Who's going to have more fun?!?!

Yesterday morning in church I turned to Cody and whispered, "you can't go to kindergarten, you're TOO wiggly!"

He looked at me and ferociously semi-whispered back, "I still have to LEARN!!"

Not sure how this will turn out, will Cody enjoy kindergarten more than his teachers will enjoy his being there?!?

This is the same boy who, when I suggested he should stay home so I wouldn't be lonely, said, "you won't be lonely, you'll have peace and quiet for lunch time, no games, no quiet contests, no noisy kids!!" 

Keeping It Real

So, by now you know I've been trying to fill this summer with special memories.  Last night I had the great idea to keep the kids up later and watch the harvest moon come over the mountains. I didn't think it would be too late of a night and thought it would be a fun thing to add to the memory bank.  I also imagined it could be a tad bit romantic and so I took a couple of blankets along so we could all sit on the top of the van on some lonely, dark road and Steve and I could steal some smooches while the kids were mesmerized by the moon and the being allowed on the van.

 

INSTEAD:

 

As we left the driveway Steve and I kind of asked each other where we thought we were going and Steve came up with the idea of a elementary school playground close enough by, but far enough in the country to leave behind a whole bunch of street lights.  So far, so good.

 

We were nearly there when Leah let out the distressed cry, "MY GLASSES!!"  Now, this makes me irritated enough on Sunday mornings, for example, but now, when we didn't have a ton of extra time to spare??  Her Daddy offered to go back with her and get them...and my great plans were finished with that.

 

Unfortunately I cannot say that I was good about it at all.

 

These three kids stayed with me (Sam was at a sleepover) and we set up our blankets on the school field.  We were warm, we were comfortable, some of us were more than comfortable....uh HELLO Cam??!!

 

 

In between watching every vehicle that came by on the main road beside us (far enough away not to bother us) to see if it was Papa and Leah coming back yet, we saw an incredible display of the moon come up...by ourselves.

 

I got amazing pictures of it a) because I really know how to take pictures  b) because even my best efforts to take pictures without a tripod were thwarted by the children hanging on my arms as they fretted about Steve and Leah missing out.

But the night wasn't completely ruined yet and when Steve and Leah did come back we ran to the van hopped in and asked Steve if we could race further east and find a spot closer to the mountains where we could watch the moon come up all over again.

Too bad for the communication channels, Leah was in the front seat so I took Sam's booster in the very back. Also Odyssey was in the throes of Bart Rathbone eating Mrs. Washinton's Sunday cheesecake.  In other words there was no talking to Steve.

After he'd driven past the next school field I was picturing and turned left instead of right like I was thinking, I yelled loud enough for them to hear me up front and got the Odyssey story turned off.  He told me that he was thinking a school field further east and I told him what I was thinking and he turned around to go with my idea of parking on the side of Annis Road.

And here is where things really went south.

He pulled up to the front of the little pullout and when I hopped out of the van.  I decided based on where the moon came up at the last field, the van was a little too far ahead and the moon was going to come up right behind the big power poles there.  Steve warned the kids to get back in the van and backed up just as I requested.  Then we got them on the roof and I tried to dodge the many vehicles racing past to get a picture of them.

All the while Cam wailed about how he was scared of the van tipping over and Steve was instructing me to put him back in the van.... and I was ignoring him.

Crying kid....fix it.....sound familiar to any of the Overduin adults present the other night????!!!!

The tension sky rocketed right there and in between Steve's just wanting the crying to stop and my wanting it to stop and keep everyone on top of the van plus directly going against what Steve asked me to do...well, let's just say the air was decidedly a lot chillier all of a sudden.

And every romantic notion I had pictured vanished into thin air.

Cam did eventually stop crying but the moon took about 35 more minutes to come up, Cara decided she didn't want to watch and fell asleep on my lap, Leah and Cam had more fun waving at ALL the cars and semis whizzing by and trying to make them honk.  So much for a dark, quiet road.

And to top it all off, the moon came up right behind the power tower... we would probably been better off where Steve had first stopped.

So, learn from me, when trying to plan something memorable and romantic with the kids, expect it to fail.  And don't worry, I won't be surprised when you don't send your daughters to me for a lesson in submission. :(

ps.  I just googled harvest moon and apparently the northern hemisphere's harvest moon isn't until Sept 19 - 20.  Ah well, it probably will rain next month :)

A Lifer

Growing up with parents who had a keen interest in "hunting" for birds... hunting as in seeking them out to observe in the binoculars, not hunting as in pow pow... we had some lingo that went along with it.  A lifer was a first time bird, one you had never seen before and went straight to the bird list to mark it off as an accomplishment, including the date and the migratory path the bird was currently flying.  Just kidding.  Sort of. 

 

Anyway, Mt. Cheam was a first timer for me.  Hard to believe seeing as I lived in it's shadow most of my life but I was looking forward to making a little mental mark and being able to say I had done it. 

Of course, I was also really looking forward to seeing the spectacular views and taking in the valley from the lofty mountain top!

It was a cloudy day but it started out decently bright and chipper and the kids were bubbling with energy and excitement.  Also I was filled with the optimistic hoping that the clouds would burn away as we climbed.

 We saw only one bear.

 Then the clouds started to roll in making this one cliff look like the end of the earth and the beginning to nowhere.  Too bad my photography skills just couldn't do it justice.  It was one of the last cool things we saw.

 The wind started blowing and the clouds closed around us.  We spent 5 shivering minutes on the top.  It was very cold, very windy and started getting very wet.  We had a little snack and bee lined it back for the parking lot.

 

My courageous crew!

But the hike itself was not terribly difficult and I would love to do it again on a sunny day. Maybe one day we'll go and see all the way to the island? :)

Going Senile at 30 +

So, this week I went out, came back, checked the phone and saw a phone number from Ontario.  A little while later the phone rang again with the same Ontario number and I says to meself, "Self, everyone that's going to call you from Ontario is already right in your backyard 'HURRAYYYY!!!' so don't you go answering that call and getting an earful about some amazing vacation that you won which of course you didn't win and is just an attempt to scam you of every penny you're dumb enough to part with!"

So I pushed mute.

Today the phone rang again and when it said Ontario again I thought, "maybe it's one of Steve's sweet aunts needing to connect with someone and so you better answer it."

NEVER ONCE DID I THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE ONTARIO NUMBER MIGHT BE THE CELL PHONE NUMBER OF MY BROTHER & SIS - IN LAW THAT I HAVEN'T YET HAD A CHANCE TO SEE, BECAUSE ALTHOUGH THEY'RE IN MY BACKYARD (figuratively speaking) IF I DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE THEY'RE GOING TO ASSUME I'M STILL NOT HOME AND WON'T COME OVER!!!!!!!!!!!1

Oh brother.

I think I'm losing it.

More Stockpiling

Went to the lake with Opa and Nana today.

 Went in our regular clothes because who in their right mind takes swimming shorts/suits to the beach when it's warm and sunny?!?!?!  Cody quickly ended up with two -toned shorts.  Don't worry!  The sun dried them up in no time at all :S  I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking but it didn't seem quite as sunny and warm when I planned it all out...

 Thankfully there was lots of dock space, a net and two yogurt buckets to fill.  First catch of the day garners quite an interested crowd.

 How many can Opa scoop at a time?

 And if you're going to lay down you might as well make it comfortable!!

 Love them both!

 I begged to have everyone sit down with Opa and Nana and had them all set up great only to discover the camera battery would not cooperate.  Thankfully 20 min. later both camera and crowd agreed so we could at least get a photo of them all together :)

Precious, beautiful times.

Another First

Leah and I played our first scrabble game together tonight.  It was a bit slow and I helped her out from time to time but she held her own quite nicely.

 

Maybe even more fun was watching her stand on the table to take the picture of the board. :)

 We kept the dictionary and list of 2 letter words within reach.  For a long time we were a very few points apart.  What a lot of fun!  Good job, Leah.

BC Day

Started off with a BIG picnic, although there were still many family members who weren't able to be there.  The group got divided, as many chairs per square feet of shade as possible :)

 After some very good eating and very warm playing (who plays soccer when it's over 30 degrees out?!  Oh yah, that would be sports loving Sam, Cam and their dad) we headed out to Lindeman Lake with Grampa.

 I was worried this little girl wouldn't make it too far.  Usually she wimps out pretty quick but she cheerfully informed Gramps they should play follow the leader and led him both up and down the mountain.  She pretty much told him where to put each footfall.  If she stepped on a root, he had to do the same, if she climbed off the path to the right, she expected him to follow. 
So really we shouldn't have been surprised when she slipped, stood up, turned around and said in the driest of tones, "Make sure you do that to!!" 

 Both Sam and Cam needed to water the bushes and gave their plums to Gramps to hold and keep track of.  Sam or Cam's?  Cam or Sam's? :)

 What can I say?  A crazy lot of young ones!

 This princess wore flip flops to the picnic and then proceeded to forget to change to socks and runners that were in the back of the van. Too bad for her her parents decided the lesson for the day was going to be in responsibility and told her that it was what it was.  No one was going to be able to run back to change.  She's lucky there was a pocket on the front of the back pack for her flip flops so she didn't have to carry them the whole way.  She marched like a trooper and did just fine!

 Of all the kids to be exhausted and crash before we got home, we sure didn't expect it to be Cody!  He played pretty hard at the picnic and over and over again he would sit down on the side of the trail and assure us his energy was gone.  Or, "my energy is all flowed out of me" or something creative like that.  We strapped on an imaginary jet pack but even that didn't fire him up like usual.  He, of course, woke up when we got home and suddenly couldn't walk another step.  I took pity on him because he was so tired but when he couldn't even stand on his one foot to brush his teeth I thought I better take a second look.  Sure enough, there in his heel, was a nice sized sliver sticking straight in!!  He had taken off his shoes on the playground and obviously picked up a piece of wood chip!  Not once did he say anything about having a sore foot but it must have been a big part of the reason he was not into hiking!

Ahh, stockpiling memories is such a special part of summer vacation!