Day 204

This morning I made the kids some peanut butter toast. My mom bought them a tube of Nutella-type spread from the dutch store. So as I squeezed it onto Ryan's toast, it looked to me like a big cat poop. So I brought it over to him and I said "Sorry Ry, I was making your toast and then one of the cats came over and pooped on it." He thought it was the funniest thing ever and we both cracked up over it the rest of the day. Sometimes I think I am an 8 year old boy trapped in a grown womans body.

I also started making another cake to practice my skills. This one I brought to my mom who is always commenting "Bring me some!" whenever I post food pictures on Facebook. So This time she got a piece :)

Day 203

I had to bring my old girl Chloe in to the vet today. She's been doing this weird sneezy cough lately, which I thought she was just doing because she drools, but I saw her sneeze this time and green stuff came out of her nose. By the morning her nose was all chapped.

The vet said that older cats usually grow polyps in their nose and sinus areas which pretty much blocks the flow of snot. Once it gets backed up, it causes an infection. So she she got a  2 week antibiotic shot and we were on our way back home. Hopefully she starts breathing easier soon.

Day 202

Our Guinea pig Juniper is getting lonely so I have been on the look-out for another female pig to keep her company as they are social animals and need a buddy. We used to have another 2 male in a cage beside her that she could see and talk to, but they moved up into Ryan's room, and ever since, she has been a bit mopey and sad.

I spotted an add at the grocery store of free baby guinea pigs and called up. We went to see them and there was only one female in the bunch. I really was not too picky about what she would look like, I just want Juniper to be happy again. She turned out to be a cutie anyways. She is all grey and her hair is a cross between spikey and curly. Since Juniper is named after a tree, this one is also getting a tree name. She will be called Willow because she looks like a little pussy willow.

After dinner Ryan was playing with one of his loose teeth and he suddenly yelled out "My tooth fell out!" I don't know how he did that because it wasn't even that loose yet! The last tooth he lost hung on by a thread for like a week, so I'm surprised at how quick this one popped out.

Day 201

I bunch of cake pans that I had ordered came in the mail today, so I decided to bake a cake and try them out. I live in a house full of boys, and share a birthday with my son so I never really even get my own birthday cake, so I made sure this one was nice and girly.

It took me 6 hours from start to finish and I learned a few things along the way as well. All in all, I think I did pretty damn good for someone who has never taken a cake course.

Day 200

A busy bee working hard in the yard.

One of the sunflowers that I have been growing has finally bloomed

Day 199

Wally and I took Ryan and his friend Audrey to Toy Story 3 today. Audrey had a play date with Ryan yesterday but since he had his little accident, and it got cancelled, we asked her to come along to make up for it. It's the first time Wally and I have been to the movies in 11 years! Is that crazy? On the way home we made a stop at McD's which made 2 little people very happy :)

Day 198

This morning Ryan was playing with a small children's ride on toy when he hit a bump that was actually a protruding tree root. It managed to flip him over and the toy landed right on top of him. There was a blunt pointy part which actually punctured his forehead above the left eye. The minute I saw it, I knew we would be taking a trip to the hospital.

Ryan is terrified of the hospital, so I think he was crying more over the trip to the ER than the cut itself. He was shaking with fear for the first half hour there but once he met the nurse, he calmed down considerable. There was a big emergency so we had a big wait time ahead of us. We took a few walks around the hospital, and had lunch in the cafeteria and suddenly the hospital was a very cool place.

5 hours later, it was time to get in and see the doctor and he was back to being scared and shakey. His eyes got red and teared up and he was so scared of getting stitches. The Dr. took a look and instead got out some glue, within 5 minutes he was all healed up and he was so surprised. I think he had it in his head that he was going to end up with some kind of big scary procedure. He was so happy and proud of himself when we left..."I was really brave, Mom!" He's also loving showing off his new glued head.

Here is the big hole before...

During...

And after, all patched up...

Day 197

I had a huge craving for something sweet tonight so I whipped up a batch of lemon squares. Easy, quick, ooey gooey sweetness!

Day 196

Another Raccoon relocation today. This guy was a lot bigger and he definitely didn't like the car ride. He kept pawing around and scratching. There was some stinky hay in the cage which he started trying to throw around my car too, so halfway home I took a farmers road through some woods and let him go there. This guy was a lot slower so I got to watching him hobble off.

Day 195

Cats are weird. Bobby Blue Eyes catches a few Z's

Tonight's dinner was orange sesame pork with steamed baby spinach, and mashed potatoes. I haven't cooked for so long, it's just been too hot.

Day 194

Sorry Woody, Stinky Pete was right, kids are evil LOL

Day 193

This morning I was sitting by the front window when out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw something white run across my front lawn. I took a look and saw a shih-tzu running around. I went out to try and catch him, and just as I had him cornered between the side of my house, the backyard fence and the cat run, I heard a little meow, and out of the bushes along my house comes a little kitten who starts purring rubbing up against my leg. I was so shocked that the dog took the opportunity to make his escape, and I grabbed the cat and brought him inside. He'll stay for the night, but in the morning he'll be off to the store with my husband to find a new home.

Day 192

I feel bad for all the farmers out there who have to be out in this heat to do the hay.

This evening the kids'sitter messaged me on MSN and said she had hopefully caught the raccoon that was killing her chickens and asked if I wanted to come and get it. Cindy's wildlife relocation services to the rescue! LOL He's extremely cute, but he was scared and growled. He almost sounded like a mad barking dog. I brought him to the woods behind my house and let him go. I had my camera ready to take a picture of him wobbling off, but the second he saw the door open, he was a blur of fur. I never even saw him, the only clue was the rattling of the bushes. I never knew raccoons were so fast!

Day 191

We took another 2 hour road trip today, but this time in the opposite direction, to the train museum in Delson, Qc. My boys are so cuckoo about trains, that they actually behaved and were good for three hours straight! this is unheard of people!

Day 190

Ryan has been watching the movie "Cloudy with a chance of meatballs" over and over again lately. If you don't know, in the movie the towns people are stuck eating gross sardines until the hero invents a food machine. Wally told Ryan that he loved sardines so he bought some and we had a little "fear factor" event happening here where Ryan watched in disbelief as Wally ate them.

Alex preferred spending time with Dad goofing around in the pool

Day 189

Severe rain storms...

Equals flooded basement. This is the first time it has happened, like, ever. The weather has been nuts!

Day 188

Today we took a 2 hour road trip to a dutch store up near Ottawa. I insisted we take my car because the A/C in Wally's van doesn't work, and hello heat! It can't get any hotter, check out my thermometer:

We took a different route this time and passed through a few towns we had never been to before.

I made Wally stop the car to take a picture of this sign, it just cracked me up. Look out for all those old people wandering the streets!

A stop at the dollar store got Ryan a blue punk wig

My husband always looks so studly when he drives

Here we are! It takes us 2 hours to get here and we're in and out in 15 minutes before we're back on the road again.

One last stop at the cheese factory to get some curd, or as Ryan has dubbed it, "squeaky cheese". We took a look inside at them making these cheese and then I embarrassed him outside by making him pose with the cow. "Mom!" Heh heh heh...

Day 187

The dogs have been having a hard time with the heat, they love being outside, but even in the shade it's roasting hot. We were out in the pool and were looking out at the dogs panting in the grass, so we called them over and gave them a dunk. We feel so cool and refreshed for hours after being in the pool, so I can imagine that they must feel good after too.

Paddling around

Feelin' refreshed

Day 186

One of the hottest days of the summer and my husband decides that today is the day that he has to paint the barn roof.

Day 185

We are in the middle of a disgusting heat wave, so to try to beat the heat, I took Ryan out for his first ever Slush. He was insisting that he was never going to drink it, and no matter what I told him, he was convinced I was trying to feed him some kind of poison. So I said "It's like a melty popscicle, stick your finger in it and feel how nice and cold it is." Suddenly he perked up and said "Hey, it is nice and cold!" He took a sip and exclaimed "Mom, this is even better than ice cream!" Ahhh...never doubt The Mom young grasshopper.

Here is a self-portrait showing off our slush stained tongues

I also noticed how many wild lilies are blooming around the property. They are beautiful, but a real nuisance. Once you get them in your garden, they are almost impossible to get rid of, each flower/plant has and makes a million bulbs at it's roots. If you dig them out and miss just one bulb, it will grow back. I have a few pop up every spring in places I don't want them, and no matter how many times I try to kill/get rid of them, there they are again the next spring.

Day 184

Last night I went downstairs in the dark to get some water. On the steps was one of my cats who is a dark colour and I didn't see them. I stepped right on him/her (I don't know who it was) and as they ran off, it was like having a rug pulled out from under me. I flew up in the air and landed on my lower back and tail bone right on the hard wood edges of my stairs.

I am so sore, stiff, and have a spectacular bruise on my back and butt today, but I'll spare you that picture, and instead post this picture of the berries Ryan picked in out backyard. He tried to share them with Alex, but Alex just screamed "No berries!" So Ryan got to eat them all himself.

Day 183

Today I wanted to take the kids to the splash pad, but once we got there, we saw that there was a huge fair going on. The kids were disappointed, so I decided to turn around and drive an hour in the other direction to another splash pad. Once we got to that park, it was also packed with some kind of "family day" activities. I decided that we would go in anyways since I had just used about a quarter tank of gas and drove all that way. Well the kids weren't having it. I guess the drive made them cranky or something, all they wanted to do was go down some little baby slide. After getting into it with them and putting up with screaming and yelling, and dealing with an oncoming headache, I had had enough, packed them up and dragged them home kicking and screaming. I could have kept them home where we have a slide for free.

At home I told them, that after taking them out for fun and fresh air, they were not going to sit and veg in front of the TV all day. They could do anything else, but no TV. So this is what they chose to do:

  I had some left over cake in the freezer and decided to see if I could make some petit fours and fondant roses and leaves. It turned out really messy, but they still tasted good :)

 

Day 182

My brother and his family were in town today for a friend's wedding. They live in Hamilton so I don't often get to see them. It was really awesome seeing our kids play together, they ran around like maniacs and had a blast.

This is the first picture of all our kids together. It's hard getting 4 kids to sit still and look at the camera. I only got this one shot when they all decided they didn't want to do anymore pictures.

This was the beautiful sky on the drive home

Day 181

Here is my cheesy family all dressed up showing our Canadian pride on the way to the parade.

Day 180

I made these cupcakes I made for Canada day tomorrow. The little maple leaves and the word Canada were made by me using melted coloured chocolate wafers.