He's A RockStar

I didn't get a very good pic of the actual medal presentation.

But here's the man resting in his den after we arrived home.

A close up of the new medal. oooh. aaah.

And I cleaned up pretty well. My thanks to my older sister for taking me shopping for a dress. And thanks to my younger sister for lending me some make-up and choosing my shoes and watching my kids so I could go. It takes a village.

Summer's Ending

We have had a couple of hot days again. What better place to hang out on a hot day?

The pool!!

I have been working on the stairwell and upstairs hall. The wall needed some patching and a brighter colour. And I learned a very valuable lesson. Orbital sander plus drywall compound=LOTS of dust.

It's so difficult to get true colour representation in a picture. It's actually a shade of green. We were also able to finally hang the stained glass again. It hasn't been up since we left for VA in 2008!!

Same

The boys want summer to last forever. And ever and ever.
Grampy laughingly asked me to take a picture of the shoes at the front door today.
When I see an assortment like this at the door I know we're having a good time!

Have I mentioned before how amazing our neighbours are?? Well they are.

New Again

We got to share some time with the cousins this afternoon.

One of the fun things about other kids coming over is bringing out toys that they haven't played with in a while.

Sightings

Saturday was the end of soccer. The boy's had their tournament. Go Orange Team!!

Lots of fun. The weather was a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Both of the boys scored a goal.

Until next year soccer.

 
Today we took a chance on the weather and skipped up to visit Grnny at the trailer for a few hours. They have this crazy tame chipmunk there.

And he/she must have one heck of a hollow log somewhere because he kept coming back for more!!

We also saw 2 baby deer and a mama deer, a huge crow, 2 frogs and the birds that belong to the nest below-they dive bombed M while he was taking a picture.

And we saw these two lovely creatures. They've been noticeably absent from the city landscape this summer but if you head west towards the water they can be found.

False Democracy

We have had a system in place for years wherein each household member is accorded a vote in decision making.

Typically, M gets 15 votes as do I. The kids each get 5 votes. This worked quite well for a long time until the kids realized it wasn't truly a fair democracy.

I like to use the term benevolent dictatorship.

But still, they participated in our family democracy because sometimes they could convince once of us to change sides. And sometimes they could get a family visitor to throw their vote behind their cause.

Today after a losing round of voting at the grocery store they were fuming. And after talking amongst themselves while we paid, they announced they would no longer participate AT ALL in our pretend democracy.

"Completely understandable", I said. "Many a citizen has become angry when they realize their vote doesn't truly count, that they are subject to the decisions of their leaders.

Later in the day I noticed E working on the whiteboard in the diningroom but didn't think anything of it. Until he turned it towards the kitchen and showed it to me.

I love this drawing so much I can barely stand it. Look at the facial expressions! The placards! The figures at the top holding newspapers! The indistinguishable mob of people! I love that even though it's a spelling error the word 'mock' is in democracy on the poster!

I love it I love it I love it



The Comings and the Goings

I love this picture. His feet look so HUGE!

 We met the cousins for a playdate and some gardening this week.

 The tent was set up briefly in the front yard. Wanted to make sure it was all there and ready to use. Might we have time for a camp trip before this summer is over?

 Remember that baby I said I got to cuddle? Here she is.

 While I perused a book sale today Grmpy kept the kids swinging.

 E has asked to join our Scrabble games. Here's one of his moves from tonight.

 He added on to jewel to make jewelry. Not bad.

He says he wants to beat me one day. We'll see buddy. We'll see.

In the Summer Time

This is our street and we love it. LOVE IT. We have the best neighbours and they have amazing kids. The only problem...and it's not even really a problem....is that it's hard to get things done sometimes because we play with our friends all the time and don't do our chores. There's even a sweet little baby next door I get to snuggle.

The longer they are outside the more elaborate the games get. By the end of this evening there were two ninjas!

1812

We were at the War Museum today. Here I am, Laura Secord of course!!, with 2 handsome British soldiers. With my special information we captured this equally handsome Yankee.

Then we looked at some other war stuff. I've got to be honest with you this is not my favourite museum.
   The first issue is that everything needs to be explained. And so I spend the whole time trying to quick read all the plaques to give them an explanation of what we're looking at. At some museums you can give them the general idea and they read the info as we go along but this museum is very text heavy. And unless you read the details it doesn't interest.

The 1812 exhibit is a case in point. It has four different sections to tell the four perspectives of the war. So each has uniform, assorted weapons, medals, maps and sundry items from the battlefield. Well unless you read the many many plaques all over the walls, it just looks like the same thing four times over.
   The second issue is that some of the exhibits are scary to the boys. The video of men with shell shock, the half-sunken body sculpture in the WW2 area, the diagram of how schrapnel enters and exits a leg wound, the graphic photos in the main lobby. For my guys...it's too much.

I was beyond happy tonight when E asked if he could play Scrabble with us. Could there be another Scrabble player in the house? Could I be that lucky?

Crash

I wonder what these two are waiting for? Their faces are showing some definite emotions. Excitement? Concern?
Fear? The big boys look fine.

That's what it is...the demolition derby. First time the boys have ever been.

In the end, they both loved it. Though E said that next time he would bring goggles and ear plugs.

We had just enough time before the rain came pouring down for a couple of rides.

We had to drag A away from the fair. Next time he wants to stay longer and do more rides!