Why yes, that was our basement in water

I thought I blogged with pics of the newly renovated basement, but I have looked and don’t see them anywhere.  Anyway, our basement was unfinished and Ed has been working since the end of last summer finishing it…walls, insulation, sealing cracks, painting, etc, etc.  It still is not totally finished, but we had taken a break to do some outdoor projects.

BEFORE RENOVATION 

And AFTER RENOVATION

And NOW…..

Thank goodness for our shelves, most of the toys and supplies were up there.  All in all we will lose about an inch of drywall to play it safe.  It is greenboard, but we just don’t want to chance the mold.  We will get rid of the couch for the same reason, but the flooring and carpet looks good right now.  Several favorite books that were left on the floor are goners too….guess that will teach us to put the books back on the bookshelf, although I’m sure the culprits don’t understand that right now.

DAY AT THE ZOO

On a brighter note, I was going to post our pics from the zoo a few days ago but have been busy cleaning up the mess.  We had a fun day at the zoo last weekend.  The zoo had a new Australian bird exhibit that we almost missed, so glad we didn’t.  The kids loved it there.  Here are a few pics….

 

Wordless Wednesday, Can you guess what this means?

 

Braeden’s Kindergarten Graduation

It has been a great year for Braeden.  He has done really well in kindergarten.   Only one visit to the principal, with a few other kids to sort something out which wasn’t anything he was involved in and about a half dozen notes the whole year.  Some may think….geez ONLY several notes!  But hey, we are happy with that, they all seemed to just be a reminder that he does have to listen, not talk too much, keep his hands to himself, etc.

He continues to love school and all I have to do is threaten him that if he doesn’t get ready on time he will miss school and he is booking to get ready.  I hope it doesn’t change anytime soon.  He has really learned to help others and share so much better this year, which carries over at home too. (thank goodness) I love this age and the goofy sense of humor, which he definitely has.

Here are a few pics of my big boy over the past few days and a few of him and the kiddos at graduation tonight.

Being a great big brother and playing with Liam.

Graduation cookies we (I) made…okay he opened all the wrappers of the Starburst and Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.  He tried to the do the rest, but it was a bit trickier than the video we watched that showed how to make them.    http://www.wonderhowto.com/how-to/video/how-to-make-edible-graduation-caps-for-party-favors-6837/view/

For those of you who might want to try this….our trick to making it easier was to microwave the Starburst 8 seconds before rolling and cutting the tassle with small scissors instead of a knife.  Either way, we were signed up for 2 dozen of these buggers and it took a LONG time to finish!

The graduation was in the gym, it was packed, standing room only 120 kg kids, I barely could see Braeden half the time.  We couldn’t sit together, so I had Brenna and she cried for Liam half the time….so sweet, but frustrating when I think the gym was like 90 degrees and very sticky.

Crowded gym.

The diva sitting on my lap missing her brother.

Braeden and cousin Matthew after graduation, they were in the same class this year.

After Liam saw me taking Braeden and Matthew’s picture he ran over to get his taken too.  Brenna was mad that I put her down to take Matthew and Braeden’s pic. 

Braeden and Mommy after getting out of the hot gym!  Last night he was telling me that he would miss his friends after graduation, he thought he was done.  I guess most schools you don’t come back after you graduate.  He was happy to hear he still has 2 weeks left.  I’m not sure what I will do next year when he is in school all day. 

Kids Crim Classic

Saturday was our favorite race Kids Crim Classic.  Braeden ran his mile in 10:55 and Liam and Brenna had the Toddler race which was a short run from one end of the mats to the other.  One parent stands at one end and the other at the opposite end.  As soon as they noticed I was at the other end, they both lost it.  So we had two sad kids running to mommy…we will able to laugh about it later.

  

 

Fun night out at the Ranch

I love the weather right now, its so fun hanging out outside with the kids.  They love to play out in the field, in the sand, on the slides, etc. 

Last night we went to a playdate at a fellow multiple mommies house…or should I say ranch.  The kids had so much fun, it was so pretty out there.  Brenna loved all the animals and the tractor, Liam loved the play area and playing in the dirt, and Braeden loved driving us all CRAZY!

We went on a wagon ride which included some brownies…YUM!!  We stopped to feed the donkeys and the kids got to climb up in the tractor.  Brenna and Braeden loved this.  Braeden honked the horn a few too many times and Brenna chewed anyone out who got near HER tractor and the steering wheel.  Liam wandered the fields picking dandelions.

After the ride was over we headed out and Braeden sang to the kids all the way home to keep them up so they wouldn’t fall asleep without a bath.  They were up almost a few hours past their bedtime and actually slept in an extra 30 minutes today…which wasn’t good, they are our alarm clock.  Braeden managed to get dressed, eat, and out the door in 10 minutes and all was well.

Here are a few pics..

My Little Big Boy –caution bragging ahead

Liam is totally looking like such a big boy these days, its crazy.  Where is the little baby?  He has always been such a easy kid and continues to be a fun kid to be around.  He is always singing songs and remembers all the words….

London Bridge “iron and steel will bend and bow”  Heck, I didn’t know those words.

His vocabulary is awesome, he is always amazing us and is quite the parrot these days.  He has great manners and always says please and thank you.

He is becoming more independent every day.  These days he wants to dress himself, although his sense of style is a bit like daddy’s.  Pictured  below

(Sorry daddy!) 

Yes, independent and doesn’t want to wear his diaper, he likes to go pee in the potty, but not potty trained.  Here is another day he got dressed.  I think he skipped the underwear and has the pants on backwards looking like a plumber.  And you may notice he has pulled up his crayon box to stand on it to reach the Kleenex on the counter.

Here he is like looking like a big boy playing at Melissa’s house. 

And look at these eyelashes….his sister is going to be very jealous one day.  My mom says he does need a good tweeze though, lol!

I am so thankful for Liam, I worry at times that he is the “middle child”.  He started out so small, skinny, and lop sided.  We called him our “little old man”.  He has turned out to be such a big boy.  At two, he is wearing Braeden’s clothes from when he was 3-4.  He is turning out to be such a fun happy boy with such a great personality!

Hooray for a girls weekend!

I am feeling very refreshed after a weekend away!  My friend Jill and I took a road trip too Toronto.  It is about a 4.5 hour drive and actually went by very quickly.  We actually came to a still on the highway and got off and just took strange backroads to find our way back to the highway.  It felt nice to be so carefree and not to have to worry about the kids crying in the back of the car….we knew we would get there eventually.

We made it to Toronto early afternoon and hit a few tourist spots had dinner and headed out to see a movie (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past) and had a great time.

The following day we headed out on a double decker bus tour and hit some more tourist spots and did a little shopping and then back to our hotel to meet up with some friends from Toronto (Kate, Jackie, Wendy, Patti, Liz).  We went to dinner which was nice and walked from the restaurant back to the hotel (about two miles) stopping for drinks along the way.  We came back and had drinks and chatted the night away at the hotel and then slept in until…….8:30 the next day and met up for breakfast before heading our separate ways.

On the way home we hit a few Canadian stores we heard about and picked up some treats for the kids that we can’t get in the U.S. and made it home before bedtime.

I missed my kids, but would do it again in a heartbeat…thinking of making it an annual trip!  It was so funny to come back to the kids, even after just 2 days away, they seemed bigger, older, and I swear had learned a few new things.  Opening the fridge….oh no, time for another lock!

Here are a few pics of the trip!