Day 297

Wally was home today and the kids had no school, so I escaped for a few hours an met up with my mom at Wal-Mart. It was fun shopping without having to reel in a kid, or yell at them to stop doing this and stop doing that. :P Once we were done, we shared some McNuggets and fries for lunch and parted ways.

Afterwards for supper, I made Ryan something we have been talking about for ages...Green eggs and Ham!

 

As you can see he still won't take off his Waldo costume except for school.

Day 296

I saw this display at the grocery store today and thought it was pretty neat how they used the boxes to spell pout the name. I don't know if all the stores are told to do it this way, or if it's just the creativity of one of the employees, but I thought it would make a cool picture of the day.

Day 255

As we did our shopping today, Alex got quieter and quieter. At one point he just rested his head on the handle of the cart and just stared off into space. I checked his forehead and he was burning up. By the time we got to the check out line a few minutes later, he was fast asleep. The poor pooper ended up with a 39.7 fever, his nose got all congested and he started coughing. He'll be going to bed early tonight!

Day 254

Ryan and I headed out to a near by grocery store to buy a new soy butter peanut butter alternative. I heard rave reviews about this stuff so I was anxious to try it out. We had tried a few other alternatives in the past that were all a bust, so I was really hoping that I wasn't wasting another $5. On the way there we spotted these people having a horse drawn ride, getting soaked in the rain.

We were just amazed at how much this stuff actually looked, smelled, and tasted like peanut butter. So if anyone out there is missing peanut butter after having to deal with an allergy or wished you could send you kid to school with a peanut butter sandwich, I highly recommend this. It's even made in a 100% nut free facility so it's a great safe alternative.. It's called "Tastes like peanut butter" and even Ryan, the pickiest kid on the plant gives it a huge thumbs up.

Day 251

A surprise visitor at the school BBQ

My creation, destroyed after only 15 minutes.

Day 231

The boys and I went to A&W with my mom for lunch today. While I was up at the counter getting our order and my mom was supposed to be watching the boys, a woman went to a table beside us with her food, and then just left (to go to the bathroom I suppose) Alex saw the food and went "Mmmm!", went over and grabbed himself an onion ring. My mom finally noticed what he was doing and while I stood in line I heard "Alex! No!" coming from behind me. As I turned around the woman came rushing over to her food. I apologised profusely and offered to buy her another order of rings, but she kept her back to me and icily replied "No, that's ok." I don't think she was very impressed with us.

Day 210

This morning I decided to go over the border to fill up my gas tank. While there, I brought the kids to the park so they could be silly. We weren't there long when I started feeling sick, so I piled us all back into the car and back home we went.

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 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 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 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 177

Today I brought the kids to a few parks thinking that I'd tire them out so that I wouldn't have to endure more of their fighting and screaming once we got home. It didn't work. We were out for about 4 hours, and when we got home, they still had enough energy to pester each other. And here I thought they'd just veg in front of the tv while I made supper.

Julian helping me make supper

Trying to tire out the boys

Day 174

Ryan forgot to give some cards to his teachers, so we cruised by his school today to drop them off. On the way home we stopped at this old water tower near some railway tracks. It started to pour rain so we couldn't explore it, I only managed to take a quick picture. The town is now pretty much dead, but I guess back in the old days it was a big stop where steam trains refilled with water. There are 2 tracks so I guess more than one line came through.

Day 168

It was the last Aqua fit class for Ryan's school today and afterwards, we drove the kids over to the park where there is a huge splash pad and a bunch of play structures. One of the moms brought a bunch of pizzas with her, they were so good. The pizza place is only a 15 minute drive from our place so I think we have discovered a new place to frequent for our weekend pizzas. Even Ryan gobbled it right up when it usually takes him forever to eat a few bites. On the way back to school, we brought the kids to Dairy Queen, and every one pigged out on sweet treats.

Day 165

Our usual baby sitter wasn't available today, so I had to take Alex with me to Ryan's school Aqua fit that I car pool for. I expected Alex to be a handful in the water but he really surprised me. He's never taken swimming lessons because last year the pool was closed for renovations. Within 5 minutes Alex was swimming by himself (with the help of a floatie suit and a pool noodle) and he was even doing cannonballs, with me cacthing him, into the deep end. He's a total water rat whereas Ryan won't stop clinging to the side of the pool.

After we dropped Ryan back off at school, Alex was all sad and pulled this awesome pout:

All the excitement of the day left him totally pooped. I gave him a juice box in the car and he fell asleep half way through it:

Once I brought him inside, he slept on the couch for over an hour. He hasn't napped in so long. The quiet was so nice :)

Supper today was steak with peppercorn sauce, tomato and basil rice, and corn on the cob.

Day 158

In the summer, the flea market in Lachute, Qc is open every Tuesday. We cruised up there today hoping to find some treasures. Mainly, we were looking for an old victorian doorbell for the house, and some Where's Waldo books for Ryan. I managed to score four new Peterson's guides on mammal, fish, bird, and reptile identification for $15, and Wally picked up a few old books as well. No luck on the doorbell and Waldo books though.

Where's Wally?

Day 157

I carpool on Mondays for Ryan's school. Here is Ryan and some of his school buddies goofing off while I drive them to their swimming lessons. It's hilarious hearing them giggling in the back and singing along to my Lady Gaga CD.

The Backseat Bozos

This one's a bit out of focus, but I love Ryan's expression

Day 154

This morning when I work up, Ryan eagerly greeted me with a piece of paper and said:

"Here Mom, I drew you a picture"
"Oh thank you!"
"It's you! You're all stinky because you didn't take a shower yet."
"Oh...and who's that? *I point to the other stick figure*"
"That's me! I'm sticking out my tongue going "Bllleeehhhh!!" because you smell so bad"

 

Kids...they just warm the cockles of your heart, don't they?

I also took a drive out to a little dutch store way out in the country. On the way there I passed this tiny little cemetary on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with 5 graves. There isn't a town, or a church, or anything near by. Makes you wonder why these graves are here...

This one reads:

John McMillar(n?)

Died

Oct. 3, 18--

Aged 85 years

& 11 months

which is quite a remarkable age for the 1800's

This one reads:

In memory of

George Campbell

a native of

---agh, Ireland

Died May 25

1857

Aged 57 years

Day 135

We went to a place not far from here where a bunch of model train enthusiasts have these big trains you can ride on. They open up to the public the first and third Sunday of every month and give people free rides around their track. Today we took the boys who absolutely had a great time watching all the trains and getting a ride.

Alex and I riding on a train (picture by Wally)

After 2 rides around the track, we had a big derailment and operations for the day had to stop.

Back at home we enjoyed the rest of the day outside with the kids. Ryan caught his first frog by himself and the mosquitos stayed away enough that we were able to enjoy dinner outside.

Dinner was pork saté with spicy peanut sauce, stir fried peppers, and noodles

Day 118

Today the boys met some new kids :) These little ones, a boy and a girl, are 2 weeks old, but they still don't have names.

The boys loved them, but the goats were still a bit too shy to aproach my 2 rambunctious lads.

Here is Ryan with Juanita, the Mamma goat who loves having her cheeks scratched.

We loved learning more about the goats and watching the little ones hopping and jumping around like popcorn. Someday soon we hope to get a goat of our own :)