Such great kids

Every now and then I am struck at how well the kids are behaving. This afternoon was one of those moments. Not this morning, though, mind you. We played with the pool on the deck. (It's shady on the deck midday, plus I don't have to deal with wrapping and unwrapping the long hose :P )

We had popsicles at snack time (the kids must love it when I'm pregnant, as I give in to sweet cravings WAY more!).

We had fun picking our first batch of mulberries.

Then we came inside, and I realized it was already time to make dinner. I was tired. It was noisy. Everyone crying or talking at once. Above it all I hear Nathan ask
"Can we clean the mulberries now?"
"Not now." Says I, following this with a lengthy explanation of shortage of time, and dinner prep to do, and all that gab. "Plus I'm tired right now. I could use some quiet time."
Nathan then goes off and whispers to Melanie and Matthew. And I hardly here a peep from them for the next half hour. They close a bedroom door and play with Nathan's latest duplo creations (rigs that deliver clothes pins)--whispering whenever they get out of the room to get more duplo pieces.

I shall enjoy that time of spontaneous sweet thoughtfulness all evening.
(And potentially longer if my baby brain will let me.)

Summer days go by

Daniel really is growing up. I love seeing him play by himself. It doesn't happen often (I'm trying to force more opportunities for this on him and all the others). He looks especially mature calmly leafing through a book (being careful with it!!) and checking out all the pictures.


Matthew always wants to pose for the camera, so I let him show off. You can see my laundry hanging up--I love being able to just step outside with the laundry, and the kids know that they only need to pop out the screen door (no shoes required!) to see where I am. My favorite time is hanging up the first load on a coolish morning when the sun is out. And usually one of the kids will follow me and quietly explore around enjoying the morning sun.


The kids asked to pose together. Aren't they good at it? ;)


I spent a bunch of Phil's hard earned money on plants for the deck. They're supposed to be perennials, though in pots, apparently nothing is guaranteed. Everything looks softer and more livable with natural greenery (as opposed to the unnatural pressure treated green color). This particular bush is supposed to grow up a bit and give us some privacy--since our deck is so high we can see our neighbour's deck quite nicely now--which isn't, perhaps, so nice after all.


Free time is so much fun. I loose track of how many different types of games they play--but today they were being the S-- boys, since we'd been there for coffee yesterday. But Melanie was Emily, since they had no girls, and she wanted to be a girl. But she was still a S--, she said, Emily S. The kids were just fascinated with the one boy, who showed off his tree climbing skills while they an avid audience.


The best part of the new deck, is how it feels like extra space outside. We never hung out back there before--and now it's like an extra room in the house, or if we open the gate, like another corner to the yard. The kids love playing on it--right now they're usually fixing or building it.


Can't believe how much this digger gets used. I hadn't been able to find anything close to it new. We got it free from a friend, and it's had many years use. You can sit on it, and it's easy to manipulate, since it has two levers, one for each hand. Nathan has used it a tonne, and the other boys try get a turn in whenever they can too. ;)


Nobody gets dirty in the sandbox like Daniel does! He comes complaining with sand covered hands, but sand turns up everywhere on him...and some doesn't come off 'til he gets his bath. The other day it was all wet, and he was just drenched and filthy, but he did enjoy it while it lasted!

Work around the house.

Matthew does his work quickly so he can fight Daniel over who can play with my broom--though neither of them are supposed to have it.


Melanie takes a long time to do her work, and often misses half of everything. Like her shirt says, she likes to play...at least she can multitask--giving her sheep a ride and vacuuming at the same time.


Whoever is done first gets to practice piano first. And that's almost always Nathan! (He stays on task.)


Someone doesn't take chore time seriously.

It sure is nice when the kids do their morning routines...it's starting to actually be a help to me. (Especially bending down and picking up toys for me. :) )


(Melanie offered to wash dishes. She only broke one glass. Out of 4.)

Beach Day

A friend and her son guided us to and helped us have a lovely time at Toronto Islands. We had a cloudy morning and early afternoon, but by 3 I was slathering us all in sunscreen.





I think this was the first time the kids having a full day at a sandy beach (canoe camping usually results in rocky or mucky beaches. They had a lovely time and were on their best behaviours. Even staying cheerful (or asleep) 'til we got home at 9pm.

Now, however, we're all pretty tired.

Hot day

Last week there was a really hot day. Unwisely, I chose this as the day to pack a picnic lunch and go to a park that we've gone to more often last year. It was unwise, since the pond that is there is filthy, and "unswimable", and there are no good ways of cooling down. We finished all our cool drinks by lunchtime, and I began to worry about heat stroke. There was water I could get from the bathrooms to drink, but that wasn't cool enough to encourage the kids to drink it.

So we packed up and went home. Our deck was being worked on (the only outdoor tap is there by the deck) so I said they could pretend the bathtub was a kiddy pool instead. They had cool water to play in, and ice cream to eat.

And they had a lot of fun to boot!

Deck and Fence

The fence and deck were finished yesterday. Or was it the day before that already? I can't remember anymore.

Here are some pics for you, Mom D:

Starting with the view from the kitchen window

Maybe I'll get in the habit of leaving the blinds open, since it actually looks nice through the window now.

This is the west side of the property, going left out of the kitchen. There used to be a chain link fence up to the far left corner.

The fence isn't allowed to be higher than 6 feet, but lattice doesn't count, so we had that put over the fence where it is joining the deck.

The deck ended up higher than we'd hoped--but we felt it needed to be above the basement laundry window, and not halfway through. It's rather darker in that room now! O the right side of the deck is stairs coming down, and at the top there is a gate, also with railings. I wanted the deck to be closed off on this side so that I could let some of the kids out there while doing school--as another place to play--but without them going all the way around the house, or on the road...or who knows where!

This is from the east corner of the house. The 6 foot high wooden gate is open for the picture, and you can see where it shuts--just where the river rock and grass meet. The kids playset and sandbox is beside me. It turns out that if the kids climb over the air conditioning unit (Not allowed!!) or squeeze through the space between the steps, they can go under the deck and get out of there...without having to open the gate. So....I'll have to watch out for that...and Phil said he could always cover those gaps with lattice if necessary. The chain link fence continues from where the gate is, to go round the rest of the property--we left that untouched.

This last pic is to give you some idea of the size. You can see the biggest part of the deck, and it extends two more fence panels to the right--getting narrower in that direction. It's not big enough for a table and chairs to eat dinner (not with our family size anyways), but it should be nice for sitting and chatting and perhaps even a small fire. We'll see. And why is the farthest fence post so high? That's to mount my clothesline onto. That just got mostly installed this evening. Some tightening is required yet...after it's been tested/stretched with the first trial load! It shall be more enjoyable doing laundry off the deck instead of going round the front of the house, and balancing on a stack of cinder blocks, and bending down to my feet to reach the basket and the clothes pins. I'm looking forward to laundry tomorrow! ;)

Another week gone by

Time flies. The kids are growing up too fast.





This little guy has been jumping through the most noticeably, I think it's the age.

Supervisors

Our old rotting deck has been torn down, and a section of our chain link fence is gone. A wooden fence is in the process of being built, and a new deck is planned too (otherwise it'd be a big drop out of the kitchen sliding door into the yard ;) ). Before the deck is worked on they'll be putting in a french drain, so we can keep that corner of the house a bit dryer when it rains (hopefully).

The kids have been supervising.

There are more supervisors than workers most of the time.
The kids will be staying out of trouble for most of next week!

On the subject of big projects, I finished my curtains yesterday!! :) Now I have one sheer panel to redo (made it too short) and two curtain panels to redo the pleats of (not wide enough). Once that is done I have oodles of ideas of future drapery to sew: Roman blinds for the bathroom, curtains for our bedroom closet, bedding set for our bedroom with window curtains to match, curtains for the boys room, linen for the baby cradle, windows downstairs, shower curtain...
(We'll see if I can even get one of these done before baby comes.)

I noticed in my curtain planning book, that I started this sewing project early 2009. I guess I did take an entire year off after Daniel was born, but even then, two years for three windows, and still needing corrections?!?! Oh well...this way I'll always have a project, since by the time I finish all the windows in this house we'll have moved and I'll have a whole new house to drape up!

Pairing Up

Sometimes the kids like to play by themselves, but usually they'd rather have someone to play with. It's interesting how they change as they mature, in their preferences of a playmate. A common combination is Nathan and Melanie, and then Matthew and Daniel. Or the older three with Daniel left out. But recently, there's been a different pairing up again.

I wonder how the baby will fit in!