And NOW we're back!

From PEI- what a great place it is. Can't say it was sun-drenched or beach-sitting warm but we got to visit with lots of people that we lurve and that is what really matters. Not the sun, nope.

I do have some pics to add but this is what I'm adding now:




That's my little nutty crew- personalities on acute display here. Next time I would have Maura sit on her knees like David is, maybe have David's head not hiding the headlight, but that's why we keep on shootin'!! Maura was quite nervous because she asked if I had the "owner's permission to be here" and the answer was no. Hence the nervous smile. Cute!

At the Dudgeons

After the wedding of Ash and Uriah; we ALL stayed at the Dudgeon's house. ALL included many of the Dudgeon family and their children as well as all of the Macdonald family that was present for the wedding...so LOTS of people. It was awesome. I'm not saying that everyone slept....but it was a very welcoming and warm place to stay. We had a fun evening, great visits, getting to know the other side of Ashley's family and and then an amazing breakfast. After breakfast, the horses were a brought out and ridden by the kids. That was what sealed the deal...now the kids want to move to WI. Because everyday in Wisconsin MUST be just like the day after Ash's wedding :)

Here are some of breakfast; I am still wading through the editing on the wedding pics.

David is eating a massive cinnamon roll while trying to pretend that little Nate is not begging and pleading for a bite. How can you resist a precious little man like Nate?


Marilu and Maura (trademark smile)


Dad is having a good laugh with Leanne. Wish I could hear it right now.


Leanne with Morgan, one of Ashley's "new" nephews- a very cute little guy from Alaska. There's Mom in the background.

Busy days

I've neglected my poor blog in favor of "Picture of the Day" feature on Facebook. Truth is that I rarely have time to sit down here and post a bunch of pics since they need to be resized etc.

We have had an amazingly wonderful summer. We missed the boys when they were gone- it was great to have them return home and fill the house with all the energy, noise, laundry, ideas, activities, requests and dynamics that accompany them. Maura was delighted with that. After coming home, they spent a few days going places with Gordie- wherever he had to fly - that is something they find that very exciting. One day he actually took Landon with him too. Just one day though, curiously.

We also had visitors...Rog and Kim came and we had a fantastic visit with them-very relaxed and it was great to catch up. We are staying with them again on our way out to Ash's wedding in "West-consin"

Then the Vickster came with her young men, Jon and Brian, and my children's life was complete. It has been non-stop fun, delight and merriment since they arrived- several hours earlier than we expected. That saved me about 6 hours of hearing "how many more hours till they get here?; where are they now?; Can we call them? We've been boating on Lake Lillanona and swimming at Salmon River, school shopping, watching Olympics, pillowfighting, biking, and enjoying their company. They leave tomorrow for home and the house will be far too quiet.

School shopping was great this year- normally I am so stressed, battling crowds because it is two days before school, but not this year. We hit Target 2 weeks before school was scheduled to start and each kid took their own list and I just assisted with the high shelves and details like 2" vs. 3" binders. I was amazed to see them each come back with all the proper items and great choices. I did have to manage Landon's activity including throwing this odd Harry Potter toy into the cart. At one point when Landon appeared to not be paying attention, Dave took the Harry Potter toy and threw it in a bin out of sight. Minutes later Landon is showing the toy to me again saying "Mom, I wanted to buy this"- we have no idea how he managed to find it.

On Tuesday we are leaving for Ash's wedding. We plan to get to Wisconsin on Thursday and we are so excited to see my family members again! Mom and Dad! Marilu! Mark and Leah! Jonah and Nate! Leanne! Heidi! Ash!!! I am so excited about this trip (even about the driving now!) and I think this wedding will be very beautiful. I can't wait to take a million pictures! I was shopping yesterday for shoes and a matching clutch purse and I was appalled at the prices of the purses and was about to despair when I realized I would be toting a camera bag and would have no use for silly accoutrements like sassy red clutches. Bulky grey camera bag- that's what I'll be carrying! It will be a new trend for sure ;-)

"How to make a sandcastle" | a tutorial by Maura

A fun diversion for today as Maura and I are home with a tummy bug.

In the Garden

HOW CUTE are these cherry tomatoes!? The cucumbers that are growing the "garden" are so adorable too! The kids and I are enjoying watching them grow.

Maura had a party....finally.

For reasons I do not fully remember, we did not have a school-friends birthday party for Maura back in April when she actually turned 7. My guilt grew and multiplied until I could bear it no more and I threw together a party for her, with 10 of her friends. They were so happy to see each other ; it was the first time they had seen each other since school ended in June. As each new guest arrived they all squealed and jumped and giggled and hugged and spun each other around. We played a couple of outdoor games; ate cake and opened presents. Maura was "over the moon" happy.  

The cute little crowd:


Blowing the candles out:

The dolphin cake:

Stick with Maura

Landon is starting to see 'great divides' between boys and girls. Yet, it is all at his own discretion, for example he won't use a pink cup because it is a girl color but he uses Maura's old pink bikes and doesn't seem to realize that they are quite blatantly pink and girly. So, his knowledge of what is girly and what is not is spotty at best. I've been seeing it play out in other ways, pairing Maura and I off since we are the girls, him and the brothers unite with Dad. I happened to catch it on video on our recent kayaking excursion. We had paddled over to an island and explored for a bit. As we were walking back to our boats he mentions to me that I should "stick with Maura" grrr.

Landon's dark humor

As we were driving past a cemetery today Landon says "that's where I want to be killed." He also asked if that's where the dead guys live.

Summer Fun

Some pics from when the boys were gone....the car is a VW Bug decked out as a pig- very cute.


Monkey bars are torture haha!

Why must my child go down the slide THAT way?

Our family is all together again!!

The boys FINALLY came home on Saturday, July 12. They were planning to leave PEI at 4 am and arrive around 4pm on Sat evening. Knowing the schedule, we were not surprised to get a call from Adam at 7 am.
The conversation went like this:
G: what time did you leave PEI?
A: A little while ago.
G: where are you now?
A: I don't know, I was asleep for a while.
G: Do you know when you'll be home?
A: No, no idea.
G: (giving up), okay, have a great trip, we can't wait for you to get home!

At 7:08am the doorbell rings, I jump up muttering "who rings the doorbell at 7:08?" That's when I saw a very very very brown boy looking in my front door. The little stinker had called from the end of the road to make sure we were awake. It was so WONDERFUL to see them and touch them and squeeze them and smoosh them again. We missed them so much. Landon said "My friends are back!" I don't think anyone missed them as much as Maura did though. She called them everyday and would have called more often if we had allowed her to.

Random Acts of Kindness

We were talking about my dad today and Maura said "well, Grandpy is like an "everyone- lover"; if he was in my school he would get the Random Acts of Kindness Award everyday." So there you go, Dad....out of the mouth of babes!

Here are a couple of pics from the park on Thursday night....

Landon had just given Maura a GREAT BIG PUSH and is gleefully watching her spin.......


A little bit wired here:

Disappearing Landon

Landon is quite obsessed with seeing Vicki. He wants to go to Vicki's house all the time, I think he may mean the cottage but my point is that he is is OBSESSED. I told him that I would love to go and see Vicki too, but that a trip like that is expensive and uses up a lot of money. He kindly offered some of his "disappear money" for us all to go on a trip with. That would be his invisible money.

He also has a disappear backpack (again, invisible) that he wears and one day he activated it and told Gordie to look for him. Apparently Gord was too smooth and really acted like he couldn't see Landon to the point that Landon got freaked out and started saying while waving his arms, "I am right here Dad, I was in this world the whole time!!"

And finally a disappear phone conversation he had this morning:
Talking into phone "Oh Hi Rick, I'm sorry, yeah, I forgot to do that!"
He gets off the phone and says to me "I teached-ed Rick everything he wearned. Driving Wessons, Walking Wessons, Spaceship Wessons, even Eating Wessons; Mom that's a-wot to wearn!"

Ok- that's enough typing and fixing up my mistakes for today!!

just before they left for PEI

they got their summer haircuts........

we tried to take a group picture..........

their space in the back of Grandpa's car.....

happy to have this opportunity to go.......

Goodbye to Dad and Maura.......

Paparazzi mama.....

wee Irish friends

Thomas and Luke are from Ireland and they visited us on Sunday night, Tuesday and Wednesday. They were a great match for David, especially since Adam wasn't home for a few days last week. I just love their mum, she is definitely a kindred spirit!

just some kids I found

I'm so excited, I fixed my color problem :)))) See the bottom two for a comparison!

(this one is not fixed)

3 days of school left! woohoo!

Gordie just left with all the kids, walking down to the bus. If he is here, which he usually is, he walks them down to the bus. If he isn't here, well, then they walk down by themselves. It's hard to believe how very quickly this year passed by. The boys leave for PEI on June 26, so we will have a few days together before they leave as usually they leave the day they get out of school. (Maura leaves later with Maria)

Some quotable quotes from this week;

"I quit of this blue house"...walks outside onto the deck saying "you can't do nothing!"

"my shoe is not tight-ed"

Yells to Gordie who is standing in the doorway "you can't block an exit!" 

(I'm wondering if he heard that on Grandpa's bus. )

His newest line he drops: "that's IM-pressive!"

Salmon River Sundays

We just can't keep ourselves away from Salmon River lately. We took Dad there when he was visiting in May and it seems to have awakened a new love for the place in each of us. Even Saff responds to "Salmon River". On Sunday afternoon, Gord had to prepare for gospel meeting so the kids and I headed out to Salmon River. Gina was with Kara B. and Adam had gone to Boston conference, so it was just me and the three younger ones. We had to leave a very dejected Saff at home, she was SURE she was coming.

It started out great:

He is crying because he  wanted his picture taken by the wheelbarrow. Here he is seconds later in front of the wheelbarrow. He seems given to dramatic mood swings.

When Dad saw this bridge he asked why he hadn't seen it in pictures. It is quite picturesque, but I was  a little bit harried as that is a road with a bit of a blind turn.

Prisoner Derf:

Landon says "this is a scary villian's house"

Derf's cool rocks....

Hannah's biggest fan:

Lake Compounce- Tues Aug 7

Lake Compounce- America's oldest theme park. They have a water park and lots of rides. It is a decent park, the kids go once a year and the parents get dragged along with them. Tuesday was super hot and muggy and very crowded. We ended up doing the water park most of the time, a few rides and then out of there about 4 pm. The heat was getting to everyone. Here are some pics of the fun times we had:

Saying a prayer maybe? He is about to go on Drop Zone.

Dave and Maura took Landon on the Arctic Express. He loved all the rides!!

On the swings- the little boy behind him was screeching- that's why Landon is making the face. It turns out the little boy had a bee stinging him on his leg :(

ahhhhhhhhhh, water.

Adam, Dave and Brian on the Drop Zone:

ice cream- don't disturb me!!