Riley Park

On Sunday night, after getting the kids into bed (finally), we were exhausted and yet still decided to watch a movie with Janeen and her friend Sydney...not just any movie, but a LONG movie. Australia...which was pretty good, but definitely long. So Monday morning came around and didn't show too much quick movement on the part of the parents. While Tyler was in the shower, he suggested that we do something fun as a family that day and we quickly packed up what we could think of for a picnic and headed over to Riley Park. We haven't been in about 2 years, and it's the kind of place that's made for 2 and 4 year-olds. We had a nice picnic lunch and the kids had a blast splashing in the pool. It wasn't as hot on Monday as it had been in the previous week (thank goodness says this pregnant lady!) but still decent enough for such an outing. We were in such a hurry that we didn't bring any sort of water toys to play with, but Lucy made friends with another little girl and didn't seem to notice much the lack of toys. After our lunch the kids were a bit chilly, so we got dressed and headed over to the park for a while. I was pretty much exhausted by this point, so Tyler played with the kids on the playground, plus other people's kids too. He's just begging to be called into the nursery! We headed home exhausted after a quick stop at Tyler's office. We had so much fun that I told Tyler I was going to make it a frequent visit for this summer. It's so close to his office too, that he can pop by for a picnic lunch with his family pretty easily. It was busy, but manageable, and we're usually outta there by 2pm for Max's nap, so we avoid the big afternoon crowds anyway. I love how his genius mind works.
Both kids have been a bit sick since then. Feverish and a tiny bout of vomiting from Max last night, followed by his sister this morning. I'm hoping this all goes away as we have a wedding on Friday that Lucy is the flower girl for, and she's been excited for nearly a year for this moment. I'd hate for a fever to spoil her big day.

Motor-on-Home

On Sunday evening, after spending a relaxing day at Grandma's, Tyler decided to pull out a 4-wheeled motorbike we had inherited from one of our tenants who left it in our shed to see if he could get it working. He and Papa set up their workshop in the living room (an ideal place for such things) and proceeded to fiddle for about an hour, constantly telling us it would 'just take a few minutes.' Of course, I was hoping to get the kids home and in the tub before bed, but couldn't because the power had gone out earlier which included tripping the water-pump in the well, which I needed one of those two men to fix, but they were occupied. So we sat and waited. Tyler teased me about the importance of creating memories was far greater than clean children, which I understand, but a happy mom is always most important...right? Anyway, they eventually got it to some semblance of working condition and allowed the kids to go for a ride down the hill...that is, after they had electrical taped a towel onto it because it has no seat. This project had Red/Green written all over it. The battery wasn't fully charged so it only had enough juice to carry the kids down the little slope of a hill between Grandma and Papa's and our house, and then Tyler had to carry it back up the hill for the next ride. The kids had fun for about 20 minutes going back and forth...Max had absolutely no steering skills, but was not phased in the least by any sort of jostle of hill, whereas Lucy was precise in her direction, but barely pushed the button enough to get the thing moving, and anytime it picked up a little speed, her feet would hit the ground to slow it down. Like I said, the batteries were pretty much dead, so it only goes maybe 5 km an hour...if that. She's my timid girl though. At one point, Lucy jumped on the back of Max's ride and quickly became the world's worst back-seat driver, which drove Max crazy. I finally got the kids heading home, at which point Tyler headed down the well to fix the pump, so I was left to get kids ready for bed (tubless) by myself. Max wasn't too keen on settling down and didn't want me to change his diaper. I decided to put his new diaper on my head as a joke, which quickly turned into a new game, and we all wore diaper hats around the house for a few minutes. It was fun, and I'm sure I'll regret this public display some day, but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do.

Ward Picnic

On Friday evening, although we were hot and tired, the Williamson's (including grandma and Papa) headed up to the church for a ward picnic and movie night. It was a bring-your-own picnic and since Grandma and I were hot and tired and not really in the mood for cooking, we stopped and got some KFC. We all commented that we hadn't had KFC in years and wondered if it was any good. Lucy said, not realizing her wisdom, "That's not real food!" because she didn't want to eat it...but discovered that she actually enjoyed it. There were about 10 families joining in on the games and after a quick meal, the kids were all itching for something to do, so Tyler pulled out the parachute and proceeded to entertain for the next hour. Janie and I both commented to the Bishop that it looks like we found our new nursery assistant (as we've been struggling to fill that calling for while), but of course Tyler would protest highly to be released from Young Mens. I think every mom there was whispering her gratitude that Tyler had the energy to manage all the kids for that long. Once the games were complete, out came the popcorn machine, candy and lawn chairs in preparation for the movie...Johnny Lingo. Since Canada stays so bright so late, we were unable to project it onto a screen like originally planned, so we just pulled one of the TV's out from the library. Some of the kids lost interest pretty quickly and Tyler formed a little game of 500 while others sat and watched. It was fun, relaxing and a nice change of pace from our busy lives. Because we had come aerly to help set up, we couldn't take off before everything was put away, so we ended up pulling out of the church parking lot just before 10pm. The kids had fun, especially when the popcorn and candy showed up...and Max and Brielle kept sneaking off in a little two-some. Hmmm...is there a future there?

Big Boy = Sad Mom

This week Tyler purchased two toddler beds from Walmart in an effort to give us a little more space in our trailer. Max is still sleeping in a crib, but with the announcement of our soon to be new arrival, we're starting to plan now. The plan, as it stands, is to have the older two share a room, and to put the baby in Max's room. The rooms aren't that big and have low ceilings (making bunk-beds difficult) and so we thought the toddler beds would be a good option. Lucy got a Princess themed bed, and Max got a Cars bed. We also bought matching fleece blankets for them. There were lots of options on the blankets and at first Lucy wanted to go with the Tinkerbell blanket, much to the dismay of his Miss-Matchy Mother, who preferred the Princess blanket. Fortunately, when Lucy found out the Tinkerbell blanket was on a purple background, whereas the Princess blanket was more pink, she insisted on the princesses. We set them up yesterday to the delight of the kids (although their patience wore thin as Tyler and I tried to work with some poor craftmanship). Max's bed was up first and he climbed in an out a hundred times...I hope that is not a vision for the future - we have such good sleepers and I'm always worried about disturbing an unbroken system. In one of Max's attempts to climb in he jammed his belly on the side rails and was quite upset by it. This procluded his wanting to sleep in the new bed at nap-time yesterday, and I definitely wanted to do a trial-sleep before we tried the all-nighter. His stomach bothered him on and off throughout the rest of the day and I was worried that this toddler bed would prove to be a bad decision in more ways than one. But after a good night's rest, he seems to be just fine. I also worried that Lucy would have a hard time adjusting to a smaller bed after already being in a big-girl bed for 2 years now. She seems to be just fine though, and slept great last night. Well, nap-time today was the offical trial for Max. I asked him if he wanted to sleep in his 'Lightening McQueen' bed for his nap, and he said "yes!" He ran down the hallway and climbed in...the easiest that process has ever gone. Max usually requires me to cuddle with him for a while in the rocking chair before I put him in his crib, but today he would have none of that. He climbed in, pulled his blanket on by himself and told me to go away. I asked if I could sit beside his bed for a bit (I wanted to make sure he actually fell asleep and didn't just get back up and start playing). He didn't really want me to, but didn't protest too hard, so I stayed. He fell asleep so quickly that it made me a little sad. Who needs a mom anymore when you have a Lightening McQueen and Mater pillow case and blanket to comfort you. What am I going to do without my daily dose of Max cuddles? (always proceeded by a wrestling match of course). He's asleep now...we'll see if he gets the full two hours in the new bed, like he did in the crib. Sigh.

It's a Big Deal

So, now that the news is public to all of our immediate family, we can make it public to the rest of the world...Tyler and I are expecting! I'm due February 22nd, which is about a month before Max's 3rd birthday. That makes me about 10 weeks along. I'm feeling pretty good so far. I gets bouts of nausea every once in a while, but nothing too serious so I can't complain because I know some people suffer far worse. I am more tired than I can ever remember being. Is it just that my memory is short and I can't remember 3 years ago, or is it harder to be pregnant with 2 children? I don't know, but either way, it's wearing me out. Plus the waking at 4am every night to pee is a treat that I missed. If you'll recall a few weeks ago I made a post that talked about being Overwhelmed? Well, anyone who asked, I just brushed it off as being nervous about registering Lucy for Pre-school, which is true...but it also had to do with the fact that I also found out that same day that I was pregnant. It was a lot to take in for one day. I thought about saving our big news till the weekend (Father's Day) to tell Tyler, but my feelings of being overwhelmed overpowered me by Thursday morning and I spilled. He was thrilled of course, and so am I...just a wee bit nervous. We had fun telling our entire family yesterday. My dad is a High Council member in our stake and spoke in our ward yesterday, so Scott and Janie invited him and my family over for dinner. Tyler and I had planned to wait at least another week, as we haven't even been to the doctor yet, but with most everyone being together, we decided to go for it. We pulled the kids aside about 10 minutes before dinner to tell them our exciting news. We knew they'd have a hard time keeping the secret for more than 10 minutes...and as it was, Lucy asked me about 5 times if it was 'time' to tell yet. As I took her to the bathroom, she also told me that I look like I have a baby in my tummy. She's usually pretty good at keeping secrets, but I guess this one was just too big. Lucy asked Papa if she could say the prayer for dinner, and in her prayer she asked Heavenly Father to bless the baby in mommy's tummy...and the beans were spilled. There was a lot of excitement and cheering at the end of the prayer which kind of shocked Lucy, so she got really embarrassed and cried. Papa took her out of the room for a few minutes of quiet and she settled down. Everyone was super excited and a few people admitted that they had suspected for a while. It was fun to call the rest of the family who wasn't with us and share our news with them as well. When we first told Lucy, she didn't believe us and we had to convince her. Then, when we told Max, Lucy said, "Mom has a baby in her tummy." he looked at my belly and said, "Where?" Thanks buddy!
So baby #3. We'll be completely outnumbered now. We have one of each already, so it's hard to decide whether to find out what this one is or not. Lucy was a surprise (in that she was a girl, not her existence) and we found out with Max...I liked both ways, so I'm having a hard time deciding. The surprise was really fun, but helping Lucy develop a relationship with Max even before he was born by knowing what he was, and what we would call him was pretty special too. They have a pretty awesome relationship, and it's hard to know if that is attributed to her knowing him even before, or if it would have happened either way. So I'm calling for your votes. Do we find out, or not?

Renovations

So I haven't posted much in the past week, partially because I've been so busy, and partially because I didn't want to ruin our surprise in the event that Janie would log on to our blog while she was away. Janie and Janeen left last saturday morning for a 10 day trip to Utah so Janeen could attend Young Ambassador's. Scott and Tyler arrived home a few hours later from Young Men's camp and Scott promptly announced that he was thinking he'd like to renovate their bedroom while Janie was gone. Since we only had a week (as we originally thought, thank goodness we got a few extra days), we got started right away and headed into the city for a trip to Home Depot in the hopes it would get us moving in the right direction. Over the next week we had a myrried of helping hands come by and work until the wee hours of the morning trying to get this project done. We emptied out the room, pulled out the carpet, sprayed knock-down on the ceiling, painted the walls and windows, laid hardwood floor, added trim, and finally filled the room with all the furnishings late into the night on Monday before they got home the following morning. The kids enjoyed helping us much as they could, with painting and pulling nails out of the floor. Max also used his little plastic 'reflex hammer' from his doctor's kit to tap in hardwood. There were so many adventures along the way, I wish I was able to blog each day. On Snday, we didn't do much (the first Sunday), but laid out plans and decided to move the HUGE treadmill from their sitting room down to the basement. There was lots of sweating and grunting, a few scraps (on walls and body parts), and no tears. The kids and I were responsible for all things decorative, so we ended up spending about 14 hours throughout the week on various shopping excursions to find just the right stuff. I think my kids will scream next time I mention the word IKEA! The most fun was to see how motivated and excited everyone was for the project. Even though it meant work until 2am most nights and then getting up and going to our real jobs during the day, everyone was geared up just because of how beautiful we knew it was going to turn out...and how awesome of a surprise it was going to be. Tuesday afternoon Janie and Janeen came home. All the people who had helped on the project hid in Janie's room while the kids led her up the stairs with her eyes closed for the surprise. As she stepped onto her floor and felt the hardwood, she knew what had happened. It was a smiles and exclamations of 'oh my goodness' from that point. We were all pretty proud at the end result. Scott had bought enough hardwood to finish the upstairs hallway and the stairwells, but we decided to save those for another day...so we thought. At about 9:00pm that night, the boys got some crazy burst of energy and said, "Hey, let's do this right now!" I shook my head and took my kids home. Tyler was home a few minutes later, so I imagine their excitement for finishing that part of the project was quickly difused by their aching muscles and tired bodies. It will be fun to complete the other part of the project, but in the mean time, we have all told Janie that her room is the new oasis, and she may not get much privacy to begin with. Happy Birthday Janie! We love you.

Hatchings

This past week as we were in the middle of renovating Scott and Janie's bedroom, we had a special delivery of 52 little chicks. Max and Lucy were so excited to go down to the coop with Papa, Mom and Dad and introduce all the little chicks into their new home. Max was a little nervous at first and sat back to watch while his sister got right in there and enjoyed petting each little chick. Since then, we have made multiple trips a day to visit our chicks, make sure they have food, and for Lucy to pick them up and move them around. She has introduced them to every visitor that has stopped by and is always looking for another excuse to go down and visit her friends. We all indulge her because we know their time as chicks will be pretty short lived, and I'm sure once they're bigger the novelty will wear off. She already told me last night that once the chicks grow, she wants to get baby rabbits. And it begins.

Frogs and Farmer's Markets

Saturday morning was another early one for me as I prepared to set up a booth at the Cochrane Farmer's Market for the first time. Ali and I had a great morning. We enjoyed getting out and seeing what else the market had to offer, as well as spending time together and showcasing our jewelry in a new platform. The morning started out cool and windy, which had us a bit worried as our stuff is pretty light and would take flight with the big gusts of wind. We implemented some good strategies, and the wind died down as the morning progressed, so we were able to manage. We were also situated in the shade of a nice tree, which I am sure was a prime spot on a sunny day, but being that it was a bit overcast and windy, we were freezing. We would take turns venturing out into the sunshine to warm up as the morning went on. Kari and Barrett were kind enough to watch my kids for me as Tyler was still away at Young Men's camp. I hear they had a great time visiting the pet store where Max touched 'a gross snake' and going for a walk, followed by lunch at McDonald's. Not too shabby. Ali and I had a fairly successful morning and are looking forward to setting our booth up again throughout the summer.
Tyler and Scott arrived home just after 3pm yesterday to the delight of Lucy...and me too. Max was napping so his delight came a little later. We visited for a while and Scott let us in on a little plan he was hatching. Once Max woke up and the boys were showered, we headed into the city for a little shopping and investigating. Can't say more now...all will be revealed in time.
When we arrived home we discovered a friendly little visitor on our doorstep, which Tyler quickly caught and brought inside for the kids to see. A frog. Cute, from a distance. The kids took turns holding the frog, which Lucy described as feeling 'wet' and watching it jump around our living room. Max was a bit hesitant to hold the frog, so Tyler thought it would be great to have me hold it so Max would get up the courage. I attempted and promised to hold it for a second. Scott said he wanted to take a picture and I said I didn't want to hold it for that long. Well, I held it long enough for the boys to get a good laugh and many pictures of me and the frog. Max then took his turn and then also decided Tyler should put it on his head. Actually, I'm not sure if the head idea was more Max's or Tyler's. Eventually we said goodnight to our frog and put him back outside to find his family.

Sheer Awesomeness

Today we awoke earlier than I have in a VERY long time and got ready for a very busy and draining morning. I got the kids dressed while they were still half-asleep in their beds in order to avoid the most tears. Max was surprisingly ok with being woken up early, which is unusual for him. Lucy however had a hard time. She sat on the potty for a very long time, swaying back and forth with her eyes closed trying to muster up some energy to actually GO to the bathroom. Once we were in the car and headed to our destination, they perked up a bit...especially when I told them they could watch Kung-Fu Panda on the way...one of our most quoted movies. "They would go blind from overexposure to sheer awesomeness...my eyes! he's too awesome! And attractive!"
Anyway, after meeting up with Jason so Jacob could come with us, we headed over to the C-Train station to finish our trek downtown. Oh yeah, we were going to the Stampede Parade, by the way. Tyler's sister Kari is in the parade every year and asked us to come. We ventured onto the C-train without too much incident. We had to purchase our tickets and the train was already arriving, so I attempted to hold the train for Sarah while she purchased a ticket...a somewhat not nice police officer in a cowboy hat informed me that I couldn't hold the train to which Lucy got really upset about because she thought we weren't going to be able to get on the train. Anyway, we reassured her that another train would be coming in a few minutes, which it did, and we got on our way just fine. She's pretty nervous with moving things that have doors that open and close on their own, so she was already high-strung before the officer destroyed her morning. We rode the train the few stops down to the parade without any major incidents. You will note that I am saying "without any major incidents" a lot, because a trip like this, to a busy destination with two young, frightful, fairly good for the most part, but surprisingly difficult at times, children by myself had me a little stressed out. So 'without incident' is a VERY good thing. The kids had fun seeing Jacob, as he did them, and they laughed and tickled each other all the way downtown, to the delight of the other passengers on the train. We headed off the train and over to meet up with Barrett where he was saving us seats, only to discover that he was on the North side of the street, and we were on the south, and could not get across because the parade was starting, so we found an empty corner and parked ourselves. We didn't have any seats, so it was looking to be a long 2 hours, but we decided that if we pushed and proded to other areas of downtown, we'd just get tired and frustrated and probably wouldn't find anything better. We had a pretty good view, and weren't too crowded, so it worked out well. I was surprised at the number of people who would be walking down the street and then proceed to stop right in front of small children to watch the parade themselves, totally blocking our view. I had to tap at least 5 people on the shoulder and ask them to step aside so the kids could still see. They seemed a little annoyed, but I wasn't going to drive all the way fron Cochrane at 7:30 in the morning and stand outside with a 2 year old, 4 year old and 1 year old for 2 hours and have them not be able to see because someone who showed up halfway through or longer decided to be inconsiderate and stand in front of them...I was polite, but firm and we had a good view the entire time. It was especially helpful when Sarah's friend Jordan showed up and brought a chair with him so Lucy could stand on it and see even better. I ended up holding Max in my arms almost the entire time, which was exhausting, but he enjoyed seeing the parade. And a few times he was distracted by the snacks I brought and would stand on the sidewalk beside me to eat...giving my arms a much needed rest. The kids enjoyed seeing the hundreds of horses dressed to the nines for the parade. I don't think they've ever seen a fancy horse before. They enjoyed the large balloons and clowns and princesses. The bands were a bit loud, but Max insisted that I dance with him in my arms each time a new band went past. It was a bit chilly as we were in the shade, but not unbearable. I had fortunately thought to bring one of Max's blankets which came in handy for little Jacob who only had a light sweater and no socks on his feet. Lucy really enjoyed the Chinese Cultural groups as they had really cool costumes and the dragons. There was also a large float with a pink waterlily to which Lucy said, "They must have known I love pink!" I love how she still thinks things are specifically made just for her. Max really enjoyed seeing the huge tanks and seeing the Shriners drive around their little airplanes. Lucy also enjoyed all the flag waving that was going on. They both enjoyed seeing the tiny horses too. I didn't get a picture, but my favorite moment was probably the half naked, chubby Indian boy riding on a horse. He was probably about 12 years old and had rolls to compete with little Jacob and was wearing barely more than Mowglie. Interesting. Kari's float was 3rd from the beginning so it didn't take long for the reason for the trip to quickly pass us by. She was also on the opposite side of the float from us, so we didn't actually get to see her...but I'm sure she enjoyed the support. Once the parade was done, we decided to head over to Ali's work for a visit instead of trying to force our ways through the crowds to get back on the C-train. We went for a bite to eat and once Jacob was sufficiently tired, decided we better head home. Jordan was a huge help as he was able to carry a child, as the kids were too tired to walk any more. Sarah and I headed back to the train station and to our end of the city. Jacob fell asleep on the train and the kids were pretty close...as was I. Our drive home was a bit dicey as I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. The kids finished watching Kung-Fu Panda and then we all went to bed as soon as we got home. Our naps refreshed us and we enjoyed playing, coloring, running around the house, and eating pizza for the rest of the evening. Now I am busy getting ready for the Farmer's Market tomorrow morning that Ali and I are going to. Another early morning...I do not like them. So I will leave you with this:
"I see you like to chew. Maybe you should chew...ON MY FIST!" ah, Kung-Fu. Best movie ever.

A little of this, a little of that

So we ended up having a fun day at home, doing our 'painting things' and coloring and just hanging out. As we were painting and coloring, we listened to a kids CD and whenever a fun 'activity' song came on, we'd put our brushes down and dance around the room. We danced to The Wheels on the Bus and The Hokie Pokie (not sure how to spell that) and many more...it was a good way to have some activity in our pretty low-key day. It was a pretty calm day except at one point Max had a melt-down for nearly an hour. We've been building him up to get ready for potty training, which he has mostly been resistant to, but yesterday as he started filling his diaper, he told me to put him on the potty...too late. I tried to explain to him that he was already messy and putting him on the toilet was fruitless, but he was just so upset. He cried and screamed in his bed for a while and finally I had to change him under protest and put him to bed. Lucy and I colored in the tinkerbell book while Max slept and watched Gilmore Girls. Max joined our coloring for a bit and then we headed out the door for dinner. I haven't had much motivation for cooking while Tyler's been gone. We decided to head into the city and go to our favorite Vietnamese place. It's at a new, larger location and it was fun to check it out. We were surprised to run into Kari and Barrett while we were there. They had just arrived in town for Kari to be in the parade the next morning and the Vietnamese place is one they frequent whenever they come to Calgary. I promised the kids a cool surprise after dinner so we drove to my parent's house for a quick visit. Mom told me she had seen all six of her grandkids that day, each separately, so it was a nice surprise. The kids played in the backyard almost the entire time, watering grandma's strawberry bushes and playing with toys while I visited. Lucy came running into the house so excited to tell grandma that she had spotted an almost ripe berry. This prompted the watering. I think they were hoping the strawberries would full riped while we stood there. Max was using a tiny watering can and I guess he got thirsty because he soon was watering himself. It was nice to get out of the house for a moment and have an adult conversation again. Plus, my sister surprised me by telling me that one of her guy friends thought I was smokin' and was disappointed to hear that I was married with two kids. Since I was wearing my power suit still and hadn't put any make-up on, it was a definite pick-me up. (I was a little more presentable when said friend had seen me, otherwise he may not have paid the compliment).
I quickly rounded the kids up and headed home as we were planning for a VERY early morning to get to the Stampede Parade. My kids are not early risers and so having to leave our house at 7:30am is a huge stretch for us. My mom lent me "Confessions of a Shopaholic" for my girlie movie tonight and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it...even if it kept me up until 12:30am when I had to be up at 6:30. Good day. I'm not allowed to blog about the movie as Alison still hasn't seen it, but I will say it's fluff...but super fun.

The World According to Max

Lucy's pretty independent, now that she's four, but still requires mom to 'wipe' her when she goes poo...this is also partially to my insistence as I want her to be clean. Anyway, yesterday she's sitting on the potty and yells out "I'm done!" to which I respond, "Hang on a second" as I was in the middle of something...Max quickly runs down the hall yelling, "I'll wipe you Lucy!"

This morning, as I'm blow-drying my hair, Max comes to visit me in the bathroom. We talk about the fun things we're going to do today, and I tell him I just have to finish blow-drying and we can get started. He looks at me, puts his hands on either of my cheeks, and says, "How'd you get such a cute face!" I laughed right out loud.

Oh, and by the way, Mamma Mia...not the greatest movie. In fact, it was pretty painful. I am a romantic, so I stuck it through to the end to see the happily ever after moment, but the singing was terrible (even if it made me feel reminiscent to hear Abba songs), the storyline and characters were pretty bad...like I said, painful. I do have to admit though, that when the mother is singing a song as her daughter gets ready for her wedding about remembering her when she was little grabbing her backpack and going off to school, I got teary. Ok, I bawled. It's hard for me to think about Lucy going off to school, let alone getting married and having babies...the three things she talks about doing more often than anything else. So when the movie was done, I went into her room and sat beside her bed while she slept. I tried giving her kisses and holding her hand, but she eventually just pushed me away in her sleep...sigh.
Today I am wearing my 'power suit' (a mom's equivalent is stretchy pants and a super-hero/comic book t-shirt) in the hopes that amongst the fun I have with the kids, I'll actually get something done. We'll see.

Canada Day

On Tuesday I promised Lucy I'd check into the weather, and if it was going to be nice, we'd do something fun outside on Wednesday. So today, we packed up a picnic and headed to Bowness park. The kids had fun playing at the park for a while and trying out all the slides. We brought a soccer ball and kicked it around for a little while in the field. Auntie Janeen came with us, which was super helpful to have an extra pair of hands and set of eyes. It was a little busy today, being Canada Day, but not so much that it was annoying. We had our picnic lunch at a vacant table and then decided to head over to feed the ducks...something my kids enjoy doing every time we come to the park. Janeen and the kids headed that direction while I took our picnic back to the car and brought it around to a closer parking spot. It was a bit difficult to come across any parking by this time, so I had to circle quite a bit, and then finally follow an older couple back to their vehicle to take their spot. They were kind enough to oblige. We fed the ducks for a bit and then met up with Grandma Janielee and Vicki just in time to go for a paddleboat ride. It took Janie and I a few minutes to get the hang of the steering, something Lucy did not enjoy, but once we did we had a pleasant float. Lucy, of course hates anything that involves motion and water at the same time, but she came around, after our half-hour was up. Grandma and I had to spend almost the entire time trying to calm Lucy down and telling Max to sit down because he kept trying to touch the water. We headed back to the cafe to reclaim our driver's licenses, deposit, and to get an icecream cone. Max settled on a smarties cone, but had a few licks and then took over Janeen's passionfruit sorbet. Lucy got her usual cotton candy, and I enjoyed some butterscotch ripple. MMM-mmm. It was getting late in the afternoon and Max was getting tired, so we headed back to vehicles. The kids and I drove around the city for 45 minutes so Max could have a nap. At one point I realized I had to go to the bathroom and probably couldn't hold it the entire nap, so I rushed to my parent's house, left the kids sleeping in their carseats in the driveway and used the bathroom as fast as possible. They were none the wiser and I was RELIEVED! Once Max woke up, we stopped at the Children's Place to check out a sale and at Michael's to get more 'painting things' as they like to call them, for tomorrow's fun day of crafts. We also got some Tinkerbell coloring pages, so we should have a fun day at home. So far, we're handling things pretty good on our own...but I don't want to get used to this. I know Tyler is always sad to leave us, especially when we do so many fun things without him, but we just have to occupy ourselves. I'm looking forward to watching Mama Mia tonight. Did I mention that most of the six movies I got from Blockbuster are girlie movies that I only get to watch on my own? It's my tradition for whenever Tyler leaves. I must admit (probably to Tyler's disappointment) that he did watch Bride Wars with me in the theatre. I was having a particularly bad day and needed a break and so we headed to the theatre in Cochrane to see the movie of my choice. He's a great guy. The best part was that he didn't feel bad missing any of the movie to step out and get popcorn. See you soon Tyler!