let's go fly a kite!

ADD:

1 Windy Day

2 Cups of Sunshine

1 Basket of Food

2 Picnic Blankets

3 Kites

plus

a handful of silliness

and you've got yourself a recipe for a wonderful way to spend a Friday!

After Rhonda and I got things sorted out...
it was smooth sailing for the little flyer's.

Yes, Tim Bits were involved.

So was back-to-back breastfeeding!

And matching cousins!

(and just plain ol' goofy ones)

soak up the sun.

We've finally had some warm enough weather to get outside and enjoy life again. Ah, summer. I'm the sort of creature that needs Vitamin D survive...not even survive, just to be happy. Apparently I'm the furthest thing from a vampire you can find (I also LOVE garlic). It has been wonderful to get outside and soak up as much sun as possible; reading, gardening, drawing pictures on the sidewalk, it doesn't even matter what I'm doing. I love it all! Cheers to warm weather and long summer days!

oh happy day.

Last night I made my kids ice cream cones after they had finished their ravioli dinner. I usually offer up some kind of reward for whoever eats all of their 'good' food at supper time. Sometimes they take the bait and sometimes they don't. Both kids love ice cream, but Ammie far surpasses Rhys in the ice cream lovin'...she's totally obsessed. Anyways, she gobbled up her frozen treat after dinner last night and ended up looking more like the ice cream she was eating than a little girl, she had the stuff everywhere! I quickly scooped her up and plopped her into the bathtub to take care of the disaster. When Rhys finished eating his dessert he announced that he didn't want to have a bath, but that he indeed needed to poop. Lovely. Rhys flung off all of his clothes (I don't know why he does this, but it is quite frequent) and climbed up onto his potty seat to poop beside the bathing girl. I ran downstairs to grab something and by the time I had made it back into the bathroom Ammie was crouched down on one side of the tub looking at the foreign object that she had just deposited into the lukewarm water. Yes, my darling readers, she pooped. I suppose she was feeling left out as she watched Rhys empty his bowels. I ran outside and grabbed James from the shop yelling words like, "Poop" and "Both Kids" and "Naked" and "Floating!" Ah, what a disaster. James went and found something to scoop the poop out with as I wrapped up Ammie in a towel, sat her down on the floor of her bedroom and evacuated Rhys from the spill site. By the time I was finished with Rhys and turning the corner to take care of Ammie, she was jumping up and down on Rhys' bed, naked, and still poopy. Little did I know, and in my panicked state forgot to check, there was still poop stuck to her baby bum. Well, not anymore for it had come off on Rhys' pillow, on Rhys' sheets, on Rhys' quilt, on Rhys' jacket. Poor Rhys. Thankfully I had accepted some bedding hand-me-downs from my Aunt, so we did have a back-up for Rhys to sleep on (which, when I went in to check on him late last night he was still wide awake sitting on his bed waiting for his washed tractor blanket). I've dealt with poop in the bathtub before (courtesy of my four year old) and I must say that every time it happens it just gets grosser and grosser. Really, trust me on this one. Oh, the things that you have to deal with when you're a parent!

(that's the chocolate ice cream on her face...)

erskine morning.

There's nothing like having your milk....

and getting tattoos....
to start the day!

mommy.

You are such a wonderful mother and

an incredible Nana. Happy Mothers Day.

I LOVE YOU MOM!

random bria - childhood.

I often find myself reminiscing about my childhood and wishing that I could go back, even for just a few days, to be a kid again. Part of this could be that I am observing my own children now, catching the joy and sense of adventure in their eyes, but my mind keeps snagging on little memories of my childhood.

I think about having 'band' meetings up on my sisters top bunk and deciding what our new name should be (this was way more important than actually writing songs). I think about playing in the huge mounds of top soil that my dad would order on occasion. I loved cuddling with my mom in the afternoon sun or burying my nose into my dogs soft hair and thinking that he smelt like buckwheat honey. I miss feeling the need to spend half-an-hour drawing the perfect heart around my new boyfriends initials, only to cross it out the next day. I think about going to summer camp and feeling homesick watching my mom drive away then having a sense of relief wash over me when I find a note from her tucked in my bag. I also remember falling in love with a camp counsellor who was at least ten years my senior every year and having no doubt in my mind that he feels the same way and that we'll find a way to make it work. I miss the times that I would spend with my best friend Jared sometimes sneaking down into his parents basement to eat ridiculous amounts of popcorn from his dads popcorn business. I think about my pencil rental company that I started in my grade five class...I never did make much money on it. Liberty Street comes up and I am reminded of the nights of playing 'Mission Impossible' with the neighbourhood kids (back when kids that lived on the same street where friends and when kids were allowed out after dark). So much fun. So much silliness. So much adventure.

So what is it about my childhood and growing up that seems to have this grip on my heart lately? Is it the innocence? Or maybe it's the joy...or the clean slate? Better yet, it could be the lack of responsibility (read: bills), or maybe it's that lately I've been so stressed and weighed down that I'm reflecting on simpler times. Times when I would stand at the ballet bar in my room thinking that I was the best and most beautiful ballerina, even though I had never stepped foot in a dance class. The feeling of stepping off of the bus on the last day of school before summer break and not knowing where to start or what to do first. Months of wide open spaces of hot summer days ahead of you. Instead I have this perpetual uneasy feeling in my stomach, the same feeling that I would always get the last day of summer break.

and they're off!

The Downs had an open house yesterday where people could come and check-out what horse racing is all about. There was free food, pony rides, a petting zoo, tours, and some play money for everyone to bet on practice races. So I, like any good christian mother would do, decided to take my kids and expose them to the wonderful world of betting. Everything was free and everything was new to the kids. They were so excited when we told them we weren't going home after church (something which makes Rhys grumpy...going home that is). I got a lot of great pictures of our outing, here's a small sampling.

-pigging out on the free food-
-getting to see where the horses live-

-pony rides for all!-

-runner ducks...best ducks ever-

-my favorite picture of the day-

-playing on the benches, waiting for the race to start-

-watching the horses walk past-

James and I put all of our play money on one horse...he came in dead last. We aren't very good at gambling, at all actually, but it was a fun day and the kids were happy to have some new experiences.