July continued to be another busy month for us. Starting to wonder what a "not busy" month would be like. We finished our stay at the Lake and came home to long tall grass and more rain.
We celebrated our wedding anniversary with a supper out and a movie.
The next week Charly started his Summer Camp. This "camp" runs weekly for 5 weeks. For the first 2 weeks, I enrolled him in the morning session, aimed at 3-4 year olds. It was mainly play based and Charly thoroughly enjoyed it. For me it was a bit of a shock having to get up each day and out the door on time - it has been so long since I've had such structure in my mornings! While Charly was in his camp, Sarah I did various things, like visit playgrounds, shopping, etc. It has been nice to do things with only one child LOL!
The camp ran Mon-Thurs so the first Friday I took the kids to Drumheller to the museum and the water park. This was really the first musuem the kids had been too, lots of people on a sunny Friday, and right before lunch time. As interesting as the place is, we weren't there too long. Then we had lunch and found the largest dinosaur in Canada (in the world?) and walked way up inside it into its mouth. Then we went to the water park - there are two areas, just a short walk between them, the first had no pool but lots of jets squirting water. The second had a wading pool with a large fountain inside. Kids enjoyed both parks. Unfortunately at the end Sarah fell and wapped her head on the concrete, ending her fun.
The next week - Parkland Play area for Sarah, Heritage Ranch playgrounds and fed the horses, and took both kids to see the city's parade. The kids were able to sit through almost all of the parade and enjoyed it. The next day, Thurs, I went to a friend's house for a playdate in the morning. We traded kids, so that the 2 little ones stayed with her and I took the older 2 to the Exhibition. The boys had a blast there! The weather managed to be nice throughout.
Then the Diamonds were here for a weekend. It continues to amaze me how well all 5 kids mesh together. Everyone had a good time and we were sad when their visit was over.
For the next 3 weeks of camp, I signed Charly up for the afternoon session. It is aimed at 4-5 year olds who will be entering kindergarten in the fall. So more learning and writing involved, plus playtime too. More challenging for him but he comes home proud of all the activities he has done.
We went to Rotary Park, Kin Kanyon, Kerrywood Nature Centre the following week. Lots of outdoor activites in the morning, between rain showers and storms.
During this summer we have had more than our share of rain. And especially thounderstorms with hail. We sure wished we could have made the clouds go east to where the rain was needed - starting to get swampy around here! After one vicious storm I managed to make it home (after rescuing the van from a HUGE puddle at Save-on foods) to find that our drain in the back "porch" area had clogged and water was seeping into the house. I was frustrated trying to clean the water mess up while the kids were splashing in it ;)
On July 28 my mother-in-law babysat while I went and got my hair cut. I went in looking for something a bit different.. and I sure got "different". It is short and layered in the back, with the sides coming down in an agle to my chin without the layers. So strange to have my neck bare! I have gotten used to the hair cut, but will change it next hair cut to remove the slanted sides.
Story time:
-Sarah continues to be a curious creature. She is so thrilled when she spots ants on the ground. she'll try to get as close to them as she can, including lying down on the ground, to watch them crawl around.
-Sarah also continues to have little fear of climbing. At the playground she is a little monkey, doing everything Charly does, plus more. She gets frustrated when she is too small to reach something but usually finds a way around it. Sarah loves to swing, and has even found out that she can step on the door stopper and swing on the door on it.
-Kids enjoy water. They have no fears of running through the sprinkler or into the splash pools. They take baths together occassionally and soak the room.
-We set up the trampoline this summer and it has been a great hit. Both kids love to jump on it, do rolls and generally goof around on it. It is fun to watch Charly try to teach Sarah how to do some of the things he had learned at gymnastics playschool.
-The kids continue to surprise me with food. Charly will fight to not try something new, but once the first bite has been taken he is likely to eat more. Sarah will eagerly try new foods, the first time, and eat lots, but serve them to her again and she'll turn her nose up at them. Once Charly asked for an ate carrots - such a rarity. They both will eat raw peppers and love salsa, but not bananas nor yogurt. I have been buying more items that Sarah can have, like coconut milk ice cream - great stuff! Both kids will eat butter, peanut butter, honey, and soya sauce by the spoonful.
- The Ipad continues to fascinate the kids. Charly discovered Youtube and loves to watch Pokoyo episodes, even if they are in Spanish. Chicka-chicka-boom-boom gets played lots! It is funny to see them absorb some of the information they learn and try to make sense of it. We were quite amused on the drive to Vernon when Charly kept asking if we were in Germany yet, and when we'd see "the volcano".
-Sarah knows her ABCs and the sounds they make. She can count to 12 correctly and then misses numbers on her way to 20. Charly is starting to read words out on his own, like titles of books and signs and other short things. He is not as shy as he was 6 months ago, and is way more active too.
Photos:
Photos 1 (Picasa)
Photos 2 (Flickr)
videos:
Sarah on trampoline
Storm puddles
Storm water in back yard
Sarah and Leighton on trampoline
