Saturday, June 28, 2008

ah summer...























Claire and I enjoyed some special time together on a canoe ride this week.  It was fun to capture some of the life on the lake on film.  Ella takes a canoe ride almost daily and has reported seeing all these critters, but it was fun to actually see them for myself!  The greeb has recently hatched her chicks and if you look closely, you'll see them catching a ride on her back.




Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

celebrating dad

We went out on the boat for the first time as a family this weekend.  The word that seems to be most frequent in my vocabulary lately could describe it...another adventure!   We knew when we left that our boating trips this summer may be limited, but our trip confirmed it:)  We had fun though.... caught some fish, enjoyed flat seas, explored a favorite beach and saw plenty of critters.   




A poem from the girls recited to Tom on the boat...

Otters are cool
Whales are rad
We have fun with 
our Captain Dad!








































Happy Fathers Day Daddy...we love you!




































We saw lots of seals, whales, otters and two black bear as well.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

triathalon






Tom & Ella completed their first triathalon on Sunday.  Tom was part of a team and was the swimmer.  Ella competed in the kids triathalon... 2 lap swim, 4 mile bike, 1/2 mile run.  Both worked hard to train for the event and did super the day of!  Ella was most proud to show me her numbers when she got home...such a big deal in fact that today she noticed they had almost wore off, so asked me to write them on again with a permanent marker.  Oh boy!  Both want to do it again next year & Tom's even hoping to compete as an individual!  What a special daddy-daughter deal.  

haircut

I experienced my first little boy haircut this week...true to Thomas, it was an adventure!  I had the sequence of events all wrong & learned a few lessons in the process...

-a bath should always FOLLOW a haircut not proceed one.  
-suckers help distract, but hair STICKS to sucker drool
-you should never try to clean up cut hair with a wet washcloth
-bangs should be cut with scissors, not clippers
-it is tricky to cut evenly on a moving target
-there's no such thing as perfect!

Despite the adventure, I'm feeling pretty proud of my boys cut!  

TGFG




Thank God for Grandmas is what I'm naming this post....Not sure how we would have done it without the help of my mom & Tom's the past month.  From planting flowers, to laundry to chasing Thomas or holding him down, to canoe rides...their help was incredible.  Thanks Mom!  Thanks Sheryl!

catching up




Today I'm going to take a minute to catch up on May.  Had a few major events happen that have kept me from blogging regularly:)!!!  Claire was the "Beary Royal Reader" in her classroom, was a clown in the kindergarten circus, and turned 6 in May. Wow...big month for her!  She's been wanting, wishing & waiting for an American Girl doll for quite some time.  My deal with the girls is that when they learn how to read, they get an AG doll.  Claire picked out Molly and got her for her birthday.  Big stuff!  She is so incredibly focused and dedicated with her reading.  It's so fun to see!  Yesterday, the girls started the summer reading program at the library.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

poppy breakfast

What a sweet surprise I had this morning...Tom & I woke at 6am to little feet scurrying in the kitchen and things clanging.  Tom went out to see what was going on.  It was Claire and she was making me breakfast in bed.  She planned it all the night before.  Even picked flowers with her friend, Tommi and made me close my eyes while she put them in a vase & hid them under the sink.  Well, she picked my favorite cereal (go-lean) and poured milk on it.  Then Tom told her to wait a bit and go back to bed.  When they woke again an hour later, the cereal was soggy and the milk was gone so had to think of something else.  Ella suggested peanut butter toast so they set to work.  The flowers Claire picked the night before were now dead, so they went outside and picked fresh ones.  There were even some leaves poked into the bouquet because "at weddings, they have leaves."  I got up and they weren't quite ready so sent me back to bed.  They proudly delivered breakfast to me and I enjoyed every sweet moment of it.  After wards, Claire told me they had 2 more things they were going to do...They made my bed and planned on making me lunch.  Wow!  What did I do to deserve these sweet girls?  My very first breakfast in bed....I know I'll remember it always!