It's like a new house!

After Labour Day, Elisabeth and I are going to be watching a 19 month old boy in the mornings. We decided that it made sense to turn our den/office into a toddler safe playroom. I was kind of sad to do this since that was the one room in the house where I felt like I'd actually decorated and fitted my furniture to make look good. But, I also didn't want anyone to get hurt or toys broken so we went ahead with the plan.

It's a fuzzy picture, but here's the new playroom. My kids love it.

We rearranged David and Elisabeth's room and put some decals up on the wall.

Then we moved everything that had been into the den into the living room. And wow, I feel like I have a new house. I'd hated our fireplace since we moved in and been completely frustrated with the scale of the room. But now I kinda like it...

The kitchen didn't really change, except that we got this art desk from Jade and Ashlie. Again, the kids haven't stopped drawing since we put it in here.

Here's another view of the living room.

What on earth?!

No, this isn't some crazy game of dress up, we're getting ready for more chores! Can you guess what we're up to?

Yup, that's right. Andrew decided we need to stain our play house. And the kids are going to help. It was one of the hottest days of the year, so we all needed protection from the sun and from the stain!

This lovely shade of Gettysburg Blue was chosen by David. I'd envisioned a more traditional brown stain, but I have to say the blue is growing on me.

The kids were AMAZING. We did a full day of painting the first day, and at least a half day on the second day and they didn't complain once. In fact, David exclaimed several times that, "Painting and climbin are my favorite things to do!" I think it helped that we let him use the ladders too.


And here is the almost finished product. Lets hope it lasts for a long time to come!

Andrew has been off for the past few weeks and I planned for us to either completely relandscape our backyard or to do nothing but have fun. But first it rained the first few days he was off, then we got busy doing other chores. Like gardening.


And, here's Andrew (though I can't see him, can you?) cleaning the wood on our play structure.

HOUSE GUESTS!

Oh Elle, you're so cute. I just had to post this picture!

We've had a lot of houseguests in the past 12 months. We counted it up the other day and wow, we should start charging ;) Actually, we love having visitors and we're getting pretty good at hosting too. Which is why I feel so awful about our last batch of house guests. I didn't cook once while they were here. I was at my sloppy, laziest with them (and they are the world's best hosts, so it makes it even more embarassing!) but I'm going to say it's because I was just so giddy with excitement to have them out here, that I forgot all my manners.

My camera was still being idiotic, so most of these pictures are courtesy of them. THANKS!

So, we met at Esquires. Which is kind of funny since S is a die hard Starbucks fan. Hah hah. But Esquires is *my* favorite so it worked out pretty well.

Then we went for a walk along the ocean. See, I told you I was giddy with excitement. I love my bestie!!
David was very excited to have one of his favorite uncles out for a visit!

Then, for old time's sake, we went to the Cactus Club. If my kids look tired it's because it was about 930 by this time and they were troopers for being so good all this time!

The next day we went to the Honeybee Centre. I'd never been before, so it was fun to check the place out.



I wonder if they do parties?


Then we went to the Surrey Museum to check out the Lego Pirate exhibit.

ARRRR!
And in keeping with the theme, we went to White Spot for Pirate Paks! Sweet (see, I told you, I didn't do a THING this trip!)

Picnic by the River - or Day Trip to Chilliwack, Part One

Somehow, I didn't do as many cool things this summer as I thought I would. Maybe we were tired after Whistler, or maybe we just got caught up in doing chores. Whatever the reason, it made us that much more excited to head to Chilliwack this day. We pulled up at Natasha's house to find Grandpa Brad (or Farmer Brad as one of his gkids calls him!) giving the kids rides on his scooter. I could tell David really wanted to try but was a little bit nervous. Maybe next year?

Then we all packed up our kids and headed to the Heron Park. I have yet to explore all the trails there, but we got to see quite a bit of the park this day. First we climbed to the top of the viewing tower.


And back down again!

And then we tried to find a spot along the beach to eat and throw rocks. Mayah ended up carrying everything (thanks Mayah!)

But when we got to the usual spot, the beach was gone!

I know exactly how you feel, David!

So we kept walking and eventually we found a good spot.

(This girl is SASSY! Just check out that hand on her hip!)
The three muskateers plotted.

And then we threw rocks.


Gosh, Tinky looks sad here. I think it's just the light!

And all too soon it was time to leave.

How to make the most of your day, or Chilliwack Day Trip Part Two

I forgot to mention in my previous post how hot it was in Chilliwack. It was a scorcher. And standing with your toes in the water isn't really all that cooling. So we decided we needed slurpies or ice cream or something before we could go home. And also we'd brought all our buckets with us so we didn't want to go home without blackberries. But it was too hot to pick berries just yet. So we drove up Mount Thom and went for a walk.

And in the ravine we found what looked like someone's gardening stash. There was a roller thing for making the earth flat, a lot of compost and flower containers and this mother lode of bulbs! Oh how I wanted to steal them. Don't worry, I didn't succumb to the temptation!

And then we had a vote. I wanted a Green Tea Lemonade from Starbucks. David wanted a slurpee. But Andrew and Elisabeth wanted Island Farms ice cream so they won the vote. And it wasn't all that bad after all!


Model pose. I think it's time to retire this very short skirt now too...


And then, because we have season's passes and it was still too hot to pick blackberries, we decided to go to Minter Gardens.




It was lovely, as always. Unfortunately, it was also where my camera decided to start being WEIRD. About 40% of the time it's fine. The rest of the time the pictures are way too dark. AND the LCD screen (on which I view my pictures) will be black. Or almost black. I've tried everything I can think of, but it must be a combo of the screen dying and the light readers starting to fail? I'm not sure. Anyway, I got a few more good pictures...






And then we left Minter Gardens. We ate some dinner and by this time it had cooled off enough that we thought we'd head back to the river...though we stopped on the way to grab some blueberries and peppers from road side stands. I LOVE summer!

We parked at the end of Peach Road and holey macaroni! The mosquitos were out in full force! So we power picked...

(David is amazing! Right in the middle of the bushes and picking like a trooper!)

And we quickly filled a few buckets. Then, it was dark so we decided we may as well go home.