as he thought. Again, picture quality isn't great but it's proof he went a few meters all on his own.

Finished the afternoon with another picture with great grandparents. So, so, so very blessed we are.

Sunday came with a pretty little surprise dropped into my purse. It was wrapped in cheerful paper and filled with deliciousness. I would show you a picture but candy doesn't last long enough for pictures in this house! Thanks, Rach.

Sunday evening also brought another step forward in the growing up march we do in this house. I no longer have any toothless babies. They are growing up SO fast.

Monday was a bit of a dreary day (but we tried not to complain because we really needed the rain). Probably more of you out there had a bit of a it's-rainy-on-the-first-day-of-summer syndrome with your children. Leah and Sam each had a turn taking pictures...of Mom laying on the floor with the two babies.

Thankfully, this morning I woke up to a gorgeous, sunny day. What a blessing!! It was a very full day but a very good day too. I'll try to write about it on a separate post but first I have a sad Cody to attend to.

Sports Day

Some fun activities... do the army crawl under, hurdle the next part and then run for the finish...

The all time favorite, the parachute.


The tug a war... which we are now practicing at home with the skipping rope. :)

Sam watching the stations with a small amount of envy.

A huge freezie for a cold day!

Always fun to be had on the playground.Thankfully the babies also were very good in their "big caboose" stroller. It caused a small stir where ever we went but I am so thankful I brought it along as it made trucking Cam around very easy.

And as for posting in the middle of the morning. I'm avoiding things like the wash and the bathrooms. Cody has a cold (or a runny teething nose) and is kind of cranky. Cara has a bottom tooth coming up and is kind of cranky. And truth be told I'm kind of cranky too. Or at least, very un-energetic. I must be solar powered!