Friday, July 9, 2010

Nancy - 78/365 - Aspen, Colorado USA





July 9 - Vacation Day 1

The exhaustion of an early flight rewarded us with an early arrival to one of the most beautiful places on earth. The boys were awesome travelers, our flights were smooth and on time, we indulged in a tasty lunch at Schlotzky's in the Denver airport, the weather is spectacular, we got an awesome rental car...so thankful and thrilled to be on vacation.

Such awesomeness:


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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Nancy - 77/365 - Orlando, florida




July 8

8:54 pm on the eve of summer vacation.

The children's clothes and toys are laid out and meticulously organized. All laundry is clean. Housesitter's info is complete. Bills paid. Glass of wine poured. I guess it's time for me to start packing.

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nancy - 76/365 - Orlando, Florida USA



July 7

One can't go on vacation without a good haircut. Today I visited Sandy. She always knows exactly what we should do with it and I totally trust her judgment.

She thought my hair was weighing me down and taking too much time from this busy season of my life. She's totally right. I left a ton of hair on the floor of the salon. It was exactly what I needed. Freedom.

Amy - 75/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

Interests come and go with kids (heck with adults, too)! Lately, the trains have been abandoned for newer more exciting interests: Barbies, Lego's, engineer building sets, etc. We have invested a lot and have two big train bins: one with the original wooden and another with the Take-Along sets. I was happy when Logan asked me to help him build, "The super biggest track of all in his bedroom."

DATE: Sunday, July 4, 2010

Amy - 74/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

Introducing my latest addiction: Words With Friends

I've had the free version of this application loaded on my iPhone for a month or so and have been playing one friend - that's it. When I inherited Chad's iPad and uploaded the HD version, things really hit the ground running. It's sad to say, but I've REALLY been enjoying the mental exercise and socialization :)

DATE: Saturday, July 3, 2010

Amy - 73/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

Today was the last day of Term 2 and we are officially half-way through the school year! Lynsie's class hosted an afternoon tea/open class time for parents to come up and look over their work/progress. They sang a lovely little song to welcome us and then we spent the rest of the time together reading journals, seeing artwork, etc. It seems like just yesterday when we arrived in Australia and she wasn't even in school at all. Now she can read, write, add, subtract, and so much more. Where has our biggest baby gone? She has crossed an invisible threshold and is more like a teenager every day.

DATE: Friday, July 2, 2010

Amy - 72/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

12:30 a.m. - FINALLY!!! The movie has started! Could there be any more previews and/or commercials before movies these days? With as many they showed, you'd think we got our tickets for free or heavily discounted. The evening was success and I really enjoyed the movie. Though by the time I feel asleep, around 3:30 a.m., I was wondering if it was worth it?!? What happened to the days in college when I could stay up all night? Wait, I know how I survived those years, without kids waking me up before sunrise - LOL!!!

DATE: Thursday, July, 1, 2010

Amy - 71/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

9:30 p.m. - Normally, I would be in bed relaxing by now, but tonight I went with my Twi-Hard friend to see a double feature of "Twilight" and "New Moon" before the 12:01 a.m. showing of "Eclipse". Here we are between movies and still smiling :) CRAZY!!!
11:55 p.m. - Still smiling! Really, I was delirious at this point and having a great time. I spent the last thirty minutes moving around the theatre to get some feeling back in my butt after sitting through two movies straight...

DATE: Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Amy - 70/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

Just call him Mr. Happy with that big smile on his face! Logan got to "be the teacher" and call on his classmates to wash their hands for morning tea, since I was the parent volunteer for the day. I love spending time in class with the kids and today brought a map of America for their classes to follow our journey. In the morning, I had a talk with the Kindy kids, which included some counting and pointing at the map. During the afternoon, I visited with the Year 2's before writing time and we talked about our trip home, before writing about traveling. It was a great day that made me reminiscent of my years teaching...

DATE: Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Amy - 69/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

The iPad Duel on "Monstory" (a memory matching game that has great sound effects) between Daddy & daughter. She's a smart cookie and smoked his local high score, so they decided to have a head-to-head match-up to see who was faster! If I remember correctly, she won more and he doesn't just let the kids win - gooooooo Lynsie!!!

DATE: Monday, June 28, 2010

Amy - 68/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

I just loved the soft look to this picture - almost angelic - if it wasn't for the look of future trouble in her eyes!
Some days are just silly ones :) Leila is fascinated with cameras and always wants to look at her pictures on the display after I take one, "I see, Mommy!" Since I have been playing and experimenting with my pictures when time allows, I thought we'd have a little fun and try some different shots with movement. I only got one decent picture, but that's how we learn, huh?!? Then we threw in a few of my stereo-typical self-portraits ... it was fun!!!

DATE: Sunday, June 27, 2010

Amy - 67/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

Say it with me, "I am a robot! I am a robot!" Apparently, it's Halloween in June at our house and my ambitious, craft loving son is ready to celebrate! All day long, he kept telling me that he was ready for Halloween and asking when it was. My answer was on repeat, "Not until we get back from America in several months." He is a obsessed with cutting and wants to practice all the time! The hole he's looking through (crying, since he couldn't get out to the boxes) was supposed to be for his arm; however, I talked him into a modification after he could only poked his hand through :)

DATE: Saturday, June 26, 2010

Amy - 66/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

I often wonder, since I cannot remember b.c. (before children) in my life, how much cleaning I would have to do without the kids around?!? Though I would spend much less time wiping, washing, and watching - my life would be empty. So, even though when I took this picture, it was to show an "Eeeeewwww!" - today I'm going to think of it as an "Aaaaahhh!"

I love my kids, dirty hands and obscene messes included :)

DATE: Friday, June 25, 2010

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

nancy - 75/365 - Orlando, Florida USA


July 6

Vacation shopping checklist for John:
shoes
sunglasses
hat

Mission accomplished.

AND we got yogurt and discussed favorite cars, what types of cars are no longer manufactured and whether his favorite car should be a pontiac gto or a honda civic.

nancy - 74/365 - Orlando, Florida USA

catalina and john keeping it real on robin road
July 5

I remember the day he called to say that I was going to be an Aunt and he a Dad. I was standing at the hall phone on the first floor of Elsie Newton Dormitory. I sunk to the floor and said 'does mom know?' instead of 'congratulations tim, you are going to be a great dad.' I think about this alot.

Turns out he is a great dad. An amazing dad. Just look at his children.

nancy - 73/365 - Orlando, Florida USA


July 4

What a beautiful 4th of July. A great church service, wonderful lunch, tons of rain, visit with the family, a fabulous dinner...just about perfect. Happy Birthday America!

nancy - keeping it real day #3 - Orlando, Florida USA

July 3

No picture today. I was home for mere minutes between activities. Too busy with:
  • Great shopping appointment at Nordstrom's with Martinette. Andrea tagged along and we bought super fun clothes - skinny jeans, a few tops, workout clothes, maxi dress and some clothes for Jeff. So, so nice to get out with a friend for a few hours.
  • Lunch with my boys at Dexter's. Haven't been there in eons.
  • John off to spend the afternoon with Gavin while Jeff, Owen & I ran pre-vacation errands.
  • Colonial Photo & Hobby - met with my pal Frank to discuss new point and shoot. Debating between the Canon Powershot S90 (my choice) and the Leica D-Lux 4 (Jeff's choice). Will decide tomorrow. Looking forward to having a compact camera with me all of the time instead of either the iPhone or my big camera.
  • Travel Country Outdoors, Lakeshore Learning & Target stops as well.
  • Dinner out with my hubby to Mitchell's Fish House. Thank you Andrea for the gift of babysitting.

Monday, July 5, 2010

Amy - 65/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

It's seems that I am frequently talking about my "goals" for this 365 Challenge and today's post is about one of them. While the kids and I are in America (before Daddy joins us), Leila's crib is coming down and Daddy's put up a big girl bed :) So, I wanted to document her room in it's "baby stage" and remember this is the last child to use the furniture.

Items to note above:
+ She got the smallest room in the rental house and the furniture barely fit
+ There are clothes all over the floor (some you cannot see) because when she wakes up, she goes into the drawers and starts pulling things out
+ The humidifier is on top of her dresser, since it's winter and she coughs a lot at night
+ Also to help with the coughing, her mattress has a pillow wedged under it to create an elevated head
+ The crib is filled with blankets - this kid loves lots of them and will go around collecting more to add to the pile before bed
+ At the ripe age of two, she thinks that she is big enough to read by herself and will buck out of my lap to be alone
+ Of course, one of the bigger kids comes in when I am trying to settle her for bed and they begin acting out the silly faces from the story in Dora's book

DATE: Thursday, June 24, 2010

Amy - 64/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

Another day of helping to clean-up her mess from eating (Saturday 6/27).

Don't call Children's Protective Services on me, please!!! I promise that she is doing these chores voluntarily :) At some point in time, every kid wants to do the dishes and thinks they are "helping", when we all know it's just creating a bigger mess. Personally, I don't remember volunteering to do this until I was approximately eight; however, we've found that Leila is ahead of the curve ..... way ahead of it ... here she is doing her share of the work around our home on two separate occasions!

DATE: Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Amy - 63/365 - Perth, WA, AUS


Rufus and his journal needed to go back to Logan's Kindy today; however, I couldn't get my boy to complete the journal over the weekend. Thankfully, this morning he was in a good mood and happy to complete the assignment. We pasted in a few pics from Rufus's visit and then Logan drew a couple of pictures to go along with them. He cracked himself up drawing, "Rufus being silly!" and did some good work. These pics are "keeping it real" and show the mountains of folded laundry on my dining table - at least it's folded - gotta love that!!!

DATE: Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Amy - 62/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

This morning, we had a big boda boom when Leila fell between two dining chairs. It's no surprise, since she climbs all over everything and is like her own little scary circus act. I gave her the obligatory snuggle and then handed her an icepack! It's Monday morning, I have lunches to pack and things to get done - LOL! Nurse Lynsie came to her aid and lovingly stood by her holding the icepack on her boo boo. Have I mentioned that she's a great big sister?!?

DATE: Monday, June 21, 2010

Amy - 61/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

This weekend, Perth hosted the annual 4WD Show. Logan was lucky enough to go with Daddy on Sunday for a few hours. They took Rufus (a dog from Logan's class for a journal project) with them to enjoy the fun. Pics by Chad - thanks, honey!

DATE: Sunday, June 20, 2010

Amy - 60/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

"Look out below, Rufus, they're coming to get us!"

I tell you what: this girl so expressive that it keeps me laughing :) We are in the heart of the "terrible two's" and I hope it passes soon. She has a mind of her own, knows what she wants, and isn't afraid to get it (by any means of beg, stealing, borrowing, etc. often including physical force)!!! Leila is by far our most difficult child, as far as I can remember; however, that may not be entirely accurate, considering I must have a BIG case of amnesia to put myself through these trying years for a third time - LOLOLOL!

DATE: Saturday, June 19, 2010

Amy - 59/365 - Perth, WA, AUS

TGIF!!! Today was a great day for photography with some many events to choose from for posting :) This morning, Lynsie received an "Honour Certificate" at the Friday Assembly. She was very excited to get one and extra happy it was on the same day as one of her closest friends (pictured together with their teacher). I am so proud of her and feel lucky to have such a special person as my daughter.

DATE: Friday, June 18, 2010

Sunday, July 4, 2010

nancy - 72/365 - Orlando, Florida USA


July 2

How in the world did little, sweet Morgan become a 14 year old young lady who is responsible enough to watch my boys? It seems like she was just going into 2nd grade. Such a fabulous girl who will start her freshman year at Trinity next month. We are so very proud of her.

nancy - 71/365 - Orlando, Florida USA


July 1

It's been a long, long week. I've been nearing the end of my energy rope with Jeff out of town for the week. With the goal of getting both babes in bed before 7:00, I decided to attempt a dual bath for the first time. Owen thought it was the coolest thing ever. John seemed a bit peeved that he didn't have the space too himself. I didn't much care what either of them thought as long as I met my goal (which I did).



Nancy - 70/365 - Orlando, Florida USA




June 30

This kid is exhausting. His nighttime sleep has improved but we are still not sleeping through the night as most almost eight month olds do. It's a good thing he's so freaking cute.

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