Married to an electrician...

... who likes to try out new products in our home. Apparently my kitchen is now in the red light district.

Last day

Today at swimming lessons (last one!) Emmett amused himself by taking pictures with my phone. Oh yeah, and Annika passed Salamander!

My little zombies

After being out all morning and all afternoon, the kids were in need of a little "vegging out" time before we went for supper. And I may or may not have played Candy Crush the whole time they were watching tv.... ;)

Day 3...

... of another week of swimming lessons. Annika's loving it, and she's doing really well. Today she swam across the width of the pool (with the noodle), with her face in the water (coming up for air every now and then, of course).

Cooling off

We got out the sprinkler this afternoon, and the kids had a blast. Then, while we were outside, our neighbour invited us to come use their pool (a soft-sided above ground pool - sort of like a giant kiddie pool) while they were out for the afternoon. It was a little deep for Emmett, but perfect for Annika (and so refreshing on this hot day).

A week at the lake

It's been quiet around here because we were at the lake last week.  The kids and I went out with my parents on Wednesday morning, and Carey came up on Friday.  We got home yesterday evening.  It was a good week.  The weather was nice, the kids did lots of playing and swimming, and I got to have a little vacation too (thanks Mom and Dad for looking after all of us "kids").  The last time I went out to the lake with my parents (and without Carey) was 2 years ago, and I came home and said I'm never, ever doing that again.  Well, what a difference a few years make.  This time it went really well - the kids are a little more independent (and out of diapers - hurray!!!), and it worked really well to have Carey come out for the last half, rather than the first half (as we did in the past).  I didn't take a lot of pictures (after a while all those beach/swimming pictures start to look the same), but here are a few.

The three of us in the backseat, with all our gear.  It was a tight fit.

Annika had her first taste of roll kuchen and loved it.  What a good little Menno.  We couldn't get Emmett to try it, which was too bad, because I'm sure he'd love it too.

 Since the cabin is 100 years old, there are lots of relics from past owners.  This time around we dug out some "new" old toys that someone left there, and Emmett was in his glory.

Our annual family canoe ride.

Emmett went tubing (with Carey) for the first time.  He was pretty solemn for the whole ride, but afterwards he said it was a good tube ride.  We couldn't convince Annika to give it a try.  Maybe next year.

Annika and I went kayaking.  So did Carey and Emmett, but I didn't get a picture of it.

On the way home we stopped for ice cream, but the kids were far more interested in this play structure than their cones.  Let me tell you, eating 2 big ice cream cones may sound like a good idea, but it's not.  That was a lot of ice cream ('cuz we couldn't let them go to waste....)

Growing pains

Lately it seems like my hairdresser has been cutting my bangs shorter when I go in for a trim.  It's nice, in that I can go a little longer between trims, but the first 10 days or so after a trim I feel a little... exposed.  I like my bangs when they're just grazing my eyebrows, but of course, they're only like that for about 2-3 weeks before they're too long and in my eyes.  Today at supper Carey was making fun of me, and said that I should have a party and invite my bangs down to meet my eyebrows (and that's not even his joke - I heard it years ago from an old man when I worked at Smitty's and wore capri pants with my uniform.  He told me I should have a party and invite my pants down to meet my shoes). :P